A busy time of year

 

Pots with elderberry cuttings in them.

This is a go-go time of year for gardeners.

Blogging takes a back-burner.

Dock (Rumex) aka Sorrel aka Sour Grass

Footprints filled with water in lower-left of photo.

A skunk cabbage growing next to a dock plant.

Michigan Flora lists 14 species of Rumex in Michigan. Six are listed as Native and eight are listed as not-native.

As a gardener who has an abiding interest in making challenging plots produce food, the interesting thing about Rumex is that four of the fourteen species are listed as being wetland plants. Rumex is a member of the Buckwheat family and both young leaves and seeds are edible.

Rumex verticillatus (This link is a good commentary on Dock in general) Mainer Merritt Fernald, who was the Harvard wunderkind of botany from around 1900 to 1950, said all of the 17 native Rumex species in North America were edible. He completely failed to mention most of them are so bitter it would take days of boiling to make them palatable, if ever.

Rumex verticillatus is considered one of the "bitter" dock.

Rumex orbiculatus Moist to very wet ground or shallow water of peatlands, river margins, marshes, ponds, swales, and ditches.

One of our most distinctive species in its very late fruiting, often extremely large stature in wet places, raised position of the grain on the tepals, and absence of a swelling at the joint in the pedicel....The basal leaves may be over a meter long. (!)

Rumex occidentalis Plants can contain quite high levels of oxalic acid, which is what gives the leaves of many members of this genus an acid-lemon flavour. Perfectly alright in small quantities, the leaves should not be eaten in large amounts since the oxalic acid can lock-up other nutrients in the food, especially calcium, thus causing mineral deficiencies. The oxalic acid content will be reduced if the plant is cooked. People with a tendency to rheumatism, arthritis, gout, kidney stones or hyperacidity should take especial caution if including this plant in their diet since it can aggravate their condition

Rumex conglomeratus  Non-native. "Rumex conglomeratus is a plant that finds various uses both in the food, medicinal and in the field of dyes.
Both seeds, leaves and roots are used.
The roots are harvested in early spring and dried for later use.
The leaves are eaten cooked while the seeds can be eaten both cooked and raw; they can be ground to make flours to add to other preparations.Leaves are rich in oxalic acid and can cause issue with calcium absorption
The root is used only in the medicinal field and from this infusions are prepared used both externally and internally."
 

Scrap yards

The price of #1, Bright Copper jumped from $4.75 a week ago to $6 yesterday.

I was at Shroyer Scrapyard and just looking around. One of the items they had for sale was this bit of art work. They wanted more than scrap prices.

Employment situation

Both Belladonna and Kubota have been looking for work.

Bella interviewed at two places. I have not been given permission to share any details so you will not get any. That one place pressured her to make a commitment as soon as they tendered an offer. She told them she needed a few weeks. The other place told her they typically took two or three weeks after the interview before tendering offers. They made an offer two business days after the interview.

Bella has to make some decisions. The job offers vary in geographic area and the new-employee career-pathing within the organization. My perception is that Bella's job offers have been within pennies/hour of each other in spite of significant differences in cost of living in their respective cities.

Kubota has been working for a couple of months at one place. Thought his bosses were stupid and went looking for another job.

He told me that his future boss said "I knew you would fit in the moment I saw you". Kubota got a job offer with a 60% pay bump over his current job.

The thing that convinced the boss that Kubota was the right man for the team? Kubota interviewed after working a full-day at his current job. He showed up in battered work-boots and his hands were scuffed up. Everything about Kubota screamed "I am a WORKING man"

I do admire the fact that Kubota is supremely indifferent to heat, cold, precipitation, smoke, noise and long-hours. That is a rare bird in these modern times.