Aggie Ice Cream

Had a craving for ice cream a few weeks ago and the brother of a friend of mine reminded me of Aggie Ice Cream. For those of you who don't know about Aggie Ice cream, it is made at Utah State University by the students in the food science program.

USU used to be called Utah State Agricultural College, and basically that is what is was for many years. Then as it started to grow, it became Utah State university, and now today is a really great university. When I was going there, it still carried the stigma of being a 'cow college', and the joke that everyone outside of Logan used to tell you was, "I heard that the faculty at the cow college got replaced with automatic milking machines last week!"

In spite of becoming a full fledged University, Agriculture was still a big part of the campus. The University maintained a very large dairy herd that was maintained and studied by the students majoring in Dairy Science. Of course the cows had to be milked, and the milk then provided the students from the Food Science department the opportunities to use the milk to make all kinds of dairy products...ice cream being one of the more popular items. When I was a student back in the 1960's one of the buildings on the 'quad' had and ice cream stand just inside the front door. Perhaps my mind it just playing tricks, but I seem to recall that the ice cream cones they sold only cost a nickel a scoop, or perhaps it was a dime. At any rate it was a bargain and there was almost always a line to buy the delicious ice cream. The students making the ice cream wanted to make the best ice cream they could so it was very rich in cream and flavor. Occasionally they would experiment with different flavors to see how they might go. Anyone remember the 'mince meat pie' flavored ice cream? More popular was the 'pumpkin pie' ice cream! Oh how I remember rushing into the building between classes and holding my breath that the line wouldn't be too long so I would have time to get a scoop and eat it before the next class started.

With time, the old store on the quad went away, but they still sell the delicious ice cream at another store over on 7th North (I think that is were it is). Much more room and they have freezer cases available so you can buy the ice cream by the half gallon if you want. Of course they still have the big tubs of ice cream behind the counter where they scoop the ice cream out and put in a cone for you to enjoy. They also sell other dairy products produced at the University, and perhaps if my memory is correct they will also make sandwiches for you to purchase.

I was excited the year I found out that the ice cream was sold in the half gallons. I was on vacation in Logan and my mind immediately started to wonder if I might be able to take a few gallons home with me. I immediately went and bought a large ice chest, and the day before leaving Logan, I took the ice chest up to the store in carefully fitted in as many half gallons as I could squeeze in. After paying for them, I took them back to my Mom and Dad's home and transferred them to their big freezer in the garage for the night. When I got ready to leave the next morning I repacked the ice chest with the ice cream and then on the way out of Logan I stopped at one of the grocery stores and purchased some dry ice to put on top of the ice cream so it would stay nice and frozen. When I had family with me, that usually entailed a stop for the night in Southern Utah so that meant replenishing the dry ice the next morning before the final leg to Southern California.

Oh what a pleasure it was to have sooooo much delicious Aggie Ice Cream in my home freezer! For a few weeks I could indulge in the rich, creamy flavors every night that I would carefully select!

Haven't been back to Logan for a few years and the craving for Aggie Ice Cream is growing stronger and stronger. Probably will be in Logan next year for a high school reunion.....and of course, several trips to the Aggie Ice Cream store! Hmmmmmm.....wonder how many ice chests I can fit in the car?

Feeding my Hummers

I'm doing another story about one of my favorite topics, Hummingbirds. Some of you reading this blog might have already read about this story of when I fed the Hummers at my job at South Coast botanic Gardens on the Palos Verdes Peninsula through emails that I have sent out. As many of you already know, I used to teach children's gardening and nature study classes at the Gardens, and I maintained Hummingbird feeders around the childrens area, both for the teaching opportunities and just for the pleasure of watching the antics of the Hummers as they fed on the sugar water in the feeders. We had so many Hummingbirds using the feeders that they needed to be filled two times a day, so my first job in the mornings was to clean and fill the feeders, and then usually just before going home for the night, I would have to fill them again. Many days when I had classes going, I would have kids who wanted to help with the cleaning and filling of the feeders.

We had a large outdoor sink area that served a variety of uses. Vegetables harvested from the gardens were cleaned there before they went home with the children. Also this is where all the gardening tools were cleaned before being put away after using them. There were several sinks so it allowed more than one person at a time to use them. This was also where we made up the sugar water solution to put in the feeders. Each feeder was cleaned out with a brush before it was re-filled with the food.

When I would arrive at the Gardens in the mornings, usually the feeders would be mostly empty, and the Hummers would be hungry. I would gather up the feeders and take them to the sink area and proceed to get them ready to be filled. As the Hummers were familiar with my routine, they would tend to congregate near the sink area while I was working. There was one particular male Hummingbird that was a little more impatient than the others and he would perch himself on the sink faucet handle to wait for the first feeder to be filled. Once the first one was filled, he would hover right in front of me waiting for me to attach the bottom part to the feeder, turn it over and then right there, he would drink and drink from the feeder like it was going to be his last meal! When he was satisfied, off he would go...perhaps to hunt out his favorite flowers so he could get more food! Then as I would carry the feeders back to the locations where they would hang, I would be followed by several Hummers darting around me excitedly in anticipation of them being hung up so they too could drink their fill!

I was told, but haven't confirmed this from anyone else, but did you know that during the winter months, when the nights are so long, that Hummingbirds need to find food and eat within the first 20 minutes of waking up or they will starve to death! Talk about a precarious situation to be in! Makes me feel good about always keeping my feeders full for them.

That's all for this time. Hope you enjoy my posts.

