Farmerz!

Good morning, Christy! chicago dyke just left the answer to your question yesterday on Peterr’s magnificent thread. I only got around to reading that thread after the fact, but what a pleasure and honor to have such learned and insightful friends as all of you who commented there. FDL knocks me out every day of the world.

Roots! (in more ways than one)

Mmmm…I think I’ll have that sour cherry jam on my English muffin this morning!

Pass the jar, would you please Christy? *g*

we’ve had quite a few food threads at corrente. it’s another way in which i love the blogosphere, i got some really good advice about my gardens this year, and they’ve proven to work well.

sorry you’re not growing this year, C. if you’re in the midwest in the fall, c’mon by and try some of what i’ve got going. i think i’m going to have enough zucchini to sink a battleship.

… but can all your zucchini shoot down an ICBM ?

Fresh Veggies, yum. I just got some cucumbers and zuccini from my friend’s garden yesterday. She showed me how to can tomatoes last summer but as an apartment dweller, I just watch and wonder at it all. And help out demolishing it!

hmmmm…you all know that i’m prone to make the not safe for work strap on joke at my usual haunts? i’m not sure christy wants me to go there, at least not this early.

This year, I have tomatoes, beans & zucchini. Our Mulberry tree just finished. I ate them right off the tree as a breakfast treat after my morning walk to the beach.

In a few days my rasberries will be ripe. At least I think they are rasberrys. They taste like them, but are shiny and ruby red instead of fuzzy.

Anyway they are incredibly sweets and intesly flavored. They grow wild all around here, but I actually plant them in beds and train them on trellises and fences around my property. I started with on tiny cutting noe I have whole patches.

Each year I claim I will may preserves, or freeze some for the winter, but we always eat them all, no matter that each year my yeild increases geometrically. They are that good.

Whe you eat your berries right off the bush, you get such a rush of energy and feeling of vitality. I never really believed all that stuff about fruits and veggies losing their nutrients the longer they sit, until I lived on stor bought for a while and came back to homegrown.

I also grow herbs. Even when I had a tiny aprtment in the city, I always have herbs growing.

Now because I have more space than I can weed, in addition to my “herb garden” in raised beds, I have started using them in the rest of the garden. I have gold and green varigated mint growing in pots on my front step. They smell heavenly, give a shot of yellow color to a deep shade spot and they come back every year even though I do nothing to the pots over the winter. They are gorgeous and zero work.

Whenmy divorce is finally finished and i move away from this house, the only thing I will truly miss are my green friends.

Chicago dyke at 5 — I wish I had time to get my veggies in this year, but the rain patterns conspired against me on weekends, and the few days when I could have planted, my arthritis was kicking my ass. Oh well…next summer. In the meantime, thank goodness for produce stands.

Am hoping to get several quarts of half runner green beans and maybe a few quarts of tomatoes canned for this winter. It’s like opening up a jar of summer. :)

hahahahahahaha zucchini strap on? hahahahahahahaha Oh man, it is too early for coffee spew…

What I’d give to have a cherry tree or two again (no such luck in central Florida). Some years ago, I was back in my hometown teaching at a local university and renting a Victorian house across town from where my parents lived. It had two well-established cherry trees in the backyard.

One day my mom and I had an argument about something or other, and I stomped back to my place so mad that all I was fit for was picking cherries. Then I pitted those suckers, then I made the best cherry pie the world has ever known. By then I was cooled off enough to trot back across town with a couple of pieces for Mom and Dad’s supper.

Never made another cherry pie that good, and then I moved to FLA and the world of sto-bought cherries. *sigh*

Christy and Peterr,
I appreciate the threads on the Theocons, but by the time I get home from work, they are several posts EPU’d. Christy’s question at 115 deserves a lot of thought. I put mine here.

lotus at 2 – it is amazing how much individual knowledge is accumulated here and around the blogosphere when you sit down and think about it. That’s what always baffles me about the media’s and the politicians’ treatment of regular citizens — especially after reading Ted Stevens “my staff sent me an internet” dreck from earlier this week — people of all walks of life are incredibly smart, and out to be treated with respect, no matter how much change jingles in their pockets or how politically active or connected they may be. You can always learn something — if my legal practice among what most folks would consider the dregs of society taught me anything, it is that incredible wisdom can come from some pretty surprising places sometimes. But you have to be willing to listen to catch it.

Chicago dyke
If you think you will have more zucchini than you can use, you can yake off the blossoms and stuff them. It’s kinda like a tamale wrapper you can eat or veggie wonton wrapper. I like it with chickorina meat (italian chicken meatball) suffing and them steamed or simmer in broth.

Some people batter dip and deep fry zucchini blossoms, but I am not a big deep fry person (except freedom fries-which MUST be made with Idaho potaoes)

For an Irsh cjick, I do love italien food. Not a drop of italien in me, but you would never know it to look in my pantry or freezer

Two veggies I never plant, zukes and cherry toms, my neighbors will always have plenty of extras.

But I must confess that non-Organic gifts are accepted with a smile but dumped into trash in the dead of night.

thanks, loose- that’s a neat idea. i can eat zukes all the livelong day. it’s my roomies i worry about. i do the cooking in this house and i don’t want them to beat me with my own veggies.

luckily, i should have mountains of eggplants and tomatoes too.

Mad dogs at 4 — I wish I had some of that sour cherry jam this morning, too. They were really tart cherries, and I wish I had paid attention what kind as a kid. My aunt and uncle have long since passed away and their farm was sold by their kids — and the orchard, last time we drove by, had been bulldozed to make way for a big rig truck parking lot. It was heartbreaking. I tell my husband all the time that, if we ever buy a piece of property and build a house, it will have to be out a ways and have enough space to plant an orchard. When I’m old, I want to be able to go outside in the summer and pick my own peaches and cherries and apples, just like I did when I was a kid. :)

looseheadprop: I recall seeing recently that folk that eat a “Mediterranean diet” live an average of 2 years longer…

… but can all your zucchini shoot down an ICBM ?

*ilson: No, but if you leave it on the plant a couple of days too long you can turn one into a decent silo or Trident sub.

We did green beans also. My mother swore by Kentucky Wonder (bush or pole). (Cooked fresh beans squeak on teeth. Even the frozen ones don’t do that.)

A couple of chili peppers planted last year made it through the winter and are growing again. These are *hot* peppers, one of them very hot (ate one, raw, without seeds, and it was a twenty-minute burn). I think I may use some for pepper oil this year.

With that, a sweet pepper relish from my mother’s file (her mother’s recipe, I think):

Pepper Relish

12 large green mangos
12 large red mangos
15 onions (4 lbs)
2 cups vinegar
4 cups water
2 cups vinegar
3 cups sugar
3 tbsp salt
2 tbsp pickling spice

1. Remove seed from pepper and chop fine with onions.
2. Pour boiling water over to cover. Let stand 5 min. Drain.
3. Mix 2 cups vinegar & 4 cups water, add to pepper mixture and bring to boil.
4. Let stand 10 min. Drain, throwing away liquor.
5. Add rest of vinegar, sugar, salt and spice.
6. Boil 2 min.
Seal in hot sterile jars.
Generous amount makes 7 pints.

I apparently need to learn a lot more about “a href”, but here is the link, at least I figured out how to use tinyurl. http://tinyurl.com/h3glw

Time to go to the gym and get the blood moving.

Sunday Brunch

one dozen assorted bagels, sliced
1 lb. smoked salmon, thinly sliced
bucket of cream cheese
two or three cucumbers, thinly sliced
4 or 5 ripe tomatoes, thinly sliced
3 or 4 red onions, thinly sliced
small bowl of capers
gallons of Mimosas
coffee (as needed)

Serves 10
(assign a designated driver)

Chicago — I’ll dig up my chocolate zucchini cake recipe for you in a minute. I swear, you’d never know that zucchini is in there if you chop it up with a food processer, but it is the fudgiest, tastiest cake ever. Even my veggie loathing husband had thirds, and didn’t even care after I told him it was loaded with squash. *g*

*ilson,

Probably because they are so happy to be eating it! Good food that.

hahahaha Lina at 21 — I am SO there!

My Dad taught me and my brothers about organic gardening in the late ’60’s. We always had such a huge vegteable garden in our yard. I even won a honorable mention at a county fair for a 7 lb. cantelope. That was the year we expanded the garden and the cantelopes went in where the compost pile was.

I love heirloom tomatoes. I’m fascinated by the variety of shapes, sizes, colors, and country of origin. I now call my heirloom tomatoes the Anti-Republican Garden because of the diversity that it represents.

On a political note to gardening, the USDA is taking comments until July 17, 2006 about allowing Genetic Plum trees onto the market. I got an e-mail from the Organic Seed Alliance with detailed information and an action step. I tried to get a direct link from the source that provided this information to the Allaince and havent gotten a response.

I posted the information here. http://www.qologies.com/Geneti….._plums.htm along with the action to be taken.

If you really like heirloom varities and can work with seeds, here’s a site with an amazing selection
http://www.rareseeds.com/

I prefer farmer’s markets here in Texas, and roadside vendors, too. But they can be hard to find, sometimes, these days. I don’t have much time for looking for them, either, alas, so I usually make do with organic and premium markets here.

I spent my childhood on a “subsistence” farm. We didn’t grow things to make money, but for us to eat, period. Thank goodness for it, too, or we would have been a whole lot of hungry.

When I was 3, I went out to my grandmother’s strawberry patch and ate a good portion of the first berries to ripen. I remember picking the berries (and eating them!). I don’t remember if I got sick after it. I probably did.

But my favorite farming story is about the blackberry (or what we called blackberry) patch that my grandmother used to keep going–with a stern eye, as anyone who’s dealt with blackberries could tell you. They’ll take over anything, if you don’t watch ‘em!

Anyway, in East Texas, June is the month when blackberries come up, which was really convenient for my grandmother. Back then, kids were out of school in June, and she had three of us there. She’d send my two brothers and me out with a coffee can in the morning and tell us to fill it with blackberries…but we couldn’t eat any of them. Not one, y’hear? But of course we did! They were so delicious, right off the briar vine. We’d go back inside and, before taking the cans from us, look each of us over, hands on her hips.

“Did y’all eat any of them blackberries?”

And we would lie. We would lie audaciously and shamelessly: “No, Nana! Not a one!”

And she’d stare at us in silence about five seconds, enough to make us squirm that maybe she did know we’d eaten them. Then she’d say, “Well, all right.”

And she’d set to using our berries to make a cobbler or jam, or freezing them for the winter. I never did like cobbler, btw. I’m still such a country girl that I prefer any fruit I eat uncooked. I’m so used to plucking it all right off a tree or bush or vine!

For the record, I was about 9 when I figured out that my grandmother knew we were lying. My youngest brother happened to be standing across from me when she asked that question, his teeth were purple and he had juice stains running down the sides of his mouth and chin, from gorging on berries. And she let us think we were getting away with it!

oooh, christy- that sounds evil and fabulous. i know the roomies love chocolate.

and just because it’s never too early to go off topic, repeat blogwhore on the youtube wars, sex, being fabulous, and winning dem strategies.

As I sit here, stuck in the suburbs, I think back to all my memories of picking berries in the hills of Bluefield, WVA and climbing the 30 foot hill to help my grandparents weed, harvest and maintain their garden.

I’m a little scared my children will never understand the love that goes into a homemade jar of jelly–The feeling of the scalding steam burns from sterlizing the jars—ort the understanding of HOW many dang berries it really takes to fill a 1 gallon bucket.

My mother and I finally cracked open the last official jar of raspberry jelly last year–hand picked and canned by my grandmother, my mother and myself about 16 years ago. Grandma has been gone just as long but I swear, it was the saddest and happiest moment I’ve ever shared with my mother.

Great memories and thank you for starting off my morning with such a great topic.

Lovely thread.

Organic George and I so adore gardening that, when we found ourselves in a new house with no place for a garden, we built a 6′X3′ “coffin,” filled it with dirt and voila — organic heirloom tomatoes and eggplant!

And containers of mint, chives, rosemary (a weed in southern Cal), basil, sage, dill…

Alas, no space yet for our usually obligatory yellow squash, bush beans and okra. Geez, children, any fearless Southerners out there needing okra recipes?

Love on you all. I heart FDL.

Christy

CHOCOLATE zucchini cake? You may have the answer to a prayer. My nephew will not eat anything green. We mash and hid peas in spagetti, pour cheese sauce over everything, nothing works.

My sister will be in heaven, cause he does eat anything at all that has chocolate.

mm @ 26- thanks for that heirloom link. i’ve been looking into that kind of planting, and i’m appreciative of your recommendation.

does everyone here use the deep bed/french bed technique? i’ve had *amazing* results with it this year.

