November 22, 2025 • 44 mins
There are many plants used as culinary staples when it comes to Thanksgiving. In this episode, we talk about the history, cultural impact, and nature behind these plants. Plus, you’ll never guess what Stacey picked for this week’s plant on trial, but you won’t want to miss it!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Broadcasting from Studio A. Here at proven Winners Colored Choice Shrubs.
It's time for the Gardening Simplified Show with Stacy Hervella, me,
Rick weisst and our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson. Well
today some Thanksgiving botany. Native Americans helped the European settlers
grow corn and use fish to fertilize their fields. And
(00:26):
then in sixteen twenty one they kind of had this
impromptu harvest gathering the first recorded Thanksgiving Day in Plymouth.
By the way, I visited Plymouth Rock. I was kind
of disappointed. They do so Rock would be bigger.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
They do say it is one of the most disappointing
American history sites. Yeah, but you know it's because you
learn about it as a kid, so of course, in
your mind it's like this mass, it's like the Rock
of Gibraltar or something, when in fact it's just really
quite a large boulder exactly.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Oh well, don't want to throw a wet blanket on it. Actually,
the Thanksgiving festivities, the planned ones, happened two years later
in sixteen twenty three, and they had this big party
because it was after a two month drought. A lot
of people would argue well, the whole thing started in
(01:17):
eighteen sixty three after Gettysburg and Abraham Lincoln's proclamation. Regardless,
there is a direct tie between Thanksgiving and botany. For example,
how about some sour dough bread, some fresh herbs, mushrooms,
and chestnuts to make a classic chestnut stuffing. The American
(01:37):
chestnut was a cornerstone of the Eastern US ecosystem. Some
people think maybe a quarter or more of the trees
along the East coast were these chestnuts. And then of
course they're wiped out functionally extinct as far as the
mature trees are concerned by nineteen fifty the non native
(02:02):
fungal pathogen or wipe them out. But of course the
American Chestnut Foundations working to develop blight resistant American chestnut trees.
They're doing scientific research breeding. A lot of people have
high hopes for the return of this tree.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
I certainly do. And you know, one of the reasons
that we're doing the show just for all of our
listeners and viewers is so that you have alternative topics
to talk about at Thanksgiving, you know, because who doesn't
appreciate like a good fact bomb in the middle of
a you know, difficult conversation. You could just be like, oh, hey,
did you know, But I would say I feel like,
if this is the first time you're hearing about American chestnuts,
it's a sad story. It's like a truly, truly sad story.
(02:43):
And I am very hopeful that they will make progress
and be able to bring it back. But you know,
you really have to, I think, start to research, look
at photos online to even begin to get a scope
of what we lost with the American chestnut.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Oh agree? Are you going to put marshmallows on the
sweet potato dish or the candied yams. I'll take a
pass on the lime yello marshmallow holiday mold or the ambrosia.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Sound Are they still doing that?
Speaker 1 (03:12):
I don't know. I think they do. But the main
ingredients in a marshmallow our sugar, corn, syrup, flavorings like
vanilla extract, water, air, and gelatin. So the commercial marshmallows
today do not contain mallow root. And of course this
(03:33):
was an important plant. They extracted sap from the root
of the mallow plant. I believe it is altha officionalis
don't hold me to that.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Oh, you're right, that's correct?
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Is it okay?
Speaker 2 (03:46):
And It's an interesting thing because Alfia is a genus
in and of itself. Yes, but if you had down south,
they call all rows of sharon alfia, which are actually hibiscus,
and obviously they're in the same family. The flowers do
look superficially similar. But yeah, it's a very confusing thing.
But the plant that actually made the original marshmallows, the
(04:09):
marsh mallow is indeed in Althaea, and it's beautiful. It's
really quite a lovely plant.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
It is a beautiful plant. In the nineteenth century, French
confectioners began whipping the mallow rootsap with egg whites and
sugar to create this lighter, fluffier candy. But then of
course mass production came along and gelatine and we got
the stable, spongy texture of marshmallow.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Well, I think it's worth mentioning here that what makes
one of the characteristics of the mallow family is that
the malvasy is that they do have this kind of
mucilagenious texture. And if you think of Okra, well, Okra
is one of those members of that family. So it's
very easy I think to kind of extrapolate. I mean,
I love Okra, oh so do great Thanksgiving dish there
(04:56):
if you still have somewhere around. Of course, most of
us would probably have to use frozen okra by the
time November rolls around, because it's quite a heat lover.
But yeah, so it had that kind of mucilaginous texture
that it could emulsify all of those different ingredients. But yeah,
now they just use jelasin.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
I'm glad you said that, Stacey, because I had mussilagin
genius in my notes and I planned for you to
announced it for me. And it's a great description. And
I love okra and my favorite way to have well,
of course I love deep fried okra that my doctor
doesn't like that for me, But okrah mixed with tomatoes and.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Corn that is so so good.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Yeah. Now, to me, the pinnacle of Thanksgiving botany is
the green being, more specifically the green bean casserole. And
it's my birthday dish. On my birthday. As opposed to
cake with candles, I get green bean castlerole. That's adorable
(05:58):
with candles. I love that in it, green bean castrole.
And this year my birthday does fall on Thanksgiving.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Bay does it is happy birthday?
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Yeah? Thank you so, green bean casserole of course, the
American dish consisting primarily of green beans, cream and mushroom
soup and French fried onions, popularized in the nineteen fifties.
I think it was a gale by the name of
Dorcas Riley at the Campbell Soup Company, and I was
(06:27):
looking this up. Campbell's estimates it served in twenty million
Thanksgiving dinners in the United States each year, and that
forty percent of the company's cream of mushroom soup sales
goes into the version of the dish.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Wait, how many goes into greening cast.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Forty percent of the company's production of cream of mushrooms.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
That is incredible, That is really amazing.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
It is And I have taken through the years so
much abuse from people for loving green bean castrole because
green bean casserole is one of these polarizing things. And
if we're talking about Thanksgiving botany, I grow a lot
of green beans in my garden in summer, beans corn
(07:09):
as a matter of fact, And segment four we'll talk
about the three sisters important part of Thanksgiving botany. So
Stacy my Limerick this week has got to be the
green bean casserole limb a rick and this is for
all those people who through the years have given me
a hard time on two things. One my love for
(07:31):
green bean casserole. And number two, people always picked on
me about my mister Rogers sweater, and so I made
sure to wear that today. Also, thank you so for Thanksgiving.
Here you go. If planning dinner when the holidays loom,
the bean can be a dressed up legume. Just float
(07:52):
in cream of mushroom soup, add crispy onions on top
of the goop, and forget the fork. Eat with spoon.
Leftovers on plates of styrofoam. Later. You'll spot it when
the fridge you comb just run it through a strainer
or eat directly from a cool whip container. But no
way around it. You're taking some home. If we took
(08:16):
a popularity poll, fifty to fifty would be the final toll.
One half would say yum. Half would say it's dumb.
The iconic green bean castrole.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Oh that was you know, the love that you have
for the green bean castrole really came through in that.
You know, I would say.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Makes my mouth wok.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
That people who put down green bean casserole probably just
have not had a good version of it.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
That's possible.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
And I you know, remember celebrating several years ago with
someone who was lactose intolerant, okay, and so she made
from scratch because she couldn't use all the usual ingredients.
Made a version of green bean castrole completely from scratch, so,
you know, cooking raw beans, making the sauce, all of this,
and it was outstanding. And the fact is the nice
thing about a green bean castrole, like if you have
(09:03):
to think about this from the host's perspective, because you
can bring a green bean castrole, it's going to hold
all that heat. You don't have to ask your host
to put anything in the oven. And let's face it,
as much as a salad or a fresh green vegetable
is welcome at a meal, they just don't go at Thanksgiving. Yeah,
it just does not happen. I've seen it long enough
to say it's just not worth it. It's got to
(09:24):
be in castrole for him.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
And you got to have lots of the crispy onions
on it.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
That's the best part.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
You can never have too many of the crispy onions
on top. But again, a controversial subject part of Thanksgiving botany.
You know, there's other things I can talk about. I
know lima beans are very controversial. Wearing bread bags in
your boots to keep your feet dry. That's controversial too,
(09:48):
and something we talk about in the holidays, But I'll
let that go for now and we'll continue this conversation
in segment four right now. Plants on Trial is coming
up next here on the guard Simplified Show.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
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(10:28):
welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show, where we're about
a week out from Thanksgiving here in the US, and
we wanted to give our listeners and viewers something to
talk about. You know, things can sometimes get awkward at
the Thanksgiving table. They can get heated.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Football game, yes.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Right, yeah, there's always tension, especially you know, being from
Michigan not the Lions are always playing. It's gotten a
lot better in recent years, not Conwood than it had been,
but still so we thought there would be a good
idea to share some gardening and horticultural and botanical facts
that you can then share at your Thanksgiving table. So
and everyone's sitting around and you know, maybe things are
(11:08):
getting contentious, you can just be like, hey, did you
know that the corn that we eat is the ancestor
of a plant called taosintae from Mexico, and that it
is basically the progenitor of all of our corn. And
then it underwent a natural mutation about nine thousand years
ago that caused the skin on the kernels to become thinner.
