We apparently need a pet monkey, although it turns out chickens will eat bananas. At least Bootstrap will. I should have named her curious george, because she's been like that since she was a weechick. Whenever there's a new treat I'm trying out on the chickens, she's the first to come running. She takes it, then runs off to keep it safe from the others while she tries to figure it out. The others, not knowing what she has but knowing its something she doesn't want to share, make chase whether I have more for them or not. It tastes better to steal the new thing from her than to get their share from me. Maybe she's the royal tester? Anyway, why the tropical fruit glut in our house? During the growing season, we get a majority of our produce from Anne and Nelson Lawrence at StoryTree Farm. During the off season, we revert to
Pioneer Organics, a local organic produce delivery company. I used Pioneer Organics to deliver produce both for me and for my office for years in Seattle. They bring a box of assorted stuff every week. Some comes from local sources, lots from California (sort of local for us), and increasingly, lots from Mexico. I still try to aim our deliveries for local produce, but in the winter I spring for bananas and oranges even though the bananas come from Mexico. Unfortunately, Pioneer Organics doesn't deliver to Camas. Despite the number of emails I've sent them over the last several years. I did finally figure out, somehow, that I could pick up the from source--they call it "will call." On Thursdays, I send Don over the river into Portland to pick up the produce. The urban version of driving out to the farm. Instead of a drive through the suburbs to the country, or a drive into the historic district to tour the farmers market, it's a drive on the interstate to a light industrial warehouse near the Portland airport. (Please don't mention to Don that our nice organic produce could be contaminated by chem trails as a result of shear proximity to the airport, I'm waiting for him to come up with that paranoia on his own.) Despite it's corporate imagine, Pioneer Organics is still run by hippies at heart and they are not always there when we show up to get the produce. That's what happened this week. No one to answer the door on Thursday meant our box sat in the cooler until Friday the stars aligned and both sender and receiver were present. When the kind fellow opened our box to make sure it was all there (ironic because when I got home, I discovered it was not all there but oh well) he discovered that we had bananas. I now know the secret to Costco's bananas! (House of the missing sock and I have actually discussed the phenomena of Costco bananas on several occasions--they take an exceptionally long time to ripen AND when they do ripen, its to a grey color not yellow. Ironically (my special word this week), I like them better that way!) So back to the story. Seems, its bad bad bad to keep bananas in the cooler. If bananas are kept chilled too long, it retards their ripening and causes the color to dampen. So much so, that they may not ripen at all. Rather than replace the bananas, he put new ones in. So now we have 10 pounds of bananas (this bunch here is shy the couple we ate before the photo shoot even), not including the 4 bananas that I found lost in the kitchen last week that are now waiting for banana bread. I guess it's smoothy week here at the ongoing debacle. Banana split anyone?
We apparently need a pet monkey, although it turns out chickens will eat bananas. At least Bootstrap will. I should have named her curious george, because she's been like that since she was a weechick. Whenever there's a new treat I'm trying out on the chickens, she's the first to come running. She takes it, then runs off to keep it safe from the others while she tries to figure it out. The others, not knowing what she has but knowing its something she doesn't want to share, make chase whether I have more for them or not. It tastes better to steal the new thing from her than to get their share from me. Maybe she's the royal tester? Anyway, why the tropical fruit glut in our house? During the growing season, we get a majority of our produce from Anne and Nelson Lawrence at StoryTree Farm. During the off season, we revert to Pioneer Organics, a local organic produce delivery company. I used Pioneer Organics to deliver produce both for me and for my office for years in Seattle. They bring a box of assorted stuff every week. Some comes from local sources, lots from California (sort of local for us), and increasingly, lots from Mexico. I still try to aim our deliveries for local produce, but in the winter I spring for bananas and oranges even though the bananas come from Mexico. Unfortunately, Pioneer Organics doesn't deliver to Camas. Despite the number of emails I've sent them over the last several years. I did finally figure out, somehow, that I could pick up the from source--they call it "will call." On Thursdays, I send Don over the river into Portland to pick up the produce. The urban version of driving out to the farm. Instead of a drive through the suburbs to the country, or a drive into the historic district to tour the farmers market, it's a drive on the interstate to a light industrial warehouse near the Portland airport. (Please don't mention to Don that our nice organic produce could be contaminated by chem trails as a result of shear proximity to the airport, I'm waiting for him to come up with that paranoia on his own.) Despite it's corporate imagine, Pioneer Organics is still run by hippies at heart and they are not always there when we show up to get the produce. That's what happened this week. No one to answer the door on Thursday meant our box sat in the cooler until Friday the stars aligned and both sender and receiver were present. When the kind fellow opened our box to make sure it was all there (ironic because when I got home, I discovered it was not all there but oh well) he discovered that we had bananas. I now know the secret to Costco's bananas! (House of the missing sock and I have actually discussed the phenomena of Costco bananas on several occasions--they take an exceptionally long time to ripen AND when they do ripen, its to a grey color not yellow. Ironically (my special word this week), I like them better that way!) So back to the story. Seems, its bad bad bad to keep bananas in the cooler. If bananas are kept chilled too long, it retards their ripening and causes the color to dampen. So much so, that they may not ripen at all. Rather than replace the bananas, he put new ones in. So now we have 10 pounds of bananas (this bunch here is shy the couple we ate before the photo shoot even), not including the 4 bananas that I found lost in the kitchen last week that are now waiting for banana bread. I guess it's smoothy week here at the ongoing debacle. Banana split anyone?
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