From loyal (fellow New England) correspondent Currants:
Last Saturday and Sunday were not just our first frost, but our first freeze for the year. Like everything else this summer, I was behind and spent Friday and Saturday morning trying to pull everything out of the garden that could still ripen. Friday I had a three-year-old leprechaun helper (eldest granddaughter), who’s been an avid gardener and outdoors kid from the beginning.
So we pulled in the houseplants that live outside in good weather, transplanted one (broken pot from a poorly-chosen interim location), gathered all the sizeable tomatoes (the golden treasure and Berkeley tie-dies and Pozzano plums), an entire box of tomatillos so far, and took a paddle in a kayak to see how close we could get to the wood ducks (about 150 ft) and the wild mallards.
Saturday I pulled the last of the cubanelle peppers and black beans, and the rest of the carrots are still waiting (but if I wait too long the mice will beat me). The tomatillo plants had at least as many tomatillos on as I picked, but they weren’t filled out–this was the first time I’ve tried growing them, and the plants are spindly and sprawling—and incredibly prolific.
I’m still figuring out what to do with all these green things. The tomatoes are mostly in the basement, waiting to ripen, and the tomatillos have made two different salsas (one roasted, one not), but clearly, a slow-cooker day is on the books for the coming week. Or maybe enchiladas–anyone have any other good (quick) ideas?
I’ve planted kale and swiss chard, and need to get cover crops into the three remaining raised beds. And, of course, I’ll need to finish planting garlic and a few (!) spring bulbs I ordered in heedless enthusiasm in July (what was I thinking?), and then prep the soil for a new asparagus bed in the spring. One of you garden commenters talked about having work parties in the spring to get the garden started, an idea I might adopt in the future. Or maybe next year I’ll plan better…?
Photos are largely from earlier in the season, but I wasn’t much of a documentarian this year. Garlic, tomatillo, the season’s biggest tomatoes on a scale (a pink Berkeley tie-dye and a Chianti rose), and two pumpkins and the tiniest Hubbard squash ever (grown unsupervised in a hugelkultur in a remote location). The end of season photos are the ones with produce in a box and autumn leaves, including my last tray of black beans drying.
Onward, into the autumn!
***********
I was at a hobby convention last weekend, and brought home a nasty rhinovirus along with the rest of the con swag. So apart from getting the Spousal Unit to scavenge the last few almost-ripe Black Krims, and bringing in some of the rootpouched scented geraniums and yet-to-be transplanted mini-roses that arrived from California at the beginning of the month, I didn’t even try to save anything from the first frost here. Sad blasted remnants of the morning glory and tomato vines need to be cut down, tomato ladders stored away, and the neglected seedy front yard mowed one last time today. After which, I can dig holes for a few more roses and blueberry bushes, or nag the Spousal Unit to do so. And then try to figure out where the rest of the rootpouched roses might survive the winter (probably the garage, which will involve much moving stuff around on the shelves lining every wall… )
What’s going on in your garden(s) this week?
ruemara
One, I would like some of this fantastic garden foods, Currants. Two. boy am I up late.
WereBear
My neighbor already rescued the favorite mini rose and I put mums out on the porch at work. Had no energy this summer. Shingles brought me right up to the edge. Still recovering.
OzarkHillbilly
@WereBear:
Ugh. You have my sympathies.
NotMax
Unsure that’s anything would want to eat.
Smoke, maybe.
raven
Great garden goodies!
I had shingles on my head and in my left eye. It was like an ice cream headache 24-7 fro weeks.
NotMax
The times, they are a-changin’.
(Quasi-garden related.)
OzarkHillbilly
Nice Currants, very nice. I grew a few tomatillos last year just to see how they’d do and the answer was quite well. It was only 5 plants and what the chipmunks and mice left me weren’t enuf to work with so I did nothing with them. Was going to plant more this year but by the time I got done picking my tomato plants I did not have room for them. Next year…
We got a touch of frost earlier this week. Killed the last of the pepper plants and eggplants. Gourds too. So I picked everything there was to be picked, made some stuffed peppers for dinner… and lunch… and snacks. I’ll freeze the rest. Gonna have some stuffed jalapenos too. The eggplant will get eaten tonight with sweet potatoes from the garden and a slow grilled rack of ribs.
