Cottage Garden Seed Swap & Chat #22

Star:
You so eloquently stated the heart within the Piggy Seed Swap. I feel I've learned so much from this thread. Been welcomed with open arms, and open hearts by the participants. Got the warm fuzzies, and a little misty reading your post.
Thank you again Gemini_Sage! The lupine will be planted and appreciated and I hope spread over the hills.
'Chelle, I've heard of Sallisaw. I was born in a tiny town called Mangum, OK. It's only claim to fame is it's annual Rattlesnake Round Up. I was transplanted out here to CA about two weeks after I was born. Spent my Senior year of High School in Lawton, OK, living with Dad. Then returned to CA. Other than a few visits over the years, I haven't been back. Mangum is near the Texas border in So. OK.
What a shame, you'd think that "The Grapes of Wrath" would be required reading in Sallisaw. I'm still advocating that we name one of our schools or a park after our most famous resident, Audie Murphy. He deserves the recognition IMHO. He used to have a Ranch out here. The property has been recently developed. My friend whose property has been turned into a swamp managed to go onto the Audie Murphy Ranch (with permission from the developers) and rescue some of the out buildings, which were relocated to his place. Not just the habitat is being lost, our history is being destroyed by developers too! : (
dryad, just like an onion, DG is layer after layer of really good stuff! : )
WIB,
SW

Hi everyone, been in and out so much that I haven't posted much, just kind of lurking.

Love all the warm fuzzies goin on. It's incredible what happens when ya get a bunch of cabin fevered gardeners together. The love just flows. Reminds me of a song by the Belamy Bros. 'Let your Love flow, like a bird on a wing"

Anywhoooo, got my Xmas decorations down today and discovered I have all kinds of Dafs coming up. Not really had a bad winter so far. Knock on wood,

I mostly winter sow directly into the ground, very little is done in containers (I hate transplanting). But come spring my house is turned into a nursery, kitchen, dinning room, bedrooms all have little babies in them. I would do it in the garage too but it is full with all my brugs, plummies, bananas and loads of annuals (that I didn't want to start over again this year) and other tender perennials.

I guess I missed the Tea recipe. I just got an email of all the different things honey and cinnamon can do for your health. I will have to find the 'concoction'.

The concoction is pretty simple - 6 or 8 oz. of hot water, 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, 1 tablespoon of honey (OK in some recipes it's only 1 teaspoon) and a bit of lemon juice. My sis got interested in cinnamon as something that will help with hot flashes, but be careful of what kind you use as too much cinnamon can damage your liver. There's a kind that's water-soluble that's supposed to be OK.

Too much cinnamon will damage your liver??? Rats! I love cinnamon. I use it on my oatmeal every morning (along with raisins and a few drops of vanilla - I am trying to wean myself off of brown sugar. Trying to lose weight before I see the new grandchild in July)

Oh. Oh.. I started on a cinnamon kick too puttign two teaspoons in ym oatmeal in the morning cuz heard somewhere it was supposed to be good for ya and that if ya sniff it, it supposed to help with memory. Wonder how much is too much. Thanks for that get a bad liver tip.

Looks like it gonan be almost to bitter cold next week to winter sow outside. Seen think it startign tuesday the whole country gonna be back in a deep freeze. With alot of the north in -60F wind chills

Robyn... You say you got bananas. I need some help. I got some in my gh. Them truly tiny and another smaller type that got from co-op last year. it got cold in gh and the leave s started dying back and goign mushy. I had cut them back and this past week of high temps, I have new shoots coming out. We gonan go down into teens again here next week and am sure the new leave s will get bit again. if I have to cut them back again, will they grow some new leaves still again???

I read somewhere that 1/2 tsp cinnamon per day was the recommended limit. I think that only applies to Cassia cinnamon.. Ceylon cinnamon (aka "true" cinnamon) doesn't have the harmful whatever in it. I'm running out the door, or I'd look it up... there's some info on the Ceylon cinnamon site I referenced in my article on "true" cinnamon.

