[Homestead] Homestead Digest, Vol 44, Issue 20

Linda EMTER intuitlinda at msn.com
Sun Mar 9 13:25:40 EDT 2008


Thanks to *all of you* for being so kind.  Linda
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: homestead-request at lists.ibiblio.org<mailto:homestead-request at lists.ibiblio.org> 
  To: homestead at lists.ibiblio.org<mailto:homestead at lists.ibiblio.org> 
  Sent: Sunday, March 09, 2008 7:39 AM
  Subject: Homestead Digest, Vol 44, Issue 20


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  Today's Topics:

     1. Re: Asparagus (paxamicus at earthlink.net<mailto:paxamicus at earthlink.net>)
     2. Re: Tvo (paxamicus at earthlink.net<mailto:paxamicus at earthlink.net>)
     3. Re: Who knows?  Only time. (paxamicus at earthlink.net<mailto:paxamicus at earthlink.net>)
     4. Re: Selling lambs for meat (paxamicus at earthlink.net<mailto:paxamicus at earthlink.net>)
     5. Re: Who knows?  Only time. (Clansgian at wmconnect.com<mailto:Clansgian at wmconnect.com>)
     6. Re: Who knows?  Only time. (paxamicus at earthlink.net<mailto:paxamicus at earthlink.net>)
     7. Re: Who knows?  Only time. (Gene GeRue)
     8. Re: Who knows?  Only time. (Clansgian at wmconnect.com<mailto:Clansgian at wmconnect.com>)
     9. Re: Asparagus (Lisa K.V. Perry)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------

  Message: 1
  Date: Sun, 9 Mar 2008 08:56:34 -0400
  From: paxamicus at earthlink.net<mailto:paxamicus at earthlink.net>
  Subject: Re: [Homestead] Asparagus
  To: homestead at lists.ibiblio.org<mailto:homestead at lists.ibiblio.org>
  Message-ID: <BF8667F5-3CEE-4D29-93D9-1FEF7B8F72CE at earthlink.net<mailto:BF8667F5-3CEE-4D29-93D9-1FEF7B8F72CE at earthlink.net>>
  Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes

  My husband has taught me "the only acceptable way to eat corn". You  
  have to have the pot of water boiling before you go out out the  
  garden, you pick one ear, you shuck it as you RUN back to the kitchen,  
  boil it for exactly three minutes, and then eat, slathered with  
  butter.  . ;-D He makes me laugh.

  When I introduced to the lusciousness that is roasted corn with  
  flavoured butters I think he lost his head altogether for a little  
  while. You've done that, right? Thrown them right next to whatever  
  you're grilling and turn regularly until the husk goes black. Or even  
  better, just wait till the fire has gone down and push them right into  
  the coals. Yum.

  What I really want are fresh blueberries picked right off the bushes  
  and eaten till my lips are purple.

  *ahem* Pics of grand babies?


  On Mar 8, 2008, at 11:41 PM, EarthNSky wrote:

  > It's hard for me to actually get enough to the house to make a recipe.
  > I usually eat half of it raw on the way back to the kitchen. :)
  > I'm the same way with okra...love it raw!
  >
  > Bev
  >
  >


  ------------------------------

  Message: 2
  Date: Sun, 9 Mar 2008 09:03:57 -0400
  From: paxamicus at earthlink.net<mailto:paxamicus at earthlink.net>
  Subject: Re: [Homestead] Tvo
  To: homestead at lists.ibiblio.org<mailto:homestead at lists.ibiblio.org>
  Message-ID: <401210BD-1DFC-44EA-B1B7-78200D77C2B5 at earthlink.net<mailto:401210BD-1DFC-44EA-B1B7-78200D77C2B5 at earthlink.net>>
  Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes


  Dear Linda,

  I am sorry for your loss. I am glad you are strong and brave. Thanks  
  for coming back.




  On Mar 8, 2008, at 12:23 AM, Linda EMTER wrote:

  > I haven't written to the list since TVO passed away. It makes me  
  > happy to be thinking of him again. (gene; Lisa) He was a very  
  > special person, he was. Intelligent doesn't seem the right word for  
  > him. I'll have to give it some  thought. The year that TVO passed,  
  > was the same year that my husband took his life. He was a brilliant  
  > man too----maybe too brilliant. He couldn't stand living on this war  
  > torn earth any longer. He was only 52, but he & Tvo has a lot in  
  > common.
  >
  > Thanks for writing about Tvo once again.
  >
  >
  > Linda in Ridgefield, WA
  >



  ------------------------------

  Message: 3
  Date: Sun, 9 Mar 2008 09:10:36 -0400
  From: paxamicus at earthlink.net<mailto:paxamicus at earthlink.net>
  Subject: Re: [Homestead] Who knows?  Only time.
  To: homestead at lists.ibiblio.org<mailto:homestead at lists.ibiblio.org>
  Message-ID: <006E3536-AAD8-4FE6-B7C8-1EEE413AEBBF at earthlink.net<mailto:006E3536-AAD8-4FE6-B7C8-1EEE413AEBBF at earthlink.net>>
  Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes

  >


  Have you read any of Barbara Kingsolver's stuff? You might be  
  interested, she's local to you. She splits her time between Arizona  
  and sw VA.

