Radishrain

These pictures were all taken on 8 June 2020.

Here are our Sugar Pod snow peas, today. I ate several first, and they were delicious.





Note that each picture has different plants in it.

Here are some of our yarrow plants, today.





Here's one from April 25th:

I think it's some kind of Euphorbia similar to Euphorbia serpens, Euphorbia prostata and Euphorbia maculata, but is seems to grow flatter with smaller, rounder leaves than those (maybe you can't tell its flat tendancy now, with the rain we've had). It's one of the most drought-tolerant plants I know, and isn't hesitant to grow on compact, hard, dry, clay-ish soil (without rain).

It seems to root along the stem as it grows. If you don't pull it up young, it's hard to remove.

I personally like it, and think it could potentially be great for living mulch.

id_

Here's our oregano plant, today. It was planted last spring, I believe. That's awesome that it's a perennial. It was a purchased plant, last year, probably from The Home Depot.

Organics Mie-Noodles, organic vermicelli

Just to make sure we're talking about the same product, here's the barcode: 658842305694

Anyway, every ingredient is a wheat product. So, it's definitely appropriate in this forum.

My sister gave me a whole bunch of these as a healthier alternative to Ramen noodles. I tried cooking some like I usually cook Ramen, and the result was a bit offputting (it was overly filling and had a strong smell that made me think it needed cooking more, although the noodles were soft by that time).

Today, I tried something different:

• Boil a good amount of water on the highest heat level. The noodles should be able to entirely submerge in the water level throughout the whole cooking process. You definitely don't want to have to break them up or shift them around.
• Put one Ramen-sized piece in a pot, after it boils (not before).
• Keep boiling at the highest heat possible. Just blow on it if it starts to foam a lot.
• Don't ever stir, nor break up the noodles.
• After some minutes, it should smell better, and not so wheaty in that uncooked wheat pasta way.
• Drain all the water (refusing to stir it makes this easier without losing pasta, since it's in a clump). Draining the water probably isn't required, but that's what I did.
• Add a packet of Ramen seasoning, and mix it together. My sister wouldn't approve, but I haven't figured out the ideal way to season them, yet, and I've been making spaghetti with the regular Ramen (so, I have extra seasoning); I planned that on purpose, however.

Result:
• The pasta smells better.
• It's not as filling.
• The pasta is surprisingly and pleasantly al dente, notwithstanding it's very floppy. The other way, it was a bit gummy, but mostly like Ramen is.

Analysis:
• This pasta needs more heat and water than Ramen strictly needs, and is more sensitive to stirring.
• Cooking time is a bit longer than is absolutely necessary for Ramen.
• These noodles can be quite firm! (Or soft, if you cook them the less desirable way.)
• The high heat doesn't make the water froth as much as expected (but I did only use one packet of them; using more might make it froth more).
• They're more filling than Ramen, either way, but not quite as filling this new way.
• Definitely don't cook more than one Ramen-sized chunk the first time you make it. If it doesn't turn out, you won't want to have to eat much of it.
• When I first cooked these new noodles, I still cooked them longer than regular Ramen; so, cooking time in and of itself isn't the answer. However, I didn't cook them on as high of a temperature as long, to avoid it spilling over.

Key points:
• More water
• Don't touch the cooking noodles
• High heat, even after adding noodles

Here's how I've been cooking regular Ramen:
• Boil water at high heat, almost as little as possible to get the job done.
• Add a couple packs of Ramen.
• Shift the Ramen, turn it upside down and stuff to get it water exposure, so it softens. Then stir it up some.
• Turn the heat off at this point or before.
• Drain most of the water. (Some of the noodles inevitably get lost, due to how the noodles aren't still all connected. I haven't always been draining the water.)
• Add seasoning and mix it up thoroughly with a chopstick in each hand.

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noodle_
al_dente

I've had a grapefruit tree for 24 to 29 years. I planted it as a seed. I planted several others, which sprouted, but they got something like mealybugs and all of them died, except this one (which became free from the pest after a while).

We use my tree as a houseplant. It's never been outside, to my knowledge.

My tree grew very slowly for the first few years (it was just a few inches tall), but it eventually got significantly larger.

On 4 June 2020, I noticed it had its very first bud! I've been hoping it would flower (and fruit).



The bud isn't facing the window. My tree is in front of a south window. As far as I know, there's only one bud, so far. It's been in front of this window since about 2014 or so, but had less light before then. It's had more light for two or three years, since we removed trees that were in front of the window.

I'm growing some tomatillos in a container. However, in one of the containers (not with the biggest of the tomatillo plants that I'm growing), it's chalk full of purslane! I don't know how it got there in such large numbers, but it did.

Purslane is edible and I like the idea of having it in a container where cats aren't as likely to urinate on it. I decided to snip some off and eat it. It tastes better than the purslane I purposefully grew from seed in 2015, 2016 or so. It's pretty good. Anyway, I plan to keep it and periodically prune it to eat.

Here's a picture (I snipped off a portion of plants with scissors, at the front):



I'm not sure which species of Portulaca these plants are.

tomatillo_

https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/byu–hawaii-student-team-is-eradicating-poverty-one-farmer-at-a-time

The above article tells about Elvin Laceda's venture to help remove the poverty of farmer's in the Philippines. He educates them and provides opportunities.

I imagine the same sort of thing could help people in other countries.

Brandywine tomato

Offsite articles:
• Dave's Garden
• Tatiana's TOMATObase
• WebGrower.com
• Wikipedia

Offsite forum search results:
• Google: boards.net
• Google: Dave's Garden
• Google: freeforums.net
• Google: Gardenweb
• Google: proboards.com
• Google: Tomatoville

Offsite threads not included above:
• TomatoJunction: Which Brandywine strains, and your experiences with them? (post #22746; 17 June 2020)

Vendors:
• Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
• Johnny's Selected Seeds (Quisenberry Strain)

*****

It's hard to imagine a more popular tomato than Brandywine. I don't know that there is one, especially among heirlooms. Many have considered it the best-tasting, or among the best-tasting. Although Brandywine started out as a single variety, the term without any qualifiers is now, in my opinion, quite ambiguous, and it's hard to say that your Brandywine is the same as someone else's unless you got it from the same store, or unless you know which particular strain it is. There are lots of strains. If you know the strain, please always say it as part of the breed name (instead of just saying Brandywine).

I had a friend who grew Brandywine in 2014, as well as one other variety. She gave me some unripe fruits, which I think were Brandywine, but they may have been the other tomato (she said the other tomato was striped, and these were not striped). Her plants were prolific (although she said they took a long time to ripen). Her fruits were orange-ish red to my eyes (some people appear to call that color pink, and Brandywine tomatoes are actually supposed to be pinker than that), and were beefsteak-shaped to a more smooth shape. They tasted pretty great (after I let them ripen), and they had lots of seeds. I grew some of those seeds in 2015 (a plant from each fruit shape). The fruits I grew looked similar, but they tasted a lot different, and they weren't as prolific (it was a bit of a disappointment).

Most of the Brandywine types I've tried in my garden haven't tasted terribly great (and many have been mealy). I think they must prefer warmer soil or something (ours is a clay/silt to clay/silt loam type, which insulates well, and has a habit of staying cool). I think my friend grew hers in straw bales. However, Brandy Boy F1 and the cross of it that I'm breeding with, have done excellently, and tasted great (granted they had black plastic to warm the soil). I'd like to try Brandywine again with black plastic, some day.

Brandywine (Sudduth's Strain), which I believe is the same as the Quisenberry strain, tends to be regarded as the most authentic Brandywine we have today. Johnny's Selected Seeds was given pure seed.

heirloom_tomato