Sonny Root

Bill Callahan - Sycamore live

I'll never be as lazy as the person who named the fireplace.

People who take care of chickens are literally chicken tenders.

When life gives you melons, you might be dyslexic.

Around here I always try to get mine in the ground 3 weeks before the ground freezes. Of course it's just a guess as to when that will happen. Usually it's around now until the end of October when I get it in the ground.

Last year I had read on some garlic selling site that said it's advantageous to "plant early". I was ready so I planted around the first week of October. Then it got hot again and the greens started popping out of the ground. Oh well, let's see what happens.

I still harvested plenty of garlic but the bulbs seemed to have one or two fewer cloves per bulb. They are mostly large cloves though.

This year I would have planted this week had it not been for a bought of bronchitis that has knocked me back for at least a week and stolen one of the nicest and most productive weeks of the year. It's hot again now. No Telling how long it will last. i still need to prepare new spots to plant it. I suspect it will go in "late" this year. Oh well, Let's see what happens!

Christopher Weeks wrote:I've had a thing happen to me over the last year or so. I think I've developed a food-aversion to cooked sunchokes. Just the idea of eating them as the primary thing in a stew or mash is triggering my gag reflex. But pulling them out of the ground, washing them off, and eating them raw is delicious. I wonder if anyone else has ever faced this and whether there's anything I can do about it.

I just tried them cooked for the first time. I oven roasted them with a load of carrot, potato, and a couple of peppers. They were acceptable but my least favorite in the mix. It was the overly mushy texture I didn't care much for. I think next cooking I will try 50/50 mashed potato/sunroots with lots of roasted garlic. I'll try chips too but that is lots of work for winter time.

My favorite has been sliced raw into a container of water and kept in the fridge for snack as needed.

I will be starting some to ferment as soon as I get around to it.

Someone out there must have some better ways for cooking them.

I have never pressure steamed eggs before. I have only boiled them.

I have had this happen in the past. I also wondered why. It sounded like it is was usually due to too fast of a temperature change, too hot or fast or too long of a boil. Or possibly one of the eggs already had a small crack that was not noticed.

I don't believe I've had it happen since I've adopted the boil for a minute, cover, turn off and wait 12 minutes method.

Wow, those really are beautiful striped ones!

I found one place that said they may or may not float. This was based on viability for seed. They also said that they are prone to drying out and becoming non-viable as seed. I don't want to link because it looks like a generic ai generated thing site.

I will grab some more when I get a chance and try them freshly fallen. I also may not have let them float long enough.

*edited to add that by 10/13/26 I had not made it back to the tree in time before they had all fallen and the chippers stashed them away or they had been eaten by other wildlife. It's been the driest year I've ever seen so they need them more than I.

OK so I figured I should try it out while thinking about it...

None of them sank. I wonder if they need to be fresh. Maybe the float test is a myth with acorns? These have been air drying for a week or so.

They can't all be bad though. So I opened one up and it is perfect oak meat wise.

I guess I will continue collecting fresh fallen ones and wait for any weevils to emerge while they dry out.

One thing I have not seen mentioned is the float test. Intact "good" ones supposedly sink and any with weevils or other problems should float.

I have not tried this yet but have a small amount of northern pin oak acorns drying out back waiting for me to get to it. Weevil larva have been emerging from some leaving a perfectly round small hole. I've been putting the larva outside for the birds. Neat!