Is it Art?

Is this art? It's a cucumber. At least, it was supposed to be a cucumber. It's rather like me: large arse, little on top. ;o)

Of course, it grew that way because it was an "extra" cucumber plant. Yes, it's true. I had more plants than I had room for. So I put this one in amongst the blueberries. Ack. Blueberries like acid soil. Cucumbers do not. I put some compost into the hole where I planted it, but plainly the po' thang didn't have enough nitrogen to grow properly.

And so, vegetable art. :) Oh wait, it won't keep, and my stomach doesn't care if it's misshapen. ;o)

With a little hummus dip, yum.

Viral What?

Viral marketing: a sales campaign that spreads like a virus. You know, like the Old Spice man. Of course, at least that's mildly entertaining. Elsewhere people desperate to make a buck use not just commercial, but social networks, to spread word of their products.

Mental image: a gaggle of privateers desperate for rumoured treasure, all circling the same few small, leaky boats, offering rescue to those who surrender something... their money, their identity... something of worth. No, not the leaky boat. They're not interested in you, they want what you have. I guess some people are so desperate to escape the leaky boat, bobbing wildly in the swell, they'll do what they must for rescue. They have to be surrendering, or why would the privateers keep circling? Which one will throw the first rope, and at what cost?

And who of all of them is noticing the approaching storm building on the horizon?

Ok, so now I feel like the dude in the white robe walkin' around with the "end of the world" sign.

Nah. Viral marketing has been going on for a long time, in modern terms. It was at the heart of the post war boom. Remember television? It was a newfangled invention then, and it was used to hawk everything from cigarettes and laundry soap to appliances and cars, all in the name of entertainment. It's what villified the dandelion and made suburbanites all want carpety green lawns. Keeping up with the Joneses, it was called. The media by which the viral message is sent has only become increasingly slick over time.

The gathering storm? Well, see, I can't help observing that approximately 85% of the people I encounter on Twitter, for instance, are really trying to sell me something. That's not scientific... just an approximation. I mean, ya never know, maybe some of the people who now seem to be just chatting amiably will suddenly shove something at me they want me to buy. It will be something I've just go to have. It will be a secret something, a special something, an old and wise something that's been re-evaluated and packaged all anew. It will be something I can't live without... like that rescue rope. It may even be available for "free" if I just give up my account password, bank account number or access to my soul.

I just don't see how this is sustainable. I mean, are these privateers buying from each other? Or are those of us bobbing in the swell, in our leaky boats, supposed to make them all rich on the little that we have? There are more of them than us, isn't there? How does this work? *sigh* I guess I'm terribly stupid, because I don't understand how they're going to accumulate wealth when the people using the social network to actually socialize are so few, comparitively speaking. Yeah, I must be missing something essential to getting rich quick, which probably explains why I'm so poor. ;op

This morning there was a pithy message from one of the privateers. It was a quote, 'cause pithy quotes are cool and they're free, like bait on a hook. It said: "Sanity may be madness, but the maddest of all is to see life as it is and not as it should be." Don Quixote

Ok, a question: what if I see both? What if I see the dirty little truth, but can still see infinite possibility, both at the same time?

Even as I ponder this, the same tweep's next message: "Use the incredible 1,300% of Twitter to claim your life-changing share of 9,490,000 of CB tranactions" [sic]

Ow. Talk about a bitter, jagged little pill. Clearly I'm missing something. Apparently I, alone, have attracted mostly viral marketing types to my tweets. I am to believe that I am sadly unique. *sigh* Another tweet: "Most of us can see the writing on the wall, we just assume it's addressed to someone else." Ivern Ball

Ow again.

Heh. Ok, so no thanks. I don't need anything. My leaky little boat is probably going to sink and I might drown, but clearly I'm quite mad anyway, quite unneeded in a sea of potential social network consumers, and if that isn't the case, I don't think too many of us stand a chance in that storm that's a-comin' anyway. You go, privateers! And good luck!

Garlic, Glorious Garlic

One of my Facebook friends recently shared the fact that beets are now considered the new "wonder" food... or "miracle" food... or whatever. Isn't that great? Well, ok, great news for those of you who like beets. But sorry, I'm just not gonna run right out and buy some. Although, Hubby likes 'em. Might buy a jar for him, already pickled. But, nope, not for me, thanks. ;o)

I told her, it's ok if I don't care for beets, because I do like ginger, and it was a miracle food before beets were, even though I suspect they've both been around for about the same amount of time in human history. But you know, it isn't officially miracle food until some researcher says so.

Even more important, I'm a big fan of garlic. I mean, garlic really is glorious. And healthy? Whoa! Garlic down through history has been reputed to fix everything from the common cold to the Bubonic Plague. We know for sure it's a natural antibiotic and that it's good for the cardiovascular system, most notably because it keeps that bad cholesterol down.

Nothing, ever, will surpass garlic for goodness and health benefits. I'm sure of it. So, no, I don't pickle beets. I do however, as I've shown in previous blogs, pickle dill cukes. And there is a piece of garlic in most of those bottles. (There'd be garlic in them all, but sometimes I forget to drop it in before I put the lid on.) Usually it's my own garlic in there. The only other garlic that comes through my door is either locally grown, or when I can't get that, I will buy U.S. grown garlic, in a pinch. But I try to either grow enough, or buy enough at market, to get me through the year. Problem is, I use a lot of garlic. It's in my hummus dip, spaghetti sauce, other pasta dishes, ratitoulles, sauces and dressings. I chop it coarse, chop it fine, roast it, grate it and crush it. I mean, it's garlic. It goes.

