tour #481 neuschwanstein castle, southern bavaria

what are the chances that cousins from halfway across the world, even while doing moderate coordination via the miracle of 3G mobile networks, ended up on the VERY SAME tour through neuschwanstein castle in southern bavaria this very afternoon? apparently pretty good!

farm bill

i would be very interested in what my farming cousins have to say about this. (click the "this" to go to an article from the international herald tribune which i read last week.) remember, if you don't post your opinion here, you'll only be subjected to mine...

shore leave in copenhagen

gisel, sabin and the little mermaid. you guess which one is the mermaid.

cousin gisel had a few hours of shore leave in copenhagen today, so sabin and i took our bikes on the train and went in to have lunch with her. it was a beautiful, gorgeous, sunny day in copenhagen, so after a harrowing bike ride with gizzy on the back of my bike and then even more harrowing with me on the back of my bike and her riding, we settled down for a lovely lunch and then a nice walk.

we'll go down to munich in a few weeks and meet her again when she's taking megan and jenni on their first big european tour (which seems to really be pretty much their first big tour of germany). i'm sure it will also be good for sabin to continue the lessons gisel started today in being a proper nachtigal.

words i'll never hear again

when i studied in kazan, russia, in 1994, dad and norm huizenga came to visit me. i went to moscow to meet them and we took the 13-hour train ride back to kazan. along the way, there was a stop (the name of which escapes me at the moment) where there was a crystal factory.

times were tough in russia back then and the people who worked in the factory were paid in the crystal products that they made. chandeliers, cut glass pitchers, wine glasses, vodka glasses. some in beautiful cobalt blue and other vibrant colors.

the stop came very early in the morning...around 4 or 5 a.m., as i recall. despite the ungodly hour and no matter the weather--bitter cold, driving rain, blizzard conditions--the people from the village swarmed the train with their wares.

i remember my astonishment when dad handed me a $50 dollar bill and said, "get out there and buy something!" words which i'd never heard before and that i'm sure i'll never hear again.

more seasonal cooking

because it's that time of year when the rhubarb pokes its ruby stalks out of the ground and begs to be made into something scrumptious...


Mom's Best Rhubarb Coffee Cake

Cream together:
2 C. brown sugar
½ C. butter
2 eggs
1 C. buttermilk
1 t. vanilla

Mix in:
1 t. soda
¼ t. salt
2 C. flour
3 C. rhubarb

Top with:
½ C. sugar
1 t. cinnamon

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes in a 9x13 pan.

i baked mine in a round pan, as you can see. it made enough for a small loaf for the neighbors who serve as sabin's surrogate grandparents as well. i used a rich dark brown muscovado sugar rather than ordinary brown sugar. it has an almost molasses-like flavor and made it rich and delicious. we poured cream over it and sprinkled a bit more of the crystals of organic raw sugar over it to give it a little extra sweetness and crunch. heavenly.

possible in platte?

i found myself in a hotel room in oslo on monday evening, watching with that sort of sick sense of fascination one has when passing the scene of an accident, the story unfolding on BBC World of the family in austria where the father, josef fritzl, apparently kept the now 42-year-old daughter locked in the basement for 24 years and fathered seven children with her--children that were therefore both child and grandchild to him--3 of whom had never, ever seen the light of day.

the story itself is horrifying. how could someone possibly do that to their own child? he and his wife and apparently an older son lived in the house upstairs and they claim that at least the wife had no idea. three of the seven children he fathered with the daughter were brought upstairs to live a "normal" life--adopted by the man and his wife (whom he also fathered seven children with). they claimed to the authorities that the children were left on the doorstep by the daughter, who had run away to live in a cult. apparently, although this happened a stunning three times, the austrian authorities never questioned it or thought it sounded the least bit strange.

this story has me thinking about a society in which such a thing is possible. this family lived in an apartment building that they owned. the wife apparently lived up on the 3rd floor. but, how could you not notice that there was a whole area of the basement in the place where you lived that was off limits? wouldn't you ever wonder why? or question it? CNN is claiming that josef fritzl took a four week holiday in thailand during the time the daughter and her children were locked in the basement--who took care of them then, giving them food and water? it seems astonishing that he didn't have any accomplices.

and the amount of food it must have taken to feed seven children ages 19 to 5? how could you possibly explain that? a neighbor was actually quoted as seeing the son, who acted as a kind of building superintendent, take food into the house in an actual wheelbarrow. so, apparently it was noticed. but never questioned! the daughter, who "disappeared" at 18 had been abused by the father from age 11 and had tried several times to run away. so, he had an easy story to tell--that she had finally succeeded in running away.

