{"id":1544,"date":"2012-08-01T16:15:24","date_gmt":"2012-08-01T16:15:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marigoldonline.net\/?p=1544"},"modified":"2012-08-01T16:15:24","modified_gmt":"2012-08-01T16:15:24","slug":"how-much-wood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marigoldonline.net\/?p=1544","title":{"rendered":"How Much Wood?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Academic woodchuck<\/p><\/div>\n

Driving home from the ultra-modern Rutgers University\u2019s Busch Campus, my granddaughter pointed out a woodchuck nonchalantly grazing in the grass a few feet from our car. She said on other occasions she has seen the critters all over the campus.\u00a0 We went through the \u201chow much wood would a woodchuck chuck\u2026\u201d tongue-twister–our guy remained unmoved.<\/p>\n

Woodchuck and groundhog are one and the same animal (who knew?) The etymology of the name probably derives from the Native American wuchak.<\/em>\u00a0 According to a \u201cwoodchuck trainer\u201d at the Staten Island Zoo, the woodchuck is a nasty little bugger with an aggressive nature. (What this man trains woodchucks to do remains a mystery.) Groundhog Day has a better ring to it than Woodchuck Day which is probably why no one has suggested altering the name.<\/p>\n

The critter front and center of my life this summer has been the chipmunk,<\/p>\n

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Garden- (probably mine) variety chipmunk<\/p><\/div>\n

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which turns out to be a small, striped member of the squirrel family. Possibly because last year’s\u00a0 winter was so mild,\u00a0 southern Vermont is currently heaven for Alvin and his brethren who are driving those of us who garden, um, nuts. \u00a0Chipmunks burrow and manage to keep their sleeping quarters extremely clean, storing shells and other debris in separate refuse tunnels (note to those dealing with teenagers: chipmunk as role model?)<\/p>\n

Years ago in Peru, I sampled cuy<\/em>, an Andean national dish. \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Sorry folks, cuy is guinea pig and to be entirely fair,\u00a0 it was pretty tasty In today\u2019s vegan-friendly world where people say things like \u201cI don\u2019t eat anything with a mother or a face,\u201d I certainly wouldn\u2019t advocate eating guinea pig (or chipmunk or woodchuck) although this is rather\u00a0 duplicitous since my grocery list often includes items like chicken, sliced ham and pork chops.<\/p>\n

In the spirit of not eating moms and things with faces, here is a recipe for an excellent cole slaw that stands up so well it can even be made the day before you want to serve it.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

Crunchy Slaw Martha Stewart<\/strong><\/p>\n

(as I recall, this easily feeds 6-8)<\/p>\n

1\/3 cup mayonnaise<\/p>\n

3 tablespoons white-wine vinegar<\/p>\n

3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice (from about 2 limes)<\/p>\n

1 tablespoon sugar<\/p>\n

Coarse salt and ground pepper<\/p>\n

1 small green cabbage, about 2 pounds, halved, cored, and thinly sliced (the food processor does this brilliantly)<\/p>\n

1 bunch radishes, ends trimmed, halved, and thinly sliced (about 1 1\/2 cups) (ditto for the food processor)<\/p>\n

In a large bowl, whisk together mayonnaise, vinegar, lime juice, and sugar; season generously with salt and pepper. Add cabbage and radishes; toss to coat. Cover and refrigerate to let flavors meld for at least one hour and up to one day. Before serving take dish out of refrigerator to let it come to room temperature.<\/p>\n

No woodchucks, guinea pigs or chipmunks will be harmed in the making of this dish.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Driving home from the ultra-modern Rutgers University\u2019s Busch Campus, my granddaughter pointed out a woodchuck nonchalantly grazing in the grass a few feet from our car. She said on other occasions she has seen the critters all over the campus.\u00a0 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[233,235,234,18,232],"class_list":["post-1544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-chipmunk","tag-granddaughter","tag-peru","tag-vermont","tag-woodchuck"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marigoldonline.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marigoldonline.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marigoldonline.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marigoldonline.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marigoldonline.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1544"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/marigoldonline.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1558,"href":"https:\/\/marigoldonline.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1544\/revisions\/1558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marigoldonline.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marigoldonline.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marigoldonline.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}