09:00 – It seems that Google stopped indexing WordPress blog comments sometime earlier this year. Thanks to a reader’s suggestion, I found a WP plug-in called Search Everything. I installed it yesterday, and it seems to work. The search box at the upper right now searches comments as well as posts.
Remind me never to order sodium hydroxide in a 12 kilo pail again. I used to order USP/FCC/NF/reagent-grade sodium hydroxide in 2.5 kilo jars, but this time I ordered a 12-kilo pail because it costs literally half as much per kilo in the larger container. But I typically use about one kilo at a time, and the stuff sucks water out of the air, so I need to repackage it in smaller containers. The time it takes to do that, not to mention the hassle and risk of dealing with so much of this caustic chemical at a time, obviates the cost advantage.
Most of my time this week was devoted to working on science kit stuff, but here’s what I did to prep this week:
- I confirmed something about which I was already pretty certain. Eight years ago, while I was writing Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments, I pulled two of those small cans of mixed fruit off the pantry shelf. Both were the same lot number and had the same best-by date. I opened one, ran an iodometric titration on the liquid to determine vitamin C quantitatively, wrote the result on the bottom of the other can, and ate the fruit. This week, I opened the other can, which had “expired” six years ago. I ran an iodometric titration on the liquid to determine vitamin C quantitatively, and ate the fruit. The result, no surprise to me, was that the concentration of vitamin C in the old can was identical within experimental error to the concentration in the can I’d tested eight years ago.
The common belief is that canned food loses nutrients as it ages. Vitamin C is a pretty good proxy for nutrients in general, because vitamin C is among the most fugitive of nutrients. Exposing a vitamin C solution to air will eventually oxidize most or all of the substance that was originally present. But of course in a sealed can it’s not exposed to oxygen, just as none of the other nutrients are. Now, vitamin C is in fact an unstable molecule, so it wouldn’t surprise me if there was at least some loss in canned goods that were 20, 30, or more years old. But as far as I’m concerned, this test pretty definitely refutes the idea that canned goods stored for a long period lose significant nutritional value. Oh, by the way, that fruit that “expired” six years ago tasted just like the newly-canned stuff does.
So, what precisely did you do to prepare this week? Tell me about it in the comments.
For an analysis of slightly older product:
http://www.livescience.com/50535-aged-champagne-shipwreck.html
The article says the 170 year old Champagne:
The chemical composition closely matched the descriptions of wine-tasting experts, who described the aged Champagne as “grilled, spicy, smoky and leathery, together with fruity and floral notes.”
The researchers were amazed by how well the wine had aged under the sea.The Champagne from the shipwreck was remarkably well preserved, as evidenced by the low levels of acetic acid, the characteristic vinegary taste of spoiled wine.
Prepping Research this week: I looked at micro-hydro for energy production. Given the availability of a flowing water source with a large enough head (at least 20 ft) micro-hydro is a fantastic alternative to solar / wind. There are some excellent vendors who will work with you to design and scale your system. Hydro can easily provide enough KW to run a normal household. I am enthused, and looking for an acreage with useable water source to try this out.
I saw that article about the old wine. Assuming the bottles remained intact and the corks were waxed or otherwise sealed, I’m not surprised. After all, acetic acid is the product of oxidizing ethanol. No oxygen equals no acetic acid.
Same deal with canned goods. Assuming the product was properly canned in the first place and that the integrity of the can was not compromised, a can of food should remain good indefinitely. I’ve eaten canned food that was 40 or more years old, and it tasted just fine to me.
The whole “expiration date” thing started in the 60’s or 70’s. Before then, there were no dates on canned goods because everyone rightly assumed that they didn’t expire. Food packagers have managed to convince people that canned foods “expire” simply to make them throw out perfectly good food and buy more.