(11:31):
And so what these ancient American farmers were doing was
saving the seeds from the thinner kernels because they were like, oh, hey,
we can actually use this. It's not, you know, this
giant thing that's impossible for us to process. So they
actually selected, over many many years what has since become
modern corn. So that is a plant called taosinte teo
(11:52):
si nte. It is from the Nawaddle word which means
sacred corn. So I would encourage you to take a
look at this very interesting story. You can read a
lot about it. I read this great quote and corn
is not today's plant on Trial. I'm going to get
to that, but I needed to get this Tao Sinte
thing in there, just to set the tone for all
this great stuff we're going to be throwing at you today.
(12:15):
Bico's Tree Crops is this very interesting nursery. They're down
in Kalamazoo here in Michigan, and they specialize in Native
American crops, so they're selections of our native plants that
are edible. And so there was an article that was
reading about Tao Sinte on their website and the author
had this quote. I thought it was so interesting. Corn
and humans are now connected. But Tao Sinte built the bridge.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Wow, so that is interesting. No wonder the European colonists
or visitors in sixteen hundred weren't aware of the corn
and needed the Native Americans to teach them.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Yeah it was a ten foot tall plant. Yeah, it's
really fascinating. So anyway, that's the kind of stuff we're
trying to get onto your radar today. And you know,
I just anyone who listens to the show knows I
love all of these kind of random plant facts. And
so for me saying like, oh, can we devote a
whole show to random plant facts related to Thanksgiving. I
(13:12):
was like, can I make it a little bit longer?
But speaking of contentious topics, I am. I'm taking an
entire group of plants for today's plan on trial, and
that group of plants is mums. So if you've listened
to the show for a while, and especially you gotta,
(13:38):
you're gonna hear me out here, because I'm gonna I'm
gonna tie this up nicely, I really am. I hope
I have a lot to fit in though. So of course,
if you've listened to the show before, you've heard Rick
and I speak less than glowingly about moms. And you know,
I don't want anyone to misunderstand. Of course, we always
feel like whatever you like to do and you're going,
(14:00):
is what you should do. It's your garden, it's for you.
So I do not begrudge anyone who goes out and
buys moms. And of course I love what they do
for our industry, for the horticulture industry, for the grower side,
for the independent garden center side. All of this is
so important, and I love that moms are the thing
they get people thinking about their garden again at a
time where they would normally be shutting everything down, They're like,
(14:21):
oh no, it's mumsy's and so I'm gonna, you know,
change out all of my geraniums for moms. So I
understand that they play an important role, but my personal
grudge against mums stems from a single fact that the
mums that we get in the garden centers should be
so much more than they are. They are really doing
(14:42):
a disservice to the entire genus of chrysanthemum, because there
are so many more interesting mums than just these clumpy
balls of color that they sell.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Yeah, they're too perfect.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
They're you know, they're in their brittle, so they're like
this perfect mound. And then you you put it in
the grocery in the back of your car with like
your groceries and stuff, because you just picked it up
on your way into the grocery store. You're driving home,
a big chunk of it falls off. There's nothing you
can do, and you know, it's just like and then
they just kind of go bad, like they just start
getting brown, and then you're left with this big, crumbly,
(15:19):
you know, ball of mom that just stays there yeah,
but moms can be so much more and that's what
I really wanted to share with you today. So let's
take a little step back in time. First of all,
it's probably not going to come as a surprise to
anybody that mums originated from Asia and from China specifically,
and the first mums that they were that they had
(15:42):
in China were actually used for food. They were not decorative,
they were not ornamental. They were using the flowers, the
buds and the foliage as a food source.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Doesn't smell very appetite.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Well, no, this was not the same mum. I do
want to make that clear. So if you're hearing this
and you're like, oh, whoa wait, I got a mom
in the backyard, I'm going to go try this, I
wouldn't recommend it. We are talking about much like I
was just saying with Teo Sinte, being an ancient relative
of corn. The edible chrysanthemum, which you can still buy
and grow yourself if you are so inclined, is a
very different animal than the mom, the garden mom that
(16:17):
you know most people are putting into their gardens nowadays.
So donate the moms that you have if you do
want to try the edible chrysanthemum uh known in Japanese
as shunguku. You could just go to any Asian market
near you and they will probably have the leaves in
a big bundle and you can see those. You can
stir fry them, they pickle them. There's all sorts of
recipes you can find, and it's very easy to grow,
(16:39):
and it's really quite lovely because you'll see kind of
the yellow sort of daisy, sort of Momli like flower,
and it seems very easy to grow and I actually
might try to grow that myself this season. But so
started out as an edible crop. And because there was
such a huge influence of Chinese culture into Japan, when
moms made it to well, they just went crazy for
(17:01):
them to this day. The mom known in Japanese as Kiku,
is the symbol of the Imperial House of Japan. It
is the symbol that is on the Japanese passport, anything
that you see in Japan, and you see that it
has that very distinctive chrysanthemum crest. It is related to
the imperial or royal family. Their official throne has a
(17:25):
chrysanthemum on it, so it's a very big cultural tie
to Japan, and because of that, the Japanese have spent
the last several thousand years developing moms that are nothing
like you have ever seen before. And so this is
what this is about for me, is I want those moms.
I want the interesting moms. I would like them a
(17:46):
lot more if I had some of these interesting mums.
And I sent pictures to Adriana. So if you're not
familiar with this, and this is the first time you're
hearing it, and moms to your only those like clumpy
garden moms, please go to ourd YouTube version and check
out the amazing moms. I took these photos at the
Lansu Chinese Garden in Portland, Oregon about ten years ago
or so. I happened to be there for a mom
(18:08):
show and they were absolutely amazing. Adrianna shaking her head
because she's seen the pictures, and I mean, it turns
the entire idea on its head of everything that we assume.
And so that's really where my I guess objection to
moms come in is the ones that we get are
really a shadow of what this very very interesting plant
(18:29):
can actually be. Now, I will say this because I
talk a lot about plant habits and how I like
plants to be open and airy, and that is also
one of the reasons why I don't love your kind
of standard garden mom. These moms that I'm talking about
are developed for their flowers and definitely not their habits,
So that is obviously one reason why these moms aren't
(18:51):
more popular as garden plants. They're pretty leggy, they pretty
much need staking because as they were being developed over
these thousands of years, they were so focused on the
color and the shape of the flowers. They didn't really
spend a lot of time thinking, hey, can we get
stronger stems and have like a nice garden plant. It
was not a goal.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Leggy, but maybe very nice cut flowers.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Very nice cut flowers. And I'm glad you brought that up,
because yes, you can sometimes find some of these interesting
moms as cut flowers. And coming into Thanksgiving, I would
just encourage you, if you're going to be making an
arrangement for your table, go to a specialty florist see
what they have these. I'm not sure you're going to
find all of the diversity that's out there, but you
(19:37):
will find more interesting plants. You know than if you're
just thinking like, ooh, moms, why want I put those
on my table? I love the spider moms, the quill moms.
In fact, the American chrysanthem Society recognizes are you ready
for this thirteen different classifications for chrysanthemums.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
I believe it.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
And there's gonna be some pictures of these again on
the YouTube version. A regular in curve, reflex, decorative palm, palm,
intermediate in curve, anemone spoon. I love those spoon moms,
quill spiders. I love the spider moms. I love the
ones that have like the double colors, so that the
inner pedal is one color and the outer pedal is another.
(20:19):
So there's just this incredible diversity of really interesting and
really beautiful plants that you know, I think we should
try to grow in our gardens. So it's just a
new take on moms. Wanted to defend my previous takes
on moms and also introduce you and perhaps your Thanksgiving
compatriots there to everything that a mom actually can be.
(20:43):
So take a look at us on YouTube if you
aren't already, we'll have lots of inspiration for you there.
And if you have moms on your Thanksgiving table, We'll
send us a picture. We'd love to see them. We're
going to take a little break when we come back.
We're opening up the mailbags to stay tuned. At Proven
(21:03):
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Winners Shrubs in the distinctive white container at your local
(21:26):
garden center, or learn more at Proven Winners color Choice
dot com. Greeting's gardening friends, and welcome back to the
Gardening Simplified Show, where we are so grateful for you
in this season of gratitude. You know, every Monday I
come in and if I look at the YouTube version,
I'm really always just so humbled and taken aback by
(21:47):
how many people enjoy the show. And it really means
a lot that they that they say so, and I'm
really glad that we get to spend some time with.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
You and the broad range of areas people outside of
the United States. It's also our good friends in Canada
and beyond. Just thanks for.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Being friends, right And I think the good news for
all of our listeners over those wide areas is that
anyone can grow those mums, and you can grow them
as an annual, so you know, whether you live in
a cold climate or a hot climate. All of that
stuff you just heard about on Plants on Trial, it's
for you. Now. Normally we would be answering your questions,
and we will answer some questions today, but before we do,
(22:27):
I wanted to talk about some clear confusion. I guess
it's an oxymoron, some confusion I have seen out there
in social media land about stuff that's going on right now. Okay, okay.
