Latest news with #SeedLibrary
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Garden Gossip: April gardening is half inside, half outside
At the Seed Library event at Laramie County Library in mid-March, there were 600 excited gardeners picking from 150 kinds of seeds. If you missed it, there are more free seeds catalogued on the third floor of the main library and at the branches in Pine Bluffs and Burns, said Kellie Johnson, library staff member. As the gardeners trailed by, Laramie County Master Gardeners showed ways to extend the growing season, how to fold seed-starting pots from newspaper and how to slip a dried bean and a wet cotton ball in a tiny plastic bag with a stretchy band so you can wear it and watch the bean sprout hour by hour. I don't think any kids turned down the offer. The people I chatted with included a seasoned gardener, relocating from Texas, who will be attempting to grow vegetables in Wyoming for the first time. Another man confessed he'd never grown anything before and came to see what it was all about. Someone else showed me a photo of the piece of prairie they wanted to make into a garden. One woman told me she has a large vegetable garden already. Another woman confessed to being a novice and came with a friend for support. Someone else confessed to being a Master Gardener intern this spring. The rigorous classes finish up in March in time for interns to put all that new knowledge to work. Gardening in April in Cheyenne is part indoors and part outdoors. Indoors, my forced spring bulbs are finished. The crocuses, daffodils and some tulips did well, but other tulips did not. I'm letting the foliage die back, and sometime this spring I will find places to plant them outside so they have a chance to build up their bulbs to bloom next spring. In April, outside, I need to lift a little of the leaf mulch where I know I have other spring bulbs sending up shoots. I don't want to remove all the mulch — it offers protection when it snows in May. In the house, most of my amaryllis bulbs are blooming. I don't force them to bloom for Christmas, but give them water and sunlight year-round. I've been documenting when they flower for the last eight years (some bulbs are even older), and 85% of the time it's mid-March to mid-April. April is when most of my orchids want to bloom, too. This year, for the first time, two phalaenopsis orchids decided, instead of one, to put up two and even three flower spikes each — and the spikes have branches full of buds! My accidental wave petunia experiment is going well. Last fall, before frost, I cut off all the stems with flowers still blooming and put them in a vase. They continued to grow buds and then roots, so I potted them up. The original plant, cut back to nubs, started putting out new growth where I left it in the garage, so I brought it in, too, and gave it lots of light and fertilizer, and it is now blooming like crazy. Mark is about ready to start his tomatoes: heat mats, shop lights and plastic dome to keep the humidity in until they sprout. Outside, I'm still putting off cutting back most of the perennial flowers. Some flowerheads still have seeds or the birds can use them for perches. I cut fallen stems into 6-inch pieces and add them to the thinning layer of leaf mulch. The two big trees in my garden leave a thick layer every fall, and by spring, I start peeling it back and adding it to the compost pile bucket by bucket. There's also wood mulch that's blown in from the neighbor up the street that I need to sweep up. Little by little, on into May, I cut back the old perennial stems. But I've heard we should also leave some, especially the hollow ones that stay upright, for beneficial insects to lay eggs in, leaving them 12 inches high or so. If the soil dries out enough, I could get a start on digging out more lawn so I have room to plant more perennials. Mark does a lot of digging in his raised vegetable bed in the backyard because every year the trees fill it with roots. But if there weren't tree roots, he could go for the no-till, no-dig option for the raised bed, letting the soil build structure and just adding a few inches of compost. And then comes May, when we shuffle pots of vegetable starts in and out before we are sure the frosty nights are over and they can safely be planted outside.
The Guardian
28-03-2025
- General
- The Guardian
Cocktail of the week: Seed Library's cloud sour – recipe
This is a simplified version of a drink we serve at Seed Library, and its freshness makes it a lovely way to welcome the long-overdue arrival of spring. Shio koji is a funky, umami-rich Japanese ingredient made from fermented rice, and is more commonly used in marinades and for seasoning, much as miso and soy sauce are – look for it in specialist food stores and online. 50ml botanical-heavy gin – we use The Botanist15ml melon liqueur – we use Briottet Crème de Melon 20ml fresh lemon juice 20ml standard 1:1 sugar syrup 1 tsp liquid shio koji 2 dashes miraculous foamer, such as Ms Better's, or 15ml egg white Measure everything into a shaker filled with ice and give it a good, hard shake. Strain into a chilled coupe and serve – no garnish required. Ryan Chetiyawardana, Seed Library, London E1
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Josh Barrie On the Sauce at Seed Library: You won't be lost for words, unfortunately
What's this boozeless breezer missing? I feel like it needs zhuzhing. Er, maybe rare breed sheep? Ah yes, of course, how unbelievably stupid of me to not realise. It is inspired by Orkney after all. One or two drinks on the Seed Library menu read like gags from Andy Zaltzman, the sometime comedian and longtime cricket fanatic who has mad hair and whose wordplay is madder still. Ingredients such as 'century beans' and 'quince ripened in a bed of microbes' are flung about the place like so many marbles. Listen to the Cloud Sour: 'Botanist gin, fluffy citrus, faux gras koj'. When cream is used, it's 'really good cream'; some guests might encounter beeswax, others whey. Look out for 'nitro grapes' and 'native tropical garum'. I saw one drinker sit down to a Salad. That is to say, a concoction made with gin, lettuce, herbes de Provence and red apple soda. What else? This Brutalist basement bar below One Hundred Shoreditch — haven to influencers and people who launch interesting zines — is the work of Mr Lyan, who has more awards than my word count may allow. That is to say, there's genius at play. His cocktails are wizard-like and masterful, careful, zealous creations pertaining to all manner of exotic moments and adventure. Though these are more readily found at his other place, Lyaness, on the South Bank, which is said to be one of the best bars in the world. Test that for yourself. Seed Library feels neither here nor there. I think he needs to either pare it back and focus on being a really good cocktail bar, possibly with some jazz and comfier seats, or double down and go bananas, with drinks shooting off into space. At Seed Library, the vibe is less rambunctious, a little more 'classic night out'. And if I want a classic Hemingway Daiquiri, I'd like it simple and well-made; for it to turn up as quickly as possible and to a soundtrack that isn't upsetting. No explanations, please, and you can hold the sheep. 100 Shoreditch High Street, E1 6JQ. Drinks from £15, Hawkstone Lager From £17 for six, Seeing more of Jeremy Clarkson's Hawkstone lager about? That's because he gave away 1,000 free kegs (some cider too) to pubs this month. Clarkson launched his own boozer, the Farmer's Dog, last year, and said his beer brand is what's keeping it in the black. And yes, it's good PR. It's also true that Hawkstone happens to be the dog's bollocks. Cheers, Clarkson. Marjorie's 26 Foubert's Place, W1, @ Any new French-leaning wine bar offers promise. This one, Marjorie's, comes from hospitality debutants Michael Searle and Josh Anderson, with head chef Giacomo Peretti (ex-Culpeper and others) fronting the food. Escargot, crab tarts, steak — that sort of thing. It all sounds like a distinctly laid-back affair, with 50 seats tucked away across two floors in what was a poke restaurant off Carnaby Street.
