Dogs like Lefse

Who knew little Maggie liked lefse? Apparently she has Scandinavian genes just like her Mamom!

The Great Late Blight of 2009

This year I planted 19 tomato plants in our garden. Six of them were from the local nursery and the other 13 I started from seed. I’ve been looking forward to a huge harvest for months now, and was really excited when the fruit started ripening a couple of weeks ago.

Then we went to Maine for a long weekend. When we came back, I found that about half the plants had the late blight. And so I had to pull all of them out of the ground and put them in a trash bag. I’m not quite sure what to do to the soil to make it okay for tomatoes again next year – it’s still a little too raw for that.

Not sure what the late blight is? Well, it’s the disease that caused the Irish Potato Famine. It’s a bugger to get rid of, particularly if you want to use organic methods. It can take out the entire crop in a few days, which is why I pulled mine out. It’s a fungal disease, and it’s airborne. I pulled all mine out also because I don’t want to infect my neighbors (although it’s likely too late for that).

The late blight has been a horrible problem in the northeast this year. The trifecta of lots of rain, cool temperatures, and a whole slew of infected plants that got shipped from southern growers to big-box stores (and sold) made ideal conditions for this to thrive. Not only did I lose my 19 plants (sob!) but my CSA lost their entire crop of tomatoes. As in, none of the 300+ CSA shares get tomatoes this year. This is the same CSA that gave out 10+ pounds to each shareholder multiple times last summer. Devastating.

Not sure if you have the blight? Check out these great resources, and if you DO have it, bite the bullet, pull up the plants, and trash them. Don’t compost them. Trash them. It sucks, but better to get rid of it now than continue to infect your neighbors and farmers.

Our tomato plants – all 19 of them (plus 2 sunflowers).

Dying stalks and leaves.

Telltale browning/blackening of the stems.

About 2/3 of the harvest (at least the tomatoes didn’t succumb, but now HOLY CRAP we have a lot of green tomatoes.)

Bagged, ready to be tied and trashed.

So sad….

This is the hand that planted the tomatoes, and it’s the hand that pulled them up.

Magic Hat Beer Cap Wisdom

Magic Hat Brewery has “fortunes” on every bottle cap. I’ve saved all mine this summer – don’t think there’s a duplicate in there yet. Here’s my compilation of wisdom:

• Suck the toe of Edgar Allen Poe
• Never Flee from Glee
• Jinx! Buy me a Beer.
• a good man drinks a good beer
• Reference the greats
• Don’t Tease, aim to Please
• Make your Move to Improve your Groove
• A beer in the hand is worth 2 in the fridge.
• No matter Where, you’re always There
• If you are reading this, thank a brewer
• Herbert the Pervert likes Sherbet
• Originality is hard to duplicate
• You’re a Winner!
• Find the Way through Play
• What could be Better than a beer with Eddie Vedder
• Life is Not a Dress Rehearsal
• Those who Race miss life’s Grace
• HI!
• It’s still Home if you’re Alone
• Visit alternative destinations
• It can be Great to Agitate
• Bottled with Care by Rob, Chrissy, and Crew
• Beware the Bore Behind the Door
• The Answer is inside You
• A Magic Brew or two may lead you to the loo
• Kindlessness = Mindlessness
• How did You get like This?
• Don’t Throw Stones at Other’s Bones
• Don’t Plunder the Wonder
• Don’t Rely on those who won’t Try
• Do not Quibble with Iskabibble
• Travel Wide but not to Hide
• I Have What I Want
• Don’t throw a Can at a good looking Man
• You are next in line
• It’s Easy to Talk and Say nothing at the Same
• The root of Pretension is Apprehension
• Magic is Where you Make it

Notes: I had a lot of help drinking these. Punctuation and capitalization were copied exactly.

Stuffed!

It’s funny, you know, that I rarely get overstuffed at the actual Thanksgiving meal, but always find myself feeling a little sick after breakfast the next day. But oh how I love our day-after-Thanksgiving breakfast of turkey, potato, and veggie hash with an egg on top, and toast on the side. So much so that I always eat too much of it. Today was no exception.

Tonight we’re off to have dinner out with my folks, and perhaps we’ll catch the Holidazzle parade. Depending on how much we all feel like being outside at night… And tomorrow we go back to Boston. It’s been a quick trip, but a good one.

Craving

All of a sudden I have a craving for a hamburger from Ziske’s Grocery Store. This is problematic on two levels.

1. I am in Boston, Ziske’s is (was) in Aitkin, MN.
2. Ziske’s is no longer in the hamburger-making business (see #1).

But oh, those hamburgers! The counter ladies at Ziske’s cooked them to perfection on a grill that was always clean, but perfectly seasoned from years of making burgers and frying onions. Whenever I used to go in, there were at least 2 or 3 farmers at the counter, wearing feed hats, shooting the breeze with each other and the cooks. I’d get a burger with onions (a cheeseburger if I was feeling adventurous) and whatever my mom wanted (this was in the days when she worked at the Patchwork Shop, a fabric store that was a couple of blocks away). They’d wrap up the burgers in waxed paper, and put them in a brown paper bag. By the time I’d get back to the store, the grease would have seeped through the waxed paper.

Casey’s here in Natick comes close to those burgers, but it’s just not the same without the farmers.