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Vernal Equinox Foods: The Jelly Bean Diet, Muskrat, and Beer Are on This Menu · Family Tree Food Stories

0:02
Hello, everybody.
0:03
Welcome to another episode of family tree food and stories.
0:07
Sylvia, we're doing kind of an interesting show.
0:09
Of course, I say every show is interesting
0:11
You do.
0:12
It's always interesting.
0:13
Food is interesting.
0:16
It's certainly delicious and there's always something new going on.
0:19
But we're kind of heading into spring and this is now the dawn or the era
0:24
or the season of the vernal equinox.
0:26
Ooh, it sounds heavy duty, doesn't it?
0:29
And you know, it's only in the Northern hemisphere.
0:31
All those other folks down in the Southern have kind of the same thing,
0:34
but just at a different time of year.
0:36
But what's really cool is it's a time of renewal.
0:39
It's a time of renewal, growth, and balancing.
0:43
Could we use a little bit of that?
0:44
Oh heck could I use about we talked about we talked about balance a
0:48
little too much and sometimes oh geez well I'm not gonna go there because
0:52
balance is not my Forte, shall we say,
0:56
your thing.
0:56
Yeah, I know.
0:57
We do because we're so excited about food, though.
1:00
Family, tree, food, and stories.
1:02
Because what about food?
1:03
Because we want to bring everything back to food because everything
1:06
about food is what we are, right?
1:08
We all eat.
1:09
we all partake of food
1:11
right, and what's the first thing you do in the morning when you get up?
1:14
I don't know about you, but me, it's brew the coffee.
1:16
So I guess you can call coffee a food.
1:19
We'll call it something like
1:20
Well, just like bourbon's a food, right?
1:22
I'll start.
1:23
Maybe I start the morning with a bourbon shot of
1:26
Hey, there you go.
1:26
Or some of that in your coffee.
1:28
But yeah, so I think today what we're going to do is talk in
1:31
general about the foods that happen.
1:33
And then we're going to talk about more of that, Balance, renewal, and
1:36
growth, and food's relationship to that.
1:39
And we've talked, about that with several of our friends, Father Jim Sisco, who's
1:44
also gonna be on the show at some point in the future, and talks about food.
1:48
Cause it's all intertwined, historically, with the early days.
1:52
And it later became, ancient days, with monks and religious figures,
1:56
and all of that kind of stuff.
1:57
But we're gonna have some fun with it.
1:59
But first of all, I wanna tell ya.
2:00
Candy is a food.
2:01
Okay?
2:04
All right.
2:04
in the spring are my jam.
2:07
Okay?
2:07
I love them.
2:08
They're so pretty.
2:10
Think
2:10
about them.
2:10
They're
2:11
I do.
2:11
like them.
2:12
Right.
2:12
They're like the colors, yeah.
2:14
can I ask you, how do you eat your jelly beans?
2:16
And there are two types of jelly beans in my book.
2:18
There's the big old fashioned jelly beans with the thick sugar
2:22
That's
2:23
there's the jelly bellies, of course, that have every brand color name
2:27
known to man and woman out there.
2:29
None of those.
2:30
I want those big, what do they call them, robin eggs or something?
2:33
They look like robin eggs, only
2:35
Oh, okay.
2:36
The big old
2:36
fashioned chunky ones,
2:38
Yeah, I'll put in a plug for Brock's.
2:40
I want my Brock's,
2:41
Okay.
2:41
Do you bite them in half and, or do you suck on them or do you just
2:45
like chew them till they're gone?
2:47
You want to hear my diet plan?
2:49
Cause I, you gotta be really careful, right?
2:51
They're sugar.
2:52
They're
2:52
pure sugar.
2:54
So I take a jelly bean and I suck on it.
2:57
And I suck on it till I get all the sugar out.
2:59
It's like gum, you know, get rid of all the sugar and then
3:02
I chew it up and swallow it.
3:04
But that, elongates my.
3:06
Jelly bean fix.
3:07
So I can buy a bag of jelly beans.
3:09
Now the problem with the diet part of that is I start inching up on
3:13
the number of them I do each day.
3:15
And at first I'm with the orange and the yellows.
3:18
And then I start eating the reds and the purples and the ones I don't like so much.
