Is it Spring Yet???

California Humor

This is a question that millions of people in California are asking at the moment. This is especially true if these Californians like to plant vegetable gardens. Which many of them do. By the way, do you like that photo to your immediate right? I sure do, which is why I STOLE it from the Facebook Page of a high school classmate.

Her name is Penelope. Which, as you might be able to guess, is not her real name. I made it up to protect her identity. Penelope, as you might be able to tell, has a wicked sense of humor. She had that in high school. She has it now. In spades. If I run across a Facebook post from Penelope, I'm guaranteed to laugh. She's that good. It's why I've used her name for a character in a book I'm writing. Perhaps, one day, I'll actually get around to publishing it.

Don't give up hope, Penelope!

Pooch Park, Citrus Heights, CA

Truth be told, however, Penelope has a point. Like her, I'm getting tired of waiting for spring to hit the Golden State. Californians are normally spoiled rotten by six month summers. In 2022 however, our normally temperate weather suddenly went south in October. It started to rain and snow in December. It hasn't stopped since and the weather hasn't warmed up either.

While the non-stop rain has stopped some work in the garden, I've been able to "plow" ahead with other work. But, when I say "plow," I don't mean using an actual plow. I'm just working. The mostly clay soil that makes up most of my backyard is very easy to work with at the moment. You can dig a hole two feet deep with a post-hole digger in two or three minutes.

Try doing something like that when clay soil is dry and has the consistency of concrete! It will take a tad longer in two to three minutes! And, if you're lucky, just might result in major back surgery!

Easy Dig Post Hole

But, I digress. I did use our wet weather to indeed dig a hole two feet deep. In fact, I dug two of them. Those two holes are now home to two "sticks." They look like sticks. They are just sticks! At the moment. But soon, those two sticks will take on the names of Himrod and Flame.

Got any ideas of what those might be?

If you guessed the answer of "table grapes," points to you my friend. They are indeed two separate and well known varieties of seedless grapes. These are the types of varieties that I was hoping to pick up when I attended the most recent Scion Exchange hosted by the Sacramento Chaper of the California Rare Fruit Growers. I came away with carefully pruned scions (sticks) for Himrod, Flame and Kish Mish (Thompson Seedless).

Himrod is apparently a close cousin to the Kish Mish,* as is the most popular table grape grown in California today: Thompson Seedless. The Himrod variety is actually a cross between the Thompson and Ontario varieties. It is considered to be the most successful table grape variety released by the Cornell University Breeding Program in 1952.

Emerging Kish Mish

The Himrod is designed to grow well in cold weather regions. In California, where it is just a tad warmer during most years, Himrod also does well. Thanks to California weather conditions, which range from warm to hot, the Himrod is considered to be an early-ripening variety.

Flame Seedless, meanwhile, is pure California. Hybridized and released by the USDA Agricultural Research Station in Fresno in 1973, it caught on quickly. Thousands of acres of Flame table grapes are planted from one end of California to the other. If the table grapes you purchase from your local neighborhood store during the summer are red in color, chances are it's the Flame.

Why plant table grapes? Because I absolutely LOVE table grapes. Is that good enough? No matter how many pounds I purchase from the store, it's never enough. I always run out. I always want more. The best answer to this table grape addiction is to plant your own. Since one single vine can produce as much as 100 lbs. of table grapes, I won't run out until I'm absolutely sick of of them. That sickness is temporary, however. The urge to consume table grapes always returns.

The gardener in me loves to experiment. Rather than amend the soil that came out of both planting holes and use it for growing both table grape varieties, I instead filled both holes with good, old-fashioned, smelly, amended steer manure compost. In other words, cow poop.

Planting Medium

All gardening is local. All gardening can be experimental. What works for me in Northern California may not work as well in other parts of the country, or the world for that matter. The urge to experiment with different growing methods and mediums comes from arborists and others who always advocated for a new approach, rather than the tried and true.

I'm sure Penelope would approve.

Table grapes grow and produce rather quickly in California. That's the reason why so many of them are produced here and shipped to destinations all over the world. The weather, soil and water here are perfect for wine and table grape production. California weather is just about perfect for growing anything and everything under the sun.

Provided the weather warms up. Right, Penelope?

