Main Street Green Bay

While dropping my Handsome Son off at UW-GB, I came across this handsome horse grazing. Actually, Green Bay seems to have made quite an effort to plant massive street planters (and keep them watered!).

All quite nice.





Except for this:



Can't we find a better place for a garage sale sign?

Handsome Son Goes to College

Today finally came. I took my Handsome Son to college at UW-Green Bay. He's all moved into the dorms and I made his bed, helped unpack his suitcase and boxes and said our goodbyes.

He starts a new chapter in his life and I have finished one in mine. He is my only son.

It maybe would have been better if we had fought more, or had some of those bad fights parents sometimes have that end with "...because I SAID SO!!!"

But we haven't.

Tomorrow, it is back to the family garden where harvesting our veggies and preserving them is in full swings and little boys are thick on the ground, with the Twins and Baby Gardener in tow.

But tonight there is just me, and Faithful Companion sleeping at my feet in a too quite little house in a too quite little village, and my beautiful, Handsome Son is 100 miles away.

And, as I mentioned to Handsome Son this morning with tears in my eyes, my sister in IL who would give the stars in the sky if she buy this day for her younger son who has Duchenes muscular dystrophy.

So.

I am trying very hard to keep my tears in perspective.

End of Summer Party, and Off He Goes...

Yesterday, was a very full day. Faithful Companion was scheduled for surgery to have two masses removed, and Sister-in-Law and I decided my Handsome Son needed a ice cream cake send-off party for college.

We weren't sure whether Faithful Companion would be dog-dog or noodle dog after surgery. She was so happy to see us when we picked he up, we wondered if she was still on happy drugs from the surgery. Today, she is decidedly acting much more low-keyed.

So rarely are so many of us around.

PA Sister was here from the East Coast and leaving this morning, too. She and I spent some time after the ice cream cake (which was the only lure we had to cast to entice my nearly 80-year-old father to join us!) harvesting cabbage, cape gooseberries, cucumbers, tomatoes, including the wonderful orange Amanas, basil, sage, golden beets, carrots, edamame, cape gooseberries, red and green peppers. She is taking the Wisconsin family garden bounty back across country in addition to some preserved pickles as house presents on her return route visits. She brought us her local Chaddsford wines and copies of her soon-to-be-released book about the Schuylkill River.

Brother prepared a wonderful salad entirely from our family garden with leaf lettuce, red sheepnose peppers, green peppers, Amana orange tomatoes, red Olpaka tomatoes. There was pizza from Little Caesar's, one of Handsome Son's favorite take-out foods.

And of course, there was ice cream cake.

And there was time for pictures, although the light was decidedly going by the time we thought of that. Baby Gardener and the Twins, being of that age, has a hard time posing rather than exploring.

Last Pictures of Various Entries at the Waushara County Fair, 2012

This pendant piece was the Grand Champion for the decorative arts entries section which includes jewelry, paintings, leather work, remade furniture, calligraphy, lots of stuff.

The pendant earned the blue ribbon and Grand Champion honors over these entries. (The pink crystal beaded necklace was my entry.) The pendant had taken the other beaded work class honors over this monarch butterfly, which I thought was extremely nice.

Sorry, on the butterfly I was shooting through the glass. The fair section docent very readily offered to show the pink crystal beaded necklace (which I didn't need to see as it was mine) and the Grand Champion.

Still when it came to blue ribbons...I would trade my blue ribbon oatmeal and raisin cookies for this piece of blueberry pie!

Blue Ribbon Garden Boxes: Outside the Box

The Open class blue ribbon was posted on Wednesday's post. These garden box entries are from the Junior class.

I didn't have the opportunity to take in the judging on these. How does a judge decide? In some cases it was more obvious, nicer tomatoes, potatoes more the same size. Sometimes, I think, it was the selection. Maybe the judge is just not a fan of the whole squash/cucumber/zucchini group.

I guess if I was judging I would like to see potatoes, a zucchini, and tomatoes in the box, but after that I'd go for color. It seems the judge here did not like the boxes with peppers. With the heat this summer, anyone can grow peppers must be the judge's thinking.

I wanted to enter this, but just ran out of time. My box would have probably rattled the judges. I would have included blue potatoes (they really are a very purple blue, not the least bit red and stay that way when you cook them!), 'Red Norland' potatoes (the color with the blue is exquisite, but probably would have lost me points with the judges for having two potato types), 'Amana Orange' heirloom tomatoes (these would have lost me points too, because they have large blossom scars, big shoulders and are not very uniform in size when ripe, but ORANGE!), and edamame (edible soybean, the plant displayed with the root like they do at green markets in Asian ethnic markets, which I'm sure would startle the judges). For the last two slots, I would have a hard time deciding between red sheepnose pimento peppers, cape gooseberries, a purple cabbage, yellow crookneck summer squash, or some pickling cucumbers.

I probably would not have won, but it sure would have been colorful!

Next year!

If You're a Dog Person, THIS is So Funny!

