The Island Chicken Story

My first picture taken on the Kauai Island was not of the beautiful flowers

or the beaches

It was this one:

Wild chickens. Before I saw them, I read about them. Wall Street Journal published very interesting Ann Zimmerman's article in April.
She wrote that Kauai was overrun by roosters, hens and little chicks which forage at outdoor food courts, ruin sugar cane and corn crops and wake islanders and tourists with predawn crowing. The birds lay eggs inside store booths.

The WSJ article explains that other Hawaiian islands have wild chickens, too, but Kauai's problem is worse since it's the only island in the chain that doesn't have mongooses,the natural enemy of wild chickens. "Mongooses were imported to the Hawaiian islands in the late 1800s to kill rats in the sugar-cane fields. Local legend has it that a mongoose bit the hand of a Kauai dockworker, who knocked the entire crate of the critters into the bay, and no more were imported. That's good news for rare bird species if nobody else".

This picture was taken near the waterfall that can't be reached by a car. We kaiaked and then hiked for a mile. And what we saw there the first? The wild rooster!

We, personally, were not annoyed by the crowing.
Boys were excited to see the birds walking into the restaurants and loved feeding them the corn sold for this purpose.

So, where did they come from?

The WSJ article says: "Kauai's wild-chicken population started to get out of hand in 1992, when Hurricane Iniki, the state's most devastating hurricane, hit the island, doing $1.8 billion in damage to the beaches, hotels and local property. At the time, there were five sugar plantations on the island. Workers, many from Portugal and the Philippines, lived on the plantations and raised animals for food. Domestic chickens were set loose during the storm. But there was also a large, underground cockfighting scene on the island, according to Becky Rhodes, director of the Kauai Humane Society.
"The hurricane blew apart the containers where the cocks were raised, and they flourished" in the wild. The wild hens are edible, but remain tough even after hours of cooking, locals attest. Still, as the economy in Kauai worsens -- tourism spending was down 15% last year -- more hens are winding up on the dinner table. That's no threat to the roosters, though."

We saw a lot of colorful souvenirs inspired by the wild chickens. We heard that the birds eat centipedes - that is why some people can forgive them the noise which they make.

The Kauai's wild chickens reminded me of the Key West where the birds could be seen crossing the streets in front of the cars. The BIG difference is that there are thousands of them in Kauai.

The WSJ article is here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123863006121980573.html

Hawaiian Sky Tells Me Good Bye

End of my vacation.

Going home, back to my tomatoes.

Postcard From Hawaii

Aloha from Kauai!

Just letting you know that I am alive and well and have already begun my assault on the local gardens. Kauai is the oldest of the Hawaiian islands and has the wettest spot in the world (more than 400" a year). "Jurassic Park", as well as many other blockbusters, was filmed here.

Besides the absolutely lush tropical greenery that was normal to expect, so far I am impressed with two things here:

-how many wild chickens are all over the island, crossing the roads, proudly walking baby chicks and digging for worms anywhere in towns;

-how clean the island's roads and towns are( I'm wondering if the two facts are connected). More observations to follow.

I miss you my virtual friends and wish you happy gardening and blogging.

I'll contact those of you who showed an interest in my foxglove seeds upon my arrival home. There are more seeds available so don't hesitate to leave a comment on the previous post.

Aloha!

Foxglove Seeds Are Ready For Sharing

I promised to collect seeds for those of you who liked my giant foxgloves (posts: Foxglove, The Beautiful , It's Foxglove Time! , A Foxglove High and Low ).
I have enough seeds for about 20 people. If you want them, please leave a comment(mention the seeds). After returning from an upcoming trip, I will let the first 20 (or more) blotanists know, and we'll go from there.

As I wrote before, I don't know the particular variety of these foxgloves, since I never planted them. They just came to my garden by air and started to spread on their own. Here, they grow even in uncultivated soil. I never stake them. They fall only after strong winds.

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Since tomorrow is the 15th, I am including some pictures of the blooms in my garden. Thanks Carol ( May Dreams Garden) for hosting Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day.

Russian Sage, Daisies, Roses:

Cleome:

Sedum:

Joe Pie Weed:



Dahlia:

Penstemon, Nasturtiums:



Gladioli:



Yucca:



Cosmos:

Liatris:

Have a great weekend, and I'll see you soon!

Run! It's Watering Time!

Look who I flushed out from one of the planters!

P.S. Jacob Royer (thanks for the comment Jacob!) raised an interesting questions: are these creatures chipmunks or squirrels. I think they are baby squirrels. They look exactly as their daddy who was fooling around my garden, digging my flower beds and flirting with bushytail ladies.

