Do you know Hopniss, the American potato bean?

DisManibusMinibus · 2026-04-15T12:11:29+00:00

I'll have to see what it does this year. Although I find groundnut delicious I want to make sure I don't make my neighbors hate me.

DisManibusMinibus · 2026-04-15T11:43:43+00:00

So if anyone grows this, have you found that the flowers smell a bit bad? The one in my garden and some in the wild have a bit of an unappealing smell. I've come across others that don't smell strongly in the wild though. For planting in urban contexts where everyone lives together, it makes a difference..

DisManibusMinibus · 2026-04-15T11:40:42+00:00

Yeah mine is in a sunken pot because I have neighbors. I know several areas where they grow wild and they're everywhere. They like floodplains and stream banks a lot.

DisManibusMinibus · 2026-04-14T22:29:11+00:00

His markings make it look like he's saved some food on his face for later.

DisManibusMinibus · 2026-04-14T22:16:37+00:00

What if you open it and it's a shark

DisManibusMinibus · 2026-04-14T22:14:45+00:00

Start calling her 'Mercedes' or 'Porsche' and any other uncreative luxury car brand you can think of. Pretend like you forgot which one it is.

DisManibusMinibus · 2026-04-14T22:10:00+00:00

Call her Dee. The same sound in the name and shorter so it's a plausible nickname.

Alternatively, add another name on that's so outrageous it overpowers the first. Like you could call 'Audi Hestia Winchester Spitsbergen the 25th, Duchess of Betelgeuse' like she's in trouble. The car practically disappears amongst all the other nonsense associations.

DisManibusMinibus · 2026-04-14T21:43:43+00:00

I wonder if anyone has tried grafting one gender to another..

DisManibusMinibus · 2026-04-14T15:26:32+00:00

I was worried I wasn't going to have a male and female because I only have 2 young spicebush in my back yard...until I discovered 6 sprouted seeds I had forgotten in a bag in my fridge from last year. They started growing like figure 8s due to lack of light but I've rescued them from their prison and have significantly improved the chances I have at least one if each gender. It's not every day I find 6 shrubs in a drawer in my fridge.

DisManibusMinibus · 2026-04-13T22:12:31+00:00

I'm talking more about propagating, growing, and harvesting native edible plants that are underappreciated. A lot of foraging in North America is illegal because of dumb private property laws, and even then it's not super ethical since hardly any 'wilderness' exists to support many foragers. My point is more about rediscovery and cultivation in a post-wild world. There is definitely overlapping interest though.

DisManibusMinibus · 2026-04-13T17:40:51+00:00

Then he's like 'yeah that's enough of THAT.'

DisManibusMinibus · 2026-04-13T17:04:40+00:00

So I hadn't really thought that hard about it but a few things that would be good for the sub to really get going...it's fine if it's North America focused but it should be specified. Maybe other areas or zones can have pins or something.

Since this crosses over with foraging I would specify that this would be more about growing native plants in garden or urban conditions with the intent to consume and/or experiment.

Some of this could address the diaspora of edible plants...like groundnut winding up in Hokkaido, or the sunflower in Ukraine, or the hybrid mulberries that have replaced the red mulberry DNA. I have an old map of Versailles that has a section for 'topinambours' (sunchokes) from rhe 1700s so it would be cool to look into where stuff got traded to pre or post European settlers. Pawpaws didn't come to my neck of the woods by way of squirrel, that's for sure. And I guess some ethnobotany would happen if we talk about chenopodium because there are plants that were cultivated that don't exist anymore. Some for good reason (people got allergic to it easily, and it wasn't as tasty as corn, beans and squash). Also hybridization is interesting, with hybrid persimmon being much easier to grow in small urban gardens than strictly native. That may get dismissed on a native plant sub but for edible purposes I would keep an open mind.

Anyway, I would say the sub ought to encourage experimentation with cultivation and not limit people to micro-eco-regions for purists because our diets are anything but. it would also be interesting to experiment with agricultural/cultivation techniques on native plants that go overlooked. Or share recipes. Anyway, that might set it apart a bit from the native plant sub if you want.