*The Kish Mish table grape is the grandaddy of the table grape industry. Originally believed to have been sourced from Afghanistan, the Kish Mish made its way across Europe and the Mediterranean. Once established in various grape growing regions, it quickly became the table-grape of choice. It is known by a variety of names. These include Sultana, Thompson Seedless, Lady de Coverly and many others. It's believed that early California plant breeder Felix Gillet was the first or among the first nurserymen to bring the Kish Mish to the United States. The Kish Mish adapted well to the California climate and was highly prized because it was one of the first seedless grapes. Today it is known and sold under the name of Thompson Seedless.

A BIG Year for BIG Hydro?

Back to the Future!

1.21 Gigawatts! Great Scott! A favorite line from a favorite actor in one of my favorite movies. Thanks to the rain and snow that continues to hound California, there *should* be more than enough electrical currents in this state to power dozens of Flux Capacitors all summer long.

It is the month of March in Northern California. During a normal year, I would be busy digging up the garden right about now. I would have already planted onions and potatoes. The next step would be tilling up and preparing the main garden area for all sorts of summer vegetables.

This year, however, has been anything but normal. The onions and potatoes are not planted. The section of the yard set aside for these efforts was under several inches of water just a day or two ago. The main garden area, meanwhile, resembles a mud pit. From a gardening standpoint, everything is on hold for the moment.

This may sound like terrible news, but it's not. It's a minor inconvenience. The onion and potato planting party can wait. Mother Nature isn't quite done yet. Another storm or two is in the immediate forecast. This means more rain, more mud in the garden and more snow in the high country. A lot more snow.

Lake Tahoe Snowpack

This bounty of rain and snow that Mother Nature has provided for us in the 2022-2023 winter season is a blessing in many ways. It means more than enough irrigation water for backyard gardening and fruit growing efforts like mine. Commercial agriculture *should* get close to 100-percent of irrigation water deliveries from the state and federal water projects. This will, in turn, reduce or even eliminate pumping for groundwater supplies for many farmers and ranchers.

What farmer needs to pay for electricity to pump water from a well when the canals, holding basins, lakes and reservoirs are full of water? Which they are at the moment, thanks to this winter's non-stop rains. When the rain eventually dries up and the weather warms, the real bounty will come with a record snowpack in the Sierra Nevada that begins to melt. Hopefully, it's a slow melt.

But the biggest payoff should be an abundance of electrical power to run every single air conditioner and light up every light bulb in California  this summer and every other western state with a connecting electrical grid. The power producer known as BIG Hydro is primed and ready to deliver a BIG year.

Lake Oroville-Courtesy Bill Bailey

What exactly is BIG Hydro? There are many definitions. The U.S. Department of Energy defines it as "facilities that have a capacity of more than 30 megawatts (MW)." Other definitions put that number at 10 MW, but you get the idea. It's a boatload of electrical power. The BIG Hydro plants in California are primed to deliver a very big year indeed. This number will be so big that it won't be measured in megawatts, but rather gigawatts (GW).

One GW is a LOT of power. How much? It's enough, obviously, to power a single Flux Capacitor (almost). In more conventional terms, however, you would need roughly 3.1 million photovoltaic panels (solar) or 333 utility-scale (very large) wind turbines to achieve that kind of electrical output. In terms of horsepower, you could possibly generate that same kind of electrical kick with a horse race featuring 1.3 million horses.

Shasta Powerplant-Courtesy KRCR-TV

The Shasta Powerplant located at the base of Shasta Dam, California's largest reservoir, can generate more than 700 MW of power when the reservoir is full. That's enough juice to power 700,000 homes and businesses. This is just one BIG Hydro plant. There are numerous others.

The Hyatt Powerplant, Thermalito Diversion Dam Powerplant and the Thermalito Pumping-Generating Plant are all located at the base of Lake Oroville in Butte County. Combined, all three can also generate more than 700 MW of power when Oroville is full of water. That won't be a problem this year as Oroville has already reached the point where large water releases have already started thanks to a monster snowpack in the Feather River watershed located above the lake.

Oroville Spillway-Courtesy Bill Bailey

Speaking of the Feather River watershed, you shouldn't miss the opportunity to drive up Highway 70 into God's Country this summer. The show of spring and summer wildflowers should be a sight to behold. Not only does this drive offer the pure, stark beauty that is Northern California, it's also home to the "Stairway of Power." The entire river canyon has been transformed into one BIG Hydro plant after another.

