Archive for the ‘apples’ Tag

08/30/2025 🌱FLORA Trivia🌿   Leave a comment

Are there any wanna-be botanists out there? If so, todays post should really interest you. Finding interesting trivia about plants was a serious challenge but I’ve had some success. Here are twenty items you never knew about plants and botany. Here we go . . .

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  • At 167 calories per 3.5 ounces, avocados have the highest number of calories of any fruit.
  • The foxglove plant can help prevent congestive heart failure.
  • The cellulose in celery (mostly in its stringy fibers) is impossible for humans to digest. Most of the celery passes right through your digestive tract.
  • Juniper berries smell so strongly of evergreen trees that they have been chewed as a breath freshener.
  • Orchids have the smallest seeds. It takes more than 1.25 million seeds to weigh one gram.

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  • Oak trees do not have acorns until they are 50 years old or older.
  • Pollen is considered the “male” part of a plants reproductive system.
  • The greens, you see covering ponds might actually be a carpet of duckweed – the smallest plant with a complete root, stem, and leaf structure.
  • Cayenne pepper stimulates the appetite, as do the herbs dill, celery, dandelion, caraway, anise, garlic, leek, mint, tarragon, saffron, and parsley.
  • The word “herb” is from the old Sanskrit word bharb, meaning “to eat”.

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  • A lemon will lose 20% of its vitamin C content after being left at room temperature for eight hours, or in the refrigerator for 24 hours.
  • The eggplant is a member of the nightshade family, along with the potato and tomato.
  • An uncooked apple is 84% water.
  • If you wash an area of skin that has been exposed to poison ivy within 3 min. after exposure, the chemical urushhiol does not have time to penetrate the skin.
  • The herb peony, when dried and chewed, can help heal a cold sore.

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  • A banana is technically an herb because it grows on dense, waterfilled leaf stalks that die after the first fruit is produced. Botanists call the banana plant a herbaceous perennial.
  • Bananas are one of the easiest fruits to digest and trigger very few allergies. This is why they are an ideal food for babies.
  • It takes a coffee bean plant five years to yield consumable fruit.
  • The most widely cultivated and extensively used nut in the world is the almond.
  • Plant life in the oceans makes up 85% of all the greenery on earth.

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FOR ALL OF YOU GARDENERS OUT THERE

09-21-2014 Journal Entry-Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Pumpkins!   Leave a comment

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Well to continue the story as I promised in the last post, we (my better-half and I) were in dire need of pumpkins.  Why, I honestly don’t know but we can’t live without them apparently.  We especially need to find those ever so illusive white pumpkins which are just ghostly enough to make Halloween worth celebrating.  After checking prices at Walmart and Lowes the decision was made to go elsewhere so as not to feel any more extorted than normal.

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These days the prices continue to climb on just about everything. The love of the almighty dollar leaves little regard for us customers and with the advent of the big box retailers the days of lower prices at roadside stands are slowly disappearing.  The farmers no longer try to beat the prices of the larger stores but are certainly happy to match them.   That translates to an end of bargain prices for all of us.

Fortunately if you want to spend the time and effort there are still a few farmers who’ll sell their wares at a decent price, collect their profits, and retain their customer base.  It’s one of those places that we headed to after our drive to Kennebunkport and the southern coast.

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As we arrive at the farm there are piles and piles of pumpkins and squash of all sizes and kinds.  These folks cultivate just over a hundred acres every year and they always seem to have excellent results.  They actually sell a large portion of their products to local school districts for the kids lunches.  I’ve always been a firm believer about "buying local" and supporting the farmers in our area and it’s folks like these that make that happen. They also give me an excellent place to take incredible Fall pictures. Here are a few.

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My better-half made her purchases of an assortment of orange and white pumpkins with a promise to return and pick up a few cornstalks and a bale of hay or two.  She feels the need to reassure me that we’re almost ready for Halloween and the Fall season.  I’m so relieved.