Plant Anatomy 101: Pumpkins!

I thought this one would be appropriate for the season. However, I have already posted this idea on my work blog, so if you would like to check that one out, here it is. I like the Plant Anatomy series. I get a lot of pleasure in looking up all of the information about the different kinds of plants. In college I worked in a botany lab where I did research on the tomato plant family, Solinidae. This includes tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, and eggplants.

My time was split between growing and taking care of the plants up in the greenhouses where I would pollinate the plants and then plant the seeds that came from those fruits. Then in the lab I would record my findings, run DNA tests on my plants, and otherwise coordinate with the other lab researchers. It was a great job and my advanced interest in plants directly springs from that.

I never had a garden growing up, but being in the greenhouse everyday was really a treat. The greenhouses were located up on the roof of one of the university's biology buildings. I was usually the only one up there. It was always so quiet and peaceful. I loved the days when it snowed. It would be snowing all around me, the flakes falling down on the roof, but I was inside a tropical wonderland. It reminded me of being in a reverse snow globe. And all of the bays were filled with such amazing plants. Some were from our own backyard and some were from foreign places. There were a lot of different plants up there. My favorite were the "living stone" plants. These are succulents that grow in Africa where they blend in with the rocks and soil by actually looking like rocks! They live in an arid region that has little water, a short growing season, and by looking like rocks they can avoid being grazed.

Photo Credit

Photo Credit

But since this is supposed to be about pumpkins. Here are some links of fun recipes to try with pumpkins:

Cocoa Pumpkin Brownies

Toasted Pumpkin Seeds in 3 Ways

Homemade Pumpkin Pie (from a real pumpkin)

Enjoy!

Vegetarian Tacos!

In an effort to reduce my impact on this earth, I decided to become a vegetarian. The amount of resources it takes to create one pound of beef is amazing. Stats vary depending on your sources, but watering the grain so it can grow to feed the cattle to live and "beef up" to eventually make it to your plate requires thousands of gallons of water and gasoline. The idea of eating lower on the food chain essentially cuts out the middleman, or middle cow, pig, or chicken so to speak, and greatly reduces the environmental impact that the food you eat produces. So, for almost two years now I have been meat free...well, almost. I actually still eat certain kinds of fish. Fish, as it turns out, can turn grains and carbohydrates into protein much more efficiently than we can. The amount of resources it takes for a "vegetarian" fish to live and thrive is less than if I were to just eat those carbohydrates myself. That's the idea behind my reasoning so far.

One of the first steps I took in my vegetarian quest was to buy a good veggie cookbook. I picked up something that contained basic meals that could be cooked quickly, but used yummy ingredients. The first thing that I tried from my cookbook was vegetarian tacos, and so far they have been my favorite. I made them on Sunday night for dinner (and lunch left overs for the rest of the week) and they were as good as they always are! This has become a staple among my family and friends, so if you'd like to give them a try, here's the recipe:

Saute one chopped small to medium onion in olive oil and garlic
Add one chopped bell pepper (all of the colors are good, so you can pick this one!)
When the onion and pepper are cooked, add
1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup of frozen corn
and chili powder and cumin to taste (I don't use the recipe anymore, but I'd say about a tablespoon of chili powder and maybe a teaspoon of cumin. I love these two spices, so I tend to be pretty generous with them.)

These are good topped with chopped lettuce and tomatoes, or even some avocados, but the original recipe doesn't call for them. I think they are good either way and I usually decide just depending on what I have around. Cheese is a must as far as I'm concerned and sour cream is good too. I usually substitute the sour cream with plain yogurt to keep the meal a little more healthy.

Oh and don't forget to wrap them up in your favorite tortillas!

I hope you love these babies as much as I do! They're perfect when you need something simple, healthy, and really delicious! Enjoy!

This is just sad...

It has been almost two weeks since my last post! Sorry all of you blog-friends, I guess my life has been a little bit crazy lately. And I suppose that is bound to happen as well when you are writing for two blogs. A lot my creative ideas come to me during the working hours, especially in the morning, so all of those blog ideas get poured into Green Fork. And for some reason, even though I have done it before and will probably do it again, I feel a little guilty when I cross post from my work blog on to this one, no matter how applicable the subject.

And now, as I come to the realization that it has been almost two weeks since my last post, which was a cross-post, I find I am out of creative energy at the end of the work day. Why am I out of energy? Well, I have been running around trying to maintain my busy life and even now all I can think about is why I don't have creative energy instead of a topic to post about.

