eggplant lessons

August 25, 2001

Adopt these cats at Merrimack River Feline Rescue Society

This Year's Bird List:
Plum Island Bird List

Today's Reading:
The Birds of Siberia: To the Petchora Valley by Henry Seebohm

This Year's Reading:
2001 Book List

Today's Starting Pitcher:
Frank Castillo

Photos:

Dimitri

Sunshine

Yoda

Today's walking buddies expedition heads for a local farm stand. They sell vegetables and fruit from their micro-farm hidden away in the woods where the developers of the million dollar houses haven't noticed them yet. What's even weirder than the fact that there is still a farm left in Priscilla's neighborhood, is that it's on the honor system. You weigh your produce on the scales provided and write up the total on a piece of paper (provided along with pencil) and leave the money and the note in a locked box. Sometimes on the weekend one of the people is there to answer questions and make change.

Rita wants an eggplant. There are three different kinds. Which to buy? There's big purple ones like I usually see in the supermarket, long skinny ones that look like curvy purple zucchinis and round ones shaped almost like pumpkins but with the most magnificent pale purple shading on pure white skin. One of the big purple regular kind is shaped exactly like a Mickey Mouse head with those outsize ears. The farmer gives us free eggplant lessons. Of course, I have now forgotten which ones were to be cooked which way because I was only half listening. I do however sample her husband's eggplant recipe: baked and marinated in olive oil and vinegar and a teensy amount of garlic. It is delicious but does not convince me to buy any eggplants as I know I won't have time to cook them before they turn gray and mushy.

The farm stand also has a "free stuff" table full of bruised fruits and vegetables that are fine but not salable. I find a plum so ripe it must be eaten today. Tomorrow will be too late. I eat the plum and get juice all over my shirt but it's worth it.

On the way back to Priscilla's house we discover two new giant mushrooms, though none as big as the original organizing mushroom of our cult.

Despite not really having time for it, I decide to go to the cat shelter to pick up my snail mail, copy data from the whiteboard, and take pictures. There are a few new cats this week so the URI must have run its course. Yoda is just so cute I'd adopt him in a heartbeat if I thought Wilbur would tolerate a rival. He won't though. So Yoda will have to find somebody else who thinks he's adorable. He was all over me when I tried to take his picture, purring and head butting and rubbing against me. I think he likes me. Dimitri is magnificently fine. I think he might be a pure bred Russian Blue. What's a cat like Dimitri is doing starving in the street is a mystery to me. Did he wander off? Did he hitch a ride? Surely nobody would deliberately abandon him. Sunshine and her kittens came in while I was there. She gave birth to her kittens at her foster home and now they are all ready for homes. She's gorgeous and the kittens are like a rainbow coalition - orange, calico, gray & white... She's barely bigger than her kittens. She must be pretty young herself.

I am thrilled to find out that Bianca has been adopted. She's the one who came in with those yucky frostbite booboos and used to hide under the sink. She was getting really friendly with Roy just before I left the Wednesday morning shift, so she must have transferred that trust to other humans and picked one for her own. Kiara got adopted too. Another long timer. And of course a host of kittens. There are always a host of kittens. Please spay/neuter your pet.

Back at home, the mail arrives. A letter from Jean at the refuge informs me that 26 piping plover chicks fledged on the refuge this year. For thirteen pairs, that's replacement rate. This is fantastic. I don't know what the numbers are nationally, but this is a banner year for us. This brings us much closer to a stable sustainable population. Yay fledglings!