Happy Holidays and here's to looking on the bright side

Here come the holidays once again. This is one of my favorite times of the year for a multitude of reasons. I love the excitement in the air, the joyful feeling that most people emit this time of the year. Of course, I love baking-lebkuchen, stollen, cookies. There is something magical about the smell of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves wafting from the oven. Baking is a sort of alchemy---you start with simple ingredients: butter, sugar, eggs, some flour and some flavoring. But from the oven emerges something delicious that is absolutely the best thing to go with a hot tea on a cold evening.

The holiday season always reminds me of how lucky I really am. There are always negatives in life, and I complain a lot about living in a huge, crazy city, surrounded by millions of crazy people. But really, kindness and friendship abound. If you stop regarding the throng of people as a huge, throbbing mass, and just consider the individuals you know, the majority of them are great. I should thank all the people here in Homestead who make may day to day life pretty enjoyable. An extension agent here in Dade county who is from Poland just stopped by before Christmas to give David and I a bag full of Polish soups, mushrooms, chocolate, and these delicious dried apples form her mother's tree in Poland. That sort of generosity really lifts one's spirit.

So all is not lost, humanity. People do still care about other people, although we may have to search a little harder to find compassion. I for one remain an optimist. I am saying this as my kitchen ceiling has sprung a leak and we are waiting for the plumbers, and the brakes on my new car are grinding again, after having been 'fixed' two weeks ago. Sigh. What can you do but keep plugging along and enjoying all the good times?

Happy holidays everyone!

A gradual student no longer

This Friday I will walk in my graduation ceremony and say goodbye to being a graduate student. I feel no sense of sadness or nostalgia that this period of my life is over, rather I am SO GLAD TO FINALLY BE DONE!!!

I think this is how most of us crazy people feel when we finally finish.

Now I can move on to other exciting, life-changing experiences, like my big delivery in late February. This one should be a very positive change, albeit challenging. I have to say, I really can't wait for the little guy to get here. And that's not just because my feet are swollen up like tree stumps and I can't stand up without groaning. I genuinely can't wait to meet him.

In the meantime, I am busy with my new job. We have so many projects going that it's hard for me to focus. My organizational skills are definitely being put to the test.

And of course the holiday season never leaves much room for effective time management. I am sitting in my office right now thinking about getting up and walking over to the pole barn where the TREC Christmas party is about to begin. I am on the social committee, you see, and have the responsibility of helping set all the food out. We actually have a beautiful spread, with turkeys, a ham, and of course, some pork leg (this is Miami after all, and no party is complete without some pork. But I can relate. After all, I am from Iowa.)

So I hope to be better about posting now that all the craziness is over. And I can actually see humor in life again.

Road Safety

Wow, last week was a real reminder about the dangers of getting behind the wheel here in Miami. I saw two accidents, and, I am ashamed to say, was also involved in one as well. Don't worry, mine was nothing serious, but it was my first accident down here, and a bit upsetting.

My uncle told me that the average Miamian is in an accident every 5 years.

I was driving on the Snapper Creek Expressway on Monday of last week, and had just entered a curve that merges onto another highway. Suddenly, the white car in the far right lane next to me crashed full speed into the concrete side of the ramp. Sparks were flying, the car slid for a number of yards along the concrete, spun around once, and came to a stop right at end of the next entrance ramp. I was frantically feeling around for my cell phone to call 911, but then looked over and saw the woman driving the SUV next to me was already on the phone. Luckily, the man driving the white car was conscious and moving around, and didn't appear to be seriously injured. I'm not sure exactly what he was doing to not notice the curve coming up, but I expect it involved a cell phone or radio. It's a good reminder to pay heed to those warnings about chatting/texting on your phone while driving.

Two days later, I was coming off the Turnpike at rush hour right by FIU to pick David up from work so we could get him some camping gear for a trip he took this week. I needed to get over into the left lane to make a turn, and so turned around to check my blindspot. When I looked back to the front, the traffic had unexpectedly stopped, and I ran right into the woman in front of me. Lucky for both of us, I wasn't going more than 15-20 mph and there is just some slight fender damage, but I guess I can now be counted in the masses of crazy Miami drivers out there (but at least I was checking my blind spot!). What made everything worse was that we had to wait 2 hours for the highway patrol to come out, and I was feeling pretty exhausted by the time it was all over. Not to mention a series of sexist remarks from the patrolman (but more on that next time).

