Shipping via USPS during ballot season
Login
User Name
Password   


Registration is FREE. Click to become a member of OrchidBoard community
(You're NOT logged in)

menu menu

Sponsor
Donate Now
and become
Forum Supporter.

Shipping via USPS during ballot season
Many perks!
<...more...>


Sponsor
 

Google


Fauna Top Sites
LOG IN/REGISTER TO CLOSE THIS ADVERTISEMENT
  #1  
Old 11-14-2020, 02:59 PM
estación seca's Avatar
estación seca estación seca is offline
Senior Member
 

Join Date: Jun 2015
Zone: 9b
Location: Phoenix AZ - Lower Sonoran Desert
Posts: 18,548
Shipping via USPS during ballot season Male
Default Shipping via USPS during ballot season

Dollythehun sent me a division of her Oncidium Sharry Baby, in spike, via the US Postal Service. She mentioned it here:
latest order stuck in postal system

She took it to her post office in Indiana on October 19. It was supposed to get to me in 2-3 days:

202010_Sharry_Baby_seca.JPG

The tracking showed it was accepted at her post office, then went to the regional hub at Elk Grove Village. Then it disappeared.

Two days passed. Four. Six. Eight. We gave up. I ordered a small mericlone of Sharry Baby from Olympic Orchids, which came very much larger than expected. That is growing strongly.

I came home from work on November 2 and found a tall box at my carport door. I didn't know what it was, since I was expecting a small box with Bulbophyllums from Bill Thoms. Imagine my surprise to find it was from Indiana!

It looked pretty good when I took it out of the box. The spike and lower buds were still alive. I watered it and set it in my sunroom. Here it is today:

Dolly_Sharry_Baby_20201114_seca.jpg

The blue Agave in the background is Agave angustifolia var. tequilana, AKA Agave tequilana Weber. Some of you may be familiar with it. If anybody wants an offset, let me know. Agaves are interesting succulents: They will grow to a certain size to fill any pot, then they almost stop growing. Although this plant is 5-6 feet across when it flowers, it can be kept for decades in much smaller pots.
__________________
May the bridges I've burned light my way.

Weather forecast for my neighborhood

Last edited by estación seca; 11-14-2020 at 03:02 PM..
Reply With Quote
Post Thanks / Like - 4 Likes
Likes neophyte, DeaC, MJG, Chris17 liked this post
  #2  
Old 11-14-2020, 03:25 PM
Clawhammer Clawhammer is offline
Senior Member
 

Join Date: Aug 2019
Posts: 1,299
Shipping via USPS during ballot season
Default

Expect a call from Trump's legal team and Tucker Carlson. They are going to be very interested in your story lol lol
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 11-15-2020, 06:35 PM
Dollythehun Dollythehun is offline
Senior Member
 

Join Date: Aug 2016
Zone: 6a
Location: Northern Indiana
Posts: 5,540
Shipping via USPS during ballot season Female
Default

Miracles still happen. I still have two divisions of this plant free to good home. If you're not in a hurry.
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 11-15-2020, 06:54 PM
Mr.Fakename Mr.Fakename is offline
Senior Member
 

Join Date: Jul 2020
Age: 29
Posts: 701
Shipping via USPS during ballot season Male
Default

Happy ending for everyone!

Have you tried using those Agave to make actual tequila?
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old 11-15-2020, 08:46 PM
estación seca's Avatar
estación seca estación seca is offline
Senior Member
 

Join Date: Jun 2015
Zone: 9b
Location: Phoenix AZ - Lower Sonoran Desert
Posts: 18,548
Shipping via USPS during ballot season Male
Default

I haven't tried making tequila. It's a huge amount of work. And home distilling liquor in the US is illegal, though I doubt many people are arrested and charged. I have to admit I distilled vodka from fermented table sugar when I was 9 years old. I had a Gilbert chemistry set, which had an instruction manual for lots of neat experiments with the chemicals and equipment inside the box. I also followed the directions and made chlorine gas at about the same age, but that's another story.

Agave stems swell up dramatically as they near flowering, filled with starch. People cut off the leaves down to the stem and dig out the stem. They roast it whole in a wood-fired, rock-lined, covered pit for 3 days. (Commercial tequila is roasted in giant ovens.) That converts the starch to sugar. I've eaten pit-roasted Agave - it has the consistency of, and tastes a lot like, fudge.

Then the roasted stems are mashed to press out the juice, which is collected. It is fermented, then distilled.

Tequila is a spirit distilled only in 3 Mexican states from Agave angustifolia var. tequilana. If it's a different Agave species, or it's produced anywhere else, it's called mezcal.

Agave tequilana makes prodigious offsets from the base, and vast numbers of bulbils on the inflorescence after flowering. It is very easy to propagate from all of these. It was used as a food plant pre-Contact.

There are other Agave species whose juice is collected from a hole carved into the stem when ready to flower, and the juice is fermented into a beverage called pulque (POOL-kay.) The Spanish introduced distillation and tequila production. Pulque Agaves like A. salmiana or A. atrovirens tend to be colossal in size, to 9 feet / 3 meters tall and across (or more.) They are higher elevation plants that prefer cooler weather than the desert species.

Traditionally mezcal was made from Agave potatorum (whose name means the drinkers' Agave.) That plant does not offset and does not produce bulbils. It can only be propagated from seed. It is collected from the wild for mezcal.

Other desert plants that have starchy stems at bloom time can be converted to liquors in similar fashion. It is done with Dasylirion species, whose product is called sotol. It is done with Dioon sonorense, whose product is called bacanora, after the town where it was produced. The Dioon is endangered. I hope it's not being made any longer.

Most bottled tequila isn't roasted over a wood fire, which is why it isn't very smoky. Most mezcals are made from stems roasted over fire, so most mezcal has a smoky flavor. Many people think an average mezcal is better than very good tequila.
__________________
May the bridges I've burned light my way.

Weather forecast for my neighborhood
Reply With Quote
Post Thanks / Like - 2 Likes
Likes Fuerte Rav, Mr.Fakename liked this post
Reply

Bookmarks

Tags
box, days, indiana, office, post


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools
Display Modes Rate This Thread
Rate This Thread:

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Meager savings from a winter shipping gone bad desertanimal Beginner Discussion 3 07-06-2016 10:52 AM
USPS Possibly Confiscated My Paph... Nepenthesis Beginner Discussion 44 02-11-2014 02:31 AM
Fourth and Fifth Weeks of the Native Orchid Season ronaldhanko Orchids in the Wild 17 10-11-2013 04:09 PM
MistKing Free Shipping Marty Off Topic - Totally 0 05-27-2011 04:17 PM
Selling season almost over for me! kiki-do Orchid Lounge 5 09-09-2009 09:51 PM

All times are GMT -4. The time now is 10:33 AM.

© 2007 OrchidBoard.com
Search Engine Optimisation provided by DragonByte SEO v2.0.37 (Lite) - vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2024 DragonByte Technologies Ltd.
Feedback Buttons provided by Advanced Post Thanks / Like (Lite) - vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2024 DragonByte Technologies Ltd.

Clubs vBulletin Plugins by Drive Thru Online, Inc.