Broccoli Rules

Early in our relationship Jill professed to a dislike of broccoli.  True story.  Until she had fresh-picked broccoli from the garden.  After-which she embraced broccoli as a delightful cruciferous vegetable.  I completely understand her original opinion as for her and most everyone else the options for fresh broccoli were quite limited. 

The reason supermarket broccoli can be mediocre (or downright awful) is that it is old.  Grown somewhere out west - say California - it is picked, packed, shipped by truck to a distribution hub.  After many days it is eventually delivered to the market and displayed in the produce section for any number of additional days before someone comes along and purchases it.  In a word it is OLD and STALE.  And as a consequence all of its natural sweet goodness has vanished into thin air.  Homegrown, freshly picked, tastefully prepared and eaten broccoli is terrific as it retains and holds all of its natural goodness.                            

Isn't that one of the most handsome heads of broccoli you've ever seen?  That's mine and it has been such a good year for garden broccoli that I had some extra to put-up in the freezer for a future date.  Fresh-picked and promptly frozen broccoli is pretty good too.  Here is how to do it.       

Break-apart your broccoli head into manageable florets and soak in a salty brine.  Organically-raised vegetables will sometimes harbor an insect or worm and this briny soaking will drive any critters out that might be lurking in a crevasse.  Drain the brine and soak and rinse twice in cold tap water.  In the meantime start of pot of water on the stove top to boil.                             

Drain your broccoli in a colander and introduce manageable amounts to the boiling water for no more than 30 seconds.  Immediately remove from the boil and plunge them into a sink of cold tap water. 

This process of scalding followed by immediate cooling (called blanching) places the plant's enzymes into suspended animation without loss of vitamins or taste.  It is critical not to cook the broccoli completely so keep the scald short and the return to the cold water bath immediately.      

Drain your broccoli in a colander (again) and scatter on a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper.  Place the sheet of broccoli in the freezer (uncovered) until each floret is frozen solid.  This takes less than an hour.               

Do not skip this step as your broccoli will continue to release gases if not frozen before packaging.         

After the florets are solid - package in manageable portions and vacuum seal them with your FoodSaver®.               

Date the packages and keep frozen until ready to use.  When you are preparing stir-fry on a cold February afternoon you can enjoy your garden goodness when Ma Nature is hurling sleet and snow at your kitchen windows.

Night Sky

Time:Tue Jul 30 10:05 PM, Visible: 2 min, Max Height: 69°, Appears: 33° above NW, Disappears: 39° above E

click on image for a closer look

Totally clear skies tonight.

Noteable Quotable

If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.

-Lyndon B. Johnson

Mule

Last week this arrived...

A Kawasaki Mule - model 4010 Trans to be exact.

It is both rear and AWD, high and low range, a dump box, power steering, automatic transmission and seating for four adults.  Jill has wanted one for some time and while this doesn't sport any fancy chrome or doo-dads it  should be a valuable addition to our workforce.  Just like a mule.  The way I figure it when the ash around here begin to die I'll need something strong-enough to skid a log out of the woods and haul wood.  I'm even contemplating the installation of  winch for this type of work.

Plus you can use it to haul family around too. 

Nature is Your Friend

A few days ago I spoke of the early days here at The Platz and how Jill and I used to camp here.  Tent, rain fly, picnic table, fire ring, outdoor privy, solar shower - the whole shebang.  Those were good times. 

I recently gave the ancestral campsite a makeover - rebuilding the fire ring, brushing-out a clear spot for a tent and moving the outdoor privy and digging a new hole for it. 

Yesterday everyone came down to the site for a weenie roast including other campfire treats and grandson and I stayed overnight.

I have to say that this was fun.  I spun a few scary tales for the kid as we relaxed by the fire after everyone else returned to the house.  The stars were out in their fullest of glory and we both slept like logs.  Very early this morning we were greeted by the alarm call of a whitetail deer - Hey!  What are you doing here in my woods!





As the grandson would tell you - nature is your friend.

 

The Mighty Oak

One of my goals in retirement is to expand my observations of the natural world around me.  To be more cognizant of what is going-on and make an attempt to understand and learn from it. 

Some of you readers know that most of the forested cover here at The Platz was planted there by us.  Historically, we have a general idea of the pre-settlement forest cover from reading the surveyor field notes when the Government Land Office surveyors cruised thru here the winter of 1836.  The notes taken by Sylvestor Sibley indicated the presence of black ash, tamarack, cedar, hemlock, sugar maple, elm and other species.  Of course, with the arrival of European settlers the land was cleared for agriculture and the wildness tamed.  By the time it fell into our hands there wasn't a tamarack to be found.  They'd all be transformed into fence posts and shingles. 