Not sure about that Ella. I would bring them in the house before it gets that cold and then when it warms up stick them back out. My big plant is losing it's leaves because it got too cold in the garage one night. Just gonna wait and see what happens as an experiment due the my zone. I keep Truly Tiny and my other small one in the house. I have 5 banana plant that I dug up from outside, cut the leaves off and let them drain for a couple of days. Then I put them in a box to store until spring when I'll put them back out again.

I'll go find that article about the cinnmon for you all.

http://davesgarden.com/tools/blog/index.php?tabid=7872

Instead of making a very long post I put it in my blog, you can read it there.

I got an "access denied" message - I feel sooo unwanted . . . sigh.....^_^

I got that too.

lets try this.

http://davesgarden.com/community/blogs/m/Robynznest/

click on the Second Chance list

Okay, I learned some new stuff about honey today. I posted this on another forum, but since you brought it up, I figured I'd post it here too.
More than you ever wanted to know about Honey Tutorial.
Honey does have antibiotic properties. Studies have shown that honey on wounds (especially burns), is useful because of slow release of Hydrogen peroxide. Bacteria cannot live in honey. It can be used topically or internally. It depends on what it is being used for. I recommend the book called "Honey the Gourmet Medicine" by Joe Trainer. Very informative, eye opening short book. I know I have a couple of copies that FIL picked up at the bee convention. I think there is a website you can order it from. I'll check.
The following was in response to a question concerning the difference between raw and processed Honey.
When honey is taken out of the combs (usually by centrifugal force), it is piped to a warming tank, once it is warm enough it is placed in 55 gallon drums and shipped to a plant. DH and his family are members of Sioux Bee Honey. It is a co-operative. The following description is how they do it.
Once, at the plant, the honey is tested for a lot of things. If anything harmful is found it is rejected. Then the good stuff is graded according to water content, sugar content, color, etc. From there it goes into a tank where it is mixed with honey from other co-op members. It then goes through a screening process that removes the pollen, any beeswax or other particulate matter and a pasteurization process. Then it is bottled up and shipped to the stores.
Raw honey does not go through anything but the warming process, which is used to keep the honey flowing and preventing it from sugaring up. Best to buy raw honey from a local beekeeper so it contains pollen from your local plants if using to treat allergies.
Raw and processed honey can contain Botulism spores, which is why there is a warning label on the jars, not to feed to a child under a year in age. Their digestive system may not be able to handle it. Yes, it is mostly there to prevent lawsuits.
Odd facts about honey: It is one of the first biological warfare weapons recorded. If the honey is made from poisonous plants, it is poisonous as well. The same for hallucinogenic plants.
The Romans used honey as a preservative. They would put their fallen war heroes in a cask of honey and take them home, sometimes a journey of months, for burial. Since bacteria does not grow in honey, the body did not decompose. It was also used in some burial practices for that reason.
Honey doesn't go bad. It will darken with age. It may sugar up, but it doesn't go bad.
One of the first alcoholic beverages was made of fermented honey. You may know it as Mead.
Which leads to the origins of the term Honey Moon. The father of the bride kept the groom drunk for a month on Mead.
Last one, beeswax was accepted as tithes by the Church, during the middle ages because it is used in the making of candles.
Walk In Beauty!
SW

SW maybe you can answer a question that has really been puzzling me. I have to limit my sugar intake and was quite delighted when I found some sugar-free honey. Huh? How the heck did they do that? Sugar isn't added to honey it's already there. How can this be?

And since we're on the subject I must share the best home remedy I have ever come across. Bees wax is the BEST for eliminating moisture caused rashes. I had a friend who used it on her baby's diaper rash and it worked like magic to protect the baby's bottom and clear up irritations. It works great on heat rashes in the summer, and really just about any place where moisture collects to irritate the skin.

(Not the same as soil sterilization or seed germination, but good stuff just the same.)
;-)

Uh, Robyn, just in case you do not know, the Weekly World News is a Supermarket rag that cites UFOs and alien abductions - it is an Urban Legend factory.

