Bluestem Prairie

Bee's knees or Republican buzzkill? Minority tried to sting DFL on pro-farming legislation

In April, the Minnesota House Republicans mocked efforts to fund bee habitat in the agriculture bill, seemingly ignorant of the vital role pollinators play in agriculture.

Minnesota Public Radio reports today in Bill would ensure habitat preservation for bees, pollinators:

A conference committee has approved a plan to improve habitat for bees and other pollinators.

Pollinators around the country are suffering from a complex set of problems that is causing their numbers to plummet. This could hurt agriculture, which relies on insects to pollinate crops.

Rep. Jeanne Poppe, DFL-Austin, sponsored a bill that requires the Department of Natural Resources and the Department of Agriculture to ensure they keep pollinators in mind as they are restoring habitat.

One way to help is by choosing plants to ensure there is always something blooming.

"We have bees that have colony collapse. We have bees that are impacted by pesticides. We have just a reduction in the number of pollinators, so this is an attempt to say throughout the state we have the right habitat," Poppe said. . . .

Check out the whole article at MPR. 

How big of a problem are  bees and other pollinators facing in Minnesota? On Thursday, CBS-Minnesota reported in Minn. Farmer Blames Pesticides For Big Bee Die Off:

As farmers get underway with their spring planting, some bee farmers in Minnesota are already counting their losses.

In the last couple days one major producer reported that thousands of honey bees suddenly died.

In 2005, Minnesota was the sixth largest honey producer in the nation. But since 2006, millions of bee colonies have died off in Minnesota and across the nation. ...

The University of Minnesota Entomology Department website states:

The service that bees and other pollinators provide allows nearly 70 percent of all flowering plants to reproduce; the fruits and seeds from insect pollinated plants account for over 30 percent of the foods and beverages that we consume. Beyond agriculture, pollinators are keystone species in most terrestrial ecosystems. Fruits and seeds derived from insect pollination are a major part of the diet of approximately 25 percent of all birds, and of mammals ranging from red-backed voles to grizzly bears. However, many of our native bee pollinators are at risk, and the status of many more is unknown. Habitat loss, alteration, and fragmentation, pesticide use, and introduced diseases all contribute to declines of bees.

Republicans joked about a "buzzkill" in their tweets about the legislation written by the Austin-based chair of the Ag Policy committee. Apparently, they had no idea about the job-killing consequences of bee loss as they droned on to themselves.

Here's the CBS-MN clip:

Photo: A honeybee helping out an apple grower.

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Hyperbole as the refuge of scoundrels: Powerline blogger can't count or read protest signs at Romney fundraiser in Minnesota

A certain left-leaning blogger in Minnesota likes to excuse his rhetorical lapses by appeals to the device of hyperbole. Perhaps conservative John Hinderaker will evoke the same literary license for a passage in An Evening With Mitt Romney:

Rounding the corner to pull into the Lafayette Club’s parking lot, security was tight. Across the road, a pathetic, ragtag group of left-wing protesters were chanting, as usual, “We are the 99 percent.” There were conservative counter-protesters too; I couldn’t tell which group was more numerous. The largest sign said “Romney Creates Jobs.” I wanted to park my car, get out and confront the leftists, but unfortunately the security arrangements didn’t permit that. Otherwise, I would have approached some of them and taped interviews. The question I always want to ask is, “If you are the 99 percent, why are there only 11 of you?”

Oh, snap!

Hinderaker didn't get as close to the protest as the Minnetonka Patch photographer  Lisa Bauman, who snapped the photo above for the article she wrote with Michael Schoemer, Mitt Romney Protesters Rally at Lake Minnetonka's Lafayette Club.

Close observer that he is, Hindraker doesn't report all of what's written on the white and red sign: "Romney Creates Jobs In China." (cropped and scaled here)

It was late in the day, so perhaps his arithmetric skills were impaired as well. Schoemer and Bauman report:

As presumed Republican nominee Mitt Romney prepared to descend on the Lake Minnetonka area Thursday evening, an estimated 50 to 75 protesters began to assemble at one of the prime spots for his visit, Lake Minnetonka's prestigious Lafayette Club.

With Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan still a questionable arrival, demonstrators made sure his presence was known with cardboard masks.

St. Louis Park resident Ilo Madden attended the protest rally because she's "worried about democracy." She said she's saved $300 so far under the new health care plan.

"I love 'Obamacare.' I don't like Bush tax cuts," she said. Her personal slogan, she said, is "keep your 'mitts' off my healthcare."

And the counter-protesters?