CROCKPOT APPLE BUTTER

INGREDIENTS:
7 cups applesauce, natural
2 cups apple cider
1 1/2 cups honey
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves, optional
1/2 tsp allspice

PREPARATION:
In a slow cooker, combine all ingredients. Cover and cook on LOW for 14 to 15 hours or until mixture is a deep brown.
Spoon hot apple butter into hot sterilized jars and seal, then process half-pints or pints 10 minutes in a boiling water bath.

MAKES Makes 4 pints or 8 half-pint jars.

NOTE: I use very strong Vietnamese cinnamon in this that I get fresh from Penzeys. If you are using cinnamon from the grocery store, you might want to use an extra 1/2 tsp.

I put this on in the evening and let it cook all night in the crockpot. Then it’s ready to go into jars in the morning. :) It cooks down quite thick, which is exactly how you want it — if it is watery, crack the lid a little and keep cooking until it thickens up.

Freadom at 29 — Welcome! :) When we were first married, we lived in an apartment the size of a shoebox, with a yard that was even smaller. I did some tomatoes and basil in a couple of pots on the tiny front porch that year. Our next house had an equally small yard, and I picked up a great book called “Square Foot Gardening” that I loved — and still use techniques from to maximize my yield with a minimum of digging every year. (You can tell that not having veggies in this year is killing me…SIGH…is it too late to put in a coupla tomato plants, do you think?) Anyway, check out the book — it’s by a fellow named Mel Bartholamew (sp?) and also a book called “Lasagna Gardening,” which is fantastic for getting a new planting bed ready in a jiffy.

Greetings to you, Christy, from the Great State of Maryland, where bounteous corn, tomatoes, watermelon and, if you are very nice, rockfish, hard crabs and Natty Boh await you!

LJ at 26 — Oh, man, that had me laughing so hard. That must be a granny trick, because mine did the same thing. Looking back on it now, as a mom, I can see how fun that would be for an adult. :)

Crablaw at 34 — oooh, now you made me hungry for a crabcake sandwich and some fresh ears of corn. Mmmmmm….

This is dangerous for me this morning, I started a diet this week!

One of my best “berrying” memeories is from the Adirondacks. For years, my husband and I went to a rugby tornament up in Saranac Lake in upstate new york. The final games of the tournament are held on a pitch at the local college. The grounds of the college are completely overgrown with wild bluberries.

When the kids were small(I have a stepdaughter, too), and could not follow the play, I would give them baskets and let them clamber all over the hill gathering berries.

They would come back with berries, flowers, pretty bugs they had found. Filthy dirty, covered in blueberry stains and the happiest I have ever seen them. And the berries were fabulous.

My little one, stated picking those berries when she was only 2 1/2. It was the highlight of the weekend for her. Well that, and room service at the hotel. You never met such a kid for room service.

You’re welcome chicago dyke, i’m happy to share the info.

Don’t forget mother nature’s wild bounty – yesterday I interrupted my run to scarf down blackberries along the trail. Mmmmmmmmmm, bursting with sweetness, and I’ll be back for more as they ripen sequentially.

We had no money when I was a Kid, we canned everything tomatoes, green beans, apples, jellies and jams, and my mom made the best strawberry preserves, apple pies and apple cobler. She used to make swiss steak with her own canned tommatoes. Canning was always an interesting time steam, in the kitchen and mason jars everywhere. I remember being 5-6 and we lived on a farm near Medford, MN that is now under interstate 35. The farmer we rented from would plow a patch next to the house we she planted her garden, I remember potatoes, radashes, beets, cabbages, cucumbers, onions, green beans, peppers and tomatoes. Later when we lived in the city she had a job outside the home and had less time. But we always seemed to have strawberries and tomatoes. In the city I live in in norheastern Iowa the farmers markets are wonderfull and a growing buisiness here. Most is organic, sweet corn is just starting to arrive at the local roadside stands (We grow the best) I love to go to the farmers market on Saturday Morning,I get a sense of cummunity and a connection with my roots as I visit with the vendors and the other people there. I miss my mom who passed away at the age of 47 in 1987 – Lung Cancer is a bitch………………

There is an appointed time for everything.
And there is a time for every event under heaven -
A time to give birth, and a time to die;
A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.
- Ecclesiastes, 3:1-2

Christy,
My tomato plants still have some flowers on them. It might not be too late. Especailly if you put in grape or cherry tomatoes, sice the fruit ripen so quickly

lina @ 22: I want to have brunch with you!!!

I learned how to can, and to make jams and jellies from my friend Annamarie a few years ago. We made a marmelade that involved some sort of spirits – vodka? Rum? I cannot remember! But we were stumbling around the kitchen with hot jars by the end of the evening, laughing when the lids made their little popping sounds. I have GOT to make some this summer. If I can get the recipe from her, I will post it on the next pull up a chair.

My friend and I have a small share in the Burlington, Vermont Intervale CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Farm.

It’s set on about 15 acres and grows organic vegetables, herbs, flowers and berries for distribution to its member households (over 400). All produce is distributed twice a week at the farm where members are given the opportunity to enjoy the bounty of the land first hand. As Vermont’s largest membership farm, the Intervale CSA are committed to providing excellent quality organic food at a good consumer value in a sustainable and participatory manner. This week I’ve enjoyed greens, lettuce, zucchini/summer squash, red and white swiss chard and self-picked strawberries! Yum!

our search function is broke at corrente, but i wrote a post a while back about gardening, and why it’s important for people to relearn that skilset. in a nutshell, i was arguing that one of the effects of peak oil is much, much higher food production and distrubution costs.

i don’t know about you all, but as a poor person, i’ve already felt it. it’s only going to get worse. i don’t like thinking about what will happen when oil becomes truly outrageous, i fear many poor in this country will literally starve, esp in urban areas.

I subsist on literally nothing but produce riches this time of year. Watermelon, cantaloupe, new potatoes, sweet corn, cukes, tomatoes, green beans, etc etc – thanks Ma Nature, damn do you rock!

1,203 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ GOES ON AND ON AND…

Good Mornin’ Christy:

Thanx fer the reminder, most of us middleclass folks (at least bommers)don’t hafta go back very far to touch family that either worked the land er relied on “the garden” ta keep the family fed even durin’ the winter. Old dirt “root sellers” kept potatoes and other veggies edible thru the winter.

We are at a point where we as parents need ta bridge the gap that “futureshock” has created in our children in order to keep their expectations up and make them aware of how they got to where they are now. Most kids taday have been disarticulated from their history, they don’t know how hard their forebearers fought and who they fought to get their proginy ta the place they are now.

That’s why I appreaciate this site so much, Christy, all of you folks (Jane, Pach, TRex…)understand the connections we all have as humans (like food, work and family) and appreciate the differences that illuminate those connections.

Here in the heartland a democracy and the anus a progress, we’re havin a 6th year of almost dustbelt like drought…I’m waitin for August ta see what the local produce is gunna look like in the area farmer’s markets, but it doesn’t look good right now.

So, thanx again Christy and Jane and Pach and TRex… I raise my second cup a coffe to ya and say…

KEEP THE FAITH WITH THE GIANTS IN THE EARTH, WHAT THEY GAVE US IS WORTH FIGHTIN’ FOR!!!

CHOCOLATE ZUCCHINI CAKE
1/2 c. butter
2 eggs
1/2 c. canola oil
1 tsp. vanilla
1 3/4 c. sugar
4 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa (I use Ghirardelli.)
2 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. each ground cloves and cinnamon
1/2 c. sour milk (scant half cup milk tsp. lemon juice, let sit for 5 minutes or so)
1 c. chocolate chips (I like the mini ones for this.)
2 c. zucchini, unpeeled, grated fine (or chopped in food processor)

PREPARATION:
Preheat oven to 325 F. Grease 9×13×2 pan. In a bowl, cream butter and eggs. Add oil, vanilla and sugar. Blend well. Sift together cocoa, flour, baking soda, baking powder, cloves and cinnamon. Add to butter mixture alternately with the milk. Add zucchini and chocolate chips. Bake 40 to 50 minutes, until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out relatively clean (it’s fudgy, so you won’t get a completely clean toothpick, but when it pulls away from the sides of the pan a little, it’s done — don’t overbake).

One of my earliest memories is being sent to my grandmother’s back garden to pick pole beans. I can still smell the sun on the plants and the dirt, and hear the bees buzzing in the bean flowers way over my head, and feel the wicker basket in my hands, and see the beans right before my eyes.

Back in the kitchen, I was allowed to snap off the tips from the beans before my grandmother boiled them up and served them with butter. Mmmmm. I now know they were Kentucky Wonder beans, still the best and beaniest.

And Christy, you’ll need to plant more than one blueberry bush in order to get berries.

My grandparents had a fresh produce market, also sold trees, pumkins, ect. They had a farm but taxes forced them to sell. Good memories of going to the market, that was all so long ago.

This year I’ve got 25 Rhoade Island Red chicks, all hens. So far the wild creatures haven’t gotten them. I’m growing beans, sunflowers squash, tomatoes, not as much as I’d like but I don’t have much ground, mainly rock and clay. Everything in raised beds and fenced. I do appreciate the growers and eating fresh at a reasonable cost.

One of the nice things about eating things as they grow and ripen sequentially, is the “advent” feeling. They are like a miny christmas season. you have the anticipation when the blossoms first turn to fruit, it gins up as the friut begins to ripen, then the couple/few weeks of celebration as you it in every possible way your imagination can conjure. Just when it feel slike too much, it’s over.

Till next year. How cool is that?

Garden talk….perfect.

I planted my first ever veggie garden this spring after being inspired by one of the threads here and the related “planning for a world after oil” exchanges here and elsewhere. Did some research about gardening in New England, got my seeds online (heirloomseeds.com…big thumbs up!) and I built a 12×6 frame for my raised beds. Planted snap peas, carrots, bunching onions, zucchini and some spinach.

Now for the bad news. I situated the garden too close to the treeline along the border of our yard as I was trying not to stick it smack dab in the middle of the yard (the dog and the kids wouldn’t have liked that much) and as the trees filled in I soon realized that the garden isn’t getting enough sun. Things are growing but I suspect whatever I pull from the ground will wind up being pretty feeble. Live and learn. Next year I’m going smack dab in the middle of everything, we’ll all just have to work around it :)

What a lovely piece of writing to start the day. I’m off shortly to the local farmers’ market to stock up for the week. How can we keep the shysters who govern us honest over the long haul, if we don’t sup on primo grub, inhabit a harmonious environment and generally take good care of our bodies and minds?

Lurve these food & nature thredds, Redd!

Norske: my farming relatives all had “tornado cellars” for protection from the whirling winds but those cellars also doubled as “root cellars” … very practical!

found it.

i don’t know about you all, but sometimes i’m just overwhelmed by how hard it can be to manage a blog. which is another reason to garden…the zen peacefulness of the garden is sometimes sorely lacking on line.

sharkbabe 45 – you must be a skinny minnie.

bee at 48 — thanks, I know. I’ve heard three is actually the optimal for a small planting — anyone know for sure? Anyway, our yard is a wee bit small, and I’m trying to figure out where I would put them. *g*

Square Foot Gardening just had a mention in our local newspaper, Christy! Recommended read for someone who wanted to make raised beds for disabled seniors.

Our local Farmer’s Market just opened along the Red River…I echo your appreciation for those who still work so hard to keep alive the real food that sustains us.

In the lake country, it’s strawberry time and there’s a family business in PR that really does have wonderful produce. But stopping there last weekend I was assaulted everywhere in their red barn by campaign advertising for the rightwing Repub candidate for Minn Senate. Told the woman at the checkout that I was disappointed to see the aggressive political tone and she said “we’re strong Republicans.” My reply was since I was committed to getting the strawberries, I would choose to make a campaign contribution double their price to the woman running on the Dem side.

Don’t think she appreciated the irony of “choice,” but the little ol’ lady standing next to me was chuckling so I suspect the story made the rounds of the Hubbard County senior set. And I found a couple new sources for fresh produce instead.

Even in produce there are opportunities to buy blue and make a quiet statement of authenticity of one’s values. Going to look up a recipe now….

TROLL — http://www.WhoIsJoeLieberman.com

(PS — LYING TROLL who lives in Atlanta.)

IP 24.254.239.5

My yard is so small and half shady, so I haven’t been able to plant much in the way of veggies since I’ve lived in this house (seven years in September). But this year I bought a pepper plant and an heirloom tomato, both of whom seem happy in one of the few full sun patches out there. They’re by the kitchen door along with some perennial herbs, and basil and cilantro in pots, so I have a real but modest kitchen garden, something I’ve been steadily working on since I moved in.

On a somewhat related topic, I’m currently reading Marion Nestle’s What to Eat. It’s a fascinating book about the politics of the grocery store, as well as a guide to what is healthy, a good deal and environmentally reasonable. Last night I read about margarine and the whole trans fat thing. It’s not a screed against the grocery and food manufacturing industries, although she is hard on them when it is warranted. There is not a lot that is absolutely new info for me, well, except for the history of margarine, but it is sensible, has a “cut through the crap” feel to it and is in a very readable style. Anyone else read it yet?

