sweet!

[bronze_ribbons]

I posted this comment (in a friend's locked journal) on cocktails just a day or two ago....

Sazeracs [are] definitely a NOLA thing, and not particularly girlie, although yummy; it's not a given bartenders outside of the Big Easy will have heard of it, and it will rarely appear on menus. Nor do I know of anyone who regularly indulges in mint juleps outside of the High Holy Day of Horseracing. A cool trivialet about Sazeracs: if you order one from the Court of Two Sisters in the French Quarter, there's a bartender there named Floria who's been there for 30 years or so, and she coats the inside of the glass with herbsaint or pernod (the absinthe substitute--I forget which they use) by dripping a few drops into the tumbler and then tossing it up and down several times.

...so when nigita pointed to the Southern Foodways Alliance's collection of interviews with NOLA bartenders, I had to look, and lo! Floria!

(Our friend Erac became friends with Floria during his first stretch of living in Louisiana. A couple decades later, when we lived in the same Detroit neighborhood, he introduced the BYM and me to Sazeracs and told us to say hi to Floria when we drove down to NOLA for a New Year's (she said "hi" back and handed us some coasters and stirrers to take back to him). We were all at the Court of Two Sisters for New Year's Day brunch this year -- we didn't try to approach Floria (the place was busy) but it was part of the joy of the day, that she was there, and that we were there with Erac and Saz, and the house sparkling wine was not bad at all. I think we went through two bottles? Three? Oh, me. Vraiment les bon temps.)


ETA: Oh! and while we're on the topic of alcohol -- has anyone here tried using gin as a weed-killer? My mother read somewhere that a combination of gin and vinegar and baby shampoo makes for a efficient yet pet-friendly herbicide, and I'm not sure which prospect flummoxes me more -- that of my teetotaling mother going out gin-shopping (the only beer I've ever seen in her house has been a can of something like Old Style that had been intended for Peking Duck), or the spraying of Tanqueray all over those pesky treelets and creepers...

[Typo du jour: originally typed "has anyone here tried using gin as a week-killer?" Knowing you hedonistic lot...]

Comments

[aunty_marion]

I can't say I've ever heard of gin as a weedkiller, but beer in slug traps is very common, of course, and a couple of years ago there was quite a bit in the papers (at least over here) about using coffee as a slug killer. I tried it, and it works! Apparently you can also put used coffee grounds round slug-attractive plants. I just bought some cheap instant powder, and made it up into a strong-ish solution to spray on them.

[swooop.livejournal.com]

I've killed a few weeks with gin in my time, yeah. Weeds, not so much. It probably wouldn't hurt to try it, but I'd use something a little cheaper than Tanqueray ;-) In my experience, though, the only thing that kills weeds is pulling them up. If you don't get the roots, they come back.

If you try it and it actually works, let me know. Spraying gin on the weeds is bound to be easier on my knees than rooting them out with a trowel.

[mechaieh.livejournal.com]

I'd use something a little cheaper than Tanqueray

I'm torn on this, actually. It does feel wasteful to be thinking of Tanqueray in that fashion -- but neither the BYM nor I care for the stuff (I think the bottle in the house was last opened seven years ago, back when our neighbor G. was still alive), and most of our guests likewise prefer wine, whisky, or beer, so it seems silly not to use it for something. Ponder, ponder, ponder...

Interview with Floria

[(Anonymous)]

Hey Peg,
Thanks for the memories! We have been up in Detroit for only a few weeks, and I am missing NOLA. Feel like I'm just marking time up here until the fall migration...Well, until then, I guess I better get out the Peychaud's etc. and mix myself up a cure! As far as Gin killing weeds, I have no idea. Look forward to hearing if it works!
Love,
Saz

[nigita.livejournal.com]

Cool!

Hm, gin. I'm always looking for back-saving, organic means to control weeds and pests. I'll give it a try and report back. (Or perhaps, if sufficient quantities are applied in the proper manner, the weeds just don't bother you anymore?)

Beer slug traps are effective, but after a while just too disgusting to maintain. I'm kicking myself now that I didn't prophylactically lace the bok choy bed with coffee grounds; the slugs ate them to stubs. (Bok choy is their favorite in my garden.)

[swooop.livejournal.com]

the slugs ate them to stubs.

Wow. You can actually grow Bok Choy. I am insanely jealous. Our growing season isn't nearly long enough for that.

On of the few advantages to trying to garden in extreme northern New England is that slugs aren't much of an issue. Groundhogs, on the other hand, are. My resident groundhog produced offspring recently and they're basically using my flower beds as a salad bar. *sigh*

[(Anonymous)]

Apparently, I *can't* grow bok choy. (But yes, the growing season is pretty long, and I extend it with cloches. I also get a had start by buying starts from the coop. I'm not anal enough to start my own seeds.)

The slugs haven't been the only offenders. I just discovered that the birds have decimated my rainier cherries. GRRRR.
They were ALMOST READY TO PICK!

Thank God we don't have groundhogs. My problems are solved with a few coffee grounds and a bit of netting. What in heavens name do you do about groundhogs?

[swooop.livejournal.com]

What in heavens name do you do about groundhogs?

Well, it wasn't so bad when it was just George. I'm actually rather fond of him, and he has left the flowers and stuff alone all these years. But his wife and twins arrived this year (making my naming of him rather, er, prophetic *g*) and have certainly taxed my groundhog patience.

I imagine we'll have to embark on a groundhog relocation mission. We regularly relocate squirrels to New Hampshire. I imagine they wouldn't mind a few groundhogs...the trouble will be trapping them. George isn't troubled by humans, but the wife and kids are far more wary.

A troupe of groundhogs is a very distructive thing to have living here. One is fine. But they're all digging holes everywhere. They have to go, and better to be trapped and relocated than become dinner for the fisher cat that lives in the woods behind my house. He got my resident skunk a few weeks ago. Poor Mr. Stinky.

And yes, my life is one big Mutual Of Omaha program sometimes. *g*

I just discovered that the birds have decimated my rainier cherries. GRRRR.

I have a grape arbor that I have simply given up ever getting a single grape from. The birds seem to instinctively know when they're ready to harvest and strip them overnight. It's very annoying.

[mechaieh.livejournal.com]

The birds seem to instinctively know when they're ready to harvest and strip them overnight.

Et tu, sensei? I'm resigned to the vine on my deck being purely decorative...

[swooop.livejournal.com]

Well, is it just a single vine? You could try using a net on something that isn't extensively sized. My problem is that I have entire arbor and I'd need enough netting to cover it. But I think in the 5 years we've lived here we've gotten maybe two grapes that the birds have missed. It's very discouraging. They usually get about half the blueberries too.

[nigita.livejournal.com]

You have woods behind your house? Lucky you. That's worth all the grapes you can grow.

I'm determined to beat the birds to the cherries next year. I have aspirations for a grape arbor in the next year or two, so I'd like to work out how to thwart them. No woods as consolation for lost crops around here.

I'd like to hear how the saga with George and family goes, so keep us posted.

[swooop.livejournal.com]

You have woods behind your house?

I do, although I do not own them, or at least, most of them. They belong to my next door neighbor, whose property is T-shaped. But this is why we are constantly overrun with various critters. Not that this is a bad thing. Except for George & Family. Who are, so far, not falling for the Have-a -Heart Trap with the lovely lettuce in there for them. Clever buggers. And I could really do without the fisher cat. Those things are vicious.

I do like the deer though :-)