It's cold and dreary outside. I've got the Michael Buble Christmas album playing. Jarling's put out their closing sign. Ohio State just trounced Illinois on their own turf, Memorial Stadium, less than a mile from here. The wind's out of east this afternoon. If you walk out into the parking lot, you can smell the humiliation.
The winner of this rivalry, dating back to 1902 (year of the first Rose Bowl, year Texaco was founded, year Teddy Roosevelt became the first president to ride in a car), gets the Illibuck. Which is basically a wooden turtle. Go figure.
What can it mean, you ask? The seasonal shut down of Champaign's favorite frozen custard spot. The yearly defeat by the Buckeyes. The... did he say Michael Buble?
That's right. Autumn is coming to an end. Since we're slipping into the holiday season, let's take a look back at the 2013 Fall Season.
Corn Maze
We returned to the Hardy Reindeer Ranch to navigate the corn maze. That night was dark and freezing. I did my time in Scouting circles as a youngster and learned this very important maxim: Always Be Prepared. Pursuant to that notion, I brought flashlights, gloves, hat, scarf, and a small bottle of Canadian Whiskey.
The maze layout this year looked like one of the guys from Easy Rider. At least before driving through Mississippi. They had six stations spread through the maze with hole punches. You wandered around with a punch card and looked for every station. We got them all. After two hours.
Here's what it looked like:
We Had the Runs
We did the Rattlesnake Master 5k/10k. This was my 7th and final race of the year. I did one adventure run, two 10k runs, and four 5k runs. It's only the last run of the year because I can't find a December race. Next year, I'll try to find something more productive to do with my time. The run was gorgeous, open prairie-land bordered by trees turned orange, yellow, and red.
Sebastian, who ran the 4th of July Freedom run with us, signed up for this one as well. Then we all went for a post run breakfast at Le Peep, the local Champaign version of IHOP. I got a bacon and potato skillet topped with cheese and basted eggs. So disgustingly unhealthy. So delicious. Also, I doused it with Cholula. Because Cholula. I rest my case.
Aine had pancakes. Of course.
The results:
James 10k - 54:37, 37 out of 83 (pretty much dead center of the pack, where I always find myself)
Aine 5k - 30:38, 69 out of 170
Sebastian 10k - 42:26, 7th out of 83 (he's sort of fast)
This is how we looked:
Bayern Stube
Means "living room" in German. A kitschy little German food restaurant north of here in Gibson City. We make a yearly pilgrimage to gorge on pork and potatoes.
They sell their beers by the liters. I kid you not. There are few things as terrifying as a liter mug of beer. I'll be honest, I wasn't man enough to order a liter of beer. I had two half liters.
Seriously. I don't have the upper body strength to lift it since we stopped doing P90X and they refuse to bring you a straw.
As you can see from the pictures, the walls are covered in animal heads, shelves full of steins, German musical instruments, and bizarre weapons. Like a flint lock pistol that's also a hatchet. Try tucking that one into your waistband.
While you wait for your meal and sip your half liter of beer, they bring soda bread and "sausage butter" to munch on. It looks like butter, spreads like butter, but smells and tastes like summer sausage. Which is sort of how I imagine heaven.
For dinner, I had the Bismark Schnitzel, named after the Chancellor because this is how he preferred it. Pork Schnitzel topped with baked apples and Gruyere. I ordered potato pancakes and saurkraut.
Ainers got pork cutlets covered with brown gravy and potato pancakes and vegetables on the side.
I didn't get a picture of her plate. This is her trying to get a picture of the tapestry behind Jessie. The artist took the time to weave an ornate hunting scene. Including one of the hunting dogs taking a steaming crap in the cold Bavarian woods.
Germans.
Say Cheese
We cut into the second pound of cheese. The one we let age three months. Let me tell you. All the difference. It tasted sharper and had a drier, crumblier texture.
This was the most successful cheese of the year.
