My 30' maple died last fall, drought I think.
All willows in the neighborhood = fail. Ten years max.
The fruitless mulberry in back is a monster like 50' high and 80'wide
The silver (I think) ash in front has just been a perfect tree, steadily and symmetrically growing for thirty years, low maintenance, good shade. Just since Sunday has lost its red and yellow leaves. Gorgeous tree.
If your site is wet, plane trees or sycamores are hardy and water-loving, will not send roots into your pipes. Maples are fast-growing but shed a lot of debris, so contraindicated for clean-yard lovers.
Not mulberry--the berries are a mess. Not gingko--it stinks.
Basically we should get drought-hardy trees, since that seems to be the forecast for Texas. We do live on a river, though, so our soil is probably slightly damper, but I don't know how far that extends.
Our backyard had giant cracks running through it, like the rest of the state, over the summer. It was weird.
Also, all our pipes are above ground, since we're pier and beam, so no concern there.
Only female gingkos have the smelly seed pods. Males are fine.
Basically we should get drought-hardy trees
Do cacti count as trees for the purposes of the regulation?
Get trees that are native to the area. That way they'll be habitat for local bugs and critters and stuff. Don't bring in foreign trees and contribute to the corruption of our precious bodily fluids homogenization and habitat destruction.
All I know about dry land trees I learned walking around during vacation in NM, so not much. Juniper would in principle let you make your own gin, and pinon nuts are a source of protein. I like the way the trees look, but they're not tidy.
"Along the 10,000 miles of rivers and streams in Texas there are many very large pecan trees which are living testimony of their tremendous survival potential. These trees have made it through extreme droughts such as the early 1950s where little or no rain occurred for four straight years, yet the pecan survived when other species of large trees died. The pecan is uniquely adapted to the hot, dry, windy Texas climate because it can tolerate stress."
PECAN TREE. the pecans right fresh from your tree are almost as to regular pecans as canned peaches are to peaches. FOR REAL.
We do have a couple pecan trees, including one big one, in our front yard. We could certainly do more of those.
They don't change color or strike me as particularly pretty, though.
(We'll definitely do something native to the area. I'm not really taking ideas from other geographic areas so much as that I just like talking about different kinds of trees, from wherever.)
pecans right fresh from your tree
Almost enough to make one believe in intelligent design.
including one big one
Oh, then you are probably loaded for bear with pecans already. Well.
After we get a chance to rip out the hideous, overgrown yews in front of our house, I plan to plant a tree peony, but that probably doesn't count for you. And now that I've googled how poisonous yews are, holy fuck do I need to get them out now. We've been the luckiest family with a kid with pica ever, I think. Yeesh.
I should maybe plant something that's specific to our location but I'd also like something that would have been in fashion about 1903, when the house was built.
Actually, I haven't eaten one yet. They've just been falling all over the place. I had been thinking I'd have to roast them or something, but now I'm reading that you really don't.
PECAN TREE. the pecans right fresh from your tree are almost as to regular pecans as canned peaches are to peaches. FOR REAL.
That's why there's such low margins in the pecan business - after you get them off the tree you have to get them out of the syrup, stick the halves back together ...
Googling suggests that you can get a plum tree native to the area. Plums are good. Really, for trees on a smallish lot, I'd lean toward something that pulls its weight by producing fruit.
OTOH, if you found something that would get tall fast, and put it in the right place, you could shade the house and save on air conditioning.
I've never lived with a fruit tree. I couldn't stand the hackberry outside my apartment, because the garbanzo-looking things fell everywhere and got old and mushy. Does the fruit turn into a nasty mess on the ground that would annoy me?
Yes, unless you gather it and eat it. If you're not going to do that, don't get a fruit tree.
Maybe I'm just greedier than most. The idea of something that's a tree, but once a year there's lots of food hanging on it like Christmas ornaments, delights me unspeakably. I tried to talk my parents into getting a cherry tree for their summer place, but didn't supervise them on the shopping trip and the nimrods came home with a non-fruiting ornamental.
