Picnic in the Grove

Eastside Road, September 5, 2010—

EVERY NOW AND THEN an old friend, a poet-artist-printer, invites us to his camp in Bohemian Grove for a day of eating, drinking, and conversation. Well: "every now and then" is a bit of an exaggeration; it's been two or maybe three times now, over the course of perhaps twenty years. But it's no exaggeration to call Andrew an old friend, or a poet-artist-printer for that matter, and we always enjoy his company (and that of his sweet Diana), whether in the Grove or elsewhere.

We arrived with a couple of bottles of wine and a book for them, a little before noon, and were surprised to find the Grove virtually deserted — on this Labor Day weekend! What a pleasure to stroll past the various camps among the magnificent redwoods, to smell the bark and the duff, listen to a raven scolding and laughing, discuss the marijuana initiative (I was the only one opposed, to six votes in favor), books, editions, typography, Sicily, gossip, politics (we all agreed that it was a fine thing to be liberal), Berkeley, Italy, Paris…

Oh: and, of course, to eat. Andrew grilled hamburgers; Diana I think had prepared the vegetables — a nice potato salad and a fine mixed salad and, greatly to my pleasure, corn off the cob with red peppers. When I was a kid I always looked forward to Mexicorn, a canned version manufactured in those days by Green Giant. It seemed exotic and sophisticated somehow, like the little green peas packed by the same company, I believe, but marketed with the French label Le Sueur (because, according to Wikipedia, the company was founded in the Minnesota town of that name).

Since then the company was bought by Pillsbury, which later was acquired by General Mills; according to another website, Mexicorn now contains golden whole kernel corn, water, red and green sweet peppers, sugar, and salt; and no doubt a fair amount of water. I see no reason to go back to the canned variety. If I were to make it at home I'd use fresh corn, cut off the cob; today's version was likely based on frozen corn, and why not. In any case it was tasty, and it didn't hurt that we had dessert too, an apple-blackberry cobbler. Thanks, friends.

white Rhone blend, "Madame Preston," Louis Preston Vineyards, 2008; Chianti — damn: forgot to take notes.