Awright, zucchini. Love the stuff, and the very best zucchini dish I ever ate was on Crete. Later in Athens I bought the cookbook that’s become my favorite of the many I own, The Best Book of Greek Cookery, by Chrissa Paradissis (2d ed, 1972), because its recipe for stuffed zuchs is the one I found to be closest to those served me on that hotel verandah in Heraklion.

Here ’tis:

STUFFED ZUCCHINI (KOLOKITHAKIA PAPOUTSAKIA)

2 1/2 lbs. medium-sized zucchini
1 small onion, chopped finely
1/2 cup butter
1 tablespoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 cup grated cheese
1 1/2 cups fresh breadcrumbs
3 eggs
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 cup bechamel sauce [recipe follows]

BECHAMEL SAUCE
2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
dash of nutmeg (optional)
1 cup milk

Melt butter over a low heat; add flour [sift in], salt, pepper and nutmeg; stir until well blended. Remove from heat. Gradually stir in milk and return to heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until thick and smooth. Makes 1 cup.

Scrub and wash the zucchini and cut off ends. Cook whole with one tablespoon salt in boiling water for about 8 to 10 minutes; drain.

Cut an inch strip from one end to the other of each squash; arrange in baking pan. With teaspoon, carefully remove centres. Chop into smail pieces.

Heat 1/4 cup butter in a small saucepan and saute onion till tender. Add chopped zucchini centres and cook for about 5 minutes. Add breadcrumbs, 2 eggs, pepper 1/2 cup cheese, parsley and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Pile mixture into zucchini shells.

Preheat oven to 350. Make bechamel sauce, stir 4 tablespoons cheese and 1 beaten egg. Cover stuffed zucchini with sauce; dot with remaining butter and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake, uncovered, at 350 for about 30 minutes, or until brown on top. Serves 4.

Stuffed zucchini with meat: Prepare as above, but omit 1 cup breadcrumbs. Saute the onion with 1/2 lb. minced meat.

Christy

Re: the blueberry bushes. The house I had in Jersy some years back, had them planted instead of ornamental landscaping shrubs. They were just part of the flower garden. I thought that was ingenius.

Instead of a boxwood or an azalea. I don’t know what variety were had, but they were semi evergreen like an azalea.

Sometimes when Im afraid the world as we know it is in danger, I look at my raised bed garden, full of food, and my fruit trees and hope that if the worst happened Id be able to feed my husband and myself and our children who live in big cities.

Maybe its not realistic but it helps. Ive always had gardens but here in East Tennessee it’s about perfect for growing.

We even have figs and when they are ripe, fig jam.

I grew up on the Jersey Shore, where it really was the Garden State. Growing tomatoes in our backyard was great. The heat and the rain gave us great crops every year. When I was fourteen I rode my bike up into Holmdel and worked on a farm for a couple summers, picking fruit and vegetables with other local kids and migrant workers. Hardest work I’ve ever done, but every night before I came home the farmer let me pick what I wanted to bring home. Corn, big industrial-sized turnips. I think all of those truck farms are gone now for housing developments.

Christy @ 14, masaccio @ 13, and lotus @ 12 -

Those threads are really quite something, once folks start to dig in and wrestle with a topic. I think a lot of people are anxious to discuss things like religion and science – if they know they are among friends where they can speak (and listen) freely. What makes FDL such a great place for that is that we are (obviously) not necessarily like-minded when it comes to matters of religion, and so the conversation goes in some amazing places. I’ve tried to stick around for a couple of hours, as the thread gets started, but I always go back to check on the comments by those who were EPU’d.

On to veggies . . .

lhp, one of the toughest things for me in moving to the Bay Area was losing my tomato garden (it just doesn’t get hot enough here by the Bay to ripen them well – I tried!), but the herbs you can take almost anywhere. Fortunately, I found a great produce market (Monterey Market in Berkeley) where I can get about anything I want, fresh, at very cheap prices. The housing costs and $3 gas may drive us nuts out here, but the prices for great wine and the fresh produce try to balance it out.

Here’s a neat summer salad with an Asian slant:

vinagrette:
6 T seasoned rice wine vinegar
1.5 T vegetable oil
1.5 t fresh peeled ginger, chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped

salad:
8 oz. cellophane noodles (bean curd noodles; they come in 2 oz bundles)
1 seedless cucumber, halved lengthwise and then sliced thinly on the diagonal
1 bunch scallions, thinly sliced on the diagonal
2 thin carrots, thinnly sliced on the diagonal
1 mango, sliced thin and cut into bite-sized pieces

Combine all the ingredients for the dressing and mix with a hand blender. Set aside.

Soak the noodles in cold water until pilable – about 15 minutes. Drain, then chop/cut each bunch of noodles in half. Bring a 4 qt pot of unsalted water to a boil, then boil the noodles until just tender – about 2 minutes. Drain in a colander, and rinse in cold water to stop the cooking. Drain the noodles well again, then spread out on paper towels and blot dry to soak up the excess liquid.

Put the noodles in a bowl, and mix them with the dressing. Add the cucumber, scallions, mango, and carrots, gently tossing to mix.

Eat it all at once, or it keeps for several days!

The following is why I grew zucchini only once. It is from a little quarterly publication called “Greenprints: The Weeder’s Digest”. The essay begins, “Did you ever take a basket of zucchini over to your neighbor’s house and get “The Look” – an expression that makes it clear your neighbor wishes she’d looked through the peephole before opening the door? Jehovah’s Witnesses and people who grow zucchini are well acquainted with “The Look.”

Fresh garden tomatoes are another story. Our farmers’ market sellers cannot bring enough of them to sell.

Even here in Little Rhody locally grown produce is available. We now have a weekly farmer’s market at Colt State Park in Bristol. The best corn comes from a farm directly across from the Stop ‘n Shop…I don’t know why the Stop ‘n Shop bothers to stock it in season, except for tourists and republicans. :-) The farmer picks three times a day–four times if he’s really busy, so the corn on the stand is never more than 3 hours out of the field.

I believe the old ways of cooking are best, which is why I use an old microwave to do my corn on the cob.

Leave the husk and tassel on, wrap each ear of corn in a sopping wet paper towel. Nuke the corn 3 minutes, give it a minute to cool enough to touch it (if you can wait that long), and dig in. The husk and tassels come off with minimum work, and the result is perfect, I think. You may need to adjust the time depending on your microwave.

When I was a kid in Minneapolis we used to have one meal each summer of just corn on the cob, which my mom fixed in the biggest kettle she had. The four of us could go through a dozen and a half ears in no time.

I should add that the farmer who sells at that stand told me last summer he has put four kids through college on the proceeds, so if you have access to a couple of acres, you might want to think about it. :-)

Our family has several ranch-farms here. Cows, winter wheat and Sudan is mostly what we do. I am charged with growing the veggies for everyone. This year I’ve got an acre and a half of four different tomatoes vf res. and since I had such good luck with the nemitode resitant variety last year, I’m growing them now too. These plants are bit dear, as they are $4.00 per plant. But for us they are well worth it. We’re doing okra, (natch) cukes, egg plant, silver-queen, green and wax beans, black-eye peas (again natch) sweet spuds, bells, and hot peppers, onions, h2o mellons, loupes, and of course, crook-necks, and more. I can and freeze a lot of this stuff. And toward the end of the season, before school starts, I will journey to La. to buy loads of crawdads, shrimp and gator tail for gumbo soup, also to can, etc. This may sound like a lot of work and it is, but we have lots of tractors and the other things necessary.

I take summer squash,zuccini,baby carrots,and bell peppers,roughly chop them,add fresh herbs and minced garlic(along with a good dash or two of olive oil)wrap them in foil and put it on a hot grill for about 10 minutes.Oh,yummy.

Has anyone here ever built a sunflower house for their kids?It’s easy and fun,and here’s how you do it:

First,you’ll need to measure out about a 6×6 ft square in the yard.Then you’ll need to dig out a shallow trench around the perimeter,leaving an un-dug place for the door of the house.

Next you need bamboo stakes,the big tall ones.Place those at the four corners,on either side of the doorway,and at intervals in between.Connect all of the stakes with two rows of twine,the first row about a foot off the ground,the second row about a foot from the top of the stakes.

Then you plant the sunflower seeds in the trench.At each stake you plant morning glory and/or moonflower(a morning glory that opens only after the sun goes down.Big white flowers that smell wonderful)seed or two(soak these for 24 hours before planting).

Then you water the seeds well and wait.And watch.And water some more,and weed,and wait,lol.

As the sunflowers and morning glories grow,they make the walls of the house.The morning glories will grow up the stakes.When they reach the top,you’ll need more twine to connect the stakes on opposite sides.The morning glories will crawl along the twine to form the roof of the sunflower house.

You can also make a teepee,using the same bamboo pole and twine combo.Instead of sunflowers,you’ll want to use vine-ey plants,like gourds,morning glories,pole beans,etc.

Little kids love this stuff,my son spent hours in his various sunflower houses when he was little.Once I found him in there with a baby rabbit that had wandered in for a visit.Mom hid out there upon occasion too,lol.The big green luna moths often come to visit the moonflowers,if you’re lucky and patient.

I got these ideas from Sharon Lovejoy’s books.Her books are WONDERFUL,I recommend them to anyone who loves to garden or thinks they can’t garden.

My grandma used to say this line at her dinner table….”Okay, everyone, eat what you can and what you can’t we’ll can.”

Who’d have thought we’d get trolls when talking about gardening and veggies?

Thanks, moderators!

I read an article this spring about a man with a stuningly beautiful arden who mixed his veggies in with his flowers.

The only really, really sunny part of my property is the flower bed in the front of the house. I ahve had a tough time with my tomatos up unitl this year because my raised beds don’t get enough hours of full sun.

So this year, I put my tomatos in the fancy flower garden. Instead of tomato cages I put wrought iron “tutueres” (sp?) over them. and planted marigolds at the base to keep the tomato bugs away. There they bloomed with their little yellow flowers and mixed in with all my perrenials.

They look great, are loaded with ne jsut forming fruit, and no one, not even my mother,queen of all gardening, realized I had tomato plants in my flowers until i pointed them out.

this thread is now in my recepie bookmarks. thanks to all!

there’s this great eggplant dish i made for guests last night. even if you don’t like eggplant, you may want to give it a try.

take an eggplant and cut it into the thinnest circles you can. heat a wide pan full of canola oil to very hot. chop up at least a cup of fresh parsley, and squeeze out a dozen or so lemons (essential step, don’t use the fake stuff) take a half cup or more of minced garlic, and in a separate pan, sautee it to golden brown in olive oil. fry the eggplant slices to a dark golden brown, till they’re crispy. then make stacks of eggplant generously sprinkled with the parsley and garlic, pouring lemon juice over it as you go up. serve immediately.

seriously, i’ve not had anyone not like this dish.

chcicago dyke-I love the spiritual part of working with nature, it’s the payoff for me. I feel connected to the higher energy of the universe. I also feel that it’s my duty to provide a safe haven for nature by working organically.

That sounds great chicago dyke, I just printed it out and will try it this weekend…love eggplant! Thanks.

crablaw 35 – hey from Indian Head. Yes and of course the the odd crab feast. I’m too damned empathetic, always manage to take a crab’s POV and the barbarism is unspeakable…still it’s like a quilting bee, slow, sociable.

My ex had (still has) a Rockfish Guy. Guy just loves fishing and catching em, sorta digs her but in a shy, here-I-give-you-fish kind of way. Always inviting her to fish with him, which she’s done a few times. Still lavishes his bounty upon her (& me by association). What a guy and WHAT FISH.

OK kid

Sudan?

Peterr,

I hope it wasn’t my mention of Jehovah’s Witnesses that prompted your troll comment! Even if it was, thanks for the thought provoking essay yesterday. I love it when people I have been following from the comments hit “the big time.” I am waiting for *ilson to write something big. Or maybe not. I might not be able to get off the floor.

Ohh YAY,my hubby just called and said our little local farmer’s market is FINALLY open.I gotta run and get dressed now,and head out the door,they close at 1pm.Oh happy dance!

Angry Old Broad

Sunflower houses!

What a memeory flood you just brought back form me.

I hadn’t thought about them for years!!

I always plant moonflowers in the same spot as mornign glories. Usually in contrasting colors. The effect is stunning

MM @ 75- me too. technically, i’m an atheist. but the spiritual part of me worships the beauty and awesome diversity in nature, and i revel in the knowledge that no matter how bad we screw this planet up, our Mother the earth will eventually bounce back, even if that means raising up the next phase of intelligent life in the form of mutant cockroaches that can survive in nuclear weapons-irradiated environments. we’re all just blips in Her time frame.