3:23
But eventually, the reason I don't buy them is because I'll
3:25
eat that whole bag probably within
3:27
Right.
3:27
Oh my God.
3:28
Absolutely.
3:29
And they always follow or well, they always fell to the
3:32
bottom of the Easter egg basket
3:34
when
3:34
you're a
3:35
oh yeah, oh yeah, I love that and you go through the grass and
3:38
you find them and sometimes a month later you find one or two,
3:42
And they're kind of sticky, but you eat them anyway.
3:44
you eat them anyway.
3:45
But there's a lot of other foods up north that are going
3:48
on and some down south with you.
3:49
so up north in Kentucky.
3:51
The southern part of the north.
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you have, of course, eggs.
3:54
Eggs are always, they're on every list, right?
3:56
Because they're round and they mean renewal and all that kind
4:00
of stuff, So there's the eggs.
4:01
But we have strawberries.
4:02
the delicate kinds of things, right?
4:05
In the spring.
4:05
Oh, I have to ask you about strawberries.
4:07
Just a second.
4:08
Have you ever seen a white strawberry?
4:10
in the grocery
4:11
Those are new.
4:12
Have you ever had one?
4:13
No, they don't look appetizing.
4:15
No, they look kind of,
4:16
they look like they're anemic.
4:17
Ha ha ha.
4:19
I don't want to eat an unhealthy strawberry.
4:21
I want the red strawberry that's about ready to get fuzzy, you
4:24
Oh, yeah.
4:25
Oh, yeah.
4:25
But you told me once about white asparagus,
4:28
how they, how they do that.
4:30
they cover up the green part so that
4:32
So we, we learned this when we were in France one year and white
4:36
asparagus, it was about, it was April and white asparagus grows just like
4:40
regular asparagus, but what they do is they mound straw or hay around
4:44
it so that it doesn't get the light.
4:46
So yes, I guess it is.
4:48
We, instead of white asparagus, we should just call it anemic
4:51
I know.
4:51
It almost doesn't sound good.
4:53
I do have an asparagus story, though.
4:55
You know, asparagus can get you fired.
4:57
Oh,
4:58
me explain.
4:58
Yeah.
5:00
So here I am starting out my legal career and I had to drive to Frankfort,
5:04
Frankfort, Kentucky is about 45 minutes from Lexington where I live.
5:07
Everybody lives in Lexington that works in state government or wherever.
5:11
So I was an assistant attorney general.
5:13
So I had a carpool.
5:14
I was accepted into a carpool and that was a big deal.
5:17
Okay.
5:18
So there's like five of us in this carpool.
5:20
And we got a vacancy one day.
5:22
So we hired another carpool member.
5:24
Now it cost no money.
5:26
It was just a ride back and forth.
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And there were rules to the ride.
5:29
You didn't chit chat, you didn't do all those things.
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Well, she was a chit chatter.
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And in the spring, one spring day, Well, we have to stop and get some asparagus.
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It was a big farm on the left as we drove out of town.
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We just have to stop.
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And then I tell you how I make my asparagus.
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Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
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And we're all stone silent.
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We get back to Lexington.
5:48
We fired her from the carpool for talking about asparagus.
5:52
The food gods will come after me
5:55
for sure.
5:56
For sure.
5:56
Yeah, I got it.
5:58
Childs is going to come back and
6:00
off with
6:00
your
6:01
and
6:01
haunt me.
6:02
We're like, we're not stopping for asparagus.
6:05
Anyway, and Kentucky, that's one of the hot items, leafy greens, citrus.
6:10
Well, it grows all the time down there, doesn't it?
6:12
Well, it does, but it doesn't.
6:14
I haven't figured out when the true citrus picking season is.
6:18
But the interesting thing is, when you, could drive along the country
6:21
roads, and you see Miles and miles of
6:24
these citrus trees and the grapefruit and the oranges, you know, it's
6:27
illegal to even go in there and pick one of a, of a field of, or a grove,
6:33
I guess an orange grove that's fallow.
6:36
If there's a wild one, cause there are a lot of fellow ones because here
6:39
in the area where we were, we are, we're in Brooksville and not too far
6:43
from Indian Grove, or I think it's called Indian Grove, but the whole
6:47
citrus area that, got hit by The snows and the ice for so well, not
6:51
snow, but it was ice for so many years.
