Showing posts with label Food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Food. Show all posts
Friday, April 3, 2026
Wednesday, April 1, 2026
Preserving eggs 1909
Preserving eggs 1909
It's always interesting to see what people did for food preservation before refrigeration was common.
There's no way you'd use some of these methods now.
Tuesday, March 31, 2026
Saturday, March 28, 2026
The Aerodrome: Casper/Natrona County airport resumes food drive for TSA employees
The Aerodrome: Casper/Natrona County airport resumes food drive f...: The TSA isn't getting paid as the Democrats have been opposing additional funding for ICE, the masked cowards who go around shooting pro...
Casper/Natrona County airport resumes food drive for TSA employees
The TSA isn't getting paid as the Democrats have been opposing additional funding for ICE, the masked cowards who go around shooting protestors.
The Democrats are right.
Anyhow, Mike Johnson, sycophantic toady, held up a Senate passed bill to resume funding for everyone but the masked cowards as a political stunt which means that TSA will continue not to get paid, resulting in this headline in the CST:
Casper/Natrona County airport resumes food drive for TSA employees
The article noted the following:
Airport spokeswoman Katie Reed confirmed that Thursday, adding the airport is also accepting nonperishable household items like paper towels, toilet paper, and detergent on top of the standard nonperishable food items.
The really important thing to keep in mind, of course, is that while people may have died and been abused by ICE, no members of the Trump family have been harmed. That's the main thing, of course.
Thursday, March 26, 2026
Wednesday, March 18, 2026
Wednesday, March 11, 2026
Tuesday, March 10, 2026
Friday, March 6, 2026
Sunday, March 1, 2026
Tuesday, February 17, 2026
Happy Shrove Tuesday, Pancake Day, Mardi Gras, Carnival, Fastnachtsdienstag.
Holy Ghost in Denver. While you cannot see it in this photograph, opposite this wall is a row of confessionals. Confessions are heard during Mass.
Shrove Tuesday.
Shrove derives from "shrive", which means to give absolution. So, while I don't know how many parishes offer confession the day prior to Ash Wednesday, that's what it refers to.
It's also called Shrovetide, the evening before the Shrove, which makes more sense, really, reflecting the penitential nature of Lent.
Pancake Day.
It's also Pancake Day in England and strongly English countries, for the custom of eating pancakes on this day. Pancakes use a fair amount of fat in them and this was part of the Lenten practice of abstaining from fat during Lent. It's also therefore one of the odd little ways where England's history as a once deeply Catholic nation is retained.
In Ireland the day is known as Máirt Inide, from the Latin initium (Jejūniī), "beginning of Lent". It's still associated heavily with pancakes. That's sort of indicative of Ireland's history of being heavily impacted by the English.
Of some interest here, potentially, the Anglican Church retains confession, but not the requirement that its members annual confess, like Catholics have. Catholicism is now outstripping Anglicanism in actual practice in the UK. It's often noted that Catholicism has declined in Ireland, a prediction that the Church made at the time of the Anglo Irish War when it did not want to become involved in the Irish government and was forced to against its will, but the Irish remain very heavily Catholic.
Mardi Gras in New Orleans in 1937.
Mardi Gras.
Of course, it's also Mardi Gras, or "Fat Tuesday", from the custom at one time of trying to use up all the fats in the house on this day, in French speaking countries. Contrary to American belief, Mardi Gras is in fact not unique to New Orleans but occurs everywhere that French speaking people are located.
Knights of Revelry parade down Royal Street in Mobile during the 2010 Mardi Gras season, By Carol M. Highsmith - This image is available from the United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID highsm.05396.This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11990882
American Mardi Gras, or rather American New Orleans Mardi Gras, has become heavily Americanized which means, like all American holidays, it's associated with booze. It is always a big party wherever it occurs, but the weird boozy topless event is an American thing, not a real French thing or culturally French.
Carnival in Rome, 1650.
Carnival and Fastnachtsdienstag
Carnival, from the Medieval Latin carne vale, "farewell meat", is the same holiday in other Romance Language speaking countries. The same sort of linguistic intent is found in the German name for the day, Fastnachtsdienstag. The latter reflects the fact that European Lutherans observe Lent, but in the same fashion as the Anglicans. It's not associated with the same Canon Law that it is with Catholics, but the observance remains.
We've actually touched on all of this, fwiw, before.
All of these days reflected a period when the Lenten fast was much more severe than it currently is. People were using up fats as they wouldn't keep for the forty days of Lent. Now, in the Latin Rite, there's no restriction on using fats at all, the obligation to fast is just on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, when the obligation to abstain from meat also exist, during Lent. All the Friday's of Lent are meatless for Catholics.
