Monday, June 7, 2010

Elephant Garlic

It's an alien!!! Ha!
But really, those are some tall stems!
These are pictures from our yard.
We have lived here just over two years.
We got a good price on this home in part because the yard was overgrown and will take time and energy to tame.
The great thing is all the surprise plants like this one that pop up on their own.
A work in progress as always!


I had no idea what these crazy things were for months
so I began taking pictures to compare to online photos.


 I even sweetly asked my hubbie to mow around them.
And he did!
Gotta shout out my love for that eucalyptus tree peeking at me in the right corner.


The "skin" came off and revealed these tiny blooms.
I still had no idea what this was, but it was a fun flower to have around.
Then, I tuned in to an episode of Making It Grow.
MIG is a local gardening program here in South Carolina.
There on the screen was my flower!
Elephant garlic, they called it.
So, after some research, I decided to find out first hand about this plant.
We cut off the pretty part to put in the vase and enjoy.



Then we dug up the bulb.
And...
Cleaned it.
And...
Counted 'em, and measured 'em, and spelled it, and pretty much applied it to all the learning areas for the day as a good little homeschool Mommy would do!
Oh, and chopped it...
Special thanks to my nephew, Ironman.
He loved taking something from nature and using it in a meal.
He spends most days in a public classroom and loved this hands-on way of learning.
The kids decided it would be fun to make soup.
Ironman chopped the chicken and carrots.
Princess chopped the potatoes.
Puddle Duck chopped the turnips.
Note: My girls are young so I cut the potatoes and turnips into pieces that would allow them to finish using just a butter knife.
Safety first!

Voila! Lunch is served.
Hey, can I count that as a homeschool French lesson? ha!

1 comment:

Shannan Martin said...

My favorite thing about moving in to this house was watching all of the surprise blooms pop up. Your garlic is a beaut!!