What should we make of Tuesday’s October snowfall? Not much, I guess.
It was another day in the neighborhood, where melting snow delayed yard and garden work, and a final mowing with grass clipping collection.
It’s unclear whether further mowing will occur.
Weather has me turning inward. A technician is schedule to inspect our furnace, a pack of 9-volt batteries is ready to install in smoke detectors, and I bought a new snow shovel to replace the aluminum one that proved too flimsy.
I’m also prioritizing November reading.
October has been a great month for this blog with the most monthly views since I began blogging in 2007.
It’s time to take a breather before the rush to year’s end. After today’s shift at the home, farm and auto supply store, that what I plan.
Today’s edition of the Solon Economist hasn’t been posted on line. The paper copy will arrive with the letter carrier late today, although I may try to find one on the way to my shift at the home, farm and auto supply store.
Once I read the school board candidate questionnaire responses, I will have finished gathering most of the input to determine which two of six candidates for whom I’ll vote on Nov. 5. After determining my votes I’ll begin outreach to friends and neighbors asking them to vote with me. My initial canvass indicated many people don’t plan to vote this election. In a low-information, low-turnout election, that could be the difference in which candidates are the top vote-getters.
When writing about the election there is a line between public and private information. I’ve been diligent about keeping emails, phone calls and meetings private even if they help inform my choice of candidates. It would be unfair and wrong to disclose publicly what someone told me privately. I can see why journalists and responsible bloggers try to keep those separate.
Neither of the major newspapers, the Iowa City Press Citizen nor the Cedar Rapids Gazette, has provided much coverage of the election. There was an initial report after the filing deadline, but since then, nary a printed word. Because of that, readership of this blog, where I am covered major aspects of the campaigns, catapulted to new highs. The blog set records for number of page views of single post, daily, weekly and monthly statistics. Because of the school board articles my annual readership is the highest it’s ever been with 10 weeks left in the year. The number of views rivals my best days as a freelancer at the Iowa City Press Citizen.
I shouldn’t have to fill the gap in news coverage but that’s where this lands. I feel a responsibility to get the story right while knowing my point of view is influenced by living in the community since 1993. Because of relationships with friends and neighbors I have a deeper understanding of segments of our community. I work toward unbiased reporting while my academic studies indicated that’s not really possible. Every writer, including me, has some axe to grind.
Writing about the school board election includes fairness and presentation of accurate information. Without that, what’s the point? I’m working without an editor so I had a misstep or two, which were fixed as quickly as feasible. No one is perfect. I feel a responsibility to our community to create a reasonable narrative from diverse and uneven information from and about the candidates. It is not obvious what that narrative should be.
It has been my pleasure to interact with the six candidates during the last week or so. It takes courage to put one’s name in the arena of competitive elections. As I’ve written previously, there are no clinkers this cycle, only the challenge of securing facts upon which to make our decisions. Hopefully these posts contribute to that endeavor.
Thanks for reading. To view the series of posts, click on this link to the tag 2019 SSB Election.
Stage Crew Reunion, Coal Valley, Ill. Oct. 19, 2019
Over the weekend ten former members of our high school stage crew gathered for a reunion at a private home in Coal Valley, Ill.
I made apple crisp from backyard apples, picked up some sweet cider and a host gift of dessert apples at the orchard, and drove into the Mississippi valley.
It’s been decades since conversing with some of my friends. I didn’t know what to expect. The investment of time and energy yielded a positive return.
Spending time with a specific cohort is a little weird from the get-go. Most of my days are now spent either at home, or with a diverse group of peers whose ages range from teenager to octogenarian. All of us at the reunion had birth dates within a small range. I was the oldest.
In four cases attendees resembled other siblings closer to my age. Once I got through the kinship embarrassment we moved on to more positive topics. The afternoon into evening was a series of individual and group conversations set in different parts of the property, culminating in a potluck dinner and photo. There were a couple of takeaways.
As I drove through the Illinois side of the Mississippi toward the reunion I noticed high water from flooding. Some parts of Rock Island County have been flooded for more than 100 days according to one reunion attendee. On Sept. 27, Michelle O’Neil of National Public Radio reported the administration granted Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker’s request for a federal disaster declaration there. River flooding has been particularly bad in the county this year.
While our conversations were not “political” the way Facebook, Twitter and other social media are, we covered a number of politicians, including Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, and Governor Steve Bullock and Senator Jon Tester from Montana. I was pleased to hear Mike Matson won his Oct. 8 Davenport mayoral primary. The Elizabeth Warren bumper sticker on my vehicle went unmentioned and despite the fact most present live in Iowa, there was no discussion of the February 2020 Iowa caucuses.