Slowly but surely I am working on cleaning out the garden. Still have to remove all the trellises and cages. Then I’ll spread the compost I got last week and sow some cover crops.
I have lettuces, spinach, kale, and Brussels Sprouts growing. Need to put in some hoops for frost covers.
Composted and planted the garlic bed. And forgot all about having chickens now. Didn’t take them very long to find all that fresh turned soil and compost, and scratch up about a quarter of it. So I raked and replanted the cloves they dug up, then put some plastic fencing I had around it. Only 2 ft tall but it keeps then out.
I’m gonna build a greenhouse this year and am working on siting it. All the good locations I have are really too shaded by very large and beautiful oaks, and I am loath to cut any of them down. Gonna have to make a compromise or 2.
NotMax
@raven
Suffered an outbreak of shingles down the left torso, front and back, from mid-neck to waist way back when I was about 30.
wvng
We also had a bumper crop of tomatillos this year. We have a ton of salsa made up, a few jars of tasty tomatillo pickles, made a chicken stew with them (quite good), and made a tomatillo/lime marmalade that is to die for. And a zillion frozen. No, make that 2 zillion.
Tommy
We had our first frost the other day, but general speaking a warm fall. Really warm actually. Garden is still producing stuff, which makes me very happy.
Satby
Our first frost was a hard freeze too, last weekend. My few tomato plants were already done, so no real losses. I also have to pull down morning glory vines that are everywhere on my deck rails and generally clean up the deck now that I put away my summer yard furniture. But not today, today my exchange daughters are doing a volunteer project for a few hours up in Benton Harbor, so I’m wondering what to do with myself while they do that, because I’m not driving home in between. Too far.
Tommy
Oh just a shout out to so many here that have given me advice over the last few years. My first two attempts at a garden were epic fails. But I kind of learned from my mistakes and this year the garden was an epic success. I had more food than I could eat. Giving away food to my neighbors. Thanks for all the input and advice. It worked!
Botsplainer
Ow. My head hurts like it should. On the plus side, the raging case of the trots that was afflicting me two days ago appears to be back with a vengeance.
So I got that going for me, which is nice.
Satby
@Botsplainer: Flying home today, right? Hope your head and your guts settle down before the flight. Because flying in that condition will be no fun.
Satby
Currants, great garden and adorable assistant!
Ultraviolet Thunder
Good morning from chilly Muskegon MI.
No frost here because Lake Michigan is still warm.
The veggies look delicious. And sideways on my iPhone, but I get the idea.
the Conster
Beautiful job, currants. I just cut my dead morning glory vines, and thanked them for their gifts- I’m going to miss that glorious blue outside my window every morning. I cut the nasturtium vines all back, and my zinnia stalks are like saplings so I need more than kitchen shears. They produced beautifully all summer in the little garden bed I created out of a neglected patch of crabgrassy lawn. Once the leaves are down, it will be a long time until color returns to my world.
OzarkHillbilly
So if you are bored and have several hours you don’t know what to do with, how’s about exploring the Milky Way via the Ruhr-Universität Bochum’s telescope in the Atacama desert?
From the Guardian:
The full image is a mosaic of 268 individual images. It is contained in a single data file of 194 Gigabytes. Made up of 46 billion pixels, it is so huge that the astronomers have provided an online tool to help view it.
Tommy
@Ultraviolet Thunder: Climate change sucks but I have to admit it is kind of nice it is normally in the low 40s this time of the year and it is in the 70s :). This week it is supposed to get into the 80s.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
The whole Where’s Waldo thing has gone too far.
Tommy
@OzarkHillbilly: I like to think I am pretty smart, but then I see something like this and the minds behind it and I feel pretty darn stupid.
