Kroger Expands Recall of Shelled Pistachios Due to Possible Health Risk (March 31)
Thu, 02 Apr 2009 05:55:00 -0500
Stores under the following names in the 31 states where Kroger operates are included in this expanded recall: Kroger, Ralphs, Fred Meyer, Fry’s, King Soopers, Smith’s, Dillons, QFC, City Market, Foods Co., Jay C, Scott’s, Owen’s, Baker’s, Gerbes, Hilander and Pay Less.
http://www.fda.gov/oc/po/firmrecalls/kroger203_09.html
Fruit trees aren’t hassle
by Clint Patterson • April 2, 2009
Some of the prettiest flowering trees are real fruit trees.
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Just go to an orchard in the spring and you’ll see what I mean.
When we plant apple trees, peach trees, cherry trees and real pear trees, we get just as pretty of a display of flowers as if we plant crab apple, Yoshino cherry and Bradford pear.
But we also get the fruit!
So why not plant fruit trees?
Many people will say that they do not want the mess, or, that maintaining fruit trees — pruning, spraying — is too much trouble.
I think that this is a very unfortunate way of thinking.
After all, once a fruit tree is established, it will produce a lot of fruit every year with minimal effort.
And, it can be done without chemicals.
In many countries around the world, fruit and nut trees are actually a major component of the urban forest.
America has so far been blessed with abundance.
We have not seen the need to protect our food security or insure that adequate food supplies can be obtained locally.
This is beginning to change in these times of economic uncertainty.
Backyard gardens and community gardens are becoming the in thing all across the country.
Seed companies are having a hard time keeping up with the demand this year. Hopefully, this trend will carry over to an increase in the planting of fruit and nut trees as well.
Many European countries, although just as affluent as America, plant fruit trees extensively in the urban setting.
“Plant something you can eat,” is common advice from urban foresters and landscapers. Perhaps they remember the hardship of war when food was hard to come by.
Less affluent countries, out of necessity, also commonly plant orchards of fruit and nut trees in public places such as parks, vacant lots, school grounds and church yards.
The trees provide an annual supply of food for the residents, add beauty to the landscape, and also encourage community involvement.
Harvesting, preserving and preparing food together is intergenerational and a large part of our heritage as humans. It gets the youth, who have energy and physical ability, connected with the older folks, who have the know-how. Everyone benefits.
Locally, there are some groups trying to promote the idea of community gardens.
Last weekend, Brandon Hills Community Garden had its “Garden Gala.”
They have established community gardens on vacant lots in town; even involving the youth from the Alternative School in doing this.
Also, another local group, The Harvest Network, has recently helped start a church garden in town.
Wouldn’t it be great to see some of the large church grounds become orchards?
Check out http://www.harvestnetwork.net to learn more.
Gardens are a great idea.
Community gardens are even better.
Just remember to include fruit trees too.
Clint Patterson is the city forester for Clarksville. He can be reached at 645-7464 or by e-mail at clint.patterson@cityofclarksville.com.
http://www.theleafchronicle.com/article/20090402/COLUMNISTS/904020302
Veggie gardens prosper in hard times
BY BARRY SHLACHTER • MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS • March 25, 2009
FT.WORTH, Texas — Unfazed by losing her vegetable crop to a freeze last year, Debbie McNeill is more than just gearing up.
The 49-year-old Haslet, Texas, resident is upping the stakes, putting down twice as many tomato, onion and jalapeño plants in a 15-by-15-foot raised garden at her mother’s home “because it’s fun and because of the economy.”
McNeill is not alone.
From seed producers and greenhouse growers to retailers, all are reporting booming sales. All attribute it largely to family financial issues.
“This happens every time we have a downturn in the economy,” said Rick Archie, the third-generation owner of Archie’s Gardenland on the west side of Ft. Worth, Texas, founded in 1934. He estimates that vegetable plant sales have increased 20% to 25% so far this year.
Seed companies have recognized the market demand.
Park Seeds of South Carolina rushed out multiseed packets called Victory Garden, lifting the name from successful federal programs during World Wars I and II that boosted home garden production.
W. Atlee Burpee Co., the Pennsylvania pioneer in the mail-order seed business, which also supplies major chains, matched Park Seeds with Money Garden.
The latter is priced at $9.95 for a packet that will grow six vegetables.
If weather doesn’t get in the way, Burpee estimates that the modest investment could yield an edible bounty that would have cost $650 at a supermarket.
Sales of vegetable seeds at Burpee “are exploding across the board,” George Ball, Burpee’s chairman, said.
During the last week of February, orders were up about 25% over the same period in 2008, far more than the seed producer expected.
“Last year, we saw increases of 15% to 20% because of the (salmonella) food scare over tomatoes and peppers,” he said. “And we thought we’d see a back-off, not an uptick.
“We never anticipated the mortgage crisis and the effect on people’s 401(k) retirement accounts.
“And we haven’t seen produce prices back down when fuel prices dropped last fall,” Ball said, rattling off reasons why more folks might be planting vegetables.
http://www.freep.com/article/20090325/FEATURES01/903250345
http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/blog/category/recipes
How to Make Ricotta Cheese
March 19, 2009
Here is the final post in my mini series “What I Can Squeeze out of Two Gallons of Milk”. If you recall…with two gallons of raw milk, I was able to make mozzarella cheese…fresh butter…and now…ricotta cheese!
Ricotta cheese is made with the leftover whey from your cheese making process. It is SO easy. I am so amazed that after I’ve finished making mozzarella cheese…there’s still ricotta cheese lurking in the whey! (What smart person discovered that…I want to know?)
To make Ricotta Cheese:
Pour all of the whey left from making your mozzarella cheese into a large stock pot. Heat it to 170°. Try to keep it right around that tempurature for a minute or so…then remove it from the heat. It looks something like this:
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I apologize for the quality of this picture. It’s…yucky looking. That’s what happens when you stick your camera inside a pot of almost boiling whey. Look closely to TRY to see that the whey is bubbly with a thick layer of white froth on the top. Can you see it? Ah well…thanks for trying.
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Pour your bubbling whey into a strainer lined with a tea towel. (You will put something under your strainer to catch the liquid, right?) Allow the liquid to strain through the tea towel. This takes a little manuevering because the ricotta starts to line the bottom of the tea towel and doesn’t allow the liquid to go through as easily.
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Use a spoon and scrape all the ricotta off of the tea towel.
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Place your ricotta cheese into a jar for storage. Stuffed Manicotti anyone?
So, what do you think? Not too hard, huh?
How to Make Fresh Butter
March 12, 2009
If you recall, last week when I showed you how to make mozzarella cheese, I mentioned that if you’re making it from raw milk, you skim off the cream and save it to make butter. HERE is one way I make butter!
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Fill your food processor 1/3 full of heavy cream. Be sure not to fill it more than 1/3 full…it will probably not turn into butter if there’s too much in the container.
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Turn your food processor on high…and then flee the room. (It’s really loud and annoying!) The food processor will whip and whip and whip the cream until it turns it into butter. It should take somewhere between 8-15 minutes.
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Once the fat has been “pulled out” of the cream, it should look something like this…and you can turn off the food processor.
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Pull all the solid pieces and squish them together.
Place the solids in to a clean bowl.
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Run some clean COLD water into it.