A group gathered near the smoker where our host was preparing hot dogs and beans for the potluck. The conversation turned to answering the question “which types of medicine are you or have you taken?” It was a very long conversation, complicated by various maladies and medical conditions of group members. Taking only a lose-dose aspirin and a B-12 vitamin, by the end of the conversation I felt I had escaped something.
As we settled inside for dinner, the soundtrack was music that included drummer Ginger Baker who died Oct. 6. Four of us played together in a band during the early 1970s. Our set list included songs by Cream’s Eric Clapton.
The reunion was a reminder of the mostly male environment in which we attended high school. Only two female spouses were present, our host and another who came so the host wouldn’t be the only female in an otherwise male group. Until senior year our high school segregated men and women in different parts of the building. By being on stage crew and in my case, in chorus, we did see some of the women in our high school. As I went on to military service after college, the mostly male upbringing continued.
Our society doesn’t include many stage crew reunions. A lot of folks don’t attend more inclusive high school reunions. If our host Mike hadn’t been motivated to get the crew together this one wouldn’t have happened either. I’m glad it did.
Daylight remained as I drove into the driveway after a shift at the orchard.
If the garden appeared scorched by the previous night’s first frost, some tomato plants survived and the kale looked resilient.
The weather forecast is a couple of days without rain. I scheduled garlic planting for Tuesday when the ground should be dry enough. Fingers crossed I get a crop in this year.
I picked another bushel of fully ripened Red Delicious apples yesterday morning. This morning I used apples knocked down and damaged during the picking process to make an apple crisp for the county party’s fall fundraiser. In September I bought 30 aluminum food service trays for potlucks. This was the fifth one used.
We were busy at the orchard Saturday. Because of rainy weekends there is a pent up demand for the u-pick apple experience. I was tired at the end of my shift. I fixed eggplant Parmesan for dinner and could go no further. I was so tired I left the dishes to clean this morning. If there was any doubt, autumn has definitely arrived.
Hot peppers gleaned from the garden before the first frost.
When we had insufficient income to pay bills few errands were run.
We made almost no home repairs, delayed maintenance on everything, and minimized activities that required resources not on hand.
Now that our retirement income is set, and supplemented with a couple of extra jobs, I can afford to run errands. Yesterday I did so for the first time in a while.
The day began in the kitchen. Using onions and Swiss chard from the farm I made frittata for breakfast. Next, I sliced apples and filled the dehydrator. Sunday is the county party’s fall barbecue so I tested a recipe for applesauce cake to see if it would fit in the foil pans I bought for potlucks. The recipe fit without modification. In between this cookery I managed to glean the garden, bringing in peppers and tomatoes that would be damaged by frost. The kale looks really good right now and a freeze would make it taste better.
I cut five pieces of applesauce cake, put them on a plate, covered with foil, then delivered them to the public library while still warm. The librarian was making tea so the timing was perfect.
Next stop was the orchard where I hiked half an hour up and down hills, picking five varieties of apples: Regent, Crimson Crisp, Mutsu, Fuji, and New York 315. I also got some Snow Sweet and Honeycrisp in the sales barn. The season is about over yet there are lots of apples remaining on the trees.
From the orchard I drove to the recycling center in the parking lot of the former Hy-Vee supermarket on North Dodge Street. This is my go-to place for paper and magazine recycling. With our new clean-up project we are getting rid of lots of old magazines, too many for the curbside bin.
I pulled into nearby Hy-Vee where I bought organic celery and a packet of Morningstar Farms Recipe Crumbles for a pot of chili planned over the weekend. I’d been discussing nutritional yeast with one of the orchard owners so I bought a small container of Bragg’s brand to try it. The recipe we discussed was serving boiled or baked potatoes with a sprinkling of nutritional yeast and a dollop of yogurt. I’m now one step closer to trying it. They did not have the organic mayonnaise I sought, so I continued to Trader Joe’s.
Trader Joe’s is a store on the island that is the Iowa River Landing. This 180-acre mixed use development borders on the weird side. An arena is being built there and there are high rise apartment buildings, a hotel, a university-affiliated clinic and retail outlets. Despite having a range of activities, there is no sense of community at Iowa River Landing. I picked up two jars of organic mayonnaise and two of French Dijon Mustard. Staff was very friendly.