HinTN
Planted viburnum, high bush cranberry, and umbrella magnolia that we had nursed through summer in pots yesterday and then had a gentle rain last night. The flower bed (zinnias and Mexican sunflower) is cleaned up. No more vegetable gardening for this old poot. I’ll buy from young whippersnappers on our local internet market.
Satby
@HinTN: That reminds me, I have to get my two tiny blueberry bushes into the ground from the pots I had them growing in all summer, and we bought some tulip bulbs so the girls can have their “own” flower garden that blooms before they leave to go back home in June. Need to get that done this week. We finally got a bit of rain, so at least the ground won’t be like concrete.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: I think I found him at 12:24:23.108 -63:41:25.69! Actually a weird corruption of the data. Just cruising around out there in the star fields and I spot this rectangular object (could it be a sign of an alien species??!?!?!!?!?!?!??? Enquiring minds want to know!) and just had to zoom in on it.
CASLondon
tomatillos = roasted for salsa verde
Gin & Tonic
Was going to put in the last of the bulbs this weekend, but found a nasty surprise Friday evening. The filter on the fuel oil tank in my basement sprang a leak. 20+ gallons of fuel oil all over the floor by the time the disaster cleanup guys had come. Made for a very long couple of days, and we’re living in a hotel. Lots of stuff ended up coated in oil. The smell is unbelievable.
Tommy
@OzarkHillbilly: Don’t mention that to the folks on Ancient Aliens :)!
OzarkHillbilly
@Gin & Tonic: Holy Fvck. Not sure that smell ever goes away.
Tommy
@Gin & Tonic: Fuel oil is foreign to me but anytime you have to say “disaster cleanup guys” in a sentence that can’t be a good thing.
Botsplainer
@Satby:
I look at it as “bad for me, worse for anybody sitting in the airplane head, and off the charts for anybody following me in.”
Schlemazel
We lost one of our great oaks this year, a sad day that will warm us next winter. That still leaves us with 8 along with 2 maples and the 2 cherries (road work has not killed them – yet). So leaves becomes the operative word for fall, about 2 feet deep across the entire yard and even yesterday’s strong winds didn’t reduce that. It generally takes 2 all-day sessions across 2 weekends to get them all but we are late starting this year as our little hockey team has been in action and that takes precedence. Of all the yard tasks there are I have raking the most, I’d rather shovel snow than rake leaves.
Tomatillos, other than salsa anyone have some recipes? I see them all the time & keep thinking I should learn to cook with them.
OzarkHillbilly
@Botsplainer: On one trip SOB a buddy got up from our table in this small restaurant off a town square. He came back 5 mins later and said, “We need to leave.”
“Yeah sure Rich, soon as we’re done with our beers.”
“No, we need to leave NOW. My a$$hole just exploded all over that toilet.”
I’m not sure the phrase ‘if looks could kill’ adequately describes the way those women looked at us as we walked out the door.
daWreck
Pork chili verde
Tommy
@Gin & Tonic: Do a lot of people still use fuel oil to heat their homes? I ask because I thought it was an “old” technology. My parents live in the house my great-great grandfather built. Massive house, heck it has an elevator. They heat with radiators. They had to replace them this year and finding somebody to do the work was close to impossible. Is it the same with fuel oil systems?
Schlemazel
@Gin & Tonic:
Oh gawd, thats awful, I hope insurance covers the clean up. We had a house near a church years ago and the delivery guy hooked up to the wrong pipe & delivered 320 gallons into the sunday school classrooms, it was a disaster for the church & took weeks to repair. I hope it goes better for you.
NotMax
@Gin & Tonic
El cheapo kitty litter will draw in and soak up a lot if spread and left for a day or so.
Another Holocene Human
Well, I went to Gainesville Pride yesterday, which I never do. Seemed lively, lots of young people there. These acupuncturists convinced me to let them put “seeds” on my ears which would do something vague. Well, they don’t seem to do anything, kind of like acupuncture, which I told them, I don’t think acupuncture does anything, which is too bad because I have problems that conventional medicine isn’t helping me with much. They gave me their cards anyway.
