Hello Springtime

 

Zucchini and Purple Spuds

The girls picked up some purple potatoes at the Falls Park Farmers Market yesterday morning. I paired them with some fresh garden zucchini, and sauteed them with onions, garlic and some chives in a skillet for dinner tonight. Went well with some sweet corn from Denny’s garden and some Bartmann sirloin tips. Every ingredient except the butter is local.

Also took a nice hike today, and picked some wildflowers along the way for my deserving and lovely wife.

 

Oh Hail

Saturday morning I went to set up the Green Project booth at the Sioux Falls Bio Blitz. I stepped outside into a sauna of 95% humidity on the way to 90 degrees F, and wondered how soon this would cook up the kind of south Dakota summer storm we haven’t had yet this year. It only took a few hours. By 2:30pm our garden was trashed and smashed, along with our heat pump and some siding and deck posts. Still beautiful though, don’t you think?

 

Easter Bunny’s in Trouble

I guess we need to leave some carrots or someting out for that crazy bunny. Look what’s left of the shrubs I planted in the backyard after Saturday night. He’s a hungry little s.o.b.

At least he left the first (and only) flower bloom in our yard alone.

 

Autumn Flowers, Sinister Blueberries and Dangerous Pine Cones

I’ve been on the road most of this week. Tuesday morning I was in Lead, SD and took in a wonderful early morning hike along the Mickelson Trail south of Lead. I was given several lessons out there by Mother Nature–one was the flowers. I was really taken by the variety of beautiful wildflowers in bloom this time of year. Here’s a sample (more on Flickr).

Another cool thing I encountered were the ‘thumps’ of fresh pine cones falling to the ground from towering ponderosas. At first I was really puzzled by the pretty frequent thumping sound I kept hearing, ’til I was almost whacked in the noggin.

I also came across what looked like wild blueberries. I picked a few, but thought I better not eat them ’til i could confirm they wouldn’t require a puke bucket for the carride home. I asked a few locals, and looked up wild blueberries on google. and I still don’t know for sure. Can anybody help me? Above are a couple pics of the blueberry-look-alikes, along with a haiku (below) I wrote on my hike back to the trail head.

golden Aspen leaves
green cones thump home to Earth
berries show in blue

Enjoy the Autumn!