Eldon Kreider's Profile
Homemade insecticide for herbs
The yellow sticky traps provide more than a warning but a lot less than full control. Look at it as a quarter of a loaf is better than none. Sticky traps are more effective if they are put out before the whiteflies have had too much time to multiply. Anything yellow with a sticky surface will do.
Homemade insecticide for herbs
Insecticidal soap is fairly effective on whitefly larvae but nearly worthless on adults. Pyola, which has pyrethrum in canola oil, from Gardens Alive (http://www.gardensalive.com/product.asp?pn=8101) also is more effective on larvae than adults.
Green lacewing adults and larvae are voracious predators of many tiny insects. I would be wary of using soap or oil sprays if you are stocking green lacewings as they can harm the larvae. See http://www.gardensalive.com/product.asp?pn=5030
Yellow sticky cards will thin out the adults a bit but are more useful as an early monitor. The only thing that is not highly toxic that will really wipe out the adults is temperatures well below freezing.
Ferric chloride or phosphate baits work pretty well for slugs while providing some iron for the soil. Sluggo is one brand.
Hot Doug's and Franks 'n' Dogs
The Blue Line to California would be faster and the California/Kedzie bus stops across the street from Hot Doug's. Getting from River North to the Blue line as cited by danimalarkey is the problem.
Bucktown/Wicker Park
Birchwood Kitchen is closed on Mondays per their website: http://www.birchwoodkitchen.com/
Otherwise it would be a good lunch option.
Only in Chicago and not very expensive?
Podhalanka is the one Polish-Polish restaurant that is easily accessible from downtown via public transportation.
Only in Chicago and not very expensive?
Taking the 20 Madison bus to 3800 west (Independence at that point) would leave you in a pretty sketchy neighborhood. The directions are appropriate for the 56 Milwaukee bus.
The Polish buffets are very much Polish-American from people who immigrated from the late 19th century to the closing of the iron curtain although the buffets often employ a fair number of recent immigrants. Polish-Polish restaurants will be farther out in the northwest or southwest parts of Chicago on into suburbs and mostly not too accessible from downtown without a car. The differences are not as large as between Italian-American red sauce restaurants and more contemporary Italian restaurants to give some point of reference.
used ground coffee
Coffee grounds provide both organic matter and nitrogen. Most herbs do better without too much nitrogen as it promotes rank growth and low flavor intensity. Use coffee grounds quite sparingly. Exceptions include most mints but you could make their normal aggressive growth even worse. Coffee grounds are best in situations were nitrogen and acidity are positives.
Goosefoot - 2 quick questions
I have lived near the Rockwell stop for over 35 years and have no compunction about walking around the neighborhood at night. Walking from the el stop you will pass Pizza Art Cafe, Beans and Bagels, Red Lion Lincoln Square, Nhu Lan's original location, Hellas Bakery and HarvesTime Foods among others. Monti's Cheese Steaks is just off Lawrence at Talman. Just beyond Goosefoot is Restaurant Sarajevo, featured on some of the Check Please reruns this weekend. This stretch of just over two standard blocks is well worth getting acquainted with. At least at night you are not likely to contend with too many two-child strollers.
Southern Food Historians/CHs? Why Baking Powder Trumps Yeast in the South's Most Common Breads?
The key item is that the so-called Russian Mennonites were German and never integrated with local society. They went from Germany to Ukraine and Crimea and then moved to the plains in the United States and Canada as the political situation changed in Russia. They were no more Eastern European than the Pennsylvania Dutch who are of German and Swiss origin. Note that a fair number of Pennsylvania Dutch moved westward in the same period.
Southern Food Historians/CHs? Why Baking Powder Trumps Yeast in the South's Most Common Breads?
Turkey Red wheat, the ancestor of our hard red winter wheat, was brought to Kansas by Mennonites from Ukraine. They were Germans who had been invited to settle in Ukraine by Catherine the Great for their agricultural skills. This immigration was a bit earlier than the first Polish surge.
What has been missing from this discussion so far is that the eastern part of the Midwest grows soft wheat now and did in essentially the whole nineteenth century. Protein levels in hard red winter wheat are dependent on weather conditions. Too much rain and there will be more soft starch relative to the hard protein. Planting hard red winter wheat in Illinois, say, will produce high yields but relatively low protein levels. This wheat is good for chicken feed but not so good for making bread. High quality hard red winter wheat is produced from central Kansas westward and at similar longitudes from Texas into the Dakotas. The northern plains shift over to hard red spring wheat with still higher protein levels.
The railroads were key to settlement in the plains as well as the development of milling centers in Minneapolis and Kansas City. However, I do not see evidence that Eastern European immigrants were much a factor in grain production in the plains. Northern Europeans whether coming directly from Europe or indirectly from farther east in the United States were the dominant source of farmers in the plains.
