Author: Lisa

Diffing two strings

Yes, I know md5sum has a “-c” option for checking the checksum in a file … but, if I was going to screw with a file, I’d have the good sense to edit the checksum file in the archive!

 

#!/bin/bash
#STRFILE=dead.letter
#STRCHECKMD5=5f3748d9c653b78c9ee7559acd423652
#STRMD5=`md5sum $STRFILE`

STRFILE=$1
STRCHECKMD5=$2

STRMD5=`md5sum $STRFILE`

diff -s <( printf '%s\n' "$STRCHECKMD5 $STRFILE" ) <( printf '%s\n' "$STRMD5" )

It’ll either output the file hash and the hash to match (a problem) or indicate the files are identical (a good thing)

Discard the soaking water

Every recipe I’ve ever read for soaking and then boiling dried beans says to discard the soaking water. None ever explained why, and I figured you were kind of cleaning the beans as you soaked them. Throw out the dirty water, get clean water, and boil ’em. Turns out that beans — even fresh from the garden, which you are waaaaay more likely to eat without boiling for a while — contain a toxin. A gastrointestinal purge kind of toxin. Phytohaemagglutinin, or pha … and some of it comes out in the soaking water (so throw that stuff out) and the rest is neutralized by boiling for at least ten minutes. This seems like really important information that’s missing in the whole “discard the soaking water” statement.

That’s a hard “no” on shelling some fresh beans from the garden and eating them as you walk around the yard. Also — cooking kidney beans with chili in a slow cooker? Bit of a risk.

Maple Blueberry Jam

Maple Blueberry Jam

Recipe by LisaCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Easy

Ingredients

  • 5 cups of fresh blueberries

  • 1/4 cup lemon juice

  • zest of one lemon

  • 1/2 cup maple syrup

  • 1 tsp cinnamon

  • 2-4 Tbsp tapioca powder

Method

  • Add blueberries, lemon juice, zest, and maple syrup to pan and heat over medium heat.
  • Add cinnamon and stir. Add tapioca and stir.
  • Heat for about 20 minutes. Transfer into jars and seal.

Switchel (a.k.a. haymaker’s punch)

We made switchel today — it’s a quick drink to cook up, but it takes a while to cool off. A couple of cups of water in a pot, add in a cup of maple syrup and 1/2 cup of grated ginger (we used a large microplane grater). Simmered it for ten minutes, then pulled out the ginger pulp and drained it into the pot. More water was added to make one gallon of water, and a cup of apple cider vinegar was added. This cooled it off enough that it could be transferred into a container and refrigerator. When serving, we add extra water because it’s a little powerful and not well balanced. Next time, I think we’ll use the same ingredients but get close to 2 gallons of water.

Keepin It Rural

There’s a movement in my community to “save” it — save it from developers who see hundreds of rural acres as the perfect place to make a load of money building and selling homes on small lots. And probably save it from people who move into a development surrounded by hundreds of rural acres and want to complain that cow poo smells bad — not something I’ve heard of here yet (which could just be that no one’s said it to me), but a friend of mine lived in a development that overlooked a scenic dairy farm. People bought into what almost amounts to agrotourism in my head — look at that pretty chuck of Americana over there. And you get to live right next to it! Aaaand then some people from the development tried to get local regulations changed to stop dairy farming because, well, animal poo does stink. Luckily Ohio has right-to-farm laws that protect farmers in these types of situations — unless you’re really outside industry practices and have an especially stinky farm, you don’t get shut down just because the development that moved in next door doesn’t want to smell cows.

It’s one thing to buy a couple hundred acres of your own and not develop it. Easy enough — don’t develop it! It’s another think altogether to buy two or three acres and not want any of the surrounding land to be developed. Not impossible if you are lucky enough to pick up property next to a park or something. But a tough ask when surrounded by other residential homeowners. Which is why I think a bigger part of the movement is an attempt to protect rural areas from mass agro. I don’t think many farmers approaching retirement actively want to sell their couple hundred acres to a developer. What they want is to cash out millions of dollars from their land to fund their retirement. An understandable desire. Many farmers I know would love to have kids that are interested in taking over the farm after they retire. But the reality that I see within small-scale farming is having a second job to pay for the farm. Maybe my experience if skewed because I work in IT — it’s a field that’s great for contract work, so people can work a few contracts during less busy farming seasons and focus on the farm in spring and autumn. But I don’t know anyone who literally makes their entire income from farming. Retired people who make extra money farming. IT folks who subsidize the farm. There’s a chap we follow on YouTube who left an architectural firm — they seem to live on their farm proceeds, but I don’t actually know him.

My point being? I think a big part of sustaining rural communities has got to be changing how we shop for food. Changing how restaurants source food. If some mass agriculture company grows corn on ten thousand acres and sells it at four bucks a bushel … we’ve got to value the small rural farmer enough to be willing to pay maybe six or seven bucks a bushel that provides a sustainable income for the farmer. That would also create an environment in which farmers who want to retire would have people who look at purchasing the farm as a viable small business opportunity. Instead of a developer being the only realistic option — seriously, who wants to be destitute in retirement so someone else can enjoy a couple hundred acres of undeveloped property!?

 

Hazelnuts!

Our hazelnut bushes are finally growing the male part of the flower that comes out in the Autumn! Fingers crossed, we’ll be harvesting hazelnuts this time next year. It’s been seven years since we planted the bushes, but deer and rabbits chomped them down to little nubs the first year they were planted.

Saving the Bees

Our bees have been invaded by hornets — I don’t think we’ll have a hive much longer, but we spent the day blasting hornets with soapy water trying to protect the hive. A few of the honey bees came over to snuggle with us. It was a really cool experience, holding the little honey bees right on our fingers and letting them perch on our shoulders like really silly pirate parrots.

Buttermilk Corn Bread

Buttermilk Corn Bread

Recipe by LisaCourse: SidesCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Easy

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup salted butter

  • 2/3 cup sugar

  • 2 eggs

  • 1 cup buttermilk

  • 1/2 tsp baking soda

  • 1 cup cornmeal

  • 1 cup all-purpose flour

  • 1/4 tsp salt

Method

  • Preheat oven to 375 F and grease an 8″ square pan
  • Melt butter. Stir in sugar. Add eggs and beat until well blended. Combine buttermilk with baking soda and stir into butter mixture.
  • Add cornmeal, flour, and salt. Blend until well mixed (may be a few lumps remaining). Pour into prepared pan.
  • Bake 30 – 40 minutes.

Garlic Butter Rice

In the pressure cooker pot, melt 4 Tbsp of salted butter. Add in 6-8 cloves of garlic (cut into small chunks). When you can smell garlic, add 1 1/2 cups of long-grain white rice and stir around to coat with butter. Add 2 1/2 cups of broth and pressure cook on ‘high’ for 3 minutes. Allow to rest for ten minutes (natural steam release).

Ingredients:

  • 4 Tbsp butter
  • 8 cloves of garlic
  • 1.5 cups rice
  • 2.5 cups broth