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Monthly Archives: July 2018

A portrait of the deceased

Wednesday, July 25, 2018

Not infrequently, living things from the garden are almost too beautiful to slice and eat. And yet, that’s why we grow them. Their existence is ephemeral. They’ll soon be lost and return to dust whether we eat them or not. The existential implications of that are horrifying. We share about 20 percent of our DNA […]

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Setting hens

Sunday, July 22, 2018

It doesn’t happen all that often, but every now and then a hen takes a notion to set. This young lady is a year and a half old. There are a number of remedies for “breaking” hens of setting. Having tried it, I would testify that it’s not worth the fight. Broody hens are remarkably […]

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Dieting without being hungry

Sunday, July 15, 2018

Rump roast plus some less-guilt-inducing things. Click here for high-resolution version. In eleven years of blogging here, I don’t think I’ve ever written about cooking beef before. I’m 98.6 percent vegetarian, but diets change things (for a while). During my adult life, my weight has bounced back and forth from about 147 to 157 pounds. […]

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Walnut pâté

Sunday, July 8, 2018

Raw walnut pâté in pocket bread, cucumber slaw, homemade refrigerator pickle, garden tomato. Click here for high resolution version. A good maxim for good health would be, eat more walnuts. Believe it or not, here in the Blue Ridge foothills, I can sometimes find local black walnuts for sale in late summer. You have to […]

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The evolution of morality

Sunday, July 8, 2018

The Evolution of Morality, by Richard Joyce. MIT Press, 2006. 272 pages. Our best universities have philosophy departments, but what the heck are philosophers — particularly moral philosophers — up to these days? Is it mischief? Certainly some think so. Occasionally, a philosopher from some university or other writes an op-ed in the New York […]

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Look who’s a mommie!

Friday, July 6, 2018
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If you’ve got too much of it, baba ganoush it

Thursday, July 5, 2018

Are we tired of squash and okra yet? It could happen. Baba ganoush is not just for eggplant. Any vegetable that likes to be roasted can be turned into baba ganoush. This one is made from roasted yellow squash and roasted okra. Are we tired of pesto yet? I hope not, because the basil is […]

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A boys’ answer to #metoo

Wednesday, July 4, 2018

Yes, #metoo has exposed some ugly abuses of male power and male impunity. But most men are not like that. And there is nothing wrong with boys. I won’t waste any words of my own. These young men sing the point quite beautifully. In French: Abandon entouré d’abandon, tendresse touchant aux tendresses… C’est ton intérieur […]

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