My coffee today in a flowery mug – It says “Mountain Laurel” but since we do not have any of that on our property, I chose the closest thing: A bright pink Azalea in bloom.
Today it rained ALL DAY. Not hard, not a lot, but something was coming down the entire day. I took the opportunity of a day off of yard-work to go to my favorite place across the river to buy annuals and some veggies. The selection there is unmatched, especially if you want some interesting annuals for flower boxes. They literally have almost everything. And coming in before Mother’s Day, when it is often crowded beyond belief, is always a wise idea, as the aisles are narrow, the carts are large, and selection will dwindle as you shop. So I now always try to go before Mother’s Day, hence my trip on Friday, May 10th. Today’s take is the following:
These are the plants for our window flower boxes and along the street in front of the house. Some will also go in hanging planters here and there. I hope it is enough, but I am not sure. There are also some interesting varieties of tomatoes and peppers amongst these flowering annuals.
Anyway, because the day started off so miserably, I actually thought that it would be a good day to document what is currently flowering on the property. Somehow, raindrops enhance the photos, so I went from front yard, to backyard, to side yard, to street side and creek side, and wherever there was a flower, I took a shot. There were many. Let’s start near the chicken coop:
First, since this is the flower of May, we have some Lily of the Valley.
We have some wild strawberry growing in the Hosta bed. I would probably tear it out, as it’s an aggressive spreader, except the chickens love to eat both the berries and leaves.
This is the Strawberry flower before it turns into a berry. I think it is the only one left. Pretty soon we will have a patch of wild red berries. They are very small and don’t taste very good. Yes, I have tried them.
Below are examples of three different violets, dripping wet, and the white one had a very small mayfly in it.
The purple-veined white violet
The wild Purple Violet
White Violet with Mayfly.
This one is growing in the Hosta beds, and is known as “Virginia Waterleaf”, or “Eastern Waterleaf” (Hydrophyllum virginianum). This is a voluntary plant and it comes up every year. Here is a website I found that talks about it’s edible qualities: https://www.healthygreensavvy.com/virginia-waterleaf-hydrophyllum-virginianum. This does look like an interesting site to peruse for the edible and medicinal uses of several weeds I’ve been coming across also.This interesting plant grew voluntarily in one of the pots I used last year for veggies. I’ve never seen it before, it is only growing in that one pot, and Google Lens is telling me that it is: Cardamine Impatiens, also known as “Narrowleaf Bittercress”. Here is a site that elaborates on its edible or medicinal uses, and I may devote a post just to this plant, but for now, we’re cruising the yard for what’s in bloom:
Moving on from the evil Archangel, we come to the other side of the front yard, where we have a magnificent example of a Holly Tree. This is actually the flower of Holly Tree (Ilex Opaca).
And the bright red berries of same Holly Tree.
Also in the front yard we have these budding wild Irises. They were not always in the front yard. They used to be within the fenced area, where we have planters now. The reason they are no longer, is due to the worst flood we had in September of 2021, named “Hurricane Ida”. Eventually, I will do a whole post just on Ida, but not today. The Irises were literally moved from their spot. So was our driveway. All the gravel in the driveway was moved by floodwaters into the yard, covering the iris patch. So that when a front-loader came and moved all the gravel back where it belonged, all the irises went with it. So when they came up the next year, 2022, they came up in random spots in the driveway. I studiously dug them all up as they emerged and gave them a new spot and that is where they are today, about to bloom. They will be blooming in the next week or 2. These are not the big, showy “Bearded Irises”. They are petite little purple ones, and there should be some yellow and some white emerging soon as well. Photos soon to come. These are my 2nd favorite flower in the yard to the violets.Right next to the Iris patch is a little grouping of Star of Bethlehem, that are volunteers here. However, since it was raining and dreary this day, they were not open, so I decided to focus on the raindrops clinging to them instead.Now we are back in the fenced area of the yard. This is growing in the side garden where we have some Azalea bushes. It’s just a random volunteer, called Bittercress or Winter Cress, or Yellow Rocketcress (barbarea vulgaris). The long leaves you see covered with rain drops do not belong to this yellow flower, they will soon be the showy, orange Day Lily. The Cress will most likely be a short-lived Spring flower and like it’s similar counterpart in white called “Garlic Mustard”, this is super easy to pull out. I will probably feed it to the chickens, although I did find some interesting info about its edible quality: https://foragingguru.com/yellow-rocket/ Here is a little “snippet” from that site:
We are still in the yard by the Azalea row, and this is our showy pink/white Azalea. Most of them are now dropping their flowers. We have about 6 Azalea bushes, 3 planted by us, years ago and 3 that came with the property.
