Good Tuesday morning.
One great thing about summer is the abundance of fresh produce that it brings.
In the interest of full disclosure, I do not and never have had a green thumb. Generally speaking, I purchase my produce and I am happy to have the opportunity to support local growers.
I do have some raised beds in the backyard that I inherited from the previous owner that I think were once used to grow flowers to populate vases throughout the house and also vegetables. Right now, I’m trying to grow some of the aforementioned things and keep up the tradition, but I’m sad to say that my most successful crop to date is…crabgrass.
Oh, and mushrooms, not the edible kind. All of this rain is really great for the fungus among us. Maybe not so much for my waterlogged snap peas and my drowned lettuce.
One thing I haven’t tried to grow yet is fruit. My neighbor in Florida has a mango tree that kind of intrigues me. He offered to give me a clipping but I don’t have the foggiest idea what to do with it. I do have a crabapple tree that is prodigiously producing, and apparently you can make jelly out of these – assuming the deer and the worms don’t beat me to the harvest.
When I was a kid I spent a lot of time picking fruit in the summer with my dad (strawberries, from a farm; and blackberries – some in our own yard, others growing wild near a friend’s property), who didn’t do a lot of the cooking while I was growing up but did specialize in making jam.
He did the hot paraffin wax seal version, which is very old school and, as I understand it, a little on the challenging side. Apparently it has also fallen out of favor with the newest generation of canners, of which I am not one.
I also had a math tutor who had cherry trees in her backyard, which I really enjoyed climbing and stuffing myself on. Cherries aren’t my favorite fruit, though their juice is purportedly good for post-athletic recovery, but they do scream “summer” for a lot of people.
According to the interwebs, there are more than 1,000 types of cherries grown in the U.S. alone. But less than 10 are produced commercial anymore – the most popular of which is your standard Bing cherry, which is large and a bit heart-shaped with a firm, crisp texture. (Around the world, it’s about 1,200 or so).
Perhaps less common – but highly prized – is the Rainier Cherry, which is known for being very sweet and two-toned (red and yellow), with a creamy, yellowish flesh. Rainiers originated in Washington State, and are highly prized – by bird and human alike.
They are extremely delicate, susceptible to bruising and have a fairly short-lived season (June through early August), and so can be a bit on the pricey side.
The Rainier cherry is named after Washington State’s iconic peak, and was created by developed by Dr. Harold W. Fogle of Washington State University, who created the fruit by crossing the Bing and Van varieties.
Today reportedly marks the height of the Rainier cherry harvest for Washington State growers, which is why today is National Rainier Cherry Day. I had no idea about any of this until I started doing some research for today’s post. Another day, another rabbit hole. But look how much I’ve learned!
The rain may have ceased, but a flood watch remains in effect through this afternoon. It’s going to be a hot one, with temperatures in the low 90s. Skies will be mostly sunny, with the chance of a stray shower or thunderstorm.
In the headlines…
President Joe Biden, on a brief stopover in the UK before the Nato summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, hailed the “rock-solid” friendship between the UK and the US.
Biden received the ultimate royal welcome in Britain when he met King Charles at Windsor Castle.
There was some speculation that Biden broke royal protocol by casually putting his hand on King Charles’ during their exchange. But a Buckingham Palace source confirms King Charles was “entirely comfortable” with the exchange.
Biden also met with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. The war in Ukraine topped the agenda for their discussion ahead of a key NATO meeting.
Biden is planning to hold two high-profile bilateral meetings during the NATO summit this week, finding time to sit down one-on-one with Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Biden and alliance leaders enter the first day of the high-stakes NATO Summit with a reinvigorated sense of unity after a major win on Monday evening when Turkey agreed to Sweden’s bid to join the alliance.
Turkey’s lifting of its blockade on Sweden’s entry into NATO was a significant and stunning move on the eve of the NATO summit in Lithuania.
Behind closed doors, Biden has such a quick-trigger temper that some aides try to avoid meeting alone with him. Some take a colleague, almost as a shield against a solo blast.
Current and former Biden aides said the 80-year-old president has hurled insults such as “God dammit, how the f–- don’t you know this?!,” “Don’t f–-ing bulls— me!” and “Get the f–- out of here!”
The Biden administration asked a federal appeals court to temporarily block a lower court’s order limiting executive branch officials’ discussions with social media companies about controversial online posts.
Democrats are mounting a coordinated mission to kill a third-party presidential bid — and it’s coming soon to Capitol Hill.
Former President Donald Trump questioned whether Biden is “on cocaine” in a shocking new rant denouncing his indictment in the Mar-a-Lago documents case.
Trump called for a lengthy delay before he goes to trial for allegedly hoarding military secrets at his Mar-a-Lago estate, contending that proceeding while he remains a candidate for president would make it virtually impossible to seat an impartial jury.
In a late filing yesterday, Trump’s defense attorneys said the case was “extraordinary,” with a large volume of documents and footage to be reviewed as the former president leads the race for the Republican nomination to unseat Biden.
The request to rescheduled Friday’s hearing in the classified documents case was met with sharp opposition from special counsel Jack Smith, who said in a court filing that such a postponement was an “unnecessary” delay.
Trump let loose on Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds in a social media post, following a New York Times report that detailed the Republican governor’s close relationship with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Trump’s closest competitor in the GOP presidential primary.
A handful of Republican presidential candidates came to the defense of Reynolds – who holds a uniquely powerful position as governor of the first-in-the-nation GOP caucus state.
A new group with ties to the anti-tax Club for Growth is launching a multimillion-dollar ad campaign in key early primary states aimed at stopping Trump from steamrolling to the Republican nomination.
Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador, raised $7.3 million through her presidential campaign and affiliated committees from April through June, a modest sum that still showcased her robust appeal to small donors.
Long Island Republican Rep. George Santos says he’s the new Rosa Parks — because he wouldn’t go sit in the back of Congress.
“Rosa Parks didn’t sit in the back, and neither am I gonna sit in the back,” Santos told Mike Crispi Unafraid, a right-leaning podcast.”
“They think for far too long they’ve gotten away with getting along to get along,” Santos said. “So, no. It’s not going to stay that way anymore. I’m going to call them out: ‘You wanna call me a liar? I’ll call you a sellout.”
Santos took particular aim at Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who famously told Santos “you don’t belong here” ahead of President Biden’s State of the Union address in February.
Despite billions of federal dollars spent to help make up for pandemic-related learning loss, progress in reading and math stalled over the past school year for elementary and middle-school students, according to a new national study.
Torrential rainfall and widespread flooding wreaked havoc in the river valleys and mountain towns of Vermont and New York State, ravaging communities and drawing comparisons to the devastation of Tropical Storm Irene more than a decade ago.
The devastating floods in the Hudson Valley from Sunday night’s storm caused tens of millions of dollars worth of damage, county and state officials said.
Gov. Kathy Hochul said during a news conference in Highland Falls — where some streets were wrecked from the deluge — that she’s requested assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Hochul warned that severe weather conditions, including the heavy rain and flooding that are drenching the Northeast, should be considered the “new normal.”
Hochul expanded an emergency declaration in New York to include Rockland, Clinton and Essex Counties as flash flooding is expected to impact parts of the North Country and beyond.
At a mid-afternoon news conference at the Canandaigua Fire Department, Hochul said that although the rain has passed, first responders and others are in a repair and recovery stage describing the situation as an “evolving event.”
New York labor officials have adopted new measures meant to protect undocumented immigrants against retaliatory actions and removal due to labor disputes, Hochul announced.
New York is sending $5.5 million to more than a dozen organizations in order to combat addiction and provide services to people in underserved populations of the state, Hochul’s office recently announced.
New York lawmakers are urging Hochul to approve a proposed ban on the distribution of pornographic media created using artificial intelligence that includes a person’s image without their consent.
New York is gearing up to take advantage of a federal program that would expand health insurance coverage to people across state and local correctional facilities.
The 86-year-old father killed by a scooter-riding shooter was laid to rest at a Brooklyn mosque, with Mayor Eric Adams calling him a “pillar of our city” and insisting his administration is working to cut the violence that’s swamped the Big Apple since the pandemic.
The alleged shooter appeared to nod off during his first court appearance, as his boss revealed he had a history of bizarre comments, including claiming a “chip” was implanted in his head and that “people were after him.”
Adams has gone to federal court to stop the sale of flavored e-cigarettes, the kind that appeal to kids, filing a federal lawsuit against four e-cigarette distributors.
A New York City hotline established to advise police officers on Adams’ controversial directive to involuntarily hospitalize homeless people unable to meet their own basic needs reportedly has gotten zero calls since it first went live in January.
NYC Health + Hospitals, which operates the hotline, disclosed the information to POLITICO in response to a public records request for data on calls since it went live on Jan. 31.
Adams has been receiving campaign contributions from the man described as the ringleader in a sprawling straw donor scheme since at least 2005 — earlier than has previously been reported — campaign finance records show.
Adams acknowledged that he knows the man at the center of an alleged scheme to divert thousands of dollars in public money to his campaign from their overlapping careers at the NYPD.
Adams conceded that the city has “always” used tax-funded private security guards at overburdened Big Apple migrant centers.
New York City teachers voted to ratify a new five-year union contract that provides annual raises and significantly expands virtual learning, the United Federation of Teachers announced.
A federal monitor overseeing New York City’s violent and dangerous jails asked a judge to consider holding the Department of Correction and its commissioner in contempt for disobeying court orders, opening the possibility that officials could be punished.
The flesh-rotting animal tranquilizer killing unsuspecting users nationwide has significantly infiltrated drug mills in The Bronx — leading one expert to call New York City’s current drug supply its “most dangerous” ever.
Two men killed themselves by jumping in front of moving subway trains in separate incidents just two hours apart yesterday morning in Manhattan, police said.
“Bling” Bishop Lamor Whitehead is headed to trial on fraud and extortion charges early next year, a judge ruled.
Amtrak service between the Capital Region and New York City is indefinitely suspended because of flood damage to Metro-North tracks in the Hudson Valley.
More than two full days after a multi-band rock concert Saturday night at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center was halted midway through because of a bomb threat, the show’s promoter, Live Nation, had yet to formally address the matter.
New York Army National Guard leadership underwent significant changes during ceremonies at the New York National Guard Headquarters in Latham Friday.
Public media organization WMHT has hired Michele Desrosiers as vice president of marketing and communications to lead efforts to grow the multi-channel TV, radio and digital media organization’s profile and increase community engagement and partnerships.
Benno C. Schmidt Jr., a constitutional law scholar who became one of the country’s leading education executives, bringing difficult but necessary reforms to Yale and the City University of New York, died on Sunday at his home in Millbrook. He was 81.
More than half of the nation’s beaches are contaminated with poop and sewage making their waters unsafe to swim in, according to a shocking report by Environment America.
The New York Times said that it would disband its sports department and rely on coverage of teams and games from its website The Athletic, both online and in print.
Madonna’s North American tour is officially postponed.
