Growing the Strange

Day 343: Over time, I've grown some damned strange things in my garden (some with applaudable success, some less so), but none has been quite as strange as the Akebia. The fruits are barely edible (you have to carefully suck a thin pulp off a mass of large black seeds, then spit the seeds out). Nor is it particularly tasty, although one can educate the taste buds to appreciate the light sweetness. They're not particularly ornamental as vines go, however, the flowers have a lovely scent for the brief period they are in bloom. Their one redeeming merit (other than their curious and marginal edibility) is that they are easy to pollinate, and to my way of thinking, therein lies the enjoyment of raising them. This year, I had the great good sense to only pollinate those flowers low on the vine, so I won't have to climb up on a stool to pick the topmost fruits. Oh, yes. I eat them. I'm not sure why, except that it seems like I should garner some reward for my work.