Mija and I took a short road trip this afternoon in hope of scoring fresh strawberries. (For the “Last Man Standing” fans, we wanted actual ripe strawberries–not the incandescent light bulbs that Baxter and Larabee bought in the back alley of a hardware store…) So, we headed down Route 51 south of Carbondale to Flamm Orchards.
This year, with all the interference from the COVID-19 monster, you apparently have to arrive at the orchard pretty early in the day to get berries. Even though the day’s fresh strawberries had already sold out, the trip was not a loss.
Flamm Orchards is well known for their wonderful strawberry icecream and strawberry shortcake. We did have to stand in line for a while, but everyone was pretty friendly. I think their ice cream must have a calming effect on folks…
After getting clarification that their Razzles are a thick, tasty ice cream treat in a cup and not the gum candy from the 80’s, Mija settled on a strawberry Razzle. I had to have the strawberry shortcake with ice cream. Since they also sell their shortcake biscuits and famous strawberry ice cream in quarts to go, we were even able to deliver we some to the porch of friends who have recently joined the ranks of the quarantined.
Mija with her Strawberry RazzleFlamm Orchards Famous Strawberry Shortcake with Ice Cream
This video is from 2016. Unfortunately, the Carterville Lioness Club had to cancel this year’s Military Salute due to COVID-19. Hopefully, it will return next year. Walking through those beautiful flags, each in honor or memory of someone who has served, is a sobering experience…
During my trip to the Marion Farmer’s Market this morning, I looked at all of the pretty succulents at The Potager Garden’s booth. I noticed that some had some pink on them.
Recently, there have been photos circulating on social media of gorgeous pink succulents. Friends and I have been trying to locate some. Searches have not really netted any results.
I decided to ask if there were succulents that just came pink, or if they could turn pink. Since I’ve bought several plants from The Potager Garden, I knew that the Christiansons were very knowledgeable of their plants and would have an answer. They did not let me down. Justin explained that sometimes succulents can get a bit of a sunburn that makes them pink. It doesn’t hurt the plant, but its color changes. The extra sun is necessary to “stress” the plant. I was assured that this type of “stress” is not hurting it though. Succulents with color beyond the basic green require more light to maintain vibrant. Otherwise, their color can revert back to green.
I decided to get a Pencil Cactus. Actually, I’ve wanted to get another since I lost my large one several years ago. I had one that grew to be a couple feet tall from a start my sweet cousin had given me on a trip to see family in Louisiana years ago. I was sad when I lost it.
In addition to the Pencil Cactus, I found some lemongrass and lavender–both for culinary purposes as well as the garden.
Unfortunately, I didn’t arrive in time to make it to every booth. Since we are still under many COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, what should have been a five minute ATM visit at the bank took about half an hour because the cars in line for the other lanes had blocked the ATM lane…
I was able to pick up some Burning Bushes Shrub, one of the specialty flavored drinking vinegars, from Glacier’s End. Although they had just sold their last container of coffee steak rub, I was happy to find Volcan, Costa Rican coffee beans, at Cold Blooded Coffee Co. Their lemonade was delicious too! It was much appreciated after walking around in a hot face mask/bandana. Even on a cooler day, those masks can really warm a person up quite a bit…
Most of us are familiar with the home shopping channels on TV. I’ll even admit to shopping and using them from time to time. Let’s face it, they do have some good things. Many years ago, after I was in a car wreck, and getting around was painful, they were very helpful to me.
Fortunately, some of our local shops and boutiques in Southern Illinois are offering a shop at home option in response to the current pandemic and its associated restrictions on businesses.
Local favorites Perfectly Posh and Splitting Image Boutique, both in Marion. are doing live shows on Facebook similar to those the national shopping channels but on a much smaller scale. People can comment that they are purchasing an item and specify if they will pick it up or have it shipped to them.
The Rusty Nail in Salem, a craft and gift shop, has a personal shopper option. People set up a Facetime appointment to have someone walk through the store and help them to shop.
Hopefully, many of the local shops we know and love will be able to keep business going with some of these options until we get on the other side of this COVID-19 thing. Please remember that although these may not be the traditional ways of shopping, we still have some options to shop local and support our friends and neighbors.
Please visit the links below to locally owned shops, markets, and more in Southern Illinois. You can also access these via the ASOSI app or the menu of this website. Ones that have recently been known to offer some type of shopping access during this pandemic are notated with an (*)
Please let us know any ones we have missed so that they may be added…
I originally published this post almost a decade ago (2011) on my culinary stewardship blog. No, it isn’t cold here in Southern Illinois as it was when I originally posted, but it is almost Cinco de Mayo.While most of us are familiar with horchata made with rice in The Americas, other parts of the world have made versions using nuts for centuries. This version uses rice. Perhaps some of you celebrating the Battle of Puebla at home tomorrow would like to do so with a nice glass of homemade horchata…
Below is the post from the Maracuya87 blog in January 2011. ÂĄDisfrutan! ÂĄFeliz Cinco de Mayo!