Parting Shot
We had our first snow of the year. Baron von Flopsburg found it delightful.
Fraulein Fattywurst prefers to stay in where it's warm.
For lack of anything better to do, I decided to make flash cards of all the flags and capitals of all the countries in the world. And then learn them. I'm at 75% on the capitals and 90% on the flags. When I get these down I'm going to add the US States and Territories and probably all the disputed territories. Like Transnistria and South Ossetia. Look 'em up. They're real places. At least, they're trying to be. But probably not Cascadia, because yawn.
Urbana Sweet Corn Festival 2013
We did it again. It was so hot this year. I think we hit 85 degrees mid-day. Sweat was had by all.
Of course, the Motor Muster was there again.
Aine said, let's get a picture of the one with dead children in the back.
Instead of the old timey bus, this year they had a sweet Woody. Wait, what did I just say?
I scoured the streets for a 50s model Chevy Bel Air. I finally found one. Not the color I would have chosen, but it was the only one there.
Then we had to walk slowly around all the 1910s and 1920s model cars. Because of Downton.
And no Central Illinois festival is complete without overpriced beer in collector mugs.
Sure, it's the same price as a six pack, but can you drink a six pack in the middle of main street in front of your county courthouse? I didn't think so.
The One Community Stage had a lively performance by Bone, Jugs and Harmony (pun intended). They performed with whiskey jugs, kazoos, and all manner of ridiculous instruments. Aine said, I think this is kids' music. I said, no, these guys are for real. They're local and play venues all over town.
You're probably wondering, where are all the spectators? They're crowded in the shade of the building to the left. By this time in the day we hit the low 80s and people were passing out from heat exhaustion. All precautions had to be taken.
Kansas headlined the entertainment this year. Aine said we had to go since they play the theme song to Supernatural. I said, fine, but we leave as soon as they play Wayward Son. Wouldn't you know it. They played it last.
Here's videographic evidence that we were there. With the entire population of Champaign County. Forgive the sloppy camera work. The camera man had been drinking since three that afternoon.
The Blerch Shirts Have Arrived
We ordered Blerch shirts from the The Oatmeal website for the Pumpkin Classic 10K in Morton.
It's based on a six part comic you can read here: The Oatmeal
You only need to read the first part to understand the shirt, but I would suggest reading all six. Rocking the d20
So, a few of us decided we wanted to try out Dungeons and Dragons. It was decided that since I'm the only one not in grad school, therefore the only one with free time, I should be the one to learn the hundreds of rules and DM the first game.
In the picture above, you'll see the practice game from the other night where Aine, as a Level 1 Elf Wizard, defeated 4 Goblin Minions with her Magic Missile. That's right.
Coming Soon
Labor Day - Arthur Cheese Festival and the 5k Rat Race.
Hard Cheese - Three weeks to go!
We've made a few tasty meals lately. Since the Irish Invasion posts are still in the works, I thought I'd make a quick post about dinner.
Polenta Pizza
Polenta is Italian for grits. This peasant food dates back to the Romans, typically made from millet until Columbus invented America and corn became the preferred ingredient. Polenta has become popular in the past few years as a fancy dish. Move over peasants, we're in your diet, gentrifying your food.
To make polenta, you bring a pot of water to a boil, stir in coarse ground cornmeal, and simmer it for 20 minutes.
It has to be coarse ground. The fine ground corn meal you're used to seeing has been bleached and degerminated: the taste and texture will be all wrong.
I poured the polenta into two pie pans and cooled them in the fridge for an hour so the polenta would set. After an hour it has the consistency of really dense cornbread. In Italy, they eat it grit-style with sausage and lentils. You can eat polenta like grits if you want, but after it has set you can grill it, fry it, or use it as a pizza crust.
