If you want to harvest the seeds of a starfruit, gently split the lobes lengthwise. Cutting it width-wise will produce the fruit’s namesake shape, but as you can see from my photo, the seed will likely be sliced through. (Boy, did i feel stupid doing that.) This is actually my 3rd attempt in growing store-bought starfruit, so I’ve been waiting a loooong time to make this post. I live in the NE of USA, so we only see this fruit for a short time around early winter. This year, I was finally successful. I used the paper towel and ziplock incubation method, but I did discover this seed really like a heat mat to ensure a vigorous germination.
It’s been a little over 1 year and I have 4 surviving starfuit seedlings. They could be probably bigger at this stage, but honestly, the fault is my own. I really should have repotted these guys already. The most I’ve been for these guys is a little bit of chicken poo fertilizer.
Still, I am surprised by how delicate and tender these leaves were for tropical plants. I was expecting something with more plasticity (?).
I was pursuing a Middle Eastern shop when I spotted these packages of…twigs. Has anyone ever heard of a miswak? It’s a teeth cleaning twig cut from the root of the arak tree (Salvadora persica). Apparently, the miswak have been used over 7000 years ago and is predominately used in Muslim populations around Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, and some Southeast Asian countries. In other regions and cultures, the tree twig toothbrushes can be made from bamboo, neem, citrus trees, and other plants, but the arak tree is documented to have antiseptic properties that really clean and protect teeth and gums.
To use, I carefully shaved off a layer of bark at one tip of the twig with a small knife, then dipped it in water. I gently crushed the tip to produce feathery bristle fibers. Over time, you trim off the fiber and peel off more bark to get fresh bristles. I’ll spare you photos of my gums and teeth, but the photo below generally gets the point across in terms of the brushing action.
I’m probably not doing this 100% correctly, but the miswak was quite easy to use. I had a little trouble getting the back of my front teeth, but otherwise, the twig did a great job and there were no odd flavors. The twig smelled a little bit horseradishy to me, but not enough to make the brushing process unpleasant. This is such a smart way to maintain oral hygiene and I’m super excited to have this as a part of my outdoor survival kit.
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Forgot where I was when I took this, but I love old farm tools! After the corn was shucked, the kernels were ground in another machine, so we took some ground cornmeal home!
After a recent business trip to China, my old man brought me back an interesting little present: a bottle gourd. In the old days, these gourd canteens were used to carry small pellets of medicine or booze…both healing in my opinion. This gourd has been outfitted with a wooden plug, but much to my – shake shake shake – surprise, the gourd was still filled with seeds..AND THEY ARE VIABLE! I’m so excited to grow these into mature fruits next year. Ever since I made these gourd containers following instructions posted by @hyggehaven, I’ve had this repressed obsession to transform large gourds into dishes, scoops, containers and – OMG I can’t even! This is one primitive craft I really want to perfect one day.
Update on the Bottle Gourds
I don’t think it’s gonna make it guys…I transplanted the starters out to the garden this Spring, a rather
forgettable location actually. I really didn’t think I was going to have
any luck growing gourds and so paid no attention.
All of a sudden, in the height of summer, the gourds exploded in growth. Beautiful, thick, and velvety leaves and tough vines over took the garden box. I can’t believe I got fruit, and I actually still have one hot tamale hanging on to sweet sweet life in these 40 degree lows in Zone 7a.
I’m suppose to harvest when the stem turns brown, but it’s already late October and we’ll be hitting the 30s soon. I’m pouting because I really wanted to cure this and turn it into a container thingy 😦
Update on Bottle Gourd Curing
It took me so long to grow and harvest these Chinese bottle gourds, but I never thought it would take almost just as long to get the darn thing dried! Before the frost hit last year, I took in my beautiful gourd to moonlight as a dining table centerpiece for at least 3 months, before she started its natural curing and molding process. In the outdoor shed she stayed for another three months before I deemed her fully dried and ready for a cleaning. However…I am never doing this again. I don’t know why, but of all the gross homesteading tasks I’ve ever had to do, cleaning this mold crusty moldy gourd is by far the most stomach churning for me.
I will keep this gourd around as a decorative piece or perhaps more as a sordid reminder for myself to keep away from curing gourds.