Number one, I've been hearing a lot of people say, hey,
we've already had some hard frosts. Can I still plant?
And I think that there is a little bit of
(22:49):
a misrepresentation here that frost is definitely a very key
indicator of planting time in the spring, but much less
of a key indicator of planting time in the fall.
It really is pretty much irrelevant in the fall. So
a lot of times people think, Okay, well we've already
had a frost. Guess the planting season is over, and
(23:10):
it most certainly is not, even though, of course now
we're here it's late November. Whether you are planting you know,
shrubs or trees or perennials, the key kind of timing
that you ideally want to look out for is you
want to put stuff in the ground no later than
six weeks before the ground freezes. That is certainly an
easier said than done kind of guideline because you never
(23:33):
really know when the ground is going to freeze, you know.
And even if you have some cold, very cold temperatures
in December and the ground gets frozen ish, sometimes you
get some warm temperatures and then it's not actually frozen.
So I would say, like for us here in Michigan,
at least in West Michigan, I don't think that our
ground freeze is at least until like early to mid January. Yeah,
(23:53):
probably most years, I.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Would agree, And of course every winter is different. Yeah,
but you're right about the spring versus fall thing. And
I think what happens is a lot of people watch
weather forecasts and the meteorologists say, oh, protect those tender plants,
and that's what happens, and then people start to freak
or think, oh boy, what am I going to do?
(24:15):
Just this past weekend, Greenhouse was having a clearance sale.
I bought a whole bunch of plants at eighty percent off,
eighty percent off, eighty percent off, and I healed them
into the ground and I'll put them where I want
next SPRNK.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
I love that. You know. That's another viable option too,
is that if you say, hey, I got these at
a great discount, I don't know where I want them yet,
I'm going to have to do some work. I'm gonna
have to do some dividing or moving. It is perfectly
swell to just go ahead and heal those in. I
just did some of that myself this past weekend. You know,
to just get them through the season and then you
(24:49):
can actually plant them. And you know, as long as
that container has good drainage, it's no problem to even
heal it in directly in its container and not very completely.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
That's right, Niles, shrubs, trees, just get the roots into
the ground, you're going to be okay.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Yeah, And also so it won't keep blowing over all
season because that's another thing that's gonna happen. And this
goes for bulbs and garlic as well, So definitely now
is a great time to do that gardening if you
haven't already. So don't panic. It's not about the frost
in fall. It's all about when the ground freezes.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Now.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
The other thing is so as you know, we are
very into big leaf hydrangels hydrange of macrophilla here at
Provenminter's colored choice shrubs that is the type with a
big purple, pink or blue flowers. And a lot of
people who have attempted to grow these or still are
attempting to grow them, have a sense that the flower
(25:41):
buds are on the plant right now, which is true.
So the twenty twenty six flower buds on your big
leaf hydrangels are in the process of forming on your
plant right now. That means I have to go all
through winter in order to be able to bloom in
summer of twenty twenty six. And for those of us
in cold climates, and I'm talking here about USDA Zone
five in some cases for some like let's stance can
do and let's stance skyview hydrangeas USDA Zone four, you know,
(26:06):
the temperatures are starting to get cold, and you worry
that you're going to lose those flower buds over the winter,
even though those varieties were specifically selected to have better
cold tolerance. So people who say maybe they have older varieties,
you know, I need to make sure that the buds
may get through winter. They're like, should I start protecting
my hydrangeas now? And I'm here to say there is
(26:27):
absolutely no need to worry about the temperatures that we
are having, even if you are in USDA Zone four
at this time of year when we talk about those
hardiness zones, USCA zone five is a temperature of negative
twenty fahrenheit. Now that's not to say that the plants
can take long periods of negative twenty degrees fahrenheit, but
(26:49):
it is to say that the thirties and twenties and
maybe you know, even if you're dipping into the high
teens right now, are not a problem for your big
leaf hydrangea whatsoever. You don't need to protect it. Now
what you really are going to need to protect those
flower buds from if you indeed are protecting not all
of the need protection, and some of us have no
problem whatsoever, but If you are inclined to protect, you're
(27:13):
really protecting from those prolonged periods of very very cold
weather that for us in Michigan we usually get end
of January early February. That's when we have typically our
coldest weather. Yes, if you don't have snowcover, that's another
reason to protect. But you do not need to worry
about those plants whatsoever with the cold that we're having
(27:33):
in November and even in December. And if you do
want to protect your hydrangeas, then make sure that it
is completely dormant before you go out there and do anything.
You do not want to protect a hydrangea that has
not yet gone dormant, which is to say, lost all
of its leaves, it's really going to mess up, you know,
its ability to go dormant according to the cues of nature,
the day length and all of that. So wait till
(27:56):
it's completely dormant, and then you can go ahead and
work whatever magic you want. But don't worry about your
plants right now. They're just going to sleep.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
Agree, boy, I'm glad you brought this up. Maintain your composture.
The way to look at it is plants need to
shut down in due process naturally, so give them some
time to do that.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Yeah, I think people just get a little too worried,
but they can easily take. Temperatures in the twenties, thirties,
even the high teens not a cause for concerns, So
you know, you can just chill. We have a question
for you, specifically, Rick. Okay, our listener Val wants to
know if you can please tell her what kind of
leaf shredder you have. She can't find the video where
(28:37):
you talk about it.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Okay, the leaf shredder, and we have shown this on
the show I think a few times. It is called works,
so it's wo r x that's how they spell it
works electric leaf multure, so it runs, you know, no
messing with gas two cycle engines. That's just a typical
(29:01):
one ten outlet extension cord. My one knock on the
product is it's a little top heavy, so if I
stumble around in the garden sometimes I can knock it over.
But aside from that, easy to operate and does a
great job of shredding leaves. The other thing is is
if you want to shred some leaves for some browns
(29:22):
for your compost or to work, the speed up the
decomposition process in your garden. When you operate something like this,
it works best if the leaves are dry. If they
are wet and matted, it's not going to work real well.
So it's the works WRX Electric Leaf Multure. Look it
(29:43):
up online. There's a number of different people who sell it,
and I'm going to make a mental note right now
to contact works because I think I should be paid
royalties for all the interest I've generated in this.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Well, you know now that is about to be Black Friday.
I'm sure there's going be some good deals on guarden
equipment out there, so I thought it would be a
good time to tell our listeners about what they could
use now. Similarly, we got a question from Kim. This
is interesting. She says that she's always used Canadian pete
to spread around her plants and beds in the fall,
along with fall leaves mulched up from the mower. However,
(30:19):
it seems that environmentalists and US tariffs have decided she
should not use pete. And then she was using a
bunch of leaves from her neighbors, six large maples, and
it's sold and they cut down the maples. Oh no,
Now she doesn't ever Pete. She doesn't ever leaves, and
she's wondering what she can do. She signs it, Kim,
(30:40):
desperate for chemosy.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
You've gotta I like that. I like that a good
sense of humors, Kim. I'll tell you what which you
got to do the same thing I do. People call
me Planta Claus, and it's because I go out and
I collect up leaves, so in within a one to
two mile radius of my home. I'll start scoping out
homes in September looking for good maple trees. And then
(31:06):
I make friends and you knock on the door and
they're actually quite intrigued that you have interest in their leaves,
and then you pick them up. They bag them up
nicely for you, and you take them home and it
works out great. It's a win win. They're happy, you're.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Happy, the leaves are happy, the soil's happy. Everyone's happy.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Everyone's happy. It's just a great thing.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
So when you ask them that, do they ever say yes?
Speaker 1 (31:29):
If you rake them, that's happened also, And I carry
along a leaf blower in my car, so I've done
that before for them. But you know, initially they kind
of look at you like you know, what, are you
a salesman? What are you doing? No, I just want
your leaves, and they're kind of intrigued by it.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Yeah, more so I think that is great. Definitely, you know,
you can take leaves off the curb. Of course, you
never know what you're going to get in those, but
that is one option. The other thing I would say
for Kim or for anybody, it's always worth reaching out
to your city, your township, whatever, and seeing if they
have a compost program. In some places, if you are
(32:11):
contributing composts, you can get free composts. Sometimes they'll sell
it at a lower cost. So you should definitely work
with your city at least check out whether that is
a possibility for you, or even in nearby city. You
might have to pay a little bit more as a
non resident, but you know, there's a very good possibility
that you'll be able to get a good amount of
bulk compost or semi decomposed organic matter. That way, that's
(32:34):
free or affordable leaf compost.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
In this season of Thanksgiving, it's the gift that keeps giving.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
So with that, we're going to take a little break.
When we come back, we're continuing our conversation on the
botany of Thanksgiving, So stay tuned. Thanks for listening to
the Gardening Simplified Podcast, brought to you by Proven Winners
Color Choice Shrubs. Our award winning flowering shrubs and evergreens
are trialed and tested by experts with your success in mind.
(33:03):
Learn more at Proven Winners color Choice dot com.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show. We're talking Thanksgiving botany, Stacey.
