Winter Sucks

[fooferdoggie]

Oaks can be really slow to drop their leaves.

 

[PedalUma]

Oaks can be really slow to drop their leaves.

Most oaks around here are evergreens and around early October they drop thousands of acorns. Ducks waddle up from the river to hang out under the trees to wait for a nut to fall and then to swallow them whole. They will do that all day to fatten up for the Winter. They are very cute and I would never harm one, but I will bet that like prosciutto all those acorns would make for a tasty smoked duck.
Another thing that gets swallowed whole are gophers. The egrets come up from fishing and go out in the fields. When they see a gopher move they stab it and toss it in the air and gulp it down.

 

[DaveMatthews]

Feeling a tad peckish? Gopher it!

 

[stompandgo]

This place it truly weird. Winter is a combination of Fall and Spring. This photo is from today of a white oak. It is next to a crabapple in full bloom.

View attachment 206758

I love my quarter-sawn white oak floors.

 

[stompandgo]

Oaks can be really slow to drop their leaves.

Around here, the spring buds push out the last of them.

 

[PedalUma]

Feeling a tad peckish? Gopher it!

You get what you get when you gopher it. Bill Murray could have used one in Caddyshack. There is a dog park that has gophers. It looks like dogs are in prayer when they watch a hole with total devotion.

 

[stompandgo]

Most oaks around here are evergreens and around early October they drop thousands of acorns. Ducks waddle up from the river to hang out under the trees to wait for a nut to fall and then to swallow them whole. They will do that all day to fatten up for the Winter. They are very cute and I would never harm one, but I will bet that like prosciutto all those acorns would make for a tasty smoked duck.
Another thing that gets swallowed whole are gophers. The egrets come up from fishing and go out in the fields. When they see a gopher move they stab it and toss it in the air and gulp it down.

I have a several hundred year old oak in my back yard. I had it heavily pruned back because it started to grow over my roof. The thing used to put out so many acorns. The squirrels went nuts. This year it's about half as many.

 

[DaveMatthews]

The squirrels went nuts.

Sounds about right...

 

[PedalUma]

People would eat acorns here. It took a leaching process to get rid of the tannins. It is sort of like making olives. Squirrels bury nuts yet have imperfect memories. That plants more trees to help their great grandchildren. Did you know that squirrels eat baby birds? Tons. The best dog toy ever was a squirrel tail, attached to an oak stick.

 

[kevinmccune]

Your opinion of America was clearly shaped by your hosts.

a) You ate at an all-you-can-eat buffet. That is the low bar for American restaurant food. It is often populated with Americanized ethnic food like "Italian", "Mexican", and "Chinese". You might as well had gas station sushi.

b) Plenty of "typical American hotels" offer breakfast, everything from help-yourself buffet to full service. You could have had a wonderful American breakfast, two eggs the way you like them, bacon, toast, and home fries.

c) Whatever "touring boat" on the Potomac you were on was obviously not equipped to serve good food. I could take you on a boat cruise of the Cape Cod Bay, where they serve one of the best cold lobster rolls anywhere in America.

Your host screwed you. That's not an exclusively "American" thing.

I have never and will never eat lobster! the karma associated with boiling something alive( otherwise no,hell no!)

 

[kevinmccune]

People would eat acorns here. It took a leaching process to get rid of the tannins. It is sort of like making olives. Squirrels bury nuts yet have imperfect memories. That plants more trees to help their great grandchildren. Did you know that squirrels eat baby birds? Tons. The best dog toy ever was a squirrel tail, attached to an oak stick.

Squirrels equal"tree rats"! you mash the acorns and soak them in a creek in a burlap sack.

 

[kevinmccune]

Hopeless.

don't bother with "potted" meat its pink slime! yech PM takes me back to my elementary school days,no ,money for the 4 cent carton of milk and cold biscuits smeared with potted meat, yech!,

 

[stompandgo]

I have never and will never eat lobster! the karma associated with boiling something alive( otherwise no,hell no!)

You don't need to boil or steam lobsters alive. You take a sharp paring knife and drive it through the shell into their brain. Instant, painless death. Then you boil, steam, or grill them in the shell.

 

[PedalUma]

Lobsters are insects and are rare in the Pacific where they have claws that are only about 6mm wide. But we do have Dungeness crab. You eat it with melted butter and sourdough, with a crisp unoaked white. Maybe I am insensitive but they are underwater spiders and also delicious. Sea otters eat them, why not me?

 

[6zfshdb]

We have lots of them here on the east coast.
I pass them on the trail all the time. Rarely on an e-bike though. They don't need one since they have 4 pair of legs.

 

[RunForTheHills]

I don't eat crab or lobster. It's a personal preference.

 

[6zfshdb]

I don't eat crab or lobster. It's a personal preference.

Yes, Lobster is liked by many, but not by all. Some say it's an acquired taste. I had a girlfriend that ordered lobster whenever we went out to dinner. I asked her once if she really liked it that much. She said no, she only ordered it to show others how sophisticated she was. Go figure.

I'll eat it on occasion, but to me, the mild flavor isn't worth the high prices. Personally, when it comes to seafood, I much prefer clams, shrimp and mussels.

The Maine lobster has quite a history here in the east. They were once so plentiful that they washed up on New England beaches. They were fed to prisoners & servants back then, and the local indigenous people used them for fertilizer. They wouldn't eat them though.

 

[stompandgo]

I grew up by the water and was introduced to seafood at a very young age. I tore apart my first lobster when I was five years old. Same goes for shrimp, crab, clams, oysters, and scallops. I get it that a lot of people don't like seafood, or are allergic to it. It's not for everyone. More for me.

Commercial fishing is still a viable industry on the Cape. We can get everything listed above fresh off the boat. Prices vary during the season, but you don't have to spend a fortune to make a good seafood meal. If you think North American lobster is expensive, try stone crab out of Florida or Alaskan king crab. Lobster is dirt cheap compared to those two.

I hold a residential shellfishing license in my town. This winter has been very sparse for fishing, because you cannot shellfish when the air temperature is at 28 degrees F or below. It's starting to warm up now. We get one or two days a week to fish, and I will be out there soon. Maybe this weekend.

 

[Gionnirocket]

Yes, Lobster is liked by many, but not by all. Some say it's an acquired taste. I had a girlfriend that ordered lobster whenever we went out to dinner. I asked her once if she really liked it that much. She said no, she only ordered it to show others how sophisticated she was. Go figure.

Common dumb b_atch... a friend of mine's wife was the same. I'd jokingly ask her if she felt as sophisticated when dinning on boxershort eel and squirt shrimp.

I'll eat it on occasion, but to me, the mild flavor isn't worth the high prices. Personally, when it comes to seafood, I much prefer clams, shrimp and mussels.

I concur. So many more seafood choices that taste better and don't require work for tiny flavorless chunks that need to be drowned in butter. Give me some sea bass, flounder/sole or a sword fish, tuna steak any day.. just to name a few. . That said I pretty much refuse to cook it in the house and save it for dinning out or the barbecue. Visiting a sea side town makes for the best experience.