It’s a Thai variety with good-sized (2-inch-wide) deep pink blooms that start out almost red, graduating to an orangish center. At a point in each bloom’s life, the pinkness somehow achieves an almost translucent quality, like sunlight through a pink seashell. The flower veins and a pleasant graininess show up as the initial bright bloom color fades. The blooms hold a pleasant, medium Frangipani fragrance and are composed of rounded, overlapping pedals with slightly cupped edges.

The leaves are medium green and somewhat narrow, growing on a plant with somewhat slender stems, which branches easily after flowering. I recommend this variety to anyone in the Gulf Coast area.

Oh yeah, and click on the photo for a better look.

It was worth the wait. The flowers are a beautiful deep red, graduating to a red-magenta at the edges and a red-orange in the very center. They’re very fragrant, with a sweet, sometimes spicy smell. I don’t know if it’s because of the extreme heat we’re “enjoying” this summer or if it’s just the characteristic of this variety, but the flowers tend not to stretch open all the way, somewhat resembling little tulips. They’re slightly smaller than the Salmon Pink, and several of them have four pointed, oval, curling and overlapping pedals instead of the usual five. The flowers are pretty long-lasting.

The large leaves are long and medium green. They’re somewhat sensitive to the steam-iron semi-South Texas sun, and I had to move the plant to a location with partial shade, after which it seemed noticeably happier.

Click the photo for a bigger version.

1. Not one, not two, but at least three strains of E. coli have been linked to the Nestle’s dough.

2. Food and Drug Administration inspectors claim to have followed every lead but can’t find a darn thing revealing how three different kinds of E. coli (which lives in the intestinal tracts of some animals including humans) got into the cookies and then sickened at least 72 people in 30 states. And they’re giving up.

“It is unlikely that we will ever make a final dettermination of how this contamination occurred,” Assistant FDA Commissioner for Food Safety David Acheson told Hartman.

Acheson’s declaration notwithstanding, it seems to me some pretty strong clues are floating around. For example, it has been said by some that you can predict the future by studying past history.

Thus we find these guideposts within past inspections of Nestle USA Inc.‘s Danville, Virginia, plant (where the E. coli-laced cookie dough is said to have originated):

Food and Drug Administration Establishment Inspection Report

Inspection Start Date: 03/12/2009
Inspection End Date: 03/12/2009…
Inspectional Responsibility: State Contract and Joint FDA/USDA

Endorsement
This was a routine contract inspection of a manufacturer/processor. (Products: Pasta Sauces, Pasta, Cookie Dough)

The previous 7/22/2008 inspection was classified NAI and findings included: No objectionable conditions were observed during the inspection. Corrections since last insp: N/A…

CURRENT FINDINGS: No unsanitary conditions noted. See state inspection report for list of observed GMP deficiencies…Corporate policy on refusal to sign inspection report. No samples were collected.

It appears from publicly available FDA documents that at least the last two inspections of the Nestle plant were done by a company contracted by the State of Virginia – not by government inspectors. The Virginia Department of Health, with whom the Nestle plant deficiencies apparently lie, maintains a horrible web site with very little useful public information available and a search mechanism that is broken.

The contractor, one Bud Anderson, found nothing amiss in March, but still provided these clues of interest in the inspection summary (XXs indicated redacted portions of the report):

The plant manufactures pasta and pasta sauces under the Buitoni brand name and cookie dough under the Tollhouse brand name…Nestle processes meat-filled pasta on-site and is under USDA/VDACS inspection. They receive most goods via XX transport and have three silos outside the firm for grain storage. Nestle also has another off-site warehouse for storage of packaging materials…

Clues:
1. Nestle manufactures meat sauce on-site. Meat comes from animals known to carry E. coli in their guts.

2. Some of the ingredients used in the plant are stored in outside silos. No available inspection reports indicate that these silos were themselves inspected.

Now lets use the Wayback Machine and briefly travel back to a Nov. 1-2, 2007, contract inspection:

CURRENT FINDINGS: See state inspection report for list of observed GMP deficiencies. General areas of deficiencies observed include: Equipment, Employee Practices. Refusal to allow photography, review of production records, processing controls, complaint files…

Clues:
3. Nestle refuses to provide the inspector (again, Bud Anderson) with the information he needs to do a creditable job. Has the FDA demanded those records? Evidence suggests not.

OK, back into the Wayback Machine to a February 20-21, 2007, state contract inspection by one Nathaniel R. Esaw:

CURRENT FINDINGS:
1. Miscellaneous tools/equipment were being stored in the hand washing sink in the “Toll House” preparation area.
2. The drain from the hand washing sink in the “Toll House” preparation area was leaking onto the floor.
3. The control pedal for the cold water flow at the hand washing sink was missing from the hand washing sink in the “powdered sugar” room.
4. Water was dripping from the vale on the cold water line above the XX.
5. A hole was found in the steam line above the XX#14, which was exposing fibrous insulation.
6. The perimeter of the floors in the “shipping warehouse” and the “Toll House Receiving” hallway were peppered with wood splinters, dust, cardboard lint, and unidentifiable particles.