Meh.
Another Holocene Human
@Gin & Tonic: ugh, yuck
Germy Shoemangler
Mrs. Shoemangler planted some climbing joseph coat roses last year, and they’ve been making new flowers in October. Something we didn’t expect.
Me
@Tommy: my house does. The heater is 65 years old and going strong. The oil company tries to talk me into a new (smaller, more efficient) one every year, but I feel kind of loyal to it.
If I can refi, or if the city incentives work out this year, I’ll put in a heat pump and keep the furnace only for backup. But it does the job fine meanwhile.
WereBear
@OzarkHillbilly: Thanks. Still on the drugs that control the nerve pain. Not opiates, which didn’t do a thing and that’s kind scary.
PurpleGirl
@Tommy: What provides the heat for the radiators? In my complex, the radiators are powered by steam. The steam is cogeneration with electricity, we use fuel oil and gas to generate the heat/hot water and electricity.
FlyingToaster
Tomatillo Soup
Roast the tomatillos; puree in whatever tool you’ve got — food processor, blender, stick blender in a bowl, whatever.
Put the puree into your pot and cover plus 1 inch with chicken stock; then stir thoroughly. Add lime juice, cilantro, and minced hot peppers (choose your heat, it can be jalapeños, anaheims, serranos, anchos, even guajillos), salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally; then add grated monterey jack until melted, and masa to thicken.
I apologize for not having numbers or proportions; I’ve always done it “by eye”, until it looks like the soup I used to get at Picante in Davis Square (long gone, alas).
gelfling545
Again I have the vegetable garden envy. I know I could never keep up with it but , still….
I have a ton of garden clean up to do but for the last 10 days or so it’s either been raining or there were high winds on the days I could be home to do it. I have hopes for today but on this am’s dog walk I saw weird looking clouds again. We had our first frost surprisingly early so this year’s pitiful vegetable garden can be cleared away.
WereBear
@raven: I was “lucky” because it was on my arm.
debbie
@PurpleGirl:
My NYC apartments were steam heated. The only way to regulate them was to open or lower the windows. I can’t imagine how much money was wasted in the building.
FlyingToaster
@Another Holocene Human: According to my (30 years ago) Chinese housemate, acupuncture works as a short circuit; it won’t cure a damn thing, but it can alleviate pain or a symptom while you’re waiting for the actual meds to take effect. She used it to reduce the pain of her glaucoma headaches while waiting for the analgesics to take effect. Her parents were both (western-trained) MDs.
I’ve used acupressure to suppress my gag reflex during dental work, so I have some confidence in the “works for 15 minutes” theory.
It can’t realign your Xi, though. Try a linear accelerator or cyclotron :)
bemused
@WereBear:
A friend who had shingles told me about the pain and I got the shingles vaccine very soon after. There is a PSA that shows a guy with the rash on his face. Assuming that’s not a depiction but real, it’s pretty convincing to get that vaccine.
@Tommy:
We have fuel oil heat but just for backup. We have an outdoor wood stove, installed it about 20 years ago. Living in the northwoods, many people have outdoor wood stores and either buy wood or cut their own. We live on 60 country acres so wood supply is plentiful. Takes time and work to cut a supply for a long winter but it seems to be a therapeutic occupation for my husband. I have to say that the advantage of wood stove heating other than much less expensive than fuel oil is the even heat.
Gimlet
As I read reports of Hurricane Patricia, we are so lucky it didn’t hit a highly urban and vulnerable area like Katrina.
Josie
@FlyingToaster: Do you peel the outer skins off of the tomatillos? I have never cooked with them.
WereBear
My office has a cluster of rocks outside where someone seems to have, in the distant past, made a feeble attempt at a rock garden. I’d like to revive that. Research would make a good winter diversion, and I can assess my strength level for the spring.
Schlemazel
@FlyingToaster:
Thanks. I almost always cook by eye but with something new I’m more cautious. Can you ballpark the amount of tomatillos to say a quart of stock? But this is the sort of thing I would like to try
@Josie:
I assume you would blanch and skin them like you would with a tomato. Wouldn’t have to but it makes a nicer dish.
