#Verdant Veloure

[luxuriesofkashmiir]

Winter Wonder - Stunning Staples that make you look WOW!

We have officially entered the final lap of 2024, and it's time to mark your calendars for upcoming soirees and celebrations that herald new beginnings—be it weddings or New Year's parties. It is time to elevate your style game on point and celebrate. At Luxuries of Kashmir, we believe that every celebration deserves an ensemble that makes you look stunning and feel exceptional. We have curated a list of the exquisite outfits that deserve a coveted spot on your wishlist for your year-end revelries.

VINE VERVE

A magnificent fusion set that encapsulates the beauty of Kashmiri craftsmanship in hues of royalty

Vine Velvet Verve is an exquisite fusion masterpiece from our symphony collection that blends the elegance of Kashmiri craftsmanship with the contemporary flair of modern silhouettes. Tailored from fine velvet, this set features delicate aari and thread embroidery positioned on the fabric with precision. The embroidery adorns the shoulders and tulip pants with delicate flowers and bird motifs. The shirt is tailored to perfection and features all the functionalities needed to make the piece a must-have with its exquisite detailing along the hemline of the tulip pants. Overall, this delightful set is a harmonious blend of grace and sophistication - the perfect addition to your wardrobe and the ideal choice for all your celebrations that demand a touch of glamour.

MIDNIGHT MAJESTY

Wrap yourself in the grandeur of luxurious velvet festooned with intricate Kashmiri embroidery

Your wardrobe is incomplete without a statement piece like Midnight Majesty - a stunning fusion jacket that blends the traditional touch of authentic Kashmiri embroidery and the allure of modern silhouettes. A versatile piece and a worthwhile investment, the jacket is made from delicate velvet lined with santoon and tailored to perfection with unmistakable details. The jacket is accentuated with bold leaf motifs set in striking hues of gold - a symbol of elegance manifested in the art of puff tilla embroidery. The versatile jacket can be paired with several bases - think of a pair of pants and a crop top, a plain saree, or even a dress - the possibilities with this statement piece are endless.

VERDANT VELOURÉ

The Kashmiri Phiran - a testament to timeless beauty and refined luxury Timeless classics like the Kashmiri Phiran are eternally captivating - they are a testament to luxury and evergreen style. The Verdant Veloure set is crafted from velvet and adorned with opulent white puff tilla embroidery, creating an elegant contrast against the blue tones. The set is complete with a tulip pant infusing a touch of modernity with playful elegance. The set is an ode to grandeur with its beautiful construction and functional features. It is an excellent investment and the perfect addition to your wardrobe.

 Give your wardrobe a twist of modern luxury with these exquisite pieces from Luxuries of Kashmir. Each piece is crafted to perfection with a vision to bring you the artistic excellence of Kashmir in silhouettes and fabrics that make you look like a dream. Visit our website www.luxuriesofkashmir.com to discover more elegant pieces to add to your collection.

[jeninthegarden]

2024 Seed List

Carry on!

There was no fall planting.  The summer’s deluge kept all things green growing and bushy, but nothing bloomed or fruited.  Timing-wise, the spring planting schedule was perfect and the garden was fully planted and mulched, and weed free!  The greens and peas flourished.  All the roots and brassicas germinated.  The companion planting was perfect.  The kale was prolific right out of the gate, combination of transplants, regrowth and self germination.  I purchased celeriac and cabbage and brussel sprout seedlings, got them in early and they were robust.  I managed to germinate 12 zucchini plants and nasturtiums. I had 4 different types of sweet potato slips successfully transplanted.  My lupines returned and even bloomed. And for a few verdant weeks all was picture perfect.  Then the rains set in, things got bigger and bushier.  All the root crops remained tiny threads with giant green tops.  The radish-turnip-pepper companion planting fell apart as the radish tops over-shadowed everything and the pepper plants rotted away.

