greg mosser

crush and sniff some! my first guess is no. i think i’ve got some of that around that is utterly flavorless.

hi joe, where in the world are you? that will help narrow it down.

there is so much variation in ‘true’ teas that i wouldn’t have a problem referring to a tea made from this plant as ‘tea’, especially if some of normal processes of wilting and rolling or especially letting the enzymatic oxidation that makes tea ‘black’ happens…i make some non-sinensis tea from related species.

leaving heads behind is weird! brain is one of the most calorie-dense parts of the body. every time i’ve had raccoon predation problems, the heads are the first to go.

yep, definitely a camellia. most likely to be either C. japonica or C. sasanqua. it’s been suggested to me that any camellia can be made into tea, though ac’s info is definitely worth considering!

on a real thick-leaved camellia like this it would basically have to be done on the shoots before the leaves differentiate much. C. sinensis has leaves that are much more thin and easy to manipulate for the various ways of processing.

agreed, it’s an umbellifer. lovage does indeed have larger leaflets that look very like celery, and yes it tastes like extra-strong celery. seems not-quite-parsley enough to be chervil…

the case would be fine on a pruned branch, too! i’ve propped pruned bits with mantis cases back up in the tree a few times. they’ll hatch anyway!

pretty sure it’s a praying mantis egg case from last year. as in, hatched out already last year.

freshly laid mantis egg cases are much smoother on the outer edges, ‘cause it’s basically extruded foam.

yep. vinyl, cassettes, cds, and also streaming. lots of full albums and sometimes individual songs or playlists. not going to try to list artists or even genres as we are a musical polyglot family and there are just too many ways to go…but options include afrobeat, sludge metal, folk, soul, and homemade experimental stuff, just for a taste.

winter/early spring pruning definitely encourages new growth - but you can counteract that by following up with some thinning during a june prune, which does the opposite. you probably do want more airflow in that tree.