Citizens

Leaf lettuce ready for harvest.

Earlier this week, I had my first vegetable harvest—some lovely leaves from my three lettuce-bowl gardens, dressed with a ranch-style dressing spiced up with snips of chives and parsley from the yard.

I love the taste of home-grown leaf lettuce, which seems softer and more earthy than the big, crunchy heads you get at the grocery store. These salad bowls were really easy to put together. I started several types of lettuce under lights indoors in early April. Later in the month, I planted them in large containers filled with a homemade potting mix.

Due to our erratic spring, I had to move them in and out of the house during really cold weather, but for a couple of weeks now, the bowls have been on the front patio, soaking up the sun and the rain and getting big and delicious.  One of the bowls contains ‘Pablo’ lettuce, and heirloom head lettuce from Seed Savers Exchange. The other bowls have a leaf lettuce mix from Renee’s Garden. I’ll harvest these using the “cut-and-come-again” method, taking leaves from the outside and letting them continue to grow.

Do you grow lettuce in your garden?

Pablo lettuce in pot.

 

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WOW, what a long strange trip this has been.  I’ve been on this since Chisago I (1996) and Arrowhead:

Arrowhead Appellate Decision

Arrowhead was exempted, and hence Buy the Farm doesn’t apply, so that went to the Appellate Court, which tossed it out.  And the 2001 statutory changes, which defined “high voltage transmission lines” as anything over 100 kV, meaning Buy the Farm would apply to 115 kV lines like SE Metro, and Chisago, but nooooo, can’t have that, so Sen. Metzen then amended in 2002 so that it only applies to lines 200 kV or over.  GRRRRRRRRRRRR.

Here’s the update in the Belle Plaine Herald (why is there nothing whatsoever in the STrib?).  GRE’s Randy Fordice claims it’s vaguely worded, but I think it’s pretty specific:

All rights and protections provided to an owner under chapter 117 apply to acquisition of land or an interest in land under this section.

DOH!  Vague my ass…

Legislature OKs Amendment to ‘Buy the Farm’ Law

In the waning hours of the 2013 legislative session Monday night, state lawmakers approved an amendment to Minnesota’s “Buy the Farm” law.

The amendment was passed “with great bipartisan support,” 114-18, said Sen. Kevin Dahle, DFL-Northfield. It requires companies like CapX 2020, which is running a transmission line from Sioux Falls, S.D. across Minnesota to reimburse landowners and farmers for fees incurred in the process of acquiring land via eminent domain for losses incurred during the process.

Additionally, the new law says utilities acquiring land via eminent domain must file challenges to a landowners request the utility buys the farm within 60 days.

If an objection is raised by the utility, the district court must uphold or reject the claim within 90 days.

Dahle and Rep. David Bly, DFL-Northfield, Reps. Kelby Woodard, R-Belle Plaine, and Glenn Gruenhagen, R-Glencoe, supported the amendment. Woodard and Dahle represent Belle Plaine.

Woodard noted the original law passed in 1977 has “lost some of its teeth” over the years. He hopes it will help businesses impacted by utility proposals.

“We’ll see if it helps people the way they want it to. I hope it does,” Woodard said.

Monday afternoon, Dahle said he believed the amendment would win passage in the House, but only if the House of Representatives finished its business dealing with budget, taxation and childcare unionization issues. Those meaty issues had to be addressed before the House would take up the amendment to the “Buy the Farm” law.

“The clock is the biggest challenge, not the votes,” Dahle said.

Dahle was able to win passage of the amendment by linking it to another utility-related bill, avoiding a committee hearing process by which most bills are vetted. He said the end run annoyed some lawmakers, but that it is a tactic periodically used to get a bill through the process on short order.

On the House side, Woodard said the amendment was originally included in the environment bill, but pulled out during conference committee. With efforts of Bly and Woodard lobbying their respective colleagues for support, passage was assured, Woodard said.

CapX is less than thrilled with the passage. Randy Fordice, a spokesman for the group of utilities working together on high-voltage power line projects across the state, including the line that runs south of Belle Plaine across Blakeley and Belle Plaine townships, said the vaguely-worded amendment muddies the issues associated with the so-called reasonableness clause included in “Buy the Farm” requests.

