TROUTS
LATEST PHOTOS
March,
2010
– Issue #106
Celebrating
the advent of Spring in all its forms
AT PLAY
AND AT WORK
Bob unwraps our
new board from Mr. Crokinole
on the second day of the month. Our next door neighbor Adam wears a smile
and one of Chris’s work shirt for work at Piedmont Biofuels.
FOOD AND
FUEL
According to plan,
we threw in with folks who know how to grow food and make fuel. These
photos were taken less than 100 paces from our back door mid month on a
blue-skied day. The greenhouse is part of Edible
Earthscapes Farm where we get much of our produce and the cob building,
otherwise known as the Tami Tank, is where we fill up our Mercedes with
biodiesel made at Piedmont
Biofuels.
ONE OF
THOSE “AHHHHHH” MORNINGS
It was a beautiful
day and we made the most of it by going on a walk with our neighbors. More
photos on this page: Walk to Abeyance with Jason and Haruka
GETTING
AFTER IT
Camille decided to
see what would happen if she cut the pampas grass down. Spot looks a
little nervous about losing part of his savanna shelter. Bob recommended
we leave one alone and while at first, Camille was gung ho to take down both,
soon realized how very difficult this job was. Armed with a cane knife,
rope and tarp, she tied the monster up and then hacked at it.
We’re still
looking for the answer to an easy way to trim these monsters back. A week
later, friend Lisa brought over her chain saw to see if it would work on the
second clump but all it did was pull the grass into the chain. The
neighbor trimmed his much smaller pampas grass plant with a weed whacker and it
looks as if more than a few people burned theirs.
PERENNIALS
AND ANNUALS
Bob plants some of
the perennial flowers Susan Harris generously shared with us into a bed on the
sunny side of the pole barn and has started tomato seedlings under lights in one
of our back bedrooms.
SEED SAVER
Bob plants pepper
seeds on March 17. He saved seeds from three of our favorites – Togabo,
Pimento and Shishito peppers.
SMALL
WONDERS
Spring is the best
time of the year to see lots of baby critters, including this hungry lamb and
precious bunny. More photos here: Barnyard and Field – Spring Babies
SUNKEN
GARDENS OF MONCURE
Little by little
Bob is turning an old swimming pool into a container garden. Stay tuned
for more on this metamorphosis. This month we fenced out the deer and
began harvesting leaves to use as mulch and soil amendment. We’re also
doing battle with ants and other critters that would make their home in
ours. Bob works for Ecoblend,
the manufacturer of organic pesticides and herbicides and this product is
extremely effective on ants.
BRADFORD
PEAR
A beautiful pear
tree blooms in our front yard and attracts pollinators from near and far.
DO BEE
DANCE
Two bees enjoy the
rites of spring on a window screen. Bob poses in the setting sun on our
front lawn on March 24 with Spot and the pear tree in the background.
Camille mowed the grass earlier on this day. This was the first mow of the
season and she was quite proud of her work.
CLOSING
GUANTANAMO
Lyle donated his
time, truck and pallet jack to help Bob move the last of his garden otherwise
known as Guantanamo from Oilseed. They will become part of the Sunken
Gardens of Moncure.
The right tools
for the job help immensely but there was still quite a bit of muscle powered
involved in moving the dirt (and plant) filled containers onto the lift gate and
down the payment.
COUNTY
SEAT ON FIRE
On Thursday, March
25, Camille heard sirens as fire trucks rushed past their home on their way to
town. Minutes later, Bob called from town to report there were smoke
billowing from the top of the 129-year old Chatham County Courthouse in the
center of Pittsboro. It will take many months before this historic
building is restored.
FIRE
STARTER
Bob uses a butane
lighter to burn down the dead native grass and encourage new growth. Which
is akin to what happened with the courthouse although in that case, the fire was
not intentional. He captured some very nice photographs.
Smoke and flame
rise above the container garden behind the plastic pot which melted a little
from the flames.
IN SEARCH
OF SOME GOOD POO
We joined Jason
and Haruka on a Manure Run to Nancy’s alpaca farm
on a chilly Sunday afternoon. Click on the link for the rest of the story.
MUSTARD
GREENS – CHALLENGE TURNED EPIPHANY
Every challenge is
an opportunity for an epiphany. Camille wasn’t sure what these were or
what to do with them but after doing a little reading, chopped them up and added
them to sautéed onion. She then added the rest of the greens from CCCC’s
Land Lab CSA and a new method for processing greens was born.
Now Camille cooks
up the greens as they arrive in the house, starting with an onion and the
sturdier greens and finishing with the lighter, more fragile greens. A
little peanut oil and a couple of tablespoons of tamari (or soy sauce) are all
that’s needed. No more whining over space in the refrigerator or freezer
and there are always vitamin packed greens ready to reheat and eat.
THIRD
GENERATION SEED BECOMES A GINGERED BISQUE
Bob handed out
seed to his sustainable agriculture students that he saved last year from one of
our enormous crook necked pumpkins. Related to the Butternut squash, these
are tasty and have relatively few seeds. The 2008 pumpkin plant was
grown from seed that came from a pumpkin we bought in Texas in 2007. This
year our pumpkins didn’t do so sell and we didn’t get a harvest. But this
month, Bob went to visit Windy
Meadows Farm and Gerry gave him a pumpkin he grew from the seed Bob had
saved.
Camille roasted
the buttery fleshed squash, cut up a couple of pounds of succulent carrots, sautéed
an onion and added coconut milk, veggie broth, ginger, salt, cayenne and a bit
of cilantro to make a delicious soup. She then turned it into to bisque
using the immersion blender wand and served it with rice and salad.
Photo of Camille
with 2008 Pumpkin from Guantanamo at Oilseed
Photo of Bob
with 2007 Pumpkin in Texas
THIS MONTH’S QUOTES:
“We don’t intend that the
pursuit of personal wealth should lead to the bankruptcy of an entire nation,
but bankrupt we are.” – Curtis White
There is a giant misunderstanding
of capitalism by people who hate it. They see it as a perpetual machine
producing dollars and profits that they can skim, tax and take. They have
an ingrained hatred for the pursuit of profit and they have a double ingrained
hatred for the people that make a profit.” – Rush Limbaugh” If people
are just left alone, a recession cannot happen in and of itself,” he
explained. “The whole point of people engaging in commerce is growth.”
“The forces of a capitalist
society, if left unchecked, tend to make the rich richer and the poor
poorer.” – Jawaharlal Nehru
“No social system in any
country will bring us happiness, health, and prosperity unless it is inspired by
something greater than materialism.” – Clement R. Attlee
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