I was going to do a post today on the garden boxes at the Waushara County Fair. I'm going to postpone that and interrupt our normal garden chatter with hilarity found at this dog-shaming blog.

Now, I would never put Faithful Companion up for public shaming. When she does something she thinks was bad she usually knows it and walks around with a hang-dog face (ears down and sad-eyed).

To her credit, she has never eaten a shoe, destroyed a pillow, unrolled an entire roll of toilet paper, or peed on another dog's head.

She does think it is her JOB to bark at every passer-by, keep Handsome Son on his toes when he is eating, and encourage Mom to "share" her plate as weight-control coach.

Here she is keeping watch and supervising Mom in the garden.

Waushara County Fair 2012 Vegetable Round Up

(This is the Open Class winner for best garden box.)

Each year I go to the county fair and take special note of those vegetables which the judges award blue ribbons.

Last year, 'Celebrity' tomatoes were hands down the big winner in a wet and cool summer. This year, nary a single plate of 'Celebrity' showed up. I think I know why. They may like it cool and wet, but in hot dry conditions they are subject to cracking shoulders and blossom end rot. Oh, I know the blossom end rot thing has to do with seedling's tiny root hairs drying out and thus limiting the uptake of calcium; however, I feel some tomatoes are just prone to that. Meanwhile, in the family garden, the heirloom 'Olpaka' keeps on keeping on. This is the bread and butter, the meat and potatoes, of all our summer sauces, salsas, and sun-dried tomatoes. It is a Roma-style tomato and has done well in hot (that should be underscored and bolded) and dry years. And, last year while we prepared to be swept away by flood did equally as well.

This year's red tomato county fair winner was 'Big Beef'.

I try and make special note of any winners of vegetable I don't grow that maybe I should or vegetable varieties which I seem to have a hard time growing. Onions is one of these I can't seem to get to any size, no matter how much research into day length varieties I do and best onions for our area. It seems the winners jump around from year to year, too.

This year the blue ribbon in Open Class went to 'Savannah Sweet', a short day variety. Now, I'm clueless, because supposedly we are supposed to be growing long day varieties here in central Wisconsin.

I entered the summer squash category and mine got 4th. Getting a ribbon of any type in Open Class is all good. The winner and I both grew the same variety to the same size, but mine growing where I grow them, always have these bumps, obviously the winner should not.

This is one entry that totally amazed me. I didn't think 'Hungarian Wax' peppers turned red.

This year, was, I think, a poor year for sweet corn.



The winner was 'Ambrosia'.

There was no amaranth or edamame on display. No one entered any blue potatoes, which have done so well for us in the family garden, as to make my brother comment we should skip the white potatoes because of their attraction for the Colorado potato beetles, versus the blue ones which were nearly pest free in our non-pesticidal, no Spinosad garden.

No one ventured too far outside the "garden box" to enter golden beets or seedless grapes (We grow 'Reliance'.)

The two grand champions of the vegetables this year were a humongous watermelon and in a year where I have heard garlic did poorly from many people, this plate of garlic.



Tomorrow, I review what was in those garden boxes; what is supposedly the best variety and specimens your garden has to offer.

Dutchman's Pipe

It starts out pretty simple at first, like hearts on a string, but be careful where you put it...

because if it is happy Dutchman's pipe can be the the kudzu of the north!

Here it is covering (beautifully) porch on the north side of a house in Stevens Point, WI.

Remember, many parts are toxic, causing kidney failure and uterine cancers.

Cape Gooseberries 'Aunt Molly'

Okay, I just finished off a bowl of the marketed name "golden berries" with my coffee. They were the plate of gooseberries I entered in the county fair in their neat natural papery individual wrapping. I entered them in the category "other vegetable not listed above". In this category, there were some nice looking green beans (wax beans being the traditional bean category), and rhubarb. I lost out to the nice looking green beans. I don't think the judges awarded the couple of rhubarb entries any placement.

If I was choosing gooseberries or beans for breakfast, my choice would be the gooseberries. If the judges had actually tasted the beans and the gooseberries, they may have agreed, especially if they has tasted them as part of Sister-in-Law's gooseberry pineapple (gluten-free) crumble!

This leads me to my next thought, everyone grows green beans. Green beans are plentiful in the shopping aisles. Try finding some gooseberries.

I can understand the reasons why gooseberries are not commercially produced. With their low, ground-hugging branches and fruit that is ripe when it falls to the ground; harvesting them mechanically is a beast. This is all the more reason home gardeners should include them in their backyard (or front yard) gardens.

In their papery husks their shelf life, literally just sitting in a bowl on the counter, is 2 to 4 weeks. What other garden veggies, other than squash and pumpkins, can make that claim?

They are so sweet, they easily fill that void for annual fruit in the garden. Raspberries, grapes, and apples take time and some expertise to get going. Cape gooseberries are easier than tomatoes.