While protestors and others waited for the motorcade, a few people on bicycles stopped because they said they couldn't believe the size of the crowd.

They crossed the street and began yelling at the protestors.

When protestors yelled, "minimum wage is poverty, we demand our dignity," Robin Mackell of Mound countered with "minimum wage is too high!"

Oh, snap!

And Mitt Romney is working hard to secure the vote of folks in the West Metro with that worldview. The Washington Post reports in Romney highlights role of offshore tax havens in helping ensure big business is ‘doing fine’:

Creating a potential headache for his campaign, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said big businesses in the U.S. were “doing fine” in part because they get advantages from offshore tax havens.

His comments echoed similar assertions about the state of big business by President Barack Obama which Romney has criticized. They’re also a reminder that the GOP candidate has kept some of his personal fortune in low tax foreign accounts.

“Big business is doing fine in many places,” Romney said during a campaign fundraiser Thursday. “They get the loans they need, they can deal with all the regulation. They know how to find ways to get through the tax code, save money by putting various things in the places where there are low tax havens around the world for their businesses.”

Perhaps the Romney campaign asked Mike Parry for advice on creating a communications thunderstorm.

Update: KTSP 5's Tom Hauser reports that over 100 protests were outside the fundraiser. Those who might want to attribute "liberal media bias" to Hauser's larger number should be advised that station owner and Hubbard Communications media mogul Stan Hubbard was one of the sponsors for the fundraiser. Clip below:

Photo: Lisa Bauman, Minnetonka Patch.

Update: I missed this nearly unreadable post by Two Putt Tommy about the Powerline item.  Had Bluestem know about the post--which was published first--before reading Powerline's article in PIM's morning report, I would't have written about it. Bluestem isn't remotely interested in being anyone's echo chamber, whether Johnson figured this one out on his own or had it pitched to him by one of the organizations sponsoring the protest.

Bluestem apologizes to our audience for this oversight.

The Emo Senator: E-verify for thee, but not for me

Emo Senator fans will be relieved to learn that Senator Mike Parry's amnesia is over, since he has once again learned that he owns a Godfather's Pizza. Bluestem, your humble narrator, hopes that this means he won't be asking for a salary increase in our next season at the legislature.

Readers may remember from the June episode, Suddenly socialist Mike Parry demands pay according to his needs, that Senator Parry suffered a severe lapse of memory, causing him to believe that his legislative salary was his only source of income, along with the per diems he maxed out on.

Later, during the shutdown, he developed a twitter rivalry with a laid-off state employee who in better times trimmed the lawn at the governor's residence, under the mistaken belief that the man still riding the gubernatorial mower.  Still, The Emo Senator was beginning to remember his role in the Waseca community as a "job creator," as fans learned in the installment, Emo senator Mike Parry pats self on back for compassion, reveals another income source.

As we tune in today, Senator Parry is waxing lyrical to Minnesota Public Radio (via the Owatonna People's Press article Parry revives E-verify policy) about the close bonds shared at the pizza franchise he owns:

Parry, who owns a Godfather’s Pizza franchise in Waseca, doesn’t use E-Verify at his business. He said he’s not opposed to using E-Verify, but does not think it necessary for his shop.

“All of my employees at this point in time are pretty much high school students,” he said. “We know the families, and they’ve been living in town for quite a few years, and we know the parents and everything so we just haven’t used the E-Verify on that.”

And what is this E-Verify that Parry doesn't need at Waseca's version of Cheers, where everybody knows your name--and your parents too?

The MPR/OPP piece explains:

A contentious piece of immigration policy made it into the final budget deal approved last month. E-Verify is back, but with a twist.

The state is again requiring its big contractors to verify the legal status of their employees using a federal database run by the Department of Homeland Security. Former Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty first mandated E-Verify for large government contractors through an executive order in 2008. At that time, he also ordered the state to run its own new hires through E-Verify.

Gov. Mark Dayton, a Democrat, let the requirements lapse last April.

This time, the new law inserted into the budget deal applies only to businesses.

The new law was sponsored by Sen. Mike Parry, R-Waseca, who says he pushed for its return because he believes it protects Minnesotans from losing jobs to unauthorized workers.

“We need to know that those working in our businesses, throughout not only the state but the nation, are people who are legally here in the United States,” Parry said. “So it was put into the bill, and of course this time the governor passed it into law.”

Not that Parry's own business needs it under the  law.  Those high school students aren't baking up that many pizzas for the State of Minnesota to trip the $50,000 threshold.

