Monday, September 28, 2009

Sour Grapes


Well that's the last time I grow heirloom plants. What a disastrous year. Rot before they're ripe, cracked crowns, yellowing and dying leaves, flesh-eating alien zombie robots from outer space and the future. You name it.


But boy the few I had (and by few I'd say probably 10 bushels) were delicious.


But next year, if I have time, depending where I am, it's a more traditional, hardy variety. Maybe Better Boy, or Beefsteak. I'll do them from seed again, absolutely. But these finicky heirlooms are so not my bag.


Fall arrived down here yesterday. Absolutely gorgeous day. I was stuck inside all day watching football and golf. This really has to be the last weekend I blow off. I've got way too much to do, either way. Roll Tide, though. Er, Go Bucks.


If you haven't seen it, check out Bottle Shock. Bill Pullman is probably one of the worst working actors we currently have to suffer through. But it's based on a true story, and Alan Rickman is physically incapable of being bad in a movie. Plus, it's about wine, and the sublime nobility of growing food. Grapes in this case.


(But if you're in a bad mood or down for any reason, stay away from The Soloist. Very good movie, but it's pretty tough. Is it just me, or is Robert Downey Jr. in the top 5 best working actors category? Jamie Foxx was incredible.)

9 comments:

Michael said...

Rickman. Agree completely. One of the all-time whenever-it's-on-I-watch time wasters, Quigley Down Under. Rickman steals the damn thing.

Downey Jr. Agree completely.

Pullman. Agree completely (with a run of Independence Day this weekend just to remind me.)
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There is some very fertile soil in Iowa. It's free too. You should try growing some tomatoes there. Ya know, just for comparison reasons.

bright said...

Bill Pullman in Spaceballs was pretty okay.

Cindy said...

What Schmutzie said.

I'm looking at heirloom seeds now... and thinking of building a small hot house or green house to start spring plantings from seed.

Do you get your seeds online? Or is there great choice over there in AL?

I'm also wondering about asparagus. I know they're a pain to grow, and one has to be patient, but I think I'd like to experience that 'cut and eat them every day' thing.

We may have also turned a corner here... there is still heat, but not the oppressive kind.

Have you seen Michael Moore's new movie yet?

David Marlow said...

There's a neat little scene in Bottle Shock where non-thespian Pullman is talking about how you essentially have to torture the grapevine into surviving its own delicacy. That a spoiled vine produces an uninteresting grape.

I'm doing that with my tomatoes next year. I'll give a whole new meaning to the term hardening.

Keifus said...

I have a hard time telling Bill Pullman apart from Jeff Daniels. I think one's a low-rent Michael Douglas and the other's a poor man's Jeff Bridges, but to tell you the truth, going down that path only confuses me more.

Cindy said...

Wow. I guess I did that with my kids and didn't even know it.

If you want to see a really good Allen Rickman film check out "Blow Dry."

twif said...

i think nearly every tomato plant in the state of CT got blighted this year. too much rain.

actor stuff: agreed as well.

catnapping said...

agreed: rickman, good; pullman, bad.

i loved rickman in pride and prejudice (the 5 hour version on A&E, i have the DVD). i liked him in diehard and truly, madly, deeply, too.

10 bushels in nothing to sneeze at. did you can them, or sneak on people's porches to leave free veggies? (I had to do that one year with green beans.)

Cindy said...
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