Monday's harvest

The bounty of the garden continues. The little cantaloupe melons are at last ripe, the Alcalde chile plants are producing chiles pintadas and chiles rojas in plenitude. The Iraqi Al-Kufa tomatoes are about gone but they were far and away the first to ripen. The Amish Paste and Long Keepers are now coming ripe.

We will begin picking the mutsu apples tomorrow if the weather is welcoming. Mrs. Fuzzy made and canned pesto today with the harvest of basil and is at this very moment slaving over a hot canning pot creating and canning more delectables for our winter and spring pleasures.

Moon and cloud

Faithful reader, I present here, for your visual pleasure, the view we experienced on Saturday night. The cloud types and the late day light are both changing with the progress of the season. Click to enlarge, should you so desire.

Native Arts at the CLA Show

As far back as he can remember, Mr. Fuzzy had been fascinated with all thing Native American. He might have misspent his life as an anthropologist where it not for the intervention of one truly horrible professor at the University of Louisville in 1968 who caused him to reconsider said field and spared him from such a fate.















The CLA show just gleams and sparkles with eye-candy consisting of superior Native American art objects. One category that is always engaging is quill-work and moose hair embroidery. Before the white man traded glass beads to the original inhabitants of this land, the North Eastern tribes (and some others) decorated their moccasins, bags, garters, straps, etc., with the dyed quills from porcupines and dyed moose hair. Although a number of artisans in the CLA practice these forms, several would be considered pre-eminent. Lally House of Kentucky has practiced this form for several decades and has managed the nearly impossible - to develop a style of her own but remain true to the historical examples. From Utah, Shawn and Amanda Webster are masters of both the quill and hair, on many forms. To really appreciate these images, click on them to obtain a larger version... Amanda and Shawn are shown above; Lally's work is shown below.


It is fairly rare that these artists are Native Americans themselves; one exception is Michael Galban, although he lives and works in New York state, his place of origin is Nevada. Michael works at a major historical site, a Seneca village in the 18th century. Michael works in many media, one of those renaissance artists, from pipestone to brain tanned leather. Here are two pictures of his display, with all sorts of items: cradle boards, quilled leather bags, twined bags, shell gorgets, calumets, garters, etc., all of fine quality.
























A long-time artist in this field is Jan Zender and his partner in life and art, Rochelle Dale. More than anyone I know, they walk their talk. They live in a truly remote area of northern Michigan without running water or electricity (although they now have a solar-charges cell phone). They have, for decades, lived the lifestyle of those whose arts they re-create. They make trade silver, moose hair objects, especially wonderful burl bowls, etc. The photograph at left shows Jan and his booth at the show. Jan and his longtime friend. master cordwainer, Steven Lalioff, sometimes share artistic efforts and work in tandem on objects.

All of the artists shown above create their art in almost exactly the same manor as their antecedents centuries ago. They have spent years of time studying originals in museums throughout America and Europe; this is a constant duty as new artifacts and papers describing them become available. The objects are all within the period of white contact. One artist, Lisa Crews (now of Arkansas but soon to reside in Kentucky) creates masterful reproductions of archaeologically recovered ceramic wares that were the mainstay of the middle and Caddoan Mississippian culture of 900 to 1500 A.D. She has very cleverly adapted some modern methods to producing pieces which are visually indistinguishable from their antecedents. Her prices are very realistic and the Fuzzies happily carried home two bowls, one a turkey effigy and the other a beaver (with an integral rattle). We'll use them with appreciation and zeal!

A Little Break

The Fuzzies had not been away from the farm since we moved here. Our very favorite annual meeting is the Contemporary Longrifle Association held in Lexington, Kentucky, in August. It was a 1,500 mile drive from New Mexico but now an easy 7 hour drive from our little mountain in Virginia. So we loaded up Rufus for his first road trip and took mostly two land back roads to Lexington.

The name of the organization is very misleading. Originally founded by those interested in modern muzzleloading, the group has long outgrown that restrictive moniker. The show has grown to several hundred makers of objects relating to the early American frontier, ranging from clothing to paintings. There are, of course, hundreds of superb flintlock rifles about to be seen and fondled, but at least an equal number of tables are devoted to other objects d'arte. To the right and above are some of the knives of Joe Scott. from West Virginia, who makes no-nonsense, plain and serviceable knives that are very affordable. Mrs. Fuzzy has two as paring knives in her kitchen.


To the left are 18th century English style ladies riding habits by Turkey Roost Traders.
Mrs. Fuzzy gave them serious patronage with more conservative clothing.

Below is a high art shooting bag shown on a beautifully ornamented chip carved mount made for the purpose.



There are an increasing number of furniture makers present at the show. Ken Gahagan, who also makes historically accurate knives, created a superb high-boy this year; alas, I do not have a photograph. Illustrated below is part of a large display of furniture, from tea-caddies to corner cabinets.

One particularly enjoyable aspects of the meeting is the conviviality enjoyed. We only see each other once a year, all are on good behavior, and jolly faces in all directions - what you wish your high school reunion had been... there is never enough time to visit with all on your list and every meal is spent with friends. Guns and knives all around, smiles, jokes and warm greetings abound. If we could only get away from the farm once a year, this would be our choice of destination.

In the next post, more creations from the show but only Native American objects.

This is a wee test of a new way to post via Mrs. Fuzzy's mobile... Mr. Snakey here is a seven foot long black rat snake. We've disturbed three or four this summer. Not agressive... unless you're a mole or mouse!

Kentucky Manna

For our British friends, this is what I call "American Ethnic Food." In this instance, it's a genteel Southern delight best experienced at the Beaumont Inn in Harrodsburg, Kentucky. Theirs is a twelve on a ten-point scale and also where I got the recipe. If you ask for it today they'll tell you it's a closely guarded secret but... Ha! Ha!... I have an old recipe book of theirs from the 1950's. So here it is... Kentucky manna:

Ingredients:
2 cups corn (fresh or frozen)
8 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons sugar (rounded)
4 tablespoons butter (melted)
1 quart (4 cups) whole milk*
4 whole eggs (beaten)

Here's the recipe as written:

"Stir into the corn the flour, salt, sugar, and butter. beat eggs well, put them in the milk. Then stir into the corn and put into a pan or pyrex. Bake inside of oven slowly -- about 40 or 45 minutes. Stir from bottom 3 times while baking."

I mixed everything in my big roasting pan, then added the liquids and stirred really well. You want to get the flour well distributed. I call a "slow" oven about 250 degrees, maybe 300. I baked at the lower temp because milk isn't edible if it burns. My pudding took about an hours this way and was utterly perfect in consistency. You absolutely must stir several times, bringing the goop up from the bottom, to get it all to cook evenly. What you end up with is a tender custard with corn nicely distributed throughout.

* Use the best quality eggs and milk you can get! This is a supremely simple dish and what goes in definitely determines what comes out. As you know, I'm a fan of low-temp pasteurized milk from organic, pastured cows. It has more flavor!!! I'm also a great believer in using eggs from pastured poultry. Not only do they have more nutrients than caged or "floor raised" hens, they have beautiful yellow yolks and tons of flavor. (I can also drop an egg on the counter at six inches and not have it go splat.) Yes they are more expensive but you'll probably be buying them from a real person who will immediately spend that money in your community. Oh, and eggs last at least a month in the fridge whether they've been washed or not so it's a good buy even if you don't eat them all the time.

While Looking Up a Local Radio Station...

Yep, that's right: 1,248 job listings in MY city! One for nearly every person living in my county.