Tag Archives: brooklyn
Wood Sorrels Identified
Many thanks to Awesome Bronwen for pointing out that these little delectables are wood sorrels (not just any-old-sorrels). I was able to find them in Edible & Medicinal Plants (available at www.wildmanstevebrill.com).
Glad to be Hunter-Gatherer
So the hunting is more about going to Foodtown to pick up some ribs for my partner to smoke (and are they good, and I mean damn good!) but the gathering part I’m also starting to really dig. Right now I’m borrowing from my very-most-awesome- neighbor-friend the book Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild (and Not So Wild) Places, by “Wildman” Steve Brill with Evelyn Dean, 1994, and trying to not get the pages too covered with pricey dirt or, earlier today, the really good Sunday Bloody Mary my hunter made for us.
Notwithstanding, I believe I am starting to get closer to the question of whether my three bushes out back (I think I described them incorrectly before as a single bush) are dogwoods or elderberry. Knowing as you do now that there are three, not one, you can see why this question is ever so pressing, as Brooklyn garden space is premium real estate and I don’t want to waste it with something that might poison the kiddies who frequent the place, or my dog for that matter, nor am I sure I want to leave it if it isn’t behaving usefully, like giving me some tasty berries to make wine or jam, or hiding in its bark the secret cure for hay fever. Sure, I am getting sold on the idea that native plants are good to have around in their own right and for the simple sake that they are part of an ecosystem that’s been messed with for too long but I’m still not 100% convinced on that matter. Regardless, I like the thought of eating the stuff in my yard.
It must be on other people’s minds, too, because I found myself in my backyard Saturday in a group of people, all nibbling on these cute delicate little creatures with soft tangy leaves like clover, all trying to remember the name of this same thing that we knew from when we were kids. Someone suggested ramps (which was way off as it turns out – I know because a good-old fashioned real-live farmer showed up later and went into how they found ramps behind their property in a swampy wasteland but now folks are flocking for them). Ultimately, we grabbed the book (thanks neighbor!), and found that they were sorrels. Yummy ones, too!
I’m definitely interested in eating more stuff in my yard and maybe your yard too. But before I do, I think it would be responsible of me to get a little more educated on the subject. Toward that end, I’m thinking about taking a tour with author and forager, “Wildman” Steve Brill, author of the book I’ve been devouring (not literally). There’s one at Central Park on the 11th and another in our conveniently located Prospect Park on June 18. Just wondering….
QUESTION: Has any one of you taken a tour with Wildman Steve Brill? Would you recommend it? Do you know other people doing these sorts of tours? Any of you brushing off your gathering skills (it must still be in our DNA somewhere), and foraging for your own fare? Any words of caution? Words of wisdom? Any stories of watching someone keel over after eating what looked like an elderberry but was really from a weird strain of dogwood? Any anything? Go ahead … gimme the dirt.
SCREEEEEECH! STOP THE PRESS!!! Okay, so I thought it would be nice of me to link y’all to sorrels on Wikipedia and when I did, I saw that they do not AT ALL match the description of what friends and I were dining on in my backyard Saturday. Someone help me out before I kill us all … I will post a pic tomorrow in daylight and let me know if any of you recognizes it. In the meantime, for those wanting to know what real sorrels look like, here ya go (then again it is Wikipedia, could be wrong? Maybe? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorrel). I also couldn’t find sorels in my handy dandy Edible Plants book, which leads me to another …
UPDATE as of 8/10/11: they were wood sorrels. Wikipee was showing me a different type of sorrel.
QUESTION: Does anyone out there have any other recommended sources for checking out edibility of wild plants? Anything more recent, anything forthcoming? Go ahead … gimme the dirt on this one too. Oh, and thanks!
Update on Dirt Cheap and Three Question Sets
So I went back to Shannon’s, my local garden supply store, because I needed to confirm the price of that dirt I’d been complaining about. Well, I was wrong – wouldn’t be the first time but it also means I need to make sure I always get an itemized receipt there. Not that I think anyone was intentionally trying to scam me but I do think I paid for a bag of soil I did not get. The way it works there is that they ring up your order, then you go and pick up the soil you want. Since I’m a regular there (or maybe they’re just trusting), they don’t usually closely examine the receipt that I hand to them – just a quick eyeball and they hand me my goods.
In their defense, it is a busy place and they’re quick with the transactions. Still, isn’t it just good business practice to give an itemized receipt? I remember when I was a kid in Beloit, Wisconsin. We’d go to Shopko with my dad nearly every weekend. He’d watch as the clerk entered each item in the register (yes, I think it was entering it, not scanning it back then), then when the total amount came up – cha-ching – he’d look at each item, counting them in his head, reviewing the receipt. Then, when we were out in the car, all our goodies packed up and ready to go, he’d look at the receipt again, counting each item thrice. If everything was right, he’d pull a Fred Sanford, “This is the big one, Elizabeth,” clutching his hand over his heart in homage to Redd Foxx, in mock protest. If he found something wrong, though, he’d go into mode, his voice dropping a couple octaves and his brow growing into a little furrow. More than once we kids found ourselves back in the store, with the manager standing next to Dad, reviewing the receipt again, and, almost inevitably, my dad would leave with his wallet just a little heavier than before.
