Pot Luck

Somebody at the Pentagon... (4.00 / 2)

...has been watching too many Back to the Future reruns -

The race to build the world's first flying military jeep just moved a step closer to the finish line. The Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has selected two companies to proceed with the next stage of its Transformer, known as TX-a fully automated four-person vehicle that can drive like a car and then take off and fly like an aircraft to avoid roadside bombs. Lockheed Martin and AAI Corp., a unit of Textron Systems, are currently in negotiations with DARPA for the first stage of the Transformer project, several industry sources told Popular Mechanics at a robotics conference here in Denver. DARPA has not announced the official winners yet.

Will it have a flux capacitor, is what I want to know...

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by: JayinPortland @ Wed Sep 01, 2010 at 02:28:24 AM UTC

I've hit the 'big time' (4.00 / 3)

I'm now ordering seed by the pound and part pound (4-8 oz.), as opposed to the pack. I'll really hit the big time when I order more than one pound of any given seed, which may happen this spring.

I'm going to buy strawberry plants, asperagus root, and sweet potato slips in the next couple months.

Anyone have suggestions on the strawberries and asperagus re: varieties? I'll probably order Buregard for the sweet potatoes.

I'm also going to be looking at blueberry plants tomorrow, and I've talked to a local farm about raising pigs for me next year. I want to get in with him as far as putting in an order for weiners on the pigs as early as possible. Those baby pigs go fast when they come available if you don't already have them reserved, and this fellow finishes his pigs on apples and pears. He's going to give me a chop to try out in a few weeks, but I already know the guy and want him to raise pigs for me.

Normal people scare me.... But not as much as I scare them.

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by: JoanneRigutto @ Wed Sep 01, 2010 at 02:31:16 AM UTC

How are those garbanzo and (4.00 / 2)

cannellini beans you planted doing? Until you ordered and planted them this year I had never thought to grow my own beans to dry. Dried beans are such a big part of my food paln that growing my own does make some sense. So, I am quite eager to know how things are going for you.  

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by: caseyOR @ Wed Sep 01, 2010 at 03:15:38 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

I never did get around to planting the beans I got from Rancho Gordo (4.00 / 2)

however, I did get the Khabouli Black Garbanzo Beans from Baker creek. I picked the pods last Saturday and got about a pound of chick peas. I'm going to be pickeing dry Yellow Wax beans, Jacob Cattle Beans, and I think, Black Beans, this week.

Did any of those vegetable plants you got from me work out? I say you say something about Grand Marconi, and I was wondering if that was a pepper plant you got from me.

The San Marzano Romas are a disapointment for me. They appear to be the same kind of roma tomatoes that are at the store.

I'm saving the beans I bought from Rancho Gordo for spring planting (only a few months off!, oh all right, a bit more than a few, but the seasons are all starting to run together....).

Hey, speaking of Rancho Gordo, I was at Bob's Red Mill yesterday (hoo boy, they love me, I bought almost $80 worth of sprouting seed). While I was there looking at beans, I noticed they have a bean book from Rancho Gordo. Almost bought it.

Normal people scare me.... But not as much as I scare them.

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by: JoanneRigutto @ Wed Sep 01, 2010 at 03:45:44 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

The grand marconi peppers (4.00 / 2)

were, indeed, from you. I have one giant pepper, still green, on each plant. There were many flowers, but when the nighttime temps dropped close to 50, the flowers fell off. Very sad. I am hoping these two peppers ripen.

As for tomatoes: the black cherry have lots of green toms that I hope will ripen; the black krim and the san marzano did not grow very tall, unlike the black cherry. They, too, have green tomatoes. Just not very many.

The black cherry grew almost 6 ft., the black krim and san marzano are barely  3 feet tall. I'm trying to figure out what was different. Maybe a difference in sun? Although the tomatoes right next to them are all about 6 ft., too. I don't know.

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by: caseyOR @ Wed Sep 01, 2010 at 04:22:50 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

black krim are my favorite (4.00 / 2)

and I grew this year. They are "fussy" and I noticed you get cracked bottoms if they are watered unevenly

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by: LeeN @ Wed Sep 01, 2010 at 11:01:17 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

I think the San Marzanos must be a determinant (4.00 / 2)

I have around 100 of them planted in Canby and they're about 3' high as well. I think they're a commercial type of paste tomato, which means that they would need to be suitable for machine harvest. 3' prostrate tomatoes are what you want for that.

Mine are loaded with fruit which is slowly ripening. I've been picking them here and there for the past 2 weeks. I don't like how the San Marzanos have turned out. Maybe because they are a paste tomato, and I'm used to large slicing tomatoes, and romas that are really juicy.

