Homestead and Garden

Mother’s Day Strawberries

photo-5As my blade makes its way through a cool, ripe Stilwell strawberry, I breathe in the heady sweetness wafting upwards and across my face.

It’s Mother’s Day, and I’ve just returned from a two-day road trip to places I’ve not been, visiting with people I’ve only just met, with one daughter at my side.

A gathering of family on Mother’s Day brought my other daughter to my side accompanied by her man. Along with them came my husband, and we all celebrated his mother by eating food she had prepared for us on the day she should have rested, and received.

The berries for our dessert had been left behind, so we joyfully ate cake with whipped topping and drank our tea.

Tonight in my own kitchen, as I finish cleaning the berries previously selected for today’s dessert, I close my eyes and remember the slice of homemade pound cake with orange glaze.  I pretend to spoon my just-prepared berries over the cake, lift a full bite to my mouth, and enjoy the sweet goodness of Mother’s Day.

Thank you, God, for my own mother who helped me learn to prepare food, for my mother-in-law who prepared our food today, for my two daughters who are standing on their own as they continue to prepare food leaps and bounds over my historical 20-something capacity.  Thank you, God, for the sweet goodness of Mother’s Day.

So incredibly sweet and good.

 

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Every Point on the Map, Music Scene

EPOTM: Dibble, OK

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_DSC0038A grade school friend of mine who lived across our pasture used to tease our classmates then use “Dibble, OK” as the punch line.

“If you DO graduate high school, I’m sure you’ll have nice career at the Sonic in Dibble.”

“You’re getting on my nerves.  I think it’s time for you to move to Dibble.”

And so on. Continue reading EPOTM: Dibble, OK →

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Oklahoma Horizon TV

On the Horizon—Hire Our Vets

We have a lot of military personnel and vets living in our state. They have given life and limb to serve our country and protect us. I’m very impressed with those who have given up everything to serve. It takes a special person to leave their family and go to sometimes inhospitable places to help keep the peace.

Many people complain about where they are stationed and that we shouldn’t be in certain places. What I can tell you from talking to friends who are vets, they’re exact words are, “we needed to be there.” Here at home we tend to “arm chair quarterback” events in the world and make criticisms about things we really have no idea when in reality, we need to be supportive of the men and women who sacrifice so we can have the freedoms we have.

So how do we show support? Well here in Oklahoma we are making sure that returning vets and even vets who may have served many years ago have an opportunity to find a job. Only fitting since many of them had to give up jobs to go overseas for a few years. In this week’s video blog, we show you just how Oklahoma is helping our hero’s once they return.
Alisa Hines

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Oklahoma culture

Fruit and Nut Trees Native to Oklahoma

The reasons people choose to use our RDC Contact Form are vast.  Recipes…questions about relationships…companies asking us to review a product, etc.  Yesterday, however, we fielded a question about native Oklahoma fruit trees that led me to a phone conversation with my father.  I thought it might be helpful to pass the information along to others looking for the same information.

If you want to grow trees that have a good chance of survival and are native to our great state, here is a fairly comprehensive list created from using the “Forest Trees of Oklahoma” book by Dr. Elbert L. Little Jr.

List of Fruit and Nut Trees Native to Oklahoma

  • Persimmon   60 ft.
  • Paw Paw   10 – 30 ft.
  • Red Mulberry   50 ft.
  • Prairie Crab Apple   20 ft.
  • Plums (American, Hortulan, Mexican, wildgoose) all 20 ft.
  • Black Cherry   50 – 70 ft.
  • Choke Cherry   15 ft.
  • Pecan   70 ft.
  • Hickory (several varieties)   60 ft.
  • Black Walnut   50 ft.

You can also eat the berries from a Hackberry tree, but I’m not sure they are native to Oklahoma.  They definitely grow here!

There are several fruit trees that have been introduced into our forests and Oklahoma landscape, but are not native to Oklahoma.  An example of this would be a small, wild pear tree my Uncle found on his land in Clayton.  It appeared as a small, slightly roundish fruit with the texture close to an Asian pear.  It’s pretty cool to happen upon something like this, but isn’t “purist” if you want your trees to fit naturally with the original climate and environment.

There are quite a few grapes and a currant bush native to Oklahoma as well as several berries.  I don’t have an exhaustive list, but I can point you to a wildcrafting website that is educational.  The information on THIS PAGE isn’t delineated between native, and what simply grows naturally in our state because it was introduced.  You can, however, learn quite a bit by just scrolling through the info and photos.

Please make sure that you are well informed if you decide to go wildcrafting for fruit in Oklahoma.  There are many “look-alikes” across our landscapes and I want you to stay healthy!

Happy planting…and eating!

[kelly]

persimmon photo above by Rylee Roberts

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Every Point on the Map

EPOTM: Preview of Dibble, Criner and Payne, OK

As Rachel and I sat on a porch in Dibble, on another porch in Criner, and in the living room of a couple who had been married 65 years in Payne, we weren’t aware of something that had been happening.  Our brains had been filling up with stories of the Oklahomans with whom we were interacting.  They were filling up with the histories, and mysteries, of those we had just begun to know. Continue reading EPOTM: Preview of Dibble, Criner and Payne, OK →

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Showcasing Red Dirt culture ~ authored and managed by contributors with connections to the great state of Oklahoma.