Have the FF members in the Southeast USA noticed a shortage of Grits since the covid-19 emergency began. Maybe it is just my local stores. I ask the southern guys because I know the rest of the world don't care for them.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/25201/Grits.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1585160179)
I plowed my side yard in January and sowed about 50 pounds of yellow grits. We started harvesting last week and are doing good with them but ran into a problem. We're having to harvest by hand as our Gritalator is out of adjustment and makes New England mush out of them.
To all the Yankees on the FF who don't know better I want you to know @florida (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=872) is pulling your leg. He can't grow grits down around the Ft Meyers area where he is from - the ground is too wet and the crawfish will eat them as soon as they start to sprout! ;)
We are in good shape here !
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/35190/polenta.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1585162695)
A Grits shortage would essentially be a "Cornteen" !! :o
WV Sawmiller
I guess you've been gone too long. Why we have a whole section at the state agricultural department working on new varieties of grits. Turns out the crawdads only ate the white grits which is why we grow the yellow. The handy thing is that we harvest the crawdads too and eat Crawdads and Grits for breakfast, you've probably heard of that. The biggest problem with the yellow grits is they are smaller than the white and its tough spending your days on your knees picking those little yellow seeds off those tiny plants. I shouldn't have gone with the Dwarf variety.
Don't know if y'all have a grits shortage, but I do know if you can sing in tune you'll have "Hominy". ;D
Too corny for me.
@florida (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=872) ,
I apologize for inadvertently spreading misinformation of such a critical nature. :( Thank you for setting the record straight and setting my mind at ease along with those of our northern brethren. Please let me know how the studies are coming using the blue corn too. Aren't those the ones that only attract the softshell crawfish which are desired for such gourmet delicacies as fried she-shell sandwiches and such. ;D
In the black clay of tx, grits grow just fine. The rains though have washed many acres the grit field behind my house. I think they are gov subsidized, so they should be good.
It is nice to go out back and harvest a few boxes as needed.
Dad used to mix his turnip seeds with grits and plant them together. You could see the grits to estimate how much coverage you had and see any bare spots you had missed. Also the grits came up first and helped shade the little turnips so they did not get sunburned at such a tender age.
We always keep our Grits in the frig along with peas and beans meant for planting. They germinate much faster when they are planted in warm moist Spring soil.
Quote from: florida on March 25, 2020, 04:53:43 PMI shouldn't have gone with the Dwarf variety.
What were you thinking?
GAB
Lynn,
And be sure to only plant them on dark nights. I planted a bunch when the moon was full and they grew so fast they kept dragging the grits off the vine. I try to plant mine upright instead of vertical as they seem to take root faster that way too.
Grits cooked , formed round and roasted for dinner tonight.Herbs from the yard
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/35190/polenta_2.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1585184332)
Quote from: Sixacresand on March 25, 2020, 02:23:38 PM
"I ask the southern guys because I know the rest of the world don't care for them."
Only because the rest of the world don't know any better.
Have not checked out the grits supply in the stores around here. Why would I? ??? I have a lifetime supply, so I am all set. ;D
I'm more concerned about buying a pound of bacon for $3, on sale. ;D Most times its at least $2 more.
My family has a long history in the grit business. I grew up on my grandfather's grit farm in the mountains of western NC. He was one of the first to develop what is now known as "mountain grits" although in later years they went out of style as "southern grits" took over. Lots of people grew grit for their own consumption back then but harvesting on the steep slopes was so hard it wasn't commercially viable. Grandaddy's innovation came one day during a hard storm when the rain washed the grit fruit off the plants and down the hill where it piled up in gritrows. Like all great men he saw the future so bought a piece of hillside that was too steep for crops. He invented mule shoes with built-in lifts for the downhill hooves which kept the mules level. It slowed down plowing a little because you had to change to mules with the offside hooves lifted at every turn so they wouldn't fall down the hill but there was so much money in grits it didn't matter.
Once the grits ripened he waited for a good rain which would wash the grits off the plants and down the mountain where there was a small creek. Grandaddy would stretch grit bags across the mouth of the creek and catch the grits as they floated downstream. He got a premium for those pre-soaked, ready to cook grits but the bags were too heavy to ship. Grandaddy was a man of the future and had a vision that had to wait for heavy machinery to move those bags of grits. Eventually, a landslide wiped him out although if you go there today you will still find beautiful stands of wild grits.
Brings a tear to my eye remembering the good times.
"Maw, where'd you put my hip waders? I need 'em real bad." :D
I like that story. ;D
Must of been before the Borax days. They hooked a team of 40 mules to move their product. ;D
I know you guys are pulling my leg
everybody knows you cant plant grits
they only grow wild
Quote from: Sixacresand on March 25, 2020, 02:23:38 PM
Have the FF members in the Southeast USA noticed a shortage of Grits since the covid-19 emergency began. Maybe it is just my local stores. I ask the southern guys because I know the rest of the world don't care for them.
I've been hoarding those grits. @Southside (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=24297) has supplied the eggs and loaded up on the bacon locally. The grits will hold me until the first garden run comes in. Plenty of venison kept fresh on the hoof. Friends welcome. Looters beware! There are a couple of vicious guard dogs protecting the grits. ;D ;D
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10624/Resized_20200323_182752.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1585226639)
The dude on the left will take care of things.Wudman
I have my safe stacked with grits.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/RC6.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1397438723)
Remember too that @thecfarm (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=436) has a stash that he is keeping secret!! :o They are the "Instant" kind but hey, you gots what you gots. :D
Just ran out and checked and the general store still has two bags left, of course I think it's the same two boxes of grits that they had when they opened in 56. ;D
:D :D :D :D :D
@florida (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=872)
You must be related to the family that started John Deere.