I don’t even bother to look at dates on cans. The other day, Barbara planned to have canned peas with dinner. We were out of peas upstairs, so she just used canned corn instead. This morning, I went downstairs to pull a case of canned peas from the shelves. I didn’t even bother to look at the “best-by” dates on the various cases. I just grabbed the top one. These canned peas will be as nutritious and as tasty 20, 30, or 40 years from now as they are now.
Regarding water power, you don’t need even a 20-foot head. Even a couple feet suffices to produce a lot of power. Heck, even a free-flowing stream with an old-fashioned undershot wheel can generate a lot of electricity.
I too have been looking into energy production, storage, and portability this week. Just a lot of browsing and bookmarking to go back for a closer look.
Tesla is staying in the news. An article I found particularly interesting was this one: http://gizmodo.com/teslas-new-battery-could-solve-one-of-solar-powers-bigg-1699555784
We are in a Public Utility District and I must say for the most part their management is pretty competent. We have pretty good and stable rates and they do just enough of the eco-weenie stuff to keep the guberment satisfied. They recently started a project for more solar power with a novel funding method: http://www.bentonpud.org/community_solar/benton_puds_community_solar/
A couple of large scale storage methods that have been explored in the past in my area.
(1) Hydro solar (water pumped, using solar, from a lower reservoir to an upper reservoir, then power hydro generated as lower reservoir is refilled at night from the upper reservoir.
(2) Compressed air where solar air compressors fill large underground chambers then when needed compressed air turbine generators create power for the grid.
Prepping this week:
(in between VA appointments, which are multiplying in the next two weeks)
Picked up more canned goods, esp. solid albacore tuna; we got a bunch of vegetable seeds and are starting to assemble the raised beds. Ordered another Baofeng and will be picking up a certain firearm next week. Also looked into manufacturing possibilities, on a very small scale, of course. And filling out Fed paperwork. I have a couple of lists printed out for things to start stockpiling here over the next few months and am still researching alternative manual pump gear for our well.
Mrs. OFD will mostly be gone over the next three weeks, to various points south and west and I’ll be getting as much done as I can here, while still doing online courses, job search crap, and a bunch of VA appointments, including minor eye surgery. We also gotta get down next month to MA and see kids and grandkids before they roll out to Babylon-on-the-Bay, Kalifornia, and my own family down there who either can’t or won’t ever move out of Megalopolis and the Peoples’ Republic of Taxachusetts.
Not prep-related but for kicks last night I traced my paternal links back to John Howland, a signer of the Mayflower Compact, explorer of the Kennebec region of Maine, and involved in a gunfight over there back then. We are also descended from Governors Carver, Dudley and Bradstreet and also the first American poet, Anne Bradstreet. And houses that my ancestors lived in are still standing on Nantucket Island, though now serving in at least one case as a b & b.
Actually it is sorta prep-related; families ought to know from whence they came and what traditions and cultural background informs their present-day and future circumstances. This rarely gets covered in any of the prep-lit, even with the home-schooling stuff, so far as I know.
For you folks that are considering gardening, a good resource are your local Master Gardeners. Our’s are rather prominent as they maintain flower and vegetable demonstration gardens on the land of one of our Public Library’s. The garden centers in the big box stores like Lowes and Home Depot point folks to these Master Gardeners.
There is quite a following of Square Foot Gardeners out here, so seek and you will find.
What I did for prepping this week: checked our wine supply. Yep, it’s still there. At least if we run out of food, we can drink ourselves silly. What a way to go!
I once had the opportunity to taste some well aged sparkling wines, but not anywhere close to 170 years old. They were, shall I say, interesting. Actually, they were quite good, but not what we are used to, since most people drink pretty fresh sparkling wines.
Incidentally, the term “champagne” is actually restricted to sparkling wines that come from the Champagne district of France. Sparkling wines from anywhere else in the world supposedly have to be called just sparkling wines. Whatever.
Our little wine tasting group (about a dozen) always has sparkling wines for our May tasting in honor of Mothers’ Day. Some of them usually are champagnes. I’ll drink to that.