Years past I have purchased predominantly from PineTree Seeds because their prices have been lowest. Not this year.  This year they are among the most expensive, and their assortment is not interesting.  Johnny Seed and Territorial Seed have historically been the most expensive but have the greatest variety, but this year Johnny Seed is in the middle range because they sell so many more seeds per package.  I like to get more seeds from Hudson Valley Seeds and Fruition Seeds because both companies are actually in my planting zone and offering seed varieties that grow here, and that I should therefore be able to grow here without too much difficulty. Fruition is in the middle range this year, and Hudson Valley among the least expensive. They do not, however, have a great variety.  Burpee always has something new that I fall for.  And to be fair, their new varieties are always good.  RH Shumway also always has something different, and I find their old fashioned newsprint, black & white catalogue charming.

The following seed list is comprised of just the edibles I am ordering.

Legumes:

Bush beans: “Velour”. A compact, bush-habit plant, very heavy-bearing bright purple, stringless pods over a long season.  This is my top choice for bush beans. Very heat and drought tolerant. This past season it was the only summer bean to produce.  Finding it can be tricky. This year, Hudson Valley Seed has them.

Fava beans- “Varoma” from Johnny Seeds.  Whereas last year there were 5 or 6 varieties on the market, this year only Johnny Seed has any variety besides Broad Windsor. I have had good success with Varoma in the past few years.  I had spent several years, a decade ago, trying to grow Broad Windsor without luck.

Noodle beans: May take a break from these this year.  Or plant what I already have. They are yardlong, shoestring pod, pole beans that have a very nutty flavor. But they require very strong support.

Pole beans- “Cave Beans” a 1500 year old heirloom from the southwest from RH Shumway. “Hank’s Xtra Special Bake Bean”, rare heirloom from Hudson Valley Seed.  These are random choices because they sound interesting.

Runner beans:  I have a lot of these that were never planted in the past two years so, maybe they make it into the ground this year. They are sweet and rich flavor, a bit like fava bean, but meatier, good in salad or soup.

Shelling Peas: “Dual Pea” from RH Shumway is a fast growing, medium sized shelling pea with 12 peas per pod.  Nothing compares to the taste of a raw, fresh shelling pea.

Snap Peas: “Sugar Daddy” is an award-winning snap pea from Hudson Valley Seed.  Fast growing and bush type. I also saved a bunch from the 2023 harvest, so will certainly plant those. 

Soybeans: “Panther” from Hudson Valley Seeds.  I only ever eat soybeans steamed, in the pods with salt as a finger food snack.

  Fruits:  

“Cardoon” I will buy seedlings from the local nursery – there were plenty available last year so hopefully the trend continues. Looks like aloe vera and tastes like artichoke. It is cold hardy and perennial – I have seen it in botanical gardens, in winter, here about alongside Salad Burnett.

Corn – “Kandy Corn” a sweet corn from Burpee.  This is a variety I have grown successfully in the past. It is an enhanced sugar variety making it exceptionally sweet.

Cucumber- “Double yield” double duty pickling and slicing variety from Hudson Valley Seed.

 Eggplant:  I will buy seedlings from the local nursery. Need a break after 3 years of germinating hundreds of exotics and getting no fruit.

Gourds- No gourds this year! Pinky swear.

Melon – “True Jenny Lind” aromatic musk melon from Hudson Valley Seed. “Olympic Express” from Burpee is a prolific, early maturing orange melon.

Okra – “Baby Budda” has proved to be the most successful – small, compact plant suitable for patio containers, super productive and early maturing from Burpee.

Pepper – I will buy seedlings from the local nursery. Haven’t had a decent harvest since I planted them in the orchard, so I’m taking a break from germinating them.

Tomatoes – I will shop locally for other seedlings.  Not starting my own this year.  Plenty of varieties of seedlings are available.

Watermelon: “Sweet Siberian” yellow fleshed, short season small from Hudson Valley. “Ambrosia” small, sweet and short season red flesh from Fruition Seeds.

Winter Squash and pumpkins: “Candy Roaster” winter squash from Hudson Valley Seed, a banana shaped heirloom from Apalachia.  And I still have a ton of unused seeds to try from the past two years.

