During this 2007 holiday season, it seems the children are all nestled asleep in their beds, with visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads… oh, wait. You say the “children” are all teenagers now, terminally bored with Christmas and expecting a 10-gig iPod loaded with every album too objectionable to be played in public, plus keys to your a car and $400 worth of “Prison Chic” pants that hang somewhere around the thighs and show off their underwear?

Did the fudge never set, so you had to run to the store to buy enough ice cream to disguise the un-set fudge as super chocolate syrup? Were those tollhouse cookies hard as a rock, breaking grandpa’s dentures with the first bite? Did cousin Jim finish off the entire bottle of rum you’d brought for eggnog before passing out under the tree? Did the dog eat that perfect glazed ham before you could get it into the oven to heat? Did it snow during the night and hide all the firewood you’d stacked somewhere in the yard for the Christmas Eve fire? Are the in-laws insisting on watching Enemy of the State as a “Christmas Movie” instead of It’s a Wonderful Life for the 16th time?

Be of good cheer, enjoy yourself anyway, and…

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

In January, during a particularly frigid spell, I decided to plant wheat on the bottom terrace just to see if it would grow. So I turned it under and hand-scattered the scant quarter-pound of hard, red winter wheat I had left over from my grain stash. I like to grind my own for making bread and pasta, so figured I might as well grow some. Planted in the first part of January, it should be ready for harvest sometime in June.

Lost a lot of it before I figured out that what was growing wasn’t regular turf grass, but what made it past the first mowing is looking good. Should end up with a little more than I planted, next winter I’ll do better.

Grinding grains isn’t hard. Some people even have electric grinders. Mine is just a clamp-to-the-counter sausage grinder looking thing from Poland, works great. I can grind course or fine, hard grains to softish nuts like acorns, mix and match as I see fit. Particularly like some fine rice flour in with my fine wheat pastry flour for making herbed pastas. Which actually is a lot of trouble to make even with a pasta machine, but definitely worth it.

At any rate, I got into the wheat growing business just in time, as OCA tells me Monsanto is back trying to wedge its genetically engineered varieties into fields in the U.S., Canada and Australia despite strong resistance from farmers and consumers. Perhaps this winter I’ll till a few of the up-side terraces and grow wheat. Here’s a three-part lowdown on Monsanto’s latest, a reason we should all be wary of their plans to own the world’s food supply.

Part 1.

Part 2.

Part 3.