Blog Action Day came and went last week, leaving in its wake a number of excellent posts about how to be more eco with your water use. If you’re not in the know about Blog Action Day, every October 15th bloggers of every stripe are invited to post on the same topic, to try to spark learning and action in a particular direction. This year, it was water, a great subject for gardeners to discuss.
A few of my favorite articles on water?
Fran Sorin over at Gardening Gone Wild starts us off with a beautifully-written post that will get you ready to absorb some of the other water-related knowledge shared this week.
Next, Susan Morrison of the Blue Planet Garden Blog discussed the simple things us normal people can do to protect our watersheds.
Susan Harris at Sustainable Gardening talks about some of the corporations that are opposing clean-water action, and what is at stake for them.
Rebecca Sweet at Gossip in the Garden has an inspiring take for gardeners, showing us how beautiful a low-water meadow can be.
And Michelle Derviss at Garden Porn has some drool-worthy photos of low-water gardens, plants, and alternatives to planting.
Snootiness in pruning
Next, Michelle Derviss hit it out of the park again with a fantastic article questioning why it is that some types of pruning are admired and applauded in fancypants gardens like Filoli, but mocked in homeowner’s gardens.
A lot of garden bloggers get off on making fun of poor pruning jobs, and I admit that I enjoy a cheap snicker at the mushroom shrub across the street from my place and the poodled shrub down the road. But Michelle brings up some awesome points in this pictorial blog post, and you really ought to check it out if you’re an armchair pruning critic.
Want to become universally loved? Teresa O’Connor tells you how:
It’s simple, really. Fruit plus alcohol. We’ve been employing this method for a few years now and we have more friends than ever. Yeah, they’re all drunks, but they’re rather charming all the same.
Most people who make infused liqueurs seem to toss the solids after they strain out the good stuff, but we’ve found that if you remove the pits and stems before infusing, that the leftover fruit makes a delicious sorbet. Just strain out your liqueur, then mash up the remaining fruit (this works particularly well with pears and plums), add sugar to taste and stick it in the freezer in individual cups.
Because it has a high alcohol content, it doesn’t freeze totally solid and keeps a great sorbet consistency. Just, uh, don’t try to drive after a sorbet. We call it shoor-bay, with a little slur, for a reason.
Seen anything cool around the web this week? Have you tried making fruit liqueurs? Let me know in the comments below.
6 responses to “Monday Miscellany: Water Conservation, Snootiness in Pruning, and How to Become Popular Using Fruit”
I just finished dinner, Gen, and reading about Teresa’s sorbet-like boozed-up fruit is KILLING ME! Thanks for compiling such a great list, AND for including me on this list – what an honor!
You ask if we’ve seen anything cool around the web this week? Head on over to http://www.maydreamsgardens.com/2010/02/garden-design-elements-wanderability.html to check out Carol’s freshly coined ‘garden terms’ when designing her garden. Throughout several posts she’s come up with the BEST phrases: wanderability, placeness, gardenimacy, etc.. a very cool read…..
Rebecca, I love Carol’s post! I missed it the first time so really appreciated your pointing it out. Very cool!
Hey Gen, thanks for the shout out! This is the first Blog Action Day I’ve participated in, and I really enjoyed being part of a bigger process. Over 5600 bloggers worldwide took part – pretty cool!
Also read Michelle D’s post on pruning and while I confess I’m not a fan of most extreme pruning whether it’s down the street or at Filoli, I thought her point about context was excellent. (Not to mention a reminder for us bloggers not to automatically turn to the cheap laugh when we’re running short of blog post ideas.)
Hey Susan! I’m not a big fan of non-natural pruning myself, but I too appreciated her point about context. I like that Michelle so often has a different take on things.
Hi Gen: Thanks very much for including me in this excellent round-up report. I’m touched that my fruit-infused vodka ideas were mentioned alongside more serious topics, such as saving water and protecting our watersheds.
Although perhaps with water being such a serious concern these days for gardeners and non-gardeners alike, some stronger spirits might come in handy. Particularly, when you consider that these concoctions are a wonderful way to preserve some summer magic for the dead of winter. We’ve never dared to do anything with the fruit after it has been infused, because of the high alcohol content. But I like your idea about the sorbets, and will think of you this winter as I strain my jars and prepare the liquors. All best, Teresa
Hi Teresa, you could always add additional pureed fruits to your alcoholic puree if you’d like the sorbets to carry a bit less punch! The nice thing about the alcohol content is that it keeps the frozen consistency soft. Trevor and I usually share a small one after dinner.