It touts itself as ‘The World’s Only Reliable Newspaper’ , but it isn’t that reliable and is a bit of a spoof. You’d think stories such as ‘Fountain of Vermouth Discovered’ and ‘Alien Bible Translated’ would be a bit of a giveaway.

I did a bit of investigating, via the internet of course, about this miracle cure. What did I find? Well it seems that there are a multitude of references to this product - but they all seem to quote, or re-iterate, the same article. The same recipes, the same order in the listing of the recipes, even the same preamble about where honey can be obtained. This is not to say that the information is false, but without corroboration we should be cautious whenever touting anything as an herbal remedy, as false information/dosages/mixtures can be harmful..

While the antibiotic properties of honey is proven and accepted ( http://www.healthline.com/natstandardcontent/honey ), the use of cinnamon, tasty as it is, is not proven to be a candidate cure for cancer etc.

Beware the Internet "friend of a friend of a friend" saying it is true - it usually is not. Partial truths will be masked as whole.

Respectfully
Lorie
(I always start a search at www.snopes.com for emails and Urban Legends, then a google search on a section of the post)

Sis isn't using the cinnamon as any cure for her cancer (she's in remission), she's just giving it a try to see if it cuts down on her hot flashes :) Besides, it tastes good on her toast.

SW - you reminded me, I've got a honey bear in which the honey has crystalized - what's the trick to get that back to a usable form - can I microwave that? (How lazy am I for not googling that??)

La_LaJane, at first read I thought, sugar-less honey? Ain't no such animal. Then I thought I should ask DH, as he keeps up on that stuff, then I realized he was taking a nap. DH has never heard of it either, says it can't bee. (Pun intended) I'd recommend that you check out www.NationalHoneyBoard. org (if this doesn't turn into a hyperlink, it's .com), for the most current information, recipes and conversion tables on honey.
pyromomma is right about the link she provided. Always best to check, a good sign it's a fabrication, is when it sounds too good to be true. That usually sets off my BS meter.
dryad, best way to make the honey flow again is to warm it. You can place it in hot water until all the sugared honey crystals melt, just watch it closely. You can also microwave it. Start at 30 seconds, and remember to take off the top of the container, no matter which way you choose to melt it. Then if it still is sugared, you can try 10 second increments until completely liquid again. Be careful lifting it out of pan or microwave, as it will probably be hot. I prefer leaving the honey out in the sun til the sugar crystals melt (leave top on for this method or you will have visitors), but when I'm in a hurry or the sun isn't hot enough, I like the stove method, but I'm old fashioned that way. I've done it with the microwave, too. Now it is possible to scorch honey by overcooking it. Which is why I suggest starting at 30 seconds on the microwave, and watching it while on the stove. I hate the taste of scorched honey!
What do you do with your honey bear when you can't get anymore honey out? I have a friend who likes to use the residue in her bath water. Then she washes out the container and brings it back to us to refill. : ) She says it detoxifies her body. I haven't tried it myself.
Sometimes if the honey isn't good because of the jar breaking (we don't use glass now), I've given the honey back to the bees. I put it somewhere outside where they can collect it. Bees will rob honey from hives that don't have live bees, or from the supers (boxes) the honeycomb is in. They even collect spills off of the work trucks. They'll eat the scorched stuff too. Great little bugs.
Thanks for the great links pyromomma. I'm glad that LaLa_Jane asked, so we could get that tidbit of disinformation cleared up.
WIB,
SW

One last note, the first hyperlink, is an American site. There have been a lot of studies on using Honey in burn and other treatments from Europe, Australia and New Zealand. I asked the author of the book I mentioned above why no studies were being done in this country and was told, that since there isn't uniformity across the board in various types of honeys, (type depends on the nectar source), that the medical profession is unwilling to study it. Who funds these studies?
Food for thought!
WIB,
SW

Well don't I feel like an idiot? I just went out and read the finer print on the bottle only to discover that I've been enjoying sugar free imitation (with "imitation" being the fine-print part) honey. The taste and texture is remarkably honey-like and I will continue to use it, but unfortunately I'm missing out on all the other great honey properties.