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Clean the butter with the cold water by squishing it with a wooden spoon until all the liquid comes out of it. Repace the cold water 2-3 times as you clean it.
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Squeeze the excess water out of the butter and shape it with your hands.
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Ah, look…a lovely little butter ball.
You can add salt to the cream if you want salted butter…this will also be a preservative, making the butter last longer.
OR…if you don’t have a food processor and want to have a little family fun…put your cream into a jar and shake it like crazy. Pass the jar around, and take turns shaking it. (I’ve tried shaking it all by myself once when no one was around to help…and I thought my head and arms would fall off from shaking the jar so much all by myself. I don’t think I ever got butter out of that jar.)
Have you ever made butter before? Isn’t it COOL to see the butter form out of the cream!?
I LOVE how with just one little gift from a cow (or goat or whatever) you can make SO MANY great yummy things!
P.S. Even if you don’t have fresh cream…go buy some heavy whipping cream at the store and try making butter. It’s just…cool.
Here’s a simple recipe that you can serve with just about everything! Really…these Ranch Potato Wedges are a great side dish with any meat (steak, chicken, hamburgers, meatballs, fish…).
They are a perfect thing to make to go with your lunch…they are a super easy side dish to make with dinner. Good grief…you could even scramble up some eggs with them and serve them at breakfast or brunch.
Like many of the High Five Recipes…this recipe takes just a few minutes to prepare.
Ranch Potato Wedges
4 medium sized potatoes
1 T. mayonnaise (I use Hain Safflower mayonnaise)
½ package ranch dip mix (I use Simply Organic brand)
Scrub potatoes and slice into eight wedges each. Stir together mayonnaise and ranch dip mix in a large bowl. Toss potato wedges in mixture until coated. Lay wedges singularly on a cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 35-40 minutes.
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I am SO hungry now for a meatball with Ranch Potato Wedges!
How to Make Mozzarella Cheese
March 5, 2009
Want to know what makes me excited (besides little plastic drawers)? The fact that with only two gallons of milk…I can squeeze out THREE great dairy products. With the two gallons of raw milk you see pictured below, I was able to make three eight ounce balls of mozzarella cheese…a half pound of butter…and about a cup of ricotta cheese.
Talk about milking something for all it’s worth! (Whoa…very cheesy joke.) (Which I feel is appropriate because this post is about making…cheese. Cheesy-ness abounds.) Anyway…
Even if you don’t think you’ll ever make your own mozzarella cheese…you may still have fun reading about how it’s made!
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To make Mozzarella Cheese you will need:
* Two gallons of milk (I use raw, organic) (As far as I understand, you can use pasteurized and homogenized milk too…although you won’t get the butter and ricotta out of it since the cream doesn’t rise to the top.)
* 2 t. citric acid dissolved in 1/4 cup water
* 1 cup cultured buttermilk
* 30 drops vegetable rennet mixed with 1/4 cup water (I get my rennet from Azure Standard or Wilderness Family Naturals.)
* 1 gallon water
* 1/2 cup sea salt
* Large stock pot
* Long knife
* Food thermometer
* Strainer
* Tea towels
Okay, ready to make cheese? You’ll need to block out about two and a half to three hours of time…but most of that time is wait time, not work time!
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First, if you’re using raw milk…skim off the cream. You know I’m usually big on leaving in the fat…but the fat separates itself out of the cheese while you’re making it for some reason. So, skim it off, put it into another jar and save it for making butter!
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Pour the milk into a large pot (I use my big stock pot). Stir in the buttermilk and citric acid mixed with water. Heat to 91 degrees. Remove from heat, put the lid on and let it sit for one hour.
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Add the rennet mixed with water to the milk. Allow it to sit for at least 15 minutes, or until the milk solidifies slightly and it able to be “sliced”.
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Use a long knife to “cut the curd” into one inch squares.
Let the curd sit about five minutes.
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Heat the curd to 91 degrees. Remove from heat, place the lid on the pot and allow it to sit for one hour. After one hour, the curd and the whey should have separated.
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Place a strainer into another large pot and cover it with a tea towel.
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Pour the curds into the strainer/tea towel…straining out as much whey as you can. Save the whey!!
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Rig up something fancy like this to hang your curds, making sure you have a bowl underneath to catch more whey that will drip out. I usually leave mine overnight as it takes several hours for all of the whey to be removed.
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In the morning…remove the tea towel. Wow, a big hunk of cheese! Now…the fun part begins!
In your large pot…heat one gallon of water mixed with 1/2 cup salt. (Hint: I use Redmonds Real Sea Salt and it can be too chunky if I don’t try to dissolve some of it first. Therefore, I put my water and salt into a jar and shake it well, then pour it into the pot. The residue from the salt remains in the jar, leaving only salty water…without chunks!
Heat the salt water to 170 degrees. Meanwhile…
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Cut the cheese (oh, my boys think it’s SO FUNNY when I say that…) into 1-2 inch squares.
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Once your water reaches 170 degrees, remove it from the heat and dump in your cheese. Kind of stir it around for a minute or two until the cheese softens and begins sticking together.
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Use a big wooden spoon to catch the cheese from the water. It should start sticking together and forming a blob on your spoon. Stretch the cheese. This part is SO COOL!! Dip it down into the hot water every once in a while to reheat the cheese so that it will continue to stretch, but try not to keep it in the water too long. Keep on stretching and dipping the cheese until it is shiny. This stretching process will take about 8 minutes. (Every once in a while I get a batch of cheese that just won’t stretch. It’s a bummer. The cheese still tastes fine…it just doesn’t look as pretty, shred as well, or melt as nicely. We eat it anyway!)
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After you’ve stretched your cheese and it has formed a big long shiny wad, take it out and put it onto a plate.
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I divide my cheese into three blobs. Squeeze out the excess water and shape the cheese into nice balls.
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Place the balls into a bowl of cold water. This will take out the heat and help them hold their shape.
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Tada!!! Mozzarella Cheese!
I’ll take time during my next two Frugal Friday posts to share how I make butter with the leftover cream…and ricotta cheese with the leftover whey!
So…have you ever made cheese before? Do you think this process looks like something you could do? You wanna come over and make cheese with me some time? (Then we can say “cut the cheese” together and laugh like we’re really funny.)
Simple Sourdough Pancakes
February 16, 2009
I’ve really been enjoying experimenting with my new sourdough starter…and the older my starter gets, the better it does! Mmm!
But I keep falling back on my old stand by pancakes. They are SO good and SO good for you and SO easy.
I make them by soaking my flour in buttermilk overnight which breaks down the phytates and makes them more digestible, thus creating sourdough pancakes. Here’s the recipe:
Simple Sourdough Pancakes
1 cup whole wheat flour (or whatever grain you want)
1 cup cultured buttermilk
1 egg
3 T. melted butter (or oil)
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. sea salt
Stir the flour and buttermilk together in a glass bowl. Cover with a cloth and leave on the counter overnight. In the morning, stir in the egg, melted butter, baking powder and salt. Whisk together, adding extra milk or buttermilk for the desired batter thickness you prefer.
Cook pancakes on a well buttered, hot skillet or griddle, flipping once bubbles begin to form. Serve with real maple syrup, applesauce, jelly, or any of your favorite pancake toppings!
