Garden Appreciation Thread

I took another stroll through my local park after work yesterday. I took a ton of pictures, not all of them came out well due to the strong light. I’ll see if I can get better pics of the bigger flowering plants.

Anyway, this park has made a huge transformation from this spring! :eyes:

April:

Now:


The plants have started encroaching on the gravel path between flower beds…


I’m not sure what this purple species is called, but it’s one of the huge plants that takes over the plant beds.

Then there’s this yellow blossoming plant, with fluffy balls on long sprawling stems. They’re easily 1,5 meters high. I’ll try taking a better pic of the whole thing.

The rose bushes are also blossoming now! :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:


Who doesn’t like the smell of roses? :relaxed:


Could this be sage? :thinking:


I wonder what this funky looking tree is called? :eyes:

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I have no credentials, but I agree it looks like some kind of salvia from that picture.

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There are the kind you grow for your own herbs to use, and then there are these garden varieties. They make me unsure…^^

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No degree but do agree

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dinner straight from the garden. :slight_smile:

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Hnnnnghghh :sweat_smile: LURVELY and fresh :tomato: :pizza:

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トマト finally totally ripe!!

Some kind of (あか) トマト, with Thorburn’s Lemon Blush in background.

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These look so yum! :yum:

I took some more pics of plants from around where I live! ^>^

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Now for even more plants. These pics were taken during my walk to get vaccinated.


Typical Swedish lawn = full of clover blossoming. クローバー / 白詰草 しろつめくさ


Johannesört - perforate St John’s-wort -


Blåklockor - Campanula - カンパニュラ / 釣り鐘草 つりがねそう


Rölleka - Yarrow - 西洋鋸草 せいようのこぎりそう


Great willowherb/ rosebay willowherb/ fireweed /bombweed (we call them rallarros here in Sweden, from how they tend to grow near train tracks (rall)) - 赤花 あかばな

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Ölandstok - golden hardhack/ shrubby cinquefoil/ shrubby fivefinger/widdy


This bush is very hardy.


Jasmine - ジャスミン (there are many varieties with specific names on Jisho, but it’s hard to tell which this is)


Rose hip - ローズヒップ - The flowers smell really nice. :relaxed:


You can make delicious soup from the berries/fruit. ^>^

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Heavenly – not the least of which, is the nosh. Look at those tiny scones! :yum:

(assuming they’re scones, but even better if they’re potato)

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They’re biskvier, made from almonds, and they go really well with rose hip soup! ^>^ You can eat it either hot or cold. :slight_smile:

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^>^

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I make rose hip tea each winter, but please give me the scoop on rose hip soup. :slight_smile:

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To be honest, I’ve only bought the ready-made stuff, since that’s available in most grocery stores here in Sweden. Much like blueberry soup is.

But, I found a recipe that didn’t seem too difficult. (I know other recipes makes you take out the seeds before boiling the soup. This method seems much easier. )

600 g nypon (orensade)   fresh rose hips
1,6 liter vatten   - water
1 dl socker  - caster sugar
1 msk majsstärkelse (Maizena)  - corn starch
1,5 msk vatten   - water

Instruktioner

Rensa bort stjälkar och annat från nyponen och lägg dem i en kastrull ihop med vattnet. Låt koka i ca 30 min. Ta sedan från värmen och mixa slätt med en stavmixer. Passera genom en vanlig sil så att kärnorna sorteras bort. Skölj ur kastrullen och häll tillbaka den silade soppan däri. Låt soppan koka upp igen, och smaka av med sockret. Rör samman Maizena och vatten i en kopp, och häll ner i soppan. Rör hela tiden med en handvisp. Låt koka i ytterligare ca 5 minuter, tills soppan har tjocknat något. Ta från värmen, låt svalna och häll upp i rengjorda flaskor. Servera gärna med vispad grädde och små mandelbiskvier.

