UPDATED with proper spelling of Kartoffel Suppe: The Mississippi Delta

is an interesting place. We had the opportunity to travel to Greenwood, Mississippi this afternoon. I wrote a bit about Greenwood, home of Viking, here. I'll share photos as soon as my RAM is reseated. I have photos of some antebellum churches in Carrolton, Mississippi, also.

Back on the Farm later in the day, we baked two loaves of zucchini bread, put up (processed and froze) 162 ounces-- over 10 pounds-- of summer squash, and made kartoffel (sp?) soup Kartoffel SuppeKartoffel Suppe [thanks, suek!] with wieners mit Wurst [thanks, again!]. I  fixed us a lettuce-New Zealand spinach-baby round zucchini salad which we dressed with homemade egg dressing, and Mr. Big Food heated up some frozen rolls. I took some pictures.

Goin' to the Delta

and taking my camera with me! Who knows? Maybe someday soon I'll be able to post photos again. I have an appointment with the certified Apple repair folks in Columbus!

Dogs are interesting.

Have you noticed that nothing works anymore? Nothing hasn't worked for a very long time. I can't tell you what number can opener we're on. Mr. Big Food is lobbying for an electric canopener. I am lobbying against, at least until we can find a reliable handheld. Ensure backup first.

Swiss Army knife?

What does seem to be working is DNA. 

Missy needs to go out. She's getting urgent. She's communicating. How does all of that happen? Missy & Rocky aren't so very different from you & I. I've been watching them and if they had opposable thumbs, ... .

"Birdieable": Is that a word?

It is if it's almost 9pm Central on Fathers' Day and your eye glasses were eaten by your dog last night and your computer's RAM needs to be reseated and you are typing on the computer that you & Kat's  Adult Male Role Model really really hate and you've had to re-light the Den because the concept of keyboard backlighting is apparently foreign to Bill Gates' team.

Ahh. 

Food mi;;

As I ... why aren't PC keybpards back;oghterd?

As I mentioned, my Genius computer is acting up. Mr. Big Food lent me the computer he really really hates. Thanks. Insert a lot of complaints.  

Oh for crying out loud. I just let Missy out and the frog came in and Rocky was too excited by my excitement to catch the stupid thing. So now there's a frog in the house. A week from now, we'll be asking what smells. 

Anyway...

The Food Mill. 

In anticipation of making more dewberry jam and sauce, I bought a regulation food mill. We have a sauce maker, but we decided we needed a real food mill. It was made in China. It came with instructions.

Here we go again!

Get set for more complaining. My RAM has been unseated. I don't know how this could happen, it never moves from its spot inside my computer which never moves from my desk. I blame Missy because, you know, the toothpaste went missing this morning, too, and I'm certain Missy's to blame. 

The good news is I don't have to go see the Geniuses in Memphis. The bad news is I have to go to Columbus, Mississippi, but I don't know when.

Meanwhile, the squash is coming on like crazy-- three pounds this morning and I pick squash just about every morning. That will make Mr. Big Food, who, by the way, really really hates his new computer, very happy.

One more random comment. The Geniuses on the phone are way too sugary but at least they are not rude. But what sort of upbringing does one have to have had to not know how to pronounce the name of the city that Elvis was born in? There are a lot of Mississippi town names that I need to sound out-- and I still get it wrong. Kosciusko comes to mind. But Tupelo?

Gran's stuffed pork chops

Delicious.

Mr. Big Food tells me he found the recipe for these stuffed pork chops written in Gran's handwriting on the backside of the cover of one of his crappy old cookbooks.

And yes, those are prunes.

Inside the lives of some black-eyed peas

Green

Graceful

Glorious

Garden

Do you think this will work?

Just ignore those cabbage and squash

This is the late bean/corn garden. I already have corn planted but you just can never have too much corn. Last year was the first year I'd ever grown corn. What a learning experience! Unfortunately, when I planted corn this year I'd forgotten what I'd learned. Birds pick planted corn seed out of the corn row and presumably eat it. This is a problem. Replanting a week or more after the first planting means some plants will be a week or more younger when the older plants begin to tassel. It doesn't matter with insect pollinated plants but it does with wind pollinated corn.

