Plants, flowers, herbs...pictures, remarks, ets

[Tabiti]

Amaranth is also great food

[Allenson]

@Allenson-well dear, seems this is Holland variety...but somehow, it would be fine to post some other plants, more appropriate to this thread!

Well, from a botanical standpoint, a plant is a plant is a plant....making all flora 'appropriate'?

Anyhow, here's another. It is one of our earliest spring ephemerals in this part of the world, the Erythronium americanum or locally known as the Trout Lily. It emerges & blooms by early May. Photo taken by yours truly:

[Amarantine]

@Allenson-thank you, I appreciate it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erythronium

In europe the smilar variety is known as Dog Tooth

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erythronium_dens-canis

[Amarantine]

Amaranth is also great food

I heard good for diets...

http://www.tropicalpermaculture.com/amaranth-plant.html

[Aemma]

My lilac wine was a hit among the ladies...

Lilac wine?? You made lilac wine?? What does it taste like? What does it look like? How did you make it?

MOARRRRRRRRRRRRRR info pls!!!

[Daos]

Lilac wine?? You made lilac wine??

Yes.

What does it taste like?

Evidently, it has the same aroma as the lilac flower.

What does it look like?

It depends on the colour of the flowers you use.

How did you make it?

I took a huge jar (10l), stuffed it with lilac flowers and poured hot water (in which I had dissolved some sugar) on them. Two days later I strained the flowers and added the yeast. One week later I removed the yeast and let it age. You can also add a few rice grains if you want the drink to be fizzy.

About two months later we needed some samples of wine for some pH measurements and I brought some wine of every sort I had. Obviously everyone wanted a taste and they - especially the ladies - were thrilled about the lilac wine.

Here is the recipe that inspired me:

3-1/2 quarts lilac flowers
2-1/2 lb granulated sugar
2 lemons or 12 grams 80% lactic acid
7-1/2 pts water
1 tsp yeast nutrient
Champagne yeast

Put water on to boil while culling through and rinsing flowers. Put flowers in primary and when water boils pour over flowers. Cover primary tightly and set aside for 48 hours.

Strain flowers through nylon straining bag and squeeze to extract all flavor, then discard pulp. Stir sugar, yeast nutrient, juice of lemon or lactic acid into primary and stir until completely dissolved. Sprinkle dry yeast on top without stirring or add activated yeast culture to primary.

Recover primary and ferment 7 days. Transfer liquid to secondary and fit airlock. Ferment 30 days and rack, top up and refit airlock. Rack again every 30 days until wine is clear and no longer dropping sediment. Rack into bottles and allow to age 3-6 months.

But I'm sure you can find other recipes online as well.

[Lithium]

<3

[Amarantine]

Well, the time is come for one of my favourite plants, which we could use as medical, salad, tea...Those two flowers we usually could find together...



The yellow one is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taraxacum or Dandelion. The white one is well known Daisy or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellis_perennis, btw very good for face skin.

[Daos]

I intend to brew some dandelion wine this spring. Does anyone know if it's any good?

[Arne]

These Shots were made last year..
Some Tulips are flowering already but i didn´t take time for making Photos.