Tuesday, September 28, 2021

A Bit of This and That

 A few things from my neck of the woods.

We found these handmade pliers when we were sorting things in Ward's shop. No one has any idea where they came from or exactly what they were used for. Curiously, the closest thing I could come up with after a Google search was an ancient German torture device that was used to remove finger or toenails from someone. It looks remarkably similar in the picture, but I don't think we have a rare find worth $3000.



This was a new weed for us this year that popped up all over our yard. While it looked familiar, I couldn't quite place it until a saw a peanut shell with it. Apparently last fall, squirrels planted peanuts all over our yard. 


After I figured out what they were, I left one plant just to see if we could get peanuts. I pulled up this plant recently and didn't find any, just the shell from the original seed. Peanuts take a long, warm growing season and it is difficult to grow them here. However, I might take a chance on them next year. We grew them successfully when we lived in New Orleans



This is a harvest from a couple of days ago. More tomatoes should be harvested today. I had also intended to pull the zucchini, but it has shown new life, so I will give it a while longer. We roasted the carrots and beets and Theo made a spicy bean dish with the tomatoes. The basil is waiting to be made into pesto. I seemed to have misplaced the nuts I need to make it. :)


This is a trombetta squash grown by a friend. It was about 3 feet long originally. We had already had one meal from it before I took the picture. Trombetta squash has white flesh that turns to orange as it matures and tastes more like a winter squash then. This one had a mild butternut squash flavor. I thought about growing some next year, but they vine wildly and require a lot of room.



I love the look of the purple berries of the callicarpa (beautyberry) shrub. I had seen them before and was always struck by their beauty. A friend offered me some volunteer plants she had in her yard last spring. I planted two of them and shared two more with Miss Landers and Aunt Martha. Also, birds and wildlife are supposed to like the berries.



Until next time...