Link linkety

Have a question for the US government? Ask here.

The budget crunch is hitting public transit too. Here's a map of public transit cuts, whether in reduced staff, reduced schedule, increased fares, or a combination of factors.

The bats are disappearing. One possible cause (or opportunistic disease that is messing with bats, anyway) is white nose syndrome, which is spreading rapidly, and some rarer species of bats are at risk. I hope it gets figured out soon: bats eat bugs! (It's not similar, really, but also makes me think of that problem with beehives dying.)

Some people really like to make things that look bloody (no real blood, but possibly squickful for thems who dislike blood outside the normal flesh boundaries).

A site for foodies interested in local food, especially growing it: Homegrown.

Historically entertaining poetry: 88 lines about 44 presidents.

If your Kindle just doesn't smell right for reading books, have no fear: smell of books spray to the rescue!

Pre-Pesach adventures
1. A tale of shopping for Pesach, including my favorite line: I get my receipt and roll out of there like an arthritic bat out of senior day camp hell.
2. A yeshiva guy protested supermarket sales of chametz in Israel about to happen on Pesach by taking off his clothes.

Debate

Gress: Pro or Con?

Enterprise farm share

Everything's organic, except the parsnips (conventional) and the apples (IPM).

• a bag of salad mix, Equinox Farm, Sheffield, MA (greenhouse)
  
• a large head of green-leaf lettuce, Lady Moon Farm, FL
  
• a bunch of dinosaur/lacinato kale, Lady Moon, FL
  
• a large bunch of flat-leaf parsley: Lady Moon, FL
  
• a bag of parsnips (1-2 pounds), Manheim Farm, South Deerfield, MA
  
• a bag of carrots (2-3 pounds), Deep Root, Quebec
  
• a celeriac, Full Bloom Farm, Whately, MA
  
• a bunch of three beets with greens, Lady Moon Farm, FL
  
• a bunch of collards, Lady Moon Farm, FL
  
• a regular cucumber, Peace River, FL
  
• a pint of cherry tomatoes, Alderman, FL
  
• two green bell peppers, Alderman, FL
  
• six apples (two kinds), Bashista Orchard, Southampton, MA
  
• four Red Valencia oranges, Eagle's Nest, FL
  
• three grapefruit, Eagle’s Nest, FL

They're already lining up local organic growers for next winter :-)

Three-day yom tov

The first two days of Pesach run into Shabbat, making three days with restrictions on many work activities. Luckily, holidays allow cooking, if I leave a burner or the oven on. My usual solution is to get everything I'll need baked in advance, leaving an electric warming tray on the whole time and an electric burner on some of the time, by virtue of a timer. Given the cool weather forecast for the next couple of days, leaving the oven on becomes less onerous, but I'd still rather not leave it on the whole time.

I'm out for the seders, and made candied organic orange and grapefruit peel dipped in chocolate to bring to the second one (by-products of this: another pint of candied peel with liquid (plus a bit more for more immediate use), and some raisin clusters and almond clusters). I'm hosting second day lunch and Shabbat dinner, which means Friday will be a bit nutty; it's a good thing the afternoons are so long already.

( current menus )

I'm going to be offline until Saturday night. Chag sameach to those celebrating, and happy early April to everyone else :-)