  Not the fiction (although I like it), the non-fiction stuff.  I am  
  thinking of <i>"Animal, Vegetable, Miracle"</i> in particular.

  Quote from her web site below:

  > Bestselling author Barbara Kingsolver returns with her first  
  > nonfiction narrative that will open your eyes in a hundred new ways  
  > to an old truth: You are what you eat.
  >
  > "As the U.S. population made an unprecedented mad dash for the Sun  
  > Belt, one carload of us paddled against the tide, heading for the  
  > Promised Land where water falls from the sky and green stuff grows  
  > all around. We were about to begin the adventure of realigning our  
  > lives with our food chain.
  >
  > "Naturally, our first stop was to buy junk food and fossil  
  > fuel. . . ."
  >
  > Hang on for the ride: With characteristic poetry and pluck, Barbara  
  > Kingsolver and her family sweep readers along on their journey away  
  > from the industrial-food pipeline to a rural life in which they vow  
  > to buy only food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it  
  > themselves, or learn to live without it. Their good-humored search  
  > yields surprising discoveries about turkey sex life and overly  
  > zealous zucchini plants, en route to a food culture that's better  
  > for the neighborhood and also better on the table. Part memoir, part  
  > journalistic investigation, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle makes a  
  > passionate case for putting the kitchen back at the center of family  
  > life and diversified farms at the center of the American diet.


  Gene said:

  >
  > I have always been impressed by how many Ozarkers, possessing ample
  > land, fail to put in the simplest garden. Those who do often only grow
  > tomatoes and sweet corn.
  >
  > I was happy to see this morning in the Arizona Republic on-line news a
  > story about home gardens. A sign of growing knowledge and conditions:
  >
  > http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0308garden08a1.html<http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0308garden08a1.html>
  >


  ------------------------------

  Message: 4
  Date: Sun, 9 Mar 2008 09:19:52 -0400
  From: paxamicus at earthlink.net<mailto:paxamicus at earthlink.net>
  Subject: Re: [Homestead] Selling lambs for meat
  To: homestead at lists.ibiblio.org<mailto:homestead at lists.ibiblio.org>
  Message-ID: <D9F80689-D9C5-4062-95E5-32F1C47D1464 at earthlink.net<mailto:D9F80689-D9C5-4062-95E5-32F1C47D1464 at earthlink.net>>
  Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes

  I don't know where you are, Lynda, but I urge you to take a good luck  
  at what other locals are farming.

  I was all about having wool sheep until I experiemented and found I  
  really couldn't use them in the summer, they got heat stressed easily.
  If you are in the South, the Icelandics might have a tough time.

  I'd love to be running nothing but Corriedales, because I think they  
  are the cutest things ever, but I was reluctant to deal with them here  
  in Virginia. Just too much maintenance for me.

  Cheers



  On Mar 8, 2008, at 7:13 PM, Lynda wrote:

  > Do you use Photobucket or anything like that?  Do you have pictures  
  > of them?
  >
  > Youngest has her 3 acre section set up and we're about to string high
  > tensile wire and set up a hotbox and then she's going sheep  
  > shopping.  (Try
  > saying that fast a few times <g>).
  >
  > Lynda


  ------------------------------

  Message: 5
  Date: Sun, 9 Mar 2008 10:01:26 EDT
  From: Clansgian at wmconnect.com<mailto:Clansgian at wmconnect.com>
  Subject: Re: [Homestead] Who knows?  Only time.
  To: homestead at lists.ibiblio.org<mailto:homestead at lists.ibiblio.org>
  Message-ID: <c06.2e30fd60.350547b6 at wmconnect.com<mailto:c06.2e30fd60.350547b6 at wmconnect.com>>
  Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"



  > >Have you read any of Barbara Kingsolver's stuff? 

  Kingslover's Virginia location is Abingdon, twenty miles from here.  Her 
  husband is a prof at Emory, another twenty miles north of there.