Garlic is ready to pick in mid to late July. Like... now. And above is one of mine. I just pulled them out of the ground... about 30 bulbs of ... yes, glorious home-grown garlic. :) Miracle food supreme.

Aaaa~Choooo!!

Oy, ragweed. It's not sneezy yet, but it's growin' healthy out in my yard, getting ready to bloom and start causing trouble.

Every year in late summer, the news talks about ragweed and the impact the pollen has on so many of us. But I have NEVER seen the photo crew actually find ragweed to show on TV. They film all kinds of natural weeds, often golden rod, which is rarely responsible for allergic reactions.

So here's what ragweed looks like:

Out of the center of this will grow a spike, and the spike will develop little yellow flowers, and those little flowers, in turn, will put out a pollen that could make you sneeze, and make your eyes irritated, etc. (We call it hay fever, but it ain't hay.)

This is the time of year to put on your hat, sunglasses and garden gloves, and go out and pluck out all you can find in your yard, before it blooms. You won't get all the root, so one sunny day about a year from now, you'll have to do the same thing. No big whoop, right? Do your pluckin' then enjoy a nice glass of iced tea and relax. By plucking it out before it flowers, you'll reduce the ill effects for your family. I know, I know... you'll still get sneezy from your neighbours' ragweed. But it's got to start somewhere, right? And getting rid of the ragweed closest to you will help.

Now, if you'll excuse me, my tea is brewing for homemade iced tea, hat on my head, garden gloves at the ready... I'm off to pluck ragweed. Mwahahahaha!

It's Picklin' Time!

As well as the local market on Saturdays, which I blogged about below, there's a larger flea market a few communities away, near the farm where we buy our organic chicken and bison burgers. It takes place on Thursdays and Sundays.
The difference between a farmers' market and a flea market is that the former has produce and food products, such as cheeses, meats, smoked fish and baking, etc., and plants, and not too much else. The flea market has all this, as well as t-shirts, socks, toys, books, records, (yes.. not a brain fart.. RECORDS), collectibles, jewellery and more. This larger market is usually the first to have dill cukes. So while my daughter perused the clothing and music stands, I went 'round to all the produce stalls to check out the wee cukes.

We got there a bit late, and there was a storm being called for, so vendors were already packing up. For me, that was a good thing, because produce vendors don't generally want to take their products home again. I picked up some bargains, including 3 baskets of lovely looking dill cukes.

So, today I shall make dills. It's hot and humid out, so working over hot brine is going to be a drippy experience. But if you don't work up a good sweat making pickles, you ain't doin' something right. ;o)

Picklin' time!!

How My Garden Grows

Ok, just a little taste because what comes fresh out of the garden tastes so good.

I needed a potato. Hmmmm... all out. Should I go to the store or the local stand and get some? No.... wait.... if the local stand has some already, then..... I wonder.

I wandered down the yard . A couple of the potato plants were kind of in the way of the dill cuke plant. I picked on those. Here's what I found.

One plant out of the way of the dill cukes.



Two potato plants out of the way.... and there's a couple more potatoes there yet. Found 'em after I took this picture. This is where french fries come from, kids!

One potato, two potato, three potato, four.... Are all the potatoes ready?


See those little dibs on there? They would have grown bigger, so I'm just going to leave the rest of the potatoes alone. I've got enough for now... I'll pick as I need them.

So, what else is ready? Well the garlic is... I'll get all of that out of the garden tomorrow and do it up ready for pickling season. How 'bout the tomatoes?

Unless you want fried green tomatoes, those have got a ways to go yet.

The zucchini squash is about the size of a man's finger. There are peas on the pea plants and flowers still on the bean plants. Mmmmmm.... food. It's all comin' along. :)

Lavendar Biscuits...

..sort of. Ok, here's what I did. Using my fave biscuit recipe as a guide, I combined some bean flour, sourghum flour and almond flour. I added a tbsp. of brown sugar, baking powder, and just a tiddle of salt. I used vegetable shortening for the fat needed. Now I can't have dairy, so no milk. My lavendar is fully in bloom and I've been wanting to cook with some, so I went for it. I put in about a tbsp. of the fresh flowers, and for the liquid, I made a light tisane using just a few lavendar leaves. I didn't want to handle the dough too much, so I mixed it and spooned it into muffin tins and put them in the oven.

Now, I'm not giving you the exact recipe because it didn't work. It was by no means my most spectacular failure in the kitchen. The biscuits would almost need to go boom to get there. But it's back to the proverbial drawing board.




They just didn't rise. Now, I didn't use creme of tartar because I don't know for sure if it's gluten free. I must look into that. (I don't actually know what the stuff is. I mean, it isn't creamy, is it? How can a powder even be called "creme?") And I didn't add soda. Thinking now I should have.

So my biscuits were too well cooked on the outside and not cooked enough on the inside... typical of no rising power. However, they were actually kind of tasty anyway and I ate two of 'em for lunch. I probably won't eat all the rest, but I'm not just discarding them all at least.

The other correction I'll make is to add more lavendar. I think I was a little afraid of it, because if you use too much, you can wind up with food that tastes like perfume and is bitter. But with the almond in there especially, there just wasn't enough lavendar. Next time I'll add more flowers and make a stronger tisane.

Onward!