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Post by chrysanthemum on Dec 10, 2022 16:13:31 GMT -6
Broccoli is one of my favorite vegetables, though the way I like to eat it might seem a bit peculiar to most people. I don’t know where I got the idea, but ever since my childhood I’ve eaten steamed broccoli florets dipped in a little bit of Dijon mustard. For years our family was not able to eat broccoli because it’s very high in natural food chemicals to which one of my children has sensitivities. As he has gotten older and larger, we’ve been able to add it some foods that we had to restrict when he was small, and broccoli is one that we eat from time to time. The broccoli that I’m growing this year is a hybrid variety called “Green Magic.” The local extension office has recommended varieties for the area, and that one was on the list and easy to find when I was getting seeds, which is pretty much why I chose it. I think I successfully grew a couple of heads of it late last winter, and then I started a few more plants at the end of this summer. Just yesterday I noticed that two of the three are starting to form little heads. When these plants were small, I kept them under wire wastebaskets and that did seem to help protect them from cabbage worms since the moths couldn’t get in to lay their eggs. I had to remove the baskets weeks ago, and the moths have found the plants. So far I’ve been able to keep up with dealing with the worms by hand, but you can see where they’ve definitely had a chance to feast at times. Thankfully the plant is big enough that it can handle some of that damage. I’m excited about the prospect of getting to eat some fresh broccoli later this month, and I’m hopeful that cooler weather coming in next week will help to reduce the worm pressure. I love homegrown broccoli, but worms are definitely a downside.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Dec 10, 2022 17:54:07 GMT -6
That is a beautiful sight, Chrysanthemum. It reminds me of the Autumn that I spent in Upper State New York, (about 3 miles South of the Canadian Border) where they grew broccoli commercially. After the harvest, when the first, light snows of October fell, they'd let rural people glean the fields. It was pretty neat to be able to harvest freshly grown broccoli right after a 4" to 6" inch snow.
They'd grow carrots up there for cattle feed. It was a common sight to see freshly harvested carrots piled 6' feet deep along the muddy roadside, as farmers with tractors pulling farm wagons hauled them from their fields to the dairy barns to store them for winter.
That part of the Country is a whole other world, after having worked in downtown, Newark, New Jersey. We lived North of the Adirondacks, just South of the Saint Lawrence Seaway. The pay up there wasn't much, but I gladly traded good wages for the experience of spending so much quality time in that rural setting.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Dec 11, 2022 7:13:16 GMT -6
My mom grew up on the other side of Lake Champlain in Vermont close to the Canadian border. I can remember her telling me that they ate a lot of cabbage because that was a crop that grew well up there and stored well. I seem to recall her telling me that they ate cabbage for breakfast.
I’ll have to ask my mom if she’s familiar with growing carrots for use as cattle feed. Her father ran a small dairy when she was a young girl.
I have never lived in a true downtown urban environment such as what you’d find in Newark, New Jersey, nor have I lived in a truly rural, agricultural area. My life has pretty much been spent in suburbia, more or less crowded to various degrees. I definitely prefer the more rural end of the spectrum..
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Dec 11, 2022 21:43:54 GMT -6
Chrysanthemum,
Your Mom was very fortunate to have grown up in that area for sure. There were a lot of Pennsylvania Dutch in that part of the Country. Some of the best food I've ever eaten was served in the local diners in rural Upper State New York. Cabbage was on just about every menu.
The most beautiful Autumn colors I've ever experienced were seen along the shores of Lake Champlain. We lived between Malone and Chateaugay, up North of the Adirondacks, if that helps any. I was working at Bare Hill State Prison. (Just down the road from Dannemora).
We were still wiring the prison when they moved 1,700 inmates in on us. It was an 80-acre compound, so it was sort of like building a small city There. We were behind schedule, due to heavy snowfall and didn't even have the fire alarms working in the kitchen or in the RHU yet.
What an experience that turned out to be. One day, we were a month or so out from our deadline, when the State just decided to move in one Friday afternoon and told us that on Monday morning, we all had to be fingerprinted, UA Tested, and be able to pass an FBI background check. There were roughly 60 men on the job that Friday. I think only 8 or 10 of us actually showed up for work again on Monday morning.
Half the men working on jobs like that are only manning those remote outposts because they're on the run from the law. All those guys skedaddled.
I was there with a skeleton crew in the Fall and Winter of 1988-1989 finishing the last few details on the long punch-list of things we had to have done.
I don't miss the wind and -28° F. mornings there, but I do miss the scenery and the 'folksy' rural communities. It was like living inside a Norman Rockwell painting every day. The snow was so deep there that many people would just pull sleds to the grocery store, rather than braving the slick streets. I'd see kids walking to school each day with snow piled so high between the sidewalks and the streets that all I could see of them were the fuzzy, yarn-pom-poms on the tops of their stocking hats as they went bustling by.
