It's Maple Syrup Time!

The nights are cool plus the days are warm.  You know what that equals?  Maple Syrup time.  Nothing beats Canadian Maple Syrup.  We only make enough for ourselves, but even at that it is alot of work.  Considering it takes approximately 40 Gallons of sap to make 1 Gallon of Maple Syrup. A ratio of 40:1 That is alot of sap. Boy, is it worth it though.  Since I work full time I do not have the time to have a actual sugar bush cooking house, so we cook it with propane.  Still get the full taste and aroma but I do not have to sit in the bush into the wee hours and wait for the syrup to be ready.  Come with me as I show you what I do.

The great sugar maple.  She sure is lovely.  In spring you give me sap and in the fall you give me a beautiful show of colors.

Time to drill the hole.  Have to put some muscle into it.

The spoil.  It brings the sap from the tree to the bucket ( which by the way can be pretty much anything, I like to use coffee cans because they are not heavy and easy to handle )

Little helpers looking on as it starts to drip in the bucket.

 

Here is what I cook the syrup in.  Just a simple propane burner and stainless pot.  Pretty simple.

The sap is a cooking.  Soon it will be on yummy pancakes, but we will have to wait since its still cooking.  Hope you enjoyed my day in the sugar bush

Interesting Facts about Trees

10 Neat Things About Trees

1. Pharmacy in a forest. Aspens produce a fuzzy white coating on the south side of their trunks that acts as a sun block. This powdery substance was used by Aboriginal people to prevent sunburn. The inner bark of aspen contains salicylic acid, an ingredient in aspirin. It was used in a tea to relieve rheumatism and other health problems. Aspen leaves can also relieve insect stings.


2. When is a tree a forest? We are often amazed at the gigantic size of the famous redwood sequoias, but that's measuring only vertical growth. Since aspens send up shoots (ramets) that become new "trees", the largest aspen "trees" are actually huge forests that can cover tens of hectares. Once such near Salt Lake City, Utah is estimated to weigh over 5,000 tonnes, many times larger than the biggest sequoia.

3. Do trees talk to each other? Lots of people think so and some even say they talk to humans, but that's another story. In fact, while trees don't speak in comprehensible sentences, they appear to communicate through several different means. Some trees (elms come to mind) appear to exchange information and even nutrition through the network of mycorrhizae that populate their roots systems. Others (acacias) appear to be able to send either a chemical or an electrical message to fellows in their vicinity when they are under threat from a leaf-nibbling animal. And trees such as the black walnut certainly send chemical signals with a toxic substance called juglone that wards off competition from certain other plants.

4. Trees produce oxygen in exchange for carbon dioxide. A large tree puts out enough oxygen to sustain four people every day. On the other hand, it takes about 100 trees to capture and store one tonne (2,204 lbs.) of carbon dioxide in a year -- two reasons why we need more trees than people.

5. Pruning trees roots will not necessarily kill a tree, but don't go too far. Never cut more that 30% of the root system of a mature tree, which means leaving a minimum space of 1.2 metres from the base of the tree for those with trunk of 30 cm or more in diameter.




6. Tree roots grow in proportion to the size of its crown above ground. The roots of a paper birch, however, will spread at least twice the height of the tree. Elm roots have a similar range.

7. The idea that tree roots maliciously seek out your sewage system to exploit any cracks is only an urban myth. What some tree roots will do is grow more vigorously in areas where they encounter moisture and nutrients (wouldn't you?). If the piping has perforations or openings, then tree roots may grow in that direction.

8. Most tree roots, the fine feeder roots, exist within the top eight to 12 inches of soil. Trees with deep roots least likely to cosy up to your pipes and weeping tiles include bur oak, black walnut, common hackberry and some types of hickory. Trees that like dry conditions and so will avoid moisture-laden drains include beech, Black cherry, Black locust, European and Paper birch, Norway maple, many pines and spruces and Staghorn locust.

9. Trees can clean up groundwater contamination through a process called phytoremediation. Poplars and willows are particularly good at this. Trees can clean up contamination in three ways: One is by changing the chemical composition of organic contaminants such as PCBs through interaction with bacteria at the root level. Two is through a similar process with heavy metals such as mercury, but where the changed chemistry is them expired into the air through the leaves. The third is by taking the contaminants into the above ground growth and storing them. The recovery of heavy metals stored and reclaimed in this way is being studied in a process called phytoextraction.

10. Lilacs, elms, oaks and beeches can all live 200 to 300 years or more , common firs and spruces can live as long as 800 years, and sequoia are well known both for their bulk and their great age, but the champion grower is the pine, one of which, Pinus longaeva, has been clocked at 4,900 years. Long-lived trees generally grow slowly -- as slowly as just one inch per century!


