These are pics that there aren’t enough of to do a whole theme post so will post them together here.
This is a dinner I made from a recipe card from Hello Fresh for a second time. Roasted carrots, fried haddock with a coconut milk/chili cream sauce, topped with pineapple and scallions over rice. It was delicious.
Pics from Horrocks Market in Grand Rapids. We had lunch there on Tuesday but also did shopping. I do not know what the green veggies are that look like reptile skin. If anyone knows what they are please let me know.
Something very sad to see was a massive tree that had been cut down. I know the storm we had took out some of its limbs but why did they have to cut the whole tree down? I am estimating the trunk was 6 feet cut as it was. The pic was taken from across the street so difficult to get accurate scale, but it was massive. They had stacked all of the logs from it in orderly piles off to the side. I was too disgusted to stop and take more pics.
On a happier note, younger son saw a female ginkgo tree by his doctor’s office, as evidenced by the fruit on the tree. He knows how I love my ginkgo trees and picked some of the fruit for me. They are about the size of a quarter. Am drying them out now and hope to plant them in spring.
UPDATE 112023. Looking more closely at the size of the ginkgo, and as time goes on they are drying out, the size is closer to that of a dime. Maybe originally, on the tree, they were quarter-sized, but not now.
Tao Talk 
This vegetable is called bitter gourd in English and “ karela “ in urdu/ Hindi. Very popular in our region in Summer. It has special cooking technique and has to be cooked in a way to get rid of its bitterness.
The dinner looks very tempting
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Sadje, thank you for identifying the bitter gourd/karela. How does it taste and how do you get the bitterness out? Guessing you soak it in something? Thanks on the dinner. It was delicious. Hello fresh recipes use coconut milk a lot which I hadn’t used in cooking much before. Now I use it a lot!
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There are many ways to do it; I prefer to peel the skin, deseed it and cut it into pieces and boil for a few minutes in boiling water with a hefty tablespoon of turmeric. That takes out the bitterness. We cook it either with onions and tomato gravy or with mutton ( my husband’s favorite)
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Thank you, Sadje. You’ve convinced me to try some next time I go there.
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You’re welcome. Get an online recipe for it.
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what does that fruit taste like? I’ve never had it!
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I don’t know. I’ve never eaten it either. I did hear that it is used in preserves. Maybe one day I’ll find out and can let you know.
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I have lived places where the planting of female ginkgo trees is prohibited due to the disgusting smell of the fruit. At least Limburger cheese doesn’t fall on the sidewalks.
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LOL. I keep hearing that, Steve. Once they start to dry out the smell must go away. These have no smell at all.
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This is the information I was hoping to find! My dad complained about the stink of a ginkgo tree in one of his yards. While I’m deciding on a new tree to replace two that are dying where I live, and ginkgo was suggested as common in parks, I needed to know if there is a way to avoid the “stinko.”
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Considerations: tulip poplar (whitewood), American yellowwood (gopherwood), ginkgo, green vase Japanese (zelkova), Japanese … lost track of where I wrote that latest-found red tree down.
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Male ginkgos don’t fruit and it is the fruit that stinks. If the fruits fall on the sidewalk and rot or get stepped on, they smell like cat shit. Imagine your yard as a litterbox that you can’t empty and that is the smell.
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If the tree is off to the side of the yard it won’t be a problem. Good to know the specific stink it is similar to. YUK! P.S. If you don’t have sidewalks (where I’m at there is no such thing) it’s a moot point.
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Marleen, I really don’t think “the stink” lasts that long, regardless. Maybe a week or two at most, as the fruit quickly dries out and has no smell. Maybe do some research on that before you decide?
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It’ll be near a driveway, where I get out of my car. Thus, I will at least avoid the female kind. I read an article on recommended trees considered alternatives to ash (the trees which are dying) a couple months ago (when we trimmed the trees again rather than removing them yet). Looking at that article again, today, it’ll probably be the vase in this spot… since it’s also near a couple sidewalks and streets and I’d rather not need to do trimming to accommodate the public. I’ll choose the tulip or the yellowwood for the other side of the yard (where a third ash is dying) because of a flowering season… likely the yellowwood because the flowers are said to be fragrant and the bark is said to be beautiful in the winter.
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Now I’m leaning toward the tulip, for the side not near the driveway, for it’s axial dominance and high nectar content — plus the hosting of a certain butterfly.
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Good choice if it keeps the bees and butterflies happy.
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Dogwoods are also very pretty as are redbud.
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Those ginkgos do smell! but it doesn’t last that long.
So sad about that tree…we have lost a lot due to Dutch Elm disease around here. But to just randomly cut one down makes no sense.
I like the looks of that veggie–I saw that Sadje identified it. I’ve not seem them before. (K)
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I’m glad that I got them post-smelling. Looking at them last night, I swear they look like tiny testicles. lmao. I should drive by that tree again (if it hasn’t been carted away by now) and try to measure it and see what kind of damage it took. Maybe it had to come down. So sorry about Dutch Elm diseases taking out your poor trees. Hoping Sadje posts more on how to prepare them. I might pick some up.
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It would be interesting to try!
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I miss those Hello Fresh meals. That is so sad about that tree. It was so massive! I can’t imagine how old it was.
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I’ve been using the recipe cards and recreating them, which isn’t difficult as so many of the ingredients are things that are in the pantry. I know, I’m heartbroken about the tree. It’s one I looked at whenever I drove that way.
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Thats right! Jennifer saved some of them also…the cards.
It was so massive!
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So sad that a grand tree was euthanised :(
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There has to be a good reason why that huge tree was cut down. There HAS to be!
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I like to hope so, but so often it is because some human thinks they are inconvenient in some way. I’d like a human to say that about their lungs. “Oh, think of what organs I could put in that cavity if it wasn’t for my dratted lungs!”
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Ugh. Don’t they know how much a tree protects their house from the elements? I have to convince myself it was for good cause and the owners were reluctant to take such measures….
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The tree is on the fire department’s property. If I ever see one of them outside, I’ll ask why.
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Hmmm…. definitely do.
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