A manure spreader that really piles it high!!! :D
WV Sawmiller
Hip waders? That hurt......but, let me tell you about those blue grits you mentioned.
Granddaddy was set back some by the grits failure but he did keep growing them for family use, we only needed about 2 tons to get through the year, there were 12 of us and we were light eaters. But, all good things must come to an end and that's what happened, grit rust. That rust got the entire crop and turned it solid blue! The flavor wasn't bad but there was something about a big bowl of blue grits that just didn't set right. One evening Granddaddy was out in the grit patch wondering what he could do with all those blue grits when a stranger drove up. He turned out to be from central America and wanted to buy all the blue grits he could get, thought the people in his country would like them as they liked colorful food. Well, Granddaddy sold him the entire crop and threw in a big bag of those rust infected plants to boot! I'm sure we all know the rest; he took those plants and started a blue grits industry down in Mexico. Mostly they mash them into little flat things and eat them that way; to each his own I guess.
I've got to run but I'll explain later why northerners are so pale.
Can't be much of a secret, I mentioned my life time supply in that reply. ;D
A few years before I retired, I was consulting at a pharma company outside Philly. I was staying a very nice Hilton property that had a restaurant. In the mornings, they had a chef (short order cook, but a real trained chef) at breakfast that would cook to order what every you wanted. He made wonderful omelettes. One day I asked him why he never had grits? He said he didn't think they would go over very well. I had been staying there off and on for over a year. One Friday morning while he was making my omelette he stated he had some grits cooking in the back for me. So a few minutes later he brought me out a bowl and they were pretty good. A lady at the next table asked me where I got them and when I told her she asked the chef for a bowl.
Long story short, he started cooking them on Fridays and they were a big hit.
My bil planted a few seeds around the edge of the bayou 10 years ago, he got sick and passed away, I seen a load of grit stalk logs going toward the sawmill yesterday. I sure hope the loggers didn't cut the whole stand, they were the new strain just released 11 years ago, 24 inches at the top and 30 feet long.
My uncle was in USAF stationed somewhere up north and he asked a local grocery store about getting grits and the man said he had to buy them 100 lbs at a time and did not think they would sell. Uncle told him to order them and if did not sell he'd buy the whole 100 lbs. The grocer bought them, sold a bag to uncle and advertised in store window "we have grits" and immediately sold out and reordered and ultimately picked up a lot of new customers in the process.
I like grits, and I eat them every chance I get. However, I'm afraid if I had unlimited access to them I'd be full of BS as they seem to have that affect on you southerners😂😂
I think the only truth being spoken on this thread is coming from a Yankee.
@thecfarm (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=436) ,
You better tread lightly here. Telling tall tales is a national sport in the south. In 1989 I met my dad on the Suannee River in Dixie County Fla and we were catfishing with set lines tied out along the bank of the river and catching lots of big blue and channel catfish. Dad had a #2 washtub in the back of his truck we'd put the fish in, pour a couple buckets of water over them then we'd go eat breakfast in a local cafe. While eating almost every day a mislocated/relocated yankee or two would come in and hear those fish splashing and see them then, breaking all the rules pertaining to fishing etiquette, would come in and ask "Who caught those big fish and what did you use for bait." Any southerner knew not to ask such a question or trust any answer you got. Dad would never break a smile and point to my son who was 11 at the time and say "That boy caught them on a cane pole in the canal down beside the road using grasshoppers for bait." By the end of our week my son was hooked and world reply "Yeah I had to stop because that was all I could carry" or "Yeah but I only had one #8 hook and a big one broke it" or "Yeah but I used up all my grasshoppers and decided to come eat breakfast instead of catching more."
We'd come out after breakfast and yankees would be out there causing traffic jams chasing grasshoppers in the medium and parked on the edge of the road fishing in old canals that had not seen a fish in years. If my son had had another week there with Dad we'd never have got him to tell the truth so we could believe him.
And how do we know if we can believe you know?🤷🏽♂️😂
This Yankee don't believe another fisherman no matter what. ;D
Quote from: Magicman on March 26, 2020, 01:24:10 PM
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/RC6.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1397438723)
Remember too that @thecfarm (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=436) has a stash that he is keeping secret!! :o They are the "Instant" kind but hey, you gots what you gots. :D
Mr. Davis:
When I delivered those goodies and my wife took that photo, I never in my wildest dreams could of contemplated that SIX years later you would still be getting very good mileage out of it. Now since you paid for the grits and paid the postage to get them to me I feel you are entitled.
Now if anyone want to see what I sent MM in payment visit "Crime does pay".
I'd like to think I properly compensated him for his help in this caper.
Ray: Thanks for being a good sport.
Gerald
Of course you can grow grits here, but on my bag of Bob's red mill grits in VERY small print it says not to plant until all danger of frost is past.
I'm screwed until late June as frost is possible until Memorial day and this variety takes 4 weeks to mature.
A neighbor does have a combine with a grits head and only charges 100 bucks per acre to harvest.
Oh I nearly forgot this.
Us glaciated folk know that a bag of grits in the bed of your PU or trunk of your car is a must when the roads are either snow or ice covered.
A few handfuls under the tires will give unbelievable traction when you are stuck.
Of course they ARE grits after all.
@petefrom bearswamp (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=8633)
I am very disappointed in you. >:( You rotated from north to south and back and being the trusting souls we southerners are, we took you into our strictest confidence and shared and now you have breached the sacred trust about our deeply hidden secrets about using grits for traction on snow and ice which has allowed many a loyal and dedicated southerner who remembered sudden urgent business back home in the dead of winter and often late at night to safely return home while others with questionable intent and in hot pursuit were left behind spinning hopelessly on the side of some back road with only their flashing blue lights for company. :D
Pete
You should be planting the "mush" seeds. They can be planted in the fall and come up in the spring. They are a poor substitute for Girls but you're getting close. We must have better trucks down there than you can get, I haven't been stuck in the snow for 30 years. I expect its the extra weight I carry from eating grits that keeps the wheels from spinning.