We made pizzas. Polenta gives you a gluten free pizza crust, if you're into that sort of thing. You can top it with just about anything, but we mostly followed the recipe from the Forks over Knives Cookbook by Del Sroufe. I used Buitoni Pesto mixed with Nooch (Nutritional Yeast), caramelized onions, boiled potatoes, and savoy spinach. Caramelizing onions is something I've only started to do recently. Scientists aren't completely sure how it happens, but you cook them until the sugars bleed out and turn brown, giving the onions a caramelly flavor. Savoy spinach is something else we've come across recently. It's a crisp, crinkly form of spinach sold loose in the produce section. It has more flavor and nutrients and stays crisper longer than flat spinach, which is the kind they stock in the freezer section.
I know what you're thinking. There's no meat in that picture. It's alarming, I know, but while the corn is lysine-deficient (like the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park), the potatoes have high quantities of lysine, giving you a complete amino acid profile. The spinach has Vitamin C, Vitamin K, and Calcium and the Nooch is high in B Vitamins. So you could pretty much live off of this. If you hated variety.
I garnished it with crushed red pepper and parmesan cheese. Totally delicious.
You can find it online, last two recipes on the page:
Baked Sweet Potatoes
I've wanted to try a baked sweet potato for a long time. I used to think you could only eat sweet potato in pies or in casseroles topped with syrup and marshmallows. Then Brooke started making sweet potato fries and I thought, I wonder what else you can do with sweet potatoes.
I thought, I bet you could bake them and eat them like Russets. You can. Turns out, I wasn't the first person to try this.
I sauteed black beans and yellow corn with onions and garlic and piled that on top along with cheese and salsa. As a healthy alternative to butter, we used some homemade yogurt we found sitting around and added garlic, onion, chili powder, salt, pepper, and cumin.
For dessert, we ate some blood oranges we found at the store. I had heard of them, but I hadn't tried one before. They were sweet and had a slight raspberry flavor. This is my new favorite orange.
Chicken Vindaloo
We've also been trying a few Indian recipes. They require a substantial investment in time, but they taste so good. When the Portuguese visited India, they brought a dish called Carne de Vinha d'Alhos which they made with wine and garlic (obviously). After substituting the wine with vinegar and adding hot peppers, the residents of the Goa region changed the name to Vindaloo and the rest was history.
I started by toasting and grinding all the spices. This smells awesome. Try it. If nothing else, just toast some cumin seeds. Best smell ever. Well, I think so. Aine says it smells like body odor.
I added the ground spices to vinegar and garlic and ginger and other stuff to make the paste, which I mixed with the chicken to let it marinate overnight.
I know I'm missing some picture steps here, but I then caramelized two large onions, added garlic, ginger, potatoes and the chicken and cooked it for about 30 minutes. I put it on some Brown Texmati Rice from the Republic of Texas and ate it with flatbread. Most delicious. Aine liked it, but she likes anything with potatoes in it, so...
Japan House
Since Spring has sprung and trees are budding, we decided to take a drive over to the Arboretum and see if they had started replanting the Hartley Gardens. Not so much. Hartley still looked rough, but the trees over at Japan House had started to bloom.
Look:
Also, here are two fish:
Rennet
My cheese odyssey came to a grinding halt at Neufchatel. You need rennet (stomach enzymes from a cow or goat) to make serious cheeses. I went to the grocery store because Dr. Fankhouser said I could get rennet at the grocery store. Not so much with Schnucks. I even went to the cheese counter where they make some of their own cheese. The old ladies behind cheese counter looked completely baffled. They had a lively conversation among themselves about me and my request before turning and shouting "No!" in unison.
So I resorted to Amazoning it. I ordered it two weeks ago, but it shipped out of Massachusetts and those people have had their hands full. It should arrive sometime this week.
Parting Shot
Cooking Indian food can make you dog tired. Even if you're just watching.
State Insect
In 1975, a third grader from Decatur proposed that Illinois make the Monarch Butterfly its state insect. After overwhelming political pressure from schoolchildren, the legislature caved and passed a bill apotheosizing the butterfly.
