Ask Your Budtender First by Allen Bush

 

All photos via Shutterstock

I went to a legal pot dispensary in Denver this summer. Marijuana, you’ve no doubt heard, is a hot commodity in Colorado. The dispensary reminded me of the Long Branch Saloon on the long-playing television series Gunsmoke (1955-1975). Miss Kitty traded gossip in the saloon with U.S. Marshall Matt Dillon and Doc Adams but kept a close eye on the brothel upstairs.

The skunky aroma of marijuana distinguished the pot dispensary from the Long Branch Saloon. No stench of stale cigars or whiskey in the pot dispensary. Though the Gunsmoke cowboys packed six-shooters, no one was caught dead huffing a one-hitter in the Long Branch Saloon—or in the pot dispensary, for that matter.

In Denver, a nice hostess took my driver’s license and told me to wait downstairs. Someone upstairs would come for me in a few minutes, she said.

I sat waiting with a half-dozen men and women— a melting pot of ages, colors and piercings—staring warily at one another. Were they thinking the same thing I was: What would my mother have thought if she knew I was shopping for pot?

I was called upstairs to the showroom ten minutes later. A clean-cut and clear-eyed 20-something budtender answered my naïve questions with short, crisp answers.

There was no specific strain recommended for M.S. (my affliction), but there are Cannabis sativa strains, containing lower percentages of the psychoactive tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) crossed with Cannabis indica that contain more of the beneficial, and non-mind altering cannabidiol (CBD). Various hybrids, loaded with CBD, reduce anxiety and induce a good night’s sleep.

I was recommended a starter sampler of Cannabis hybrid buds (one-gram quantities each) of three different strains. My budtender also suggested a few edibles.

And how, I asked, could I smuggle cannabis buds or edibles back to Kentucky?

“I don’t know,” she said. No doubt, the same line was recited to other paranoid, out-of-state patrons who have watched Midnight Express too many times.

There were customers waiting downstairs.

Wham-bam, thank you ma’am!

I was hurried along.

The legal pot dispensaries are not in the business of advising smugglers.

Good thing.

I didn’t want to get busted on the airport tarmac in Louisville, on my return, with illegal Cannabis-enriched, edible gummies strapped to my waist.

Ask Your Budtender First originally appeared on Garden Rant on October 11, 2017.

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Closing edicts by Elizabeth Licata

This provided a long-lasting accent in a dull area.

Lessons learned from the 2017 gardening season (so far):

Never again:

Morning glory (convolvulus): The central mission of this (gorgeous) blue cultivar seemed to be to envelope every plant within its reach, while making sure to release as few flowers as possible in the process. The blooms, when they arrived, were too few and far between to overcome my disgust with the plant, which by then had enveloped most of a rose bush. I should have known when it was advertised as a “lovely ground cover for difficult areas.” I suppose many of you will think I should have known, period.

Black-eyed Susan vine (thunbergia): The orange cultivar I had was a star performer in trials, but, again, total domination without flowers was the motto. It got plenty of sun, too. I think I counted 2 flowers as of yesterday. And it’s a real pain to unwind from its host plants. (I like to encourage climbers to grow amid roses and other shrubby plants, but not without floral interest.)

These branches will go, but most of the trunk will remain, if possible.

Old, faltering maple: Sadly, this year is the end for a tree that has delighted visitors to the garden for decades. And we let it go too long. Now, its partial removal (leaving a lot of it standing) will mean cutting out part of a fence and using a lot of equipment.

More, please!

Tulipa ‘Akebono’: Here’s the perfect alternative to too-heavy double tulips. It’s semidouble, stands up well, and has gorgeous red striations and green sepals. Really a fascinating tulip, and I thought I’d seen them all.

Lobularia: This has been going strong since early May; it now nearly covers the fountain its supposed to encircle (a good thing) and has a lovely honey scent. Many who see this think it’s allysum; it’s so much better.

Plumbago: I bought this on impulse and tucked it in a shady corner. It should have sulked but performed with regularity. Worth buying every year.