So believe it or not, that wasn't it for car accidents that week. Friday I was driving to the greenhouse at TREC with my coworker in our little golfcart, and we saw a patrol car and tow truck out by the litchi field. So naturally we went over to investigate. It turned out that the husband of one of our students who lives on the premises got attacked by a bee while he was driving (well, he actually claims it was about FIVE bees), and hit the gas instead of the break. He plowed right through a poor litchi tree, and had to get the car towed out. It was a mess! And even worse, the car was a rental (I hope he has good insurance).

I know they always say bad things happen in threes, but I sure hope I am done with car accidents for a while.

The finish line is in sight

I spent most of this week checking margin widths, indents, capitalization, and page numbers.

After a couple of reams of paper...sorry trees, I have successfully submitted my dissertation in the correct format. It's 243 pages of my blood, sweat, and yes, even tears, and I am so excited to be almost finished. All I have to do now is give my exit seminar and pass my defense...both scheduled for October 27th.

In the meantime, I have started a new job at the TREC Plant Diagnostic Clinic. (And yes, one of my new tasks is to write bi-weekly posts for the clinic blog, so if you are curious about plant diseases we see in here in south Florida, check out the link). The job is fantastic so far, I have several projects started, and every day is new and different. I still get to do research, but now I also get to see all sorts of diseased plant samples coming in (it IS fun, really!), and so I am seeing lots of fungi that I'm not that familiar with. I get to exercise all of my knowledge from all the training I have had to diagnose the samples.

In addition, I am doing some writing for extension publications, and I will eventually participate in some training events as well. So I should get some good teaching experience, and it's really fun to interact with the public, as opposed to exclusively working within academia.

I also get to go to Puerto Rico in November to train some collaborators in molecular diagnostics!

Cabin fever in the summer?

While most of the country is eagerly awaits the spring after many cold months of winter, we here in Miami march to beat of a different drum. March and April harbor the end of our 'winter' to be sure, but to us, that means the end of gloriously mild days full of sunshine, and cool nights that leave you refreshed in the morning.

While the rest of you are enjoying picnics and pool parties, we are sitting inside with the air conditioner running, not brave enough to confront the wall of sticky heat just outside our doors. A couple of weeks ago, David and I were suffering from some big time cabin fever. It was early Saturday morning and I felt like getting out of the house. "I want to go to the botanical garden," I suggested

"Too hot, how about the beach?"

"Too hot."

(Tou may wonder how it could possibly be too hot to go to the beach, but really, imagine baking in the sun and then instead of plunging into cool, refreshing water, diving into something resembling tepid bathwater).

Well, what else is there to do in Miami? The answer is a lot of things of course, but you know when you have cabin fever, nothing sounds exactly right.

Sigh.

We are just biding our time until mid October or so, when the true beauty of Florida weather can be enjoyed.

A million sparkling lights

The 4th of July never seems quite right with just David and I. I always miss the family potluck with all those great traditional dishes, hamburgers, fresh vegetables, blueberry or cherry pie. And the growing excitement for dusk, when the fireworks begin. I have always loved fireworks. I love the loud bang followed by an explosion of colored light. I love waiting expectantly for the next display of sparkling light, scattering from a single point, then falling slowly toward the ground until they slowly fade to darkness. The unintentional sinchrony of the 'oohs' and 'aahs' from the crowd.

David and I do our best. We grill some steaks, cook some baked beans, and slice up a juicy, sweet watermelon. But we usually don't get motivated enough to go to fireworks show. We always talk about it, but then decide not to go because we don't want to fight the crowds. Not a very good excuse. This year, it was just growing dark, and I said, "Well,. I guess we're going to miss the fireworks again."

"Let's go find some, then," David said.

So we threw on some shoes and hit the pavement. We could here explosions all around, but could just see a glimmer of light through the trees. We needed to get to high ground. "We need a parking garage, quick, to Sunset Place!"