Eating a pecan fresh from the tree is an experience so overwhelming you can't imagine it unless you've experienced it.
If you're not going with a native plant you should most definitely get something that produces fruit or nuts. But I bet there are native trees that produce fruit - twofer in the hippie cred department, right there.
(I recognize that this is a city-people reaction, and fruit/nut trees really aren't magic.)
23: This is killing me. I love pecans, and had no idea that freshness mattered.
My parents have a crabapple tree in the front yard that is perfect to climb in. I feel that this is as good a quality in a tree as fruit or shade. Climbing trees is fun.
I was going to vote pecan as well -- we had big old pecan trees when I lived in Texas, and they were great. As trees, as well and for the nuts. Mesquite has those great thorns, and many uses, if you have the patience to saw through it.
For nearly 20 years in DC, I wanted a larix occidentalis in my yard, but no one would sell me one. So I had to move.
Hmm. I find really big leaves pretty, or pine needles, and things that turn colors in the fall. Or certain kinds of bark. There are certain trees that make me heave a big contented sigh when I see them.
Pecan trees are wonderful, but take 10-20 years to start producing.
Hackberries are basically big, noxious, invasive weeds which you should get rid of when they're small.
I personally recommend citrus trees. We get meyer lemons from our very young tree. I also want to plant a lime tree.
Magnolias are awesome but not very drought-hardy.
And now I'm going to send M/tch over to this thread instead of just passing on what I've learned from him.
(M/tch, what's that pretty tree in the MR front yard?)
23 - I have no idea if that is true. I'm just riffing on the parenthood thing.
Also, vaguely related - a friend of mine when he was a kid had some very nice pecan pie at his very proper auntie's place, but being little bolloxed the name and asked "Can I have some more of the penis cake?"
Cedar trees are native to your area and evergreen. On the other hand they're allergenic and appear to kill other trees that are too near them. But it's a thought.
Really do think about something tall enough and placed to shade the house -- in a hot sunny climate, a little shade is huge.
We had a couple of peach trees too, in Fort Worth. The peaches were great, but the trees were small and ugly.
As someone who got lots of fallen pecans from around town as a kid, they are good, but not hugely different from store-bought. (Admittedly my tastebuds are not the most sensitive.)
I'd love a shade tree, but the back yard doesn't seem big enough to get something to grow tall enough for the house. Maybe that's because I'm picturing Live Oaks, though, which aren't tall and shady.
We had a couple of peach trees too, in Fort Worth.
If M/tch attends the thread, he could talk about the myth of Texas peaches, which is entertaining.
heebie, check out the native tree guide & other info at TreeFolks. It has lots of good info about how quickly trees grow, how big they get, etc.
Cedar trees are native to your area and evergreen. On the other hand they're allergenic
Incredibly so. People have big problems around them.
Cedar trees are native to your area and evergreen. On the other hand they're allergenic and appear to kill other trees that are too near them. But it's a thought.
NOOOOOO!1!!!
Cedar fever is the scourge of central Texas.
From that guide, you want Bald Cypress or Bur Oak for height, if you're going to try to shade the house.
Or there's a local maple if you want smaller, but with fall color. (When does that happen in Texas?)
Mexican Plum and Texas Redbud are both small, but will be very pretty in spring.
Ashes from Bowie, Travis, and Crockett were buried in a peach grove. By Seguin himself. I'm not sure what sort of myth might top that.
We had a lovely birch tree in the front yard of my childhood home. Due to some poor assumptions on my part, I took the lesson "paper comes from trees" to mean that paper must come from this particular kind of tree, for look at how its bark peels off like paper.
But those don't seem to be native to Texas, which is too bad, because when they're really young, you can go out and encourage faster growth by shouting at them, "Why must you be such a little birch?!"
