From: John De Armond Newsgroups: rec.outdoors.rv-travel Subject: Re: Good News - Bad News Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2007 15:39:49 -0400 Message-ID: <ijn793l2q0k6cfrssmdvv7h4c8b7t490n0@4ax.com> On Tue, 10 Jul 2007 11:35:24 -0400, "Cliff" <cliffclingan@hotmail.com> wrote: >Well DANG! Next time I'm out picking Polk Salad and Dandelions for a meal, >I'll just have to throw in some Crudzu ... just imagine, if word gets >around, soon we'll see farmers getting paid to NOT grow Kudzu LOL > >Cliff in TN - may be a way for bill to suplement his "flatspottin" funds Hey, I LIKE poke salad. Boil and wash a couple of times to get rid of the bad stuff, then mix in with collard greens and stew with ham hocks. Ummmm. Also pretty good with an egg scrambled in. Despite the hysterical bent of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pokeweed many folks, including myself eat the leaves raw as salad. My grandma taught me to only get the very young leaves just after the plant flowers in the spring. Mature leaves taste bad. Enough of 'em would probably do what the article says but they taste so bad that it's not likely you'd eat that much. As a kid, I was determined to make a useable ink out of the berries. Alas, despite what I did, that rich purple ink quickly oxidized to a dull brown color. Permanent as hell but not pretty. Dandelions you can keep. Too bitter for my taste. I've never tried Kudzu but that's on my agenda. Ever had ramps, Cliff? They grow all around here. They're a lot like spinach but with an oniony overtone. The normal method of prep is to fry side meat in a skillet and then use the grease to fry the ramps. When nearly done, scramble in about an equal amount of eggs. Ummmmm. John From: John De Armond Newsgroups: rec.outdoors.rv-travel Subject: Re: Good News - Bad News Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2007 22:56:25 -0400 Message-ID: <90h8935fck0ob3e86cbkl6s8vqel4ch1js@4ax.com> On Tue, 10 Jul 2007 16:37:13 -0400, "Cliff" <cliffclingan@hotmail.com> wrote: >> Ever had ramps, Cliff? They grow all around here. They're a lot >> like spinach but with an oniony overtone. The normal method of prep >> is to fry side meat in a skillet and then use the grease to fry the >> ramps. When nearly done, scramble in about an equal amount of eggs. >> Ummmmm. > >Now you're pulling my leg, right? Ramps are the "Nasty" cuzzin of Garlic >LOL ... but, if you Really like them, they hold a Ramp Festival every year >in Cosby, TN ... I tried eating one raw ... a *SMALL* one ... and the Bride >made me stay away from her for two das! LOL yeah, I really like 'em. Never tried one raw though. The grandaddy of the ramp festivals is held right next door in Polk county. It used to be known as the Ramp Tramp because everyone would hike, pack horse, jeep or dirt bike to a meadow on Big Frog Mountain. A few guys would pack in antique wood stoves on mules and they'd set 'em up in a semi-circle. I usually went in on my dirt bike with an 18" skillet strapped to my back. We'd go pick the ramps from the near vicinity while the women got the fires going and fried the fat back. We'd wash the ramps in the creek, cut 'em up and the women would fry 'em. Fine eatin' Ramps, eggs and fat back. Some years ago the Forest Service, in its unwavering effort to spoil all the recreational activities around here, banned ORVs from the area. Since jeeps and dirt bikes carried in most of the supplies, that put an end to the "tramp" part. Now it's just another town festival. People go pick the ramps beforehand. I haven't been in a decade or more. The latest FS absurdity that I've just learned about is that they now require one to get a permit to pick ramps! (cold day in hell!) I suspect that this current bunch of FS 'crats would regulate where a bear sh*ts in the woods if they could. John From: John De Armond Newsgroups: rec.outdoors.rv-travel Subject: Re: Good News - Bad News Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2007 03:04:30 -0400 Message-ID: <qht8939qbe93cfsr8s4ep95tb4ma0oubc4@4ax.com> On Tue, 10 Jul 2007 23:10:12 -0400, Steve Wolf <newsgroup@w8iz.com> wrote: >If the FS requires a permit, is it to pick anything, or is there a >specific reason ramps are not to be picked? Are they endangered? No, not at all. They grow everywhere around here, like weeds. Even in my side lot. The FS doesn't mind 'em being picked - they just want to extort some fees from everyone. Best I can tell from piecing several conversations together, someone at the FS heard that someone was "picking commercially" and got their panties in a wad. After all, nobody can profit from the national forests except the government.... This "commercial operator" was a guy