OzarkHillbilly
@WereBear: My little bro got shingles last winter. Took weeks -maybe more- to go away. The nerve pills were the only thing that helped, to the extent that they did.
Opiates… I collapsed a lung at work long long ago. Had to undergo emergency surgery (with out anesthetics) to insert a tube into my chest cavity. Hard to describe what that kind of surgery feels like other than to say, ‘it hurts’ and leaves you as limp as a wet rag. When I finally got that first shot of morphine it was like this warm golden blanket flowing over my entire world. The pain was still hot and fresh, but it was a beautiful pain and I fell asleep with a smile on my face.
Gin & Tonic
@NotMax: This was way beyond a kitty litter situation. We’ll have to see how it goes, I had the leaky part replaced yesterday, so at least I can heat the house and have hot water. State environmental person came by, I guess they have to investigate any potential leakage into the environment. Gave some useful tips. Cleanup crew is being coordinated by my insurance – I’m not all that happy so far, but a supervisor is coming tomorrow morning. They have two industrial-size HEPA air scrubbers going since Friday night.
Everybody so far has said it’s good I came home when I did. If I’d gone away for the weekend, there’d be 250+ gallons of oil in the basement. But I’ve also been told I really need to think about replacing the tank, as those deteriorate as well, and this one is over 50 years old. And insurance does not cover that.
Starting to think a condo may be a better long-term plan.
PurpleGirl
@debbie: My father had the thermostat on an inside wall in their bedroom. The system was set to generate heat for x minutes every hour on the hour or half hour, or whatever. It was how he maintained heat without over heating and wasting energy and money. I don’t remember being cold while growing up. Oh, and he could also set it to run longer when it was needed to build up some heat like in the morning. It would run for a half-hour straight at 5:30 a.m. and then go back to the standard run times. This type of system takes oversight and planning, which so many landlords and/or supers don’t want to do. Also, my parents building was only 6 apartments on 3 floors.
Gin & Tonic
@Tommy: Fuel oil is widely used in the northeast.
Another Holocene Human
@debbie: my sister lived in a basement in Cambridge, MA right by the furnace and it was deadly
windows open just to survive, then assholes would loiter on the sidewalk smoking and kill them (sis and roommates) again
PurpleGirl
@Gin & Tonic: I know my father had the burner replaced and added a newer oil tank. The original tank with the building was underground in the backyard. I don’t know what was done to disable the hook up (probably done when I was very young).
Germy Shoemangler
We have radiators in our house, and a gas-fired boiler in the basement. Some of the radiators get HOT but of course there’s one that barely gets warm.
On the boiler is the glass tube thingy that shows you the water level. As soon as the heat goes on, the water level rises. The radiators have a tendency to flood. Heating guy ran a hose from the boiler to drain the water, said it’s just condensation from the radiators returning to the boiler.
But I remember years ago, a different place I lived, this never happened. The water level in the glass tube was always right in the middle. Never went up.
debbie
@Another Holocene Human:
Ha! I lived in a third floor apartment in Boston. One year in winter, our gas bill jumped from $30 to $300 per month. We discovered squatters had moved into the basement and somehow used our heat to generate their heat. They also left the basement door open so they could come and go.
Another Holocene Human
@FlyingToaster: I guess this involves poking yourself, though, because one can’t exactly get emergency acupuncture (I think?)
I have migraines, and sometimes the starting part isn’t even pain. It might be severe nausea. Or light sensitivity. Or perceptual weirdness. The only thing that stops that is some nasty medication.
Gin & Tonic
@PurpleGirl: At least around here, the underground fuel oil tanks are not permitted any more. I’m pretty sure it’s one of those things that’s grandfathered as long as you’re there, but you can’t sell a house without removing and replacing the tank. We’ve been in this house 30 years, and the DEM inspector said they usually have a useful life of 30-35 years, then they corrode and spring a leak.