Lotus: Do you like blueberries? A friend of mine has about 15 acres of them. In season, he leaves boxes of them at my door as an incentive for me to go help him and momma pick them. When the price falls, he can’t pay to have them picked so they are up for grabs. I live in Central Florida. I take the blueberries, clean them and put them in small freezer bags and freeze them. I take them to work and munch on them frozen from the bag. They are great.

We had so much rain in the last two days. The lake is really low so we need it. I’ve been spending my time cleaning out the weeds down on the shore the last couple of weeks but, 2 nights ago a nice alligator delayed my progress. It rained so hard that the water clogged up and didn’t run into the lake like it should. Instead, it ran into my laundry room and now I’m afraid I may have a crop of mildew soon.

Sweet, sweetcorn …. My husband grew up on a vegetable farm in Arkansas and absoultely refuses to eat sweetcorn from the grocery store (don’t even think about the KFC frozen corn). His mother would have the corn pot filled with water on the stove, and he would head back to the field to collect corn for their dinner. Ten minutes from field to pot was the requirement for maximum sweetness.

Today’s modern supersweet varieties are sweeter and keep their sugar content longer after harvest. These are so sweet that they give me a headache if I eat more than 3 ears raw in the field. I have had a constant headache this week.

Sweetcorn is at peak production here in Arkansas. When I am grazing out in the field, I don’t mind the earworm feeding on the tip – just break it off and start munching (An ear with a ’sideworm’ ends up on the ground).
To grow wormfree corn in the south is nearly impossible without the help of modern chemistry, but if you don’t mind cutting off the tip, there usually is enough to share with the caterpillars. The problem for commercial growers is that infested corn will not ship – 1 bad apple spoils the whole bunch, you know. Corn earworms are canabalistic, so even though there may be a dozen eggs laid on silks of a single ear, generally you get only one or two BIG larvae per ear. Cutting the tips off is OK for corn going to your table or to a nearby freezer plant, but for shipping on the fresh market, corn must be worm free. Once the caterpillar hatches and burrows down in the ear, it is too late to kill it. The ear is spoiled.

I wonder if wormy corn makes better ethanol?

Thanks also, for the great way to start the day…thinking about growing and enjoying your labors. I made some bread and butter pickles the other day with my cucumbers from my little garden. I came across a recipe a couple of weeks ago and was reminded that my grandmother used to make these. I hope that they will taste like hers and further remind me of those days past. My tomatoes have not done as well this year…I think the deer or the racoons got them. The deer also ate my first round of Swiss chard, but they are growing back, so we’ll have some sauteed chard for dinner tonight. In hot south Texas, it’s time to put more tomatoes out for the fall garden. I’ll get that done this weekend and hope that the critters will maybe leave them alone in the fall. Thanks for such a wonderful blog effort. FDL is one of my favorites every day.

Can I just say how much I love this thread on Saturdays — especially because we get some many readers who come out of the ether and comment and the whole FDL just feels so much more complete? Just having my Saturday smile…

My favorite berry picking story comes from a summer day when my wife and I were just cruising through the woods up on Buttermilk Hill where we had a few acres. Just out for a walk, looking around. We had our first Brittany with us, our beloved Bonnie, and were walking along a cleared area under some cross country electrical transmission lines when we came across a rasberry thicket. They were perfect, large, sweet, bursting with juice, and we were busily eating them, threading through the stickers for the best ones when I heard a small yelp from Bonnie. I turned to look and saw her going for one for herself. She was intent to have it and had set her mouth so that she looked as though she was straining to kiss a loved one though some barred barrier. She loved her some people food and having seen us gobbling them she would not be denied. Much as I love them I don’t think I’d try her hands free method.

lina 57 – yeah that’s another reason to keep as direct to Ma N as possible fuelwise – great for the waistline – now that I’m back on the market :)

btw chicago dyke – I’ve always thought you had the best handle ever – best city on earth, and well, dyke, duh…

Sweetcorn and wild blueberries. I miss my New England childhood. Does anyone else here eat their corn raw? I prefer it to the cooked. It is also my secret ingredient in many of my salads. The sweet little crunch is a surprise and a pleasure in pasta or bread salads.

Hi Christy,

I was a farm kid, and I loves me some fresh veggies. Turnip greens and fall collards!

My alltime favorite is to put a little olive oil in the skillet, and throw in sliced yellow squash and a bit of diced onion. If I’m feeling carnivorous, I’ll toss in a little bacon torn into tiny pieces.

Better than any fancy restaraunt.

for any of your readers who are thinking that they have to miss out on the gardening experience because they don’t have a lot of space or time to devote to it, think again. a neighbor and i keep some pots of flowers on our buildings shared patio. this summer she convinced me to try our luck at growing some tomatoes in pots since we have a southern exposure and lots of sun. in my younger days i never really had the patience for gardening, i was too instant gratification oriented to sustain an interest. i guess it’s just another sign of getting older that i’ve slowed down enought to appreciate it. anyway the tomatoes have grown like crazy. i’m not even that found of raw tomatoes, but there is something about experiencing the whole growing cycle that makes you look at your food differently. i should say it makes you taste it differently. and with half a dozen ripe tomatoes to deal with a day, i’ve had to taste a lot of them. but i already know that i’m going to miss them once the plants are done.

e.c.

Mike @ 68–that farmer’s market at Colt is the real deal. We don’t get out there nearly as much as we’d like.

I myself prefer my vegetables grown on 120K acre corpofarms, laced with man-made growth hormones, fertilizers and pesticides, preferably served fresh from the can. On the downside, missus dr. bloor is a little disconcerted by the second head growing out of my shoulders, although shd did comment at one point that the new one looks a little better than the original.

Don’t you find it odd that people will put more work into choosing their mechanic or house contractor than they will into choosing the person who grows their food?

Christy at 34,

Our dog-eared copy of SQUARE FOOT GARDENING is over 30 years old. :) Great book.

looseheadprop-80

I LOVE moonflowers. What a beautiful aroma they have. They open very quickly, and it was such a thrill watching one bloom one night. The seed pods are quite beautiful also.

shark @ 89- yours is pretty snazzy too. but damn, i have to find some way to indicate to people that i’m not using it b/c of the town or the fact that i lived there for ten years (just recently left).

truth be told, as a black woman, i *hated* life in chicago. i lived in the hood on the south side, and while chicago has a great deal to recommend it, that’s not so much the case if you’re poor and brown. i’m originally from the detriot area, and i’m telling you- i have never experienced the institutional and cultural racism like i did in chicagoland. i was flat out told by a local, in my first year of the program, “don’t go to so-and-so neighborhood after dark. they will come out of their houses to rape/beat you if they see you.”

even in the gay parts of town, there is a huge racial divide. i don’t normally have a problem getting grrlfriends, but there were always two or three women at the bars i’d go to who made it very clear: i don’t do chocolate. sad.

my handle is supposed to reflect my schooling, arrogant bitch that i am. “the university of chicago: where fun comes to die.” so very true, but so very worth it. there are few schools in this country left that are as purely intellectual. even in the ivies.

My last on this thread, I gotta take the squirt somewhere.

WhenI was in law school, i was the research assistant to our then dean who was writing a book on the chages in the law since Roe v. Wade. He had written on of the Amici briefs in Roe.

So he had me research the abortions and reproductive rights (or reproductive restictions is more acurate) laws of all 50 states, the territories, and for fun, I added in the cannon law.

It turns out that in NYS it was illegal to posses oil of rue, or to manufacture it. But it was not illegal to own or grow a rue plant.

Rue can be used, with little fuss, to produce a medical abortion. Ever since, I have owned and grown rue. It is a beautiful plant, great for freah and dried arrangements. Culinary with cheese and egg dishes, nice in past salad NEVER LET A PREGNANT WOMAN EAT ANY! NOT EVEN A TASTE!

I am pretty active with my local Planned Parenthood and whenever there is a set back in terms of legislation or a court decision and someone from PP sounds discouraged, I give them a potted cutting.

It is power. To know what you are growing, whether it is an heirloom seed, or an organic tomato. It is power.

My grandfather introduced me to organic gardening long before it was in vogue. Perhaps before the term had been coined. i certainly first heard the term years after he taught me how to compost.

He said that to know what went into your food, before you food went into your body was to control your own health.

He was vigorous and amazingly strong well into his 80s. He had only a 6th grade education.HAd quit school to work with his father as a fisherman on LI Sound.

I grew up crabbing and clamming and eating homegrown veggies. We never wasted food when I ws little, becaue we knew the effort of raising or gathering it.

there is freedom and power in that. And a control over your own body. No transfat,no high fructose corn syrup(which I believe to be the single greatest caue of the US obesity epidemic–We should be making ethanol not syrup with our excess corn)just vitamins and minerals and the briny sweet sae salt taste of fresh caught.

One of my cousins is still a commercail fisheman. Yes there are still a few baymen left on Long Island. My family is still at it. For the zillionth generation.

A wee suggestion:

Is it possible to put a permanent FAQ button on one of the two sidebars? I imagine the folks in charge must get tired of the same old questions from newbies or relatively newbies like me. I sort of know (though I don’t always remember) what it means to be EPU’d. When I’m having a senior moment it would be good to have a place to go back and look it up and other pieces of the local dialect, as well.

What prompted this suggestion was Peterr’s comment about trolls even in a discussion about gardening and veggies, together with a thank you to the moderator. I went back to see if I had missed something skanky, as I more or less scan the comments quickly and don’t always catch nasty bits, especially if they’re short.
Because I didn’t see anything particularly trollish, I’m making the assumption that the comment was removed. Is that correct? Does the removal of the comment change the numbers of the rest of the comments? If so, maybe it would be better to leave a blank box with a “comment removed for trolling” only because some of us refer to previous posts by number, and if the number changes it becomes hard to locate the threads because they don’t nest here. Are troll folk notified that they’ve been expunged? Anyhow these are some of the things about which I’m curious this morning, and I’d love a FAQ place to go look for the answers.

Mike

P.S. I love the rating system over at TPM cafe…maybe the next softward upgrade you might consider adopting something like that. It lets people rate the value of a comment on a 0-4 scale, and lets the comment maker see just who did the rating. I think that the system helps train people to interact with everyone else more productively.

Peterr says:
July 8th, 2006 at 7:08 am

Try a tomato variety like “Oregon Spring” that’s been bred for cooler weather. (Does okay in warmer areas too.) Also, if you can get an early or midget sweet corn, you can grow corn in cooler areas.
Another place for seeds: http://www.nicholsgardennursery.com/

They’re in Oregon, and have some plants as well as seeds. Lots of herbs and veggies.

My dad died not too long ago and I miss his cooking so much. He was a FDNY for 30 years and learned to cook in the firehouse. He made unbelievable soups and sauces and didn’t know how to cook for 2. Cooking for twenty was much easier for him. Since the topic is vegetables, here is his recipe for artichokes:

Tony Bob’s Stuffed Artichokes

Wash 2 large green artichokes. Make sure you buy ones that are firm. Lay them on a cutting board and trim the spikes off the tips of the leaves. In a bowl mix 2 cups of bread crumbs, 4 stalks of minced scallions, 1/2 a minced onion, 3 minced cloves of garlic, basil, oregano, grated cheese to taste, fresh parsley and enough oil to moisten the mixture. Take one artichoke and spread the leaves open. Pack in 1/2 of the mixture inside of the leaves and press down. Drink a 6oz. glass of red wine. Stuff the other artichoke with the rest of the mixture. Drink a 12 oz. glass of red wine.

Look for a pot that will hold the artichokes upright and tight (yikes!). Put 2 inches of water on the bottom of the pot and place the artichokes right in the water. Cook on high until the water boils then lower the heat to Med and cover. In about 20 minutes replace the water that evaporated and continue cooking. Depending on the artichokes (they are boss), it could take either an hour or two hours, for them to be ready. Sometimes, I will also drizzle a little more oil on top as they cook. When the leaves look really soft, pull one off and eat it by scraping off the inside of the leaves with your teeth. Enjoy!

I used to work in a plant and vegetable genetics lab specializing in cucmbers and also volunteer at a large organic farm. The best of both worlds!

I built a raised garden box since me house is on such a hill that erosion is a bad problem. Plus I only have a few inches of topsoil than red clay. The veggie I had trouble growing? My cukes! The very thing I have the most experience with. But now everything is coming in great.

I love zucchini and yellow squash. Great ways to serve:

*Cut in half length wise. Throw them on the grill, skin side down, brushed with olive oil, basil, salt, pepper, oregeno. Top with sliced tomatoes. Optional to add fresh mozzarella slices or sprinkle with fresh grated parmesean.

*Make stuffed peppers but replace the rice with minced zucchini/squash. For 5 green peppers, I use 1 lb meat with about 3/4 pound zucchini/squash.

