Too Big for their Britches

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Julie-Ann Baumer

My tomato seedlings are getting too big for their britches.  It’s time to repot them.

Growing Up

Once seedlings start growing and getting their “true” leaves, it’s time to transfer them to bigger pots.  There are thousands of blogs and websites with articles about how to do this task.  I don’t think I’ll ever be the Julia Child of gardening so I’m not going to pontificate on the particular repotting steps I took.  They needed more space; I gave it to them.

There’s just production and consumption and a variety of hand-offs in between.   I want as few hands between my tomatoes and me as possible.

Posted in Cooking and Food, Farmers | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

72 Years Ago Today

Posted on April 2, 2013 by Julie-Ann Baumer

I’m not very good at internet research. I can put words into a search engine and find a few things, but I know there is a whole science to finding information that goes beyond a basic search. There are reliable and unreliable sources of information; sometimes it’s hard to parse between the two.

We live in a ‘just Google it” world. Words and information hang suspended in space, disconnected from thought.

Reggie Black is skilled at internet research. He always finds something interesting and sends it to me. I can barely keep up with the fascinating articles and websites he sends me. Some days, it’s like an electronic Tower of Babel. I appreciate it and I mourn how little time I have to think critically about anything.

One day, he sent me this link to an archived copy of The Lewiston Evening Journal for Wednesday, April 2, 1941. This part was relevant to me.

“Michael Leo Baumer of Lisbon Falls, was also asked many questions before being sworn in, because of his having been a national of Germany. Baumer stated he felt no remaining loyalty for the Reich and would be glad to support his American citizenship with arms if called upon to do so.”

He was 42 years old.

My grandfather became an American citizen, 72 years ago today. I had always assumed he became a citizen when he got here from Germany in 1924, but this relatively reliable source of information states different facts. I present them here, so that they may hang suspended in space and time. I don’t have any profound thoughts about citizenship; here I am, by some choice of a man who lived and died. He came here seeking a better country, but he surely remembered the country from which he came.

I’ve reached the end of the time I’ve allotted to critical thinking for today.

I, too, seek a better country.

Posted in Home | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Jackie Bradley, Jr., Jackie Bradley, Jr.

Posted on April 1, 2013 by Julie-Ann Baumer

I haven’t been paying attention to the activities at Jet Blue Park in Fort Myers, Florida.  That’s “Fenway South” for the uninitiated.  True, WEEI is piped into my right ear at least four hours per day and I hear the sound bites but they don’t compute.  It’s shopping mall music.  I zoned out on the in-depth analysis of the Red Sox in August last summer and I just kept gawking at the train wreck over my left shoulder.  After Bobby Valentine told Glenn Ordway “if I was there, I would punch you right in the mouth,” it was hard to look away.  I just wasn’t listening.

Then, they put his weird hiccup clown laugh on a continuous audio feed and I started feeling sorry for Bobby.  I hoped he wouldn’t get fired and he might find a way to redeem himself.

By October 4, 2012, everyone knew it wasn’t going to turn out that way.

As the season ground down, I decided I was going to miss his weekly WEEI interview which always started with The Drifters hit “Up on the Roof.”  After he was fired, I turned away from baseball.  I don’t even know who won the World Series.  There were Patriots games, Celtics games, and hockey lockout background noise.  These long winter months of sports talk radio have been filled with drab stretches of disappointment punctuated by occasional hysteria.  Rajon Rondo hurts his knee, Tom Brady takes a pay cut, Wes Welker walks, and Jerome Iginla is traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The Pittsburgh Penguins.

Once in a while, there would be a whisper on the radio about Jackie Bradley, Jr.   Bla bla bla, spring training, bla bla bla Red Sox, bla bla bla Jackie Bradley, Jr.  Who was Jackie Bradley, Jr.?  Was he on Twitter?  What does he tweet?  Should I follow him?  Why has Lou Merloni been talking about him for the last two months?

In February, I couldn’t think about baseball — Jackie Bradley WHO-niur?  The bla bla bla got louder and more frequent.  On Saturday, Red Sox coach John Farrell announced that Jackie Bradley, Jr. had officially made the team.

Today is opening day for the Red Sox and they’re playing the Yankees in the Bronx.  I’ve set up the baseball shrine at my office.

