The News from Malabar

Vol. 2, No. 8. ***Over 60 Served*** Dishing up news about vegetables and vagabonds since 2011. Tuesday, June 26, 2012

New in the Victory Heart of Ohio Garden this week: Hostelling helps circulation grow
(LUCAS) Just a few issues in, The News from Malabar newsletter has more than doubled its circulation from 27 to 62. Publisher Mark Sebastian Jordan said that he fully expects the publication to soon be the leading source for news information in north central Ohio. Helping the newsletter's distribution is that it is also featured on the website for Heart of Ohio Hostelling, the new group which has emerged from the end of the Central and Southern Ohio Council of Hostelling International, which has reorganized its national structure. The CSOC has been a strong supporter of the hostel at Malabar for a long time, raising funds, organizing student groups, doing special work projects, and hosting open houses, and now HOH is poised to continue that tradition into the future. We thank them for the feature, and encourage folks to check out their website at www.cohoh.org.

give way to mostly partly sunny. Enjoy.

Mildew, or not mildew? That's a good question. Dave and Molly Ernst of Shelby say that it might not be that at all.

The tomatoes are coming! This healthy young specimen was growing on one of the Black Krim heirloom plants that only barely survived transplanting. Now they are stars of the garden, growing eagerly.

Under the neem tree

By Molly Ernst
(In a special to The News, Molly Ernst of Shelby offers some advice on squashes, based on the farming adventures she and her husband David have had, including the interesting fact that what is pictured above may not actually be powdery mildew.) Editor

The Katahdin potatoes have started blooming, perhaps a bit early, in response to the recent heat wave. Farmer Jordan has been hilling the plants, hoping to harvest a horde of soup spuds to nourish him throughout the lean months of winter.

Please welcome this bouncing baby watermelon sprout, one of several seeds planted by Dylan Jordan during his recent visit to Malabar Farm. If all the watermelon seedlings take off, the Victory Garden will be bursting at the seams with the beloved summer treat.

A lily, planted by volunteer gardener Michelle Jordan, in full, deep bloom in front of the Malabar Farm Hostel.

Weather Forecast
There's a sixty percent chance of weather this week, with a high in the 1960s. Scattered mostly sunny will gradually

Hi, Mark, After consulting with David we've decided that we think (emphasis on think) that your zucchini plants do not have powdery mildew. The year before last, or maybe it was last year, David started noticing the same white pattern on some of his plants and he too thought it was powdery mildew, but when he noticed that the marks were not actually "powdery" he called the seed company. They looked into the problem but had no explanation other than it wasn't anything to worry about. And, they were right, it turned out to not be a problem at all since the strange markings seem to have no ill effect on the plants. On the other hand, if the white stuff on your plants is actually a powdery substance like mold or mildew and can be wiped off and if your plants are stressedi.e. wilting

and dyingthen you should definitely freak out. Just kidding! What you should actually do is go out and buy some neem oil. It's OMRI (Organic Materials Review Institute) listed so you'll still be organic. It comes from the neem tree, which I think sounds like something out of a Dr. Seuss book, and you should be able to find it locally. If you use neem oil, make sure you only spray it on the plants in the evening, it needs time to dry or the sun will literally fry the leaves. All that being said, your plants looked pretty healthy in the picture, unless they have started to wilt severely, they are probably OK. You may want to get some neem oil anyway, because once powdery mildew strikes, you have a very small window of opportunity to fight back. Speaking of fighting back, here are two bugs to be on the lookout for: squash beetles and the cucumber beetle or as I call them: "the big nasty gray ones" and "the little hideous yellow ones." Squash beetles eat all parts of the plant and cucumber beetles eat the plants and as a bonus, when they defecate, they spread bacterial vine wilt. Search Google images for them and be vigilant. They shouldn't arrive for at least another month, but the weather this year seems to be making everything emerge early. You can use insecticidal soap to kill them. Safer brand is OMRI listed. Also, for the larger squash beetles, you can lay boards next to your plants during the day and the bugs will go under them for shelter at night, then the next morning you can go out and kill them--this method worked really well when we only had a few plants. The Editor replies: Thanks, Molly and David, for the consultation! It is amazing what a difference it makes when someone knows what they are talking about. But I'm learning as fast as I can wrap my poor ol' brain around this stuff. You are right about the pale stuff on the leafit won't rub off, it is actually part of the leaf itself. But it pays to be prepared. I will hunt up some neem oil, and maybe write a rhyming children's book to go with it. And I will start patrolling the garden in

fatigues looking for the big nasty gray ones and the little hideous yellow ones very soon. Thanks so much for your help and insight. ***

another brood this year. But then I found that Rocky snarled and attacked these new raccoons if they tried to share the food he was scarfing.

Life on a farm reminds us of cycles, change, and impermanence. If that includes sorrow and loss, Mark Jordan says, it also includes rare glints of joy.

Treed adolescent raccoons spotted the evening before the adults battled to the death in a vicious territorial dispute.

