randed in the Bankok airport.
Here's a shot of some of Ron's broccoli.
A few weeks ago McRorie gardeners got together and buit a compost bin. Nice!
These greens are from Genie and David's patch.
This is my patch. You can see all the collard greens.
The urban mandalas were taken down when the fence was replaced. This is one I particularly like.
I spotted a couple of loofah's in the compost heap. Bruce grew them and I actually ate one when it was small. They taste just like zucchini when they're small. This picture shows how they dry and turn into sponges.
Here's Rachel's patch. Go to her page and see how it looked a couple of months ago if you're interested.
This is one of my favorite shots. I ran into Jon Trunk (hi, Jon!) and he explained that he and Blake had planted this patch with some leftover seeds and manure. It's a beaut, isn't it?
Here's another shot of my collard greens. They are a staple from my patch. Thanks, Shmal! (I inherited my patch from Shmal).
These are tomatoes in Ron's patch.
Mary gave me these bok choy as sprouts. She gave me 6 bok choy and 6 mesclun sprouts. About 4 bok choy survived and one or two mesclun remain. I was so happy to see them thriving! I've been away for Thanksgiving.
This is my prize daikon radish. It's going strong. I love it!
This is the view from the top of the daikon radish. I can't wait to do some cooking with the root.
Here are some more tomatoes around the perimeter of the garden. They are actually doing pretty well considering we've had 4 freezes this Fall.
How's your Fall garden doing? Full moon tomorrow night 1639 UT! And, the Geminids meteor shower begins Saturday.…
l Sweet Pepper from Seeds of Change that I bought at local Ward's Grocery.
So, tonight Ron Chandler and I talked and tended our gardens. Ron gave me some tarragon he said was great with eggs. He puts some oil in a pan and enough tarragon leaves to cradle the eggs. Then, he puts peppers and whatever else, like cheese on top of the eggs. I bought some cage-free eggs the other day to make omeletts with using the peppers Ron gave me. The sad thing is I read the carton and discovered that the eggs have 200mg cholesterol each. The daily recommendation is 300 mg cholesterol. So, I'll have a small omelette manana.
Ron also described his special mango jalapeno salsa again. If you noticed, he blogged about it. We also did a mini-doc video about it. Basicaly, Ron takes mangos, peppers from the garden, basil, garlic, red onion, and pot luck to make this salsa. He says he likes either blue chips or Triscuts with the salsa.
Tip from Ron: he said he puts the herbs in baggies and freezes what he can't use right away.
Ron and I also talked about his work with Asian Elephants and the NGO he founded, The Conservation Initiative for the Asian Elephant, (CIFAE). I created a discussion here so you can read more about it. Fascinating and admirable.
I met Yvonne Ayala-McLellan and Jordan McLellan tonight. We talked about a book she admires called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (P.S.) among other things. Yvonne also recommended I check out The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. And, we talked about the consumer habits of omnivores locally. She shops at Rosas Farms. More about that later.
Yvonne identified a plant we've been admiring as Sorrel. She said Michael had pointed it out originally.
Michael of Edible Plants. He grows lots of African varieties. I remember sorrel being popular in Senegal. The Senegalese love sorrel and hibiscus tea.
Stay tuned!…
ad my own shopping adventure. I needed a new battery for Fred the Bed Van, my '85 Westy, and loaded up the 53 pound dead one on my Dawes Galaxy. Check out the commute: it's tracked using arguably one of the coolest iPhone apps, Every Trail. http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=984149
It was with some fear and trepidation I took off on the trusty Dawes with that 53 pound battery on the rack. You can feel the frame flex under the weight when you carry that sort of load. Bike and rider made the trip safely!
My dad is 91 and never hesitates to kid me about gym memberships. He says he prefers to get his cardio out in the yard. You get the hint! Thanks, Duzer, for the video and inspiration. Now, what kind of trailer is Duzer using?
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I was driving my VW van, my seven year old son, Miguel, in the back, as our small, slow moving caravan of school bus, VW beetle and truck, labored up the dusty,…
exas, New Mexico, Louisiana, and Colorado (to name just a few places) that its impossible to ignore them. You just get involved to one degree or another.
So, being around the peppers in the McRorie Community Garden is a real delight. And, it's a trip down memory lane. Those peppers in the photo above are probably Blake's. Some plots have changed hands recently, so I'm not sure. I know Blake's grown peppers in this patch before, so they're probably his prizewinners.
