slowly she turned

Living the Slow life in North Carolina

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  • Late Saturday morning coffee pot post

    Normally I would have come and gone from the Greensboro Farmers’ Curb Market by now, perhaps with a stop afterwards at McKnight’s Hardware or Bryant Hardware or Deep Roots Market, but my rally from my cold took a back turn with an earache and headache this morning, so I slept late and I’m staying in.

    Not that I’m whining or anything.

    I posted a long rant last night that I deleted about 30 minutes later. That sort of gives you an idea of my mood. I feel better emotionally at least!

    It was fun listening to the edges of Tropical Storm Hanna last night because I didn’t hear anything alarming – just periods of really heavy rain and wind. I walked out on the deck this morning and the gazebo looks fine and there aren’t even any limbs down that I could see. So I’m glad that I didn’t take the cloth roof off the gazebo.

    I’m definitely going to have to adjust to being back in school. Today will be a good day to work on my project. I’ve been in undergrad classes before in the past ten years and that’s a little weird too, after you’ve spent most of your time in grad classes with mostly 30-60 year olds. Anyway, it’s hard to get up the energy to blog when I’ve got this class on the brain. I’m more than a little anxious about it.

    I also have piles of tomatoes on the kitchen counters that need to be canned and dried and otherwise dealt with.

    I did upload my San Francisco/Slow Food Nation photos to Flickr over the past two nights. I got a very disturbing message on my Core FTP program that freaked me out enough to give me nightmares. It said, “Trust your computer. The computer is your friend.” I shut down my friend immediately. A few photos of mine that I didn’t transfer transferred. I deleted them. There were no viruses. I think that someone was having some fun with me.

    Anyway, I’m finding it hard to blog about Slow Food Nation. Partly because I’ve already read so much about it, positive and negative. My experience was wholly positive, except for my personal physical problems. I had my eyebrows waxed before the trip at a beauty school, and the student burnt me over one eye. While I was on my trip, my eye became inflamed and swollen. But I still had a GREAT time and benefited from the conversations and discussions with other Slow Food leaders, which says a lot for the event. I’ll post a few photos here and there.

    Guess I’ll have to shop for a new camera now. I’ll try to get by until next month. Dang, I have spent a lot of money lately.

  • Umami

    I can’t write about San Fran and Slow Food Nation without my photos. I’m too much of a visual person. So until I manage to get my memory card unloaded (please, God, let them be there), let’s stick with the present.

    My first project assignment for my art class is to design what the umami taste receptor on the tongue might look like (or it could be umami itself) in Adobe Illustrator and then translate it to a 3D design in paper. Yowsa. I still don’t know what the due date is, and I’m new to Macs and just started using Illustrator tonight. I just made a noise in my throat that was impossible to describe with letters.

    Sort of like umami. I love the concept. Here’s what his handout says about umami – a story from NPR in December 2007 by Robert Krulwich:

    Glutamate is found in most living things, but when they die, when organic matter breaks down, the glutamate molecule breaks apart. This can happen on a stove when you cook meat, over time when you age a parmesan cheese, by fermentation as in soy sauce or under the sun as a tomato ripens. When glutamate becomes L-glutamate, that’s when things get ‘delicious.’ L-glutamate, said Ikeda, is a fifth taste. When Escoffier created veal stock, he was concentrating umami. When Japanese made their dashi, they were doing the same thing. When you bite into an anchovy, they are ‘like glutamate speedballs. They are pure umami,’ Jonah writes… Humans do have receptors for L-glutamate and when something is really, really yummy in a non-sweet, sour, bitter or salty way, that’s what you’re tasting.”

    All I can think about at the moment are beans. Bean shapes and colors. I am truly in love with beans this year. But I could see a lot of ways to go with this.

    What is your visualization of umami?

    (Overnight I kept waking and thinking of seaweed, and mushroom gills.)

  • And now, a station break for whining

    And yes, I do have an excellent Dry Jack cheddar from Slow Food Sonoma to go with this whine, but I’ll save it for when I can manage not to sneeze all over it.

    The good news is that I’m fairly lucid now, the bad is that I’m a walking muck machine. I must have sneezed 600 times today.

    I did manage to get out and harvest tomatoes, probably 4-5 dozen. Fortunately they are mostly of the canning varieties, so the boiling should take care of the germs. When I stop sneezing and feel up to canning, that is.

    Got enough peas and butterbeans for a little potful, too. I’ll wait to shell these. Sneezing issue again.

    Fortunately, I have a large load of goodies from Slow Food Nation to snack on, since hubby doesn’t offer to cook. Pistachios and almonds, straight from the farmers who grew them!

    My camera died. I finally killed it stone cold dead. Recharging the batteries did not revive it. I think that the card is probably fine, and I took photos through most of Slow Food Nation. Deb took over with her camera on the Saturday that we spent back in San Francisco after missing our plane.

    But that story is for later. I just wanted to whine for a few minutes.

    Update: The Sustainable Table posted a photo that shows our table at the “Come to the Table” dinner Thursday night – I’m on the far right taking photos with my now defunct camera. A former USDA head, Richard Rominger, is seated at the table with us. Nice guy – he bussed my plate. More photos on the Slow Food Nation flickr site.

