Weird Wednesday: Only Babytoes and a Painting

I have several Weird Wednesday posts in process, some really amazing botanical science that gives us some hope for our futures on our very put-upon planet.

In the meantime, just a cheerful blooming Babytoes (Fenestraria) with one of my Emoticon paintings in the background (inspired by the marvelous Haitian painter, Levoy Exil).

"Homage a' Levoy Exil: Yemaya is Crying"- MR 2013

Happy Gardening!

Tillie of the Month: Tillandsia karwinskyana

This month's Tillandsia is getting ready to bloom. It will only bloom once, so here's the portrait:

Tillandsia karwinskyana, MR, 2013

T. karwinskyana was named in honor of a botany bloke named Karwinsky, who collected the first to be catalogued in Mexico in 1830.  It grows in the states of Nuevo Leon and San Luis Potosi. This is a high-altitude Tillie, and likes to be about 2000m up a mountain. The leaves are tough and silvery. The plant forms a rosette, so this distinguishes it from its lookalike, Tillandsia albida (another high-altitude Mexican Tillie). Tillandsia albida grows along a stem, rather than in a rosette:

Tillandsia albida, MR, 2013

When T. karwinskyana blooms, the flowers will be a gentle lilac. The pups emerge from the base, among the roots, and grow in the opposite direction to the mother plant! The pups tend to fall off when about 1cm long, and go roaming to find their own space. Like Daniel Boone, T. karwinskyana needs its elbow room!

Chef Riccardo's Taste of the Garden: Herbed Pumpkin Risotto

As much as I love winter, I loathe cold and flu season. It's not too bad here in the subtropics, but even we got hit by the Polar Vortex. Now many of us delicate subtropicals (for example, me!) are coming down with something snuffly....

Chef Riccardo comes to the rescue with a warming pumpkin risotto flavored with sage, thyme, and ginger, wonderful healing herbs for this time of year. The recipe will be in both English and Italian.


INGREDIENTS

400 g pumpkin/ calabaza (about ¾ lb)
2 shallots
4 sage leaves
4 sprigs of thyme
a slice of fresh ginger
2 liters of vegetable broth  (2 quarts, but you might not use it all.)
2 T of extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
100 ml dry white wine  (about 1/3 c.)
320 g of arborio rice (1 and ½ c.)
40 g of grated Parmesan cheese  (1/3 c.)
20 gr butter  (1/4 stick)

Arborio Rice, White and Brown

Shallots, Pumpkin/Calabaza, and Ginger Root

PREPARATION

Wash the pumpkin under  cold water and cut in half. Remove the seeds and strings with a spoon. Cut into small, 1cm cubes and peel.
Peel the shallots and chop fine.
Wash the sage and thyme. Wrap the thyme sprigs among the sage leaves and tie tightly with kitchen twine or thread.
Heat the broth.
Place the shallots in a soup pot with the oil, and sauté until golden. Add the pumpkin, a pinch of salt, bouquet garni, and pepper.  Stir and cook for a couple of minutes on high heat. 

Add the white wine, stir and let it evaporate.
Add the rice and saute it for a minute, stirring continuously.
Add 3-4 scoops of hot broth slowly, and set the timer according to the minutes of cooking the type of rice you are using (usually 15-18 minutes). Do not put the lid on the pot, keep it open. Medium heat is best.

Continue adding scoops of the broth as it is absorbed, stirring occasionally, without letting the mixture get too dry or too soupy.  You may not need all the broth.  Taste the rice now and then and stop adding broth when it is “al dente”. When done, turn off the heat, add the butter and Parmesan cheese, mix well and let stand a minute.  Inhale and be transported!
Serve garnished with Parmesan cheese and sage leaves. 

This risotto is delicious with red pears!

 And now for the Italian:

Il risotto alla zucca è un primo piatto a base di riso dal sapore molto particolare e delicato, dato dal suo ingrediente principale, la zucca, esaltato dal sapore del Parmigiano utilizzato per mantecare.

Il risotto alla zucca può essere un ottimo piatto unico, seguito da un contorno e da frutta fresca di stagione, magari una pera gustata con qualche scaglia di Parmigiano.

INGREDIENTI

400 g di zucca (peso netto della polpa)
2 scalogno
4 foglie di salvia
4 rametti di timo
Poco di zenzero (ginger)
2 l di Brodo vegetale
2cucchiaio di olio extravergine di oliva
Sale
Pepe nero macinato al momento
100 ml di vino bianco secco
320 g di riso
40 g di Parmigiano Reggiano grattugiato
20 gr.di burro

PREPARAZIONE

Lavare la zucca sotto acqua fresca corrente e tagliarla a metà. Eliminare i semi e i filamenti aiutandosi con un cucchiaio. Tagliarla a pezzetti e sbucciarla. Dai pezzetti ricavati ottenere dei cubetti di un centimetro di lato.
Spellare lo scalogno e tritarlo finemente.
Lavare bene le foglie di salvia e il timo. Avvolgere il rametto di timo fra le foglie di salvia e legarle strettamente con dello spago da cucina.
Scaldare il brodo.
Mettere in una pentola da minestra l'olio, lo scalogno tritato e farlo dolcemente dorare. Unire la zucca, un pizzico di sale, il mazzetto aromatico, una macinata di pepe, mescolare e far insaporire per un paio di minuti su fiamma vivace.
Unire il vino bianco, mescolare e far evaporare.
Aggiungere il riso e farlo tostare un minuto mescolando di continuo.
Unire 3-4 mestoli di brodo bollente e impostare il timer secondo i minuti di cottura del tipo di riso che si sta usando (solitamente 15-18 minuti).
Continuare unendo il brodo man mano che viene assorbito, mescolando di tanto in tanto, senza lasciare che il composto si asciughi troppo, altrimenti cuocerebbe male ed in modo discontinuo.
A fine cottura spegnere il fuoco, unire il burro il Parmigiano grattugiato, mescolare bene e lasciare riposare un minuto.
Servire decorando con scaglie di Parmigiano e foglie di salvia.

