Sprecher Root Beer

"Our No. 1 root beer, from Sprecher in Wisconsin, a wonderfully balanced and complex brew, uses a combination of corn syrup and honey...."

- NY Times (link here)

I love Sprecher.

St. John's Day

Today was St. John's Day.

If you harvest and burn St. John's Wort on this day, it is supposed to bring you good luck for the coming year.

We will see how that works out.

Dr. O'Grady

Dr. O'Grady, longtime resident of Hales Corners, passed away, and we attended the visitation at the funeral home this evening.

Many years ago, he gave us some red-twig dogwoods, and they have been a cherished part of the garden ever since.

Every day that I am out in the garden, I am reminded of Dr. O'Grady and his generosity.

Chocolate vine

Akebia quinata

Missouri Botanical Garden

Unicorn

A deer with a single horn in the center of its head - much like the fabled, mythical unicorn - has been spotted in a nature preserve in Italy, park officials said Wednesday.

- AP/azcentral (link here)

Have not seen any such unicorns in the garden yet.

Momordica balsamina

Bitter melon or Balsam apple.

Sounds like an interesting annual vine.

NC State University has a brief description of it (link here).

Beware tomatoes

An outbreak of salmonella food poisoning first linked to uncooked tomatoes has now been reported in nine states, U.S health officials said Tuesday.

- AP/Newsmax (link here)

Remind me to carefully wash my tomatoes when I harvest them.