Go ahead, take a guess:
Photo by Yellow Cloud via Wikimedia Commons
Animal, vegetable, mineral … or alien?
Photo by Amada44 via Wikimedia Commons
Leaning toward alien, aren’t you?
Here’s a hint:
Photo by Amada44 via Wikimedia Commons
Note the pot in which they’re planted.
These little curiosities are, indeed, vegetable. Formally known as lithops (a genus that contains several species), they are succulent plants commonly called “living stones” or “pebble plants.” You can see why.
Photo by Anselm Bradford via Wikimedia Commons
“Lithops are true mimicry plants: their shape, size, and color causes them to resemble small stones in their natural surroundings. The plants blend in among the stones as a means of protection. Grazing animals, which would otherwise eat them during periods of drought to obtain moisture, usually overlook them. Even experts in the field sometimes have difficulty locating plants for study because of this unusual deceptive camouflage,” explains enthusiast Nick Rowlette. “In the wild, lithops inhabit vast dry regions of southern Africa. Several areas in which these plants grow receive less than two inches of rainfall per month throughout the entire year.”
And, here’s the really cool part: Lithops do this:
Photo by Michael Wolf via Wikimedia Commons
You want some now, don’t you?
Well, then, awaken your inner dormant gardener from her winter sleep and indulge your newfound lithop love! It’s easy:
Order live lithops from a U.S. Etsy shop like San Pedro Cactus or try your hand at starting seeds from Whatcom Seeds Company. The seeds germinate within 14 days and, once started, need no water from fall until spring.
Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)
Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)
My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Nancy Boyd!!!
Nancy Boyd (#2508) has received a certificate of achievement in Stitching & Crafting for earning a Beginner Level Spinning Merit Badge!
“Ever since I was little and was in a couple 4-H groups growing up and spending time around the animal barns and fairgrounds, I remember seeing ladies spinning on their wheels in the sheep barns. My aunt and uncle had sheep when I was growing up, and that added to my fascination for wanting to learn to spin. Within the last three years, I joined the local Weaver’s Guild in the Columbus, Ohio, area. In the last year, I have purchased around 8 sheep fleeces so I could learn to scour and card the fiber.
Then I used the fiber to work on learning to use both the drop spindle and wheel to spin up some yarn for me to use. I now have these 8 fleeces in plastic containers, and on one of them, I have been practicing doing my carding both by hand and drum. The fleece that I have carded has turned out gorgeous. Even my cousin who raised and showed sheep said it felt soft.
This past August (2014), I participated in the Sheep to Shawl demonstration at the Ohio State Fair, where I worked on carding fleece while other ladies worked on spinning and weaving items while there was a sheep shearing contest going on at the same time in the same ring. It was a lot of fun. One of the guild members helped me out to fine tune my approach to carding. This past week, I sat down and watched a DVD on Carding Wool that had four different individuals on it and how they carded wool. While watching the DVD, I carded some fiber, trying each of these individual methods to see which way I preferred to card.
The whole process turned out great. I did settle on one way to card some fiber. Watching the DVD and the help from one of our guild members has helped me improve on carding fibers. Now I just need to keep practicing and carding all this fine fiber that I purchased and scoured. I will save and use some for my dyeing badge, and spin some to use for my other spinning badges. I am so excited to finally learn a new craft that has been on my bucket list before it was called a bucket list.”
Are you mad for honey?
Photo courtesy National Honey Board, Honey.com
Did you love our tour of worldwide beehives earlier this year? Well then, you’ll want to hop aboard the Jane train as we venture off to the Black Sea region of Turkey in search of a mysterious variety of mountain honey that may be as treacherous as it is tantalizing …
Photo by Dr. Zeynel Cebeci via Wikimedia Commons
As we arrive in the beautiful port of Gulburnu, a small seaside village in Turkey’s Giresun province, the scenery looks peaceful and picturesque. Not a trace of … madness. Let’s have a look around. Hmmm … all is quiet as we ascend the slopes above town.