I have a plane tree, lemon, and orange tree. But I can't eat the fruit because the soil is completely loaded up with lead, due to being near a freeway. Still, those are the nicest parts of my feral backyard. Sometimes the parrots come.
I like toilet trees.
HA HA HA HA! GET IT? TOILETRIES! HA HA HA!
There's some kind of local tree that I love that looks like a cypress tree crossed with a pine tree.
Also, I'd like to put in a good word for Black Walnut. So articulate.
46: I do love the Monkey Puzzle Tree, but I don't think it would survive round hereparts.
This looks to be another good resource, Texas A&M Tree planting guide (includes selection by county).
Of the trees there and at the link that Kraab provided, the ones that I am familiar with and would recommend would be the Smoketree (not so big, but interesting in spring and colors in fall) and for a larger tree one of the oaks (like the Texas Red Oak). Oaks are generally slower growing than others, but in my experience in the long run that is all to the good, and they tend to have a nice aspect.
If your house has a red tile roof and looks like a villa, I'd recommend Italian cypress. If fruit is a must, how about a fig tree or a date palm?
Most important thing though is that you plant them under the power wires, like we do here in Connecticut. That way when there's a hurricane or it snows in October, you can be sure that your tree will pull down the power wires and everyone can go weeks without electricity.
Smoketrees are very cool. Doesn't Heebie have to plant more than one tree? We could come up with a medley of trees.
Fig trees are lovely and figs are delicious. Not sure about climate but they can survive parts of the northeast if you insulate them in the winter.
What are those trees that have flowers that look like fiberoptics? Those are great.
Fig trees are common here but they need a lot of direct sun to produce decent fruit. I seem to remember the back area being kind of shady? Also, they tend to sprawl outward instead of being tall and upright, more like a giant bush.
17: Will you make longbows? I hope so. They'd be fun for the kids to play with, right?
3: Those ginkgo nuts are edible, you know. Not the part with the stinky butyric acid, but the seed inside the shell. I have some in the cupboard, in fact, and would be happy to roast them up if any of you happen to stop by.
That tree sit is great, although it undersells mesquite. There's a madrone that's a native, and might look good.
Wouldn't be a native species, but I bet you could grow a pommegranate tree in your climate.
Is lead contamination a problem for citrus fruit? My understanding was that lead ended up much more in the greens of plants (see for example this field study of lead levels in edibles in home gardens) and was barely detectable in the fruit - especially if you rinse off the surface dust.
Apparently at the right time of year you can find lots of old chinese ladies collecting ginkgo nuts in central park.
Those ginkgo nuts are edible, you know.
I lived on a street in D.C. that was lined on both sides with ginko trees. They were absolutely beautiful in the fall; the leaves, which are fan shaped, all turned yellow and then slowly carpeted the sidewalk as they fell.
That was in the years when the city sprayed the trees so they wouldn't fruit. When they did fruit, the sidewalk was carpeted with squished stinky berries.
But also in those years, I would wake up some mornings to the sound of 2 little old Asian ladies shaking the trees to make the nuts fall and filling up one of those city shopping carts. I hearted them. (The ladies, though the shopping carts aren't too shabby.)
Pwned by 59, but I drew a more vivid picture.
Huh. The link in 58 is very helpful, thanks. Maybe I can use my lemons! If my insanely slow-moving yard renovation takes shape this year, and it might, I'm planning on putting in planters to grow collard greens and chard.
13: OK, as a fresh pecan eater, you are qualified to answer this question. Is it PEEcan, or peh-CAHN?
I grew up in Connecticut with the former pronunciation, but my Texans all say the latter.
It is an Algonquin word, but came to English from the French pacane. The Texans are right.
It's peh-CAHN, except when talking about Pecan Sandies, not that I would encourage that.
The Texans are right.
Careful. That kind of talk goes to our heads.
Is it PEEcan, or peh-CAHN?
