Last night I was laying in bed reading, and I kept hearing the most annoying rubbing sound, so I finally put my book down and looked around to see what the hell was going on. Tommy was on the floor next to my cedar trunk, and he was rubbing his entire body against the trunk and purring very loudly. Finally, he stopped rubbing against the trunk, and just flopped down next to it.
And then he started licking it. He must have licked it for two or three minutes straight, until there was a big wet spot on the side, and then he stumbled off, looking for all the world like he was high.
I know that when Fred cut down the cedar tree in the back yard last year, some of the cats could smell the cedar on his clothes, and they acted high. This is the first time any of them has had that reaction to the trunk in the bedroom, though.
Have y’all ever heard of the smell of cedar making cats high, or is it just my freaks?
I don’t eat a whole bowl at once, because it’s kind of a lot, so I take what I want and put the rest in a Tupperware container and keep it in the fridge. You can eat edamame hot or cold, but I prefer cold.
With fresh (not previously boiled or steamed) edamame, you boil or steam them for 4 or 5 minutes (add a little salt to the water if you boil them), run them under water to cool, then eat.
If you’ve never eaten edamame before, you might not know that the pods aren’t edible. After the edamame is steamed, you can either go through and scoop the edamame out of the pods into a bowl with your fingers and eat them all at once, or (this is what I do), squeeze the beans out of the pods with your teeth and eat as you go.
I’ve also seen packages of edamame in the produce section at Publix, and I believe I’ve heard that Costco carries them in their freezer section as well.
We’re going to grow our own edamame this summer!
Any other edamame questions?
Fred stopped by Wal-Mart the other day to see about getting their about-to-go-bad produce and day-old bread and stuff of that sort, but found out that they won’t do that, they can’t – company rules dictate that they have to toss all that stuff into a compactor and turning it into trash instead of giving it to someone to feed their livestock. Same with the local grocery store. Ridiculous, isn’t it?
When I got home, I went out to the pig yard to bring a bagel and some grapes and egg shells to them (yes, they eat egg shells), and they were at the very back of their yard. It took them a moment, but once they spotted me, they came at a run. They didn’t run right up to me, but it’s clear that they’ve made the person-entering-yard = FOOD IN OUR DISH connection. When they got about 15 feet away, they veered over to their food dish, sniffed around, and gave me expectant looks. I dumped the food in their dish and backed away.
They made very short work of that food, let me tell you.
Later, after Fred got home (with a box of Little Debbie snack cakes for the pigs – because, hey, that’s cheap stuff, too!) we went out there and coaxed the pigs to come close.. I’m not really interested in making friends with the pigs, because I’ve read how aggressive they can get, and I have no desire to become dinner, so I keep my distance most of the time. However, I think their ears are really neat, and so I wanted to touch them and see what they feel like. After a lot of hesitation, they finally came close enough that I could reach out and touch one of the big one’s ear and have my question answered.
They feel cartilage-y, like human ears. Go figure.
I don’t think Miss Momma and Newt have spent much time out near the pig yard since we got the pigs, but when we went out for a walk around the back forty the other night (before it rained and turned the back forty into a swamp), Miss Momma followed us out and sat near the pig yard, staring at them with big dark eyes. Hopefully she won’t try to go in there – I have a feeling that given a few more weeks, the pigs would enjoy a little kittycat tartare.
One of the many other women in my husband’s life. She LURVES Fred. She’ll lay next to him in the evening when we’re watching TV and just stare at him all evening long.
2007: Did I mention my hormones are all out of whack?
2006: “And they’ll have to call it Wipe the Ass!”
2005: No entry.
2004: No entry.
2003: Want some cats?
2002: I had no idea what to say – “Well, of COURSE you’re only going to date someone you think is cute!”? Then I’m anti-ugly.
2001: Except for that crying at the drop of a hat thing, she’s just fine.
2000: Do y’all ever do that, have moments where the startling realization that you’re a complete dumbass smacks you in the face?
