Allen Ayers

An interesting thing to consider with butterfly weed is that, ironically, the leaves are significantly less desirable for monarchs to lay their eggs on than common or swamp milkweed. Monarchs will still utilize them if given no other options, but I think a nearby planting of common milkweed could be beneficial if you're interested in having them.

As someone who constantly battles an onslaught of kudzu encroaching from a neighbor's property I do not share this thread's optimism. While I'll happily take advantage of an invasive species that I come across (like the lovely chinese yam I found growing on my fence) I refuse to intentionally propagate an invasive species on my property; I'm quite a lazy gardener and all it takes is one growing season of negligence to create a problem that won't be easily gotten rid of.

Cara Campbell wrote:I don't know why they aren't using kudzu for its edible starch. Why does it seem all the kuzu powder comes from Japan? It seems a really stupid missed opportunity to get rid of the overgrowth and start an industry.

Kudzu roots are very deep, difficult to dig up, and almost always intertwines with rocks, not to mention that a lot of it has been repeatedly sprayed with herbicide for years. It's a lot of trouble for a product with very little demand that's more often than not contaminated.

I wish all of you doing this the best, and I hope you don't accidentally cause a localized ecological disaster.

Wild-type orange daylilies are my favorites, followed closely by chives and nodding onions.

Judielaine Bush wrote:Regrets to Allen Ayers for hijacking their post.

No worries! I've completely neglected this thread so I'm glad you were around to keep it alive. As for the bitterness issue, I've heard that some populations are more bitter than others and that changing the cooking liquid partway through lessens the bitterness, but I don't like the idea of tossing perfectly good bean broth and I can't remember where exactly I heard that so take it with a grain of salt.

The seeds I mentioned in the opening post were all devoured by groundhogs in the seedling stage, unfortunately. This spring, I got another packet from Experimental Farm Network, planted the 4 largest seeds on my parent's property, and guerilla planted some of the smaller seeds around my neighborhood. I've not checked on the guerilla planted seeds for several months, but the 4 on my parent's property are doing quite well despite the neglect I've heaped on them. Currently they're fighting for their lives against an onslaught of both invasive weeds and native wildflowers, putting out quite a few flowers in the process. Only one plant has proper seed pods at this point.

A few years ago I had the delightful experience of tasting a gooseberry for the first time, and I was hooked! While looking into how to grow them for myself, I discovered that a lot of domestic varieties prefer cooler summers than we get here because they're mostly derived from northern European Ribes species. Since I love to dabble in plant breeding, I've decided to try my hand at producing my own locally adapted varieties and maybe even try to cross them with with the local Eastern Prickly Gooseberries and Missouri Gooseberries. Does anyone here have any experience breeding gooseberries? I'd love to hear any tips you may have!

I'll second everything already said, with the addition that if you really want a stone fruit to thrive here and you don't mind tart skin then wild plums (Prunus americana) do better than domestic stone fruits! Mulberries also do great if you don't mind colorful bird poop on everything.

I'm afraid I don't know the specific mulberry cultivars, but I know there are specific varieties of non-fruiting trees that are used as landscape plants. The downside is you don't get free fruit, but apparently they grow more vigorously than fruiting cultivars since they don't focus on flower and fruit production!

NFT: No Freaking Thanks

You could try rabbit confit! You slow-cook the rabbit in olive oil (or any other fat!) until it's tender and succulent, then broil until it's crispy on the outside. I've used this recipe in the past, although I cheated and used a crock pot instead of a dutch oven because I'm lazy. https://elevatedwild.com/elevatedwildblog/crispy-rabbit-confit-recipe

Additionally, the MeatEater website is geared towards hunters and anglers, but they have plenty of recipes that work just as well with farmed rabbit as they do with wild ones. https://www.themeateater.com/recipes?ingredients=rabbit

An interesting little plant that I've been considering growing for a while is this handsome fellow, the thicket bean. A wild cousin of the much more well-known lima bean, thicket beans make seeds that are slightly bigger than a lentil and are known to have relatively low yields. On top of that, the beans are extremely attractive to weevils, to the point that in places with high weevil populations it can be difficult to get any harvest from them. Why would anyone grow them, you may ask?

Despite these drawbacks, thicket beans have a lot of interesting characteristics going for them! They're among the most frost-hardy of the Phaseolus beans, growing natively all over the eastern US and some parts of southern Canada as herbaceous perennials; they're extremely disease resistant, particularly against white mold; and (in my estimation) they have a lot of potential to be bred for yield and bean size. Certain populations of wild beans show evidence of being selected for non-shattering pods, so apparently someone at some point agreed with me! They can also allegedly be hybridized with lima beans, which makes the goal of breeding a productive and hardy perennial Phaseolus even more feasible.

I've recently gotten a packet of seeds from Experimental Farm Network, and am planning on evaluating them to see which ones have the most desirable traits. Is anyone else currently growing them, or has grown them in the past? I'd love to hear about your experiences with them!