Still, Parry's newest antagonist, Minneapolis attorney DeAnne Hilgers, notes that E-verify costs other companies money:

Companies providing more than $50,000 worth of services to the state must enroll in E-Verify to check the work status of new hires. Hilgers is concerned the new requirement, which is already in effect, will catch companies unaware.

“It was not a complete surprise that E-verify was back in play, but I did not expect it to come in the middle of the night with no discussion and no opportunity,” she said.

Hilgers said E-Verify costs companies extra time and money beyond what companies are already doing to ensure compliance with immigration law.

Hilgers also found it noteworthy that Pawlenty’s executive order required the state to run its own new hires through E-Verify, but the new law applies only to companies doing business with the state.

“Why is it OK for the state to subject contractors to a requirement aimed at bringing employers into compliance, when an employer as large as the state of Minnesota itself is not subject to the same requirement?” she asked.

Always the watchdog for job creators, the guardian of small business against government regulation, the Emo Senator has no idea how much using E-verify costs those people closest to his heart:

Parry disagrees with Hilgers that E-Verify poses a burden to companies. He couldn’t estimate how much it costs companies to comply, but said he has called business leaders and asked them for their thoughts.

Fortunately, the narrator's quick googling fingers have discovered this Infographic: The Costs of E-Verify: A Closer Look at the Government's Work Authorization System, by Center for American Progress Immigration Policy Analyst Philip E. Wolgin. Wolgin shares some information that might give the financially struggling Emo Senator pause--or explain why this staunch defender of requiring others to use E-verify doesn't actually use it himself.  

The Analyst writes:

This infographic explains the costs of E-Verify, the government’s Internet-based work authorization system. It highlights the system’s known costs, such as lost tax revenue and monetary burdens on small businesses, and estimates the costs of additional fiscal burdens—to individuals verified through the system, to employers utilizing the system, and to the federal government in running the system—absent from much of the dialogue. E-Verify expands the size of government while decreasing revenue, places a crushing burden on small businesses, and imposes a “jobs tax” on ordinary Americans.

So urgent is the Emo Senator's need (we worry about a relapse of that amnesia) that Bluestem has swiped the infographic and included it in at the top of this episode, so that Parry and all our fans can discover for themselves how much this policy costs individuals, businesses and the federal government.

Is it worth that cost? Apparently not to the Emo Senator, who doesn't pay to use it at his own business. Should E-verify be extended to all businesses, or does our sensitive hero have a means by which he can discern which small business owners are like himself and will only hire people they already know?

Graphics: ; Infographic: The Costs of E-Verify: A Closer Look at the Government's Work Authorization System from the Center for American Progress (above). The Emo Senator (Belle of Southern Minnesota) by Tild (below)

Earlier episodes of The Emo Senator are found below the fold.

Remix Republicans: the future belongs to Oz

Now that Mr. Robocall has moved on to annoy voters in Minnesota's Seventh District (Bluestem's World Headquarters are located within the Seventh; fortunately, we're among the cell-phone-only hickster set), the NRCC has purchased $10,000 of time to annoy cable viewers in the First.

The Minnesota Independent's Andy Birkey reports in Republican ads target Tim Walz on health care:

Rep. Tim Walz is being targeted by the National Republican Congressional Committee with a television ad critical of his vote for health care reform. The move comes after a series of robocalls by the NRCC. Walz is in his third term in Minnesota’s First Congressional District and has only one announced challenger, Randy Demmer. Demmer lost to Walz in 2010.

“There’s a cloud over our economy,” the narrator says over the backdrop of a thunderstorm. “Tim Walz’s government takeover of health care. Fear and uncertainty prevent new hiring. Steep fines and new taxes on families and businesses. Half a trillion dollars – money they can’t use to create jobs. Experts say Obama-Schrader will push employers to drop workers’ health insurance. With Walz and Obama…the storm will only get worse.”

According to Roll Call, the ad buy will be $10,000 over three weeks starting Tuesday on cable TV.

Go watch the ad over at the Minnesota Independent. Bluestem thinks the ad is pretty standard stuff: a scary voice-over and scary gray footage. Just like with a progressive coalition's ad against Eighth Congressional District, tarted up in Bluestem remix: Chip Cravaack driving America over a cliff. . .now in New Hampshire, Bluestem has sought the essence of the NRCC's message and come up with a remix:

That "challenger" hasn't actually formally announced, but did file a "statement of candidacy" with the Federal Elections Commission. Demmer's Q2 (July Quarterly) FEC report reveals not robo-fundraising but hobo-like effort (the cycle-to-date figures appear to be from the 2009-2010 cycle rather than this year).