Tony Hisgett
The Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus) has been legislated into official status by 6 other states, including Alabama and Texas. The only butterfly that migrates, the Monarch flies south to Mexico in the fall and returns in the spring. It's also one of the few insects that can make a transatlantic flight. The antennae of the Monarch contain a chemical called cryptochrome which reacts to light on the violet or blue end of the spectrum. When activated by blue light, cryptochrome becomes sensitive to the earth's magnetic field. Monarchs can't tell the difference between north and south, but they can align themselves on the north-south magnetic lines. It's basically a chemical compass. Many migratory birds have this chemical in their eyes. Don't feel bad. Humans also have cryptochromes that play a role in circadian rhythms, or your sleep-wake cycle. Some scientists think cryptochromes might provide insight into seasonal affective disorder.
The Monarch butterfly has no natural predators. The Monarch caterpillar eats milkweed and only milkweed. A chemical in milkweed, cardiac glycoside, builds up in the caterpillar's body and persists into adulthood. This chemical, often used medically in patients with heart failure, causes strong heart contractions. In an otherwise healthy individual, it can cause a heart attack. Butterflies don't have hearts (insects have a sort of open pump that swishes fluid around inside their body cavities), but birds and mammals who try to eat the Monarch do. Predators have long since learned to give the bug wide berth. Indigenous people from South America used extracts from milkweed to poison the tips of their arrows.
In the early 90s, then-representative Leon Panetta of California authored a bill nominating the Monarch Butterfly as national insect of the United States. Representative Steve Neal of North Carolina claimed any insect representing monarchy has no place in a Democratic society. He wrote a bill proposing the Honey Bee as a hardworking, Biblically-noted alternative to the monarchist tendencies of Panetta. Around this time, the Africanized Honey Bee crossed the Rio Grande. Also, the bee is totally Communist. Both bills died in sub-committee.
State Soil
Drummer Silty Clay Loam. The name Drummer comes from Drummer Creek, a tributary that flows into the Sangamon River just north of Champaign. Loam is a soil type that consists of sand, clay, and silt in specific quantities. Sand and silt both appear as rounded grains, sand visible to the naked eye and silt visible under a microscope. Clay, under a microscope, looks like flat, little plates. Imagine you have a shrink ray like Rick Moranis in Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. You shrink yourself to the point that sand grains look like large beach balls. At that size, you could use silt grains as golf balls and if you put clay particles in a bowl, they would look like corn flakes. Now unshrink yourself. Mix all those particles together and you have the dark, fertile loam, the best possible soil for growing field corn, field soybeans, and Christmas trees.
You can thank glaciation for much of the terrain in Illinois. As recently as the Pleistocene Era, about 75,000 years ago (back when we had woolly mammoths), a glacier covered most of Illinois. No one knows why a glacier advances or recedes, since climate change is obviously a myth, but when it did recede, it left the Illinois we know and love today.
Glaciers begin their lives as big piles of snow. The piles get so large that the snow compacts into giant cakes of ice that slide downhill. Voila! As the ice sheets migrate, drawn by the siren song of gravity, they grind all the rock beneath them into fine particles, like sand, silt, or clay. The Illinois glacier stopped near the Mississippi River, then started to melt. As it melted it revealed the silty clay loam that covers most of the state.
All of the major Illinois rivers, the Illinois, the Sangamon, the Vermillion, the Kaskaskia, were formed as melting glacier water cut through the soft loam looking for a bigger body of water to join.
It also left some other features, peculiar to glacial activity. If a big chunk of ice breaks away from the glacier body, it melts by itself. I mean really big chunk of ice, some were a mile or more across. As the ice melts, it soaks the soil beneath it, making it soft. The weight of the ice chunk pushes down into the soft soil and sediment washing away from the melting glacier piles up around it. A cauldron-like depression forms, called a kettle. Kettles, when they melt, can form these roundish, deep kettle lakes like you see across Siberia and Northern Alaska (Wiley Post flew Will Rogers into one of these). Thoreau lived next to a kettle lake for a while called Walden Pond. Sometimes, though, if decomposing organic matter creates acidic conditions, the kettle becomes a bog. Volo Bog northwest of Chicago is one such bog.