This Magenta one is out front by the walkway and I also used it as a backdrop for my coffee mug.
But I thought the mug looked pretty good with this Azalea too, so I begin and end this post with an Azalea and my favorite coffee mug (Yes, it’s cracked, but it hasn’t fallen apart yet).
So on May 1st, I decided a return trip to Mariton was warranted because the Trilliums had not really been out in full bloom when I had been there earlier. It was another beautiful day. I went in a T-shirt, as it was quite a bit warmer than my first time there this season on April 24th. There was an abundance of Trilliums, as well as some newer wildflowers and some further along than when I’d been there a week before. I allowed a little more time for this venture, because I wanted to get to the bottom of the River Lookout Trail (map below). The River Lookout Trail starts out pretty tame, but after a few twists and turns, suddenly there is no longer a dirt path, but a steep granite path of rocks. This requires my 68 yr. old self to put down my coffee mug and use hands as well as feet to maneuver.
The top of the River Lookout Trail with its 2 concrete benches.
A delightfully pretty section of trail, especially in the Spring sunlight. This part is narrow but flat.
The woods of Mariton are amazingly clear of invasive undergrowth. This is relatively hard to find anymore in Eastern woodlands, due to that “wonderfully” thorny multi-flora rose that is so hard to control.
Heed the D A N G E R sign: Sheer Cliff Area
Tunnels of twisted Rhodies (PA Rhododendrons). Some broken, trunks cracked at their bases, presumably in that very heavy snow we had in February. The granite is the pathway. I so don’t want to break an ankle.
A cool outcropping. No, I did not venture out there.Steep drop to Route 611. You can, however, slightly see the river from this vantage point.
The rocky trail back up. Have to pick up my coffee mug where I parked it on a rock. Too dangerous to carry. Wish I had a hiking stick.
Parts of the trail are just dreamy. This was on the way back up the River Overlook. Beautiful lighting.
You can actually see the river though, even without going out of that “Sheer Cliff” dropoff. Here it is. You can hear the traffic below on 611 as well. The blue thing, middle-right is a tarp on a house across the Delaware River, on “River Road”, in New Jersey.
I probably deleted 30 blurry pictures of this plant and ended up with this one. That’s what happens when there is a breeze, and you’re trying to photograph a hanging flower like this, swinging in the breeze. This is called Perfoliate Bellwort, or “Merrybells” (Uvularia Perfoliata). There is a lot of this pretty yellow flower growing on the “Trillium Trail”, aka River Lookout.
The Red Trilliums in Mariton grow at the base of this enormous tree, and next time I am up there, I will have to take note of what kind of tree it is.
