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The Passing of an Icon
I’m sad to report that Bunnita “Pisky” Casique Hoople, bunny companion of 7 years, passed away yesterday afternoon.
Suddenly in the last 3 days she stopped eating well and was having a lot of trouble breathing. It turns out that she had a lot of large and small tumors and that these had reached her lungs. She was in a sadstate, I’m happy that it came on and ended so quickly. In 7 years of life she’d only needed the vet one other time, I can only hope to be so lucky.
She was curious and fearless. When Raul was tearing down the plaster and lathe walls, she hopped right over and started picking up and moving around the pieces of wood that he was (carefully) dropping on the ground. She was sweet and kind. I remember one day, I was sitting on the couch crying about something and she hopped over and started licking my foot to comfort me. A lover of peanut-butter toast, a spoiled brat who always got her way. We are so thankful to have met her and to have been loved by her. Raul says you’ll be there jumping and so happy to see us when we pass over to the other side. We’re both atheists, we don’t believe that at all. But right now, I hope that I am wrong, and I hope that you’ll save us some apples.
Thanks for all the laffs Pisky.
Eat your heart out Rachel Ruysch: My garden just turned into a Dutch Flower Painting!
Here’s a Tulip from my garden, that I think has the virus that created the variegated tulips that were the focus of the 17th century Dutch Tulipmania! From Wikipedia “At the peak of tulip mania in February 1637, some single tulip bulbs sold for more than 10 times the annual income of a skilled craftsman.” in a different article on Wikipedia “Historically variegated varieties admired during the Dutch tulipomania gained their delicately feathered patterns from an infection with Tulip Breaking potyvirus, the mosaic virus that was carried by the green peach aphids, Myzus persicae. Persicae were common in European gardens of the seventeenth century. While the virus produces fantastically colourful flowers, it also caused weakened plants that died slowly. Today the virus is almost eradicated from tulip growers’ fields. Those Tulips affected by mosaic virus are called “Broken tulips”; they will occasionally revert to a plain or solid colouring, but still remain infected with the virus.” (That part about the peach aphid is interesting as this tulip is growing not 10 feet from a peach tree!)
Rachel Ruysch is credited as being the most famous Dutch flower painter, here’s a painting of hers titled Stilleben mit Blumen und Früchten, 1707. (And believe me, it’s one thing to see a digital reproduction of these dutch flower paintings and it is quite another to see the real thing in a museum! The detail and clarity are amazing when seen in person!!)
Here in my very own garden, It seems that I’ve stumbled upon a little piece of history! I believe this tulip has the virus and isn’t just a variegated cultivar for a few reasons. First, I don’t have any other variegated tulips anywhere from the mixes I have bought. Second, this tulip does appear to be sort of weak and smaller. And thirdly because of the irregularity of the patterning. Turns out, I’m the richest 17th century Dutch woman I know!
Happy Friday everyone!
Beet-burger Recipe
(Sorry, no pics, only lots of flavor!)
Angelic Organics is the farm my husband and I work at, and beet-burgers have become the farm’s signature dish. The original recipe hails from the Rose Valley Farm Food Book and Farmer John’s recipe elves have adapted the recipe and published it in Farmer John’s Cookbook: the Real Dirt on Vegetables, which has a lot of other tasty recipes, organized by vegetable, and has lots of John’s stories and farm anecdotes and pictures (for me it’s sort of like a nice album of my time there and the people I met and knew during those first years)
Beet-burgers are so tasty that really the whole world should learn how to make them. Neither kids nor adults would ever refuse their vegetables ever again. Add a pickle and chips on the side and a little cellophaned toothpick and you’ll feel like you’re in a diner!
Makes 12-16 Patties
1/2 cup sesame seeds
1 cup sunflower seeds
2 cups peeled, grated beets
2 cups grated carrots
1/2 cup minced onion
2 eggs
1 cup cooked brown rice
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh parsley
3 TBS flour
2 TBS soy sauce or tamari
1 clove garlic, minced or pressed
dash of cayenne pepper
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
Toast sesame seeds and sunflower seeds (separately) in a heavy skillet on medium heat.
Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Form patties with hands and place on top of parchment paper on baking sheets. Bake for 20 minutes or until brown around the edges.
We like to serve them on buns with lettuce, tomato, onion and condiments. (I always make mine a double-decker!)