California and Bust

There's a great article in Vanity Fair this month on California's money woes, the economic issues in the US, and the tremendous problems we're facing as a nation.  It's always sad to see my former home state quicken its circling of the proverbial drain.


Vanity Fair Article - California and Bust

Here's one great quote from a well written article:

"The problem with police officers and firefighters isn’t a public-sector problem; it isn’t a problem with government; it’s a problem with the entire society. It’s what happened on Wall Street in the run-up to the subprime crisis. It’s a problem of people taking what they can, just because they can, without regard to the larger social consequences. It’s not just a coincidence that the debts of cities and states spun out of control at the same time as the debts of individual Americans. Alone in a dark room with a pile of money, Americans knew exactly what they wanted to do, from the top of the society to the bottom. They’d been conditioned to grab as much as they could, without thinking about the long-term consequences. Afterward, the people on Wall Street would privately bemoan the low morals of the American people who walked away from their subprime loans, and the American people would express outrage at the Wall Street people who paid themselves a fortune to design the bad loans."

Tomato Cage Update

In case you missed it or need to get caught up, you can read previous posts about my homemade tomato cages Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

These homemade tomato cages were an unbridled success, fully supporting the two plants (an Early Girl and a Polish Heirloom) with minimal training of the plants and effort on my part.  Both tomato plants are spilling out the tops of the cages, 6 feet plus in height and have produced an average crop with almost no fertilizing or attention from me.

The cages do make it slightly more difficult to harvest the tomatoes because you have to reach in between the small squares of the re-mash grid, but that's really the only downside. 

This is the other half of the tomato box, the Roma and Amish paste tomatoes, pretty much a complete mess.  I did stake these with the regular tomato cages (the only thing I had left) and the weight of the plants collapsed them in about a month.  This is the "do as I say, not as I do" mea culpa of our blog post today.

The lesson from the tomato caging this summer has been that I need to make a dozen or more re-mesh cages for all my tomatoes for next year.  They worked so well that I want to stake all of my tomatoes (eating, heirloom, Roma/paste, and cherry tomatoes) with this method next year.  Making new tomato cages will be a good fall/winter project for when the weather turns nasty and cold since I can work on this in the relative comfort of the garage.

A Weekend In Portland

Alycia and I spent the past weekend in Portland, Oregon, attending the wedding of our good friends Emma and Geoff.  It's always a great joy for me to reconnect with good friends who I haven't seen in a while and whose only downfall is a lack of proximity to North Dakota (which includes just about everyone).  We spent a lot of time chatting, recounting past glories, retelling the same old but still very funny anecdotes, and reveling in each others company. 

The weather was unseasonably warm for September, with mid to upper 80's until the last day when it returned to more Portland-esque breezy and showery.  We had great food and fantastic beverages the whole trip.  I also got to play some basketball with old friends, with kudos to the groom Geoff who actually organized a game the morning of his wedding, that's some dedication to the game.   

Instead of a wedding cake, they had tiny pies from a local bakery.  They were delicious.  And no one seemed to notice or mind that I snuck one into Alycia's purse in case I needed a midnight snack (I did). 

Our friends Geoff and Emma, who were very dashing and very lovely (respectively).

Your intrepid blogger and his piece of gluten free arm candy. 

Local San Diego Legend Passes

Outside of San Diego, few people have heard of him, but Jerry Schad was a San Diego institution.  Though I've never even met him, I feel like I know him through his writing.  I've got a dirty, dog-eared copy of his guide book "Afoot & Afield in San Diego County" somewhere, and I've thumbed through others copies a handful of times, in the library, from friends bookshelves, and even the house copy at the local coffee shop. 

Jerry wrote a column in the San Diego Reader (a local independent weekly magazine) that I'd read on occasion.  I was always struck by the power of his words to enthuse me to put on some walking shoes and explore the outdoors.  He was one small component that made the community a little bit cooler. 

You can read the article about Jerry in the San Diego Union Tribune.

Pickles on Parade!!!

OK I lied, the pickles aren't really on parade.  But my How to Make Bread and Butter Pickles post did get picked up by Associated Content/Yahoo media.  You can read it here:

Refrigerator Bread and Butter Pickles

Yay for pickles!!

Frost Warning

The locally respected Farmers Almanac says that the average first frost date for our neck of the woods - Grand Forks, North Dakota is September 27.  That isn't stopping Mother Nature from trying to send us freezing weather two weeks earlier than the average first frost date.  The weather forecast is for freezing weather tonight/Wednesday morning and possibly Wednesday night/Thursday morning.

We'll tuck in the tomatoes and peppers in a nice warm blanket overnight to make sure they stay warm and cozy.  It seems like it's too early in the season to be worrying about frost, heck it's not even officially autumn yet, but you can't argue with Mother Nature, she's gonna do what she's gonna do. 

Super Cuke

This is what happens when you're not super vigilant about harvesting your cucumbers every single day.  They can get unruly....

That's one big ass cucumber.

This particular variety of cucumber is the Armenian cucumber, and has a milder cucumber flavor with edible skin that doesn't need to be peeled. 

And The Tomato Spoke

I was returning with Shaak Ti from a squirrel chasing stroll through the park when I heard a barely audible voice from the garden, that said "Johnnnnnnn", it's barely audible voice trailing off.  It took me a minute of investigation but I found the source.  It was this little guy.

I got closer and heard the tomato say "John - make meeee into a Beeeee L Teeeeee".  Seeing as I had some bacon leftover in the fridge from our out of town visitor the previous weekend, I saw no impediment in obliging this little tomato's last wish.  And lo, it was delicious.  Thanks little tomato for the great idea.