Friday, April 12, 2013

Chickaluma

1. Put down some tomato plants yesterday. It seemed as good a time as any; the skies were a brilliant blue, the winds had finally skedaddled behind the hills and into the next valley, while overhead the sun was just beginning to break through. Put my foot behind the shovel and dug 3 holes. A couple of worms inched away as the chicken manure was layered with top and bottom soil. This year, we're experimenting with a new soil amendment: non-fat powdered milk. I kid you not. While hunting for a tomato blossom rot remedy (tried gypsum last year and it worked so-so) I came across a you tube video featuring a gardener from the mid-west whose bumper crop of tomato plants looked like redwoods! Before wrapping up her spiel, a box of powdered milk was produced. The same box that my mother one summer, in some weird insane moment, decided to experiment and substitute cow's milk with powdered milk which was mixed (like kool aid) in a glass right in front of our eyes, and tasted like shit. It was the kind of flashback that wasn't very meritorious, but those tomato plants in the background glowed like they were rooted in the mother lode of all mulches. The Black Krim, Juliets and heirlooms are all on 70 day notice.

2. Petaluma. Butter and Egg days are April 27th and 28th. It's like the annual rodeo. It's old school, a small town parade celebrating the history of an area which used to be called, 'the egg capitol of the world.' Flanked by rich farm land, the Petaluma river, became a fulcrum for ships carrying produce and grains back down to San Francisco and the outlying counties. Chickaluma was the nickname bandied around in it's glory years. But, Petaluma is a Miwok word which means the backside of hills. Films needing an old fashioned nostolgic era have been filmed here: American Graffiti, Pleasantville, Peggy Sue got Married, Cujo (whaa?) and Tree of Life (Nooooway). Egg and Butter days. What once was...

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

We Got Next...CAL 65 UGA 62

The team that was missing all those years in the Bay Area finally showed up and decided to ball. For decades the doormat to the juggernaut in Palo Alto, and often pushed around by the inner city play of the LA teams, the Cal women laced it up and strapped it on this season. Not since the great point guard play of Milicia Vukadinovich in 1992 and 93 who willed those Bear teams to NCAA post season berths has there been so much court n spark, pyrotechnics, at Haas Pavilion. Fueled by their young coach, Lindsey Gottlieb, the Bears lost only 3 times this season. You can talk about all the 'dream teams' you want, and you can recruit a 6'8" forward that can slamma jamma in your face, but if the coaching, the think tank, the 'brain trust' isn't operative, all the recruiting and scholarships in the world will not bring the hardware back home. In what had to be the ugliest first half of an NCAA tourney, where neither team could hit a bucket, an obvious media 'bummer' for ESPN, both teams continued to fumble around in the second half. Down by 8 at some point, the Bears poor free throw shooting biting them in the ass, the team sucked it up and dug deep. So did Georgia who were on the ropes but furiously tied the game, sending it into OT. OT? No Fear. The Bears had already seen that movie twice in the post season. Led by Layshia Claredon's 25 points, and their dynamic Coach the Cal women are on the sugarland express, heading for the 'Big Easy' They are the first Pac 12 team since 1988, other than the one in Palo Alto, to scrap their way to a Final Four berth. Don't wake me till Sunday. I'm living the dream.