We hurried up to the parking garage and frantically pushed the elevator up button. We got in and David hit the button for the 8th level. When we got there, we were amazed. As far as the eye could see were fireworks, popping to the left, and then to the right, far off in the horizon. Each town of greater Miami had their own show going on, almost simulataneously. Not to mention all of the "backyard" shows going on. We were just in time to see the finale for the show at the hospital, just a few blocks away.

So we didn't get to spend the holiday with family. But at least we got to share the fireworks with the entire city of Miami.

HOT!!!!

Man, it's hot. I had to work outside for a half hour and I thought I was going to have a stroke. In days like these, a patch of shade can save your life. I don't think there is such a thing as an outdoorsy kind of person to be found in South Florida in the summer.

What's the temperature now you ask? 96 F. That's right, almost 100 degrees! This isn't Arizona, there's no "dry" heat here. It feels like you are walking through a thick soup. And to top it off, you've got mosquitoes, gnats, fire ants. It's dangerous out there folks.

Gators everywhere

Or The Everglades, Part 1.

Well, I have been very busy with my dissertation of late, and have put the blog on the back burner. But I was meaning to post about the visit my family paid us this March. It had a decidedly Everglades theme to it, and I must say I found a new appreciation for this hotbed of biological diversity. Of course, everyone thinks of alligators as synonomous with the Everglades. In fact, while travelling along the Tamiami Trail (Highway 41) back from Naples, David and I had some hot, tired-looking tourists enquire where they might spot one of these magnificent carnivores. I wondered, had they been looking in the canal along the road at all, where they should of seen dozens of the reptiles basking on the banks? My answer to them was Shark Valley, one of the public entrances to Everglades National Park, where you are absolutely guaranteed to see gators, to the point that they seem positiviely passé.

I have absolutely fallen in love with the bike trail at Shark Valley, although I probably won't be visiting again until fall, when the mosquitos are less ubiquitous and the weather isn't so hot. The trail is a 15 mile loop, starting at the Visitor's Center. Out at the far end of the trail is an observations tower, from which you can see all sorts of birds roosting in the trees. I love listening to them chatter and squawk. They could be called the Everglades Symphony. You can rent bikes at Shark Valley for around $8/hr, or bring your own.

For those of you who can't or don't want to bike the loop, you can take a tram ride around the trail. The best part of this is that a ranger guides the tour, and so you learn about the biology and ecology of the sawgrass prairie, as well as its natural history. The tram rides make the park accessible to everyone. You can even walk along the trail for a bit. Right out by the Visitor Center is where I have seen some of the most wildlife, including a Little Green Heron and an Anhinga nest.

I've now done the trail by bike and tram, and the place never fail to strike a sense of wonder in me. It is thrilling to watch the anhinga, the herons and egrets, the ibises and storks, fishing, roosting, relaxing. When you drive through the Everglades at 70 mph, it looks like a flat see of sawgrass, and seems like it doesn't hold a candle to the national parks out West. In the Everglades, you have to slow down and look a little more closely to really appreciate its beauty.

For the next post, we'll stay in the Everglades, but travel to the mangrove estuaries...

Shop Local Miami. Coral Gable Farmer's Market

Coral Gable Farmer's Market: 8 AM-1 PM, Jan-March, on the corner of Le Jeune and the Miracle Mile (in front of City Hall).

David and I went to the Coral Gables Farmer's market a couple of weeks ago with no idea what to expect. The verdict? While you are able to buy local produce there, it is a far cry from farmer's markets in other large cities (and even Des Moines, for that matter!). There are about 20 vendors there, and I counted only 2 or three selling vegetables. However, the vendors at this small markets offer very good product at fairly reasonable prices. We bought local honey, freshly baked bread, eggplant, cucumbers, beets, tomatoes, lettuce, as well as pastries and coffee for breakfast. It was really a lot of fun.

There are activities accompanying the market: gardening lectures, stuff for kids, and I believe sometimes music. What's more, going to the market is the perfect excuse to have brunch nearby, at say Graziano's Market.

Overall, I was disappointed at the size of the market, but it was still worth the trip. And the more popular it becomes, the bigger it will get, right? Hopefully it will grow in coming seasons. This is the last weekend for the market this season, so get out there while you can.