All that aside, here’s a CORRECTION to my previous speculation that a bag of organic top soil at Shannon’s of Brooklyn costs $5.00. I inquired and found out the following: Fafard Premium Topsoil (Organic), 30 lbs. bag is $5.00 [no price listed on their site], and Hamptons Estate Topsoil (Organic), 30 lbs. bag is $6.00 [also not listing a price on its website – this product is made by the Long Island Compost Co.]. Please don’t take my word for it – go somewhere and confirm for yourself. I’m curious though, ….
QUESTION: What garden supply store do you recommend for a good deal on soil? Keeping in mind that many of us (namely me) live in urban areas and may not have a vehicle to drive to pick up a bag, is there a deal that may not be near by but is good enough to bother a friend for a ride, or pay a willing car service to do the dirty work with you? All of this leads me to another …
QUESTION: Can anyone tell me whether it’s standard business practice to give itemized versus non-itemized receipts? Why? Do businesses try to add products thinking the customer won’t notice? Does a lowly clerk not care enough to bother? What if it’s a ma and pop shop, and the clerk is the owner? Do you think people are inherently honest or apt to get away with as much as they can? Are they just sloppy? Am I just paranoid? Did I spend one too many days as a kid in a hot car while my dad counted and recounted our ShopKo supplies? Or is it that people are no longer careful enough to watch their money, count their change and review receipts? Have we become sloppy with our money, a hallmark of the credit card generation, and symptomatic of our debt acquiescence? Do you ask for an itemized receipt when you don’t get one? Do you ask for a receipt at all? All of this leads me to another …
QUESTION: Why is it my local garden supply store, Shannon’s, is named the David Shannon Nursery & Florist if it has, as its site says, “been a family operated business for over 30 years by Joseph Perrotta and family.” Joseph Perrotta, is there something you want to tell your customers? And, which is it: 30 or 40 years? Later the site says: David Shannon Florist and Nursery, is the leading florist, nursery and greenhouse in Brooklyn New York. Family owned and operated business for over 40 years by Joseph Perrotta and family.” David Shannon, whoever you are, wherever you are, how bout you? Do I smell a story here?
Go ahead … gimme the dirt.
Triscuit Seed Card – Moldy Oldy?
And maybe these are oversoaked? Does anyone know? Can you over-soak a seed? I did go longer than the two to four hours on the instructions but I thought that would rather kickstart them.
QUESTION: should I use or toss this seed? Anyone ever use the Triscuit card seeds on the back of the box? Anyone know whether they are trustworthy? Where are these seeds from? What about the glue that keeps the two sides of the card together – harmless or heinous? Do seeds grow mold? Does it matter? Should I use these seeds anyway? Anyone see anything other than basil or dill on the Triscuit’s box? Triscuit’s seed cards: marketing gimmick, good samaritanism, or terrorist plot? Go ahead … gimme the dirt.
Whatever Happened to Dirt Cheap?
I went to my local garden supply store, around the corner – Shannon’s on Fort Hamilton Pkwy. I wanted to buy a little soil and mulch since I used up the mulch so generously donated by newly known neighbor/friend, and the two big bins of compost I started out the season with are down to about half of one of those bins, and I’m trying to build up some soil in my backyard (literally, build it “up”) because I could not decide between planter boxes, planter pails, or the good old ground for the four heirloom tomatoes I picked up in Saratoga Springs, so I’m doing something kinda in between. So I decided to buy some soil and mulch to help me out. Two bags of topsoil, one bag of mulch and one bag of something else but it was, basically, dirt. That, one pair of gardening gloves not more than $10 (I’ve worn my others out), and $8.00 worth of impatiens, and the bill came to around sixty bucks. No lie. That averages to about ten dollars for a bag of soil. They’re big but they’re not outrageously big. They’re organic and free of those nasty chemicals that self-water and self-feed and time release and all that junk. But, still… am I crazy to think that’s a bit pricey? Am I out of touch? No, that isn’t my question. It is….
QUESTION: How much is good dirt these days? … AND … is it like other things where you might find a better deal online? Did dirt go up along with every other useful item for living lately? If it did, is it just to keep pace, to seize on the panic, or is there a real reason behind the increase? Is it just that expensive here in NY? Are gardeners elsewhere feeling the pinch too? Go ahead … gimme the dirt, really, I mean it this time. Give it to me, preferably for free or really really cheap.
