(top) For the second time in 3 years, Mathia Willemijn won the world record for his behemoth pumpkin weighing 2,624.6 pounds. (all the rest) Carving pumpkins is really fun. Simple to complex there are some very creative people out there. And no matter how old you are Halloween is as fun as it is tiring.
While driving down to Heat Treat 2017 in Columbus, Ohio this year (GO BUCYEYES), I started thinking about our plans for Halloween, decorating, pumpkin pie (of course), and getting our pumpkins for carving with the girls. Growing up, we would all have a pumpkin to carve and once completed we would place then on a long piece of wood in the from yard supported on two saw horses. Now having 20 pumpkins in a row was quite a sight! As I got older and had a family of my own, Jackie, the girls and I would go to our favorite pumpkin farm where they had a great deal! All the pumpkins you could pick up at one time for $10.00. So…. any of you who know me most likely know what would happen next. I needed to pick up 6 pumpkins and they all had to be the same size – carvable! I am happy to say – Success! Over the years I had to sadly give up that tradition. Now, I am only allowed to carve pumpkins if I promise to be good and minimize the use of power tools! (Spade drills work really well!) I digress, now with time to wander, I was wondering what the world’s largest pumpkin is these days, who holds the record, and where it sits. So, at a rest stop, I typed into my phone, and found – Ready – Mathias Willemijns, from Belgium, at the 2017 Giant Pumpkin European championship in Ludwigsburg, Germany on October 9th, weighed in at 2,624.6 pounds. WHAT??? Here’s some more fun history and trivia to go along with the newest record – Good luck carving.
Mathias Willemijns grew a pumpkin of proportions not seen until this year. The Belgian man set a world record last week with a super squash that weighed 2,624.6 pounds. Guinness World Records has yet to confirm it.
The previous world-record pumpkin was 2,323 pounds. Swiss grower Beni Meier set that record in 2014 at a weigh-off at the same event.
The first European settlers were stunned by our Native American’s ample crop of squash, which they mistook for melon. Centuries later Irish immigrants abandoned the turnips they carved for jack-o-lanterns on All Hallows Eve, and replaced them with pumpkins, giving us our doorstep decorating traditions we still use today.
For many years, record-setting pumpkins – a variety of Cucurbita maxima, bred in Nova Scotia, was the standard, raised in cool-weather New England, where summer days are in the mid 80’s, maximizing photosynthesis without desiccating the bloated fruit, along with bonus sunlight throughout the growing season.
In the US, during June, giant pumpkins are growing exponentially, and by August, they’re packing on one to two pounds per hour, while guzzling about 100 gallons of water per day.
Many pumpkins are raised by amateur growers, who keep daily diaries filled with secrets. Genetic lines include Pleasure Dome and Freak 2, with individual seeds we’d normally bake, salt and eat, selling at auction for almost $2,000.
The shift to European champions is rather recent, with the first German gourd-baking championship and pumpkin expo in 2001. Since then, old world growers are clustering in northern Europe, using high tech greenhouses, heating, air conditioning, irrigation systems, and automatic fertilization.
The current winner, Mathias Willemijns, is the lead technician at a large vegetable research center, and uses his own 130 foot poly tunnel to handle only four large pumpkins. Soil nutrient nanotechnology and genetic technologies lead to bigger crops and faster growth.
Matt DeBacco of Rocky Hill, Connecticut has developed special blends that has excited the growers, and been a boom for the cannabis industry as well.
In the madcap world of competitive horticulture, the record holders are: Carrot: 20 pounds, Zucchini: 64.49 pounds, Radish: 68.9 pounds, Green cabbage: 138.25 pounds, Watermelon: 350.5 pounds.
Thank you Pintrest – here’s a link to the top carving designs – have fun!! (and send me photos)
There’s no shortage of coffee love in the world and I’m a big supporter of that love. (bottom left) I just had to share this unusual, fun, hand-made mug. Get yours HERE. (bottom right) I love my guest mugs. I use them in customer meetings and when friends stop by. If you’re really, really nice to me I’ll give you one to take home.
