How neat would that be. "I think I will go out and pan for gold for a while". That adds an interesting dimension to the concept of growing plants.

If anybody can do it Lyn can ..she is one determined woman!

wow - talk about a pioneering spirit - good for you, Lyn - and to help those who can't get to the valley - that's really lovely of you. I'm sure they appreciate it. My grandmother was a real pioneer, but no cookbooks from her, unfortunately. I'm not sure she even had one - just "a pinch of this, a dollop of that" etc.

MISSINGROSIE said:Yes. I remember from a past conversation that you are very industrious. I was thinking in general of the folks around you. You have a pioneering spirit but so many people do not ...but perhaps those that do not don't stay for long. Do you pan for gold???

Rosie ... I had to go back to cooking from scratch because it's less expensive and I live on a fixed income. I am so glad I know how to cook that way.

We had to shame that fancy grocery store into giving their old produce to the soup kitchen instead of throwing it away and the young mothers won't even take it home to make meals for their children because it doesn't look "pretty". I'll take it home and blanch it and throw it in the freezer for soups, stews and stir fries. It doesn't have to look pretty. It's still good food. They don't know how to cook it.

I can cut out the bad parts of the fruit and make something out of what's left. They don't know how. That's so sad.

No, I don't go panning for gold ... My time on the river is for fishing

Fishing is good.

They won't take home free food cuz it doesn't "look pretty"?? They can Make it look pretty - or blend it. Blended food doesn't have to look pretty - that's such a shame.......

Not for anything but IN the gut...doesn't look so pristine!

@RoseBlush1 The younger generation could use some education about food and its preparation. I have cooked from scratch most of my life and I think that is probably why our kids were healthier than some of the neighbor kids who lived on junk food and TV dinners. I have peeled more potatoes in my lifetime than I care to imagine but I figure that anything that comes in a box and has a lot of long unpronounceable names of things added to it can't be as good as what comes fresh from the garden. Fruit that is a little bruised or doesn't look pretty is still edible.

We know that, but I think it's a something that has evolved in our society.

I've read that more than half of the US families throw away produce that is starting to look old. I know I don't. I often can't get through a whole head of cauliflower ... I get bored eating cauliflower after a few nights ... and it does start looking kind of yucky ... I'll cut off the brown stuff and prep it for the freezer, but when I was reading that article, it said most families just toss it. Same with other veggies.

I think living in a disposable society has a lot to do with this kind of waste. I am not saying all young people don't have these skills. I am just saying I see a lot of it at the soup kitchen and it really does make me sad.

rocklady said:@RoseBlush1 The younger generation could use some education about food and its preparation. I have cooked from scratch most of my life and I think that is probably why our kids were healthier than some of the neighbor kids who lived on junk food and TV dinners. I have peeled more potatoes in my lifetime than I care to imagine but I figure that anything that comes in a box and has a lot of long unpronounceable names of things added to it can't be as good as what comes fresh from the garden. Fruit that is a little bruised or doesn't look pretty is still edible.

Jean ... I agree with you, but there are some nights when I am just too tired to cook. I am so glad I have a freezer .... and that I know how to cook from scratch.

I do tend to toss mushrooms...as they age..they get that ' I died in the woods and the sun has hit me' fragrance. That will carry straight to food and altho not harmful ...it spoils the flavor.

Tomato can trim ...but if I SEE the edge go white...I just can't do it.

Most everything else I will trim.

My daughter...and she has a from scratch mom...will NOT touch meat...will not buy fresh if she can buy prepared. A BIG junk eater and she says it is because she was " deprived". I spell "deprived" "L A Z Y"

MISSINGROSIE said:will not buy fresh if she can buy prepared. A BIG junk eater and she says it is because she was " deprived". I spell "deprived" "L A Z Y"

There is a lot of truth to that, Rosie.

I don't want to sound judgemental, but in some ways, I think I am, but I don't have enough money to buy the prepared foods and don't expect anyone to give them to me, so I had to find a way to get by ... cook from scratch. I am willing to teach them how to cook from scratch, but ...

There you go ...

@MISSINGROSIE

Rosie ... for you ...

http://www.foodpyramid.com/hea...

