SAZERAC
Sage Gardener
I love raw onions so much I’ve devised a stratagem so that fast-food employees don’t get my hamburger order wrong. (“Extra onions” is often misconstrued as “no onions.”) So, I tell the clerk, “I’d like an onion sandwich . . . and it’s OK if you leave the hamburger on it.” Whether baked, fried, char-grilled or caramelized, onions are, as the Egyptians believed, a gift from the vegetable gods. But the Sage Gardener’s sagacity on the subject of onions does not extend much further than knowing there are two basic types, branching (or green) onions and bulb onions. And I hereby confess that I’ve never been able to grow a bulb onion any larger than a small lime, but I may have finally figured out why. Sure, some sources say growing onions is as easy as poking a hole in the dirt with your finger and dropping in a seed or a set, but a friend convinced me the seed route is not for me. After he ordered a number of enticingly named varieties such as cipollini, big daddy and red zeppelin, my permaculturistic pal nursed what few seeds germinated, misting them with water and even encouraging them with some baby talk, only to watch almost every single one of his transplants wither and die. Me? For years, I’ve been lured by the sets that pop up in garden section of big-box stores in the spring. But then I read about “long-day,” “intermediate-day” and “short-day” onions. “Long-day onions are not recommended for our area,” writes Lisa Rayburn, an agent with the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service. “Unfortunately, the onion sets sold in big-box stores are usually long-day onions and will not form properly in our area.” Duh! While onion maps show that the Northern U.S. has long days, the Tar Heel landscape is in the short-day territory or intermediate-day range. Rayburn says if you plant long-day onions in the state, “They will produce only greens or very small, if any, bulbs.” Further research, however, revealed that “recently, long-day and intermediate-day-type onion varieties have been developed that are well-adapted to North Carolina conditions.” That, according to Chris Gunter, a former prof and vegetable specialist at N.C. State. Browsing the Burpee catalog that just came in the mail, I see that they have several different varieties of sets hybridized for intermediate and short-day climates. B-I-N-G-O! Of course, all this is something I’m sure I would have learned in a Master Gardener class if I weren’t too bull-headed to take one. So this month, I’ll be poking a hole with my finger in the still frigid soil and dropping in a Georgia Queen hybridized set or a Snow White. (Warmer climes, by the way, produce sweeter onions.) And later in the summer, when I top a big, bad sizzling burger with some freshly picked butter-crunch lettuce and a fat, juicy slice of Cherokee tomato, I’ll weep from joy — and onion juice — as I slice up my first huge homegrown onion and plop a ring or two atop the stack.
Window on the Past
Since 1905, a lot has changed in the Greensboro Fire Department. For starters, we’re no longer relying on horses and steam engines. And, these days, women are wading into the smoke and putting fires out alongside men. What hasn’t changed is the epic heroism of the GFD.
Taking Flight
William Mangum, Greensboro resident and North Carolina’s artist, is accustomed to high-flying success. But, not long ago, he soared to new heights by winning an international competition to come up with the livery on the fuselage of Boom Supersonic’s Overture aircraft.
How Mangum managed to snag one of the competition’s most coveted awards over more than a thousand entries from across the globe is a tribute not only to the artist’s famous versatility, but also a prime example of how traditional art form can still fire the imagination in a highly digital world.
We recently sat down with Mangum at his downtown studio on a quiet winter afternoon to get the details.
It started, he explains, when a notice in Triad Business Journal caught his eye. It announced a competition to design the outer skin — aka the “livery” — of Boom’s forthcoming supersonic jet.
“It really excited me because as a kid I was enthralled with building model airplanes,” he says. “The problem was that submissions were due the following Monday, less than 48 hours away. After pondering the opportunity for about 30 minutes, I called my wife, Cynthia, and told her I really wanted to give it a shot, but would have to spend two nights at the studio to make the deadline.”
Mangum’s approach was to produce a painting of the aircraft and graphically transfer it to a model of the plane. “My idea was to imagine an American flag draped on the plane moving at Mach-speed, shearing it off against the fuselage.”
To accompany his submission, he included a note describing his participation in North Carolina’s aviation history, specifically his work celebrating the centenary of the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk.
A short time later, he received the good news in an email from the sponsors.
“By dang, out of 1,100 international submissions, I won the top prize of ‘Most Original Design.’ It was incredible. Their email said they were going to take my design and put it on a working model of the project.”
He’s not sure if his imaginative rendering will grace the skin of Boom’s first supersonic jet, expected to roll out sometime in 2029, but he plans to stay in touch with the company.
“I’d love to be one of the first folks to fly in it,” he admits. “The plane will have only 80 seats, all business class, and will fly to London in just three and-a-half hours. That would be a big thrill for sure.”
In the meantime, he has a major Earth-bound commission to paint portraits of High Point University’s 41 campus buildings. That project will take flight over the next 18 months.
“I’m very excited about that, too,” he says. “It has a much easier deadline.”
