Sunday Letter: 09.16.18

Dear Sunday Letter readers,

Are you kidding me? September is half over and I’ve done nothing. Well, I finished painting our little cottage. I worked on my next article for Front Porch Magazine. (Thank you Arkansas Farm Bureau for allowing me to write my regular Delta Child column.) I pulled weeds and planted some lettuce and vacuumed the downstairs.

Yesterday, I watched football. Looks like I’m gonna need a new fall sport. And that’s all I have to say about that.

Optimistic Fig

Several times each day while walking Lucy and Annabelle, I walk past a certain fig tree. No matter the season, I notice the figs. In early spring, tiny nodules sprout and begin to grow. Throughout summer, they plump and grow larger. But they never seem to have enough time to ripen. Just before maturity, as long as I’ve lived in Fayetteville (four years), our first hard freeze leaves them withering on the vine.

Without fail, they try again the next season.

This September, they look extra healthy. They’ve begun to blush and smile and turn toward the sun. Maybe this will be the year they fully ripen on the vine?

Whether or not they will, it’s too early to know. But each day, I admire their quiet determination and optimism. And as silly as it may sound, this fig tree always gives me hope and reminds me to keep plugging away at whatever I’m doing.

Razorback fans need figs. If you know what I mean.

And by the way, a fig is not a fruit but an inverted flower. Figs bloom inside the pod after being pollinated by fig wasps. How cool is that? Until recently, I knew nothing about the fascinating fig and wasp story. If you’re curious to know more, click HERE.

Things Momma Says

I’ve blogged before about the funny things Momma says. Today I bring you Things Momma Says—FOOTBALL EDITION. Honestly, I should never worry about running out of things to write about. I could simply follow Momma around for a few hours and have enough material for a book filled with both wisdom and humor.

Just a sampling:

Well, if you think about it, football is a stupid game! (Baylor / Duke 1st Quarter)

The head coach needs to GO! He’s not supposed to stay around forever! (discussing the Dallas Cowboys)

I may just quit watching football altogether. (Arkansas / N. Texas 1st Quarter)

Bonus points if anyone can guess where this?picture was taken…

Raise your hand if you think What Momma Says should be a regular Sunday Letter feature?

Insect Hotel

Check this out. At the Denver Botanical Gardens, insects have their very own hotel.

They have several, actually.

Next thing you know, they’ll want free wi-fi.

Really, I’m not making fun. I think these structures are both clever and decorative for the garden. Insect hotels are one way urban areas are repaying beneficial insects and pollinators for lost habitat. Solitary bees nest inside holes drilled into wood.

Before you run out and build one out of that pallet taking up space in your garage, read THIS article by The Entomologist Lounge. If your hotel isn’t designed and maintained properly, you could do more harm than good to the bees.

I’m thinking about adding one to our garden. Goodness knows we have enough wood scraps and bamboo for nesting material. I wonder if fig wasps would stay over between pollinating journeys?

Old As What?

My friend Debby Rogers shared a Facebook post from her friend Renee Strickland who posted a Twitter response from @midlifemixtape to an original Tweet from @ThatEricAlper. (Clear as mud?) The post is so stinking fun I thought I’d keep it going here at Grace Grits and Gardening.

The point is: share how old you are without using numbers.

Here are a few of the answers I saw online that made me ?:
– looking at microfiche at work to find files years old.
– watched Star Wars at the drive-in from a VW bus years old.
– this is your brain, this is your brain on drugs years old.
– singing “Like a Virgin” while being a virgin years old.
– $5 of gasoline meant something years old.

So you want to know how old I am?

I’m listening to the radio all day long trying to hear my favorite song years old.
I’m Donna Osmond and David Cassidy posters on the wall years old.
I’m party-line telephone years old.

You get the idea?

Now it’s your turn. Add your “age” in the comments…

School Kitchen Tip:

Recipe No. 118: Fruit and Nut Paste

Take equal parts of best raisins, dates and figs and half as much nuts, remove the seeds from the raisins, the stones and scales from the dates, the stems from the figs, and the shells from the nuts; the brown skin also if almonds or peanuts are used. One variety or a mixture of nuts may be used. The nuts should be ground through the fine blade of the meat chopper and then rubbed with a pestle to a paste; the raisins and dates also should be minced fine, and if you want it especially nice you may rub the figs through a sieve fine enough to keep back the seeds. Mix all very thoroughly, then turn it on a board in a bed of confectioner’s sugar, and knead it until firm enough to roll out. Roll part of it one half inch thick and cut in half-inch cubes with a sharp knife, and part of it one-fourth inch thick, and cut in rounds with the smallest pattie cutter. Dip the roller and the cutter in the sugar to prevent the paste from sticking. Roll the cubes and discs in the sugar until well covered, the put away in a cool place, with confectioner’s paper between the layers. These will keep some time in air-tight tin boxes. (The School Kitchen Textbook, Mary J. Lincoln, 1917)

Alrighty. This week’s Sunday Letter is a wrap. On to fall, y’all!

Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

[tweetthis]Sunday Letter time! Along with figs and insects, a special football edition of What Momma Says. #SundayMorning #gracegrits[/tweetthis]

Musical Pairing:
David Cassidy, I Think I Love You