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I triple this recipe for our family of six. These pancakes also freeze well. Frozen pancakes reheat great in the toaster!
And…add blueberries or chocolate chips for a yummy variety!
My kids devour these pancakes…and they are hearty enough to keep them full all morning long.
Move over IHOP!!
Penny Pincher: To save $, time to get seedy
By Penny Pincher
Philadelphia Daily News
Yo, Pincher Nation! Rising up against the downturn, we have shared our recession-resistant remedies: cutting credit-card bills by calling those greedy creeps and saying, “Lower my rate!”; making vinegar-is-vonderful cleaning stuff; stretching a roast chicken over three thrifty dinners, etc.
Today, we hear from a woman in the Temple University area who calls herself “Simple Bucket” and is using two old washtubs to grow veggies:
“In one tub, I’m putting tomatoes,” writes Ms. Bucket. “I started a few from seed in January. If they don’t work out, I’ll get some starter plants, and I’ll do one row of something else - maybe a mix of beets and carrots.
“The second tub will be my experimental garden - spinach, a veggie I’m new to growing.
“In a large round pot, I planted lettuce. Last summer, lettuce and basil were the things I used most from the garden. You just keep harvesting and they keep growing! Nothing like fresh, just-cut lettuce in a salad. And it is pretty!
“I’m thinking about planting peas in baskets along my fence, and lots of marigolds with seeds harvested from plants in the park, where they are FREE. Lots of color and the price is right!
“In front of my house I grew mint, thyme and sage last year. This year, I’m planting chamomile - that I can make tea out of - in pots, so I can bring them in at the end of the summer.”
Pincher Plea: Send your hard times hints to: pennypincher@phillynews. com, with your name and neighborhood or hometown. Read more Penny Pincher columns at http://go.philly.com/pinch
http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/blog/category/recipes/page/2
Smells Like Christmas Cookies! Reindeer Cuties
These simple cookies are a hit. Fun to make…fun to eat. I like that they are made with honey and whole wheat. And they really don’t take much time at all.
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Reindeer Cuties
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup natural peanut butter
1/2 cup honey
1 egg
1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. vanilla
2 cups whole wheat flour
tiny pretzels
chocolate chips
red hot candies
Stir together butter, peanut butter and honey. Add egg, baking powder, baking soda and vanilla. Mix in flour. Chill dough for about an hour.
Roll dough to 1/4 inch thickness on a well floured surface. Cut circles using a small drinking glass. Place on cookie sheet. Use fingers to squeeze the circles in the middle.
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Place two pretzels at the top for antlers, two chocolate chips on for eyes and one red hot candy for a nose.
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Bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees. Allow reindeer to cool 2-3 minutes before removing from cookie sheet.
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And, well…from the Land of the Misfit Cookies…
I just had to show you Malachi’s attempt at a reindeer.
He sure did have fun helping!
Visit Tammy’s Recipes for more kitchen fun!
filed Filed under: Christmas Cookies, Natural Sugar Treats, Recipes by Laura
It’s Beginning to Smell a Lot Like Christmas…Cookies!
November 25, 2008
As you all know, I love tweaking recipes and working to create a healthier version of recipes I find. Thanksgiving and Christmas time give me plenty of excuses to exercise this crazy hobby of mine. Nobody around me seems to mind. :) (Hehe, funny that I used the word exercise…talking about baking cookies! Hey, exercise comes in many forms.)
My favorite part of holiday baking: I LOVE THE WAY CHRISTMAS BAKING MAKES THE HOUSE SMELL!!!
I’m planning on baking up quite a few treats in the next few weeks to share with neighbors and friends…so be looking for several new recipes coming up here!!!
The first recipe I’ll share is one that smells just like Christmas!! MMMmmm!!
Christmas Spice Cookies
1 cup melted butter
1 cup rapadura or sucanat
1 egg
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. vanilla
1/4 t. nutmeg
1/4 t. cloves
2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
Stir together melted butter and rapadura. Mix in egg, cinnamon, baking soda, vanilla, nutmeg and cloves. Add flour gradually until mixed thoroughly. Chill dough at least 2 hours.
Roll dough into teaspoon sized balls. Place on cookie sheet 2 inches apart. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.
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These cookies are soooo yummy with a cup of hot cocoa!!! (If you haven’t tried this hot cocoa recipe, you really, really should!)
Upcoming cookie recipe: Orange Cream Cheese Cut-Outs!! Possibly my favorite!
P.S. Don’t fall out of your chair, but some of the recipes I’ll share might contain some compromising ingredients like powdered sugar and (gasp!) sprinkles. What’s Christmas without an occasional red and green sprinkle??
Inside a fenced-off area at the North Roseville REC Center, local families are getting back to their roots.
Taking a page from a World War II-era staple, the children’s after-school program has started a community garden that aims to help the population it serves feed themselves in the midst of the economic downturn.
“There’s so much unemployment in this area,” executive director Machel Miller said of the center’s Roseville Heights neighborhood. “This is a way to really help out. And it’s a family project too.”
So Miller has rented out – at no cost – 15 of the center’s 21 planting beds to families whose children are users of the after-school center. The garden program was used as a center-run children’s educational opportunity last year, but Miller figured families would be better served by taking a more central role in the garden in light of the recession.
The garden lessees are responsible for taking care of whatever they decide to plant – from carrots to cucumbers – and get to harvest the fruit of their labor. Planting has only just begun in recent days.
“Food is just a big issue here for these families,” she said.
And they’re not alone.
News reports are documenting an uptick in what’s being called “recession gardens” – an update of the victory gardens that provided a third of all vegetables consumed in the U.S. 65 years ago.
The attraction is simple. According to the National Gardening Association, a well-maintained vegetable garden will provide about a $500 return per year. Seed manufacturer Burpee says $50 in gardening supplies can equal $1,250 in produce each year.
Local families aren’t the only ones who will benefit.
Miller has also reached out to Placer ARC, the special-needs advocacy organization, by offering up three planting beds for its clients.
For them, the garden is more an opportunity to encounter new experiences than an economic imperative.
“Our goal is to give them as many natural experiences as possible,” said Patti Felland of Placer ARC’s On-The-Go program.
One day last week, ARC client Heather Foxx got down and dirty as she prepared the soil for a slew of vegetable seeds.
They included green beans, corn, jalapeños, cilantro and squash – the latter is her favorite.
And even their effort will benefit the neighborhood; a local farmer’s market is the goal, Wicker said.
Miller has big plans for the garden. Later this month, the Rotary Club of Roseville is scheduled to help double the garden space when it completes a major work project at the center.
– nathand@goldcountrymedia.com
http://granitebaypt.com/detail/109607.html
A Victory Garden is needed once again
By NANCY WIERSMA
Wednesday, April 1, 2009 11:44 AM EDT
As a child, I can fondly recall my grandfather’s stories of his past, like standing in a slow-moving, lengthy line beside countless others - waiting for a bowl of soup and a chunk of bread - during the Great Depression.
Many were the pride-filled stories woven about his Victory Garden in the Forties during the Great War, known as War War II.
Being only one man, who was filled with pride and self-reliance, dutifully he was doing his part to harvest his own garden vegetables to put food on the table for his family, friends and neighbors.
At that time this also enabled more supplies to be shipped to our troops, wherever they might have been then around the whole big world.
