Talking to Myself Again

A Pumpkin Post

mood: cheerful
music: silence

Even if you aren't reading my other blog, you might be interested in reading about Our Volunteer Pumpkin Plant. FYI.

I Am Unique! Are You?

mood: calm
music: silence

I always thought I was unique. Now it's pretty much official:

HowManyOfMe.com

There is 1 person with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Follow the link, enter your first and last names, then find out how many people there probably are in the U.S. with that combination of names.

Oh, by the way, my son is unique, too. My wife isn't entirely unique (there are probably 4 Dawn Hartshorns in the U.S.), but she became far more unique when she married me -- there used to be 132 of her.

Come on Over! The Blogging is Fine!

mood: energetic
music: silence

If you haven't already been doing so, you might want to hop over to my Springfield Locavore blog and read what I've been posting. I promise it's not all lettuce pictures. I've got pictures of eggs, cheese, and even chicken!

Actually, I've posted 12 times in the last 4 days over there. Shocking, I know!

No More Lettuce Pictures!

mood: accomplished
music: silence

You won't be seeing any more pictures of lettuce or other fresh produce here. I've created a new blog at www.SpringfieldLocavore.com, where I'll be posting all of my locavore-related stuff. I've already copied over the locavore-related posts from this blog, so that there's a bit of content there.

And, if you've been dieing to know what was in the CSA week 5 share, I've already posted an entry about that as well! I've also got several other locavore-related posts already written in mind head, so as soon as I get them transcribed, you'll be able to see them there.

I'll continue to post non-locavore stuff here, of course, so keep checking this site as well!

If you are foolish enough to check on my writings both here and at the new blog, but don't relish the idea of having to remember to check both web sites, you might consider using a feed reader. Two that I've used in the past are Google Reader and Bloglines. If you already are using Google's email, calendar, etc. (as I am), then Google Reader might be the better choice. If not, toss a coin. I've used both, and both are quite good. I'm currently using Google Reader, simply because we can no longer access Bloglines from work. :-( Unfortunately, as I'm writing this, Google seems to be having some major problems, which means Google Reader is unavailable. Presumably it will be back soon.

Anyway, go to one of those services and register, then start adding "feeds". Look on web sites for links that say things like "Subscribe in a reader","Subscribe to my feed" or more cryptically "RSS feed" or "Atom feed". Once you've added feeds to your reader, then you no longer have to visit the various web sites to check for updates. Just go to your reader and it will display for you any new posts.

Be forewarned -- subscribing to feeds is addictive! In addition to feeds for the blogs that I read, I also have feeds for Dawn's Amazon wish list (whenever she adds something, it shows up in my reader), some favorite photographers on Flickr (whenever they post a new photo, it shows up), and similar things. It's quite convenient!

The Jubilee Olde English Faire is Next Weekend

Lord Dirkan Arrives, originally uploaded by Wally Hartshorn.

The Jubilee Olde English Faire is being held next weekend. Here is a photo from last year's event. If you want to see many, many more of them, view the Jubilee Olde English Faire 2007 photos on my Flickr pages.

We've got a picnic to go to on that Saturday (we atheists are using the summer solstice as an excuse to eat food), so we'll be going to Jubilee on Sunday this year. Is anyone else going? We're going to try to be there when things open (10 AM, if I remember right).

Currently, weather.com predicts that Peoria, IL will have scattered thunderstorms on both days, with a high of 82 on Saturday, 79 on Sunday. Of course, that's more than a week away, so who knows what the actual weather will wind up being!

We went to the Greater St. Louis Renaissance Faire last weekend. I'm hoping to get pictures from that posted this weekend. We'll see. Hold all my calls.

Hill Street Farm CSA Week 4

Hill Street Farm CSA Week 4, originally uploaded by Wally Hartshorn.

Here's what was in the fourth week's bag from our Hill Street Farm CSA membership.

The letter said that this week's share included broccoli (yea!), 1 pound of spinach, 1½ pounds of European Mesclun Mix or Rocky Top Lettuce Blend, and garlic scapes.

I think the letter wasn't exactly right. :-) We got the broccoli (yea!), the spinach, and the mesclun mix, but no sign of the garlic scapes. Instead we got a stir fry mix featuring chard and mustard leaves!

If you're like me, "garlic scapes" is a new term. I looked it up and found that it refers to the green tops of young garlic. Later it becomes tougher and lighter in color, but when the garlic is young, the tops are apparently good for making pesto, mixing into scrambled eggs, etc.

But we didn't get any, so never mind.

While we were trying to figure out what everything was, we each took a bite from one of the mustard leaves, not knowing what they were. My first thought was, "well, it's a little bit bitter, but that's about it." Then after a few seconds, "Oh! Okay, wow!" :-)

We still had some lettuce from last week's CSA, as well as the chard stir fry mix, so we've got some catching up to do. Fewer pizzas and more veggies!

As usual, the CSA pickup was at the weekend Old Capitol Farmer's Market. We were out of town, so our good friend (and cat sitter) Jean picked up our CSA share for us.

As a bonus, she also got us a quart of strawberries! (The strawberries are already gone, of course.)