I stopped by one of our local coffee shops this morning to visit with a business partner, and enjoyed a fresh cup of delicious coffee. Wow. The aroma, taste, color, temperature and texture was amazing. Being the senior “PIA Job” solver at the company, I of course was wondering “how do they do it”? Was it the beans, the water, the brewing temperature, the cup, the artisans, the setting, or the time of day … just what were the ingredients that made it taste so good. Of course, when I got back to the office, I had a cup of my KHT Mr. Coffee “drip-drip” special coffee … and it was just not the same (by a long shot!). Now, don’t ask my staff how I make mine at the office, they have been judging me for years! So instead, I went digging online and found a detailed, “scientific” article from Smithsonian called – The Chemistry and Physics Behind the Perfect Cup of Coffee – How science helps your barista brew your espresso perfectly every time, (personally, I would have tried for a shorter title!) and just had to share the highlights with you. Thanks to Smithsonian.com and writer Christopher Hendon for the bulk of the article! Enjoy.
Coffee is unique among artisanal beverages in that the brewer plays a significant role in its quality or lack thereof at the point of consumption. In contrast, as drinkers of different preferred beverages we buy, for example, milk (whole, 1%, 2%), juice (pulp, no-pulp), draft beer (spiced, hoppy, light, heavy) and wine (red, white, sweet, silky) as finished products, the only consumer-controlled variable is temperature at which we drink them. So, why is it that coffee produced by a barista at a cafe always tastes different than the same beans brewed at home?
According to scientists, the variables of temperature, water chemistry, particle size distribution, ratio of water to coffee, filter/soak time and, perhaps most importantly, the quality of the green coffee all play crucial roles in producing a tasty cup. It’s how we control these variables that allows for that cup to be reproducible.
Brew Method:
We humans seem to like drinks that contain coffee constituents (organic acids, Maillard products, esters and heterocycles, to name a few) at 1.2 to 1.5 percent by mass (as in filtered coffee), and favor drinks containing 8 to 10 percent by mass (as in espresso). Concentrations outside of these ranges are challenging to execute. There are a limited number of technologies that achieve 8 to 10 percent concentrations, the espresso machine being the most familiar. Many Middle Eastern countries brew their coffee even denser/stronger, and serve less of it in tiny cups (think turbo-charged caffeine).
There are many ways, though, to achieve a drink containing 1.2 to 1.5 percent coffee. Purists prefer using a “pour-over”, a Turkish, Arabic, Aeropress, French press, siphon or a batch brew (that is, regular drip) apparatus – each producing coffee that tastes good around these concentrations. These brew methods also boast an advantage over their espresso counterpart: They are cheap.
When coffee meets water:
There are two families of brewing device within the low-concentration methods – those that fully immerse the coffee in the brew water and those that flow the water through the coffee bed. From a physical perspective, the major difference is that the temperature of the coffee particulates is higher in the full immersion system. The slowest part of coffee extraction is not the rate at which compounds dissolve from the particulate surface. Rather, it’s the speed at which coffee flavor moves through the solid particle to the water-coffee interface. Surprising, this speed is increased with a rise in temperature. (just like heat treating!)
A higher particulate temperature means that more of the tasty compounds trapped within the coffee particulates will be extracted. But higher temperature also lets more of the unwanted compounds dissolve in the water, too. The Specialty Coffee Association presents a flavor wheel to help us talk about these flavors – from green/vegetative or papery/musty through to brown sugar or dried fruit.
Pour-overs and other flow-through systems are more complex. Unlike full immersion methods where time is controlled, flow-through brew times depend on the grind size since the grounds control the flow rate. (Just like grain size for my metallurgist friends!)
Also, the water-to-coffee ratio matters, too, in the brew time. Simply grinding the coffee more finely to increase the extraction invariably changes the brew time, as the water seeps more slowly through finer grounds. One can increase the water-to-coffee ratio by using less coffee, but as the mass of coffee is reduced, the brew time also decreases. Optimization of filter coffee brewing is hence multidimensional and more tricky than full immersion methods.
Other variables to try to control:
Even if you can optimize your brew method and apparatus to precisely mimic your favorite barista, there is still a near-certain chance that your home or work brew will taste different from the cafe’s. There are three subtleties that have tremendous impact on the coffee quality: water chemistry, particle size distribution produced by the grinder and coffee freshness.