Many bought bonds, recycled, rallied and supported the troops, helped their neighbors and many paid the ultimate price - they gave their very lives.
Many planted gardens for victory - Victory Gardens is what they were called.
The call to plant a Victory Garden was answered by 20 million plus proud American families.
For most, these gardens produced up to 80 percent of what was consumed by these families.
Our government sent out public service booklets, teaching the nitty gritty elementary basics of vegetable gardening.
Topics included soil health, watering needs, six to eight hours of sun, fertilizing basics, how to plant, when to plant, tending the plants, all about garden pests and even going so far as directing a gardener what to plant.
Veggies such as beans, corn, beets, parsnips, carrots, leeks, peas, turnips, radishes, cabbage, lettuce, spinach, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, chard, peppers, cauliflower, onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, herbs, eggplant, kohlrabi, turnips, potatoes and endive.
This Victory Garden’s importance was felt by everyone.
Looked at as a treasured pastime, deep inside it felt more like everyone’s national duty, not to be thought of as a tiresome chore.
In the summer of 1946 - being that agriculture was not yet back up to full production - there was a mighty food shortage as many people had not planted a Victory Garden that spring.
When the war ended, our government called for an end to producing our own food.
Some say this might have been too premature.
In our rich past history, there are mighty truths and lessons to be learned.
Now many of us today know nothing about shortages and not having everything under the sun, of hunger, of having to make do and to use things up.
Sure, times are once again tough, but we as a country will eventually get through this, too.
Because we as a nation are strong-willed, hard-working and a pride-filled bunch.
Maybe we should all start by planting our own Victory Garden.
No unemployment insurance can be compared to an alliance between man and a plot of land.
- Henry Ford
http://www.dowagiacnews.com/articles/2009/04/01/columnists/dncolumn06.txt
St. Petersburg, FL, April 01, 2009 —(PR.com)— “With rising produce prices and the risk of e-coli from the store stuff, I feel like I’m keeping our family healthy and helping financially,” says Katheryn Reeder of Ashland, Missouri, about the practicality of growing her own vegetables.
The number of homes growing vegetables will jump more than 40 percent this year compared with just two years ago, predicts The National Gardening Association, a non-profit organization for gardening education. W. Atlee Burpee, the world’s largest seed company reported last week that vegetable seed sales are up 25 percent this year.
In tough times, American consumers are making an effort to save money by growing their own food. “Many like the idea of growing their own vegetables but they’re afraid they don’t know how,” says Cliff Harmon of the Grow Box™. The Grow Box™ is a gardening container designed to ensure that anyone who wants to can have success with home-grown vegetables. “A lot has changed since Victory Gardens - now you can grow a small garden on your deck without any gardening know-how or hard work.”
A home garden, even just a few tomato plants, saves $100 to $3000 in grocery costs over a few months’ time. Consumers hoping to save on their budgets should not wait. Several seed catalogs are reporting that the more popular seeds are already selling out and the supply of Grow Boxes™ is dwindling rapidly.
Denise Scandiffio from Rockaway Park, New York adds, “With the uncertain economy the way it is, I’m really saving a lot of money and having a great time growing things myself.”
http://www.pr.com/press-release/140490
Woman recalls 1930’s hard times
By Joanne Bratton
Daily Leader
Mon Mar 30, 2009, 02:00 PM CDT
Stuttgart, Ark. -
MOUNTAIN HOME (AP) — Elva Moore and her family might not have survived the Great Depression if her parents had not worked hard to be self-sufficient.
“I was old enough to know what the Depression was,” said Moore, 93, of Mountain Home. Moore was about 14, living in the Texas panhandle with her parents and seven siblings, when the stock market crashed in 1929.
Even now, when she’s watching television and hears talk of the struggling economy, she hears some of the same things she heard as a child, she said.
“When people panic, you’re in trouble,” she said.
Moore’s father, James A. Wood, told her he didn’t think the banks would fail if people left it in the banks, but people started to panic and took out their money, she said.
Although her family was better off than most because they grew or raised nearly everything they used, Moore remembers her family losing a couple of hundred dollars when their local bank closed.
“It hurt because that’s about all you had,” she said.
Moore’s father was a cotton farmer, like many others in the area. They were dependent on the weather, which could be unrelentingly dry. In bad seasons, cotton could drop from about 20 cents to 5 cents a pound, leaving many farmers unable to break even, she said.
Those who suffered most lived in town and many relied on the government to provide them food, Moore said.
“It was a bad time for people, more especially for city people,” Moore said. “Jobs were lost and they did not have any income.”
Moore’s family had cows, pigs, turkeys, chickens and a large garden, she said. Every year her family canned meat and fruit and her father sugar-cured bacon. The cured meat hung in their meat house in 100-pound flour sacks and would keep all summer, she said.
“We always had plenty to eat,” she said, adding she remembered frying up the bacon, picking fresh tomatoes and eating bacon and tomato sandwiches.
Her family gave back to the community by helping neighbors and kinfolk who needed help planting or picking cotton, she said. She also remembered her mother, Jettie Lee, sitting up all night with people who were sick, as the nearby town had only one doctor.
“My dad was a good worker, and my mom was a good worker,” she said, adding she and all her siblings were raised to work hard.
To infuse money into the economy, Moore remembers President Franklin D. Roosevelt getting Congress to pass the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933, which paid farmers not to grow crops or raise animals, to reduce surpluses. Moore remembers her family plowing up part of their cotton crop and killing a cow, but they were allowed to keep the meat.
Moore said she felt one of the contributors to the Great Depression was the weather. Some seasons weren’t rainy and dust storms would settle over the area.
In one spectacular memory, Moore said she was in a wagon with her husband, Arvle Moore, who spotted a black cloud. It was in the afternoon and they hoped it was a sign of much-needed rain. The black cloud came up higher, faster, and quickly bore down on them, she recounted.
“It was as black as night,” she said.
Her father tied up the horses and wagon as they completed their one-mile trip and everyone ran into the cellar. They later discovered it was a wind-storm that picked up and carried black dirt from another area, she said.
After living in Texas, Moore moved to California and eventually to Arkansas, where she lived on a farm in Gassville for many years before moving to Mountain Home.
During the current uncertain economic times, Moore says she watches the news and hears some of the same things she heard back then. She has the same opinion as her father did — leave money in the banks.
But Moore said she doesn’t spend time worrying about the economy.
“I’ve experienced all of that,” she said.
Information from: The Baxter Bulletin, http://www.baxterbulletin.com
Hard times? Bring back the Victory Garden
Every cloud has a silver lining, they say. How true. And we are seeing it right now.
In the depth of the current depression, which politicians and media people still insist on calling a recession, we are thrashing around. We hope against hope that the lifeboat will come bobbing along before we all drown. Meantime, we tear our hair out and console ourselves with pablum of various sorts. Probably unwisely, we trust the leaders who got us into the mess to get us out of it, yet every day another Bernie Madoff heaves into view.
“We’re all in it together.” True, but tell that to any of the millions tossed out on the street by foreclosures in the U.S. They won’t be consoled.
“The fat cats are going to fall further than the lean cats.” Maybe, but they will still have food on their table and will be able to afford it.
“We can’t all starve to death in the cold.” Maybe yes, maybe no. The government we have voted into power is not renowned for its charity or the milk of human kindness coursing through its veins.