Oh and to think that I showed Pete my Royal Signet Ring and gave him the secret handshake. ::) Is there nothing sacred anymore?? :o
Well, I am afraid I will be unable to follow this most informative subject for some time. My computer's bs detection circuit just blew a main fuse and they are in short supply due to the corona virus. ;D
I knew it was bound to happen! >:( Here we had a truly American issue even though Tule Peak almost dragged our friends south of the border into it with his polenta posts now Sawguy has dragged the Canucks into our private affairs. The next thing you know we will be having Kiwis and Aussies and maybe even a Brit or two muddling into our private grits affairs. I hate it when issues like this become international incidents. :( Oh well, it was bound to happen. ::) :D :D :D
I know everyone is just dying to hear the rest of the story of the grits..
As I mentioned before
The rust pretty much ended growing Girls in the south; the farmers in the Midwest saw an opening and started growing Girls on a big scale and the rust didn't bother them there. Pretty soon they were producing Girls for the whole world and you can imagine the kind of money a good Girl crop could bring. But then if you've ever farmed you know that disaster is always right around the corner and that's what happened to the Girl farmers, came a year of heavy rains and the entire Girls crop rolled into the Mississippi River. All along the southern Mississippi people only had to dip a Girl net into the river to get all they could eat for free. Pretty soon the banks of the river all the way to New Orlea were lined with people Girl netting free Girls. The lucky southerners grew fat and healthy eating Girls and there was none left for the northerners so they grew up pale and undernourished.
Granddaddy went on to develop the famous hominy vine and for a few years had great success with raisin trees but that's another story.
That's pretty good, we look a bit pekid from a lack of grits 🤔😂
Polenta is from Italy for heaven's sake, mas -arena (spelling??) is from south of the border. I'm going back to work..............
TPT,
You mean Itlie ain't south of the border? All them furin places look the same to me. Thanks for setting the record straight even if you are dragging outsiders into our domestic problems. :D
I guess the next thing we know the African countries will be writing in about their Mealie shortages which is just their home grown version of grits. I watched a Himba woman in Namibia grind some with a couple of river rocks then she cooked them in a fire made from the cobs. I guess they don't have TP shortages over there yet either.
Heck, what do I know...I married a foreign import.
I don't know if anyone else has noticed, or maybe there's a forum bug, but G rits appear to have been replaced by the word girls on my screen. If anything, it makes for an even more comical read.
I suspect that I know who is behind this dastardly deed. It is probably a Yankee.
Who'da thunk it!
I still have a lifetime supply of girts on The Hill.
Quote from: tule peak timber on March 27, 2020, 02:57:04 PM
Heck, what do I know...I married a foreign import.
I worked a lot overseas and when my wife would come join me for the summers and such I'd point out to her how the women there treated their men and suggested she take pointers from them. It usually worked the other way. The foreign wives treated their American husbands like a king till the other American wives took her under their wing and re-trained her. Pretty soon she was back to sleeping in till noon, rambling around the house in a mousy bathrobe and slippers, watching soap operas with her hair in curlers and not cooking dinner or cleaning house just like her trainers. :(
When I was stationed in Albany Ga we lived on base and there was a Major who lived across the road from me and every morning in the winter his pretty wife would go out and warm up his car, scrape the frost off the windshield and hand him a big takeout cup of coffee as she kissed him goodbye at the door every morning. All us husbands pointed these traits out to our wives as an example to follow. The other wives hated her as she was setting a bad example and making them look bad.
I did not know Polenta came from Italy so I looked it up. Seems they were invented by Marcus Polio after he got back from his take out trip to China. Seems he had indigestion thinking about the food there he saw in the Wuhan market and needed something filling and soothing to ease his stomach issues so he invented Polenta. Since he could not spell Girls or Girls or whatever this thread winds up being, he called them Polenta. I understand the Polenta/Girls solved his medical problems and he lived to be an old man.
I was reading along and noticed that I said I was fat from eating girls. My hair caught fire and I quickly edited it to grits only to see another post with Girls! Now that's funny and it probably reads better too!
What in the world are you people talking about??
;D
Foreign influence, sawdust inhalation, cabin fever, itchy scalp, ....And the inevitable heartbreak of psoriasis .
Quote from: Bradm on March 27, 2020, 04:14:39 PM
I don't know if anyone else has noticed, or maybe there's a forum bug, but G rits appear to have been replaced by the word girls on my screen. If anything, it makes for an even more comical read.
Bradm, you must be new around here. The boss gits in a mood sometimes and when he does strange things happen.
mh
No shortage in Maine. The local Ace dealer had two pallets. One pallet was orange bags and one pallet was yeller bags. I bought tree yeller bags and have half a bag leftovers.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/13635/20200327_122240.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1585355818)
When I was young and started school there were five of us in that kindergarten class 4 boys and one grits. When we started first grade the grits had changed schools because her mom got a teaching position in th e next school district over. So from that point on there were no grits in my class. So I spent a long time with out very many grits in my life, there was a grit in the class below us she got really tired at dances. You would think Nebrask would be full of grits with as much as we grow corn alas not so much. When I graduated highschool and went to the University of Nebraska there were grits everywhere and it was much better. :).
Story is true actually.