amstetten, austria, where it happened, is a town of 23,000 people. you would imagine in a town of that size, that people would know one another or at least take note of one another, at least within a neighborhood. is it a symptom of a sick state of society that people are so enclosed in their own little worlds that they don't take note of things happening around them? on the spiegel online website, a woman who actually lived in the building for a time said she saw nothing suspicious. how could that be?

but then, i thought about my own neighborhood in denmark. frederikssund is a town of a similar size to amstetten. we know our neighbors on both sides--the ones uphill act as sort of surrogate grandparents to sabin and downhill, the middle daughter has been sabin's regular babysitter for a number of years now. but, go a little farther up or down the street and we have but a nodding acquaintance of our neighbors. i would have absolutely no idea whether they had their children locked up in the basement or not.

but, would it be possible in platte? i sincerely don't think so. granted, platte is a much smaller community, but the culture is different as well. people talk a lot more to one another. they notice what other people are up to. this can, of course, have its bad side, when talk takes the form of gossip. but, even gossip in austria might have helped in the tragic situation there--it would have sewn the seed of doubt. but, that didn't happen and there is a now 42-year-old woman who has completely lived the wrong life. that is truly a tragedy.

i guess the lesson in this is, get out there, meet your neighbors, talk to them, ask after their children, ask to see their basements. notice what's going on in your surroundings. just simply care more. be a better citizen. i know i intend to.

very interesting

i've just received this week's "site meter" report, which tells me, if i look at a world map view, the location of the people who have looked at our family blog. interestingly, it's not only us nachtigals. someone from indonesia, one from malaysia, two from spain, one from cairo, one from rio and and even one from bogota, columbia have looked at our little blog! how cool is that?

the vegetable of the gods

it's that time of year, when the lovely little asparagus nubs begin to burst forth from the soil. on a warm, sunny day, you could probably lie there in the garden and actually watch them grow up out of the rich, black earth. mouth watering as you imagine a pat of butter melting over them, a few crystals of flaky salt sprinkled upon them.

dad has a huge asparagus patch and during high season can pick bucketfuls a day. giving them away and mom freezes some. but, it's best eaten fresh at every meal (unless it activates your gout) during that short but blissful season.

i remember as a kid, one of the major delights of spring was going asparagus hunting. finding those spots in bovee where someone long, long ago planted a few roots and fed their family on the brilliant green shoots. it was such a delight finding a spot in the ditch where you could see a few of last year's dried stalks and you knew that down at their base you'd find a sign of spring, bursting forth. it felt so delicious, getting such a delicacy for free. there was another place south and west of town where we always hunted asparagus as well, tho' i can't remember the name of it. it was a regular spring ritual, one i so looked forward to, year after year.

as barbara kingsolver says in animal, vegetable, miracle, "Respecting the dignity of a spectacular food means enjoying it at its best." and asparagus is at its best right now. what are you waiting for, go eat some!!!

recipe for a spring lunch

i posted this over on just know where you are, but i thought i'd post it here as well in light of my suggestion that we create a family cookbook. leading by example and such...

i hereby present a delicious spring lunch. should be eaten outdoors if at all possible. preferably from the same big bowl with just a fork for all those who partake. there are a host of inspirations here--japanese, spanish, nordic, "julish."

salad

1 small kohlrabi, diced
1 small bunch of asparagus, cut into bite-sized pieces and put in boiling water for 3-4 minutes, then cooled down immediately with cold water to keep the brilliant spring green
1 chorizo sausage, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 handful herbs (i used that wonderful ramsløg stuff--wild garlic leaves picked in the forest) but a handful of parsley or even cilantro would be good
1 package of cherry (or small plum) tomatoes, cut into bite size
1 small package macadamia nuts
handful of manchego (or other hard) cheese, diced (again with the bite-sized pieces

toss it all together in a bowl

dressing

1 large spoonful of red miso
1 teaspoon honey
good glug of olive oil
a few drops of sesame oil (you don't need much
juice of ½ a lemon

whisk it together, taste. if it needs something, a bit of rice vinegar and/or soy sauce should do the trick

pour it over the salad. serve in the sun with a loaf of good bread slathered in butter and sprinkled with flaky salt. drink white wine with it.

lamb steaks

i bought this gorgeous lamb steak in the grocery store today. lovely cuts of lamb--tenderloins, chops with the beautiful little rib bones and now steaks like this one are increasingly available in our grocery stores. i think that is just great!