Why is all of  this so important? Hydroelectric power is nothing new, after all. This is a true statement. Yet, among all forms of power generation in this country and elsewhere, even in this day and age, BIG Hydro is still the cheapest, cleanest, safest and most reliable form of power generation on the planet. Check that: It's only reliable if the rain and snow fall in any given year. If the rain doesn't fall or the snow melts away quickly, that reliability factor gets a bit "iffy."

That "reliability" factor is important. California gets summer power from a variety of sources. The 2021-2022 season was a dry year indeed. Dry years spell big trouble for BIG Hydro. The combination of power from both big and small hydro projects amounted to a measley 14 GW of power. That small number forced utility companies like Pacific Gas & Electric to burn natural gas supplies to make up the difference. A lot more.

Hyatt Powerplant-Courtesy DWR

This year, however, should tell a far more pleasing story. There's enough "juice" (water) in the Northern and Central California watersheds to power big and large hydroelectric plants all summer long. The last big year for BIG Hydro came in 2017. The combination of big and small hydroelectric generators produced nearly 44 GW of power.

That's enough power for nearly 36 Flux Capacitors if my math is right (31 million homes). Of course, you may need to visit a few California junkyards to find that many DMC DeLorean Time Machines.

It's all GRAVY!

Courtesy: NOAA

February 26th or 27th (depending upon where you live in California) turned out to be a seminal moment in our wacky and wild weather history. It doesn't happen very often, but it did happen this year. It was on these dates (again, depending upon what area of the state you call home), where most communities in California surpassed the average rainfall amount that falls in a *normal* year.

Any rain that falls between now and the official end of the rainfall year (June 30, 2023) is "gravy."

By the way, if you have lived in California for any length of time, you know by now that nothing is *normal* when it comes to the weather in this state. It can be either very hot or very cold, OR, very dry or very wet. If there is one thing you can count on when it comes to the weather in California, it's this: You Cannot Count on Anything.

C-BAR-C Park-Citrus Heights, CA

What does the term "average rainfall amount" mean and why is it important? Again, depending upon where you live, it's the amount of rain that falls over the course of 12-months (one year). In the Sacramento area, an area which I call home, that "official" number is 19.20 inches of rain. The climate station located on the campus of CSU-Sacramento hit that number on February 26, 2023 and has since zoomed past it.

Similar stations located in nearby communities all zoomed past normal rainfall amounts, according to the climate stations created and maintained by the California Nevada River Forecast Center. This is a division of a federal agency called the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or NOAA. Large cities and small communities alike in Northern, Central and Southern California have all blown past the *normal* amount of rainfall they receive in any given year and are now entering uncharted territory. This can be a bit nervewracking.

Mammoth Lakes, CA

Where it will stop, nobody knows. The rain continues to pelt Northern California day after day after day. That rain turns to snow as you head east of Sacramento. There is so much of that snow in the higher elevations at this moment that some homes are completely buried in it. They look like giant lumps coated in white. Snow walls are as high as ten feet in some communities. They are about to get a lot higher.

"In the Central and Southern Sierra, the snow amounts are really remarkable," said Dr. Daniel Swain, a Climate Scientist with Weather West. "Buildings are starting to collapse under the weight of the snow. This is notable because these are buildings built in places that are historically very snowy. For them to collapse under this snow load says a lot about this sequence of events."

Dr. Swain, who is now holding weekly briefings on YouTube in response to the series of storms slamming into California, confirms that the state is on the precipice of breaking some long-term weather records. This includes the most recent record set during the winter of 2016-2017. Rain and snowfall amounts, should they keep increasing, may even threaten the 1982-1983 deluge, which triggered both landslides and flooding in Northern and Central California.

NorCal Forecast

It would be useless to list actual rainfall numbers on this blog posting. Why? Because, by the time this blog posting is published those numbers will be "old news." The local weather forecast indicates Northern California is going to get slammed with seven straight days of rain as I write this. Whether we actually get seven straight days of rain is anyone's guess at this point. But, the forecast is rather ominous.

I'm kind of glad that I bought that sump pump for my garage last December. This garage rarely floods. Yet it has flooded five times this winter alone, and may flood again (several times) over the next week.

Yikes.

The rain and snow has resulted in some positive news. The giant Northern California reservoirs in Shasta, Trinity and Butte Counties should be full of water this summer. Reporters who cover news events can switch from "drought" coverage to "floods."