From top to bottom: 1. Aspen leaves take out sting. 2. An ancient Oak in England. 3. Aspen trunks near Aspen, Colorado. 4. Eastern Elm. 5. Oak tree. 6. Phytoremdiation. 7. Tree roots.

-Dorothy Dobbie

Thank you again Ontario Gardener for such an interesting newsletter again.  I enjoy them very much.



Cheryl

Beautiful Mysterious Blue

I subscribe to Ontario Gardner and every Saturday morning I always receive a wonderful newsletter from them and I found this one to fit in just perfect for the way I've been feeling lately "Blue".  So I am sharing with you today.  Must get my hands on the blue impatien. Thank you Ontario Gardner, now my spirits are starting to rise considering it's snowing again.

Ten Neat Things about Blue

1. Blue impatiens. Impatiens namchabarwensis is a semi-woody, branching, one-foot tall plant with delicate true-blue blooms that was discovered in a small region of the Himalayas in 2003. Today I received notice that Dominion Seeds has a limited selection of plants available for purchase by mail order. It's a tender perennial, so you could either treat it as an annual or, given the $15 apiece price tag, try overwintering the fleshy roots indoors.

2. Blue nasturtium. Tropaeolum azureum is a species of nasturtium with a lovely blue colour tending toward violet. It's from Chile and was brought to Europe as early as 1843 by a collector named William Lobb. I'm not sure why, but it's devilishly difficult to get hold of; I know of no Canadian dealer.

3. Bluest blues. Blue is the most difficult colour to breed into plants. Blue pigments have a tendency to shift toward pink, purple and red in different pH levels.

4. Blue mushroom. Lactarius indigo is a remarkably blue wild mushroom that grows in coniferous forests of eastern North America. When broken or cut, it exudes a blue milk that slowly turns green after being exposed to air. Not sure who figured it out, but this mushroom is edible.

5. Blue butterflies. The beautiful iridescent blue colour of some butterflies tends to come not from within-from actual pigments in the insect-but from refraction of the scales on the wings. The oranges and yellows, on the other hand, are pigmented scales.

6. Blue frog. The okopipi frog of Brazil is a poison dart frog that is a lovely cerulean blue with black spots that differ from one individual to the next. It exudes poisons that will paralyse or kill a predator that doesn't heed the warning blue colour.

7. Appetite suppressant. The colour blue is a natural appetite suppressant, and not only in frogs. It is theorized that loss of appetite is a common reaction to the colour because so few naturally occurring foods are blue. Perhaps I should paint my dining room blue.



8. Blue for spring. Blue is the colour of grape hyacinths, one of the loveliest flowers of spring. It looks stunning against the bright yellow of daffodils.



9. Blue for shade, blue for sun. Many blue flowers are shade tolerant. Some examples: forget-me-not, browallia, Siberian bugloss, periwinkle, Jacob's ladder, some pulmonarias, baptisia, and violets. For sun, try Victoria Blue salvia, many veronicas, many campanulas, delphimium, blue flax, blue pansies, many cranesbills, blue asters, nemophila (baby blue eyes), convolvulus, and borage to name just a few. Lobelia prefers part shade.

10. Blue roses. There is also the elusive blue rose which rosarians have been trying to breed for years. Roses lack the gene to produce true blue colours so blue roses have come to stand for the impossible quest. After much failure, some have taken to dying the roses, but in the last few years, a Japanese company has used genetic engineering to insert a gene, taken from a petunia, into the Cardinal de Richelieu rose. Sadly, the true blue still eludes the breeders. The new rose marketed by Suntory is a mauve colour.

From top to bottom: (1) A rare royal blue flower. (2) The edible Lactarius indigo. (3) A flutter of blue butterflies. 4) The beautiful yet lethal dart frog that hails from Brazil. (5) Sure it make look cool to children...but for adults, milk should only be consumed when white.
-Dorothy Dobbie

Winter Blah's

Oh boy, it has hit me.  The Winter Blah's.  The recent snowstorm that hit yesterday sure is  not helping matters.  For awhile I thought maybe spring was just around the corner.  The days are getting longer, the snow is melting the sun is shining and then the snow starts falling and falling and falling.  I cannot even take a picture of it I'm so blahhed.  Not sure why I am, the seeds are coming in the mail daily, the new seedlings are doing fantastic and I'm even growing some things I've never tried before and still I'm in the winter blues.  So how do I get myself out.  Not sure but I'm hoping tomorrow will be better.  Some of those seedlings need to go into their bigger pots.  Please spring come soon! How I ache to have this again.

The Sweet Potato Experiment Update

Remember a little while ago I found a sprouting sweet potato and had the idea of trying to grow it inside.  Well this is what it looks like now.