Athyrium ‘Ghost”: Best fern ever. Forget the Painted (one of its parents), which just kind of lies there. This is upright, sculptural, and a pretty silver.

And there’s more, but a lot of it is too embarrassing to confess.

Closing edicts originally appeared on Garden Rant on October 10, 2017.

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Bred In The Bone

Though we have had a long string of warm days, the fall season is well underway. For Rob, the first whiff of fall means it is time for him to seek out and assemble a striking and unusual collection of pumpkins and gourds that will enchant gardeners who frequent Detroit Garden Works. Though it might [...]

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The Gardens (and More) of Asbury Park, NJ by Susan Harris

Goldenrods and Boneset (I think) blooming in Asbury Park this week

When I go to the beach it’s in the spring or fall, and even in glorious weather like we’re enjoying this week, I don’t really lie on the beach. As a plantaholic, I gravitate toward nearby gardens and plant-filled natural areas instead. There the blogger in me takes over, so I snap photos and later post my favorite scenes here. (See North Beach, MD or Rehoboth Beach, DE.)

I’ve walked and cycled Maryland and Delaware beach towns so many times over the decades, it was a thrill this week to discover a beach I’d heard about (from Bruce Springsteen) but never visited.

I’d read that Asbury Park had gone to the dogs but that lately, it’s returning to its glory days. So finally, people are fixing up the funky old homes, and some of them are even gardening.

Like these I noticed in or near Asbury Park.

I won’t show you the typical homes I saw, with their sad patches of turfgrass and nothing else. Hey, maybe the owners will notice the stark contrast with these homes and get inspired!

Nothing unusual here – just the common Knockout roses – but they sure deliver.

I was naturally drawn to this restaurant, even though I suspect the vines are fake. Whatever! The whole gardeny effect is terrific.

The landscaping for this restaurant on the boardwalk is fine with me but wow, the architecture! It was originally a Howard Johnson – could you tell?

Okay, now I’m going totally off-topic because the town’s original Beaux-Arts buildings blew me away! Above, the Paramount Theater and Convention Hall .

The historic structures in this view have yet to be renovated – the Casino Arcade and Carousel House.

The stayed at the Mid-Century Modern Empress Hotel, where entertainers like Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland once stayed, the manager proudly told me. From my fourth-floor ocean-view room I could watch the sun come up over the ocean without getting out of bed. (For only $79 a night!)

Asbury Park was never just a beach town; it was an entertainment mecca in its heyday. Signs of that focus coming back were clear to me even on a Monday night in October, when I heard a terrific blues band playing along the boardwalk.

Also on a Monday night in October? Three bands performed at this large, lively venue.

Finally, the mother lode for Springsteen fans – The Stone Pony.  It’s open all winter on weekends.

The Gardens (and More) of Asbury Park, NJ originally appeared on Garden Rant on October 5, 2017.

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Fall Favorites

Fall is a favorite season. I like reflecting on all the efforts made in the garden imagined in the winter, begun in the spring, and realized during the summer. Once the fall arrives, there is the beauty of the harvest to be appreciated. There is an entire season of hard work that is coming to [...]

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Baby Robins… Throwback Thursday

The post Baby Robins… Throwback Thursday appeared first on Miss Smarty Plants.

Our busy spring included many changes and one of the things I really enjoyed was watching this clutch of baby robins. The beautiful blue eggs are like little jewels in the spring months and I was so excited to see these inside an electric panel box near our house. With a small opening about two inches round, this was a perfect protected space for these baby robins to grow.  So for this Throwback Thursday (perhaps I should call it “catch up on things you forgot to share” Thursday?) I hope you enjoy these images of “my” baby robins.

 

Baby Robins May 1:

Robins usually lay one egg per day, creating nests of 3-6 eggs. The Iowa DNR says, “She then sits on the eggs for 16 to 17 days and spends another 16 to 17 days at the nest feeding the little hatchlings. Iowa robins usually try for two successful nest attempts between April and August.”  It looks like a lot of room in this box now, but just wait until the last photo!

Baby Robins May 10:

Its hard to say exactly how old these baby robins are here (somewhere between 1-9 days?).  Oh these little guys are not cute…

What does the robin life cycle look like?  Here is a breakdown of each part of a baby robin’s development broken down by the number of days.