Itâs really cold here in Southern Illinois right now, and it may be a while before I can get to Costa Rica to visit. So, I decided to try to make horchata, a Central American rice and milk drink flavored with cinnamon and vanilla.
After reviewing different recipes, some calling for almond extract and vanilla extract and even crushing the cinnamon sticks, I had to take a look at what I had in stock and go from thereâŚ
This is how I made our horchata:
Ingredients:
1 cup long grain rice
1 quart warm water
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 vanilla bean pod (after vanilla has been scraped from the inside)
1/2 cup whole milk
1/3 cup vanilla sugar (or regular sugarâI keep a separate container of sugar that I throw the vanilla bean pods into after Iâve scraped out the insides in other recipes. That way it flavors the sugar.)
Place rice and warm water in the blender and blend until the rice breaks up but does not turn to powder. Pour into a pitcher with a lid and add the cinnamon stick and vanilla bean pod. Allow to sit in the refrigerator at least 5 hours (ours stayed in the fridge overnight.)
Strain the rice water into a blender, discarding rice pieces, cinnamon stick, and vanilla bean pod. Add the milk, sugar, and Cinnamon-Vanilla Blend. (If you donât have this, use 1/2 tsp vanilla extract and 1/2 tsp cinnamon.) Blend until smooth and serve over ice.
As kids, my brother and I were fortunate to grow up on a farmette. Seeing the maple seeds fly off the trees and into the wind this week has brought back fond memories of creative play in the country. Spring and summer outdoor play as a little kid in Southern Illinois was very special.
Those maple seeds, sometimes called whirlybirds or helicopters, were created by God as a brilliant twofer. Not only are they seeds that may grow with nurturing into solid trees, they are natural toys for kids, fur babies, and perhaps some adults. They look like little helicopters invading in a strong wind. There were actually so many landing hard and fast on our dogs’ deck the other day that they wanted to stay inside to play until their makeshift maple seed helipad had cleared…
As a kid, the maple seeds also doubled at playtime as banana bunches. My mom had an old, long, white potting table in our backyard. We sometimes played mud bakery or restaurant there. We were pretty good at sourcing play food from the yard and large garden area. Salad was pretty easy to create from bread leafy weeds in the grass. Bark might be bread, and the dried, flaking mud in what were puddles became potato chips…
That type of creative play and outdoor activity in nature was healthy for us and our development. We were actually learning problem-solving skills out there debating the best way to make mud cake. I am sad that kids today do not seem to have as many opportunities to play unplugged as we did. I pray that during this time of sheltering at home that kids, and adults, who have not been able to experience the simple joys of nature and creative play will be able to do so. May we all experience the simple joys of chasing helicopters in the wind and picking bananas in the sun.
Apparently, Southern Illinoisans are so strong that there were briefly two Facebook groups and a new dot com with the same name…
This morning, I heard from a friend who had said she had sent a request to join Southern Illinois STRONG, formerly the name of the Facebook group that is related to what was the “Eat & More to Help” section of this website and the ASOSI app. I went to approve her request and found others, but not hers. Then she said that it had been on the news. That was news to me…
With a little research, I discovered that there is a newer Carbondale area group that has surfaced since the sheltering at home in Illinois response to COVID-19. They use Southern Illinois Strong as the name of their Facebook group and dot com that also sells a t-shirt. This appears to be the one that was on a local news outlet with a mission of ensuring the survival of locally owned food establishments in the Carbondale area.
As a Slice of Southern Illinois also supports that mission, assumes the duplicate name was oversight, and forgives any perceived appearance of intent, we have chosen to change the name of our Facebook Group to match everything else: A Slice of Southern Illinois. The section of the app that has and will continue to help people find help and ways to help others in Southern Illinois will remain titled Southern Illinois STRONG. Long after COVID-19 hits the history books, we hope you will still be sharing and participating in each others fundraisers and community needs.
We feel that this is also in the best interest of both groups in terms of transparency. Our definition of Southern Illinois extends from I-70 south to the southern state line. Again we wish the other group well as we also want our local business to thrive and succeed. This is why we continue to add links to locally owned spots in the ASOSI app for shopping, artisans, food, lodging and more. There are links to sites to see and places for family fun. The Southern Illinois STRONG section has been important for helping to get the word out for local fundraisers for schools, families with medical needs, fur babies needing help, and more. Please keep sending these to us! Keeping the blog, business, group, video, and social media name the same seemed best for consistency.
A Slice of Southern Illinois is somewhat of a lifestyle blog, and you will undoubtedly continue to find recipes and travel suggestions for our region and more. It is family-inspired, from the heart, and should be Christ-honoring. I am unapologetic for those elements. Much of the app and other planning was how I kept myself occupied with something meaningful while I was mostly on bedrest during chemo a few years ago. My desire is to continue building upon it with my family.
The A Slice of Southern Illinois app, also called ASOSI, is free for download on Google Play and in the Apple App Store. Please feel free to like our Facebook page. Requests to join the group, and start helping to spot opportunities to help in Southern Illinois may be sent via Facebook. Thank you for your continued support and participation. Even more importantly, thank you for continuing to support each other and our region. Faith, family, friends, fortitude, and more are abundant in our region. Let our hope be contagious. Southern Illinois truly is STRONG!