No refusals. No samples were collected

Clues:
4. Nestle’s plant has a past history of soaking potentially contaminated things in a sink where cookie-dough-making employees are supposed to wash their hands, plus the sink was leaking. Result could be employees have a hard time washing their hands, slack off, then track contaminants into production rooms after having stood in contaminated water.

5. Water, insulation material and particles of wood, dust, lint and you name it have potentially contaminated Nestle’s cookie dough in the past.

You have to take the Wayback Machine way back to Sept. 11-12, 2006 to find a thorough government inspection of the Danville plant. Useful information and clues abound, so if you’d care to see the whole thing, along with a complete government inspection a year earlier, here they are.

And here are a few of the highlights:

→ Three live ant-like insects were observed on a ledge along the W wall of the powdered sugar dump station in the cookie dough manufacturing area.

→ Dirty stanless steel equipment and utensils were observed in a bin which was identified as “clean” in the cookie dough cleaning area.

→ Water or other clear liquid was observed dripping from an overhead line in the liquid egg receiving bay.

→ The knock-off arm for the check weigher was improperly timed or otherwise not functioning properly to remove trays of cookie dough on line ten…

The firm refused to provide the following:

→ Percent of products which move in interstate commerce
→ Review of complaint log
→ Use of camera
→ Review of pest control records
→ Review of HACCP program
→ Information on environmental testing program.

Flour and sugar silos are cleaned on a rotating bases every 4 to 6 weeks from approximately April through November.

Clue: By this time, readers should be able to spot them for themselves, eh?

OK, at this point let’s just have a show of hands: How many think the FDA has held giant corporate powerhouse Nestle to the kind of inspection and investigatory standards necessary to protect the current and future health of the American eating public. Anybody? Anyone at all?

Nestle tells ABC it has literally taken its production line apart, cleaned it bit by bit and put it back together, and is ramping up gradual Toll House cookie dough production again. Since by company policy no inspectors will be allowed to provide photographic evidence that this is so, I guess we’ll just have to take the company’s word for it.

Personally, I believe this whole episode beautifully illustrates the benefits of making your own cookies from scratch.

Without further ado, here’s a list of the latest items American retailers have been selling you despite the fact they can harm you and your family:

July 9
→ Certain “Sit’N‘Stroll” child restrain systems made by Triple Play Products LLC are being recalled because, “in the event of a crash, the child may not be properly restrained, possibly resulting in injury to the child,” according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. These defective products were made in May 2008, and the NHTSA says a recall was expected to start two months ago. Yet the first public notice of it was this morning.

→ The NHTSA strikes again, issuing a recall notice for certain Team-Tex America Inc. Babyride infant child restraint systems that “could result in injury to the child in the event of a crash.” These defective “systems,” model 374199, were made on Dec. 18, 2008, and the company began recalling them on April 27. Guess when the government reported this to the public. Right – this morning.

→ It gets worse. This time the NHTSA is notifying us, at 8:07 this morning, about another defective child restraint system that has been in production since Nov. 1, 2007. The maker, Recaro North America Inc., is recalling Cartein Signo and Como child restraint systems because they contain an “incorrectly manufactured spring” that “will slip within the metal adjuster,” thus assuring that “the child would not be properly securied in their child restraint system and may sustain injury.”

The company, after more than 15 months, stopped producing these things in February and began a recall on March 12. Four months later the NHTSA decided it would be good to tell us about it. Anyone see a pattern here?

July 8
→ Here’s a fun way to lose weight fast: Lewis Laboratories International Ltd. is recalling Weigh Down Chocolate Flavor Nutrition Drink Mix “because it has the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella,” which gives you the runs and makes you puke – and that’s if you’re lucky. Really, there are better ways to diet.

Here are the offending product lot Lot Numbers: 170C110 Best By Date 12/16/2011, 170C111 Best By Date 03/12/2012, 170C112 Best By Date 4/28/2012 and 170C113 Best By Date 6/5/2012 – Net Wt. 16 oz. (454 grams).

→ McClancy Seasonin Co.
says it’s recalling various Alba brand dry milk and milk shake mix products because you might get Salmonella poisoning if you ingest them. They include: Alba Instant Non-Fat Dry Milk (25.6 oz), Alba Instant Non-Fat Dry Milk (9.6 oz), Alba Creamy Milk Chocolate Snack Shake Mix (6 oz), Alba Double Fudge Royale Snack Shake Mix (6 oz), Alba Smooth Vanilla Bean Snack Shake Mix (6 oz) and Alba Strawberry Banana Snack Shake Mix (6 oz). Follow the link above for the lot numbers.

July 7
→ Sadly for all of us, Lewis Laboratories and McClancy Seasoning are by no means alone. As of today, 57 food product producers and/or distributers
have announced recalls because their food products contain either instant nonfat dried milk, whey protein, fruit stabilizers (whatever they are) and/or “gums” manufactured by Plainview Milk Products Cooperative of Plainview, Minn.