Essentially. Place the rose hips (? is that how it’s called?, we say nypon) in water. Boil for about 30 minutes. Mix with an emulsion blender until smooth. Pour the soup through a sieve to get rid of the seeds. Clean out the pot (so no seeds remain) and put the soup back in. Add sugar. Bring to the boil. Use corn starch mixed with water to thicken the soup to your liking.

Serve either hot or cold. If hot, I suggest with vanilla ice cream that melts down into the soup. If cold, whipped cream. “mandelbiskvier”. are yum with both! :yum: (also something you can buy here, but I you can also make them…

Mandelbiskvier:

Ingredienser

Receptet gäller för 100 st (makes 100)

|Mandel|100 g| -almond
| — | — |
|Strösocker|1½ dl| caster sugar
|Äggvita|1| egg white

Gör så här

Sätt ugnen på 200°.
Mal eller mixa mandeln till ett fint mjöl. Blanda med socker och äggvita till en smidig smet.
Spritsa eller klicka ut smeten i små toppar på en plåt med bakplåtspapper.
Grädda i mitten av ugnen ca 10-12 min.

Put your oven on 200 degrees C. Mix almonds to a flour. Mix with sugar and whipped egg white well. Put the mixture in a pastry bad and make small dots on a tray with baking paper. Bake in the middle of the oven for 10-12 minutes.

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hmmmm …
I don’t think I am capable of considering this a soup. A sweet sauce? A punch? (just add champagne)
The flavor is such that it could work as savory instead, maybe. I will experiment if I get any brilliant ideas.

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All fruit soups are sweet yes. That’s the point. I’ve never heard of a savory “nyponsoppa” or blueberry soup. I’m not sure it makes sense from a culinary pov. But, do tell me of your experiments! :wink:

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I think rose could be a savory-adjacent taste… maybe with something like cocoa, tomato paste, cream cheese… or as an accent in kimchi. Pickles, even :thinking:

EDIT: I suddenly want @RoseWagsBlue , to invent savory rose soup…

(then make sourdough flavored with rose water to sop it with, named Life’s a Bread of Roses)

exits stage left, then the building, then the parking lot

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You could try out a different, and even easier, fruit soup first to see if you wanna make the effort with nypon. For example orange soup. Use freshly pressed orange juice, sugar to your liking, and corn or potato starch to thicken somewhat. Put in supremed oranges and or banana slices. :yum:

As for the savory alternative…it’s just hard to imagine a fruit turned into something savory. But go for it! ^^

(of course, there are other fruit soups out there, plum soup, rhubarb soup, all delicious stuff)

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It’s easier to imagine, when you think of savory dishes, accented with fruit.

Lemon is a prime example. Lemon is used fresh sliced to accent fish, poultry, and lamb; pickled to make preserved lemons (or Vietnamese chanh muối). It plays beautifully with bay leaf, coriander, olive oil, clove, and black pepper, all complex and three-dimensional. The only difference, is now the lemon is the base and the savory are the accents (as in chanh muối).

Rose is obviously a bit more particular with what it’s paired with due to being floral (like clove)… but with experimentation and a full spice cabinet wouldn’t be too hard to find a match with a low glycemic index :thinking:

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The thing with rose hips is that it never occurred to me that they are very sweet or fruity. Maybe it is just my rose bush. I have only ever made tea from my big shrub that is right by my kitchen door, and is laden with hips all winter. The tea I get from it is nearly akin to a strong black tea. When I serve it to guests, they never guess that it is rose hips. I can imagine using it for pumpkin soup, with some tomato juice, hot pepper, maybe even some peanuts.
I have never tried cooking and eating the hip itself, so that will be my first experiment.

Also, I am all pickled out! I have canned 30+ liters of beet pickles and cucumber pickles in the last two weeks. I will give the canner a break for a few weeks, then it is on to tomatoes.

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Half of my cucumbers are a standard American canning variety. Half are American yellow squash. The other half is a long cucumber from the 関西(かんさい) area. They have done really well, and don’t seem to be as susceptible to vine borers.

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