5. Covering Period 04/01/2011 Through 06/30/2011

	Column A This Period	Column B Election Cycle-To-Date
6. Net Contributions (other than loans)
(a) Total Contributions (other than loans)	0.00	899670.89
(b) Total Contribution Refunds	0.00	6200.00
(c) Net Contributions (6(a) - 6(b))	0.00	893470.89
7. Net Operating Expenditures
(a) Total Operating Expenditures	100.00	843681.45
(b) Total Offsets to Operating Expenditures	22.89	1699.41
(c) Net Operating Expenditures	77.11	841982.04
8. Cash on Hand at Close of Reporting Period	371.15
9. Debts and Obligations Owed TO the Committee	0.00
Itemize all on SCHEDULE C or SCHEDULE D
10. Debts and Obligations Owed BY the Committee	93000.00
Itemize all on SCHEDULE C or SCHEDULE D

Image: This fine fellow has been seen more in Minnesota than Demmer, and his residuals alone are likely more than Demmer's fundraising.

Emo tweeting senator Mike Parry can see Governor's mansion lawn from Waseca

Minnesota's political Tweepsters are scratching their heads this afternoon, following Senator Mike Parry's tweet:

@mikeparry mikeparry

Just got done weeding the garden. Wish I had a gardener like Dayton that was an essential service!

 This post came on the day the Mankato Free Press editorial board gave Parry a "thumbs down" for "bomb-throwing commentary" that makes Waseca itself look bad in Parry commentary wasn’t helpful:

Thumbs down: To Sen. Mike Parry, R-Waseca, for his bomb-throwing commentary saying Gov. Mark Dayton should resign because he intentionally wants to hurt state workers and doesn’t care about them.

Not only are the comments detrimental to creating an atmosphere where Republicans and Democrats can work together in respect, they shed an unpleasant light on the Waseca area as people wonder if Mr. Parry is representing the sentiment of average Wasecans. . . .

Apparently Parry decided one bomb wasn't enough, and so went with the double-tap with:

@mikeparry mikeparry

Excited to have a few mins to share thoughts with fellow tweeters. By the way, my lawn looks a hell of a lot better than the Mansion.

Bluestem wonders what's more remarkable: for Mike to be able to see the governor's lawn from Waseca, on Highway 14, deep in the heart of Minnesota's First Congressional District (not unlike Sarah Palin's ability to see Russia from her house in Alaska).

Or for Parry to brag that his lawn looks better than the lawn he imagines he sees on St. Paul's Summit Avenue. Three facts underscore how remarkable his lack of couth really is.

First, there's that little matter of the gardener. Bluestem checked, and there's no gardener deemed an "essential service" in the list of "essential" staff published by Politics in Minnesota.

Contacted via email about the gardener's employment status during the shutdown, a source in the Governor's Office wrote that "Gardener is laid off, not working and not getting paid." Perhaps that might explain why the lawn looks the way it does.

Second, it's surprising for Parry to be mocking a state worker's job, just a week after he shed those crocodile tears for those public employees laid off in the shutdown. After all Parry told the Free Press a week ago that Governor Dayton should resign because:

“Let me tell you, the governor has no feelings,” Parry said. “If he did, he would not put 22,000 people out of work on July 1. He has no feelings. ...

Today's Mankato Free Press points out:

As far as who wants to “hurt state workers” we suspect Parry would find it hard to defend the proposal he supports that cuts 15 percent of the state work force versus Dayton’s proposed cut of only 6 percent.

But that' not all to this story. Why did Parry tweet about a gardener, and bring a non-political person's performance into the mix? This is especially peculiar since the gardener doesn't appear on the list of essential services staff released by the governor's office.

To answer that question, Bluestem needs to take readers back to May 18, when Minnpost's James Nord reported in No visible progress Tuesday on state budget solution:

“There is great concern for the gardener at the Governor’s Mansion,” Parry said. “That one took us by surprise — we hadn’t heard that before.”

Thus, Parry jokes today about the gardener, someone whose position he dissed back in May, and who is laid off now. And then he goes further, and disses the lack of lawn care. Whatever one says about Parry, he's a guy who wants things his way--both ways.

And, unlike the groundskeeper or Governor Dayton, Parry is drawing a salary and per diem during the shutdown, after earlier whining about how his salary is too low. Parry isn't out mingling with his constituents while tweeting his complaints--nope, he's at home, doing a little weeding on the public dime.