A Little Night Gardening
Thanks to my very most awesome neighbor who has generously plied me w/native plants, some discarded, some abandoned, almost all of them looking a little lonely and forlorn, and thanks to my other most very great neighbor who turned on her porch light for a little night soil sifting, I now have a native plant refuge in my front yard. She’s breathing kinda heavy but it’s the good deep rib-roaring sighs that say she’s been sitting one way too long. A recurring message the multiverse (http://www.npr.org/2011/01/24/132932268/a-physicist-explains-why-parallel-universes-may-exist) keeps sending me is that change is the only constant on this earth. Gardening, by extension, is all about that movement. We just keep moving things around in the ground, and see how it all responds. Once it all seems settled, time to do the shift again, and then see what takes. I asked my mulch neighbor when was too late to plant & he said when the ground’s frozen. Taking that to heart, I planted my little native-plant plot by moonlight, with my dog lazily enjoying the night earth nearby. Now the natives aren’t so restless and bereft. They were looking downright snazzy when I left them tonight. Who knows what tomorrow shall bring?
QUESTION: Now that I have my little native plant garden in, are there any suggestions for its care? I know it should probably fare better than an exotic garden, and feel right at home, but any pointers are welcome (including general gardening tips since I’m also compiling a list of those). Go ahead … gimme the dirt!
Thanks Very Mulch, Neighbor
If you are the person that says, “why?” when someone says, “garden,” I have an answer for you. I have been living in this house in Brooklyn for eleven years now. Most of my gardening over these years has consisted of growing vegetables in the back, and planting other things like a peach tree, a cherry tree, and what I believed (until today) to be elderberry bushes. My frontyard gardening consisted of little more than putting in a couple hostas that a neighbor gave me when I first moved in. Those hostas, with little care and no prodding, have gone forth and multiplied, as all good hostas do. When I looked at them a couple weeks ago, I realized I was the only thing holding them back; they needed room to grow and since they’ve no feet, they needed me to move them.
So I have ventured to frontyard gardening and need both hands and feet to count the number of neighbors I’ve met since I started, barely two weeks ago. Today, lo and behold, I met the son of my next-door neighbor, who answered in 30 minutes what might take me several weeks of posting these questions to accomplish: the elderberries I was going to begin harvesting for wine this year are, as it turns out, dogwoods (I still need to confirm this – will post a pic later b/c I didn’t think that dogwoods grew berries but I’m not really sure); my hostas are hardier than I thought and can probably survive that shady patch close to the house where no other plant could make it; the little flower bush which popped out of nowhere a few years ago is actually a non-native invasive plant (my jury’s still out on the degree of importance of native vs. exotic – at least in small time gardening like mine – and, if I have a native that’s growing on its own and still rather pretty, maybe I should just let it be — taking opinions on that one too). Along with bits of wisdom that came from his own experiences as a prize-rose-grower and several years working for NYC Parks Dep’t., he also gifted me with some beautiful black gold, pictured above. Most importantly, he introduced me to my across-the-street neighbors, his mother and aunt, an octogenarian and noctogenerian who keep their front yard more pristine and pretty than any probably any other on the block. I’m not sure if it was the introduction from their kin that made me okay in their eyes or the fact that I was finally tending my – we won’t say neglected but rather left to nature – yard. Either way, it occurred to me that the adage “love thy neighbor” is good, but you gotta know them first.
QUESTION: what are some of the fringe benefits of gardening? If you garden, what have you gotten from it that maybe you didn’t expect at first? If you want to garden, what keeps you from it? If we were to start a campaign to encourage more people to garden, what benefits – both obvious and hidden – are there that might might sway more folks to dig in the dirt? How does gardening make you a happier person? Or doesn’t it? Go ahead…gimme the dirt.
Gee, Dad, that’s great.
“the Greatest Ever”? As in kick your ass great? As in no whammies great? As in big money great? As in Tony the Tiger great?
As in, Gee Dad that’s great. Thanks … FOR RUINING MY LIFE!
(as in it’s great that I don’t have a five-year old to explain this one to — as seen on 7th Ave, Park Slope, today)
Quick, Quick, While It’s Not Raining
Has anyone seen little wild onions growing in their Brooklyn yard or garden lately? These little spermazoidal looking creatures have taken over my front yard. Just when I was getting all excited that they must be native, and was about to introduce them out back where persistently naked patches of dirt abound, I suddenly realized they may be vicious invaders, ready to choke out the handful of natural inhabitants residing back there.
QUESTION: should I plant these mystery onions out back (they grow so quickly and look kinda yummy)? Or is it ecoirresponsible, since I’m not yet sure from whence they came? Also, ya think it’s ok to eat them? (Yes, I’m aware that after the various questions I’ve posed here, I’ll never have dinner friends again).
One more quickie: I went ahead and bought a $20.00 rose bush from my local florist/plant shop, Shannon’s on Fort Hamilton Parkway (it was, after all, only 20 bucks, and I read somewhere that some roses are native to New York – it’s getting late for me to be too picky on the native plant front). I’ve already clipped a couple whose beautiful pink roses have quickly wilted when just placed in water in a short glass.
QUESTION: how do you extend the longevity of clipped roses, and is there any use for them other than their prettiness? Like, where are the rose hips and how do I get them in my tea???
revelgardener 