Peppers in Season

Rains, 2 inches or more each week, have been hard on the peppers. Just 2 nights ago we received more than 3 inches overnight. Several of the peppers have nearly lost all of their leaves. The bell peppers and a few of the hot peppers are producing, but not a bit happy with the moisture.

The hotter varieties prefer soil on the well-drained, dry side, with weekly watering. Ours are mulched with straw, in raised beds, the method that works well each year for us. But not with constant raining. The Jamaican Scotch Bonnet (shown as the little yellow turban-shaped at the left) is a plant I over wintered with good success and it is producing small amounts of it's fruity tasting, pretty hot peppers and is less affected by the humidity and rains than some of the others.

The bhut jalokia I have written about before is doing well but not yet ready to flower, nor is the somewhat rare white habanero. Friends asked me recently, just why it is that people eat hot peppers. They were from "up north," meaning north of Missouri, and said they just do not understand why people want to suffer pain by eating peppers.

Here's what a professional chef on www.gigachef.com says about it:
"In essence, when we eat a pepper containing capsaicin, we are eating that plant's deterrent against being eaten; hence the irritating sensations it produces when we eat or even touch it. Pretty ironic that the reason we eat something is for its natural defenses against being eaten in the first place.

Psychologist Paul Rozin sites this phenomenon as an example of “constrained risk,” something that makes our body respond with warning signals, which we ignore and enjoy, much like riding a roller coaster. It is asserted by many that prolonged stimulation from capsaicin releases B-endorphins from the brain to impede and reduce pain. It is based on this idea that capsaicin has been used as a medication to aid in the alleviation of many chronic disorders, such as rheumatoid arthritis, and viral and diabetic nerve damage. However, much like a chili-eater's tolerance increases with the frequency of his or her use, extended use of this chemical leads to desensitization, and therefore a higher dose is needed to be effective."

In other words, it's a pain-pleasure sensation that become addictive, in the same way eating your favorite flavor of ice cream is addictive. (I like candied jalapeno peppers over my ice cream, combining the best of both addictions).



Above are Vietnamese fish peppers I'm growing, hot little peppers that are used when cooking seafood dishes. Even if you don't eat these, they are highly decorative with their variegated foliage and variegated peppers, too.

Fairy Hats, Fairy Corners

There's a long standing tradition in the Ozarks for leaving a fairy corner in the garden. Tradition has it that fairies come out at night, especially in the moonlight, and tend the garden plants. They give lessons to the lady bugs on how to keep the aphids off the tomatoes; they teach the praying mantises how to protect the squash and beans from marauding pests.

It's the fairies who fluff up the tassels on the corn after a pounding rain and it's the same wee ones who are responsible for chasing the lightning bugs into the air to light the garden in the early evening.

Fairies, I am told, need a place that is safe to hid in the daytime, a place that is never disturbed year in and year out. It's the constant tilling, mulching, weed-eating and Round-Upping of the soil that is the reason people seldom see fairies any more. But in gardens that provide a place, they are still around.

I asked my grandfather, when I was about 5, why there was a corner of his garden where he didn't grow regular garden plants. He kind of blushed and said, "Oh, it's too hard to get the plow into that part." And that's all he would tell me.

Much later, as an adult, I noticed that gardens of older people in the Ozarks, all had this same quality. It is the corner where the hollyhocks grow, where the poppies and bachelor's buttons come up every year. Four o'clocks bloom there as do larkspur, the decorative alliums and in some people's gardens, foxglove.

I began asking people who had these untilled corners, just what they were and was told by several sources, "It's a fairy corner, don't you know?" The tradition has come down to us today from English folklore, and it was a customary thing in English gardens of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Last week I had a group of garden club ladies from Kimberling City, MO visiting. I was giving a tour of the garden which went past the culinary herbs, over to the myoga ginger, horseradish and on to the edible leaf hibiscus. I began to tell the ladies the story of the fairy garden, and pointing to the giant allium flower heads, said, "And here's the proof. Some of the fairies last night left their hats on top of the allium flowers."

But to my amazement, the little hats I had seen earlier, were gone. I stopped in the story and said I was surprised to see the hats had disappeared. Then one of the ladies spoke up and said, "Oh, I guess it's my fault. I saw those little tufts and thought they looked messy and I pulled them all off. Should I have not done that?

I thought it very presumptuous of her to have tidied up my garden flowers, which very well ruined my proof of the fairies existence and the reason for having a fairy corner at all. I had meant to photograph the hats earlier and decided I'd wait until the garden club was over with. So after they left, I took a couple of photos of the only fairy hats left in the garden, some old discarded and worn out hats, but this is what will have to do.