A multitude of well-behaved, socially distanced, people in cars paraded through the Carbondale Farmer’s Market this morning to shop local.
Vendors sold out of some things early. There were gorgeous flowers, plants, spring veggies, meat, eggs, and fur baby treats to buy. You could even pick up coffee, tea, baked goods, or some delicious-looking hot dogs. Even when forced to operate as a drive thru during a pandemic, the farmer’s market continues to be a treat for the senses. It operates on Saturdays mornings from 8:00 a.m. to noon at 2001 West Main Street in Carbondale, Illinois.
How do you serve hashbrowns for dinner? I started with some smoked sea salt from GoGo Gourmet in Salem, achiote molido and oregano molido from Tienda Paisano in Carbondale, onion, mushrooms, sweet peppers, garlic, Italian Seasoning, and crushed red pepper in some EVOO.
Then I threw on some frozen country hashbrowns–my shortcut. Once they were nice and golden, some Italian blend cheese that needed to be used was melted onto the hashbrowns.
They were plated with Mexican crema, leftover carnitas ( last night,) avocado mash, and pico de gallo…
Super easy dinner since I already had the carnitas, avocado mash, and pico de gallo in the fridge đ #easydinner #hashbrown #carnitas #loadedhashbrowns #smokedseasalt #asliceofsouthernillinois #tastesofsouthernillinois #GoGoGourmet #Salem #TiendaPaisano #carbondale #shoplocal #loadedcarnitashashbrown #avocado #picodegallo #achiote https://www.instagram.com/p/B-RDfSYJeeY/?igshid=o4hmpl6r0tlm
Southern Illinois STRONG is the new name for the companion group to the Help Others Section of ASOSI/A Slice of Southern Illinois. It will be a publicly listed group on Facebook. Currently, it is still showing as private, however that is expected to change soon. People are encouraged to share efforts in Southern Illinois to help others out as well as encourage and support people and small businesses who are doing positive things in our region (I-70 the the southern state line. )
The group gives people an opportunity to help identify Southern Illinois local fundraisers (such as those for school groups, teams, medical needs, folks who have experienced loss, etc.) or regional combined efforts to help elsewhere. All are subject to admin approval, and may be added to the Help Others section of the app/blog.
People who are looking for ways to help out and connect with their community can check back regularly to see if there is something even simple they can do such as save soup labels or buy something they might have otherwise ordered online to help out someone locally.
The ASOSI app is available as a free download in the Google Play Store and in the Apple App Store. ASOSI is a tool packed with links to area info for locals and tourists that shows support for locally owned shops and eateries.
Showing support for locally owned businesses also strengthens our region. It is so important to our survival and ability to thrive as a region to support each other in the positive things when possible. Small business ownership is not easy. Those of us who grew up watching Harriett and the Olson family on “Little House on the Prairie” saw the rich business owners as being snotty (except poor Nels) to the other townsfolk and living in luxury. This not the case for most. If you read much literature on small businesses, many do not make a profit in the first few years, and owners work other full time jobs to make ends meet. A while back, I spoke with a local banker who advised that the majority of small businesses actually operate in the red. Owners sometime work extra jobs to make ends meet and provide for their families. Many of us have no idea what type of sacrifices our neighbors have made to keep their doors open and services available to us.
When we have a negative experience with a local business, before we rush to slam it on social media, the mature response woud be to perhaps discuss it with the business and allow a chance to make amends or correct misunderstandings. Easier said than done, I know… However when we just start reacting, crucifying, stirring, and jumping onto scapegoat bandwagons, we really don’t paint a pretty picture of ourselves. That hurts all of us. Would you really want to visit, shop, eat, and spend hard-earned money in a place that seemed hell-bent on finding someone to tar and feather? Perhaps if you are into the whole mystery dinner thing, you might try it once… (If you do, please don’t tell me. That gives me too much insight into your personality type…)
Having said all of that, let’s get in the habit of acknowledging when a person or a business in Southern Illinois steps up to help someone. There is enough angry, hate-filled news in the world. Let’s make our little corner a bright one. It is much better to build each other up than tear each other down. The group is also a place to give acknowledgment to people for helping out or doing a good job at something in Southern Illinois. If someone has been battling health issues, and his or her yard is a hot mess, let’s acknowledge the compassionate people who step up and step in to help-not those just out to make a buck. There are plenty of other formats for those to those who just want to complain about the temporary aesthetics to be able to see their words in print. (Seriosuly, you could play a game by tallying the predicted snide and often useless remarks of arm chair critics to news stories…) Let’s support and encourage those who are actually going to take positive action–not condemnation– toward solutions.
A friend posed the question on social media as to what made our area special. It reminded me of that May 8 storm that left so many without power for many days. Southern Illinoisans really stepped up and helped each other through a tough time. That same spirit still thrives among many. We are Southern Illinois STRONG!
