Katuk tree, aka sweet leaf. This is a staple vegetable in Borneo. Grows well as an understory tree.
Has a pea like nutty flavor. Native to lowland rain forest.
Google says:"In 100 g of leaves the nutritional content is as follows: energy 59 cal, 6.4
g protein, 1.0 g fat, 9.9 g carbohydrate, 1.5 g fiber, 1.7 g ash, 233 mg calcium,
phosphorus 98 mg, 3.5 mg iron, carotene 10,020 mcg (vitamin A), B, and C 164 mg,
and 81 g water."
Great in salad, stir fry, and many other dishes... if your any good at cooking or prep.
The tree is rather brittle, it's easy to break off a branch. Very easy to harvest. Another perk is that pest don't seem to ever be a problem with this tree.
This also makes a decent hedge row as long as that area doesn't get too much wind.
All in all it's a great addition to any zone 9 or 10 gardens. They grow decent even without much sunlight. Stays green year round so it would be a good addition to general landscaping also.
Challenge - Landscape with Katuk tree and other eye catching edibles. That way when you have to trim it back you can also harvest it. Eating more local is a great way to help protect the environment.
Austin Tx has done quite a bit of edible landscape, it can be seen in front of many local businesses. Even if katuk doesn't grow where your at there are many alternatives.
Word of wisdom -
When is the best time to plant a fruit tree? 20 years ago. When is the 2nd best time to plant a fruit tree? Today. (old Chinese proverb if I remember right)
The green leafs near the bottom of this pic are a "weed" that is rather common here in Central FL.
It's in the nettle family.
Pellitory of the wall is it's name but I call it the cucumber plant due to is distinct cucumber taste.
I find this likes to grow near edges in particular. I often see it in sidewalk cracks and so on. It's a great food/medicine but it's reported to cause allergic reactions similar to a niacin flush. I have yet to meet anyone with this reaction so I imagine it is mostly found in people who have lived a very unnatural life. I hear that if you have allergies to airborne type stuff then your more likely to have a reaction.
I eat this in my soups, salads, stir fry, and so on. It's a popular addition to salads in particular due to the cucumber flavor. It's not thick and overpowering like a regular cucumber which makes it less distracting from key flavors in your salad.
Medicine. This has been used medicinally for thousands of years.
It's used as a diuretic. Said to be good for treating kidney stones and bladder issues. High in potassium and nitrates. Used to treat high blood pressure.
It's also said to be good for treating chronic cough and wounds.
I have no idea on any contraindications with medications and such.
If you want to plant this in your yard (if you don't already have it) just pick a healthy looking plant that you see while out and about. If you look on the stem you will see what looks like spiky balls on the stem. These are soft and won't hurt you. I believe those are the seed pods but could be wrong. Either way, I just try to select a mature plant, pick it and immediately place it in a bag. I then travel to the location where I want to plant it and dump it on the ground. I don't water it in, plant the roots, or anything like that. Used to try that but it doesn't transplant well. I've found that I have a very high success rate with simply tossing it on the ground where I want it. A picked plant will often use the last of it's energy to finish developing the seed.
Grows great in shade and prefers cooler weather.
Reduce your impact - Every time you throw some of your food out, be it leftovers or stuff gone bad, chart it. Estimate how much cash you waste on food you don't even eat and donate that amount to a food charity. This is a great way to build mindfulness of your waste habits and help those without food also.
Word of wisdom -
Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day's own trouble be sufficient for the day. - Yeshua the Christ.
It's fairly common for me to see these in my garden. They make some spectacular displays.
These play a big role in decomposition. They help break down wood, grassy type stuff, poop, and so other forest debris.
I started seeing these after getting a load of free mulch from a pile that had been sitting for a while.
I sometimes will pick mushrooms elsewhere and place them in my garden. I do this to increase the diversity in my garden.
These are edible, however if you consume alcohol at all you should avoid these. Consuming alcohol within 3 days of eating these can cause a heart attack. If you consume just a little alcohol you may get lucky and not die, however you may get facial reddening, nausea, vomiting, malaise, agitation, palpitations and tingling in limbs. You can read more about the alcohol interaction all over the internet.