First, water chemistry: Given that coffee is an acidic beverage, the acidity of your brew water can have a big effect. Brew water containing low levels of both calcium ions and bicarbonate (HCO₃⁻) – that is, soft water – will result in a highly acidic cup, sometimes described as sour. Brew water containing high levels of HCO₃⁻ – typically, hard water – will produce a chalky cup, as the bicarbonate has neutralized most of the flavorsome acids in the coffee. Ideally we want to brew coffee with water containing chemistry somewhere in the middle. But there’s a good chance you don’t know the bicarbonate concentration in your own tap water, and a small change makes a big difference. To taste the impact, try brewing coffee with Evian – one of the highest bicarbonate concentration bottled waters, at 360 mg/L.
Second, particle size: The particle size distribution your grinder produces is critical, too. Every coffee enthusiast will rightly tell you that blade grinders are disfavored because they produce a seemingly random particle size distribution; there can be both powder and essentially whole coffee beans coexisting. The alternative, a burr grinder, features two pieces of metal with teeth that cut the coffee into progressively smaller pieces. They allow ground particulates through an aperture only once they are small enough. Of course, there is contention over how to optimize grind settings when using a burr grinder. One school of thought supports grinding the coffee as fine as possible to maximize the surface area, which lets you extract the most delicious flavors in higher concentrations. The rival school advocates grinding as coarse as possible to minimize the production of fine particles that impart negative flavors. Perhaps the most useful advice here is to determine what you like best based on your taste preference.
Finally, the freshness of the coffee itself is crucial. Roasted coffee contains a significant amount of CO₂ and other volatiles trapped within the solid coffee matrix: Over time these gaseous organic molecules will escape the bean. Fewer volatiles means a less flavorful cup of coffee. Most cafes will not serve coffee more than four weeks out from the roast date, emphasizing the importance of using freshly roasted beans. One can mitigate the rate of staling by cooling the coffee, as described by the Arrhenius equation. While you shouldn’t chill your coffee in an open vessel (unless you want fish finger brews), storing coffee in an airtight container in the freezer will significantly prolong freshness. You can always invest in a vacuum container to keep your coffee fresh!
So, don’t feel bad that your carefully brewed cup of coffee at home never stacks up to what you buy at the café. There are a lot of variables – scientific and otherwise – that must be wrangled to produce a single superlative cup. Take comfort that most of these variables are not optimized by some mathematical algorithm, but rather by somebody’s tongue. What’s most important is that your coffee tastes good to you… brew after brew.
Some of the favorite Places in Cleveland for a Great Cup of Coffee:
Rising Star Coffee Roasters – 1455 W. 29th Street or 2187 Murray Hill Rd (Edgehill)
Erie Island Coffee – 2057 E. 4th Street or 19300 Detroit Rd (Rocky River)
Phoenix Coffee – 3000 Bridge Avenue, (W. 30th)
Loop Coffee – 2180 W 11th Street or 1700 E 9th Street
I just love baseball!! Organized leagues or pick-up games with friends or family what a great sport of skill and comradery. And it’s definitely not just for boys! (bottom) Check out this super slo-mo of a ball hitting the bat HERE. More video links below.
Sad. Lethargic. Just not right today. My beloved Indians are no longer in the hunt this year. Like you, I was hanging on to every pitch, every at bat, every move by the managers – hoping for a hit, or wishing for a swing and a miss. What an amazing game. Through all the data, and pontificators, as the experts will say, most believe in the playoffs, it all comes down to pitching. And, with the best pitcher in the American League this year, and the best bullpen and closer, I really thought we were headed to the big show again. But alas, “maybe next year.” On the “fun” side, watching the games, it did get me a thinkin’… just how do those guys throw those pitches and make the ball move the way it does. So, I went to discover some cool facts for you, and some interesting trivia, “just because”. Enjoy, and thanks to Mentalfloss.com and factretriver.com.