He added that the amendment could result in more questions associated with the ruling the Minnesota Supreme Court is considering. That case involves relocation costs and minimal compensation. A district court sided with a farmer affected by CapX’s Fargo-to-Monticello transmission line. The state appeals court sided with CapX, noting that landowners elected to move.

But the amendment includes language indicating it does not impact cases in the court system at the time of its passage, Dahle said.

I’ve been going for the most passive of all passive entertainment the last couple of weeks while my health has been on the fritz. The hard part of my super-passive entertainment regimen is right at the beginning, where you choose a series on Netflix, preferably one with many episodes since the initial choice is the brunt of the work. Man, I wish I liked Mad Men… Anyway, after that initial hard work Netflix does the rest for you — all you have to do is wait for the next episode to cue up for you, and the next, and the next.

So there I was, catatonic in front of the screen on Sunday evening. There may or may not have been drool. I probably hadn’t showered recently. There were probably orange peels scattered around my coffee table (I’ve been on a bit of an orange binge lately). Netflix was serving up endless episodes of one of my favorite genres: BBC mysteries. You know the ones. They have an interesting, complex character for the main detective, and then far more murders than any one tiny country town in the British Isles could possibly sustain without completely depopulating. I love them. Anyway, this particular detective (Inspector George Gently) has an annoying, immature jerk of a second in command (Sergeant Bacchus), Gently has to spend some considerable time explaining to Bacchus just how prejudiced and immature he really is. In this particular episode, Bacchus’ primary vice was “racialism.”

Hold on! Racialism? You mean, in the UK people are Racialists rather than Racists? Or at least it’s a totally accepted term for that form of prejudice?

So, being the librarian that I am, I told my coworkers the next morning about my startling discovery, and we started searching Google Scholar, as one does. Turns out, you get two pretty distinct sets of results if you search for racialism vs racism. So bear that in mind next time you’re searching a free-text database.

Next weekend I intend to continue my vegging… er… RESEARCH. For science.

It’s a sad day in Red Wing and in Port Penn this morning.  Our neighbor Lake, who I’ve known since he was six months old, has died.

When I met him, I was down in the street in front of the house, and he and his human, Barry, came trotting down the street.  He was just a pup, and at 6 months was the size of my Katze, a year and a half old shepherd, and he was 20 pounds heavier already!  He was your typical lab pup, full of energy.  He and Katze would leap up the two retaining walls up to the house, run behind the house and around a few times, jump down, and repeat, and repeat, and repeat.  You could hear their peals of laughter and joy in being dogs.  Did I mention he was full of energy?  My other dogs weren’t as good to him, frankly, they were bitches, but Lake, lab that he is, was a gentleman always.

When I’d visit the Moens, he’d always cozy up to me, maybe smelling the treats in my pocket, or maybe just enjoying my “Eau de Shep,” and his BIG head would always rest on my knee, trusting.  He was the kind of dog you couldn’t resist hugging, who would make a good bedwarmer on a cold Minnesota night.

Poor dear didn’t do too well when I took care of him not that long ago, he drank and drank and made himself sick, WOW, his belly held a lot!!!  He recovered quickly, ready to eat more, OK, fine, Lake, but no more water!!!!

He’d been visibly slowing down, trudging along 8th Street, not wanting to run up the bluff, and recently it got to where he couldn’t do stairs (see photo, that’s a real problem) or go for walks.  Then he quit eating, where even beef and rice had no appeal.  The photo of him was his last morning, surveying his kingdom in Red Wing.

Lake, we’ll miss you, good neighbor!!!  Give my regards to our grrrrrrrrrrls Katze, Krie, Kenya and Summer who are there to meet you and show you the ropes… and bones, and venison steaks, and running paths!

 

I spent a few days with some buddies at a cabin near Lutsen over the weekend. We hiked the state park trails at Temperance and Cascade but I brought my 29′er in case any of the COGGS mountain bike trails around Duluth opened up/dried out in time for my drive back home to Northfield. Alas, no such luck. The trails were all too soft yet because of the late-season heavy snowfall and cold temps.