Zucchini- “Cupcake”from Burpee – a new hybrid that is round like a bell pepper and supposed to be excellent for stuffing. Expensive.

Roots:

Beets: I’m refocused on cylindrical beets, for spacing purposes. “Cylindra” from Hudson Valley Seed

Carrot: pelleted seeds was a waste.  So back to regular seeds, I’ve ordered “Yellowstone”, a 9-inch yellow variety from Hudson Valley Seed.

Celeriac: I will buy seedlings from the local nursery. This worked so much better than growing from seeds.

Parsley Root: Not doing it this year.

Parsnips: Ordered “White Spear” from Territorial Seed which is a yard long(!) variety. I winter sowed some this past fall, in the front flower bed, with the garlic.

Potatoes:  Going back to growing them in containers. I will buy some from the store and sew them to avoid the horrible shipping costs.  “Makah Ozette” This looks like a fingerling variety of Occa, a small south American tuber predating the potato.  It is supposed to be nutty and creamy, from Burpee. I’m a sucker. 

Radish: like beets, I’m focused on cylindrical radishes. “Nelson” an improved French breakfast type, from Johnny Seed. “Shunkyo” a Chinese long, hot-sweet daikon, carrot shapped for spacing.

Rutabaga: Not doing it this year. Unless I plant the seeds I already have.

Sweet Potatoes: Growing my own slips over winter.  Will grow in containers since the floods stunted their growth in 2023.

Turnips: “Long Noir” a long, black-skinned turnip that is very sweetfrom Fruition Seed. “Scarlett OhNo Revival” a red skin, white flesh turnip with edible greens from Hudson Valley.

Greens:

Arugula: “Wild Arugula” the fast growing, heat tolerant, wild heirloom variety from Hudson Valley Seed.

Chard: “Perpetual” a long season, heat resistant that regrows for several years from Territorial Seed. “Silverado” a large, silver chard from Hudson Valley seeds with short, tender stems, heat resistant and makes a good spinach substitute in the hot summer.

“Claytonia” from Fruition Seeds. It is a succulent green that looks like a bouquet of little lily pads.

Escarole: “Batvian Full Heart” from Hudson Valley Seeds. Good for braising and bean soups.

Lettuce: “Sunland” a heat resistant romaine with very thick, crisp leaves from Johhny Seeds.  Early varieties “Ithaca” NY State iceberg and “North Pole” from Hudson Valley Seed. “Wildest Mix” from Territorial Seed

Mache: “Mache” from Hudson Valley Seed. “NY Hardy Mache” from Fruition  Seeds.

Orach: “Ruby Red Orach” from Hudson Valley Seed; a violet red, velvet leafed spinach that grows on an 18 inch, upright stalk.

Radicchio: “Red Traviso” a loose leaf red variety from Burpee. The only radicchio I could find for less than $6 dollars a packet.

Spinach: “Giant Winter” from Fruition Seeds.

Brassica:

Asian Greens: “Tatsoi” fast growing 6-inch rosette from Hudson Valley Seed.  “Celtuce” Spring Tower, a tall lettuce with a celery like stalk, from Johnny Seed.

Broccoli: “Turkish Rocket”, a perennial broccoli raab from Fruition Seeds.

Chinese Cabbage: “Red Trumpet” a tall, fluted pink variety from Johnny Seed. 

Cauliflower: “Baby Hybrid” a small 3 inch heads with edible leaves, from RH Shumway.  Other than that, I will buy seedlings of “Fioretto” an open head, branching cauliflower, and for “Romanesco” a green, geometric looking pyramid crown hybrid that has a very nutty flavor.

Collards: champion from Hudson Valley Seeds

Kale: “Autumn Star Kalettes” from RH Shumway, are a cross between kale and Brussels sprouts that look like kale roses.  “Mermaid mix” from Fruition Seeds is a baby kale mix of lacy, frilly, purple, blue and green kales.