Westward to a big box home improvement store where I sought a replacement baseboard register for one of the bathrooms. Borrowing a tape measure from staff, I found the one I needed. On the way out I made an impulse purchase of a small bottle of 50:1 fuel mix for my trimmer. Expensive, but the right fuel is important for high-speed, small engines. My trimmer has been repaired twice since I purchased it so paying extra for proper fuel.
Final stop on the loop of the county seat was a drug store where I bought sundries, then drove home through three roundabouts and over two lakes.
Later that afternoon we went to the public library where Jacque delivered a book project she’d been working on as a volunteer and picked up the next. While she reviewed things with staff, I browsed the used book cart to see what was available.
I eschewed community cookbooks this time (how many of those can a person digest?) and bought good copies of a couple of works on my reading list. I also bought Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick and In Her Kitchen: Stories and Recipes from Grandmas Around the World by Gabriele Galimberti, the latter of which I read last night. What a marvelous book of women’s stories, recipes, and photos of the women with their ingredients facing a photo of the dish they created.
Moving from low wages to an adequate retirement income won’t make us rich, except in the ability to get out, run errands, visit with friends, and buy things we need to sustain our lives in a turbulent world.
The forecast calls for 32 degrees tonight so tomatoes and peppers need gleaning from the garden.
There aren’t many left, maybe enough to make the effort useful. While at it, I’ll pick apples I can reach as well.
It is the end days for this year’s garden.
My farmer friends have already been through their fields. They remind me the garden season is not over as kale and other greens, root vegetables, and some squash will continue to grow. They have high tunnels which extend the season. I’m in the fall share with one of them and look forward to seeing what we will receive on Monday.
Last night I made a burger that violated Anthony Bourdain’s instructions on keeping it simple. Using a veggie burger, I thawed a frozen bun leftover from a potluck in the microwave. Buttering it, I placed it butter-side down on the frying pan with the burger patty. When it toasted, I removed it from the heat and piled on mustard, ketchup, a tomato slice, lettuce and onions. It stood three inches tall when fully assembled and hit all the flavor notes. It was a positive, day-ending meal.
Political interests turn toward the school board. One incumbent and five other candidates are running for two seats in the Nov. 5 election. I don’t know any of them very well and plan to attend a forum hosted by the Solon Education Association and the Solon Parent Teacher Organization on Oct. 22. Being on the school board is a thankless, unpaid job that requires a lot of engagement. People are upset with the way the board implemented recent changes to collective bargaining law. It is important to make an informed decision.
On Our Own has become something of a public journal, especially since Mother died on Aug. 15. I’m not sure of the future direction, but for now it serves. There is a lot to engage us in a busy society. Some of that needs consideration for further understanding.
Despite the changing season there was local lettuce, bell peppers, radishes, kohlrabi and tomatoes to make a fresh salad with last night’s pasta dinner.
I made the pasta sauce with fresh tomatoes as well.
Red Delicious apples are at peak ripeness. As I picked another bushel under an azure sky, I couldn’t resist eating those I knocked to the ground. The variety is unjustly maligned… and delicious.
Three things stand out in the second half of 2019: coping with diabetes, Mother’s death, and increased political activity.
When I was diagnosed with type two diabetes on May 13 I reacted with a lifestyle change. I counted carbohydrates consumed, then in September added counting calories. At around 200 carbs and less than 1,800 calories per day, I shed 15 percent of body weight since May 6. While my daily numbers are not exact, they accomplished what we hoped. I also keep track of exercise and work toward getting at least a half hour done daily. On Aug. 19 my A1C had reduced from “diabetes” to “prediabetes.” I’m hoping to get a clean bill of health during my November doctor’s appointment, fingers crossed.
I haven’t processed Mother’s Aug. 15 death. I feel her absence yet I’m not sure what it means now or going forward. My own mortality is in relief. I want to phone her, but she’s not there.
My calendar is filling up with political work. I decided to support Elizabeth Warren in the Feb. 3, 2020 Iowa caucus. My Warren organizer provided tools to begin a precinct canvass. I look forward to making the initial contacts. The presidential race is only part of it.
U.S. Senator Joni Ernst has been popular in the state so making her a single-term senator will be challenging. Five Democrats announced campaigns for the nomination which will be decided in the June 2, 2020 primary election. In order for a potential Democratic president to make progressive change, a Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate is required. Unseating Ernst will be a high priority after the February caucus.
My congressman Dave Loebsack announced his retirement. Retaining control of this seat is a high priority. There are two Democrats competing for the nomination with Rita Hart favored to win over Newman Abuissa. This race will also wait until after the precinct caucuses.