Wait a minute I thought this was about girls. ;)
smiley_whacko
This thread is giving me a headache. :embarassed: :embarassed: :embarassed: :embarassed: :embarassed:
I think maybe it should be quarantined. ;) ;)
I'm just glad that yellow bag came from Canada.
During the war of 1794 my Great Great Great Great Grand Father was in charge of seeing that no grits infiltrated the Great State of Maine. Since there has only been one son born in all these years to each of the Crane decedents, each male had to take on this vast job that left him too tired to have any more sons. But he knew what had to be done to keep this Great State of Maine free of the dreaded grits that has reared it's ugly head many times over the many years that the only son has fought to keep this Great State it's Greatness. The Kittery border has been kept free of this so called corn product. All of my relatives knew what had to done and they all did it well. I carry on this cursade with great wiliness to help out. Now we are not only searching for grits, but that dreaded virus too. I have decided to help out my fellow man during these trying times. But I have not let my guard down. I know what could happen to many meals in this Great State of Maine.
Quote from: moosehunter on March 27, 2020, 08:26:09 PMBradm, you must be new around here. The boss gits in a mood sometimes and when he does strange things happen. mh
Been around for a few years but mostly lurk. It is refreshing to see a little levity once and a while. Ain't never had grits, but am always willing to try something new.food1
The no Grits boundary just south of the cfarm entering Maine.
No Grits bridge into Maine. - YouTube (https://youtu.be/RUS2cYCxzBo)
cfarm,
Maybe if your family weren't so grit deprived they could have fathered more sons. Talk about a vitamin deficiency! Look what it has done to you. My great grandfather lived in central Fla near the mouth of the Steinhatchee River and had 10 sons. No daughters. He ate grits every day. 'Nuff said.
Hopefully the dreaded virus does not do as well in the south where it is hot, humid, and the grits grow best. Also, I read in some earlier posts about blue grits being caused by rust and causing mass grit farm failure. Why didn't they just re-name them blue denim grits and charge a premium for them? That could have saved many farms.
Quote from: Bradm on March 27, 2020, 09:37:06 PM
Quote from: moosehunter on March 27, 2020, 08:26:09 PMBradm, you must be new around here. The boss gits in a mood sometimes and when he does strange things happen. mh
Been around for a few years but mostly lurk. It is refreshing to see a little levity once and a while. Ain't never had grits, but am always willing to try something new.food1
Careful!!! You've seen what slipping into that habit has done to others around here.
Mooseherder, I see the cameras and the grits detectors are still in place on that green iron bridge in Kittery.
My Great Great Great Great Great Grand Father would be proud of me.
But but but but but the Great Great Great Great Great Caretaker forgot........
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/RC1.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1397438580)
About the US Mail and Special Delivery!! ;D
Oh the humanity!! ......The Wiley Coyote grits bomb...... popcorn_smiley
:P :P :D :D :D :D
D
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/RC2.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1397438595)
And Yes it was delivered.....
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/RC3.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1397438618)
And it was Carefully Examined.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/RC4.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1397438672)
Oh, it's for me and I am so excited !!!
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/RC5.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1397438706)
And Yes it was opened !! :o The attached picture says that it is from The Magicman. :)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/RC6.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1397438723)
And "Rest of the Story" about how Ray got his 'Lifetime Grits Supply' is deeply embedded in the Forestry Forum Archives!! :P
#1 Lynn the handshake is safe with me.
#2 WV hope none of the mason jars in the trunk got broken in your headlong flight home.
#3 Florida Burpees seed catalog plainly states that the mush variety will not grow in the glaciated region of my home.
#4 My girl was sown sprouted raised and harvested on a farm here in the north and is indispensable.
#5 there are far too many true tales in the rest of the thread for me to respond to. (very good light hearted reading as humor is needed in this time of trial)
Stay safe all of my forum friends.
Pete,
No big issue if the mason jars break on the way back from the glaciated north as they will be empty on the return trip. Its the trip up north when they are full. :D
Goobers? Really? Them's pinders.
Whatcha bet, dem Yankees never heard of a pinder. ;D :D
Lynn,
They are obviously suffering from assorted vitamin deficiencies caused by lack of a proper southern diet and when combined with cabin fever is causing them to do strange things. Pretty soon the dogs won't even play with them at this rate. :D
I see a real lack of forsight of consequence of thought in that last post.
You don't expect that from another Yankee.
Remember the brother in The Godfather? :(
Family, Yankees, should not do that each other. Some are not true Yankees and should not be trusted. Now if that package was delivered in my mailbox, with a return address from Mississippi it would of been stopped at the border, But it was sent to another address and since it was in a Yankee vehicle, it got by the check points. :(
That box was snuck across the border by someone that can not be trusted. :o
Just want to get the story right about how that box got to me. ;)
But the most important thing was that when PatD and I showed up in person
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/IMG_2836~0.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1500243879)
Ray gave us a warm welcome to the C Farm.
That's a nice looking fellow on your right. :D :D
Brenda would have a fit about that dirty shirt that I have on. :o She seems to think that I can cut wood and dirt rocks and keep clean. ::)
Just so others will know, I'm on the left. Magicman's, right.
