Saturday morning market. 

…includes a rare appearance by the wily red currant. 

Posted at 8:23 am in Detroit life, iPhone |
 

45 responses to “Saturday morning market. ”

  1. Julie Robinson said on July 30, 2016 at 8:46 am

    Beautiful. Just ate a large bowl of fruit that was bursting with flavor; made spaghetti sauce last night with garden veggies; had sweet corn for dinner. Summer life is good.

    Even better, our son has realized the danger of Trump, and is actively promoting Hillary. It’s a big change, and worth celebrating. He’s been doing a lot of reading and research, which is as his mother taught him, and wants political reform. As does his mother, starting with Citizens United. Overturning the NC voter ID suppression is a good start.

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  2. Sue said on July 30, 2016 at 9:19 am

    Just curious, what were the currants going for? I got 2 1/4 pounds off my three bushes and I’m wondering what the little beauties are worth.

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  3. David C. said on July 30, 2016 at 9:48 am

    Great news, Julie. I hope it’s a trend. Just think how many he might flip.

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  4. alex said on July 30, 2016 at 9:52 am

    Good on you, Julie. I wish I had better luck convincing some of these young people, and people of all ages for that matter, that if you look at Hillary objectively you begin to realize the power of propaganda and just how easy it is to follow the herd without thinking things through. It wasn’t so many years ago that my own father told me that allowing gay marriage would make a mockery of marriage and destroy the institution for everyone else. Eventually he did reflect on it and thinks it’s one of the most stupid and illogical arguments anyone ever put forth. I’m happy to report that the scales long ago fell from his eyes as regards Hillary, and also the Republican party.

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  5. susan said on July 30, 2016 at 10:11 am

    I love raspberries so much, but they are so expensive. The first thing I planted in my garden after I bought my house was raspberries. The fellow I bought manure from, and his services of running a rototiller after he spread that stuff around, asked me if wanted some raspberry starts. He was thinning out his plants. Oh, wow, sure! He brought over a dozen twigs with roots. Nine of them made it. After three years I realized I had to deal with the resulting thicket, which was now an expanse of about 10 x 12 feet. Do you know how hard it is to dig out all those nascent bushes of the most delicious fruit, to carve out discernible rows? And then to thin out the new rows? A friend, who is a Master Gardener, came by to show me what to do, how to set up and maintain rows, and to exhort me on the necessity of keeping up. I managed to find homes for eight five-gallon buckets of them…the first year. I ran out of recipients after that.

    All that works. This summer I froze about 17 gallons of them! I have berries all year long. I also eat them for my Mom, who could never get enough of them.

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  6. nancy said on July 30, 2016 at 10:14 am

    I think they were $4/box. I didn’t feel ambitious enough to take them on this week.

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  7. Deborah said on July 30, 2016 at 10:53 am

    We buy raspberries all the time because my husband eats them with granola, yogurt and honey every morning. Sometimes he adds blackberries to the mix. I like it with blueberries better and I don’t have it every morning.

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  8. Kirk said on July 30, 2016 at 10:59 am

    Red raspberries are OK, but black raspberries are far better (and far harder to find). They make great pies.

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  9. Deborah said on July 30, 2016 at 11:03 am

    Julie, great news about your son. That gives me hope that others will do the same.

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  10. Scout said on July 30, 2016 at 11:10 am

    For every person who believes that convention speeches are only preaching to the choir, Julie’s son is a good example of the importance of the convention. For many people, it’s their first introduction to the candidate. For as much as I follow politics, I had no idea of the extent of Hillary’s public service life. I thought the DNC made a great case for not only the top of the ticket, but for the party.

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  11. Sue said on July 30, 2016 at 11:13 am

    susan, we have a combined blackberry/raspberry patch. Last year was a good year for raspberries but rabbits got at the blackberry canes over the winter so the blackberries weren’t much to look at (or harvest). This year thanks to careful winter protection we’re going to get lots of blackberries, but due to a massive area-wide infestation of Japanese beetles the raspberries will probably not do too well.
    Every fall we cut back canes as required and leave them on the lawn for winter habitat, and to dry out for placement at the first spring brush pickup. It makes a nice pile for things to chew on and birds to hide in.

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  12. Julie Robinson said on July 30, 2016 at 11:40 am

    Hey, if Matt could change his mind, there’s hope. And Alex, my mom made the same journey as your dad, and I also don’t think she’s voting R this fall, which will be a first. People CAN change.