The consensus of economists seems to be that the proposed remedial actions of the Canadian government are not going to be enough to do the trick. That’s a guess, but the last thing we need is another gloomy forecast on anything.
But there is something we can do that will put our feet firmly on solid ground, so to speak. It will keep us from starving and start adding a touch of reality to our rootless civilization. It’s called Victory Gardens, no doubt from the movement of the same name in the Second World War.
My memories are pretty faint, but I distinctly remember that during the war there seemed to be a vegetable garden for every house. Vacant lots and fields in the cities were taken up with gardening allotments. It became such an automatic thing that it was several years after the end of the war before we started seeing flower gardens and rose beds again.
East European immigrants in the east end of Calgary 10 years later were digging up the grass strips between sidewalk and street and planting potatoes. Their experiences of hunger and even famine were still too recent and raw to be ignored. They weren’t going to be caught short again.
And now the phenomenon is reappearing in North America. Who would have thought. There is talk of the Obamas planting a vegetable garden in the White House grounds, and it is inevitable that it will be copied across the continent.
Real estate assets are all very well as long as there is someone around with the money to buy them. Otherwise they aren’t worth diddlysquat. A 50-lb. sac of potatoes is another thing. A family can live off that for a while. Fifteen years ago in Jemseg, the owner of the local country store was moaning that he was getting the same price for 50 lbs of potatoes as he did 30 years previously - $2.50. Now maybe is the time of the revenge of the farmers. Potatoes have real value that toxic assets never had.
Of course, a kitchen garden for every home may affect the economic viability of junk food operations. So be it. We can do nicely without them.
In St. Andrews, there are some beautiful gardens. People take great pride in them and it shows. But there is one garden that is gradually changing from being the butt of derisive comments throughout the community to being the envy of many. It is the garden of Larry Lack and Lee Ann Ward.
It is an ordinary town lot, 160 x 80, and the produce they take off that napkin-size piece of land all but frees them from the produce counter in the supermarket. Potatoes, cabbage, broccoli, eggplant, onion, garlic, peas, beans, tomatoes, squash, leeks... and on and on, and that’s not counting the flowers, trees, ornamental shrubs, fruits. Of course they devote a lot of their time paying for the food they put on the table. But we all spend time doing that, whether we do it by earning money in our regular jobs or planting a garden.
If half the energy that goes into flower gardens went in to vegetable gardens, it would make a significant difference to how a lot of people survive the economic tsunami that is engulfing us. The Lack/Ward garden is not the only one in town that grows a lot of vegetables and fruits, but it is the only one I know of that has gone in for intensive agriculture on a very small piece of land.
It is all part of the new awareness and be-prepared ethos that seems to be taking hold. The government is telling us on TV how to be prepared for various contingencies like power outages, and now we are getting the first hint of the possibility of serious food shortages. Whether they ever occur almost doesn’t matter. As a society, we are short on self discipline. Applying the mind to some of the basics of life, like food, water and electricity, can’t be such a bad thing.
Government support and encouragement would make a tremendous difference.
http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/opinion/article/610323
Hard times remembered
Hard times remembered
By Rachel Schleif
World staff writer
Posted March 23, 2009
WENATCHEE — Bank failures, huge debt, rising unemployment, government aid — the parallels are scary. But those who lived through the Great Depression say we’re not there yet — not even close — to the hard times they remember.
A dozen area residents shared their Great Depression stories Friday.
Work life: ‘You might stand in line for hours’
The Great Depression hit Wenatchee five to six years late, said 92-year-old Vern France.
At age 21, he tried to land his first job in 1938.
He applied at 63 businesses, some as many as three times, but still couldn’t find work. Finally, he agreed to work for nothing in the downtown office of J.S. Mooney & Company for a month.
At the end of the month, he was surprised with a $40 check, about $600 today.
When Hazel Dunnagan, now 96, graduated from Wenatchee High School in 1930, she was promised a job at a commercial bank.
“By the time I graduated, there wasn’t any banks,” Dunnagan said. “I went to work for the Goodfellow brothers taking care of their kids at 10 cents an hour. Lot of money, at that time.”
A few years later, she stood outside Cedergreens Frozen Pack Corp., hoping for a day’s work.
“You might stand in line for hours and wait and see if they’d take you,” Dunnagan said.
“If they didn’t, you’d go home and try again the next day.”
At age 23, Dunnagan, her husband and three children rented a house in Cashmere for $10 a month.
Without any work, they fell six months behind on rent before the landlord evicted them.
They moved in with her mother at a boarding house where Colonial Vista sits now.
Sometimes a friend or a relative was the only “in,” said 98-year-old Bob Dodson, now living in Wenatchee.
Then 21, he was the one man hired from a crowd of 200 waiting outside the hiring gate at Ford Motor Co. in Houston, Texas. His uncle pulled some strings from inside the company, he said.
“I left 200 men, and they had families that were starving,” Dodson said. “I didn’t have a family, but I was starving.”
Home life: ‘I never felt poor’
Oregon native Wanda Miller, 85, remembers when her family switched from steak dinners to cornmeal mush.
Her mother sprinkled the top of the soup with brown sugar, raisins and milk from the family cow.
“A lot of men would come to our door and want work,” Miller said. “The word got around they’d get good food at our place and they’d just keep coming.”
Miller grew up in a family of seven in Grants Pass, Ore. They survived by growing vegetables and raising livestock. Her mother sewed all of their clothes, including flour sack nightgowns.
“Coming home from school, a favorite thing was to pull up a carrot and go wash it in the cow’s barrel,” Miller said. “And chomp down on that big carrot. That was just heaven.”
Miller sold pigs and worked as a cook to pay for college at the University of La Verne, Calif., where she studied to be a teacher.
“When I went to college I had to relearn everything, how to flush a toilet and use a telephone,” Miller said. “I knew there were rich kids who lived on the boulevard but I never felt inferior. I wasn’t a popular kid, but I never felt poor.”
Her husband Galen, 91, grew up with a family of five in a 12-by-14 tent in Portland on some property his uncles owned. His father took all sorts of odd jobs to put food on the table.
“Whatever he could find he took. He wasn’t fussy,” Miller said.
“I remember just as clear as a bell whenever my dad would earn a little money, I can see my mom and dad sitting at the table and they would be portioning out the money for whatever was needed,” he said.
“Always the first piece of money that went out was considered for the church. That’s made a lifelong impression on me.”
Words of wisdom: ‘Make do’
Those interviewed Friday offered simple wisdom on surviving these hard times: plant a garden, learn how to preserve fresh food, shop at thrift stores and stop buying on credit.
“We seem to be so wasteful now and we don’t need to be,” Wanda Miller said. “You can get along with so much less.”
She recommends taking a shopping list to the grocery store to limit on-the-fly spending.
Lois Grable, 80, said families should learn how to “make do.”
“If you don’t have what you want, take what you’ve got and make something out of it,” Grable said. “Whether it’s taking a coat, turning it wrong side out and making another coat out of it, which we did. I don’t want my kids to have to face that because they don’t know how.”
While most said the downturn this year does not compare, they understand the fear of a new depression.
“It may not be a comparison for us because we’re all pretty comfortable,” Galen Miller said. “For 6 million people in this country, the comparison is pretty real.
