Fascination with fasciation

Sweet potato with abnormal growth. This is the second sweet potato I have seen with faciation. Someway the apical meristem gets deformed and results in plant growth like this. (Scroll back to my very first post to see something similar in wild mullein. )

Be Prepared

I happened to get a look in the trunk of somebody working in the financial sector recently. Wonder if they know something I don't? This guy has plenty of calories at least for this winter. There is a little bit of protein in the beans although it isn't a complete protein. The part where he is really short is in fat. There isn't a good fat that will store at room temperature for a long period of time. Maybe he will find a possom to run over. On a similar note, people in Cabarrus County bought every canning jar and every canning lid available in the stores. Not sure how widespread that phenomena was. Must have been the year to stock up.

Food Availablility at the Goforth House

I have been very busy with a project for work and haven't had a chance to touch base lately. Here are a few notes on the end of the harvest season. The fresh whole China Pearl peaches lasted until Oct in the refrigerator but commercially it would have been an unacceptable loss by that time. It wasn't brown rot but something more like Botrytis that took them out. The sliced tutti frutti style china pearl peaches lasted a little longer but they are gone now. I pulled the last of the fresh blueberries out of the refrigerator so my little boy could make a smoothie this morning. I rate them as still marketable if I had done a little sorting. The last of the outdoor blueberries were picked on October 17th. Figs played out about the same date in Oct. I still have muscadines unless the freeze last night destroyed them (and I don't expect it did.) I started picking muscadines on August 8th so I am close to having 3 months of fresh muscadines this year. I have gotten several oriental persimmons already and need to check the tree again. In fact, I have enough that I ought to try drying some this year. Also I still have apples. The Yates, Arkansas Black and limbertwig apples have just started. Changing the subject a little, I picked my first "foot round" apple this year. This is the only variety I have on its own roots. It may not be as outstanding as a few of the other selections but it is still a true heirloom (obtained from Mr Sid Hartsell of Concord, now deceased but actually planted by his father from a source in Southern Cabarrus county.) I really ought to try to propagate it this winter since 3 nearby apple trees were killed by either voles or cotton rats.
In the burned over area, a number of wild cressy greens came up. Now that they have matured, I will try to harvest some. I'm glad they are available because the vast majority of my turnip and kale seeds washed down stream in the heavy flooding we had some time back.