Yesterday Iowa House Republican legislators chose their leadership team. Democrats hope to regain the majority in the lower chamber. Our state senator Zach Wahls is not up for re-election in 2020, and no one has been able to beat Rep. Bobby Kaufmann since redistricting after the 2010 census. If there is a viable candidate for state representative this cycle, he or she will require some bandwidth. Kaufmann hasn’t announced a re-election campaign, but it is expected.
Today presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard is scheduled to appear at a house party hosted by a long-time neighbor. I’m making an apple crisp for the event. Macoun and Northern Spy apples are warming on the counter after storage in the ice box. When I publish this post I’ll head upstairs to make the dessert and hope something meaningful came from this piece of writing.
I picked low-hanging fruit from the Red Delicious apple tree last week. All that’s left is dangling red orbs high above the reach of my 20-foot ladder plus 10-foot picker.
Most of those apples will fall to the ground for deer and wildlife food.
I blame the nursery person who grafted this supposed “semi-dwarf” cultivar on the root stock. Either something was wrong from the git-go or the cultivar grew around the root stock and made it’s own roots in its 24 years since planting. The tree has produced in abundance — an investment that repaid itself many times over. I’m happy with the hundreds of pounds of apples I was able to harvest this year, even if I couldn’t reach every one of them.
It rained all day Saturday so I stayed home from the orchard. When touching base with my supervisor mid-morning, more staff than customers were in the sales barn. I used the day for house work, cleaning the kitchen, doing laundry, organizing recycling, processing the last batch of tomato sauce, cooking reading and writing. I also took a nap.
The rain is suppressing my orchard paycheck with take home pay down 30 percent compared to last year. Nonetheless, with good health, Social Security, and my spouse’s small pension we are doing alright financially. I can spend some of the apple money on books and political work.
Friday a copy of What I Stand On: The Collected Essays of Wendell Berry 1969-2017 arrived via letter carrier. It will make excellent winter reading.
This week I purchased some items for our political organizing office in the county seat: paper towels, trash bags, paper cups and the like. I baked a large apple crisp which was used at yesterday’s volunteer training. I also contributed to Brad Kunkel’s campaign. He’s running for Johnson County Sheriff in a contested primary next June and is purchasing his “cowboy cards” this week. These are reasons we work an extra job even if the weather keeps the amount down.
A neighbor is hosting 2020 presidential candidate Rep. Tulsi Gabbard next week, so I offered baked goods with apples for the event. I noticed one of the school board candidates will be in attendance. I support Elizabeth Warren, but I’m going because that’s what neighboring means.
With cooler overnight temperatures, the season is turning to fall in earnest. Soon I’ll glean the garden and prepare a bed for garlic planting. If it ever dries out I’ll collect grass clippings for mulch next year. I see a brush fire in the works to return the dead fuel of plants and trees to minerals for next year’s garden.
October is looking to be busy so I have to be organized, which is no hill for a climber. If only I could climb up and get those last dangling apples. The third month of apple season is another part of sustaining a life in a turbulent world.
Monday afternoons my spouse and I devote time to organizing the household, reducing clutter, and cleaning.
It’s a long-term project we do together. We schedule it on the calendar. Sometimes it means working together on a household issue. Sometimes it means moving boxes and furniture. It definitely means cleaning. Yesterday I spent an hour shredding personal papers. There’s is a lot to do.
We each have reasons for the project. Mine is to eliminate belongings accumulated in 67 years so when I’m gone those left don’t have to deal with them. In particular, I don’t want our daughter to have to spend weeks doing work I should have done. I also want a more comfortable place to live.
The project conflicts with my desire to produce new work. Yet a few hours a week won’t kill me as I slow down into retirement. As the work gets organized, there is a lot to like about it. Now or never is the time to consider all this stuff.
1995 Apple Tree Planting Record
Among recent findings was the planting record for our grove of fruit trees. Planted on April 22, 1995, I began with six varieties of trees, which over the years has been reduced to three: one Red Delicious and two Earliblaze apple trees.
Yesterday I ordered two new apple trees: one Zestar! and one Crimson Crisp. I’ll take out one of the Earliblaze trees and increase the distance between plantings. The idea is to get a succession of ripening fruit — the same thing I originally intended. The new ripening order will be Zestar!, Earliblaze, Crimson Crisp, then Red Delicious. I plan to plant one or two Gold Rush Trees, but the nursery is sold out this year. Gold Rush is a late apple that stores exceptionally well. Planting trees is a longer term commitment than a couple of seasons so I don’t mind waiting until 2021 for those.