Some days I just feel like a prole in my own country:
http://pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/2015/04/23/homeland-security-working-overtime-to-add-new-americans-by-2016-election/
Since I live in a desert, flowing water is extremely unsteady, not very suitable to generate any kind of power. It’s hard to tap a flash flood. Besides, these only occur every few years, and typically last a few minutes.
We do have lots of sun, and I will eventually get some kind of solar PV setup. We have had solar space heat for over 35 years.
I want a PV system that can operate independently of the grid, but those are hard (but certainly not impossible) to get approved here. I will do this in conjunction with a renovation project in a couple of years.
Also considering a natural gas fuel cell system, but first we need nat gas to our site. In a couple more years, these and PV will be even closer to economic. Should be interesting.
Ordered nine more #10 cans of food from WalMart such as Augason Farms Emergency Food Hearty Vegetable Beef Soup Mix, 44 oz:
http://www.walmart.com/ip/22985143
Walmart does have excellent pricing on this stuff. I do not have a plan on this stuff yet, just gonna accumulate until the wife finds out and hollers stop.
The wife and I are still thinking about building a house on the back two acres of our office property. We really liked this house about 20 miles away from here with a metal roof, solar panels and spray foam insulation. I am looking for more information about it and may contact the builder.
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/life/article/Energy-efficiency-in-custom-Pearland-home-6212117.php
I wonder if the anti-vax nutters will listen to this…
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2015/04/22/4221393.htm
“I’ve eaten canned food that was 40 or more years old, and it tasted just fine to me.”
The only apparent “spoilage” I’ve ever noticed in canned food is that canned tuna will develop a fatty looking yellow/white rind on top if left undisturbed for a few years. Remove the rind and it looks and tastes fine.
“Some days I just feel like a prole in my own country:”
Prole? That would be a step up, Grasshopper. We are down to serf/subject status, if that, now. Or as William Griggs calls us, Mundanes. Insane levels of immigration, legal and otherwise for decades now? All part of the plan, with malice aforethought. Cui bono?
“…just gonna accumulate until the wife finds out and hollers stop.”
Or tosses it in the trash with the flashlights.
Overcast here today with snow flurries. Wood stove is rockin’. Got four new tires on the Saab in time for Princess to gallivant around VT, NH and MA, with one of our gas cards, too. Meanwhile they cleaned the rubbish out of it and transferred it to my Toyota. Thanks, grrls! I have just dumped it all. And in retaliation am going on a RUTHLESS hunt throughout the house for the next three weeks and tossing everything I possibly can.
(1) Hydro solar (water pumped, using solar, from a lower reservoir to an upper reservoir, then power hydro generated as lower reservoir is refilled at night from the upper reservoir.
Works well but needs a lot of elevation for compactness. I have been in a facility in the eastern USA that pumped river water at night using very cheap nuclear power up 400 ft to a lake above the facility. Had ten hydro units with a total of 400 MW of power. Was unnerving to think that we were below several hundred thousand acre feet of water.
(2) Compressed air where solar air compressors fill large underground chambers then when needed compressed air turbine generators create power for the grid.
Does not work very well since you lose the heat of compression over time to the underground storage cavern walls. The inlet air can be as high as 200 F. The expansion of the cooled air can drop below -100 F and cause icing of the water vapor in the air in the outlet piping.
“…just gonna accumulate until the wife finds out and hollers stop.”
Or tosses it in the trash with the flashlights.
That would be out of character. And inadvisable.
Meanwhile they cleaned the rubbish out of it and transferred it to my Toyota. Thanks, grrls! I have just dumped it all. And in retaliation am going on a RUTHLESS hunt throughout the house for the next three weeks and tossing everything I possibly can.
But that is their precious … stuff.
1180mg of Sodium in 1 Serving… wow.