It is growing into a beauitful lush vine.  I just love the purple leaves with the lime green veins going through.  I cannot wait till it grows even larger.  But what is really making me wonder is will it actually produce tubers?  Truly that is my goal. So stay tuned.

I thought this was  a really neat looking picture this morrning.  The sky is just a lovely place to look for beautiful pictures.

Oh Boy, February is Flying by!

As you can see I have not been very active these past couple of weeks. It has been absolutely crazy around here.  Between 3 kids sick, dance classes, competitions and speech making, there has been not much time to garden or blog.  I will be back soon as the indoor greenhouse does have sprouts.  Yeahhhh, so in the meantime I hope you enjoy the pic.

February, the month of LOVE

February the month of LOVE and what better way to express your feelings to one another then by flowers.  Here are the top 10 flowers representing Love.

10. Iris - The Iris is one of the loveliest flowers, and has the meaning of faith and hope. The three points of the Iris are said to symbolize faith, wisdom and valor. In Ancient Roman times, it was used for purification.

09. Sunflower - The gorgeous and luminous Sunflower stands for adoration. Long ago, women who wished to conceive would eat sunflower seeds. Sunflowers are also known as the emblem of spiritualism.

08. Gardenia - The sweet smelling Gardenia symbolizes love and peace and along with the daisy, is one of my favorite flowers. Scattering dried gardenia around a room is said to stimulate peaceful and loving vibrations.

07. Lilac - Lilacs have been loved by many generations, both for their breathtaking beauty and for their irresistiblearoma. The Lilac is said to ask the question "Do you still love me?" to the receiver. The Lilac is also a symbol of protection and was first planted in the New England region to protect against evil.

06. Carnation - The promising Carnation, very popular in corsages, stands for fascination and should be given to someone who holds you captivated. The Carnation also has healing properties and in Elizabethan times, was used to defer sickness.

05. Orchid - The orchid is commonly one of the most used floral symbols of affection in the West and stands for love, beauty and seduction. Be careful to whom you give this flower to, as it's message is clearly put across.

04. Lily - Lilies (excluding Lily of the Valley) stand for beauty and are extremely popular in wedding ceremonies. Lore surrounding the Lily states that whoever finds the first Lily of the season will bring strength to him or herself.

03. Tulip - The highly popular tulip also stands for love as well as protection. In fact, Middle Eastern countries wear this flower in their turbans for protection.

02. Daisy - Daisies, a personal favorite, symbolize innocence, purity and loyalty. The Daisy is said to bring love to the receiver. It is also said that whoever picks the first daisy of the season will be possessed by flirtatious spirit beyond their control.

01. Rose - The rose is a classic and a staple involving anything to do with love, especially Valentine's Day. Roses simply mean, "I Love You" but they also have other wonderful qualities. Rose petals sprinkled around the home are said to calm personal stress and household turmoil. You could go even further and add Rose Oil to make a sensual bath for two.


Here are the meanings of some other flowers.
Primrose (love), Sweetpea (friendship and chastity), Magnolia (fidelity), Pansy (love), Passion Flower (peace and friendship), Hibiscus (meaning lust), Periwinkle (love and lust), Hyacinth (happiness), Lavender (love, longevity, happiness, and peace), Plumeria (love), Violet (love, lust and peace) and Jasmine (spiritual love) would also all be great additions to any bouquet.


First Love
· Asters symbolize beginnings.
· Azaleas represent first love.
· Daisies mean innocence.
· Hyacinths are representative of young love.
· Purple lilacs represent the first experience of love.
· White roses symbolize innocence and purity.

Long-Time Love
· A Red and White Rose combination represents unity.
· Baby's Breath means ever-lasting love.
· Honeysuckle symbolizes the bonds of love.
· Lavender means devotion.
· Pink roses symbolize lasting friendship.
· Stephanotis, or Madagascar jasmine, means happiness in marriage.

Unrequited Love
· Sunflowers mean adoration.
· Pomegranate symbolizes unspoken desire.
· Yellow Tulip represents hopeless love.

Passion and Desire
· Anthurium means intense attraction.
· Calla lily symbolizes magnificent beauty.
· Orchids represent ecstasy.
· Pansies symbolize the unspoken thoughts of lovers.
· Peach roses expresse desire.
· Red roses represent passion and love.

Missing You
· Agapanthus, or African lily, symbolizes love letters.
· Astilbe, or False Spirea, means "I will wait for you."
· Heliotrope inspires thoughts of devotion.
· Gladioli represent strength of character, a necessary asset to anyone far away from their lover.
· Ivy means fidelity
· Violets represent faithfulness.
· Zinnia symbolizes the thought of absent friends.