There were people out of work, living on the streets and living in shantytowns like that in Portland. While we don’t experience that, there are a lot of people in this country who are experiencing that.”
Rachel Schleif: 664-7139
http://wenatcheeworld.com/article/20090323/NEWS04/703239980/0/SPORTS
Victory Gardens or recession gardens still save
Country Comments
By Jeannine Roediger
Find someone who was around during WWII and ask them about a Victory Garden and I am sure they can tell you a great deal, from their own experiences, just exactly what they were. The war effort was carried out in many ways, from saving scrap metal to collecting milkweed pods. But almost everyone could put in a small garden, channeling commercially canned produce to the troops.
Fresh vegetables and fruits were in short supply since transportation and the work force were affected by the war. So, encouraged by the government, people planted gardens everywhere there was a plot of ground available. Fruit production was also encouraged. The gardens supplied all the vegetables a family needed, and with preservation, also provided good meals during the winter. It was said that in 1943 over 315,000 pressure canners were sold to preserve fruits, vegetables and meats. This compared to 66,000 sold in 1942.
It allowed families to eat better since many foods, such as sugar, butter, milk, canned goods, meat, coffee, cheese and eggs were rationed. I still remember seeing some of those ration tickets in my family’s drawers when I was growing up. Even after the war, for a year or two, some things were in short supply. Rationing didn’t totally end until 1945.
If you remember how it worked, you could purchase some of the rationed items but they may have to last your family for a couple of months. So, if you wanted butter, you could purchase only as much as was allotted to your family during a certain period of time. Each family had a ration book where these facts were recorded. If you had used up your allotment, you had to wait until it was your time for more.
So, it made sense to plant fruits and vegetables to supplement your family’s meals. Most farm families had always produced much of their fruits and vegetables, but the Victory Garden campaign gave impetus to city dwellers to start making gardens, as well.
Today there is a splash going around calling gardens “recession gardens.” According to a recent Associated Press story, seed companies are having a hard time keeping up with vegetable seed sales. And, that’s a good thing.
Gardens do save money. They take some work and a place, but if you do it right, you can save a lot of money on fresh produce during spring, summer, fall and even early winter.
If you’re a novice gardener and want to try your hand, there are a lot of books, articles and information out there that will be helpful. Just remember even the most experienced gardener has some failures, seed not coming up or plants just not doing as well as expected. Many factors lead into those problems.
But, if you wait for the right times, April 15 for cold-hardy plants such as lettuce, onions, peas, cabbage, etc. and May 15 for those more tender plants such as tomatoes, peppers, etc. you can do well.
One of the most prevalent problems for new gardeners is getting into that garden when it is just too wet. If you do this, you will pay for it the whole year long. A good way to know is by digging up a clump of soil and taking a small amount in your hand, working it into a ball. If the ball falls apart or you can easily crumble it apart, your soil is ready. If it stays in that ball and seems gummy it’s unworkable. It needs to dry out and you should wait.
The second most prevalent problem is not weeding. Weeding has to be done as soon as your plants come up through the soil. If you don’t do it then, you won’t be able to distinguish your tiny vegetable plants from those of unwanted visitors. If you are really diligent in weeding early, once your vegetable plants come up strongly, weeding won’t have to be done except when rains come. Then more weeds tend to sprout, or those you missed earlier may get larger and rear their heads. Early weeding makes all the difference. Don’t wait!
Choosing the right plants sometimes can be an issue as well. Garden catalogs or local nurseries can give you a lot of insight here. Seed packets themselves carry useful information.
Plus, remember that gardens don’t have to be a square somewhere in a sunny area of your lawn, most are attractive enough to join your flowers in the flower bed, or take a nice seat near your patio in large containers. Pole beans and peas can climb over your arbor or gazebo, cherry tomatoes can hang over window boxes, lettuce can outline your early flower beds and you can sneak a plant or two of cabbage here and there among your shrubs as long as they get some sunlight. You can use your imagination and come up with some creative gardening of your own, I know.
So no matter the name, remember that a few well-chosen types of vegetables can make a huge difference on your grocery bill, your health and your children’s eating habits. There is something to be said about growing and picking your own, plus it didn’t have to be shipped 1,500 miles and use precious resources or energy to get here. Overall, better for the environment!
Jeannine Roediger has lived on a family farm all her life, first as a farmer’s daughter and now as a farmer’s wife. She writes weekly for the Times-Bulletin and enjoys gardening, quilting, cooking, bird watching and writing.
http://timesbulletin.com/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=4&ArticleID=151239&TM=36049.29
Hard times inspiring everyday frugality
By Kim Lamb Gregory (Contact)
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Cutting luxuries was a necessity for Lori Mintzer, 45, of Camarillo, whose husband, Joseph, was laid off in 2007 from Amgen.
“I’ve sacrificed using a salon and now have a friend do mine and my daughters’ hair,” she said. “I cut my husband’s hair. I’ve removed the acrylic nails and no longer go for pedicures. We rarely eat out.”
Then things got worse. Joseph Mintzer, 42, underwent back surgery. He is looking at nine more months of physical therapy until he is able to hunt for another job.
The Mintzers’ situation is mirrored by almost 2 million people across the state. Statistics released this month show February’s unemployment rate at 10.5 percent, up from 10.1 percent in January, according to the state’s Employment Development Department. And the jobless rate is expected to climb to nearly 12 percent next spring, according to the quarterly UCLA Anderson Forecast.
Like many people these days, the family survives by being as frugal as possible. They are in the process of moving to a cheaper rental. They buy only what is on sale and always use coupons at the grocery store.
“We rarely use the heater in the house no matter how cold it is outside,” she said. “We’ve decreased how often we do laundry.”
She works as a nurse, and Joseph just qualified for workers’ compensation, but things are still very tight.
“The hardest thing was trying to keep creditors off our backs and trying to keep our two teenage girls out of the loop,” Lori Mintzer said. “Not letting them in on too much so they feel secure.”
Even those who have not experienced a layoff are cutting back because of the economic climate. Many who never thought they would have to take scissors to their Sunday paper find the recession has turned them into strategic shoppers.
“We’re doing coupons, which I’ve never done before,” said Shena Sherron, 24, of Camarillo. “We shop for our big items — meats and dairy — at Albertsons. We do the cereal and canned foods at Big Lots.”
Sherron was among several women willing to share cost-cutting tips they’ve developed out of necessity, habit, or just because they love a bargain. They talked about their budget strategies as they watched their kids play at a Camarillo park one morning.
Parents help out at school
Anyone with young kids knows school expenses can start taking a bite out of the budget early, starting with preschool. So moms such as Becky Shamber, 34, of Port Hueneme became part of a nonprofit cooperative preschool, which costs about $150 dollars a month. Preschool can cost at least twice that.
The Pleasant Valley Cooperative Preschool in Camarillo, which has been around since 1968, keeps its tuition modest by having parents volunteer one to three days a month doing anything from making lunch to cleaning up. Some may help run arts and crafts classes or assist with some other specialty.
“The money was significant, but I also liked being involved in their education,” said Wendy Sailer, 46, of Camarillo.
Wendy and her husband Paul, 42, volunteer at the school their two children attend. The Sailers both work as engineers, but have worked it out so they get time off to don aprons and cook, clean, and help teacher Annie Barker work with the kids.
