Curing before storing, melons and general-chaos

 

Nobody told you curing was a step. They just sold you a refrigerator.

For centuries, harvest was only half the job. Before any root or bulb went into storage, it spent days or weeks in controlled heat and moving air. That process is called curing, and it is why cellar food lasted until spring.

POTATOES: 50-60F for two weeks seals skin cuts and stops rot before it starts.

SWEET POTATOES: 80-85F for ten days converts starches and hardens the skin for months of storage.

ONIONS: warm dry airflow for two to four weeks dries the neck completely and locks out mold.

GARLIC: three to eight weeks at 70-80F tightens the wrapper and pushes viability past six months.

WINTER SQUASH: ten days at 80-85F hardens the rind so it holds through midwinter without softening.

This knowledge did not vanish because it stopped working. It vanished because the cold chain made it unnecessary for people selling food at scale. Wholesalers cure before shipping. They just never taught you to do it at home.

What replaced it was the assumption that the refrigerator handles everything. It does not. A sweet potato cured correctly at harvest and stored at 55F will outlast an uncured one in the fridge by three months. The fridge is not a substitute for a process that changes the vegetable at a cellular level.

Cure your harvest this year. One shelf in a warm room, a box fan on low, and ten days of patience will do what no appliance can replicate. Source

 

Information supplied by the Tireless Lucas Machias.

Watermelons

I thought this guy's putting his melons in nursery pots was a good way to slow down damage from rabbits and woodchucks. Throwing a bit of sawdust or wood-shavings in the bottom of the pot will keep it from sitting on a wet-spot after a rain. His video explains that you can make a solid judgment regarding the ripeness of the melon by looking at the tendril that is opposite the fruit. If it is completely brown, the fruit is ripe. If it is still green, give it more time. Four-minute run-time.

Women's greater susceptibility to social pressure

As a population, women appear to be more sensitive to certain types of social pressure than men do.

Whether it is due to DNA or social conditioning is not important. It simply IS.

Most observers of human nature would bet that it was a combination of both nature and nurture.

From an evolutionary biology standpoint, women had much more to lose then men when being pushed to the edges of the herd. They are slower than men. And, when they are carrying children or caring for them, they are much, much slower than men who were rarely encumbered with family duties before the Industrial Revolution.

Reformers who obstinately attempt to over-write DNA and deep social conditioning with patterns that conform to their ideology are idiots. 

Taleb in his book Antifragile discusses how a "dumb-bell" investment strategy can exploit chaos. The benefits of asset rebalancing are totally dependent on different asset classes having surges that are off-set in time and/or having different volatility characteristics.

Men are responsible for most technical innovation because the greatest risk-seekers are men. Orville and Wilbur would have never invented heavier-than-air flight if they craved social approval through conformity. Many Most Nearly all innovations were created by men who didn't give a rat's ass about the approval of the mean-girl's club.

Women foraged for most of the day-to-day food. Men brought home "windfalls" of protein and fat. The two modes of food production were complimentary. 

Ukraine-26

My source of information about what is happening in the Black Sea region informed me that the escalation of targeting continues on both sides. Ukraine is almost completely sealed off in terms of bulk-shipping. Their major ports on the Black Sea are shredded. Since July 23, 2026 there is only one rail-line that still connects Ukraine to the west and it remains vulnerable to Russian attack. Vessels carrying Russian wheat and other agricultural commodities are being attacked by Ukrainian drones on the high seas.

The fact that foreign markets for wheat and barley is being denied to Russian and Ukraine means that the local prices for those grains will quickly be driven down below the cost of production, according to my expert. 

Historic wheat prices. Circled region marks start of Uke-Rus war

Both Ukraine and Russia are trying to strangle each other's access to currency and arms. Both countries get hard-currency by shipping food via the Suez Canal (which has its own issues) to Africa which is paid for by Western aid money. They also get hard-currency from India and Pakistan, both big consumers of wheat products. The bottom line is that a real shit-storm is brewing in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. It is unlikely that the African chaos will interest western journalists but the South Asia tension will get lots of press because it could go nuclear.

There is also the likelihood of Indian and Pakistani ex-pats going at it in places like London and Toronto and Vancouver and San Jose as calories back-home get scarce, so watch your six.

I get the sense that the same targeting escalation is happening in the Iran war. 

Who knew that Universe-25 was code for Ukraine 2026? They only missed by a year. 

Anxiety, Mike Tyson and Work-ticket report

Anxiety is an emotion that God (or evolution, take your pick) put into us for reasons. In isolation, "anxiety" is a morally neutral quality.

It has been published that women between the ages of 18 and 30 have unprecedented levels of mental illness with women who identify as "Progressive" having levels that are higher (at statistically significant rates) than women who do not identify as Progressive.

What function does anxiety serve?

For herd-animals, anxiety serves to keep them in the safety of the herd. If a lamb or a calf starts to get left behind, their anxiety kicks-in and the burst of adrenaline turbo-charges their pursuit of the herd.