In the Eastern Rite of the Catholic Church the fasting rules are much more strict. Starting on Pure Monday, yesterday, As Catholic News Service explains it:
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — In the eyes of Latin-rite Catholics, the extent of Eastern Catholics’ Lenten fasting and abstinence is perceived as particularly strict.
The traditional Byzantine fast for Great Lent includes one meal a day from Monday to Friday, and abstinence from all animal products, including meat, fish with backbones, dairy products and eggs, as well as oil and wine for the entire period of Lent. Shellfish are permitted.
Fasting and abstinence are maintained on Saturdays, Sundays and on the eve of special feast days, although loosened to permit the use of oil and wine. On important feast days, such as the Annunciation and Palm Sunday, fish may be eaten.
“Oil and wine were restricted because, in the past, they were stored in animal skin,” explained Mother Theodora, the “hegumena” or abbess of the Byzantine Catholic Christ the Bridegroom Monastery in Burton, Ohio. “Though this is no longer the case, the tradition continues.”
There are varying degrees of fasting, from stricter to more lenient, depending on one’s work and state of health. Monks and nuns will often submit to the most strict fasting.
Holy Week is not considered part of Great Lent but “an additional, more intense time of fasting and prayer,” said Mother Theodora.
However, Eastern Catholics don’t plunge into fasting and abstinence cold turkey. “Meatfare” and “Cheesefare” weeks help them enter into the Great Fast gradually. By Meatfare Sunday, one week before the start of Lent, Eastern Catholics will have emptied their refrigerators and pantries of meat products. By Cheesefare Sunday, they will have cleared out all of their egg and dairy products, ready to enter into the Great Fast that evening, after Forgiveness Vespers.
In an effort to keep Eastern Christians faithful, yet creative, in the kitchen, cookbooks with fast-friendly recipes have been published.
By Laura Ieraci, Catholic News Service. The rules for the Eastern Orthodox are similar, although I'm never certain of the degree to which the Orthodox are required to observe them. Orthodox churches using the "Old Calendar" start Lent this year on February 23.
With all this, Catholics in the US enter Annual Question Time and the time of slightly difficult observances, the latter taking note of the fact that unlike some past times in the country, we're not likely to get killed or anything, so its nothing like it used to be. Rather, as the US is not only heavily Protestant, but Puritan, Lenten practices baffle non Catholics.
Puritans disapproved of pretty much everything, including observing Christmas as a special day, so Lent was way beyond the Pale for them. English culture, on the other hand, loved sports, so when the English dumped the Calvinist, which they did as soon as they could, their love of sports came roaring back. American culture has been impacted by English culture in every way, so Americans love sports but don't understand the Apostolic Faiths very well, in many instances, and in fact sometimes fail to realize that their own branches of Christianity are fairly recent innovations not reflecting the original Apostolic faith.
So for Lent, including its beginning, and its end in Holy Week, Americans just don't really have any observations, other than using Mardi Gras, like St. Patrick's Day, as an excuse to drink. They way it shows up for Catholics, however, is that things that are fairly easy to observe in Catholic countries, like Holy Week or Ash Wednesday, are a lot tougher to do in the US, and of course, you'll be getting a lot of questions if you are Catholic about "why do you do that" and "why can't you . . .".
Monday, February 16, 2026
Saturday, February 16, 1946. Potato consumption. Frozen food. Helicopters.
Frozen french fries were introduced by Maxson Food Systems of Long Island, New York.
From time to time, we'll have these a lot.
American per-capita potato consumption had interestingly declined since 1910, and was not measured at previous levels until 1962, when french fries were a fast-food restaurant staple.
I would not have guessed that, or frankly anything close to that.
Indeed a decline from 1910 to 1962 really surprises me.
I personally used to grow large volumes of potatoes, picking up where my later father had left off. Maybe because its because I'm more Irish than most Irish, but I love them.
An item on frying fries:
Chugwater Fry-Off: Are Beef Tallow French Fries Really Better?
The first UN Security Council veto was made by the Soviet Union, killing a resolution concerning the withdrawal of British and French forces from Syria and Lebanon, while it still occupied parts of Iran. Basically, the Soviet Union wanted the British and French out of Syria and Lebanon (which really was a French thing) while they still had their claws in Eastern Europe, North Korea, Sakhalin, and Iran.
They'd leave Iran, and with the fall of the Soviet Union, they'd leave many other places as well. With the Russo Ukrainian War, they're trying to claw their way back in, however ,and they've never left Sakahlian.
The Sikorsky S-51, the first helicopter sold for commercial rather than military use, although it received military use, was flown for the first time.
By United States Navy - Scanned from Alexander, Joseph H., Fleet Operations in a Mobile War: September 1950-June 1951, Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, Department of the Navy, 2001, p. 39., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=72961678
There was major news on the strike wave:
A Denver merchant noted the anniversary of Scouting:
Last edition:
Thursday, February 14, 1946. ENIAC.