  • Home again

    Yes, I’m home! San Francisco and Slow Food Nation was absolutely wonderful, but unfortunately I came home very sick. I look forward to uploading photos and sharing this week. I brought home lots o’goodies from the Ferry Market folks. I was able to get autographed books from Michael Pollan, Vandana Shiva, Corby Kummer and Carlo Petrini. And I sat next to Deborah Madison in a Best Practices workshop, and she was sniffling, so I believe that I also brought home her germs.

    I’m afraid that the details will have to wait – this cold is a slammer. I expected to spend Labor Day in the Back Forty, because I know that I have dozens of tomatoes and okra and peas and butterbeans to pick after five days and five inches of rain. So if I get any better, I’ll have to devote my energy to that. Farmin’ chores don’t wait for you to get better!

  • An auspicious week ahead

    Just a few words before work on a busy Monday…

    I’ve got an auspicious week ahead of me. Today is the first day of classes for the fall semester, and I start my Design II class tonight. I broke down on Saturday night and ordered a refurbished iBook off eBay since the art department website says that undergrads are required to have Mac laptops. This means that I’m serious, I guess.

    Tomorrow, I’ll finish packing for my trip to the Slow Food National Congress and trying not to have a panic attack! I’m not taking the laptop, and I’ll be back on Sunday.

    On Wednesday, as I am winging my way across this big country to San Francisco, I’ll have a guest post up at Women Not Dabbling in Normal, subbing for Robbyn, whose Back Forty is in Florida, as she and her family save their energies for her mother-in-law in hospice. I’m not sure what I’ll write about yet – probably about my Back Forty square feet!

  • The Omnivore’s 100

    This fun foodie meme is via Omnivore Herbivore Carnivore via Very Good Taste. I am an adventurous eater for the most part – I’ll try anything once. I don’t know a lot of items on this list, or haven’t had access to them. I was 18 years old before I even tasted a bagel. It was pretty much all eastern North Carolina country food up until college. I add my personal comments in italics.

    How It All Works:

    1) Copy the list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
    2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
    3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
    4) Optional: Post a comment at Very Good Taste, linking to your results

    The 100

    1. Venison (YUM! With grits and gravy – double yum!)

    2. Nettle tea

    3. Huevos rancheros (I don’t know why – I’ve eaten similar dishes)

    4. Steak tartare

    5. Crocodile (I’ll eat alligator if I have another opportunity to buy it.)

    6. Black pudding

    7. Cheese fondue

    8. Carp

    9. Borscht

    10. Baba ghanoush

    11. Calamari

    12. Pho

    13. PB&J sandwich

    14. Aloo gobi

    15. Hot dog from a street cart

    16. Epoisses

    17. Black truffle (I’d try it in a heartbeat if offered.)

    18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes

    19. Steamed pork buns (Eh, depends on the situation. I generally avoid pork from inhumane or unknown sources.)

    20. Pistachio ice cream

    21. Heirloom tomatoes

    22. Fresh wild berries

    23. Foie gras

    24. Rice and beans

    25. Brawn or head cheese

    26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper (just a fingernail clipping-sized taste – whew!)

    27. Dulce de leche

    28. Oysters

    29. Baklava

    30. Bagna cauda

    31. Wasabi peas

    32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl

    33. Salted lassi

    34. Sauerkraut (ick)

    35. Root beer float

    36. Cognac with a fat cigar (separately, not in combination.)

    37. Clotted Cream Tea

    38. Vodka Jelly/Jell-O (would try to be polite, but otherwise I hate Jell-O.)

    39. Gumbo

    40. Oxtail

    41. Curried goat

    42. Whole insects (I’m sure that we all have by accident without knowing, but I can’t go there on purpose yet.)

    43. Phaal

    44. Goat’s milk

    45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth $120 or more

    46. Fugu

    47. Chicken tikka masala

    48. Eel

    49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut (it originated 30 miles from here)

    50. Sea urchin

    51. Prickly pear

    52. Umeboshi

    53. Abalone

    54. Paneer

    55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal

    56. Spaetzle

    57. Dirty gin martini

    58. Beer above 8% ABV

    59. Poutine

    60. Carob chips

    61. S’mores

    62. Sweetbreads

    63. Kaolin

    64. Currywurst

    65. Durian

    66. Frogs’ legs

    67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake

    68. Haggis

    69. Fried plantain

    70. Chitterlings or andouillette

    71. Gazpacho

    72. Caviar and blini

    73. Louche absinthe

    74. Gjetost or brunost

    75. Roadkill (uh, hell no.)

    76. Baijiu

    77. Hostess Fruit Pie

    78. Snail (I was very drunk and trying to appear as fearless as my dinner companion. I don’t remember the taste.)

    79. Lapsang Souchong

    80. Bellini

    81. Tom Yum

    82. Eggs Benedict

    83. Pocky

    84. 3 Michelin Star Tasting Menu

    85. Kobe beef

    86. Hare

    87. Goulash

    88. Flowers

    89. Horse

    90. Criollo chocolate

    91. Spam (oh God, how horrible.)

    92. Soft shell crab

    93. Rose harissa

    94. Catfish

    95. Mole poblano

    96. Bagel and lox

    97. Lobster Thermidor

    98. Polenta

    99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee

    100. Snake (My Great Aunt Mildred got mad at someone once who shot a rattlesnake in such a way that he “ruined the meat.”)

