From: John De Armond
Newsgroups: rec.outdoors.rv-travel
Subject: Re: Good News - Bad News
Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2007 15:39:49 -0400
Message-ID: <ijn793l2q0k6cfrssmdvv7h4c8b7t490n0@4ax.com>

On Tue, 10 Jul 2007 11:35:24 -0400, "Cliff" <cliffclingan@hotmail.com> wrote:

>Well DANG!  Next time I'm out picking Polk Salad and Dandelions for a meal,
>I'll just have to throw in some Crudzu ... just imagine, if word gets
>around, soon we'll see farmers getting paid to NOT grow Kudzu   LOL
>
>Cliff in TN - may be a way for bill to suplement his "flatspottin" funds

Hey, I LIKE poke salad.  Boil and wash a couple of times to get rid of the bad stuff,
then mix in with collard greens and stew with ham hocks.  Ummmm.  Also pretty good
with an egg scrambled in.

Despite the hysterical bent of this article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pokeweed

many folks, including myself eat the leaves raw as salad.  My grandma taught me to
only get the very young leaves just after the plant flowers in the spring.  Mature
leaves taste bad.  Enough of 'em would probably do what the article says but they
taste so bad that it's not likely you'd eat that much.

As a kid, I was determined to make a useable ink out of the berries.  Alas, despite
what I did, that rich purple ink quickly oxidized to a dull brown color.  Permanent
as hell but not pretty.

Dandelions you can keep.  Too bitter for my taste.  I've never tried Kudzu but that's
on my agenda.

Ever had ramps, Cliff?  They grow all around here.  They're a lot like spinach but
with an oniony overtone.  The normal method of prep is to fry side meat in a skillet
and then use the grease to fry the ramps.  When nearly done, scramble in about an
equal amount of eggs.  Ummmmm.

John

From: John De Armond
Newsgroups: rec.outdoors.rv-travel
Subject: Re: Good News - Bad News
Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2007 22:56:25 -0400
Message-ID: <90h8935fck0ob3e86cbkl6s8vqel4ch1js@4ax.com>

On Tue, 10 Jul 2007 16:37:13 -0400, "Cliff" <cliffclingan@hotmail.com> wrote:


>> Ever had ramps, Cliff?  They grow all around here.  They're a lot
>> like spinach but with an oniony overtone.  The normal method of prep
>> is to fry side meat in a skillet and then use the grease to fry the
>> ramps.  When nearly done, scramble in about an equal amount of eggs.
>> Ummmmm.
>
>Now you're pulling my leg, right?  Ramps are the "Nasty" cuzzin of Garlic
>LOL ...  but, if you Really like them, they hold a Ramp Festival every year
>in Cosby, TN ... I tried eating one raw ... a *SMALL* one ... and the Bride
>made me stay away from her for two das!  LOL

yeah, I really like 'em.  Never tried one raw though.

The grandaddy of the ramp festivals is held right next door in Polk county.  It used
to be known as the Ramp Tramp because everyone would hike, pack horse, jeep or dirt
bike to a meadow on Big Frog Mountain.  A few guys would pack in antique wood stoves
on mules and they'd set 'em up in a semi-circle.  I usually went in on my dirt bike
with an 18" skillet strapped to my back.  We'd go pick the ramps from the near
vicinity while the women got the fires going and fried the fat back.  We'd wash the
ramps in the creek, cut 'em up and the women would fry 'em.  Fine eatin'  Ramps, eggs
and fat back.

Some years ago the Forest Service, in its unwavering effort to spoil all the
recreational activities around here, banned ORVs from the area.  Since jeeps and dirt
bikes carried in most of the supplies, that put an end to the "tramp" part.  Now it's
just another town festival.  People go pick the ramps beforehand.  I haven't been in
a decade or more.

The latest FS absurdity that I've just learned about is that they now require one to
get a permit to pick ramps!  (cold day in hell!) I suspect that this current bunch of
FS 'crats would regulate where a bear sh*ts in the woods if they could.

John

From: John De Armond
Newsgroups: rec.outdoors.rv-travel
Subject: Re: Good News - Bad News
Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2007 03:04:30 -0400
Message-ID: <qht8939qbe93cfsr8s4ep95tb4ma0oubc4@4ax.com>

On Tue, 10 Jul 2007 23:10:12 -0400, Steve Wolf <newsgroup@w8iz.com> wrote:

>If the FS requires a permit, is it to pick anything, or is there a
>specific reason ramps are not to be picked?  Are they endangered?