6:53
And the tangerine guys that were growing all these things just decided we can't
6:57
afford to bring them back after the third or fourth year of being wiped out with the
7:02
frost.
7:02
Yeah.
7:03
But, no, even if there's a, one that's left in a field and abandoned
7:06
it's considered illegal to go,
7:08
Wow.
7:09
Can I tell you an orange story?
7:11
I either, although I am tempted to go pick one.
7:13
Of course.
7:14
We, first year we were in Florida, oh, I was in college.
7:18
I went to Fuller Southern.
7:19
And we rented.
7:21
The home on the lake.
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It was beautiful.
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It was a cottage that owned to the head of the Donald Duck orange juice factory.
7:28
I didn't know that there was a Donald Duck orange juice factory.
7:31
I didn't know that ducks could
7:32
drink orange juice.
7:33
anyway, that's my claim to fame on citrus.
7:36
But I did want to say a word or two about ramps and poke salad.
7:39
Please.
7:40
I come from a heritage and a culture where people went into
7:43
the hillsides and picked stuff.
7:45
Had sassafras tea and always wondered where they'd get the sassafras.
7:48
Well, they'd go into the hillside and they'd pick it.
7:50
And they'd pick grasses Well, ramps is that kind of onion
7:53
slash garlic, green leaves.
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It looks kind of onion like.
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oh, is that what it's got like a curly top on it?
7:59
Oh, so it's like a wild garlic.
8:01
yeah, and you go out and you come in and you, and it comes out only in the spring.
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And I used to wonder, ramps, that just sounds like a interstate ramp, right?
8:09
It
8:10
Yeah.
8:10
It looks like something to do with tarmac
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I'm sorry, yeah.
8:15
And then you have poke salad.
8:16
Now, a misnomer is a lot of people say poke salad.
8:19
It's salad, S A L L E T. For all who want to know.
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It is not salad.
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It's green, cooked greens.
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And again, poke is something you go out and you pick.
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And, my favorite new song and it's in my head is poke salad Annie.
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Look it up.
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we'll put a link to that when in the show notes, poke salad.
8:38
I listened to it.
8:38
It's really pretty amusing.
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it is, it's a fun country song.
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And, they have festivals here in the state, because it's
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an Appalachian kind of thing.
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And that song is about Louisiana.
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But similar kinds of, say, you may even have them in Florida.
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I don't know.
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I can hear Dolly Parton singing that one.
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I'm sure
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with her big hair and her big everything else,
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know.
8:58
But our tiny waist, how does she do that?
9:00
she's not eating jelly beans for sure.
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No.
9:03
But you said she said somewhere that she eats all the time
9:06
when she's not on camera.
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Oh, I need to know what her diet is
9:10
Yeah.
9:11
So, so what about South?
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What about in the South?
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Y'all know Florida has seasons.
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Yeah, we're learning about a few things down south here, but one of the things
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that really fascinated me about the springtime in the south here is the
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popularity of loquats and kumquats.
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Oh,
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oh
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most people don't know what a kumquat is, and we didn't know what
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a loquat was when we got down here.
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my mom loved kumquats as a kid,
9:34
so a
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qua is something, it's like a large.
9:40
About the size of a large grape, like one of those giant grapes, but it's
9:43
kind of oval It's a type of citrus and you can eat the whole thing.
9:47
You just pop the whole thing in your mouth.
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Like you would a grape,
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What color is it?
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It's orange.
9:51
Oh,
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It's orange, like an orange.
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So it's a citrus and you can, they have kumquat festivals and we
9:57
bought some kumquat wine ones at a festival, which we didn't open.
10:01
We gave away just
10:04
amazing what they make wine out of, you know?
10:07
I
10:07
Oh, they make really disgusting wine here in
10:09
I'm sorry for anybody who's, I don't want to say a wino in Florida, but
10:16
well, then don't come to Florida because the wine really stinks.
10:18
It's sticky and sweet.
10:20
Everybody down here likes that.
10:21
muscadet grape, that's the sweet kinds of more sugar, the better it's like,
10:24
Oh no, give me the dark, dry red stuff.
10:27
I'm, I'm
10:28
good for that.
10:29
Yeah.
10:30
Anyway.