Peh-CAHN. A PEE-can is something you keep under your bed.
What about a tree made of arms?
In Texas, I assume that "arms" would be interpreted as "guns."
PEE-can if you're from Georgia and peh-CAHN if you're from elsewhere in the south or are trying to sound like you're in the know*. I get randomly complimented on my pronunciation (only of that word - people hate how I pronounce couch and pasta).
*related somewhat to another pet-peeve of mine - Television chefs please be aware 'haricots vert' means 'green bean' in French, it says nothing about the shape of the bean. Okay, the French may generally use skinnier/younger beans that Americans but all green beans, whatever their width are 'haricots vert'!!! Also 'queso' just means cheese, it's not a dip in and of itself.
Thank you.
There's an identifiable subculture that uses "guns" as the word for "arms," but just when talking about mens' arms. Where I am, I hear this usage from black guys at the military gym.
OT: This Internet commenter experience may be familiar to some.
I grew up saying PEE-can, switched to pe-CAHN as an adult in Texas because I felt self-conscious.
Also 'queso' just means cheese, it's not a dip in and of itself.
This is definitely wrong.
Careful. That kind of talk goes to our heads.
Our heads, yankee?
70: I gather lw's never heard the boastful line about getting tickets (to what?) to the gun show! [flexes arms comically]
I wonder where the world's second largest peecan is?
77: Somebody break out a needle and thread, 'cause I'm lookin' ripped!
75: I'm jest tryin' to fit in with y'all.
Wouldn't be a native species, but I bet you could grow a pommegranate tree in your climate.
Yep. They're very common and have become naturalized down here.
Is there such a thing as paleo guns?
Television chefs please be aware 'haricots vert' means 'green bean' in French, it says nothing about the shape of the bean. Okay, the French may generally use skinnier/younger beans that Americans but all green beans, whatever their width are 'haricots vert'!!!
I cannot support your pedantry in this instance -- it's a helpful and near-universal distinction in the U.S. -- but I can note "vert" should have been "verts."
82: You talk about your atlatls.
Is there such a thing as paleo guns?
Meatatls.
{on preview, LBpwned; drat.}
Oh, and I spelled it wrong. Good job, self.
I hate green beans. Beans of all sorts, really. I chalk it up to feeling like I have spent too much of my life being lectured about how fucking healthy, versatile and delicious beans and rice are. As a guilty white liberal, I will sit still for quite a bit of nonsense, but not from my fellow honkies. [Glares in the direction of NYT columnist Jane Brody, who boasts of eating leftover bean stew for breakfast.]
82, 84, 85:
You can probably find the answer here, at this site.
Though frankly that's too hippyish for my taste in things paleo.
How can you not like beans generally? They're delicious! And versatile! Admittedly, you've been told that before, but it's true.
You would turn down a bowl of cassoulet if one were on offer?
In a similar vein, I can attest that "baby bok choy" is not a dwarf or immature variety of bok choy, they just stuck that name on it because bok choy proper had already penetrated the US market. Although closely related, they're separate varieties (Wikipedia is wrong on this issue).
"Bok choy" translates directly (from Cantonese, it's "bai cai" in Mandarin) as "white vegetable", and the Chinese name for what we call "baby bok choy" translates directly as "green vegetable".
89: Making cordage is surprisingly fun, if producing roughly 3 inches of thin, weak grass/plant fiber cord in two or three hours is your pleasure.
You would turn down a bowl of cassoulet if one were on offer?
I feel like the flesh, fat and bones in cassoulet remove it from the beanthusiasts' demesne.
Cordage seems boring. I'm mostly just down with the killing and eating of animals, using the atlatl seems fun.
Okay, then you don't dislike beans, you dislike beans prepared in a way you perceive as punitive. I can accept that.
http://www.buffalojump.org/0events.html
No hippies in Havre Halford.
I can accept that.
