The Quack Shack

[WannaBeHillBilly]

[...]
Of course I am. These are *daylilies*, not Asiatic or other poisonous ones. Every part of the daylily is edible. Been munching on shoots (fantastic steamed then tossed with butter!), and can't wait for the flower buds to appear!

You are kidding are you? - According to the Wikipedia all parts of the plant contain Hemerocallin, an alkaloid that can cause kidney-failure…
Some varieties are being used in the Asian cuisines but everything has to be cooked thoroughly.
I remember using a syringe to steal the nectar from the daylily flowers, but even that was risky - so i was told as a kid. We had the yellow-red variety all over the place.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

This was about 4 feet. Big for a rat snake. Didn't mind being picked up but maybe because it was full of egg? I haven't seen it today

That's just eight times longer than that poor lizard! - Should be doable for Blanca, of course not when there's an egg inside…

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Mine are 3 1/2 feet wide and 7 1/3 feet long. About 3 1/2 feet tall at the peak.

Not too bad for a single drake. Where did you bought them?

 

[Canadian Wind]

You are kidding are you? - According to the Wikipedia all parts of the plant contain Hemerocallin, an alkaloid that can cause kidney-failure…
Some varieties are being used in the Asian cuisines but everything has to be cooked thoroughly.
I remember using a syringe to steal the nectar from the daylily flowers, but even that was risky - so i was told as a kid. We had the yellow-red variety all over the place.

I've researched this, making certain of species, and am being careful not to over-ingest. Even then, I'd have to eat pounds of the stuff for it to affect me.

So far, I've sampled the shoots and tubers, as well as the flower buds a few years ago. Even fed them to my pet lizard at the time. The leaves make excellent fodder for the rabbits, too, and most of them love them. I'm currently cooking down the tougher leaves and roots to turn into fowl food.

I'm very much into foraging and living off the land. Food has gotten way too expensive, especially when one has no income.

I can link you pages for recipes if you want?

 

[Supercow]

I may try some of the current content of the duck-house as mulch around the new cherry-trees, gooseberry and currant shrubs, but i am afraid the weeds will grow with even greater vigor after the "duck-gold" has decomposed… (?)

Well.. I would say that anything that contains fresh manure should be kept away from anything that we eat raw, that's why i mentioned "tall" when talking about mulching berries. Gooseberries and currants can hang very low, same with haskap or, as an extreme case, strawberries. Or cornelian cherry if you pick only the fallen fruit (usually a good idea in my experience).

Raspberries and blackberries on the other hand seem safe to me (currently using straw under black rasps).

A way around this would be to lay down duck straw but then pile some grass clippings or whatnot over it during the season and keep refreshing the layers as needed. At our place we top up the mulch all over the summer to shield the plants with shallow roots from full impact of the sun and to keep weeds away.

 

[Supercow]

According to the Wikipedia all parts of the plant contain Hemerocallin, an alkaloid that can cause kidney-failure…

Maybe this is a situation similar to the pawpaw (asimina triloba) which also contains a neurotoxin.

Has been suggested as an anti-cancer agent because of that (in my understanding the alkaloid slows down energy metabolism, thus starving cancer cells which have the highest needs; unfortunately nerve cells have the next highest).

Now, while the above may work or not, the fact is that the fruit is super tasty to the point of "you don't believe it until you've tried it" (think mango-banana-vanilla-caramel all blended together) and that one would have to eat A LOT to develop nerve problems.

There are other plants in the same family though which have a much larger concentration of the active ingredient and over the time there have been studies which have shown an increase in Parkinson's where this fruit (graviola - soursop) is very popular.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Good Sunday Morning and Evening Everyone!

 

[Canadian Wind]

Salutations and glad tidings. Hope today is good to you!

 

[Canadian Wind]

@WannaBeHillBilly and @Miss Lydia

How many can you identify?

 

[Miss Lydia]

@WannaBeHillBilly and @Miss Lydia

How many can you identify?

I could name some.