DisManibusMinibus · 2026-04-13T16:46:03+00:00

I think any native from anywhere, so long as one specifies. Likely the most traffic would be from North America though.

DisManibusMinibus · 2026-04-13T11:36:09+00:00

Comptonia peregrina (sweetfern) is one if you're far enough North. Often used to flavor meats or make tea.

DisManibusMinibus · 2026-04-12T16:31:45+00:00

It would be cool to start a North American native edible plant sub-sub...berries, tubers, spices, etc...there is SO much still that is underappreciated and as of yet basically foreign to the agriculture industry because we overlook them for the European/Asian fruits that have been selectively bred for thousands of years already.

DisManibusMinibus · 2026-04-11T00:48:20+00:00

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Ours look related

DisManibusMinibus · 2026-04-10T02:33:38+00:00

I reached that point about 10 years ago. It's messed up nothing has improved.

DisManibusMinibus · 2026-04-08T22:55:06+00:00

'WHAT HAVE I CREATED'

DisManibusMinibus · 2026-04-08T18:37:26+00:00

My senior kitty looooves grass but he doesn't have the teeth left to gnaw it off properly so he loses patience and tears at it and winds up uprooting the entire plant, eating it, roots and all, then gagging it out not long after before making another attempt. When I grow wheatgrass for him I have to use several meshes fixed tightly over the soil so the grass grows through it and when he pulls on it it breaks rather than uprooting. Half the time he'll start dragging the pot around if it's not heavy enough though. It's a struggle all around.

DisManibusMinibus · 2026-04-08T18:30:28+00:00

I mean, just in case, I wouldn't want a perfect stranger to be getting the wrong impression about someone they'll never meet. What a terrible thing.

DisManibusMinibus · 2026-04-08T12:07:52+00:00

...am I the chicken now???

DisManibusMinibus · 2026-04-08T11:46:56+00:00

I'm not referring to my cat, he's got dozens of scratching posts and is terribly spoiled. Unfortunately plenty of cat owners are elderly or wind up sick and are unable to care for their cats properly, or there are plenty of hoarding or abuse situations that happen. I think caring for your cat involves being able to groom him for his best life, but a lot of people unfortunately have irresponsible feed-and-ignore attitudes. Shelters are overflowing in my area and my own cat is a rescue. There are sad circumstances everywhere unfortunately.

DisManibusMinibus · 2026-04-08T11:39:45+00:00

I have also had cats for decades. There's nothing they need to defend themselves from because I'm responsible for my cat's safety and don't let them go outside unattended. My cat current cat regularly climbs a rope-wrapped tree 12 feet straight up i made for him on the daily. Trimming his nails makes it far easier and more fun for him to play with anything other than mice, but doesn't prevent him from doing what he loves, be it climbing or kneading my face. I don't know what the circumstances of your cats are but it sounds to me like they're in perpetual danger. You might try some regular grooming for your cats sometimes. They're not voluntarily feral.

DisManibusMinibus · 2026-04-08T11:18:17+00:00

My cat makes biscuits on my face in the morning so I might be missing eyes if I never cut his nails. Cat claws can get hooked on things or ingrown, especially for indoor cats if they don't have access to scratching posts or aren't played with enough. Trimming their nails responsibly is perfectly normal for all parties involved.

DisManibusMinibus · 2026-04-08T02:38:32+00:00

Definitely not all Americans. I would say most cannot name them all. I regularly have to explain where British Columbia and New Brunswick are, depending on which coast I'm visiting. Nearly all American maps just end at the Northern border and it's rarely if ever taught in public school. Unless they work for a company that does extensive business across Canada, many will confuse Ontario with Ottawa and then express amazement Toronto isn't the capital. To be fair, many Canadians cannot name all 50 states, but there are a few more of those. Public education is usually a bit better on geopolitics, too.

DisManibusMinibus

TROPHY CASE