Alice Wachenheim in her Rose Garden. Early 1960s.

I've returned to the dusty, musty boxes and albums that were left to me in my parents' estates, and left to them by their parents and my grandparents' sisters. Gardening has always been part of the lives of my family. Here is my grandfather's sister, Alice, who started hybrid tea roses by sticking flowers from bouquets into the ground, and covering with a jar to prevent dehydration. Her tea roses were important and meaningful to her, and she was proud of them. It's a faded Kodachrome.

I used the free photo editing program, Picasa, to sharpen the contrast and refurbish the color.

My Dad's Ginkgo biloba tree at 20 years of age. 10.21.18

Male Ginkgo biloba, grown from seed,, at 20 years old.  10.21.18

 This tree has grown into a magnificent specimen.  There is more risk planting a seedling ginkgo tree in town, because people don't like the stinky seed coats and cut them down.  That's a shame.  fortunately, this tree has proven itself to be a male, based on my observation of the flower catkins over the past few years.

Some day, we expect to sell the old place.  Anticipating that, a few years ago I cut grafting scion from lower twigs of this tree, and grafted them to rootstocks grown from locally collected seeds.  Of those, 2 took but only one survived planting.  I'll sho that later.  That tree has taken hold and is now about 5 feet tall.   Along way to go before it is this magestic, but a hopeful development.

I'll intend to post photos of the other ginkgo trees later.  This is the best of the lot.  My dad collected the seeds in his neighborhood in Quincy, Illinois, and gave me the seeds.  I sprouted those in flowerpots and when I moved to Vancouver, WA, three of those seedlings moved with me.  One of the others is at our country place in Battle Ground, WA, and the other did not survive transplanting there.

Same tree at about 8 years old. 

Persimmon Fall Color and Fruits. 10.1.18

Yates Persimmon.  10..21.18

Nikita's Gift Persimmon.  10.21.18

 Here are some of the persimmon trees, showing fall color.  The Yates American Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana) fruits have already ripened, and have been eaten.  Despite small size, their flavor is the best I have ever eaten.  The crop was small this year, about a dozen fruits.  The tree is still young.  For size, those are 5 foot tall fence posts. 

The second is Nikita's Gift Persimmon, a Ukranian hybrid of D. virginiana and D. kaki.  The fruits are beginning to ripen, but not quite ready yet.  There is a fairly  large crop this year.  I did not water this tree at all this summer, a long, hot, dry summer.  Therefore, the fruits are smaller but I imagine the flavors will be more concentrated.

Saijo Japanese (Asian) Persimmon (Diospyros kaki) always looks droopy in my yard.  The fruits are good, and should ripen in the next month.  It also did not receive any water this summer.

Not pictured yet, the other American Persimmon Tree,  Prairie Star.  That tree got off to a difficult start in previous years, due to rabbits and/or deer eating it off multiple times.  However, the tree finally recovered, and is now a tall, about 9 foot, whip.  If all goes well, expect the first fruits in 2 more years.

Nikita's Gift Persimmon, with fruits.  10.21.18

Saijo Persimmon Tree.  1021.18

Home Fermented Hot Sauces. 10.18.18

Materials for Korean Hot Pepper Fermented Hot Sauce.  10.18.18

 A few weeks ago, I made a bath of hot sauce from Thai red peppers.  The stuff is awesome!  I've been looking for more red Thai peppers, but can't find them.  At the local Asian market, I did find some green Korean peppers.

I used the recipe found at this website, with a few changes.

First, it was more like 2 cups of the sliced Korean peppers.  When I made the Thai pepper sauce, separately, I didn't slice them before chopping.  Those were also about 2 cups.

 Second, when the brine was cooled back to room temperature, I added 1 tablespoon of fresh whey from last night's batch of yogurt, as an inoculum.

Briefly-

This was
2 cups of either Korean peppers cut into rings, or 2 cups of cleaned, destemmed, Thai peppers.
1/2 tablespoon of fine sea salt (I used Himalayan)
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
1 cup of nonchlorniated water (mine was from our well, which is purified)
1 tablespoon of fresh whey (fresh fermented sauerkraut juice would work just as well).

First, Added the salt to the water, and heated in microwave for 1 minute, until very hot.  Then I let that cool
Then, I chopped the garlic cloves.

 Then I chopped the peppers, using a small food processor.  I packed those into a pint jar, after mixing with the minced garlic.

Finally, I added the whey to the cooled brine (salt water), poured to cover the peppers, and capped with a cartouche (a circle cut from wax paper, to hold chopped peppers below the brine level), then a glass weight (to hold down the cartouche), then covered with brine to 1/4 inch from the top, then the silicone airlock / nipple and the lid ring.

I did the same, separately, with the thai peppers.

After these ferment a few days, I'll run them through the food processor a little more, not to puree but to make sure they are chopped somewhat finer than they are.

I covered these with Aluminum foil to keep out the light and preserve color, and placed them in a casserole dish, for overflow, in the basement for a cool fermentation.

Thai Pepper Fermented Hot Sauce.  10.18.18

Thai Pepper Fermented Hot Sauce.  10.18.18

Pawpaw Fruits and Fall Color. 10.17.18

"Allegheny" Pawpaw.  10.17.18

 The pawpaw trees are slow growers, but they have nice yellow fall color.  The "Sunflower" pawpaws are ripening now.  Very tasty.

"NC-1" Pawpaw.  10.17.18

"Sunflower" Pawpaws.  10.17.18