Courtesy: Christine Beal

But the most positive development is plenty of irrigation water for agricultural interests (hopefully), environmental concerns, summer vegetable gardens and fruit and citrus hobbyist efforts. You might even be able to water a lawn this summer without feeling a tinge of guilt over water waste. You would hope that a deluge of rain and snow like this would put at least a temporary end to California's water wars.

But that may be a bit of wishful thinking on my part. There's absolutely no proof that Mark Twain ever wrote or uttered such a line, yet, despite this, it is a true statement: "Whiskey Is For Drinking; Water Is For Fighting Over."

My thanks to the Facebook page The California Water for Food and People Movement for providing some great photos!

Une Belle Journée (A Beautiful Day)

Going somewhere???

To be brutally honest, it was anything but beautiful. It was another dark and dreary day in normally "sunny" California. Our beautiful weather was nowhere to be found. Even those who insist upon a changing climate in the Golden State may have been secretly longing for just a tiny bit of global warming to peak through those sullen, downcast clouds.

Alas, no bit of warmth or sunshine was to be found on this day. However, there was plenty of rain. There was also plenty of snow in the higher elevations of Northern, Central and Southern California. By the time that Mother Nature gets through with California the mountains will be packed with snow and my Northern California garage will be transformed into an indoor swimming pool.

The inclement weather, however, did not stop hundreds of fresh fruit connoiseurs from using our drenched weather conditions to "flood" into the annual California Rare Fruit Growers (CRFG) scion exchange. The event hosted by the CRFG's Sacramento Chapter drew a boatload of fans. Some of whom actually may have arrived via boat.

CRFG Scion Exchange

Heavy, non-stop, rain and brutally cold (for California standards) conditions will not stop those who love fresh fruit from accomplishing a singular quest: The creation of even more fresh fruit that fans can harvest from front, side and back yards. The scion exchange, and the practice of grafting, can transform one variety of peach on a single tree, to a single tree that produces five varieties of peaches that all ripen at different times of the summer.

Or, if peaches really aren't your "thing," you can do the same with apples, figs, nectarines, cherries, mulberries, pluots, plums and, and, and (you get the picture). Judging from the pictures that came out of yesterday's event at the La Sierra Community Center in Carmichel, it does indeed appear that apples were the "in-demand" variety in 2023.

This is a good thing. Because I must have personally unpacked at least 500 gallon-sized bags that held scions from trees with names ranging from Admiral to Zonga and all letters in-between. Who knew there were so many?

Fruit Trees!

California's fruit tree providers were in attendance. How could Dave Wilson Nursery pass on an event like this? This one event not only drew people looking to acquire cherry or pluot trees, but rare types of fruit that carry names like Dragon, Moringa and Inga Ice Cream.

Many of these are tropical fruit varieties that can be a bit hard to find at many nurseries. But, you will find them at Alora's Light Nursery. Plus, you will find the mind behind Alora's at the CRFG scion exchange.

As for me? I came for the grapes. No, not wine grapes. Call me a table grape guy. I gave up my collection of nine table grape vines during a divorce in 2016. I have missed them ever since. There's nothing quite like harvesting and munching on a never-ending table grape supply.

Alora's Light Nursery

Although I may never get the chance to grow nine different varieties again (which may be a bit much, but I will debate you on that point), I did pick up scions for the Himrod and Flame varieties. Although many believe that the Flame is a seedless offshoot of the old Flame Tokay grape, that isn't the case. I had been hoping to acquire scions from the Flame Tokay grape, a seeded variety that is still grown in some parts of San Joaquin County, especially around Lodi. Alas, none were available. Maybe next year.

The Himrod variety came out of New York in 1952, but may also have its roots in Turkey and elsewhere in Europe. Because it is considered to be a good producer in colder areas of the country, it ripens early in California's famously warm and temperate climate. That's my type of table grape! Plus, after this never-ending winter, I'll take some of that warmth!

The FRUIT You Can SALUTE!

I am a big fan of the CBS Network Radio show called Mystery Theater. The program, which ran from 1974-1982, was a throwback to the Golden Age of Radio. Tributes by hundreds of fans about this show can be found online today, and thousands of shows can be easily accessed on YouTube and elsewhere.

The introduction to each show ran like clockwork. It featured the long, drawn-out sound of a creaking door that opened slowly (which was actually the creaking sound made by the producer's well-worn office chair). Host E.G. Marshall would tell listeners to "come in," and prepare them for the "sound of suspense" and "the fear you can hear."