I looked for a photo of Blake in the collection of Human Beans on the Zoobird blog I started before Zoobird proper, but couldn't find one. (Later...) Here's Blake, below:
The last time I saw Blake was a momentous occasion...
I just looked for the photos of the "momentous occasion". I couldn't find them, either. I'm kind of rushing here, because...well, places to go and people to see. I don't want this to take all day. So, I'll have to rely on my razor sharp powers of description with the written word to tell you all about these peppers, the momentous occasion, and digress a bit to say that the photo above is all about the wonderful feeling and sensuality the garden imparts.
Those bamboo chimes in the photo above have a distinctive sound. Can you remember ever hearing some? I love that sound, which is shared by some chimes at Michael's house in Berkeley. Yes, I have a recording of them from my last visit to the Bay Area...but, you'll have to forgive me because I'm in a rush.
How about that "Harvester" wrought iron Blake has up thar? Visually, it's a durable reminder that we come from an agrarian background. Yep, we were mostly farmers once. OK, I'll dig up a favorite photo...hang on...
That's what I'm talkin' about! It's the Dudley Farm Historic State Park, just down the road from here. Yes, it's a perfectly preserved farm in Gainesville that reminds us of how most people lived not so long ago. I took that photo with my little Audiovox SMT5600 cellphone, by the way.
So, here are a few of Blake's other fabulous peppers. Let me explain what I meant by "momentous occasion". A while back, Michelle Obama came to Gainesville to give a speech at a real, live rally at the Hippodrome Theater. Well, that was so cool.
I saw a few McRorie-ites there, a few Zoobirds! Ron Chandler was there...That's him in the photo above. Well, after the rally, I rode my bike to the garden, just a few blocks away.
I was standing there, right about where I took the photo of greens you see above, taking to Blake. Along comes some big black Escalades, and the window rolls down on one and guess who it was, smiling so big you couldn't miss it? Michelle Obama!
Sweet!
Find more videos like this on Zoobird
Speaking of Ron Chandler, here's a little video above of him describing "McRorie Community Garden Stew". You may have to turn up the volume a little to hear him, since I used that same cellphone to record the video!
I wish I recorded Ron describing his McRorie Mango Jalapeño Salsa. That's got a little ring to it, doesn't it? Does that just make you want to sing and dance? Good! You just get some mango and some...yes, jalapeños! Put them and maybe some cilantro (Ron, help me here) in a blender. Grind up to the desired chunky or smoothness. Plenty good.
Just a bit of pepper culture now, I will share with you. There's New Mexico Green Chili culture. There's Terlingua Pride, the chili festival in Texas that would be nothing without jalapeños.
Now, if you really want to see what can be done with peppers, and live to tell what they taste like, persuade yourself and any lucky friend you have to travel out to the little town at the base of this majestic mountain, Mt Crested Butte in Colorado. And, yes that's the sun glowing all over the snow capped mountain at sunset, looking like halloween candy. Thank you, mister cellphone camera, because I was lucky enough to be there that crisp, cool evening in the thin, mountain air when the sun did that to Mt Crested Butte. I smelled spruce trees. My breath froze as I just stood there, awestruck. The beauty of that sunset rivals any I've ever seen. And, just check out my sunset collection. I've seen a few nice ones!
That's Spencer Hestwood, chief chef and owner of Crested Butte's Ginger Cafe, in the photo above.
Spencer and his staff do amazing things with the humble pepper, and he uses locally grown produce. Click on any of the photos or here to read a little about the Ginger Cafe.
There are chipotles, which are dried, mesquite smoked jalapeños that have a distinctive taste you never forget. There's Louisiana Pepper Sauce and a host of other pepper sauces, like the old "Slap My Ass and Call Me Sally" sauces. One of my favorite Mexican dishes is chile relleno, which even feels good just saying!
Allright, I could go on and on...but like I said, people to see, places to go. Did I mention that the latest Burger King creation is called an Angry Whopper? Why? Because it has jalapeños!
I'll leave you with this shot of my jalapeños. It's a good thing. Makes me happy. I hope you consider planting some. They survive pretty much anything. And, they have more flavor than most anything you'll grow in your garden. Happy gardening!…