GOOD IDEA: “Just a thought for all those gardeners who have more
produce than they can use. Our local food pantries are always
looking for donations (the Salvation Army and the YWCA). The
Friendship Table might be interested as well as the Domestic
Violence Shelter and the Homeless Shelter at the YWCA.”
Today’s excellent idea brought to you by Kathy Goetz of
Bradford.
BEE-NOTE: Jerry Berkhouse of Bradford offers what may be an
obvious answer to why there has been so few blackberries,
blueberries and apples: The absence of the honey bee.
While we have written extensively on both of these problems,
we’ve been reluctant for some reason to make the connection. After
all, it always happens to “the other guy,” right?
What has happened to the honey bee, known as “colony collapse
disorder,” has been widely reported. And, certainly, honey bees are
one of the main pollinators of a variety of crops – apples have
been mentioned often – but we just didn’t want to think the impact
would be so local and so quick.
Not pleasant thoughts, at all, but worth considering.
TINY ONES: A couple weeks ago, we showed readers a photo of a
gigantic mushroom which had been growing not too far from Bradford.
Our report had indicated it may have been a puffball.
Now we can tell you about mushrooms that are on the other end of
the spectrum – tiny, yellow mushrooms.
Maxine Weis of Emporium, who loves to work with her flowers,
tells us she noticed what appeared to be very small pebbles under
her geraniums. “They were very, very tiny,” she said, perhaps the
size of BB’s.
Every fall, she brings her flowerboxes into her house and puts
them in an upstairs bedroom. These small mushrooms – bright yellow
and like the normal “hooded” mushrooms – were beneath her
salmon-color geraniums.
Next, Maxine dried one of these mushrooms and asked around for
an identification. Her daughter, Mary, finally use the Internet to
discover these little items often grow on houseplants and usually
in nurseries.
Perhaps a spore or two, she surmised, had gotten into the
soil.
On another subject, Maxine tells us her hibiscus has flowers
about nine inches across!
Maxine must have quite the green thumb. We can’t help but
wonder, though, if she spied any really small leprechauns under
those teeny, tiny mushrooms.