*Cut zucchini/squash lengthwise, scoop out part of innerds to make boat. Fill with spaghetti sauce, top with fresh mozzarella or parmesean. Bake or grill.

*Sautee sliced/diced zucchini/squash in pan with olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper. I still like mine with a bit of snap when I bite so this option is a fast and easy cook.

off to go see my beloved pygmy goats Alice and Marlon in their new home. my cop ex had too crazy work hours to keep caring for them at our old place, now they’re on a farm with buncha other goats, happy i hope. man them leaving last week made me cry as bad as any loss ever – silly i guess

ccmask- my condolences. i hope you won’t take this as trite, but i think it’s a fitting tribute to a loved one, to share something of his creation with the wider world like that. i’ll give that one a try for sure.

Christy @ 86 – The FDL community is my connection to a saner world. I don’t post much because I am usually reading “ketchup” long after comments are closed. The extraordinary people who post (or who at least make it past the moderators – thank you people, I can’t imagine what kind of ick you have to wade through!) feel like the extended family I would choose to have in a perfect world. On top of that, I have standard poodles, too!

ccmask-101

I found these artichoke racks at Le Chef Gourmet at the local mall that you can rest an artichoke on in a pan. My mom made artichokes similiar to your Dad’s. I don’t know what happened to the perfect pan she had for steaming, and when I found these small racks I felt like I hit a jackpot.

lookseheadprop…78 Sudan?

This is a feed crop grown (looks like tall, thick in girth grass) around here anyway, mostly as a feed for cattle. It’s bailed in huge round rolls in a visqueen like material and stored in pastures in parallel rows, single story, because of mold. It is sold all winter long. It sold very high last winter and will again this year, due to lack of rain here abouts. Actually we’d much prefer growing more of this stuff which would keep the price down and make everyone here a lot happier. But less rain equates to more need for artificial irrigation. Unfortunately.

Weevil 86,

Here’s a way to dramatically reduce corn ear worm with out chemicals.

There are beneficial insects that can take care of the problem. Just before the ears tassel your release beneficals, they parasitize the larvae of the worms and kill them before they do any damage to your crop.

If you create a habitat for the benificials they will create a colony that will be there year after year so you don’t have to keep buying good bugs.

I’ve used them on corn fields from 1/4 of acre to hundreds of acres and we have less than 1% damage due to ear worm.

There are several type of lacewings so check with the suppliers in your area to see which is right for your region.

In the old days Organic farmers use to market Organic corn “guaranteed at least 1 worm per ear or the ear is free” Now days we compete with the best conventional farmers on quality.

fyi: there’s no fixed policy about moderating trolls — precisely because of the numbershift problem, some will leave the comment in but erase the harmful contents and replace it with the word TROLL. Others will be creative (called Trexxing) and replace the trollism with something stupid and opposite (a troll might say Clinton was a stupid cocksucker but the Trexxed comment ends up ‘I so love the Clenis’)

This morning the thread was so genteel and pleasant that I didnt want to have the shitheads of the world intruding so I simply ended up deleting the trollisms…

well, firepups, it’s time for me to hit the gardens for real. today i’m helping out an ex gf, who is also a new mom, put in some fun stuff in her backyard. thanks for the pleasant morning conversation.

OT – Former U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay suggested Friday that he may not be ready for retirement just yet, a day after a federal judge ruled that his name must remain on the November ballot even though he resigned from Congress.
http://apnews.myway.com/articl…..GCK80.html

1,203 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ GOES ON AND ON AND…

Mike:

Welcome to the FDL coffe table this mornin’, your idea od a “glossary” or FAQ is a good one. Maybe one a the many PCnerds on FDL could set up a kinda FDL wikpedia that could be updated by folks…

This site does NOT, however, need a rating system as long as the hosts are monitorin’ the lunchroom. That’s one a the great things about this place…not a lotta ad hominem attacks and those shots that are taken are usually handled by the posters themselves. You will find that their aren’t a lotta needy egos here that need ta be reinforced at the expense of others…and FLDers tend ta take care of each other even if they don’t agree. I guess that’s one a the definitions of “liberal”.

KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITION, THIS IS GUNNA BE A LONG WAR!!!

When I was young my mother had a huge garden – about 28′ x 20′ – and 5 kids to keep it weed-free. We would spend the two weeks before the new school term canning or pickling. One of my favorite pleasures still is eating tomatoes right off the vine. And nothing beats homemade dill pickles. Mmmm…

I live in town now, so my “garden” is a couple of terraced beds in the backyard – tomatoes, green peppers, peas, pole beans, onions, and garlic. Tried carrots again, but no luck. (darn wabbits!) I also have a with chives, parsley, basil, rosemary, peppermint, and spearmint.

Great-Gramma Eva’s Crabapple Jelly: (easy!)

8 c. fresh crabapples
water as needed
3 c. white sugar
1 cinnamon stick

Remove tops and bottoms from crabapples, and cut into quarters. Place them in a non-reactive pot or saucepan. (stainless steel) Add enough water to cover, but no so much that the crabapples are floating.

Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium, and let simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. The apples should soften and change color.

Strain the apples and juice through 2 or 3 layers of cheese cloth. You should have about 4 cups of juice. Discard pulp, and pour the juice back into the pan. Bring to a simmer, and let cook for 10 minutes. Skim off any foam. Next, stir in the sugar until completely dissolved. Continue cooking at a low boil until the temperature reaches 220 to 222 degrees F (108 to 110 C). Remove from heat.

Pour the jelly into small sterile jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Process in a hot water bath to seal.

looseheadprop…

Sorry for the mis-spell on the handle. I almost never proof. I’m just too lazy.

The only time I use the oven is when my dryer is broke.

Mike @ 98 – all good questions and suggestions. when I run across stuff I am not familiar with, I just sit and watch and figure the system out. I am not brave enough to ask the question directly. I am sure others will answer about being EPU’d, but I have found it helpful to check Wikipedia to figure out the latest in acronyms, or whatever the IM chat lingo is called. It is fun trying to figure them out on your own, but EPU is one you definitely need help to understand!

grs – you’re making my stomach growl. I can’t think of a better combination than a farmer’s market and an outdoor grill in the summertime.

At my house, it’s a Sunday ritual since that’s the day of the week the farmer’s market in my neighborhood happens – a nice walk just a few blocks away. I appreciate it so much.

ccmask — whoa, took me awhile to read up to current (many breaks for laffin’ an’ droolin’) — yes, I love blueberries too and will try your iced version right away. Ditto for Tony Bob’s artichokes — and rest his good soul.

I don’t know what it is about artichokes — maybe their primeval look? — but I’ve always considered their flavor and texture the quintessence of vegetableness: the ur veggie>.

They, eggplants, okra and tomatoes are maybe my faves (until I remember onions, greenbeans, potatoes and . . . and . . . etc., etc.). Anyhow, love me some vedge!

Speaking of fresh produce — TA-DAH!

Egregious~

I just read your post from yesterday afternoon re:your daughter’s move. FWIW, my daughter and my son both moved away several yearas ago. I was heart-broken, but tried to be supportive. (This was only a few years after my divorce, so I really felt alone.) I have visited several times -it’s not quite the same but has to do. My son moved back home, but my daughter (also my firstborn and the light of my life) remained thousands of miles away and has a very active and full life there.

Today – right now – she is back home, and her brother is getting married today, this evening. (Thank goodness for happy events!)I remember when your son got married a few months ago.
Today it’s my turn. It has been a busy time, and full of all the twists and turns life takes in just the past couple of weeks. But my son is here and is staying here. His bride is a most beautiful young woman and devoted to him and to making the world a better place. Her family is solidly in *our* camp philosophically and politically.
And the only thing that could make this better would be to have my daughter decide to return home. But since that isn’t going to happen now, I just rejoice in the things that keep her coming back and in the knowledge that she still considers my home to be her “home” and the place she returns to and longs for when things get tough.
Here’s hoping that your daughter feels the same.
Dry your tears and start planning your trips.

{{hugs}}

Can’t find my recipe, so I’ll wing it a bit. This time of year we favor cold foods and one of our favorites is gazpacho. Every sip takes Mr. Sunshine [shhhh, don’t tell him…he thinks he’s a curmudgeon…NOT!] and me back to an ivy-walled restaurant patio just off the Alhambra. Because of his health issues we don’t travel far these days, so deconstructing and recreating great meal experiences shared with friends or a deux are a treasure for us.

The gazpacho…chunk up fresh tomatoes and zap briefly in your blender–or mash up in a high sided bowl. Add in a peeled, chopped up cucumber. Stir in a swirl each of olive oil and balsamic vinegar and finely chopped chives–the ones grown right outside the door with the little purple puffball heads are best, of course! Blend and chill thoroughly. Serving options–stir in a wee bit of Spanish sherry, or a dollop on top of natural yoghurt.

We love deconstructing foods, trying to duplicate the original, and generously adapt to suit our own tastes. Hope you have fun doing same with this gazpacho.

Evil Parallel Universe, or EPU, aka the Omniscient One, is a regulat FDL commentor. Unfortunately, EPU takes an inordinate amount of time to group his thoughts and comment, and would post tardy, after a new thread had began and everyone moved upstairs and missed his comment. So regular was this, the phenom was branded EPU’ed by any tardy commentor.

And ccmask, your firehouse artichoke recipe reminds me to try again to replicate the delish lemon artichoke pesto ingredients from the jar we get with the loaf of Italian peasant bread at the local Breadsmith…just looking at that lemony glass jar in the deep winter here in the north country brings a smile.

Good morning everyone! I’m crazy about mint and cilantro in the summer:
MINT AND CILANTRO CHUTNEY
3 bunches cilantro, stems trimmed and finely chopped
1 small bunch fresh mint, leaves only, finely chopped
2 gralic gloves. minced
1 1/2 tblsp freshly grated ginger
1 to 2 serrano chillies, chopped with seeds
1/2 tsp salt
juice of 1 lemon
1/2 tblsp peanut oil

MIX the ingredients in a bowl. Tutn out onto a board and chop until a paste is formed.

Visualize a troll while chopping….

Thanks millinery man regarding the artichoke racks…I’ll be getting one of those. Although I do love to cut off the stems, slice them thin and throw them in the water. They are almost as good as the heart!

Chicago dyke: Eggplant’s are great! Whenever I make lasagna, I always add a layer of eggplant in the middle. I hope you try the following recipe because it is my favorite meal ever.

Tony Bob’s Eggplant Rollitini

You need to have good spaghetti sauce for this (everyone has their own recipe, but I always start with fresh tomatoes) and about 6 fried Hot Italian Sausages, sliced and cooled, 2 large eggplants, mozzerella cheese, ricotta cheese, etc see below.

Peel Eggplants. Laying one on a cutting board, cut it in thin slices, holding the eggplant the long way. You want nice long slices. In a bowl, add 2 eggs and 1/3 cup of milk. In a large platter, sprinkle a good amount of bread crumbs. Take a big frying pan (or a wok is great!) and put a couple of inches of oil in it and heat it to Medium. Dip the pieces in the milk mixture and dredge them in the bread crumbs coating both sides. Fry them until they are golden brown. Let cool.

Take a large mozzerellla and cut it into fine pieces. Take a large Ricotta cheese and place it in a bowl. Add 1 egg and a tbsp of parsley and mix.

Take your first piece of cooled eggplant and lay it on a cutting board. In the center of the slice, put a big tbsp of Ricotta cheese, good sprinklin of mozz. cheese, a couple of sliced sausage pieces and a big spoon of sauce. Next, fold one side of the eggplant over the top and then the other over that and put a toothpick in it to keep it in place. Use a spatulat to lift it into a baking pan. Save some of the Mozzerella to sprinkle over the top of the baking pan.
The Baking Pan:
Lay all these rollitini’s into a baking pan with about an inch of sauce in the bottom of the pan. Bake on 350 degrees for about 45 minutes. Good stuff!

Thankee all, especiall *ilson. Now I’m going to bite my tongue and strive valliantly not to ask what the “number shift problem” is.

tutn= turn

not enough coffee and my spelling is for the birds…Ahhh

Just made my first comment at kos. Had to register as ‘truly egregious’ because somebody else took my name, just 2 weeks ago. The nerve.

Imm’s reaction to that theft was that it was truly egregious. So bingo, that’s the name.

Thanks Imm!

And btw remind me never to drive with you at the wheel! 90mph indeed.

Ooo, PA LAdy — crabapples! I don’t think I’ve had one for 30 years or more, but as a chile, I dearly loved ‘em, Maybe I find me a jar at the sto’ . . .

*ilson –

better to just delete them — or troll them.

by attributing statements they didn’t make, trexxing can be very problematic. sometimes a strongly held opinion comes across as trollish, when it isn’t the writer’s intent.