  The book is very good, but like so many imported people, Kingsolver was too 
  impressed witht he local grant supported "sustainable" (not!) outfit run by 
  professional grant-mongers.

  Recall that she said they had to rely on strawberry jam during the winter 
  because there was no local fruit available.  Pshaw!  If she had just stopped at 
  the Po' Boy produce stand on Main Street no less, she'd have found bushels of 
  locally grown apples al winter long.  And cheap too, 39 cents a pound.

  At best a non-local is only going to know  just so much about eating local.

  James   </HTML>


  ------------------------------

  Message: 6
  Date: Sun, 9 Mar 2008 10:22:03 -0400
  From: paxamicus at earthlink.net<mailto:paxamicus at earthlink.net>
  Subject: Re: [Homestead] Who knows?  Only time.
  To: homestead at lists.ibiblio.org<mailto:homestead at lists.ibiblio.org>
  Message-ID: <E7A81AD0-68C3-41F1-9A47-CFF938362D86 at earthlink.net<mailto:E7A81AD0-68C3-41F1-9A47-CFF938362D86 at earthlink.net>>
  Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes

  I agree, but I like that's she's putting it out there. Given her  
  pretty popular fiction, somebody picking it up accidentally might have  
  their mind blown, in a good way.

  Gene is well past needing something like this but I brought it to his  
  attention because it's a people grabber.


  On Mar 9, 2008, at 10:01 AM, Clansgian at wmconnect.com<mailto:Clansgian at wmconnect.com> wrote:

  >
  >
  >>> Have you read any of Barbara Kingsolver's stuff?
  >
  > Kingslover's Virginia location is Abingdon, twenty miles from here.   
  > Her
  > husband is a prof at Emory, another twenty miles north of there.
  >
  > The book is very good, but like so many imported people, Kingsolver  
  > was too
  > impressed witht he local grant supported "sustainable" (not!) outfit  
  > run by
  > professional grant-mongers.
  >
  > Recall that she said they had to rely on strawberry jam during the  
  > winter
  > because there was no local fruit available.  Pshaw!  If she had just  
  > stopped at
  > the Po' Boy produce stand on Main Street no less, she'd have found  
  > bushels of
  > locally grown apples al winter long.  And cheap too, 39 cents a pound.
  >
  > At best a non-local is only going to know  just so much about eating  
  > local.
  >
  > James   </HTML>
  > _______________________________________________
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  > View the archives at:
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  >
  >



  ------------------------------

  Message: 7
  Date: Sun, 9 Mar 2008 07:44:12 -0700
  From: Gene GeRue <genegerue at ruralize.com<mailto:genegerue at ruralize.com>>
  Subject: Re: [Homestead] Who knows?  Only time.
  To: homestead at lists.ibiblio.org<mailto:homestead at lists.ibiblio.org>
  Message-ID: <E66AB79C-C404-4E7B-B99D-4D038C68A823 at ruralize.com<mailto:E66AB79C-C404-4E7B-B99D-4D038C68A823 at ruralize.com>>
  Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes


  On Mar 9, 2008, at 7:22 AM, paxamicus at earthlink.net<mailto:paxamicus at earthlink.net> wrote:

  > Gene is well past needing something like this but I brought it to his
  > attention because it's a people grabber.

  Barbara Kingsolver is a good writer. I've read some of her shorter  
  writings but none of her books.

  She may not be authentic enough for a James--who is?--but any  
  motivation she and others can create toward food sustainability is  
  worthwhile.


  ------------------------------

  Message: 8
  Date: Sun, 9 Mar 2008 11:22:28 EDT
  From: Clansgian at wmconnect.com<mailto:Clansgian at wmconnect.com>
  Subject: Re: [Homestead] Who knows?  Only time.
  To: homestead at lists.ibiblio.org<mailto:homestead at lists.ibiblio.org>
  Message-ID: <c15.c562db8.35055ab4 at wmconnect.com<mailto:c15.c562db8.35055ab4 at wmconnectcom>>
  Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

  In a message dated 3/9/2008 9:44:58 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
  genegerue at ruralize.com<mailto:genegerue at ruralize.com> writes:


  > Barbara Kingsolver is a good writer. I've read some of her shorter  
  > writings but none of her books.
  > 


  I most highly recommend "Poisonwood Bible".  But here's the irony.  In that 
  novel she points out how a person cannot go into a culture with which they are 
  not familiar, assume it is lacking or wanting in some way, and improve it.  
  Yet ... yet, that's exactly what she herself has done in 'Animal, Vegetable, 
  Miracle".  She's not aware of it, but that's exactly what she's done.