My favorite glacial formation is called a moraine. Glaciers bulldoze massive piles of soil, rocks, and boulders in front of them as they move downhill. When they recede, you're left with a ridge called a moraine. If you've ever driven to Alberta, Canada, you had to drive through a moraine in the southern part of the province. Just northwest of Champaign, you can see glacier droppings at Moraine View State Park.
Here's where it gets crazy. Long Island in New York is a moraine formed by glacier activity. If you look at a map, you can see the mountain corridor that the glacier moved through, piling up mounds of rock and dirt that would later make a home for Brooklyn, Queens, and the Hamptons. The glacier eventually melted, leaving behind the Hudson River.
So, I heard a bit on the radio this morning about how China's shrinking economy might or might not affect the US economy. Listening to (or reading about) Economics always leaves me with the same feeling as watching a movie about time travel.
If Biff left the sports almanac in 1955 and it changed the future, why doesn't it change Marty's memories so he's not surprised when he returns to the alternate 1985. Also, if in the alternate 1985, Doc Brown is committed and Marty is attending boarding school, how would the trip to 2015 have been possible, given that they returned the same day they left? If the 2015 trip hadn't been possible, then Old Biff would never have taken the sports almanac to 1955 and the entire alternate history would have been negated, thereby allowing the Old Biff to return to 1955 with the sports almanac, creating the alternate 1985.
Now substitute Biff with Supply and Doc Brown with Demand and 1.21 Gigawatts with Fiscal Policy and you know how I feel about Economics.
However, in the radio bit to which I have formerly alluded, mention was made to Chinese pigs eating American corn.
And I thought, quoi?
At the risk of sounding like Joseph Ellis (I am my own source), we already know that Illinois is #2 in both Field Corn and Field Soybeans. But where do all those beans and corns go?
The Chinese love fried food. Most of the cooking oil in China comes from US soybeans. They buy half of our soybean exports (over $10 billion worth). Great Scott!
Half of the corn grown in Illinois is exported abroad. Most US corn exports go to Japan. China has an expanding middle class, so more people can afford and therefore do demand more pork to sizzle in their soybean oil. The Chinese have something like 400 million pigs (The US weighs in at 60 million) and every one of those curly tailed oinkers likes to munch on Field Corn from the Midwest. China is growing ever more dependent on US corn to support their livestock.
But we got this drought on. Worst one since the Dust Bowl. Dwindling corn and soybean crops in the Midwest have caused prices to jump 30-50% which could in turn cause rising inflation in China.
Then if the yuan falls relative to the dollar, won't that favor Chinese exports over American exports which will then decrease the US GDP? See? That's where I get confused. We can just hope that the winner of this next election has a flying DeLorean with a Mr. Fusion modification. And the ability to make it rain.
Here's what we do know:
1. Most Illinois corn and soybeans are exported to Asia.
2. This drought will hurt everyone for a while. Experts are predicting a steep rise in the prices of meat products in the US in 2013.
I heard a story on the radio this morning: since the drought has wiped out Midwestern corn crops, rising prices of corn are putting the squeeze on ethanol producers and cattle farmers.
"The nation's corn crop won't meet expectations. Some predict it will be only two-thirds of what was planted in the spring."
"Since the start of the summer at least seven ethanol plants are now idle in states like Nebraska, Minnesota, Indiana and Kansas. Including shutdowns from past years... about 10 percent of the nation's ethanol plants are now offline."
"Many farmers are having a difficult time affording the feed for their livestock. Earlier this month, President Obama announced the government would buy up to $170 million in surplus meat as many producers are being forced to sell off their herds to the slaughterhouse."