We are experiencing a dry spell where I live in the midwest, as most every part of the country does at some point in the season. When my blueberries or raspberries need water, it is sooooo satisfying to dip into one of the old whiskey rain barrels I have at the drain spouts on my house and shed. You can get the barrels at places like Menards, cut out the tops, add a spigot or not (I prefer to dip a pail – it is more satisfying somehow) and rig a screen cover for the top so you don’t end up providing a happy home for mosquitoes. I think they hold about 50 gallons so if you have several it really helps when the rain stops.

numbershift problem: when a trollism get deleted, its comment number gets reassigned to the following comment and all following comments have their numbers similarly reassigned. Folk may later refer to a comment by its number but if trolls are being deleted, numbers shift so the references get confusing …

mike –

the numbers are attached sequentially, but aren’t fixed. if a troll comment is deleted, the numbers will shift up; if a comment comes out of moderation up thread, the numbers will shift down.

better to use the time of a post when responding — the time stamp never shifts.

There will be an official FDL cookbook coming soon, yes, Christy?

We’ve a family cookbook in the works. Years ago, just after my f-i-l died, we needed a new family Christmas Eve, and came up with doing an international night. At Thanksgiving we all picked a country and drew the winner–Greece that first year. The Greek lemon chicken with rice we made that first year is still the family comfort food nearly 3 decades later. And the “kids” never miss Christmas Eve…thru the teen rebellion years, or now living far and wide, at Christmas Eve, it’s our homeplace. Our oldest even made her fiance promise CE would always be at her homeplace before she’d agree to marry him.

And now our daughter’s raising our little grandson to know a whole lot more about his international place in the world, so we figure we done good.

Okay, my last one, I swear….

Tony Bob’s String Beans

A box of fresh mushrooms, cleaned and sliced.
A large onion, sliced.
Oil
Fresh String Beans

Cook your string beans. In a separate frying pan, add some oil and fry the mushrooms and onions. When the string beans are cooked, add the mushroom and onion mixture. Good beans! For crock pot lovers: Once cooked, put it all in a crock pot to bring to a party the next day. Just heat in on low and as soon as it is hot, it is a great crock of sprouts.

And lotus, I’ll keep you in mind next year when the over-abundance of berries are left die….I’m on Lake Placid.

Me and my girlfriend planted 150 berrie plants. What a nightmare! I mean it was fun and all, but the black birds love the berries a little more than us. And, they get up pretty early in the morning. The first year we had a freeze, so we were dragging smudge pots throughout the grove all night…it is a lot of work. I like it much better that I can go to my friends and just pick them and leave:)

It just dawned on me why the trolls are visiting the cooking thread – they’re looking for secret codes….

all those suspicious amounts of salt and pounds of tomatoes!

ccmask-they are small individual racks, i love the stems also, well I just love artichokes. The first time I was in Seatle, I remember seeing one that bloomed. It was great.

Here’s a link http://www.domusonline.com/Mer…..de=Gadgets

“Wherever you get your veggies or your fruit, think for a little while about all the folks who have had a hand in getting it to your table.”

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and his supporters will take to the streets today.

Bush plays up Calderon:
“The White House was quick to support Mr. Calderon. President Bush called to congratulate him in the early afternoon for receiving the largest number of votes, even though he had not officially been declared president-elect.” NYTimes.

The mass media plays up Calderon:
“Felipe Calderon, a conservative, U.S.-trained technocrat, edged out Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a fiery populist and former mayor of Mexico City. Given Mr. Lopez Obrador’s extravagant (and fanciful) promises to reshape Mexican society” WaPo.

Patronizing the children south of the border:
“That Mr. Calderon was declared the winner, albeit by a hair, suggests that many Mexicans are at least open to the idea that free trade, open markets and sound fiscal management will eventually pay dividends — even if the benefits of such policies to date have been spread unevenly.” WaPo. Horseshit!

The stakes are to high to concede.
“”His (Obrador) political stock would increase greatly for 2012″ if he found a way to concede defeat gracefully”, WaPo Bullshit!
What have we gained by conceding to Bush but giving the opposing party advantage and opportunity to increase their wealth and power. A recipe to hit the streets.

lotus: I love crabapples too. My mom could never get any of her other fruit trees to produce, but the crabapple she hated was loaded every year. :)

My grandmother used to make a crabapple wine which was so strong it could have doubled as paint thinner.

Oh what a great thread this is!

I have a question about raised beds. I have not done a raised bed yet, although I have a good spot for one, because I am not sure what lumber to use. I’m worried about treated lumber leaching it’s chemicals into the soil and then the vegetables I plant.
Any thoughts or recommendations for “sides” on my beds?

david e – 118 – kudos

Mike at 98:

Welcome from one new member to another and bring your sense of humor.

I love this blog and have noticed that many are well versed in film references. I’m a film buff, so I was wondering – could we do a film suggestion thread too?

And if it’s off topic – maybe we can make it about political films…

Oh Millinery man, what a great gadget. I love artichokes too. We were pretty poor growing up (but us kids never knew it). There were six kids and once in a while my Mom would pick up 2 articchokes. We’d each get about 10 leaves and a slice of the heart. I remember eating them and thinking to muyself….”as soon as I move out the first thing I’m gonna do is get my own artichoke! Thanks again for the head’s up on the rack! Perfect.

ccmak 83 – love frozen bluebs. Put them on your cereal in the morning with plain yogurt and a dollup of honey. MMmmmm good. Especially delicious when it’s 85 at 7 am, as it has been here these last few weeks. Too, i love the stuffed artichoke recipe. A friend’s grandma taught me 30 years ago and I amaze and delight people with it from time to time. I go heavy on the Parmesan.

We live on an acre and a half. We’ve tried several times to plant a veggie garden but the myriad critters with whom we inhabit these hills always ALWAYS get them first. I’ve tried planting one for me and one for them – heck, I planted one for me and 3 for them – but they take just one little bite out of the tomatoes just as they ripen. We’ve tried netting but they chew through with their tiny teeth. Rattlesnakes hung out under the zucchini umbrellas waiting for cherce meat. Short of a big ol’ covered fence which I don’t have the energy or the money to do, I’m stumped.

Gardened in containers this year. Something is stealing my green tomatoes. One day they’re there, the next – *poof*. Also, some have blossom rot (?) or something. The blossoms wither and die before setting fruit. What gives, anyone?

My Italian Nonni used to make these simple but heavenly green beans. She lived in San Francisco. There was a courtyard behind her flat which housed an enourmous grape arbor for my uncles homemade wine. Nonni planted green beans all around the fence outside the arbor and traded food, wine and homemade pasta with her neighbor who had a much larger garden. Ah, memories.

Parboil greenbeans.
Saute in olive oil and garlic to taste
salt, pepper, lemon juice

Yum.

weeder: Railroad ties?

PS 133, I dunno what it is about Greek cooking, but of all the great cuisines I’ve sampled (including my natal Country Southern), I do believe Greek would be the hardest for me to do without.

Here, let me share this nice omelette with you.

SPRING OMELETTE

1 1/2 cups spring onions, sliced
4 tablespoons butter
6 eggs, beaten
salt and pepper
chopped dill
chopped parsley

Cook onions in the butter until they are soft and begin to brown. Add dill, salt, pepper and the eggs. Cook over a low heat, lifting the mixture with a spatula as it cooks and tipping the frying pan so that the uncooked mixture runs under. When the bottom is browned and the mixture is thick throughout, fold in half or turn onto a plate and slip back into the pan to brown the other side. Sprinkle with parsley and serve immediately. Serves 4.

ccmask: An easier way to keep the birdies out is to put netting over the plants. You can usually get some fairly cheap at Walmart or JoAnne Fabric.

“I’ve never been able to stomach green beans out of a can “

Yes. Several food items are like this. Peaches? Peaches in a can taste like an entirely different fruit than fresh peaches. In Sacramento, there are many road-side stands, but the best I’ve found are the 7th Day Adventists. Their fruit and vegetables are great. Fresh, and never grown with additives and other crap. Entirely fresh.

mommybrain,

I have done a lot of tomato container gardening. I think the blossom rot might have something to do with having to water a pot so often. Another gardener told me that frequently watering flushes out all the good stuff in the soil, and the blossom rot might have to do with a lack of calcium. Maybe slow-release fertilizer or additional compost might help.

I missed the trolls–what in the heck is there to troll about….troll stew?

Artichoke Soup

Speaking of artichokes, you can simmer a few with onions, fennel and carrots and make a very tasty broth. I never measure when I make this.

The thing is, you have to seperate the hearts from the rest of the artichoke after 15-30 minutes depending on the size and the quanity you’re using. You can put the leaves back into the pot and simmer for another 20 minutes or so. Then you hve to let the leaves cool a bit, and squeeze the leaves by hand, or use a ricer to get the robust flavor of the artichoke.

Chop the hearts, saute them with some olive oil, garlic and lemon zest, add chopped tomatoes and simmer for about 15 minutes.

Add back to the broth and some wild rice, and you have a very tasty soup.

I have plenty of room now, but my gardening energy and time comes in spurts and it means that things tend to taken over. I recently heard an ad on the radio about a co/group? that was working with people who wanted to do small plot organic gardening. They would work with them on what to plant, how to qualify for certifications and they would handle the “to market” part.

What got my attention, though, was that they mentioned also putting the plots in on your land if you didn’t want to have the undertaking. With horses, liability and 3 big dogs that aren’t “pro-stranger” I usually don’t go overboard with having strangers come on and off my land, but I think I am going to talk to these guys if they are making it enough to stay around.

The only thing I have kept going at all is the aparagus, but right now most of it is in an asparagus bush phase.

For me, veggies fresh, or with olive oil and broiled, or with some spices, aluminum foil and grilled – that’s about it for recipes. Here in the midwest, we generally only do “American” veggies/fruits *g* but over the last few years, stores and produce stands have widened to include jicama. I didn’t know what to do with it, so I got this recipe. If you can call putting a platter together a recipe. ;-)

I’m not really sure if jicama is a fruit or a veggie or if it is good for you or not – but its nice and crunchy and I like it – so here’s a fruit & veggie plater with jicama and citrus dressing

1 tart apple
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1-2 cups jicama cut in strips
1 red bell pepper, roasted and cut into strips
3 oranges, peeled and sliced to release the flavor
1 cucumber, thinly sliced

Toss the apples in the lemon. I roast the bell pepper whole, then de-seed. You should rub the char off – but I like it so I don’t always. Arrange as you like, then drizzle with this dressing:

1/2 cup orange juice; juice of one lime, juice of 1 lemmon, 1/4 cup parsely, 1 tablespoon exra virgin olive oil, zest of 1 orange

Sometimes I add kiwi slices after.

railroad ties? Aren’t they full of oily chemically residue?

Here in Maine, I just about get my tomatos in before the first frost. Like another threader, I put the garden where it gets shade for a good part of the day. I love the idea of planting the tomatos in the front garden, after all this IS Maine.

Having grown up in Mainline Philadelphia where the most anyone plants is tomatoes in a discreet place, all this gardening inspiration is great.

I found when I moved to Maine that “garden” means “vegetable garden”…If the 80 year old woman up the road can plant a 1/2 acre of veggies, I guess I can venture beyond tomatoes. (Is that the right spelling, or have I become Dan Quayle?…better than Spiro I guess.)

ccmask at 143:

that’s a great personal story…. thank you for it, I have a very vivid image of your family and your mom…

I had very similar childhood and my mom would buy one tomato and then divide it…

When I was living in Miami in the ’80’s on Miami Beach, we had a fun and interesting community of urban pioneers. No really fresh vegetables – it was the beach! And this was the time of the earliest Miami Vice episodes and long before Versace and Madonna and the ultra-thin Eurotrash model invasion. There were a lot of French, Venezuelan, Argentinean, Cuban, and American artists and designers and hangerouters and some lawyers. :~) Luckily, besides the very Cuban influence and over-caffeination, there were some fabulous proto-Italian restaurants. A friend of mine was a chef at one and he gave me this recipe:

VODKA SAUCE

1 Stick Butter
Between 1 t and 1 T crushed red pepper (be careful and conservative!)
1 pint vodka
28 Oz Can of crushed tomatoes
1 cup cream
6-8 oz fresh parmesan cheese, finely shredded

In heavy saucepan or pot (Le Crueset works perfectly): sauté butter with pepper. Add vodka and sauté for 5 minutes. At tomato sauce and sauté at low heat for 7 minutes.
Turn off heat and let cool! Add cream (half and half can be substituted). Place back on heat and simmer for five minutes –
NO BOILING! (or the cream will curdle)
Stir in cheese letting it all combine and melt.

Serve immediately over either a seafood stuffed pasta (like Lobster pasta) or hearty pasta like penne or (my favorite orriechette)

It has a “must have another serving” quality. I sadly am off to work, sorry for the drive by recipe. Christy, this is still the greatest place to be every Saturday morning!!

