Help Identify Mystery Fungus

We have some wierd looking fungus growing near some onions in our garden. I’m hoping someone can help identify what it is.

It certainly doesn’t look edible. It is a blob resembling cat barf, except that when you look closely you notice that it is very fibrous. It also is oozing a yellow substance that looks remarkably similar to egg yolk.

We noticed this growing in an area of the garden where we had added quite a bit of compost combined with a commercial topsoil. Does anyone know if the onions caught up in the middle of this stuff would be edible if harvested in another month or two? I’m assuming so, but I don’t know how long any toxins produced by this fungal beast would persist.

New Flavor Combination for Cooks to Experiment With

I plucked a juicy blood-orange off of the tree in my backyard this morning before heading to work.  I ate it after lunch and placed the peels in a paper bowl I had sitting at my desk.  Later, I went to the break room where we have a popcorn machine.  I grabbed a bag of popcorn and sprinkled (doused?) it with some parmesian-garlic flavored salt.

When I got back to my desk, I dumped the orange peels in the trash.  (My wife would scold me because she likes to use the peels to flavor her cooking.)  Then, I poured some of the popcorn into the bowl.  Accompanying the popcorn was all of the parmesian-garlic flavoring that I had added.

This mixed with the oils from the orange rind to create a delicous combination of flavors.  And it was definitely the flavor of the rind and not the orange fruit that tasted so interesting.

Although I can cook, I usually leave the more creative aspects of the culinary arts to Wen-Ling.  However, as an avid eater I know a good thing when I taste it.  Orange peels with garlic and parmesian definitely make a good flavor combination.  This is a   heads-up to all the cooks out there who want to experiment with something new and interesting.

Market Places

I am sharing these photos from a couple of trips I made to Taiwan with Wen-Ling. They are of a market place in the town of Sijhih, just east of Taipei. This market might be my favorite place in Taiwan.

Every morning vendors set up in an alley about a half mile from my mother-in-law’s home. They sell every type of food imaginable, from baked goods to fresh vegetables to freshly caught fish.

“Fresh-caught” isn’t a marketing phrase. The photo showing the fish with their tails tied to their gill-flaps is about more than just presentation. It is also to prevent these live fish from flopping off the table. The shrimp you buy are still moving, too.

Vegetables are all local. There is one garden/farm just around the corner from the market, next to a laundromat, in the middle of the city. It occupies maybe a half acre, but probably less. Lying in a ravine, all sorts of vegetables are grown there, along with tropical fruits like mango, papaya and some trees I don’t recognize. Other nearby farms also provide produce.

Along with the produce, vendors sell shoes and clothing, toiletries, and knick-knacks. The vending is all done between the hours of about 6 am and noon. By one o’clock it has reverted to a residential area. The vendors are basically setting up in the entrance ways to homes. Most homes in the city occupy three to four floors. The ground floor typically has a garage-like front with a living-room behind it. Bedrooms are usually on the third and fourth floors. The kitchen will also be found on the first or second floor.

I love the intimacy of this market place, the way neighbors easily meet and mix. I don’t understand the local alliances, the politics, and the personal tensions that exist. I bought some pastries one morning and brought them back to my mother-in-law. She wanted to know who I had purchased them from. It turns out I bought them from a woman my mother-in-law doesn’t do business with. None-the-less, we did all share the food. Perhaps it would have tasted better if it had been prepared by my mother-in-law’s friend.

I share these photos to highlight the differences between the typical American corporate market place and the traditional Chinese market. The Chinese market sells local food. If we consider the notion of degrees of separation, the typical customer at a Chinese market is separated from the producer of the food by two or maybe three degrees. In other words, the vendor may be the farmer who grows the chickens or the vegetables. Or, she may be a middleman between the customer and the fisherman.

How many degrees of separation are there between the American customer and the farmer who produces our food? We have the people who work at the grocery store. There are truck drivers connecting the grocery with one or more wholesale buyers operating cold-storage warehouses. Then there are the farmers. It may be four or five degrees of separation.

In Taiwan much of the food is probably produced within a forty mile radius of where it is purchased. In the U.S. the radius is probably a thousand miles, maybe more. In fact, some of our food may even come from Taiwan!

It is true that in America we can enjoy fresh vegetables and fruits throughout the year. Our food is relatively inexpensive. No one is deprived. But there are environmental costs associated with such a diet. And there are economic vulnerabilities. For instance, both Taiwan and America depend heavily on foreign oil. But, if our oil supplies were cut for an extended period how likely would starvation be in American vs. Taiwan? My guess is that Taiwan would fare much better.

