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Cake day: October 4th, 2023

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  • You can order blackcurrant drinks online, as well as getting extract.

    googles

    It sounds like the problem was that they could host a fungus that affected other plants, but it’s been allowed on a state-by-state basis for some decades after they found a resistant variant.

    https://www.grunge.com/879107/heres-why-blackcurrant-was-banned-in-the-us-for-over-50-years/

    By the end of the 19th century, farmers noticed that blackcurrants had introduced an invasive species called blister fungus that killed white pine trees, per Business Insider. The fungus solely spreads through blackcurrants rather than from pine tree to pine tree. That means the U.S. was faced with a choice at the time: blackcurrants or the white pine. With national forests highly valued for the timber industry sales used to develop the U.S. as we know it, they chose to protect the white pine.

    In the early 20th century, the U.S. government made it illegal to farm blackcurrants and put forth resources to eradicate all Ribes plants from the environment, according to Business Insider. Interestingly, European agriculture met this fungus long ago when it was introduced in blackcurrant plants, but they didn’t rely on white pine as fiercely as the U.S., and the “white pine was sacrificed to retain the Ribes,” according to “History of White Pine Blister Rust Control: A Personal Account.”

    Blackcurrants come back

    After more than half a century, scientists discovered a new variant of blackcurrant that was resistant to the fungal disease that threatened the white pine. Without the threat to the timber industry, the U.S. government “left it up to the states to lift the ban” blackcurrants in 1966 (via Cornell University). It wasn’t until 2003 when New York, where blackcurrants were most heavily produced in the late 19th century, became the first state to uplift the blackcurrant ban in the continental U.S. Since then, some other states like Connecticut and Vermont have also rescinded their bans. But neighboring Massachusetts and Maine (or “The Pine Tree” state) are some of the many other states in which such bans remain (per AHS Gardening, Mass.gov).





  • Pineapple guavas. I can get them where I am sporadically, but they don’t ship incredibly well.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feijoa_sellowiana

    Feijoa sellowiana[2][3] also known as Acca sellowiana (O.Berg) Burret,[4] is a species of flowering plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. It is native to the highlands of southern Brazil, eastern Paraguay, Uruguay, and northern Argentina.[5] Feijoa are also common in gardens of New Zealand.[6] It is widely cultivated as an ornamental tree and for its fruit. Common names include feijoa (/feɪˈʒoʊ.ə/,[7] /-ˈhoʊ.ə/,[8] or /ˈfiːdʒoʊ.ə/[9]), pineapple guava and guavasteen, although it is not a true guava.[10] It is an evergreen shrub or small tree, 1–7 metres (3.3–23.0 ft) in height.[11]

    Ripe fruit is prone to bruising; difficulty maintaining the fruit in good condition for any length of time, along with the short period of optimum ripeness and full flavor, probably explains why feijoas are not exported frequently, and are typically sold close to where they are grown. However, intercontinental shipping of feijoa by sea or air has been successful.[10]

    Because of the relatively short shelf life, storekeepers need to be careful to replace older fruit regularly to ensure high quality. In some countries, they also may be purchased at roadside stalls, often at a lower price.

    Feijoas may be cool-stored for approximately a month and still have a few days of shelf life at optimum eating maturity.[10] They also may be frozen for up to one year without a loss in quality.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durian

    The unusual flavour and odour of the fruit have prompted many people to express diverse and passionate views ranging from deep appreciation to intense disgust. Writing in 1856, the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace provided a much-quoted description of the flavour of the durian:

    The five cells are silky-white within, and are filled with a mass of firm, cream-coloured pulp, containing about three seeds each. This pulp is the edible part, and its consistence and flavour are indescribable. A rich custard highly flavoured with almonds gives the best general idea of it, but there are occasional wafts of flavour that call to mind cream-cheese, onion-sauce, sherry-wine, and other incongruous dishes. Then there is a rich glutinous smoothness in the pulp which nothing else possesses, but which adds to its delicacy. It is neither acidic nor sweet nor juicy; yet it wants neither of these qualities, for it is in itself perfect. It produces no nausea or other bad effect, and the more you eat of it the less you feel inclined to stop. In fact, to eat Durians is a new sensation worth a voyage to the East to experience. … as producing a food of the most exquisite flavour it is unsurpassed.[a]

    Wallace described himself as being at first reluctant to try it because of the aroma, “but in Borneo I found a ripe fruit on the ground, and, eating it out of doors, I at once became a confirmed Durian eater”. He cited one traveller from 1599:[b] “it is of such an excellent taste that it surpasses in flavour all other fruits of the world, according to those who have tasted it.” He cites another writer: “To those not used to it, it seems at first to smell like rotten onions, but immediately after they have tasted it they prefer it to all other food. The natives give it honourable titles, exalt it, and make verses on it.”

    While Wallace cautions that “the smell of the ripe fruit is certainly at first disagreeable”, later descriptions by Westerners are more graphic in detail. Novelist Anthony Burgess writes that eating durian is “like eating sweet raspberry blancmange in the lavatory”. Travel and food writer Richard Sterling says:

    its odor is best described as pig-excrement, turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock. It can be smelled from yards away. Despite its great local popularity, the raw fruit is forbidden from some establishments such as hotels, subways and airports, including public transportation in Southeast Asia.

    Other comparisons have been made with the civet, sewage, stale vomit, skunk spray and used surgical swabs.





  • DePape, according to prosecutors, was driven by conspiracy theories and had plans to tie the former speaker up and break her kneecaps if she lied to him.

    How was an inflatable unicorn costume involved?

    In prior testimony, DePape told the jury he planned to wear an inflatable unicorn costume and upload his interrogation of Speaker Pelosi online.

    Well, that sounds kind of grotesque.

    Kind of stands out to me more than the Canadian bit.


  • I mean, it’s not age. I just don’t follow celebrity news or listen to rap. I could name maybe three rappers. Don’t listen to country music, could name maybe one performer there. Couldn’t name any Indian music performers, to pick a random genre. Or K-pop. Or folk music.

    I might have a better shot at some rock or electronica musicians, at least band names, but I couldn’t tell you anything about their personal lives.

    EDIT: Well, I guess…let’s see now. Elvis, Michael Jackson, Kurt Cobain, guess I could rattle off that they had untimely deaths that drug use contributed to. Elvis gained a lot of weight, Jackson had serious issues from plastic surgery. Picked that up from retrospectives or obituaries at or after their deaths, though. Beethoven was deaf.

    I couldn’t tell you anything about the lives of celebrity professional sports figures either, though I know that there were many dramas that made the sports news over the years and I’m sure that there were no shortage of people who did follow them.