Just One Thing
If you are a fan of Gossip Girl, chances are, you’ve spied a Marilyn Minter piece. Frostbite hangs in the bedroom of Blake Lively’s character, Serena van der Woodsen, honing in on a determined blue eye that dazzles with shimmering silver shadow and dewy lashes. And then there is the iconic Stepping Up, which hangs in the van der Woodsen family’s hallway and features a grime-covered ankle and heel in a sleek, rhinestone-covered stiletto. It’s no wonder that during the show’s last season, Minter created a piece entitled Gossip. Born in 1948 in Shreveport, Louisiana, Minter has worked for more than a half-century, challenging standards around sexual imagery. In this C-print, Minter plays with bokeh, and we see a blurred-out, red-lipped mouth, slightly open as if whispering. Droplets of water that look as if they’re on the camera lens seem to suggest gossip, true or not, is being broadcast. Purchased by UNCG’s Weatherspoon Art Museum with funds from the Burlington Industries Endowment and the Lynn Richardson Prickett Acquisition Endowment, Gossip is part of the current “Embodied” exhibit, curated by students in Art History 490 and running through March 29. Info: weatherspoonart.org/exhibitions/current-exhibitions.
Unsolicited Advice
Sure, we’ll take a pint o’ green beer on St. Paddy’s Day, but why stop there when you can celebrate Irish American Heritage Month all March long? We’ve got the craic to make the Emerald Isle shenanigans last. Erin go Bragh!
1. Binge Bad Sisters. Set in Dublin and filmed in Ireland, this Apple TV+ series follows the five Garvey sisters as they navigate the sudden, mysterious death of one of their husbands. If you’re into murder and mayhem, but in a pretty, pastoral setting, hit play — it’s gas.
2. Hozier, U2, The Cranberries, Ed Sheeran, Van Morrison, The Pogues. What do they all have in common? They’re on our “Irish I Was There Right Now” playlist. Make yourself one for hours of nonstop Irish-made music that’ll have you shamrockin’ a’round the clock.
3. Crank up the corned beef-and-cabbage crockpot. Irish American immigrants originally cooked up this concoction based on the homeland’s bacon-and-cabbage dish, substituting more affordable meat. While we prefer the salty, savory scent of bacon to broim — which is what this dish reeks of — we’ve got no other beef with this meal.
4 Don your wooden-soled clogs, cue up “Riverdance” and go mad yoke. Not recommended for apartment dwellers. Or anyone whose neighborhood has a noise ordinance, for that matter, because the jig will surely be up.
5. Indulge in an Oreo Shamrock McFlurry. There’s nothing particularly Irish about this, but, hey, at least it’s green. And delicious.
In the Market
I attended an event recently where half of the folks were talking about this guy, “Chad,” and his amazing spices. One lady raved about a pie she’d just made with what I found out later was his King Blossom Apple Pie blend. The very next Saturday morning, I set out in search of this suddenly illustrious spice meister.
Chad Smith sets up a booth where he peddles his Guilford Hill Spice Blends (most) Saturdays at the Greensboro Farmers Curb Market downtown, where I asked about his line of seasonings. I wanted to know where the inspiration sprang from. “I couldn’t find a Cajun that didn’t have so much salt, so I decided to make my own,” he answers. After Smith created a palate-pleasing blend, he shared the results. “At first I gave my Two Step Cajun to friends and family and they all told me I should sell it. So I developed a whole collection that I’ve been selling now for five years and it’s all natural.”
The most popular seasoning is his Painted Lady Garden. “It has rosemary and basil out front, then blended with sage, thyme and oregano on the back end,” Smith says. “The idea behind all of my recipes is that you won’t taste any one ingredient at a time — everything works together for one big flavor.”
For an added boost, his Scotch Bonnet Pepper is mixed with a little bit of brown sugar and cinnamon. “As your meat cooks,” Smith explains, “that brown sugar makes a nice glaze over everything. The Fitz Roy Adobo I use for my taco meat, whether it’s chicken, pork or beef. Fantastic. We’ve been using this lately with burgers as well.”
Selling 1.9-ounce jars for $10 each, Smith named his spice line after the neighborhood he lives in, Guilford Hills. “It’s a nice community with lots of families, and families need a way to make their meals easier. Where Mom and Dad can put dinner together and it’ll be flavorful, everyone will be happy, and the blend does most of the work for you.” Plus, he notes that because his blends are salt free, customers can add salt to fit their personal taste. The first ingredient in his Green Stone Greek is tomato powder, “and you have garlic, black pepper, onion, oregano, sage, beet powder, coriander, cinnamon and nutmeg.” Delish!
Chad Smith creates these proprietary small-batch mixes in Out of the Garden Project’s shared-use kitchen, a commercial grade facility that allows local entrepreneurs to produce prepackaged food products for the marketplace in a safe and sanitary environment. “This time of year, the Chihuahua Chili Powder sales increase because it’s made with smoked, dried jalapeño,” Chad tells me. “The smoke will deliver a bold flavor to anything you cook it with — a big bowl of chili or just do some nice bean dip. The Eighteen Arms Chinese is also popular; we just did a stir fry with that the other night.”
Besides the farmers market, Guilford Hill Spice Blends can be found at the Extra Ingredient in Friendly Center and online at Guilfordhillspice.com. Get it while it’s hot.