Since we're all sitting around twiddling our thumbs and eating that little white grain we've been talking about I thought I'd go ahead and tell you about Granddaddy and the hominy vines. One day while he was out harvesting the little white things he noticed one plant where the heads were really large. Being a very intelligent man, he was a southerner after all and once went to the ag college for a 2-week course, he thought he'd do some experiments with that plant. He planted it, watered and fertilized it and when the flowers came he pollinated it by hand with a wild grapevine. You probably won't be surprised to hear that it worked and in a few months he had a nice vine growing with white fruit about the size of a small grape but that tasted like the original little white grain we call grits. In no time at all he had an acre of these vines growing and was starting to sell some of the fruit. Not knowing quite how to sell it he let the customer pick them and when they came to pay he asked, "How many?" With his thick NC accent, people thought he was saying "hominy" and of course the name stuck. Today they are usually sold by the can so no one is asking "how many" any longer and you can thank granddaddy for that. In the end, he was too successful; the vines grew so tall that he had to hire men to climb the trees to pick the fruit. The labor was so high he just abandoned the whole thing but to this day you'll see the mountains of NC covered with the original hominy vines. They've all reverted back to the rootstock and the hominy is purple now but if you close your eyes and eat one you may get a faint taste of Granddaddy's hominy.
Are you sure they did not get hybridized and become kudzu? I always wondered what knothead miscreant wayward botanist brought that in. Now the truth comes out.
I looked up the hominy process. No thanks!! It just doesn't sound right. Nixtamalization .
OMG are there lots of pinders in the south?
I read several definifitions
One is a peanut (southern)
another is a person whose job is to impound stray animals.
one more is pinders are people who speak loudly.
yet another from the urban dictionary.
a woman whose main objective in life is to show her body to men.
I wonder which one is meant as posted here.
BTW I have started my Bobs Red mill grits in gallon 1/2 milk cartons and plan to transplant on June 1.
Quote from: moosehunter on March 29, 2020, 10:56:49 AM
I looked up the hominy process. No thanks!! It just doesn't sound right. Nixtamalization .
There are lots of processes you're better off not knowing!
The process of eating whole hominy (not grits) cooked in the frying pan after the bacon is finished is a process worth getting to know. Knowing how hominy is made is a good process to forget.
I haven't tried hominy cooked that way but you have about flung a craving on me for some. Sure sounds good.
As far as I know that's the only way to cook it. Based on my upbringing anyway. :D
WV Sawmiller
Granddaddy would be outraged at that base accusation! It's true that some of the hominy may have gone to seed and gone bad but Granddaddy never admitted to anything!
Quote from: btulloh on March 29, 2020, 04:31:30 PM
As far as I know that's the only way to cook it. Based on my upbringing anyway. :D
Sounds real good technique. I think we always just heated in a saucepan with a little black pepper and maybe a dab of butter. Be careful not to use a dab and a half or they will slide off the fork and you'll starve trying to eat them.
@florida (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=872) ,
We probably all have some skeletons in our closets and we won't hold anything your grandpaw did against you.
WV, my mother had another good trick that was always welcome. She would save the leftover grits in a shallow bowl and put them in the fridge overnight. The next morning she'd turn the bowl upside down and a nice cake of grits would drop on the counter. (They held together pretty well, too.) Slice the cake of grits into slices about 5/16 or 11/32 thick and then fry them in the bacon pan till they were slightly brown and crispy on both sides. Good stuff. 8) I rarely (never) cook any bacon, so I don't have the opportunity to fix them this way. Good stuff though.
(Man do I feel sorry for them yankees! :( Well no, not really. Bringin' them into the grit market could stress the supply chain and then where would we be?)
Quote from: btulloh on March 29, 2020, 05:13:54 PMShe would save the leftover grits
Now this tall tale telling stuff has gone too far 'cause everyone knows full well that there is
never leftover Grits!!! :o
I heard several Civil war battles were won by Yankees shouting questions about grits across the lines. The southern boys would get going on telling their tallest grit tales, and then the Yanks would sweep in during the diversion. A bit underhanded but very effective😁
@btulloh (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=29962) ,
I have eaten fried grits and my wife was even going to fix some last week then changed her mind again. I think she dips them in beaten eggs and flours then fries them. She likes to eat hers with syrup on them which seems strange to me. You know the syrup is supposed to be saved to eat with your grilled cheese.
@barbender (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=1286)
I think that is likely when they started coming up with code of conduct for war and such. Anybody who would pull such a stunt would hide behind women and children and bomb churches and such. For shame!
Quote from: WV Sawmiller on March 29, 2020, 08:35:30 PM
@barbender (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=1286)
I think that is likely when they started coming up with code of conduct for war and such. Anybody who would pull such a stunt would hide behind women and children and bomb churches and such. For shame!
Careful!!!!!! :( :(
Admittedly, it was below the belt😂😂
Sorry - I just find it hard to imagine anyone would be so devious as to distract a true southerner during periods of extreme stress by messing with his grits. :( Surely nobody actually used such tactics. :o
Isn't it said that all is fair in love and war? By that reckoning, don't trust a Yankee around your beautiful southern women, either. They may not be above putting out some grits to lure one away😊
They ain't that intelligent. :D
Kind of like Lewis Grizzard (I think it was him) used to ask "What to you get when you cross a pig and a UGA fan? Nothing. Some things a pig just ain't gonna do."
dadgum you, Charlie!
Grits insults and now my Alma Mater has been rudely insulted by a War Eaglet.
And we watched true grits last night. John Wayne special smiley_horserider.
Quote from: WV Sawmiller on March 26, 2020, 09:45:42 PM
@thecfarm (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=436) ,
You better tread lightly here. Telling tall tales is a national sport in the south. In 1989 I met my dad on the Suannee River in Dixie County Fla and we were catfishing with set lines tied out along the bank of the river and catching lots of big blue and channel catfish. Dad had a #2 washtub in the back of his truck we'd put the fish in, pour a couple buckets of water over them then we'd go eat breakfast in a local cafe. While eating almost every day a mislocated/relocated yankee or two would come in and hear those fish splashing and see them then, breaking all the rules pertaining to fishing etiquette, would come in and ask "Who caught those big fish and what did you use for bait." Any southerner knew not to ask such a question or trust any answer you got. Dad would never break a smile and point to my son who was 11 at the time and say "That boy caught them on a cane pole in the canal down beside the road using grasshoppers for bait." By the end of our week my son was hooked and world reply "Yeah I had to stop because that was all I could carry" or "Yeah but I only had one #8 hook and a big one broke it" or "Yeah but I used up all my grasshoppers and decided to come eat breakfast instead of catching more."