We planted a large number of tamaracks because our soil types are well-suited to the species.  And both the tamarack and northern spruce  have since been repopulating other areas in the forest as the parent trees matured and produced seed.  This seed is subsequently spread by critters and seasonal weather events and we're experiencing natural forest regeneration.  If the deer numbers could be reduced the regeneration would be wildly successful.  I digress. 

In any event, among the trees we planted were thousands of oaks - white, bur, red and swamp white oaks.  Oaks are a valuable tree when you consider their wildlife benefits and future commercial use.  And while once in the past two-and-a-half decades I observed acorns on the bur oaks I haven't observed any since.  Then this happened this spring.  These have been showing-up. 

click on the tiny tree for a closer look

 

Swamp oak seedlings! 

Well, I'll be switched.  Those trees have been producing some acorns and I never took notice. 

Side Salad

I have a suspicion that about the time that January rolls-around I will not only be desperate for a sweet home-grown tomato I will also be ravenously despairing of fresh garden greens from wish to fashion a salad.

Like these....

click on the salad fixns' for a closer look

 

From left to right - Spinach. Simpson leaf, Red leaf and Jericho romaine.

Raising a toast to a fresh-picked garden salad.

Friday Music

This song was written by Graham Nash during a concert performance with Tom Jones.  Band members Tony Hicks and Allan Clarke wrote some of the lyrics.  It was recorded in the spring of 1967 at Abbey Road Studios.  In later years Nash revealed that he had composed the tune for Marianne Faithfull but was too shy to use her real name.  The studio recording I remember incorporated the use of steel drums which are conspicuously absent in this live version. 

Carrie Anne by The Hollies……

Shooting and Shucking

Basic marksmanship lessons...

And picking and shelling English peas...

Bathroom Reading

I was paying a visit to a friend and this is what she has in a bathroom for reading pleasure....

Acorns

One of the things I've endeavored to do in retirement is to pay closer attention to what's going on in the natural world around me. 

At the end of May I published a post about the large numbers of catkins hanging from the white oak tree in our yard.  As it turns out these are one of the flowers that are produced by the tree – the male flower to be certain. 

This species is monoecious – meaning that it produces both male and female flowers. Each male flower typically has six stamens (ranges from two to twelve) which have long spreading white filaments when the flower fully opens.  The female flowers are more reddish-green and appear as small slender spikes in the axils of new growth.   

My sources suggest that white oaks mature sufficiently at twenty or more years of age before they are capable of producing acorns.  Large numbers of acorns won't materialize until the tree is fifty years of age. 



This oak was planted 15 years-ago as a one or two year-old bare root seeding.  A mere fifteen inch stick. 

Looky what we got growing....

click on image to enlarge

 

Early Platz Life

Two and a half decades ago Jill and I spent much of our time here at The Platz living out of a tent.  No trailer, no house, no running water and no indoor plumbing.  We did have a tent, a tarp, a picnic table, a solar shower and a home-built pit toilet.  And we did just fine for a number of years.

Eventually, we purchased a park-model trailer home not too far away and ultimately built a house..  The ancestral campsite was largely forgotten and has fallen into disuse.  The picnic table remains in use - but on the edge of the drive at the house.

The grandkids arrive today and grandson has been promised a camping overnite with Opa.  As a consequence, I tidied-up the old campsite - cutting back enough space to pitch a tent, rebuilt the council ring and straightened-out some bends in the tripod that holds the grill.











Things cleaned-up rather nice I might add.

click on images for a closer look



BTW - that tripod is a homebuilt number that I cobbled-together in 1976 from electrical conduit, swing set chain, a Weber grill grate and some odd bits of hardware.  No complaints from the builder/customer as it's been weathering the elements here at the fire pit since the summer of 1994.

Update From the Butterfly Ranch

Some caterpillar had the brilliant idea to crawl into the machine shed when we weren’t looking and hang out.
As a consequence I found this young lady stretching her wings on the concrete floor when was putting the 4-Wheeler and some tools away.   

 
She’ll do better in the sunny and overgrown kitchen garden. 

Largest number of monarchs we’ve observed in years.

The Garden Chonicles

The garden took a beating with three huge storms and 2.5 inches of rain in the last 36 hours.

Following yesterday’s storms my first impression is that the sweet corn may be a total loss.

On the advice of a neighbor I gently propped the stalks back and supported them with every thin bamboo cane I had on hand.

click on the corn for a closer look

Yeah - it looks ugly but stay-tuned....

Thunder Month

The full moon we experienced last Tuesday sometimes called the Thunder Moon.  This is as a consequence of weather patterns in our hemisphere being the stormiest in the month of July.  None of this is a result of climate change – it’s just the way it’s always been. 

