Bamboo Shoots

I bought a bamboo shoot at the Maplewood Farmers Market at Schlafly Bottleworks from the lady at the Ozark Forest Mushrooms booth. She sold them with this brochure (pdf) from the Extension Office of Washington State University. I peeled the shoot, sliced it into rings, and boiled the slices for twenty minutes. According to the brochure, you can then serve it just about anyway you would any other vegetable -- on a salad, in soup, stir-fried, etc. We thought the flavor was pretty delicate (reminds me of Heart of Palm) and so decided it would suit us best on a salad.





If you haven't been to a Farmers Market this spring, things are really popping out early. I bought a chicken, beet leaves, and mushrooms. There were all kinds of other greens available as well as radishes and chives. I saw a sign that said strawberries, but they must have sold out before I got there. Also, lots of plants for your garden.

Class Field Trip 2

For the second Sunday in a row, we got up before sunrise to meet our photography class at the Missouri Botanical Garden, two hours before it opened to the public. The azaleas and tulips are spectacular.

More photos on my flickr page.

Evening light at the Garden

We stayed at the Missouri Botanical Garden after volunteering at the Archive during the day on Wednesday. It was fun to see how active the ducks and geese were at that time of day. The azaleas were brilliant.





More photos on my flickr page.

Photography Class field trip

Rick and I are taking a photography class through the Missouri Botanical Garden. Today's adventure was a field trip starting two hours before the Garden opened to the public. I took 269 photos, but culled them down to 21.

The Japanese Garden has beautiful light at 7:00 in the morning.



The class is called "Understanding Exposure," so I took many shots of this white bridge to get a good exposure.



The tulips are blooming with more to come.



Many more photos on my flickr page.