I've got to throw into the mix, of course, one
of my favorites mashed potatoes. I don't know how many
people grow potatoes in their vegetable garden. It is a process,
take some work, but potatoes certainly have to be on
the list. I'm looking at a recipe for bourbon yam well.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
I do want to say about growing your own potatoes.
It's very easy to think potatoes or potatoes, and I
can just get potatoes at the grocery store so cheap.
Why in the world would I grow potatoes. The difference
between homeworwn potatoes and grocery store potatoes, I cannot even
begin to elucidate the difference. It is night and day.
They are so so very much better, kind of like
(33:55):
tomatoes yeah, thing that people tend to think, Oh, it's
just a potato. No, you will have so much better
potatoes if you grow them yourself. And I mean, is
there anything more fun than digging up your potato plants
and seeing all of those amazing potatoes.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
Under there, especially if you have kids or grandkids, a
great thing to do, or you're just a kid at
heart and you're a kid heart exactly. But yes, as
far as the yams are concerned, this was an easy
root vegetable or grotten recipe and it involves bourbon. So
I'm thinking about trying that.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Well. You know, yams are a good botanical conundrum for
Thanksgiving because what we call a yam for the most
part here in the US, is not a yam at all.
It is a sweet potato. Big difference, big difference. So
are sweet potatoes that we usually call yams. So when
people talk about candied jams or you know, the yam casserole,
(34:48):
those are sweet potatoes. They are in the morning glory family,
and the yam is in its own family, the Diascora
dacey because they are dioscoria. So same with the Filipino
purple yam that the ube that had its big day
a couple of years ago. Those are in a totally
different family. They can be sweet, but they're much starchier,
(35:09):
whereas the sweet potato is obviously very sweet. It's got
that orange flesh that we all recognize, and it is
indeed the same progenitor as the decorative sweet potato vines
from preven winners. Interesting, yeah, it is interesting. People always
ask if they can, you know, especially the older varieties
like margarita, if they can eat the potatoes that are
(35:29):
in there, And the answer is that you can. They're
not really developed for the best flavor. Like if you
just decide to grow and buy sweet potatoes to grow
that are intended for eating, they taste tear. I've never
tried one, You have tried one. Okay, Well there you
have more of a subsistence food.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
How about pumpkins and canned pumpkin In the United States,
most are made from dickens and pumpkins, making it the
most common source of pumpkin pie filling. So the story
behind this is Elijah Dickinson of Kentucky, nineteenth century pumpkins
named after him. I guess they're great for canned pumpkins.
(36:09):
He takes them to Central Illinois, Morton, Illinois. Of course,
that's where the bulk of pumpkins in the United States
are great, that's the pumpkin epicenter in the United States,
and I know that. Yeah, the rest is the rest
is history.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
Well that's a shame because he's not getting his credit whatsoever. Yeah,
I mean, he's on millions of Thanksgiving tables every single year,
and no one spares a thought for poor Elijah Dickinson.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
That's true.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
So anyway, maybe that's something you can think about.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
I'm trying to give him a little bit of I
appreciate a variety here. Yeah. So one of the places
where you can find wiggle room as far as Thanksgiving
botany is concerned, as far as pure tradition is concerned,
is in the area of pies. I mean, pumpkin pie
is the most traditional option, but there's plenty of regions
(36:57):
of the country that prefer to go in other route.
So most areas prefer pumpkin as their Thanksgiving pie of choice.
And of course you got to add some cool whip.
Got to have cool.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
Whip, you know. That was actual whim that.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
Was invented in the sixties when I was a kid
and to this day, we're still trying to figure out
what non dairy cool whip is made of.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Well, regard thing is you get the container.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
Yeah, the containers are very handy to pack your green
bean cast a roll and take it home. Yeah, exactly.
Other regions of the country prefer apple pie. And of
course in the South they're saying east South Central states, Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi,
Tennessee apple pie. But then when you go to Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas,
(37:49):
they said pecan pie alone was the most worthy pie
for their Thanksgiving feast. And of course I love pecan pie.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
I always heard that pecan pie was a rest from
the Carrow company for corn syrup, so not a traditional food,
not unlike the green bean casserole, a recipe intended to
sell a specific food product.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
Yet in another upsetting issue for my doctor, because I
think pecan pie is great for breakfast, I really.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
Well, you know, pecans are pretty healthy.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
Yeah, the pecans are healthy, thank you.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
I'm just saying there's a good element in there. It's
not complete garbage.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
Of course, corn is super important in agriculture. You'll hear
about the three sisters corn, beans, and squash, the major
staples of Native American agriculture, always grown together. Corn was
the most important staple food grown by Native Americans. The
cornstalks provided a pole for the beans to climb, shade
(38:49):
from the corn benefited the squash that grew under the leaves.
The beans, as with all legumes, provided nitrogen for the
corn and squash. And finally, the shade from the large
squash and pumpkin leaves held moisture in the ground for
all three plants. That's why they call them the three system. Yes,
so they've got to be part of our Thanksgiving botany.
Another one, of course, cranberry. Yes, my favorite, My favorite too,
(39:12):
I love cranberries. Cranberry cultivation began in eighteen sixteen in Massachusetts,
where Revolutionary War veteran Henry Hall found that covering cranberry
bogs would sand fertilize the vines and retained water around
their roots. And you know, this is a misconception I
think a lot of people have. They think that cranberries
(39:33):
always are underwater, and they're not.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
They are not. They are grown that way specifically to
make harvesting easier, which they no longer actually need because
they have machinery. But back in the day, they would
flood the bog and all the ripe berries would float
to the top, and it would be very easy to
want easier, I guess, to harvest the cranberries just by
skimming the floating berries off the top. You know. I
always felt like cranberries were so special because there was
(39:57):
in the US, at least in my family their time
of the year that you had something like cranberry sauce. However,
you made it like it was just something that was
very different.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
Now.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
Cranberries are North American native fruit, which is one of
the reasons why they are so integral to Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
It's an American thing.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
It is an American thing. Botanically, they are known as
Vaccinium macrocarpon, and Vaccinium, if you're not familiar, is the
same genus as blueberry. So from a botanical standpoint, they
are very similar to blueberry. The difference there is macrocarpon,
the species of cranberry means big fruit.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
Oh interesting, I didn't know that. Now. Of course, the
cranberries have built in air pockets, so to speak, so
that when they flood the bogs, I guess they float,
and that's what makes harvesting easier. From the perspective of
US history, General Ulysses S. Grant is widely credited with
(40:53):
the tradition of serving cranberry sauce with the Thanksgiving meal
because in eighteen sixty four he ordered that the dish
be included in the holiday feast for all Union troops
during the Siege of Petersburg.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
I did not know that. That's interesting. And cranberry's are
actually very closely related to lingenberry's, which is sort of
the Scandinavian version of the cranberry, same genus, different species,
and they're smaller, So cranberries are nice and big. I
did not know that that we have grant to thank for. Yeah,
you know, and they're so pretty, like I love the
look of the cranberries on the Thanksgiving table. My grandma
(41:30):
always served them in a beautiful crystal bowl because you
had to see the color of them, you know, compared
to all of the brown stuff on the table.
Speaker 1 (41:37):
Absolutely, And when I was on the East coast Cape Cod,
I sought out some of these areas to take a look.
And yet the number one state in the United States
for cranberry producing is Wisconsin. Massachusetts follows Wisconsin, then New
Jersey and Oregon. And of course cranberries are a very
(41:59):
tart fruit. I put them in my fruit smoothies. But
it being so tart, I would think that it's less
of a problem for deer browsing animal browsing than possibly
other types of berries. But that's just a guess.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
It is a guess because they are in the air
casey or the heather heath family like rhododendron and azalea
and and asalia can get pretty eaten by deer, so
you know, there's just no telling with those creatures.
Speaker 1 (42:29):
Of course, at the end of the day, adding cream, butter, cheese, bacon, bourbon,
anything will make anything taste good. Whipped cream in a can,
the nitrous oxide that's a tradition at my house to
spray it in people's mouths, the propellant in the can.
I know, I'm sorry, please, And of course non dairy
(42:50):
cool whip topping. So you got the cool whip and
you got the miracle whip, because I use the miracle
whip to leaf shine my houseplants a wonderful job.
Speaker 2 (43:01):
Really and it doesn't get like dust and stuff stuck
to it.
Speaker 1 (43:03):
If you don't have pets, because the pets are going.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
To get drawn to it.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
Then, Adriana, No, but if you don't have pets, miracle
whip you can use as a leaf shot. So and
then of course I got to wrap it up here.
So I got to wrap it up with the fact
that as far as herbs are concerned, I have to
have sage gotta at Thanksgiving, and sage is perfect compliment
(43:29):
to things like butternut squash soup as a matter of fact,
or in stuffing. So sage is the perfect compliment to
Thanksgiving feasts and fall squash. There you have it, Thanksgiving
botany all right.
Speaker 2 (43:44):
I hope everybody learns something and can take away a
fun fact to share with a family member this season. Absolutely,
So on that note, we bid you a very happy
Thanksgiving and thanks to you, Rick, thank you, thanks to
you Adriana, and thanks to all of you for listening.