I know more about apples today than I did when we moved to Big Grove. That’s mostly due to working at a local orchard during apple season. It changed how we view them dramatically, introducing new flavors and varieties. Whatever apples we have in our home orchard, we’ll supplement them with other local fruit. I probably think about apples more than most people.
If I were to tell my story, the seven seasons of working on farms and at the orchard would be part of it. Not only is the work a source of food, it is about culture and learning. It is about integrating our kitchen with an ecology of food that includes fewer items from the grocery store and more I grow or have a hand in growing.
Producing a crop of apples is a sign of something. To begin with, it is a long-term commitment to growing. The rest is about how the trees are cultivated and apples are used. If all I did was make hard cider with them, that would be something. I want more from life than that. I’m in it for the long haul.
This year has been an amazing year for garden tomatoes.
21 varieties with a total of 47 plantings produced beyond expectations and our household’s ability to use them. There are so many I took two crates to the orchard for folks to can, freeze, eat and share. I took flats of them to meet ups and shared them with neighbors and friends via Facebook.
Here are some tomato notes for fans.
Deer
As we reach peak tomato season neighbors complain about deer. This comment from a friend in our township is typical,
How do you keep the deer away. They graze on ours. They take a bite, decide they don’t like it and drop it on the ground. Then onto the next tomato. Bite, pick, yuk, drop, and repeat until no tomatoes are left.
My symbiotic relationship with deer includes a custom designed deer fence using common materials. I install a 4-foot chicken wire enclosure mounted on posts so the top of the wire is 5 feet from the ground. I plant the rows 36 inches apart — close enough for me to get in, and close enough together to discourage deer from jumping five feet high to get in. I leave enough space so I can move between the fence and the tomatoes. This is my second or third year of using the method and it works keeping the deer from ripe tomatoes, leaving more for humans.
Pre-season
There are so many varieties of tomatoes! I listed seeds planted in this earlier post. The selection process was intended to produce plenty in three categories: cherry, slicers and canning tomatoes. I had plenty of seedlings from the greenhouse, allowing selection of the best starts. If three trays of 120 blocks seemed like a lot at the time, it produced what was needed for the beds.
Canning tomatoes for work colleagues.
Plot preparation
For the second year I dug 3-foot trenches for tomato planting instead of digging and breaking up entire plots. I conditioned the soil with composted chicken manure and finished with a sprinkling of diatomaceous earth. The latter was intended to retard progress of tomato-loving insects.
Moisture
When there wasn’t rain, I watered with a garden hose daily, mostly in the morning. Half a dozen plantings on the north side of the plot developed blossom end rot. I suspect the problem was a mineral deficiency in the soil rather than inconsistent moisture. I had enough grass clippings to mulch the tomatoes to prevent weeds and retain excess moisture.
Stars of the show
Tomatoes with the best results and great flavor included,
Cherries: Clementine, Grape, Matt’s Wild, Jasper, Taxi and White Cherry. The sweetest were White Cherry, Jasper and Matt’s Wild.
Canning: Granadero produced many perfectly shaped, flavorful plum tomatoes. Amish Paste was also a strong performer. Speckled Roma was the most flavorful in this category. Other varieties of small, round tomatoes filled out the crop for canning needs.
Slicers: German Pink and Martha Washington produced the best large slicers. Black Krim was unique with its dark color and tasty flesh. The Abe Lincoln plants produced consistent small round tomatoes which I used to dice for tacos and for canning.
Homemade Tomato Sauce
Uses
Eating and cooking fresh: What else is there to say but tomatoes on or in everything!
Sauce: With so many tomatoes in the house they had to be culled every couple of days for bad spots. These were trimmed and cut into large chunks to simmer until the flesh was soft and skin loosened. Next I put the whole lot into a funnel strainer and drained out tomato water. The garden produced a lot of this by-product so after canning 24 quarts of tomato water to use mostly in soups and for cooking rice, I discarded the rest. Once the water drained out, I used the wooden mallet to press out tomato sauce which I froze in one quart zip top bags to use later for pasta sauce and chili.
Diced tomatoes: I canned enough pint and quart jars of diced tomatoes to get us through the next year. I rotate stock so oldest ones are used first and still have a couple of jars from 2016 and 2017 to use first. Diced tomatoes include the skin for its nutrients.
Whole tomatoes: This year I took the skin off small round and plum tomatoes and canned them whole. There are about 24 quarts and 24 pints to last a year or more.
The 2019 garden was an unmitigated success in the tomato category. It is a feature of late summer in our household.
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