I've picked a couple of Amana Orange and Black Krim or Cherrokee Purple so far. They've got lots of fruit and look like they're ripen, cross yer fingers.

This year has been very challenging. I'm calling it "The Year Of The Salads". The tomatoes and other warm weather crops have had a hard time, but the greens, kholrabis, and other cool weather crops have been outstanding.

I've culled about 30 pepper plants and replaced them with kales and kholrabi. They just never grew, and I've got around 100 more in pots that I'm going to cull and I'll plant the pots to radishes and carrots this week. It kills me, but if they ain't gonna work out, they ain't gonna work out. I have around 15 of my own pepper plants, then 4 Holy Mole pepper plants and 2 Thai Chilis that I'm going to over winter.

Oddly enough, the Thai Chilis have produced like gangbusters. Probably because I kept them in the greenhouse till they had loads of fruit set, then I let them out, but still in their pots so I could bring them back in.

Normal people scare me.... But not as much as I scare them.

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by: JoanneRigutto @ Wed Sep 01, 2010 at 14:34:17 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

I'm just now starting to see some (4.00 / 2)

significant ripening of my Blk Prince, SM, and Enchantment tomatoes. I have one SM plant that is full on green toms and is def the most vigorous of the SMs. I plan on saving seeds from that one. My plan for the SMs was def just saucing. My Roma has looked pretty pathetic up until this past week or so. Now it seems to be having a growing spurt. Go figure, lol!~

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by: nycstray @ Wed Sep 01, 2010 at 20:27:14 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

I've been growing san marzanos for years. (4.00 / 2)

In the past, the plants grew 6-7 ft. tall and produced well into October. I wonder if your plants are really san marzanos as opposed to determinate roma.

The fruit on these looks like the tomatoes I have gotten in years past from generic romas. San Marzanos tend to be an elongated tomato, not the almost perfect pear shape that this year's are.

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by: caseyOR @ Wed Sep 01, 2010 at 20:45:14 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

The ones I have are very elongated (4.00 / 2)

I got tomato seed from several different sources - Baker Creek Heirlooms, Totally Tomatoes, Tradewinds Fruit Co., and the store. Can't remember which supplier the San Marzanos came from though.

Normal people scare me.... But not as much as I scare them.

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by: JoanneRigutto @ Wed Sep 01, 2010 at 21:23:10 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

that's really interesting.... (4.00 / 2)

because although I am on the other side of the country it was
same here. Cool weather crops ok..but summer stuff? It barely grew and all the squash? I had 3 zucchini, out of 3 plants.NO cucumbers..And when I posted this on my organic gardening list serv, it was the same story with everyone's squash..Lots of male blossoms, no females and no fruit.

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by: LeeN @ Wed Sep 01, 2010 at 21:36:38 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

I noticed lots of male blossoms on the zuchinni my brother planted over at dad's with little fruit (4.00 / 2)

The squash I have growing here has lots of fruit on it, although it's a cross. One plant is a cross between spaghetti squash and crook neck, another is a cross between zuchinni and crook neck. The third and fourth are regular crookneck, at least they don't show any crossing. They all came up volunteer.

I've had years though, when I planted seed that I bought and got almost all male blossoms. Must have something to do with the weather because if I remember right, those were years like this one.

Normal people scare me.... But not as much as I scare them.

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by: JoanneRigutto @ Wed Sep 01, 2010 at 22:36:03 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Female blossoms (4.00 / 1)

Do squash have female blossoms? If so, how do you distinguish male from female?

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by: count @ Wed Sep 01, 2010 at 23:26:04 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

That's what I've always been told (4.00 / 2)

I've always told the female and male appart by looking to see if a fruit is forming at the base of a pollinated flower. I notice that the fruiting flowers on my squash plants are much closer to the vine and the male flowers are on longer, thinner stalks. If you want to eat squash blossoms, it's the males you want to eat as you need to pick them while they're still young.

My folks used to dip them in batter, pan fry, and then sprinkle sugar and cinnamon on them. Yum!

Normal people scare me.... But not as much as I scare them.

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by: JoanneRigutto @ Thu Sep 02, 2010 at 01:36:50 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Here's a link fer ya - (4.00 / 2)

Summer Squash from the University of Illinois Extension Service.

Normal people scare me.... But not as much as I scare them.

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by: JoanneRigutto @ Thu Sep 02, 2010 at 01:43:22 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

amphibians (4.00 / 1)

Must have something to do with the weather because if I remember right, those were years like this one.

Offspring gender for turtles, snakes, frogs, is strongly affected by a few degrees temperature variation. I wonder if squash are the same. I've never heard that for plants, but there's a lot of stuff I don't know.