An enlarged & cropped version of the “Red Trillium” (Trillium Erectum). The most stand-out example in the grouping.And here we have a wildflower that is new to me. A return trip may be warranted (tomorrow, perhaps), because this was a tall one, at least a foot, and simply would not hold still for me. I’d love to get a better picture. I believe this is either an English or Scottish Bluebell. I know the ones in our yard are “Virginia Bluebells”, and this is definitely not that. It just stood there by itself, not a single other one around it. River Lookout Trail, the top part before any descent. (7 types of Bluebells, my source: https://floraliving.co/types-of-bluebell-flowers/)Rue Anemone (Thalictrum thalictroides), a delicate white flower.The yellow Wood Poppy (Stylophorum diphyllum) on the Main Trail near the bird blind.And of course a flowering Dogwood (Cornus Florida). The wind cooperated with me for this shot.And on the Woods Trail, the White Trillium that I’d photographed a week earlier, now has traces of pink through the petals. I may return to see how this has progressed.A lovely little singular purple Wild Violet. There is a trace of a spider web on the right.Near the doorway to the “Center”, this beautiful Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis)
All told, it was a perfect trip, beautiful weather, and beautiful wildflowers. I look forward to returning soon.
Most people think of the early Spring flower “Lesser Celandine” (Ficaria Verna) as an invasive weed. It permeates our lawn in the Spring probably before any other growth with its cheery, bright yellow flowers, and the foliage (those pretty heart-shaped leaves) last longer than the flower before they start to fade as if it’s autumn, and it’s not even May. Today is April 30th, and most of the yellow flowers are gone. The Hostas then take over the beds where the Celandine is prolific and under the large umbrella of those giant Hosta leaves, nothing else has a chance and the Celandine slowly disappears. Does it have a use? I will find out. There was a headline that showed up for me (somewhere, I don’t recall where) that read: “Standing up for the Lesser Celandine (A truly sensitive flower)“. This intrigued me, so of course I had to read it. My entire “country” life, I have heard only about the disadvantages of this so-called “Invasive”, and ways to eradicate it, control it, annihilate it, etc. I am wondering if this is really necessary? Maybe, primarily because there is so much of it. And it has a tendency to smother out the emerging Spring Ephemerals, and possibly other more advantageous plants. (And then there are those blank spots it leaves in the lawn as it dies back). But control would be impossible in our yard. To kill or eradicate the Lesser Celandine, we would have to involve too many other plants, and it’s impossible to dig it out, so we let it do its thing and then die off under the Hostas.
This picture is dated March 13, 2024, so it really is one of the first to emerge.
This one is dated 4/8/24, the “Grape Hyacinths” have begun to bloom also
Pictured with a wild violetThis picture is dated March 25, 2024 in my Amazon Photo collection. The Grape Hyacinth is the focal point here.And this picture I took on May 4, 2024. You can see that the Lesser Celandine is now yellowing and dying off. The flowers have been gone for awhile. The Hosta leaves are beginning to take over and have really advanced in the last couple of weeks. Soon, there will be no ground to see here at all. This is all at the base of the Kentucky Coffee Tree.
Links (and quotes) I used while researching Lesser Celandine:
Ficaria verna (formerly Ranunculus ficariaL.), commonly known as lesser celandine or pilewort,[3] is a low-growing, hairless perennial flowering plant in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae. It has fleshy dark green, heart-shaped leaves and distinctive flowers with bright yellow, glossy petals
And from HERE: “Lesser celandine, also called fig buttercup, is an herbaceous invasive perennial plant found most often in moist, wooded floodplains. This spring ephemeral arises early in the season, often near forest fringe areas, and creates a dense carpet of vegetation that prevents native ephemeral plants such as bloodroot, wild ginger, and others from surviving.”
Today is normally the day they hold the annual “Shad Fest” in Lambertville, New Jersey. This would have been the “traditional” weekend, but this year, for some reason, it was changed to last weekend: 4/20 – 4/21/24. We went on 4/20 and it was an absolutely beautiful, perfect weather day. Today would not have been. It’s chilly and overcast. However, the reason I bring this up, is not so much for the Shad Festival itself, which was traditionally to honor the “annual spring shad run”, of the fish called “Shad”, running upriver (the Delaware in this case) to spawn in fresh water. What I’d like to talk about is the Shad Bush (Amelanchier arborea), which blooms around the same time as the Shad run, and that, I believe, is why it is sometimes referred to as a Shadbush Tree. It is also known as: [“downy serviceberry, shadblow, juneberry, shadbush, sarvis-tree or serviceberry, Saskatoon, shadwood, sugarplum or wild-plum”. There are at least 20 species included under the genus Amelanchier and many shad trees are genetic combinations of them]. The information within the preceding brackets is from this site: https://theupstater.com/the-columbia-paper/through-the-woods-shad/.
