M Ljin

I read somewhere that the original latkes may have been fried cheese until they moved into the more northerly parts of Europe, where olive oil was scarce and lard was more common. Since there is a Jewish rule not to mix meat and dairy, the cheese was abandoned for cakes made from root vegetables. I also add some grated cheese at time to my latkes, and do make fried cheese as well (although usually it has enough fat to fry itself and then some, in the case of a hard cheese).

The two top ones are either apples or a close relative. The bottom pictures show black walnuts.

The southern coast of Alaska is rainforest land, so quite a few plants grow, with zones 4, 5, 6—so would be similar to the Midwest in terms of minimum temperatures. Even up in the tundra, I’m guessing there are cloudberries, crowberries and others.

Alaska hardiness zones: https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/planting-zones/alaska-planting-zones.htm

Airports, probably because locations are so remote and things get transported more by air.

It also is possible to dry wet wood by placing it near an appropriate stove to drive the moisture out: https://permies.com/w/green-wood-heat

I’ve been harvesting some early potatoes and thought I’d post my latke recipe. I take one potato and chop it finely, then another few and grate them into a bowl with the finely chopped one. Then I add grated onion until it’s about 1/3 of the mixture. I add salt and spices and one egg and mix it all together thoroughly. The size of the potatoes is variable so it is all eyeballed and determined by the individual taste of how eggy one likes one’s pancakes. For a gigantic batch two or more eggs may be called for.  

Then I heat a pan to a medium heat and with enough oil to pan fry them. It takes a little while and is important as with eggs to allow the bottom to cook until it no longer sticks to the pan before flipping.

I had some peach pits sitting in a jar of soil and they haven’t germinated. I am trying cracking the pits, taking out the kernel, and soaking in cold refrigerated water for maybe a week. This technique worked very well for some out-of-season medicinal herb seeds so why not try fruit trees? Supposed to get the germination inhibitors out more easily.

Also protecting from rodents and excessive freezing is important.

My plums are all direct seeded as well. It does seem like they need some freezing or perhaps leeching to want to germinate. Most of the seeds I planted did not grow.

Glad you are safe!

I just took some pictures this morning. These were from 9:00:

Hard necked garlic would have given you scapes by now. Soft necked would still be leafy without a defined stem.