This is the man who would have Minnesotans think the governor has no feelings. Bluestem is not about to say Mike Parry has no feelings, only our fervent that he might develop that self-control that Ben Franklin and other Founding Fathers so favored, and so cease sharing his feelings about the shutdown and the Governor with us via twitter and the press.

Let him instead take a suggestion the Rochester Post Bulletin made in Will serious lawmakers please step up?:

For example, we'd politely ask Sen. Mike Parry, a Republican from Waseca, to go to some remote cabin in northern Minnesota, turn off his phone and spend the next several weeks fishing, water skiing or counting trees. Any pastime he prefers would be more useful. . .

Really, Mike, there's no need to bare your emotional soul to Minnesota any longer. We get the picture--now find some trees to count.

Images: Screenshots of tweets; Parry's tears for workers.

Related posts: The Emo Senator cont'd: rocking chairs, resignations, and a retreat to retweets

Emo senator, part 3: Mike Parry collecting paycheck and per diem during shutdown

The Emo Senator, part 2: Mike Parry cries crocodile tears over laid-off state workers

The Emo Senator: Mike Parry calls for Governor Dayton's resignation, cites feelings, trust fund

Suddenly socialist Mike Parry demands pay according to his needs

How about a bowl of hearty soup?

If this rain ever stops--as it is predicted to do by tomorrow morning--I'll be able to harvest the last of the vegetables in my community garden plot before the city's clean-up deadline. In the meantime, I'm probably pick some of the swiss chard or kale in the rain and warm myself by making soup.

It's a soup-making sort of day. Call it a homeopathic ritual: days of rain have turned the lawn and field beyond into a soup. Is a good bowl of soup the cure? A stopgap measure while waiting for health care reform?

Here are some good soup recipes for fall greens:

Russian Chard Soup

1 lb. cleaned Swiss chard (i'll pick just one color from my rainbow chard patch)
2 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. flour
1 1/2 c. chicken broth (store bought or freshly made)
1/2 c. milk or sour cream

Melt butter in a wide, heavy pan.

Add chopped or thinly sliced stems and cook, covered, for 3-4 minutes.

Stir in chopped leaves and cook for 3-4 minutes more.

Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons flour and stir until blended. Gradually blend in chicken broth and milk or sour cream.

Cook and stir until slightly thickened. If a smooth soup is preferred, whirl mixture in a blender until it has the consistency desired.

Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Makes 4-6 servings.

adapted from Cooks.com

The case for savory baby beet pickles

However tardy our tomatoes may be this mild summer, there's no shortage of beets in Minnesota's home gardens. This surplus, along with the reasonable temperatures, made yesterday an ideal day for canning beet pickles.

Pickled beets are a noted Midwestern favorite, an immigrant good that is a favorite from Scandinavian countries. It's no surprise that with our Norwegian and Danish heritages, Michael and I are pickled beet fanatics.

Most beet pickles include more sugar than the recipe Michael and I used to can baby beet pickles at his weekend home in Kandiyohi County, but he thought the more savor concoction would incorporate the root vegetable's natural sweetness.

Savory pickled baby beets

1 pound beets
1 white onion, sliced
1 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup sugar (or quantity to taste)
1 tablespoon cardamom
1 tablespoon whole cloves
1 teaspoon ground allspice

Follow standard instructions to prepare two quart jars or four wide-mouth pint jars, lids and screw bands for canning (we used wide mouth pints). You'll also need a boiling water canner and a jar lifter.

1. Trim off the leaves and tap roots of the beets, leaving 1/2 inche of tap root and leaf stalk to prevent too much "bleed out."  (Beet leaves work well in any Swiss chard recipe).

2. Place your beets in a large saucepan, adding enough water to cover them two inches. Heat to boiling, then reduce heat to medium low. Simmer the beets for 10-15 minutes.

3. When the beets are tender but still firm, drain, reserving two cups of the liquid for the pickling brine.

4. Cool the beets in cold water.

5. While you're waiting for the beets to cool, combine the two cups of reserved beet cooking water, vinegar, sugar, cardamom, cloves, allspice and salt in a saucepan and warm using medium heat. Stirred until the sugar dissolves. Reduce heat to low.

6. When the beets are cool enough to handle--and while the pickling brine  slip their skins off. This is done easily while the beet is in the cooling water. Trim off the remaining stem, tap root, and any skin or blemishes that remain. Quarter any baby beets which are extra large.

7. Place a slice of onion in each jar, then pack the beets in. We put the larger baby beets in the bottom of the jars (wide-mouth jars allow home canners to pack in the whole baby beet).

