butterfly, dixie speckled peas and bits

a showy visitor outside our door this morning
He showed himself off for Esme and for me for several minutes
The butterfly species is a Red Admiral, Vanessa atalanta


not in focus - but it was the only shot I got of the outside of the wings


dixie speckled butterpeas


I pulled a tomato vine out of the lima beans this morning and found three more pods of the speckled butterpeas clinging underneath a leaf. A sweet little joy :)

I have been thinking and reading a lot more on breeding plants lately... there is a lot there I want to delve into. The idea of it taking years and years both satisfies something in me and terrifies it at the same time. The thoughts of trays and trays of yearly seed growing in volume crop after crop - things changing slightly, growing better adapted to our specific land (those things that do not produce do not get saved etc.) ... all of that is tantalizing. The thoughts of sudden loss of an entire crop, compounded time fading away in a single windstorm - it is like a drama spread out painfully slow over the years... to perhaps end in tragedy but still it must be attempted. I read Thomas Jefferson's garden notes a while back, and while it is definitely not the kind of reading most people are into (very few in fact I am sure) I could feel that yearly drama even in between his lines. The things that lived, the things that died, harvest coming to table, the winter, and the spring. I am a gardener down in my bones.

Speaking of reading. I saw someone posting about adults not often reading 'to their potential', and adult reading just dropping off for many as they age. I admit that is true in some regards. I do not read as much as when I was a teenager, or even when I was twentysomething... I read more KINDS of things then, fiction and nonfiction, magazines and newspapers. Now, the fiction stories have to do a lot to capture my interest. I was reading a Jack McClure (character) novel 'Blood Trust' in the airport basically because it was the only feasible out of what was available in the tiny place to buy. It held me here and there - nearly lost me other parts - kept my mind busy when there was not much else to do - and now it sits half-read in my box being overshadowed by a rereading of 'The Resilient Gardener' by Carol Deppe. I remember the gardening author's name - I would have to guess at the other one unless I actually look at it. (Eric von Lustbader). It is a good book - but my thirst for more 'seed knowledge' is deeper. That is how my brain works. I have three 1911-1950 field crop science books up in my Google books. I have another one that is an official textbook I want to order from Amazon... Reading to your potential, level and/or volume, has a lot to do with what you are interested in. I can dive into deep science, chemistry, medicine, physics and LOVE LOVE old books on nearly any science topic. But, a modern thriller loses out to them. We are what we are, and to keep the brain fresh, we must feed it what it craves.

Lima beans

Florida speckled lima beans and dixie butterpea lima beans
fresh and ready to cook

I really liked the Florida speckled lima beans when they were still in their 'green' stage but filled out. After they had begun to show their colors was a little too far, they had more of a 'nutty' flavor when cooked - which apparently is what a lot of people like them for. I preferred the green stage because it still had sweetness to it. Next time I shell one and the purple is already there I will dry it for seed instead of adding it to the cooking pot!


dried florida speckled lima beans

The lima beans like hot weather :) Actually, they seem to wait for the hot weather to really produce.