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by: count @ Thu Sep 02, 2010 at 02:49:59 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

reptiles? (4.00 / 1)

I don't know if I should have said amphibians or reptiles.

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by: count @ Thu Sep 02, 2010 at 02:52:24 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

I know that it is for pythons (4.00 / 1)

and I think it is for other reptiles as well. I think I saw something about that on a show about aligators one time. I know that when I was breeding burmese pythons and doing artificial incubation of the eggs, I was told that to determine if I'd get girls or boys I had to hold the sand temps at one number or another.

None of the eggs I incubated hatched, but the female python who laid them kept pretending to incubate them. I should have let her do the incubation.

Normal people scare me.... But not as much as I scare them.

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by: JoanneRigutto @ Thu Sep 02, 2010 at 03:57:32 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

I bought a bushel of roma type tomatoes Sunday (4.00 / 2)

at Pete's Produce Farm.He can be found on Facebook and you may want to ask him what variety they are.They are delicious. Last night we made marinara sauce for dinner. And peeled and bagged and put up in freezer.  

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by: LeeN @ Wed Sep 01, 2010 at 10:59:08 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Rancho Gordo is up the road (4.00 / 2)

from me.

Are you letting your beans dry on the vine or are you picking then drying? I need to figure out what to do with all the ones I planted {grin}

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by: nycstray @ Wed Sep 01, 2010 at 20:29:41 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Not for your CSA (4.00 / 1)

but if I owned land, I'd make room for a raspberry patch for home use. Perhaps a western black and a variety of red. In Baltimore, the eastern black raspberry begins delivering at the beginning of June, followed by some variety of red at the end of June or beginning of July, don't know what the timing would be in western Oregon. I love raspberries!

I don't know if you would want to do it to make money, though, might not be practical?

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by: count @ Wed Sep 01, 2010 at 04:21:31 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

We planted 50 or so raspberry roots (4.00 / 2)

last summer. Most of them survived the winter, and the predations and scratching of the chickens. I had to put cages around the plants this spring to protect them from all the scratching. I swear, those chickens sole purpose in life at times seems to be digging up every single thing I plant in the gound....

Anyway, they're nice and healthy looking with 4-5 foot canes. They're either red or black raspberries. We'll find out next year when they bear. A friend got them from a berry grower out at the location where our friend has his cabinet shop. His shop is in an old turkey barn. The berry grower planted both red and black, and these were left over roots, but he couldn't remember which kind they were or if there were some of each. The area that's planted to raspberries is about 30'X 20'. The plants look vigorous enough that the gaps between plants should fill in pretty fast (a year or two). Considering how many raspberries we all picked out of dad's raspberry patch, which was a little less than half that size, we should be swimming in raspberries next year.

I want to dig suckers from Dad's place and plant them out here. He had reds and a white raspberry. The white was almost an everbearing and is an old variety. It's been there ever since I was born, 48 years ago.

Normal people scare me.... But not as much as I scare them.

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by: JoanneRigutto @ Wed Sep 01, 2010 at 14:15:15 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Front yard food carts... (4.00 / 1)

How about that?

Last night I saw the future: Pbong's Bowl. Call it Food Carts: The Next Generation. Instead of joining one of P-Town's many beloved "pods," Supajanut Brunjongaksorn a.k.a. Pbong, serves hefty portions of authentic Thai street-food out of a renovated vintage Chevy Frito Lay delivery van parked in the driveway of her own home, located at 2034 North Killingsworth Avenue.

Of course, Killingsworth is a major thoroughfare and this part of it is heavily commercial.  Probably wouldn't be allowed to open a food cart in your driveway on a side street in, say, Eastmoreland.  Interesting idea nonetheless...

Yesterday, the steady stream of apparent regulars lining up at the window all ordered the special - steaming bowls of Tom Yum Noodle - before settling down on at the 20-foot long communal table in the front yard.

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by: JayinPortland @ Wed Sep 01, 2010 at 05:12:39 AM UTC

That sounds so cool! (4.00 / 2)

I love Thai food. Actually, I love all sorts of food from around the world.

The idea of refurbushing a used delivery truck is a good one. I once thought about building a small commercial kitchen out here so I could produce jams, jellies, pickles, etc. to sell. I can't get my own kitchen licensed because the cats are allowed in the house. Strictly verboten according to the health department. Anyway, I was looking into used catering trucks as well. That way I could park the thing here and use it, but I could also rent it out to other farms so that they could produce value added products too.

Kind of what The Portable Plucker does for people raising chickens for slaughter.

Normal people scare me.... But not as much as I scare them.

