insider
Waterloo / Cedar Falls
GROWING THINGS
Got cukes? Make pickles Pick, pick, pick. If you want three words to describe growing cucumbers, that word comes close to the mark. If you don’t pick ripe cucumbers off the vine, the plant will stop setting fruit. But that’s putting the harvest before the hoe. T h e National G a r d e n Bureau ranks cucumbers one of the top five Melody most popParker ular garden is a master vegetables, gardener. designatContact her at melody.parker@ ing 2014 as wcfcourier.com “the year of the cucumber.” Members of the Curcurbitaceae family, cucumbers are related to pumpkin, melons, squash and gourds. Cukes can be oblong, globular or cylindrical, and while green skin is most common, you can grow white, yellow and brown varieties. Native to India, the cucumber has been grown around the world for nearly 3000 years, arriving in the Americas with Christopher Columbus. By 1806, eight cucumber varieties grew in America’s colonial gardens, according to NGB research. Heinz began bottling pickles in 1870 to relieve the boring meat-and-potatoes American diet. Russian cosmonauts have grown cukes in space, and Canadians have grown the veggie nearly one-mile underground in an Ontario nickel mine. I’m not a big fan of cucumbers, suffering them in salads and little else. Put me in the Dr. Samuel Johnson camp. The 18th century English literary critic, editor and lexicographer famously said about cucumbers, “They should be well sliced, and dressed with pepper and vinegar, then thrown out … ”. That doesn’t mean I won’t grow them (other people DO like them). Choose a variety that suits your needs: pickling or slicing, bush or vining, burpless or bitterfree. Monoecious cucumbers produce male and female flowers on the same plant. Open-pollinated cultivars are monoecious, as well as some hybrids. Pollen and fruitproducing flowers are on the same vine. No problem with pollination, but production can be later and slow. Gynoecious cukes produce predominately female flowers. Higher yield is the payoff, but there needs to be a male cuke for pollination. Seed packets have pollinator seeds, but if bees don’t zero in, you may have to pollinate flowers yourself. Parthenocarpic cukes produce only female flowers that don’t need pollen to set fruit, but if flowers are pollinated (those darned bees!), fruit can be misshapen. Cukes need full sun and well-draining soil enriched with compost or well-rotted manure. Plants are greedy for space, and vining types can be grown on a trellis or A-frame tower to save space, or grow bush types. Direct sow in rows or hills when soil reaches 70 F or purchase transplants They’re thirsty, so water deeply and mulch. Fertilize with a side dressing of 5-1010 fertilizer at planting and then once a month during the season.
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Tuesday
March 18, 2014
www.wcfcourier.com/lifestyles
insider Editor: holly.hudson@wcfcourier.com
keepsakes
Trip yields new pieces for WCA’s Haitian collection
MELODY PARKER
melody.parker@wcfcourier.com
WATERLOO — Who hasn’t packed light to leave room for mementos from an exotic vacation? Usually it’s T-shirts, colorful tote bags, jewelry, souvenir plates or teaspoons or foodstuffs that can be carried through customs, along with odds-and-ends to satisfy kids and grandkids clamoring “what did you bring me?” Like those tourists, Kent Shankle and Chawne Paige stuffed their suitcases full for the return trip from a late January visit to Haiti. Except their souvenirs — glittering and beaded textiles, Voodoo flags, painted canvases, metal wall hangings, wood carvings, mixed media assemblages, papier mache and other objects — are destined for the Haitian collection at the Waterloo Center for the Arts. “We brought home lots of art in our bags and shipped more pieces home by air freight. One of the pieces is an incredible, large wooden drum with painting and collage by artist Atelier Onel. Spirits are associated with drums, which have an important role in Haitian ceremonies,” said Shankle, WCA executive director. For almost 40 years, the center has housed the largest internationally-recognized public collection of Haitian artwork. Shankle and Paige, recently promoted to curator, were in Haiti to attend the eight-day annual conference for the Haitian Art Society. Museum and arts center curators, gallery owners, collectors and Haitian arts and culture supporters toured the island, visiting with artists and others in Petionville, Port au Prince, Jacmel and other communities. Haiti’s minister of tourism told society members it was the first non-humanitarian group to visit the island since the 2010 earthquake. “We were given a wonderful reception by the people. It was an incredible experience, and we formed some lasting relationships. The center got involved with the society in 2004 to raise our profile and hosted the conference in 2008. This was the first time it took place in Haiti,” said Shankle, a previous visitor to the island. Paige was making his first trip. “It was so beyond what I expected. What touched me was recognizing how the people live in the here-and-now and are so closely connected to each other, and that there are so many artist
BRANDON POLLOCK / Courier Staff Photographer
This piece shows how Haitian artists recycle materials such as buttons and discarded electronics to create sometimes unsettling, skull-themed artwork. enclaves,” the curator said. Haitian artists are incorporating earthquake experiences and aftermath into their work, which impressed Paige and Shankle. “Artists are seeing new things, processing new ideas. It was a rare opportunity for us to see the artists at work, to speak with them and experience their vision firsthand,” Shankle noted.
