A Seed Saver's Garden

[Pulsegleaner]

False alarm on the corn, it turns out the side branches of the tassel just hadn't lowered yet.

By now most of the corn plants have a tassel. Now I just have to hope we have a dry day or two to collect pollen before it's all spent!

I love it when there is a *series* in a vegetable; there are a few cherry tomatoes I've collected like that, the Vernissages & the Tigers come to mind.

Come to think of it, there was a time when I was trying to complete the "peach" tomato series (i.e. all of the fuzzy skinned ones). As with most tomato plans, I gave it up when the sheer number of new varieties exceeded anything I could keep up with. Plus, at that time, I couldn't find the green when ripe fuzzy tomato I was really looking for; it didn't exist. (There's Wooly Green Zebra now, and it would not surprise me if Tom did some other fuzzy skinned greens [besides Wooly Mammoth, I generally don't do much with the purple skin gene tomatoes except for Darkest Night,] but I'm still looking for "the one".)

 

[heirloomgal]

I would imagine ”something between a sweet pea and an orchid” would smell real nice?

You'd think a flower that resembles a sweet pea would smell sweet, but so far I can't detect any scent.

 

[heirloomgal]

Can I ask what makes sugar beans unique? I’m not familiar with the type.

As far as I know, and please correct me if my information is wrong @Bluejay77 since you have more experience with them, they go by the sugar name due to how they're prepared. I think that sugar beans come from South Africa and have been selected there for certain kitchen uses and recipes. I was drawn to choosing them as network beans because I like the idea (and sound) of 'sugar beans', I don't eat much sugar in my actual diet so I'm adding it in the form of named beans. lol

Sweet and sour beans (sousbone)

Made from speckled "sugar beans".

rainbowcooking.co.nz

 

[heirloomgal]

False alarm on the corn, it turns out the side branches of the tassel just hadn't lowered yet.

By now most of the corn plants have a tassel. Now I just have to hope we have a dry day or two to collect pollen before it's all spent!

Come to think of it, there was a time when I was trying to complete the "peach" tomato series (i.e. all of the fuzzy skinned ones). As with most tomato plans, I gave it up when the sheer number of new varieties exceeded anything I could keep up with. Plus, at that time, I couldn't find the green when ripe fuzzy tomato I was really looking for; it didn't exist. (There's Wooly Green Zebra now, and it would not surprise me if Tom did some other fuzzy skinned greens [besides Wooly Mammoth, I generally don't do much with the purple skin gene tomatoes except for Darkest Night,] but I'm still looking for "the one".)

I went through a 'peach' tomato collecting phase too! Wapsipinicon, Peche Rouge, Peche Jaune.....

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Yesterday, my family and I managed to sneak in between MORE bouts of torrential rain to make our way down to investigate a Middle Eastern Supermarket we had heard of. Generally, it was a big disappointment (it is actually smaller and less well appointed than the one we already use up at the top of the same avenue. Also generally, the seed hunting was terrible (their brands of pulses are mostly Canadian, and totally pure.) But I DID find one small package of coriander seed that seemed to have a few off things in it, so I got that. After sorting I found maybe a dozen seeds of some sort of Galia (Bedstraw or Cleavers). Two larger, smoother humped things (that may or may not be seeds, wont know until I try and plant them) two seeds that resemble that unknown Plant I found in the Indian lentils that turned out to produce ball shaped flower heads that developed four petaled purple flowers (maybe something from the Verbenacae )? one small pod segment that, when split yielded one small round seed that is probably some sort of Brassica (too small to be a mustard seed, maybe a radish or a cress?) and one flat, prickly seed I can't identify (which is what I saw through the bag in the first place.)

As for today, the closest thing to a botanical discovery I made was finding three chunks of Jackfruit on the pile at my H-Mart that had the orange flesh I was taught to seek out over the standard yellow.

 

[heirloomgal]

@Pulsegleaner That's wild that you were able to find so many other seed bits in a bag of coriander!

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Especially since we are talking about a very SMALL bag, like maybe an ounce or two. Back when I was doing coriander regularly, I was working with 2-5pound bags (Indian cooking uses so much there actually ARE people who will buy that much at a time).