I have a question. How does one pronounce edamame? 🙂
Callie: “ed-a-MA-MAY”. Though since we’re dorks, we’re prone to pronounce it like it’s spelled – “ed-uh-maim.” Heh.
Our one kitty likes the smell of bleach. She will “grab” my hands very aggressively after I’ve been using cleaners with bleach and then sniff, sniff, sniiiiffffff and then begin rubbing her face all over my hands and then eventually grooming/biting me. She doesn’t act high, but our cats don’t seem to react like that to catnip much either. They just do the grooming thing of the catnip item and then run around like their butts are on fire.
Here in Milwaukee, many grocery stores have “seconds” tables set out reduced produce/bakery. (Usually a smaller market will do that but not usually the big ones.) Maybe a stores in the bigville does it and stores in smallville don’t. Good luck – seconds can be a great deal if you dig deep enough on the table.
PS – very cute pigs!
The thing with Wal-Mart and the grocery store is how can they be sure that you are intending on taking the food home for your animals? It’s a big legal hassle from their standpoint, they just don’t want to get sued because you lied to them and ate food you said was for your pigs and got sick. I agree with you that it is a huge waste of food. It’s too bad that there isn’t some kind of dump or something just for food stuff, once a business has dropped it off they are no longer responsible for what happens to it, then some of it could go to food banks (if it is still good, a lot of hungry people would be happy with stuff others toss out) or people like you could get it for their animals.
In LV, the buffets give their scraps to livestock farms. Maybe look into a cafeteria close to home. This is probably why people like pork products so much, since us humans are feeding them crap. lol
Fred might want to try asking smaller Mom&Pop grocers/bakers…no compnay rules! Also those Dollar stores usually have bags of cookies and snack cakes. I guess you guys will know what to do with all your extra garden produce this summer!
If you have any “99 (Cent sign) Only” stores, they have a produce section, and most of their produce is on the verge of being over-ripe. You can get huge bags of various fruit and veg for a mere 99 cents – or less if it’s already showing signs of going bad.
Resturants will give you their left over stuff if you ask. Panara Bread will give you their bread at the end of the day. You just have to ask.
Robyn, I grow edamame annually. It is highly productive. I buy the Sayamusume variety from Seeds of Change. We’ve grown a bunch of different kinds, but this is the sweetest, biggest, most-tender bean we’ve found–burpee’s butterbaby can’t hold a candle to it. You should grow some in your garden this year. It is a very productive bush-type plant, very compact growing habit, AND it fixes nitrogen in the soil! 🙂 Win-win! We harvest when the beans fill the pods, but before the pods get dried out. Steam or par-boil, sprinkle with rice and serve. I compost the pods, but chickens like them too. I can send you seeds if you want, email me.
It seems to be Pig Day, but I have ANOTHER Is My Cat A Freak question. Ed, my orange tiger, has started eating about half of his meal like a cat, and then eating the second half like … Idk, a raccoon? A monkey? He uses his paw, scoops up some food and then eats it off his paw. He only does this for the second half of the meal and I have gone over to the bowl and fluffed things up, thinking maybe he can’t get the food with his tongue anymore? But he still eats the second half (roughly, he’s not standing there with a scale and a t-square) with his paw.
Is he a freak?
er, rice should be SALT. My brain, she is broken.
I was listening to a show on NPR the other day regarding backyard chicken and egg production. One of the drawbacks, according to the person being interviewed, is that in late summer flies can become a huge issue.
Did you find that to be a problem last summer? if so, how did you and Fred deal with it? – I would imagine it to be a good idea to avoid pesticides as much as possible, especially if one plans to consume either the eggs or the chickens. Do those sticky fly strips work?
I am still not thinking this pig stuff is EVEN WORTH all this trouble. We have a few meat markets around that are a whole lot cheaper than buying pork in grocery stores.
I am not even factoring in the cost of upkeep, the stink, the food bought, the cleaning and the hell of killing them (seriously push for a butcher on that one, seriously.)
