WEEDING THE GARDEN

I recently shared our planting the community garden, well this is what we found when we went by to check on it. NUT GRASS- and WEEDS-oh my gosh! It was time for some serious weeding.

Then a little fertilize and water. Fall is such a pleasant time to garden, of course here you still have to watch out for the fire ants!

MYSTERY FLOWER

Two of these flowers appeared in my garden and I have no idea what they are. The foliage is like an amaryllis or a milk and wine lily.They smell heavenly. I don't even remember planting these or where I got them.

I do know what these are and they are finally blooming after our dry summer. With these and the late blooming roses and the sweet olive, my garden smells like I think Heaven must.Oh yeah can't forget the moon flower-I wait all winter for these!

VISIT TO A MUSHROOM GROWER

Do you love mushrooms-do you wonder how they are grown? Well the Master Gardeners want to let you know-we took a road trip to bring you all the information. We have a mushroom growing operation right here in Mississippi,hidden away in a nondescript building in a small town in the South Central part of the state.The first step is loading sawdust and millet in plastic bags, that after sterilization,will become the growing medium.

The blocks of medium start out brown and change to white as the mushroom spores that are added after sterilization, begin to grow. It takes about three months to get mushrooms. The ones below have hardened like a brick. The plastic is taken of and in seven days mushrooms grow on it. They are then cut of and in 21 days there is another crop. I think our tour guide said they get four harvests from one block.

Sorting those delicious mushrooms. They sell them here to the public as well as to restaurants,etc. They don't waste anything. The bits of dried mushrooms are combined with spices and sold as mushroom dust. Use it for seasoning  as you would any other spice.