Features

When I read other cooking columns, and I read quite a few, I have always enjoyed the ones that included some food history and food trivia. If you are a regular reader of this column, I hope you’ve enjoyed reading the obscure facts and trivia associated with that week’s highlighted food ingredient.

Bluebirds are flying over the area in search of accommodations. It’s a little early, but like some other smart animals, it’s time to plan ahead.

Bluebirds are particular in their nesting habits. Don Adams of Southport has provided the following information on how to attract these beautiful little birds to your garden:

Cavity nesting bluebirds are in need of man-made nest boxes. The change from wood fence posts with cavities to steel posts and the cutting of hollow trees for firewood has reduced the natural nest sites.

Johnny Cash is gone, but on Thursday, Jan. 22, you can relive the music and spirit of the “Man In Black” when Rockabilly Hall of Famer Rusty Evans performs his “Ring of Fire” tribute at Brunswick Community College.

With a voice like rolling thunder and a spirit of gentle rain, Evans has been wowing audiences from Nashville to San Francisco with his tribute to the Man In Black.

Although the company is named after Fred Waring, a popular entertainer of the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s, Waring did not actually invent the blender. He did, however, perfect the original version and introduce this version to retailers and consumers, which ultimately became a big success.

My guess is gardening resolutions for the New Year are still sounding good and achievable this early into the year. So what happens later on to those resolutions? Hopefully, they were made based on some sense of reality.

We must learn how to cope with things beyond our control. Ground pearl and certain invasive weeds come to mind. Major weather events had us scrambling last year to keep our plants alive. You can’t always be able to correct some of these problems and the best we can do is minimize their impacts on the landscape.

Winter is prime time for planting spring flowering bulbs. Daffodils, tulips, hyacinths and crocus bulbs will happily burst into bloom for you this spring.

Be aware tulip bulbs rarely bloom more than one time in this part of the country. They need a long winter chill to set flowers. When planting, work some fertilizer into the soil surrounding the bulbs rather than just throwing it into the hole. The developing roots will get a more even boost this way.

KURE BEACH—2009 marks the 144th anniversary of the end of the Civil War.

To commemorate the Second Battle of Fort Fisher, the largest land-sea battle of the Civil War, the Fort Fisher State Historic Site will stage “Fort Fisher Then and Now,” an all-day event on Saturday, Jan. 17, from 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

Fennel is a perennial, aromatic plant indigenous to the Mediterranean and southwest Asia that grows to a height of 4-5 feet.

Savored by the ancient Greeks, it has been utilized throughout history to treat an assortment of physical maladies, including keeping witches at bay during medieval times. Perhaps this is how fennel pollen, an expensive spice still popular in Italy, came to be known as the “Spice of Angels.”

Many residents in the Cape Fear region are looking for ways to lower energy costs and may supplement their energy needs for heating by using firewood.

January and February are typically our coldest months for the winter. I am always looking for some good information to pass along to clients when I came across this information on firewood from John Church from the Rockford Extension Center, affiliated with the University of Illinois.