I was going to head back home to ride the metro-area MORC trails but torrential rains there closed all the trails that had just opened up a week ago.  So I sent a text to CLMTB Crew president Aaron Hautala in hopes that Cuyuna Lakes would be open. YES!  They had heavy rain overnight but the trails dried out quickly and were tacky fast.

I got there by 3:30 on Saturday and promptly ran into fellow Northfielders Todd Orjala, Ken Drivdahl, and Steve Schmidt.  After riding all the trails in the Mahnomen Unit (see inset B on the DNR map), I pooped out by dark and was planning to make the drive home but got rescued by CLMTB Crew member John Schaubach who offered me dinner at his cabin and a place to pitch my sleeping bag for the night. YES!

  
John and I went for an early Sunday morning ride in the Yawkey Unit. He showed me how the CLMTB Crew had painstakingly spread a layer of Cuyuna’s red dirt/gravel mix on top of many sections of the trails that were primarily clay.  John said that they refer to this mixture as ‘Cuyuna Gold’ because of its ability to harden the surface of a trail while still providing good traction. It’s amazing the amount of work that’s gone into doing this and what a difference it makes, especially after it’s rained. Props to Cuyuna Dirt Boss Nick Statz, Yawkey Unit  Dirt  Boss Dave Taylor, and their team of CLMTB Crew volunteers for working with the DNR to make this happen.

   

   
The rain ended our ride at 9 am so we promptly headed to the Heartland Kitchen & Café in Crosby for their stunning Sunday buffet.  I’d blogged photos of proprietor Maureen Christopher before but this was the first time I’d met her sweetie, Jim Christopher, who was the beauty on duty for the buffet. After two hours of gorging ourselves, John and I staggered out and I departed for home, sated and grateful for yet another Cuyuna weekend.

Northfield City Administrator and Faribault resident Tim Madigan alerted me to a Bikeable Community Workshop hosted by the Faribault Area Chamber of Commerce and Tourism last week.  I contacted Kymn Anderson, Chamber President, to see if there was room for any Northfielders and she graciously allowed me to attend. Northfield City Councilor Suzie Nakasian was there, too.

The Bikeable Community Workshop brochure (PDF) states:

A Bikeable Community Workshop trains local, county and regional staff, and advocates on how to plan and support more Bike Friendly Communities to encourage more people on bikes more often in Minnesota. Participants enjoy a short bike ride to assess their community’s bicycle facilities to base an action plan on. Target audiences include engineers, law enforcement, planners, public health practitioners, school administrators, elected officials, and advocates. The course includes a short bicycle ride auditing your community.

The workshop was presented by staff from the Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota, the Minnesota Department of Health, and the Minnesota Department of Transportation. These folks knew their stuff and presented it well.

After the morning session, we broke up into three groups for a bike audit ride around Faribault.

See the May 14 Faribault Daily News by reporter Rebecca Rodenborg (@FDNRebecca): Faribault leaders take on bikeability issue. Also see her earlier article on May 4: How bike-friendly is Faribault?

My take-away?  We need to begin working immediately with the Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota to form a Northfield area bicycle advisory committee so we can begin tackling a myriad of bike-related issues. The City of Minneapolis’ Bicycle Advisory Committee page spells much of it out:

Advise the Mayor, City Council, and Park Board on bicycling related issues; help advance the state of bicycle infrastructure; encourage more people to bike; educate the public; work towards more compliance with traffic laws; help the City and Park Board make bicycle plans; work to increase equity between bicyclist and other modes of transportation; review and suggest legislative and policy changes; recommend priorities for the use of public funds on bicycle projects; help ensure Minneapolis keeps and improves its status as a bicycle friendly community; serve as a liaison between Mpls communities and the City and Park Board, coordinate between difference agencies that interact with bicyclists.

Props to Kymn Anderson at the Faribault Area Chamber of Commerce and Tourism and the Faribault area bicycle advocates for hosting the session. It was inspiring.

