Uncommon Fruits

An article in the Winter 2006 issue of Small Farmer's Journal discussed rare small fruits that are able to be grown by backyard hobbyists or small farmsteads: like actinidia, pawpaw, gooseberries, shipova, asiminia, black currant, sorbopyrus, lingonberry, hardy kiwifruit, and others. 

The following list of nurseries specializing in rare fruits was provided -- good sources to bookmark for future reference:

Burnt Ridge Nursery in WA
Hartmann's Plant Company in MI
Indiana Berry and Plant in IN
Nolin River Nut Tree Nursery in KY
One Green World in OR
Peterson Pawpaws, LLC in WV
Raintree Nursery in WA
Saint Lawrence Nurseries in NY

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Stained Reputation

Back on one of the hottest days of the summer when I was riding my bike far from home, I had a flat tire. My tire had worn through and popped the tube which meant if I replaced the tube with my spare the same thing would happen quickly. So when a young guy stopped to see if I needed a ride into Waxhaw, I jumped at the chance. He dropped me at the local bike shop where I bought a used tire that would get me home.

All that to say -- the young fellow was a handyman type who I hired to bang together the book cases I've needed to build for a couple of years. (I had built and installed six bookcases a couple years ago, and have eight more to finish now.) That was a couple of months ago, and I'm finally getting around to staining them. The cases are stained, but need to flip the shelves tomorrow and stain the other sides, then let everything dry before applying polyurethane finish to everything.

Another picture will come when they're installed -- but glad to have gotten this far:

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Pollan for President!

Okay, it's a little late for a write-in candidate. But maybe the president-elect will put Michael Pollan in the new cabinet as Secretary of Agriculture. Michael Pollan is the well-known food writer (several best-selling books), contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine, and now professor of journalism at the University of California-Berkeley.

As an article in the October 12, 2008, issue of the New York Times Magazine, Pollan wrote an open letter to the president-elect on the state of food and food production in America. It is long—8,000+ words—so it may not fit your schedule to read the entire thing. But if you can squeeze it in it is certainly worth the effort.

In addition to thoroughly explaining how we got to where we are today, and how the increase of factory-farmed food has paralleled the rise in chronic disease in America, he makes a number of specific recommendations to the new president for returning America to a land that cares about food, how it is produced, and the environmental and health benefits that would result. I printed out the article and marked a number of passages I was going to type out in this post, but there were so many I had to abandon that idea.

The article is amazing in scope and in creative solutions to our food (and, by extension, our health) problem. You can read the article at the New York Times Magazine site (free registration required) or on Michael Pollan's web site.

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In Plain English

This woman was honest enough to express what millions are thinking as they vote for Obama: "I won't have to worry about putting gas in my car; I won't have to worry about paying my mortgage. If I help him, he's going to help me."

It's the "government as savior" argument, plain and simple.

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