Ron, the Plant Man

Doing Yardwork

Was outside doing yard work today. Nothing unusual, just had to mow the grass, dead-headed some of my beautiful Meidiland Sevillana roses...and believe me, they really are beautiful roses, very easy to take care of, no worries about mildew or rust, and they just bloom and bloom and bloom! I give them a deep soaking about once a week, if I'm fertilizing the lawn I might throw a hand full of fertilizer on the roses if I think about it! When I'm out working in the front yard, I often have neighbors comment to me how nice my roses look! The picture above is of Sevillana roses, but unfortunately the picture is not from my yard. My roses look just as good as these, but I don't have a camera that would take as beautiful of a picture as this one is!

After I finished up in the front I had to go in the back yard and trim up a planter of Star Jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides) or also known as Confederate Jasmine. For those of you not familiar with this plant, it is a Viney type of plant that produces lots and lots of small (about dime sized) white flowers that are ever so sweet to smell. After they finish with a round of flowers, they will send out long, vine like growth that will twist and twine around themselves and any other plants they can grow into, so that is an easy indication that it is time to trim them back down a bit. Now comes the fun part, the leaves and stems are full of a milky white sap that is very sticky. Well, I was doing my gardening chores in my bare feet today as I had surgery on some of my toes a few weeks ago and putting shoes on is still pretty uncomfortable! As I trimmed the long branches, the milky sap started to flow in excess, and as the stems and leafs started falling to the ground, and as I moved around the planter, I began to collect sticky stems and leafs on the bottom of my feet! Before I knew it, the soles of my bare feet were entirely coated with the Star Jasmine leafs and pieces of stems! Couldn't shake them off no matter how hard I tried, and finally had to sit down and peel them all off the bottoms of my feet! I should have just left them stuck to my feet, because I still had to rake up all the fallen debris and in doing that, I again had a thick layer of sticky leafs on my feet. I began to think I was like some monster in an old 'B' grade movie or some giant insect that camouflages itself with all the sticky stems and leaf pieces! As it dries, the sap turns black on your skin, but fortunately it is water soluble and washes of quite readily!

Well, after fantasizing about movie monsters and giant insects, I decided that it was time to cool of in the pool before calling it a day from my yard work!

So long until next time!

Ron, the Plant Man

Hummingbird Nests

Hello to all! Just wanted to add another post to my blog, and wanted to continue along with my Hummingbird line.

I always thought this was an interesting bit of information about Hummingbirds that I learned while working at South Coast Botanic Gardens. There was a tour guide named Eric Brooks, who worked there and was also a bird watcher. He taught me a lot about birds and especially Hummingbirds, and he also provided me with my first Hummingbird feeders to put up and attract the Hummers to the area where I worked.

Eric showed me a Hummingbird nest one day and pointed out to me how the nest had been 'decorated', or perhaps 'camouflaged' might be a better word to use. You can see from the photograph all the little bits of materials that are stuck onto the outside of the nest. The Hummers use materials that are locally available to put around the nest so it will 'blend in' with the surroundings. Most commonly available materials for them to use are lichens, mosses and bits of leaves. However, on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, where South Coast Botanic Gardens is located, it is a rather affluent neighborhood with a rural flare to it and horses are very much the norm. Horses mean stables and horse trails, and stables and horse trails lead to wooden structures, so City codes were established that all wooden structures had to be painted white which made the neighborhoods look nice and clean. This also meant that one of the most available materials in the area were flecks of white paint, and sure enough, the Hummingbird nest Eric showed me was decorated with flecks of white paint all around the outside of the nest! What opportunists these hummingbirds are!

I'd like to thank Cindy McNatt for allowing me to use the Hummingbird photograph above. Cindy is the Garden editor of the Orange County Register and also publishes a daily blog called Dirt du Jour. Although we have never met personally or spoken on the phone, I feel we have become friends through her articles and blogs and many emails sent back and forth. Cindy is also the one who encouraged me to start this blog!

Have a great day!

Ron, the Plant Man

Tied to Mom's apron strings, a story about Hummingbirds!

One day many years ago, I was working at South Coast Botanic Gardens. There was a lady named Shirley Wells who lived locally who visited the Gardens everyday to observe the Hummingbirds in the Gardens. Shirley was an authority on Hummingbirds and had published many books and papers about the Hummingbirds living on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. I was fortunate to meet her and picked her brain about Hummingbirds. I recently found out she died not to long after I left the South Coast gardens and went to the headquarters garden, the Los Angeles County Arboretum in Arcadia.

I maintained several hummingbird feeders around the Childrens Garden area where where I was working so she usually spent a lot of time observing the Hummers in that area. This day she pointed out to me a new nest that had just been built. I would watch it each day also to observe what was going on. Two baby Hummers were hatched and the Mother carefully tended to them until it was time for them to leave the nest and fly away on their own. One of the babies did that, but the other just decided he didn't want to leave home. Mom encouraged him for several days, but finally gave up and decided it was time to build a new nest so she could start the next brood. She started the new nest about 10 feet away from the old one, and by this time was completely ignoring 'Junior' in the old nest. Junior watched her carefully, confused as to why he was being ignored, and when the new nest was finished, Junior happily flew over to the new nest and made himself right at home! He stayed for a couple of days while his frustrated Mother did everything possible to drive him away! Talk about being tied to his Mom's apron strings, this little guy surely was! Thank you Shirley for teaching me about Hummingbirds, I still enjoy feeding them and watching them 30 + years later!

If you like my story, leave a comment.

Ron, the Plant Man