When watching from home, or listening in on the radio, we hear a lot of talk about what kind of pitch was just thrown, will be thrown, should be thrown, might be thrown, or, perhaps, shouldn’t have been thrown at all. Cutters, sliders, sinkers and more. Here’s how they work:
Fastball – This is the basic, most important pitch in baseball. The first two fingers rest just on (or inside) the seams and the pitcher releases the pitch with the palm pretty much facing the batter, producing maximum velocity. How fast are we talking? Generally, in the 90-95 mph range, though some pitchers have been known to easily hurl over 100 mph. Technically, what most pitchers throw is called a two-seam fastball and produces a sidespin that causes the ball to cut in as it approaches the batter. There are other varieties, like the 4-seam fastball, which is thrown by holding the ball with the seams horizontal, rather than vertical. This produces backspin, which creates high pressure under the ball and low pressure on top resulting in the illusion of the ball rising (actually the ball isn’t rising, just falling more slowly than it would normally). There’s also a split-finger fastball where the first two fingers split, or straddle the seams, which causes the ball to drop a little as it approaches the plate. Despite the movement, the basic idea of a fastball is to overpower the batter, so he swings late and misses.
Sinker – If you’ve ever played wiffle ball, you know the ball rises, falls, and curves in and away from a batter depending on where you position the air holes in the ball. Likewise, in baseball, a pitcher can create movement and variation in speed depending on how he releases the ball, or how he spins the ball. Off-speed pitches, like the sinker, are pitches that are released with the palm of the hand facing away from the pitcher. This causes the ball to sink as it approaches the batter. The idea here is to either get him to swing over the ball and miss, or, if he connects with the pitch, to produce a ground ball, rather than a line drive.
Changeup – A changeup is like a sinker, in that it’s an off-speed pitch, only the palm is turned even further out. All off-speed pitches are similar in that they’re thrown with less velocity than the fastball. But the batter doesn’t know when one is coming because a good pitcher is able to use the same arm speed as he does for the fastball. So to throw it with less velocity, the pitcher presses the baseball deep into his palm. Less finger contact means less torque and less velocity. If a batter is expecting a fastball, slowing down, or “changing up” the speed to, say, 87 mph can trip him up and he’ll swing ahead of the ball. Great pitchers can build an entire career on the changeup because they’re able to slow it down all the way to around 80 mph. If they can throw a fastball around 95 mph, that’s a whopping 15 mph slower and really confuses the batter.
Screwball – This is another off-speed pitch that not only sinks, but moves from the pitcher’s left side to the right as it approaches the batter (opposite for lefties). The palm is again pronated away from the pitcher, even further than the sinker and changeup. As the pitcher releases the ball, he twists the ball like a corkscrew. A left-handed batter will see the ball break away from him and a right-handed batter will experience the opposite, as the ball breaks in on him (the reverse is true if the pitcher is left-handed, of course).
Cutter – Turning the palm in the opposite direction produces a series of pitches known as breaking pitches. The first stop over from the fastball is the cutter, which is like a fastball, only it breaks in ever so slightly and is generally thrown a few mphs slower than a fastball. The further the palm is rotated toward the pitcher, the more movement (in most cases, but not all). Major league pitchers can create amazing movement in and out from a batter, disguising the pitch to look like a fastball, but then it “cuts” away.
Slider – Basically the same thing as a cutter, a slider is thrown with less velocity than the former and the palm is rotated further toward the pitcher. The slower speed means there’s more time for the ball to move, or slide, from one side of the plate to the other.
Curveball (my favorite) – A good curveball can be devastating, and also fun to watch. These are the pitches that appear to arc up toward the batter’s chest (or even head) before dropping into the strike zone like a bomb as they reach the plate. Of course, not every successful curveball pitcher throws the large arc variety and they need not be so dramatic. Even a small arc keeps the hitter off balance. The pitcher turns his palm in so far that his hand looks like the letter “C.” He then flicks his wrist as he releases the ball (the opposite direction from the screwball) creating topspin. The more topspin, the greater the air pressure difference between the top and bottom of the ball, and the greater the break.
And some “I didn’t know that” fun trivia:
The unofficial anthem of American baseball, “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” is traditionally sung during the middle of the 7th inning. It was written in 1908 by Jack Norworth and Albert von Tilzer, both of whom had never been to a baseball game.