I can't. Flippanter must be sent down to the country for re-education. Destination: Rancho Gordo.
I'm mostly just down with the killing and eating of animals....
Through no fault of my own, I have participated in a couple of slaughtering-and-butcherings, and have found nothing about the experiences fun. I remember reading about "hipster butchers" [pauses to vomit, punch something] in the Times a while ago though.
I like Flip's resistance to the iron fist of repression that Rancho Gordo beans hold over this blog. Stay strong my brother.
ANIMAL PROCESSING Many meat-eaters have never processed their own animals. Taking an animal from "hoof to plate" is essential knowledge for survival or self-sufficient living.
Topics: killing, bleeding, skinning, gutting, gut processing (heart, liver, kidney, intestine, bladder), brain extraction & preservation, jaw & tongue extraction, meat cutting & preservation, fat rendering, broth-making, sausage making, hoof and sinew extraction, hide glue and skin preservation.
(does NOT include hide tanning)
This class is VERY hands-on.So, is all this in preparation of post-apocalyptic survival?
But really, Flippanter's only hope is to vote for Ron Paul. After the Reloveution, the government will no longer be able to force him to eat beans.
Topics: killing, bleeding, skinning, gutting, gut processing (heart, liver, kidney, intestine, bladder), brain extraction & preservation, jaw & tongue extraction, meat cutting & preservation, fat rendering, broth-making, sausage making, hoof and sinew extraction, hide glue and skin preservation.
I cannot emphasize enough how colossal a pain in the ass doing that stuff is. Also, super gross.
100 reminds me of the extensive, detailed explanation I heard recently for why it was a bad idea to eat a deer that you just hit with your car.
100 reminds me of the extensive, detailed explanation I heard recently for why it was a bad idea to eat a deer that you just hit with your car Kobe.
Fixed that for you.
how colossal a pain in the ass doing that stuff is. Also, super gross.
Nice bowl of beans looking a little more appealing now?
Is it PEEcan, or peh-CAHN?
Peh-CAHN is correct, but dissolute Californians seem to say PEEcan.
I'm a little bitter about beans. I buy expensive, artisinally grown, hand-buffed beans, soak them, season them lovingly, and my children despise them. A can of Goya kidney beans, mashed and refried with 'Taco Seasoning', goes right down. Rotten little bastards.
As an actual piece of (free!) design advice, a sycamore/plane tree would provide:
A. fast growth
B. interesting-looking bark
C. nice, effective shading (although, with that beautiful, well-designed sunscreen, do you really need it?)
No idea whether/how native any are, nor whether you're close enough to the river for one to thrive.
But, conceptually, one larger tree (on the far side of the power lines) complemented by several smaller ones could be a very nice look, and would avoid any risk of making your deck feel hemmed in.
Nice bowl of beans looking a little more appealing now?
Never. I'll eat pine buds (they're rich in Vitamin C!) for a year before I serve your nefarious crusade, Transparently-Disguised Jane Brody! Your mid-'80s cookbook contributed materially to my unhappy childhood!
the extensive, detailed explanation I heard recently for why it was a bad idea to eat a deer that you just hit with your car.
What's wrong with that? (Apart from the fact that it would be illegal in many jurisdictions.)
I can guess at some explanation involving stress hormones, but these would likely be less of a problem in a deer cleanly killed by a vehicle than in one that ran a mile or two before collapsing with an arrow wound.
Oh hey, this is a perfect time to ask: how much salt do I add to my pound of garbanzos that I'm about to cook for making chick pea chili*?
Answers claiming that I shouldn't salt in advance will be ignored. I'm with Cook's Illustrated on this one.
* which is nothing more that chick peas in a roasted salsa verde, really.
110: Possibly ruptured guts, leading to contamination of the meat with shit, bile, and anything else nasty in a deer? I'm not sure that that would necessarily be much worse in a car-accident deer than in a shot deer, but it seems like a possibility.