Photo of mountains on Turkey’s Black Sea coast by Gardenlantern via Wikimedia Commons
Who might we ask about the honey known locally as deli bal … Hello? Excuse me, can you tell us where we might find deli bal? HELLO!?
Photo by Ziegler175 via Wikimedia Commons
Can you imagine? They never even stopped to look at us! Perhaps that’s the reaction we should expect when asking about a type of honey that has, at least once in history, been used as a weapon of war.
It’s true.
“In 67BC, King Mithridates’ army left chunks of ‘mad honeycomb’ in the path of the Roman enemy, who gobbled it up, lost their minds, and were promptly slain,” reports The Guardian.
Photo by Skrissh2013 via Wikimedia Commons
Deli bal, or orman komar bali (rose of the forest honey), is rare regional honey produced by the pollination of certain rhododendron varieties that contain a natural poison called grayanotoxin.
Photo of toxic Turkish Rhododendron luteum by Karduelis via Wikimedia Commons
According to Emma Bryce of Modern Farmer, “In Turkey, not only do the poisonous rhododendrons abound, but the humid, mountainous slopes around the Black Sea provide the perfect habitat for these flowers to grow in monocrop-like swaths. When bees make honey in these fields, no other nectars get mixed in—and the result is deli bal, potent and pure.”
Photo of toxic Turkish Rhododendron ponticum by Karduelis via Wikimedia Commons
While “mad honey” is rarely fatal, consuming more than minute amounts can cause low blood pressure, heartbeat irregularity, nausea, numbness, blurred vision, fainting, potent hallucinations, and seizures.
No wonder no one wants to tell us where to find it! Mum’s the word …
Photo by Seattle Globalist via Wikimedia Commons
“People believe that this honey is a kind of medicine,” Süleyman Turedi, a doctor at Turkey’s Karadeniz Technical University School of Medicine, told Bryce. “They use it to treat hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and some different stomach diseases.” He went on to say that deli bal is taken in small amounts, sometimes boiled in milk, and consumed typically just before breakfast.
That is, if you dare.
“If you do find yourself in the area and want a taste, you’ll have to dig a bit deeper than supermarket shelves,” Bryce advises. “Ask nicely, and chances are most local shopkeepers will hand over a jar from a stash tucked behind the counter, adding to the old-world mystery of it all.”
So, tell me … would you dare?
Recently, I noticed a new store in Moscow called Ampersand. According to their website, it’s an “Oil & Vinegar Tap House.” They offer infused oils and vinegar from around the world on tap, along with other specialty grocery items. But the name seems to stump some passersby. I overheard two people trying to pronounce it and wondering aloud what it could mean.
Ampersand is a fancy word for a common symbol … the “and” sign.
photo, http://blog.dictionary.com/ampersand/
And, seems like it’s been everywhere lately … it popped up on Dictionary.com the other day when I was checking the spelling of some obscure word under a heading titled “What Character Was Removed from the Alphabet?”. Dictionary.com goes on to tell us that the symbol “&” was first used by Roman scribes in the 1st century, when they linked the two letters of “and” in Latin, “et,” in a kind of early shorthand. And the symbol was actually part of the alphabet in early English, coming after the Z at the end of the alphabet (X, Y, Z, &). But when reciting the alphabet, it was confusing to have the word “and” at the end … and … what?
So students reciting the alphabet used the words “per se” (by itself) to clarify: “X, Y, Z, and per se &.”
and-per-se-and … ampersand!
Buy props used in MaryJane’s books and magazine!
5% of profits will benefit www.firstbook.org, a non-profit that provides new books to children from low-income families throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Here’s how:
MaryJane will post a photo and a description of a prop and its cost along with a few details as to its condition here: https://shop.maryjanesfarm.org/MaryJanesCurations. It’s a playful way to be the new owner of a little bit of farm herstory.
