Chucks

JWise Photo of the Day

Hand crocheted Converse black and white baby shoes made by Caroline Wise

Somebody had a baby and it wasn’t us. The lucky recipient of the stork’s efforts works with Caroline and to celebrate James’ new son and his entry into this life Caroline felt a brand new pair of hand-crocheted Converse Chucks was a fitting gift. James loved the shoes commenting he’d now have to hunt down a baby-size Ramones T-shirt to round out a perfect ensemble. A couple of years ago Caroline knitted a purple and white baby sweater with an OM on the front for a Hindu friend who had just had a daughter. Too bad we don’t know any strippers, my wife could knit up some pasties and a latex mini skirt. She’s threatened that as I grow older she’ll be knitting me woolen Depends adult diapers – the joy I have to look forward to.

Etran Finatawa at The MIM

JWise Photo of the Day

Etran Finatawa on stage at The Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, Arizona

Month after month the Musical Instrument Museum doesn’t fail to deliver a rich mix of music from around the globe. Tonight’s featured musicians from Niger are known as Etran Finatawa – click the link to watch them live. These five men perform what they call Nomad Blues. They are Tuareg and Wodaabe nomads playing traditional gourd instruments, a goatskin drum, flute along with guitar, and hand clapping. The magic of them coming to the United States and the generosity of The MIM bringing them to Phoenix was nothing less than amazing. It’s not very often that musicians emerge from one of the five poorest countries on earth to tour the world. This part of their tour primarily focused on the western U.S. with only Chicago and New York having scheduled dates west of the Mississippi.

Etran Finatawa on stage at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, Arizona

Etran Finatawa’s performance went by fast although they did play for nearly an hour before an intermission. When they came back on stage for the second half, it was during this part of the concert that Etran really got the audience going. Two of the percussionists came forward joining the other Wodaabe member for a spectacular display of dance and eye movements particular to the Wodaabe. Our peek into this culture from a remote corner of the world was our great fortune. Sadly it will likely be another couple of years before they make a return visit to America. Watch a video by clicking here to see a segment of the Werner Herzog film about the Wodaabe. And click here to watch Tuareg dancing from the Ghadames Cultural Festival.

Photos courtesy of The MIM and Jimmy C. Carrauthers of Great Leap Productions.

Into The Jar

JWise Food, Photo of the Day

Canned pasta sauce and tomato juice made from tomatoes grown by Tonopah Rob

Start with one-hundred twenty-five pounds of tomatoes and get busy. Over the previous two weeks, I boiled, sautéed, milled, chopped, and canned fifty-four quarts of tomatoey stuff. From roasted pepper tomato sauce to basil garlic marinara. I made V8-style tomato juice, too. And now after all of this work, all of the humidity from pressure canning the jars, all of the onions, carrots, bell peppers, garlic, basil, celery, and dirty pots and pans, I am finished with tomatoes for the year. This horde will last Caroline and me about two years. As winter rolls around we’ll still be enjoying the fresh tomato flavor of summer courtesy of Tonopah Rob’s Vegetable Farm.

Roasted

JWise Food, Photo of the Day

Roasted chili peppers from Tonopah Rob's Vegetable Farm in Tonopah, Arizona

Round and round they go, where they stop nobody knows. The fire was blazing and the cage filled with fresh chili peppers was smoking. I turned that caged barrel of scorching heat until skins were blackened and seeds were popping out. For hours I filled, fired, and emptied load after load until I must have roasted twenty-five pounds of peppers. Lucky for me Tonopah Rob has just the device to make roasting chilis a piece of cake because this would have been impossible in my oven. Back home the now cooled chilis have had the rest of their peels removed, they are destemmed and deseeded and then put into pint-size freezer bags for use over the coming year.

Missing the Monsoons

JWise Photo of the Day

Sunrise in Phoenix, Arizona

It’s the right time of year for the monsoons. There are clouds on the horizon, they even move into the valley, but the rains are not materializing. Well, at least we are having some clouds dot the sky which makes for great sunrises and sunsets. After months of nothing but blue skies, it is a thrill to once again see cumuli in the late day. This morning had low thin clouds aloft but even they are welcome. Funny how some people dream of moving to Florida, California, Nevada, and Arizona to escape the grey days while many of us Phoenicians long for a cold, rainy day with hot chocolate and the patter of raindrops on our windows. Instead, all we get is another perfect day – drats.

Into The Freezer

JWise Food, Photo of the Day

Freezer bag loaded with green beans, carrots, peppers, onion, and garlic after blanching ready to be frozen

Since June 15th, thirty-five pounds of beans have been picked from my twelve-by-fourteen plot out at Tonopah Rob’s Vegetable Farm. A few days ago Rob gave me a small rough-neck of carrots, I thought I could put them to good use, it didn’t even look like it was that much anyway. Turns out there were fifty-one pounds of carrots in there. Add to that my seven and a half pounds of garlic I have hanging up in my closet that was picked on June 2nd and you know I needed to hurry up and do something with them quickly accumulating food. Up until this past week, we were able to eat our way through the smaller harvests but with a few pounds of beans still in the fridge and the almost fourteen pounds I picked yesterday, it was time to get busy. I busted out the really large pot and got to boiling water. With the sink full of ice water I was soon blanching the beans and carrots. Into quart size freezer bags I stuffed beans and carrots and then added some fresh sliced garlic, quartered red onions, and chopped green peppers. For the next six months, Caroline and I will have a steady supply of mixed veggies ready for the steamer.