In addition to the share, Full Plate organized a discount with a local U-pick strawberry place that grows a number of varieties (Silver Queen Farm--they don't have a website). After wandering around the field sampling, we learned that Early Glow is one of our favorites. This is a smaller variety of berry that grows near the ground, so it is more laborious to pick. We've also heard raves about Sparkle, but haven't yet been able to try any. Both varieties were bred in New York for flavor and local climate. Neither travels especially well, so they're not usually found in stores.
We've now picked at several area farms, and chatted with their farmers. In the process we discovered that the amount of irrigation has a big affect on flavor. Over irrigation while the berries are ripening is a constant temptation for the farmer, because it results in berries that are bigger, heavier, and faster to pick--but don't taste as good. I've long had the suspicion that smaller berries were more flavorful, but now I understand why.
We picked about 12 pounds of berries on Friday evening, and another 10 on Monday evening. Of course we've eaten some fresh. But we also froze quite a bit. And ran many pounds through the dehydrator, producing a few ounces of dried berries. And made strawberry ice cream--the secret ingredient is sour cream!
Last Saturday's pickup:
Breakfast radishes + greens (awesome!)
Rainbow chard
Hakurei turnips + greens
Mixed salad greens
Kale
1 bunch of greenhouse basil
Not taken: 1 head lettuce
U-pick: 1 pt snap peas, 1 qt strawberries (not irrigated! These are from one of the member farms in the collective.)
Menu entries:
Strawberry ice cream
Fresh strawberrys
Hakurei turnips in peanut sauce
Paneer tikka with kale chips
Chard quiche
Radish/cilantro relish
We again subscribed to Full Plate Collective CSA. First pickup of the season was today. This week's loot:
1.5lb potatoes, from last year's harvest
1 head lettuce
radishes + greens
hakurei turnips + greens
garlic scapes
salad greens
collards
Available but not chosen: arugula, kale. This week's allotment also includes a quart of strawberries and pint of peas, but we haven't yet gotten out to the U-pick to harvest them.
I just looked out the window of my new office. There's a guy standing in the middle of the field with a fishing rod, practicing fly casting. And there are four other guys earnestly watching his every move.
Perhaps he's teaching a class?
Dead cell zones
Cell reception
Putting a phone in field test mode
Howard Forums wiki
Prefered roaming lists (PRL) decoded
Jeff Masters on the impact of Arctic sea ice loss on the jet stream:
The unprecedented melting of arctic sea ice the past two summers has undoubtedly had a significant impact on the early winter weather over the Northern Hemisphere. Several modeling studies presented at the December AGU meeting showed that sea ice melt on this scale is capable of injecting enough heat into the atmosphere to result in a major shift in the jet stream. Dr. Overland remarked that the early cold winter over North America this winter, and the exceptionally cold and snowy early winter in China last winter, were likely related to arctic sea ice loss. The sea ice loss induced a strong poleward flow of warm air over eastern Siberia, and a return flow of cold air from the Pole developed to compensate. Thus regions on either side of eastern Siberia--China and North America--have gotten unusually cold and snowy winters as a result.
I just discovered the Weather Underground solar energy calculator. Enter an address and it will estimate the average daily incoming energy by month. It also has a number of conversion factors programmed in, so you can estimate, say, how many refrigerators could be powered by ten cells on the roof.
Winners of the dance your dissertation contest have been announced.
L’Obama, ossia L’Avvento del Messia is a new opera being produced at the Met this season.
I got to my polling place at about quarter to nine, and was through in under ten minutes. There was only one woman in front of me in line, but she took a while because she couldn't remember if she'd voted absentee or not. According to the machine I was voter 275, which works out to about one voter every 24 seconds.
The ballot seemed to be in alphabetical order. There were c. 7 (I should have counted!) different presidential tickets. Other than president and senate, all races were uncontested with only the Democratic incumbent. Three ballot initiatives this year: Prop 1, repeal the state income tax; Prop 2, decriminalize marijuana; Prop 3, outlaw greyhound racing.
My friends, at the current rate of use, there are only another 80 years worth of uranium in the ground.