    Scout, agree about the convention–one of the best I’ve seen.

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  13. Sherri said on July 30, 2016 at 3:00 pm

    How the Clinton campaign overcame the Deadenders attempts at protest: https://www.buzzfeed.com/rubycramer/why-america-couldnt-hear-or-see-bernie-protesters-during-hil

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  14. Dexter said on July 30, 2016 at 3:38 pm

    I miss gooseberries and gooseberry pie even though I have not had a slice of that pie in about 58 years.
    I am in the mood for a big bag of dark cherries to eat straight down, spitting pits at will. off I go.

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  15. adrianne said on July 30, 2016 at 3:43 pm

    Julie, happy to hear that your son actually did some research and made up his own mind on Hillary, instead of relying on the gossip.

    The Donald is doing his best to alienate even the hard-core Hillary haters. When you attack a Gold Star mother like Mrs. Khan, you’ve got nothing.

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  16. Sherri said on July 30, 2016 at 4:13 pm

    There is no bottom to Trump’s lack of humanity. He’s a black hole of indecency, and anyone who has sold their soul to be in alliance with him no longer belongs in polite company.

    I just found out that another friend from high school who is active in Republican politics in Tennessee is supporting Trump. Both of the friends I’ve mentioned loathe Hillary, believe that a Republican Congress will keep Trump in check, aren’t worried that there are no checks and balances on the nuclear codes, and consider the dangers of a liberal Supreme Court worth the risk of Trump. They both detest Cruz, though.

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  17. Deborah said on July 30, 2016 at 5:03 pm

    My husband’s 97 year old mother is a democrat, and there is only one other dem that she knows in the retirement community where she lives in Charlotte NC. She had been a Republican until about 30 years ago. My husband’s father had been a Republican until he died in the mid 80s. So he probably influenced her to be a Republican and when he died she was free to make her own choices. Unfortunately I think there are many married women who feel constrained to vote the way their husband’s do.

    I’m in Rockford, IL for a family reunion on my husband’s side. I’m seeing a lot of Trump signs around town.

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  18. Julie Robinson said on July 30, 2016 at 7:04 pm

    Deborah, you’re very close to where I grew up in Sycamore. We went to Rockford a lot because back then Sycamore had little shopping and no specialists, but we they also had great theatre. Now I understand the town has big financial issues, racial issues, lack of community spirit, and I’m saddened.

    Boy, I know things have changed but I cannot imagine bending my political views to my husband. I’m lucky because we have similar values, but more than once we’ve cancelled each other out.

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  19. dull_old_man said on July 30, 2016 at 7:05 pm

    Dexter,

    I too have memories of gooseberries. My grandmother made gooseberry conserve every fall–it’s been 40 years since I had it. She used words precisely and said that conserve was jam with the skins and with walnuts. I have grown gooseberries every house I’ve had and usually got a couple of pies a year. I have three or four plants in flower pots on the patio now; I hope they will bear next year. It is brutal work to pick them. The modern thornless ones don’t have much flavor.

    I think it is hopelessly old fashioned to like gooseberries.

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  20. Jolene said on July 30, 2016 at 7:23 pm

    Here is the story of how Khizr Khan came to speak at the DNC convention.

    Last night, Khan and his wife were interviewed on The Last Word, an MSNBC show hosted by Lawrence O’Donnell. It’s an incredible conversation. His eloquence and dignity are breathtaking. Most important, he explicitly calls out Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell. Congress is, unfortunately, in recess, but still, they will have to respond.

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  21. Jolene said on July 30, 2016 at 7:29 pm

    Unsurprisingly, Trump has responded to the Khan family with his usual graciousness.

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  22. beb said on July 30, 2016 at 9:42 pm

    I grew up with gooseberries. To my mind no amount of sugar could make gooseberry pie palatable.

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  23. Kaye said on July 30, 2016 at 10:43 pm

    Gooseberries can sometimes be found at Whole Foods. Recall being surprised to see them there as I had previously only known them to come directly from a bush.

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  24. susan said on July 30, 2016 at 11:28 pm

    Out here in the Great Northwest you can still buy canned gooseberries. I’ve used these to make gooseberry pie, which is about my favorite pie (made with a buttery crust). The berries are so hard to find fresh. I had a couple of bushes years ago, but they crapped out. What a bitch to pick them! An old fellow I new said when he was a kid in SW Washington State, during the Depression, he picked gooseberries to sell. He’d wear a leather jacket and heavy leather gloves and just strip the berries off the thorny canes. You need eye protection, too.