108: They are right on the edge of the sycamore range (the same is true for their location for a lot of other eastern hardwood trees).
108: Sycamores do grow fast, but they don't last that long and start dropping large limbs at about 10 years of age. Also, kind of ugly, although the bark is nice. Black Walnut, I say!
I'll eat pine buds (they're rich in Vitamin C!) for a year
My great-grandfather drink spruce tea (also rich in Vitamin C) for a winter to avoid scurvy and reported back that NO AWFUL.
There is almost always a grow fast vs. longevity/strength trade-off in trees; my advice is that unless there is an urgent reason to do so, go with the sturdier alternative. Spend some more money on a bigger one if you want a head start. However, I should add that I am someone who has lived in the same house for 25 years.
Sycamores do provide an interesting "fruit" about the size of a large gumball which is very hard when young and makes a great projectile, but later can be separated into achenes each with its own little puff/parachute type thingy.
110: The specific part I remember was that the meat of the impact zone will be all effed-up (technical term) from the blood rushing to the area and clotting. Apparently, the people who tried to make use of their roadkill also had done a not very good job of making sure no hair got into the meat, but that wasn't specific to the roadkill scenario.
Black Walnut, I say!
Contraindicated by heebie's dislike of foul-smelling nasty messes on the ground.
Black Walnut, I say!
Oh yeah, meant to respond to that:
Fuck a bunch of Black Walnuts. God damn black walnuts to hell. Motherfucking juglone-producing, garden-ruining, squirrel-feeding, clothes-staining, nutcracker-defying pieces of shit.
Up north, at least, sycamores don't drop limbs that young. My dad's is approaching 20 years old and AFAIK hasn't dropped any sizable limbs. Indeed, it survived that freakishly heavy snowstorm last month despite still being in full leaf, laden so heavily that its branches drooped about 7' down to the ground.
But I hear that everything's more brittle down in Texas, so there's that.
I should add that I am someone who has lived in the same house for 25 years.
Pretty sure that H-G is pretty committed to this house. Just a hunch I have.
Your general advice is more or less what I usually tell clients, but I am a sycamore/plane fan. I mean, it's not like they're silver maples, crashing down after 25 years. The parks are full of 75-100 year old samples.
121: But where do you stand on the issue of cellar doors?
My great-grandfather drink spruce tea (also rich in Vitamin C) for a winter to avoid scurvy and reported back that NO AWFUL.
I don't know if it prevents scurvy, but this stuff is pretty delicious.
122: Maybe it's the heat or dryness or something, but sycamore's just don't last very long down here.
Our climate also explains the common misuse of apostrophes.
I'm pretty sure that my backyard plane tree has been there (in a dry climate) for at least 50 years, and it seems to be doing OK. I did have to get it trimmed for fear of dropping branches.
The best climbing trees around here are whatever species of magnolia are planted all over Duke's campus. Massive limbs all the way to the ground. Also, when I was very young, we had a boxelder in the back yard that may as well have been specifically designed for easy kid access.
125: That doesn't surprise me. As JP said, it's at the edge of their natural range, and even up here's they're susceptible to stressful weather, e.g. in hot, dry summers their leaves brown early.
123: Well, mister, I'll tell you. There ain't no cellar without a cellar door, because a cellar without a door ain't nothin' but a hole in the ground, and even my sister's boy Amos knows better than to store my Mathilda's peach jam in a dang hole in the ground!
Sorry, were we not playing "Who's More Grizzled?"
128: CMU has Spring Carnival, the big campus event that a lot of students spend all of their free time working towards, and for which we get a Friday off. One year it coincided with amazing, perfect spring weather, with magnolia and lilacs in full bloom, and a couple buddies and I spent an hour or two in a magnolia taking in the scent and people-watching. There were a number of highlights that year, but really just that one, alas.
129: Yeah, I don't like them for that -- they're all over NYC, and they always look scruffy and motheaten in late summer.