Enjoy and stay warm!

Herbs to Drive the Cold Winter Away: Sage and Thyme

This month features not one, but two smelly plants. Sage and thyme are both highly adaptable, easy-to-grow herbs that no garden should go without. Especially when it's cold!

Salvia officinalis Meets Thymus vulgaris

Salvia officinalis and Thymus vulgaris are cousins from the Lamiaceae Family. Both are Mediterranean/European herbs that are now grown worldwide in just about all climatic zones except for the most extreme, where they can be grown indoors in pots. Both are packed with thujones, which are toxic in substantial quantity, but antimicrobial in the small amounts usually taken. Sage has cineole and camphor to boot. And thyme is full of (guess what) thymol, also a strong antibacterial and antiviral substance. I guess that's why Listerine includes it. Both herbs have been shown to be strongly antibacterial in scientific studies (that means formal and peer-reviewed, as opposed to me in my kitchen drinking sage tea and blogging about it). The German Commission E approves thyme for bronchitis, whooping cough, and other illnesses of the respiratory tract. That's a seal of approval in my book!

Both herbs can be chewed on, cooked with, or used to make tea/tisanes, gargles, tinctures, and ointments. The essential oils can be used for a therapeutic steam when you think you may be coming down with a respiratory bug. Both have been used for centuries to soothe tummies as well. (Note: Neither can be used safely by pregnant women or nursing moms, due to the potent thujones.)

This weekend, Chef Riccardo will share a recipe that uses both herbs, and pumpkin, to drive the cold winter away in a particularly delicious manner. I hope you'll join us, and get your risotto pans ready!

Lithops Emergency: Polar Vortex

Even down here on my very southerly sand dune, the Polar Vortex of 2014 is a problem. Actually, the whole last month has been a problem. Instead of our usual Dry-And-Not-So-Hot Season, we're having a Rainy- Damp-Cold-Hot Season. In other words, Weather Chaos. This has played hell with my outdoor Lithops, which expect a cool, dry winter:

It's been rainy-hot, rainy-cold, cold-damp, hot-damp, and my poor Lithops have become both waterlogged and confused. The one above did not make it. It was trying to re-leaf and hunker down at the same time, in the middle of winter, and became waterlogged to boot. But there were still some that could be saved.

Enter the Polar Vortex:

Now it's not nearly the problem at my latitude that it is up north. However, we're still going to freeze, and my soggy outdoor Lithops can't handle that. Time for an emergency repot:

The little weeds you see at top grew in only 48 hours! Too much water!

Nice dry, sandy, porous soil.

Hopefully, they'll survive.

The newly-potted outdoor Lithops will stay in a sheltered, above-freezing place until the weird weather clears. I think they'll survive. But these days, it's tough for outdoor Lithops everywhere. Weather chaos is not good for Lithops!

Somebody Stop Me! Three More Tillandsias Join the Herd/Flock/Gaggle....

So what do I call a group of Tillandsias, anyway? A grouping? As far as my living room goes, a forest might be the apt word...But when Gardener Lindsay received a new box of Tillies from Russell's Bromeliads, I had to drop in, chat, and of course, buy a few. I mean I don't actually have one of every species yet, so it's OK. I photograph them with their nursery tags when I bring them home, before watering and housing them.
Here they are:

New Year Tillies

From right to left, the first is Tillandsia tenufolia surinamensis, also known as the "Amethyst Airplant". The middle Tillie is actually T. schiedeana (the nursery assistant found some trouble with the species names, as do all sane people). The one on the left is T. festucoides,  the Fescue Airplant, which reminds me a lot of T. juncea.

If any alert gardeners out there know what to call a large group of airplants, let me know! Because if not, I'm going to make up a new word....

PS: I was just emailed by Alert Gardener Alex that the appropriate term might be a Tangle of Tillandsias. Sounds good to me!

Watering Tillandsias: An Addendum

My well-known "Bucket Method" of watering Tillandsias can be accomplished in an even easier way when it begins to rain....

The only caveats to this method are: just make sure they go outside when there is already cloud cover (so they don't scorch), don't put them out in high winds, and retrieve them after no more than an hour or so, so they don't get waterlogged and rot.

 Rainwater is great for Tillies, they really seem to thrive with a monthly rainshower. Of course, not so easy if you are raising Tillandsias in Arizona or Saudia Arabia! And our dry season can last for months. Well, that's why this post is only an addendum.

I saw some wonderful wild Tillies this week at the Pine Island Sanctuary. Here's a long shot....

My last official installment of Tillandsia care should be ready early next week. If you are still on vacation, enjoy, and if you're back to work today, I wish you courage and strength!