8. Pour enough of the pickling brine in each jar to cover the beets totally, leaving  1/4 inch at the top of each jar.

9. Using a hot, damp towel, wipe the rim of the jars clean. Seal each jar with a lid and screw band.

10. Using the jar lifter, place the jars in the hot water canner for 15 minutes.

11. Using the lifter, remove the jars and place them on a cooling rack or a thick towel spread on a sturdy table or counter.

12. After the jars cool, check for a good seal. (You'll hear the soft popping sound as the jars cool and a seal is made). Refrigerator any jars which didn't take a seal.

13. The pickles should be ready in a week of so, though most people wait a bit longer. Consume the beets within three months.

Use the pickled beets as a garnish, a side dish, or as an ingredient in salads.

Photo: Beets, from the National Garden Bureau.

The utility of goldfinches: a defense of the beautiful and useless

Never mind what the National Sunflower Association preaches about the usefulness of sunflowers. I refuse to pull up "volunteers" simply because they attract goldfinches. I waste additional perfectly good space that could be devoted to turnips and potatoes to plant even more sunflowers.

That's no small sacrifice in a small plot in a community garden during tough financial times. But I find I'm not alone. Though my sunflowers were the first to blossom in the garden, nearly half of my fellow gardeners also plant or encourage sunflowers, and none of us rescue their seeds to eat for ourselves.

They literally are for the birds.

Drawn by the colorful flowers, a male goldfinch stopped by my plot late last week to remind me of my own wastefulness. First he explored the first open blossom, and finding no seeds, perched on the top of one of my cucumber trellises, just four feet from where I weeded golden beets.

But he did not seem discouraged: rather, he tweeted with the abandon of an intoxicated press secretary, filling the garden with song. This was the essence of finch, described in the Life Histories of Familiar North American Birds:

A recipe for your strategic dilly bean reserves

I frequently tease a friend who cans that in the event of a national emergency, I'm heading to his weekend home to guard his shelves of dilly beans. They're that good.

The pole beans in my garden are sporting tiny beanlets under their drying flowers, and those who grow bush beans already have green beans for the table. That's the trade off in picking bean varieties: bush beans start producing a week or two before pole beans, but the harvest only lasts a week or two. Keep picking pole beans, which require poles or a trellis for support, and you'll have beans until the frost.

If it's a good year for beans, as it looks to be, I'll be canning my own dilly beans, which will be ready around Christmas time.  Those shop at farmers markets or have shares in CSAs might also want to give this recipe a try.

's one recipe (some home canners might want to tweak the salt down a bit):

INGREDIENTS
* 6 cups water
* 1 cup pickling salt
* 6 cups distilled white vinegar
* 8 heads fresh dill weed
* 1/2 cup pickling spice
* 1/2 cup mustard seed
* 8 dried red chile peppers
* 16 cloves garlic, peeled
* 1 teaspoon alum
* 5 pounds fresh green beans, rinsed and trimmed (I pick the straightest unblemished beans)

DIRECTIONS

1. Sterilize 8 (1 pint) jars in boiling water for at least 5 minutes.

2. Combine the water, pickling salt and vinegar in a large pot, and bring to a boil. When it begins to boil, reduce heat to low, and keep at a simmer while you pack the jars.

3. In each jar place the following: 1 head of dill, 1 tablespoon of pickling spice, 1 tablespoon of mustard seed, 1 dried chile pepper, 2 cloves of garlic, and 1/8 teaspoon of alum. Pack beans into the spiced jars in a standing position (why selecting straight beans matters).

4. Ladle the hot brine into jars, leaving 1/2 inch of space at the top. Screw the lids onto the jars, and process in a hot water bath for 6 minutes to seal. Store for at least 2 weeks before eating.

These are great in Bloody Marys, as well as a pickle for the table. 

Enjoy the weekend. Bluestem will post again Monday afternoon.

Outposts from The Small of America

by Tom Driscoll

Air’s heavy here with all the little stinks secreted in drier times. Old oak woodwork’s sticky patina’s encoded with dog burps & cat splashes & mouse bones & the last bird feathers lost in the attic.

Not a crisp time, humid early summer. Rattlesnakes pancake in tall, stoop-shouldered grasses, perfectly satisfied after last night’s meal to lie-about to store more day’s heat. A twilight wind storm obscured by the milky blue sky.

Except for of course firm fresh lettuce stems that pop when pinched off. Or Swiss chard, the snap the sound of lightning too far over the horizon to see. But smells stray ions, the sweat, the ocean of sniffs surrounds summer outside the city.

