north coast almanack / By Amy Stewart

August 1-15, 2010

(July 29, 2010)  Aug. 1: This is how gardeners in Anchorage grow pumpkins: Submerge a seedling heat mat just underground, plug it into an outdoor electrical outlet, and plant a pumpkin next to it. Cover the plant with a plastic hoophouse frame and drape it with floating row cover, which must be anchored down with bricks. To avoid overheating, or the accumulation of moisture and the resulting powdery mildew, the row cover should be lifted off on fair days. At the end of the season, these dedicated gardeners are rewarded with — well. Pumpkins.

Aug. 2: The sea otter is the largest member of the weasel family.

the earth has entered the path of comet swift-tuttle, which first passed by when Abraham Lincoln was President…

GALLERY >

Aug. 3: International Friendship Day. Also: National Watermelon Day. Somehow they go together.

Aug. 4: A monk named Dom Pierre Pérignon said “Come quickly, I am drinking the stars” on this night in 1693 when he announced his invention of champagne. This story would be wonderful if it was true; most likely it is not. Some sort of sparkling wine was already in production in France before he came along, although it was most likely unpalatable. That lovely quote about drinking the stars can be traced back no further than a champagne advertising poster from the late 19th century. Nonetheless, Dom Pérignon is credited with replacing a piece of wadded-up hemp with a cork stopper to prevent fermenting bottles from erupting, and some say that he perfected a method for crushing a red-skinned grape and getting white wine from it, which allowed the Pinot Noir grape to be used in champagne. Although the story may be apocryphal, and the date meaningless, it is as good an excuse as any to open a bottle and toast champagne’s birthday.

Aug. 5: Experts advise opening a bottle of champagne by holding the bottle at an angle, gripping the cork and slowly turning the bottle.

Aug. 6: The ultimate strength of any material is the unit stress that exists in a body when the external force is just sufficient to break it.

Aug. 7: Many states offer a sales tax holiday around this time to allow for the tax-free purchase of school supplies and fall clothing. Such an idea has not been considered here.

Aug. 8: It is standard practice for Alaska gardeners to fill hanging baskets with fuchsias, begonias and blooming annuals in the summer, then send them off to a garden center for boarding in the fall. The garden centers, having little else to do in an Alaska winter, charge $5 per month to hang the baskets in their greenhouses and keep them watered and fed. It is quite a spectacle, in the middle of winter, to visit a greenhouse and see the townspeople’s baskets suspended there, in full bloom, a tag attached to each one with the name of the owner printed on it. On the day the baskets are to be released to their owners, the garden centers hire off-duty police officers to direct traffic. Some gardeners keep baskets going for 20 years in this manner. Others move to Hawaii.

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