Loyal CvilleBuzz reader, Chuck Strauss, read my piece on Tomato Blossom End Rot last week and offered this advice. “Although I no longer have a veggie garden, I found that putting eggshells into the ground where and when we planted tomatoes helped prevent the rot—because the commercial stuff I had gotten did not work. I had started collecting the shells and kept them in plastic … [Read more...]
Look What I Caught
It’s shaping up to be another terrific year for Spanish mackerel. One of the tastiest of all saltwater fish, there was a time when the “Macs” stayed strictly in ocean waters, mostly in the Carolinas, but they began slowly inching up into the Bay. Now, they are plentiful along the western shore of the bay and up into Maryland waters. Spanish mackerel fishing is just plain good. Drone … [Read more...]
Curb Service
How do young people meet these days? There are no drive-ins! Not only are there no more drive -in movies, there are no drive-in restaurants. No place to circle the parking lot looking for girls – or boys. Boomers look back nostalgically at the days when a young lady called a carhop would take your order for a frosted mug of A & W root beer and an order of fries. You gave her two … [Read more...]
Coneflowers: Add a Bed of Beauty
My wife Nancy has spent a lot of time working in our yard and it really shows. She has watered and weeded regularly and keeps things trim with her edging and weed eaters. Throughout the yard, her flowers and shrubs are lovely. But the ones I believe both of us are proudest of are the wildflowers she planted around our birdbath. They were perennials and are flowers like you would … [Read more...]
Things Daddy Told Me
Almost every day, I remember something that my Daddy told me. Pearls of wisdom if you will. I’ll share this one. “Son, you better learn to cook because some day you may marry a woman who doesn’t know how.” As usual, he was right, and that’s good advice. … [Read more...]
Gone: Finally!
The plague on my yard is gone. The grackles have finally flown the coop. They arrived back in March this year, earlier than ever. And they came in droves – 20, 30, 40. Then they thinned down to a couple of dozen and ate most every speck of decent bird food I put out. I hate ‘em, and I can’t afford to feed my backyard friends and them, too. I would put out a $4 bar of peanut suet and they … [Read more...]
Blossom End Rot
Rats! It happens every year. The first few tomatoes look great on top but have a big black bottom. They call it blossom end rot. It’s like the tomato plants need a little practice to get it right. One cause of blossom end rot is a lack of calcium. Calcium is taken up into the plant through the roots, however, it settles in one part of the plant. This means that the rot can occur even … [Read more...]
A Genuine Cast Iron Chicken Fryer
Recently I had the opportunity to cook with a cast iron skillet. I fried some bacon and eggs for a friend, and they turned out perfectly. The pan was over 60 years old and well-seasoned. The eggs did not stick, and the bacon cooked nice and crispy. But the skillet was a different shape. It had higher sides. It was 10 ½ by 3 ½. The bottom read “Chicken Fryer”. I had to have one and … [Read more...]
Big Things in Small Packages (Fluvanna Ruritan)
It’s a small impoundment by normal standards. Only 50 acres. Fluvanna Ruritan Lake, however, is no stranger to large fish. It is estimated that there are over 300 largemouth bass in the lake that are 15-inches or more and quite a few over 20 inches. The little lake that could is located near Palmyra in Fluvanna County. It happens to be owned and operated by DWR, and as such, biologists are … [Read more...]
Mama Ida’s Fried Corn Bread
Mama Ida was a second mother to me. When my father was shot down and killed over Burma in WW II just a few days before I was born, my young mother went home from the hospital broken hearted and most distressed. Her mother, Mama Ida, pitched in and cared for me like her own son. In fact, she was the first I called “Mama”, but they quickly changed that to Mama Ida. My wonderful, sweet … [Read more...]
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