respublica

Stressed? Eat Blueberries

Another study. Research at the Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies found 1 cup of blueberries a day helps fight stress and reduces anxiety as well as many anti-anxiety medications and without the annoying side effects. Why? Blueberries contain high levels of the antioxidant ellagic acid and soothes the brain like valium.

It doesn't matter whether the blueberries are fresh or frozen.

Matters of size

Look at this old 1940's era Chicago trash truck-

At first glance it's just so cute. I am almost positive Dale has an old toy truck like this.

But a more serious look at this truck says a lot about how we are today. Trash hauling trucks are much much bigger than this one. There are probably many reasons why we need bigger garbage trucks today, but at the top of the list has to be how much stuff we waste. And, how much more stuff we buy we don't need which has more packaging and shorter life span before we toss it.

Ever tasted a real tomato?

A big YES! to this story on tomatoes. It should not surprise too many of us that tomatoes just do not have the flavor and texture of tomatoes from the past. Ok Ok, kids and young adults are pretty tired of hearing about how good the old days were, but in the case of tomatoes, it is true.

A traditional tomato was "big, soft, juicy and sweet." They were seasonal and came around in summer. When food scientists found a way to grow tomatoes year round and inside, the tomato came to be kind of hard, and as tasteless as wet styrofoam. I normally just shove the tomato slice off any sandwich I buy, it does nothing for the meal.

But the best way to see the difference in the traditional tomato and today's grocery store tomatoes is to grow a couple of plants yourself or go to a farmers market later this summer. The heirloom tomatoes would be a good choice to start with if you want to grow some. Such a difference.

 

Favorite picture of the day

This is so great for St. Louis. And, I'm not convinced there is anyone around here who is talking about anything else.

Gardening with landscape fabric

We have a rather sizeable vegetable garden in the lot between our house and Sieck Hall and this area is like a lot of areas on the campus, rather virgin land on which nothing but grass and weeds have taken root over the decades. It's hard to get rid of all these things, we think we've cleared them and 3 days later here they come again.

Earlier in the spring I began planting nice rows of tomatoes and peppers and squashes and onions and potatoes and covered the ground around them with straw. This helped quite a bit in keeping the weeds at bay. Now, though, that darn nutsedge grass has just filled every space it can find. Nut grass is the worst what with it's roots filled with round nuts which we can never get to the bottom of. We can pull the grasses out, but there is always some nut root left.

So yesterday when I rototilled the second half of that area, I finished by putting down black landscape fabric. The science dealing with weeds supposedly believes that weeds and grass and anything else won't grow in the dark. Weeds need light. We'll see. After laying down the fabric I started planting by cutting an X in it and sticking a plant in the opening. I did that for each plant. Then it was necessary to secure the fabric so it didn't blow away. There are several ways to do this, cover it with mulch or some such or use fabric stakes.

When Dale bought the fabric he didn't buy the securing stakes so until I get out to get them I put wet straw on top and also used a few tomato cages to hold it down. I was glad I did this when I woke up during a loud and windy thunderstorm last night.

I just hope this helps the weed issue somewhat.  With this area almost done we have Okra, baby watermelons, cantalope and acorn squash, all things we know students like.

Two road things this morning

There is a shovel in one of the lanes of 255 near Collinsville road and another ladder hit the highway on 270. The normal tallies take into account only mattresses and ladders since they are the most common items to fall. But it's often interesting to hear about other things which could be just as detrimental to your vehicle if you run into them.

Mattresses 54

Ladders 49

I'm behind in the tally

With all the graduation events we've had to be a part of in the last week, I've lost track of the number of mattresses and ladders which fell on St. Louis roads. Today I've caught up.

Mattresses 53

Ladders 48

It's moving out of college time people, mattresses are falling. It's also construction time and so down go the ladders.

More fyi on sell by date

If you should be buying snack food, or anything else for that matter, the sell by date is far far off. For instance the freshest Cheddar Chex Mix has a sell by date by March 2020. The freshest Triscuits sell by date is October 2019. So if you should be buying these kind of things with a sell by date a month or so off, they're really not fresh at all. This shocks me. The shelf life of so many things is long and I make an effort to choose things which have a long in the future date. It's worth it to pay attention to this.

The conclusion of graduation week

Graduation week is always cram packed with events, lots of coming and going. This year the weather was perfect, the constant rain stayed away, the temperatures were warm (some would say hot) but so much better than the endless chill we've had. The grounds were green and in bloom, the students in good spirits, the parents proud.

Our daughter Katie came in from DC for these days partly because she'd never attended a seminary graduation, but mostly because her church will be getting one of our graduates and a member of her church was the speaker this year.

 

This is pastor to be Nick Gonzalez, his wife Lauren and Congressman Buchon at the reception in our yard the night before.

The next night she couldn't wait to see Dad in his gown and funny hat and medallion.

In his office surrounded by his extra people things.

At the end of the ceremonies, there was lemonade and Kruta Bakery cookies which go very fast.

The worst thing I've seen all week

This story from the Smithsonian: Cheese Made from Celebrity Belly Button and Armpit Bacteria Goes on Display

What the heck?

So how does one turn the human microbiome into a chunk of cheddar?  "milk is transformed into curds by a unique starter culture or bacteria, which determines whether the cheese will ripen into a nice cheddar or a bit of gouda. It turns out that many of the bacteria used to make cheese are similar to bacteria encountered on human skin."

"Scientist and cheesemakers at the London biolab Open Cell collected bacteria from celebrity armpits, ears, noses and bellybuttons. The bacteria was then grown in the lab until suitable strains could be selected for cheesemaking."

 

And there is nothing else to say about this but, what a waste of time.