It's official

The season is ripe now because we finally had our first meal of the year that came mostly from our gardens.

Sure, there's been plenty of herbs, a tomato or two spread over time. And sure, I'm late like always.

But last night I got to cook a ragu with eggplant, bell pepper and tomatoes from our beds. And the rosemary, basil and oregano were ours as well. To round it out I threw in some garlic, garbanzos, wine and zucchini (our Lebanese squash is almost ready). It tasted a lot like summer.

Tip on the eggplant. Buy it young, maybe at the farmer's market at Sunset Center Tues., Thurs. and Sat. mornings, cut it into one-inch chunks and put it on a plate covered with a layer of coffee filters. Salt it and microwave on high for about eight minutes. That gets the water out and precooks it before the saute. No mush, no fuss.

Got another e-mail from Boone, well, his aggressive pr people. It quoted U.S. Senate leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, as being a member of "the Pickens church." Scary. See what natural gas and a lot of money can do to you.

I threw in these pictures from an e-mail newsletter I get. It puts up links to all the wind stories I write, so it can't be all bad. Disclosure about the site that publishes the newsletter - it can get a little negative about wind energy. But it asks good questions. I like it for balancing other sources. I mean, I listen to Rush, too, for balance.

There's no good reason for the photos except they're kind of cool. The first is from Minnesota, the second from West Yorkshire in England.