Working Together

Cooperation means working together. This post is about the Pennsylvania Cooperative Extension

working with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and ordinary citizens.

If you live in Earl Township, Douglass Township, Pike Township or a few other areas found mostly in Berks County you may have seen some trees with brown paper wrapped around them.

Sticky trap on Tree of Heaven

These are to try and contain a group of insects from spreading into the rest of Pennsylvania.

Spotted Lantern Fly Adult

The Spotted Lantern Fly is an insect that enjoys the sap from several types of trees and it can be harmful to some commodities in Pennsylvania.  The grape growers and apple and peach growers are concerned because it can hurt their vines and trees. It also is damaging to some hardwoods.

The traps are mainly to trap the young insects before they get to the adult stage and lay eggs.
This insect is an invasive species from Asia and its favorite tree is another invasive species that has been around for a long time, also from Asia. The Spotted Lantern Fly has only been in PA for a few years. Imagine going on a long trip and seeing one of your favorite restaurants, wouldn't you want to stop for a meal?

Taking down the trap for disposal.

Every two weeks the trap is to removed, the invasive insects counted and a new trap put up.
If you see this insect on your property please inform the PA Dept. of Ag or Penn State Cooperative Extension. We don't want this to spread but it takes many hands to solve this problem.

Japanese Knot weed Pie or Old Hippie and New Hipster

It is that wonderful time of year again when you can go outside and find something for dinner growing right outside your door, or in the woods, or in a meadow.  Yesterday we had Japanese Knot weed.

Make sure to pick it when it is young, about the thickness of a pencil. 

Adam (the hipster) decided to harvest some. He describes it as "beet meets rhubarb". We roasted some just like we roast asparagus and discovered that if it is thicker than a pencil it gets too fibrous to eat. So the next experiment was to make a pie. The hipster went on line and found some recipe which he promptly adjusted to his taste. He did ask the old hippie for a little help (I suggested some corn starch for thickening). We were pleasantly surprised with the result.

Adam taking his pie out of the oven.

                                      

Japanese Knot Weed Pie

It was a wonderful pie that tasted like a blend of mincemeat and rhubarb.

Life is short so try new things. Enjoy yourself so try old things. Go out and pick Japanese Knot Weed for a pie, Dandelions for Dandelion Wine, greens from your yard for a salad that you garnish with lilacs, put frozen violets in a glass of water. Life is short and spring is here so enjoy it.

Black Walnuts

Black Walnuts

This fall we had a plentiful harvest of walnuts. Folklore tells us that a large nut harvest portends a hard winter. Well, so far that has not been true. I picked less then half the walnuts that fell from our trees and I still have plenty for my husband and I. The squirrels are happy that I left so many for them. 

 We even had enough that we gave our friend Kathy Mast some as a small Christmas gift. I then shamelessly proceeded to give her more and ask her to make us a Black Walnut Cake. It was delicious. Tonight I am going to use some in a Thai recipe I found called "Fried Rice with Walnuts and Raisins". We have used some of the nuts sprinkled on salads and just as a snack on their own. The picture shows what I have left.

If you have never tasted Black  Walnuts don't think they taste like English Walnuts, the taste is much stronger and I prefer it to the English  Walnuts that you find in the grocery store. 

Since the winter has been so mild we have been harvesting some chickweed from our property to have with our lettuce and I just recently started some greens in the basement. Every time we can eat something that we grew ourselves we get a satisfaction and enjoyment that just does not come from a trip to the grocery store.