Oh thanks, ccmask 135! Would love to come visit you. Hmm, Lake Placid … know I’ve heard of it, I just can’t place it. I’m over here at New Smyrna Beach.

Weeder @ 140 – Cedar or the new recycled plastic planks. Nothing chemically treated and definitely not RR ties. (sorry ccmask) the creosote will leach just like all other chemicals. Rocks and bricks will also work

the only troll here this morning was a LieberWhiner who was mad about Jane’s madcap dash … the poor baby is so exuberance-challenged !

Bob@65…I forgot to say….Jersey tomatoes are the best in the world! Whenever my relatives visit from PA, they pick up some Jersey tomatoes on the way.

You’re very welcome ccmask. We were on a tight budget also, and artichokes were always a very special treat.

It is a great gadget, and the day I found them I truly felt like I had found a piece of childhood again.

Thanks Gnome de Plume!

Also, just want to say I’m reading as fast as I can. Everyone has such great stories to tell today!

PA Lady: We tried the screening and like Mommybrain, they chewed through it. We had planted them on my girlfriends property because she was going to do it for a partial living thing when her husband took off. She was getting $80.00 a flat at times….but she had to sell the house. So there went our blueberries. My other friend, however has the large commercial grove. It is a lot nicer to get in your car, arrive at your friends farm, pick as much as you want, and go home clean. Really nice people….I pay them back in rollatini’s and lasagna dishes which I bring to their house.

weeder: I used untreated 4×4s for my beds because they were cheaper.

All of these rhapsodic comments, memories and recipes (thanks for the chocolate zucchini cake!) have me thinking Candide and Joni Mitchell were on to something elemental and wise: let us cultivate our gardens.

Thanks, Weeder. I am lax in that department, I must admit. In fact, I think I’ll go out and water and feed right now.

For you Jersey tomatoes fans, there is a brand that cans jersey tomatoes, Sclafani. You can order them online at http://www.donpepino.com

They are great people to deal with also.

Thx Pa Lady!

Whoa, Mary, that platter must be as terrific for the eyes as for the palate. Excellent spoonbread you shared with us, too, a couple of weeks back (another of my favorite treats).

ccmask: WOW! Those are ferocious birdies!

Yup, here I am. At the end of a thread trying to “ketchup”too . Hi Prairie Sunshine.

A thread posted by a fellow hillbil.., er, mountaineer – cool! my peppers and spices are doing great here in charleston, and the farmers market is open 6-7 days a week. gotta love this time of year!

pressure treated lumber is way bad, too — they use arsenic or mercury or other things like that to kill the wood eating bugs.

unfortunately, the chemicals also harm people — big lawsuits over playground equipment built with this stuff.

use ordinary lumber — cedar or redwood offer natural pest protection.

gnome: I thought railroad ties only got greasy when they were already used. Sorry guys!

lotus – platters are my lot in life. *g* It’s what I always get asked to do. I think people may be a bit afraid of my cooking, but they decide that surely it’s safe to just let me quarter and slice.

It is a lot of fun getting the flavor of life experiences people are bringing with their gardening and recipes. The sunflower house as something I had never heard of and sounds like such a great idea for kids.

Kalina: I like that idea. Some would argue that all films are political, whether they mean to be or not. Maybe a “suggestion box” button would be another good idea.

In the meantime, can I share a favorite blog with you all? It’s Swans’ Commentary at http://www.swans.com/ It is a strange and wonderful melange of stuff: fiction, poetry, analysis, from a point of view I’d have to describe as quasi-dreamy-left, or maybe not.

Here’s a sample which I found both funny and chilling, and not too obscure to grasp, especially with the reference to Bunnatine. it is a play by Hank Bunker entitled Lemon Head You’ll find it at http://www.swans.com/library/art12/hankb02.html

This summer the summer theatre at my university is producing Sam Shepherd’s newest play, God of Hell. I’m going to see if I can get them to do Lemon Head in the fall.

To barely qualify this post as on topic, here’s a recipe.

Coleslaw un parallelled.
1/3 coleslaw dressing,1/3 poppyseed dressing 1/3 honey dijon dressing…all of them fat free if you hunt them up.

The stuff…(shredded,all) cabbage (red and green) broccoli stems (not too old, test to see if they’re woody or not), bananas, seedless grapes (green, red, black, machts nicht, or all three) Mix em all up, Proportions to your own liking, let it sit a wee bit, and serve. Grilled Cheese Sandwiches make a good side dish (sic). I add a little dill to these. Swedes require dill in everything except ice cream, where it is optional.

Here’s a mystery maybe somebody here can help me crack. My Mississippi grandmother had a scuppernong* arbor and made the best scuppernong cobbler there could ever be.

I’ve tried to duplicate it, but somehow I can’t figure out how to get the hulls soft enough to be good eating. They still end up tough and bitter, unlike hers. Any suggestions? Scuppernongs will be in the stores again soon, and I’d like to try again.

*Bronze-skinned grapes with a wonderful tangy flavor, common in the South.

My dad never left me his recipe for his cold scungilli salad…anyone have a good one?

Swiss chard mentioned…My grandmother got her kids to eat spinach by calling it Swiss chard.

I served brussels sprouts to the kids once and refused to say what it was. After one taste, I said now you know what brussels sprouts taste like. Would have been better with real butter.

Wot’s so scary (to them) about your cooking, Mary?

Kalina: Maybe we are related:)

I’m going to try the artichoke soup for sure.

cc, maybe when lhp gets back, she’ll have scungilli ideas for you. Wish I could help, but I know nuffink.

Wild blueberries are the best…tame blueberries can’t compare. It looks like a hit & miss season in NE Minn this year (very dry spring). My husband has scoped out the ususal spots & not much there. Our freezer is nicely stocked with last year’s picking so we are not heartbroken. Our two 60# dogs love to go blueberry picking…they eat off the plants & at times it’s a contest as to who gets the biggest berries first, human or dog. Ardent blueberry pickers here would reveal their shameful family secrets sooner than the location of their favorite blueberry patches.
Bran Blueberry Muffins
1-1/4 C flour
1TB baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 TB sugar
1 C Kelloggs All-Bran Original
1C milk
1 egg
3 TB oil
Stir together flour, baking powder, salt, sugar
In separate small bowl mix cereal & milk-let sit for at least l minute to absorb
Add egg & oil-mix well
Combine with flour mixture
Add blueberries-how much is up to you-we love them loaded with berries. One son makes these using raspberries & blueberries. Nice taste combo, tart & sweet.
Butter 12 cup muffin tin
I love these sliced in half with butter pats & ice cold milk or coffee.
400 deg-22 to 25 minutes
I think people crave what I call “real food”. I see more choices in our local small town supermarkets, organic sections used to be non-existent not long ago, more farmers markets & expanding whole food coops.
It’s frightening to read about the gigantic corps dominating the food industry from produce (altered seeds, pesticides, mass produced tasteless veggies) to the meat producers (hormones, sardine-packed animal conditions, pollution run-off). I’ve also been reading about the dominion theology. In Stephanie Hendrick’s book, “Divine Destruction” she describes the partnership of anti-environmental forces (pro-industry movement “Wise Use”) & “christian” fundamentalists that believe that exhaustion of the environment will hasten the second coming of Christ. Then there are other christians who believe in being stewards of the earth vs plunderers.
OT-I had to laugh (in previous thread) Jane’s reaction to people telling her to “calm down”. It made me think of one of my favorite “Everybody Loves Raymond” episodes when bumbling, trying to be helpful (to himself) Ray bought Debra some PMS pills. Debra’s reaction was priceless.

Always have had an herb garden, in pots, even when we lived in apt. in NW DC [near National Cathedral]. Salad garden most years, with arugula, romaine, and red leaf lettuce, plus cukes, and cherry [supersweet 100s] and Brandywine tomatoes.

The big crop is basil, for pesto. Last year was a small crop, only 25 jars of pesto. Best ever yield was 52 jars. I use Marcella Hazan’s pesto recipe:

2 cloves garlic, peeled
2 c. lightly packed basil leaves [no stems, please]
1/2 c. olive oil
1/2 c. freshly grated parmesan cheese
2 T. pine nuts

1. In workbowl of food processor, chop garlic.
2. Add basil leaves, process with garlic to smooth paste.
3. Add olive oil and parmesan, process to smooth.
4. Add pine nuts, and pulse a few times to roughly chop nuts.
5. Pour into jars.

All of the recipes I’ve ever seen for pesto tell you not to add the cheese if you are planning to freeze the pesto. But for 20 years, I’ve added the cheese, popped the jars into my freezer [and my sister’s freezer, when I have more than I can store–her rental fee is paid in pesto!], and never had a problem.

Thank you, Marcella, and many thanks to my husband and sister, who pick the basil during harvest weekend every September. Every jar we open or give away is filled with summer’s bounty.

PA Lady: Maybe the racoons are the ones who ripped up the screening.

I always sit on my bed with my laptop on my wicker snack tray (which is great because I place the computey over the cup holder on the tray which allows the fan to stay cool). Anyway, last night I was getting ready to unplug when I looked out my sliding glass door and there was a rather large racoon just looking at me. Scared the heck out of me. They are always throwing my garbage around and can be very embarassing at times. I need to go buy a pail with locks on it I guess.

Lotus: I’m in Highlands, 1/2 hour from Okeechobee.

Gotta run! l8tr

This thread will stay open all weekend, if it’s like its predecessors, but there’s a new one upstairs too:

http://www.firedoglake.com/200…..ay-funnies

ccmask: Here’s one, from my Italian step-gramma. I’m told it’s good, but I don’t eat things that live in water, so I can’t swear to it.

Mildred’s Scungilli Salad

29 oz can scungilli
2 c. celery, sliced about 1/4″
1/4 c. Italian parsley, chopped
1 c. black, California olives, pitted and sliced
6 tbs extra-virgin olive oil
4 tbs lemon juice
1/2 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
salt to taste

Drain the scungili and clean by rinsing under cold water. Check for any cartilage. Slice the cleaned scungili thinly and lengthwise into bite-sized pieces.Toss scungili, celery, olives, garlic, amd pepper in a large bowl. Add oil, lemon juice, parsley, and toss.

Refrigerate for 30 minutes before serving.

Leslie, your son’s wedding is tonight?

Best wishes, let us know how everything went.
A toast to the happy bride and groom!

And thanks for your words of wisdom about my daughter
(the married one) who just said a 3,000 mile goodbye.

In my current life, I put food on the table and don’t follow recipes. But I remember a prize winning green grape tart from my former pastry career.

First make a lovely sweet pastry dough and press it into a baking sheet. Bake just until it starts to “golden” up. Mastering the Art French Cooking has a nice patisserie brisee recipe.

Next make a rich eggy cooked vanilla custard. Don’t be chintzy with the vanilla. When the crust cools, spoon the custard onto the crust and spread it to cover the pastry evenly and not much more than 1/4 deep. Eat the rest of the custard now or later.

Wash and halve the very best quality firm sweet green grapes. Distribute them over the custard in a pleasing manner,and chill slightly before serving.

If you are especially decadent, pour a creme caramel sauce over the top.

This should be eaten slowly.

chrissie hancocl – yes indeed, slowly. and be ready to get out your bigger jeans the next day. holy moly. sounds fab.

Back atcha Rene @8:43 am

Just back from a sultry stroll to Lindenwood with the spaniels. Lots of other dog-walkers out and about…altho it’s the dogs walking me. I swear Nova thinks she’s in Iditarod training every time we step out the door.

must retrieve the choc-zucc recipe….

I was raised in Michigan and as a kid my folks used to throw us in the car and drive for about 20 minutes to an open-air market that sold sweet corn and crenshaw melon. 30 years later, (and this is going to sound very knee-jerk, but…) when I fly from New York to Michigan in the summer and throw my nieces and nephews in the car, we can drive for 60 minutes on that same road where that market used to be–but we can never get past the endless row of cookie-cutter subdivisions, one after the other. And not an open air market, an ear of corn or melon in sight.

I am not anti-consumer culture in the sense of resenting that development. The upside of that development, believe it or not, is that the once all-Jewish, all white suburb of my childhood has become a relatively diverse area–a place where whites, blacks, asians, Muslims, Christians, and Jews all live together, work together and curse together in traffic jams.

But I do miss that open air market.

As a child, I never imagined that one day those trips to buy corn and melon would exist only as a memory. I suppose we never do.

Now, as an urbanized adult (or something approximating one), the thought of that corn and melon returns each Summer. And there is nothing in NYC that can quite fit the bill.

Who would have guessed that my little Jewish suburb in Michigan would someday turn into Winesburg Ohio? Not me.

Greetings everyone!