And when it comes to kids’ clothes, all the moms agree: hand-me-downs.
Learning to grow food
Karen Drust, 41, of Camarillo has never been a gardener, but the recession prompted her to learn.
“We’re getting more into it. We’re growing vegetables. We’re going to put in fruit trees,” she said. Drust said she cooks a lot and rarely does the more expensive packaged or fast food.
The recession has led some to give up any unnecessary extras, and get creative with entertainment.
“I don’t get my nails done. We don’t go out to dinner as often,” Sherron said.
She also suggests taking a second look at your cell phone plan.
“I lowered the amount of minutes I could use each month,” she said.
Stephanie O’Brien, 37, of Thousand Oaks has also given up some perks.
“I don’t go out to coffee like I used to with my friends,” she said.
She also transferred all of her credit card balances to zero percent interest cards and got rid of her debit card so she wouldn’t be tempted to swipe it.
Drust quit buying books. “We use the library. And my husband buys used books.”
Entertainment still possible
“Stay-cations” can save money, said Susan Spencer, executive editor of “All You” magazine, which targets women looking for value. But if you are staying at home instead of spending money on a vacation, make sure it’s a vacation, she said, or you won’t feel rested.
“Pretend your house is a hotel, to the point where you place chocolates on your pillows,” Spencer said. “Clear everybody’s schedule and take advantage of local activities — going to that museum you’ve wanted to go to.”
Besides not driving the car on a vacation, you can save on gas by slowing down, says AARP magazine. Driving 55 mph on the highway burns 15 percent less gas. Spencer recommends making sure you’re not lugging around extra weight in your car, such as an extra minivan seat, or several pounds of sports equipment.
Eating out is a rare treat for many. But that doesn’t mean the family can’t eat together in a novel environment. If stargazing with a picnic dinner isn’t your thing, Spencer suggests having a family picnic breakfast as the sun rises.
Instead of paying to go to the movies, check a movie out of the library and have a family-movie night. The library is a great source for its main staple, too, she said: books.
And if you are going to fly for a vacation, AARP recommends checking for airline tickets after midnight East Coast time. That’s when airlines assess whether a flight is likely to be full and start slashing prices anywhere from $50 to $400.
Staying fit on a budget
Economizing may necessitate giving up a gym membership, but it doesn’t mean eliminating exercise. AARP suggests signing up for a class at the community college, which can be as little as $35 a semester, then using your ID to work out at the college gym.
Or, skip the gym completely, Spencer said.
“Our readers tend not to belong to gyms as much as we have walking routines,” she said. “If you drop your gym membership, my suggestion is to find a partner. Go for a three-mile walk. You can gossip and get fit.”
The physical activity the Mintzers miss most is golf, which they enjoyed together before her husband was laid off and underwent surgery.
Carefree moments are harder to come by these days, but Mintzer said she and her husband believe everything will be OK some day.
“When all else is gone, what else do you have except faith?” she said.
http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2009/mar/26/county-residents-share-belt-tightening-money/
Gardening revival: A growing sense of security
By Kathy Stephenson
The Salt Lake Tribune
Posted: 03/17/2009 06:00:00 PM MDT
The taste of fresh-picked peas and carrots are reason enough for Christy Barton to plant a vegetable garden this summer. But even more than that, the wife and mother of three — ages 4, 2 and 5 months — says growing food for her family will provide some security in an uncertain time. “Who knows if things will get better or worse?” said Barton, who lives in Clinton. “I want to be prepared.”
The unstable economy has a driven a record number of homeowners in Utah — and across the nation — to purchase seed packets, visit nurseries and attend educational classes so they can plant a backyard garden. For many, it will be the first time they have ever dug into the soil for dinner.
In 2009, 43 million U.S. households plan to grow their own fruits, vegetables, berries, and herbs, according to a recent report from the National Gardening Association (NGA). That’s up 19 percent — from 36 million — in 2008. Of those food gardening households, 21 percent will be new to gardening.
“As in previous recessions, we’ve seen increased participation and spending on food gardening as people look for ways to economize,” said Bruce Butterfield, research director for the NGA.
Employees at Utah’s Mountain Valley Seed Company don’t need to see the national statistics to understand the phenomenon. Spring sales are double last year.
“It’s the biggest home gardening year we’ve had in a long time,” said Jerry Sawyer, operation manger for the Salt Lake City business that sells seeds to nurseries and other retail outlets. “We’ve been hammered. And we’re trying to figure out how we are going to get through it.”
Surprisingly, Sawyer said while home gardeners are gearing up for fruits, vegetables and herbs, they are cutting back slightly on decorative bedding plants, apparently considered a luxury in these hard times.
Burpee & Co., the country’s largest seed retailer, reports that vegetable sales for January 2009 were up 20 percent from one year ago. Organic seed sales are up 46 percent from 2008.
A garden is worth the investment. Spending $50 for seeds and fertilizer now can produce more than $1,200 worth of food in a summer, according to Burpee officials.
People are taking their new hobby seriously, attending classes to help them be successful, said Claire Uno, director of Salt Lake City’s Wasatch Community Gardens.
The nonprofit group has seen attendance surge for its gardening classes. More than 120 people showed up for a recent “organic gardening” workshop. With a 100-person limit, people were turned away, and so WCG has scheduled a second session for March 25.
A “raised bed” class was filled weeks in advance, prompting a second session. And a seed-starting course attracted 80 people, Uno said.
“Two-thirds of the people who came were new gardeners and had never been to one of our workshops before,” she said. “We’re used to classes with 20 or 30 people. So this is exciting for us.”
Besides economic factors, Uno believes many people are taking up backyard gardening for safety reasons, after recent recalls of meat, spinach and peanut butter. “People are more interested in where they food comes from,” she said. “They realize we have a big agricultural system that doesn’t always operate in the consumer’s best interest.”
Environmental concerns are another reason for gardening’s resurgence. In the United States, most food travels between 1,500 and 2,500 miles from farm to table, consuming millions of gallons of fuel and contributing to air and water pollution. Food that has been transported in a truck for several days or has been stored in a warehouse for months also loses flavor and nutritional value.
It’s not just new gardeners who are getting educational help. That’s the case with Shirlee Shelton. The Wendover resident has gardened for about five years, but recently attended a gardening discussion hoping to learn how to better utilize the 20-by-30-foot area in the back of her home.
The NGA reports that 11 percent of the households already active in food gardening planned to increase both the amount and the variety of vegetables in the garden in 2009.
“My kids live close and share my garden,” Shelton said. “They can’t afford the grocery store produce. And besides, it’s not as good as homegrown.”
http://www.sltrib.com/ci_11932395
Unified Grocers Issues Allergy Alert on Undeclared Milk and Soy in Mariegold Baking Bread Products (April 1)
Thu, 02 Apr 2009 09:45:00 -0500
Unified Grocers is recalling six Mariegold Baking bread products (units) because they may contain undeclared milk and soy. People who have an allergy or severe sensitivity to milk or soy may run the risk of serious or life-threatening allergic reaction if they consume these products.
http://www.fda.gov/oc/po/firmrecalls/unifiedgrocers04_09.html
From Shell to Symbol: Art of the Ethnic Easter Egg
This exhibit feature Easter eggs “hand-decorated with elaborate, richly symbolic designs. They represent the work of four Wisconsin artists sustaining their ethnic and religious traditions.” Exhibit sections highlight eggs decorated in several Eastern European traditions, such as the pysanky wax-resist process from Ukraine, colorful ribbon decorations, and triangle and cross-hatching designs. From the Wisconsin Historical Society.