Northfield City Administrator and Faribault resident Tim Madigan alerted me to a Bikeable Community Workshop hosted by the Faribault Area Chamber of Commerce and Tourism last week.  I contacted Kymn Anderson, Chamber President, to see if there was room for any Northfielders and she graciously allowed me to attend. Northfield City Councilor Suzie Nakasian was there, too.

The Bikeable Community Workshop brochure (PDF) states:

A Bikeable Community Workshop trains local, county and regional staff, and advocates on how to plan and support more Bike Friendly Communities to encourage more people on bikes more often in Minnesota. Participants enjoy a short bike ride to assess their community’s bicycle facilities to base an action plan on. Target audiences include engineers, law enforcement, planners, public health practitioners, school administrators, elected officials, and advocates. The course includes a short bicycle ride auditing your community.

The workshop was presented by staff from the Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota, the Minnesota Department of Health, and the Minnesota Department of Transportation. These folks knew their stuff and presented it well.

After the morning session, we broke up into three groups for a bike audit ride around Faribault.

See the May 14 Faribault Daily News by reporter Rebecca Rodenborg (@FDNRebecca): Faribault leaders take on bikeability issue. Also see her earlier article on May 4: How bike-friendly is Faribault?

My take-away?  We need to begin working immediately with the Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota to form a Northfield area bicycle advisory committee so we can begin tackling a myriad of bike-related issues. The City of Minneapolis’ Bicycle Advisory Committee page spells much of it out:

Advise the Mayor, City Council, and Park Board on bicycling related issues; help advance the state of bicycle infrastructure; encourage more people to bike; educate the public; work towards more compliance with traffic laws; help the City and Park Board make bicycle plans; work to increase equity between bicyclist and other modes of transportation; review and suggest legislative and policy changes; recommend priorities for the use of public funds on bicycle projects; help ensure Minneapolis keeps and improves its status as a bicycle friendly community; serve as a liaison between Mpls communities and the City and Park Board, coordinate between difference agencies that interact with bicyclists.

Props to Kymn Anderson at the Faribault Area Chamber of Commerce and Tourism and the Faribault area bicycle advocates for hosting the session. It was inspiring.

Spring is finally here.  It’s time to get out and enjoy our wonderful watershed.  The Cannon River Watershed Partnership (CRWP) invites you to learn to kayak in a relaxed setting on May 22nd – 6 PM – 7:30 PM.

Instructors: Marshall Wright (ACA instructor) and Betsy Wright.

Where: 5351 Elkton Trail, Faribault, MN.

Cost: FREE to CRWP members.  To become a member go to the CRWP website.

If you are not a member of CRWP, the cost per person is $10. Please register through CRWP by emailing beth@crwp.net or (507) 786-3913.

Class size is limited to 16 participants.

Kayaking is a popular recreational activity for people of all ages. To enjoy kayaking safely you need knowledge, training and the ability to make informed decisions about wind, weather and waves. Proper boat selection based on the type of activity you wish to pursue in your kayak is an important consideration.

We will explain the different types of kayaks and terminology used to describe boat features and attributes. We will cover materials and boat “fit” and the different paddle designs available. We will have several kayaks for attendees to sit in to get the feel of the cockpit. And we will have a wide range of safety equipment–beyond life jackets (“pfds”).

We will also provide referrals to reputable sources for on-the-water training, outfitting and group touring. If time allows, Marshall will demonstrate a basic kayaking skill set on the water (if the ice is out on Cannon Lake and the air temperature is comfortable for class attendees) or in the pool.

Experiencing the water from the seat a of kayak is special. You are actually “in” the water, which is a unique point of view. Kayaking allows access to areas that can’t be reached by motorized craft or by hiking. It’s a silent sport that leaves a light footprint on the environment. Come learn about kayaking!

I liked this short article on wine tasting tips;

http://www.lovepanky.com/travel-and-health/food-and-recipes/wine-tasting-how-to-taste-wine

Back in my hometown of Chicago, there was this wonderful small in stature woman whose name is
Lily. I would often see her on the elevator in the apartment building where we both lived. I would
ask her how she was doing, concerned especially because she was up in age and living alone, and
she would always reply, “Still kicking!”, and then she would kick her foot up a few inches and smile.
Right after that she would ask me how I was and compliment me on my earrings or scarf or something.
Sometimes she would tell me the same earrings I had on the week before were pretty.

