So many questions and thoughts running through my mind...
But they also have to try and survive off the land and the land is very foreign (Fiji, Madagascar, etc.). The contestants on "Survivor" get rice and then have to compete for familiar foods. The contestants on "Naked and Afraid" can eat as much as they can find but there's not much and nothing is familiar. I watched one couple ruin perfectly good anaconda meat, TWICE, because they kept overcooking it. I wanted to scream at the TV, "You are naked! And you are afraid! That meat was done when you killed it!"
When I returned home, I noticed all the happy cactuses in my yard. I occasionally entertain the idea of eating my cactuses but no one seems to be able to ID the edible ones for me and since I don't have a PSR (primitive survival rating) resting on the outcome, I'm not going to experiment.
Lots of new growth on this bad boy and it does have a juicy look.
Even if this cactus were edible, too much work!
I just got this start for $5 at the flea market in Mt. Dora. More painful plants for my yard.
All my potted cactuses, aloes, and agaves are decorated with oxalis. I hate oxalis.
It's such a pesky little weed but a gardening friend told me years ago to shrug it off; ignore it.
I try.
Oxalis is, however, edible (for any worrywarts out there, yes, it contains oxalic acid, but seriously, how much oxalis are you planning to eat?!). I suppose I should gather it and toss it in salads but it's more fun to feed it to the chickens as I weed my pots.
Better than eating my yard is bartering my yard for prepared goods. I gave 3 calabazas to a neighbor from Trinidad and she returned a couple hours later with a container of spicy Caribbean-style pumpkin and a bag of fresh roti (pictured above), still warm and soft from her kitchen.
I tried to candy whole orange peels like the one I bought from the Fiesta mini mart. Don't they look lovely? I sharpened my melon baller with a file to easily scoop out the insides. But the finished peel makes my mouth burn which is what happens EVERY time I try to candy citrus peel.
Never again!
The temperatures have jumped into the 80's so I threw some shade cloth over the kale but it still looks a little wilted in the afternoon. I trade eggs for chicken-sitting when I'm out of town and I hope to keep sweetening the pet-care pot with kale as long as possible.
Speaking of eggs...
Ouch!
Somebody laid a lunker!
The egg in the middle is significantly larger than all the others.
And last but not least,
the dendrobium farmeri that I bought from Krull-Smith orchid growers in Apopka, FL, has bloomed! I am hopeful that I can keep this plant alive. Please! My other dendrobium like this (all gold flowers) has 5 spikes that I didn't notice until today and they are each about 5" long. Not sure how that happened because I check it almost every day, but I'm not complaining. The plant adds a spike of blooms every year. Last year it only had 4 which were all eaten by rats before they could bloom.
You heard me right.
It is what it is.
Needless to say, that won't be an issue this year so I'm looking forward to a beautiful display.
My hunger for "Naked and Afraid" has been sated for awhile (3 episodes every 6 months seems to do the trick) but I'll still be considering ways to eat my yard.
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