The life span of a major league baseball is 5–7 pitches. During a typical game, approximately 70 balls are used
A “can of corn” is an easy fly ball. The term comes from when old-time grocers used their aprons to catch cans knocked from a high shelf.
“Soaking” was a very early baseball rule that allowed a runner who was off base to be put out by throwing a ball at him.
The most innings ever played in a major League baseball game was 26 innings on May 1, 1920, when the Brooklyn Dodgers played the Boston Braves.
The longest game on record was between the Chicago White Sox and the visiting Milwaukee Brewers on May 9, 1984. The game lasted 8 hours 6 minutes and went 25 innings.
A big-league player can hit a 90-mph pitch with more than 8,000 pounds during the millisecond that the bat is in contact with the baseball. The ball leaves the bat at a speed of 110 -125 mph.
A player increases his chance of hitting a home run if he hits the baseball at the bat’s “sweet spot.” This spot is an area between 5 and 7 inches from the barrel end of the bat. When a player hits the sweet spot, there is less vibration, and the bat makes a satisfying “crack” sound.
The probable MLBrecord is Leon Cadore of the Brooklyn Dodgers who pitched every inning of a 26-inning game in 1920. It is estimated that he threw 360 pitches over the course of the game. His opponent on the mound, Joe Oeschger of the Boston Braves, also pitched all 26 innings and threw an estimated 319 pitches.
While no records formally exist, it is believed Steve Kowalski can “out eat” most fans in a nine- inning game. This includes peanuts, popcorn, nachos, hot dogs, and the burger of the day.
Some Cool Video Links:
Fun – Grips and crazy ball movements:
University of Massachusetts, Lowell, Baseball Research Center:
(row one) rough drawing of the drinking tube, Joseph B. Friedman and his more refined patent drawing; (row two) The Flex-Straw was first marketed to hospitals; In the early 1950’s, Roy Rogers endorsed the Flex-Straw in an ad aimed at kids; (row three) The Flex-Straw infused with strawberry, chocolate and coffee (for mom?); 1940s – 1950s packaging. (other images) These straws were totally made for sharing a beverage with your BFF…or not.
Problem solving and ideas – the “backbone and spirit” of Kowalski Heat Treating – it’s what keeps us on “our game” every single day and what our customers expect from us – solving your pesky PIA (Pain In The @#$) Jobs. As the guy at the top, like most leaders, I get such a charge when my folks come in and say “Steve, we’ve worked on a bunch of different solutions, and we’re pretty sure we got it.” BAM. Just like that, problem solved. And the best part for me is when I get to pick up the phone and call my customers and say – “yep, we figured it out”.
Recently I was reading an article about an inventor who was born in Cleveland back in 1900, and invented, to this day, one of my all-time favorites – the bendy straw. Like so many inventors, he saw a problem (this one happened to be with his daughter and sitting at a soda shop), experimented, came up with a solution, and then went on to prototyping, a patent and manufacturing. So, to fully enjoy this post, make yourself a yummy root beer and ice cream float, (oh yea, one of my favorites), put in a flexible straw, sit back and enjoy the read. I’m not sure about you all, but one of my favorite things is to blow bubbles in the glass – certainly takes me back and Jackie will just shake her head, again! Special thanks to Smithsonian, Wikipedia and the Atlantic Magazine for confirming the facts for me. And thanks Joe for your problem-solving solution – KHT salutes you!
Historians don’t know what civilization first came up with the idea of sticking tubes into cups and slurping, but the earliest evidence of straws comes from a seal found in a Sumerian tomb dated 3,000 B.C. It shows two men using what appear to be straws taking beer from a jar. (BRILLIANT!) In the same tomb, archeologists also found history’s first known straw – a tube made from gold and the precious blue stone lapis lazuli.
In the 1880’s, gentlemen sipped their whiskey through long tubes made of natural rye that lent a grassy flavor to whatever drink they plopped in. For many centuries, it was not uncommon to order a gin and tonic and wind up drinking it infused with natural grass flavors. Marvin Chester Stone didn’t have much patience when it came to non-mint plants floating around in his mint julep, and did something. He reinvented the straw.