Latest conspiracy theory I’ve read…
The Yellowstone Caldera is due for eruption at any moment and the USGS is hiding the truth.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowstone_Caldera#Volcanic_hazards
OK, let me just ask this:
How would northern Vermont be affected if the Yellowstone Caldera blows up?
Sparkling wines from anywhere else in the world supposedly have to be called just sparkling wines.
Alas, not in the US. Wines made and sold in the US can use DOC regional appellations like “Champagne” and “Parmesan” without falling afoul of the FTC here. Can’t be exported to most of the world, though. There have been a few steps towards dropping such names here, but the big jug wine producers and cheese merchants don’t want to change labels.
IIRC, the EU sued not long ago to force US manufacturers to stop using these names. That’s about as stupid as trying to restrict the use of “lima beans” to beans imported from Peru, which they were in the 19th century, before American farmers started growing them here. IIRC, the name came from the labels stenciled on the crates, indicating their origin as “Lima” and the contents as “beans”.
Everyone seems to pronounce the name “lie-muh”. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say it as “lee-muh”, so I guess everyone thinks they originated in Lima, Ohio rather than Lima, Peru.
How would northern Vermont be affected if the Yellowstone Caldera blows up?
All the crimmigrants would move to Vermont. Comprende Señor. Then they start having lots of little ones. I hear they are born with tattoos already on their little bodies.
Lima Beans
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrFHY1R8vRs
This week I did some cooking from my survival supplies so there won’t be any surprises if/when they become my only source of food. The LDS flour made bread and pancakes just like any other flour. The Keystone canned chicken is definitely not a gourmet foodstuff but not too bad. In one meal I mixed the chicken with rice, onion flakes and a can of peas, in another I mixed it with tomato sauce and put it over pasta. I liked both enough that I finished off what I had made in a second meal. It would probably taste like manna from heaven to someone who had had very little to eat for a week or more.
A few more experimental meals are planned with the powdered eggs, freeze dried cheese and some of the dried fruit. So far it seems like I would able to eat well and keep some variety in the diet.
As far as Yellowstone they really can’t blame it on climate change so there’s no need to talk about it. (however there will be climate change if it does erupt but the EPA can fix it with some carbon credits)
“Meanwhile they cleaned the rubbish out of it and transferred it to my Toyota. Thanks, grrls! I have just dumped it all. And in retaliation am going on a RUTHLESS hunt throughout the house for the next three weeks and tossing everything I possibly can.”
Ah, domestic tranquility!
I have never tolerated clutter in my cars. Don’t even have a spare tire in a couple. Might come from decades of riding motorcycles. Wife, OTOH, never rode. Draw your own conclusions.
@Lynn – you bring up some valid points.
(1) Hydro solar (water pumped, using solar, from a lower reservoir to an upper reservoir, then power hydro generated as lower reservoir is refilled at night from the upper reservoir.
Works well but needs a lot of elevation for compactness. I have been in a facility in the eastern USA that pumped river water at night using very cheap nuclear power up 400 ft to a lake above the facility. Had ten hydro units with a total of 400 MW of power. Was unnerving to think that we were below several hundred thousand acre feet of water.
There is an experimental system hidden up in the Cascades that uses a series of stair stepped reservoirs with low head hydro on the outlet of each. This particular system uses wind power to move the water up, there is not shortage of wind in the Cascades.
(2) Compressed air where solar air compressors fill large underground chambers then when needed compressed air turbine generators create power for the grid.
Does not work very well since you lose the heat of compression over time to the underground storage cavern walls. The inlet air can be as high as 200 F. The expansion of the cooled air can drop below -100 F and cause icing of the water vapor in the air in the outlet piping.
The compressed air system used essentially Navy Submarine high pressure air system components, vastly scaled up. Basalt caves were lined with steel to become large pressure tanks. What brought that project to a halt was water seeping into the caves and corroding the “tanks”.
