respublica

Picking out ripe melons

It's watermelon and cantaloupe time right now, but it is not always easy to pick ones which are ripe. They aren't known for ripening off the vine like many other fruits are. The other day I bought a cantaloupe at the grocery store and as I was cutting it i found the actual fruit was hard as a rock. It was useless. So this article on how to pick a ripe watermelon when at the store was right up my alley.

For watermelon it advises to use two finger trick. However, the finger trick only works on striped watermelons. Look for nice, even green stripes. Each green stripe should be about the width of your pointer and second fingers together. I will probably test this out in the near future.

Another way to do this is to feel the weight of the melon, it should be heavier than you would think by just looking at it. And the ground spot is probably most important for judging ripeness. 'This faded area on the bottom of the watermelon ranges from pale cream to deep butter yellow and even light orange. "choose a melon with a rich yellow spot.

Now about cantaloupes. Don't choose one that has any green on it. Look at the stem end. it should not still have any part of the stem and the stem area should not have any rough edges. It should be more open. There is also the smell test. Pick up the melon and smell the end opposite the stem end. A ripe melon will have a sweet smell. And the famous tap the melon routine. tap the cantaloupe and listen for a low sound. Also as with watermelon it should be heavier than it looks. 

I should have done one or all of these cantaloupe tricks the other day,

Yes We have No Bananas

For the last couple of days our local Schnucks has been out of bananas. This struck me as very odd the first day I saw the empty shelf. Then I noticed a sign telling shoppers there was supply issues with bananas. Bananas are a big seller I've noticed over the years, just about every third shopper is picking up bananas, including me. Today the store had the same empty shelf. I wondered if this was happening in other grocery stores or was it just Schnucks and maybe only our Schnucks.

.

Also, I needed a couple of limes and the 5 ir 6 they had were horrible looking.  Not green at all, brownish yellow. What is going on?

I bought one awful lime just in case I could not find a decent on somewhere else. The Walmart Neighborhood Market just down the way from Schnucks had lots of limes and lots and lots of bananas.

Here is a photo of the awful lime from Schnucks and the Neighborhood Market limes. It is very disappointing to see what Schnucks has and doesn't have.

 

Who's Running?

Watching the news several times a day, I've become frustrated with political discussions around the coming presidential election. This is just my opinion, but just why is it that it is taken for granted and accepted that there are only two candidates. Biden for the democrats and Trump for the Republicans. Does neither party have anyone else? Both of these men are too old and their age manifests itself in different ways, none good or promising.

By going along with this current view, our country will not have a president we can count on to do the job. Someone please step up and counter each of them.

Are you a good person?

There is now something named  The Shopping Cart Theory which tells your or others if you are a nice person.

"To return the shopping cart is an easy, convenient task and one which we all recognize as the correct, appropriate thing to do. To return the shopping cart is objectively right.”“There are no situations other than dire emergencies in which a person is not able to return their cart. Simultaneously, it is not illegal to abandon your shopping cart. Therefore the shopping cart presents itself as the apex example of whether a person will do what is right without being forced to do it.”

I rather like this because I see people in grocery/Walmart/ Home Depot etc, just leave their carts next to their parking spot and leave. Most of us have learned to get the cart to the corral, but I'm always shocked at where not so nice people will leave their cart when leaving the stores. Too often they leave it in the empty spot next to their car, or in front of the other car.  Most grocery parking lots have quite a few cart corrals and if you can walk all over the store pushing that cart you can walk it 15 feet more to where it should go.

Also, those who do go to the corral, but put their small cart in the large cart slot and vice versa, drive me crazy too. Anyhow, there is probably no changing many people, but I do push wayward carts into the corrals if I see them. I  wonder if any of the people who don''t do what they should with their cart ever wonder if the store parking lot has cameras? I bet they do.