And whether you believe in the old English custom of leaving a fairy corner, the more practical purpose is to have a place where the beneficial insects hide out. The mantis' lay their eggs for next year; ladybugs winter over and have a sanctuary in the daytime when they aren't doing their work. And who knows, leave a place for them, and the fairies are likely to come to your garden to help out, too!

Papalo

Adam, our summer WWOOFer and great garden helper has been exploring the usefulness of papalo, also known as "buzzard's breath." Used like cilantro in Bolivia, where mine came from, and in southern Mexico, it's easy to see (or smell) why it got dubbed buzzard's breath. Just getting near the plant you'll get a whiff of something akin to aluminum with lemony overtones with some rue and other smells thrown in. It's not an easy plant to love and Adam has been concocting recipes to find new ways to use it.

Papalo, also known as Papaloquelite (Porophyllum ruderale or Porophyllum ruderale spp macrocephalum) is used fresh somewhat like cilantro. The friend who brought seed to me a few years back also brought along pepper seed and said the indigenous people he met used the two plants together to make a kind of sauce or salsa they said had been in use since the time of the Aztecs.

Papalo is also commonly eaten raw on cemitas - also known as a cemita poblana, which is a Mexican sandwich and street food that originated in the city of Puebla. Papalo is also sometimes found in guacamole and in Mexico it is used fresh in soups and stews. In Bolivia native Quechua people call it Killi and eat it daily just torn up onto foods.

Papalo Salsa (recipe is from freshcutherbs.com and Herbalpedia)
2 roasted and seeded chopped chilies
2 roasted and seeded sweet green peppers, diced
3 small green tomatoes, diced
4 roasted garlic cloves
6 papalo leaves
½ tsp lemon juice
1 tsp vegetable oil
salt
2 spoonfuls of minced onion
Combine all the ingredients in a food processor and let sit in refrigerator for at least 1 hour before serving.

I was pleased to find the plant in the markets in Mexico last winter when I visited Acapulco and noticed it is sold is as young, pulled seedlings instead of leaf prunings as you would basil or rosemary. It definitely has better flavor than when you let it get chest high. We've been pruning ours back and using only the newest growth.

Our WWOOFer couple from Des Moines who were here for a week 10 days ago let us know they'd had storms and trees down when they got home. Jeff, who worked hard fixing up the raised beds while he was here and went home and cut up the fallen trees to the point of exhaustion, suffered a heart attack and was in the hospital last week. We wish them well and enjoyed their company while they were here with us in the garden.

Curry Tree

Curry Tree

If you are looking for the authentic curry tree like those used in Indian and Thai cooking, this is the real thing. (If you've bought the "curry plant" (Helichrysum italicum) and were disappointed, you're not alone. That plant, which looks a tiny bit like lavender, isn't really edible. It does have a curry fragrance, but a bitter flavor and other than being a novelty, is useless in the kitchen.

Curry seasoning, which the "curry plant" smells vaguely like, is an invention of the British when they occupied India. They were attempting to imitate the curry flavor found at streetside food vendors. Real curry is made from the leaves of the curry tree (Murraya koenigii). When I was in India I observed how this plant is used. The leaves are pungent and strong, but when 1 or 2 leaves are dropped into hot oil, the flavors are released. Then onions and garlic are added to the oil and browned, then additional ingredients are added, blending together and making the curry.

If you have been looking for the real curry tree, visit my website and click the link, "Looking for Plants?" which will give you some sources. The plant is easy to grow indoors and I keep mine outside in a partially shaded area during the summer. This one on the right is about 20 years old or more and is flowering this summer.

New Goats

One of our does gave birth yesterday. What a surprise, she didn't look pregnant. The kid was up on wobbly legs in just a couple of hours and nursing. Today she is getting a bit more inquisitive and is nibbling at the other goats and getting to know the world around her.

The alliums and garlic are in full bloom. The alliums in the fairy corner of the garden still have their fairy hats. The fairies tend the plants at night and sometimes they're so tired they forget to take their hats with them and they stay all day on top of the decorative onions. Last week we had a garden club visiting and one of the ladies thought she was doing us a favor by removing all of the hats from the onion blossoms. When she heard my story about the fairies she apologized.

Fairy corners, in case you don't know, is an old Ozarks tradition. A corner of the garden is left unplowed for the fairies. It's the spot where the hollyhocks, bachelor's buttons, poppies, four o'clocks and the like, grow. My grandfather observed this custom but would never talk to me about it. When I moved to the Ozarks I learned it was a common custom and it comes from English folklore.

Our Mexican butterfly weed is blooming and attracting lots of butterflies. It's a stunningly beautiful plant with colors so vivid it looks like it's been painted.