10:30
So that's the kumquat.
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You can eat the whole thing.
10:32
And the loquat is similar but it's a little sweeter and it has seeds.
10:37
The kumquat does not have seeds.
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I'm for that.
10:39
Yeah.
10:40
And you eat them the same
10:41
loquat looks the same though.
10:43
Loquat looks very much the same.
10:45
It's a little larger, but it has a slightly sweeter taste.
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It's I'd say it's probably a cross between and taste ways
10:52
between an orange and a lime
10:55
or a lemon.
10:55
Yeah.
10:56
So that's that bitterness.
10:58
I wonder if one of them was the originator and the other
11:01
is GMO modified or something.
11:03
Or
11:03
apparently they both started out of China and Japan.
11:05
Well, maybe they're all GMO in China.
11:08
So
11:08
Yeah, well, there is that theory too.
11:10
We'll have to
11:11
take that
11:11
GMO.
11:12
show.
11:12
Foods from China that are not like normal or born of nature.
11:16
So, have you had dandelion pie lately?
11:19
No, I have not had dandelion pie, but springtime of course is dandelions.
11:22
I don't see too many of them down here, but we see a lot of
11:25
wildflowers on the side of the road, which are really beautiful.
11:28
But my husband grew up in New Rochelle, New York.
11:31
Bronx and New Rochelle.
11:32
And one year his dad decided he wanted to make dandelion wine.
11:36
So he had all his kids go out and pick all the entire, his front
11:40
yard apparently was super green and beautiful without dandelions.
11:44
They had to get something like five gallons of dandelion heads.
11:48
And I said, five gallons of dandelions head doesn't sound like a lot.
11:51
Bob the other day was saying, Oh, it's a lot.
11:53
So I think not only his yard, but probably the entire neighborhood was
11:57
cleaned out.
11:57
you.
11:58
Exactly.
11:59
They made wine.
12:00
My, father in law apparently did not make dandelion wine again once was enough.
12:04
Oh, and springtime rhubarb, right?
12:06
Oh, oh, rhubarb in Florida.
12:08
Well, they don't have, blue bar and Far Blue, blue Barber . I think that's
12:13
gonna be a new, a new vegetable, a blue
12:16
bar.
12:16
been drinking some dandelion wine,
12:18
I think so this hour of the morning
12:21
Well, I know rhubarb is in Northern Minnesota cause my son
12:24
makes rhubarb pie all the time.
12:26
right rhubarb and strawberry pie with lots of sugar.
12:29
And my grandmother is, you know, made rhubarb wine.
12:33
And that was, the last batch of grandma's wine we drank To
12:36
celebrate Bob and my engagement.
12:38
And that was
12:39
30, well, 37, 36 years ago,
12:43
Yeah.
12:43
Yeah.
12:44
So you
12:44
a time ago.
12:45
I'm
12:46
drank it all
12:46
I think you've been drinking at the rhubarb wine a little bit if
12:50
Yeah.
12:51
I'll have a little in my coffee.
12:52
So that's it on dandelions.
12:54
And let's
12:54
see
12:54
maple syrup maple syrup is mentioned a lot as a spring thing is
12:58
Oh, maple syrup.
12:59
So up north, that's a big sign of springtime in the woods.
13:03
You'll see these, well, they used to put taps on the trees,
13:06
you know, the little metal
13:06
taps and, and the galvanized buckets.
13:09
You don't see those as much anymore.
13:10
Maple syrup sugaring, or the maple syrup collection has
13:13
gotten a little bit more modern.
13:15
And what you'll see is these long They almost look like, medical
13:19
hoses that go around all the trees and they'll thread in and out.
13:24
It actually looks like it probably could be some sort of labor and for
13:27
some murder mystery, quite frankly, like
13:30
Ah Yeah,
13:32
going to poof.
13:34
But anyway, so they're all around the trees and they all flow into one big
13:38
bucket now or several big buckets.
13:39
But the springtime is when the sap starts to thaw as it gets warm
13:44
in the springtime in the, in the days, the sap will start to flow.
13:47
So they starved the trees.
13:48
They take the tree food.
13:50
Does that hurt the trees?
13:51
No, because they
13:52
not.
13:53
No, if so, and they're only the sugar maple trees, but it takes forever.
