May 6, 2021
Today we celebrate the botanist who discovered the function of
leaves.
We'll also learn about a visionary German naturalist and polymath
who recognized the power and complexity of nature as he explored
Central and South America.
We hear an excerpt about the power of gardening to turn a gardener
into a philosopher.
We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book about the best way - the
very best way - to cook vegetables from the garden. This is a
cookbook that teaches how to make individual vegetables shine - and
it’s a cookbook every vegetable gardener should have in their
kitchen.
And then we’ll wrap things up with a fun little story about the
winning entry at the 1917 Raisin Day Parade.
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Curated News
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Important Events
May 6, 1742
Today is the birthday of Jean Senebier, a Swiss pastor and
botanist.
Where would we be without Senebier?
Still breathing... but lacking the knowledge that carbon dioxide is
consumed by plants and, in turn, that plants produce oxygen as part
of the process of photosynthesis.
In a nutshell, Senebier’s work is crucial because he had learned
the function of leaves: capturing carbon for food. Before Senebier,
the purpose of leaves and what they did for plants and people was
unknown.
It was Jean Senebier who said,
"Observation and experiment are two sisters who help each
other."
May 6, 1859
Today is the anniversary of the death of the naturalist and
botanist Alexander Von Humboldt. He was 89 years old.
When it came to his expeditions, Alexander didn't travel alone. In
1799, Alexander was accompanied by the French botanist Aimé
Bonplant.
In 1806, Friedrich Georg Weitsch painted his portrait; two years
after he returned from his five-year research trip through Central
and South America.
Friedrich painted a romantic, idealized vista of Ecuador as the
setting for Alexander's painting.
Alexander had climbed the Chimborazo Mountain in Ecuador, believed
at the time to be the highest mountain in the world, so perhaps
Friedrich imaged Alexander viewing the landscape from Chimborazo.
Surrounded by a jungle paradise, a large palm shades Alexander's
resting spot. In the painting, a very handsome Alexander is seated
on a large boulder; his top hat is resting upside down on the
boulder behind him. Friedrich shows the 37-year-old Alexander
wearing a puffy shirt that would make Seinfeld jealous, a
pinkish-orange vest, and tan breeches. In Alexander’s lap, he holds
open the large leather-bound Flora he is working on, and in his
right hand, he has a specimen of "Rhexia speciosa" (aka Meriania
speciosa). A large barometer leans against the boulder in the
lower-left corner of the painting. It symbolized Alexander’s
principle of measuring environmental data while collecting and
describing plants.
King Ferdinand was so pleased with the portrait that he hung it in
the Berlin Palace. that he ordered two more paintings to be made
featuring Alexander's time in the Americas.
Alexander was a polymath; he made contributions across many of the
sciences. He made a safety lamp for miners. He discovered the Peru
Current (aka the Humboldt Current. He believed South America and
Africa had been joined together geographically at one time. He
named the "torrid zone,"; the area of the earth near the equator.
Apropos the area he was exploring, torrid means hot, blistering,
scorching. He went to Russia, and it was there that he predicted
the location of the first Russian diamond deposits.
Alexander was also a pragmatist. It was the Great Alexandre Von
Humboldt who said:
"Spend for your table less than you can afford, for your house rent
just what you can afford, and for your dress more than you can
afford."
Alexander developed his own theory for the web of life. Humboldt
wrote:
"The aims I strive for are an understanding of nature as a
whole, proof of the working together of all the species of
nature."
In 1803, in Mexico, he wrote, "Everything is
Interaction.”
Unearthed Words
“Lilacs on a bush are better than orchids. And dandelions and devil
grass are better! Why? Because they bend you over and turn you away
from all the people in the town for a little while and sweat you
and get you down where you remember you got a nose again. And when
you’re all to yourself that way, you’re really proud of yourself
for a little while; you get to thinking things through, alone.
Gardening is the handiest excuse for being a philosopher. Nobody
guesses, nobody accuses, nobody knows, but there you are, Plato in
the peonies, Socrates force-growing his own hemlock. A man toting a
sack of blood manure across his lawn is kin to Atlas letting the
world spin easy on his shoulder.”
― Ray Bradbury, American author and screenwriter, Dandelion
Wine
Grow That Garden Library
Eating from the Ground Up by Alana
Chernila
This book came out in 2018, and the subtitle is Recipes
for Simple, Perfect Vegetables: A Cookbook.
In this book, Alana says, “Vegetables keep secrets, and to prepare
them well, we need to know how to coax those secrets out.”
Alana divides her cookbook into these key sections: Barely Recipes
(Recipes that let the vegetables shine), A Pot of Soup, Too Hot To
Cook, Warmth, and Comfort, and Celebrations and Other Excuses to
Eat With Your Hands.
Alana’s cookbook was inspired by the question, “But what’s the best
way to eat a radish?”
Alana was at a booth at the farmer’s market.
“One side of the table held a tower of radish bunches, and the
other, a basket of bagged baby arugula. When my first customer held
a bunch of radishes and asked me for direction, I did my best to
answer.
“Throw them into a salad? Slice them up and dip them in
hummus?”
Not enamored with her lackluster response, Alana went home and
experimented.
“Next Saturday, when someone asked me my favorite way to eat a
radish, I was ready.
“Make radish butter! Chop them up fine and fold them into soft
butter with some crunch salt, parsley, and a little lemon
juice.”
I think the whole town at radish butter that week.
Each week that first summer, I’d take vegetables home from one
mark to prepare for the next, studying up for the following week’s
questions.
The result was this cookbook. Isn’t that fantastic?!
This book is 272 pages of vegetable mastery in the kitchen.
You can get a copy of Eating from the Ground Up by Alana
Chernila and support the show using the Amazon Link in
today's Show Notes for around $5
Today’s Botanic Spark
Reviving the little botanic spark in your
heart
May 6, 1917
On this day, The Fresno Morning
Republican shared a full-page story about the raisin
industry.
The Raisin Day parade had been held the previous week. The winning
entry was a series of five floats that told the story 40-year-old
raisin industry.
Here’s an excerpt:
The first float showed the pioneer and his family after their
Journey from the east to the fertile valley of the San
Joaquin.
The pioneer's vision was portrayed by a float in advance. Then
came the realization of his vision with the little home and the
raisin grapevines.
But there was no organization, no cooperative marketing, and
each grower sold his crop to the packer or marketed his
crop.
Disaster came, and the third float denoted poverty. The
vineyard was mortgaged and sold by the sheriff.
The fourth float portrayed prosperity. The businessman, grower,
and laborer were linked together for better
conditions.
The fifth float denoted the result of the cooperation and
wealth to the vineyardist. The original Sun-Maid [Raisin Girl] Miss
Lorraine Collett was on this float.
Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener.
And remember:
"For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."