what!

Callicarpa americana, American Beautyberry

     ho man were we ready for a morning like this one.........What!..............about 72F (feels like 69.....just sayin'.....), steady, 5-10mph northeasterly breeze............"fall-tranquil" sounds outside: the faint, occasional, "chips" & "picks" of migrating songbirds moving through the tree tops, against the steady, low-frequency, whirring of crickets........................out here in the isolated bottomland hardwoods of north lafayette parish, in the absence of human-induced sounds, this scene comes at you intensely...............almost an "in-your-face-tranquility"......................yeah, one of those inspiring-beyond-words type things............................................

     main migrant songbirds detected this morning included yellow-throated vireo and summer tanager........the vireos gave an occasional breeding song (a reedy, blurry, "fee-Doo?" ) as they scouted the tops of the hackberries.........the tanagers were moving faster -- all in their incognito, brown-mustard, "traveling plumage," and constantly uttering their mildly-penetrating, "pick-TUCK" calls to keep in touch with one another, filtering southward all the while...........

     american beauty-berry is in full fruit around our place.....looks delicious, eh? and it is delicious -- to birds like thrashers, gray catbird, cardinal, as well as to vireos and tanagers..............................you may have grown up with its colloquial name, "french mulberry"................ way down in plaquemines parish they call it "spanish mulberry" or "inkberry" (though it does not possess inky juice)...........................the real cajun name, chasse-pareille, is as enigmatic as it is beautiful to pronounce............................nobody i've asked, including the likes of cajun linguistic experts like richard guidry  and amanda lafleur, can say what it means............................................................you'd think that a plant with such showy fruit would have some traditional medicinal value attached to it................................over the years, i've asked dozens of knowlegable people about that, and only two came up with anything..........i think it was ray brasseieur who said his grandmother soaked the berries in vodka and used it for he didn't know what...............and then this lady from around jennings (epicenter for under-the-radar attakapas indian descendants) told me that her mom (who lived around gueydan....) would soak the berries overnight in cool water, and use the water as "a refresher"........ wishing to understand the vibes of a "refresher," me & johnny mayronne decided to try it out one night/day.........honestly, i didn't notice any refreshing effects......or really any effects at all................perhaps i needed a heavier dose...................

signs of fall

tiger swallow-tail on wild bergamot (Monarda spp.)

     ho-man but its hot out there...........hurtfully hot.............but have you noticed the lack of oppressive tropical humidity, which relented around yesterday (22 aug) evening sometime? here at home we could tell by 1) the absence of condensation on our exterior windows (which, lately, has been running in rivulets down the windows on to the walls), and 2) our evening glass of wine went down SO much better...........the local cicadas took note of it as well, joyfully chorusing for a good 30 minutes around sundown..............over the past month or so, they've been nearly silent -- mustering up energy to sing for, at most, about 5-10 seconds each evening; and blowing off the morning chorus altogether........................... 

     the last time i remember a humidity level this low was last may.................................

     yes, a lil' cool front actually made it through yesterday, denting that big balloon-of-tropical-high-pressure, actually (temporarily) bulldozing it southward into the gulf........... not that we've noticed any temperature difference; but definitely a respite in humidity...........and yes, of course, it'll be back shortly; but, hey, sure feels nice to have it off our backs for a spell..................................AND.........it reminds us that yes, there is a such thing as "fall," and that yes, it's indeed a-comin' at some point in time..............

     the local plant and animal life has been hinting at just such a scenario for a couple of weeks now.......in place of the racous hollers of breeding cardinals and wrens each morning, we now hear the quiet "chips" and "peets" of fall-migrating flycatchers, gnatcatchers, and warblers as they course southward through the woods  here in northeastern lafayette parish............3-4 evenings ago, we had a migrating waterthrush (a type of streamside-dwelling warbler....) stop over at our main birdbath, circling round & round the perimeter and pecking at tiny food items in there.......waterthrushes habitually dip their short tails as they walk, making for a fine lil' birdbath ballet..................

