Links that may or may not be related to gardens, food, travel, nature, or heterotopias and liminal spaces but probably are. Sources in parentheses.
“Smith didn’t exactly set out to become the “Okra Guy.” ‘I’m from England, and grew up not knowing what okra was,’ says man now trialing over 100 varieties of okra in the U.S. (Modern Farmer)
Is food start-up SquarEat, which offers consumers ready-to-eat 50 gram squares of blitzed and compacted food — have it pan fried, microwaved, or cold — in flavours that include chicken, beef, asparagus, peanut, and seabass, just satire? Or is it an innovation suitable to our new dystopian lifestyle? Or perhaps “tragically misunderstood”? (The Verge)
42-minute video showing how to cut and serve about thirty kinds of cheese. (Swiss Miss)
Personal stories, poems, histories, and tidbits connected to Georgia peaches. (Bitter Southerner)
In 1869, the British established a thorny hedge, eight feet high and eventually measuring over 2,300 miles through India, to prevent salt smuggling (and increase taxation); it was guarded by 12,000 British officers and was made up of “almost every description of locally indigenous thorny shrub,” including prickly pear (Opuntia ficus-indica), thorny acacias (Vachellia nilotica), Carissa carandas (with a bright red berry pickled as a condiment), and the thorny Indian plum tree Ziziphus mauritiana. (BBC Future)
Bread, flowers and coffee: Walking around the North Marais to a flower shop in Paris. Eight-minute video with music and subtitles in Japanese and English. (Paris vlog)
Featured photo: old family photo – cookout
Thanks for the Bitter Southerner link! “If a peach ain’t sweet, there’s no point in it.” Didn’t realize peaches were so easy to grow, but no wonder the little peach tree we planted in our yard does pretty well despite our lack of great gardening skill! Had a supermarket peach in my lunch yesterday, and what a disappointment compared to the farm stand peaches and our homegrown peaches.
Love the wisterias in the Paris Vlog!