WTF-Beta

It will be interesting to see which companies continue research and pay for it themselves.

@Bernard

Have you seen this?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/19/new-york-city-rat-problem-vigilantes-with-dogs

I’ve seen this happen in electrical panels. Not fish, but snakes, lizards and the occasional mouse.

But not very many.

I’ve never heard of a pickling weight.

Now I want one.

There is a growing body of evidence showing that eating fermented foods has any number of health benefits, including weight loss and a reduction in inflammation. Can’t hurt, might help.

But what to try? Sauerkraut is fine but not something I could eat a lot of. Kimchi is a fave - need to find some place that sells it. I read that commercial pickles aren’t actually fermented these days, just brined. Not sure I understand that.

Yogurt works, but plain yogurt tastes awful without a whole lot of sugar which seems to defeat the purpose. I’ve never tried kefir or kombucha -what do you do with it? What else is there?

Do you like fermented foods? What are your favorites?

Malawi and Zambia?

Seems odd.

What a wonderful travelogue and such great pictures!

Thanks for posting it!

I think they did that last time too.

Japanese iris. This is the only one blooming right now.

https://share.icloud.com/photos/07axAai7hLJELVB5ZzvLWGEkQ

The heat knocked a lot of plants back but not the pansies. They took off!

https://share.icloud.com/photos/0a1zB-_OWGEi_8p3TTRUEtZ-g

https://share.icloud.com/photos/0b7zQSyiLICam_iddnnIK_1uA

I’ve become a huge fan of these Japanese balloon flowers. Not fussy about water or heat and survived winter without issue.

https://share.icloud.com/photos/00emD_DfGoPgUr1Z_8RYjGI9w

Not me. I can’t figure out what I’d do with a paid version.

Everything I do with it is available free.

If you get the opportunity, sample some of the balsamic vinegar that’s been aged like 50 years. It’s not hard to find and it was nothing like anything I’d ever tried before.

Thick and sweet, like syrup. Maybe more surprising than delicious and I have no idea what I’d do with it. Just as well - it was fabulously expensive.

We also rented a little car in Florence and drove to Tuscany. That alone was an experience -roads so narrow I knocked a mirror off of the rental car! They never charged me for it.

We stayed at an AirBnB winery where they had made apartments out of some of the 18th centuryfarm buildings. Very nice, and very cool. While there we took a cooking class from the matriarch which involved several hours of an afternoon and quite a bit of wine. L’aura took us shopping in a little town before we started and it reminded me of the opening scene from Beauty and the Beast. Time well spent and when we fished we were escorted to a very nice dining room to dine on what we had made.

L’aura was something like 75 when we were there and she may not be teaching any more. I’d not be surprised to find out she does however - she was a real ball of fire. Drove a little Fiat convertible like a at outa hell.

I’ll look up the name of the place if you’re interested, and I’m sure there are many.

In Venice, a lot of bakeries and such serve cicchettis in the late afternoon. They’re something like Tapas and each one costs 1 euro, or at least they did when we were there in 2018.

We went from shop to shop sampling what they had with a glass of wine and struck up conversations with the other customers. It’s a very popular thing to do and we met a lot of cool people. One of my favorite memories of our trip.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicchetti

Sternly worded memo to follow.

Might be going around us. Today and tomorrow is predicted to be “moderate”.

Thanks!

Beautiful!

Interesting how many Taco deals don’t stand up in the light of day.