It’s only been four days since planting the garden sunflower seeds and they have already sprouted!
Ms. Jeannie checked the Botanical Interests seed package… they estimated sprouts between 10 and 15 days, so we are WAY ahead of schedule! How exciting!
Ms. Jeannie added a garden countdown calendar on her blog . She set the date for her birthday, June 16th, in hopes that she will surprise herself with a lovely birthday bouquet.
At the rate they are going – they might be here by Memorial Day!
Today Ms. Jeannie started planting her summer garden.
It’s been a very mild winter this year in the South, so she could have started much earlier, but every once in a while, a folklorish sounding thing called blackberry winter hits our region, which sort of fools you into thinking that spring has sprung. But then a wicked Mr. Frost comes calling, and knocks out all the early garden preparations. Usually this happens around Eastertime, if it occurs at all, but this year Ms. Jeannie is throwing caution to the wind and planting early. Hopefully it will all work out.
Ms. Jeannie likes to order seeds from her favorite company, Botantical Interests. They have a lot of heirloom varieties, organic mixtures and seeds that always sprout. Plus they have marvelous looking seed packets that contain all sorts of fun growing information. They contain drawings of what the seedlings should look like too, which is helpful if you have a weed prone garden or aren’t quite sure what is what!
This year Ms. Jeannie is keeping things simple by just planting sunflowers and herbs. She will leave her vegetable growing to the local farmers and just shop for them at market each week.
Ms. Jeannie always likes to be a little out of the ordinary, so she has ordered 4 different varieties of red sunflowers, two fuzzy yellow sunflowers and one white sunflower. Ms. Jeannie finds red sunflowers to be most elegant in a bouquet and since many people aren’t familiar with them, she enjoys a bit of the surprise element!
Urn style planters serve as great vases for sunflowers. Their tall yet curvaceous lines balance the bold roundness of the sunflower face. Urns are usually heavier too, which is good, because some mammoth varieties can reach heights up to 9′ feet tall!
The botanical name for sunflower is Helianthus, which comes from the Greek word “helios” which means “sun” and “anthos” which means “flower.” Although native to North America, sunflowers were first discovered by European explorers in South America, but Native American tribes had been growing, cultivating and defining them from the beginning. Native American tribes used the flower petals for dye, the seeds for food, the oil for ceremonial body painting and the stalks for fiber.
Explorers brought seeds back to their native countries, so that by the late 1500’s sunflowers were a common site throughout Europe.
By the 18th century though that Europeans began cooking with sunflower oil. If you have never cooked with sunflower oil, it is supposed to contain the highest levels of Vitamin E, of all the cooking oils. It is light in taste and color. and is low in saturated fat. Learn more here.
Sunflowers can even be used as birdfeeders! Thanks again crafty Martha for supplying us with this pretty feeder idea:
To make your own birdfeeder like this one click here.
Because of their warm, cheerful coloring and their dramatic size and shape, sunflowers have been a subject for artistic study for centuries. Probably, the most recognized paintings of sunflowers would be those of Vincent Van Gogh:
While Ms. Jeannie does love all these paintings, she does wish that Van Gogh had painted more red sunflowers! As a gift recently, she did receive the new Vincent Van Gogh biography by Steven Naifeh and Gregory Smith…
…perhaps she will learn more about the inspiration behind all those sunflower portraits! Maybe he’ll even address the red ones! If anyone has already read this book, please let Ms. Jeannie know what you thought of it. She always enjoys a good book review.
On Etsy, there is a glorious amount of sunflower-related items, but red sunflower items are a little more niche. Ms. Jeannie was happy to come across these items:
Ms. Jeannie couldn’t resist these yellow sunflower items either:
Ok, garden. Ms. Jeannie can’t wait to see your pretty faces. So start GROWING!
“Turn your face to the sun and the shadows follow behind you.”
~ Maori Proverb
This weekend, Ms. Jeannie was invited to a semi-annual cattle round-up at her friend’s organic farm. She had never been to a cattle-round up before. It all sounded very exciting!
On this farm, the round up occurs twice a year, once in the spring and once in the fall. The purpose is to take inventory of the herd, worm all the cows and castrate the baby boy bulls that have been born between roundups.
Being somewhat of a city slicker herself, Ms. Jeannie was excited to put on her rubber boots and spend a day romping around the farm. She brought along her camera to document the experience.
Starting at day break (which is farmers speak for bright and early 6:30am) it took about fours hours from start to finish to move 100 cows through a head gate shoot, where they would be quickly examined,wormed and castrated. The cows on this farm are 100% free range over many acres, so first, they had to be herded together.
Once corraled into one paddock they keep moving into smaller and smaller fenced areas.
For most cows, this is a routine procedure, sort of like a doctor’s check-up for us. They don’t love it – but they endure it just fine. Waiting at the holding gate is like waiting in a doctor’s office. Everyone is antsy to get their examination over with.
While the cows were cueing up Ms. Jeannie spotted the smallest cow in the herd…
…a baby born just 3 weeks ago! You can see see him in this picture with the little white spot on his side.
To keep the cows organized right before they line up for the shoot, they are broken into groups according to size.Which meant Mama and Baby had to be seperated. Baby went to the holding pen with all the other calves to wait
his turn while Mama lined up with the heifers in the shoot.
They both called for each other when they were separated, which pulled at Ms. Jeannie’s heart.
The older cows traveled through the shoot relatively easily. Here is one getting wormed. Which looks like a giant tube of toothpaste that gets spread onto their back.
Almost done…
Some look even downright content like this one…
but the babies are a little more rambunctious since it is their first time in such a confined area. This one below kept trying to figure out how to get her head unstuck.
Mama went through the shoot, was vaccinated and wormed. Her whole procedure took about four minutes.
Ms. Jeannie was surprised to see that when each cow is released from the shoot – they sort of spring out of the gate, sort of half jumping like a bunny rabbit. Free at last! When Mama was released she stood off to the side, just feet away to wait for her baby who was about 60 cows in…way in the back of the calf group. Mama is looking for Baby here in this photo…
Alas! Mama spots him through the fence!
When he got close enough in line, Mama reassured him that everything was going to be fine and gave him a kiss for good luck!
Finally it was his turn in the shoot. His head was collared in place for his exam.
This may look like it hurts, but it doesn’t. Holding them in like this protects the cows from getting over excited and from breaking a leg or hitting their head against the metal rails.
Mama waited next to him the whole time. She touched noses for extra support…
Baby wanted to put his own spin on this whole head lock thing, by throwing a leg out. He was such a little guy – there was a bit of extra space in the holding collar. Why not air out a leg while you have the chance. It’s one step closer to freedom afterall!
Mama advised that this was probably not a good idea.
Moments later, the collar let him go and he was out! Mom and baby headed off together to mull over the whole experience.
Ms. Jeannie was struck by what a wonderful and encouraging mama this cow was. And how Baby really depended on her for moral support. Seeing the two of them interact together was the highlight of Ms. Jeannie’s day!
Etsy is full of whimsical items that celebrate the wonderful relationship between animal moms and their babies. If you need some inspiration this Mother’s Day, take a look…
In the Vintage Kitchen: Where History Comes To Eat 