128: There is no better climbing tree than a mature magnolia. There was one in my grandparents' yard, and it was easy to climb higher than the top of their two-story house.
makes a great projectile
M/tch comes across quite peaceful and cerebral but relates an alarming number of anecdotes about having used various plant parts to injure other people boys uncivilized little monsters. I now believe that the savagery in Lord of the Flies may have been underplayed.
Also, sycamore leaves are kind of a bleh pale green color, and then in fall just turn dull brown. I find them quite uninspiring to look at, as trees go. They just look kind of sickly all the time, even in spring.
Black walnuts, on the other hand are beautiful, and produce a delicious nut which you can't buy in stores and that anyone with even a modicum of strength and fortitude can open.
Ah, it seems that I have a California sycamore, which is a distinct species. So much plant advice from the east coast is totally inapplicable here, or so it seems (says the guy who knows nothing about plants).
You know what else is great -- catalpa! And it's totally southern!
A friend and I used to muse about researching and writing a big book on the ethnobotany of children. Of course one of the major chapters would be on projectiles and other weapons.
I love the mediterranean type of cypress (the ones that are tall and narrow). Also olives.
Neither of course being remotely native to Texas. But so nice!
136: says the guy who knows nothing about plants
If you don't have it go buy the Sunset Western Garden Book. Best general purpose garden book ever. (but regionally applicable, of course). I still have my old copy and use it whenever remotely applicable.
142 gets it right, Not that I have a garden now, or have any particular prospect of having one anytime soon, but it's on my to-buy list.
You could just plant pyracantha, which would get you a large, native, unkillable ornamental shrubbery, Sleeping-Beauty quality home protection, masses of drunken birds, and toughened children.
(Yes, we had pyracantha, but not even my parents are weird enough to plant it on purpose.)
anyone with even a modicum of strength and fortitude can open.
You know what is the most common advice is for cracking black walnuts open?
Put them on a blanket in your driveway, and run over them. Repeatedly.
They're tire-licious!
Someone tell me how much chick pea salt I need!
Olives are indeed beautiful and will grow in Texas. We have a nascent olive oil industry now, but nothing of it that I've tasted is particularly good yet.
Also, I love catalpa trees, but mostly because "catalpa" is fun to say.
They're tire-licious!
Is your contention that because you have trouble opening them, therefore they must not taste good?
146: An amount about the size of a large black walnut.
Huh. Turns out we're not exactly talking about the same tree.
Also, green walnuts can be candied and used in sauces like nogada.
Don't use the candied green walnuts in sauces. Use any particular green walnut either for candying, or for making a sauce, or for some other worthy project like nocino.
Huh. Turns out we're not exactly talking about the same tree.
That could explain a thing or two.
Alright, I'm going to put in a teaspoon, dammit. May God have mercy on your souls.
Racists, all of you.
I like Flip's resistance to the iron fist of repression that Rancho Gordo beans hold over this blog.
Yeah, fuck a bunch of Rancho Gordo. A friend of mine (whose mom gathered and cleaned the ginkgo nuts in my cupboard, incidentally) recently made her own nattō, and I wanted to do the same, so I looked to see if Rancho Gordo had some unusual kinds of soy. But they don't have any at all! I blame racism.
but nothing of it that I've tasted is particularly good yet.
Probably won't be in your lifetime. Olives are like that (intemperate reference to groves destroyed in Palestine redacted).
But the trees are awesome.
OT: Speaking of the iron fist of repression, emotional subdivision, does anyone know of any NYC-area charities that are happy to come haul away boxes of books that you aren't going to read or aren't going to read again and in either case can't easily give away individually?
152: A teaspoon seems skimpy. I'd probably put in somewhere between two teaspoons and a whole tablespoon.
I'm pretty sure I used a tablespoon last time and it approached inedible. I agree that a teaspoon seems scanty.