  > She may not be authentic enough for a James--who is?--but any  
  > motivation she and others can create toward food sustainability is  
  > worthwhile.

  I own that I am on the lunatic fringe of things.  Hey, somebody's got to do 
  it.  And of course I agree with you both that the good Kingsolver does with 
  this book far, far outweighs any criticisms I have.  But for me it was so 
  insightful.  Do you recall reading the part where she describes the people at the 
  farmer's market but does not mention them by name.  Perhaps this is a testimonial 
  to her writing skills but Herself and I would look up from this or that 
  passage and say "Hey, that's Joe she's talking about, or that's the McRoy family!"  
  We know them personally.

  Now those people ARE local, their families came over on the ark!  But the 
  one's she mentions are caught up in the Appalachain Sustainable Development which 
  by and large supports a gaggle of imported Yankee gentleman farmer esquire 
  types.  The direcor, Anthony Flaccavento, is such a Yankee that he pronounces 
  the name of his outfint Appalayshun (cringe) rather then the correct 
  Apple-at-'chan'.  It is simply a device to siphon off ARC (Appalachian Regional 
  Commission) money designed for the economic advancement of the (largely ficticious) 
  poor of the region and put it in the pocket of opportunist Yankees who grow 
  designer vegetables to ship north to other Yankees.  And line Anthony's pocket.

  What impressed me the most is how Barbara Kingslover, here in the cornucopia 
  of local foods, was blind to almost all of it.  She apparently never noticed 
  the sign in a front yard on Randolph street that says "Cabbages 50 cents/lb" 
  and is there all winter and has been for decades.  Second only to my own 
  cabbages, I might add.  Or the permanent sign on Weaver Pike that says "Turnips - 
  Cressy Greens" and sells them almost all year.  No mention of old Mendo who parks 
  his truck under the underpass near there and sells honey, 'lasses, and 
  berries half the year.  Nor did I read about the two restored grist mills that sell 
  cornmeal grown locally, the Abingdon local who sells eggs directly, the 
  various farmers who sell pigs much as we talked aobut in the lamb meat thread or my 
  buddy Charlie who does the same with beef cattle.  You buy a cut, or a quarter 
  or a cow, and you show up at the butcher at Rural Retreat (30 miles north of 
  Abingdon) and pick up the locally grown meat.

  And of course the many local produce stands each run by a farming family.  
  They supply bananas, oragnes, and such to be sure, but anything they CAN grow 
  and sell directly, the do.  It's cheap and of the very best quality.

  So my critique (rather then criticism, perhaps) of the book, is here is 
  Kingsolver in the middle of place where you could genuinely eat locally year round 
  from the most magnificient fare, and yet she's not even aware of 95% of it and 
  rather gravitates to one of the most smarmy grant-grabbing outfits to ever 
  encumber a place.

  Both lessons then.  Kingsolver has done much to point the way, AND illustrate 
  how, as far as local matters are concerned,  in SW Virginia one should 
  consult those hewed from the very rocks rather than imported Yankees.

  James (the Unreconstructed)   </HTML>


  ------------------------------

  Message: 9
  Date: Sun, 9 Mar 2008 11:38:11 -0400
  From: "Lisa K.V. Perry" <lisakvperry at gmail.com<mailto:lisakvperry at gmail.com>>
  Subject: Re: [Homestead] Asparagus
  To: homestead at lists.ibiblio.org<mailto:homestead at lists.ibiblio.org>
  Message-ID:
  <a37e31f0803090838r433f8f95o2678fd7a5cb7d3b8 at mail.gmail.com<mailto:a37e31f0803090838r433f8f95o2678fd7a5cb7d3b8 at mail.gmail.com>>
  Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

  I'm so excited for asparagus after reading how you fry it. I don't know if
  ours will make it to fried, but maybe.

  We have never grown corn. I know. Don't say it. I'm not the best gardener
  but I'm not giving up.

  On Sun, Mar 9, 2008 at 8:56 AM, <paxamicus at earthlink.net<mailto:paxamicus at earthlink.net>> wrote:

  >
  > What I really want are fresh blueberries picked right off the bushes
  > and eaten till my lips are purple.


  We pick for 2 1/2 to three weeks straight from mid-June or so until about
  the 4th of July. We didn't get any fruit last year (no blueberries,
  raspberries, peaches, apples, pears) due to the East Coast 5-day Freeze. It
  was *sad*. The good news is that we had enough from '05 & '06 that we're
  just starting to run low on blueberries. This year we are ready. I am eager
  to make jam, pie filling and wine.

  Lisa


  ------------------------------

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  End of Homestead Digest, Vol 44, Issue 20
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