     fall wildflowers have also begun blooming............and much to the delight of the birds, lizards, skinks, frogs, etc., the local insect/arachnid population has mushroomed, as it usually does down around these parts at the end of each summer................late-summer/early-fall is peak butterfly time here, and lately we've been seeing tons of 'em:  tiger swallow-tail, spicebush swallow-tail, hackberry, buckeye, sleepy-orange, and sulphur; the latter being the real sign of the changing of seasons........not many butterflies are migratory; but sulphurs (and monarchs, of course) are.............sulphurs arrive at this latitude each august, and a few even linger with us through winter, particularly around locales near water......................

     our local ruby-throated hummingbird population has definitely swelled with migrants from points north......each day from dawn to dusk it's a dogfight out there....lydia's got 4 nectar feeders going, and the garden's presently got lots of turk's cap and salvias blooming for them and the butterflies.................................

     our hopes for fall were further bouyed by yesterday evening's weather forecast: 3 more days in the mid-to-upper 90s, followed by 10 straight days (at least....) in the lower 90s/upper 80s(!)...........this morning, our friend chris hinchliffe -- freshly moved in from new hampshire (e.g. this is his first summer down here) -- remarked, "who would've ever thought that a low-90s forecast would be good news!" 

     lache pas, ya'll...................................................................................................

more on bird pepper . . .

     due to the length of the last post, i did not mention any horticultural particulars about bird pepper (Capsicum annuum var glabrisculum)......let's remedy that right now.........

growth habit -- bird pepper lives as a small shrub/shrublet, most often in the understory of open-canopied woodlands (light shade to occasional [no more than a few hours at a time] direct sun), where it averages about 2'X2' in height/width.....gardeners can set it in similar situations, or, give it up to 4 hrs direct sun, in which case it sprawls/crawls into a somewhat larger mass.........in 4 hr direct sun situations you can also consider planting it on a small trellis (5' tall X 2' wide) where it will run up, thick and vine-like(!) and cover the whole thing. gorgeous..........plus, even more pepper production this way.

soil type/moisture regime -- likes decently-drained/porous, circumneutral (pH 6.8-7.0) soils best; however, i've been growing it in circumneutral (pH 6.85) clay at our place, and it responds nicely.....i just try to locate plantings in sloped/raised areas where i know that rain will run off of the site......it should do nicely in well-drained containers as well; just make sure to add a little alkalinity (like a small amount of dolomitic lime, for example) to the pot media.......moisture-wise, do not overwater! in the ground, the plant can take a good bit of moisture, but it's not really happy about it. i'd say it likes its moisture medium to medium-dry.

hardiness -- as with any pepper, its top growth dies back each winter.......it is certainly fully root-hardy in agricultural zones 8b-9 but the jury's still out on zones further north, like 8a for example.........north of zone 8 (shreveport-monroe in louisiana) it may act more like an annual than a perennial.

other -- even if bird pepper is only an annual in your garden, that's cool, since it germinates so easily from seed; as easy or even easier than other pepper varieties......down here in south-central louisiana, we sow seed (no pre-treatment necessary) in february, and it's usually up within a month.........seed is tiny and wafer-like so don't cover it deeply.........maybe just a drizzle of soil, then tamp down gently................re: aesthetics, this is a fabulous plant: smooth, small, "pointy" emerald-green foliage; tiny, white, star-shaped blooms all summer; pencil eraser-sized fruits beginning in august and ripening from emerald-green to fire-engine red.....even the dead, winter-killed stems of the plant are pretty, creating thin, zig-zag-shaped, buff-brown lines.



     

some like it hot.........

bird pepper or chile pequin (Capsicum annuum var. glabrisculum)

    it seems crazy, but the hotter it gets, the hotter my food choices get............yes.....some like it hot......and ya'll,  is it by some mere coincidence that local hot pepper plants start "making" in august? i think not.

     you probably all know about the capsicum-endorphin relationship, whether we're aware of it or not, we use capsicum peppers not only for awesome taste, but also as pain-relievers, stimulants, and...................what?..................hot weather mitigators? hot weather rectifiers? whatever the term, there's just something about hot weather and spicy-hot foods.......................

     i've always been into spicy-hot food..........my mom was one of the few middle-class white-women who worked a job in ville platte back in the 1950s-60s........so me and my siblings were raised by a creole lady.............turned out to be one of the best things -- if not THE best thing -- that could have happened......talk about a cultural education, ya'll...........anyway, rosabelle cooked hot..........actually very cajun-like, only hotter..............and with more use of okra & other selected vegetables............i learned to cook for her, and from my dad, and was soloing by the time i was 14; which was also the case with many of my male friends................it was just something 'you did' in ville platte (and mamou, eunice, opelousas, port-barre)...............to a person, we all cooked hot, though some of us were a tad more extreme than others.......it's all a matter of degree, y'know...........

