The not-so-perfect Storm

I guess it was inevitable; extreme heat for a few days will spawn a thunderstorm. We had one last night. It started at about 8:30 PM and it was an extreme storm. High winds and plenty of rain. It came down in buckets. We watched it from our sun-room and it was scary—like a tropical storm. To top it off the power went out shortly before 9:00 PM and didn’t come back until 3:30 AM. Apparently, 35 000 Hydro customers lost power. This morning about 17 000 still had no power.

Electric power for us is important and not just for the lights. The Air Conditioner doesn’t work; the fridge and freezer don’t work. And in this heat it is crucial to have them working. In addition for us we have no water, because we have a well, which means we can’t use the toilet. We also have to worry about our sump pit filling up and running over. For that I actually do have a generator which would power the pump. Unfortunately, the well pump is 240 Volts. Our generator produces only 115 Volts.

This morning we surveyed the damage the storm left behind and it wasn’t a pretty sight. One of our lilac bushes had broken off and the worst was the Mountain Ash Tree, our pride and joy. The storm had broken it and that tree can’t be replaced. It had already so many beautiful berries. The birds love them, especially the Robins. Also, much of our yard was covered with broken off willow branches. The place looked like a war zone. Now we have all this work to clean up. I already loaded up one truck with branches to take to the dump. Another disappointment: All our apples are on the ground. No apples this year. And I was looking forward to getting some. We only have two Goodland trees and one old Battleford tree, which also got split in half by the last storm we had.

The vegetables in our garden have been flattened, but they are resilient and are already lifting up. Today is another hot and muggy day.

Just one corner of our yard. Branches everywhere.

Chanterelles

We are in the middle of a heatwave. Today it is 34 C plus high humidity. A killer combination. This morning I spent a couple of hours in the garden doing more weeding. With the rain we’ve been having, the weeds are growing profusely and are taking over. My garden is not as weed-free as I would like. The heat, the humidity and the damn mosquitoes—what a combination to make life miserable. I didn’t spray myself but I wore a mosquito net, which makes your face even hotter. Even though, those critters keep buzzing around you looking for a way to get you. Anything close to your skin like a sweat drained shirt they find and their stingers are long enough to poke into your skin.

After two hours of sweating and pulling weeds I felt exhausted and had to quit. My face was red and my shirt wet from perspiring. Water never tasted so good and the cold shower felt like having died and gone to heaven. Better than those 72 virgins the suicide bombers expect to meet after they blow themselves to smithereens. (Sorry, couldn’t help myself! Stupid beliefs like that just confirm that a majority of people on this planet are morons. Good riddens!)

Before I went into the house I still managed to pick the first beans of the season. This is the time of season where we don’t know what to eat first. We have Kohlrabi, we have Kale, we have Swiss Chard. All those wonderful fresh vegetables.

Yesterday I went searching for mushrooms. I was after Chanterelles. We used to go to a place about 30 years ago, but then we sold our cottage and built one in Ontario, where we found new spots with mushrooms. But that is nearly three hours away. Too far to drive. So yesterday I went back to this place from 30 years ago. It takes me 45 minutes to get there from our house. I found it again, even though the area has undergone drastic changes in those 30 years. Many old conifers have been cut down to make way for younger trees, which meant many wonderful mushroom producing spots are gone. The fewer spots the more pressure they get from mushroom hunters. The road into the forest wasn’t any better than I remembered. It might even have been worse than 30 years ago. It took me 14 minutes to driver 3 km. My truck jumped constantly like a boat on high waves. I am surprised I didn’t get seasick.

I was lucky to find and pick about 2/3of an ice-cream pail full. Plenty mushrooms for my wife and me. We ate some last night. What a culinary treat. You can’t get them in any restaurant I know of. Not here in Winnipeg. I bet if you find them it would be in a place that charges exuberant prices and you wouldn’t get many mushrooms in a meal. Not Chanterelles.

Searching for mushrooms or blueberries is not for anyone who doesn’t enjoy it. In fact, you have to love it. I do. You can’t be bothered by the bugs, the heat, the humidity or even the cold. I love the forest but the forest doesn’t love me. As soon as I enter the forest I feel a pressure building up in my neck. It’s like a vice. It’s my old bones and the arthritis. I’ve had problems with my neck ever since I injured it 1979. My head also feels the pressure. The forest is telling me to get the hell out, but I’m as stubborn as a mule. The forest or Mother Nature will have to bring out much bigger guns to discourage me.