Go Sox(Thanks to blog reader and friend GwynsMum for sending me the Go Sox sign.)

It’s a 1:05 p.m. start; I’ll listen to the game and hear the familiar voices of my radio friends Joe Castiglione and Dave O’Brien.  A swing and a pop up?  Maybe Jackie Bradley, Jr. will get a home run at his first major league at bat, just like Lou Merloni did in 1998.  That was way back.

He’ll be starting in left field, like Yaz.  I just got a little tear in the corner of my eye while reading Carl Yastrzemski’s Wikipedia biography.  He’s old school.

I’m switching my baseball brain on today; I’m a quick study and I think I’ll be ready for the game by 1:05 p.m..  I’ll put my heart and soul into it.

Can you believe it?

…….

April Fool’s!

Posted in Weather and Seasons | Tagged , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Old Faithful

Posted on March 31, 2013 by Julie-Ann Baumer

The crocuses at Motel Four survived the weather.

20130331-054302.jpg
I knew they would. They’re old but faithful and it’s warm against the foundation of The Motel.

Posted in Today We Rest | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Driving home from work today, I noticed several signs posted at different intersections for a “Helicopter Egg Drop.”  This isn’t the first time I’ve seen these signs in the past few years.  Helicopters are noisy and interesting; they make me think of emergencies, SWAT teams, and money.  I get a nervous Nine-Eleven feeling in my stomach when I hear one.

This “egg drop” is sponsored by a local church which meets in a movie theater.  Tens of thousands of plastic eggs are dropped from a helicopter into a field and children run through the field, picking up the eggs in their Easter baskets.  The plastic eggs are filled with candy and prizes.

I’ve never been to a church which meets in a movie theater and drops eggs from helicopters, although their website says they are a “church you will be proud to invite your friends to.”  I wonder what happens to all the plastic eggs that aren’t found.  I wonder how much it costs to rent a helicopter for an egg drop.

Occasionally, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Shalom Bernanke is called “Helicopter Ben.”  He once referenced another economist, Milton Friedman, when he spoke about inflation and deflation and since that speech, pundits have applied the flying appellation to Mr. Bernanke.

Mr. Friedman’s idea was that a central bank could hypothetically control inflation by dropping money from helicopters.  The central banking system of the United States, The Federal Reserve Bank, has never literally dropped paper money or plastic eggs from helicopters; they are able to stimulate the money supply in other ways.  A true “helicopter miracle” remains a hypothetical event.

These eggs were not dropped from a helicopter.

Egg shells contain a variety of soil enriching minerals like calcium, which helps prevent blossom end rot in tomatoes and peppers.  Egg shells are also good pest deterrents; to a slug, egg shells are like broken glass.  Sprinkle some shells around spinach and lettuce as a preventive measure.  I’m going to continue saving egg shells for my summer garden but I’m not going to pick up any plastic eggs.  I don’t think they grind up well and I don’t know if they will keep slugs away from my lettuce.

Today is Good Friday, the day cultural Christendom commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.  Traditionally, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is closed on Good Friday and while there are a number of theories why, no one knows for sure.  Traditions are like that; there is a good reason for them one day and a hundred years later, no one remembers it.

The Federal Reserve Banks will be open today, though, so there is a chance there could be a helicopter miracle.  Which would you prefer they drop, dollar bills or plastic eggs filled with candy and prizes?

Posted on March 29, 2013 by Julie-Ann Baumer | 1 Comment

Among my Souvenirs

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Julie-Ann Baumer

I have small collections of old things.

I wonder when these “mouvenirs” will start getting old?  Or should I say “older.”

Posted in Minimalist | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

The Yo-Yo of Hubbard Hall

Posted on March 27, 2013 by Julie-Ann Baumer

If I had a Tee Vee, I would know there were at least two programs about people who can’t throw things out.  I’ve overheard my coworkers in the lunchroom talking about these shows as they wait for their Pepperidge Farm Ancient Grains bread to pop out of the toaster.  I listen and smile; I act like I have a Tee Vee.  I’m intrigued to hear about people who have gone without water and other basics so they can continue to pay for their storage spaces full of hoarded junk.