Broadcasting from Studio A. Here at proven Winners Colored Choice Shrubs.
It's time for the Gardening Simplified Show with Stacy Hervella, me,
Rick weisst and our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson. Well
today some Thanksgiving botany. Native Americans helped the European settlers
grow corn and use fish to fertilize their fields. And
(00:26):
then in sixteen twenty one they kind of had this
impromptu harvest gathering the first recorded Thanksgiving Day in Plymouth.
By the way, I visited Plymouth Rock. I was kind
of disappointed. They do so Rock would be bigger.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
They do say it is one of the most disappointing
American history sites. Yeah, but you know it's because you
learn about it as a kid, so of course, in
your mind it's like this mass, it's like the Rock
of Gibraltar or something, when in fact it's just really
quite a large boulder exactly.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Oh well, don't want to throw a wet blanket on it. Actually,
the Thanksgiving festivities, the planned ones, happened two years later
in sixteen twenty three, and they had this big party
because it was after a two month drought. A lot
of people would argue well, the whole thing started in
(01:17):
eighteen sixty three after Gettysburg and Abraham Lincoln's proclamation. Regardless,
there is a direct tie between Thanksgiving and botany. For example,
how about some sour dough bread, some fresh herbs, mushrooms,
and chestnuts to make a classic chestnut stuffing. The American
(01:37):
chestnut was a cornerstone of the Eastern US ecosystem. Some
people think maybe a quarter or more of the trees
along the East coast were these chestnuts. And then of
course they're wiped out functionally extinct as far as the
mature trees are concerned by nineteen fifty the non native
(02:02):
fungal pathogen or wipe them out. But of course the
American Chestnut Foundations working to develop blight resistant American chestnut trees.
They're doing scientific research breeding. A lot of people have
high hopes for the return of this tree.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
I certainly do. And you know, one of the reasons
that we're doing the show just for all of our
listeners and viewers is so that you have alternative topics
to talk about at Thanksgiving, you know, because who doesn't
appreciate like a good fact bomb in the middle of
a you know, difficult conversation. You could just be like, oh, hey,
did you know, But I would say I feel like,
if this is the first time you're hearing about American chestnuts,
it's a sad story. It's like a truly, truly sad story.
(02:43):
And I am very hopeful that they will make progress
and be able to bring it back. But you know,
you really have to, I think, start to research, look
at photos online to even begin to get a scope
of what we lost with the American chestnut.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Oh agree? Are you going to put marshmallows on the
sweet potato dish or the candied yams. I'll take a
pass on the lime yello marshmallow holiday mold or the ambrosia.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Sound Are they still doing that?
Speaker 1 (03:12):
I don't know. I think they do. But the main
ingredients in a marshmallow our sugar, corn, syrup, flavorings like
vanilla extract, water, air, and gelatin. So the commercial marshmallows
today do not contain mallow root. And of course this
(03:33):
was an important plant. They extracted sap from the root
of the mallow plant. I believe it is altha officionalis
don't hold me to that.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Oh, you're right, that's correct?
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Is it okay?
Speaker 2 (03:46):
And It's an interesting thing because Alfia is a genus
in and of itself. Yes, but if you had down south,
they call all rows of sharon alfia, which are actually hibiscus,
and obviously they're in the same family. The flowers do
look superficially similar. But yeah, it's a very confusing thing.
But the plant that actually made the original marshmallows, the
(04:09):
marsh mallow is indeed in Althaea, and it's beautiful. It's
really quite a lovely plant.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
It is a beautiful plant. In the nineteenth century, French
confectioners began whipping the mallow rootsap with egg whites and
sugar to create this lighter, fluffier candy. But then of
course mass production came along and gelatine and we got
the stable, spongy texture of marshmallow.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Well, I think it's worth mentioning here that what makes
one of the characteristics of the mallow family is that
the malvasy is that they do have this kind of
mucilagenious texture. And if you think of Okra, well, Okra
is one of those members of that family. So it's
very easy I think to kind of extrapolate. I mean,
I love Okra, oh so do great Thanksgiving dish there
(04:56):
if you still have somewhere around. Of course, most of
us would probably have to use frozen okra by the
time November rolls around, because it's quite a heat lover.
But yeah, so it had that kind of mucilaginous texture
that it could emulsify all of those different ingredients. But yeah,
now they just use jelasin.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
I'm glad you said that, Stacey, because I had mussilagin
genius in my notes and I planned for you to
announced it for me. And it's a great description. And
I love okra and my favorite way to have well,
of course I love deep fried okra that my doctor
doesn't like that for me, But okrah mixed with tomatoes and.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Corn that is so so good.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Yeah. Now, to me, the pinnacle of Thanksgiving botany is
the green being, more specifically the green bean casserole. And
it's my birthday dish. On my birthday. As opposed to
cake with candles, I get green bean castlerole. That's adorable
(05:58):
with candles. I love that in it, green bean castrole.
And this year my birthday does fall on Thanksgiving.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Bay does it is happy birthday?
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Yeah? Thank you so, green bean casserole of course, the
American dish consisting primarily of green beans, cream and mushroom
soup and French fried onions, popularized in the nineteen fifties.
I think it was a gale by the name of
Dorcas Riley at the Campbell Soup Company, and I was
(06:27):
looking this up. Campbell's estimates it served in twenty million
Thanksgiving dinners in the United States each year, and that
forty percent of the company's cream of mushroom soup sales
goes into the version of the dish.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Wait, how many goes into greening cast.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Forty percent of the company's production of cream of mushrooms.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
That is incredible, That is really amazing.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
It is And I have taken through the years so
much abuse from people for loving green bean castrole because
green bean casserole is one of these polarizing things. And
if we're talking about Thanksgiving botany, I grow a lot
of green beans in my garden in summer, beans corn
(07:09):
as a matter of fact, And segment four we'll talk
about the three sisters important part of Thanksgiving botany. So
Stacy my Limerick this week has got to be the
green bean casserole limb a rick and this is for
all those people who through the years have given me
a hard time on two things. One my love for
(07:31):
green bean casserole. And number two, people always picked on
me about my mister Rogers sweater, and so I made
sure to wear that today. Also, thank you so for Thanksgiving.
Here you go. If planning dinner when the holidays loom,
the bean can be a dressed up legume. Just float
(07:52):
in cream of mushroom soup, add crispy onions on top
of the goop, and forget the fork. Eat with spoon.
Leftovers on plates of styrofoam. Later. You'll spot it when
the fridge you comb just run it through a strainer
or eat directly from a cool whip container. But no
way around it. You're taking some home. If we took
(08:16):
a popularity poll, fifty to fifty would be the final toll.
One half would say yum. Half would say it's dumb.
The iconic green bean castrole.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Oh that was you know, the love that you have
for the green bean castrole really came through in that.
You know, I would say.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Makes my mouth wok.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
That people who put down green bean casserole probably just
have not had a good version of it.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
That's possible.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
And I you know, remember celebrating several years ago with
someone who was lactose intolerant, okay, and so she made
from scratch because she couldn't use all the usual ingredients.
Made a version of green bean castrole completely from scratch, so,
you know, cooking raw beans, making the sauce, all of this,
and it was outstanding. And the fact is the nice
thing about a green bean castrole, like if you have
(09:03):
to think about this from the host's perspective, because you
can bring a green bean castrole, it's going to hold
all that heat. You don't have to ask your host
to put anything in the oven. And let's face it,
as much as a salad or a fresh green vegetable
is welcome at a meal, they just don't go at Thanksgiving. Yeah,
it just does not happen. I've seen it long enough
to say it's just not worth it. It's got to
(09:24):
be in castrole for him.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
And you got to have lots of the crispy onions
on it.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
That's the best part.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
You can never have too many of the crispy onions
on top. But again, a controversial subject part of Thanksgiving botany.
You know, there's other things I can talk about. I
know lima beans are very controversial. Wearing bread bags in
your boots to keep your feet dry. That's controversial too,
(09:48):
and something we talk about in the holidays, But I'll
let that go for now and we'll continue this conversation
in segment four right now. Plants on Trial is coming
up next here on the guard Simplified Show.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
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Shrubs with over three hundred and twenty five unique varieties
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proven Winners Color Choice dot com. Reeting's gardening friends, and
(10:28):
welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show, where we're about
a week out from Thanksgiving here in the US, and
we wanted to give our listeners and viewers something to
talk about. You know, things can sometimes get awkward at
the Thanksgiving table. They can get heated.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Football game, yes.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Right, yeah, there's always tension, especially you know, being from
Michigan not the Lions are always playing. It's gotten a
lot better in recent years, not Conwood than it had been,
but still so we thought there would be a good
idea to share some gardening and horticultural and botanical facts
that you can then share at your Thanksgiving table. So
and everyone's sitting around and you know, maybe things are
(11:08):
getting contentious, you can just be like, hey, did you
know that the corn that we eat is the ancestor
of a plant called taosintae from Mexico, and that it
is basically the progenitor of all of our corn. And
then it underwent a natural mutation about nine thousand years
ago that caused the skin on the kernels to become thinner.