When you find the mushrooms it is such an exhilarating feeling. That orange/yellow color on the forest floor is a wonderful sight. Now, you don’t pull them out. You have to cut the stem below ground and leave the rest for more mushrooms to grow. Unfortunately, they don’t always come out nice and clean, but that’s okay.

I also managed to find a nice bowl of blueberries, but there were not many there. It may still be too early.

The forest did finally get to me after 4 hours of searching and picking. The humidity, the heat, and the bugs won out, but I was happy. I had enough mushrooms for a couple of good meals. As mentioned, we ate some yesterday, fried with onions and accompanied by left over boiled potatoes with gravy. And to celebrate we drank a glass of aged Chardonnay. A feast! Not even 72 virgins can top that. Oops, there I go again!

Tonight we’ll eat headcheese with plenty of raw onions. My wife made it a couple of days ago from pork hocks. Another culinary feast! Can it get any better?

 

Surviving the Heat

Summer is finally here. We’ve waited so long, especially after all that rain we’ve been having. Now I’m not so sure if I am excited over the arrival of sunny and hot weather, because it is hot. 32 C outside and 32 C in our sunroom.

My wife and I are getting over a cold. Summer colds are no fun; difficult to get rid of. If you stay in the heat you suffer because of the sweating and if you go into an air-conditioned place you may get your cold back because you are sweating. Where we got this cold we don’t know. Who can we blame? Many times we get colds from our grandchildren, but this time it could also have happened at the funeral we were at last week. Funerals are sad affairs and it would be appropriate to walk away with a cold. It also possible we got it while eating out. But we are getting better.

Yesterday I felt pretty good and had a steak for supper, with a baked potato, steamed mushrooms and corn on the cob. And let’s not forget the beer I drank. A feast for a King (and Queen—my wife had a steak also). Well, this universe we live in is a trickster. Last night I barely slept because of the nauseous feeling and the lump in my stomach. Nothing is ever truly enjoyable.

Today I made a soup. We still had turkey bones in the freezer. I added a couple of chicken thighs and plenty of vegetables. Even used some of the Kale I’m growing in the garden and my own parsley. When my wife boils broccoli she doesn’t throw away the liquid. We save it, put it in the freezer and I use it for my soup instead of just plain water. It’s like a broth, but I still have to add spices. I don’t really have a recipe. I sort of just put everything together like a dash of this and a dash of that. I don’t add any salt. That comes later. If the taste isn’t strong enough, sometimes I add a carton of Chicken broth, again also later.

Speaking of broth. I’ve been reading in recipe books and on the internet how to make broth. They always cook the vegetables and then they disregard the vegetables and use only the liquid. What a waste! We throw nothing away. The vegetables end up in the soup.

We don’t throw much away. If it is usable we keep it for another day. It is probably our upbringing. We grew up during and after the Second World War and food was scarce. We were happy with anything we had and our parents made due. Nothing ever got thrown away. So many people today, especially in Canada or the US, would never survive the conditions we lived through. When I see all the waste in restaurants or other places I cringe. Also, many people don’t know how to make good-tasting meals with few ingredients. Perhaps they’re also too lazy to bother. They’d rather go and buy readymade unhealthy foods instead of making their own. Soups are the easiest to make and they are always good and healthy. Also cheaper than buying cans. There really is no excuse for not cooking your own food. You can find all kinds of recipes on the internet or just buy a cook book.

I enjoy making soups. Especially on a hot day like today. Also, it gives my wife a break. I told her to get out of the kitchen and just relax in the sunroom while I ‘slave’ in the kitchen making soup. Washing and cutting and slicing the vegetables is grueling work and I need the whole counter for that. I admit sometimes it gets a bit messy, but I always clean up after. By the way, we have a pressure cooker and you don’t have to simmer the soup on the stove for hours like in the old days. Once the soup boils then it takes about 15 minutes until it is done. Wonderful invention these pressure cookers.

Today, I don’t know who got the better deal—my wife or I. While she relaxed in the sunroom with 32 C, I spent a couple of hours in the air-conditioned kitchen where it was a comfortable 24 C.

While we were sitting in the sunroom, we got a small thunderstorm and it rained quite a bit. Fortunately, no hail, but the temperature dropped about 4 degrees, which made it more bearable sitting here.

We had a couple of bowls of the soup for supper. My wife is always the one who cleans the meat from the bones, which we discard. We eat the meat. We also add rice to our bowl and have a good meal. This soup tasted delicious, one of the best I’ve made in a long time. Of course, I haven’t made soup for quite some time. I didn’t have to add any spices. The soup tasted great the way it was, right out of the pot. I must say: I am a Soup-Smith.

Enjoy the Summer.

I’ll be back.