Container Gardening

On Thursday April 10th I attended the Container Gardening at the Oshtemo Public Library.  The presentation started at 3 and unfortunately I had to leave at 3:30 because I had to work at 4.  However, in those 30 minutes I did learn a lot of new information.  The woman who did the presentation was named Linda and she does a lot of work through MSU and she is also the coordinator of the master garden program in Kalamazoo.  She began the presentation by asking people if they had any questions that way she could see if she would address them in the presentation or not.  Next, she talked about Ornamental edible containers.  The key to a good edible container is that you have to grow something you like.  If you don't like the fruit or vegetable then you might not take care of the plant.  Also, what ever edible you decide to grow you need to figure out how much space and light it needs.  You can grow edibles in very little space if needed as long a they have enough sunlight and water.  Many of the edibles need a minimum of 6 hours of sunlight.  Edible plants need an inch of water a week.  When you plant an edible you should think about this.. is their water easily accessible.  You don't want to have an edible container in a spot far away from water because then you will have to deal with carrying the water a long ways or messing with a tangled hose.  Some negatives of edible containers is that they might get too much water or not enough water.  Too much water will cause rot, mold, mildew, and death to the plant.  Not enough water could cause arrest to the plant and stresses it out.  With containers you also need to make sure they have an escape route for water.  A rain barrel is a good idea for plants too!  Check this out   .

      

The restaurant I chose to visit was Zooroona.  Zooroona is located off of West Main st. in the Tiffany's Village Plaza.  I don't remember if this was one of the restaurants on the list Allen gave us, but when I looked up Mediterranean restaurants in Kalamazoo this one caught my eye.  I visited Zooroona during lunch time and that was probably a mistake because they were super busy.  I asked my server if he could tell me more about the restaurant like the background and where the family came from, but all he said to me was I apologize, but i'm too busy... so I kind of just left that alone, guess that's what I get for going on a Friday during lunch rush hour.  Luckily, they do have a website that gave me some background.  The Mandwee family comes from the Middle East.  They immigrated to Michigan in the 1980's and started Tiffany's wine and spirits.  Tiffany's grew into one of the favorite places to go for great wine and exceptional specialties.  With the love of their store the brothers decided that they wanted to bring a Mediterranean restaurant to Kalamazoo and that's how Zooroona began.  Zooroona means "come visit us" in Arabic.

The dish I decided to order was a Specialty plate called Spiced Beef with Figs.  I chose this dish because I haven't ate a fig so I wanted to try that and also I knew I liked beef.  Therefore, if everything else was terrible at least I know I would eat the beef.  This dish also had diced apricots and its served with saffron rice.  When I got my lunch it looked very delicious I wasn't a big fan of the figs, but everything else wasn't bad.  I really liked the saffron rice which surprised me because I hadn't tried it before.   I would recommend that everyone should go and try this restaurant especially because on Saturday's they have a belly dancer! Who doesn't want to see a good belly dancer haha.   

Global Warming and food

I am happy that Allen had Dr. David Karowe come into our class to present the topic of global warming and food.  When I first found out that he was going to come to our class I wondered what exactly he would cover...  By the time he was done presenting I was depressed.  The Earth is getting warmer and warmer and that is not good. According to Dr. Karowe's slide about the January 2014 temperatures, a lot of places besides Michigan had record warming for January.  Also, I can't believe that the estimate of current warming is 95% caused by human activities!  I knew we were doing things that weren't good for the Earth, but I didn't think it was that bad!  However, I am glad that Dr. Karowe told us that there is a glimmer of hope though.  For example, he said we could start by buying a more fuel efficient car and using more solar, wind, and hydro power.  I did a speech on solar, wind, and hydro power and learned a lot about it.  We don't use these power resources nearly as much as we should. They could help save us so much energy and lessen how much fossil fuel we need to burn.  My dad has been looking at getting a smaller windmill to generate energy at our house.
                  By 2050 if things continue to get worse, the US soybean and corn may decrease by 20-25%.   Even worse, by the year 2100 they could decrease to 55-60%.  This worries me a lot.  However, like Dr. Karowe said "The future is in our hands".  Our generation can make a difference, but it will take all of us to make the change to help better our Earth.      

Video games and food

First of all I wanted to say that I really enjoyed the presentation on food and video games that Casey and Joe did on Wednesday.  The part about Grand theft auto was very interesting.  I haven't played any of the grand theft auto games before so I had no idea what to expect.  It's ironic that in the video games they have actual commercials like it is real life.  The ones about the elections were pretty funny.  Anyways, I decided to write about Burger Shot and Cluckin' Bell.  Like Casey already said these two commercials are clearly making fun of Americans for our terrible eating habits and our obesity.  However, I think that the Burger Shot one is specifically on the game to show us that eating to much fast food a.k.a. garbage cause have us end up in a hospital.  The burger that is called the bleeder..... really??  and then it gets worse.. when I saw the 6lb. heart stopper my jaw about dropped.  I can't even imagine trying to eat a burger or any meal that is 6lbs.   In this commercial they show someone calling 911 because he ate so much crap he had heart problems...I wonder why?!  This commercial is a warning to everyone.. If you eat to much greasy fatty food you may have a heart attack and die!      

The Cluckin' Bell commercial was just as terrible.  This commercial bashes America for all the crap we put in/ do to our chickens to make them bigger and more juicy.  Watching this commercial made me not want to eat chicken again...Obviously that didn't happen, but I did give it some thought.  It is incredible that we put so much stuff in the chickens so that they have bigger breasts.  I think that this commercial could also be a warning to not eat so much chicken because of all the junk that gets put in them to fatten them up.  The things we do to our meat is nasty, but yet we all still eat it.   Maybe one day this will all change.... or at least I hope.