This past weekend, 50 thousand people converged on the tiny hamlet of Urbana to participate in the annual Urbana Sweet Corn Festival. Held every August in the shadow of the Champaign County Courthouse, this festival bids farewell to summer and welcomes the yearly immigration of more than 40 thousand UofI students.
Unlike Austin festivals, both parking and entry are free. Friday and Saturday nights feature local blues, rock, and jazz bands. We missed the Jazz band Friday night because I was busy getting second place at Poker Night. Which means I broke even. However, I didn't miss the Sweet Corn Festival Mascot: Corny.
I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, James, if Illinois produces mainly Field Corn, where did they get all this Sweet Corn. For most of the 40 year history of this festival, promoters imported Sweet Corn from a variety of locations all over the US (one of the largest being Colorado... go figure). For the past two years, all the Sweet Corn for the festival came from one source: Maddox Sweet Corn Farm.
Jim and Ted Maddox started their 80 acre farm 15 years ago near the small town of Warrensburg (pop. 1300). You'll find Warrensville about 10 miles northwest of Decatur. They pick their corn fresh every morning to distribute to individual customers, roadside purveyors, and big chains like Wal-Mart. They sold unshucked corn for 5 bucks a bag at the festival.
You can't go to a Sweet Corn Festival without partaking of Sweet Corn, so we headed straight to the corn booth to purchase a cooked and buttered ear. This corn was fresh. You want to know how fresh? Here's how fresh: you had to pick the silky corn hairs out of it as you ate it. That's how fresh.
The corn cost a buck an ear. If you ride your bike, they give you a voucher for a free ear. We drove. While Aine's old new bike still functions in a satisfactory manner, the new old bike demonstrates a reluctance to brake effectively. That's not entirely true. The front brakes work fine. The back brakes not at all. Riding the new old bike feels akin to playing Russian Roulette with a trebuchet.
Back to the corn. I found this video on YouTube about the Maddox Sweet Corn Farm. Watch this:
The Maddox Bros also operate a Christmas Tree Farm. Illinois has over 500 Christmas tree growers producing almost 150 thousand Christmas trees annually. In case you were curious.
The Good Book says man can't live on corn alone, so we rounded out our culinary experience with a slice of Shepherd's Pie Pizza from a booth run by an Urbana pizzeria, Manolo's. They top their Shepherd's Pie Pizza with ground beef, mashed potatoes, and (of course) corn.
This festival had all the classical festival elements, including street vendors...
a dunking booth...
and a petting zoo.
We didn't go into the petting zoo. It didn't feel right without Mr. Higgins. But word on the street had it that this one included an alpaca, a kangaroo, and a camel. We got a close up of the camel.
We spent most of our time near the One Community Together Stage. The community stage was sponsered by the Sousa Archives and Center for American Music, named in honor of John Philip Sousa, best known for writing the Stars and Stripes Forever and dressing like a kaiser. The Sousa, an archival branch of the UofI library system, works to support and preserve music of all the cultures that make up our great Melting Pot.
First we saw a Korean Drum performance. They were rockin'.
We also watched a Balinese ensemble. One of the band members clearly doesn't look Balinese. But we forgave this small indiscretion when we heard them. The instruments look and sound incredible. It's not the type of music that gives you an adrenaline rush. I wouldn't listen to this while exercising. But, as Aine mentioned, the music seems to have no clear pattern, so it's amazing they were able to memorize these songs.
These next jokers took about half an hour to get their microphone cords straightened out. I almost got up and left. Then they played the best set of the day. They are Del Sur, a local band that plays South American Folk music. Check out the hats on these guys.
As they played, a little Incan abuelita got up and started dancing. She had to have been three feet tall, but layed down some of the most epic dance moves I've ever seen.
