Weather: I knew we crossed a seasonal barrier this week when the sun’s rays began coming into my northeast facing windows in the morning. I’m not sure what’s happening in the Pacific ocean, but no moisture is crossing Baja and moving our way. The result has been high temperatures and winds, with any moisture in the air coming from the ground and plants.
Last snow: 4/13. Week’s low: 34 degrees F. Week’s high: 87 degrees F in the shade.
What’s blooming in the area: Bearded iris, blue flax
Ten days after morning temperatures plunged to 15 degrees, the apples and lilacs were beginning to bloom. Then, the afternoon temperatures rose into the middle 80s, and buds died. It’s a period when plants still are greening, but none of the plants that normally bloom at this time of year can stand the mid-summer heat.
What’s blooming beyond the walls and fences: Alfilerillo, western stickseeds, tansy mustard, fern leaf globe mallow, green leaf five-eyes, flea bane, goat’s beard, common and native dandelions, June, rice, cheat and three-awn grasses
What’s blooming in my yard: Spirea, tulips, grape hyacinths, lily of the valley, chives, vinca, wintered-over pansy, coral bells
What’s emerging: Sandbar willow, black locust, catalpa, Virginia creeper, grapes, ostrich fern, onions, baptisia, lamb’s quarter, perennial four o’clock, Maximilian sunflowers
Bedding plants: Snapdragons, pansies
Tasks: One person has successfully started a vegetable garden. Onions and other plants, possibly lettuce, were up in furrows on Friday.
I started to plant seeds last Saturday and noticed an ant in the bed. I turned my head, and saw lots of hills in my drive. It was obvious I was doing things in the wrong order. The next day I poisoned the hills. Monday I resumed planting seeds. Yesterday, I noticed new hills had appeared.
Animal sightings: Calico cat, two rabbits, chickadees, house wrens, hummingbird, gecko, bumble and small bees, hornets, crickets, ladybug, sidewalk ants, earth worms
Baby grasshoppers were active in the patch of tansy. Tanacetum vulgare crispum is supposed to repel certain kinds of insects like ants, mosquitoes and Japanese beetles. [1] Obviously its useful properties don’t extend to grasshoppers.
Weekly update: I was taken by surprise by the panic buying that began when people first heard about coronavirus. I suspect, in a kind of self-fulfilling behavior, some people stocked up on dried foods like pasta and rice. Then, reporters commented, and more people rushed out to buy what was left.
By the time I realized there could be a rice shortage, there was. Amazon was sold out of the organic brown rice I normally buy, and essentially had delisted it. All I could get was organic white rice from the same grower.
The variety I buy comes from California, but most rice in this country is grown in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. [2] These are states that have been slow to respond to the threat of the coronavirus pandemic. Fortunately, most of the work now is done by machines.
The prime rice producers in the international market are Thailand, Vietnam, and India. The primary customers are China, India, and other parts of southeastern Asia. [3] Thailand is recovering from a drought, [4] while Vietnam and Cambodia have banned exports. [5] This created more demand for American-grown rice in the international trade.
The current supply is low. Dwight Roberts of the Rice Producers Association, said there’s "virtually nothing left" for commodities brokers "to trade." However, he said crops are being planted now, and there’s some expectation that "there will be a large amount of acres planted in 2020." [6]
Rice is planted in March, and harvested in September. It’s then threshed, dried, and milled. [7] This year’s crop probably won’t be available until October.
I looked at my credit card records, and saw that I buy it about every five months. I last got some the end of January. I’ll have none left by the end of June. Then it’s four months until the new crop comes into the market.
I’ve always heard white rice is less nutritious than brown. With the prospect of months of white rice ahead, I decided to find out exactly what that meant.
The difference between the two is that the husk and embryo germ are removed from harvested rice. They contain all the vitamins and minerals. However, it’s the white part that contains the protein, which is why I eat rice.
My body probably won’t notice the change in nutrient levels, since I take a multiple vitamin and other supplements each day. The nature of the protein is a greater question.