On bright, sunny days it was a beautiful, snowy, blue-sky, wonderland, but look out if there was ever a storm!
I remember looking at the digital thermometer in front of a local business one day while reading the -2° F. number and watching some poor lady trying to push her grocery cart across the parking lot adjacent. The wind was blowing so hard that her feet were sliding backward as she tried to walk forward. It looked like a Michael Jackson dance move. I took a picture from inside the truck, but when it was developed it just looked like a woman pushing a grocery cart. A still photo did it no justice.
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Post by FrostyTurnip on Dec 12, 2022 1:03:08 GMT -6
Nothing better than broccoli florets sprinkled with olive oil and perfectly carmelized in the oven.
Ron your post reminded me that two weeks ago we lost a couple thou worth of tools out of the shop. They stole the trail cam off the tree.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Dec 12, 2022 14:19:36 GMT -6
Frosty Turnip, That is very frustrating to hear. Thieves are pretty good about stealing cameras.
From wiring so many security cameras at Newark International Airport, the New York State Pen, the Tulsa County Jail, Jess Dunn Correctional Center, and Georgia Pacific, I know that people can't tell the difference between a live one and a dead one.
That's why I took a 2x4 block of wood years ago, carved it out to be an exact replica of a Browning Trail Cam, and used acrylic paint to paint the lens, the hinged side latch, a mossy oak camo job, and the Browning Logo on the front.
When I was done, I drilled a 1/4" inch hole all the way through it and mounted it on a tree with a 3" inch lag bolt. I posted a sign there that read. "I'm watching you." (I wanted someone to try to steal it). Only no one ever did. It's still hanging right where I mounted it and no one throws their trash out in front of it anymore.
For $8.00 at Harbor Freight, I bought a few fake cameras that have flashing LED lights inside that run off of AAA batteries. I mounted those to a brick building, about 8' feet off the ground, using 1 1/2" TapCons. (They're not coming off). I used the same type of anchors to mount a sign that says, "Cameras in Use"
I've had people walk by and tip the end of the cameras up, thinking they'll not film the parking lot, so I guess they work pretty good too. I just drive by there ever so often and tip them back down. So far, that has stopped all the graffiti and nonsense that was going on out there at night. Who knows how, but the batteries in them have lasted for over a year.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Dec 12, 2022 19:33:25 GMT -6
heavyhitterokra, my mom probably was about two hours (by modern car) east of where you lived but at about the same latitude. She always used to tell me about the huge snowfalls they would have, and then I think they actually shoveled snow up against the sides of the house for insulation in winter. She also tells me that she and her siblings used to jump out of the second story windows of the farmhouse into the snow, and no one ever got hurt. I know folks traveled by sleigh in the winter to and from the one room schoolhouse that she attended up until eighth grade. At that point she had to leave home to go board in the city to attend high school. She was definitely rural. My mom wasn’t familiar with carrots as a cattle feed. She never saw that in her neck of the woods. She did confirm that cabbage was a major crop, though I don’t think there were Pennsylvania Dutch folks in her area so much. I forgot to ask her whether they grew broccoli in her childhood, and it was the growing of the broccoli in the north that got us into this whole discussion.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Dec 13, 2022 0:06:13 GMT -6
Working in Upper State New York was my first experience with snow drifting so deep that there was little distinction between the roofline of a house and the yard out front. Powder snow would regularly drift higher than the doors of buildings out there.
I remember riding on the back of the snow plow from the parking lot to our workstation, then jumping off the back of the plow into waist-deep snow, as we made our way toward the front door of the building.
Whoever got there first, had to dig the door out from under the snow drifts. Meltwater would always be a major problem inside the building. They often had puddles of water for several feet around each doorway.
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Post by amyinowasso on Dec 13, 2022 12:40:24 GMT -6
My dad went to a one room school, too, in Minnesota. His mom was the teacher. I felt bad for him going to school in the snow, til I found out the road ponies! I wanted a horse so much as a kid.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Dec 13, 2022 13:47:48 GMT -6
Nine flakes on a schoolyard brick and all the Okies stay home, horses included.
"In school the next day, you can always tell whose mama didn't go shopping before the dusting of snow hit because he's the one eating his bologna on a hotdog bun."
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Post by Tucson Grower on Dec 14, 2022 1:02:41 GMT -6
Broccoli used to be one of my favorite vegetables, and Brussels Sprouts one of my least favorites (which it still is). But more recently Cauliflower has taken the place of Broccoli, for me. I still like Broccoli, but if it's a choice, Cauliflower wins - especially the green, purple, and orange varieties.
I started in Martins Ferry, Ohio - part of an area called, "The Switzerland of Ohio". Some winters we'd have temps many degrees below zero F. Fortunately I left there when I was 4 years old, to return several times through the years, but usually only for the Spring and Summer.
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