Nature in New Jersey and Maryland

Here is the pond in Holmdel Park in New Jersey (photographed two weeks ago). Nearby is a lovely arboretum (I was too tired to take my big camera, but there was some great hawthorn trees with berries and some interesting evergreens). I photographed the pond with my Samsung Galaxy 4. There was a London plane tree on the other side of the pond – its “fruit” or nuts look like tennis balls.

Here’s a pig at Longstreet Farm (part of Holmdel Park in New Jersey). We also saw pigs at University of Maryland – there is a little farm on the campus for those studying animal science and also horses for the equestrian club. Both sets of pigs seemed to like to eat dirt. Explain that one to me. My daughter named the Longstreet Farm pig “Piggles.”

Rutgers Gardens in October

Last week I had the pleasure of visiting one of my favorite places in central New Jersey: Rutgers Gardens. Rutgers Gardens is maintained by staff, students and volunteers. You can learn more on the website for Rutgers Gardens.

There are various garden areas within Rutgers Gardens. The one above with the bench is part of the rain garden. Vegetation in a rain garden area needs to be acclimated to prolonged periods of inundation, followed by equally prolonged periods of drought. From the Rutgers Gardens website:

Rain gardens look attractive when newly planted, but can and often deteriorate over time with the invasion of unattractive weeds and a resulting decline in vigor from the ornamental plantings as they become ‘choked-out’. The intent at Rutgers Gardens was to design and develop a garden that had all the positive environmental aspects, yet remained attractive throughout the year with minimal maintenance.

These attractive yellow flowers are part of the Donald B. Lacy Display garden. Wish I knew the name of the yellow flowers (and those red pom ones as well – maybe a kind of Gomphrena – maybe Gomphrena globosa ‘Fireworks’). I believe the magenta/purple pom ones I showed last week are Gomphrena globosa. Some of the flowers and vegetables are grown inside a fence with a gate, and the public is not allowed to enter, but it is easy to peek in and view.

One of the great features of Rutgers Gardens are the hikes you can take – we like taking the walk that goes along the Raritan River. There was some colorful foliage but not a lot. I like the pretty colorful reflections in the river.

As I said on the Rutgers Gardens post last week, we saw two chipmunks. Here’s one more photo of the chipmunk in the woods:

Thursday Theme: Blurry

Today I visited Rutgers Gardens with my friend Hannah Katsman. I don’t know the name of these delightful purple flowers, but I nicknamed them pom pom flowers (maybe Gomphrena globosa). My photograph originally had more blur in front; I cropped out some of the front flowers. Now you can see more of the blur of the background flowers.

Hannah has a good eye, and thus twice we saw chipmunks. Chipmunks are quick and thus a subject for movement. His eyes were white from my flash, so I toned them down a bit with some brown. I hope it doesn’t look unnatural.

This was the other chipmunk we saw. Here we have a little more of our theme: as the chipmunk moves away, I get blur in my photo.

Thursday Challenge theme is: “BLURRY” (Unfocused, Moving, Foggy,…)
Next Week: LANDSCAPE (Mountains, Trees, Forest, Lake,…)

I’ll post more photos from today’s trip next week for Nature Notes. See an older post of Rutgers Gardens (or click the tag at the bottom for many Rutgers Gardens posts).

Review with Flower Pot

On My Blog

• Guest Poem: The Lament of the People of Sodom

Elsewhere in the Blogosphere

• Thank you to Batya for hosting KCC (Kosher Cooking Carnival) for Heshvan. And for HH Get Going Edition.
• Thank you to Kathy for hosting the October Jewish Book Carnival. I’m hosting the November Jewish Book Carnival. You can send me your post via my contact form.
• See nominations for the 2014 Sami Rohr Prize. There’s a book about the Vilna Gaon called The Genius.
• I finished reading In The Courtyard Of The Kabbalist by Ruchama King Feuerman, and I hope to write a review soon. I’m sure at this point the review will happen after Ruchama gives her talk at the Highland Park Public Library this Thursday.

Recipe: Curried Beans

Enjoy these easy-to-cook, delicious curried beans. You can adjust the flavorings as you like.

• 1 cup cooked beans (I found one cup uncooked beans, after cooking, made about two cups cooked) or 1 can of beans
• 1 tsp. coconut oil
• tsp. chopped ginger root (cut off the peel first, then chop the ginger into little squares)
• 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1/2 tsp. turmeric
• 1/2 tsp. cumin
• 1/2 tsp. coriander
• salt and pepper to taste
• optional: 1 tsp. chopped onion
• optional: 1 or 2 carrots, chopped into little circles or into tiny squares
• optional: a piece of kombu or wakame (seaweed)
• garnish with parsley, coriander, basil or your favorite fresh herb

Soak the beans overnight. I’ve used great northern beans (a small white bean) and red beans; I’ve also cooked both together. I’m sure other beans will work as well, as long as they are not too small and not too mushy when cooked. Discard the soaking water, add new water and cook until the beans are tender. For added nutrients and flavor, add a piece of kombu or seaweed while the beans are cooking. You can also add salt.

When the beans are ready, you can store them in the refrigerator for cooking later, if you are not quite ready to make the recipe.

Heat the coconut oil in a wide pan. I have a wok-like pan for this sort of cooking. When heated, add the spices and stir. Add the chopped ginger and garlic (onion if using – wait five minutes and add carrots if using). Stir and cook for five minutes. Drain any excess water from the beans and add to the pan. Cook for about ten minutes or until warm. Serve warm or room temperature with your favorite herb garnish. Tastes great with rice, pasta or whatever else you are serving (probably not with ice cream, but maybe vanilla ice cream).

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Here is an interesting article about the quality of Costco’s coconut oil. The blog writer interviews the VP of Carrington Farms and the VP says, among other noteworthy responses, “the low price of the oil at Costco is simply a matter of the economy of scale.”