I always thought Lily was a special and wonderful gal. She gave me hope and lifted my grumpy spirits
on days I thought weren’t worth the effort. But now, after Lily is gone, I do what she did. Thank you,
Lily. Thank you.

Got to Delaware just in time — Matt and Linda got married today.  As Alan says, it’s good they can be together for 18 years and still want to get married!  THEY DID IT!

They’re my favorite people in Delaware, well, except for Alan of course, and Matt’s mother makes pizelles to die for!  Matt and Linda run DelPizzo Construction:

Linda and Matt are both are active environmentalists, Matt has been a primary part of Delaware Audubon for ages and they did the heavy lifting last year when Audubon gave Alan its environmental award.  Linda has amazing artistic talents, making Alan a beautiful 6 foot bright blue sequin fish costume for a hearing, and for a demonstration in Dover, flat black cut-outs, a water buffalo/pig (?) representing former Gov. Minner connected by chains and led around by the nose by a big bankster!  That’s Matt in the  tan fish outfit at the Delaware AudubonFest:

As weddings go, it was as good as it gets (well, I’m not a big fan, don’t cha know), haven’t been to a wedding in SO long… and, well, I’ve got an aversion to this day, May 18 is my anniversary, 39 years ago — I told Linda about that and she noted that she was 6 months old then.  SAY WHAT!  Whoa, talk about feeling like an old fart, we’re as old as their parents — I had no idea!  Anyway, for them, and to get some long overdue work done in DE, we hit the road.  It was in historic Odessa, Delaware, at the Corbit-Sharp House, really a complex of historic houses and a great barn for serving.  Appetizers (veggies, fruit, cheeze, bread) and sufficient ETOH to be lubricated prior to the show, a short and sweet ceremony, and on to dinner, mostly vegan, PIZELLES and the Rock Fish with Chimichurri Sauce, oh so good, the Cantwell’s Tavern did the food.  And PIZELLES!  Vegan wedding cake of carrot and pineapple (coconut and ??? frosting, maybe soy milk or soy cream cheeze?).  Have to admit, I skipped the cigar bar… and did I mention PIZELLES???!!!???

A few weeks ago when Matt was in Minnesota on an Anderson Windows junket, we corralled him for dinner, he sacrificed a tour in the pole-dancer bus, and it was clear how much he was missing Linda (well, that’s Alan and my guess anyway), they’re one of the few couples I know who are a joy to be around together.  So after 18 years, here they go, married – ’bout time!

CONGRATULATIONS, Matt & Linda!

Author Ben Percy will read from his new novel, Red Moon, Monday, May 20, 7:30 pm at the Rueb ‘N’ Stein.
The Counterfactuals will play a set prior to the reading. Refreshments will be served.

This is certain to be one of the coolest events in which I’ve been involved.

In addition to the Red Moon, Ben is the author of two short story collections, The Language of Elk and Refresh, Refresh, a graphic novel based on the short story Refresh, Refresh, as well as the novel, The Wilding.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gxw1U9lJpwQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIoE-WNz82k

I was only half-listening to the radio in the other room earlier this evening when my ears perked up at the name “Harry Anderson” and the words “community sing.”

Minnesota Public Radio’s Dan Olson was reporting a story about community sings in Minneapolis, a tradition that was popular between the 1920s and the 1950s and has been revived by a group called Minnesota Community Sings. The Minneapolis-based group has scheduled a community sing for tomorrow at 5:30 p.m. in Powderhorn Park. Four additional events are scheduled for this summer, three in Minnehaha Park and one in Rosemount.

Olson interviewed 95-year-old Harry Anderson Jr., who grew up attending community sing events led by his father, Harry Anderson Sr.

You can read or listen to the entire story if you click here.

This photo, taken before the 1925 sing in St. Cloud, shows the boys’ band in front, in white, and the adult municipal band in the bandstand. The reason my ears perked up is because the elder Harry Anderson came to St. Cloud in 1925 to direct the city’s first big community sing. The event in Central (now Barden) Park also included music by the St. Cloud Municipal Band and the St. Cloud Municipal Boys’ Band, both directed by my great-grandfather, G. Oliver Riggs.

