(Trumpet Vine)
Got a couple letters from my articles last week – one concerning my search for the identification of a beautiful roadside bloom I saw. Hal Hurka wrote that it might be a Trumpet Vine.
Says Hal, “I can’t tell from your photo if the flowers on the mystery plant are trumpet shaped or not. If they are, it is probably a Trumpet Vine or similar plant. We saw one years ago and my wife bought two for $29 each. After planting them, we noticed them everywhere along the side of some roads. They have grown up below our deck and now trail around the railings about 35 feet. You have to be careful to keep them under control. The flowers bloom and produce 5”-7” pods that contain thousands of thin film-like seeds. I usually gather the pods prior to them breaking open and distributing the seeds all over the yard. They do have beautiful orange trumpet shaped blooms that attract bees, hummingbirds and butterflies. Even squirrels eat the blossoms. They die back to the vines in the winter but continue to advance each spring and summer. Some of the trunks are now 3-plus inches in diameter.”
I pulled up a picture of a Trumpet Vine and the color is almost identical, but my plant had no trumpets. I’m pretty sure it’s a Butterfly Weed.
Responding to my article on Mama Ida’s Fried Cornbread, Andy Reams from Winchester shared his memory and recipe of his mom’s corn bread.
Says Andy: “My mother also passed on to me a Fried Corn Bread recipe.We call it ‘Corn Cakes’. For this recipe, I like white corn meal. Any brand is good as long as it’s self-rising. I use about 2 cups of water ground cornmeal, and rather than mix with water to form the cakes, I use buttermilk. I continue to add buttermilk until I’m able to form a cake (use a dipper) in the electric skillet, with about 1/4″ of Crisco in the bottom. I cook it for about 15 minutes and flip to the other side. At that point I reduce the heat from about 350 to a low heat for an additional 15 minutes. This recipe will probably make about 6 cakes. This has been a favorite of my family for many generations. The corn cakes go extremely well with navy bean soup.”