While there is an exemption for home hating tanks, otherwise all single-walled storage tanks are legally required to be closed and removed within 32 years of the date of installation.
Another Holocene Human
@WereBear: Rock gardens were so hot at one time! This car dealership had a large Japanese style (style, mind you) rock garden put in outside their fence in the late 80s or thereabouts, with water features and everything.
MFA in Boston had a much more snobby Zen rock garden installed out back. God only knows how accurate that was.
(Portland, OR has a really nice Japanese garden, one of the really worth it things to see in the area.)
Another Holocene Human
@debbie: OMFG! Wow.
I haven’t seen $30 energy bills since I left Boston. We pay taxes here through electric bills, VERY regressive.
Another Holocene Human
@Gin & Tonic: My parents whole neighborhood was digging up the tanks in the late 1990s. Yeah, they leak, and when they had that carcinogen in the fuel it leaked out too.
Poopyman
@Gin & Tonic: Be very very glad you don’t live in a watershed critical area with the tank outside, or worse yet, buried.
Fortunately, I don’t know this from personal experience, but if it had happened, the fuel oil guy said the costs would have exceeded property value.
@Another Holocene Human: So, the government chip implant program is proceeding. Exxxxcellent!
Germy Shoemangler
A new movie the Bush brothers won’t be rushing to see:
http://kikoshouse.blogspot.com/2015/10/politix-update-new-movie-that-brothers.html
FlyingToaster
@Josie: You husk them, sure, but not the skin of the fruit; it breaks up under heat (hence the roasting first).
@Schlemazel: If you want to blanch instead of roasting them, note that their peels are stickier than tomato peels.
For a quart of stock I’d probably want 2 lbs. From my cold New England garden, that’s around 20-25; for the big ones from Russo’s (local greengrocer) it’d be about 10. I put them on a roasting pan under my oven’s broiler; it took 20 minutes to roast the big ones yesterday when my husband was making pollo con arroz verde. With that, I’d expect a handful (~1/2 cup loose) of chopped fresh cilantro, 2-3 ounces of lime juice, a cup of grated jack, and maybe an ounce of masa. The rest to personal prediliction.
FlyingToaster
@Another Holocene Human: For hers, it was a line of needles on and above her wrist, yes, self-applied on the spot. Worked for about 30 minutes (which was long enough for us to walk home from the pizza place we were at, get her meds into her and them to take effect).
That’s where you need an acupuncturist who accepts western medicine to work with you to determine which spot(s) to short-circuit your symptom(s).
I’d check a teaching hospital with complementary care group (usually working with the oncology folks) for a referral.
Josie
@FlyingToaster: Thanks. Sounds yummy.
WereBear
I understand the impulse, but those high monthly fees and bizarre restrictions would give me pause.
Schlemazel
@FlyingToaster:
WOW! Thanks for the heads up – I would have peeled and then roasted.
currants
@wvng: Excellent! If I’m not too late to the game here, would you post links to those recipes? Esp the one with lime marmalade.
@OzarkHillbilly: I only planted 2 plants, and I put them in late, and had I gotten them in earlier, we’d have had hundreds of tomatillos. More than enough for all of wvng’s recipes!
currants
@Satby: Yep, very adorable. Mostly. She and her little sister spent the night last night (repatriated this morning, so I’m late to the thread as usual), and at 3:30 am she was calling me insistently. When I went into her room, she beamed up at me: “I called you! I want to go out for bweakfast now!” Hah.
scav
Recovering from a double-lot leaf rake yesterday, and very much enjoying the futility every time I look outside. Still, we caught ’em dry and had a glorious burn with them. Managed all the tasks except for the squill planting. I’ll be out again in a week or so, but the squill were really the dessert task I was anticipating.
currants
@FlyingToaster: THANK YOU! I can figure it out by eye, close enough anyway, and can keep adjusting. Really appreciate it.
