From GENE LOGSDON

The news reported recently that scientists had proved conclusively what farm children have known forever. You can’t walk in a straight line blindfolded, or by extension, if you are lost in the woods or a corn field, you will invariably walk in circles.

Those of us who have matriculated from farms in our youths with PhDs in ornery knowledge know all about walking in circles. If for example, you are hunting mushrooms in a woodlot dense enough with underbrush to hide the outer world from view, you may think you are walking straight through the trees, but in a little while you will come to a tree with striking red foliage that looks very much like one you passed  half an hour earlier. After walking awhile longer, you come to yet a third tree that looks just like the other two. Astounding. The truth only slowly dawns on you.  There just can’t be three trees in the whole wide world that look that much alike. I have had this experience precisely, in the woods in Maine years ago. And that old myth about moss only growing on the north side of trees won’t help either. Moss grows on whichever side of a tree it wants to. I was fortunate enough to encounter an ancient rusting fence, and followed it back to the real world. Woven wire fences have to go in a straight line or you can’t stretch them tight.

It doesn’t have to be a large tract of forest land to run you in circles either. All that is necessary is a denseness that hides the fields beyond the woods. Once I unconsciously circled around in a woodlot of less than ten acres and, still unconscious of my circling, exited the woods about the same place I entered it, much to my surprise. In fact, expecting to be someplace where I was not, the landscape near that entry-exit point did not look familiar. How could the two sides of a woods look so much alike? This sensation— of looking at a familiar landscape in a place you think it could not possibly be— is very eerie.  It would be like taking off in an airplane from your farm in say, Ohio, believing that you were going to land in rural Iowa. Halfway there, the gauges on the cockpit panels start jiggering up and down in ways they are not supposed to jigger and so the pilot turns back but neglects to tell his sleeping passenger so as not to alarm him. The plane circles back and lands at the starting point.  The passenger is looking out the window by now and is thrown into a state of  utter confusion at how much Iowa looks like Ohio. More: Gene Logsdon…

From JEFF COX

This excellent dish depends on the quality of the crab meat. If your fish store has precooked crab, pick the meat yourself. Beware of crab meat produced overseas. It tends to be tasteless.

Makes 8 servings

· 1 pound fresh lump crabmeat, cold from the fridge
· ¼ teaspoon Coleman’s dry mustard
· Juice of 1 chilled organic lime
· 1 tablespoon minced chives
· ¼ teaspoon fleur de sel or kosher salt
· ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
· ¼ teaspoon4 ripe organic avocados
· 2 organic lemons, chilled and halved

1. In a medium bowl, place the crabmeat, mustard, lime juice, chives, salt, and black pepper. Toss to combine well. Place in fridge until ready to fill avocados.

2. Cut avocados from stem end to blossom end, all the way around, down to the pit. Separate the halves. Take a large spoon and loosen the avocado flesh from the skin, but let the flesh remain in the skin. Drench each half with juice squeezed from a lemon half. Do this before moving on to the next avocado. It prevents browning.

3. Fill each half with the crab mixture, piling it high. Serve immediately.
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From TODD WALTON
Under The Table
Mendocino

Israel Jacobs, born a Jew, and Margaret O’Hara, born and baptized a Catholic, were married in the spring of 1999. And despite their mothers, they lived quite happily until their only child, Felix, turned five. Then Christmas and Hanukkah loomed simultaneously as they always do, and the whole kettle of fish, gefilte and snapper, was set to boiling once more.

Israel’s mother, Rachel, a small, fiery woman with little tolerance for what she called those “gentile pagan idiocies” insisted that Israel give his son a real Jewish Hanukkah, not some watered down compromise. Margaret’s mother, Colleen, a tall, cheerful soul, didn’t mind a menorah on the mantel so long as it was appropriately dwarfed by a well-flocked Christmas tree, candy canes, and a “high quality manger scene,” preferably on the front lawn.

But the truth was, Israel and Margaret didn’t believe in celebrating either Hanukkah or Christmas. They belonged to a group called Beyond Dysfunctional Religions, and they wanted nothing to do with the rituals of their progenitors, whom they believed to be responsible for much of the world’s woes. However, they had never actually told their mothers of their conversion to this new spiritual course, and now, in the face of their child’s coming of age, as it were, the you-know-what was about to hit the fan…

Full story here
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From GENE LOGSDON

Can you guess the name of the plant in the photo, growing sprightly green in the woods when everything else is as brown as a pot of baked beans? The first time I noticed it, many years ago, I was mystified. As I studied it close up, I realized that it was something I had planted as a seedling when we first moved here and then promptly forgot about. I am very good at that. Now every year when winter approaches, as I watch to see which trees and bushes (other than evergreens) stay green the longest, this doughty bush always wins the contest. It outlasts weeping willows and peach trees, the usual runner-ups. I draw the kind of optimism from this strange plant that I need to head into cold weather with my chin up.

It’s a Tatarian bush honeysuckle. I got it, if I remember correctly, from the Soil Conservation Service, which was encouraging landowners to put out plants that produce food for wildlife, in this case tiny red berries. I’ve learned the hard way that just because the Department of Agriculture champions something does not mean it is a good idea. The USDA also championed autumn olive and multiflora rose at one time and I was dumb enough to plant some. Both are great for wildlife but a curse on the farmer, in my opinion. One other time I followed governmental advice. I planted Kentucky 31 fescue in my pastures. There are better fescues to plant now, believe me. K-31 stays green into winter to make cold weather pasture, but I maintain, only a little jokingly, that this forage comes from genes of some non-vegetative fabric that needs to freeze and thaw twice before a cow can chew it. K-31’s advantage is that a herd of elephants could run across a well-established field of it in thaw time and hardly dimple the sod surface. I was told when I planted the stuff that “it will not spread.” That is an absolute lie, and I was pleased to see David Kline, in his charming new book, “Letters from Larksong,” agree.

But I lucked out with Tatarian honeysuckle. It is not native here so I still don’t trust it, but it is not invasive like its terrible cousin, Japanese honeysuckle. The latter is a vine that almost succeeded in dragging all the trees in the northern halves of Kentucky and West Virginia into the Ohio River before weed-killers came along. I theorize that it suffocated to death whatever planet it first grew on and then kept on growing through space until they found Earth. More: Gene Logsdon…

From THE MIAMI HERALD
Article/Video here

First lady Michelle Obama visited Riverside Elementary School in Little Havana Monday, Nov. 22, 2010 to encourage students to eat their vegetables. She was helping kick off the Let’s Move! campaign, which is putting salad bars in 6,000 schools.

The cafeteria at Riverside Elementary was buzzing Monday — and it wasn’t just because of the new salad bar.

Standing beside the lettuce, cucumbers and couscous was First lady Michelle Obama.

Obama visited the Little Havana school to announce a new national initiative to put salad bars in 6,000 schools.

“You guys here at Riverside are the first school in the entire country to get one,” Obama told scores of fifth-grade students, who had assembled in the cafeteria.

The kids cheered.

“See! Kids excited about vegetables and salad bars!” Obama said. “I want the world to know that.”

The children were awestruck as the first lady, dressed in an orange pantsuit, went lunch table to lunch table, asking them about their favorite fruits and veggies.

“She was over here and she was telling us that fruits and vegetables are healthy for your body,” said Ronny Montoya, 11, while munching on sliced cucumbers. “And she touched my shoulder. I will never wash this shirt again.”

Obama was joined by some of Miami’s top chefs, all of whom echoed her rally cry. More: Let’s Move…