My curiosity has been piqued though and I too turned to my pal Google. I did get a couple hits that said sugar free honey IS possible by...well I'll just quote one of them: http://www.slashfood.com/2006/08/29/sugar-free-honey/

"It doesn't seem possible -- sugar-free honey? This is the first time I've ever heard of it! But according to Indian news source, bees are able to produce sugar-free herbal honey by feeding on the leaves of the stevia plant. Stevia is marketed as natural sweetener, an alternative to sugar."

I have no idea how accurate that is, but it would be sweet (pun intended there too, LOL) if it were true. I don't think most people realize just how many people don't/can't use sugar, and it seems to me that producers of any product that can come up with a sugar free alternate could make a financial killing.

Not to mention having all of us non-sugar people forever in their debt.
LOL

Have any of you used stevia from your garden? Is it good? It is getting hyped all over the place, the new "fad" plant.

Hey Pyro,

I've never grown stevia myself but I've used it as a sugar replacement. I just have the little packets and sometimes use it in my tea. It's comparable to Splenda in taste, but a little sweeter I think. It never occurred to me to try growing it, maybe I ought to do a little research there.

Whoever was thoinking of using cinnomon for hot falshes, forget it , it doesn't work. Can guareentee ya that.

Got a question. Last year was to late to winter sow here. Now I don't have but afew water bottles. I wondering for thos eof you that do winter sow.

Could I just plant the seeds in pots filled with dirt and set on the porch? What would I possibibly have to do to try and get the pots to work. Also, can I use little small like 2 and half inch and 3" pots woudl they work. Til the plants came up if they come up and need transplanting?

I say try it! If they grow they grow!

My dad gave me a stevia plant this last summer and the plant was great fun. I left it in an 8" clay pot by the back door step and would pinch a leaf or two off and jam them down my glass of ice tea. It went great with fresh mint also, black tea, green tea, black and green tea, 'clean out the cupboard' tea. I could control the sweet by the size and number of leafie bits, smash them a bit in the bottom...I'd forgotten how useful, Ike got that one also...all the plants and pots I SHOULD HAVE brought inside...

Ya live and learn. So many threats of the 'big one' over the years...

Any way, I think I'll throw in my 2 cents about the Braggs apple cider 'tea'. I make this by the 1/2 gallon instead of ice tea some days. I think its better for the fam to drink on super hot days- but do this by taste, more of this, less of that, what ever I have on hand...

1/2 - 1 cup AC vinegar- how ever tart you want
1/2 - ? cup honey, brown sugar, cane syrup, molasses, splenda, or ever what you like
1teaspoon - 1 tablespoon dry ginger or 1 tablespoon -1/4 cup fresh grated ginger root

cold water and ice to make 1/2 gallon, we use a glass jug, screw the lid on, shake like crazy- or just mix to combine. Grandmother M called it 'ginger water'

Tab

Ella, anything that'll hold dirt will work.

One thing I wish I had done better 2 years ago was make more secure elevated roofs of chicken wire to keep the birds and toads and squirrels and who-know-what-else from hopping and scratching and burrowing around in my wintersown pots.

Some people like to drape see-through plastic (those see-through 30-gal trash bags are perfect to either slip the entire pot or tray inside or drape over for something enormous and then make your usual slits beneath and above). And I did that in some cases.

But I had read in old books how folks used to put out pans of primrose seeds for the snow and rain and sleet to bathe without this roof or impromptu greenhouse-y business. Soooo, in February 2007, I wintersowed qt-size recycled yogurt containers with primrose and other seed, with just little individual chicken-wire roofs (will do just one roof per tray next time). The closer to the spring equinox, the free-er I felt to use smaller containers, so by March I was wintersowing in little coffee cups.

