more acorns

Yesterday I planted out the sweetspire, on the larger slope. And trimmed berries off the nandina. Mixed firepit ash into the vermicompost and spread on both front and back lawns (most of it on the front, as I think the back lawn gets nutrients that wash downslope out of the garden beds). 

Sorted this pile of acorns out of the baskets, that were starting to split

and got this much good stuff out of them

Today even more looked ready- hard to tell in the photo, but the plate was heaped a lot higher.

I didn't take a photo of the ones that had exposed nutmeats, putting them directly into the freezer once I had half a dozen open- but here's all the ones that got shelled and still had skins on- left those for the end, as they wouldn't start to go bad as quickly.

It still felt like more than half were rotten inside or eaten by the grubs (they're not really acorn worms, though I've been calling them that. They're the grubs of the acorn weevil. Acorn worm is a different species entirely that lives in the ocean, named after the shape of its head I think). 

But felt satisfying that after splitting all those in the last picture, and putting the good ones in the freezer, to find I've now filled a quart bag completely.

And I'm down to two baskets of acorns, to continue shelling and splitting as they dry out.

fall flowers

My wild chrysanthemum is so pretty

I really need more of this in other places in my yard. And I think I can do so easily- I had cut a few stems that were growing out of the space just few weeks ago, stuck them in a new spot, and didn't expect much. But look- not only did they survive, they're blooming too!

The standard mums in the front are full of flowers. Even though I only pinched once, they are bushy enough and not flopping over this year. So increase sun is a plus. I only have two left now- this pinkish purple

and the salmon colored one

My black-and-blue salvia is reblooming, after I did all that trimming. Not as much as in full summer, but plenty to enjoy looking at, and I hope the hummingbird appreciated it too. Haven't seen it at the cardinal climber in the past few days, I'm assuming it's gone on migration now.

planted stuff

I put my new rosemary in the ground. In the corner of the garden. By the rue- so you can see it's really still quite small, considering the final size it might get- but four or five times larger than any rosemary plant I've had in the past!

I trimmed those droopy tips a bit too, to reduce the transplant shock.

Also planted out- on the backyard slope that I want eventually to have no grass- the shining sumac. So small from the house I can't even see it!

The iris are likewise nearly invisible-

And the two shrubby St. John's wort. Near the other ones. Now I suppose that my larger St. John's wort (the first one I planted) might also be a 'shrubby' one, and the one with very small leaves, another variety? I didn't realize before there's different types, though I ought to have guessed.

And indoors, I took all the crypt balansae out of the vase and planted them into the aquarium. They're down the center. Hard to get on camera though. Here's a side shot

and one with the fish in it. He's not quite as bright as before. Maybe the excitement of loosing his tankmates has evaporated. Or he doesn't like the change in weather (colder now). He still brightens up when I feed him a worm or fly, but then darts away from the camera, of course.

acorn processing

There's definitely fewer to pick up now. Either the tree is almost done dropping them, or the squirrels have wised up to the competition and are getting out there ahead of me each morning. Collected from the yard day before yesterday:

and today. (Still plenty of pin oak acorns, which I toss out in the woods).

I got a bunch of baskets to have good airflow and contain them for drying out- nobody likes the sound of me sifting through them on the wooden floor. But it's nice to run my hands through them in the baskets- looking for worm holes, pinching off sprouts, feeling for loosening shells as they dry.

Today going through the baskets I pulled out a bunch that were starting to split.

Watched a youtube video called "Acorns and Eat 'Em". By a lady who said she was considered the expert on processing and using acorns. Funny to me that she said "you gotta whack 'em" cracking hers open by hitting with a stone. Mine, I can just roll and press in my hand and the shell starts to separate.