Now that I’ve decided to move, it seems fitting to finally work through some of the ephemera I’ve been hauling around since I moved out of my parent’s house in 1982.  Sure, I’ve kept a few things over the years, but it doesn’t seem like hoarding.  It’s a record of my life.  I wonder if my friend Shelley still has the papers she wrote for Professor Urbanski in 1984?  I found one I wrote called “Roderick Usher and Quentin Compson:  A Meeting of Minds.”  If I were a famous author with a few published novels and a Wikipedia entry, this material would be called “juvenilia.”

Some of the papers and stories are funny, like the following article I wrote for “Introduction to Newswriting” in November, 1983.  Read along with me.

**********

A crowd of 500 University of Maine students gathered outside Hubbard Hall in Orono yesterday, some betting and some chanting at the fate of a large yo-yo that was poised in a 10th floor window.

The four pound plywood yo-yo, 15 inches in diameter and painted bright orange with flowers, was built by a group of men living in Hubbard Hall.  It was attached to a nylon cord long enough to reach from the 10th to the second floor.

After a successful trial run from a second floor window, Elmer Klempner, Robert Anthony, and Peter Brooks, students at UMO and also residents of Hubbard Hall, took the yo-yo to the 10th floor.

“Go, go, yo, yo,” and “No, no, yo, yo,” came from opposing groups of chanting students.

The yo-yo was released, it traveled down and back up to the seventh floor.  Down again it went, this time to the fourth floor, and returned to the 10th floor and Klempner’s outstretched hands, amidst cheers from the students.

Klempner said the stint was “just for fun” but claimed he’d proved a point.  “What goes down must come up,” he said.

**********

The story made me laugh because there was no Hubbard Hall at the University of Maine at Orono.  There was no giant plywood yo-yo, either.  It doesn’t even make sense, based on the laws of thermodynamics.  Introduction to newswriting or creative fiction; it’s all the same.

In other news today, Reggie Black informs me that he’s transplanted his herbs into larger pots and they’re doing well in his new, undisclosed location.  His cat got into the catnip for about 10 or 15 minutes and she ended up stoned, twisting by the pool.

Here on the Seacoast, my Valencia tomatoes continue to thrive.

Until I can publish a few novels and get my Wikipedia entry written, “go, go, grow, grow.”

Posted in Back to School | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

The Show Must Go On

Posted on March 25, 2013 by Julie-Ann Baumer

What is it about Sunday afternoons?  Is it the dreaded glance at a pile of untouched papers on the table corner that provokes anxiety?  Or is it the realization that in less than twelve hours, it will be Monday morning all over again?  I’m not wearing my watch but I can hear the ticking of a clock somewhere in The Coop.  It’s not the slow, steady tick tock of a grandfather clock or a cuckoo clock.

It’s the digital press of time, saying “68 days, 68 days, 68 days.”  I have 68 days to pack up the contents of The Coop and move.

I’m excited about this opportunity.  After all, moving closer to my family and friends has been a dream I’ve written about here and elsewhere for a long time.  A month ago, I rented a storage space at home and started moving a few things at a leisurely pace.  I wasn’t sure how things were going to work out, but I figured being prepared to move couldn’t hurt and there were many things I didn’t use every day which could easily be stored.

The dream dynamic changes when it moves from the “someday horizon” to “68 days.”

When I was five, I took tap dancing lessons.  Every year there was a recital which would be preceded by lots of practice in the basement.  Flap, tap, flap, tap, shuffle ball change, shuffle ball change.  One year, we had to spray paint our tap shoes silver, another year we wore top hats.  I must have been a little nervous before my first recital; I asked my mother what would happen if I forgot one of the dance steps.  She said “the show must go on.”

I never forgot my tap steps in the three years I was a dancer at the Clara Harnden-Desjardins School of Dance.  The show went on.  As I’ve started sorting through the papers and souvenirs in my spare bedroom, I’m finding all kinds of treasures like this.

Mondays can be “Moving Monday” and I’ll dredge up curiosities from The Coop’s archives.

I have a lot of new things to do in 68 days and I also have a lot of things that I have to keep doing.  I have my job, I have to help everyone get “rooted” at The Hampton Victory Garden, I have gardens to plant at home, there are Moxie Festival tasks to accomplish, and blog posts to write.  There are probably ten other things I’ve left off that list.