Once again good job Casey and Joe!    

  

End of Nectar in a Sieve

The rest of this book was pretty good.  Nathan is approaching 50 and gets rheumatism with high fevers which make him weak.  Nathan is unable to tend to the land leaving Ira and Ruku to do the best they can.  Unfortunately, they don't do nearly as much work as Nathan did.  Kenny the doctor watches over Nathan, but he says he is only getting weaker because he doesn't eat much.  Somehow Nathan starts to make a miraculous recovery, but then things take a turn for the worse. Rukmani comes home to Sacrabani hiding in a corner looking at Nathan who Rukmani thought he had just had another one of his attacks again.  However, it wasn't an attack Sivaja had made a surprise visit to tell them that their land has been sold to the tannery.  Selvam says he will take care of his sister Ira and nephew Sacrabani, but he doesn't have anything to offer to his parents.  Rukmani and Nathan have no other choice but to leave.  They leave the rest of their family behind.  They only have 16 rupees

and get on the bullock cart until it can't take them any farther.  When the cart stops they are faced with three streets to chose from and have no idea which one will lead them to their son.  They find someone to ask about where their son is and unfortunately they are 15 miles away from the road they need.    After walking for several miles they get directed to a temple that provides food and shelter.  They are relived that they will actually have a nice place to rest for the night.  When they wake they begin to walk again and Nathan wants to splurge and use their money to buy food.  Rukmani finally agrees and goes to grab the money tied to her only to find that it is gone.  In a panic they return to the temple where they had laid to rest, but they money is not there.  They have no choice but to continue on their journey.  With help from several gracious people somehow they finally make it to their sons house.  However, when his wife answers the door they are informed that he left her about two years ago and never came back.  Things get worse, they become regulars at the temple and get used to the cruel words that are spoken of them.  Nathan ends up dying which was devastating for Ruku.  I couldn't imagine losing my spouse after everything they had endured together.  Somehow Ruku still manages to pull the pieces of her life together which amazes me. This book really showed me how intense life could be and how easy I have it.  

Nectar in a sieve continued

As I continue reading things Rukmani is facing even more problems.  At this point in the book she is worried that they won't be able to harvest the season's rice because they are so weak from having no food.  The paddy won't be ready for another three weeks which makes things even worse because they don't even know if they can make it that long.  Their sixth son Kuti has a rash all over his body that Rukmani worries about.  Luckily, somehow he gets better and she finally is able to sleep at night.  Unfortunately, while Rukmani is sleeping she wakes up to hear an intruder (or so she thinks) most likely coming to steal what littlle they have left.  Rukmani goes outside in a rage to try and see the intruder.  Rukmani is so tired and hungry she just loses control and starts beating the intruder.  Nathan comes outside and pulls Rukmani off the intruder and starts yelling at Rukmani because the intruder was actually their daughter Ira.  Most of Ira gashes came from the glass bangles she was wearing which worries Nathan and Rukmani because a piece like this usually come from prostitution.  When Nathan gets home from the fields one night he sees Ira all dressed up ready for the night, ready to sell her body.  Kuti leaves before the rice season which is unfortunate because this year the harvest is splendid.  The family not only has enough food for themselves, but also to sell.  We get the happy news that Ira is pregnant.  However, although the news is happy she has no idea who the father is since she has been selling her body.  Her mother tries to defend Ira to Kenny, but Kenny said he knew that she would turn to "streetwalking" so the news of this didn't surprise him.  Nathan

doesn't really seem to give much input on this matter except for a baby is a baby. Sometimes I think the way we view children varies quite a bit from people like
Nathan and the rest of their village.  For example, a baby in their village would be another mouth to feed, but also another worker for the harvests.  Still at the end of this section Rukmani has a positive attitude.                

Nectar in a Sieve (1-15)

The story starts out with a woman talking (Rukmani) about the present although her story will be in the past. She talks about how she wishes her husband was still alive and with her.  She has three children, but technically only two of them are actually hers.  She had a daughter and a son named Selvam.  The other child is a boy named Puli who has no fingers.  Her son Selvam works in a hospitcal with a man named Kenny.  She is now an old women and talk about how her father was a headman in her village which his job became less important when the "collector" began to change things in the village.  She was the youngest of four daughters.  Her parents didn't have the money to afford good dowry

so they best they could do was marry her to a tenant farmer.  Even though she was matched with the farmer she says that she is happy with him.  She got married at the young age of twelve.  Nathan is her husband and he is described as caring and gentle.  As the story goes on she tell us how she helped Kunthi give birth to her child.  Rukmani returned home to her husband who was mad at her because she herself was pregnant and shouldn't put herself or the baby in danger.  Since she is pregnant she now has the time to do non work like read and write which is something her gather taught her.  Her husband finds Rukmani clever because she can read and write.  She gives birth to a baby girl named Irawaddy.  They love their daughter very much and so does Rukmani's mother.  Her mother even makes the long ride just to see her. This is before they have their son.  When Irawaddy turns six Nathan and Rukmani start to worry that they will only have one child.  She prays with the women of the village that she will have another baby Around the same time her mother gets sick and starts to die from consumption.  After learning about several other sad events that have occurred in the first 15 chapters I am surprised with Rukmani's positive attitude she still has.  I look forward to reading more :)