Tea at Trianon: Grow Your Own Potatoes

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, September 3, 2010

Grow Your Own Potatoes

What to do when the cost of food rises.

Potatoes are easy to grow, can be cultivated on a window sill or in a garden patch, and their flowers are lovely. In fact, King Louis XVI, after seeing his first potato flower, continued to wear one in his button hole and ensured his court promoted the flowers’ use.

Julygirl said...: It has nourished the poor and not so poor for centuries. I, however, grew up eating rice, as does most of the worlds large populated areas, and rarely ate potatoes.; September 3, 2010 at 5:18:00 PM EDT
tubbs said...: I've had a wonderful crop of purple potatoes from dark decorative potato-vines planted in large hanging baskets. I never tasted them, as I wasn't too sure if they were edible.; September 3, 2010 at 7:38:00 PM EDT
Alexandra said...: I was a failure at growing mine, but I am going to give it another try. I grew them in a plastic trash can. Maybe it got too hot. Cucumbers, tomatoes, and carrots did really well for me this year, even through the drought. I used a soaker hose, so hopefully this saved money on water.; September 4, 2010 at 8:57:00 PM EDT