Author Archives: maryjane

Picture this…

Sandra Bullock riding a bicycle with a chicken on her handlebars.

I mean, hey, who hasn’t done that? (Confession: I haven’t, but I want to now.)

Most of us chicken lovers can’t claim super-celebrity status (outside of our own households, anyway).

Photo by Angela George, CC-BY-SA-3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Photo by Angela George, CC-BY-SA-3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

But fame hasn’t stopped Sandra from sticking to her farmgirl roots.

She tells it like it is.

And, according to a recent article in Vogue, chickens are IT.

“Back in California, she keeps chickens named for comediennes: Carol Burnett, Wanda Sykes, and a Phyllis Diller, until she was revealed to be a rooster and rechristened Phil Diller,” reveals interviewer Jason Gay.

Rest assured, her California chickens are not a flight of fancy. Sandra has a history with hens, a longstanding rapport with roosters …

“When I was like 12, I had a chicken named Colonel Sanders and he was not a chicken chicken,” she told Dennis Hensley a few years ago. “He liked people. He would stand on the top of your handlebars while you were riding your bike through the neighborhood.”

Can’t you just see it now?

Something a bit like this:

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Photo courtesy of Nana & Baba

 

 

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Chicks n’ Chaps

Chicks n’ Chaps, a rodeo event to fundraise for the fight against breast cancer, was held a week ago in Lewiston, Idaho, and oh boy (like oh BOYS in pink shirts!) was it a fabulous event.

I had a previous engagement, so I sent my food photographer, Ace, and graphic designer, Saralou, and they came back with lots to show and tell …

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There was posing with the cowboy voluntees. Many of whom were riding, roping, and bulldogging in the night’s events.

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Lots of great swag was given out. I sent along my MaryJanesFarm water bottles (with pink writing!) to be added to the list of great goodies.

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DIY High Fructose Corn Syrup

When I first saw this, I scratched my head and wondered … why?

Well, what I’m about to show you may not be at the top of your Christmas list,

but it has a certain novelty all the same.

Take a look:

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Photo courtesy of Maya Weinstein via Co.EXIST

Your eyes do not deceive you.

This lovely wooden case indeed contains an undeniably artisan make-your-own high fructose corn syrup kit.

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Photo courtesy of Maya Weinstein via Co.EXIST

It includes hard-to-find ingredients such as Yellow Dent #2, glucose isomerase, and sulfuric acid.

Nope, you won’t find those in the baking aisle, girls.

This kit is more “chem lab” than “kitchen.”

You’re wondering, too, aren’t you?

Why on earth would I want to make this sordid sweetener?

As you may have guessed, this is more of a tongue-in-cheek affair, but it doesn’t come without a dose of seriousness.

“The Kit provides the user with a way to directly interact with an ingredient that is typically only produced in large-scale factories behind closed doors,” explains designer Maya Weinstein. “The kit allows everyone to be a citizen food scientist and take control of the mysteries behind industrial food production.”

See what I mean?

Weinstein says that her kits could be used to educate both kids and adults about how processed foods are fabricated, while simultaneously satisfying the mad scientist in us all. “It’s really meant to show you something that you don’t already know—what industrial products are made of.”

It might make a crafty Christmas gift after all!

Weinstein is also contemplating a cookbook with recipes for other industrialized ingredients like food dyes and MSG. Watch her unconventional cooking show below. Do you think it has a chance on the Food Network?

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Hear Ye!

Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)

Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)

My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Sherrilyn Askew!!!

Sherrilyn Askew (#1350) has received a certificate of achievement in Garden Gate for earning an Intermediate Level Heirlooms Forever Merit Badge!

“Thirteen of the 20 different plants I grew in my garden this year were from heirloom seeds. As I am harvesting this year’s crop, I am saving a sample of seeds from the best of the plants. My goal is to eventually have seeds from plants that grow well in the Pacific Northwest and are prolific. My chosen reference for this project is “Seed to Seed” by Suzanne Ashworth.

The latest 104This book has been invaluable in my quest for heirloom seeds that will do well in our growing environment by helping me to understand what characteristics I need to look for in each plant and what environment each plant needs in order to produce such as temperature ranges and number of hours of light or dark. My tomatoes, broccoli, kolrhabi, and other heirloom plants turned out to be super performers!!!!!”

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Gnome Homes

Well, after years of being snubbed in jolly old England, it’s no wonder that a handful of red-capped garden residents might find pleasing refuge in the unsuspecting green spaces of Overland Park, Kansas.

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Photo by Sassy Gardener via Wikimedia Commons

The Midwest is famous for its hospitality, after all.

But who are these mysterious immigrants?

Perhaps we’ll never know.

They aren’t answering their doors …

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Photo courtesy of KSHB.com

According to news network KSHB in Overland Park, “Gnome homes are popping up all over the city.”

That’s right, gnome homes.

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