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Monday, October 7, 2013

Any botanists with exceptionally good eyesight and a forgiving nature out there?

I have been trying to figure out what plant this is - and please forgive the blurry image, as I kept forgetting to take my camera when I walked the dogs and ended up aiming and shooting out of my car window on my way to work.  It seems to be a bush of some type, with a long cluster of pink flowers that become a long cluster of dark berries.  I am curious as to whether these are edible berries.


Hopefully, you can bigify this.

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Since the weekend was el-stinko, as far as the weather went, and there was no way I was going to be able to do any of my outdoor chores, I focused my laser-like vision (hahahahahaha) on indoors.  I had found a big jar of very old pinto beans (dry), so I decided to can them.  For me, pressure canning requires two days, as I have the focus of a ping pong ball.  Interestingly, two of the 10 pint jars did not seal.  The flats were new, I did not overfill the jar.  Hmmm.  So it looks like chili is in my near future.  I also made a pear upside down cake (GF), as I had a nice little pile of seckl pears.  And I was getting a half-bushel more.  I made ham/bean soup, soon to be canned.  I made great breakfast bars for the barn - a recipe from my mother - that is easy and good (oats, raisins, egg, brown sugar, cinnamon, milk,...) I made good headway on the latest project on the needles, a woolen cardigan, knit from bulky yarn.  I did my laundry, hung it inside, cleaned five bathrooms (3 at my mother's), vacuumed, dusted (gasp), did mounds of dishes, brushed both dogs (I am STILL getting a woodchuck-sized ball o' fuzz off Bernice), and listened to the first four discs of a recorded book on Thomas Jefferson.

I had a friend to dinner last night and tested a new recipe that, luckily, turned out great - it's an African based stew made in one pot.  Of course, not reading the directions closely as usual, I almost missed the fact that it needed to be made in the traditional method, which included preparations begun six hours before cooking!  And -- are you ready for this? -- it included sweet potatoes, of which I managed to grow FIVE.  I am so excited.  It was enough of a success (tiny), that I will try them again next year.

Today we are weathering the remnants of Karen, and I am sitting here hoping that all the hatches have been battened.  I dislike sitting in the midst of a storm, thinking about it raging over my Little Lucky Farm without me.

9 comments:

Mama Pea said...

We had a wet weekend, too, although Sunday wasn't as wet as Saturday. Hadn't emptied the rain gauge in a few days and it showed an honest 2" yesterday.

I'm no help in identifying your mystery bush . . . just promise you won't try the berries before determining (for sure!) that they are edible. I mean, who would clean your folks' three bathrooms and keep Bernie from beginning to look like a fuzzy sheep.

Hope Mother Nature and her fierce weather are kind to you and Little Lucky Farm.

Tombstone Livestock said...

Maybe take a good size cutting off the bush to local Nursery and see if anyone can identify it.

Hope the storm is minor and all the hatches are secured.

LindaCO said...

I love it when the Ohio plant part of my brain is able to kick out a name for stuff like this. It looks like Pokeberry. http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=PHAM4

Would love to see the sweater. :-)

thecrazysheeplady said...

Yep, pokeberry :-). Can be used for dyeing!

Susan said...

I never try to eat anything without checking! I have too many dependents to risk death - I promised my family (who don't want to take care of all my dependents...)

Susan said...

That is a great idea! And the storm just dumped inches of rain, thank goodness...

Susan said...

Ooooh! You are GOOD! I will have to look it up. IF the sweater turns out even reasonably well, I will gladly put it on view!

Susan said...

That is marvelous news! I have vowed to try dying my own fiber and I'd like to do it the natural way. This is great - can I dry the berries? How exciting!

Candy C. said...

Sounds like you had a fun? weekend...well, at least you got lots accomplished! :)
Glad you got your bush identified. That's cool that you can use the berries to make dye.