Almonds, oh nuts

I came across an article on Almonds touting their health benefits.  We eat lot of nuts around here, I always have a couple of small bowls of mixed nuts and dry roasted peanuts on the coffee table. What irks me somewhat is the mixed nuts. I'd guess almonds make up more than half of the mix. I'm not a big fan of these nuts and although Dale claims to like them, at the end of most days almonds are what is mostly left.

I remember a few years ago there was an almond shortage due to bad weather where they are grown. It was a big deal in news stories. But I guess there is not a shortage now because they dominate cans mixed nuts.

In other nutty news, cans of the Schnucks Culinaria nuts are the best of most canned nuts. Way better than the national brands. The same is for the Schnucks brand bottled dry roasted peanuts.

We're Flying Away

Tomorrow we are heading out the Washington DC to spend a bit of time with our daughter and family. And her two cuddly dogs. Actually the main reason for this trip is that Dale was asked to say the opening prayer for the start of the Senate's new session on Thursday. He is thrilled to say the least.We will spend a bit of time around the capital and the rest at their home in Maryland.

I have not flown since the Covid shut everything down and it does not particularly thrill me but it sure beats that drive.

Weeds

We are in the process of taking down our age old back fence in order to replace it. This is hard enough work, which Dale enjoys doing, but the worst part are the weeds and vines which took over the area just inside the fence. The more slats were taken out, the more vines and weeds we saw which sat between our Lilac bushes and the fence. We can pull and yank til the cows come home but it is no fun at all.

So this article on how to kill weeds using things found in most kitchens.

Vinegar: standard white vinegar will help kill weeds in your garden without spreading harmful chemicals.  It can also help combat slugs, snails, ants, flies, and you can mix with dish soap to help it stick better.

Boiling water: One quick way to instantly rid yourself of pesky weeds is to pour boiling water on them and kill them at the root.

I'm going to try the vinegar, boiling water would be way too much trouble for the large space we have. The article also talks about insect pests and other things, but right now all I care about is getting rid of weeds and vines.

Happy Friday!

Away from the computer today because we worked and worked in our yard. Dale decided it was time to take down the old backyard fence and build new. So dthat involved not only removing sections but clearing out weeds and overgrown bushes which stood inside the fence. I helped and then emptied our third big planter of potatoes, this time the brown skinned ones. This sort of thing does not leave much time for anything else.

 But it's all good. Now that it is evening Dale is way overly thrilled that his White Sox are playing the Cardinals tonight and it's actually going to be on TV.

Obsessing about trash

I admit I am all about getting trash put into bags and out into the cart. I don't like it sitting around. Two weeks ago Republic Services completely forgot to pick up our streets. We are Tuesday pick-up and that week it did not come. We figured there must be a reason since the guys who do our street are very reliable, never miss, always early and friendly. So that week we just figured a truck was broken down and it would be picked up on Wednesday. But it was not. Thursday came and no pick up. It became obvious to the neighbors that we may well have been forgotten. On Friday we called twice, first me and then Dale later. We learned that others were calling as well. Finally a truck came at 4 Friday afternoon just as the Legion fish fry traffic was coming down the street.

I was glad to finally have what turned out to be almost two weeks of trash finally gone, but still wondered what happened.

Now today our trash is again sitting at the curb with no pick up. We realize the 4th of July holiday moved us all back one day. But today is that day and it is getting late. The fact that our drivers have always been very reliable makes this more worrying.

I'm stressed over this because of the heat and a worry they may make us wait til next week. For quite awhile I received texts from Republic if there was something new or a delay issue. I guess that is in the past.

Update. Finally got the trash picked up late in the afternoon. Thankful

Catsup Bottle on the air

Tomorrow morning at 11, KMOX radio will be doing a World's Biggest Catsup Bottle Interview. Morning hosts, Amy Marxkors and Chris Rongey will do the honors it appears. I always have KMOX on in the car and I hear these two a lot. They have energetic personalities, with maybe way too much laughing for my taste. But, I'm glad to see Collinsville and the Catsup Bottle get some air time.