By the dawn's early light

An editorial by Mark Sebastian Jordan.
The views expressed in the following editorial do not necessarily represent the official opinions of either Hostelling International nor Malabar Farm State Park.

We spend a lot of time here in The News highlighting the cute critters and pleasantly appealing aspects of rural life. But if there is one thing that living on a farm teaches you, it is that life is a cycle. We have been richly gifted in recent months by eager seedlings and romping baby animals. But life on a farm is not always fun and easy. I knew trouble was brewing over the weekend when I was startled by something I saw as I sat after dark on the hostel's beloved porch swing. Raccoon visitors are no rarity, so I was not surprised to see one, a large adult who is a familiar visitor. He has often visited the porch the last two summers to mop up any seeds left behind by the birds. And if the hostel manager should be so forgetful as to leave a bucket of seeds or corn on the porch, he was sure to find it spread all over the place come first light, the dregs of a raccoon party. I was intrigued when suddenly four more racoons showed up, three of them babies. I wondered if the big male, whom I had started thinking of as Rocky, had fathered

Intrigue turned to worry when out of the night, a veritable herd of no less than six more raccoons showed up, led by a mother who showed eight teats when she stood up to peer over her rambunctious brood. The interactions among these eleven raccoons proved that they were three independent families, all interested in competing for one spot. Rocky treed the first four, and chased the other six into the shadows. I retired from the porch, wondering what would happen now. The following morning, I discovered what happened in the calm, pre-dawn air. Rocky lay in the driveway, dried blood on his fur from the claw and teeth marks on his throat and back. I wondered for a moment if it could have been a coyote, but then canine predators aren't known for leaving victims behind, more-or-less intact. And none of his wounds looked like they could have been inflicted by a larger animal. This was the end result of the competition for a prime location: The raccoons settled their territory dispute in a terrible and final manner. I wondered how the other guy looked, if he or she even survived. Since the death of Rocky, I have not seen a single raccoon in the yard. In the wake of what must have been a ferocious battle, it seems they have all retreated from the working farm area. They will return, in time. Life does go on. I had five guests about to wake up and enjoy a day at the hostel. I

had no choice but to grab my gloves and remove the body. As I lifted the heavy carcass, I noticed that the gravels beneath him were covered with the last of his blood, dried to a reddishbrown stain. I deposited Rocky in the woods behind the hostel, a natural end for a creature of nature who has both fascinated and infuriated me here at Malabar. It was a sad, stern end, and it reminded me how all life moves in cycles. We cannot hold on to things that must move on, whether on their own volition, or even if they are snatched violently away from us. We are not keepers of life, and never can be. We must simply be humble, grateful borrowers of that joy. ***

Exhortations Lake Vernor, from Ohio, where it's

The News welcomes our new advice columnist, Aunt Elzora Howdyshell. Ask her questions at AuntElzora @gmail.com.

Elzora always cloudy George Breithaupt,

The Old Curmudgeon
The latest flashes (news and otherwise) from the vicinity of rural Lake Vernor, the county seat of elusive Kootahatchies County, Ohio.

Well, since this is my first column, Id better tell you what Im doing, hadnt I? My dear friend Mark has asked if I might offer my advice to his readership. Since no one has had time to write in, I will share a few of the questions and answers that I have asked or answered recently. Do you want this cat? No, I dont. Yes, I am unmarried, live alone, am of a certain age and feed a couple of feral cats but that doesnt mean I want another invited creature in my house. Thank you and good luck. Why is my ice cream all soupy? I have to order a part for it to be fixed, Maam. Im sorry but itll be two days until it gets in. (This, friends, was a lesson in disappointment, patience, and appreciation of tech-nology. I still dont quite understand why that young man didnt just drive to Cleveland to pick up the whatsamacallit but like he said the post office needs our support in this day and age.) Excuse me, are those your groceries on top of the car? Why, yes, they are, thank you. Theres a lesson in this one, folks. Can you find it? (Oh, I just cant resist. The lesson is to check the roof of your car and sometimes the bumper before driving anywhere. Though occasionally leaving things in those places is not a problem. A cup of tea once rode just fine on my back bumper all the way to the library.) Dear readers, please send your questions to the following address: AuntElzora@gmail.com.

Sisters of the Reed family gather at H.I. Malabar Farm. Originally from Mansfield, some of the sisters have dispersed as far as North Carolina, New Mexico, and California. They recently realized the hostel was the perfect place for them to gather, and spent six days using it as a base of operations for family activities. Said sister Carla, I'm not sure if I should say we'll be back, because you might not get us to leave. We love this hostel! From left, sisters Tonya, Kim, Brooke, Libby's daughter Amy, Carla, Melissa, and Libby: Now part of the Malabar family!

***

Squatch Watch
Nancy Nixon, co-author of the play The Bigfoot Letters, documents recent local encounters with the mystical Sasquatch.

None.