In his first try, he wound paper around a pencil to make a thin tube, slid out the pencil from one end, and applied glue between the strips. Voila: paper straw! Also: glue? Stone refined it by building a machine to wind paper into a tube and coat the outside with a paraffin wax to keep it from melting in bourbon. He patented the product in 1888. Today, Marvin Chester Stone is considered the godfather of the paper straw.
Joseph B. Friedman, born October 9, 1900 in Cleveland, Ohio, was a first generation American and the fifth of eight children. An independent American inventor with a broad range of interests and ideas, Friedman is credited with inventing the flexible straw.
By the age of fourteen, Friedman conceptualized his first invention, the lighted pencil, which he deemed the “pencilite,” and was attempting to market his idea. Over the course of his inventing career, he would experiment with ideas ranging from writingimplements to engine improvements, and household products to sound and optic
In the 1920s, Friedman began his education in real estateand optometry. He would use both of these careers at different points in his life to supplement his income while improving his invention concepts. Although he was working as a realtor in San Francisco, California, ]the 1930s proved to be his most prolific patenting period, with six of his nine U.S. patents being issued then.
While sitting in his younger brother Albert’s fountain parlor, the Varsity Sweet Shop in San Francisco, Friedman observed his young daughter Judith at the counter, struggling to drink out of a straight straw. Sitting on the stool, the cool beverage was too high on the counter to reach. Afterwards back home, he took a paper straight straw, inserted a screw and using dental floss, he wrapped the paper into the screw threads, creating corrugations in the straw barrel. After removing the screw, the altered paper straw could now bend conveniently over the edge of the glass, allowing small children to better reach their beverages.
After fine tuning his approach, U.S. patent #2,094,268 was issued for this new invention under the title Drinking Tube. Friedman would later file and be issued two additional U.S. patents and three foreign patents in the 1950s relating to its formation and construction. In his application, he wrote:
“Applicant has met a problem long existing in the art. A view of any soda fountain on a hot day, with the glasses showing innumerable limp and broken straws drooping over the edges thereof, will immediately show that this problem has long existed. Where we have the conditions where certainly the straw is old, where corrugated tubing is old, and where no inventor, during those years, has seen fit or has been able to solve this problem, whereas applicant did, that situation alone is prima facie evidence of invention.”
–courtesy of the Joseph B. Friedman Papers, 1915 – 2000, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.
Friedman attempted to sell his straw patent to several existing straw manufacturers beginning in 1937 without success, so after completing his straw machine, he began to produce the straw himself. Friedman’s younger English relative, Michael Fabricant, would later write that his great uncle’s invention was “arguably the most significant technological achievement of the twentieth century”
On April 24, 1939, The Flexible Straw Corporationwas incorporated. However, World War II interrupted Friedman’s efforts to construct his straw manufacturing machine. During the war, he managed the optometry practice of Arthur Euler, O.D., in Capwells’ Department Store in Oakland, California, and continued to sell real estate and insurance to support his growing family.
Friedman obtained financial backing for his flexible straw machine from two of his brothers-in-law, Harry Zavin and David Light, as well as from Bert Klein, a family associate. With their financial help, and the business advice of his sister Betty, Friedman completed the first flexible straw manufacturing machine in the late 1940s. Although his original concept had come from the observation of his daughter, the flexible straw was initially marketed to hospitals, with the first sale made in 1947.
Betty Friedman played a crucial role in the development of the Flexible Straw Corporation. While still living in Cleveland and working at the Tarbonis Company, she corresponded regularly with her brother and directed all of the sales and distribution of the straw. In 1950 Friedman moved his family and company to Santa Monica, California. Now doing business as the Flex-Straw Co., sales continued to increase and the marketing direction expanded to focus more strongly on the home and child markets. Betty Friedman moved west in 1954 to assume her formal leadership role in the corporation.
On June 20, 1969, the Flexible Straw Corporation sold its United States and foreign patents, United States and Canadiantrademarks, and licensing agreements to the Maryland Cup Corporation, and the Flexible Straw Corporation dissolved in August 1969.
https://www.khtheat.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/khtheat-logo-8-14-14.png00Steve Kowalskihttps://www.khtheat.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/khtheat-logo-8-14-14.pngSteve Kowalski2017-10-06 14:30:072017-10-06 14:02:17I have a solution…