🙂
I hope those pigs taste REALLY good 😉
A friend of mine actually gave me a piece of wood (that might have been cedar) that he bought at a pet store. Apparently you get it wet with warm water and give it to the cats….and when I did, they LOVED it. And Clyde kneads the dog’s bed -which is full of cedar – so that explains that. 🙂
Dear Robyn: As you know I am highly opposed to these pigs, but whatever, my question is…why must you feed them people food? Is there some reason? Don’t they sell Pig Chow? I mean, you can’t be serious that you are actually buying full price GROCERIES for swine? Sincerely, Pig Hater.
One of the restaurants that I like serves Edamame along with their steamed veggies.
I asked once what it was 🙂 I thought it was outstanding.
Those are going to be the most spoiled piggies on the planet. The pictures of them frolicking in their yard too cute. Do they have names?
I was wondering, too, why you don’t feed them Pig Chow? I didn’t think it was too expensive and it’s got everything needed for healthy pigs. You can always give them treats of table scraps.
P.S. I should have signed my comment, “Pig Lover” (the four-footed kind)
I’ve been wondering whether the pigs will be getting a bath before they’re slaughtered?
Does typing edamame that many times make it look as weird as it does reading it that many times?
I adore the piggies. When they are this size. Any larger and I will not approach, no matter what. I’ve been trampled, pinned, bitten and rooted on, by pigs before and I would rather keep my distance, thankyaverymuch.
One more edamame thing: Trader Joe’s has a really great combo called “Soycutash” – it’s like succotash, except instead of the lima beans, they use edamame. Really yummy … I bet you can make your own this summer with your garden produce. (You can google “soycutash” to see it)
I used to get “past prime” produce from a local produce distributor for our chickens. I bet there is one who would help you out for your gurlz & oinkers!
Hi Robyn,
I have a question for tomorrow that might really be more for Fred, but I thought maybe you could answer it. Is there any aspect of “you are what you eat” with respect to the pigs and the quality of their meat? I mean, does the quality of the pig meat (which you guys will be eating!) change with what you feed them? Can you make it leaner and/or more nutritious if you give them healthy grains and veggies vs. Little Debbie Snack cakes? Just curious.
Thanks 🙂
CA
Late at night you can go dumpster hopping in the back of resturants. They throw away alot of food. Grocery stores normally do that too. Weird that yours doesn’t. What a waste.
When I was a kid, my neighbor would get old doughnuts from Krispy Kreme to feed his hogs. You might try a bakery for old stuff.
Have you seen the most hilarious thing since shoes?
Planet Unicorn, haaay! There are 6 episodes, but my faves are 1 & 4. My coworker dubbed us Feathers (female coworker), Cadillac (me) and he (straight manly male republican) is Tom Cruise.
Good times. Hilarious!
Paula my cat is a fisherman too. He doesn’t start halfway through his meal though. He mainly does it to steal from the other cats. You have to watch out, he’ll steal from your plate if you happen to be sitting on the couch watching tv. 😉
styro: HAHA. I was thinking, with RICE? Um, okay, I guess…
We ordered some edamame at a restaurant once as an appetizer. The pods were seasoned with some spicy type powder. We had no idea how to eat it, and sat there picking the beans out, then wondering what the point of the seasoning was. The girl told us at the end: UR DOIN IT WRONG. Duh.
Roseann: that happened to me last night with the word “kitchen”. we’re looking to remodel, and after two hours of searching online for photos, I was staring at that word, thinking “that just CAN’T even BE a word!”
Hi there! Any idea why our darling cat insists on stepping just inside the litter box far enough for all four feet to be on the litter, yet her hiney hangs over the edge, so poop is usually half right on the edge, half out, and often she pees on the litter mat instead of going in the box. We’ve always used the same litter (Fresh Step), keep it clean, and have the biggest box you can buy. It doesn’t have a top (we tried that, but have taken it off to see if that helps – it doesn’t). When I talk “cat stuff” I usually preface with, “Robyn says….” so thought I’d bring this issue to you. Thanks for any and all help!