still hanging on

The roadsides are still sporting late season sunflowers; they are a little banged up but they are still here. We have not had a frost yet. And a quick peak at the weather forecast says there is no threat of frost for the next two weeks. If that holds, that would put us a full month later than normal for first frost. Sunflowers blooming on Thanksgiving in the North? Hmm.

Jerusalem artichoke sunflowers in very late October (Helianthus tuberosus)

Bines make beer. Vines make wine.

Our son Joseph planted hops this summer. The underground hop root system is perennial, but the annual bines are are not. These are not Joe’s bines. He got a small harvest this first year: enough to make 1 beer–which he did. I am not joking.

These bines I found covering a STOP sign in Minneapolis this morning. The hops are too old to make beer with (according to son Joseph), so they are currently in my dehydrator as an experiment. By the way, you can thank Joseph Hoffman for the title factoid: “BINES MAKE BEER. VINES MAKE WINE.” Hopes are a bine, of course.

hops bine seed cone strobiles ( Humulus lupulus)

Take a guess?

Anyone know what these are? We have an exciting new restaurant opening in Minneapolis next month, and was asked to make composition using this fruit which will be the name of the new restaurant. I won’t say anything more until I get a few guesses. Good luck! :-)

jujubes (Ziziphus jujuba)

Jujube: Also known as Chinese jujube, red date or Chinese date is a species in the genus Ziziphus in the buckthorn family Rhamnaceae. It is often confused with the closely related Indian jujube, Z. mauritiana. The jujube tolerates a diverse range of climates, from temperate to tropical. Its origin is thought to be in eastern Asia, but it has been widely dispersed through cultivation, and is today cultivated in gardens as a shrub as well as in agriculture as a food crop. Its fruit is eaten freshly harvested as well as dried and candied.

a staycation in Minneapolis

Today I spent the day in Minneapolis with my bestie Kristin, doing the kinds of things you generally only make time for on vacation: we started at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) to see the Paris Couture exhibit, then we ate lunch outside on the sidewalk at a French bistro called Cafe Barbette, after lunch we stopped at one of my favorite stores––Isles Studio––to buy Steve’s favorite hand-soap for the bathroom, and then we went to a Gallery Opening for a friend of Kristin’s. All the while I was picking up leaves and deadheading flowers and stuffing them in my purse–case in point: these horse chestnut leaves. Such a well-filling day in my own hometown. I am sated.

horse chestnut leaves in autumn (Aesculus hippocastanum)

never before

Steve and I collected these leaves outside our favorite Twin Cities fish market, Coastal Seafoods. We are making a seafood chowder for dinner tonight. I’ve never seen maple leaves do this before and had to stop and pick up an armful while Steve loaded the car. My guess is either that our late summer drought dried the delicate perimeter of these leaves while the center, closer to the stem, remained healthy; or that we had a touch of near-frost recently that had a similar effect. In any case, I’m enchanted by these little leaves within leaves. Now off to saute some vegetables.

unusual autumn maple leaves