Anyway... I was certain I had bird netting in the workshop, and I did-- just not enough. So I covered each little planted corn seed with a clay pot which I'll remove just as soon as I see a little corn plant peep through the soil.

The periphery is beans, by the way. 

I'll report problems with this scheme if there are any. (Right. If. Who am I kidding?)

The kitchen table

That's round zucchini and some onions I pulled and found in the crisper and some baby carrots.

It is true that that the German lettuce is slow to bolt.

That's right. Gordon's Fish Filets, OreIDa tater tots, and onion rings from the Georgia Company.

Do check out that link.

Mr. Big Food & I both remarked that this was one of our Moms' default suppers. 

Fish sticks and onion rings. Obesity. Thank God Almighty our Moms didn't default too often.

"That explains a lot, don't it," said Mr. Big Food.

I'll update with the links tomorrow, but I've talked about mammalian behavioral development before.

Missy had a Terrible Tuesday and a not so good Wednesday, especially late in the day when Mr. Big Food was home. Thus, his comment when we calculated, based on the model of dog-human development which has the first 15 years of human equivalent to the first one of dog, that Missy is equivalent to a 12-13 year old fixed girl.

"That explains a lot, don't it?"

Sure does.  

Warning! Do not look at this post if you do not want to look at picutes of a snake

Pine cone for scale

After Missy's Terrible Tuesday, we got out early this morning. I first took Missy to the pasture where she almost drowned. Just kidding. She walked way out on a sandbar and was only knee deep but then she turned left and was in put to her neck. I laughed out loud.

Rocky and I intended to fetch one of these sticks by the loblolly up by the workshop. I get nervous when snakes start wagging their tails at me so Rocky & I quickly returned home. 

One wonders where it lives when it's not sunning itself under the loblolly.

I'm quite sure it's a king snake of some sort, perhaps a speckled king? Oh! Let's hope it is.

Adults feed mainly on mice and rats; snakes (both venomous and nonvenomous) will be consumed. Since kingsnakes are partially immune to the venom of native snakes, rattlesnakes, cottonmouths, and coral snakes make up a portion of the diet. Watersnakes make up a substaintial part of their diet. Other Speckled Kingsnakes also are consumed. Birds and their eggs are also readily consumed. An occasional fish may be eaten.

 [typos in original]

Here is the answer to my question:

Habitat:
This subspecies of kingsnakes utilize a wider variety of habitat types than most of the related subspecies. Speckled Kingsnakes can be found in freshwater and brackish swamps, bottomland hardwood forests, prairie streams, and upland forests. However, these snakes are probably most abundant in wetter habitats. 

Speckled Kingsnakes are usually sited sunning themselve on stream-sidesor crossing roads during the warmer monthes. A common place to find them is near camps, old houses, and barns. Many are encountered while cleaning up woodpiles, stacks of firewood, or sheets of tin.

Back to work.

Missy's Terrible Tuesday

Let's fast forward

to the ending. Both bedroom windows are open. They've now moved off the bed and are attending to a window. Rocky has moved to Missy's window and has issued a few low barks, but nothing more. This is the quietest they've been all day. Rocky just turned around and looked at me.

Oh. I get it. Missy was in the kitchen with Mr. Big Food. And now they are all three up on the bed with the windows open.

The earlier part of Missy's day did not go so well.

SALE!

I can recommend the muskmelon, sweet potato pumpkin, and watermelon.

New Hope Seed Company-- for whom I really do not work!-- is having a seed sale.

UPDATED: A-B-C-D-E-F-G-

AFRI-NIFA-USDA

Agriculture and Food Research Initiative

National Institute of Food and Agriculture

United States Department of Agriculture

~~

As you know, Dear Readers, Monday is soap opera & bonbon day because there's no work to do after the weekend. Therefore, I've had a few minutes to poke into the potato blight issue.