who picked a few bushels every so often and set up at the local flea market to sell them. An old geezer who'd been doing that most of his life. > >Kind of like limiting the picking of boisenberries or some such freely >growing delicacy. yep. This local FS office on the TN side of the Cherokee NF is just plain nuts. The outgoing chief rangerette has publicly stated that she wants to eliminate all activities from the forest except for day activities - things where people drive in, drop off a few fees and leave before dark. This is, of course, contrary to the multi-use mandate from congress. The NC side of the FS is a little better. They simply extort materials and labor from people who want to use the forest. There are still some ORV trails over there but they have hefty fees associated with their use AND all the maintenance work is done by members of an ORV regional organization set up to deal with the situation. Members bring their own heavy equipment and supplies. There's a trailer with a deuce and a half sitting on the loop beside my house right now waiting to be driven up there to haul logs and rocks. The FS doesn't even contribute fuel, though they keep ALL the fees they collect. The forest service is the turd in the punchbowl of paradise up here. I just learned last week that they intend to destroy more campgrounds. Spivey Cove and North River campgrounds, among others are set to be bulldozed, leveled and converted into electric/water hookup RV lots. Both of these CGs have remained more or less untouched since the CCC built them pre-war. They have rich histories and if the FS wasn't involved, would probably be on the National Register of Historic Places. You can see how they are now on my website. If they do like they've done elsewhere in the area, the results will be flat featureless gravel lots with few/no trees and $20-30/night fees attached. Congress says that they're supposed to have public hearings before they do crap like this. So they did but in typical FS fashion, they held the hearing over 100 miles away and during business hours. The only notice was in the Federal Register. Nobody locally knew a thing about it until it was a done deed. They obeyed the letter of the law but certainly not the spirit. Here is an example of idiots in action http://www.neon-john.com/RV/Tellico/Spivey_Cove/07.JPG Notice the 4 green poles at the left side of the photo? That's where a well and hand pump used to be. The well was drilled to support the CCC camp that bivouacked in the area. For half a century it supplied wonderful tasting water to the camp ground. Until the forest service idiots went to work. This CG is probably 25 acres but despite all that room, they decided to plop down that $100k sh*thouse right next to the well! No surprise that the water started showing bacterial contamination. The forest service's solution to that? Rip out the pump and weld the wellhead shut. They did the same thing at North River CG, State Line CG and Davis Branch CG. After they did that there was no water available anywhere in the forest for campers to use. The lunacy of their actions simply defies description. Now they claim that they're going to have to dig deep wells and install electric pumps to supply water to the CGs. Is that crazy or what? Dig up the sh*thouse and in a couple of years the water will be pure again. Until about 10 years ago all these CGs did just fine without outhouses. RVs had their own facilities and tent campers knew how to walk out into the woods, dig crapholes and cover their waste. Then the FS plopped down porta-crappers. That was the beginning of the end. This bunch is the prototypical example of government run amok. In the 70s, it took a single game and fish warden, two rangers and a couple of part time helpers who helped with trout stocking to manage this forest. Now, with the same land area but with fewer visitors and far fewer facilities after they've closed everything they can get away with, they've built a block-long multi-story building in Cleveland just to house the hundreds of REMFs. The light green trucks are a thick as thieves and they meddle into everything. Damn, I hate those b*stards. Words fail me. Oh, but do I long for the not so distant past when a misbehaving ranger would catch some buckshot in the legs. Just to remind him of his place in life. John > >Steve >www.wolfswords.com under the motorhome link > >> The latest FS absurdity that I've just learned about is that they now require one to >> get a permit to pick ramps! (cold day in hell!) I suspect that this current bunch of >> FS 'crats would regulate where a bear sh*ts in the woods if they could. |
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