The Aug. 20, 1925, event attracted 5,000 people, which is impressive in itself, but even more so when you consider that the city’s population at the time was about 16,000 — meaning that almost a third of the city’s residents came out for the event. According to newspaper accounts, cars lined the streets around the park’s perimeter, and police were on hand to handle the street congestion. People bought popcorn and Crackerjack from the popcorn wagon, and more than a dozen uniformed Boy Scouts walked through the crowd, distributing song pamphlets.

After numbers by the boys’ band and the municipal band, Anderson took the stage and led the crowd in songs including “America” and “My Old Kentucky Home,” and he divided the crowd to sing rounds of “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean,” and “Row, Row Your Boat.” Last on the program was the “Star Spangled Banner.”

At the event’s conclusion, the St. Cloud Daily Times noted, the crowd “applauded together with automobile horns until the din was deafening.  The leader then led them in ‘rahs’ for the bands, the park and almost everything which came to his mind and they joined in with spirit.”

Sounds like great fun. I can’t make tomorrow evening’s event in Minneapolis, but I will have to see if I can attend one of the events later this summer. I wonder if they’ll sell Crackerjack?

In late April my family and I headed to Florida to attend a wedding and to get some time away from the  long, long, winter we were having in Minnesota. We all needed a break from school, work and weather. And I was told by my family that I needed to take a break from checking email, especially my work email.

I gather most people can step away from their computers during vacation. But the thought of not checking email for not just a day but five days just boggled my mind. It didn't seem possible. It didn't seem like a smart thing to do because, you know, someone might NEED to reach me. Someone might have a problem that only I could solve. Something on the website I maintain might break. Something might go wrong...

But my husband, Owen, reminded me that people go on vacation all the time and don't check email. That it's actually okay, even healthy, to step away from work once in awhile. And, Owen gently mentioned, I had been in such a stressed out state over work that it would be better for the family if I stepped away from my email for a few days and just relaxed.

"I'm not that stressed out, am I?" I asked Owen.
If Owen was an eye rolling type of person, he would have rolled his eyes. Instead he said, "Yes" followed by a list of examples of how stressed I've been.

I will spare you the details. It was a long list.

So I set up an "out of office" message on my work email and arranged for other people to keep an eye on the website I maintain while I was gone.

Guess what? I did it. I didn't check my email one time on vacation. In fact, I didn't check it until the day after I got home.

And guess what else? Everyone survived. Nothing broke. The world did not end. And I learned that I can really step away from my email, from work, and it's okay. In fact, my email break wasn't just okay it was great - great for me and for my family.

With the knowledge that, yes, I can survive without checking email constantly,  I got home from vacation I started something new - I set some boundaries around my email.

Now instead of checking email at all hours I check my work email once a day, maybe twice. I am working to set office hours and making progress in telling myself, "I'll deal with that when I'm in my office."

I still get worried that someone HAS to reach me, that the website I maintain is falling apart and someone will be upset with me for not replying right away. But, oh well. I guess I'll deal with that when I'm back in my office :-)

The countdown to Vintage Band Festival 2013 is at 77 days – it’s less than three months away! If you enjoy listening to world-class music, attending family-friendly summer festivals, and exploring cool small towns, make plans now to travel to Northfield, Minn., this summer – the town of Colleges, Cows and Cornets!


Thirty bands are scheduled to present 100 concerts during the four days of the international festival, showcasing a variety of genres, heritage influences and period-style performances. Some bands are making a return appearance, and others are new to the festival. Detailed information about the bands, links to their websites, samples of their music, and a searchable performance schedule are available on the festival website, vintagebandfestival.org.

New bands this year include Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Cowboy Band, from Texas (also known as the Frontier Brigade Band); the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, a New Orleans-style band composed of eight brothers from Chicago; and two bands from Sweden, Ehnstedt’s Octet and Medevi Brunnsorkester.

You can get a taste of the Swedish bands’ music by listening to this podcast, narrated by VBF artistic director Paul Niemisto.