Plainview Milk has been manufacturing these items for two years, yet we learned from the Food and Drug Administration only late last month that they all could be contaminated with Salmonella.

One has reason to wonder whether Plainview ever would have stepped up and informed its customers of the mess had not someone working at the U.S. Department of Agriculture discovered Salmonella in “Dairyshake powder.” We are not told whether the USDA employee made this discovery after drinking the stuff, but we are told that USDA officials informed the FDA, which then inspected a Plainview plant whose equipment was found to be contaminated with Salmonella.

Kroger, Land O Lakes, Shop ‘N Save and a variety of food makers bought ingredients from Plainview (click the link at the top of this heading for a complete list).

One hopes really, really hard that America’s food distributors will at some point soon conclude that their retail customers (you, me) deserve a more stringent vetting of their suppliers.

But one does not intend to hold one’s breath.

My suggestion is that you start a little list of food makers whose brands are known to have been contaminated. If there’s an indication these companies don’t care that their stuff makes you vomit, then cast a vote against barf by refusing to buy their stuff.

The crush is real. I could probably pull three or four colanders of ripe figs from the Brown Turkey-type tree in our back yard right now, and another two or three collanders of giant yellow-green figs from the tree in front. The birds no longer curse me when I come out to harvest; they’ve already eaten their fill by that time. Good, plump figs have literally dropped into my bucket. The ground below the tree is littered with fruit. As much damage as this year’s extreme heat and drought has done to the blackberries and some of the vegetables, it would seem the figs have welcomed the extra solar energy and converted it into our mightiest crop ever.

Too mighty, almost. With a day job, I simply don’t have an extra six hours to spare for processing figs. Oh, there’ll be preserves and jam – but I’m still trying to finish the last couple of jars of preserves from last year’s harvest. We’ve given big bowls of fresh figs away, eaten big bowls of fresh figs to our individual digestive tracts’ capacities. We are adding fresh figs to our salads; they have become our appetizers.

Still, new figs appear, grow and ripen, until we feel like Mickey Mouse as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice dealing with those multiplying brooms.

Thus I thought it was time to build a solar dryer. You can can and even freeze figs whole in syrup, but they get mushy and certainly lose a lot of their figginess in the transition. However, I’d always heard that the Mission-type figs dry well, and decided to see for myself whether the same could hold true for our Brown Turkeys.

The dryer is a real marvel of technological wonder, thanks to my, um, unique carpentry skills. I searched through the garage and found two nice oak picture frames given to me decades ago, which I sacrificed for conversion. I also found a roll of unused deer netting, which I usually use to keep birds out of our fruit trees.

I screwed eight 6-inch screws into the back of one of the frames, two per side, and eight 2-inch screws at intervals into the back of the other frame. I then folded pieces of the deer netting in half and cut double-layer squares to fit over the picture frames, pulling them tight over the screws.

The frame with the 6-inch screws is the bottom drying shelf, and the other fits nicely on top, with plenty of room in between for air circulation. Then, just to be extra high-tech, I sat both frames on top of four inverted never-before-used 8-inch black plastic plant pots, hoisting the dryer off the ground and providing yet more air circulation.

To try it out, I sorted a heaping colander of brown figs, setting aside the firmest and plumpest for fresh eating, and keeping the more wrinkled in reserve for drying, since they already were part way there.

I rinsed the figs and set them on a board to dry, then cut each one in half and placed the halves skin-side down on the netting stretched across the dryer shelves.

Then I set the dryer up inside a car parked in the blazing 101-degree sun. Never, ever leave your children or pets unattended in a motor vehicle in the South Texas summer sun. But for figs, all such abuse is forgiven. It sounds wacky, but the fruit dried significantly faster in that car – just over two days – than it would have out in the open under the sun. Plus (and it was a big plus) there were no insects in the car, so I didn’t have to provide bug covers, and was able to obtain a cleaner final product.

Once dried, you still need to take steps to kill any possible contaminants on the dried fruit. They may be baked for 10 or 15 minutes in an oven, but I opted to freeze them for four days, which I think will allow them to retain vitamins and texture.

The result is a tasty, extremely sweet and long-lasting snack that, so the kitchen experts say, will last up to two years in the fridge and much longer back in the freezer.

Now if I only had about four more picture frames for a bigger dryer…

This is a Thai variety with large flowers, overlapping pedals shaped like rounded diamonds with some twist to them, and a slightly fruity plumeria fragrance. The color is somewhat akin to dusty rose, or light creamy pink with a hint of brown when a bloom first opens, with a yellow-orange center.

The leaves are dark green, long and narrow, with a slight red edge. The young plant is medium sized with a somewhat thin stem. It’s pretty robust and has held up well in the hot Texas sun, possibly in part because it’s growing on grafted rootstock.

As is usual with most pictures on these pages, click the little one for a bigger image.