Mustard: “Wasabina” a frisse variety mustard that tastes like wasabi/horse radish from Hudson Valley Seeds. “Giant Red Indian” mustard, I don’t plant this anymore because it self-seeds everywhere.

And, because they seem to go with the brassicas in planting rotations, the alums:

Chives: still have seeds left from last year.

Garlic:  I planted several heads of both standard and elephant garlic in the front flower bed in the fall.

Leek: I have better luck with buying the sets instead of starting from seed.

Onion: I am doing the regrow project.  It works very well.

Scallions: I am doing the scallion regrow project.

Shallots: “Cuisse du Poulet du Poitou Shallot” from Fruition Seeds are shallots the size of a chicken thigh.  I’m obsessed and can’t let go.  Germinated it but never got it past yarn width sets because of the rain.

Flowers for companion planting:

Marigold:  “Mexican Mint” a Mexican variety that tastes like anise and tarragon, from Hudson Valley Seeds. Plus I have plenty of giant gold and orange seeds left.

Nasturiums: “Tall Trailing Mix” vining variety that grows to 6 feet long from Territorial Seed.

Herbs for companion planting:

Basil:  will buy seedlings to keep in pots and plant under the tomatoes

Borage: I have seeds left from previous years, and it self-seeds.

Dill: I can buy seedlings locally.  It is best to plant in pots or flower beds just to keep it away from the root crops.

Lovage:I have an established plant so I need to start harvesting the seeds to resow elsewhere.

Marjoram:  waiting to see if it re-grows in the garden where I planted it 2023

Tarragon: waiting to see if it re-grows in the garden where I planted it 2023

Angelica: “Holy Ghost” did not germinate so we will try again.

 Grains and Seeds:  

Amaranth:  Spinach variety “Cataloo” from Territorial Seed.

Quinoa: “Dejulis Pink Quinoa” from Hudson Valley Seed, rivals Love Lies Ableeding amaranth.

[theluworld]

BY YANG-YI GOH

October 16, 2020

Boy oh BOY, did we ever spoil all of you yesterday with our November cover story. A lush 8,000(!)-word profile of one Timothée Hal Chalamet—riddled with intimate quotes from Greta Gerwig about her “friend Timmy,” stories about Joel Coen telling stories about Bob Dylan, and deep insights into that Capri yacht kiss—published alongside a series of increasingly searing, sumptuous images of our héro damp-haired and designer-clad deep in the wilderness of upstate New York. Hidden among those photos was a minute detail that many of you were quick to notice, obsess over, and correctly FREAK OUT about on the Internet for the remainder of the day. Namely, this fashion credit printed just below the first image:

His own hoodie, by Juicy Couture

That’s right: Timothée Chalamet purchased a pastel pink velour hoodie from Juicy Couture of his own accord, and then pulled it off in the pages of GQ—with Hermès cords and a Cartier ring, no less—at the first available opportunity. And damn, did he ever make it look good. So good that E! probably just green-lit a new season of The Simple Life. So good that a whole new subset of Tumblr likely exists now in its honor. So good, in fact, that you may now be thinking, Is that a move I should try to copy? To which we say: Absolutely! As long as you, too, are a supremely lithe and beautiful 24-year-old Oscar nominee with the verdant mane of a Botticelli angel and the bone structure of a Frank Gehry concert hall.

......

https://www.gq.com/story/timothee-chalamet-juicy-couture-hoodie?utm_brand=gq&utm_medium=social&mbid=social_twitter&utm_source=twitter&utm_social-type=owned

[theliterateape]

The Destroyed Object Is Resurrected - A Prosepoem

by Dana Jerman

In a bridal gown in the waiting room of a doctor’s office on a Friday at sunset. The doctor shakes his head at my husband who is squeezing a drawer full of plump mouse. The outcome is still unknown, but my husband is sure he can fill the room with the perfume of constricted mice. The tubby white mice will silently and with eager squirms shoot out their little death pieces. Waste like slivers of ice-clear glass he could read as one might tea leaves over his lap and fine shoes.

