Food Culture: Turn Off the TV and Cook!

The most useful thing we can do – if we care about food and where it comes from and how it’s grown and prepared and what’s good for us and what tastes good, and if we want to sift through all the contradictory and overlapping claims about health benefits or environmental degradation or sustainability – is unplug the television set, because for the most part, the food traditions that were gaining a foothold in various regions of the United States have been in steady decline since the growth of TV as the national communications medium at the end of WWII and continue to the present day.

So says my wise blog friend Patrick at Duck Fat and Politics. It's an important, eloquent post, and it's not just about TV. It's about apple pie and sweet potatoes and ginger beer and not allowing our food heritage (not to mention biodiversity) to be lost. Read it all here (on the Eat Local: Just Food blog) or here (on Duck Fat and Politics).

Oven-dried Cherry Tomatoes

I've so enjoyed the amazing Sun Gold cherry tomatoes from my garden this summer that I thought I'd try saving some for later in the year. On Saturday I dried some in the oven in the simplest way: washed them (here is a mix of the Sun Golds with some good-but-not-as-wonderful red grape tomatoes), cut them in half, and set them cut side up on a baking tray I'd brushed with olive oil. I didn't salt them or sprinkle them with herbs, though one can do that.

After about four hours at 210 F. the tomatoes above had turned into the tomatoes below. That wasn't a scientically determined length of time, and was too long for some of the smaller tomatoes. While most were still somewhat soft and leathery, some had actually turned brown and crispy -- tomato chips!


Here (below) is a closer view of tomatoes after drying. I let them cool, scooped them into a one-quart zip-lock bag, and popped them into the freezer. It seemed a remarkably small amount of dried tomatoes for such a large tray, but it's certainly several recipes' worth. They can be rehydrated in hot water, broth or wine, and then soaked in olive oil if desired.

I'd never tried drying anything before, so please don't consider me an expert in this! Next time, I think I'll pack the tray fuller, start checking them sooner, and remove ones that are done while leaving others in to get more drying time. Or maybe I should invest in a food dehydrator, which is probably more energy-efficient and operates at a lower temperature than my electric oven.

Afternoon at Carlos Avery WMA

For our Labor Day birdwatching outing, we decided to head north of the Twin Cities, to Carlos Avery Wildlife Management Area - a large (23,000-acre) natural area that I had never been to. A wildlife management area is an area of habitat managed primarily to support game for hunting, but certainly such habitats support many additional species as well. One of our first spots of the day was a large hawk at the top of the tree below.


Our first instinct was that it was an osprey - it looked huge, and had a white breast and dark wings, which would be consistent with an osprey. But when we looked through the scope it was clear that it was not.

The rusty blush to the neck and white underside from breast to tail were key points we noticed, and while we haven't definitively identified it, we think it may be an immature Swainson's hawk, though these are generally seen somewhat further west. We welcome comments from those more expert than we are. We had four field guides out while looking at the photos and still could not come up with a definitive ID, even though Dave has taken a hawk identification class. Frustrating!

A bit later, while wending our way around the ponds (called pools) of the area, we saw this kingfisher fly overhead. We stopped and walked for a bit and it kindly sat long enough that we could get a photo.

Here's a view of one of the lakes in the area. This was fairly typical of a lot of the area - lots of marshy wetland (currently fairly dry), some pools and lakes, and some open grasslands and woods as well.

Further along we got this great view of a great blue heron somewhat camouflaged in the reeds.

Here it was hunkered down with its neck retracted in a S shape. I haven't seen herons without their necks extended before.

Here it is, fully extended again. Herons are so primeval looking!

While we didn't see a lot of birds today, we did see lots of dragonflies. They seemed to be everywhere we went. There is a huge amount of habitat at Carlos Avery that we didn't see today. I expect we'll be back again another time.

Fall Bird Migration Season

Migration season can be a great time to go birdwatching, as birds often flock together to make the trip, increasing the concentration of birds in an area and thereby making it easier to spot something - sometimes a great many somethings. Fall migration is often taken at a more leisurely pace than spring migration, when birds are anxious to reach their breeding habitat and stake out territory, so you're less likely to have them all blow through over a short period. Shorebirds, hawks and warblers are some categories of migrating birds to watch for, though I'm sorry to say that for many shorebirds their migration season started weeks ago and they are long gone.

I'm a great fan of shorebird-watching, myself. The ones we see around here, like the greater and lesser yellowlegs, are relatively large (though many shorebirds are small) and tend to stay in one spot for a while, grazing for food on mudflats or in very shallow water. Warblers, being insect-eaters, tend to dart constantly from one branch or tree to another. Many of them are lovely little birds and a treat to see, but one tends to get a stiff neck from looking up and trying to track birds as they fly overhead.

On the other hand, as my resident bird expert notes, finding shorebirds is more hit-and-miss, in part because of changing water levels year to year that turn an area that is a nice hospitable mudflat one year into a swimmable pond another year. The warblers tend to return more predictably to the same wooded areas.

Duck migration occurs somewhat later in the fall (waterfowl-hunting season in Minnesota starts October 1, not coincidentally). Ducks are a great place to start birdwatching, as again they are large enough to spot fairly easily and although they can certainly be spooked into flight (or into diving), at least they don't flit!

Radar reports provide good insight into bird migration patterns. Yes, radar can actually pick up the air disturbances caused by groups of birds and show areas of greater activity. A Minnesota blogger who regularly posts the latest bird/radar reports is Roger at Minnesota Birdnerd, who I had the chance to meet on the recent Birders Who Blog, Tweet and Chirp outing. The radar map he's got on his latest blog post (which I've borrowed here) shows concentrated activity along the North Shore, the upper St. Croix, and the La Crosse area. He predicts the potential for good birdwatching this weekend, with pleasant weather and light winds (no roaring winds out of the north to drive the birds onward).

We haven't made our weekend plans yet. Maybe we'll wander over to Lake Byllesby, where we've sometimes had very good luck seeing shorebirds and pelicans (and one notable osprey). Maybe we'll just head out and see where our instincts take us. It's fall migration time for birdwatchers, not just for birds.

Prairie and Sky

Here are more photos from the St. Olaf college natural lands taken Saturday morning. The St. Olaf wind turbine dominates the landscape if you're looking anywhere in its general direction. The two wind turbines in Northfield, one here at St. Olaf and the other owned by Carleton College but standing on land slightly east of town, have come to be iconic symbols of this small city.

The tall prairie grasses (I believe Big Bluestem is what we're seeing here) bent and swayed in the breeze.

Light purple wildflowers in the aster family and goldenrod were common, as well as plenty of other plants I can't identify, like the greenish spikes below.

Can anyone tell me what these huge spikes are? They must have been close to ten feet tall. I have seen similar things on a much smaller scale, but have no idea what they might be.