Producer Himan Brown had a rolodex of actors as long as my arm to call upon. If you listen to any of these shows, you're going to hear the voices that made Fred Flintstone or Herman Munster famous.

E.G. Marshall

I'm going to borrow this sinister format for a bit to inform you about an upcoming event that is far less sinister. However, it is a lot more fun and rewarding, especially if you love fresh fruit. It is the annual Scion Exchange hosted by the Sacramento Chapter of the California Rare Fruit Growers organization.

It is a collection of "fruit you can salute." How about the "treat you can eat?" It is a collection fruit that you can grow at home in your own front, side and back yards. A solitary apple, plum, cherry or peach tree can be transformed into a fruit producing monster through the process of grafting. Even a NON-produing fruit tree such as a Purple Ornamental Cherry Plum tree can be transformed into one or more fruit producers through the process of grafting.

The 2023 Scion Exchange event is coming up this Sunday, February 26th. It will be held at the La Sierra Community Center at 5325 Engle Road in the community of Carmichael (Sacramento County). The event begins at 11:00 AM SHARP! The $5 entrance fee at the door will give you access to hundreds of varieties of peaches, nectarines, plums, pluots, cherries, pears, figs, pomegranates and much, much more.

Hale Peach

If you are looking for an older, elusive variety of fruit that can no longer be found in most big box stores or commercial nurseries, chances are you will discover that hard-to-find variety at the upcoming scion exchange. If you are a fan of home-grown peaches for example, it won't be hard to find the somewhat elusive 49er or Hale peach varieties. You might even find a scion or two for the Sun Crest variety, a peach so famous that a California Sun Crest farmer wrote a book about it.

A lot of the scions that will show up at events like these hail from test or heritage orchards that are maintained throughout northern and southern California. This includes Luther Burbank's Gold Ridge Experiment Farm in Sebastopol. Other scions were procured from the Guadalupe River Parkway Conservancy fruit tree orchard in San Jose. It might even be possible to secure scions from fruit varieties that sprang from the orchards of gold rush era grower Felix Gillet. These are the earliest fruit tree varieties brought to California, most of which came from farms in France, Germany and elsewhere in Europe.

Bigarreau de Mai

The Cerisier Bigarreau de Mai may be hard for some of you to pronounce, unless you speak the French language. But I can tell you from experience that it is one fine cherry. Roughly translated, it means Sweet Cherry in May. It is a very old variety that was once widely grown in California. Are you going to find a tree like this in any nursery or big box gardening center today? Probably not. But you might find a branch (scion) or two at this Sunday's scion exchange.

The process of grafting is an art and science that does take time and practice to become proficient in. But, practice makes perfect. I discovered that plum and pluot trees were the easiest to graft. That is where I experienced most of my early success. It wasn't long before I gained the experience needed to conduct grafting experiments on cherry, peach and nectarine trees. Grafting tools can also help.

In other words: If I can do it, so can you! If you need help, you will find plenty of it, including demonstrations at the scion exchange. You will also find root stock trees that you can purchase and experiment with.

2018 Scion Exchange

There are some items that you should bring to this Sunday's event if you wish to attend. Organizers are *requesting* exact cash for the $5 entrance fee (avoid $20 bills if possible). You will also need masking or painter's tape that you can write on, plus a pen or pencil or both. Finally, it's also wise to bring a one-gallon plastic bag to hold all the scions that you plan to collect.

More details about the event can be found here. Best of luck. In the words of the late, great E.G. Marshall: "Come in. Welcome." Prepare yourself for the "treat you can eat" at the annual CRFG (Sacramento Chapter) scion exchange.

The Snail Mail Garden News Release!

Boss Radio-KYNO Number 1

My career in radio news started at a Fresno radio station called KYNO. It was a legendary radio station that sat at the frequency of 1300 on the AM dial and would take on numerous nicknames during a fabulous five decade run. These would include the BIG 13, BOSS Radio and KYNO Number One to name a few.

By the time I finally graduated from CSU Fresno in the late 1980's, the legend and magic of the BIG 13 had largely died out. The BOSS Radio format had run it's course. Most people, including yours truly, listened to music on FM stations, not AM.

However, that would not stop me from becoming the last News Director to serve at the birthplace of Boss Radio.* The ghosts of legendary news men and women who proceeded me permeated that isolated newsroom. So did the nicotine pigment that resulted from decades of smoking inside that tiny closet of a room. By the time I arrived, those acoustic sound panels that lined the ceiling and walls had faded from a bright, shiny white to a stain of yellowish-brown.

