Umpleby's Bakery & Café

I am looking over the seed catalogues again today in anticipation of placing my 2017 order.  I first start by looking at what seeds I have leftover from last year and go from there.  Please note: seeds from the onion family don’t age. Toss them and start with a fresh batch! Novice me,  I learned that a couple years ago from my farmer friends.    And don’t forget your tubers!   I am a big advocate of Moose Tubers – a subsidiary of Fedco.     The deadline for early shipment of taters is March 3 so get going!  February is a short month so it will be here before you know it.   As I believe I have mentioned before  I love seed savers for their tomato and pepper selection.

And also don’t forget about cutting flowers and herbs.  Two very big categories to choose from and grow.  We plan on going crazy this spring on the cafe patio and have planters and boxes stuffed with sweet smelling flowers and savory smelling herbs!  It’ll be like a little jungle out there if all goes well.

What else is there to say   –  I’ll be posting the Super Bowl notice in the next day or so and then there is Valentines Day.

February 14th will be a study in chocolate.  We’ll keep you posted.

Australia Day is next week on the 26th.  And as fate would have it, an auspicious news item appeared in the NYT yesterday – Vegemite is coming back home – after over 60 years of being owned by an American company the vegemite brand is being bought by an Australian company.  You beaut!!

As I am sure most readers of this blog will know, my wife Carolyn, who is now an American citizen by the way,  was originally from Australia.  And one thing she made sure she brought with her on the plane from Tullamarine was a rather large supply of Vegemite. I can only speak as a Northern Hemisphere native but I have to say I really don’t care for vegemite that much.  The flavor is too strong for me. It is I believe an acquired taste.  Carolyn of course grew up with it and she still eats it on occasion – especially if she feels homesick or is in a blue mood.  For her, as well as a lot of Australians, I imagine it is a comfort food. Our children started eating it at an early age – in fact I think it was one of the first solid foods that they ate.   Their lunches when they were toddlers often times consisted of toast with a thin spread of that dark yeast extract.

So I am happy to read that this Aussie icon is now back in the hands of the people who love it so much.  Welcome home Vegemite!

Now if only Blundstones could return to being made in Australia as well!

There was an article in the New York Times today about “The Banned Books Your Child Should Read” .   Reading the article took me on a time machine ride back to the 90’s when I was living in New York City.  Let me explain – There is an event every year  which I believe is called New York is Book Country.  It is a bibliophile’s Christmas day.  On a Saturday afternoon in September about 10 blocks or so of Fifth avenue in midtown are closed to traffic and instead of cars it is instead filled with stall after stall of book sellers.  There are vendors selling all things book related – new books, used books, antiquarian books, comic books and all things bookish.  There are publishers, authors, book activists, and everyone else celebrating the written word and celebrating reading!  I believe it was 1991 when I went and met Ed McBain there and asked him to sign one of his books for my mother. (Both of us are big Ed McBain fans). I must say it was a thrill meeting him.  If you don’t know him google him!!!  This brings up the topic of banned books that the Times wrote about. I think every year there is the ongoing theme of celebrating banned books.  When I went  I bought 4 posters that listed books that have been banned in the United States.  Books like Carrie,  To Kill a Mockingbird,  I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Huckleberry Finn, Where the Wild Things Are, Catcher in the Rye … etc. etc, you know, all the subversive ones that should be burned and not read.  That’s why the NYT article made think of that fun afternoon in NYC more than 25 years ago.

Okay, what does this have to do with food?  If you have ever been to the cafe you will have of course seen either our breakfast sandwich board or lunch sandwich board.  With the exception of Rosie the Riveter ( who has a soft place in my heart for a number of reasons which would be too long to explain in this post) all of them are based on characters in books.  Why?  Well isn’t it obvious?  A person needs to feed his or her self in two ways –  good food, courtesy of Umplebys, and reading books.