    How many have you eaten?

  • Mid week blathering

    I’m doing pretty well so far with going out to the gazebo for 15-20 minutes each morning to write. Those minutes sure do fly by! I found a good use for my cell phone at home finally – I can’t wear a watch (I kill batteries within hours) but I can use the phone as a clock. Other than that it is for TRAVEL ONLY and only my mother, sister, and petsitter have the number.

    Every time I get a phone bill, I edge a little closer to cell phone hell though. It’s hard to argue against the savings.

    Other goal: after spending most of Monday night with a migraine and a hurting elbow, I decided to move the pavers with a wheelbarrow. We’ll see how my elbow feels tonight. I always have some lag time on the pain so it makes it hard to know when to stop. I’m still keeping it to five pavers per night, though. We’re in no hurry, although once classes begin we’ll probably need the space where they sit now for parking.

    I spent over two hours out there this afternoon. Partly garden work, but much of it kicked back with a beer and a book in front of a fan. And brushing up on my sketching.

    By the way, I do not plan to get any chickens. My lot isn’t big enough, and I was traumatized by a rooster as a child. But I’m willing to trade some produce for eggs if I have enough to share. It may have to be after the damned drought is over. Even the tomatoes are starting to suffer.

  • Which came first, the rooster or the egg?

    Just got back from the City Council meeting, where a lot of people, including my bud Anne-Marie and Billy the Blogging Poet, spoke on behalf of a revised ordinance to lessen the restrictions on setbacks to keep chickens and beehives in the city limits. It also put into place some reasonable restrictions that weren’t in the original ordinance, such as fencing and a no rooster rule. I sort of expected that the foodie homesteady kind of urban citizens would step up, but what surprised me was the lack of serious opposition and the willingness of the City Council to go even further in amending the ordinance to grandfather in people who were already raising chickens and roosters and bees.

    Billy brilliantly brought up his chicken tractor, which no one had mentioned as an alternative to a stationary coop, and Mike Barber took particular interest in that.

    Dianne Bellamy-Small raised herself in my esteem considerably tonight. She and Trudy Wade and seemingly everyone else were interested in saving the roosters already in place. But, as Trudy said, how do you tell whether the rooster was already there prior to tonight’s vote? A variation on an age-old philosophical question that no one still has an answer for.

    The whole she-bang proved once again that food issues are and should be non-partisan.

    And I gotta tell you, if roosters are banned, I can live with that, but the noise from little bored yappy dogs is just as annoying to some people as roosters crowing are to others. Where do you draw the line? If noise bothers you that much, you should probably either live WAY out in the country or do what I do: wear ear plugs.

    God, little victories like this make me hopeful for democracy.

  • Here’s another goal – well, a few more, actually

    Another goal that I’ve started today – let’s see how long THIS lasts! – I’m getting up 15 minutes earlier to go back to the gazebo and drink my first cup of coffee and journal or sketch or just birdwatch. As long as the weather is nice. If it gets horribly humid and hot – say that three times fast – or it’s wet or cold, I’ll go to the studio.

    The cement pavers for the gazebo area were delivered today. Man, those suckers are heavy! I’m setting a goal of carrying at least five per day back to the gazebo on weekdays and more on weekends. It will take a long time but I don’t want to re-injure my elbow, and I’m in no big hurry. I’m glad that I got the big ones though because there will be less cracks to catch furniture legs into. I’ll look at it as good exercise.

    I sketched a little in my new booklet this afternoon. I figure if I’m going to be an art major again then I’d best get in some drawing practice. It must be a good decision because I feel quite energized and optimistic about it. But I wish that this professor would answer my email. My main trepidation about the whole thing over the years is the way I saw students treated by some of the art professors. Most of them are gone now, but there are still a few left from the olden days. The difference now is that I’ll be a much better student, but I’ll have to re-learn perspective. Ew.

    I’ll probably like it better in a few days. I always need a little distance from my drawing or painting.

  • Doing Not Thinking Challenge – Week one

    I decided that this and next week will be so busy that it give me the push I needed to go ahead and do my personal challenge yesterday. It’s a very simple one, for a reason. I was busy with canning, preserving, and gardening!

    I chose a small, simple goal to push me out of my comfort zone. I’m going to make a book with a different bookbinding technique every month until the end of the year. For August, the one I chose is so simple and quick that I’ll probably make several more. It is perfect for a sampler of the handmade recycled paper I’ve been making this summer. This is a simple three-hole pamphlet. The binding yarn was a wonderful plus, wrapping the little book packet that Aimee sent to me a few weeks back. I told her that I’d reuse it, and here it is. The blue jay feather is from the Back Forty. It is embedded on the top of the paper with a little pulp on the quill and the edges.

    Doing Not Thinking Challenge at Two Frog Home