I found this information at wisegeek.com: "A chipmunk can be identified by the five dark brown stripes that run from its head to its tail, which is often upright. A squirrel, meanwhile, has thirteen stripes in total that are also dark brown and run the length of its body. A squirrel does not, however, have stripes on its face. A chipmunk is also usually smaller than a squirrel. Chipmunks run quickly, with their tails straight in the air. A squirrel runs with its tail at a horizontal angle". Hmm, I remember seeing some squirrels with no stripes... Anyway, I'll try to watch the creatures, they might change the color. I'll also pay attention to how they hold their tails.

P.P.S. OK, here it is, a picture of a chipmunk. Found it in my 2008 folder. Now, we can see the difference!

***Copyright TatyanaS

Better Than Growing Vegetables

What could be better than growing your own vegetables? Eating them of course! Tomatoes are the major characters in our garden show right now (though it is botanically a berry, the tomato is nutritionally categorized as a vegetable). As usual, they start to ripen at the end of July here. I watch them getting bigger and changing color, and I get excited with the very first fruit.

Then, more tomatoes are coming.

And more

I start sharing (don't forget that grouchy neighbor who told me in 2003 don't even bother planting tomatoes since it's too short a summer for them here). Then more tomatoes are coming.

This is time for "Tomatoes and Eggs". I got the recipe a long time ago. It might be Russian or Bulgarian. It's simple, tasty and, what's important for me - you can use as many tomatoes as you want (and if I have MANY of them coming from the garden, I want to use MANY!).

A chopped white or yellow onion goes into the pan first with olive oil. When they turn golden, they welcome cut tomatoes. Then, eggs join the company. Salt, black pepper, parsley, dill, chives are added last. No exact amount of ingredients, no exact time. If you want more "eggy" dish, put more eggs, if you want more "tomatoey"dish, put more tomatoes. Yum!
What else is coming from the garden? Potatoes!

Red potatoes and fingerling potatoes.



There is the sockeye salmon from Alaska caught during our July trip in the freezer.

This type is also called Red Salmon, and it is sure red! Bill found a good recipe in a Delta magazine and cooks it on a cedar plank.

Oops, forgot to put grilled squash.

Zucchini squash is doing great in the garden . This year, it's particulary sweet.
There is no summer dinner without cucumbers for us. Cucumbers like growing on supports.

I like to plant pickling variety. I don't pickle them although. My boys eat them straight from the vine. Crunchy!

P.S. If you are wondering what we've done with my king salmon

here it is, cold smoked:

I also made red caviar:

That's all. It's time to go to the garden and pick up more tomatoes.
***

Fishing art

Black Krim. My Picture Of The Day

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Heirloom tomato from Crimea region of Black Sea (Ukraine). Crimea is pronounced KRYM (KRIM) in Russian.

Remember this? The "Big Three" at the Yalta Conference, Crimea, 1945: Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin.

*

P.S.Very often people ask when to pick Black Krim tomatoes. Before they get soft! Better earlier than later.

***Copyright TatyanaS

Pink, Purple, Pinkish-Purple, etc.

While picking some pictures of pink and purple flowers, I looked at the definition of "pink"and "purple" in Wikipedia and found several interesting facts.

"Pink is a pale red color." OK.

" The use of the word for the color was first recorded in the late 17th century, describing the flowers of pinks, flowering plants in the genus Dianthus." Interesting.

"Pink itself is a combination of red and white." Pretty clear.

"Other tints of pink may be combinations of rose and white, magenta and white, or orange and white."

Wow, orange! Didn't know that.

"In the 17th century, however, the word pink was also used to describe a greenish or yellowish color." You kidding me!

"The practice of assigning pink to an individual gender began in the 1920s. From then until the 1940s, pink was considered appropriate for boys because being related to red it was the more masculine and decided color, while blue was considered appropriate for girls because it was the more delicate and dainty color, or related to the Virgin Mary." Very interesting!


"Since the 1940s, the societal norm apparently inverted so that pink became appropriate for girls and blue appropriate for boys, a practice that has continued into the 21st century."
I am glad that they didn't use color photography widely before 1940s. It would be confusing for us to see pictures of our predecessors! Young grandpa wearing his pink pajamas...

***

"Purple is a general term used in English for the range of shades of color occurring between red and blue." Fine.

"In human color psychology, purple is associated with royalty and nobility." Yes.

"There is a disagreement over exactly which shades can be described as purple, some people preferring more precise terms such as magenta or heliotrope for particular shades."

"A difference in retinal sensitivity to red and blue light between individuals can cause further disagreement."

So, if you think that some of my blooms are not pink or purple, then we just have different retinal sensitivity!