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by: JoanneRigutto @ Wed Sep 01, 2010 at 14:05:16 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Good idea for a commercial kitchen (4.00 / 2)

work around. I guess I'd never make inspection on my kitchen either. Cats, dog and bird all wander through, lol!~

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by: nycstray @ Wed Sep 01, 2010 at 20:32:59 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Lol, your mention of the bird reminds me (4.00 / 2)

that we have a chicken who's figured out how to open the mud room door if it isn't latched. From there it's just a few steps to the kitchen and the rest of the house. Good thing I put tile in on most of the floors.

Oh, and I forgot the horse that wandered in one day.....

Normal people scare me.... But not as much as I scare them.

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by: JoanneRigutto @ Wed Sep 01, 2010 at 21:27:49 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Seattle Sonics (4.00 / 1)

I pay nearly no attention to sports, so I was very surprised to listen to the most recent Bob Edwards Weekend and discover that the Seattle Sonics have been in Oklahoma City for two years.

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by: count @ Wed Sep 01, 2010 at 13:27:36 PM UTC

Yeah, that one was a mess... (4.00 / 1)

They (Howard Schultz of Starbucks was the majority owner) sold the team in 2006 to an OKC group who immediately put a gun to the City of Seattle's head and said "pay up $500 million for a new arena or we're leaving."

Seattle said no, the new owners wanted to break their lease and leave for OKC immediately, a judge said no, but somehow they still slithered out of it and moved in 2008.

Probably the messiest sports franchise move since Irsay literally snuck the Colts out of Baltimore in the middle of the night in 1984...

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by: JayinPortland @ Wed Sep 01, 2010 at 16:15:54 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Why is it that ball clubs so frequently (4.00 / 2)

try to get cities to subsidize them so heavily by building stadiums, etc.? I've never understood that. I think if the city is going to fund something like that, they ought to get all the moneys above strict operating costs untill the capital investment and any interest is paid off. I don't know, maybe they already get all of that and it's still not enough to keep the outfit afloat.

Normal people scare me.... But not as much as I scare them.

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by: JoanneRigutto @ Wed Sep 01, 2010 at 17:40:12 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

greed. (4.00 / 1)

I'm sure you understand why the companies ask. What you probably don't understand is, why do cities and states give in? The new "Baltimore" stadia actually were state enterprises, back when they cost hundreds of millions. A new football stadium costs a billion dollars today, for a facility in which 8 games will be played per year, unless the city or state wangles a playoff or superbowl game. The expenditure is a stupid way to spend taxpayer money, although the Ravens and Orioles actually do contribute to paying off the 30-year bonds.

What is particularly pissy is that a new stadium immediately multiplies the resale value of a franchise, and taxpayers share of that profit is zero. The only money George W. Bush ever made without Daddy or Daddy's friends was his payoff for his efforts to get the Texas Rangers stadium floated in the public trough.  

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by: count @ Wed Sep 01, 2010 at 20:12:04 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

You're right about the asking (4.00 / 2)

I'm cyincal enough it was a goofy question for me to ask.

Normal people scare me.... But not as much as I scare them.

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by: JoanneRigutto @ Wed Sep 01, 2010 at 21:25:11 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Seattle women (4.00 / 1)

I attended a Seattle women's game a few years ago, but I don't know if the Sonics played in the same arena.

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by: count @ Wed Sep 01, 2010 at 20:16:43 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

messy (4.00 / 1)

Transforming the Cleveland Browns into the Baltimore Ravens was pretty messy.

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by: count @ Wed Sep 01, 2010 at 20:20:24 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Yeah, that too... (4.00 / 1)

Which of course, can only mean that the Oklahoma City Zombie Sonics (h/t Bill Simmons) will be moving to Baltimore in the middle of the night sometime soon...

;)

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by: JayinPortland @ Thu Sep 02, 2010 at 02:16:26 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

The Women (4.00 / 1)

I just watched the movie The Women. Fine cast, uniformly high level of talent. Cloris Leachman is great, but I'm still partial to Candice Bergen.

This movie has a really gross scene in which Meg Ryan, in her darkest hour, discovers that there's no junk food in the house. She unwraps a stick of butter, dips it in cocoa and then sugar, and eats it. Eeew.

900,000 women in this film. Short and tall. Young and old. Scandinavian, Iowa cornfed,  African-American. Sales clerks, moms, anonymous pedestrians. Blond, brunette, white hair. 950,000 women in this film, maybe a million. All of them are slender, with the lone exception of Bette Midler. How did they do that?  

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by: count @ Wed Sep 01, 2010 at 20:34:18 PM UTC