The country’s art has traditionally been imbued with spirituality and superstition, but several new acquisitions have “hard-hitting imagery with strong spiritual content,” Shankle said, which are expected to broaden and deepen the scope of the collection. “It’s cutting edge and tells the story of Haiti through the artwork,” Paige added.
Dr. and Mrs. F. Harold Reuling began the WCA collection in 1977 with their gift. It continues to grow through donor gifts and acquisitions, including 500 pieces from Janet Feldman. The Haitian trip was funded by an Iowa Arts Council grant. Artwork was purchased using grant money and private donations.
Come for tea, stay for lunch at revamped Art House Cafe JOHN MOLSEED john.molseed@wcfcourier.com
WATERLOO — The corner cafe at the Waterloo Center for the Arts is open again. Tea specialist Eliz Guyer teamed with chef and caterer Scharlene Shumpert to open the Art House Cafe. The menu offers a variety of foods, sandwiches, salads, soups, pastries and other desserts as well as hand-blended specialty teas. Guyer has been blending and selling specialty teas at farmers markets but was ready for a change. “This last summer, I said I want to do something different,” Guyer said. About that time, Guyer hired Shumpert to cater her daughter’s wedding. The opportunity to partner and open a restaurant gave both entrepreneurs a chance for much more visibility. “Having a storefront puts me out in peoples’ faces,” Shumpert said. Peoples’ faces include patrons of the art center. That gives the cafe some extra traffic, Shumpert said. Art Center staff said the effect can work both ways.
BRANDON POLLOCK / Courier Staff Photographer
Arthouse Cafe owners Eliz Guyer, left, and Scharlene Shumpert. “I think it’s definitely going to draw people who normally don’t come here,” said Laura Stammler, marketing manager for the art center. The cafe has been painted with warmer colors and the chairs have been reupholstered to give the space a new, warmer look. Staff at the art center also are excited about the new restaurant, Stammler added. The cafe had a
soft opening recently. Guyer and Shumpert plan a grand opening in the coming weeks. The preview went well, said Shumpert. Tea is made at the cafe with real leaves steeped in hot water and then strained into a cup. Although the process takes more time than dunking a tea bag into water, it produces more flavorful tea. Guyer also has her blended teas in bags for retail sale at the cafe.
She mixes tea leaves with herbs — often from her own garden — to make several types of teas. Guyer dries the herbs in a sack for several days and finishes them in a dryer. She then separates the leaves from the stems and blends them into tea varieties. With tea names including Mojito-inspired “Mo-tea-to” and “Ooh-la-la Oolong,” Guyer is trying to remove some of the pretense associated with tea drinking. “I want people to have fun when they try it.” The food menu has many inspired dishes made from recipes that won’t be easy to steal. “I keep them in the safest place,” Shumpert said, pointing at her head. Shumpert uses fresh ingredients whenever possible which takes extra effort this time of year. “You really have to shop around,” she said. “Most of this stuff is special ordered.” When the growing season returns, many of her ingredients and dishes will come from local producers, she said. The cafe is open Tuesday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.