i'm marinading this one with chopped "ramsløg"--a kind of wild garlic that grows in the forests around here and which is tender, fragrant and delicious this time of year, a dash of salt and pepper, organic italian extra virgin olive oil and a french white wine made from organically-grown grapes. although it's a bit difficult to judge the size from the picture above, this steak is large enough for the three of us to share for dinner.

all of this provoked me to think about dan and sam's lamb business and how they're also working to increase the amount of lamb on the tables in the US as well. it's a wonderful, delicious, tender meat and i find myself buying it at least once a week. with the increasing availability of tempting cuts like the steak above (i'd never seen steaks before), it will do nothing but get more popular.

at easter, the company which delivers my weekly box of organic vegetables had a special offer on a leg of lamb from their own lambs. we got a beautiful 3500gram leg of lamb that had never been frozen (a lot of the lamb we get in denmark is actually new zealand lamb, so it' s been frozen) and a beautiful lamb sausage. i made it easter weekend and invited my friend who grew up in new zealand. it was simply divine and he even agreed. fresh lamb that hasn't traveled to you from the other side of the world on a ship is well worth it.

i hope dan and sam continue to raise lamb and that maybe this picture will serve as inspiration for a cut they maybe hadn't thought of. we all have to be conscious of our carbon footprint and if we can save "food miles" by eating locally-produced things, all the better. and even better if they're produced using organic methods that are kind to our environment!

Glen visits Las Vegas

I dropped Glen at the airport early this morning so he can catch the United flight through Denver back to Sioux Falls. I had a little mileage left so I brought him out for a few days. He likes to tune up my desert landscaping a couple of times a year and God knows he's a huge help.

He replaced a couple of dead bushes, repaired my drip irrigation where necessary, fertilized and ran up my water bill ("Good God, I don't know how anything lives in this country with so little water!") He sprayed the property for insects and cleaned my a/c-furnace filters (I guess I hadn't thought about doing that since he was here last October). He stretched Sunday night's meal of takeout Chinese through two more noon lunches (Doreen doesn't like Chinese food so he indulges when he comes out here without her). While he's an incredibly generous soul he is also Kate's son and is very frugal. I think he likes to see how long he can go without spending any money and he loves to stretch a meal.

Last night we went downtown and ate at the diner at the Golden Gate Casino (established 1906). Then we each pooled $10 and found a lively craps table at the Golden Nugget. Dad held the dice and made the point 4 times in a row before he crapped out. I tell him he's lucky because he throws the dice with the hand that's missing the thumb...the result of a little encounter with a conveyor belt at Sokota (he refused the $10,000 dismemberment offer from the insurance company because "it's only a thumb.") We left after a half hour with our initial investment and considered ourselves winners (we're not high rollers like Don & Dave). I taught him how to play craps years ago and he only gambles when we're together (unlike Mom, who I'm sure used her free time while Dad was away to contribute to the tribe's slot machines in Flandreau).

When he was going through the security checkpoint in Sioux Falls on the way out they tried to confiscate his full-size tube of toothpaste. By God they weren't going to get it...he turned around, went outside, buried it in the rocks and returned to the checkpoint. I'm sure he will remember to retrieve it this afternoon when he returns.

that same summer

so that same summer that we endlessly baited the dimick boys into touching the electric fence, i remember another striking incident.

the shelter belt around our house didn't amount to much in those days and you could easily see out to the junk pile in the middle of the 40 acres. we probably had a good dozen or more horses at that time and so, generally, i just spent more time out there in the field, going out to catch a horse or some other such thing. we used to go out and climb around on the husk of an old car that was rusting away into oblivion out in the junk pile.

anyway, for whatever reason, i was out there at the junk pile and to my surprise, i came across a dead pig. now that was a strange thing to find out there. we didn't have any pigs and there weren't any anywhere nearby. this one had been strangely cut up. it was, for a child, such a violent image--a half-grown pristine pink pig, cut up his middle. could it be some crazed cult of pig-assaulting satan worshippers on the loose in platte?!?!

i ran to the house to tell mom. uncle red was there and laughed and laughed. turns out he had done a post on the pig earlier that day and had been hauling it around in the back of his little bitty datsun pickup. for some reason, they needed to load something else in the pickup and so the pig got tossed into the junk pile. he had forgotten to go back and get it.

but i will never forget the shock of the sight of that dead pig in the junk pile.