My third weekend in a row working, so alas, have only been able to lurk briefly. Just wanted to say how much I appreciate this place.

Here on the northern border, the early cultivated blueberries are just coming in, and the wild berries (which I probably tend just as much as my plants…have a approx. 10×20 patch and spreading each year) will be starting in 7-10 days. Black rasberries are “pink” today.
Put the netting on all last night.

Happy gardening to all.

I love growing the little cherry tomatoes. The problem is that the plants are right on the path to my car, so I’m always tempted to pluck one and munch it right there, so I never accumulate enough of them to make a salad.

chicago dyke @ wherever
Just finished your “Friends Don’t Let Friends Drink and Post” @ corrente…
http://www.correntewire.com/fr…..k_and_post
Terrific, warm, very funny.
BTW, that eggplant recipe is just wicked!

Every once in a while, I think about putting in a garden, but it never actually happens. Anyway, a veggie recipe for the collection:
Microwave artichoke (particularly good when you’re cooking for one):
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon vinegar
4 drops olive oil
1 medium artichoke

Combine water, vinegar, and olive oil in a 4 cup glass measuring cup. Trim sharp ends of artichoke leaves with kitchen shears, invert in the cup, and cover with wax paper. (Plastic wrap works too.) Microwave on full power for 4-6 minutes, or until barely tender.

You can melt some butter if you like to dip the leaves in. I happen to prefer mayonnaise — sort of a poor man’s Hollandaise, I guess. And now, of course, I’m hungry!

JayinVT, I just signed up with a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm for a 3 month ever-other-week delivery of a carton of organic fruits and veggies.

Picked up the first box on Wednesday: 6 avocados, cherries, raspberries, blueberries, oranges, leeks, green onions, romaine lettuce, baby spinach, cucumbers, carrots and a HUGE amount of baby zucchini and yellow and crookneck squashes – oh, and fresh garlic, all organic.

My own small garden, tucked away in various sunny corners of the yard, is poducing tomatoes, eggplant, Thai Dragon, Chile Arbol, and Jalapeno peppers, as well as a steady supply of chard, so I can cook up a ratatouille.

Here on the border of urban LA/Orange counties, the farm stands barely exist and the Farmers’ Markets are of varying quality. The CSA farms are south of here in the Pauma Valley of San Diego County.

If you like fresh produce and do not have the time or space to grow your own, investigate local CSA’s (just google). And you can usually take the kids and go weed and pick if you are interested. Plus, you will be supporting local sustainable organic family farms. How can you go wrong?

I get on these jags where I’m hooked on a couple of things and just go with it until I make myself sick and can’t look at them again for months. My current addictions are the following two VERY fast, easy and delicious meals (I’m a veggie…)

Thai Rice Paper Wraps: Just soak the wraps in warm water for a minute and roll them up with avocado, sprouts, tofu, diced carrots, basil) and dip in sweet chili sauce. !

And the other one is simple but divine: Vanilla yogurt with mango or white peaches and chopped almonds.

That’s all I’ve been eating lately. :)

Now back to read the thread and get some new ideas!

egregious -

When some dinner guests refused to taste her first course (steamed artichokes with homemade mayonnaise) a Tunisian friend said to me, “We never have this problem. We tell our children, ‘If you try something new, you get a wish!’”

Thank you all so much for your comments today. I think that the best part of the reading for me is the memory reminders of days gone by and memories that have been tucked away and forgotten for years. Today I have been reminded of several very long passed friends and relatives and experiences we shared together from my childhood on. My parents were very active gardners. I am so sorry that I didn’t take time to learn more from them. I do live in the woods so am short on sun. My flowers do very well but I haven’t tried veggies yet. I did try in my other house the same year I had my first litter of Airedale puppies and unfortunately the garden went to weeds. That was 1977 and I haven’t tried again – perhaps next year.

I have remembered picking blueberries in New Jersey with my Mom and her getting a terrible case of chiggers – boy do they itch. My Grandmother did canning and I hadn’t thought of her in a very long time. There are many more wonderful, long forgotten memories of so many wonderful people.

I value the high level of the discourse here and the content from the learned posters and commenters. Christie earlier mentioned learning from the poiple she represented. I taught school for 35 years and learned something from the kids every day. In my last years I was in the K-2 building and let me tell you those kindgardeners taught me as much as anyone else.

Thank you all for this wonderful gift.

lotus OT – the fact that they know I live on fast food (there is always at least one empty bag in my car it seems) and that I went for about 4-5 years without a stove when I bought my last house — I think those are mostly why the don’t trust my cooking. They would look at the stove shaped hole in the kitchen were a stove should be and shake their heads. Then the fact that there were times when you could open my refrigerator and find 3 year old jar of pickles, a loaf of bread, carrots for the horses and Reisling — and not much else.

OTOH, when I was in law school I made cookies all the time and people just stopped by for cookies all the time(esp married with kids on Saturdays). First year law school was the easiest breeziest time of my life. No job (since 16 I worked while I went to school), my two horses farmed out – just school. If I hadn’t been in Lexington I would have been bored out of my mind.

Wish I could share my perennial flowers with all of you. We’ve been slowly xeriscaping (low-water) our 1/3 acre yard for three years. This morning with the flowers, birds, trees, it was like being on vacation. Here in the arid west, we are cutting back on grass in our yards and turning to more native plants. Who knew it could be so lovely.

Since no-one has yet shared the DELISH broccoli and craisin salad,I will.

Broccoli Craisin Salad

4-5 broccoli heads cut in small pieces
1/2 red onion chopped
1 pkg Craisins (dried cranberries)
4-5 oz. sunflower seeds
1 1/2 cup Monterrey Jack cheese shredded
1 lb. bacon, crisp and crumbled
(for my vegetarian daughter I substitute a soy bacon product or leave bacon out altogether)

Dressing:
1 cup Mayo
1/3 to 1/2 cup sugar (to taste)
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
(best not to substitute another vinegar)

Mix dressing until sugar is dissolved. Toss together salad ingreadients and toss with dressing until coated. Refrigerate until serving.

Trust me, everyone will ask you for the recipe when you serve this.

PA Lady@188: Thanks for the scungilli recipe. Those ingredients look like the ones my dad probably used (I’m mixing the ingredients in my head amd imagining the taste). Thanks for sharing “**”

Christy, I misread your recipe as Crackpot Apple Butter.

And you know, that apple butter would go great with one of my personal favorites, Pork DeLay. (Step 1: Procure one well-fatted Republican…)

I have great memories of my grandmother and her fruit trees, (Santa Rosa plum, apricot, Babcock peach, orange and pomegranate) but this is my favorite of her quick garden veggie summer suppers – an easy and delicious way to serve up your summer veggie surplus:

A couple zucchini sliced in 1/2 pieces
A couple crook-neck sliced, same
A couple patty-pan (the little light green flying saucer-type squash) sliced
One large onion, chopped
A tomato (optional – I hate them!) chopped
As much garlic as you like, chopped fine (garlic powder works, too)
Grated cheese (Jack, Cheddar, Swiss … you choose – or combine)

Number of servings depend on size of squashes, and how hungry everyone is!

Heat a tablespoon or so of olive oil in a non-stick skillet big enough to hold the ingredients, but make sure you have a lid that fits to cover.

Saute onion on med-high heat until just soft, then add squashes, stir-frying to get some caramelization, but not over-cooking. Season with fresh ground pepper and salt, to taste. Add garlic and tomato, cook an additional minute to warm up tomato.

Spread grated cheese over entire mixture, remove from heat, and put lid on for a minute or so. The cheese will melt over the delicious mixture and make it so good, your kids will eat it up!

My lastest “eat-it-every-day” non-recipe is:

A couple of ripe tomatoes, chopped
A handful or so of cooked garbanzo beans (I use canned)
A little minced garlic
Chopped fresh parsley, green onion, and oregano or basil
A drizzle of good olive oil
A glug of red wine vinegar
Pepper

Now stir these things together and let them sit for a while at room temperature so the flavours get acquainted with each other – 20 minutes or so is fine.

When you are ready to eat, stir in some nice Greek feta, chopped up small, and some olives.

Here in Vermont we’ve had about 60 days of hard rain. It’s been tough on the farmers. They’ve tried to replant everything, but small farmers are up against it to begin with – the weather here is getting more and more strange. Last winter there was no snow. I live in a snow belt and we get multiple feet of it and relish every bit, well mainly; and this last year, a foot and a half, total – as compared to a few years past – 20 feet or more -.

We always grow many of our own veggies in the summer – I have vegetable garden that looks toward a sheep farm across the hollow then a small range of mountains. This year: only basics: tomatoes, basil, lettuce, pumpkins and hopefully I’ll get in some beans.

Actually, I’m looking to develop more and more self sufficiency. The woods are rich with voluptuous growth here. My son and I are teaching ourselves about food in the wild. His mission (he’s 11) is to find one edible food in the woods each season (yes, winter too) and collect enough to bring home for part of a meal. We’ve done fiddlehead ferns, dandlelion greens.

My neighbor told me this joke: Why do Vermonters lock their cars at night?

Answer: so people don’t stuff zucchini in them.

Christy (et al) – if you ever make your way up to Toronto, make sure you stop at the St. Lawrence Market at Front & Jarvis streets – just a few blocks east of Union Station.

The market has been at that location for more than 200 years (with the south market building being built in 1850).

Picked up some great veggies today (last day for asparagus season for the market). The weather was great and not too humid.

Mommybrain says:
July 8th, 2006 at 8:23 am

Tomatoes: If the flowers don’t set fruit, it might be the weather – tomato flowers don’t like it when it’s hot, over 90 to 100 during the day. Blossom-end rot is something that happens to the fruit; it’s caused by alternateing too much water with too little; usually it’s not a problem when the plants are in the ground, but it’s a pain with containers. (Been there, done that.)

Whatever happened to ‘June gloom’?

In the 1970s, farmers markets were dying away. In Massachusetts, we had less between 12 and 18 left in the whole state. Then the state and Federal governments, the farmers and the food coops, and regular folks who liked fresh vegetables and a local supply of food began to work together. Today there are over 100 farmers markets in Massachusetts and more than 3700 farmers markets happening every week throughout the local growing seasons around the USA.

This resurrection of the farmers markets is part of a local and organic food movement that is the most significant and deeply entrenched legacy of the hippies and the Whole Earth crowd and the foundation for a new economic system that we can build upon.

I have thought for years that one way to start building a solar economy is through the demonstration of simple solar devices at farmers markets around the country. I brought my Solar Survival Show to YearlyKos in order to promote that idea but doubt that I had much effect. Won’t stop me. Just saying.

There’s a lot you can do for promoting democracy by hanging around the farmers markets in your town. It’s an unmediated form of commerce and the market in its purest form.

If you’re interested in the idea of solar at farmers markets, you can see some of my ideas at http://solarray.blogspot.com

PS: I have a community garden plot too and my currants are falling off the bushes. The raspberries are just beginning and the pole beans are beginning to send out runners. Just today, I picked three alpine strawberries from a public planting near a city square. Alpine strawberries, the most flavorful strawberries you’ll ever taste.

This thread is such a pleasure to read. Last year I discovered lemon basil. At our farmers’ market, there’s different kinds, some familiar, some exotic, like Thai basil, purple basil, and lemon basil. Lemon basil in salad with an olive oil and vinegar or lemon juice dressing is heavenly.

Much of this post reminds me of my father and his penchant for roadside stands in the days before limited access highways. But the first sentence of the third paragraph reminded me of something else.

I know this is really way off the subject and really, really picky. Rinky dink in fact. First I have to say that I am a very big fan of Firedoglake and have recommended it to many people. Buzzflash, Atrios, Talkingpointsmemo, Dailykos (on weekdays Altercation) and FDL occupy between 4 and 5 hours of my day, everyday.

But. No one has a great uncle or for that matter a great aunt. One may have an uncle who is great or an aunt who is great, but, never, ever a great uncle or a great aunt. To have a great uncle, for example, one couldn’t have a grandfather. One would have to have a greatfather. One can have a granduncle and even a great granduncle and of course a great great granduncle, etc. But never a great uncle. The relationship is granduncle, as in the brother of your grandfather. Just as your father’s brother is your uncle.

IRT 116 Muzzy

This whole thread has made my mouth water. It amazes me how “farmer’s markets” have just declined and dwindled over the years. Detroit used to have a spectacular market in Eastern Market and now it’s only vibrant at holiday and peak times of the year. And I’ve been to a few cities that have them at random times during a month, but unless you’re “in the know,” you’re SOL.

I’m glad certain farmers can contract to retail grocery stores. I’m also glad I grow my own garden. But it’s sad that the area between mega farm and small, personal garden is disappearing. Maybe people should start having Winter Veggie Sale MArket where they sell their canned veggies. Hmmm… one case of botulism would probably kill that fundraiser, huh?