“Microsoft is bringing back Solitaire for Windows 10”
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/microsoft-bringing-back-solitaire-windows-133945074.html
I want Spider Solitaire back also! I’ve been loading it from older PCs onto Windows 7.
“I have never tolerated clutter in my cars.”
Yeah. I not heart dat. Years now of countless CD’s ruined, along with their jewel cases, and countless tons of rubbish and garbage removed almost daily. I’m just an old ornery and annoying fart for caring about it, of course.
“All the crimmigrants would move to Vermont. Comprende Señor.”
No comprende, Generalissmo; too cold and dreary and dark here for peeps from tropical and semi-tropical lands. Plus ice and snow and frost and wind and freezing rain and mud. Right now we have mud and snow flurries. On April 24, a month into Spring. We have some Hispanics in the area now; they’re kept hidden in trailers on the industrial farms and only brought out to work. We have four or five African-Americans in the area who make sure they’re seen be-bopping all over the downtown area and stylin’ and profilin’, natch. In groups. Because warm weather.
‘Sposed to be wommuh ta-morruh. We shall see.
Mrs. OFD heading down to Dr. Bob’s neck of the woods, Greensboro, NC, on Sunday, followed by a week in the haht of Tornado Alley, Wichita Falls, TX, followed by a third week out in lovely dried-out Stockton, CA.
Son and DIL and grandkids will be moving out to the lovely dried-out Bay Area on July 1. Meanwhile DIL’s ex-Marine sister, back from multiple short tours in the Sandbox and the Suck and since married to another Marine, similarly back from there and now a DI, has split up with him, a huge surprise to us all. Since hubby is a known drunk and brawler who hates Yankees and Catholics as does his entire lovely Southern family. And both parties suffer from substantial PTSD. Another of wife’s young cousins, back from five tours with the Rangers in Afghanistan, rushed to start a job and get married and now he’s in deep chit with severe PTSD down in Virginia.
And meanwhile young cousin Willie is wrapping up college here along with Army ROTC and headed to Fort Lee, Virginia, for the start of his illustrious career in Army transportation, from which he will acquire valuable skillz to bring back to civvie life, unlike those drones in Infantry, Armor and Airborne, haha. His mom and grandma were spouting this drivel at last Sunday’s birthday lunch for Mrs. OFD and I had all I could do not to bust out laughing.
Yeah, Lt. Willie will be organizing the transportation of tanks, APCs and self-propelled artillery, along with endless truck convoys delivering steaks and ice cream to the Green Zone REMFs. While dodging snipers and IEDs.
If they’re lucky they’ll get some new cadets who now know what it’s like to walk a mile in a woman’s high heels.
I may have to take out citizenship somewhere else after that caper; maybe the Norks could use some mil-spec consultation, or the Czechens.
Does not work very well since you lose the heat of compression over time to the underground storage cavern walls. The inlet air can be as high as 200 F. The expansion of the cooled air can drop below -100 F and cause icing of the water vapor in the air in the outlet piping.
The compressed air system used essentially Navy Submarine high pressure air system components, vastly scaled up. Basalt caves were lined with steel to become large pressure tanks. What brought that project to a halt was water seeping into the caves and corroding the “tanks”.
Not very high pressure then. And you are going to have water in the system unless you dry the air first. And, use a closed system (probably not possible due to low pressure tank size).
Tata cars in India built, builds?, a compressed air car. They found that using a heat source to heat the compressed air first worked much better. If I remember correctly, the “car” used a bottle of propane per 60 miles. Nope, looks like they got rid of the icing problem.
http://auto.ndtv.com/news/tata-motors-air-car-airpod-might-launch-in-2015-736949
I used to work for a company that had a series of hollowed out salt caverns in east Texas to store natural gas in. We compressed it up to 5,000 psia one fall when we got the winter forecast. 10 BCF of natural gas. One of the caverns cracked. The crude oil and natural gas wells in the ENTIRE county started running again with all the leakage. The ground water was probably flammable also as the top of the caverns was only a couple of hundred feet deep.