(LAKE VERNOR) I have been beleaguered with requests from my readers to let you know a little bit about Lake Vernor, Ohio, the town where I live. So to get both of you off my back, here is Lake Vernor in a nutshell, where it belongs. Lake Vernor, Ohio, my hometown, is one of a vanishing breed of Middle American small towns. It is a place that time has forgotten like a drunken one-night stand. It is a place where people live longer than they need to. You will not find Lake Vernor on any map. You will not find Kootahatchies County either. There is a good reason for this. The county is 10,000acres of land at the conjunction of three counties, whose names are with-held by request. The ownership of Kootahatchies County is a matter of dispute among those three counties. Each one takes the position that the land belongs to one of the other two counties. This is a controversy that has been going on since the county was founded just after the Revolutionary War. OK. It is, perhaps, unfair to say the controversy has been going on that long. There was a brief movement, right after the Civil War, not to readmit the county to the Union, ignoring the fact it had never seceded. But that was short-lived and the whole matter was forgotten, and so was Kootahatchies County. Lake Vernor is situated on the Kootahatchies River, or rather, the Kootahatchies Riverbed, because a dam built up by Jethro Junction back in the 1950s has dried up what was historically a rather pitiful excuse for a river in the first place. The dry season a misleading description because although it never rains, it is always

cloudy and overcast in Lake Vernor usually runs from the first of January to about November 29th, leaving the river in a state of mud. Exactly why Lake Vernor was built here remains a mystery to this day. It must have been nearly impossible to get to it during pioneer days. It is so even in the twenty-first century. Lake Vernor is the county seat of Kootahatchies County, which includes the aforementioned Jethro Junction three miles to the north, and Cricket Corners about a mile to the south. They have evolved their own government in lieu of any input from the surrounding world and it works for them. What it boils down to is everybody keeps his or her nose out of everybody else's business. Lake Vernor has a town council and Mayor, all of whom are "elected" by informal agreement. For example, if someone wants to be mayor and nobody objects, then the office is his or hers. It's no big deal really. I think it was back about 1958 that it occurred to somebody that old man Myers had died a few years back and that he had been mayor. It took another few years after the death of Mayor Myers before anyone thought to take his place. As mayor, that is. It may not be much, but its home.

adventurer with the editor. Kim and I recently explored Smith Cemetery Prairie near Plain City, Ohio, and will file a report for the newsletter when we return there this summer to catch the wildflowers in full bloom. Kim says that her favorite articles are the ones about animals, followed closely by the ones about vegetables, and that reading the newsletter is a pure pleasure.
The hostel's fussy hydrangea, which nearly drowned in last year's excess precipitation, has come back in full glory this year, coming into bloom this week. The aluminum-light soil has transformed it from its original blue to a deep, rich pink.

Personal Ads
Dear Bats: I know you aren't going to go away. Okay, fine. But isn't six visits in five days a bit much? And don't try on people's clothes. That's just plain rude. - MJ The News from Malabar is published as an act of civil disobedience by Mark Sebastian Jordan. All material is copyright 2012 by Mark Jordan, except where noted. Contributors retain copyright on all their material, which they have graciously allowed us to present. This newsletter most decidedly does not represent the official views of any of the institutions mentioned herein. They have to cover their collective butts, whereas The News is always flashing its shapely rear for all to see. As Lincoln said in his second inaugural address, Shake it if you got it, baby. This rag is published every now and then, averaging once a week, and is distributed electronically via email, on the Internet via websites, on paper at the Malabar Farm Hostel, and in traditional newspaper format by a 12-year old on a bike named Billy (the boy, not the bike), who throws the paper into the bushes. To become a subscriber, please email a request to blodgett101@yahoo.com. To become a non-subscriber, please email the same address and cuss out the editor. To become a contributor, contribute something. To become a graphic designer, design a graph. Copies may be printed up and distributed at no charge to any interested readers. We prefer seeing the paper on oldfashioned newsprint, but we realize it is as likely as not to be read on a Kindle, or on the competing device, which is so named that they have to carefully avoid calling it an e-reader, because Nook e-reader sounds like

Corresponde nce
Actress, director, and costumer extraordinaire Mary Ann Calhoun of Mansfield dropped a line to say that she has enjoyed the first few issues. Keep 'em coming, said Mary Ann. Sarah Goslee Reed, a wonderful singer-songwriter and violinist from Mount Vernon said, This is very fun, MarkKeep it up! See the next issue of The News for my review of her new album, Plenty. The editor's brother, Phil Jordan of Shelby, said the publication wasn't bad, but could be better with an article by him in it. He is now working on a series of articles about leather britches beans which will begin in the next issue. At least we hope the article is about beans and not his disco pants. Sybil Burskey of Lucas, who knows more than just a thing or two about Malabar Farm, considering she's worked there several years, said I love the news letter, and followed that statement with five exclamation points. Also sending cheers this week was Kimberly Orsborn of Mount Vernon, a long-time friend and co-worker of and fellow

Baby barn swallows perched on the line running across the pond Saturday, as their parents swooped, gathering flies for the young 'uns to munch on.

Slow Morning dense fog me too -Horatio W. Blodgett

something else entirely. But then again, if we're flashing our shapely rear for all to see....