So far we haven’t experienced any particularly show -stopping storms but I did stumble across one from three  years ago that is worthy of sharing. 

lick on images for a closer look

 

Ordinarily I would not recommend standing on a wet porch in your bare feet during a lightning storm.  But the view of that stormy sunset was spectacular.    

And as the ruckus breathed its last gasp Ma Nature hurled some extra lightning bolts at the setting sun....

A Couple of the Local Guys

A pair of  bachelors sporting their new headgear.  I figure them for two-and-a-half years old.....

Friday Music

Born of the American rock band Guns N' Roses in 1987 it was released on their debut album - Appetite for Destruction – later in 1988.  The tune topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart to become the band's only number 1 US single.   This is a really fun cover of Sweet Child o' Mine…..

AI

If you’ve heard or read about technologies that use facial recognition, allow cars to drive themselves and systems that can detect cancers better than a human doctor you’ve heard about artificial intelligence or AI.     

China said in 2017 that it was laying the groundwork to become the global leader in AI by 2030.  And if you follow the money – by the end of that year 48 percent of all of the world’s AI venture capital went to China alone.  Startup companies in China raised $4.9 billion in 2017 from only 19 investments. In the United States $4.4 billion was raised from 155 investments. 

Several other advantages also belong almost exclusively to China in the realm of AI. The most significant is access to large amounts of data.  China doesn’t have the same respect for individual privacy as most countries and has made no secret of collecting data (including facial recognition) from its ginormous population.  I’m not suggesting that the US should surveil its citizenry like China does but it is worthy to take note of the fact that while the Trump administration says they have placed a priority on advancing AI technologies there has been no commitment to funding it. 

You can learn more here. 

Enjoy this short video showcasing AI and stay tuned…..

Yote!

A while ago I shared that the trail cams were offering-up some decent media content. Here's another helping.   

Shot a month ago these video shorts were taken during a downpour which would account for the sodden appearance of this canid.  While there is no audio component the camera did a nice job of capturing the action without spooking one of the more clever and wily predators around these parts.

You can learn more from this earlier post.

Raising a toast to the neighborhood yotes....

Sunset

click on image for a closer look

 

Whoa!

Almost missed this tonight.

Ma Nature really leaned into the orange part of the color pallet this evening....

Update From the Oriole Ranch

Just a few days ago the adult orioles began returning to the feeders - and they've included their fledglings.  

They’ve been away for about a month tending to their young that constitute the Class of 2019 recruits. Those babies have fledged and a diet of insect protein now includes generic grape jelly and expensive navel oranges.  

It's quite hilarious to observe these juvenile birds alight the feeder and then whine and squawk for mom or dad to feed them.  Seriously, they need to be fed as they haven’t learned to help themselves.   Sure, they can take flight yet they are the avian equivalent of toddlers at the dinner table.  Demanding toddlers too.  

click on images for a closer look

 

We’re going to enjoy these colorful visitors while we can.  They’re among the last of the migrating songbirds to arrive and the first to depart.   

Opened the 17^th jar of grape jelly today.  A new record.

July Full Moon

photo - NASA

The names associated with our full moons are frequently derived from the names given by the indigenous peoples that inhabited North America.  The tribes used a calendar to track the seasons by means of the names given to the return of a full moon.    

In the northern hemisphere July is the stormiest month of the year and for that reason the full moon that greets us tonight is called the Thunder Moon.  

This moon is also called the Buck Moon in recognition of the rapidly-growing, velvet-covered, antlers of the whitetail deer. 

With the arrival of European settlers two additional monikers come to mind:  the Meade Moon which coincides the harvest of honey used to ferment this drink and the Hay Moon as the first cuttings of fodder occur.      

You can learn more about the Full Moon here.

Money Shot

click on image for a closer look

 

As I’ve been saying the trail cameras have been serving-up some really nice digital content lately. I’ve been running my ‘trap line’ of trail cameras for a long time and on rare occasion something shows up that is what us wildlife enthusiasts call a ‘money shot’.  This is one is from June 30th at 6:33 AM.   

 

Early morning low light with a fawn and bird posing for a holy card. I was blissfully snoozing as a $99 Moultrie motion-activated camera did the heavy lifting.      

 

Walt Disney himself couldn’t have staged this with all the help from central casting and his animated studios.   

 

Raising a toast to the unpredictability of our natural world.

 

All photos posted here are the exclusive property of the publisher and are protected by copyright

Backyard Pharmacopia



Jill was off yesterday with her girlfriends for a second day of exploring  the peninsula so the girls and I did some exploring of our own – out back.  All quite convenient.  It was cooler than Saturday, a whiff of manure spreading in the air and enough breeze to keep the mosquitoes away.  It was a good day for a walk and take time to smell the wild flowers.     