Labels: 1940s, 1946, Army, Banking and finance, Computers, United Kingdom, WeaponsSunday, February 8, 2026
Friday, February 8, 1946. Kim Il Sung's rise. Viola Faber, accused of murdering her stepson, gives birth.
Kim Il Sung was elected Chairman of the Interim People's Committee in the Soviet occupied portion of Korea. Originally, the Soviets preferred Cho Man-sik to lead a "popular front" government but Cho, to his credit, refused to support a Soviet-backed entity. Red Army General Terentii Shtykov supported Kim over Pak Hon-yong to lead the Provisional People's Committee for North Korea, and therefore Kim was selected on this date.
He remained subordinate to General Shtykov until the Chinese intervention in the Korean War.
More strike problems on the front page of The Rocky Mountain News.
A person had to read deeper into the News to see the story on Viola Elliot. Page 5, where you need to go, is set out below.
She was accused of the beating death of her stepson, Robert. She denied it, but she was convicted of second degree murder. Her 8 year old son by a previous marriage was a witness for the prosecution at the trial and Mrs. Elliot admitted at the time of arrest that she had hit and kicked the child on the occasion of his death. She later changed her story and claimed he'd tripped on his pajamas.
Her parents and husband said they'd stand by her at the time of her arrest, but I wonder if that was still the case later on. At her sentencing, she stated that Leslie was just as responsible for the death and the judge agreed. Leslie had already been arraigned for assault and battery and assessory after the fact. In April she petitioned the County to make her children wards of the County, to which her husband objected. They were noted to be "estranged" by that time.
Viola was 27 years old and on her second marriage at the time. She would have had her first child, if her son who testified was the first at age 19 in 1937 or 1938. The paper mentioned that there were three children, including the murdered boy. Interestingly, I can find one other reference to a "Miss Viola Elliot" from 1937 indicating that Viola Elliot was employed as an arts and crafts teacher. A 1943 edition mentions a Viola Elliott as being just back in town after visiting her husband in Tennessee, who was probably in the service.
Viola received 15 to 20 years for the murder.
Leslie would receive six months for assault and battery.
Her mother, Alice Faber, testified at the trial, as did her father. Alice died in 1966 and is buried in Denver. Her obituary listed Viola as still living, still with the last name Elliot, and in Denver. The Fabers also had a son named Wilmer, who was alive at the time. The boy who testified at the trial was living in California.
Her father died in 1961.
Arguments were occuring on the Bomb.
A resort was being planned near Fort Logan.
An impressive imposter story was reported.
Last edition:
Thursday, February 7, 1946. France attacks in Bến Tre Province, Truman speaks. Bikinis appear in the press. Strike controls. Army shoes on the market.
Tuesday, February 3, 2026
The Agrarian's Lament: What have you done for me lately? Addressing politicians in desperate times, part 5.
The Agrarian's Lament: What have you done for me lately? Addressing polit...: An agricultural country which consumes its own food is a finer thing than an industrial country, which at best can only consume its own smok...
What have you done for me lately? Addressing politicians in desperate times, part 5.
An agricultural country which consumes its own food is a finer thing than an industrial country, which at best can only consume its own smoke.
Chesterton.
A long time ago I started a post on one of our companion blogs about agriculturalist and the Republican Party. I can't find it now, maybe I published it, or maybe I didn't.
As I"m in both worlds, the urban and the agricultural, I get exposed to the political views of both camps. The Trump administration has made this a really interesting, and horrifying, experience. By and large professionals detest Donald Trump and regard him as a charleton Farmers and ranchers are, however, amongst his most loyal base, even though there's no real reason for them to be such. Indeed, with the damage that Trump is doing to agriculture this will be a real test of whether farmers and ranchers simply reflexively vote Republican or stop doing son and wake up.
The Democratic Party, not the GOP, saved family farmers and ranchers in this country when the forces of the unabated Homestead ACt and the Great Depression were going to destroy them. They've seemingly resented being saved from those forces, however, as an impingement on their freedoms, and they've bristled at every government act since that time. Farmers and ranchers would rather sink in a cesspool of their own making than be told how to properly build one, basically.
We here, of course, aren't a pure agricultural blog. This is an Agrarian blog, and that's different. We are, quite frankly, much more radical.
"The land belongs to those who work it."
Zapata.
Agrarianism is an ethical perspective that privileges an agriculturally oriented political economy. At its most concise, agrarianism is “the idea that agriculture and those whose occupation involves agriculture are especially important and valuable elements of society
Bradley M. Jones, American Agrarianism.
Still, we can't help but notice that American agriculturalist, more than any other class of businessmen, have voted to screw themselves by voting for Donald Trump. They voted for tariff wars that leave their products marooned here in the US while foreign competitors take advantage of that fact. They've voted for a guy who thinks global warming is a fib (which many of them do as well) in spite of the plain evidence before their eyes, and the fact that this will destroy the livelihoods of the younger ones. They've voted to force economic conditions that will force them off the lands and their lands into the hands of the wealthy.
