Worth Sharing This Week: Send Me Orchids and Pumpkin!

When I was a young and romantic pre-teen, I loved reading those junior romance novels, like Fifteen by Beverly Cleary and oh gracious, I can't think who all else.  There were loads of juvenile fiction authors I read back then.   But I was always curious about what an orchid looked like.  Every girl who ever went to prom or a Homecoming dance in those novels were given orchid corsages by their best beaux.  I was a full grown adult before I saw my first orchid.  I had always heard how difficult they were to grow.

Did you know that actor Raymond Burr and his partner raised orchids?   One episode of the show was taken right from his own life when an orchid breeder is accused of a crime and he defends her.  There were a few facts about breeding orchids and the rarity of certain ones, etc.  

His collection of orchids was legendary.   There's a garden in Fiji that began after he built a house to hold his collection that is now open to the public.  It's called The Garden of the Sleeping Giant.  There is a lovely photo gallery on the site.  Go have a look around.

My Phalaenopsis orchids are summering outdoors on the front porch.  They love it there.  I've found in our hot, humid area that they don't mind a bit being outdoors as long as they get filtered sunlight, and some shade.  Never direct sunlight.   I'll bring them indoors when night time temperatures begin to dip down to the mid 60's.   I was late putting them out this year because our night time temps didn't get up to that level until after mid June.

I will continue to take them outdoors as long as day time temperatures are above 65 but about end of October, I bring them indoors and install them on a table in the kitchen sitting area, which gets morning sun.  I seldom feed my orchids, but when I do I use the water I've boiled eggs in and occasionally I'll crush some fresh egg shells to scatter over the roots.  I water once a week.  And I'm rewarded with blooms from about January until June from these plants.  I learned all this by trial and error and watching what others who had orchids did.

My orchids are creamy white, pearly white, and a deep fuschia pink.  This past winter, I was thrilled to have a baby develop on one of the plants.  This is a rare occurrence according to the orchid growing website I visited.  It fell from the parent plant, so I potted it in orchid bark in a tea cup and it immediately sent up a flower stem.  I'm trying my best to keep it going in the hopes I can raise a mature orchid from it.

This is a photo of one of my orchids this past year, blooming outdoors.

If you've always wanted to try growing orchids, I suggest you wait until you see one marked down.  Typically an orchid in bloom sells for about $20 but you can often buy them once they are no longer in bloom for less than $10.  I've had one or two of mine for 4 years or so now.  I did repot two of them last year and need to get pots to do two more but they are truly worth the experience of raising.  

Did you know that orchids in Madagascar produce vanilla beans?   Mavis Butterfield had an excellent post on Vanilla this past week on her blog.  Go read it. https://www.onehundreddollarsamonth.com/10-fun-facts-about-vanilla-beans/

I know many people use artificial vanilla but I personally avoid it.  I did research years ago for the Penny Ann Poundwise newsletter and learned then that it was produced as a waste product of wood pulp during the paper making process.  Having lived near a paper plant and because my ex husband worked at that plant's maintenance I was aware of the harsh chemicals used to make paper.  I didn't want that stuff in my body!   

A blurb on the internet says:  Chemically identical to real vanilla, artificial vanilla can be made from clove oil, pine bark, coal tar, bran, even cow dung. Until fairly recently, the chemical lignin, derived from wood pulp, was the most common way of synthesizing vanillin.  

One of the first frugal living books I ever read was a book by Marjorie Hillis called Orchids on Your Budget.   I found it in a library and read it over and over again.   I finally found a copy at a used bookstore and I still re-read it periodically.  It was first published in 1937.  Fun fact: Miss Hillis wrote for Woman's Day Magazine in the 1940's.  I have several of the magazines that she was published in.  I like that she's continued to be an inspiration all these years.  I'll bet she'd be surprised that she's lasted this long beyond her hey dey.

 With shortages here and there I wonder if we'll see pumpkin this year.  I've 3 cans that I bought towards end of the holiday season last year and was wishing I'd bought more, but I did not.  I thought this recipe for a Bean Pie sounded interesting...What do you think?