156: Just put them in a tent in Zuccotti Park.
I'm pretty sure I used a tablespoon last time and it approached inedible.
In the water you're cooking dried chickpeas in, or in your final dish?
158.last: I was thinking, but OWS probably won't pick up.
158.first: Put in a teaspoon, and salt more later if it needs it. If you guess low, it's fixable, if you guess high, you've ruined it.
But late salt never tastes as good as early salt.
Allow me to be the first to suggest fresh salt.
159: Cooking water.
160.1: I was joking darkly about the cops and their dumpsters.
160.2: Yeah, just so. But I figured one of you jamokes could have just given me the answer.
159: Cooking water.
I guess I like salt more than you do! (Or maybe you cook the beans in less water than I do, or maybe you consumed the salty bean broth as well as the beans.)
I feel like I should write a story. Anyone have any ideas?
You could write about a bean that's been a-salted.
156- This looks like it might work. Vietnam Vets. I don't know anything else about them (the link was from a DC-based organization that I'm familiar with)
If anyone in DC has a similar problem, Books for America (http://www.booksforamerica.org/) is a great organization.
144
You could just plant pyracantha, which would get you a large, native, unkillable ornamental shrubbery, Sleeping-Beauty quality home protection, masses of drunken birds, and toughened children.
My dad planted a pyracantha hedge near the street in front of our (Pennsylvania) house. Tons of nasty thorns. After about five years it was inpenetrable and almost untouchable. He planted English yew hedges on the sides of our property, which were very pretty, evergreen, with soft foliage. Still love yew bushes, but maybe not suitable for Texas.
The baobab is an unsurpassable climbing tree, but has other drawbacks.
Fruit and nut trees are magic, and it is not purely urban to think so; but magic takes a fair amount of prep work and is messy and has side-effects.
55, 154: Jesus! (Or have I just not been paying attention.)
Stormcrow! No, I haven't been around much lately. Stuff, you know. I'll be back.
flippanter, if your hatred of beans leads you to hate blanched, tiny little haricots verts, say, in a cute little pile in a salad niçoise you have gone very wrong. also, could I perhaps interest you in the food of south india? there will be black dhal...and channa masala...and various types of chaat and muruku and pappadums (made of chickpea flour). halford, you can't possibe disapprove of beans for christ's sake; 80% of the calories hunter-gatherers eat comes from the gathering, what the fuck you think they're going to pick up? spruce needles alla time? fine for moomins preparing for winter, but not otherwise.
heebie: black walnuts are incomparably delicious, and beautiful trees, but I can't imagine they grow very fast. I vote bald cypress. also, in GA/S.C. we say PEE-cans, and since the best pecans are from georgia we are right. additionally, it's axiomatic that rooting for texas in any context is like rooting for the dallas cowboys: unmitigated evil.
I'm with MAM @50. I adore Italian Cypress. And then I would plant scads of mint and lavender and pretend I was in Gigondas or Carpentras or something. And then it would all die.
Are Italian Cypress the tall evergreens one sees sprinkled about LA? Google image search says maybe. I kept asking people what they were, but nobody I asked knew.
but has other drawbacks.
Asteroid destruction, for example.
LB carried beyond herself by the inspiring force of urgent necessity.
The cypresses at Arcosanti in Arizona have to be watered specially. Since they're just about the only green in the landscape, they all have hundreds of birds roosting in them at any given time, which you can't tell, because the foliage is so dense. But then you walk by them and the birds all fly out magically.
I can't speak to Texas trees, but would recommend against pyracanthas unless you want a painfully reinforced border. I didn't hear anyone mention a pepper tree, which is gorgeous like a weeping willow when it gets big.
(I recognize that this is a city-people reaction, and fruit/nut trees really aren't magic.)
No, clew's right in 171. They ARE magic, and this from a suburban girl who had dozens of fruit trees.
I was kidding about the pyracantha, people.