Of course, we caught it all on video:
The only thing better than a pickle surprise is a car show surprise. At the end of one of the four streets covered by festival goers, we happened upon the Urbana Motor Muster. This is one of the major annual events of the Illini Collector Car Club, an Urbana club started in 1961 by 6 guys who really liked old cars. This show had everything from a 20s era steam powered car to a hearse from the 80s.
The cars were parked close and they were surrounded by car enthusiasts, so it wasn't easy to get many good pictures. I did want to get one of Ainers posed in front of a car. Here she is standing next to a hardtop, two-door Oldsmobile 88 Holiday. I told her to give me a sexy pose. This is what I got:
The Muster featured a restored bus from the Champaign-Urbana City lines.
Started in the late 30s, this bus company hit its high water mark in 1958 with over 1 million passengers for the year. After Eisenhower invented the insterstate highway, though, everybody wanted a car and the company withered and died. The city government decided the bus line was too big to fail, so they funded a bail out, took over the line, and supported it with tax dollars. Now only socialists ride the bus.
The bus on display dated to 1958, the magic year. Unlike the 50s, anyone can sit where ever they want to on it now.
There were also, placed with an awkward proximity, booths for the Republicans...
and the Democrats.
I asked the Republicans if they hated women and poor people. They said no. I asked the Democrats if they hated America and freedom. They said no. So, that's settled. Turns out, they mainly disagree on things they have no control over, like the movement of the planets and the economy and cats. Also, they use different colors on their signs.
A little down the way from the pundits and the spitballers, we saw the folks from the Urbana Bible Education Center (located a few feet away in Lincoln Square Mall). They provide low cost Bibles and free Bible classes to the community. Low cost Bibles seem a bold move, given the competition: the Gideons still hand them out for free.
We also saw a military booth, set up in front of the Veteran's Memorial and operated by veterans.
I spent the most booth time at the Forest Preserve Booth, though I didn't get a picture of the nice ladies that worked there. Master Naturalists every one of them. Back when we lived in Austin, I considered taking the classes and becoming a Texas Master Naturalist. I asked her about the Illinois Master Naturalist program (modeled on the Texas program), but they only hold classes on Tuesday afternoon. I asked her if they have night and weekend classes for individuals who are gainfully employed. No. She said they had plenty of volunteer opportunities at which you are welcome whether you are a Master Naturalist or not. I had to explain to her that I don't want to make a difference. I just want to learn a bunch of stuff. But they do have a Tree ID course and several interesting programs.
This is their website:
http://www.ccfpd.org/
And these are examples of some of the events they host:
http://www.ccfpd.org/StarwatchesBatsCoyoteHike.pdf
Before we left, Ainers needed her obligatory bag of Kettle Corn.
Remember, Popcorn (Zhea mays everta) is a whole different animal from Sweet Corn (Zhea mays saccharata). Over 300 Illinois farms produce Popcorn, placing Illinois in 3rd place among Popcorn Producing States (Nebraska gets 1st place).
In 2003, Miss Holister, a teacher at Cunningham Elementary, had her 2nd and 3rd graders petition their state legislators as part of a civics project. The petition? To make Popcorn the State Snack Food of Illinois. Former corn farmer, Senator Larry Walsh sponsored the bill and Governor Rod Blagojevich (now incarcerated) signed it into law.
The kids became known as the Cunningham Kernel Kids.
After we left the festival grounds, we ran into a small table:
Some local politics for you. The Champaign-Urbana Citizens for Peace and Justice are protesting the new jail proposed. The county wants to spend 20 million on new jail facilities, the current jail, built in 1980, is in abysmal shape. Detractors argue that almost 60% of the inmate population is black, which is disproportional to the county demographics: only 17% of the county population is black. Also, they say the money should be spent on proactive measures: mental health centers, youth job training, substance abuse treatment, etc. One of the primary concerns is how tax dollars are being spent: why other programs that could alleviate overuse of the current jail are being underused and why the jail is beyond repair after only thirty years.
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