SmartGardener goes mobile!
Smartgardener.com needs your help to raise money to create an iPad app for its popular gardening website! Go to Kickstarter now to make your pledge!
Aqua Utopia|海の底で記憶を紡ぐ

No title available

pixel skylines
styofa doing anything
"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"

JBB: An Artblog!

Product Placement

@theartofmadeline
Sade Olutola

Janaina Medeiros
Monterey Bay Aquarium

JVL
Alisa U Zemlji Chuda

⁂

#extradirty
Xuebing Du

tannertan36
wallacepolsom
art blog(derogatory)

祝日 / Permanent Vacation
seen from Tunisia
seen from Saudi Arabia
seen from Colombia
seen from Zimbabwe

seen from Colombia

seen from Belgium
seen from Morocco
seen from United States
seen from Brazil
seen from Dominican Republic

seen from Malaysia

seen from Malaysia

seen from Dominican Republic

seen from United States

seen from Tunisia
seen from Dominican Republic
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States

seen from United States
@farm2belly
SmartGardener goes mobile!
Smartgardener.com needs your help to raise money to create an iPad app for its popular gardening website! Go to Kickstarter now to make your pledge!
Chlorogalum pomeridianum
It was about 7 years ago when I first started noticing and learning about this versatile plant that I put the following information together. The plant I used for making this brush is a soap plant, Chlorogalum pomeridianum. Up here in northern California, Shasta County to be particular the local soap plant is also known as Amole and has the Latin name Chlorogalum pomeridianum. It likes dry, open hills. Although it is very common, you have to make a special effort to enjoy the delicate beauty of the flowers. Mostly, you will just notice the basal leaves, which start to appear in March. A twiggy stem develops in May, with inconspicuous buds. The flowers only open late in the day or when it is very overcast, so look for them around twilight. They are mostly pollinated by moths that avoid the sunlight, but bees also pollinate them. Ok, so why the name? Both the indigenous peoples and the early settlers used it as a soap. They stripped the outer coating from the bulb and used the crushed pulp to wash with. It makes an excellent lather. Baking destroys the soapy (saponin) character of the bulbs, making them edible. The spring shoots are very sweet when cooked. Even the basal leaves are edible. The juice from the baking bulbs makes good glue. There are other “soap plants” in California, including the closely-related Chlorogalum augustifolim, which is referred to as “narrowleaf soap plant,” our local plant being called “wavy-leaf” to distinguish it. A rosette of wavy blue-green leaves is often the most noticeable part of the soap plant. The leaves may grow up to 2 feet long, flattened against the ground. In May or June these leaves start to wither as a stout stem 2 to 4 feet high rises from the root stalk. Dainty blue-veined white flowers appear successively up the stalk, opening briefly in the afternoon. The descriptive name, pomeridianum, means “opening in the afternoon.” The large deeply seated bulb is covered with coarse fibers. The indigenous peoples had many uses for this plant. The bulb was baked for food, and the coarse fibers were used to make brushes. The crushed bulb made a soapy lather that was used as a shampoo. This same material was used to help catch fish. It was put into low flowing streams where it would get into the gills of fish so they could not breathe. The crushed bulb also made a glue used variously for fletching arrows, putting backings on bows, and making brush handles. The mashed bulb was applied to relieve sores and poison oak rash and to cure rheumatic pains and cramps. In addition to the bulb, very young shoots proved to be a very sweet food when cooked slowly in a pit oven. When still young, the fresh green leaves were sometimes eaten raw. The older leaves were used for wrapping acorn bread during baking. Juice from the leaves was pricked into the skin for green tattoo markings.
Boy oh boy. A plant that is both soap and cleaning utensil, plus so much more? Could plants be any more amazing? Just be careful to cook it thoroughly to avoid any stomach upset the saponins might induce. ~AR
what an amazing plant!
A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken.
James Dent
yum!
Free Vegetarian Times Eat to Beat Inflammation E-Cookbook!
lobster sandwich! yummy!
perfect lunch.
yum
looks so delicious!
Soup Dumplings by cknlomein on Flickr. via lalalinala
yum. :)
yummy healthy salads.
Why Eating Some Meat May Be Better for the Environment than Going Vegetarian
In fact, eating vegetarian occasionally could be a smarter environmental choice than eating no meat at all. The diet of those who eschew only red meat could have a smaller carbon footprint than that of dairy-loving vegetarians: A serving of chicken has a lower carbon impact than a serving of hard cheese. The real advantage, though, is that eating less meat opens up conversations about food choices with meat-eaters, while vegetarianism often shuts them down
Read more on GOOD→
very interesting
Squash with kale and potatoes. via justwanttobehealthyandfit
this makes me miss summer!
gorgeous colors!