Shrinking into myself under a crown cracked through, I taste a piece of the veil and am suddenly tired as it dissolves over my tongue like a quick poison. The little sleepy graveyard in my stomach winces as it sinks. The floor lowers me on the motor of its platform back to the road. Too tired to walk home, Bigfoot puts down the blueprints he was carrying and takes off his hardhat. He scoops me and hustles me onto his motorcycle- a thing velour with fur- more even than he has.

I feel better at home, though when I go into the kitchen the staff have turned into simian creatures. Not quite human, not quite monkey. Something gleefully in between, well-dressed as ever. They like all the windows open and now that the sky is as green as the backyard, so do I. Upstairs my husband sits on the bed and mimics the sound wrathful breezes make as they thrash thru the window bars. The rattle-howls collect along the walls encouraging the ivy, which was already drunk with curiosity.

Hearing a different call, like a new bell, I peer down. Two of the kitchen monkeys are holding mice and loping away over the hill. Lingering in the courtyard is a young girl whose only passport is selfishness and a guitar. She has fed children and slept on rocks and been a spinster before her time in the war. Her eyes are steely with the future and we have a staring contest where we both win. She is a neighbor, but she is lost. So she looses our horse from the barn to make it just as lost. I know they’ll both end up at the well.

After the sun reappears, in order to placidly urge my bath of lucky bamboo toward maturity in a champion of rays, I count back from twenty where I was soaking wet from the roots. I bring a pear from downstairs in the dark pantry to upstairs- my room full of sunshine. I place it on my windowsill to ripen its verdant meats. Its skin still light brown, fuzzy and bitter, the roughness in the fruit left alone to dissolve its way out of discovery.

[makelemonadewithlupus]

i’ve not posted - on grid or stories - as much or as often lately, and you’ve noticed. thank you for noticing, saying so, sending love. this message is not one meant to spark concern - i am okay, just lacking the space required to be in this space. there is much i want to share and i will, when. accessibly. until then - take care of those hearts, sweet beings. ♡ ♡ ♡ [ID: my ever so lightly sun-kissed, freckled left wrist and hand stretch out from the bottom of the photo and from the cuff of (my absolute favorite cozy) light purple, velour, pullover sweater’s sleeve. clutched in my grip - that bears the stones @senor_met has so sweetly offered me on my fourth finger - is a viridescent handful of just clipped end of season blossoms: magenta, light pink, and white cosmos; ivory queen anne’s lace, fluffy cotton candy celosia; eggplant-hued amaranthus; scarlet, tangerine, and melon hombre cockscomb; vermilion and fuchsia gomphrena; lavender-blue ageratum; sunflower; one bud resembling a light purple and chartreuse baby watermelon wrapped in verdant barbs I couldn’t quite place; and a bit of basil for dinner. And the zinnias - each its own color story, texture, shape: magenta, fuchsia, melon, lilac, rose petals with sunshine yellow stamen and contrasting carpel. Behind, a sea of greens and rainbow colored blooms, rows like ocean waves. End ID.] https://ift.tt/32BmXhD

[fortunesteller]

The engine toward the country flies, A crowd of tree trunks, shying, nimbly goes scurrying up the incline: the smoke, like a white billow, mingles with the briches' montley Apriline. Velour banquettes inside the carrige of summer covers are still free. A yellow trackside dandelion is visited by its first bee. Where once there was a snowdrift, only an oblong, pitted isle is left beside a ditch that's turning verdant; of springtime smelling, now grown wet, the snow is overlaid with soot. The country house is old and twilit. The garden, to the joy of doves, contains a cloud-reflecting puddle. The columns and the aged roof, also the elbow of the drainpipe – there's need of a fresh coat for all,  a pall of green paint; on the wall the merry shadow of the painter and the ladder's shadow of fall. The birches' tops in their cool azure, the country house, the summer days,  are but the same, recurring image, yet their perfection grows always. From exile's lamentations distanced, lives on my every reminiscence in an invented quietude: What's lost forever is immortal; and this eternity inverted is the proud soul's beatitude.

Vladimir Nabokov, Spring