Also, I sprinkled about 1/8" to 1/4" of gritty sand on top of the potting soil, and the seeds that I sowed on top would lodge in it and not get washed around or out or down the sides. I did not cover the seed with a little more sand, unless it was known to need darkness or was relatively large. That worked very well, too.

What made it easier to handle these cups was to keep them in those open-bottomed, mesh ~11" x 21" trays. As long as they were frozen, they did not need watering. They didn't need to be bottom-watered until April. I didn't like to mist from above, because many of them were from more arid places with silvery leaves like Antirrhinum hispanicum and Salvea cyanea (spelling).

Germination was successful, but after care was not. I really hate to say what happened next, but hope to try again this winter (although some survivors look like they'll bloom next year - can't wait to see that "snowflake" primrose, Primula sieboldii, bloom this spring...Primula denticulata, too).

Let me emphasize that I think the earlier in winter you wintersow, the more important it is to have a large container that won't dry out so fast in between waterings/rain. They don't blow around as easily either - easier to ignore and let nature do her thing. The smaller containers will work, but they take more work and attention and are more vulnerable to mishaps, so I save those for later in winter, closer to the last spring frost.

Karen

ps - other containers I experimented with were milk jugs and 2-liter soda pop containers rounded up by neighbors at their workplaces...and then there was the water-bottle in a baggie - too techniques I'll never be without, either

oops - pyromamma & pulltab - our posts crossed in cyberspace - good advice, thank you

I LOVE the World Weekly News! Every year when we go camping we buy a copy; it is the most outrageous "tabloid" -BUT if you read the publication description - you will find that it is intended to be a spoof, and only for entertainment.

But where else would you "learn" that JFK still inhabits a wing of the White House and regularly consults with extraterrestial aliens!

Okay, so what appears to have happened is that the original article on the curative power of honey and cinnamon was published in the World Weekly News in 1995 then propogated across the Internet as sound science. (I also scoped out the internet and it is absolutely amazing how many sites now carry this info - so it is really easy to be misled)

Now, I personally think drinking a hot beverage with honey and cinnamon sounds yummy to me - but until the report is published in Lancer's, I am not convinced it's going to help me lose weight - sure wish it would however . . .

Well, I ain't gonna tell sis about the cinnamon not working until I'm sure she's not having a hot flash :-) She had the type of breast cancer that feeds off estrogen, and had to have a full hysterectomy and is NOT a happy camper about it. (Sorry to the fellas....) She doesn't have them bad....maybe if I just forget to tell her she'll enjoy her cinnamon and think it's helping.....and I'll not having any open wounds.....

And may I just say, Oh Great - ANOTHER new plant for me to try - LOL! Gonna be on the lookout for Stevia this year.

Thanks for the honey bear tips SW. I particularly like the idea of setting the nearly empty container out for the honey bees - those little things need all the help they can get. They went nuts for the Tithonia I had in the front yard last year, so they'll definitely get more of that, plus a little honey bee on the side. Sorta like a shot and a beer...

Ginger in the apple cider concoction? Sounds wonderful PullTab - thanks for that recipe!

when i read this ==>

Sorry to disappoint. While I think my DH is a wonderful guy, he is the one who explained the Honey Business to me, and so deserves the credit. To me, Honey = Work.
That honey substitute is probably high in corn syrup. One of the things that is screened out when testing the honey for adulteration, same as too much water content.
Lancet is a good source of news, and a highly respected Journal. I like the Mayo Clinic site too.
Glad that you like feeding the bees dryad.
One last note about bees eating the leaves of stevia. Bees eat nectar produced from the flowers of the plant. If they are eating leaves, they aren't honey producers. They may however be eating honey dew which is secreted onto the leaves by aphids I believe. Maybe, someone else more knowledgeable can explain that one to me.
Aren't we due for a new thread?
Filling some containers with soil today to thoroughly wet down for the seed I have on hand. Hoping to WS seed tomorrow.
WIB,
SW

Ask and yee shall receive.....

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