13:58
Like it takes something like 20 gallons to make a couple of cups.
14:01
I don't know the exact percentages, but it's takes a lot.
14:04
One question I have about maple syrup, because they're starting
14:07
to grow it some in Kentucky.
14:08
I always thought of it as Vermont and New England, but apparently
14:12
it's not exclusively there.
14:14
I don't remember that I know what the perfect climate for it is.
14:19
Well, it has to freeze.
14:20
You have to freeze in the wintertime, which you get a lot of, you've gotten a
14:22
lot of frost and cold this winter and you need the maple sugar tree, which is the,
14:27
the, the sugar maple is really what it is.
14:29
And they're bright, brilliant yellow trees in the fall when they, they're
14:33
Uh huh.
14:33
Uh huh.
14:34
Well, it's kind of interesting because you know that come up with flavors all
14:37
the time Like pumpkin in the fall kind of thing, people are kind of getting
14:41
tired of it But maple syrup is emerging as a flavoring and as a substitute
14:46
like my daughter in law can't eat sugar So I'll make like cornbread.
14:50
There's the New York Times had a cornbread recipe using maple
14:54
syrup And it's delicious, and you don't use any sugar, cane sugar.
14:58
Maple syrup is pretty sugar intensive.
15:00
Know.
15:01
it works, okay.
15:02
Did you have to use a lot of it?
15:04
I think it's about, half a cup, third of a cup, something like that.
15:07
And so, she can tolerate it, whereas she really can't tolerate the cane sugar.
15:12
But then the cane sugar may be, yeah, may be so super processed, right?
15:16
that's another thing.
15:17
that's something we need to take up in another show, is the processing of flour
15:21
here, as opposed to places like Europe.
15:23
Is it the same?
15:24
And people say it's not.
15:25
But anyway, that gets us a little bit far afield.
15:27
But
15:28
a teaser for down the road.
15:29
do we need to take a break?
15:30
We do need to take a break.
15:31
I'm going to.
15:32
Put some maple syrup in my coffee, maybe, and we'll take a break.
15:35
Or maybe some dandelion wine
15:37
Yeah, for sure.
15:38
We'll see you soon.
15:39
Hang tight.
15:40
There's a lot more in store.
15:50
well, Sylvia, we just talked about maple syrup
15:53
and sugar, but with that, we're getting into the whole
15:56
idea of renewal and balance.
15:58
Right.
15:59
right.
15:59
I don't know how much balance I can do when I've got too much sugar in my butt,
16:03
But, you I think one of the things that, we read about, balance renewal and growth
16:08
and food and its relationship to food is, it's a lot about mindful eating,
16:12
When I gain weight and I gain weight easily is when I'm not being mindful.
16:16
When I just pick up a bag of chips or, what you do gain as you grow older is I
16:22
know immediately I can taste the sugar.
16:24
That's what makes things taste so good, right?
16:27
The junk food or the, what they call, the so called, altered process.
16:30
And I can tell that, so I know that I'm not being mindful.
16:34
And then there's also just trying to eat more healthy, and that's a
16:38
challenge, because as you well know, one, one day coffee's bad for you, the
16:43
next day, so it's, it's a moderation, that's the balance part, right?
16:47
I'm going to blame it on the manufacturers who do these studies,
16:49
like the corn popping manufacturers have now decided that popcorn is good for
16:54
you.
16:54
And you should eat that with butter.
16:56
Well, yes, I can mindfully eat a whole lot of popcorn with butter.
17:00
Mm hmm.
17:00
Me too, mindfully.
17:02
I'm driven to
17:03
eat popcorn
17:04
like that skinny pop popcorn is not so skinny.
17:07
Yeah, what's happening to my butt?
17:10
It's, growing!
17:11
it's more than sugar.
17:12
It's like
17:12
popping corn, it's just growing bigger, you
17:15
yeah, I think the popcorn pops in my body,
17:18
But you know, a lot of this begins in the religious world, in the ancients,
17:22
and a lot of it in the Catholic Church, and it has since grown secular.
17:26
like for instance, Mardi Gras.
17:27
Mardi Gras kind of Launches everything with the Mardi Gras parades and all of
17:32
that stuff, and it falls, in early March.