(11:31):
And so what these ancient American farmers were doing was
saving the seeds from the thinner kernels because they were like, oh, hey,
we can actually use this. It's not, you know, this
giant thing that's impossible for us to process. So they
actually selected, over many many years what has since become
modern corn. So that is a plant called taosinte teo
(11:52):
si nte. It is from the Nawaddle word which means
sacred corn. So I would encourage you to take a
look at this very interesting story. You can read a
lot about it. I read this great quote and corn
is not today's plant on Trial. I'm going to get
to that, but I needed to get this Tao Sinte
thing in there, just to set the tone for all
this great stuff we're going to be throwing at you today.
(12:15):
Bico's Tree Crops is this very interesting nursery. They're down
in Kalamazoo here in Michigan, and they specialize in Native
American crops, so they're selections of our native plants that
are edible. And so there was an article that was
reading about Tao Sinte on their website and the author
had this quote. I thought it was so interesting. Corn
and humans are now connected. But Tao Sinte built the bridge.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Wow, so that is interesting. No wonder the European colonists
or visitors in sixteen hundred weren't aware of the corn
and needed the Native Americans to teach them.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Yeah it was a ten foot tall plant. Yeah, it's
really fascinating. So anyway, that's the kind of stuff we're
trying to get onto your radar today. And you know,
I just anyone who listens to the show knows I
love all of these kind of random plant facts. And
so for me saying like, oh, can we devote a
whole show to random plant facts related to Thanksgiving. I
(13:12):
was like, can I make it a little bit longer?
But speaking of contentious topics, I am. I'm taking an
entire group of plants for today's plan on trial, and
that group of plants is mums. So if you've listened
to the show for a while, and especially you gotta,
(13:38):
you're gonna hear me out here, because I'm gonna I'm
gonna tie this up nicely, I really am. I hope
I have a lot to fit in though. So of course,
if you've listened to the show before, you've heard Rick
and I speak less than glowingly about moms. And you know,
I don't want anyone to misunderstand. Of course, we always
feel like whatever you like to do and you're going,
(14:00):
is what you should do. It's your garden, it's for you.
So I do not begrudge anyone who goes out and
buys moms. And of course I love what they do
for our industry, for the horticulture industry, for the grower side,
for the independent garden center side. All of this is
so important, and I love that moms are the thing
they get people thinking about their garden again at a
time where they would normally be shutting everything down, They're like,
(14:21):
oh no, it's mumsy's and so I'm gonna, you know,
change out all of my geraniums for moms. So I
understand that they play an important role, but my personal
grudge against mums stems from a single fact that the
mums that we get in the garden centers should be
so much more than they are. They are really doing
(14:42):
a disservice to the entire genus of chrysanthemum, because there
are so many more interesting mums than just these clumpy
balls of color that they sell.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Yeah, they're too perfect.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
They're you know, they're in their brittle, so they're like
this perfect mound. And then you you put it in
the grocery in the back of your car with like
your groceries and stuff, because you just picked it up
on your way into the grocery store. You're driving home,
a big chunk of it falls off. There's nothing you
can do, and you know, it's just like and then
they just kind of go bad, like they just start
getting brown, and then you're left with this big, crumbly,
(15:19):
you know, ball of mom that just stays there yeah,
but moms can be so much more and that's what
I really wanted to share with you today. So let's
take a little step back in time. First of all,
it's probably not going to come as a surprise to
anybody that mums originated from Asia and from China specifically,
and the first mums that they were that they had
(15:42):
in China were actually used for food. They were not decorative,
they were not ornamental. They were using the flowers, the
buds and the foliage as a food source.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Doesn't smell very appetite.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Well, no, this was not the same mum. I do
want to make that clear. So if you're hearing this
and you're like, oh, whoa wait, I got a mom
in the backyard, I'm going to go try this, I
wouldn't recommend it. We are talking about much like I
was just saying with Teo Sinte, being an ancient relative
of corn. The edible chrysanthemum, which you can still buy
and grow yourself if you are so inclined, is a
very different animal than the mom, the garden mom that
(16:17):
you know most people are putting into their gardens nowadays.
So donate the moms that you have if you do
want to try the edible chrysanthemum uh known in Japanese
as shunguku. You could just go to any Asian market
near you and they will probably have the leaves in
a big bundle and you can see those. You can
stir fry them, they pickle them. There's all sorts of
recipes you can find, and it's very easy to grow,
(16:39):
and it's really quite lovely because you'll see kind of
the yellow sort of daisy, sort of Momli like flower,
and it seems very easy to grow and I actually
might try to grow that myself this season. But so
started out as an edible crop. And because there was
such a huge influence of Chinese culture into Japan, when
moms made it to well, they just went crazy for
(17:01):
them to this day. The mom known in Japanese as Kiku,
is the symbol of the Imperial House of Japan. It
is the symbol that is on the Japanese passport, anything
that you see in Japan, and you see that it
has that very distinctive chrysanthemum crest. It is related to
the imperial or royal family. Their official throne has a
(17:25):
chrysanthemum on it, so it's a very big cultural tie
to Japan, and because of that, the Japanese have spent
the last several thousand years developing moms that are nothing
like you have ever seen before. And so this is
what this is about for me, is I want those moms.
I want the interesting moms. I would like them a
(17:46):
lot more if I had some of these interesting mums.
And I sent pictures to Adriana. So if you're not
familiar with this, and this is the first time you're
hearing it, and moms to your only those like clumpy
garden moms, please go to ourd YouTube version and check
out the amazing moms. I took these photos at the
Lansu Chinese Garden in Portland, Oregon about ten years ago
or so. I happened to be there for a mom
(18:08):
show and they were absolutely amazing. Adrianna shaking her head
because she's seen the pictures, and I mean, it turns
the entire idea on its head of everything that we assume.
And so that's really where my I guess objection to
moms come in is the ones that we get are
really a shadow of what this very very interesting plant
(18:29):
can actually be. Now, I will say this because I
talk a lot about plant habits and how I like
plants to be open and airy, and that is also
one of the reasons why I don't love your kind
of standard garden mom. These moms that I'm talking about
are developed for their flowers and definitely not their habits,
So that is obviously one reason why these moms aren't
(18:51):
more popular as garden plants. They're pretty leggy, they pretty
much need staking because as they were being developed over
these thousands of years, they were so focused on the
color and the shape of the flowers. They didn't really
spend a lot of time thinking, hey, can we get
stronger stems and have like a nice garden plant. It
was not a goal.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Leggy, but maybe very nice cut flowers.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Very nice cut flowers. And I'm glad you brought that up,
because yes, you can sometimes find some of these interesting
moms as cut flowers. And coming into Thanksgiving, I would
just encourage you, if you're going to be making an
arrangement for your table, go to a specialty florist see
what they have these. I'm not sure you're going to
find all of the diversity that's out there, but you
(19:37):
will find more interesting plants. You know than if you're
just thinking like, ooh, moms, why want I put those
on my table? I love the spider moms, the quill moms.
In fact, the American chrysanthem Society recognizes are you ready
for this thirteen different classifications for chrysanthemums.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
I believe it.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
And there's gonna be some pictures of these again on
the YouTube version. A regular in curve, reflex, decorative palm, palm,
intermediate in curve, anemone spoon. I love those spoon moms,
quill spiders. I love the spider moms. I love the
ones that have like the double colors, so that the
inner pedal is one color and the outer pedal is another.
(20:19):
So there's just this incredible diversity of really interesting and
really beautiful plants that you know, I think we should
try to grow in our gardens. So it's just a
new take on moms. Wanted to defend my previous takes
on moms and also introduce you and perhaps your Thanksgiving
compatriots there to everything that a mom actually can be.
(20:43):
So take a look at us on YouTube if you
aren't already, we'll have lots of inspiration for you there.
And if you have moms on your Thanksgiving table, We'll
send us a picture. We'd love to see them. We're
going to take a little break when we come back.
We're opening up the mailbags to stay tuned. At Proven
(21:03):
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(21:26):
garden center, or learn more at Proven Winners color Choice
dot com. Greeting's gardening friends, and welcome back to the
Gardening Simplified Show, where we are so grateful for you
in this season of gratitude. You know, every Monday I
come in and if I look at the YouTube version,
I'm really always just so humbled and taken aback by
(21:47):
how many people enjoy the show. And it really means
a lot that they that they say so, and I'm
really glad that we get to spend some time with.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
You and the broad range of areas people outside of
the United States. It's also our good friends in Canada
and beyond. Just thanks for.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Being friends, right And I think the good news for
all of our listeners over those wide areas is that
anyone can grow those mums, and you can grow them
as an annual, so you know, whether you live in
a cold climate or a hot climate. All of that
stuff you just heard about on Plants on Trial, it's
for you. Now. Normally we would be answering your questions,
and we will answer some questions today, but before we do,
(22:27):
I wanted to talk about some clear confusion. I guess
it's an oxymoron, some confusion I have seen out there
in social media land about stuff that's going on right now. Okay, okay.