We have a Shadbush Tree growing right across the creek, picture of it to the left, next to the guard-rail of the bridge. You can also barely make out behind it, to the lower right, our famous Durham Limekilns. More on that later – they deserve an entire post unto themselves. I have a couple closeups of the Shadbush Tree below. These closeups were hard to get as it was a bit windy when I went on this little venture, but I took them anyway, because in about a week or less, these blossoms will be gone.
The Shadbush tree has a beautiful white blossom, which can appear pink when it’s just beginning to bud. This is a short-lived flower, and turns into a berry, which (apparently!) can be baked into a pie. I did not learn this ’til I was researching these Shadbush trees this year. Another fun culinary item to try, given that shortly there will be shadbush berries across the creek. Here is a recipe I found: https://downtonabbeycooks.com/bountiful-serviceberry-saskatoon-pie/ Or from this site (doesn’t this look utterly delicious??). This looks like a fun site to peruse. I had to confirm my age to get into it: https://piequarterly.com/recipe-lakeside-saskatoon-pie/
This picture is from the site where the recipe for that exceedingly delicious looking pie comes from. I wish I was having a piece of that right now. You can click the picture to open the site for the recipe.
The best closeup I could get on this windy day
So that is about it for Shad and Shadbush Tree for the year. If/when I actually cook a pie with the berries, I will be sure to add it here. Shad is a short season.
Every year the Shad Fest sponsors a poster contest, here is a link to this year’s entries. So many of them are so good, and then last Sunday, they held an auction for all the posters entered. I’ve never been, but I hear it’s always a sell-out.
Mariton is a beautiful 200 acre preserve that falls under the management of the Natural Lands Trust. It is a combination of two people’s names: “Mary” and “Tony” Guerrero. They bequeathed the land for preservation 80 or so years ago. Mariton can be very challenging, in that it has trails that go from about 200 ft. above sea level to 700 ft., so when you are walking that trail, it is like climbing stony steps. Really good for the legs and hips. See the “Topo Map” to left. (I love that they put “Coffeetown” on this map).
I used to be a “regular” at Mariton, given that it’s only about a 5 min. drive from us. I took our “Wolf-dog”, “Red” with me for hikes there. I could have her on one of those retractable leashes, so she could have some freedom, and we rarely, if ever, ran into anyone. I felt like the crazy lady of Mariton though, because I would often go early in the morning, and many of the trails had spider webs spun from one side of the trail to the other and after getting a face full of webs, I started carrying and waving branches in front of me to dispel the webs. Often these webs would have a spider still in it, dead center, and to me, running face first into that is a nightmare.
I mentioned in a prior post that I was going this time for the “Trilliums”. Today was Wednesday, and the preserve was OPEN. I knew where I had last seen Trilliums and I went right to it, about a 10 min. hike to the “River Overlook” trail. But I had a hard time finding the Trilliums. I thought they were gone or maybe I got the bloom time wrong because it’s been at least a few years. But it turns out I had the WRONG TREE. I turned around and headed back up the hill, eyes sweeping both sides of the trail for the tell-tale 3-leaved growth. Finally, I saw some at the base of a large tree, I had gone too far. Pictures below. There really weren’t many, and there was only 1 of the lovely maroon color, and it had one rather ragged petal. And one cream-colored one. When I got home, I checked my picture files from years back (surprised to find they are dated 2011) and I realized I might have been a day or so early for Trilliums; my old photos are dated 4/27 – 5/1. Perhaps a return trip is in order on 4/30.
The one single “Red” trillium with its ragged petal (Trillium erectum)
And the single cream-colored Trillium. This might actually be an early “Red” Trillium, or it might be an albino version of same.