Egg	12 – 14
Nestling	9 – 16
Fledgling	10 – 15
Total	31 – 45

Baby Robins May 13

As you can see, the nest is starting to get crowded!  The other feathers seen here are from our chickens and must have been picked up by the mother robin in the course of building her nest.

Q. How long do robin babies stay in the nest (nestling stage)?
A. Baby robins jump from their nest when they are about 13 days old (but the range is 9 – 16 days old).

Q. When do young robins learn to fly? (fledgling stage)
A. After leaving the nest (fledging), it takes another 10-15 days for babies to become strong fliers and independent birds.

Baby Robins May 17:

If my the camera on my phone hadn’t marked the date for these images, I would never believe how different these baby robins look after just four days. Eyes wide open, feathers developing and certainly more activity. It is hard to tell, but at this point one of the babies died. It was still in the box and later in the day the adult robin had pushed it out.  Developing five strong robins this far is still much better than most averages.

Baby Robins May 23:

This is the final image of “my” baby robins before they left the nest.  When I teach classes on butterfly gardening I usually give folks a hard time about how carefully the watch over “their” caterpillars and make sure there is enough food for them to pupate. It isn’t really ours at all, but it is easy to develop an attachment to the show nature provides us.

 

 

The post Baby Robins… Throwback Thursday appeared first on Miss Smarty Plants.

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More on Hard Cider by Thomas Christopher

In my last post I wrote about hunting for the apples with which I make hard cider.  Having done that – I’ve located two trees full of what appear to be ‘Golden Russet’ apples —  I thought I would add a few notes about turning the fresh, sweet cider I’ll press from that fruit into the fermented, alcoholic product: hard cider.

The best introduction to this process is a book that Annie Proulx co-authored early in her career, long before she won the Pulitzer Prize for her novel Shipping News.   Cider is the succinct title of this early effort, which Proulx wrote in partnership with cider-maker Lew Nichols.  Together, they introduce the reader to every detail of cider-making, from selecting the fruit, to bottling the finished product.

One detail this book does neglect is the fine points of selecting an appropriate yeast.  This is a point of some contention.  Some cider makers just go with the yeasts that naturally occur on the apples.  This is, no doubt, how hard cider making began millennia ago, and it is still the rule in the Asturias region of Spain, where I have tasted excellent ciders.  The problem with this approach is that there are many strains of wild yeast, some good, some bad, and you won’t know which you have got until you pop the cork on a finished bottle.  Uneven quality, in fact, has been a major obstacle to the export of ciders out of Asturias.

I prefer to innoculate my cider with a specific strain of yeast, so that I can better predict how the finished product is going to taste.  But which yeast should I use?  In the past, I’ve relied on champagne yeasts, typically Lalvin EC-1118 Champagne.  This is a very aggressive strain that is fast fermenting and produces a very dry hard cider – I prefer a cider that isn’t sweet at all.

I used to sulfite my ciders immediately after pressing the apples, to knock out the wild yeasts, but I’ve found that the Lalvin EC-1118  is sufficiently competitive that when I use it, I can skip this step.  That’s good, because occasionally the sulfites give the finished product a faintly sulfury odor.

I’ve been told, however, that this yeast is so aggressive that it strips out much of the appley bouquet that is one of hard cider’s pleasures, so this year I am going to experiment with some other yeasts.   Lalvin K1V-1116, a white wine yeast, is supposed to be kinder to the bouquet, while still proving quite competititive, and I will surely make a batch of hard cider with this.   I’ve also had Lalvin D47 Yeast, another white wine yeast recommended to me as enhancing the bouquet and producing “floral notes”.  I’m not sure what those are, but I may try a batch with that, as well.

And if you happen to be in western Massachusetts on October 14^th, do join me at the hard cider tasting I will be hosting for the Sandisfield Arts Center.  There will be lots of fine ciders by leading cider makers complemented by local cheeses and live music.

More on Hard Cider originally appeared on Garden Rant on October 2, 2017.

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