     i still love dropping peppers in my dishes......even more so since i crossed the 50 year mark............thankfully, lydia does too....................... now [digressing uncontrollably], lydia's sister, yvette............she's the hottest cooker i know........meatball stew (des boulettes, we call it), chicken fricasse', and pork pot-roast are 3 of her personal specialties; and in each, she doses liberally with whole, seeds-intact jalapeno peppers..........in a big batch -- like to feed 10-12 folks -- she'll toss in 5 or more jalapenos, cooking them (and everything else) to the point of just-about-falling-apart....................oh man. oh WOman!

     interestingly [digressing wildly], dr. augusta ("gus") schroeder lafleur, a good friend of ours who hails from idaho, is by far the hottest eater that i've ever met...........................................hey, i do like it hot, but no way can i handle "thai hot" or "indian hot" food, y'know? hey, i love those foods, and i do put the pepper to them; but thai/indian hot? that's just taste-bud-numbing heat........................now gus, that's the only way she orders it...................we sit and watch in amazement, begging tiny tastes just to reassure ourselves that she's actually eating something THAT hot..................................

     interestingly as well is the fact that most all of the peppers that we use in cooking come not only from the same genus (Capsicum) but also the same species (annuum)...........that's right: jalapeno, cayenne, tabasco, ancho, anaheim, habenero, banana, bell, etc. are all the same species! the difference is in the subspecies or variety..........

     here in the u.s. only one Capsicum annuum variety is actually native:  C. a. glabrisculum, called "bird pepper" or chile pequin, native to the lower parts of arizona, new mexico, texas, louisiana, and florida. despite the species name annuum, bird pepper is actually a perennial plant throughout its native u.s. range, occurring primarily up on the better-drained ledges of river floodplains........in louisiana, we find it almost exclusively growing beneath live oaks and hackberries down in cheniere habitats along the coast........further down in the tropics of mexico & central america, not only is it perennial, but it also blooms/fruits on a year round basis.............up here, it begins blooming around late june, and begins fruiting in august, continuing fruit production through the first cold snap of the winter............................

     on the "heat" scale, chile pequin is pretty hot..........hotter than jalapeno or cayenne or tabasco......right up there with thai, i'd say.......................like jalapeno, it's got an especially fine flavor.....................and yes, birds love it...........i'm not sure, but i don't think birds taste "heat"........... i've heard stories about wild turkeys bagged around the edwards plateau of texas (austin-san antonio region) cooking up quite hot "on a natural" due to the chile pequin in their diet.............here around the house, cardinals, mockers, thrashers, catbirds, and certain flycatcher species all regularly use it.........................................

     for those of you who have hung in to this point, here's your reward: the easiest -- and best -- salsa recipe you'll ever try...............................

1 -- 20oz can diced tomatoes (homegrown, blanched/peeled are better... but canned DICED is very good)
1 -- bunch cilantro
10-17 -- bird peppers  (or 2-3 jalapeno or anaheim or serrano) these numbers make for a pretty hot mix
1  -- clove, garlic, sliced
sea salt, lemon juice to taste (add these only at serving time)

that's it...........no stove required ya'll............just pull out a blender, and do it in this order:

first, pour in 1/3 of the diced tomato...........next come the peppers and garlic (you'll probably want to de-seed jalapeno or serrano; alas, bird peppers are too tiny to de-seed....)..........next comes the cilantro (leaves only; i chop 'em into the blender with scissors)............and lastly, top with the remaining 2/3 of diced tomato.......blend on medium speed for only 3-5 seconds (3 seconds=somewhat "finely-chunky"; 5 seconds = smooth)...........pour in a container & refrigerate (important)...........upon serving, add a dash of sea salt and squeeze a half a lemon, stir...............................eat with corn chips of your choice...........personally, i like yellow corn best...............................and please try to keep the salsa cold thru serving time...............you'll dig the freshness of this recipe far more if you eat it cold rather than room temp ....................and that's it...........................believe me, all you salsa-lovers are gonna freak!