Germy Shoemangler
We’ve had several freezing nights, and yet our collard greens are still looking good. We picked a bunch, and there’s more to harvest.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone :……
gelfling545
@Gin & Tonic: Oh, you still get to pay for this stuff in a condo! The owners are assessed proportionately for major repairs. Your share of a gigantic condo sized disaster repair is not a lot less than a single home cost. After I retired I did a little temp work for a property management agency that handled a lot of local condo associations’ buildings. While I was with them one association needed to replace the aged boilers. The outcry was amazing. It’s the worst of both worlds but if you really want that, buy a unit in a VERY new building so you don’t risk major repairs at once. Then there are the property owners’ associations which make Stalin look like a nice, friendly humanitarian type.
currants
@gelfling545: I can’t keep up. I keep thinking I’ll get even with it, but it never happens.
currants
@Josie: Yep, and then rinse them (they’re sticky).
gelfling545
@Another Holocene Human: I had migraines manifesting as vertigo to the point where I virtually had no life going on. We were at the point where the neurologist wanted me to take seizure medication & that was just not going to happen. My daughter found me an acupuncturist locally & I was treated for this over a period of about 8 months. That was a little over 2 years ago & I have had no recurrence. My acupuncturist has no problem with western medicine except that they don’t usually see that some traditional things can complement the healing process. I discussed it with my PCP who is quite in favor of it and takes her 90 year old father for acupuncture for pain issues as he is too frail to support standard pain meds.
currants
@NotMax: Yep, typo, sorry. tie-dyes. The name was part of the appeal, but they were the best variety in the garden this year. And possibly the best green heirloom type I’ve yet grown, though I haven’t grown many (others were Black Krim, a French version of possibly the same–Noire de Crimée, and Japanese Black Trifele)
Another Holocene Human
@gelfling545: You know I’m ready to try something like this. However, the two practitioners I talked to really did not give me a lick of confidence that they had any idea what they were doing.
I’m told you can take high dose of Mg, Riboflavin, and feverfew to prevent migraine, BUT:
Mg is notorious hard to absorb. I try to keep my food dosage up but it’s hard to do and my diet gets too repetitive which makes me quit
The Riboflavin dose recommended is way above RDA and apparently causes diarrhea, which would keep me from working just as surely as the migraines do
Some intriguing research on feverfew but, funny story, turns out feverfew capsules in the store contain little, if any, feverfew. (This is really typical of our post DSHEA world.) I haven’t looked into having a plant, which is the only reliable option. I am good at killing plants and what I don’t kill, my cat kills.
Thoughts?
Emma
@Another Holocene Human: The MFA garden is still going as of three/four? years ago. I don’t know about accurate but it was gorgeous and the stillness was wonderful.
WereBear
@gelfling545: Exactly! I open myself to “charges of woo belief” but there’s lots of alternative things that are useful.
And… there’s lots of traditional medicine that are scams, too.
WereBear
@Another Holocene Human: Chelated magnesium is much more absorbable. Also soaking in a tub full of Epsom salts.
Magnesium is great stuff — my ability to handle the cold has increased since I started supplementing with it. Don’t know how that applies to someone living in Florida :)
Pie Happens (opiejeanne)
Beautiful garden, as usual Currants. And you grew tomatillos! They always overproduce for us and this year is no exception. We roasted them with some onion, garlic, and jalapeño peppers, then zapped them in the blender to make salsa verde.
Today we are making chicken tomatillo soup, from this recipe which comes from Cafe Pasqual in Santa Fe, NM: http://old.ajocsa.com/chickentomatillosoup.html
rikyrah
they are a SCAM and a FRAUD.
AlterNet
@AlterNet
The Brazen Ways the Charter School Industry Rips You Off http://bit.ly/1OZMmH2 #education
rikyrah
hmmmmmmm
……………..
Chinese Firm Plans $1.3 Billion Purchase Of Texas Oil Lands
OCTOBER 25, 201512:12 PM ET
A Chinese investment holding company intends to put down stakes in the United States after signing a letter of intent to purchase oil properties in western Texas for $1.3 billion through a limited liability partnership.