Buy local Miami---down south in Redland

Drive far enough south on Highway 1 and you will reach the Redland Agricultural area, one of the last bastions of farming area in south Florida. Named for the red clay in the "topsoil" (really crushed rock), the area has historically been a major producer of mango, avocado and vegetables. Today, much acreage has been moved to nurseries raising every ornamental plant you can imagine, as well as small specialty crops including everything from mamey to pitaya to lychee and longan.

Because of its proximity to the Everglades, many Redland stops are popular among tourists and offer fun food experiences. In the winter, I buy almost all of my produce down here. There are informal fruit and vegetable stands dotting the sides of most major roads (try across from the Fruit and Spice Park on 248th ST and 187th Ave, or on Krome Ave before 288th ST). There are also several larger, more established places you can go to get fresh products. You can easily turn a trip to the Redlands into a food adventure.

These are a few places I recommend trying:

1) Knaus Berry Farm, 15980 SW 248th ST. Open M-Sat, Dec-Apr.
Knaus Berry Farm is a a must stop if you've got a sweet tooth. They have cinnamon buns that are to die for, and only cost about $6 for a dozen! They come out warm and gooey, everything a cinnamon bun should be. And then there are the strawberries. Red, juicy, sweet, and huge! You can pick your own or just pick up a pint. Or, have a strawberry millshake. These are made with fresh, not frozen, berries and soft serve. People drive all the way from North Miami to get what Knaus has to offer.
But if you are in the mood for milkshakes...

2) Robert is Here, 19200 SW 344th Street, closed Sept-Oct. Robert, the proprieter, started the stand as a kid in 1959, and yes, he is usually there behind the counter. This is a big tourist stop, but I am also a regular there. The milkshakes are a big draw, offering a multitude of tropical fruit flavors (my favorites are key lime and passionfruit strawberry). Robert is Here also has a large selection of rare tropical fruits, grown right here in the area. You can get the staples like avocado (winter) and mango ( summer), but als try some of the stranger fruits---pitaya, custard apple, black sapote, jackfruit, etc. These can be a bit pricey, but you can always buy a small amount to sample. Lastly, I shop here every week for vegetables, mostly locally grown. You can get great tomatoe (and they just started offering German Stripe and Brandywine heirlooms), as well as broccoli, onions, green beans, corn, herbs, arugula, spinach, eggplant, etc. Prices are comparable to Publix or Whole Foods.

3) If you are a wine drinker, travel on down to the Schnebly Winery, 30205 SW 217 ave. This place has undergone an amazing transformation in the last few years. It went from a single trailer offering about half a dozen fruit wines to a gigantic venue with a beautiful tasting room, courtyard with seating and waterfall, and private rooms for parties. There are about a dozen fruit wines to taste, including carambola (starfruit), mango, guava, passionfruit, and even avocado. The lychee wine has won multiple awards. Most wines are very sweet, but there a few drier ones as well. The winery also has several "special" wines: sparkling and sweet dessert wines. Tastings are $6 for regular wines and $7 for "special" wines. On the weekends you cna buy a bottle and enjoy it in the courtyard with live music.
I hope you have a chance to visit the Redland. Believe me, getting out in the "country" will do wonders for your nerves after the hustle and bustle of the city.

Next week...the Coral Gables Farmer's Market.

Shop local first, Miami. Introduction.

I've decided to do a three part series on buying locally grown food right here in Miami. Today I will wax on about the benefits and importance of trying to buy local, followed in the weeks to come by several posts on vegetable stands and farmer's markets available to us: the Redlands and the Coral Gables Farmer's Market.

Local agriculture has been a pet issue of mine since I was in college, going to school with farmers in Iowa. It was right around the time the Des Moines Farmer's market was really taking off, and I was getting to work with smaller vegetable and fruit grower's through my undergraduate research job at Iowas State. I found these grower's to be excited about farming, ready to try experiment with new crops, new way of cultivation. At the same time, I learned in classes that while the industrialization of agriculture dramatically increased yields, it has lead to the death of rural communites and farms, with more and more of our produce being shipped from California, Chile, Mexico, etc. Being from the Midwest, with agrarian roots, that made me sad. And also a little worried to think that we rely on food supplies from other regions and countries.

