Wednesday, September 29, 2010

well, I promised I would try...

I promised I would try to find SOMETHING to blog about... and it was as good a day as any to do it... three... count them, three, whole deliveries today... to absolutely no place interesting. But, between deliveries... I pulled off to the side of the road to have a good pout and there was this unused cattle pasture there...

I saw some Snow-On-The-Mountain... which is some sort of Euphorbia. They're interesting plants... green except for the leaves around the tiny flowers. Here they grow wild, but in some parts of the country, people actually buy seeds and grow the things as annuals in the yard...

and the common burdock is putting out it's burrs... which are interesting when they're green but danged annoying when they dry and stick to you...
And this next plant I've always heard called ground cherry. There's several different varieties and colors... They're a close relative of the common ornamental Chinese Lanterns, and also Tomatillo, or husk tomato's that you buy in Mexican markets and are instrumental in making Salsa Verde.





As you can see, the 'cherries' on this variety are small and purplish black inside their lantern shaped husks... and these have a sweetish flavor... I understand that they make a very good preserve. The more common yellow ones, or at least the yellow ones in my area, are hideously bitter. I once experimentally tried one and spent the next 30 minutes spitting after the initial gag...


And that's about it.
Hope everybody out there is doing well... have a great day.



3 comments:

  1. Well I found that interesting, Claude. I've never seen any of those plants before. The things we see around us all the time can seem uninteresting to us, but to someone on the other side of the world they can be exotic!

    Have a great day yourself.

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  2. Claude,
    Well I guess I want be buying any more Snow on the Mountain seeds (lol). Have greatly enjoyed the post and pictures. Had always wondered what the plant you call ground cherry was and now I know not to eat the yellow ones, which are the only ones we have here also. Take care and have a good remainder of the week. - G

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  3. Burdock is also eaten as a vegetable, primarily the roots, but also the new spring shoots. I've never tried it so can't tell you what it taste like. It's also an old medicinal herbal. I've also read that the seeds were the inspiration for Velcro.

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