KYNO-AM Newsroom**

Most of the snail mail that arrived at the KYNO studios during this period fell into my lap. News releases written by local, state and national organizations arrived every day. But, they were delivered in a state of flux. The world of communication rapidly changed during this period. News releases that once arrived by snail-mail would soon arrive by fax machine. Much later, those very same news releases would start to arrive via a new form of communication called email.***

Today, most news arrives via social media. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages serve this purpose. What will the primary tool of news delivery be in another decade or two? Your guess is as good as mine.

This brief history lesson does not mean that snail-mail news releases died along with my youthful looks or hair color (which is LONG GONE). They still serve a useful purpose and still manage to find a way into my mailbox, even though my days as a radio newsman ended long ago. The snail-mail reminder that most recently arrived was generated by a well known California seed company.

Media Kit: Renee's Garden

That company is called Renee's Garden. This company bills itself as "Your Garden to Table Seed Company." The release sent to me is titled the "2023 Media Kit."

What exactly is a media kit? It is usually more than one sheet or two sheets of paper, which would be the form of a traditional media or news release. The media kits that I prepared during a 20-year career at the California State Capitol usually included a one-page release, fact sheets consisting of two-to-three pages and a graphic creation of photos, print or both.

In this case? Renee's Garden has sent a very nice four-page glossy graphic creation that consists of garden photos and gardens that include numerous vegetables. Those photos include a glossy portrait of Founder Renee Shepherd and Elayne Takemoto, the Product and Marketing Manager at Renee's Garden.

What makes a media release like this stand out above all others? It's a freebie. Back in the days of KYNO Radio, we had a term for this. It was called "scrip." Scrip was kept behind lock and key in a place called the Prize Closet. The only employee who could unlock the coveted Prize Closet was the Promotions Director.**** In this case, Renee's Garden is pushing a new product: Climbing Zucchini. It's called the "Incredible Escalator," and this media release contains a packet of seeds for someone like me to sample and try out.

Seed Packet-Renee's Garden

This packet of seeds, which carries a retail price of $4.39, is described as follows: "Our unique, space-saving, climbing zucchini offers high yields of tender, delicious fruits." Do you know what that means? It means that if I plant these seeds somewhere, which I plan to do, my neighbors are going to receive surprise deliveries of zucchini later this summer.

I can only eat so much zucchini.

I am still intrigued about the idea, however. Vegetable plants that can climb a trellis or a nearby fence saves lots of garden space. The spot that would have been set aside for a zucchini bush can instead be replaced with corn, watermelons, bush beans, or, or, or (you name it). Fences can serve a great and useful purpose in the garden. Last year I used mine to dry a fantastic crop of large, pungent onions. It worked out better than I expected.

Climbing Zuccihini

Photos provided by Renee's Garden website appear to show that this variety of zucchini does appear to grow tendrils similar to other climbing vegetable plants. Those tendrils, in turn, wrap around whatever they can find to give the zucchini plant more room to grow up rather than out.

This seems like a good idea to me. Some gardening efforts are experimental. I love trying new stuff in every summer vegetable garden. I'm looking forward to the results. This also includes the payoff of zucchini sliced lengthwise, covered with olive oil and salt, and grilled during a traditional summer barbecue.

*BOSS Radio was a unique format developed at KYNO-AM Radio. Local legend has it that the format was scratched out on the back of a cocktail napkin at the bar located inside the Cedar Lanes Bowling Alley, near the KYNO studios on Barton Avenue in Fresno. This was a modification of the Top 40 format that relied upon fewer records, shorter jingles, less talk from DJ's and a heavier rotation of the biggest hits. The format was a hit and spread to KFRC in San Francisco, KHJ in Los Angeles, KGB in San Diego, WRKO in Boston, CKLW in Windsor, Ontario and numerous other smaller market stations. The format would make several DJ's famous. The names include Dr. Don Rose, the Real Don Steele, Dave Diamond and Robert W. Morgan (to name a few).

**That is yours truly in the original newsroom of the legendary KYNO-AM. Pictured with me is my cousin: Karen Doran. This picture was taken in 1990 or 1991, after KYNO-FM had switched call signs to KJFX and adopted the Classic Rock format that airs on this station to this very day. Karen would meet the love of her life, Tim, some years later and take the name of Van Overen. She is the mother to three great kids, including my Godson, Jon Paul.

