Actually, it’s not half bad. OK, so I killed my potatoes. But I planted new ones 
and bonus!: I might be able to avoid potato beetles because it’ll be a late crop! Continue reading
Thankfully, the garden isn’t a total flop
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Category Archives: food
Gardening update
Ok, so maybe these updates aren’t as interesting as Huppy’s are. But hell, he’s in the Caribbean and I am not. OF COURSE his are going to seem a bit more glamorous.
Though, one thing I know he’s NOT getting is fresh vegetables. So, the garden is doing OK. I’d give myself a B-.
Port of Spain, Trinidad June 4th – 9th, 2014
(Cross posted at Peter Marina’s blog)
The plane hopped and hopped from Antigua to St. Lucia, Barbados, and St. Vincent & the Grenadine Islands all the way down to Trinidad — the last island in the Leeward Islands so far south that it kisses Venezuela. Port of Spain, Trinidad’s capital, bursts with colors of every kind. The colors of the visualscapes coalesce with the soundscapes of the bustling city, a stone’s throw away from Venezuela. Walking down Charlotte Street between Park Street and Independence Square just East of Woodford Square where political subversives shout their speeches, one immediately notices the vibrant colors – skin colors from charcoal black to pasty white, hair textures ranging from straight, dead hair to radically alive afros, vegetables and fruits of every variety and color including bright reds, greens, blacks, purples, and yellows.
Art? Along the roadside? In the middle of dairy land? Really? Huh.
It’s Fermentation Fest in Reedsburg, Wisconsin. For 11 days, anything you want to know about fermentation, there’s a class (or lecture) for that. But it’s not just fermentation. There’s also ecology and art.
I know. Sounds weird. Ecology I’d expect, but art in Wisconsin? Whodda’ thunk it? But somebody did and their names are Donna and Jay. They’re from Chicago and they came out here about 20 years ago to farm, which seems sort of random to me, and I don’t know the whole story behind their decision, just that they did it and 20 years later, they’ve gotten grants and have made this wonderful thing that combines food, ecology and art.
It’s been an odd week
Wow. I haven’t posted for two whole weeks. Where has the time gone? Oh, right, I know. I’ve been on the move. Peter is staying behind in NOLA, teaching at UNO and starting his two major research projects and the stepson got his first, full-time summer job. After a rough year and an even rougher move, I just felt the need to mooch off family… in the North… where the temperatures are more reasonable. (Lagniappe is comfortably enjoying her stay at the Spa, a.k.a. my in-laws’ house on the North Shore.)
Read on….
NOLA is Time Consuming
Here I had hoped that NOLA would’ve been a lot more fun than it has been. It’s not that it’s not a fun town, but since it’s closer to home than I’ve been in a few months, real life has been rearing it’s ugly head; worrying about travel, work, finances, getting teen Huppy back to school (he’s a Junior this year!), Huppy finishing up his manuscript and preparing for a talk, it’s all been, {sigh} a little too mundane.
I was so hopeful our first night back.
One thing about San Cris I forgot to post
And it’s about Tamales.
This one’s for Pedro
The whole time my father-in-law was here, every time he’d pass a vendor that sold churros, he’d say “Oh, I love churros. But I cannot eat them any more. But boy are they good.”
Time to wax poetic about the freakin’ Mercado
How much do I love the Mercado? MY GAWD I can’t even tell you.
Instead of doing what I SHOULD be doing
I’m posting here.
I SHOULD be making some hard decisions about Huppy the Anarchist and print formats vs. web formats, but am I? No. Of course not. I’d rather talk about what it’s like to cook in a kitchen with a two-burner stove and only two small pans to work with.