I think the anxiety and depression seen in young women is at least partially fueled by the internal contradiction between wanting to stay with the herd and recognizing that the herd is recklessly hurtling toward a cliff. The trend is exacerbated by the need to gain in-group status; low status animals trail the herd and gain little protective benefit from being members while high-status members get to eat grass that has not been trampled or soiled with urine or feces.

The less-Progressive women have the same instincts but are content to "attach" to a smaller group of other women. Some of it is purely by accident...who their parents are, who they roomed with in college...who they married. Some of it is intelligence and intentional. Those women exercised their ability to play the chess-pieces out a few moves and see where identity politics and the Karpman Drama Triangle pivot (to mention two things) inevitably ends up.

For me, anxiety pushes me to plant a garden in the spring, water the garden, sort-of keep it weeded. It pushes me to pick the apples. Doing those things calms my anxiety back to a very-low simmer level.

Other people deal with anxiety in less appropriate ways. They lash-out at other people. They drink or smoke weed. They binge-eat or watch Netflix or buy crap they cannot afford and do not need. This may be a manifestation of B.F. Skinner's "Superstitious Pigeons".

Mike Tyson

I was watching some boxing clips. One of his strengths was his ability to pull one hand out of a clinch and pop his opponent when he wasn't expecting it.

He was able to generate a huge amount of power even when throwing some unorthodox punches. Several of his opponents were much taller than he was. From a position of his forehead planted in the center of his opponent's chest, he was able to punch the side of his opponent's head (which was above-and-behind Tyson's head) with enough force to stagger his opponent.

It made me think of Doolittle's raid on Japan. The punch is completely unexpected and seemingly comes out of nowhere.

Work-ticket report

Three hours time-on-task.

The first hour was on a fun project and I almost didn't count it in the total.

I labeled this "planting tool". The distance between the vertical lines is NOT 1-1/2 inches.

Picture in your head a grumpy, old man who is finding less and less joy in stooping down to plant tiny seeds at ridiculously close intervals.

The divots on the board are 1-1/2" apart.

 

I made the divots with a 1/4" diameter drill just barely sunk until the fully diameter is slightly buried.

Now picture a 2-by-2 with shallow divots planted at those same close intervals.

I was dubious about these shallow divots being aggressive enough to hold round seeds. I loaded seven spinach seeds (Red Tabby hybrid) and then carried the tool the length of the driveway and back and then around our lumpy lawn for a total of 200 paces. Then I left it on our trash dumpster for a couple of hours to expose it to the breeze. All seven seeds were still there after the test. Conclusion: The divots are aggressive enough for spinach seeds.

Cable spools can be decorated if that is your inclination

I picture using this by loading it at a small table in the garden and then carrying it over to the furrow and rolling the 2-by-2 to plant up to 8' of row at a time. I have seen large wire spools used for that kind of table. They have the advantage of being sturdy and transportable.

Another hour was spent lugging water. The third hour was spent cutting and loading spruce into the truck and a few random chores. 

Lots of little pieces

Yesterday's work-tickets

At the gym

I went to the gym twice. Once to walk with Mrs ERJ. The other time to lift. The walking went fine. The lifting...well, it just wasn't my day.

My maintenance routine is to warm-up with six reps of 135 (no straps), six reps of 185 (no straps), then four sets of six reps of 205 (with straps).

Even at the first rep of 135 I thought "This feels heavy!" By the second rep I was pretty sure that I was not going to be able to do my full routine.

When I got to the 205 set I compressed the rest of the work-out to 1 X 205, 1 x 210, 1 X 215 and then 1 X 220. I simple kept adding five pounds to each lift until I was pretty sure that I would not be able to do the next.

Then I bailed out. Better to show up, have a shortened session and go home unhurt than to try to push-through and end up injured.

I voted in the primary

I suspect that the legacy Democrats are in a panic. The more radical Senate candidate won the primary even though the legacy Dems endorsed the slightly less crazy candidate. Their creation is eating them.

I picked tomatoes (2.5 kg or about 5.5 pounds. That makes about 2.7kg for the season)

I culled tomato vines and tied up shoots.

I ran water to the trickle irrigation in the Eaton Rapids orchard

I finished cutting, splitting and stacking the Honey Locust.

I started disassembling pallets for their lumber. 

I ran errands with Mrs ERJ. It isn't that she NEEDS me to run those errands, but it is a good time to connect. For one thing, I cannot be playing on my laptop or running a chainsaw while driving. She is jolly good company.

What did not happen

I did not drive out to the Upper and Hill Orchards and do any maintenance.

I did not bring back any spruce firewood (great for getting fires going)

I did not scatter any turnip seeds. 

Wildlife

I am astonished by how quickly the local wildlife figured out that Zeus is no longer on duty. Our yard is flooded with woodchucks and deer. I never realized how intimidating the look, smell and sound of a dog was.

It is difficult to overstate how attractive tall zinnias like California Giant are to butterflies. They appear to favor the red ones but that might be my imagination.

