Tangerine: A Book of Hours

4:25 PM, Powder blue skies, hyacinths and daffodils, cool water, laundry, Dovetail Joint, and one sore foot. A pretty piece of time on a Thursday afternoon...

I’m planning on running in the Race For The Cure. A 5k race that raises funds for breast cancer "screening, education, research and treatment". Now this should be interesting because I’ve never run in anything before and, frankly, don’t run a lot at all, in any situation. But I’ve been scampering on a treadmill on and off since the beginning of the year -- so maybe I won’t keel over a third of the way through the event. This Monday I did 3.2 miles on the treadmill -- and also managed to hurt my left foot somehow. It feels better today, however, so I should be able to go for the run that my brother suggested we try Saturday morning.

The Race For The Cure is on Mother’s Day, May 9th, and I’m looking forward to it. My brother Joel (who is a far better runner than I) and his friend Tatiana are going to run as well, and so are some other folks that I know. It’s a good cause and I hope that the weather holds up...

This is the kind of day where you want to be blurring down a wide-open road with the top down, a pair of shades and the radio on. Wind in your hair, sun in your face and a your sweetheart by your side. If the weekend is like this I’m going to feel as bright as a searchlight.

I once saw a band at a club called The Headroom, down in Myrtle Beach. The music was so loud that the billiard balls were shimmying on the pool tables.

This fine shine is making me shimmy too.

I love it.

--- JWR, 4/8/99

Posted by The Allurium at 2:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

6:25 PM, Friday evening. All right, I give in: I have Spring fever...

RealAudio entry #5 (73K)

--- JWR, 4/2/99

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Posted by The Allurium at 2:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

4:53 PM, Thursday evening. Five miles south of Lancaster, PA, just off of a gracefully curving country road, lies the Easterhaus family farm. Their primary crop is certified organically-grown jelly beans and, man, until you’ve tasted them you don’t know what you’ve been missing...

Most of the jelly beans that you see in stores are grown on large corporate farms based either in Minnesota or Holland. They typically produce bountiful, uniform crops, but often at the expense of taste. The beans grown on smaller family farms can lack the vivid coloration and symmetry of "corporate" jelly beans -- but they more than make up for that with delectable flavor.

And don’t forget freshness: at the Easterhaus farm (especially at this time of year) they have "pick-your-own" days where individuals and families routinely take to the glimmering fields and harvest their own jelly beans. It really is a good time. The foliage of the jelly bean plant is soft, vivid green, and stringy (the plastic green filler usually found in Easter baskets is modeled after the actual jelly bean plant) and the pastel-colored beans themselves are quite easy to pick. "Pick your own" day is also the perfect time for the Easterhaus family to inform their customers about the surprisingly versatile nature of their favorite crop.

As with grapes, the wide array of healthy compounds found in blue, purple, and in some red jelly beans has already been widely publicized in the national media. What is less well-known is how flexible a food the beans actually are. After personally tasting Mrs. Easterhaus’s "Jelly Bean Gumbo" I can say that the bean is definitely under-used in the kitchen. Also, jelly bean cider (pressed from the skins of green and white beans and fermented in sugar-lined oak casks) is a taste experience that you will not soon forget.

So, if you get the chance, try a bag of organically grown jelly beans this Easter -- you’ll love the difference. And if you want more information on organic jelly bean farming, you might want to consult the AOCF’s (Association of Organic Confection Farmers) excellent website at: http://www.organicjellybean.com (they get swamped with hits at this time of year, though, so keep trying if their server is temporarily down).

--- JWR, 4/1/99

Posted by The Allurium at 2:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)