Late blight is the potato blight of potato famine fame. That infallible source, Wikipedia, has a decent entry on late blight. Note that this pathogen can also affect relatives of potatoes, including tomatoes. As I cannot imagine a world without potatoes, I take this issue seriously. And I support efforts to learn more about it blah blah blah ... but wouldn't go so far as to want a genetically modified potato on the farm.

That said...

Welcome to USA blight, a new national website that will act as an information portal on late blight.  You can report disease occurrences, submit a sample online, observe disease occurrence maps, and sign up for text disease alerts.  There are also useful links to a decision support system, and  information about identification and management of the disease.


Late blight of potato and tomato caused by Phytophthora infestans is a devastating disease worldwide and led to the Irish potato famine in 1845. Under favorable weather conditions, tomato and potato crops can be destroyed within days. Yield losses caused by late blight and the cost of control measures have been estimated to exceed 6.7 billion dollars annually and the disease is a major threat to food security worldwide.  

You may be curious to know how a national website differs from... what?... . A national  web site means you & I are paying for it.

Here's the comic book version of how this works. Twelve people from seven universities and one government agency get together and write and submit a grant proposal to AFRI-NIFA-USDA.

via New Hope Seed: Late Blight of Potato & Tomato

I received my newsletter from New Hope Seed Company this lazy Sunday. It alerted me to Late Blight. 

From the newsletter:

Late blight is a devastating disease that affects tomatoes and potatoes and we believe that home gardeners should be aware of it and take preventive action to control Late Blight.

Light Blight is a community disease and home gardeners need to share information if Late Blight shows up. Once the disease is detected it is often very difficult, if not impossible, to control. It can develop very rapidly, especially in wet weather. Using high amounts of nitrogen (N), and applying it later in the season than is recommended can result in very lush foliage that is more susceptible to infection by Late Blight and other diseases.

Get the word out early to neighboring home gardeners and farmers about Late Blight prevention and detection. Encourage your local Cooperative Extension office to get the word out more widely to gardeners as well.

 Consider this my contribution to spreading the word.

By the way, late blight is the blight that caused the potato famine. 

From Mr. Big Food's Aunt & Uncle's Farm. In Texas.

Let's recap. I'm first made aware of outbreaks of late blight via a newsletter from a very small farm in Tennessee. 

Here's the outbreak map, courtesy USABlight dot org, a project team "a grant from the USDA NIFA program titled "Reducing losses to potato and tomato late blight by monitoring pathogen populations, improved resistant plants, education, and extension"."

"Welcome to USBlight." 

Don't get me wrong. A world without potatoes ... . I can't imagine it.

Follow us to supper

Salad of four lettuces, peas, rat-tail radish, French breakfast radish, spinach, lemon balm.

Sauteed zucchini (three types), yellow squash (two), carrots (three), and Vidalia onions seasoned with fresh oregano.

That's it for the home grown component. But there was also BBQ chicken, and home made garlic-oregano bread on the grill paired with a bottle of French wine. That was followed by fresh fruit and homemade peach brandy ice cream, which was followed by cognac. And all of that was followed by a nice evening rain. 

Inviting Guest Rooms

is one of the topics covered in Chapter 13, "Special rooms," of the crappy old book, Better Homes and Gardens Decorating Book copyright in 1975 by the Meredith Corporation. I mention this because I've just finished tidying up the guest room because we had a guest last night and are having another overnight guest today. Daughter C. texted me earlier and asked if some of her friends could come out to the farm today. Sure. And so I tidied up the other guest area. We have had a fair number of guests-- but what's the point in having a farm if you don't invite others to enjoy it?

Inside the Life of a Squash

So tasty.

"What color is it?" "Orange"

It's called the Little Orange Book and I can't find mine.

I'm in a panic.

Who would have stolen Tukey's Little Orange Book from me?