17:35
And this, in this case, it was, March 5th, 4th, 4th, because Lent.
17:39
See, you eat, drink, and be merry on Fat Tuesday.
17:42
That's what that means.
17:43
And then the next day, you go skinny.
17:46
Hey, maybe it pays to be religious.
17:48
I could use a little skinny.
17:50
yeah, I think we should call it, a binge party as opposed to Mardi Gras,
17:54
A binge,
17:55
party.
17:55
Well, and what about you?
17:57
Do you ever eat, The King Cake.
17:58
They sell hundreds of King Cakes here.
18:00
No, I have never eaten a king cake, but, we didn't grow up Catholic.
18:04
my mom was Episcopal, and then dad He always called himself a back,
18:07
to you Congregationalist, but as kids, we didn't do that stuff,
18:10
but our Catholic friends did.
18:12
So but hot cross buns, oh my god.
18:15
hot cross buns.
18:16
yeah.
18:16
yeah, yeah.
18:16
Perfect.
18:18
Oh, carbs.
18:19
icing off the top
18:20
and unfortunately then I have to eat the hot cross bun or the
18:25
of course.
18:25
You've ruined it, right?
18:26
You've ruined it.
18:27
You've got to do that.
18:28
And, so the king cake is good.
18:30
They take the baby Jesus out for the most part now.
18:32
It was making dentists and lawyers make a lot of money.
18:35
So anyway, they're packaging it separately.
18:37
I have to ask you, is it sacrilegious to cook baby Jesus?
18:40
I know it's like kind of weird.
18:42
kind of gross.
18:43
Right?
18:43
Hey, can I have fun for a minute?
18:45
Will you give me a minute to have fun?
18:46
Okay, I'm going to read like I'm a pharmaceutical.
18:49
Salesperson,
18:49
and you may love the fine, fine, print.
18:52
gigantic.
18:53
So, Fat Tuesday is 47 days before Easter, which is on April 20th, which is the
18:57
first Sunday after the full moon that occurs on or after the vernal equinox.
19:02
Lent is the day after Mardi Gras and lasts for 40 days.
19:05
40 is a big deal in the Bible.
19:08
Ark, remember,
19:09
40
19:09
days?
19:10
a breath.
19:10
Yes, 40 days and 40 nights.
19:12
I am exhausted already.
19:14
That, that's fine print, okay?
19:15
But, do you know some unusual things about lent food?
19:18
Let's there, okay?
19:19
This will our
19:20
Well, since, since I didn't practice Lent very well, obviously,
19:24
all about balance.
19:25
We need to look back on history, right?
19:27
History and traditions, that's what we're all about.
19:29
That created what we do today.
19:31
In creating our balance, our growth, our renewal, okay?
19:35
I'll make that argument.
19:36
you give up something.
19:37
during Lent, and that's interesting, but here's some unusual things.
19:40
Do you know that monks in Germany drank only beer for 40 days in
19:46
Lent?
19:46
I should have been a
19:47
Yeah, and I, don't know if Catholic Church built hospitals for liver failure.
19:52
I don't know, but no.
19:54
don't know.
19:55
Well, I, don't think they allow women to be monks, so maybe
19:57
I would just be a monkette.
19:59
I don't know.
20:00
Uh, low, yeah, no, I don't think that fits you.
20:04
It was very nutritious, and so they just drank this beer that
20:07
was not all that super alcoholic.
20:09
Hmm.
20:09
So,
20:10
took the fun out of it.
20:10
I don't believe that part.
20:12
I know, monks, yeah, I know, and also our dear friends, the nuns.
20:17
Uh, how about pretzels?
20:19
Pretzels.
20:20
Oh, I know about the pretzels.
20:22
you know, they have a little crust across their chest.
20:25
Weren't they supposed to be signs of people praying when
20:28
you made them cross them over?
20:29
So Maybe I could pray a lot over
20:32
yeah, and they are, you know, they're carbs, I guess, but they're
20:36
also very, very compacted carbs.
20:38
So I think they're okay for us.
20:40
Okay.
20:40
They're not like bread, bread.
20:42
Oh, it's my weakness.
20:43
I know, but I have a pretzel story.
