Friday, September 30, 2011

Landreth Seeds needs help



From the Gardener of Eden blog and Ohiofarmgirl - Landreth Seeds (since 1784!) is in financial trouble and seeking help.

Landreth now sells 900 varieties in colorful, old-fashioned seed packs, things like the "King of Mammoth" pumpkin, which dates to 1824, or the famous Landreth zinnias, which the company introduced to the United States from Mexico in 1798.

While Melera says sales have been growing by more than 50 percent a year since 2007, the recession has been painful. The turnaround she counted on taking three to five years took seven.

They´re selling advance copies of their 2012 catalogue ($5 a copy) to try to come up with the required funding to stay in business.

Founded in 1784, it's America's oldest seedhouse. It introduced Americans to the zinnia (1798), the white-fleshed potato (1811) and the tomato (1820). It is revered for its vast range of heirloom seeds. With a new generation of gardeners sprouting up across America, Landreth was positioned to become the gold standard for high quality seeds.

So Melera and her husband Peter, a professor at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, bought Landreth. The years of 7-day, 80-hour weeks began.

Seems like anyone across the pond (or not) who would like to keep alternatives to Monsanto in business might want to order a Landreth catalogue. But time is very short - they have an Oct. 1 deadline.

Monday, September 26, 2011

Santiago

I always enjoy visiting Santiago de Compostela. The old part of town is particularly charming, with the caveat that parking is often a problem.

It is the destination of all those pilgrims, who are understandably delighted to finally arrive. There are lots of monumental structures clustered in the old area.


And there is, of course, the Cathedral. The scale, both inside and outside, is hard to convey, so I took some shots of some of the details.







While we were there someone was playing what sounded like Bach on this enormous organ. I thought that must be quite something, to have an instrument like this to play in a space designed for it. What a thrill for the organist.

In addition to the monuments, there are lots of little side streets, squares and nooks and crannies to explore as well. We found this charming tavern with a terraza placed outside to have a beer.


And we happened across the market with the excellent produce displayed.


They were closing up because it was lunch time, so we went in search of a restaurant. But it soon started to rain and get chilly, so after lunch we said goodbye to the intresting shops and intriguing side streets and headed back for La Coruña.

Friday, September 23, 2011

Salvage


We finally paid a visit to the architectural salvage place - Antigüedades Chelo in Villarrubia de Santiago, Toledo. It´s between Madrid and Toledo, so not a huge committment in terms of time or mileage.

They have a large open area full of architectural elements: everything from balconies to broken tinajas (big clay jugs).


There are metal and stone columns, sinks and fountains, along with roof tiles and paving stones.



Under cover are the wooden beams, sold by length and dimension, as well as wooden doors and windows.




Inside, there are restored versions of various dressers, tables and assorted furniture as well as doors and windows.


V was delighted to come home with an oak wine barrel for 70€. Not the easiest thing to get from the car to the terrace, but even I have to admit that it looks fine in the corner.


We did inquire as to the pricing of some of the doors and they were way out of our budget (particularly a set of 16th century double doors at 6000€. I guess we do have good taste.) There was a set of beams, approximately 15 feet long and probably 10 inches square that they were quoting around 240€ each. Not what you´d pay someone who just wanted them out of their back garden, but probably not what a lumberyard would want for new ones either. The other problem is transportation north, truck rental, diesel, delivery, storage at the other end, etc. I really wish we could find a similar place in Galicia or Asturias. In the meantime, I´ll keep scanning Segundamano and Milanuncios with my fingers crossed.

Monday, September 19, 2011

Arrrrgh!

Happy International Talk like a Pirate Day!



They even have their own political party now.

Does anyone else have fond memories of this. The always prescient Terry Gilliam:



And part II



Yo, ho ho and a bottle of rum!

Filthy Lucre

Given that the 2 contractor proposals we´ve gotten so far are about 3 times what we´re willing to spend, my thoughts have turned to making money while the financial-system-as-we-know-it still stands.

I met my dear friend W for drinks downtown to catch up on summer doings and the giant restaurant poster behind us said:

Conservas: Delicias del mar
You Conserve: Delights of the sea

Mejillones en Escabeche
Mussels in Pickle

Berberechos de las Rías Gallegas
Cockles of the Rías Gallegas

so maybe there´s a need for my translation services after all. (Of course a need does not make a market.) For now I´m figuring out how to put together a freelance translation business.

The best part of that is playing around with logos, web page design, business cards, etc. And whilst surfing I happened across the uttery delightful timesink:


From Interesting Letterhead Designs

Does anyone actually use stationery anymore?

Friday, September 16, 2011

Horchata Soap


My first ´milk´ soap. Horchata is a drink made from the chufa. It is a very popular Valencian refreshment during the hot summer months. I believe the new world version uses rice milk instead of the chufa or tigernuts.



I couldn´t find actual chufas in my neighborhood, and it looks like kind of a process from that excellent pictoral, so I substituted the comercially available stuff sold in bottles. Other than chufa and water, the only ingredients listed were sugar and a chemical thickener.

Made with olive, coconut, sweet almond, palm and castor oils and cocoa butter. Unscented but sprinkled with cinnamon.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Sargadelos

One of the side trips we made in August was to a little town called Sargadelos in Lugo. It is famous for a porcelain factory founded in the 18th century, but we went after purchasing a places-you-must-see-in-Galicia book with the ¨Camino de los enamorados¨ or Lover´s Path.

It´s located at the site of the old factory. There´s a small museum on the grounds, along side the Pazo, and the ruins of the old factory and workers quarters.




There was a big sign advertising horseback rides, but we settled for walking the short path.


It follows a stream, with stunning old trees.


And at the end you are rewarded by a small reservoir and water fall.