To accommodate my moving tasks, I’m going to temporarily shuffle out one less blog post each week.  I’m going to blog on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday.  No post on Tuesdays, because I’ll be tap dancing things into boxes.  Yup, that’s what I’m going to do.

It was a tough decision because I like writing; sometimes a person has to postpone enjoyable things in the short term to accomplish something better in the long term.  Moving home is that something better for me.

The show must go on, no matter what.  See you back here on Wednesday.

Posted in Experiments and Challenges | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

We’re Not Planting Peas Today

Posted on March 24, 2013 by Julie-Ann Baumer

I wonder where I got the notion that people planted peas on Palm Sunday?  Carlin peas are eaten on the Sunday prior to Palm Sunday in parts of Northern England, but I can find no reference to planting peas at this point in the liturgical calendar.

Peas like cool weather and they’re a perfect crop for eager Northern gardeners.  It’s still a little too cool for planting today, though.

Planting Palm Sunday peas is pleasant alliteration and pastoral fodder for an afternoon nap.

Take one today!

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AM2B

Posted on March 22, 2013 by Julie-Ann Baumer

The other day I got an e-mail from a gastronomic scholar, requesting information about the Moxie Recipe Contest.  Who knew a person could get a Master’s degree in gastronomy from a program co-founded by Jacques Pepin and Julia Child?  Maybe I should get a Tee Vee.  This scholar and foodie asked me what I thought about the current Boston trend of cooking and bartending with Moxie.

I said I was excited and happy about the trend because first and foremost, I am a Moxie girl with a big heart for home.  If a can of Moxie in Puritan & Company’s next batch of lamb belly and oysters is going to increase the social and economic capital of Lisbon, I’m all for it.  As my friend Jay likes to say, “Bring it.”

It may also increase the interest in my Moxie Recipe Contest and since this is my 2013 promotion, I must “always be marketing” (ABM).  Here is the status of the Moxie Recipe Contest as of this moment:

  • The name of the contest will be “Make Mine with Moxie, Please” with a tip of the baseball cap to a piece of iconic Ted Williams Moxie memorabilia.
  • The contest will take place on Friday afternoon, July 12, at Chummy’s MidTown Diner, located at 580 Lisbon Road.  Chummy’s is owned and operated by brothers Tim and Ben Berry; they’ve got moxie and they serve breakfast all day long.  What’s not to like about that?  Their diner also has a horseshoe-shaped bar for sipping coffee and an upper-level dining room which features the paintings of local artist Frank Gross.
  • There will be 3 recipe categories:
    • Moxie Savory (main dishes, meat dishes and casseroles)
    • Moxie Sweet (desserts, pies, pastries)
    • Moxie Kitchen Sink (everything else, including dressings, sauces, and garnishes)
  • The first 25 entrants will receive a “swag bag” including gifts from Wicked Whoopies, Better Than Average, LLC (jams, jellies, and sauces), and Raye’s Mustard.  More interesting and tasteful gifts will be added between now and the contest date.
  • A panel of celebrity judges has been selected and a few of them will be well-known to people who watch Tee Vee.  How’s that for a tease?
  • There will be prizes for the first place winners of each category, plus a grand prize for one overall winner.

There are additional details developing and I’ll write about them in future blog posts; they’ll also be featured on The Moxie Festival’s Recipe Contest page.

I tried cooking with Moxie the other day; I made a batch of the easiest lentil soup ever and I added a 16 ounce can of the magic elixir with the other liquid ingredients.  It added an interesting tang to the soup and it reminded me of some baked beans I bought at Barnie’s on Main Street in Lisbon Falls.  Barnie’s is a variety store located at what locals recognize as the “Kitty Corner Store.”  Every Saturday, Barnie makes a batch of baked beans based on his Memere’s secret recipe.  They are bold and nostalgically tasty; I think they would be delicious with a bit of Moxie added to the other secret ingredients.  I’d like Barnie to create a Moxie version of those beans and enter them in the Recipe Contest.

I’m not going home this weekend, so I won’t be able to pick up baked beans and talk to him personally.  Can someone get a memo to Barnie (AM2B) and let him know what I’m thinking?

Barnie, bake some beans with Moxie this weekend; your Memere would want you to! 

Posted in You've Got Moxie! | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments