By request, a picture of the cattails coming up in the backyard “pond”. If you look close, you can orange fish. And apparently cattails – Typha – are edible. Who knew?
jfleck at inkstain
A few thoughts from John Fleck, a writer of journalism and other things, living in New Mexico
Hmmm…did I dream I replied here this morning? You can eat the base of the stems, peeled. You don’t want to eat the seed pods.
Did those goldfish overwinter, John?
Best,
D
D – Yeah, the fish handle the winters just fine.
I had a similar setup in Sacramento and I’d lose about 1/2 the little guys. But it was likely colder there DJF than in ABQ (fog stopped the sun), and I didn’t use Typha. Fun!
BTW, up the road here, we’re not nearly as green as you guys…
Best,
D
We’re never sure about fish survival over the winter. Seems this year as if the bigger ones from last year are no longer with us, and there are a number of little babies. We don’t feed ’em or anything. Like the cattails, they’re just part of a fascinating little ecosystem.
I’m still trying to figure out “orange” as a verb. In any case, those fish have clearly already been oranged.
We use little goldfishies in the horse water tanks up here in Lost Almost, they keep down the mosquitos pretty well. Sad when we lose one, but the barn cat benefits from the dietary variety. Most winters they do OK, both in the tanks with the heaters and those without. Tough little rascals.