Today's work-tickets

Finish breaking down the last pallet for wood. Remove nails.

Split some ash and start replenishing the woodpile in the breezeway.

Locally, ground-chuck is selling for about $6 a pound

Empty and reset woodchuck traps as required.

Weed garden 

Declutter horizontal surfaces 

Inefficient markets can cut both ways

I was watching a video from an extended family in Ukraine.

They have a tree of Prunus cerasifera which is the Eurasian equivalent of American Wild Plum except that the fruit is less aromatic. That tree has a bumper crop of plums.

They advertised on a local bulletin board and got orders for four buckets of plums. Each bucket probably weighed 5 kilograms. At 7% sugar (typical for this species) a bucket of plums might have 350 grams of digestible carbs. After deducting for the cost of gasoline to deliver the plums, they are barely breaking even.

They end up giving one bucket and one partial bucket away to charity cases.

The person who ordered the last bucket of plums was not home and they didn't answer the phone calls or texts when they delivered the plums. The patriarch jumped over the fence and poured the plums into a container he found in the yard.

They had started for home when the purchaser of the last bucket called them on the phone. The driver turned around and went to collect payment.

Not only did the buyer pay them with cash, the buyer insisted that they accept 100kg of flour, 10kg of pearled barley, approximately fifteen loaves of bread and  an undisclosed amount of dried peas.

From a caloric standpoint, their rate-of-return on the last transaction was +30,000%. They traded 350 grams of carbs in the fruit for more than 110,000 grams of carbs in the flour and grain and bread.

Irrational transactions like this drive economists to insanity. It mocks the dry calculations of the academics when people do things like the family and like the final buyer of the plums.

Bag of flour one

Bag of flour two

Peas and barley

Box of baked bread

Fine Art Tuesday

 

Sergey Vasilkovsky was born in Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine in 1854 and he died in 1917. 

 

Fake rocks, work tickets, Primaries

Yesterday's work-tickets

Yesterday was another light day

I drove to the local big-box store and bought a grout bag, sand and Portland cement powder. 

Then I used scrap wood to make a fixture to hold tennis balls. It was 36" long (because that was the length of the scrap) and it can hold 12 balls. I cut 1" long slits into the tennis balls. The two sides of the fixture are 1-3/4" apart. By squeezing the balls and pressing them into fixture with the slit perpendicular to the sides of the fixture, the slit opened up like a coin-purse.

I mixed up the sand:cement 2:1 with enough water to make it a little soupier than gravy.  It is essentially concrete without coarse aggregate in it. Unlike mortar (which is Portland cement, slaked lime and sand)  it is not very caustic, should be a little bit stronger than mortar and should harden even if deprived of atmospheric CO2.

Then I filled those tennis balls using the grout-bag. The open "coin purse" slits closed up after prying them out of the fixture. Removing them from the fixture was the most difficult part of the production run.

I will have 24 artificial rocks to practice throwing after they harden. They are 2-3/4" in diameter and weight 7-1/2 ounces. That compares to a baseball at 2-7/8" diameter and 5 ounces of weight.

The rocks are bright yellow and should be easy to find for reuse. The picture in my head is to take ten of them to the field and pitch them downrange. Then collect them and throw them back toward the starting point. That will be 100 throws if I do that five times.

The other two items on the work ticket list were to walk with Mrs ERJ and to continue processing the wood from the Honey Locust branch. That added 40 minutes and 60 minutes respectively.

Today's work-tickets

I am up to eleven items on the list. That is what happens this time of year. Lots of work. Taking a break the last few days didn't help matters.

Two items of note: I am going to cull some tomato vines. The seeds I bought from a seller on Etsy germinated but are clearly a lot of mongrel seeds. I will be removing the vines that have zero or very light fruit-set. That will make more room for the vines that are pulling their weight.

The weather look-ahead implies that we (Eaton County, MI) are entering a week when we might get rain. This is a good time to broadcast turnip and radish seeds into squash patches and in other places.
 

Primary day

Michigan Primaries are today. There are two millage renewals on the ballot. One is for 9-1-1. The other is to fund "justice involved youth programs".

A trip to the cemetery

Mrs ERJ and I drove to her home-town yesterday and visited her parent's graves.

The site is covered with majestic, 200 year-old White Oaks

We scrubbed the algae off of the stone and scraped the moss and algae out of the lettering.

I left Mrs ERJ after a bit and wandered around.

Power mowers are rough on grave-stones. These were knocked off of their concrete bases

Not perfect, but it was the best I could do without stretching a line and using edging equipment to find concrete bases.

These graves are right next to the road and in the center-foreground of the overview picture.

The cemetery is hilly by Michigan standards. Family lore has it that my wife's father used to snow-ski through the cemetery after dark as a young man. He hid the skis in a hedge and then late in the evening he would take a shortcut through the cemetery on the way home from downtown. He could build up enough speed to coast into the backyard of his father's house.

Bonus image

A bird had flown into our living room window and left an imprint.