Grumpy!! I live in an old single wide trailer and now have five adults and one infant living with me. My friends, Tom and Renee and their son T.C. moved in after my knee replacement surgery to help me out and take care of the place while I healed. We've become even closer as friends and they are still with me. Now I have my nephew, Mark and his girlfriend, Amanda and their infant living in here with us. They used to live with Marks mother next door but she felt that Amanda did not bend over backwards enough for her so she told her to get out, so Mark, Amanda and Aidan, their infant son are living in my craft room. The craft room used to be the living room and I blocked it off to make it a craftroom for I could keep the cats out of my things. Don't know what I'm going to do with everyone. My niece, Mark's mother, wants me to kick they out of my trailer, but I can't do that. Mark inherits this trailer if anything happens to me. So I feel that he has a right to stay here.

I'm here with five dogs and grateful it's not five people. Marti, I remember you from DG and you seem to have gone from famine to feast. If you are also getting hot and humid weather you have my heartfelt sympathy. All you need is a gangly puppy but I'm too far away to bring her over.

Heat and humidity are really high. Good for some of my newly planted seeds but not for me. I'm grateful for air conditioning. And for a lack of emergencies in my life.

katie

Good grief, Marti! I hope all these people are helping towards expenses...

Not "cooking from scratch" is definitely not confined to younger people... I am kind of the "baked beans" queen in our extended family, and a couple of years ago one of the older relatives was asking about how I make them. Well, uh, buy a bag of dry beans, rinse and pick out the funky ones, etc etc....

At that point she said "oh, I would never start from dry beans!"

Really?? why?

(on the other hand, she has lived a pretty charmed life and although she fancies herself quite the gourmet cook she does not really cook from what I consider "basic ingredients."

From what I've seen, the vast majority of people are NOT interested in cooking from those basic ingredients anymore... or cooking at all, for that matter. Except for maybe a "gourmet cooking class" or something. When did all that happen, anyway?

Two reasons to be grumpy today:
1. Wasps
2. Wasps

Yesterday I discovered wasps apparently making a home in the framework of my greenhouse -- a Rion. They were clustering right above the door, apparently entering the (more or less) tubular ridge support. This morning before they were active I went out and sprayed (as well as I could) in that area with some wasp spray. At first there were no wasps to be seen, then I started hearing some pretty significant humming, and then the wasps started coming out. I suspect they are WAY down in there somewhere (the GH is 16 feet long), so I think they are going to be rather difficult to eliminate.

Fast forward to this afternoon; we were sitting on the deck, enjoying the afternoon breeze. Talking about the possibility of a wasp nest under the deck, which we had a couple of years ago, even though we haven't seen much activity. Went to look at my perennial garden (just a few steps from the deck, walked all around it, started back to the deck... and, OWIE! got stung right in the Achilles tendon area of my leg!! Stomped my foot when I first felt the sting, which must have shook the wasp off, but still hurt like... well, anyone who has ever been stung can complete that sentence for themselves. Then there were some wasps kind of flying around above the end of the deck... so, yep, pretty sure there's a nest under there, too.

I guess the good news is -- since I was barefoot -- when I stomped my foot I didn't get stung by something else!

ouch ouch ouch, Sandy! *$%)@&% wasps!! Glad nothing else stung you...... I like going barefoot, too. Yesterday when we were at the new place, I kept shucking my sandals for bare feet - cool grass feels SO nice

Sandy!

Everytime I read something like this makes me nervous. My husband always outside making noise with mowers, weedwackers...last year I saw a few yellow jackets buzzing along the flagstone path 10 feet from the doorway-- A main path in and out of house. I sprayed a hole in the ground where they seemed to be entering and later when I checked back there were what seemed to be thousands of dead bodies at the entrance. We also had a HUGE papery nest from bald faced hornets burned out of tree. Husband allergic enough to die from some sort of stinging insect and those things come out of nowhere..not when we are careful but unexpectedly. He took off work glove to shake hand of plumber..and a yellow jacket ( we think) stung his hand and all hell broke loose. That is when we learned he was allergic to a stinging something. Prior to that he had many stings with no issue.