20:45
So we used to in New York where we grew up, the pretzels on the stands on
20:50
the roadside were really delicious, of course, but a couple of years ago, I
20:54
went to a conference in Germany and it was in Berlin and for breakfast, they
20:58
offered these most amazing soft pretzels.
21:03
Oh,
21:04
about pretzels for breakfast.
21:05
I have to tell you that was that, but those were the best pretzels
21:10
I have ever had to this day.
21:13
So
21:13
the German pretzels, they were just amazing.
21:15
there were the soft squishy ones, but there's something in the
21:18
dough, however they made them that were rich and delicious.
21:22
Like the ones as kids in Roosevelt field that you would get.
21:26
at the hot dog stand really, or the pretzel stand just were kind
21:29
of, God, they remind me of like cardboard compared to the, the rich
21:32
buttery ones in Germany that were
21:34
oh man, huh.
21:35
yum.
21:36
I'll have to go to Germany.
21:38
I love that.
21:39
Although not right now.
21:41
trying to take off seven pounds.
21:43
hey, you want to hear about muskrat?
21:45
Oh, muskrat, they have a stinky muskrats,
21:47
oh, they are.
21:48
They look like little tiny, porcupines.
21:50
They kind of have fur that sticks up.
21:52
So try baked muskrat with apple butter.
21:55
That's a recipe I found.
21:56
I didn't collect it.
21:57
Okay, so this is why the muskrat is important.
22:00
And by the way, they're not the only meat that is given sort of some
22:03
dispensation that Catholics can eat, even though they are kind of meat.
22:07
I'll tell you about those in a minute, but let me tell you about muskrats.
22:10
In Michigan, in the 1800s, Father Richard gave dispensation to French
22:15
Canadian, actually, French fur trappers, because fish was hard to come by.
22:19
So he said, Try some baked muskrat with apple butter and that's what,
22:23
and it, it persists till today, they have like festivals and stuff.
22:27
Ah,
22:27
must have
22:27
ouch,
22:28
at some point when somebody said bake a
22:30
muskrat, first,
22:31
plentiful and there's
22:32
well, maybe it was a way to, uh, to rid themselves of like muskrat.
22:37
I think of
22:38
I know rat.
22:38
I do too.
22:39
And I think they're in that kind of family.
22:41
Right.
22:41
But you know what?
22:42
Here down in your area, alligator is sometimes said to be exempted.
22:46
Oh,
22:47
Alligator.
22:48
Yeah.
22:49
Alligator.
22:49
and yeah, well, they're in the water, right?
22:51
And beavers, beavers also are sometimes
22:54
exempted.
22:54
pythons down here now too.
22:56
That's a little further south of us.
22:57
maybe python meat works as
22:59
Yeah.
23:00
I think maybe it has to be something relationship to the water.
23:02
Because muskrats live kind of in the water.
23:04
Well, you know, you can eat fish.
23:05
So who knows?
23:07
Anyway,
23:07
Okay, the Phil A of fish.
23:09
That was a McDonald's.
23:10
That's still on the menu at McDonald's, right?
23:12
And in 1962, the fillet of, fillo, it's F I L L E T O, fish, kind
23:19
of a Irish kind of sound, right?
23:21
It was invented because Catholics didn't eat meat on Friday, and they
23:26
were losing, in a particular McDonald's franchise, they were losing their, They
23:30
were, nobody was buying burgers, and so, so they invented the fish sandwich.
23:35
And now almost everywhere, a fish sandwich on Friday is almost on every menu
23:39
that's interesting.
23:40
So, have you ever seen those fish that are on, I guess it was like
23:46
a Bob opedic kind of thing I think that plastic fish that was on a
23:50
wall plaque that used to sing.
23:51
Give me that fish.
23:52
Give me that fillet of fish.
23:53
Like, give me that fish, give me a fish.
23:55
I don't know how the song was, but I have to think it was hysterical.
23:58
The talking fish that would bounce off the side of the plaque.
24:01
Like, Oh my God.
24:02
I think that's funny.
24:03
So every time I think of that, I think of McDonald's fillet of fish.
24:06
yeah.
24:07
Yeah.
24:07
And now maybe they'll invent someday, maybe a filet, uh, muskrat.
24:12
or fillet alligator, fillet of
24:15
Anyway.
24:16
Hey, to come back to our growth, balance, and renewal.
