Sunday, March 6, 2011

Mustard Greens, Greenbacks and Green Shoots

I was planning to do a piece on gathering and canning wild mustard greens, but it's too rainy outside to do any gathering.  Hopefully they'll still be around when I can get some time to do some harvesting.

If you've never had mustard greens, you're really missing out.  They are packed with vitamins and are similar to spinach in taste after they've been boiled.  Their texture has more "tooth" than spinach.  When eaten raw, they can be quite spicy.

I had my wife eat a wad of the stuff raw, and she thought I'd tricked her and given her something that was dipped in wasabi (Japanese horseradish)!  Very good in salads.
---

The Silver rush continues in our PM store.  On Thursday, we bought 300 ounces of silver from our primary PM refiner (30, 10 oz bars).  Twenty-seven were sold on Friday within two hours of opening our doors.  The other three bars were sold Saturday morning.

Also on Thursday, we had a walk-in with 3, 100-oz silver bars.  One was sold within an hour, and the other two were sold on Friday morning, also within two hours of opening our doors.

Gold has been moving briskly as well.  My guess is that this is more a function of us not having much silver in-house (at least not for very long) and the customers having to "settle" for gold.

Wow.  Seems like confidence in greenbacks is waning.  Who'd a-thunk it?

My gun classes continue to sell out.  Three classes in a row now, and each having a waiting list.  My next class in two weeks is already half full.

In combination, this gives me hope that more and more folks are waking up to what's going on around us.  Pining away, expecting the federal and state governments to care for us is not going to happen.

If you're not securing tangible assets - PMs, real property, equipment, food, tools - and practical skills - self-defense, repair, food storage - you are well and truly screwed.
---

What is it about people feeling the need to bare their souls on Facebook?

I got a call on Friday after we had closed up.  It was some guy saying he had read a Facebook entry from his sister about how she had sold some coins to our shop a few months ago.  He wanted to know if it was true and if I recognized his sister's name.

I told him that, unlike jewelry purchases, if someone brings in coins, we have no legal duty to ask for ID because it serves no purpose.  It would be like you requiring the grocery store to prove ownership of the loaf of bread you purchased with cash.  Prove to me this is YOUR bread.

Coins, bullion and the like are not traceable, per se.  Paper currency and certified coins have serials numbers, but a gold coin I buy from you is indistinguishable from a gold coin I buy from the next guy.

With precious metals, possession is 10/10th of the law...

So, the guy tells me that he is the executor of his deceased father's estate, and sis ripped him off.  Coins, guitars, camera equipment.  He emailed me a copy of the police report, but it said nothing about coins.  I found that a bit odd since he told me she supposedly ripped off tens of thousands of dollars in coins.

Our policy is, until and unless a cop or subpoena legally compels us to disclose ANY purchase or sale, it ain't happening.   We won't even acknowledge his sister came to our shop (because we have no way of knowing if she did).

Anyways, my point is, let's assume sis did in fact steal this stuff.  Why in the hell would you publicly tell the world you did this AND where the police could serve a subpoena and possibly get records about selling the goods?

For goodness sake, shut your piehole, people.
---

Very interesting:  I was sent links to this article from 3 different folks.

It's on Social Security and Medicare.  It's a great, easy to understand explanation about this Ponzi Scheme.  Read it, and you'll see why you will have little or no likelihood of getting your "promised share" of money out of Social Security and Medicare.  No damned chance.

The regular updates you get from Social Security on how much money you'll receive are simply more Nanny Fantasy reports.  File them right next to the government inflation reports, unemployment reports and economic growth reports. 

Hmm.  I wonder if Green Shoots can be home canned like the mustard greens....

---
Please click our advertiser links. They pay us so you don't have to. A click a day is all we ask!

Copyright 2011 Bison Risk Management Associates. All rights reserved. Please note that in addition to owning Bison Risk Management, Chief Instructor is also a partner in a precious metals business. You are encouraged to repost this information so long as it is credited to Bison Risk Management Associates. www.BisonRMA.com

5 comments:

  1. I don't eat mustard greens...at least, I never have. And probably never will, given your comparison to wasabi. My stomach was born in Boston, and even after years in the hot chile parts of this nation, it is still a "born in Boston" stomach.

    That said, I _do_ like spinach - but not canned. Fresh or frozen are terrific - but canned??? It's like a completely vegetable to me, and one I'd readily pass up.

    So good luck. I hope your results are worth your efforts. Personally, I think I'd figure out how to keep a constant supply in the garden so I could eat them fresh - if I wanted them!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sue, after they're boiled for about 10 minutes, they taste just like spinach. No wasabi flavor!

    I'm going to home can 10 pints, but that will probably be it. Even by getting the greens for free, it might actually be cheaper to buy them in cans!

    I like my veggies fresh or frozen as well, but this is more for long-term storage. And practice with canning veggies.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Like _canned_ spinach, or like _fresh/frozen_ spinach???

    If the former, I'll pass!

    You know...with that wasabi punch, it might be interesting to blanch them, then chop and mix with ricotta cheese to fill pasta shells or tubes with. Maybe a lasagna ingredient...

    The cheese would tame the punch, and the punch might spice up the cheese. I like the pasta shells with a spinach/ricotta fill...mustard instead of spinach might be interesting....

    Have you ever tried growing them? Any source of seed that you know of? Are the annual, perennial or biennial? I'm wondering because we have a plant we call "wild mustard" locally, but it's due to its color, I think. It seems to me I've looked it up and found that it wasn't a mustard or any near relative - just had a mustard yellow flower.
    My horses won't touch the stuff when it's fresh - but will eat it when it's wilted or dried. Hmmmm. Hot when it's fresh, you say? That might explain it...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Brassica kaber seems to be the correct name for it. (used a search in the images category).

    Then found this:

    http://www.ehow.com/how_4454703_spot-wild-mustard.html

    This seems to me to say that it _is_ a mustard plant, and the seeds can be used to make mustard - should you be so inclined. Of course, it also says (at the bottom of the article) that it's poisonous to livestock. I can tell you absolutely that in the wilted/dried stage, at least, it is not poisonous to horses. But they also won't eat it fresh. May be that wasabi thing! Interesting links at the bottom of the article... mustard for _pimples_?? didn't check it out but gee whiz, ma!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I don't know how much of the "kick" would be remove by blanching. After a 10 min boil, there's no heat left.

    I watched a Youtube video by a guy with a site called, "Eat The Weeds" - very interesting stuff. I've watched a number of them in the past, and they seem to be spot-on.

    I watched another video by some guy that grew his own mustard greens. Like spinach, if you don't cut it all the way down to the ground, you'll get repeat crops from the same plant. Hmm.

    ReplyDelete