The Shanghai-listed Yantai Xinchao Industry Co., said in a securities filing over the weekend, it was a purchasing oil lands in the Texas counties of Howard and Borden as part of the proposed acquisition of Ningbo Dingliang Huitong Equity Investment Center, according to the Associated Press.
The news service also reports Yantai Xinchao said in its letter of intent, the transaction, worth 8.3 billion yuan, has been “approved by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States” which is part of the Treasury Department.
The oil properties are being purchased from Tall City Exploration LLC and Plymouth Petroleum LLC, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Neither Tall City Exploration or ArcLight Capital Partners LLC, the parent company of Plymouth Petroleum, returned requests for comment by the time of this posting. We will update if things change.
The Wall Street Journal also reports Chinese energy companies have been longing to do business in the U.S. because of “stable laws governing oil exploration and production.” The publication adds:
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/10/25/451675784/chinese-firm-plans-1-3-billion-purchase-of-texas-oil-lands?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=npr&utm_medium=social&utm_term=nprnews
hamletta
Oh, dear Lord, shingles. All that stuff about how only old people get it, or that it’s one-and-done, is bullshit. I know people who’ve had it twice before they were 40, and my lovely new choir director just had it, and if she’s 30, I’m Marie of Roumania.
She was on some medication that made her dizzy and she almost fell into the organ pit at rehearsal.
My younger brother hasn’t had it yet, even though we got chicken pox at the same time and got dumped into the bathtub together with oatmeal. (Whether it was Aveeno or Quaker is lost to the mists of time.)
He always ran hot fevers, and that was supposed to cook off the virus for good so you wouldn’t get shingles later, but that sounds like an old wives’ tale to me. So I told him to get vaccinated, because he’s kind of a dickhead, but I wouldn’t wish that pain on my worst enemy, much less my little brother.
SWMBO
@hamletta: I had chicken pox and nearly died. I ran a 105 degree fever for several days. I was sick enough that the doctor wanted to put me in the hospital but there was a particularly nasty variant of Asian flu at the time that was taking up all the empty beds at the hospital. He didn’t want me giving those people chicken pox and them giving me the flu. He came to our house twice a day to monitor me. They gave me ice water/alcohol baths to try to break the fever.
I have had shingles three times since then. The last two times I had it, the PCP prescribed Valtrex for a week. She told me, “I’m putting 3 times a day on this but it doesn’t mean breakfast, lunch, dinner. You set an alarm and every 8 hours you take this.” It was a miracle. And you could feel it wearing off at 7 1/2 hours. I was watching the clock waiting for the last half hour to drag by. I got shingles again less than 2 months later. The oral surgeon was doing a dental implant and said that the shingles would affect the healing and the pain levels (this was in the gums near the implant and on the outside of my face up to my eye). He prescribed two weeks of Valtrex and I haven’t had an outbreak since.
I have had the insurance company try to get me to take the shingles vaccine and the flu vaccine and the pneumonia vaccine. I am allergic to eggs and had a severe reaction the last time I had any vaccine so they said to call when I need antivirals and go in peace. I think it was the “give me your malpractice insurance number and I’ll do as you recommend” that convinced them it was not a good idea.
Pie Happens (opiejeanne)
@SWMBO: I had it when I was 32, very very mild case but I don’t ever want it again so I got the vaccination. I’ve had pneumonia twice, back in my 30s when I was teaching.
Got the pneumonia vaccination three years ago, now there’s another vax that sounds like a different form of pneumonia; not sure, may get that too.
Got my flu shot 4 weeks ago, no reaction other than the sore arm for a few days. I know I could still catch a different variety of the flu or a cold that could turn into pneumonia, but I feel like my chances of staying healthy are much better, especially since we don’t have contact with little kids (no grandchildren yet) and have become near-hermits because of where we live now.
The youngest and her fiancé are coming for supper; I hope neither has a cold.
currants
@Pie Happens (opiejeanne): Thank you for the recipe! Glad to hear you have prolific tomatillos. I’ll grow them again next year–they aren’t like tomatoes, but they are a lot less problematic than tomatoes (so far).