The cream one with my new Samsung cell-phone camera – it takes a “lighter”, possibly more detailed picture than the old one
The approach to the River Lookout Trail
The trail where the Trilliums bloom
The top of the River Lookout Trail. You can just see the river peeking through roughly middle of picture. I did not hike all the way down for better view, due to time constraints (and a tough hike back up)
Then, on the way out I ran into the preserve manager, who I told I was “there for the Trilliums”. He said, did you see the ones up on the “Spruce Trail”. No, I was down on the River Lookout. He directed me to a patch of white Trilliums that I’d never seen in there before. Pictures below, plus more flora that I caught on the trails to and from “Trilliums”.
The White Trillium of Mariton (Trillium grandiflorum)
A second picture. I think I used the 2 different phones
Here is how a scene usually progresses for me. I spot the flower, in this case that little group of Trilliums next to the deadwood.
Here is a closer shot, I’m probably just bending down.
And then for the final closeups, always on the ground, hoping to avoid ticks. I was lucky to find this one close enough to the trail. You’re not supposed to wander off trail in Mariton, and I never do.
It is illegal in most states to pick Trilliums. But not to photograph them!
Mariton is a beautiful place to hike in the Spring. I must get back there before all the trees “leaf-out”.A funny little snake watched me cautiously as I hiked on by. He didn’t even move as I readied my cell-phone camera. I think he’s a pretty harmless Garter Snake.This plant was also growing on the “Trillium path”; it’s known as a “Jack-in-the-Pulpit” (Arisaema triphyllum). It’s a very early version of it, when they mature, you’ll see burgundy and cream-colored stripes. You can kind of see the beginnings of the stripes on this one. There is a patch of Fiddle-head ferns to the left.Rue-Anemone (Thalictrum Thalictroides), growing here and there along the woodland pathsYellow Wood Poppy (Stylophorum diphyllum)^ And a final thing above about why you shouldn’t pick Trilliums, even if it’s not illegal ^
The weather was beautiful today – Monday, April 22. It is also “Earth Day”. I took a quick drive up to a local nature preserve, because this is about the time of year a certain other “ephemeral” Spring flower is in bloom – the elusive Trillium. However, I couldn’t get in! They are closed on Monday. I was rather disappointed, but I’ll have to try it another day this week, otherwise I may miss them. Now while this preserve may be just outside of the Cooks Creek Watershed area, it’s close enough to include the Trillium in my posts. Besides, it’s in the Delaware watershed, and Cooks Creek flows into the Delaware, so there you go. I’ll add a post on Trilliums soon. On my way home from there, I took County Line Road, which is the road that separates the north end of Bucks County from the next county: Northampton. This picture is shooting south into Bucks, and the view is part of the Cooks Creek Watershed:
The soft colors of SpringThe distant hills are New Jersey, across the Delaware River Since I couldn’t get into the preserve with the “Trilliums”, I opted for a walk with Saoirse the Frenchie to a spot that goes right along Cooks Creek. The following pictures are some of the flora we encountered on this walk:
Spring Beauties – check out the pink stripes on the ones near the top
I did find one elusive wildflower I’ve been after – the YELLOW wild violet!
And a yellow wild strawberry flower
This was a plant I had to look up, growing on the roadside. It’s a Field Horsetail (equisetum arvense)
A nice example of a Fiddlehead Fern
Mosses growing on a rock
It has been awhile since I’ve been over on this trail in nearby preserved lands. It looks like the township is using it as a depository for piles of gravel, stones, fill. This was a regular haunt for me and several of our other dogs in years past. It’s open to hunting, so I have to be careful. It’s also an active farm field, which was just recently plowed. There are many game trails throughout, deer presumably. I took Saoirse, the Frenchie and even though she hindered my picture taking, she enjoyed the outing, and hopefully did not pick up any ticks.
The recently plowed field and Spring springing-forth in the background.
