Sampler Platter

Food inc played here (4.00 / 5)

on Wed at the Philly film festival. I couldn't make it...

I have a shit load of lawn. It's stupid and wastes resources In the back I have bought pampas seeds to plant. But in the front..there's a strip along the curb. I want to dig up and plant something that's pretty and edible.any suggestions? I thought about mint but it gets too high...

Wed night is Passover and this year I am using a Buddhist Haggadah and its vegetarian. It looks like its going to be too cold to eat outside, but I did ask the men coming if they need to piss, please do so around my veggie garden (ht to this site for the idea)to keep deer way.

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by: LeeN @ Sat Apr 04, 2009 at 21:10:55 PM UTC

oh, that's where she saw it then (4.00 / 4)

at the Philly film festival. I didn't know that.

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

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by: Jill Richardson @ Sat Apr 04, 2009 at 21:20:23 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

one more item for the sampler platter (4.00 / 4)

This post reminds me of that bad pickup line: "Hey baby, let's go to my place and study math! We'll add our bodies subtract our clothes divide our legs and multiply!" It's about how to divide and multiply perennial herbs like mints, sorrel, chives, and oregano. Makes me wish I had an herb garden!!

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

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by: Jill Richardson @ Sat Apr 04, 2009 at 21:29:52 PM UTC

Interesting comments... (3.75 / 4)

following the Ethicurean piece on local meat / egg pricing.  Worth going there for that debate alone...

The Kansas piece was excellent - hopefully there's a bunch more people like her still in Kansas to rise up against the b.s. anti-labeling attacks going on there at the moment...

"The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks." - Christopher Hitchens

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by: JayinPortland @ Sat Apr 04, 2009 at 21:33:43 PM UTC

Cool article on biking in Portland... (4.00 / 4)

From the New York Times travel section (which has had a huuuuuge crush on Portland for many years now...) -

Days of clear weather come and go this time of year, but it never really rains that hard, Mr. Shepler said, adding that he liked the flow of bicycle traffic in Portland. "On the side streets with bike lanes you're on the grid, and you can just go," he said.

I forgot just how bad northeastern rain can be until I was back there last week.  That shit can hurt!  Wtf.  I live at a big intersection - one of those streets is a bicycle boulevard.  Sadly, the other street at my intersection is anything but - and is the main road for emergency vehicles through my neighborhood.  And they do fly by down that road all night long...

Locking up at on-street bicycle parking stands downtown near the Portland Museum of Art, cyclists also take advantage of Benson Bubblers, drinking fountains in various locations around town. While filling a water bottle, it was impossible not to notice how many people are on bikes despite the rain.

I love those fountains.

:)

Riders who wish to delve deeper into Portland's diverse bicycle culture can simply drop in on pubs like Hopworks Urban Brewery in Southeast, a tavern decorated with spare bike parts that serves organic beer.

HUB is in my 'hood.  (Whooo, Creston-Kenilworth!)  Like 12 blocks away from my apartment, great beer and food!  Highly recommended for anybody who appreciates same...

Also, another related article from here -

Portlanders so enjoyed closing six miles of North Portland streets to car traffic last summer, the city has decided to not only do it again - but do it three times in three sections of the city.

During the first Sunday Parkways event June 22, more than 15,000 people walked, biked, ran and Rollerbladed. Organizers intended the experiment to encourage exercise and connect communities.

[...]

Sunday Parkways was based on a similar weekly event in Bogota, Colombia, that closes more than 70 miles of major and minor roads each Sunday. New York City did a similar event last year.

That was fun last year.  And one of those are gonna be here in Southeast this summer.  Looking forward to doing it again!

"The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks." - Christopher Hitchens

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by: JayinPortland @ Sat Apr 04, 2009 at 23:05:54 PM UTC

My sourdough starter has an attitude (4.00 / 3)

I set out my sourdough to proof last night. I fed it, put it in the oven with just the light on, and left it overnight, and in the morning when I got up . . . nothing but a layer of hooch. No froth, no bubbles like I expected.

So I thought I might be doing something wrong, but I tried making up some dough anyway. Three cups of flour and three hours later, nothin'. No rising, no nothin', not anything like I'm used to with the French bread I used to make.

So I was ready to toss it out, but I figured, well, it smells OK, so I'll give the leftover starter one more try. I fed it a cup of flour and a cup of water, and two hours later it was bubbling and frothing like a champion. Well, I decided, let's try it again. So I split it in half, fed both halves, put one half in the oven to proof and the other half out on the counter.

The half on the counter is bubbling and frothing again, but the half in the oven? A few desultory bubbles, but not like the stuff on the counter.

They say sourdough starter is a living thing and people sometimes think of it as a pet. I could swear the stuff on the counter is sneering at me, daring me to make it produce.

I have succumbed to the Twitter craze. @Omir55

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by: Omir the Storyteller @ Sat Apr 04, 2009 at 23:30:42 PM UTC

Does local meat cost too much? (4.00 / 1)

The article on the Ethicurean came from Bob Comas at StoneybrookFarm blog. It seems to have raised quite a ruckus.  Some folks misread the article (especially his "scaling up" comment) and others accused him of not knowing how to do cost accounting and being subsidized by his full-time working wife.  

But in particular he also used somewhat inflammatory language, i.e. the word "extortion".  While he may be technically correct (in terms of dictionary definition), he apparently does not read his audience real well.  [Which is perhaps why I like him - straightforward and honest, call a spade a spade, etc.]

Whether he is right or not I don't have a clue, not being and never having been, a farmer.  I suspect, though, that he probably is right, that an Amish scale farm is perhaps necessary to make a decent living as a full-time livestock farmer at an acceptable wage.  I don't think his argument necessarily applies to vegetable farming, however.

In any event it is a terribly interesting article to read and the comments even more so.

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by: DennisP @ Sun Apr 05, 2009 at 15:12:09 PM UTC