Jane Mulberry

Ron, enjoy the site and the community here! There are a number of older folk here, some with decades of homesteading experience, some just starting out their Permies adventure at or beyond retirement age. Definitely never too old!

Hard to say how it will behave in your area, but I can say that caragana isn't listed as an invasive species anywhere in the EU, according to the Invasive Alien Species Regulations.

It possibly could be invasive given the right environment, but it's not recognised as a problem and is not illegal to plant.

In my UK garden, it's a beautiful spring with masses of blossom on the cherry and apple trees. But spring has been late arriving in my Bulgarian garden. The daffodils and tulips are pretty, but there's been next to no blossom on the fruits trees so far. The hard winter killed most of the flower buds.

 There's a long thread on eating caragana arborescens here: https://permies.com/t/162705/permaculture/Testing-edibility-Caragana-Arborescens-Siberian , but I don't recall reading anything about other caragana species.

Our garden is zone 7a as well, and I'd like to get some caragana planted!

LOL, Nancy!

Oh, that is so sad and so true it makes me want to cry!

All of that, Pearl!

Timothy Norton wrote:I'm on a bit of a paprika kick. Smoked paprika is amazing!

Ooh, yes, for sure! I love it, too.

Savory spices - cumin or turmeric. Many savory dishes just feel incomplete without cumin. For sweet spice, cinnamon, the real Ceylon stuff.

In our household, garlic is a vegetable, not a spice or a flavouring! We'll easily eat a whole big one in a single meal, especially roasted in the skin so that soft squishy garlic deliciousness can be squeezed out.

Hugs on the lurgies, and the missing parts. Hubby and I both had viruses in early September and we're still not fully recovered.

I'm not American, but I always though cooties were their equivalent of nits!