 

 

Eupatorium perfoliatum – Boneset - a member of the aster family and is also related to Joe-pye weed.  Butterflies are attracted to its nectar.  It is also said that a tea made from its leaves has healing qualities.  For aficionados of the healing arts the plant is said to be useful for setting bones.  Today it continues in use as an emetic (induces vomiting), a treatment for the symptoms that accompany influenza and pneumonia and for joint pain.       

 

 

Achillea millefolium – Common Yarrow – another member of the aster family characterized by a flat, composite collection of small flowers and feathery, fern-like leaves.  This plant propagates by means of underground rhizomes.  The name is derived from Achilles who is said to have used the healing qualities of this plant to stem the bleeding from wounds during the course of the Trojan War.  Nowadays, this plant is used to treat coronary and cerebral thrombosis, reduce blood pressure and treat diarrhea.    

 

 

Echninacea purpurea – Purple Coneflower – yet another member of the aster family sporting a large flower head with droopy petals.  Native Americans and early settlers used parts of this plant to treat all manner of complaints ranging from the mundane like coughs, colds and tooth aches to snake bite and gonorrhea.  It persists in our modern pharmacopeia as a stimulant to the immune system.      

It was only afterwards as I composed this post that our walk was actually a small tour of folk remedies and the modern healing arts.  Who knew?. 

The most amusing part was the air of stoic indifference the elderly black Lab demonstrated in the face of the dive-bombing protestations of a redwing blackbird.

Cuteness

The resident trail cameras have ben churning-out a steady inventory of nice wildlife photos. And as a consequence I wish to continue with a weekly dose of whitetail cuteness. 

 click on images to enlarge

 

I have no idea what spooked this fawn but there is absolutely no mistaking the athletic leap and characteristic flag of that white tail as an alarm response.  This photo is courtesy of our Snapshot Wisconsin DNR trail cam. 

 

 

We’re on the second of a double handful of cool wildlife shots.  I may be using them all at my own blogging peril.  

 

Stay tuned....

 

The Hiatus of the Orioles

Our orioles - or perhaps more accurately the resident orioles - have been away for about a month's time.

Among the last of the migrators to arrive they show-up, gorge themselves on generic grape jelly and expensive Florida oranges and then - POOF!  Exit, stage right.  They're gone.  Our feeders have been neglected of late.  For sure there have been some exceptions - with both sexes returning at first and last light to feed sporadically before vamoosing into the gathering or dwindling shadows.  And this would include both species - the bold, big and colorful Baltimore oriole and the more muted-of-plumage and diminutive orchard oriole.  Orioles have a proclivity to return to the same location that they have fledged.  Not the same nest - but the same general area year after year.  I freely offer this as my rationalization for refer to them as 'our orioles'.  Yet we all know that they are everyone's orioles.  No matter where they may roost.  I digress.

They're back.

In the last 24 hours (in keeping with the journal and only slightly behind schedule) the adults have returned to the feeders.  The next to appear should be their fledglings.  For those of you a parallel or several south of us you've likely already observed this behavior.  Here, on the peninsula, we have been slightly behind as a consequence of a very cold and wet spring. 

These juvenile birds will alight on a feeder and whine and complain about mom or dad not feeding them some jelly. It's all really quite pathetic to watch - yet having been around children of the human persuasion I get the connection between species. 

In any event I'm going to strap another camera to a porch post to see if I cannot catch a photo or two of the dinner drama.

Stay tuned...

Asian Trip For Donald Trump

I stumbled over this yesterday and it is so incredibly stupid funny I had to share.  Donald Trump jokes-around with other world leaders at the G20 Summit before a short hop to North Korea to visit his pal "KJ".

Enjoy....

Rolling Stones

We relocated the Council Ring last year to be closer to the house. Not too close though. Nevertheless, there is easier access to a ready water source, folding chairs and the adult beverage fridge in the garage.    

With the grandkids scheduled to visit soon I figured I best accelerate my plans to tidy-up the fire pit.  Yesterday I burned some scrap wood to clear the weeds and create a ‘clean palette’. Today I rebuilt it from scratch.  I used the loader on the tractor to move three very large granite boulders to a safe location for Jill to use somewhere else.  I also used the loader to move some rocks to this location.  Other than that I moved the stones by means of rolling and lifting into place.  Hot, hot work.     

It is both larger and more symmetrical (round).  The inside is four feet across and the flat rocks on the right are a platform for my cast iron Dutch oven. I have a vision of Dutch oven pizza or Blazing Saddles baked beans in my future.       

Materials were free as peninsula rocks are unlimited.

Gift of the last glaciation.