Reducing your impact challenge: Unplug things when your not using them. Reduces power consumption. Power consumption wouldn't be a problem at all if it was produced cleanly but most of our power is made in a way that hurts everyone.
making borders with plant matter still produces an eye catching result. Looks even better when I sweep the walk! haha So to go out and actually buy a border is rather silly when you can get one for free.
Palm trees make great borders also. Although if you have energetic people who like to balance their way across, they tend to slide out of place.
Moral of the story, don't buy plastic borders. Don't buy borders at all. It's not about being cheap, it's about reducing the need for a factory to build said borders, a truck to transport such borders, gas and oil to put in the truck to transport the borders, air pollution due to the truck transporting borders. The need for uniforms for employees that drive said truck or factory, which in turn reduces the need for sweat shops. On and on the crazy behind the store scene rabbit hole goes. The amount of waste generated simply to produce an object that we don't need is astounding. Then there is the impact of the store its sold at. Then we use gas and oil to transport it back to our houses. So you can see that by fully examining the true impact of each of our actions we quickly discover that we aren't as "green" as we thought. Really we would have to leave a lot of our current destructive patterns behind in order to solve many of the issues within society. It's a big leap, one many aren't willing to take. So I say lets walk it. I'll present over the next few weeks a step per post on something you can do to reduce your harmful impact. Simple things like acquiring your own borders for free.
The truth is that our current system is flawed and many if not all elements of it need to be reworked from the ground up. If we start being mindful of our impact, if we live by the command: "love thy neighbor as thyself," our world will change. We can still have society without all the harm. We can set it up so where humans are everything thrives instead of dies. We just need a shift in priorities.
We have the technology and understanding now to produce as much food as the population of a city needs within that city. We can do this without chemical pest asides. We are currently literally poisoning our air, water, food, and earth. It's not helpful to any of us. If this is progress then I'd say we need less of it till we can couple it with wisdom and understanding. It's mindless to continue to destroy ourselves and everyone else. We should stop, for the sake of whoever is after us. We should have THE BEST TIME EVER in the process. :) camp fires, forest games, forest art, food, friends, and fresh air. Hope, vitality, stories, new experiences and more. This isn't some crucible, it's more like a game. If we own our blatant stupidity and wrongdoings instead of pretending we are better than we are, we can begin to change. Ok we are all wrong, lets move on to the solution without all the guilt and blaming. We can finger point all day but lets look in the mirror first, it starts with us. So this week I challenge you all to secure for yourselves clean water to drink and shower in. Water free of chemicals like Chlorine. A simple challenge and with it a challenge to educate yourselves about whats in your water. What is in it? What does that do to you, to your environment and air. Where does the stuff that's in it come from? How is it produced and any waste products. Put a list of everything in your drinking water next to the sink as a reminder till you do something about it.
Great school project for kids. Although they will quickly ask us adults why we are still poisoning the water supply.... I guess we can just tell them it's what we do.
On to mushrooms ...
Mushrooms, they are everywhere right now. This particular one grew on a tree stump. Many of the polypore that grow on trees here are safe for making tea. Just remember - There are old mushroom hunters and there are bold mushroom hunters but there are no old bold mushroom hunters. Some mushrooms are toxic enough to kill you if ingested.
An example of the polypore part. if you look closely you can see the tubes or "pores".
These mushrooms play a vital role in wood decay. They help feed the forest. A healthy forest has mushrooms. Some popular polypore tea mushrooms that are great for health - Rishi and Turkey tail. The genus that will likely kill you - Hapalopilus.
My family helped me process some bamboo for a hut that may be built by the end of the week.
First the cut bamboo was stripped of side branches
Then a small fire was made
Then the bamboo was passed through the fire slowly but not so slow that it would pop. Each segment of bamboo will make a nice loud pop noise as the pressure increases due to heat and likely steam within each chamber.
After being heated the color changes a bit. I'm not sure how well this method works or if we did it "right". Time will tell. Sometimes it's good to just take a general idea and run with it. In the process of failure you can learn lessons that you may have otherwise missed.
Word of wisdom -
Experience is a great teacher, losses are simply the tuition. - Jonathan Alspaugh
Video of the day
Monday, November 30, 2015
The knife stick. It's a knife on a stick.