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  25. Charlotte said on July 30, 2016 at 11:42 pm

    I have a bunch of gooseberry bushes — either the chickens got them all this year, or I need to prune them next year, but I love them. Topping and tailing is kind of a pain, but if I get enough I just cook them down and put them through the food mill … gooseberry sauce on vanilla ice cream is pretty fab.

    The chickens also got my red currants this year — next year it’s bird netting! I found a terrific method in a Scandanavian cookbook for just putting them up in sugar and keeping them in the fridge. The few I got were gorgeous on a Pavlova at the 4th …

    I’ve had tough luck with raspberries — they just don’t take. And I put in a couple of black currant bushes for my own kir …

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  26. Sherri said on July 30, 2016 at 11:56 pm

    The Khans respond to Trump: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/muslim-family-fallen-army-captain-responds-trump-shame/story?id=41022064

    Trump’s campaign has issued a statement that says that Mr. Khan had no right to stand in front of millions of people and accuse him of not reading the Constitution. To be fair, the part guaranteeing Mr. Khan’s free speech rights is the same part guaranteeing his free religious rights, so maybe Trump just has a copy missing the Bill of Rights. Or maybe his only has the 2nd amendment.

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  27. Heather said on July 30, 2016 at 11:59 pm

    Julie, my ex boyfriend grew up in Sycamore so I went out there a lot. It’s getting kind of built up with new housing tracts. His father is a corn farmer and has made pots of money. He wants the ex to carry on the tradition but that seems unlikely. His late mom lived in Rockford so we went out there a lot too. There are some pretty parts–a bike trail along the river, and there’s a beautiful Japanese garden. Not surprised about the Trump signs.

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  28. Deborah said on July 31, 2016 at 12:17 am

    My husband’s uncle, the playground donor, lives a couple of blocks from the Japanese garden in Rockford. It is a beautiful place. I was happy to find out that even though they are staunch Republicans they’re not voting for Trump. His wife is voting for Hillary but the uncle has decided not to vote. There were lots of people at the reunion I would guess that about 5 to 10 of the 40 or so will vote for Trump and many of them are republican but not voting or voting for Hillary too.

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  29. Jolene said on July 31, 2016 at 12:51 am

    Two NYT articles re the Khans.

    Earlier today: In Tribute to
    Son, Khizr Khan Offered Citizenship Lesson at Convention

    Now on the homepage: Donald Trump Criticizes Muslim Family of Slain U.S. Soldier, Drawing Ire

    I envision Reince Priebus drinking heavily.

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  30. Dexter said on July 31, 2016 at 3:56 am

    Thanks for the gooseberry feedback. I am not alone.
    Barney Frank and Cornel West and Maher made for lively discussion on HBO.

    http://www.mediaite.com/online/maher-tears-into-cornel-west-for-his-refusal-to-support-clinton/

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  31. Hattie said on July 31, 2016 at 4:40 am

    I love currants and never find them. Lucky you!

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  32. Suzanne said on July 31, 2016 at 8:20 am

    I have never had gooseberries!

    My son, a Bernie guy, was up in the air about how to vote. Not Trump, but he wasn’t a Hillary fan and was seriously considering third party. After watching the convention, he’s in Hillary’s camp.

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  33. Suzanne said on July 31, 2016 at 8:29 am

    It’s interesting that J. D. Vance is getting all kinds of press for his Hillbilly Elegy book. He has a piece in Sunday’s Journal-Gazette’s editorial page which is really very enlightening. It brings me to mind once again an article that I ran across several months ago in a copy of American Scholar from 2005 that I had stashed away an forgotten. We can’t say we weren’t warned, but I guess we weren’t paying attention: https://theamericanscholar.org/the-dispossessed/#.V53tq1f3arU

    Sad, though, that when the same thing was happening in immigrant & minority communities, the reaction generally was, meh. They just need get their collective acts together. Now that it’s hit white America, the outcry is loud & long.

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  34. Suzanne said on July 31, 2016 at 8:42 am

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/07/25/how-the-white-working-class-lost-its-patriotism/

    J. D. Vance piece

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  35. David C. said on July 31, 2016 at 9:32 am

    I overheard this last night.