Number one, I've been hearing a lot of people say, hey,
we've already had some hard frosts. Can I still plant?
And I think that there is a little bit of
(22:49):
a misrepresentation here that frost is definitely a very key
indicator of planting time in the spring, but much less
of a key indicator of planting time in the fall.
It really is pretty much irrelevant in the fall. So
a lot of times people think, Okay, well we've already
had a frost. Guess the planting season is over, and
(23:10):
it most certainly is not, even though, of course now
we're here it's late November. Whether you are planting you know,
shrubs or trees or perennials, the key kind of timing
that you ideally want to look out for is you
want to put stuff in the ground no later than
six weeks before the ground freezes. That is certainly an
easier said than done kind of guideline because you never
(23:33):
really know when the ground is going to freeze, you know.
And even if you have some cold, very cold temperatures
in December and the ground gets frozen ish, sometimes you
get some warm temperatures and then it's not actually frozen.
So I would say, like for us here in Michigan,
at least in West Michigan, I don't think that our
ground freeze is at least until like early to mid January. Yeah,
(23:53):
probably most years, I.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Would agree, And of course every winter is different. Yeah,
but you're right about the spring versus fall thing. And
I think what happens is a lot of people watch
weather forecasts and the meteorologists say, oh, protect those tender plants,
and that's what happens, and then people start to freak
or think, oh boy, what am I going to do?
(24:15):
Just this past weekend, Greenhouse was having a clearance sale.
I bought a whole bunch of plants at eighty percent off,
eighty percent off, eighty percent off, and I healed them
into the ground and I'll put them where I want
next SPRNK.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
I love that. You know. That's another viable option too,
is that if you say, hey, I got these at
a great discount, I don't know where I want them yet,
I'm going to have to do some work. I'm gonna
have to do some dividing or moving. It is perfectly
swell to just go ahead and heal those in. I
just did some of that myself this past weekend. You know,
to just get them through the season and then you
(24:49):
can actually plant them. And you know, as long as
that container has good drainage, it's no problem to even
heal it in directly in its container and not very completely.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
That's right, Niles, shrubs, trees, just get the roots into
the ground, you're going to be okay.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Yeah, And also so it won't keep blowing over all
season because that's another thing that's gonna happen. And this
goes for bulbs and garlic as well, So definitely now
is a great time to do that gardening if you
haven't already. So don't panic. It's not about the frost
in fall. It's all about when the ground freezes.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Now.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
The other thing is so as you know, we are
very into big leaf hydrangels hydrange of macrophilla here at
Provenminter's colored choice shrubs that is the type with a
big purple, pink or blue flowers. And a lot of
people who have attempted to grow these or still are
attempting to grow them, have a sense that the flower
(25:41):
buds are on the plant right now, which is true.
So the twenty twenty six flower buds on your big
leaf hydrangels are in the process of forming on your
plant right now. That means I have to go all
through winter in order to be able to bloom in
summer of twenty twenty six. And for those of us
in cold climates, and I'm talking here about USDA Zone
five in some cases for some like let's stance can
do and let's stance skyview hydrangeas USDA Zone four, you know,
(26:06):
the temperatures are starting to get cold, and you worry
that you're going to lose those flower buds over the winter,
even though those varieties were specifically selected to have better
cold tolerance. So people who say maybe they have older varieties,
you know, I need to make sure that the buds
may get through winter. They're like, should I start protecting
my hydrangeas now? And I'm here to say there is
(26:27):
absolutely no need to worry about the temperatures that we
are having, even if you are in USDA Zone four
at this time of year when we talk about those
hardiness zones, USCA zone five is a temperature of negative
twenty fahrenheit. Now that's not to say that the plants
can take long periods of negative twenty degrees fahrenheit, but
(26:49):
it is to say that the thirties and twenties and
maybe you know, even if you're dipping into the high
teens right now, are not a problem for your big
leaf hydrangea whatsoever. You don't need to protect it. Now
what you really are going to need to protect those
flower buds from if you indeed are protecting not all
of the need protection, and some of us have no
problem whatsoever, but If you are inclined to protect, you're
(27:13):
really protecting from those prolonged periods of very very cold
weather that for us in Michigan we usually get end
of January early February. That's when we have typically our
coldest weather. Yes, if you don't have snowcover, that's another
reason to protect. But you do not need to worry
about those plants whatsoever with the cold that we're having
(27:33):
in November and even in December. And if you do
want to protect your hydrangeas, then make sure that it
is completely dormant before you go out there and do anything.
You do not want to protect a hydrangea that has
not yet gone dormant, which is to say, lost all
of its leaves, it's really going to mess up, you know,
its ability to go dormant according to the cues of nature,
the day length and all of that. So wait till
(27:56):
it's completely dormant, and then you can go ahead and
work whatever magic you want. But don't worry about your
plants right now. They're just going to sleep.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
Agree, boy, I'm glad you brought this up. Maintain your composture.
The way to look at it is plants need to
shut down in due process naturally, so give them some
time to do that.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Yeah, I think people just get a little too worried,
but they can easily take. Temperatures in the twenties, thirties,
even the high teens not a cause for concerns, So
you know, you can just chill. We have a question
for you, specifically, Rick. Okay, our listener Val wants to
know if you can please tell her what kind of
leaf shredder you have. She can't find the video where
(28:37):
you talk about it.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Okay, the leaf shredder, and we have shown this on
the show I think a few times. It is called works,
so it's wo r x that's how they spell it
works electric leaf multure, so it runs, you know, no
messing with gas two cycle engines. That's just a typical
(29:01):
one ten outlet extension cord. My one knock on the
product is it's a little top heavy, so if I
stumble around in the garden sometimes I can knock it over.
But aside from that, easy to operate and does a
great job of shredding leaves. The other thing is is
if you want to shred some leaves for some browns
(29:22):
for your compost or to work, the speed up the
decomposition process in your garden. When you operate something like this,
it works best if the leaves are dry. If they
are wet and matted, it's not going to work real well.
So it's the works WRX Electric Leaf Multure. Look it
(29:43):
up online. There's a number of different people who sell it,
and I'm going to make a mental note right now
to contact works because I think I should be paid
royalties for all the interest I've generated in this.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Well, you know now that is about to be Black Friday.
I'm sure there's going be some good deals on guarden
equipment out there, so I thought it would be a
good time to tell our listeners about what they could
use now. Similarly, we got a question from Kim. This
is interesting. She says that she's always used Canadian pete
to spread around her plants and beds in the fall,
along with fall leaves mulched up from the mower. However,
(30:19):
it seems that environmentalists and US tariffs have decided she
should not use pete. And then she was using a
bunch of leaves from her neighbors, six large maples, and
it's sold and they cut down the maples. Oh no,
Now she doesn't ever Pete. She doesn't ever leaves, and
she's wondering what she can do. She signs it, Kim,
(30:40):
desperate for chemosy.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
You've gotta I like that. I like that a good
sense of humors, Kim. I'll tell you what which you
got to do the same thing I do. People call
me Planta Claus, and it's because I go out and
I collect up leaves, so in within a one to
two mile radius of my home. I'll start scoping out
homes in September looking for good maple trees. And then
(31:06):
I make friends and you knock on the door and
they're actually quite intrigued that you have interest in their leaves,
and then you pick them up. They bag them up
nicely for you, and you take them home and it
works out great. It's a win win. They're happy, you're.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Happy, the leaves are happy, the soil's happy. Everyone's happy.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Everyone's happy. It's just a great thing.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
So when you ask them that, do they ever say yes?
Speaker 1 (31:29):
If you rake them, that's happened also, And I carry
along a leaf blower in my car, so I've done
that before for them. But you know, initially they kind
of look at you like you know, what, are you
a salesman? What are you doing? No, I just want
your leaves, and they're kind of intrigued by it.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Yeah, more so I think that is great. Definitely, you know,
you can take leaves off the curb. Of course, you
never know what you're going to get in those, but
that is one option. The other thing I would say
for Kim or for anybody, it's always worth reaching out
to your city, your township, whatever, and seeing if they
have a compost program. In some places, if you are
(32:11):
contributing composts, you can get free composts. Sometimes they'll sell
it at a lower cost. So you should definitely work
with your city at least check out whether that is
a possibility for you, or even in nearby city. You
might have to pay a little bit more as a
non resident, but you know, there's a very good possibility
that you'll be able to get a good amount of
bulk compost or semi decomposed organic matter. That way, that's
(32:34):
free or affordable leaf compost.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
In this season of Thanksgiving, it's the gift that keeps giving.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
So with that, we're going to take a little break.
When we come back, we're continuing our conversation on the
botany of Thanksgiving, So stay tuned. Thanks for listening to
the Gardening Simplified Podcast, brought to you by Proven Winners
Color Choice Shrubs. Our award winning flowering shrubs and evergreens
are trialed and tested by experts with your success in mind.
(33:03):
Learn more at Proven Winners color Choice dot com.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show. We're talking Thanksgiving botany, Stacey.