Sister-in Law and I have a few ideas about how to make harvesting quick and easy which we will try next year in the family garden. No, we aren't going to hang them in the Topsy Turvy Tomato bags. We have found growing them next to eggplant and potatoes keep the Colorado potato beetles at bay. And, as there are no selected cultivars, I may attempt some seed selection based on size of berries (typically about 3/8" of an inch in diameter) or branching formation. The plants I grew this year came from seed saved from the two cold hardiest of our plants. Last year we had what we thought was a killing frost on May 26, 2011. Two plants grew back out of the twelve we planted. Last year, they were half the size of the behemoths that loved the heat this year.

So looking for something new for your garden? Look no further!

Blue Ribbon Shortcake

Hey, I won!

Yes, as my brother asked, I AM touting my own expertise, blowing my own horn! I did win. I entered four categories in the Open class baking and no matter how many entries there are, they only give out one First Place Award. And, if the judges feel there is no worthy candidate, they don't have to award the first place at all.

I took First Place on three of my four entries; rolled baking powder biscuits, oatmeal raisin cookies, and the shortcake featured here.

Too bad, so sad you chocolate chip cookies, sucks to be you; mine did not place. :(

I come from a long line of excellent cooks. Unfortunately, they were not the sort of people who would willing pass along a great recipe, not even to their granddaughter! They took their recipes to their graves, the ultimate in miserly behavior.

So said, I have never taken a cooking class, nor do I have fond memories of cooking with my mother, or grandmothers. Mostly, I was chased from the kitchen as being "in the way."

By the way, this is not something happening this generation. As nerve-wracking as it can be I bake with the three-year-old twins once a month. They each have their own bowl and they spend a lot of time tasting as we go. (As crazy as it makes me, as I am a totally food safety type of girl, to the point my dear brother considers it a character flaw.)

This lack of sharing is sad from another aspect. My 80-year-old father has said on more than one occasion that he craves his mother's pumpkin pie. I think the craving is stronger after his deceased mother's birthday each year, on October 10. I have often thought to find some antique recipes from early past century, sit down with his remaining sister and see what I could come up with. I have a feeling, though, that the recipe was a little of this and a bit of that.

How can you duplicate something like that?

Working in restaurants is where I have learned most of my cooking skills, but I have never been vindicated as baking good food. The best I get from family is a "keep practicing" or those were "okay".

So anyway... feeling more generous than my family, I am sharing one of the few recipes my mother makes and for which I received a blue ribbon at the Waushara County Fair this year. I don't see this scattered around the Internet so if you like it, bookmark it!

My Mother's Shortcake

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix:
2 C. flour
1/4 C. sugar
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt

Cut in until pea-sized or smaller:

1/8 cup vegetable shortening
1/8 cup butter


Add:

1/2 C. milk, 2%
3/8 C. heavy cream

Drop in 2" by 2" lumps on a cookie sheet. This recipe makes 7 shortcakes. (Yeah, I acknowledge, that's weird; especially given there were EIGHT of us in the house when I was growing up.)

Bake about 15 minutes. I pull them out when they appear dry and have golden brownish tips.

Face-off at the Waushara County Fair: 2012

In an empty cage next to the second place bunny we have an also-ran putting up a "big front".

And, in farming country, guess what? The tractor cake always wins!

First.

Second.

Third.

More from the Waushara County Fair next post.

Stick It to...the Gardener?

(Do you see that "attractive" green watering stand hiding behind the green PVC stick thingee? Clever!!)

Crap! I hate it when this happens. You deal with the weeds only to have these PVC thingees pop up everywhere in beautifully planted bedding annuals. I like a shot of color, a painted chair, a vibrant pot, but these stick thingees?

Recycle 'em!

Allen Centennial Gardens is usually my favorite garden visit of the year. I seldom make the trip to the UW-Madison campus to take in the Allen in spring. Once I went in winter; they have a remarkably diverse pinetum for a garden that covers less than two acres. I typically get there late summer or fall.

This year though, I could have skipped my visit.

Okay, we've been in a severe drought. We need to water. It can be inconvenient to lug tripod and hose around. I understand. But it was 4:30 PM, and not a gardener in sight. But there were plenty of these, just standing around.

It was hard to frame a shot without all the other non-garden items. It was downright distracting.

Not only did the watering regimen and the sticks stick it to me, but there were major areas of bare ground (in August?) with this sign:



And then, because of the drought, irregardless of the watering schedule, there were dead, dying, or missing plants.

And then, of course, they are sandblasting or tuck-pointing or doing some sort of restoration on the building, so there is scaffolding, but also we have a couple borrowed views like this.

Isn't this clever how the irrigation head on a pipe mimics the carillon bell tower in the distance? How nice to repeat and mimic shapes throughout the garden.

And this mortuary/funeral urn cemetery-looking display. "What'll ya' have on your tombstone!"



They were concerned about gardening in small spaces. But with this jumble and lackadaisical watering schedule, I'm not sure the yield that could be obtained from this.




And just to give you one more look at all those sticks:



I'm just not that into those sticks, Allen Centennial Garden folks!