Though I will admit that is rather abnormally high for these days. I found a few seeds in a packet maybe a year or two ago, but that was one packet out of seven or eight there, and the others appeared completely clean. Makes me wonder what might have shown up had they had more packets (there was only one packet of whole coriander in the store).

As for why coriander seems to be singled out in this problem I think it's a two fold issue. One coriander seeds are about the same size as many weed seeds, so the shake methods processors use to remove the chaff and other detritus don't work as well (with a big spice, all of the weed seeds will fall through the middle plate and be discarded, with a small spice, they won't get through the top one.

Second is how light coriander seed is. Most of that outside shell is basically air filled foamy pith, so a coriander seed weighs next to nothing (in fact, until they become waterlogged, coriander seeds will float). So any method of blowing chaff off can't be used, you'd blow the coriander away as well.

Incidentally I also put to the side four seeds (actually eight, as a coriander "seed" actually has two seeds in it) that were unusually large for the type* This year, my mom actually spent money on a cilantro plant, which she never got around to picking from before it bolted (I'll end up collecting the seed from THAT in a short time as well.) I pointed out to her that spending money on cilantro plants is sort of stupid when we have some much coriander seed lying around. So per that plan, I though it might be best to start with the biggest seeds I had (bigger seeds, maybe bigger plants.)

*This appears to be European or Middle eastern coriander since they are spheres. Indian seed tends to be bigger and more oval in shape. The color is often different as well (middle eastern being straw to white, Indian being bright yellow gold.) Sometime when I am in Chinatown, I'll have to see what theirs looks like (whether or not they use coriander seed (they probably do, at least in the North and in the Muslim parts of the South) but they use a LOT of cilantro (West Lake Soup isn't West Lake soup without it and it shows up in a lot of other things as well.)

 

[Blue-Jay]

As far as I know, and please correct me if my information is wrong @Bluejay77 since you have more experience with them, they go by the sugar name due to how they're prepared. I think that sugar beans come from South Africa and have been selected there for certain kitchen uses and recipes. I was drawn to choosing them as network beans because I like the idea (and sound) of 'sugar beans', I don't eat much sugar in my actual diet so I'm adding it in the form of named beans. lol

I thought I would pose this question to the person in South Africa who originally sent me some sugar beans. Below is their response.

That's a very interesting question Russell Crow: In Southern Africa the Half White Sugar Bean ( also known as Cape Sugar bean or Lappies boontjies ) seems to be the bean originally called sugar bean; at some time a red speckled with no white called Van Zyl's Sugar Bean became popular; then all of the local speckled beans were called Sugar Beans; sometimes any dried bean regardless of colour was called a sugar bean. You may have hit on the origin of the name when you ask if it has something to do with the original way they were prepared: https://www.tantalisemytastebuds.com/cape-malay-sugar.../ "Cape Malay Sugar Bean bredie (suiker boontjie bredie) is a slow cooked lamb and half white sugar bean stew. The sugar beans recipe requires minimal spices, caramelised onions and meat on the bone, to add maximum flavor.' "Sugar beans bredie has two camps of flavor profiles. On the one side we have those who love their Sugar bean bredie on the sweet side, adding copious amounts of sugar. On the other side we have those who add little or no sugar, resulting in a rather sour end result. I prefer a bit of sugar but definitely not syrupy sweet, it is food after all and not dessert.
The closest that I have tasted to my mother’s Cape Malay Sugar Bean bredie was the Pasta e Fagioli (pasta and sugar bean soup) at Carluccios in Dubai Marina Mall. Whenever I felt the need for a taste of my mother’s cooking I would go there and order a big bowl, then add a pinch of salt and sachet of sugar, and it tasted just like home!"

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Finally remembered to take that picture of the corn today

Also does anyone happen to know what this very tall yellow flower that showed up in our garden is?

 

[heirloomgal]

Finally remembered to take that picture of the corn today

View attachment 58928

Also does anyone happen to know what this very tall yellow flower that showed up in our garden is?
View attachment 58930

That looks to me very much like Common Evening Primrose.