Eat Nutria – not?
No, Nutria is not an artificial sweetener, or a new meal delivery company. It is a rodent species, called Nutria.
Apparently, these rodents, known as Swamp Rats and a gustatory delicacy in Louisiana, are eating native plants and crops, burrowing through levees and river banks, causing erosion, increased sedimentation and levee failure in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and Central Valley. So they want us to eat them, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
“They” is the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which says Nutria taste like rabbit or the dark meat of a turkey. These South American gobblers they want us to gobble are about three feet long from nose to tail, and have yellow buck teeth and pokey fur. Pretty tantalizing, eh?
And just to make these guys more tempting, they can carry pathogens and parasites, including tuberculosis and septicemia, tapeworms and other water carrying problems.
Meanwhile, in the same March 10 edition of the Chronicle, Tara Duggan had a story saying that Gene Hackman’s wife, Betsy Arakawa, died from hantavirus pulmonary syndrome that one can get from rodent urine or droppings.
Bon appétit, my friends!
Free Sunflower seeds
Sonoma Mission Gardens is again giving away packets of Sunflower seeds to grow sunflowers, the national flower of Ukraine, to show support for Ukraine. Kaniv is Sonoma’s Sister City in Ukraine, where many locals have visited and raised funds to send an ambulance to the area.
According to SMG, “Our hope is to blanket our town with these beautiful flowers as a reminder to keep our thoughts and hearts in the forefront for the people of Ukraine.
“The packets contain fertilizer and Sunspot dwarf sunflower seeds, which grow to two or three feet. Plant them after April 1, in the sunniest place in your garden where you can easily care for and enjoy them as they grow. Planting depth 1 inch to 2 inches.
Instructions include the request, “Please water them every day and take that time to say an affirmation, prayer or positive thought in support of our fellow man and woman.”
Again, the seeds are free.
See Sonoma Mission Gardens’ manager Lydia Constantini’s advice on growing your own food below.
Artisan Cheese Festival this weekend
The California Artisan Cheese Festival happens this weekend around Sonoma County. Get tickets for all sorts of events and cheese tastes.
Some of the tours include Balletto Vineyards, Hog Island Oyster Farm, Gowan’s Apple Orchard & Cider, Beehive Cheese, Longboard Winery, Pt. Reyes Farmstead Cheese Co., Nicasio Valley Cheese Co., Marin French Cheese, and Valley Ford Creamery & Café.
Saturday brings a seminar and discussion of cheese pairings, guides to sensory cheese exploration, workshops at HopMonk tavern in Sebastopol, Balletto Vineyard in Santa Rosa and Bacchus Landing in Healdsburg. And there will be a “cheese crawl” at The Barlow in Sebastopol.
Sunday, March 25 is the big Artisan Cheese Tasting & Marketplace ($69 adults and $30 kids admission), and Clark Wolf, cheese expert and KSRO radio host, will tell stories of the cheese vendors and new products at the Marketplace during an event called Bubbles & Bites.
There will also be a new Beer and Wine Garden, and an Author’s Corner Book Signing Event courtesy of Copperfield’s Books.
For more information and ticket prices go to artisancheesefestival.com/tickets. Some events are sold out.
Soroptimists’ Southern Boil April 12
Have you been staying home, unsure of the future? Here’s a chance to get out, have a great seafood boil dinner and see some old and new friends.
Soroptimist International of Sonoma Valley will host a Southern Boil dinner on April 12 at the Vets Building to raise money for women scholarships to further their economic and professional interests.
Chef Sean Paxton will cook crab, prawns, sausage, potatoes, and corn, all emptied onto the table so you can pick and choose your favorites, plus southern side dishes of real red beans and rice, and maybe even a peach cobbler dessert. Two bottles of wine are included with each table of eight. Early Bird pricing of $110 through March 30, then $130. Call (510) 557-7025 or go to givebutter.com/soroptimistboil2025 for tickets.
What’s up with tariffs?
Jerry and I co-taught American Politics and Government every other semester for seven years in Canada, namely at the University of British Columbia and the University of Victoria, and wrote and presented a paper called, “What A Difference A Border Makes” three times to the International Political Science Association that happened to be in Quebec City. Currently I serve on the Advisory Board of Canadian Studies at U.C. Berkeley.
President Donald Trump’s threats and tariff purposes seem unclear, but they range from stopping fentanyl imports and bringing back jobs, to forcing Canada to become a U.S. state. Add to that Elon Musk’s threats to obliterate Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and it makes sense that people are hesitant to spend money. When we don’t spend money, prices (and inflation) go down. So last Wednesday inflation went down and Trump declared a triumph – of creating so much uncertainty that people are crippled economically?
