This week it’s not my garden that I feature. Today was a peculiar day in Oklahoma City. Thunderstorms were hovering. One didn’t really know if was going to pour all day, or do nothing at all. (As it turns out, it just spit rain on and off all day.) My son Cooper is always up for an adventure. The two of us woke early and made a visit to the OSU in OKC Farmers’ Market.
Many European garden bloggers participate in Six on Saturday, and may not be aware of the American program of ‘cooperative extension services.’ Each state within the United States has a college/university that sponsors a cooperative extension service that provides citizens with all kinds of information regarding agricultural sciences and natural resources. In Oklahoma, the cooperative extension service is coordinated by Oklahoma State University (OSU). There are extension offices in every county throughout the state. There is a website with a wealth of information. My go-to-resource is the area for Fact Sheets – where you can find a concise overview regarding a wide variety of subjects. Today, I picked up one I had not seen before, addressing “Honey Bees, Bumble Bees, Carpenter Bees, and Sweat Bees.”
Within the Oklahoma City metro, I believe the OSU extension hosts the largest farmers’ market. It is open every Saturday from 8am until 1pm. And so …. Six things. In a garden. On A Saturday.
1 – Sunflowers. The farmers’ market is held at the OSU in OKC facilities, and so the grounds are part of the campus. Adjacent to the pavilion where the market is held, there is a garden. I always find something interesting growing here. Today, I loved this large area of sunflowers.
2 – Unknown Plant. This fascinating plant was also in the garden area adjacent to the pavilion. I have no idea what this is, but I love it. The foliage is large and has a purple tint. The spike-like balls actually develop into flowers. (See comment below. Plant identified as castor beans. Thanks to myownlittleallotment!)
3 – Red bell peppers. I am a fan of red bell peppers. I have one plant in my garden. I can’t imagine tending to a garden that could produce this many perfect bell peppers. Gorgeous!
4 – Purple Hull Peas. My family knows that I am a sucker for the colorful. Why have green hulls when you can have purple?
5 – Armenian Cucumber. My family also knows that I am a sucker of the unusual. Wow!
6 – Zinnias. This was clearly the flower of the day at the farmers’ market. Every color in the rainbow. Absolutely beautiful.
To see what other gardeners are featuring this week, check out the post and comment section in this link: Six on Saturday. Until next time …
Patch405 
The purple peas were beautiful!
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You do have an eye for colorful, lovely, and unusual plants! I also like your explanation of the extension offices’ role. I’m a master gardener in Washington, birthplace of all the extension services (WSU), and we take our role as volunteer educators to heart.
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I should have written birthplace of all the MG extension services. 🙂
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Hi! Those beautiful tropical looking plants with the spiky seedpods are castor bean plants. We have them growing in our garden here in Georgia; the first time I ever saw them was at a botanic garden. I am pretty sure the flower forms first – those are really fantastic, even more colorful, so if you haven’t seen them yet, you’re in for a treat someday! Then the seedpod forms, which is that spiky thing. Castor bean seeds are poisonous so be careful, if you decide to grow these at home. Poisonous to eat, that is. They won’t hurt you to touch or grow, but make sure your kids and animals don’t eat them. In our community garden I used to cut off the seedpods as soon as they formed and dispose of them elsewhere, just to be on the safe side.
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They are supposed to repel flied, but mine never got going well enough for me to determine if it is true. They can be green, pink or bronze, but to me, they are just green, bronze and darker bronze.
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I think your mystery plant might be what we down here call a castor oil plant probably the same as the previous comment. They are a noxious plant here and part of the euphorbia family. The beans peppers and zinnias are gorgeously colourful.
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I’m in the Uk and it was fantastic to read about the Cooperative extension services and what a fabulous farmer’s market that is. I love those Zinnia – I grow a few but to see so many as cut flowers is wonderful.
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We have a lovely small farmers market in St. Michaels, Maryland. It is making me wonder why I try to grow my veggies at home. Your post was a great read.
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That sign looks familiar, like it is on North Portland Avenue, with Southern magnolias and some sort of pine nearby. We might have gone by it while lost. That was one part of the region where we had no need to go. I think that we worked off of South Portland Avenue.
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Yes! It is off of Portland. You worked in OKC?
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We worked briefly south of there processing newspapers for the Oklahoman and then delivering bales of them in to the southwest near Pink. I can not remember where we delivered them to. One stop was at the Thunderbird Casino. Another was at Simple Simon’s Pizza in Pecan Valley Junction (in Newalla). I almost got a gardening column in the Norman Transcript. That was late in 2012.
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Ah the wonderful extension office . . . like a 3D search engine for gardeners/farmers/animal husbandry-er guys. I haven’t lived in the US for a couple of decades now, but from 4-H in my childhood to when I had my own 25 acres, it was a fantastic resource. Anyway, enough memory lane. Your photos were marvelous, so colourful & bright. Those pea hulls look monstrous & that stand of sunflowers is glorious. I wonder how long it’d take to get through one of those crescent cucumbers? That’d be fun for a big family picnic, wouldn’t it?
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