24:19
people find spiritual growth in all kinds of ways through food.
24:22
I love.
24:23
Going, if I'm feeling really tired and down, I love going to a grocery
24:26
store and looking through the produce and that's pretty, it's colorful.
24:30
I mean, there's so many people who do the click it thing and
24:33
don't get their food, directly.
24:35
And, I just, we find spiritual growth in food in many ways, don't we?
24:39
Well, and I think that's true of farmer's markets for sure.
24:42
Right.
24:42
And the fresh, pro fresh produce.
24:44
I don't enjoy grocery shopping that much, but I certainly do.
24:48
when I'm feeling trapped, just going out to the grocery store and
24:51
I always buy more than I should.
24:52
I go for the
24:53
milk and I come back with, Oh, but there was a bogo.
24:56
I
24:58
I love bargains.
25:00
That's growth for
25:01
really did need five cans of beans or 10 cans of beans for a dollar.
25:06
What am I going to do?
25:07
I'm going to eat a lot of beans.
25:08
Don't tell me what I'm going to do afterwards, but I'm
25:09
going to eat the beans.
25:10
Well, and tell me how to solve this problem.
25:13
we're ipne nesters.
25:14
And I'm trying to learn to cook since we closed our restaurant,
25:17
I'm trying to cook more.
25:19
And I'm finding it really challenging because I make, like
25:22
I made tuna fish salad yesterday.
25:24
And now I have tons of it because the recipes, and it's not as good
25:28
a science as you might think to cut back on the recipe, to make it only
25:31
for two people, it's not as good.
25:33
So I just went ahead and I made four of those little packets of tuna fish.
25:37
And it just.
25:38
it's too much.
25:38
I'll never, I shouldn't eat it.
25:40
Let me say that.
25:41
It has mayo in it, right?
25:42
But in
25:43
Well, there's only the two of us as well.
25:45
So I'll make a lot of it, but I'll add lots of fruit to it.
25:50
So chopped up grapes are great and tuna fish.
25:53
So you don't need as much tuna.
25:54
And then that way you've got a little sweetness in there too,
25:57
or little shredded apple pieces,
25:59
lots of celery and onions.
26:02
Uh, the garlic, I don't necessarily put garlic in there, but certainly pepper just
26:06
to make it a little bit more spicy and
26:08
maybe that's it I don't know but I can't eat that much and I don't think
26:11
it freezes well I'm a big freeze person.
26:13
Oh yeah.
26:14
So if it goes in the freezer, we did a show on, on the refrigeration
26:17
thing, it goes in the freezer.
26:18
It's not coming out in my
26:20
really I'm a
26:21
big freezer Queen.
26:22
Yeah,
26:23
anyway
26:24
so that's, that's what I would do for empty, nesters, but, it's tough.
26:27
So make less protein and add more veggies to it and see what
26:30
I know.
26:31
Or fruit.
26:32
That's a good idea.
26:32
Grapes.
26:33
Grapes are good in chicken salad, too.
26:35
Yay.
26:35
delicious grapes and nuts, grapes and nuts, and certainly in there.
26:38
So the time of spring is a balance renewal.
26:41
Everything's fresh and it's, I'm probably going back on my spring diet again.
26:46
Yeah, when you have to start, when you have to start getting
26:49
in your clothing again.
26:51
right?
26:52
And you have to show a little bit more of yourself.
26:54
Okay.
26:55
Time, time to hide the extra roll that I found.
26:58
yeah.
26:58
Uh, uh.
27:01
this has been a great time.
27:02
And I love this time of year more than probably any time of
27:05
year, but I do like the fall too.
27:07
But there's something wonderful about seeing all the little spring
27:10
green leaves on a tree pop out.
27:12
And I've often said that spring green is my favorite color.
27:15
Next to yellow, which I think is also spring.
27:18
So I think it's time to put this one to bed.
27:21
What do you
27:21
Yeah.
27:22
I think let's go out and soak up some of that sunshine.
27:25
You get that more than I do.
27:26
And it's been beautiful lately.
27:28
So, yeah.
27:28
I'm going to go out and plant some herbs and, see what we can
27:31
come up with next time around.
27:33
We'll see you soon.
27:34
And, we'll hear you soon.
27:35
Take care.
27:36
Bye bye.