Eggs are becoming more available with prices ticking down by pennies because new flocks of healthy chickens are maturing, not because of some government action.
President Trump’s on again-off again economic war, threats, grabs, and tariffs against China, Europe, Panama, Greenland, Gaza, Mexico, and Canada hardly seem to help Americans or anyone else in the foreseeable future.
While he sends more troops to Panama and Greenland, we wonder if Trump sees himself invading Canada to make it his “51st cherished state.
Canada’s province-owned liquor stores have taken American whiskeys and wines off their shelves. Grocery stores that wrongly mark food products as “Canadian made” when the fine print says “Made in USA” get boycotted. When Canadian shoppers find an American product on a shelf, they turn it upside down along with those like it to warn other customers not to buy that item.
Social media postings abound listing Canadian products to substitute for American products, and trips to Costco across the border and buying Teslas are socially forbidden. Canadians are cancelling vacation trips to the U.S.
When President George W. Bush imposed a 29 percent import tax on Canadian lumber in 2002, Canada simply found other markets in Asia and elsewhere to sell their products. Now they can sell their high protein wheat, soybeans and other legumes, tin, crude oil, and lumber elsewhere as well. President Trump insists “We don’t need anything Canada has.”
At the request of the now late Helen Benziger, Jerry and I helped the British Columbia legislature draft and pass a bill that allowed some American wines to be imported and actually be sold in private wine shops, which had not been the case before. No more American wine sales, due to Canada’s response to Donald Trump’s economic torcher to accomplish his goal of making Canada an American state.
We are hearing from family, friends, and fellow professors in Canada that it will take “at least a generation or two” for Canadians to get over Trump’s insults and disrespect, and that relations may never be the same. Other than wanting what other countries have and trying to threaten them into giving it to him, we wonder who and what does all of this help?
President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico, a U.C. Berkeley alum, seems to have placated Trump for now. Trump Tariffs on avocados before the Super Bowl seem to have got his attention, but Mexico doesn’t have the same rare earth resources that Trump wants elsewhere.
Meanwhile, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s meeting with top executives of PepsiCo, W.K. Kellogg, General Mills and other companies to eliminate artificial dyes and chemicals from foods they produce is admirable. Might those elements in foods that make them artificially colored and seemingly better tasting contribute to autism, vs. vaccines? Just wondering.
And if you get the measles, Secretary Kennedy recommended “chicken soup and cod liver oil” last week to cure them. Many physicians say there is no cure for measles.
Help us feed our hungry neighbors
The new federal budget cuts funds for school breakfasts and lunches and food banks via the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement and the Local Foods for Schools programs. Redwood Empire Food Bank was receiving about 47 percent of their funding from these Biden-era programs, which enabled them to sell food at large discounts to non-profits, such as Sonoma Overnight Support (SOS).
Starving people around the world are cut off by Trump’s closing of USAID, which punishes the American farmers who have been growing food for years to supply school food programs and USAID recipients. What will any of them do?
Grow your own food – it’s more important than ever
But first an idea: How about everyone with a vineyard, farm, or even home garden grow a row of food to share with the truly hungry people of our valley. There are plenty of people happy to help glean (pick) these vegetables as experienced volunteers, including Rotary of Sonoma Valley. And I will gladly help organize this effort.
Lydia Constantini of Sonoma Mission Gardens is here to tell us how to grow our own food. Lydia says “spring planting is still a ways away here in the Sonoma Valley. We are all tempted, but we still have occasional rain, and our last frost dates are April 15 (tax day) to May 1.
“You Can’t Fool Mother Nature! If you plant your summer vegetables too soon,” she warns, “ beware. The ground temperature must be warm for these crops to survive and thrive and, if we have a frost, which is not uncommon, kiss those Early Girls goodbye!
“Instead spend your time now enhancing your soil with well composted organic matter so you are ready when planting time arrives. You will be well rewarded with robust fast growing crops. You often gain nothing by planting early.
“If you want to plant by seed, start your seeds six weeks before you set the plants out – think peppers, tomatoes, eggplant. These seedlings must be protected inside in a warm sunny environment or in a greenhouse.”
“Remember: good soil, good water, good fertilizer and good care makes a good garden grow.” Get more info from Lydia at nursery@sonomamissiongardens.com 851 Craig Ave., Sonoma. (707) 938-5775.
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