Here’s another podcast, with samples of music from three heritage bands: the Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Cowboy Band, the Independent Silver Band from Mt. Vernon, Illinois (directed by the esteemed William Reynolds, whom I befriended at the last VBF); and Amerikkan Poijat, a Finnish-American brass band founded by Niemisto.



Additional events planned for the festival include vintage base ball, a ballroom-style dance, vaudeville entertainment, and a Battle of the Bands on the banks of the Cannon River, commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War.

The Riverwalk Market Fair will be operating on the Saturday of the festival, and the Northfield Arts Guild will present Meredith Willson’s The Music Man on Aug. 2-4 (the second of three weekends of performances).

Independent Silver Band director William Reynolds meets vintage band director G. Oliver Riggs in August 2010. The last two festivals, in 2006 and 2010, attracted audiences of 15,000 people, and we are expecting even more festival-goers this year because of the larger number of bands and the more extensive schedule. Events begin at noon each day, and performances will be on the hour and half hour at various venues throughout the city. Satellite concerts are scheduled in the surrounding communities of Dundas, Faribault, Owatonna, Cannon Falls, New Prague, Red Wing, Chatfield, New Ulm and Minneapolis.

All performances are free, but to cover expenses of the festival we encourage freewill donations. Those who donate a minimum of $25 will receive a handsome VBF 2013 pin. Donors at the $150 or $250 levels receive reservations to limited-seating events, invitations to special receptions, a T-shirt and a poster. For donation information, click here.

You can also buy cool VBF T-shirts and hats at the Northfield Historical Society gift shop, and they will soon be available for sale on the VBF website.

I serve on the VBF executive committee, so it’s exciting to see all the plans coming together for what I think will be the best festival yet. I am already trying to figure out how I can make it to as many concerts and events as possible!

A little birdie tells me that my site is a snooze.

That’s true.  I’ve been getting some domestic projects done that I’ve been ignoring, and I’ve started a big project that requires lots of research… zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz… believe me, that’s more of a snooze than my blog, and I hope worth the wait.

So what else is happening?

The Goodhue Wind project was taken off the May 2 Public Utilities Commission agenda and “temporarily” rescheduled for June 20, 2013.  But there’s a new filing provided by Xcel Energy that got me snortin’ recently, dig this:

Letter – Xcel Energy – May 8, 2013

And no hints – you’ve got to read the whole thing.  Peter Mastic is more than a little bruised after this letter!

 

When mẹ, my mother-in-law, pronounces this dish, it sounds like “awe” with a ‘dz’ prefix (like we hear in 'adze'), so it sounds like “dzawe” to my non-Vietnamese ears. She’s been making it forever, and though we’ve asked her several times to show us how to make it, it was only after my wife and I went to Vermont’s first fermentation festival that I pressed her to share her way of making it. Like many things she cooks, mẹ says it’s easy and that it can be prepared in a number of ways. Once I get the hang of a dish, this perspective is great, but it’s difficult to learn a new dish when most questions are answered by, “It doesn’t matter,” or “You can do whatever you want.” On the other hand, such ease with substituting or changing ingredients shows how comfortable and familiar some people are with dishes (rather than recipes) that are close to them; they see infinite variety in secondary ingredients, which keeps the same dish interesting year after year.

So many fermented recipes follow a similar pattern, and dua is another. Using mustard greens, which are a thick ribbed and heavy-fleshed leaf, dua differs in just a few ways. First, the washed leaves are separated and laid out to dry and wilt a little. Mẹ recommends an overnight wilting period but in the hot sun it might be only a few hours. Next, the leaves are cut into smaller pieces to make them easier to eat when they’re done fermenting, but they can be left whole, especially if you plan to cook the dua with pork, which is a favorite way to cook it. When I’m making sauerkraut I use the pretty standard ratio of 3 tablespoons salt for 5 pounds cabbage, but dua differs a little in that there’s not a lot of water to pull out through osmosis, so a brine is typically used. To make the brine, I bring water to a boil, add salt, and let it cool to room temperature. A few tablespoons of kosher or sea salt in a few quarts of water is a pretty good ratio – the brine should taste salty. Put all the wilted greens into a big glass or ceramic bowl or crock, and cover with the brine. I put a plate on top to keep all the greens submerged, and a water-filled bowl on top of the plate. A sliced onion is a pretty standard addition, and mẹ sometimes adds garlic, chili peppers, or ginger.