My fern coffee mug with the newly discovered invasive “Japanese Knotweed” growing at creek level in the background.
Mark pointed out to me today a new growth on the edge of the creek. We are both pretty certain that it was not there a couple days ago, and there are some stalks of it that are already 3 ft. high or better. I can always check some photos I took, see if they were included… well, I did take some pictures shooting downstream, but stopped just short of the bank where these are. Anyway, it really looks like they sprung up overnight, and these tall stalks are new to us. In 22+ years, we have not seen these growing on the creek or the property. We can only assume that seeds washed down from somewhere upstream and rooted themselves here in one of probably last summer’s “High Water Events”. I “google-lensed” the plant and it’s been determined to be: Japanese Knotweed. Highly invasive, but also edible. It is supposed to be a lot like Rhubarb. I don’t know that I’ll be finding out. Luckily, it is down at creekside and not being a “woody” stem, we could probably take care of it with minimal effort. But just as an experiment, I did something to see how fast this stuff might grow. I found a couple of long sticks that I put next to two of the sprouts, about 2 ft. in length, and throughout this week, will monitor the progress.
Here is the wide view from creek side. See how tall they are already?The red circle is the top of the stick I placed on 4/21/24. Just the very top growth of foliage is above the stick, as of now. I’ll check it tomorrow. I’d be interested to see how tall this weed can grow. The day is getting cloudier as it goes on. And somewhat chilly.
I’ve added this picture on 4/27/24. It is only 6 days after the first picture above with the red circle. The plant is now probably 30″ above my stick marker. It grows about 5 inches a day. And more have sprung up. I’ve started using little “rings” of it in our salads.
And here we are on 5/4/24. Red circle is the top of my stick marker. Red line is the new growth.
The opening leaf “buds” and the stalky, rhubarb or maybe bamboo-like stems.
So after I watched the youtube video about about Japanese Knotweed, I decided to cut some of the stalk and taste it:
It was an interesting taste experience: they are somewhat pickly/sour/tart, with a texture and crunch I would equate to celery, but maybe not as dense. I’m having a hard time figuring out what vegetable it is most similar to – perhaps rhubarb, but I’ve never tasted rhubarb raw like this, so hard to say. I may try the Knotweed pie recipe in one of the links below. If so, I will be sure to post it here.
The stalks as they look today, 4/27/24. They have multiplied in the past week.Compare to picture from 4/27/24, this is 5/4/24, a week later. They are taking over.And now on 5/13/24. Also, the stems have gotten very “woody” and they no longer “snap” with that cool “pop” they do when first emerging. In fact, I can’t even break them off, because I was going to slice some up for the chickens to eat. Lesson learned: Get these EARLY in their growing season, probably late April.
What can you do with wild violets, besides how amazingly pretty they are in the landscape? Well, apparently they are also edible, have medicinal properties, and have been used for a variety of recipes including cakes, cookies, sugars, syrups, and more.
With the purple veins against the white background, there really isn’t a prettier flower in our yard at the moment.An solid-purple example.The beautiful purple-blue “veins” that run through these white petals make this a spectacular example of a simple wild violet. The yellow “Lesser Celandine” is on the wane now. Foliage is left, but this week, the yellow flowers are dying off.About a month ago, I got a new phone (Samsung Android). I put off setting it up because I didn’t want to lose a few Gigs of data on my old phone. God forbid you sacrifice a few Gigs of data, right? Well, now it is about time to make the switch, and I took a few pictures of familiar scenes with the new phone. It is only a slightly better camera than my current phone, which I’ve been using up til now for all the prior pictures. I think I will make the switch permanently though, because I am really impressed with the quality of the pics it takes, especially the close ups. See violets above. I do use a camera “App” called “Camera Zoom fx”. I have not yet tried any pics with the phone’s basic app.
So I think I have found a significant number of recipes to do fun things with the ubiquitous wild violet. As soon as I have an opportunity to go forage for some, I’ll get busy on it.