We'd come out after breakfast and yankees would be out there causing traffic jams chasing grasshoppers in the medium and parked on the edge of the road fishing in old canals that had not seen a fish in years. If my son had had another week there with Dad we'd never have got him to tell the truth so we could believe him.
I have a hunting story that fits this mold. When I was a couple of years out of school, I was working for a company in Southern North Carolina. I had been on a couple of dove and skeet shoots with some co-workers and had earned the reputation as a decent shot. We were going deer hunting on a company tract one morning. I told folks that I was going to the "condo". The condo was an elevated box stand that sat on an island between a river slough and a drainage ditch. When I got to the ditch, water was up and I couldn't get across. Therefore, I sat down on the ditch bank overlooking a long narrow field. About mid-morning some of my fellow hunters were headed back to the hunting cabin. As I was the closest to the cabin, I figured I would wait on everybody else before I moved, thinking someone may spook a deer my way. Sure enough, two guys were standing in the yard of the cabin (about 400 yards from where I sat) when another hunter jumped a deer as he was walking out. The deer came right down the ditch bank on which I was sitting. He had his head back and was hauling freight. I could see the guys in the yard. They could see the deer, but they could not see me in the ditch. I touched the trigger and the deer rolled like a rabbit. As they started down to me (and were out of sight for a minute) I stood up and walked out to the deer. I was about 200 yards from the "condo". When they got there, they started talking about the shot I made on that running deer......A 200 yard running shot that dropped him in his tracks. I never told them any different. The truth, I made that shot at a distance of about 6 feet. I wasn't sure that he wasn't going to hit my gun barrel for a few seconds. I am sure there were powder burns on him. I ran into that fellow about 6 months ago. He reminisced on that shot. I didn't have the heart to tell him any different. ;D ;D
Wudman
Yep sometimes Its really the best to let those sleeping dogs lie.
Gosh I thought every southern man knew how to grow grits. We start the seeds in a bed around the middle of February. The bed is planted on a south facing hill and is covered by a plant cloth to keep the frost off the plants. The beds are about 12-15 feet wide and 100' long dependent upon how many acres of grits being raised.
Once the plants are 8 to 10' tall (around the end of April) we clip the tops to toughen up the plants. In a week to ten days plants are pulled and transplanted in rows in the fields. Along about June the plants are tilled and weeds chopped out. By the first of July the crop is "laid by" or left to grow. In August the grit stalks are topped by breaking the bloom off. Some grit farmers apply a chemical to prevent suckers from growing when they top the plants, others just break the suckers off later.
By the first of October the stalks are harvested and hung in a barn to dry. In select areas of our state stalks are air dried in other areas the stalks are flue cured.
Here's a whack of flue cured grit stalks. They are staged for my 1966 Grit-Mizer to process them into rough cut grits. These stalks are veneer grade and will be quarter ground. Most of this whack is 18 feet long and each stalk is 49" DBH. My neighbors have grit processors too, GritLands, Grit Harvester, Cook's 6587 and Grit King to name a few. Some guys build their own grit processors using John Deere wheel loader tires and powered by 300 hp turbo diesels. The best models are the ride along versions with grit back attachments.
These things require GritRite grit hooks to manually roll them. Mine is an 11 foot aluminum model that only weighs 63 pounds.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/48503/74E22A66-BAF3-48A1-BF16-C6FDC67E58B3.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1585621976)
I see things are tapering off on this thread so it probably needs another honest account of how Granddaddy and grits created the south.
Granddaddy had been tinkering with plants his whole life and had grown some pretty weird stuff like when he crossed a possum with watermelons. They tasted a bit musky but on the upside, they crawled up to the house every evening so you didn't have to go pick them.
But anyway, Granddaddy had been experimenting with a better raisin for nearly 50 years without much success. He had nearly given up when he threw some of those blue rusted grits on a patch of raisins bushes one evening just to get rid of them. Several weeks later he was wandering around the lower 40 and noticed something funny in the raisin patch. Those poorly raisin bushes had taken off and doubled in size! He studied on it some and finally realized that it must have been those grits that caused all the new growth. He ran back to the house and got a small bag of fresh grits and poured them around the raisin bushes. He hated to waste those grits but desperate times require desperate measures! A month later those raisin bushes had turned into raisin trees and were reaching for the sky. 2 years later those raisin trees were 50' tall and 24" DBH! Not only that but they had spread up the mountain and were growing everywhere! Granddaddy had an inspiration and sent the boys out with the mules to cut enough of those raisin trees down to build a new barn. They drug them back and started hewing timbers. When they had all the raisin timbers cut he called the neighbors to help him and the boys get it built. When they got there they asked him what kind of wood it was and he told them it was a raisin timber frame. They misunderstood what he said and that's where the expression "raisin a timber frame" came from and that's the truth!
Wasn 't he the same one who went into the fur business crossing possums and mink so he got an animal with a high quality fur that he could feed off of roadkill and even feed the carcasses back to the next batch? Didn't he even experiment with crossing them with snakes so they shed periodically and he did not even have to keep skinning them?
WV Sawmiller
That was probably someone in WV. He tried the snake thing but had better luck with the self-skinning ones. They would bite a stick and just back right out of their hides. Took them about a month to grow another hide as long as they were fed straight grits.