In any case, my real motivation is to point out that there is an aesthetic component to the Chinese culture of food that is sorely lacking in America. And, it’s not specific to China and Taiwan. India has it, as does almost any developing nation. Our food culture here in America is an industrial culture, heavy on engineering, but largely lacking in beauty. I would gladly give up my local Fry’s supermarket if I could trade it in for an alleyway of vendors near my home.

Superbowl Bound

Once again, the Cardinals amaze. They are in the Superbowl! It was a great game. Awesome play by the whole team.   They beat the Philadelphia Eagles 32-25.   Congratulations.

Bring on the Steelers.

Tempe High School Bus Stop

There are some interesting bus stops in Tempe near the high schools. This one is on Mill Avenue in front of Tempe High School. It is an iron sculpture of trees. Very eye-catching.

I like any sort of bus stop in the Valley of the Sun that creates some shade for the riders. This one creates plenty.

Congradulations Cardinals.

Since this is LoveHatePhoenix, gotta give it up for the Cardinals. They beat the Panthers 33-13 and are playing for the NFC championship. Exciting. Very weird, too. I mean, this is the Cardinals. And they’re one win away from the superbowl.   They have this history. Maybe they’re throwing off the old history. Let’s hope so.

In any case, congradulations are in order for the team and coaching staff.

Light Rail, Carley’s Bistro, etc.

Light rail officially started in Phoenix, and Tempe yesterday. Wen-Ling and I took a free ride this afternoon to check it out. We got on at Price and Apache in Tempe and rode the rail to Central and Osborn. From there we went walking around Phoenix.

We stopped to have dinner at Carley’s Bistro on Roosevelt and 2nd St. The food was great. They serve wraps, sandwiches, soups and salads. Most of the dishes are between $7 and $10. They also serve alcohol. We had Boddington’s which was the least expensive beer on the menu. (They have some outstanding beers. They also appeared to have a full bar.)

My impressions of the light rail… It is faster than riding a bus. The ride is smooth and quiet. The crowds were large, however. It will be interesting to see how the ridership holds up when the fares kick in on January 1st. Certainly, if I were working downtown, I would consider the rail over the express buses.

When we got to Phoenix, most of the businesses were closed. This is the situation that people decry about Phoenix — that downtown is dead on weekends. Hopefully, light rail will serve to change that.

I intend to use the light rail in combination with my bike. I enjoy riding and photographing subjects. With light rail, I will be able to board the train with my bike, ride around Phoenix, and either ride home or take the train again.

Roadrunner

This haiku celebrates a roadrunner we encountered on a recent trip through New Mexico.

      roadrunner run fast

      or fly now across the road

      or be run over

Monsoons

monsoon rains

Living in the desert means sometimes getting sick of sunshine and pining, deep down, for a rainy day. The rains that will last a day or more usually come in the winter or spring. Not often, though.

In the summer we go through the months of May and June with very little precipitation. In July we get our predictable, seasonal rains. We call them monsoons, but they bare little resemblance to the storms that batter Asia.

These are hot summer days, with humidity occasionally building to a climactic thunderstorm. Here in Phoenix, we get a lot of teasers. No rain, just a dust storm, maybe with enough precipitation to make it stick to your car and windows. But, when we do get a good cloudburst, it’s a sight to behold.

In the picture above, you can see a trash-can come rain barrel that Wen-Ling employs to catch the roof runoff. A half-inch of rain is usually good for filling a barrel, since we are catching the rain from the southern facing portion of our roof.

Peachy Green’s Analysis of Ethanol Assumes Some Myths

Until recently I have generally thought that alcohol as a biofuel is a bad idea.  However, after reading David Blume’s Alcohol Can Be A Gas I have become excited by the prospects this fuel has to offer.

I had accepted a number of positions on alcohol fuel because I had not heard some of the countervailing arguments.  Today I came across a blog posting from Peachy Green that attempts to explode some myths.  However, I found that while they were able to debunk some myths about alcohol, they contribute to other existing myths.

I will take on each of the five myths that Peachy Green discussed, with some counter-arguments obtained from Alcohol Can Be A Gas.

1.  Corn-based ethanol is a “green” alternative to foreign oil.  Peachy Green says, “False”.

David Blume makes the argument that using corn to produce ethanol is a poor choice because of the fairly low yield of sugar/starch produced per acre.  Using corn to produce ethanol can yield about 200 to 250 gallons of fuel per acre.  There are a number of other crops that can be grown that yield far more.  For instance, sugar beets can produce about 1000 gallons of fuel per acre.  Cattails can produce up to 7000 gallons of fuel per acre.  So, in that sense, David Blume would probably agree that corn-based ethanol is not a green alternative to foreign oil.