On same site, are some recipes for using violets medicinally. Some links I used for this post: https://www.naturalnews.com/2019-08-11-10-ways-preppers-use-wild-violets.html On the site below, there is a really nice recipe for violet cookies. Here is a picture from the site. I think since we have so many violets every Spring, I need to find a way to use them in the kitchen.
This is not my picture, it is from the site: https://fareisle.com/violet-lemon-poppy-seed-cake/, but it is definitely something I am going to attempt soon.This is a Facebook post from someone that I follow. I would credit her if I knew her name, I only know she goes by “Cupcake Alchemist”. She experiments with a lot of interesting baking ideas, like this one above, using Wild Violets and Sugar. I have linked to her Facebook page, but I think it will only go there if you are on Facebook.
It’s Trout Season and… my coffee today is in a trout mug. Rainbow to be precise.
Today is Sunday, April 14, 2024 and it is a lovely Spring Sunday. Which is quite the treat, considering some of the dreary days we’ve had of late. A lot of rain, and yesterday being so cool (40’s) and windy as heck. In this post, I want to talk about this miniscule little flower we have in our yard. It’s about 1/4″ across, light blue, with dark blue “veins” fanning out through the petals. This is what most would call a “weed”, known as Creeping Speedwell or Creeping Veronica (Veronica filiformis). It grows prolifically in our yard, but once we start mowing and applying lawn treatments, it is basically gone for the season. I can only get these pictures of it in early Spring, when it’s allowed to flourish in little side-pockets in the yard.
This picture is dated March 29th, and I know exactly where this was in our yard. It’s next to one of the raised bed planters, in some grass, but in a part of the lawn that is difficult to mow. With a cell phone camera, this is probably the best picture I am going to get. I like that it picked up the veins in the petals as well as it did.
Ferns are finally emerging. I’ve been waiting for this occasion to use my fern coffee mug.
I love ferns. Every fern we have in our yard was relocated and planted here. They finally do spread, and 2 or 3 times, I’ve had to move them from one part of the yard to another, due to some events out of our control. For instance, the bridge work, recently completed caused me to dig up every fern next to the bridge walls, because they were going to be stomped all over. These were the ones I transplanted into the hosta beds, about a year or so ago. We will see how they come up this year, but this picture is at least one of them. The others should be following soon. I think this came up overnight, they grow amazingly fast, once they start. I’ll take another picture in a couple days, and I’m willing to bet they will be double this size:
These are fiddlehead ferns, because the tops look like “fiddles”, as found on violins, cellos and the like. They are supposedly edible if cooked thoroughly, but I’ve not tried that. I have seen Fiddleheads on the menu at restaurants though. Below is a picture I found that illustrates why a fiddlehead fern is called that. I borrowed the picture from the following website: https://kitchenfiddler.blogspot.com/2014/04/fiddlehead-saute-with-shallots-and-bacon.html
The recipe below from on the above mentioned site also looks interesting. It might be what inspires me to finally cook some of our fiddleheads. Supposedly, they are somewhat asparagus-like. Actually, this looks like a pretty interesting culinary site that I may peruse in the future for cooking ideas: https://kitchenfiddler.blogspot.com/
Edit to add on 4/27/24 (2 weeks after this was originally posted on 4/13): These ferns were all relocated here, and I am happy to see that they are flourishing this year, even after the 9-month bridge work project. You can see that all that stone has been repointed, and at least this part of the bridge is looking nice.
And edit to add on 5/11/24 – Today was Saturday and we went to this local place on the edge of Hellertown, PA called the “Steel Club”. It is a golf club, originally for people that worked for Bethlehem Steel, but these days you can get a free dining membership if all you want to do is eat there, which is us. We sat at the bar, right in front of these taps and notice the tap handle second from left. I did sample the beer, but I didn’t like it enough to drink a whole pint. We do recommend the Steel Club by the way, and you don’t even have to be into golf.
Nature and Gardens on Cooks Creek 