Maybe not the case to give up just yet. I 100% agree that cleaning a moldy gourd is probably one of the grossest and most deterring things ever from the practice (those tutorials I’m reading rn that say “The mold won’t harm the shell and will actually leave interesting patterns on the shell” I think either haven’t done it before or have a stomach made of goddamn steel).
It may slow down the process of drying/curing the gourd (and perhaps you did do this but just in case you didn’t I’m gonna suggest it anyways) but at least one article/page from the Wilson County Center from 2009 says “
Wiping shells with the bleach water solution will prevent mold from forming”, which would make sense; it’s not like you’re eating these gourds, the shells are naturally hard, and bleach is pretty much the go-to ultimate disinfectant even among horticulturalists so- that’s an idea if it hadn’t been done already?
If I could avoid the grossness of the mold myself I would be trying to grow bird/water gourds myself XD I have absolutely no use for them (and frankly my growing season may be a tad too short for them if even you in zone 7 struggled getting any ripe in time- I’m 2 zones colder than you for crying out loud lmao) but I personally find them very charismatic. If I were to find smaller fruited cultivars I’d be even trying to make christmas tree decorum out of some.
First thing I gotta say…these were bitches to open and clean! The skin was very though and the nooks and crannies in these gourds makes it very difficult scoop out cleanly. Of course, I was not using the right tools; too lazy to find my pottery tools.
I also realized I do not have a proper drying facility, Using the toaster oven, I set the lowest temp, and left the door open, but the heat was hard to manage. Some of the edges still got “toasted” and unfortunately I lost vibrancy in the color. Later I noticed placing them on top of the toaster oven offered a much better source of indirect heat and air flow for drying.
My hope was to make containers, but the drying process creates a lot of shrinkage as warping, making it impossible to have a perfect lid. But still, I’m using one as a sugar bowl, another as a potpourri pot, and the scoop turned out to be pretty scoopable!
It was a fun experiment! Now I want to practice this primitive skill with a real gourd…
I know a lot of peeps are probably transitioning to Wintery and Christmas decorations, but hold on to those decorative gourds and upcycle them!
The hens are getting bolder. They are sneaking into the front yard and our neighbors’ property through the driveway. There’s not exactly a ready-made fence to buy at the store, so we made one!
The Hubs had the idea to build a zigzag barrier – basically like a modesty screen. This flexible accordion design can accommodate a variety of spaces from ~3 to ~11 feet wide. The fence is collapsible and stackable, making it easy for storage. To get in and out of the driveway, we only need to swing one panel for passage. The wood we used also made the fence pretty darn heavy; it stood up this winter against the snow and winds with no problem.
Not the most amazing craftsmanship, but I’m very proud of this!
Version 2: Cheaper, Sturdier, and Easier to make
Same concept but this was faster to make. Some old two by fours made for a sturdier frame. Reused the wire mesh we had for other projects.
Before I had a garden, I used to buy loads of rosemary for the holiday cooking season. Inevitably, there would be left over stalks. To reduce waste, sometimes I would dry them, but the clippings with a woody stalks make for perfect candidates for propagation. I strip off some leaves to expose a stalk of 2 to 3 inches. Left in water – just clean water – and a warm location, the roots will start sprouting vigorously. Transferred into a planter, and they’ll be new rosemary plants in no time!
Friendly reminder to Reduce, Reuse, and Regrow your herbs.
Dry your leftover Thanksgiving herb packs or try to regrow them if conditions are met. I was successful with rosemary, but yes this can technique can work with many other common herbs as well, like this thyme!
In fact, I didn’t even even need to root this one. The thyme sprigs with the woody stems were already putting out roots while in the box. I just need to get them revived in some water before planting.
I’ve grown ginger from store-bought roots with great ease, so I figured growing turmeric would be just as simple. Not the case as I discovered…
Unlike my experience with growing ginger, the turmeric does not start rooting itself when left on the countertop; it will dry out as I had painfully discovered. In a second attempt, I plugged the turmeric roots in a pot of dirt with occasional moistening throughout the winter. After about a 4 to 6 month hibernation period, which really tested my patience, the damn thing finally started to send up leaves. Boy oh boy are the leaves unbelievably gorgeous; everyone should just grow this as even as a decorative plant!
Kihaku-Gato's Garden Blog (tumblr import) 