Adam dug the shallots and onions this week and dug what little potato crop there was. My experiment of leaving them in the ground (I didn't feel up to digging them last fall before surgery) wasn't very successful. Replanting at the right time, February, is a much better choice. But in place of the potatoes we've planted a row of some new variety of ground cherries, some purple royalty beans and a few hills of Thai cucumbers. And we picked our 3rd and 4th ripe tomatoes today.

Stevia, Sweetener of the Future

Lots of us gardeners who like to grow herbs know the plant, stevia, the extremely sweet leafed herb that is native to Paraguay. Just one little leaf is as sweet as a teaspoon of sugar, but has no calories. People who want a sweetener without calories, or people with diabetes, use stevia instead of sugar. It works best if added after the cooking process rather than adding it before cooking. I grow one or two stevia plants in my herb garden each year and I offer the dried, powdered herb for sale through my business.

This week, The Coca Cola Company and Cargill jointly announced a new stevia extract. The brand name is Truvia (tru-VEE-a) and it will be showing up in a multitude of products made by those companies.

An article on the FDA’s website describes stevia’s unusual status as a dietary supplement, but not as a food additive. “Stevia is derived from a South American shrub,” the article says. “Though it can impart a sweet taste to foods, it cannot be sold as a sweetener because the FDA considers it an unapproved food additive.”

There have been rumors for years that the sugar industry’s lobbyists have successfully petitioned the FDA against stevia being approved as a sweetener. There is a good deal of information on stevia being treated much like an illegal drug before the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA). Stevia cannot be labeled a “sweetener” or even referred to as “sweet,” according to the FDA website (more information can be found at www.stevia.net) What is definite at present is Cargill and Coca-Cola are moving ahead with the release of Truvia extract, made from the stevia plant, and labeling it as a dietary supplement instead of a food additive, which keeps it in the legal status for the FDA.

The announcement is significant because this stevia extract has the possibility of replacing other artificial sweeteners now on the market. And all of this from a sweet little plant you can grow in your own garden.

Stevia is pretty easy to find if you intend to grow it yourself. I’ve seen it at every plant festival I’ve attended this year including the annual Herbal Affair at Sand Springs, OK, at the Spring Gardenfest at Baker Creek Seed near Mansfield, MO and several farmer’s markets and swap meets. Ten years ago stevia plants were difficult to find but not any more. You can order it by mail (just click on the “Looking for Plants?” button on my website for sources www.LongCreekHerbs.com) or at any nursery selling herbs. Spring Fever Greenhouses in Rogersville, MO has it, as does Perennials, Etc. at Garfield, AR.

The plant is grown here as an annual even though it supposedly will grow into a small shrub in more tropical areas. In my garden is reaches about 15 inches tall and can be harvested throughout the warm months. It can be overwintered but I simply buy new plants in the spring when I buy my other annual herbs.

To grow stevia, plant it in average garden soil in full sun. The herb will grow anywhere basil or tomatoes grow. You might want to plant several plants if you are going to harvest it to dry for use later. Just like basil or any other herb, the more you harvest it, the more leaves and better flavor it’s going to produce.

Several readers responded to the previous column and emailed me asking where they could find yellow plastic drinking glasses to make into sticky traps. Wal-Mart usually carries yellow as do the party stores and often the Dollar Store has them. Tanglefoot is available at nurseries, garden centers and most area hardware stores.

No, these fellows aren't my cousins. They're part of the Presley Family musicians in Branson. But don't they look like they could use a glass of iced tea with some stevia in it?

It's Growing

We've had 3 inches of rain in the past 24 hours in already soggy ground. But the transplants are happy and the sun's out and stuff's finally growing. Adam, our resident WWOOFer, has been on the roof today, sketching the garden in preparation for making a map of the beds. The next stage will be to number the beds (again; I'd done this some years back for the Hungarian exchange students), then he'll start on the index of plants.

He and I visited the Fort des Chartres annual Rendezvous over the weekend and checked out the 1740s garden as well as displays of native plants used as food.

I met one of the vendors, Cynthia Kay Deardorff of Theakiki River Traders, who was selling Native American heirloom seeds. I bought Seneca bear beans (beans to cook with bear, of course), and some beautiful Potawatomi lima beans. If you are interested in knowing more about the beans, email Cynthia at cindy@kaspc.com.

We drove back by way of the Great River Road and crossed back into Missouri from Illinois, taking the scenic route across the springs areas of the Ozarks (Big Spring, Mammoth Spring, Alley Spring, all in a region that is rich with native plants, echinacea and others.
We stopped at Chester, IL and visited the memorial to Elzie Segar, creator of Popeye. Gotta do those tourist things!