Mark Griffin

Hi Dan,
Of course, you should grow what you want to use and/or eat, but here are some of my thoughts:

Everyone in the southeast should have figs.  Trouble free and productive.

As noted, choose your apples carefully.  It's not just the heat, it's the fungal diseases, (cedar - apple rust, in particular, for me).  I hear good things about the newer varieties Enterprise and Liberty, as far as disease resistance, but I don't have first hand experience.

Being in the same family as apples (rosaceae), serviceberries are susceptible to some of the same fungal diseases.  I also don't care much for them, so while I have a couple, I give a lot more space to blueberries which are less troublesome and much more tasty.

A few other things to consider that could/should do well:
Teas, camellia sinensis for the caffeine and camellia oleifera for the oil.
Olives (olea europaea)
Prickly pear cactus

And in the likely event the kudzu returns, remember it is also an edible and useful plant.
https://www.eattheweeds.com/kudzu-pueraria-montana-var-lobata-fried-2/

I have used light weight row cover on my blueberries for the last few of years and it has worked well.  I think it is a matter of out sight, out of mind...

I only put the cover on just as the berries start to ripen and the birds begin to pick them off.  I've used a couple of different weights and lighter is better.  I haven't noticed any disease issues, but windy conditions have caused branches to break.

In my observations, pill bugs are much more interested in dead and decaying plant material.  When they have been a problem on seedlings, it has been because the seedlings are already weak and stressed for some other reason.  Make sure you are giving your seedlings the best conditions possible.  Of course, after a certain point there is no recovery and protection is the only course of action.

I don't know much about ghee, but as far as clarified butter, once the water is cooked off it can be considered clarified.  Continuing to cook past this stage begins to brown the solids and what you get might be referred to as brown butter or beurre noisette in French because of the flavor and color it begins to take on.  Not sure about any of the health claims above, so how much it is 'browned' is really about flavor preference.  Of course the solids can burn and you probably don't want that, so care has to be taken once the browning process begins. One of the big advantages of clarified butter/ghee is the high smoke point and that will remain the same after any amount of browning.

Salt should not affect this process, it will just separate out with the water/other solids.

maybe Prunus serotina - Eastern Black Cherry

Artichokes. Starting the variety 'Imperial Star' from seed.  It has supposedly been bred to produce in one season.  However, since I am in long suspected and newly official zone 8, they may just be perennial for me.  I've made a nice new bed for them in hopes that they will stick around more than one season.

If you are looking for old southern apple varieties, check out Century Farm Orchards in NC.  Owner is very knowledgeable and helpful.

https://www.centuryfarmorchards.com

Here's a video of a local (central North Carolina) extension agent planting potatoes in 'leaf mold.'  His leaf mold is pretty much all pine straw.  It looks like the leaf mold I have around, so I think I'll give it a try this year, too. Looking forward to seeing how it works out for others as well.

I also overwintered lettuce this year.  First time I have done this and it worked great.  I was definitely celebrating as I began harvesting some weekly beginning in January.  As usual, however, I overdid it and now there is no more celebration, just groans from the family as I try to feed them more lettuce.  The warm weather is beginning to send some of it to seed, so the pace of harvest has picked up and the eye rolls of the family are almost audible when they sit down to dinner!

I will probably overwinter lettuce again next year.  Just a lot less.  And then I can plant another round in early February, as usual, so there is a more manageable pace of harvest.

I am also currently watching second year asparagus plants send up sprouts.  Very cool.  There will definitely be a celebration next year when all that waiting and expectation pays off!

I just listened to this podcast with owner of Logee's Greenhouse, Byron Martin, that was mostly about growing citrus as a houseplant.  It wasn't super informative but he did have a few interesting tidbits.  I don't remember kumquats being mentioned but I think he did talk about some varieties that were naturally smaller.  It sounds like any variety can be kept small with pruning as he says citrus in general responds well even to heavy pruning.

https://awaytogarden.com/edible-houseplants-growing-citrus-with-logees-byron-martin/