Southern Food Historians/CHs? Why Baking Powder Trumps Yeast in the South's Most Common Breads?
More like four waves of Poles to Chicago. The first was late 1800s and early 1900s. The second was after World War I into the 1920s. The third wave was largely people displaced by World War II and ended when The Communists largely stopped emigration. The fourth began in the 1980s and continued until the recent construction collapse. In between the third and fourth waves moderate numbers of Polish Highlanders were let out by the Communist government as they were considered to be troublemakers. The main concentration of Highlanders is in the southwestern part of Chicago.
Polish restaurants in Chicago were going the way of German restaurants until the latest wave really got going and rejuvenated the restaurant scene here. Previously the older generation was retiring or dying with relatively few of their children wanting to go into the restaurant business with its long hours and hard work.
One effect of the immigration waves is that we have Polish-Polish and Polish-American restaurants. All of the buffets fall into the latter category.
Angus Beef (It's only a marketing term)
Southern Alberta has a fair amount of good rangeland and farmland. Most of this land is over 500 miles south of Fort McMurray.
Angus Beef (It's only a marketing term)
USDA inspection is mandatory for beef to be shipped across state lines while USDA grading is strictly voluntary.
Skinny Pigs??
Hog breeds used to be classified as bacon or lard types. The former are leaner and tend to have somewhat longer bodies than lard types. Examples of bacon types are Yorkshire, Tamworth and Landrace. Some examples of lard type include Berkshire, Chester White, Duroc, Hampshire and Poland China.
Most commercial pork production uses cross-breds where there has been selection for less back fat and longer bodies as well as introducing genetics from bacon type. Landrace from Denmark, famous for its bacon, was used in the mix as far back as the 1960s. Efforts to breed longer, leaner pigs in the United States go back into the 1950s as lard became an unwanted byproduct of pork production while longer pigs equal longer loins with more pork chops. The lean meat initially was more of a byproduct of going for less wasteful back fat than any particular desire for little marbling in pork chops. More recently general leanness has been a breeding objective.
Getting rid of asparagus fern without killing other things?
A different approach using Roundup or generic glyphosate may work. This herbicide is systemic and goes down into the roots so applying to partial foliage can be pretty effective. Glyphosate is not very effective on woody plants, even tiny tree seedlings, which is a good thing in this case.
Wear disposable nitrile gloves with a cloth glove, preferably canvas not jersey, over the nitrile glove on one hand. Then dip the cloth glove in mixed glyphosate solution (not full strength concentrate) and gently rub solution on as many asparagus fern leaves as you can reach easily.
This approach can be used on grass that is growing though shorter plants. I have to deal with a bed of Dragon's Blood sedum with a lot of grass coming though but need to wait until daytime temperatures in Chicago are above 60 with no rain in the forecast for a couple of days. Most formulations work OK if rain holds off for at least six hours, but I do not want to take a chance on any unabsorbed glyphosate washing down into the sedum.
Artichoke bottoms
I have bought canned artichoke bottoms at Trader Joe's. Their here-today-and-gone-tomorrow stocking practices make them an uncertain source. Treasure Island has carried canned ones in the past, but they have been cutting SKUs in the last couple years and may no longer carry them.
A&G International Fresh Market had the Roland brand of canned bottoms when I was there yesterday. I have never been too impressed by Roland's quality for other products, though.
A&G International Fresh Market
5630 W. Belmont Ave.
Chicago, IL 60634
773-777-4480
http://agfreshmarket.com/
Good/ Fun places to take kids for a long weekend in Chicago with food Mom and Dad will like too
Grand and Rush is a a lot more than a block from 500 SOUTH Michigan although still well within 2 to 3 mile parameter of OP.
Are there restaurants that indicate Weight Watchers points on their menu
The Applebee's at 6656 West Grand Avenue is actually in Chicago (Montclare neighborhood) although their web site makes it almost appear as being in Elmwood Park, which starts at 7200 West Grand. It is in the outlot of a Home Depot store. I have been in that Home Depot store many times but never in the Applebee's. Short of a long haul on the Fullerton or Grand Avenue buses it is not accessible by public transportation from the central business district.
Prix fixe menu on a Sunday night in downtown Chicago
The Sunday night requirement excludes Tru, which is closed on Sundays.
Event Planning in Rockford ?
Your post should be on the Great Lakes board because Rockford is well outside the Chicago area.
~ Main Difference Nurtionally of Whole Grain vs Whole Wheat Flour ~
Second link says whole wheat flour is milled from the whole grain, which means that the flour includes bran. Whole wheat flour is a whole grain flour.