““Microsoft is bringing back Solitaire for Windows 10″
I have Solitaire here on the Winblows 8.1 machine; I play it all the time.
“Your Password is Too Damn Short”
http://blog.codinghorror.com/your-password-is-too-damn-short/
What, you have a problem with abc12345?
PG&E built a pumped storage system to supplement Diablo Canyon back in the 70s. Lot of good that did. We still have some of the highest priced electricity in the country.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helms_Pumped_Storage_Plant
I just signed a new two year residential electricity contract for my home at 8.3 cents/kwh. Here in the Land of Sugar. I am still trying to figure out how they are going to screw me. Looks like the price has gone up to 8.5 cents/kwh since then.
https://signup.discountpowertx.com/SelectPlan.aspx?Zip=77007&PromoCode=PTCCNPSAVR&Type=&ReferralCode=&TDSP=3&Service=Electricity%C2%B6meter=1&StateCode=TX
“How would northern Vermont be affected if the Yellowstone Caldera blows up?”
Harry Turtledove’s Supervolcano series (Eruption, All Fall Down and Things Fall Apart) about what happens after the Yellowstone erupts might give you a possible idea. Some of the characters are stuck in Maine where winter lasts for ten months of the year and they are pretty much isolated from the rest of the country. Food and fuel sources become a problem. Most of the midwest is covered in ash so there is little farming going on. Some of the characters and story lines are not all that interesting but his take on what happens across the country during the years that follow the eruption does provide some things to think about.
I was interested in the series because my son and wife live just down the road from Yellowstone in Bozeman MT. Not that they would have anything to worry about after the eruption.
” Some of the characters are stuck in Maine where winter lasts for ten months of the year and they are pretty much isolated from the rest of the country. Food and fuel sources become a problem.”
Ha ha, that’s a good one! A ten-month wintuh. BFD. It’s 6-8 now, depending on how ya look at it. We are having snow flurries today, a month into “Spring” and it’s been known to snow in May and in June up in the higher elevations. It sometimes snows in September and the leaves start turning in August. Large pahts of Maine are still pretty isolated, like the Allagash Wilderness Waterway and the western Maine mountains outside of the few ski resorts. Look at a night sky map of the U.S. and you’ll still see big fat empty black spaces on western Maine and the Adirondacks, across the lake and visible to us from our back yahd here.
But we’re just rank noobs compared to our north-land cousins in Alberta, northern Quebec and Scandinavia.
Cold weather crops for Maine; potatoes, beets, turnips, carrots, etc., and hunting and fishing. A dystopian level of disorder there would mean being bounced back to colonial times, pretty much. A short, tough, hard life again. But maybe we could get water power going again, and steam.
IIRC, the EU sued not long ago to force US manufacturers to stop using these names. That’s about as stupid as trying to restrict the use of “lima beans” to beans imported from Peru, which they were in the 19th century, before American farmers started growing them here.
The EU did sue under one of the free trade agreements and/or the WIPO treaties. The agreement, IIRC, led to some phaseouts of wine labels, a grandfathering of some existing labels, and an agreement to not do it in the future.
Wine in particular does have vastly different taste based on where the grapes are grown, so I think the EU is right. Calling a wine made from California grown grapes “Burgundy” is deceptive. Cheese is also affected by the local bacteria, and some beers by the local bacteria and yeast (i.e. Belgian beers that are fermented in open tanks.) The US has started down this trail with controlled appellations for alcohol products and a few agricultural products like Vidalia onions. Most bulk crops have little variation in taste based on where they are grown, so any designations for them are for marketing purposes.
I have been in a facility in the eastern USA that pumped river water at night
Was that facility in Alabama? If so, I have been in that facility. Got a tour by one of the design engineers. Even got to go inside of one of the generators.