No, not at all.  They grow everywhere around here, like weeds.  Even in my side lot.
The FS doesn't mind 'em being picked - they just want to extort some fees from
everyone.

Best I can tell from piecing several conversations together, someone at the FS heard
that someone was "picking commercially" and got their panties in a wad.  After all,
nobody can profit from the national forests except the government....  This
"commercial operator" was a guy who picked a few bushels every so often and set up at
the local flea market to sell them. An old geezer who'd been doing that most of his
life.

>
>Kind of like limiting the picking of boisenberries or some such freely
>growing delicacy.

yep.  This local FS office on the TN side of the Cherokee NF is just plain nuts. The
outgoing chief rangerette has publicly stated that she wants to eliminate all
activities from the forest except for day activities - things where people drive in,
drop off a few fees and leave before dark.  This is, of course, contrary to the
multi-use mandate from congress.

The NC side of the FS is a little better.  They simply extort materials and labor
from people who want to use the forest.  There are still some ORV trails over there
but they have hefty fees associated with their use AND all the maintenance work is
done by members of an ORV regional organization set up to deal with the situation.
Members bring their own heavy equipment and supplies.  There's a trailer with a deuce
and a half sitting on the loop beside my house right now waiting to be driven up
there to haul logs and rocks.  The FS doesn't even contribute fuel, though they keep
ALL the fees they collect.

The forest service is the turd in the punchbowl of paradise up here.  I just learned
last week that they intend to destroy more campgrounds.  Spivey Cove and North River
campgrounds, among others are set to be bulldozed, leveled and converted into
electric/water hookup RV lots.  Both of these CGs have remained more or less
untouched since the CCC built them pre-war.  They have rich histories and if the FS
wasn't involved, would probably be on the National Register of Historic Places.

You can see how they are now on my website.  If they do like they've done elsewhere
in the area, the results will be flat featureless gravel lots with few/no trees and
$20-30/night fees attached.

Congress says that they're supposed to have public hearings before they do crap like
this.  So they did but in typical FS fashion, they held the hearing over 100 miles
away and during business hours.  The only notice was in the Federal Register.  Nobody
locally knew a thing about it until it was a done deed.  They obeyed the letter of
the law but certainly not the spirit.

Here is an example of idiots in action

http://www.neon-john.com/RV/Tellico/Spivey_Cove/07.JPG

Notice the 4 green poles at the left side of the photo?  That's where a well and hand
pump used to be.  The well was drilled to support the CCC camp that bivouacked in the
area.  For half a century it supplied wonderful tasting water to the camp ground.
Until the forest service idiots went to work.  This CG is probably 25 acres but
despite all that room, they decided to plop down that $100k sh*thouse right next to
the well!  No surprise that the water started showing bacterial contamination.  The
forest service's solution to that?  Rip out the pump and weld the wellhead shut.

They did the same thing at North River CG, State Line CG and Davis Branch CG.  After
they did that there was no water available anywhere in the forest for campers to use.
The lunacy of their actions simply defies description.

Now they claim that they're going to have to dig deep wells and install electric
pumps to supply water to the CGs.  Is that crazy or what?   Dig up the sh*thouse and
in a couple of years the water will be pure again.  Until about 10 years ago all
these CGs did just fine without outhouses.  RVs had their own facilities and tent
campers knew how to walk out into the woods, dig crapholes and cover their waste.
Then the FS plopped down porta-crappers.  That was the beginning of the end.

This bunch is the prototypical example of government run amok.  In the 70s, it took a
single game and fish warden, two rangers and a couple of part time helpers who helped
with trout stocking to manage this forest.  Now, with the same land area but with
fewer visitors and far fewer facilities after they've closed everything they can get
away with, they've built a block-long multi-story building in Cleveland just to house
the hundreds of REMFs.  The light green trucks are a thick as thieves and they meddle
into everything.  Damn, I hate those b*stards.  Words fail me.  Oh, but do I long for
the not so distant past when a misbehaving ranger would catch some buckshot in the
legs.  Just to remind him of his place in life.

John

>
>Steve
>www.wolfswords.com under the motorhome link
>
>> The latest FS absurdity that I've just learned about is that they now require one to
>> get a permit to pick ramps!  (cold day in hell!) I suspect that this current bunch of
>> FS 'crats would regulate where a bear sh*ts in the woods if they could.