rare coffee substitute

here's a link to the name of the rare type of coffee from GaziAntep, Turkey:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pistacia_terebinthus

Something growing in my freezer?

Food safety

"There are also a few yeasts that can produce mycotoxins that harm people if ingested. One such yeast is Debaryomyces, a yeast which you have probably seen, felt, and eaten. Have you ever taken hot dogs out of the freezer, and they felt slimy, but you ate them anyway? That's Debaryomyces causing the sliminess as it actually grows at freezing temperatures at high salt concentrations and produces a nasty mycotoxin that diffuses into the hot dogs. Better switch to macaroni and cheese..."

this quote is from:  http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/dec2002.html

I had no idea that food can spoil in the freezer.  I mean, I won't eat things that have been stored too long in the freezer, but I never heard of this before.

Fimbulwinter

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fimbulwinter

Reading this wikipedia page may increase your climate change vocabulary.

I'm reading this page in my research to connect the Vikings to Iran.  I may be on a wild goose chase.

Curiosity about mild hallucenogens

visions from plants:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entheogen

I don't know why I am interested in this stuff.  Maybe just because it is an example of truth being stranger than fiction. 

I'm not interested in the strong stuff.  I hate alcohol -it destroys not only individual people but generations of their descendants.  But maybe one time in my life I'd like to try "Laughing Gym" mushrooms.

I am very curious about ayahuasca.  There are reports of people who were permanently cured of depression by South American shamen.  Thankfully, I'm not in the market for a shaman just now.

My writing seems stiff, poor quality.  Maybe this will take some time to get used to.  I'll just keep trying.

Medlar Fruit

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graft-chimera

This stuff gets really interesting.  The graft-chimera page is one of my favorite places to start surfing the internet.  I'll save you the trouble of looking up the word, "medlar" ~ a medlar is a rare fruit that will remind you of a crabapple or a pear.

I ate a few medlars while we were in Istanbul.  I don't remember it too well, but I think there was one fruit that was delicious, and the other ones not so good.  I must have eaten the other ones on the wrong day.  I found several medlar trees growing around where we lived.  An expat American friend there says they need to do a botanical expedition to Turkey.  He says that there are lots of rare plants, especially old garden plants, fruits and maybe vegetables.

My plan for this blog is to just work backwards through my notebooks and post anything useful that I have collected.  I think that there's a lot of material that I want to share.  It's going to be all mixed up and random.  I'll try to be brief, and to only post useful or interesting stuff.

Assiut Cloth

I don't know what to write, but I want to share what I found in Istanbul.  I was trying to research nalbinding while we were overseas for my husband's sabbatical.  I did not find any nalbinding in Turkey, but I found some other exciting and high-quality crafts.  One amazing craft that I found is called Assiut Cloth in English, and it's called tel kırma, or Asyut, in Turkish.

I found a fantastic needlework school, just by chance while I was wandering Istiklal Caddesi.  There was a piece of embroidered net/tulle fabric in their shop window, and I eventually figured out that it's Assiut Cloth.  I think that Interweave Press is getting ready to publish a book on the subject.  This could become a new trend in American crafts.

Assiut cloth is very beautiful.  It's sparkles.  It looks to me like it's meant to be worn by fairy-princesses and ballerinas.  But the only references to it that I can find in English say that it is for belly-dancing.  I found it strange that the women who make Assiut Cloth in Turkey seem so respectable.  There must be something here about Turkish culture that I do not understand.

I want to contribute an article to Piecework Magazine about Assiut cloth.  But I do not write.  I mean, I can write but I just don't want to.  I'm not sure if I would even write to save my life.  Mikdat Kadioglu says that I am lazy.  I do not write because I am still angry inside, many years after battles with my parents about homework.  It would be lovely to overcome my emotional problems.

The magazine article is due before 15 December 2012.  I hate deadlines.  I am not writing this article!  But maybe a friend will write something.  I will help translate it.

Assiut cloth is one of several techniques for making cloth of gold.  I used to think that cloth of gold was only in fairytales, but in Turkey it is quite real.

Red clay paint

Recipe for Waterproofing Windmill Sails
from wikipedia/Armenian_bole

10 liters water
0.75 l linseed oil
0.75 l grease
1 kg Armenian Bole ~ an earthy red clay which contains iron oxides and silicates...

The iron in the clay helps resist decay by preventing the growth of mold.  See also falun ocre, swedish red pigment used for paint: prevents wood rot

"l'ocre rend les bois imputrescibles."  -In French this says, the pigment makes it so wood cannot rot.
from www.terresetcouleurs.com/swede.html

memorable food:  herb brined grouse roasted with garlic and juniper berries

next food experiment:  live ferment saurkraut with juniper berries

Thankyou to author Sandor Katz.

my first attempt to blog

say anything + write whatever

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nalbinding/

definition of word, "nomos" =
In sociology, nomos is a socially constructed ordering of experience. The term derives from the Greek νόμος, and it refers, not only to explicit laws, but to all of the normal rules and forms people take for granted in their day to day activities. In this sense it is closer to the use of the term in Plato,^{[citation needed]} than in the more specific sense of the word "law" as a codified set of external rules.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomos_(sociology)