Proven reserves are 5.5 megatonnes of uranium at $130/kg. Current use is 66.5 kilotonnes/yr. Proven reserves are the known amount that could be profitably mined at a given price. Reserves are therefore correlated with the price of uranium, since at a higher price one can afford more expensive mining techniques.
Source: pmid:18704061 aka doi:10.1038/454816a (well worth your time if you want to read a short survey of available low-pollution energy sources).
In 2007, state biologists estimated that between 850 and 950 moose were living in Massachusetts, most of them in northern Worcester County. Moose home ranges vary from 5 to 50 square miles, depending on the season.
I've usually boiled sweet corn, in part because that's how I learned it from my mother. Last summer I experimented with microwaving, but was never happy with the results.
Tonight I tried steaming, and was very happy with the results. I put about 0.5" of water in the bottom of an asparagus steamer and let it boil. I then put the ears in small-end up, with a bit of the stalk left on the bottom to keep the kernels out of the water. I let them steam about 2 minutes 45 seconds. (I usually do 2 minutes 30 seconds when I boil).
This method is substantially more energy efficient than boiling a pot full of water, and produces results which are just as tasty.
From the Boston Herald: It costs the Mass Pike 14 cents to collect a toll using EZ Pass vs. 47 cents manually. EZ Pass can process 1200 cars per hour, vs. 300 manually. The average toll collector salary is $70,000/year.
Update: From the Globe: "The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority plans to lay off 100 toll collectors over the next 12 to 18 months in a cut that officials estimate will save the struggling agency $10 million." ... "Toll collectors are paid an average of roughly $70,000 a year, LeBovidge [Turnpike executive] said, when benefits and overtime are included. Cullinane [Teamsters officer] said salaries of toll collectors have been exaggerated, pointing out that full-time workers max out at $53,000, not including overtime. That does not include 131 part timers, who can only make up to $32,000."
I'm curious how often Sen. McCain has used the phrases "black and white" and "pot calling the kettle black" during this campaign. Unfortunately I'm swamped right now, or I'd spend a few hours researching it.
I saw two Common Nighthawks this evening. They were flying due West, not much higher than the top of the apartment building.
From an article in the NY Times on big-box stores installing photovoltaics
Coal generation costs about 6 cents for a kilowatt hour, which is enough electricity to run a hair dryer for an hour. Natural gas generation costs about 9 cents a kilowatt hour, said Reese Tisdale, a senior analyst with the consulting firm Emerging Energy Research. In comparison, “best case” for power from solar panels is about 25 to 30 cents a kilowatt hour, he said.
...
Retailers in the United States tend to buy their own solar-power systems, at $4 million to $6 million for a store the size of a Wal-Mart, or enter into an agreement with a utility company that pays the up-front costs and then gives the store a break on power bills...
Update: The gap between coal and solar is less than the quote implies, because meter cost includes transmission and taxes, neither of which one has to pay on output of one's own solar cells.
I'm guessing the folks complaining about rain didn't find several pounds of eierschwammerl over the weekend. (My cousin reports the going price in the Waldviertel last week was €15/kg, c. $10.50/lb.)
This has also been a bumper year for blueberries.
Notice that all of the best sites are located either on top of mountains or offshore.
Source: DOE wind power maps, found via the NREL GIS.
Current photovoltaic solar cells are based on crystalline silicon and have 15-22% efficiency. They are expensive in part because they compete with the rest of the semiconductor industry for highly-purified silicon.
The most efficient currently available cells are based on rare metals (GaInP, GaAs, Ge). They get 30-40% efficiency, but are very expensive and thus only used in niche applications (e.g. satellites).
Various thin-film techniques are in development (including some that are transparent), but they top out at 14% efficiency, and most are lower (e.g. CdTe is 9-11%). However if these techniques make it into mass production they'll be a lot cheaper than crystalline silicon.
Source: doi:10.1038/454558a (You may need to install the DOI add-on for that link to resolve.)
For back of the envelope calculations I usually assume that peak solar power is 1kW/m2 at noon on a cloud free day. When you factor in clouds, etc. that averages out to 3.6 kWh/day/m2 in Boston. See also annual solar energy by city and solar-energy maps.
I had the first local corn of the season today. Not bad, but also not especially sweet (and somewhat overpriced at $0.75/ear).
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