I've read that you don't have to remove the skins, as these are lighterweight than the nutmeats, and will float off after grinding, when you soak them. But I pulled most of them at least halfway off, to check for bad spots. Quite a few had rot couldn't see unless I at least split them in half. Here's all the nutmeats I got:

And all the bad ones. This includes discarded acorns with wormholes, or rot that I could see before opened the shell. Only two were green. Seems like more than half are gonna be bad. Is it worth the effort then, I don't quite know yet . . .

acorns

Bumper crop in the yard- it must be a mast year. I noticed there's tons of big fat white oak acorns falling, I can actually hear them thump onto the ground if I'm outside. Don't know if I never noticed them before, or if this year the tree really is producing more than usual. And it's smaller and scrawnier than the big straight pin oak. Perhaps because the leaf mulch pile was near base of the white oak this past season, it had more nutrients to put into growing nuts? well, I decided to collect them 

Mainly because I don't want to encourage the deer and squirrels into my yard anymore than they already are. Plus the tannins inhibit growth of the lawn and other plants under the trees. I am picking up all the broken ones, empty shells and separated acorn caps too, because they roll and crunch under my feet the same way, making me stoop and reach for a nut that isn't there. Easiest way to find them (even though I cut the grass down to an inch, they're still fairly hidden) is by walking back and forth gently scuffing my feet on the ground. Or sit and rake my fingers through the grass in a wide circle around me. (I must look like a fool to the neighbors). Here's what I got on the first day (a lot with a rake, after raking up the leaves)

After cleaning them up- sorting out the bad ones, and putting the small ones from the pin oak in a separate container

discards-

After a day of going through them and reading up, I decided to just toss all the pin acorns. Most of them seem to have worm holes, and they're smaller so maybe not worth all the prep work of prepping to eat, and they're supposedly more bitter. I fill my pockets with them for a walk and scatter in the woods- the deer and squirrels can eat them there.

The worms. I was right about more of them being in the pin acorns. Since I removed those, I find far fewer grubs squirming across the floor.

And then what? Well, I'm curious to try and eat them, leached and cooked into something of course. It is a lot of steps, but not as much actual physical hard work as cracking and extracting the hickory nuts was. I wait for the shells to start cracking when they dry, and open 'em up by hand. Then put in the freezer until I have enough to grind, this is just the first part of the process. So far, not encouraging. About half of the ones I've opened, are partly rotted or moldy inside. (These few were good)

So it might take a lot of collecting to get enough to actually use. All this was actually earlier in the week. Since then I've gone out to pick up acorns in the yard for just an hour once every day or so- hoping if I get them right after falling they won't have absorbed as much moisture from the ground? Collected on day two from my yard 

and these from the pin oak

Day three collected- still a good amount- I'm guessing they'll keep coming down for weeks.

But if it turns out that over half are bad (see the three with worm holes upper left of pic) and I don't get much acorn meal to use, 

next year I'll just pick them up to relocate in the woods for the wildlife.

plant swap!

I made this bench on the front porch (some of the legs a bit wonky, it's not nearly as sturdy as I'd like, but it does the job of holding up whatever I need to set down for a moment)

and here it is with plants ready to go to the swap. I took two rue, four pots of echinacea, the mini geranium, some coleus, three potted catnip, and some aloe vera babies. But nobody wanted the catnip, I had to bring it home again. And I'd had it identified wrong all this time- I thought I was growing catmint, but it's catnip- no wonder it seemed too tall, and the flowers not-quite-right. I was corrected at the swap.

and what I brought home! Here's some, plus more pics below of individual detail- the one lower front left is buttonweed. Not even sure I'll plant that one now, having discovered it's considered a difficult-to-control lawn weed . . . 

The rest I'm pretty happy about. I got slender mountain mint-

'Shrubby' St. john's wort- Hypericum prolificum-

Elephantopus carolinianus or Elephant's foot (referring to the root) makes small purple flowers, in the aster family. Seemed interesting!

A sedum that looks different from the ones I already have-

Virginia sweetspire

Also a small rosemary plant, two New England aster (yes, trying that again even though every time they disappear. I think get eaten) and a wild bergamot (monarda, or bee balm) why do plants have so many names for the same thing. And- shining sumac! I have wanted a sumac for many years, although I was hoping to eventually find a stahorn sumac, this will do for starters.

American beautyberry!! Very excited about this one.

and a good-sized rosemary that someone had obviously just pulled out of the ground, so maybe I'll have one that gets through the winter at last. It's as tall as my hip.

Plus a few little houseplants- two little succulents, Haworthia and a dwarf snake plant, plus this one with purplish tint that wasn't labeled- it looks like another begonia variety to me, but I'm probably wrong on that.

and three bags of iris bulbs- 'Black Gamecock' Louisiana Iris, 'Pallida' and 'Victoria Falls' both a tall bearded iris. I've never grown iris before but I have a damp area I think they'd do well in.

time to joyfully plant stuff