Indeed, on that last item, they've voted for people who share nothing in common with them whatsoever and would just as soon see them out of business, or simply don't care what happens to them.
They've voted, frankly, stupidly.
Well, nothing cures stupidly more than a giant dope slap from life, and they're getting one right now. The question is whether they'll vote in 2026 and 2028 to be bent over, or start to ask some questions.
We're going to post those questions here.
1. What connection does the candidate have with agriculture?
They might not have any and still be a good candidate, but if they're running around in a plaid shirt pretending to be a 19th Century man of the soil, they should be dropped.
They should also be dropped if they're like Scott Bessent, who pretends to be a soybean farmer when he's actually a major league investor. Indeed, big money is the enemy of agriculture and always has been.
I'd also note that refugees from agriculture should be suspect. The law is full of them, people who were sent off to law school by their farmer and rancher parents who believed, and in their heart of hearts still believe, that lawyers, doctors and dentist, indeed everyone in town, don't really work. All of these refugees live sad lives, but some of them spend time in their sad lives on political crusades that are sort of a cry out to their parents "please love me".
I know that sounds radical, but it's true.
2. What will they do to keep agricultural lands in family hands, and out of absentee landlord hands?
And the answer better not be a "well I'm concerned about that". The answer needs to be real.
From an agrarian prospective, no solution that isn't a massive trend reversing one makes for a satisfactory answer to this question. Ranches being bought up by the extremely wealthy are destroying the ability of regular people to even dare to hope to be in agriculture. This can be reversed, and it should be, but simply being "concerned" won't do it.
3. What is your view on public lands?
If the answer involves transferring them out of public hand, it indicates a love of money that's ultimately always destructive to agriculture in the end.
Indeed, in agricultural camps there remains an unabated lust for the public lands even though transferring them into private hands, whether directly or as a brief stop over in state hands, would utterly destroy nearly ever farm and ranch in local and family ownership . The change in value of the operations would be unsustainable, and things would be sold rapidly.
Public lands need to stay in public hands.
4. How do you make your money?
People think nothing of asking farmers "how many acres do you have" or ranchers "how many cattle do you have", both of which is the same as asking "how much money do you have".
Knowing how politicians make their money is a critical thing to know. No farmer or rancher, for example, has anything in common with how the Trump family makes money, and there's no reason to suppose that they view land as anything other than to be forced into developers hands and sold.
5. What is your position on global warming?
If its any variety of "global warming is a fib", they don't deserve a vote.
6. What is your position on a land ethnic?
If they don't know what that means, they don't deserve a vote.
7. What's on your dinner table, and who prepares it?
That may sound really odd, and we don't mean for it to be a judgment on what people eat. . . sort of. But all agriculturalist are producing food for the table. . . for the most part, if we ignore crops like cotton, or other agricultural derived textiles, of which there are a bunch, and if we ignore products like ethanol.
Anyhow, I'll be frank. If a guy is touring cattle country and gives an uneasy chuckle and says, "well, I don't eat much meat anymore" do you suppose he really cares about ranching? If you do, you need your head checked.
You probably really need it checked if the candidate doesn't every grill their own steak but has some sort of professional prepare their dinner every night. That would mean that they really have very little chance of grasping
8. What's your understanding of local agriculture?
That's a pretty broad question, but I'm defining agriculture very broadly here. Indeed, what I mean is the candidates understanding of the local use of nature, to include farming and ranching, but to also include hunting, fishing and commercial fishing.
Indeed, on the latter, only the commercial fishing industry seems to have politicians that really truly care what happens to them. How that happened isn't clear, but it does seem to be the case.
Otherwise, what most politicians seem to think is that farmers wear plaid flannel shirts. I see lots of them wondering around in photographs looking at corrals, or oil platforms, but I never see one actually do any work. . . of pretty much any kind. That is, I don't expect to see Chuck Gray flaking a calf, for example.
Last and prior editions:
Claiming the mantle of Christ in politics. Don't support liars and don't lie. Addressing politicians in desperate times, part 4.
Claiming the mantle of Christ in politics. Addressing politicians in desperate times, part 3.
Questions hunters, fishermen, and public lands users need to ask political candidates. Addressing politicians in desperate times, part 2.
Labels: 2026 Election, 2028 Election, Commentary, Democratic Party, Politics, Questions for politicians, Republican Party, Trailing threadLabels: 2026 Election, 2028 Election, Camping, Climate Change, fishing, hunting, Politics, Public Lands, Questions for politicians, Right Wing Politics and Politicians, The Land Ethic, This is why we can't have nice things
Addressing politicians in desperate times. A series.
Tuesday, January 27, 2026
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