Sargadelos porcelain has a new factory a little way down the road and is quite famous. But I admit I prefer the older pieces,


the new product line isn´t my cup of tea, as it were, but it is very popular and widely available.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Cupcakes take 2

So for V´s birthday, I decided it was a good opportunity to try cupcakes again. Chocolate this time.


I eventually chose this recipe from Food.com, called Mom´s Chocolate Cupcakes:

* 1 1/2 cups flour
* 1 cup granulated sugar (I used 3/4 cup)
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1/3 cup cocoa powder (I used 1/2 cup)
* 1/2 cup oil
* 1 cup water (I used coffee)
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 tablespoon vinegar

Directions:

1. Mix all ingredients together until moist and well blended.
2. Put in cupcake cups and bake for 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees F.
3. Frost with your favorite icing.
4. To make a layer cake, double the recipes and put in 2 round cake pans.
5. Increase baking time to about 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

I have to say these are not the most chocolate-y things I´ve ever eaten, but they are yummy! And the texture is exactly what I remember as cupcakes - a fine grained sponge cake that is moist but not dense. I´m using oversized cups and a muffin tin so I got 8 large cupcakes (remembering my last experience when they only came up half way.) I´ve seen the recipe elsewhere online as Depression Cake, presumeably for the absence of expensive eggs and dairy.

I did a search for chocolate buttercream, thinking I would try out a cake decorating kit I picked up at Lidl. There are a couple of different versions, some requiring heating egg whites with sugar and then incorporating the butter and chocolate. Or there´s the simpler powdered sugar/butter/chocolate ones, such as here at Savory Sweet Life.

Of course nothing ever goes that smoothly, I discovered that I only had about 3/4 cup of powdered sugar which is one of those things that you can´t find just anywhere. So I improvised on the amounts and managed enough for 3 cupcakes, but not enough to make it worth dirtying the decorating equipment, so that will have to wait for another time. The result was satisfyingly buttery and sweet, but again not chocolate enough for me.

And sure enough, V tried one, liked it OK and proceeded to eat a Magnum icecream bar instead. (Dove bar for y´all in the US)

Not going to win any awards for presentation or photography:


For more fun cupcake recipes (and more):

I(heart)Cuppycakes.com


A Tender Crumb

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Garden update

My fantasies of living the good life surrounded by succulent organic, heritage tomatoes have been brutally dashed. Utter failure. Not a single fruit and now the poor things are at death´s door. They took forever to get going, finally flowered in July and since then - nothing. I don´t recall seeing any of last year´s pollenators this summer. Now some kind of blight has them all but dead.


The sweet potatoes have at least produced bountiful foliage. I´m not actually expecting to harvest anything - the lush greenery all summer was worth shoving them into 2 big containers.


The only marginal success has been the herbs, basil, sage and some odd nasturtiums. Even those haven´t really taken off. Again, they just sat there for most of June and July. I´m going to try to keep them alive this winter on the windowsill.


This is all quite discouraging. One certainly can´t complain about the climate in Madrid - lots of sun. Very few pests. We water regularly.

Oh well, I´m off to the neighborhood frutería to buy some tomatoes and make sauce.





Monday, September 5, 2011

Blue Plate Special

Somewhere around 15 years ago, back in the US Diners became retro chic and staples like meatloaf and chicken pot pies came back into style.

In honor of V´s birthday, I made a comfort food dinner of meatloaf, scalloped potatoes and green beans.


I don´t follow a recipe for meatloaf - though I find here, I have to use a mix of ground beef and ground pork because the beef is so lean it dries out. In this case I added garlic, onion, red peppers, breadcrumbs, egg, dijon, worcestershire, black pepper, and salt and spread it with ketchup before putting it in the oven just because Mom did it that way.

I got the recipe for scalloped potatoes here. Modifications were substituting gouda for cheddar (I can´t find anything for less than 40€ that tastes anything remotely like cheddar) and adding sauteed onion to the cheese sauce. They even improve the next day.


He also got some DVDs and some rose plants to replace casualties that didn´t make it through our August absence. Many happy returns of the day, luz de mi vida.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

A Coruña

We´re back from our August vacation in A Coruña.


Saw the Architect, handed off the plans to a potential contractor for a proposal, got another candidate for technical project supervisor, checked in with City Hall and it looks like pending a recommendation by the city architect, and waiting for the City Council meeting for review(every 2 weeks) it will be the end of September before we have building approval.

Other than that, it was mostly eating and drinking and wandering around.

Someone tell me how to make bread with this crispy crust and big holes.

(L)A Coruña is a beautiful port city. We had an apartment above and behind the newish Casa do Home (also known as Domus), which we managed not to visit even once. We had the gamut of weather, raining when we arrived, a solid week of gorgeous warm days and cool nights, and then some sun interspersed with showers.



I managed to get sunburned the second day we were there, despite investing in a beach parasol and slathering on sunblock. AC has 2 lovely big beaches Riazor and Orzan, but V prefers the neighboring Santa Cristina as less crowded and with better access to tapas and beer.


Mostly we stay in the center of Coruña - winding streets and stone buildings with the traditional ¨galerías¨ of white glassed-in balconies.


There was an giant cruise ship docked and we saw groups of quite pink tourists scurrying around after guides carrying sticks with flags. It´s hard to convey the scale of the thing in a photo.


We did take an hour-long cruise around the bay (7€ each) which was fun. V tells me there used to be a ferry service between AC and Ferrol and the neighboring Santa Cristina that ran every hour or two, so you could run over for the day. But unforunately, that service no longer exists.


Including the 16th century fortress guarding the mouth of the bay for defense against enemies like the dread Pirate Drake (Sir Francis to English speakers).


Reports on other excursions forthcoming.