However, Peachy Green focused their arguments on resource inputs vs. energy outputs.  They are basically arguing the points of David Pimentel.  David Blume shows how Dr. Pimentel’s research is bogus.  You can read a short summary of his argument here.  Blume points out that fossil fuels have the negative return on energy.  The argument presented by Peachy Green assumes that fossil fuel energy will be used to produce alcohol as an alternative energy.  Blume argues that in a permaculture-based economy, where biofuel inputs are used to produce biofuel outputs, “the ratio of return could be positive by hundreds to one”.

2.  The new pressure to produce corn-based ethanol  is correlated to high food prices.  Peachy Green says this is “False”.  Here they are in agreement with Blume.  They identify a number of factors leading to high food prices.  They did fail to mention that the pressure to produce corn-based ethanol comes, in part, from surpluses of corn in North America, and a need to dispose of it profitably.

3.  Corn-based ethanol is cheaper than fuel from refined oil.  Peachy Green says this is “False”.

Peachy Green says, “In August 2008, ethanol sold for about $2.40 a gallon wholesale. Currently, gasoline is about the same cost, and may go lower.”  However, they fail to identify many of the hidden costs of oil.  Oil production is heavily subsidized by our government.  Many of these costs are passed on to you, but not necessarily at the pump.  For instance, the war in Iraq was basically to secure middle-east oil.  That has cost us trillions.  Then there are the environmental costs.  As well as the tax breaks that big-oil has enjoyed.

Blume argues in his book that alcohol comes out ahead of oil based on cost.  We can either subsidize alcohol production to the same degree that oil is subsidized, or we can remove the subsidies enjoyed by oil.  In either case, alcohol will come out ahead.

Peachy Green also says,

Notwithstanding the fluctuations in gasoline prices, ethanol yields about 30 percent less energy per gallon than gasoline, so mileage drops off significantly. That means that you will have to re-fuel more frequently. Over the long run, gasoline is less expensive than corn-based ethanol.

 Blume goes into great detail in his book on the merits of gasoline vs. alcohol.  (If you like chemistry and physics, his book is an awesome read.  If you don’t, he presents these topics in laymans terms so don’t be intimidated.)  There are many facets to a comparison of alcohol vs. gasoline.  Just one argument shows where Peachy Greens argument comes up short.

It is true that gasoline contains more energy per gallon than alcohol.  However, more of gasoline’s energy is converted to heat.  Alcohol fuel actually provides more motive force.  Less of its energy is lost as heat.  Under certain conditions alcohol will provide less mileage than gasoline.  But, it is a complicated topic and I would refer you to Blume’s book for a complete discussion of the facts.

I will also point out that all engines currently in use have been optimized to run on gasoline.  However, when you begin to consider the optimizations that can be made for alcohol fuel, the idea that alcohol provides less mileage falls flat on its face.

4.  You will have to convert your vehicle to run on ethanol.  Peachy Green says this is “mostly false”.  They are mostly right. 

Where they are wrong is in arguing that money should not be spent on a flex-fuel engine to run higher concentrations of alcohol so that the money could instead be put to the purchase of a hybrid.

Alcohol is a renewable form of energy.  Electricity can be generated renewably.  I am all for solar- and wind-generated electricity.  But, in all likelihood, your hybrid is burning coal or nuclear fuel as a trade off for lower gasoline inputs.  And, in the end, it’s still a gasoline-burning engine.  So, while hybrids are better than most non-hybrids, they are not better than a vehicle that burns a renewable alternative to gasoline.

5.  There will be less global warming as a result of fueling our cars with corn-based ethanol.  Peachy Green says this is false.

I disagree after reading Blume’s book.  First, Peachy Green’s argument is very narrowly focused on corn-based ethanol.  Second, they are presenting the arguments of Dr. Pimental, which Blume thoroughly debunks in his book. 

Peachy Green quotes an article stating that, “corn-based ethanol would nearly double greenhouse gas emissions over 30 years, compared to fossil fuels. This is due largely to the effects of cutting down trees which absorb CO2 emissions in order to grow crops.”

Blume shows how a permaculture-based economy, which he has demonstrated himself on his own farm, would actually sequester carbon-dioxide in the soil in the form of an increasing amount of organic matter.  If alcohol is a renewable fuel, it is difficult to imagine how greenhouse gases would double since we would be pulling carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere in order to produce alcohol, and then burning it, which puts it back into the atmosphere.

The reason Peachy Green is making this argument is that they are falling into the same trap that David Pimental finds himself in.  They are looking at alcohol fuel from the perspective of a fossil-fuel based economy.  In order to understand the promise that alcohol and other biofuels hold, we must begin to look at all of the ways that we have structured our economies and cultures in order to accomodate oil, coal, and nuclear.  Then, we can start to ask whether these accomodations would be necessary if we were running on renewables.

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