Consider then, the permanently starched self-congratulations and coolly conditioned airs at the Mall of America on 18-June when Mayo Clinic CEO Genn Forbes pronounced partnership between what is arguably the definitive symbol of consumer over-indulgence with what is definitively the symbolic argument for health care reform in rural America. Coming soon to nowhere near you, double-cheese Wellness Central at the MOA, and real Mayo.

Minnesota writer Tom Driscoll reports on politics, economic development and life in rural America at The Small of America.

This article is crossposted at TSOM.

Arugula: the new zucchini? A note on culinary change

Working in my community garden plot yesterday, I was pleased to look up and see John, the county DFL chair, weeding his own piece of paradise on the other end of the lot.

I nonchalantly sauntered over.

"Say, John," I said casually. "Your garden is looking great."

"Thank you," the genial retired psychologist said, hacking as his crabgrass.

"Yep," I said, easing into my pitch. "This rain has done wonders to my greens. Do you like arugula?"

"Funny that you asked," the mild-mannered gentleman replied. "I never tried it until today. But [a friend] gave my wife and I a full bag of it" --his hand sketched out a large grocery bag in the humid June air--"and we had it for dinner. Wow! It's delicious."

We exchanged pleasantries, then I sauntered back to my own garden. Foiled again, even by a man with impeccable progressive credentials.

Today, I still have a lot of arugula, a green much maligned in last year's Presidential election as somehow Not The Iowa, an exotic taste that never graced traditional Midwestern landscapes. Back then, I was puzzled at the reaction to a vegetable my ultra-conservative, lifelong-member-of-the NRA father taught me to grow and appreciate.

This year, though, I'm struck with the green's abundance. Yep, the stuff grows like the dickens. Like zucchini. Indeed, in these new days of the Obama administration, arugula may be The New Zucchini. Indeed, few Americans probably remember that zucchini--perhaps the most fecund garden vegetable--was itself little known in this country two generations ago.

The frugal weeds

 "These weeds certainly are frugal," Colette said, as she hoed through an unkept garden plot with a vigor surprising for her 91 years.

Her word choice caught my ear as I hand-weeded lambs-quarter beside her.  It struck me as an odd use of the word, and when I hear older country people bend meaning, I start paying closer attention.

Colette next questioned the value of clearing the scraggly twin rows of peas that were all that remained in our garden citizen outreach. I had pointed out that the cottontail rabbit that frequents the garden had made some inroads on the unfenced peapods, and she pondered the poor rate of germination.

"Those peas aren't very frugal," she said, adding that if we cleared the weeds, the rabbit would have an easier time of it.

Sitting here tonight at my desk with an open volume of the Oxford English Dictionary, that attention has turned to delight. For while the word now implies parsimony or the sparing use of a resource, her use of the term hearkens back to the word's root in Latin and French, "fruit."

Those weeds were certainly fruitful in the absence of the holder of the community gardener assigned the double plot we were clearing. Colette's observation was dead on, as was the impulse that set us to weeding our neighbor's soil.

"When I had a heart attack a few years ago," she said, as she began to attack the pigweed sprouting in the onions growing on the opposite end from the peas, "some of the other gardeners ook care my plants until I could get back here."

She paused. "Of course, it wasn't quite what I'd do for myself, but I was surely grateful they'd pitched in like that." 

Local food: aiming for the soul, reaching our stomachs

Yesterday, I took advantage of a break in the rain to weed my plot in the local community garden. I'd broadcast lettuce, kale and quick-growing greens between my tomato plants, and it's time to separate the domestic edible from the unwanted.

An older fellow gardener stopped by and furrowed his brow.

"Your weeds look sick," he said, then paused as he got a closer look at the pale plants dotting the ground between the tomato cages. "Oh, that's lettuce."

I took a moment from rooting out ragweed, crab grass, and lambs quarters to explain the method in my madness. The green crops provide cover for the loose soil, as well as being mostly played out by the time the tomato plants elbow out everything near them. In community garden, it's an effective strategy for boosting yields and variety on the small plot.

My neighbor considered this. "Well," he finally concluded, "I don't know how you tell the weeds from the seeds you planted."  We said our good-byes, leaving me to make that distinction as I continued my garden chore.

I'm pretty sure he's been gardening longer than I have; that he knew little of the weeds nor the small space gardening technique wasn't surprising. It's not just urban dwellers who lack knowledge about raising food. A former colleague once related the sad tale of outreach education she conducted in public schools in nearby Kandiyohi County for the Soybean Growers Association. Over half the students in each class didn't know what soybean plants looked like, though the town was surrounded by thousands of acres of bean fields.

