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Posts Tagged: cherry
'Mining for Bees' in the Cherry Laurels
Have you checked to see what's foraging on your early spring blooms? Our cherry laurels (Prunus laurocerasus) are blooming and the Andrena (mining)...
A tiny Andrena candida foraging in the cherry laurels in Vacaville, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Andrena nigrocaerulea foraging in the cherry laurels in Vacaville, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
When Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries (Cherry Laurels)
It's definitely a bee friendly plant, packed with nectar and pollen. The cherry laurel, Prunus caroliniana, a member of the rose family, draws honey...
A backlit honey bee, its tongue or proboscis extended, heads for cherry laurel blossoms. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The anticipation of nectar and pollen is intense. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Touchdown! Pollen and nectar on the cherry laurel. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
UC Davis Experts to Speak at 'Basics of Beekeeping' Conference
Want to learn the basics of beekeeping from a team of experts, including scientists from the University of California, Davis, at a two-day conference...
Extension apiculturist Elina Niño of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, is shown here working with beekeeping course students. She will be a speaker at the "Basics of Beekeeping" conference. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
About That Cherry Tree...
Did he do it? Probably not. Did he admit it? No, if he didn't do it. Historians agree that the infamous story about George Washington cutting down...
A young honey bee foraging on a cherry blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Honey bee deep inside a cherry blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Thars Gold in Them Thar Hills!
That would be ‘Sungold’ tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum) in the Solano Foothills. (What an appropriate choice for our Under the Solano Sun Master Gardener blog.) Nothing tastes better than tomatoes fresh from your garden; however, some tomatoes are better than others. ‘Sungold’ tomatoes are among the most sweet, prolific, and tolerant tomatoes available.
How sweet are they? They have been compared to liquid sun, sugar candy, and gems of golden flavor. Their big fruity flavor makes them great straight from the vine, in salads, and pasta sauces (see recipe below).
The vines get huge, so allow for lots of room and extra tall tomato cages. They are the first to mature and the last to harvest, and although small, the plants produce so many that it is hard to keep up with them.
Requiring full sun, this little orange indeterminate American hybrid is disease-resistant to Fusarum wilt, Verticillum wilt, root knot nematodes, and tobacco mosaic virus. They are so hearty that volunteers easily pop up in your garden. They flourish in the ground, in raised beds, or in containers. Even with late rains, cold, and frost like we have had the last two seasons, ‘sungolds’ keep on producing when other tomatoes get “touchy”.
‘Sungolds” won Great First to Ripon Race of 2011 and third place out of more than one hundred tomatoes at the Morningsun Herb Farm 2010 Tomato Day. Next time you are looking for a tomato to plant, seriously consider this golden nugget.
Sungold Pasta Sauce
1 cup (or more)‘Sungold’ tomatoes cut in half
sea salt and white pepper to taste
1-2 Tbs fresh minced basil
3-4 ears of white corn with kernels removed
2-3 cloves of minced garlic (varies with your taste)
2-3 Tbs. butter
2-3 Tbs. virgin olive oil
1 cp white wine
1 lb sea scallops seared in butter
1 pound fresh pasta cooked no longer than 3 minutes
Parmesan cheese shavings
Sauté garlic in butter and olive oil. Add ‘sungolds’, corn kernels, salt, pepper, basil, and wine. Cook about two minutes. Pour on top of pasta, sea scallops, and cheese. Enjoy.