I think Field Marshall Rodham knocked some of her brains out when she hit her head as SoS.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Thursday said “deep-seated … religious beliefs” have to be changed before the world’s women will get full access to abortion.
“Far too many women are still denied critical access to reproductive health care and safe childbirth. All the laws we’ve passed don’t count for much if they’re not enforced,” Clinton said.
Women have little access to health care because…RELIGION!…ABORTION! She must be talking about third world Mooslims. Talk about pandering.
[snip] Wine in particular does have vastly different taste based on where the grapes are grown, [snip]
A good friend & his wife drink serious wines. He tells me that the climate & outside influences affect the year to year tastes, too. Several years ago there were bad fires near one vineyard in California that he’s a fan of, and that vintage had a noticeably different ‘smoky’ taste. It’s all grape juice to me, however.
“I think Field Marshall Rodham knocked some of her brains out when she hit her head as SoS.”
That story is about as plausible as Harry Reid’s. There has been some real funny chit going on with stuff at the “highest” levels in recent years; not sure how this is all gonna pan out. The bookies are saying she’s gonna get the WH in a virtual landslide, which is certainly believable considering the clown car of RINO turds on the other side. Per usual. Some of us out here, however, believe ‘the worse, the better.’ Let it rip.
And Lady MacBeth of Little Rock is still trying to retail all that old rad-fem malarkey from the 60s and 70s that she grew up with back then. Her prayers at night probably include the mantra “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle,” and “If the Pope could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament.”
She’s a mean, nasty, chiseling, lying, arrogant, bloodthirsty piece of work and like most Dem/Left harridans, truly fugly and disgusting at the same time. Compared to her, Carly Fiorina is a vision of loveliness and splendor, though an idiot and corporate failure.
If I vote in the national election it would only be to write Pat Buchanan’s name in again, but I’m pretty sure I’ll give it a pass.
He tells me that the climate & outside influences affect the year to year tastes, too.
Absolutely. The soil (“terroir” in French/winespeak) sets a baseline. The amount of rock/minerals in the soil will influence the grapes. The weather will affect sugar content and some of the other flavor molecules. With beer, the water hardness has major effects on the taste, as do the yeast and hop variety used. The grain has effects, but you can take the same grain bill and come up with very different beers with the water, hops, and yeast.
pcb_duffer wrote:
“It’s all vinegar to me, however.”
There, fixed that for you… 🙂
“It’s all vinegar to me, however.”
“There, fixed that for you… :-)”
For shame! In vino, veritas.
Some wise comments above. Grapes do take on characteristics based on soil and climate. That’s part of the fun. There is a polite rivalry going on between the French and the Californians (some other states, too) with scientific methods gradually winning over even staunch traditionalists. That’s not to say the old methods are obsolete, rather, the new methods produce a more consistent product that is gradually getting better. We all win.
Cheeses. Oh so right. We took a river trip in France in the Fall of 2013, and the local cheeses were slightly different everywhere. What a treat.
Wines made and sold in the US can use DOC regional appellations like “Champagne” and “Parmesan” without falling afoul of the FTC here.
I have mixed feelings about some of the specifics, but in principle the idea does make sense. If I want to sell “Swiss chocolate” in the USA, the candy really should have been manufactured in Switzerland. Or the reverse: If I buy “US beef” here in Switzerland, I would be pretty annoyed if it turned out to be from France.
What I find irritating is the general level of hypocrisy from the food industry. It’s essential for your own designations to be respected, but impinging on other people’s geographical designations is fine. “Idaho potatoes” have to come from Idaho, Vidalia onions from Vidalia, but it’s fine to sell American-made Roquefort cheese and Champagne sparking wine. It’s mostly about who is in a position to pay off the local politicians.