Earlier in May, I had good reason to be happy that I'd secured the soil in my little piece of heaven. For the first time in my life--most of which has been set in the Midwest--I saw dust storms rip through town and field. Taking the photograph below the fold left my face and eyes gritty, while my next shower helped create micro-mud puddles in my ears that took four Qtips to remove. I'm all for getting close to the soil, but it was a bit much.

Both the dust storms and my garden conservation were underscored by a recent re-reading of 1980s exploration of the ethics and spirituality of land stewardship, as well as more recent news from the Land Stewardship Project and The Minnesota Farmers Union. Both organizations' commentary hit my inbox as I was taking a look back at "Soil and Survival," a book by the late Carol Bly and local (for me at least) writers Joe and Nancy Paddock.

Making it wonderful: a tale of rhubarb bars

 by Kris Fultz

I worked at St. Peter Herald for many years and always enjoyed the close-knit family feeling I had there with my co-workers. We used to say that we could write a great sitcom from our adventures and escapades there, putting together the St. Peter Herald, LeSueur News Herald and the LeCenter Leader.

I think about Ceil Headlee the front office person and writer of her own column, who always wore her flowered dresses with the rolled down nylon knee-hi's. The many publishers and a few editors we went through were all such colorful characters; and my friends and co-workers Susan, Bill, Jeremy, Kirsten, Tom, Lynn, Sara and all the others made working there more of a playdate than a job.

But the one person who in my mind will always embody St. Peter and the St. Peter Herald is Marilyn Witty. Marilyn was married to George Witty, who was the local sheriff. They were two people so much in love that George brought a red rose to Marilyn at work every Friday of his life.

 Marilyn kept us all on our toes, and entertained. If you needed to know where something was, or who somebody was, or anything else about the St. Peter Herald, (or the St. Peter area), you didn't check the archives, you checked with Marilyn. Marilyn Witty worked as one of the salespeople, and I worked in the production department doing ad design.

 Marilyn used to bring in home baked treats and my favorite was her Rhubarb Bars. I liked them so much that Marilyn used to make them for me every year on my birthday. I called them the "Make it Wonderful Rhubarb Bars" because whenever Marilyn brought me back an ad to do she would always tell me to "make it wonderful." I never saw Marilyn eat a piece of those bars, she would put them on the break room table and stop back for "just a sliver" every now and then. Marilyn said there were no calories in a sliver.

 When I moved on from the Herald and worked at another business in downtown St. Peter, Marilyn surprised me on my birthday that year, marching down the street from the Herald office and followed by some of my old co-workers like a pied piper, she bore a single piece of that wonderful rhubarb dessert on a plate out front.

Click on the image for the recipe for "Make It Wonderful Rhubarb Bars."

A 1976 graduate of St. Peter High School, Kris Fultz now lives in Wisconsin. She dug out the recipe and her memories of the Herald at the request of Bluestem's editor and posted a version of this post as a note on Facebook. We reposted it here with her permission.

Editor's note: This recipe marks a new feature on Bluestem Prairie. We'll be presenting recipes using local, seasonal ingredients, along with the stories behind them. Food is culture, after all.

A ghastly solution for Minnesota's alien earthworm invasion?

by Andrew Pruett

On a rainy grey day, I grabbed an ice cream pail, and my hat as I headed out the front door. I picked up big ‘night crawlers,’ and little ‘angle worms’ and lots of them. I do not know the scientific names of these slimers but that does not matter for what I will share with you. The two dozen worms collected from the road and sidewalk outside my house I put into my garden and covered with dirt and grass clippings.

I have the worst soil in Rochester for gardening, clay. Maybe my yard is all back fill.  I have heard that developers harvest the black dirt from a property before they build and use clay and rocky soil for back fill thus creating a market for good soil. In any event, I figured I needed all the help I could get to turn this clay into gardenable soil. Earlier I had tilled in a full pickup load of horse manure but it had not changed the consistency of the soil much.

I own half an acre of land in NW Rochester; there were no trees on the lot when I moved in. Before I went out to buy trees for my yard I got to thinking about those earthworms that are so good for our gardens and lawns.

Fifteen species of nonnative earthworms in Minnesota, and of those fifteen species, seven are invasive. So what, you might think. They're good for our yards, they're good for the robins, and they've been a boon to the moles. What harm could a slimy, wriggling earthworm possibly do? There are no native earthworms to North America, and that should ring alarm bells for those of us who are environmentally minded.