The motto "shop local first" is getting easier because of the mutlitude of farmer's markets and CSA's that have popped up all over the country. Of course not everything I eat comes from farmer's markets. But I do purchase most of my produce at a local vegetable stand during the growing season, and because of Florida's great law requiring origin of production labels on all produce at the frocer store, I try to limit my grocery store purchases to the eastern United States, and not from Chile or Mexico. That's not to say I don't buy the occasional banana or apple.

So why should we all adopt the motto "shop local first"? There are many direct benefits to us as consumers, even without consideration of the broader impacts. First of all, the food usually tastes better. Compare a local, fresh tomato that was picked ripe to a store bought tomato picked green then ripened in an ethylene chamber. There is no comparison. Buying locat fruits and vegetables really allows us to enjoy the foods from where we live. In Iowa, we enjoy apples, raspberries, strawberries. In Miami it is mango, lychee, avocado. What is more, you will find the produce you buy from local growers stays fresh a lot longer in your fridge. This is especially good for me because I always buy ambitiously, but it takes me awhile to get to cooking everything I had planned.

The best benefit to buying local is the fuzzy feeling you get when you know you are helping support local growers, your community, the local economy. It really makes everything taste even better. Talking to people at a farmer's market, you'll find they have developed almost an emotional connection to the grower's they buy from. "That Rita, the asparagus gal, she always asks me how my week was." or "Joe, the eggman (not the walrus, ha ha!) always saves a dozen of those beautiful blue eggs for me."

Buying locally produced food also encourages a healthier diet. You can't buy overprocessed, already prepared meals, so we all get back in the kitchen and start putting healthier food in our mouths.

But what about the cost you say? I cannot dispute that some things are more expensive when you get them from local sources. But believe it or not, many things (especially produce) is comparable if not cheaper. It all has to do with buying seasonally. Tomatoes and cucumber, basil and spinach, etc. gets really cheap during the growing season (winter here in Miami). You'll be surprised how little you spend on the week's veggies.

What about broader impacts? Well, we can alter the previous course of the food industry: vertically integrated, megalithic companies that outcompete small, local growers. We can lower our carbon footprint by cutting out the hundreds or even thousands of miles that most food in the grocery store is shipped. We can contribute to the sustainability of our local economy, of our community itself.

So go visit a vegetable stand or farmer's market this weekend. Try some heirloom tomatoes, some Kirby cucumbers, some sweet onions. How about freshly baked bread or some local honey? Believe me, it is well worth the trip.

It's cold in my office...I think I need a pair of those glove that leave your fingertips exposed, like flutists wear (not 'flautists', read here why). Maybe a pale blue pair made from alpaca...mmm sounds sumptuous.

Cold wimps

So I think I am beginning to understand why Miamians complain so much when it gets cold down here. I know, I know, all of you guys up North are thinking "What cold?"

But really, last week it almost froze a couple of nights, and for us down here, it feels like a big deal. And now, going on my third year here, I think a lot of it is psychological, and the rest is just being unprepared for cold weather.

We are all accustomed here to waking up, throwing on a T-shirt and sandals and walking out the door, almost every day. So in January, those few bouts with sub 60-degree weather leaves us shivering. We wonder, "Where am I?" (As an aside, as a native of the North, everyone here is always surprised that I too get cold. I have to explain to them that we Northerners get cold in the winter too, we are not all polar bears.)

The cold weather down here is a wet chill that goes right to your bones, and our subtropical psyches just can't take it!

Really though, I think mostly we are just not prepared. All of my former "winter clothes", all the sweaters, long sleeved T-shirts, wool socks, they've all slowly been culled from my wardrobe. The only jacket I own is of the denim variety. So, on a cold morning, I find myself rummaging through my closet, lamenting the absence of anything warm. I end up wrapped in blankets, unwilling to leave the house. Actually, one particularly cold day last week, we had an unusually high number of people call in sick at work.

What's more, many homes don't even have heat. Take our first apartment here...in January and February the thermostat often hovered at 60. I invited my aunt and uncle for brunch, and we were all sitting in our jackets and scarves eating scones! I have a wall unit AC/heater in my office, and the heat is seldom on. The first time I used it, I came into my office and I thought I had an electrical fire somewhere. I was wandering around the office sniffing all the outlets. Really, it was just all the leaves and mold burning up in the heater.

So have some pity on us, you there up North, we are too mentally fragile and completely unprepared for the harshness of winter.