I've got to throw into the mix, of course, one
of my favorites mashed potatoes. I don't know how many
people grow potatoes in their vegetable garden. It is a process,
take some work, but potatoes certainly have to be on
the list. I'm looking at a recipe for bourbon yam well.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
I do want to say about growing your own potatoes.
It's very easy to think potatoes or potatoes, and I
can just get potatoes at the grocery store so cheap.
Why in the world would I grow potatoes. The difference
between homeworwn potatoes and grocery store potatoes, I cannot even
begin to elucidate the difference. It is night and day.
They are so so very much better, kind of like
(33:55):
tomatoes yeah, thing that people tend to think, Oh, it's
just a potato. No, you will have so much better
potatoes if you grow them yourself. And I mean, is
there anything more fun than digging up your potato plants
and seeing all of those amazing potatoes.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
Under there, especially if you have kids or grandkids, a
great thing to do, or you're just a kid at
heart and you're a kid heart exactly. But yes, as
far as the yams are concerned, this was an easy
root vegetable or grotten recipe and it involves bourbon. So
I'm thinking about trying that.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Well. You know, yams are a good botanical conundrum for
Thanksgiving because what we call a yam for the most
part here in the US, is not a yam at all.
It is a sweet potato. Big difference, big difference. So
are sweet potatoes that we usually call yams. So when
people talk about candied jams or you know, the yam casserole,
(34:48):
those are sweet potatoes. They are in the morning glory family,
and the yam is in its own family, the Diascora
dacey because they are dioscoria. So same with the Filipino
purple yam that the ube that had its big day
a couple of years ago. Those are in a totally
different family. They can be sweet, but they're much starchier,
(35:09):
whereas the sweet potato is obviously very sweet. It's got
that orange flesh that we all recognize, and it is
indeed the same progenitor as the decorative sweet potato vines
from preven winners. Interesting, yeah, it is interesting. People always
ask if they can, you know, especially the older varieties
like margarita, if they can eat the potatoes that are
(35:29):
in there, And the answer is that you can. They're
not really developed for the best flavor. Like if you
just decide to grow and buy sweet potatoes to grow
that are intended for eating, they taste tear. I've never
tried one, You have tried one. Okay, Well there you
have more of a subsistence food.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
How about pumpkins and canned pumpkin In the United States,
most are made from dickens and pumpkins, making it the
most common source of pumpkin pie filling. So the story
behind this is Elijah Dickinson of Kentucky, nineteenth century pumpkins
named after him. I guess they're great for canned pumpkins.
(36:09):
He takes them to Central Illinois, Morton, Illinois. Of course,
that's where the bulk of pumpkins in the United States
are great, that's the pumpkin epicenter in the United States,
and I know that. Yeah, the rest is the rest
is history.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
Well that's a shame because he's not getting his credit whatsoever. Yeah,
I mean, he's on millions of Thanksgiving tables every single year,
and no one spares a thought for poor Elijah Dickinson.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
That's true.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
So anyway, maybe that's something you can think about.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
I'm trying to give him a little bit of I
appreciate a variety here. Yeah. So one of the places
where you can find wiggle room as far as Thanksgiving
botany is concerned, as far as pure tradition is concerned,
is in the area of pies. I mean, pumpkin pie
is the most traditional option, but there's plenty of regions
(36:57):
of the country that prefer to go in other route.
So most areas prefer pumpkin as their Thanksgiving pie of choice.
And of course you got to add some cool whip.
Got to have cool.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
Whip, you know. That was actual whim that.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
Was invented in the sixties when I was a kid
and to this day, we're still trying to figure out
what non dairy cool whip is made of.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Well, regard thing is you get the container.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
Yeah, the containers are very handy to pack your green
bean cast a roll and take it home. Yeah, exactly.
Other regions of the country prefer apple pie. And of
course in the South they're saying east South Central states, Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi,
Tennessee apple pie. But then when you go to Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas,
(37:49):
they said pecan pie alone was the most worthy pie
for their Thanksgiving feast. And of course I love pecan pie.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
I always heard that pecan pie was a rest from
the Carrow company for corn syrup, so not a traditional food,
not unlike the green bean casserole, a recipe intended to
sell a specific food product.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
Yet in another upsetting issue for my doctor, because I
think pecan pie is great for breakfast, I really.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
Well, you know, pecans are pretty healthy.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
Yeah, the pecans are healthy, thank you.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
I'm just saying there's a good element in there. It's
not complete garbage.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
Of course, corn is super important in agriculture. You'll hear
about the three sisters corn, beans, and squash, the major
staples of Native American agriculture, always grown together. Corn was
the most important staple food grown by Native Americans. The
cornstalks provided a pole for the beans to climb, shade
(38:49):
from the corn benefited the squash that grew under the leaves.
The beans, as with all legumes, provided nitrogen for the
corn and squash. And finally, the shade from the large
squash and pumpkin leaves held moisture in the ground for
all three plants. That's why they call them the three system. Yes,
so they've got to be part of our Thanksgiving botany.
Another one, of course, cranberry. Yes, my favorite, My favorite too,
(39:12):
I love cranberries. Cranberry cultivation began in eighteen sixteen in Massachusetts,
where Revolutionary War veteran Henry Hall found that covering cranberry
bogs would sand fertilize the vines and retained water around
their roots. And you know, this is a misconception I
think a lot of people have. They think that cranberries
(39:33):
always are underwater, and they're not.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
They are not. They are grown that way specifically to
make harvesting easier, which they no longer actually need because
they have machinery. But back in the day, they would
flood the bog and all the ripe berries would float
to the top, and it would be very easy to
want easier, I guess, to harvest the cranberries just by
skimming the floating berries off the top. You know. I
always felt like cranberries were so special because there was
(39:57):
in the US, at least in my family their time
of the year that you had something like cranberry sauce. However,
you made it like it was just something that was
very different.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
Now.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
Cranberries are North American native fruit, which is one of
the reasons why they are so integral to Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
It's an American thing.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
It is an American thing. Botanically, they are known as
Vaccinium macrocarpon, and Vaccinium, if you're not familiar, is the
same genus as blueberry. So from a botanical standpoint, they
are very similar to blueberry. The difference there is macrocarpon,
the species of cranberry means big fruit.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
Oh interesting, I didn't know that. Now. Of course, the
cranberries have built in air pockets, so to speak, so
that when they flood the bogs, I guess they float,
and that's what makes harvesting easier. From the perspective of
US history, General Ulysses S. Grant is widely credited with
(40:53):
the tradition of serving cranberry sauce with the Thanksgiving meal
because in eighteen sixty four he ordered that the dish
be included in the holiday feast for all Union troops
during the Siege of Petersburg.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
I did not know that. That's interesting. And cranberry's are
actually very closely related to lingenberry's, which is sort of
the Scandinavian version of the cranberry, same genus, different species,
and they're smaller, So cranberries are nice and big. I
did not know that that we have grant to thank for. Yeah,
you know, and they're so pretty, like I love the
look of the cranberries on the Thanksgiving table. My grandma
(41:30):
always served them in a beautiful crystal bowl because you
had to see the color of them, you know, compared
to all of the brown stuff on the table.
Speaker 1 (41:37):
Absolutely, And when I was on the East coast Cape Cod,
I sought out some of these areas to take a look.
And yet the number one state in the United States
for cranberry producing is Wisconsin. Massachusetts follows Wisconsin, then New
Jersey and Oregon. And of course cranberries are a very
(41:59):
tart fruit. I put them in my fruit smoothies. But
it being so tart, I would think that it's less
of a problem for deer browsing animal browsing than possibly
other types of berries. But that's just a guess.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
It is a guess because they are in the air
casey or the heather heath family like rhododendron and azalea
and and asalia can get pretty eaten by deer, so
you know, there's just no telling with those creatures.
Speaker 1 (42:29):
Of course, at the end of the day, adding cream, butter, cheese, bacon, bourbon,
anything will make anything taste good. Whipped cream in a can,
the nitrous oxide that's a tradition at my house to
spray it in people's mouths, the propellant in the can.
I know, I'm sorry, please, And of course non dairy
(42:50):
cool whip topping. So you got the cool whip and
you got the miracle whip, because I use the miracle
whip to leaf shine my houseplants a wonderful job.
Speaker 2 (43:01):
Really and it doesn't get like dust and stuff stuck
to it.
Speaker 1 (43:03):
If you don't have pets, because the pets are going.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
To get drawn to it.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
Then, Adriana, No, but if you don't have pets, miracle
whip you can use as a leaf shot. So and
then of course I got to wrap it up here.
So I got to wrap it up with the fact
that as far as herbs are concerned, I have to
have sage gotta at Thanksgiving, and sage is perfect compliment
(43:29):
to things like butternut squash soup as a matter of fact,
or in stuffing. So sage is the perfect compliment to
Thanksgiving feasts and fall squash. There you have it, Thanksgiving
botany all right.
Speaker 2 (43:44):
I hope everybody learns something and can take away a
fun fact to share with a family member this season. Absolutely,
So on that note, we bid you a very happy
Thanksgiving and thanks to you, Rick, thank you, thanks to
you Adriana, and thanks to all of you for listening.
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