URL: http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/museum/exhibits/eggs/
LII Item: http://lii.org/cs/lii/view/item/27931
Facts for Features Special Edition: Indianapolis Motor Speedway 100th Anniversary
Quick facts and statistics related to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which celebrates its centennial in 2009. “One hundred years after the first of more than 300 races at the speedway, it remains home of the world-famous Indianapolis 500, as well as NASCAR’s Brickyard 400, and some motorcycle and Formula One events.” Find data on Indianapolis, Indiana, auto racing, automobiles, and recreational vehicles (RVs). From the U.S. Census Bureau.
URL TRUNCATED, SEE LII ITEM
LII Item: http://lii.org/cs/lii/view/item/28118
French Easter (P‰ques) Traditions
Description of Easter traditions in France. Discusses Easter eggs, poisson d’Avril (French chocolate Easter fish) and the related April Fools’ Day-type trick in which children try to stick “a paper fish onto the back of as many adults as possible, then run away yelling, ‘Poisson d’Avril!’,” cloche volant (chocolate flying bells), and Easter games. From a site providing “unique and valuable articles for those planning to visit France.”
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LII Item: http://lii.org/cs/lii/view/item/27934
Description of Ukrainian Easter traditions. Topics include when Easter is celebrated, contemporary practices, ritual spring songs and dances, ancient traditions, paska (Easter ritual bread), and Easter baskets (which “should contain only a sampling of the foods you are going to eat at Eastertime”), and pysanky (decorated Ukrainian Easter eggs). Includes a recipe for paska and images of decorations for the top of the paska. From a website promoting Ukrainian culture and economic development.
URL: http://www.brama.com/art/easter.html
LII Item: http://lii.org/cs/lii/view/item/27933
Digitized version of this 15th-century Passover haggadah that belonged to the Rothschild family until 1939, when the Nazis looted it. In 1948, Dr. Fred Towsley Murphy acquired it and donated it to the Yale University library. “In 1980, it was identified as a Rothschild manuscript and returned to its former owners who donated it to the Jewish National Library [now the National Library of Israel].” From the National Library of Israel.
URL: http://jnul.huji.ac.il/dl/mss/heb6130/index_eng.html
LII Item: http://lii.org/cs/lii/view/item/28174
Use of the annotations from this list must be accompanied by:
Copyright 2009 by Librarians’ Internet Index.
Business
This article aims to dispel myths propagated in popular culture (such as James Bond movies and “The Da Vinci Code”) about the operation of Swiss bank accounts. “People who live in countries with unstable governments and banks in particular often turn to Swiss banks because of their security and privacy.” Topics include private versus retail banking, Swiss bank account advantages, history, regulations, numbered accounts, and opening an account. From HowStuffWorks.
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LII Item: http://lii.org/cs/lii/view/item/28122
Questions and answers about the Swiss banking system. Topics include whether a Swiss bank account can be opened entirely via the Internet, the difference between “anonymous” and “numbered” accounts, the safety of Swiss banks, and how “secret” Swiss banks are (”rights to privacy can be suspended when a criminal investigation is underway”). Includes links to related issues such as client confidentiality. From the Swiss Bankers Association.
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LII Item: http://lii.org/cs/lii/view/item/28123
This 2003 press release describes how U.S. and Swiss authorities are working “to ensure that no safe haven exists anywhere in the world [such as in Swiss bank accounts] for the funds associated with illicit activities, including tax evasion.” Includes the text of the Mutual Agreement under the current U.S.-Swiss Income Tax Convention, and letters from American and Swiss officials. From the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
URL: http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/kd3795.htm
LII Item: http://lii.org/cs/lii/view/item/28124
URL: http://www.mvp.usace.army.mil/
LII Item: http://lii.org/cs/lii/view/item/28172
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Copyright 2009 by Librarians’ Internet Index.
Health
This light-hearted 2006 article considers narcissists: “charming, exasperating, captivating — and sometimes downright ludicrous. The weird world of the megalomaniac, explained.” Discusses the narcissist in the conference room and in love, why some people become narcissistic, “your inner narcissist,” and the “Hollywood Cure” (examples of movies where “[d]ropkicking a character out of their grandiosity is a cherished plot twist”). From Psychology Today Magazine.
URL TRUNCATED, SEE LII ITEM
LII Item: http://lii.org/cs/lii/view/item/28160
Website for a “project to evolve a new model for sharing and advancing knowledge about health, medicine and the body among medical professionals and the general public.” Features articles about health conditions and issues. All contributors are either physicians or have Ph.D.s in a health science. Provided in association with the Harvard Medical School; Stanford School of Medicine; University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health; University of Michigan Medical School; and others.
URL: http://www.medpedia.com/
LII Item: http://lii.org/cs/lii/view/item/28175
Background about narcissistic personality disorder, “a mental disorder in which people have an inflated sense of their own importance and a deep need for admiration.” Topics include definition, symptoms, causes, risk factors, when to seek medical advice, complications, treatment, and lifestyle and home remedies. From the Mayo Clinic.
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LII Item: http://lii.org/cs/lii/view/item/28157
This 2008 article considers how “[n]ow that a number of Americans have been identified as narcissists, it is time to learn more about them. For instance, why are so many narcissists men and especially young men?” Begins with a mention of Narcissus in Greek-Roman mythology, and describes the results of a study that found “the lifetime prevalence of narcissistic personality disorder among American adults is 6 percent.” From the American Psychiatric Association.
URL: http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/43/15/38
LII Item: http://lii.org/cs/lii/view/item/28159
Abraham Lincoln “was born two hundred years ago. ... But why are we in the 21st century still obsessed with this 19th-century man? ... What does this popular Abe have to do with the historical Abe?” This site will take six months (from February 2009) to answer these questions. Includes responses from scholars and artists, and an opportunity for you to add material. From the Rosenbach Museum & Library.
URL: http://www.21stcenturyabe.org/
LII Item: http://lii.org/cs/lii/view/item/28127
In a technological twist that Samuel Langhorne Clemens might have relished, nearly 100 years after his death (April 12, 1910) Mark Twain has an official website. Includes a brief biography, fast facts, list of writings, photos, and quotes about and by Twain (such as “The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.”). Includes links to related sites. From the Estate of Mark Twain.
URL: http://www.cmgww.com/historic/twain/index.php
LII Item: http://lii.org/cs/lii/view/item/27889
“Based at the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College, the purpose of the Pennsylvania Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission is to organize, arrange, and coordinate bicentennial tributes to Abraham Lincoln in Pennsylvania.” Its site features a bicentennial calendar with 2009 events, and material about Lincoln in Pennsylvania, including a timeline, the text of the Gettysburg Address (November 1863), and information about the Lincoln funeral train (which passed through Pennsylvania April 21-24, 1865).
URL: http://www.palincoln.org/
LII Item: http://lii.org/cs/lii/view/item/28128
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Copyright 2009 by Librarians’ Internet Index.