There are some funny stories around, too. For example, a British brewery in Newcastle fought for and gained recognition of “Newcastle Brown Ale”. Then they wanted to move across the river and keep producing it, but…oops…they weren’t quite in Newcastle any more. So they found themselves fighting to overturn the very designation they fought for. I haven’t heard an update, but I do hope they lost…
Well, maybe it’s just me, but I think of these things as generic names that indicate type. I don’t expect “swiss cheese” to be from Switzerland any more than I expect bourbon to be from Kentucky or scotch to be from Scotland. I think of it as shorthand for “the type of cheese originally made in Switzerland” and so on. Now if beef is labeled as “Country of origin: US”, it’s fraud if it’s actually from France, and so on, but that’s what origin labeling is for.
That’s why I have mixed feelings – you have the whole spectrum.
On the one hand, names like “cheddar” that have become generic. There really is a Cheddar, England, but their share of worldwide cheddar cheese production has got to be utterly minuscule. No one buying a block of cheddar cheese has any expectation of it being made in Cheddar – not even the English. Clearly not deserving of protection.
On the other hand, names like champagne, that still have an association with the place they originated from. If you are considering a bottle of champagne in the US, a common enough question is “is it real champagne?”, meaning, does it come from that region of France? Pretty clearly deserving of protection, even though plenty of wineries make sparking wines.
Of course, we can continue the story of Champagne. It’s not only a region in France, but also a town in Switzerland. Champagne, Switzerland has made a (non-sparkling) white wine since the 9th century. The EU now forbids them from using their own name on their wine now. Rather odd, since champagne-as-sparkling-wine wasn’t made (intentionally) until the 18th century. Young upstarts.
So…mixed feelings…
Whether or not there was an intention to mislead should always be the sole consideration. If my name is McDonald and I open a restaurant with my name on it, there’s clearly no intention to mislead, even if if it serves fast food. On the other hand, if I build golden arches on both sides of the building, it’s pretty clear I’m trying to represent my restaurant fraudulently as a part of the chain.
Incidentally, I’ve never in my life heard anyone ask if a bottle of sparkling wine was “real champagne”. I’ve heard many people ask if it was French or Californian, which leads me to believe that just about everyone considers “champagne” to be a type of wine rather than a wine that originates in a specific geographic area. And I’ve never heard anyone ask if “swiss cheese” was actually from Switzerland. Who cares? It’s a type of light-color cheese with holes in it.
I know if I order ‘Swiss’ and get that sticky crap known as processed swiss I’m pretty disappointed and won’t be back there for my sandwich needs. If I were to get Jarlsberg however I’d be delighted (not likely considering the cost.)
The bookies are saying she’s gonna get the WH in a virtual landslide, which is certainly believable considering the clown car of RINO turds on the other side.
Hey, the Texas boys are not RINOs! They may be ineffective, loud mouthed braggarts but they are not RINOs. Actually, Perry is quite effective at saying no and the Republic could do far worse than him. In fact, we probably will.
When I think of Champagne I just think of bubbly white, I never assume it comes from the appropriate region of France.
Ordered nine more #10 cans of food from WalMart such as Augason Farms Emergency Food Hearty Vegetable Beef Soup Mix, 44 oz:
http://www.walmart.com/ip/22985143
1180mg of Sodium in 1 Serving… wow.
Just saves me from ordering a #10 can of salt:
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Augason-Farms-Iodized-Salt-104-oz/24420244
BTW, there is no sales tax on the Augason Farms food items in Texas. Just another benefit of living in Texas, no sales tax on unprepared food items (just restaurants and takeaway).
“Hey, the Texas boys are not RINOs!”
They may not be RINOs NOW but once they get to Mordor….all bets are off, Grasshopper. Mordor is toxic to incoming politicians and they literally SWOON on arrival and invitations to All The Best Parties. Say, warn’t Shrub from Texas, more or less? Don’t he still live there?
Then there was the arch-war-criminal LBJ, a sorry piece of rancid cow-chit if ever there was one; and if not a hands-on murderer, close enough.