***The former KYNO Radio studios on Barton Ave. in Fresno is now home to Punjabi Radio USA. KYNO would later move to the 940 frequency on the AM Radio dial. Today, the station is owned by John and Katrina Ostlund. KYNO studios are currently located on Fulton Ave. in Fresno.

****I have fond memories of the KYNO Prize Closet, the valuable Scrip it held, and always made sure to treat the Promotions Director with great respect. This treatment resulted in hundreds of free pizza coupons from a variety of restaurants. It also meant free meals at select restaurants. To this day I cannot even touch food products like Pringles Potato Chips and Entenmann's Doughnuts because I subjected my stomach to the abuse of eating a never-ending supply of these products for a number of years. One restaurant that served excellent Mexican fare stands out in my mind, however. Paulita's Cocina (now closed) is where I would meet a young waitress, who was working her way through college. I later had the pleasure of working with this young lady after I moved to another radio station years later. Today this young lady works as a News Producer at a Sacramento TV station.

Valentine's Day!

Garden Fresh Chow Mein

The best Valentine's Day gift is not chocolate. This may be depressing news to a friend who confided in a whisper to me last weekend that it was her favorite gift. I didn't want to burst her bubble. My favorite Valentine's Day gift is pictured to the immediate right. Can you spot it?

If that looks like a dish of homemade chow mein, points to you. That's exactly what it is. But that particular dish isn't the favored gift. It's what's in that dish. Look closely. Can you spot it? That dish contains two-three elements from my spring and summer gardening exploits. It's the garden that keeps on giving. Even in the dead of winter as I plan out the next spring and summer garden efforts, the 2022 garden is still paying off.

Dixondale Farms Onions

That garden gift is one of three vegetable packs that I prepared at the close of last summer's gardening efforts. Those packs include two chopped onions, courtsey of Dixondale Farms, the largest grower of onion plants in the USA. The packs also include anywhere from two-to-four chopped bell peppers and one or two chopped jalapeño peppers (seeds included), to give the finished creation a little kick. The packs also include the leaves produced by a prolific summer basil plant.

The creation of these winter packs is a fairly simple operation, but it does require a bit of time in the kitchen. This is where the process starts. The largest onions, which were hung to dry on a fence after a July harvest, are selected. So are the largest peppers. By late August and September, these bell peppers have taken on a pleasing red, orange or yellow hue. The jalapeño peppers are a bright red at this point in the summer garden season and are as spicy (hot) as they are going to get.

Summer Garden Peppers

Jalapeños are not the hottest peppers you can grow in the garden. But they are the best tasting in my humble opinion. The hotter peppers, which all grow well in this California climate, tend to be a tad bitter. This is all personal opinion, of course. There are hot pepper afficiandos who love the taste and jolt that comes from biting into a freshly harvested Ghost, Scorpion or Habanero flamethrower. That's just never been my style. To each his own.

Jalapeño peppers also tend to be the most prolific and easy to grow, which means I can hand out scads of them to neighbors and friends who love the jolt of summer garden heat. There were a lot to give away this past summer, thanks to the garden patrol efforts of a legendary kitten known as "The Mango." I've come to discover that the kitten I adopted from the Bradshaw Animal Shelter in Sacramento County last May not only chased a voracious army of rats out of my garden this past summer, he apparently did a lot more. Neighbors have confided in me that "The Mango" took this hunt into other yards with vegetable gardens, fruit trees, or both.

The Chop!

I did not receive any complaints about these visits. The neighbors loved these well-timed events. The army of rats that once feasted on these summer gardens did not. The end result was a string of successful garden efforts in every yard "The Mango" patrolled.

A food processor aided with the end-of-season chopping effort. The end result went into one-quart bags that went straight into the freezer. I have used two of these bags so far. I will most likely use the third at some point later this month or in March. The bagged peppers, hot peppers, onions and basil are perfect for stir fry dishes, soups, chili or any other dish complimented by summer gardening efforts. The only drawback will come when I finish off the last bag and wish I'd created a fourth or fifth chopped summer garden effort.

Finished Freezer Pack

Three is never enough.

There is a down side to preparing fresh summer vegetables that are chopped and frozen for future use. You do lose that fabulous crunch. But that signature smell of a summer vegetable garden is never too far away. Which is a nice thing to have in the kitchen on a cold and wet winter day.