The important thing is to keep the greens submerged because the fermentation occurs in anaerobic conditions and exposure to air can cause less beneficial molds to form on the dua. When mẹ makes it she frequently skims a layer of mold off the top of the brine; I prevent that by keeping a plate and bowl on top, ensuring that the mustard greens stay submerged. And, of course, when you begin, make sure all your containers are clean – I rinse everything in very hot water, and if a container has been used for something that’s left residue of some kind, I first rinse it with boiling water.



When fermenting things the first few times my confidence sometimes wavered and it seemed beyond my reach. But I thought about our early human history as a refrigerator-less species, and figured that I could figure it out (with the help of a few books and conversations with friends.) So I hope you'll give it a try; ferment something and eat like most people did in those years people lived without electricity. Here’s my simple 1,2,3 to make dua, Vietnamese fermented mustard greens:

1. Wash a big heap of mustard greens and spread the separated leaves out to wilt, overnight. Cut into smaller pieces, if desired.
2. Bring a pot of water to boil and add salt. Stir to dissolve and let cool. Use three or four tablespoons of kosher, sea, or other non-iodized salt in the pot. It should taste salty but doesn’t have to pucker your eyeballs.
3. The next day, put the wilted greens into a big pickle jar, ceramic crock, or glass bowl. Cover with brine.
4. Put a plate on top. Put something on top of the plate to keep it weighted down.
5. Let sit for a week or so. Dua will turn pale and yellowish. When done, drain off brine, and store in fridge, covered. 
6. Eat with rice, as a cool accompaniment to spicy foods, or by itself.

At a special meeting held on Thursday, May 9, 2013, the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board (PRAB) made the decision to move the location of the permanent skateboard park to Old Memorial Park. The primary reason for the decision was the prohibitive cost of site remediation at Riverside Park due to poor soil conditions.

According to assistant city engineer Brian Erickson, the high water table and soft, organic silt in the flood plain at Riverside Park would necessitate $350,000 to $400,000 in excavation and fill to support a skateboard park.

Soil borings taken for the new pool in Old Memorial Park indicate much more favorable soil conditions, at least in the southeastern section of the park, to the east of the pool entrance. This is the new preferred location for the skateboard park (see map for approximate location).

Approximate location of future skateboard park in Old Memorial Park

For more information, see “Skate park planned for Old Memorial in Northfield” (Northfield News May 10, 2013)

Female Baltimore Oriole
A gorgeous female Baltimore oriole amid light green maple flowers against a brilliant blue sky. Irresistible!

This is a phenology post as well as a bird post. Here it is May 12, and the large maple in front of our house is only just flowering, before leafing out.

  
MORC board member Chance Glasford orchestrated a dozen volunteers yesterday for a big build/rebuild of the pump/jump park in Eagan (Facebook page link).  His May 6 blog post set the stage:

This coming Saturday will be the first major build day at the Eagan Bike Park, the newest addition to the MORC riding facilities. The park is currently about 80% complete after all the hard work from the volunteers last year. The original group of volunteers approached MORC and asked if MORC would like to partner with the City and help take this Bike Park to the next level and fulfill its true potential.

The answer was “Yes” and now is the time to act! There will be a Mini-Excavator, Skid Steer and gas plate compactor on site to speed up the building, but a majority of the work will still need to be done by hand. Please come help make the first bike park in the Metro area a success! Dress for trail work, wear closed toed shoes and bring gloves. (continued)

When I wasn’t learning the art of de-berming from MORC board member and treasurer Mark Gavin, I periodically took photos of the amazing transformation. 

I could only be there from 9-noon so I’ll try to get back there in the next day or so and take some more photos to show the end-of-build-day results.

See my large slideshow of 3 dozen photos (recommended) or SLOW CLICK this small slideshow: