THE GREAT MINNOW AND BUFFALO WINGS

This early fall weekend brought one of POYC's premier regattas, the Great Minnow. Sailors assembled on Barren River Lake to compete in the club's last official race of the year. The racemaster had set a creative and challenging course which was complimented by a sailor's friend (and sometimes foe), the wind.

Friend or not, it presented me with the challenge of trying to steer "'ti Punch" (where is Otto when I need him?*), set sails, adjust sails, take pictures, eat lunch all by myself. Otto,* you've been replaced by a couple of bungee cords! Every good regatta provides a forum for its participants to brag about their performance, compliment each other and, in general, to make up new lies.

What's a social hour without good food? Barry's famous wings s[iced it all up.

*Otto--the name with which many of us have christened the "otto" pilot.

OH, MY ACHIN’ BACK!

I planted next year’s garlic crop today. Like tomatoes and onions, garlic is one of those things I can’t get along without. We have raised garlic every year since 1978. Why should this year be any different? It was a bit more trouble than usual and took a bit longer. I couldn’t get the tiller started! Why am I surprised at that? It hasn’t been started in over a year! Rather than tinker with it, I decided to prepare the soil the low tech way—spading fork and rake. So the first part of the process involved spreading manure on the plot of ground. Thankfully we were never particularly good about cleaning out the barn so I have a barn full of well composted goat manure. We closed the dairy and got rid of the goats in 1994 and still have a lifetime supply of manure! So, I spread about 6 buckets of manure on the bed. Then turned the soil and broke it up with the spading fork.

Breaking up the rest of the clods and smoothing the surface with a rake is the next step.

Finally, commit the seed to the ground.

Next spring, I’ll top-dress with more manure. Then, I’ll dig the crop the first week of July.

SHRIMP, GRITS AND FRIENDS

The past two and a half kaleidoscopic weeks have been the best I've spent since that awful night. Being on the boat and among friends was great! Time was filled with boat projects, cooking for all my friends, varnishing teak, taking inventory, a visit to St Augustine, good food and so on.

The Shrimp and Grits Festival on Jekyll Island was a lot of fun. The branches of the ancient live oaks spread like sheltering arms over the crowd.

As with all such festivals, there was plenty of music

plenty of stuff to buy

Lots of people

good food

and plenty of time to relax

The star of the show was the incomparable sweet Georgia Shrimp, prepared and beautifully presented by the numerous restaurants on Jekyll Island.

The Great Spaghetti Sauce Caper

My father’s second wife Lucy learned to make “gravy” from her mother who came to the US from Italy. She taught my dad (a fine cook himself) who made it with some regularity. They passed the recipe and techniques on to my brother, Ron, who cooks up a few gallons whenever a crowd gathers at his house. The key to the sauce is lots of meat (Italian sausage, a bit of steak, pork chops and meatballs; add a couple of pieces of chicken if you like)and Parmesan/Romano cheese. He puts 8 or 9 pounds of meat into about 6 quarts of sauce (he ends up with about 3 gallons of sauce). He starts by browning hot and mild Italian sausage in olive oil seasoned with oregano, garlic, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper and a bit of red pepper flakes.

Then he adds the diced steak.

Canned tomatoes are passed through a chinois and, along with tomato paste, tomato sauce, are added to the pot. More seasoning is added at this time along with a good sprinkle of Parmesan/Romano cheese. While this mixture simmers, he makes the star of the show, the meat balls. Ground beef (20%/80%) is kneaded along with bread crumbs, eggs, more seasoning, and more cheese.

Then golf ball sized nuggets are formed and added to the sauce. The size is important for flavor. They are added to the sauce and the pot is simmered for several hours and stirred frequently. (Start to finish consumes about four hours).

About 30 minutes before serving, Ron cuts a couple of pounds of pork chops in half and adds them to the pot.

The meat balls are served in a bowl all to themselves, the rest of the meat in another. The sauce is ladled over spaghetti and the feast begins.

Arrivederci Italia

We jumped ship at Brindisi on the East coast of Italy. Al had decided to leave the boat there so we rented a car for the 6 days we had left before our flight back to the States. We decided to head for Catanzaro in the far South of the country and make our way to Rome from there. At the outset, I should say that driving in Italy is a unique experience. I have driven many places all over the world. Nowhere does anything come close. Italians are either the best drivers in the world or they are the worst. I’m sure they all put themselves in the former category, but there is considerable room for doubt. While many buildings could use a fresh coat of paint, the government wastes money on paint for lane dividers on the roads. Traffic signs are open to interpretation, “Yield” means give way if you can’t manage to nose your way into the traffic. “Stop” means . . . well I’m not sure that “Stop” means anything. It seems that every driver thinks he is competing in the Grand Prix. You can be traveling along at 85 miles an hour and someone will pass you like you were standing still---inches from your car. Our route took us through some interesting towns. First, there was Alberobello, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Clustered in the central part of town is a collection of circular dwellings topped with conical, stone roofs--trulli.

You almost expect to see Hobbits in the doorways. Outside of town, similar structures are scattered about the countryside. Our next stop was Matera. Again, the attraction was architecture. For millennia, humans have carved out shelters in the soft stone that makes up the cliff above a small stream. The earliest humans simply dug out hollows in the rock. Later inhabitants elaborated on the caves by building façades to enclose the opening. Looking at the cliff from afar, it simply looks like a collection of small, boxy structures.

Behind each of the boxes is a cave dug out of solid rock. People lived in the caves until the 1950s when they were forcibly removed by the government. Disease, particularly malaria, was rampant in the very unhygienic environment. Then, in the 90s, a rehabilitation was undertaken, and a revival was under way,

The site is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and many of the caves (Sassi) have been modernized and turned into bed and breakfast rooms and modern dwellings. Naturally, many of them are now shops selling high end merchandise and low end souvenirs.

While we were in Matera, Claudia struck up a conversation with a young man who was a tour guide. He asked where we were headed next. The surprised look on his face was unparalleled when she replied, “Catanzaro.” “Why?” he asked, “There’s nothing there!” He was right, of course, but it’s where my grandfather was born. I’m sure that he would not recognize it today.

The drive to Catanzaro afforded some great views of the countryside. Most of Italy is agricultural and the south is dominated by fields of wheat, grapes, olive groves, vegetable and fruit farms. It is mountainous terrain and the overwhelming size of the mountains makes you feel small. The land lies in great humps that seem to hold the earth in place by their sheer weight.

The tops of the mountains in many places are festooned with wind generators. We saw many wind farms composed of over a hundred wind generators each. Then, in the broad valleys, we saw acres of solar panels.

Further north and on the West coast is the renowned Amalfi coast. The narrow road there is composed of switchbacks that take you on an unending climb to the summit of the mountains that border the sea.

So, the time came to bid arrivederci to Italy. Goodbye to markets offering incredible selections of the freshest fruits and vegetables. Goodbye to shops where you can take your empty wine bottles for refills (a liter for $2!). Goodbye to narrow streets shared equally between pedestrians, scooters and cars. Good bye to volcanoes and Roman ruins.