So, in the past couple of weeks I have been working, house sitting, trying to study for the GRE, thinking about big decisions like what, exactly, do I want to study when I go to grad school? where should I go to school? who should I talk to to see if I can be part of their research team? (I'm leaning toward ecology.) And then on top of that I am thinking about moving again. So where, with whom, if anybody, and what can I afford? I spent the weekend at a friend's cabin in the mountains, which was so peaceful, but put me behind in these big decisions. But these are just my excuses for why I have neglected my blog for so long. Hopefully tomorrow will bring more inspiration and energy to display to the world. Until then, happy blogging!

Photo Credit

Plant Anatomy 101: Strawberries

The thing about having two blogs (one for work, and one where I feel I can express myself a little more freely) is that there are some things that I do for one that completely applies to the other, and vice versa. So when I posted the potato-blog the other day, my boss wanted me to put it up on my work blog. I'm not sure what the etiquette is on getting double-duty on a post, but I guess that's just the way it's going to have to be. So with out further ado, I'm double-posting again for plant anatomy 101, only substitute potatoes with strawberries. (This post originally appeared on Green Fork Utah.)

Plant Anatomy 101: Strawberries

Have you ever wondered why strawberries have their seeds on the outside of their fruits? When I worked at Red Butte Garden, this was a point that we brought up frequently with the first graders. We mostly just pointed this fact out and never really talked about why, other than a quick suggestion of possible seed-distribution benefits. Well today I was thinking about strawberries for whatever reason, and now I want to share what I've discovered!

As we learned in the potato post, there is a big difference between what botanists classify as fruit and what we regular ol' plant eating people define as fruit. Here I will be talking about strawberries as defined by the botanists. Let's back up a second: a true fruit is a fruit from which all tissues are derived from a ripened ovary and its contents. Simple fruits, such as oranges, develop from a single pistil and are true fruits. True berries are also simple and true fruits in that they develop from one ovary. Blueberries, cranberries, grapes, tomatoes, and even bananas fall into this category. It seems that there are a lot of definitions for basically the same thing.

Strawberries, on the other hand, are not true fruits. They are called aggregate fruits which means that the strawberry is formed through many ovaries ripening. The "seeds" on the outside of the strawberry are actually individual little "fruits" that have ripened in their own separate ovaries. These little "seeds" are called achenes (ah-keens) and inside each achene is a little seed. Sunflower seeds are also achenes where the hard shell is the outside of the fruit and the seed is inside the hard shell. Since an aggregate fruit forms from many ovaries, it is also known as a complex fruit. Other complex fruits include blackberries, raspberries, and mulberries. These fruits however, because they lack achenes, are not aggregate fruits.

Photo Credit

But what about the bight fleshy part of the strawberry that we eat? Strawberries are not only aggregate, complex fruits with achenes, they are also accessory fruits. Accessory fruits are fruits that contain a significant amount of other tissue in addition to the ripened ovary and mature seeds. Apples and pineapples are accessory fruits. In the case of the strawberry, the extra tissue that we are consuming is the enlarged end of the flower's stamen. Because of this, strawberries must be picked at full ripeness, otherwise they wont ripen after they have been picked.

Random strawberry factoids:

• Until the mid-nineteenth century, strawberries were considered poisonous in Argentina.
• Native Americans had already been cultivating strawberries when European colonists arrived. They would crush the berries and bake them into cornmeal. Colonists adapted this practice and made it their own by making the first strawberry shortcakes.
• Medieval stone masons carved strawberry designs on altars and on the tops of columns to symbolize perfection and righteousness.
• In Ancient Rome, the strawberry was the symbol for Venus, the God of Love.

Who knew that strawberries were so complex and had such rich histories!

Strawberries Photo Credit

Medea

Today I ventured up to the University of Utah with my friend, Deborah, to see the yearly Greek play. Every fall the Theater Department has a Greek Theater Festival, the only one in the United States, where students perform a Greek play, usually a tragedy, and for the past two years I have attended. In Ancient Greece, plays were performed at sunrise. Luckily for me, the play was at 9:00 this morning, instead of the traditional 6:00 sunrise performance. (The University used to perform at sunrise, but have changed that tradition in that past couple of years due to weather and attendance issues.)

The Greek play is traditionally performed outside in front of Pioneer Theater where the stage is the arched sidewalk and broad stairs that slope downward toward the grass where the audience spreads out on blankets and lawn chairs with their breakfasts. Last year, my dear friend Deborah was in Euripides' Helen. It was freezing cold that morning, with frost on the grass. The blanket that I brought to sit on was soaked through well before the half way point . The sun was out for most of the performance, but the air was crisp and you could see the breath exhaling from the viewers. As I proudly watched my friend display all her talents and the show was beginning to wrap up, clouds loomed and the last ten minutes were completely encased in an all out blizzard. The audience was freezing, and the minimally clad cast even more so. But it was an experience that I will never forget.

