Jurassic Plants & More Unusual Plants

It was no good, once I'd ordered that Blue Sausage Fruit I knew I'd have to have more unusual edibles growing here. 

I bought it from Jurassic plants and I dropped them an email to say it arrive in good condition (I believe in writing to praise as well as complain to companies - otherwise how do they know they're doing something right?) and they decide to send me a free tree, a Dawn Recdwood, which will go great in an area I'm planning to plant up with a few different conifers. This is a tree I would have got if I'd ordered through their website rather than eBay.

Superbly Packaged

I decided to have another look at what else they'd got for sale. I picked out the "Chinese Prickly Ash" or "Szechuan Pepper" it's more likely to be know as. This will produce seeds that can be used like traditional black pepper, so should be good for our self sufficient goals! Also on there (pointed out by Sandie's Patch) is a plant called a "Japanese Bitter Orange". Not a true citrus but it's meant to have a strong scent, a fruit you can make maralade with, and it is completely frost tolerant. Worth a shot!When they sent the plants they also sent me two more free trees! A couple of Chinese Crab Apples (different Latin name to our common ones so I'll be interested to see what they produce). I've potted all these trees up and they're growing really well, situated between my greenhouses. I just need to plan where to plant them in the future.I've been really impressed with Jurassic Plants and if you're interested in something a little different it might be worth having a look, plants come well packaged, good instructions and some plant food to keep them going and it's always nice to support a small nursery.

Edible Daylilies

In my quest to find and try more and more unusual edibles I decided to make the most of what we've got here on the homestead and make sure I know which plants are edible and which aren't 

Outside our front door we've got two large clumps of day lilies. They always put on a great display at this time of year although I have to keep them trimmed back otherwise they engulf the path and we can't get in! 

Turns out the best thing is they're edible! And they actually taste good! So far I've only eaten the pods raw and they taste like mange tout and are lovely and crisp.

Apparently they've been used in Asian cooking for hundreds of years and every bit of the plant is edible. The pods and the flowers are great in stir fries, the roots are nice roasted and the spent flowers are dried and used to thicken soups and stews. Even the young shoots are meant to taste amazing. 

It's a plant I want to experiment with more and try to use in our cooking a little bit. It's also one that looks amazing! 

Anyone have something growing in their yard or garden that they didn't know was edible?

A Lovely Fathers Day

My third Fathers Day of me being the father this year.

We spent it in a fairly relaxed way. Phoned my dad first thing then a bit of gardening in the morning, cut short by rain, so we then decided to continue to sort the mess that is the spare room, to inch us closer to the girls having a room each and kicking Melissa out of ours! 

What could be better than being woken up by these two trouble makers?

 We took a trip to Dunelm in the afternoon to buy blackout blinds and a few other bits before coming back where I was overcome with the urge to put up shelves. We have shelves in every place we can think of to increase our storage as much as possible. It's hard work though as the girls go a little mental every time I start the drill up and cling to their mum as if their lives depend on it! It doesn't make me very popular I'm sure.

A great gift from my girls

And after I've finished writing this I'm going to settle down with my father day gift and bookmark all the weird and wonderful fruit and veg I want to grow in the future. I think owning this book might be dangerous for me! 

I hope everyone else had a good fathers day where ever they are.