Yard sale time

This garage sale sign at Antelope and Gilmore advertised a sale on Alta Vista. That is miles and miles west of Red Bluff! Plus the address was written so small we had to pull into the parking lot to read it.
Spring is the time for yard sales to go into full swing. We decided to find out what was out there this last weekend. First we looked at the yard sale ads in the Daily News. This is the easiest way for us to plan a route ahead of time.
There were not too many but we decided to go out anyway. We did see some signs posted that led us to a few others that were not in the paper. Some of these did not work out as they are small signs usually on a busy street where was no way to read the address. The one pictured above was nowhere near the location of the sale.
We tried to follow the way the arrow pointed on a few of these signs hoping there would be more signs ahead. For some there were and some left us guessing and frustrated. We had to give up on a few that had no additional signs pointing the way.
The ones advertised in the newspaper were the best. One, we were able to find them due to preplanning. Secondly we thought those had more items to browse through. Along the way we also met a few Daily News subscribers who read this column.
Our first stop was the jackpot hit for us. Not only was it an advertised sale but it was the largest. We scored big. Our arms were loaded down with items that caught our attention. The stop only cost us $8 and it was our biggest haul!
The prize item from this stop was an unused paper making kit. Other items included two large bunches of silk flowers, a wire magazine holder, candle holder and more.
The next stop only netted us a bottle and spout with which to pour seasoned oil and two small dipping bowls to match. The cost there was $2. This yard sale began on Friday and we were shopping on Saturday. This is probably why we came away with so little at this stop.
Next we happened upon one unadvertised sale. At this stop we found an extra large pocket knife for $3. This will be good as an extra when working in our walnut orchard. Sometimes it is hard to carry many tools around. The large pocketknife can fit in the small cubby on the back of our four-wheeler we use to get around on.
The next place we stopped netted us a large shopping bag of four bags of Spanish moss and one floral foam brick for the bargain price of 50 cents. In our opinion one can never have too much Spanish moss when making floral arrangements as well as other crafts. Also before leaving we found three heavy duty wire shelves for $5.
One final stop before heading home was at Dinner My Way next to the movie theater on Main Street. We had heard that they now have “Ready-to-Go” meals available during their normal business hours. This was going to help us help someone else. We learned of someone who was going through chemotherapy and needed some help with meal preparation. Picking up several “Ready-to-Go” meals for them was a way we could help out.
With gas prices being so high it makes sense to us to do as much in one trip to town as possible. So our Saturday was not only a fun day but we were able to get an errand done also.

Walnut pollination

No bees needed here. Two walnut flowers seen in foreground with catkins behind.

It is pollination time for walnuts! Our sinuses are plugged and we go about sneezing all day. We are asked occasionally how the walnuts get pollinated. Do they need bees? What color of flowers do they have?

Walnuts have both male and female flower parts on the same tree. The pollen does not have to be transported by bees but is simply shed from the male flowers, called catkins. The pollen is physically very small and light and is moved throughout the orchard by wind movement. Pollen can travel quite some distance. Studies have shown that in certain orchards the pollen came from trees over a mile away.

With walnuts, the time of pollen shedding does not always overlap well with the time of female flower receptivity to pollen. Hence, although most walnuts are self-fertile, they sometimes require another walnut variety that comes out later for pollination. This condition is referred to as dichogamy.

The female flowers are very small, with two feathery leaves open to receive pollen. They are not a typical flower with petals, and do not have a flower color as such, being green with a slight tinge of pink. When the flower is pollinated, a nut will develop in that place.

Nearly all commercial orchards are co-planted with a pollinator variety to ensure the main crop gets enough pollen to set nuts. In fact, at this time of year the pollinators can be readily identified in an orchard by the fact that the other trees will be putting out some leaves while the pollinators do not yet have any. In some orchards, entire rows of trees are put in as pollinators, which now appear as rows of leafless trees.

The pollen shedding characteristic of walnuts is a very efficient way to spread pollen. It is even sometimes over-efficient. Certain walnut varieties are very susceptible to being over pollinated. When that happens, the flower withers and falls off. This is bad because where there is no flower, there is no nut. In some orchards overall production can be decreased by half or more because of this problem. There are some steps that can be taken to mitigate the effect of over pollination and there are some chemical treatments which have proven effective.

All kinds of plant pollen are present all the time. There is really no way to get away from pollen altogether. People used to move to desert areas to get away from pollen, with the idea that desert plants are sparse and thus produce generally less pollen. That does not work anymore now that so many people live in the desert and have taken their favorite plants with them.

Walnut pollen has been identified as one of the worse offenders when it comes to people being allergic. In areas where walnuts are commercially grown, such as Red Bluff, there is an enormous quantity of walnut pollen in the air during the months of March, April, and May. Continual exposure year after year eventually leads to allergic reactions in most people.

