It's time for county and state fairs. If you're lucky there is one near you. My favorite part of the fair is the chickens, especially the fancy ones with top-nots and fluffy feet.
Many fairs feature extreme vegetable contests. Eighteen pound carrots and 50 pound beets are wheeled in. But the ultimate sport in extreme vegetables is giant pumpkin growing. Pumpkineers are a class unto themselves. Technology, technique and seed hybridization are closely guarded secrets. All admit that luck plays a big role. In the last 20 years pumpkineering has grown from a casual hobby to obsession for the top growers. Standards have changed. "Heavy" used to be 400 pounds. Today the heavy-weights come in over 1,500 pounds slung with hoists and pulleys from the back of big trucks. Take a quick look on YouTube.
Why do I care? I love the competition - but more than that I love the demonstration of the power of photosynthesis. From seed to 3/4 ton in three months. This is a natural process. This is the essential building block of life on this earth. Go green!
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Who Should Help?
We are aware of natural disasters around the world. Television brings the flood waters into our kitchens. When the earth quakes in the United States, we are on the scene within hours, often seeing real-time video from cell phone cameras. People are rescued from rising water. The National Guard is on scene.
Until late in the 20th Century, the hard times brought by wind, rain and fire were endured locally without a TV reporter asking how it feels to lose your home. The chain of responsibility ran first through the private sector and then to local and state government. In the great Mississippi flood of 1927 President Coolidge was hesitant to make a federal commitment even when 30 feet of water covered land from Illinois to the Gulf of Mexico. One million were homeless. (Read a great book about this flood by John Barry, "The Rising Tide". Try, also "The Johnstown Flood", David McCullough's account of the 1889 flood in Pennsylvania.)
Today we have an elaborate hierarchy of response. First, emergency. Second, restore public services.These are clearly the functions of government and are one of the reasons we are willing to pay taxes. And then, after lives are saved and the immediate danger has passed the more complex challenge of compensation and restoration. It's not clear whose responsibility it is to hold our citizens harmless against the hazards of the weather. Some are helped and some are not. Some built in a flood plain, or out on the beach against the better judgment of others. Some buy insurance. Some do not. Some rebuild in the same place and are flooded out again. I am not sure who should help and even less sure who should pay.
Until late in the 20th Century, the hard times brought by wind, rain and fire were endured locally without a TV reporter asking how it feels to lose your home. The chain of responsibility ran first through the private sector and then to local and state government. In the great Mississippi flood of 1927 President Coolidge was hesitant to make a federal commitment even when 30 feet of water covered land from Illinois to the Gulf of Mexico. One million were homeless. (Read a great book about this flood by John Barry, "The Rising Tide". Try, also "The Johnstown Flood", David McCullough's account of the 1889 flood in Pennsylvania.)
Today we have an elaborate hierarchy of response. First, emergency. Second, restore public services.These are clearly the functions of government and are one of the reasons we are willing to pay taxes. And then, after lives are saved and the immediate danger has passed the more complex challenge of compensation and restoration. It's not clear whose responsibility it is to hold our citizens harmless against the hazards of the weather. Some are helped and some are not. Some built in a flood plain, or out on the beach against the better judgment of others. Some buy insurance. Some do not. Some rebuild in the same place and are flooded out again. I am not sure who should help and even less sure who should pay.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Rubus Fruticosus
The common blackberry. Yum. We are at the height of the season here in the Pacific Northwest. In fact, Oregon is the leading blackberry producer in the world. But you don't need to go to Oregon to find this fruit. Blackberries tolerate poor soil and will take over any vacant lot. Who hasn't pushed forward into a tangled mass of prickly vines to reach the ripe fruit? Who hasn't come home with a pail full and purple stained hands? Good to eat, and good for you, too. A handful of blackberries delivers 21% of recommended daily fiber, 25% of Vitamin K and a whopping 35% of Vitamin C. People have endured the sharp barbs, and put up with the purple stains for centuries. A woman whose well preserved body was found in a peat bog in Denmark had eaten blackberries for her last meal in the year 500 BC.
Try Blackberry Mush:
Boil fresh, washed blackberries with just enough water to get the boiling started. Cook only until tender (about 2 - 3 minutes). Put the fruit through a fine sieve or cheesecloth and squeeze as much pulp through as you can. Measure. This recipe calls for 2 cups of juice. Mix together in a small bowl 3 TBS cornstarch, 1/2 cup granulated sugar, pinch of salt. Add, slowly, stirring all the time, to the cooled juice. When thoroughly mixed in, cook over low heat, stirring all the time, until it thickens and boils. Boil one minute and pour into a serving dish. Chill and serve with thick cream, ice cream or sour cream..
The recipe is my mother's. She loved it and planned an annual visit to me at this time of year to pick blackberries. Mush is comfort food. I will make it and think of her.
Try Blackberry Mush:
Boil fresh, washed blackberries with just enough water to get the boiling started. Cook only until tender (about 2 - 3 minutes). Put the fruit through a fine sieve or cheesecloth and squeeze as much pulp through as you can. Measure. This recipe calls for 2 cups of juice. Mix together in a small bowl 3 TBS cornstarch, 1/2 cup granulated sugar, pinch of salt. Add, slowly, stirring all the time, to the cooled juice. When thoroughly mixed in, cook over low heat, stirring all the time, until it thickens and boils. Boil one minute and pour into a serving dish. Chill and serve with thick cream, ice cream or sour cream..
The recipe is my mother's. She loved it and planned an annual visit to me at this time of year to pick blackberries. Mush is comfort food. I will make it and think of her.
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