    Elderly mom: He’s a godly man.
    Middle aged son: You think so?
    EM: Well more than her.
    MAS: Mom, the only time Trump says Jesus Christ is when he misses a putt.
    Long pause.
    EM: When does Tom go back to school.

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  36. ROGirl said on July 31, 2016 at 10:17 am

    I have a relative in California who suffers from Obama Derangement Syndrome. In the past she has cited Fox as her source for the truth about his Kenyan birthplace and Muslim religion. She called me this week and started in on Hillary. I told her I would hang up if she didn’t stop, and she said that other Democrats have told her that.

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  37. Jakash said on July 31, 2016 at 1:26 pm

    In the FWIW department, the Fort Wayners? ites? ians? among the nn.c commentariat may or may not be interested to read this Travel article from today’s Chicago Tribune. In the print edition, it was headlined: “Midwest’s best-kept secret?”

    Have to disagree with this, though: “No one goes to Chicago via Fort Wayne.” Uh, people like me who’re too, shall-we-say “thrifty” to pay the exorbitant tolls on the respective toll road and turnpike, not to mention the outrageously overpriced Chicago Skyway, go back and forth from Chicago to Ohio via Fort Wayne regularly. Well, if you count that by-pass to the north as being Fort Wayne, anyway…

    “The town’s most revered attraction — the grave of nonstop tree planter Johnny Appleseed — is still here. It’s probably a fake.” Well, there’s a ringing endorsement! : )

    Anyway: http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/travel/midwest/ct-fort-wayne-indiana-tincaps-travel-0731-20160718-story.html

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  38. MichaelG said on July 31, 2016 at 1:27 pm

    I’ve never had gooseberries but I’ve had goose bumps.

    Brian, have you heard about Bernie Ecclestone’s mother in law being kidnapped?

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  39. Jolene said on July 31, 2016 at 2:28 pm

    David Von Drehle has a scary theory about how Trump could win in a wave that no one will see coming.

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  40. David C. said on July 31, 2016 at 4:36 pm

    I don’t really buy it, Jolene. I doubt it was planned. I think Trump is a toxic fuck-up and couldn’t do any better. This an ex post facto explanation of why it was such a dumpster fire.

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  41. Deborah said on July 31, 2016 at 4:48 pm

    Yes Jolene, while I’m not ready to say it will never happen. It seems unlikely. Wouldn’t it be easy to test by counting how many new voters are registering Republican? Or registering anything? The article said that California added a million but who are they? Hispanics? Seems like there would be good data on that.

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  42. Deborah said on July 31, 2016 at 5:05 pm

    TPM has an interesting take on Trump trying to wiggle out of the debates http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/no-certainty-debates-will-happen-at-all

    We are having a fabulous afternoon in Chicago, sunny but cooler and less humid. Lots of boats out on the sparkling, deeply colorful lake.

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  43. brian stouder said on July 31, 2016 at 5:56 pm

    MichaelG – I saw stories about that, and know not what to think.

    Bernie is the guy who – if someone kidnapped him – the case would have dozens of credible suspects, all around the world. He’s screwed people out of their money in every time zone.

    Given that he ALWAYS plays “heads-I-win, tails-you-lose” tactics, it wouldn’t be completely surpriseing if he’s orchestrated this whole thing himself…!

    Aside from that, I hope no harm comes to the woman

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  44. Sherri said on July 31, 2016 at 9:08 pm

    Josh Marshall gets it right again; not only is Trump a terrible person, he’s a dumb terrible person, and that combination is really dangerous.

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/understanding-the-trump-khan-war

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  45. Sherri said on July 31, 2016 at 11:22 pm

    Ryan and McConnell should just come up with a form statement.

    is not reflective of the fundamental values of liberty and patriotism we hold as Americans. should be honored for their service to our country.

    Unsaid in statement: yes, we’re still supporting Trump, because we’re moral cowards, but come on, you already knew that.

    The supporters of Trump who aren’t white supremacists and uneducated white men seem to be making a calculation that if he were elected president, Trump could be controlled by Congress. Given that none of those people were able to exert enough control over the primary process to keep Trump from becoming the nominee, what makes them think they’ll suddenly be successful? Ryan is in his position because Boehner couldn’t control the Tea Partiers in the House, and Ryan was reluctant to take the job because while he isn’t as smart as the media likes to paint him, he was smart enough to recognize that he wouldn’t be able to control them either. Do they really think the Tea Partiers will keep Trump in check?

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