Do grits deplete the soil badly? I heard they absorb all the ADMIN EDIT out of the soil, and then southerners get full of it when they eat them.
barbender
No, no! We're just trying to win you poor grit deprived northerners over to the right side of the table. Just imagine how much more you'd get done on a steady diet of grits!
Florida is right. Growing grits has also been proven to be a real soil builder and studies are on-going to see if they cannot be used turn the deserts in the world into productive farm land. Military advisers for years have kept this information to themselves for fear the resulting increase in population and vigor of the people eating them could be hard to fight if they ever tried to take over the entire world.
I am happy to report we just got back from our local Krogers grocery store and I was able to buy 2-3lb bags (Jim Dandy brand BTW) of grits. Often all they have in stock up here close to the grit/no-grit line is the little paper boxes of them.
Okay I yield much better storys
In my wildest imagination I cannot currently come up with a tall tale that compares with the gospel true ones you fellows have posted here.
BUT I am thinking and maybe will have a dream tonight to come up with a new one.
Pete,
Okay but just don't start dreaming about coming up with a new breakfast food that will taste better than grits and wake up and find the corner of your pillow is missing. :D
I just need to find a cheese curd tree so I can pick some fresh to go in my grits!
@SawyerTed (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=38503)
You are going to confuse our readers who may actually think cheese curds grow on trees because I assume you saw some growing a while back. What you did not notice was they were actually growing on a vine up the tree and had covered up the tree so much you mistook them for a cheese curd tree. They actually grow better on horizontal trellis's then the cheese fruit hangs down and you can pick it in the shade. Cheese curds should always be picked in the early morning hours while the temps are cooler or you will bruise them. Bruised cheese fruit is bad to stick together is typically used to make cheese spread and blocks of cheese such as Velveeta and related imitations.
In commercial cheese farming operations swine and chickens are often allowed to forage under the trellis at night. The overripe cheese falling off the vines is high in protein and the pigs and chickens fatten faster than on almost any other feed. The eggs from the chickens are nearly always larger and double yoked. This type operation is believed to have been the start of the original Ham and Cheese Omelet and was discovered by firefighters who responded to the scene when a sudden brush fire spread to the cheese orchard destroying the cheese vines, swine and chickens underneath.
I must have been mistaken then. I was in Wisconsin when I saw the cheese curd tree. :D But I'm sure the Wyatt Quarles Seed company has crossed that cheese curd vine with a pimento pepper vine and that's where we get pimento cheese. The fruit looks like a cantaloupe but is the size of a giant pumpkin. Usually we get 35 or 40 pints of pimento cheese spread from a single pimento cheese plant. The problem is timing the harvest. The pimento cheese fruit has to be stored in the root cellar when there's a full moon or it tastes like souse meat. One pimento cheese vine makes enough to last 5 or 6 weeks because we eat it on everything.
Ted,
No question - go for the souse flavor!
I may need to go back out to the truck and get my tall rubber boots on for the next time I catch up on this thread. ;)
I believe the title of this thread should have been Hillbilly and Southern TALL TALES.
I thought we weren't supposed to talk politics here :D
Jeff, ;D :D
I had a co-worker with the appropriate comment "I know nothing - and I can prove it."
Thats also how we feed our farm raised catfish. It works really well, but as a tip, always plant the catfish head down so they can eat. If they are planted head up, they will look away from the sun, as it hurts their eyes, and the catfish will develop a curve. That's why when you get fried whole catfish in some places, it will have a slight curve, and it means someone mistakenly planted them head up. There is a lot more to catfish farming than meets the eye.
Apparently them g r i t s make a feller constipated, because now that there is a shortage the stuff is flowing pretty good.
(could't find a shovelling manure emoji)
Robert,
I guess a real expert chef could look at that curved catfish skeleton and be able to tell whether the catfish was harvested in the morning or afternoon based on the direction of the curve since the fish the fish follow the sunlight like a sunflower plant or such.
I guess I could comment on gourd trees and breadfruit trees but a few naysayers would probably doubt that too and I'd spend half the day looking for the pictures.
You guys know in golf sometimes the ball lies poorly, and sometimes the golfer... :-X
I can't say about that - I never was a cow pasture pool player.
How would anyone know if this thread needs to be restricted ??? ??? ??? ???
I tried golf in my twenties. Never enough balls to knock in the ponds and woods. I always quit when I was down to two.
this has to be the best read that I have daily. Stuck at home teleworking
Love your stores reminds me of my grandpa. He use to tell me that they raise hogs double stack they only feed the top ones because they ate so fast that a lot of past right on though and the bottom pen just ate the left overs. ;D I think some of this just might be stuff from the top pen. But it is good reading. :D
Quote from: tule peak timber on March 25, 2020, 08:59:45 PM
Spaghetti squash cooked , formed round and roasted for dinner tonight.Herbs from the yard
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/35190/polenta_2.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1585184332)
I am sorry but those herbs look like you barbequed some geckos. Don't let that insurance company know about it.
@bwstout (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=34432)
I had heard they made single row hog pens, head to tail and 7 rows deep so tight the hog could not turn around then they'd just feed the first one. steve_smiley
Kind of like the old saying "If you ain't the lead dog the view never changes."
Speaking of spaghetti squash, there's an art to raising marinara sauce seedlings and meatball trees. Now I know meatballs grow on trees 'cause my uncle Gertis Jr. married a girl from Italy.
And the nefarious switch here is about as funny as the internet gets! :D :D
By the way, I ain't no hillbilly - I'm a ridge running, stump jumping, mule skinnin', moonshine drinking, g r i t s eating, deer hunting, catfish catching, chicken raising, sawmilling Appalachian American. As a fisherman it is most important to maintain my status as a truth stretcher and reality bender. As a hunter it is important that my heritage as a fibricator ( kudos to Pat McManus) remain intact.