Where things get tricky is many commercial bakeries produce somewhat brown bread that they label as wheat bread. This bread usually contains more white flour than whole wheat flour.
Where can you buy any bread at a bakery or market for as little as 150% of the flour price? Nobody could sell at that low a price and cover their other costs. This purported fact flunks the credibility test.
~ Is Worn-off Teflon & Aluminum Saucepan Safe? ~
Worn off Teflon on aluminum substrate is no different from a plain aluminum pan. These were used for decades before Teflon was invented. Aluminum can react with acid foods, which may affect taste. OP's second link sums it up well.
~ Is boiling water sufficient enough to kill anything harmful compared to water filters? ~
Hard water frequently just includes some calcium and magnesium carbonates, both of which are good for your bones. The usual water softeners replace the calcium and magnesium ions with sodium ions and so can be harmful to people who must limit sodium intake.
The referenced filter comparison does not include anything on removing bacteria, which could hurt you and which their filters almost certainly do not remove. I noticed two protozoa in the table that could pose problems. These are rarely a problem with municipal water systems in the United States.
Most of the stuff the filters remove is not a serious health problem, so of course there is no outbreak of illnesses let alone deaths due to restaurants not filtering municipal water. In Chicago the main reasons for filtering are for taste and smell: to remove residual chlorine and to buffer an off taste that is common in late summer from algae in Lake Michigan, which is the source of our drinking water.
Allowing my compost to fzeree
They are probably fungus gnats and not fruit flies. Those of us in northern climates often have our compost freeze solid all the way through. Beneficial microbes are slowed but not killed by freezing.
Take the lid off but do not be surprised if you have only a small kill and no damage to eggs in the compost. Thinning the little pests out a bit is better than nothing. Yellow sticky strip hanging near the compost barrel will also help reduce fungus gnats. Turning the compost helps bury gnat eggs and encourages their rotting rather than hatching in addition to the benefits from aeration.
Confused about gelato vs. ice cream
In the United States USDA definition for labeling as ice cream requires a minimum of 10 percent butterfat. Most premium and super-premium ice creams are at least 12 percent butterfat and may be as high as 18. Gelati sold here are well below the minimum butterfat level and usually below the minimum level for nonfat milk solids as well. Gelati might qualify as ice milk, but that term is so tainted by poor quality products that the label would not be used.
I seek your advice in preventing insects from infesting my indoor herb garden
Second the smelly part about using a microwave. I have an old microwave oven with display problems that I keep under the back porch and use to sterilize compost for use in indoor potted plant mixture. The hot compost needs to cool down outdoors before being brought into the basement for mixing due to the smell. No way would we ever try to use that oven for cooking our food.
Insect eggs and possibly viable seeds are the main reasons for nuking the compost. Fungus gnats (often mistaken for fruit flies) and springtails are the most likely insect eggs in my compost.
Yellow sticky cards will attract fungus gnats and dent the population somewhat.
What kind of kale is this?
I have grown purple mustard. Seed is readily available and is sometimes used in mesclun mixes.
Restaurant Websites - At this point they should pretty much be mandatory [moved from General Topics]
Position in Google searches is a big problem for restaurants and other food businesses in the Chicago area because we have a ridiculous number of directory sites with very dubious information in all too many cases. Yelp reviews sometimes pop up many pages of search results before the business' own site. Failure to put a business' site high in the results is a major defect in Google's algorithms.
Great rye bread in Chicago?
Your best bet is a store that carries bread from Val's Bakery in Skokie that produces a bunch of Eastern European breads. These stores are independents for the most part. HarvesTime Foods in Lincoln Square carries several of Val's breads. Caputo's at Grand and Harlem in Elmwood Park just across the line from Chicago and A& G Fresh Market carry a wider selection of Val's breads.
There are no German bread bakeries in Lincoln Square since Juergen's closed some years ago.
Fox and Obel's bakery situation seems to up for grabs since they fired the head baker last week. See http://stevedolinsky.com/?p=6638 and http://chicagoist.com/2012/01/02/fox_and_obel_fires_baker_paychecks.php for more details.
There are quite a few Eastern Europeans in the Niles, Buffalo Grove and Wheeling wedge of northern suburbs, so there are more sources for heavy breads there. There are a lot of Polish bakeries on the Northwest Side of Chicago, but most of their rye breads are fairly light and use a goodly percentage of wheat flour. Some idea of where you will be would be helpful to give better suggestions. With the exception of HarvesTime Foods, which is less than two blocks from the Rockwell stop on the Brown Line, most of the better sources will be a pain to get to by public transportation from the tourist district.
HarvesTime Foods
2632 West Lawrence Avenue
Chicago, IL 60625
http://harvestimefoods.com/
