I had another great weekend. I have to tell you about it, but I’ll try to tell you a little shorter this week.
My friend John Walker is a big-time music lover, and so he was eager to be here for the Texas Swing and Heritage Festival held at the Cain Center recently. I had an added incentive to attend, since the Family Peace Project, of which I am a board member, had the monopoly on selling water, and I had promised to help. This was supposed to be a big boost to the funds of that wonderful charity. But wouldn’t you know—it turned cold that morning and stayed so cool all day there was not much call for water that day. And as they didn’t need my help selling water, they sent me to sit beside Catherine Lenz at the admission table to sell chances on a beautiful silver motor scooter we hope will make up for the slim water sales.
After a while, when my poor chance-selling ability became obvious, Catherine told me she would handle it— go have fun with John, which I happily did. It is a wonderful festival. If you missed it this year, please put it on your calendar. There was great music all over the place.
It went on till 10 p.m., but we had to leave a little early, as Carl had got himself stranded in Rosser, at one of his Native American sweat lodges, and we had to go get him. We ended the day with a really nice dinner at Ochoa’s, where we were the last ones out.
After enjoying our Sunday morning green smoothies we drove out to Ben Wheeler to watch them get ready for the Feral Hog Fest, but we didn’t see a lot of action. However, it was real nice sitting on the porch at The Forge sipping coffee and having snacks of some excellent stuffed things..stuffed mushrooms, stuffed peppers, stuffed eggs. Continue reading “AROUND MALAKOFF: Big time at the Swing Festival”
The Athens Chamber of Commerce held a ribbon cutting at Long Cove, just outside of Malakoff, yesterday. Long Cove, a new residential community on Cedar Creek Lake, was created by Dallas’ Don McNamara, the successful developer and investor behind Cityplace and West Village in Uptown. Don is also a long-time resident of Cedar Creek Lake and has invested 10 years in planning to perfect Long Cove. (Photo by Athens Chamber)
The Malakoff Scarecrow Extravaganza is underway, and it is looking good. I don’t have room to start listing all the great ones here because I’ve got to tell you about something else. But let me tell you, they are everywhere, and a lot of folks haven’t even got theirs out yet. If your isn’t out, I hope you are working on it. As I write this, Cedar Lake Nursing Home hasn’t got theirs out yet, but I’ve seen what they are working on, and they are going to be really good. Around next weekend will be the time to invite your friends from out of town to come take a tour.
Now to my big news: You may think I’m being sacrilegious, but I am sort of serious—I halfway think God is planting things in my garden because he sees I am doing such a pitiful job growing things by myself. If you have not had anything better to do than follow my column, you may remember I had this miraculous crop of lambsquarters appear in my garden early this year. If you don’t remember, I’ll remind you that lambsquarters is one of the most nutritious greens there is, and it tastes great. It surrounded my little raised beds where I was trying to grow stuff, and was much prettier and healthier than anything I had planted. And then the grasshoppers came and ate up everything except my tomatoes, okra, and the lambsquarters. Later ants messed up my okra, but they weren’t interested in the lambsquarters either. It was wonderful! I harangued all of you to go find some lambsquarters of your own, or even come get some of mine, but I never convinced anybody except Donna Rinn and my daughter Liz. Both of them totally took advantage of it, and even transplanted some at their houses. Liz is getting ready to save seeds from her transplants. Time passed and the lambsquarters got old and tough and everything dried up except the okra, which is giving me one or two okra pods now and then. Then it rained and cooled off a bit. So I went out to clean up a spot to plant some fall greens, and was astounded to find a whole corner of the garden filled with something strange and green and happy looking. It is Purslane, a cousin to portulaca, or moss rose.
Now I’d heard that purslane was another nutritious, tasty native green, but I had never seen enough of it in one place to consider trying it out. But here it is, bushels of it, just shouting “Come do something with me!” So I headed to Google and found out purslane is a lot more recognized as cool than lambsquarter. Plus super nutritious. Seriously. If you don’t believe me, just Google it. You’ll be amazed at all the articles and recipes. You’ll discover Martha Washington had a recipe for pickling it, and that some very high-class restaurants are serving it. On Pinterest there are dozens of pictures dishes featuring it.
So far, I have just sautéed some in coconut oil with some onion and garlic. It was great. It is sort of lemony, has a little of the consistency of boiled okra, and is really pretty, with its red stems and little green leaves. In the morning it is going to be the green in my green smoothie.
Purslane contains more omega-3 fatty acids than any other leafy vegetable plant. It also contains vitamins A, C, E and B and carotenoids (whatever they are,) as well as dietary minerals, such as magnesium, calcium, potassium, and iron. But listen to this: it offers you two different tastes, depending on the time of day you pick it:
“When stressed by low availability of water, purslane, which has evolved in hot and dry environments, does something interesting: At night its leaves trap carbon dioxide, which is converted into malic acid (the souring principle of apples), and, in the day, the malic acid is converted into glucose. When harvested in the early morning, the leaves have 10 times the malic acid content as when harvested in the late afternoon, and thus have a significantly more tangy taste.”
I hope you will try purslane. It’s good for you and it’s free. But I know you won’t listen to me. You never do.
The Henderson County Black History Committee held its 3rd Annual Dominoes Tournament Saturday, Oct. 5, at the Malakoff Community/Senior Center in Malakoff. The event was well attended and this is the last event for 2013.
David Jones (left) and Hurline Hall (right) from Kaufman, Texas won 1st place trophies and $15 gift cards each to Taco Bell at the 3rd Annual Henderson County Black History Committee Dominoes Tournament on Saturday, Oct. 5.
Sammie Trimble (left) and Gary Hunter (right) showing off their 2nd place trophies from
the Henderson County Black History Committee Dominoes Tournament. Not pictured are third place winners Elmer Smith and Eric Jackson.
In June 2012, the Malakoff Housing Authority experienced what can only be described as a meltdown. The executive director was fired, two other employees lost their jobs, a commissioner was removed from the board and another commissioner was not only named to the board, but instantly became the chairman.
It was chaos complete with police escorting employees out of the office while residents of the housing authority carried protest signs. At one point the Board of Commissioners held a meeting outside because the doors to the office were locked against them.
And while order was finally reestablished with the help of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), there was never much in the way of real answers.
Until now.
In a memorandum dated Sept. 26, the HUD Office of Inspector General blasted the executive director and Board of Commissioners, saying that “the Authority incurred $577,367 in questioned costs.”
According to report: “The Authority … lacked financial and procurement controls to ensure that it made transactions in compliance with Federal regulations and guidance. Testing found significant deficiencies in the Authority’s controls over its bank accounts, fixed assets, and staff compensation.”
The report covered from Jan. 1, 2009 through Dec. 31, 2012.