There is really no easy solution for the pollen exposure problem. Most of us can not take a three month vacation. So we just have to make the best of it. For us taking an allergy pill and wearing a dust mask while in the orchard helps alleviate some of the reactions.

Our October 19, 2007 blog discussed walnut varieties.

Book reviews

Books written by Geraldine Brooks include "March" and "People of the Book."
New books to read are always something we are on the lookout for. World magazine has a section called “Notable Books.” One recently caught our attention called “People of the Book” by Geraldine Brooks. We also went online and read a few reviews before ordering.

At the same time we noted that her previous book “March” also had good reviews along with winning the 2006 Pulitzer Prize. So we decided to order both books.

Brooks is an excellent author and gives through and detailed descriptions of the characters and situations in her books. We read “March” first. It is a follow up story to Louisa May Alcott’s book “Little Women.” In “Little Women” the father is in the army and is stationed in the South somewhere “where the fighting is.” But very little information is given concerning him, his experiences in the war and how the war changed him. “March” attempts to answer these questions.

The story begins with Mr. March, and army chaplain, writing a letter to his wife. He has just survived the battle of Ball’s Bluff, an early Union defeat, and has managed to cross the Potomac to safety. March is an idealist, one of the many Utopianists of that era. He acts on what he believes, and sometimes pays the price when it becomes apparent that the object of his belief is faulty.

An example of this is his association with the actual historical figure John Brown. He not only looses his fortune but is very nearly caught up in the criminal investigation aftermath. The story is told in the first person from March. It is arranged in a series of flashbacks interwoven with present events.

Early in his army experience, March is completely confident that the war is a just war. He is an ardent abolitionist and believes that the use of force is justified in freeing the slaves. But soon the lines between good and evil are not as clear as he once thought.

Many of his fellow soldiers on the Union side are just as racist and condescending to the blacks as any Confederate. March experiences war in its fullness and he is haunted by what he has witnessed, and tormented with guilt over the many people he feels he should have been able to save but did not.

“People of the Book” was a delightful story of the Sarajevo Haggadah. The book is generally arranged similar to “March” with chapters that occur in the past interspersed with chapters of the present.

A haddadah is a book which is used in the Jewish ceremony of Passover. It contains various stories from the Old Testament, such as the stories of creation and Noah’s flood. The Sarajevo Haggadah is unique in that it was created in the mid-fourteenth century in Spain and is richly illustrated. Jewish books often were destroyed in the past, yet this book survived. That it has survived over 500 years is astounding.

“People of the Book” tries to fill in the unknown portions of the history of this book, especially focusing on the people that were in some way connected to the production and protection of it.

One caution we would give is that the author in describing relationships between characters uses explicit details. Also the way people were treated in conflicts described in the book are sometimes very graphic.

More than pasta

Pasta machine helps make crackers thin like ones bought in the store.
Crackers are something we like to make but they do not usually come out crispy like those purchased commercially. That is until now.

Recently our daughter came up with the idea of using her pasta machine to help roll the cracker dough thin enough to come out like commercial crackers. This sounded like a great idea. We decided to try it out on a recipe we found on the internet.

Savory Gluten Free Crackers is a recipe we found at bobsredmill.com. It is a savory cracker without corn, wheat, yeast, milk or egg. Sprinkled with sea salt is becomes a saltine-type cracker. We altered the recipe slightly to adjust the spices to our tastes.

Ingredients as we made the recipe are:

3/4 cup amaranth flour

1/2 cup arrowroot starch

1/4 cup almond meal/flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

3 tablespoon vegetable oil

3 to 4 tablespoon water

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds

1/4 tsp. garlic salt

1 teaspoon crushed dried oregano leaves

Sesame seeds to sprinkle on baking pan

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Lightly crush caraway seeds using a mortal and pestle.
Place all dry ingredients except the sesame seeds in large bowl and stir to combine.
Mix oil and 3 tablespoons water together and add all at once to flour mixture. Stir only until a ball forms. If ball appears dry and crumbly add a little more water, one teaspoon at a time, until ball hangs together. The moisture content of flour can vary.
Roll half of the dough at a time, rolling quite thin using wax paper if needed. This is where we put the dough through the pasta machine until they are the desired thinness. Cut into 1-1/2 inch squares or triangles and prick with fork.

Sprinkle sesame seeds onto un-greased cookie sheet and transfer cracker cut-outs to cookie sheet. Bake 15 minutes. Place crackers on wire rack, place it back on the cookie sheet and return it back to the oven to crisp another 5 to 7 minutes.
Cool completely before storing in an airtight container. Repeat with other half of dough. This recipe makes 3 to 4 dozen crackers.

New recipes are always fun to try. If anyone has a favorite cracker recipe please share it in the comment space below.