Back in the 1970s, I read Frances Moore Lappé’s Diet for a Small Planet. She made clear 22 amino acids make up the proteins used by our body, and that we must ingest 8 of them simultaneously for the body to use them. [8]
Since no food contains all eight — eggs come the closest [9] — one needs to eat several foods at the same time. [10] Thankfully, she provided tables that listed complementary pairs. Rice was combined with lentils. [11]
I looked again at the book. It suggested that while brown and white rice might chemically contain the same amount of protein, 70% of the brown rice protein actually could be used by the body, while 57% of the white was available. [12]
What to do, when organic brown rice is not available. A little rice has returned to the shelves and Amazon’s catalog, so one could use non-organic rice. I’m already dealing with arsenic that lands of the plants from the groundwater used for irrigation. [13] I have no idea what other chemicals I might confront from non-organic growers in the South.
The alternative may be eating corn or wheat, which also can balance the amino acids in legumes. [14] That may be why I’ve taken to eating wheat crackers after I finish my lentils and rice at night.
I thought many of the people who bought up the rice in this country probably didn’t normally eat it, and would throw it out when they felt more secure about other sources of food. I even thought, rather snarkily, they probably didn’t even know how to cook it, and would give up after a few disastrous meals.
It turns out, I don’t know how to cook white rice. As I said, I was scheduled to exhaust my reserve of brown rice early this summer. A couple weeks ago, I started using one measure of brown and one of white, instead of two of brown when I cooked it in the same pot with the lentils. That would introduce some deficiency sooner, but postpone the more serious problems until later.
Apart from the fact the brown and white probably are different strains, white behaves differently. It absorbs more water without the husk. Then, more sticks to the bottom of the pan, and won’t come loose until it’s soaked. While that might mean more food for the bacteria in the septic system, I suspect most of it would get caught in the twists in the plumbing and have to be dislodged by some chemical.
On the other hand, some oil or starch or combination of the two in brown rice creates an invisible film on the bottom of the pan. It often takes more than scouring to remove. The white, once I get the surplus out, leaves a clean pan.
I’m slowly getting the proportions right. The time I tried adding a bit more water, the pot boiled over and I had to clean the stove top. Instead, I’ve learned a little less of the measure works. But, of course, that’s less rice.
The unintended consequence is I have to make sure I don’t lose weight. White rice actually has fewer calories than brown, [15] even though it takes up the same amount of space in the pot, and more on the plate.
Notes on photographs:
1. White Parrot tulip, 3 May 2020, after I cleaned the bed.
2. Same tulips, 11 May 2020, when the bed was filled with David phlox and purple coneflower stems from the previous year. I never had a clear view of the flowers.
3. Monique Lemoine lilac, 3 May 2020. The white flower buds that promised to open were blighted by the heat.
End notes:
1. Wikipedia. "Tansy."
2. Matt Shipp. "Rice Crop Timeline for the Southern States of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi." United States Department of Agriculture, Integrated Pest Management Centers website. 1.
3. "Rice." Trading Economics website.
4. Dwight Roberts. "Rice Market Update: Coronavirus + Planting New Crop = ???" Ag Fax website. 12 March 2020.
5. "Cambodia To Ban Some Rice Exports Due to Coronavirus. Fact Box website. 30 March 2020."
6. Roberts.
7. Shipp. 63. I could find out much on the delays between reaping and shipping to customers, but didn’t get the impression it was long.
8. Frances Moore Lappé. Diet for a Small Planet. New York: Ballantine Books, 1975 edition.
9. Lappé. 78.
10. Lappé. 66–67.
11. Lappé. 110.
12. Lappé. 107.
13. Michael Matthews. "What 14 Studies Say About Brown Rice vs. White Rice." Legion Athletics website. Despite the flippant writing style, this actually contains some useful information.
14. Lappé. 110.
15. Matthews.
No comments:
Post a Comment