Deborah, Stacey, and Ruth

photo credit Ruth Jones

Today, however, was a beautiful September day, full of light, color, and warmth. Medea was the Greek play this year. Also by Euripides, Medea is about a mother, married to Jason, who along with her two children are banished from Corinth. Jason is getting another wife, the daughter of the King Kreon. Jason sees this as a political move, one that will be beneficial for them all as he gains power by marrying the Princess and thereby makes better prospects for his two sons, even though they are banished. Medea is of course outraged and in her quest for revenge poisons the Princess and King. But in order for her revenge to be completely felt by her husband, she slays her two sons with her bare hands, determined to leave Jason with nothing. It is tragedy at it's finest. They say pictures speak louder than words, so here are some scenes from the play:

"Goddess of Midnight" Medea
Photo Credit: Ruth Jones

"Nurse Fetch Her" Medea Chorus
Photo Credit: Ruth Jones

Ending Scene: Medea at top with two dead sons, Chorus with dragon, Jason in front.
Photo Credit: Ruth Jones

Plant Anatomy 101

Potatoes. Potatoes are one of those things that tended to come up during my field trips that I used to teach when I worked at Red Butte Garden. The first grade field trip curriculum is based on teaching and discussing with kids the different parts of plants and which of those parts we eat. We talked about the roots (carrots, beets, turnips) the stems (celery, broccoli - "Right, most of the broccoli plant is the stem while the dark green parts on the top are what? Flowers, that's right" - asparagus, sugarcane) the leaves
(lettuce and salad - "Right, salad. What else? Have you ever herd of kale or Swiss chard? Those are different kinds of lettuces that people eat. What about spinach? Raise your hand if you like spinach! Yeah, I love spinach, too") and the fruits of the plant (tomatoes, watermelon, peaches, raspberries, strawberries - "Now where are the seeds on a strawberry? Right, the outside!" - bananas, pineapples, carrots - "Are carrots a fruit? Remember when we talked about those during the root section? That's okay if you forgot, that was a little while ago. What about peppers? Are they fruits? Well, they have seeds inside them, right? So if something has seeds inside of it, what does that make it? Exactly, a fruit" - apples and oranges.)

But what about potatoes? They're a root right? Well, not exactly. Which brings me to the point of this post. Today at work a co-worker, Andree', and I had a tabling event at Bend in the River, where we were doing an outreach event geared towards teachers. A teacher, who had just been to Red Butte Gardens with her first grade class last week, wanted to know if we knew what potatoes were. Are they fruits? Because you can plant a new potato plant from the actual potatoes. But they're not seeds, so technically, not fruits. And the potato plant, just like every other plant in the Solanaceae family which includes tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants as well as potatoes, flowers when conditions are right and gets pollinated by honey bees. But when the flowers are pollinated, what kind of fruit ripens in their place? Can we eat these fruits, or would they be poisonous like Deadly Night Shade (which is also in the potato family)?

Are they a root? Well, no because actually they are tubers. But what is a tuber? It stores energy for the plant for use at a later date, maybe during the winter for energy in the spring. That is why potatoes are so starchy and full of energy in the form of carbohydrates. And is a tuber a root, or what is it? No, a tuber is something different. A potato tuber is a type of subterranean stem. This differs from a regular stem as plants use stems for the transport of water from the roots to the leaves of the plant and for the downward transport of vital sugars (chlorophyll) from the leaves to the roots that provide energy for the plant. Besides potatoes, bulbs such as onions and leeks are also subterranean stems. You can tell this from the way the bulb is in between the stem that is above ground and the actual, smaller roots.

photo credit

Potatoes. Potatoes are a subterranean stem. I think with a little patience and some really fun pictures of potatoes, (or even better, use an actual potato plant that you can dig out of the ground to explain this all, and make something yummy later. You would be amazed at how many kids don't know that our food comes from plants that live in the ground!) a first grader might be able to grasp this concept...maybe.

Success!

The US House of Representatives passed the No Child Left Inside Act! The act received bipartisan support and was approved with a vote of 293 to 109. This is only one step in the long process of getting the Act approved, but it is a major step that provides strong momentum to keep working to pass the Act in the months ahead. What a victory for all of us who support efforts to continually incorporate environmental education into our schools and communities.

In light of this victory, please take a moment to write your representatives about your support of environmental education and to thank them for their support as well. In Utah, you can thank Jim Matheson (who voted for the act) and notify Chris Cannon (who voted against it) and Rob Bishop (who did not vote) about your support for environmental education. You can find their contact information here.