I have a lot of banana trees but as anyone who has them knows, they need trimmed if your trying to make your place look classy. Fresh leafs make good compost anyhow and there is often a need to prune. Down side, the trees grow too high for me to simply use a regular knife or machete.
So after jumping or balancing on various objects precariously in order to reach these leafs I finally got “smart” and made the knife stick.
Step 1.
Get old kitchen
knives from a thrift shop, yard sale, or wherever. You could get a
new one but why be that person?
Step 2. Remove
handles. This is for knives with clear rivets holding the tang in
place.
If you hit them
with a hammer sometimes the handles will shatter off. Use eye
protection if you don't want to risk getting a shard in your eye.
Step 3. Wash them
down. The handles will frequently have goo from glue on them.
Step 4. Get your
stick. A broom handle works great but you can use a fairly wide
variety and sizes of sticks.
Step 5. very
important step. - pre drill your stick with slightly smaller holes
than your screws will fit in. This pilot hole will prevent your stick
from cracking as the screw goes into it. If a knife has 3 rivit holes
I do the middle one first and then put a screw in it. Then I can
shift the blade to the right or left to get the angle I like. Once
I've set my angle (slightly curved is ideal but I have both kinds) I
put the other 2 screws in.
Step 6. Try out your
new knife stick. I use different blades for different tasks. A quick
swish will take off most banana leafs.
A few tips.
Take leafs from the
fruiting side to help balance the tree. Fruit will frequently pull
banana or papaya trees down. Take the lower leafs to encourage upward
growth.
Take leafs and
compost them. Take leafs that shade other things.
Special thanks to my cousin and his wife for the generous donation of a high quality, lifetime warranty, super sturdy shovel.
Used some netting on the fence to help cover it in green later. This is on the path to my house.
Cherry tree there. This area needs a lot of attention. I'm digging a pond where that yellow bucket is.
I'm doing a lot of chop and drop composting during this season so everything looks rough. Started with rather poor soil but that seems to be changing fast.
This past year the canopy layer got so thick that it shaded out a lot of my understory. So the ground is looking pretty bare in a lot of places.
Needless to say I've been doing a lot of replanting of the understory. I hope to increase the diversity dramatically in 2016.
Sugar apple tree (nothing like a regular apple save for in size.) If you have never had one I highly recommend them, particularly for those with a sweet tooth.
behind all this is a pond I dug but haven't sealed yet.
Cuban Oregano everywhere! I picked about 3 bushels worth this week. It's designated for replanting at one of my other projects.
Just behind the Cuban Oregano is a fresh mound that I'm working on.
Banana and papaya are great starter crops for a new gardener.
A few fresh papaya, My trees in other areas of the garden are loaded. Sometimes when a banana or papaya puts on fruit the fruit will actually pull the tree down. It's good to correct any leans early on, the sooner the better.
You can see here that if you cut a papaya tree down it grows new branches and turns into something that more closely resembles a tree.
Word of wisdom for the day
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. ~ Christ
Even in late November the garden still has a lot of green.
I have a lot of bananas on, over 5 clusters, I haven't done an official count.
Banana flowers never seem to get old, I should start eating more of them. I failed to soak them in lime juice and water the last go around. It seems to be an important step.
Leaf mulch from the neighbors. I go around my neighborhood and collect leaf mulch. I'm still not sure why people think it's such a great idea to get rid of biomass but I'll keep taking it. :)
Chop and drop. I am doing a lot of chop and drop now but trying not to take too much off each plant as it is "winter" here. I put these branches and such on the paths fairly thick, this should help kick off extra heat on all the paths I do it to. Like having space heaters in the garden. As is when a freeze does come I have enough density to negate many of the negative effects. I still may loose a few clumps of banana or a few papaya fruits.
Banana leafs are a great way to pack down your chop an drop matter.
Seminole pumpkin flower. Often with squash flowers you can simply eat the flower. One flower can make a great addition to many dishes as it adds the flavor of the squash into the dish. I typically just wait for the fruit however but I have been known to munch a few flowers when kicking about the garden.
