What is this pretty tree blooming in the rain (and shading my back garden space..)

Miner’s Lettuce

Never really heard of miner’s lettuce before – apparently it’s in season RIGHT NOW in Northern California. I’ll keep my eyes open this weekend when I head up past Nevada City for a night of winter hut camping! I have a feeling with this weekend’s forecast, however, it might be buried in some below-the-snowline flakes!!

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Here’s a succint little history on the plant from Hank Shaw where you can learn about this native plant that’s so delicious to eat. If I can’t forage some, maybe it will be a good candidate to grow in my shady back yard?

Lemons from the tree, into the bag, into the car, across the Bay Bridge and into my kitchen!

A beautiful new aeonium! While I was in Concord, I was happy to receive several propogated new plants and cuttings to accent my apartment. As you might know, it’s been pretty difficult to grow things in there due to lack of light, but for now, I’m keeping all my indoor plantlets crowded onto this one coffee table in my living room where they get a modicum of daylight reflected onto them. I gathered many small rootlets and suckers of small unnamed succulents, as well as a GORGEOUS fullgrown aeonium. I researched it to find out more about this beautiful plant, which you can see a picture of here. It’s full name is Aeonium Undulatum, and it originates from the Canary Islands, which are southwest of Spain, off the north African coast. I learned it is also called “Green Platters” which is a little strange, I guess because many small rosettes grow up from the ground on long curving stems  and end in a green round shape. They flower about once every five years (!!!) and then that particular stem and rosette die off. I hope mine doesn’t flower soon!

Preserved Meyer Lemons! I was lucky enough to receive a whole bag of gorgeous, fragrant, ripe Meyer Lemons from my aunt’s garden in Concord. I set out to make a batch of preserved lemons-something I’ve read about but never made. I still don’t know quite what I’ll make with them (probably hommous, salad dressing & marinade) but they sure look pretty floating in their salt baths in the meantime.