Good ol' Pat, one of my favorites. May he rest in peace.
Spaghetti squash? Ugggh :-X.
I did not know that Mr. McManus was no longer with us.
I liked his short stories, I really enjoyed the one titled PIGS.
I believe he out did himself with that one.
Gerald
Holy moley
No response from here.
Still thinking and dreaming.
Aw come on - bullfrog legs? Our state has a season on them from July 4th till Labor Day, only 10 per night, only gig till midnight. With daylight saving times it won't even be dark enough to use a light before 9:00 pm.
I grew up in N. Fla and was a master frog gigger. I gigged most of mine on the Escambia River in a 12' aluminum boat with a 14' bamboo gig pole and a 5 pointed, square headed gig that was wicked. I'd take the 6v battery out of the Farmall cub, had about 10' of lamp cord with alligator clamps hooked to my 6v Ray-o-Vac headlight, and could hunt all night on that. I had to use PR18 bulbs because the extra amperage would blow the normal PR13 bulbs pretty quickly. I could spot a frog a quarter mile away sitting on the back side of a log. The frogs were used to outboards and the wake from the boats kept them a foot or so up on the bank instead of right at or just in the edge of the water so I could run the motor right up to them. On the rare cases when I'd miss one and he'd jump in the river I'd hunt a few minutes then return and he'd be back in the same spot and I'd get him then. I gigged frogs up to 2.5 lbs with 4" bluegills, small turtles, big crawfish, small snakes, etc in their bellies. Dry weather and low water was best as the sloughs would be drying up and the mouth of the sloughs and creeks instead of in the backwater where I could not reach them. I would often have 4-5 big frogs just a few feet apart. I'd often get 40-50 frogs. When I cleaned them we'd eat the front legs and backs as well the back legs. If he wasn't big enough to eat the whole frog I let him go. The males would have a big yellow throat and the females would have black spotted bellies. Their eye shine like amber dimes but as often as not you'd spot their white bellies. The really spooky ones would often escape up the hillside instead of jumping in the water. I have spotted them on the bottom of the lake or river when they jumped in and gigged them there. Occasionally a big frog would jump in the river then immediately jump back up on the bank. I always wondered what he saw down there that scared him back out. The big trick when gigging frogs or any wild animal at night is be sure not to let anything come between your light source and his eyes. I'd run the gig within 6" of the frog then give a little short jab. I've seen people try to gig from 2' away and the usually gig the bank or log underneath the frog. The same techniques work when spearfishing at night.
We did not have many gators in N. Fla at the time and it was rare to see one but one night I found one in the mouth of a dried up slough on the Santa Rosa County side of the river. His eyes looked like red flashlight beams 8-10 inches apart. He was a very big gator and like a dummy I ran the boat straight at him till he finally got alarmed and ran into the water and scrubbed the bottom of my boat in the shallow water as I passed over him. I swear he looked like he extended past both ends of my boat. Very dumb move on my part! Fortunately we both survived the encounter.
You guys are hurting our feelings casting doubts on the stories. I've got proof right here for you.
BBC: Spaghetti-Harvest in Ticino - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVo_wkxH9dU)
Granddaddy tried some imported spaghetti trees once but the col weather stunted the trees and all he got was elbow macaroni which was hard to pick. He did combine it some of the curds from the WV cheese curd trees and invented macaroni and cheese. You can say "Thank you" now.
GAB, I think it was about a year ago Pat McManus passed away. I started reading his stuff when I was about 10 I suppose, I always loved the way he played on words for his humor. One example that always stuck in my head was a story where he was describing having to hire a couple of plumbers, and he said, "they had the slow, deliberate movements of men that knew they were being paid by the hour".😂Oddly, I tried listening to audio book versions in my machine, it wasn't the same as reading it yourself at all.
April 11, 2018. So two years ago- time flies🤷♂️
My bride will not let me read McManus in bed. She claimed my stifled laughter made the bed shake so hard she couldn't sleep 🙄.
My dad gave me my first McManus book. I miss both of them.
mh
Quote from: barbender on April 03, 2020, 02:24:12 PM
GAB, I think it was about a year ago Pat McManus passed away. I started reading his stuff when I was about 10 I suppose, I always loved the way he played on words for his humor. One example that always stuck in my head was a story where he was describing having to hire a couple of plumbers, and he said, "they had the slow, deliberate movements of men that knew they were being paid by the hour".😂Oddly, I tried listening to audio book versions in my machine, it wasn't the same as reading it yourself at all.
I think I read that story. If it is the one I'm thinking of the plumbers went into the crawl space of his house or camp and one of them said to the other that he needed a string and the other said he saw one upon entering and when he grabbed it realized that it was a live snake. According to the story both plumbers came out of the small opening a whole lot faster than they went in.
For a good laugh read his story titled PIGS. Anyone who had any experience with pigs could really relate.
I'm trying to remember if that was the story that mentioned turning on a dime and giving you nine cents change back.
Gerald
Yes mooseherder, I've suffered from the "McManus Shakes" in bed at night before as well!😂 GAB, I'll have to find that story and read it. I do remember the one from the book, "Real Ponies Don't Go Oink"😂
Quote from: WDH on April 03, 2020, 07:33:43 AM
Spaghetti squash? Ugggh :-X.
I'll take your share if you'll have my green pepper.
Deal.
WDH & sawguy21:
Sorry but you guys are stuck.
Without certs Canadian customs won't allow the squash in, and DHS won't allow the green peppers in the U.S.
I guess that voids the deal.
GAB
:D