B
Tuesday, April 20, 2021
The Observer & Baker City Herald
BETWEEN
THE ROWS
WENDY SCHMIDT
Summery
weather
inspires
planting of
new roses
The last several days have certainly
been spring, bordering on summer
weather in April. I wasn’t done with
spring, but I have no power here, and as
for weather control I can only wish like
everyone else and deal with what I get.
Yesterday and today I spent lots of
time and effort planting three rose
bushes that were shipped to me from a
nursery in Wisconsin. One rose variety
is new to me, the other two I grew in
Missouri.
The “new” rose is “White Meidiland,”
named after the rose breeder who fi rst
grew it. It’s a rose growing in cascades
over slopes, banks, and walls, is pure
white and double and supposed to bloom
from spring until it snows in fall. First
introduced in 1987, this rose is low to
the ground and very full and bushy. I’m
hoping it will be a great addition to the
landscape.
One of the others I planted is “New
Dawn.” It’s a large-fl owered climber
introduced in 1930. I had great success
with it covering an arbor the last time
I grew it. With light pearly-pink color,
lovely double spicy-scented blooms, it
gets a lot of attention on the arbor since
it blooms well all summer.
“William Baffi n” is the fi nal addi-
tion to the garden. A deep pink double
and semi-double fl ower appears in big
clusters. Introduced in 1980, the catalog
says it grows eight to 10 feet tall and is a
large-fl owered climber. Trying to confi ne
it to a trellis or arbor did not happen
for me in Missouri. It grew up through
the wild plum trees and bloomed above
them, at least 15 feet in the air and at
fi rst I couldn’t believe the rose was that
tall. I saved one of the previous year’s
dead canes for a very stout walking
stick. It only has a light fragrance.
There are no secrets to growing huge
rose bushes successfully.
Buy from a reputable company and
only buy roses on their own roots. I no
longer buy grafted rose bushes unless
I’m willing to consider them annuals,
not perennials. If they freeze to the
ground you will still have the same rose.
A grafted rose will send up a plant from
the rootstock (ugly, dark red, semi-
double Dr. Huey usually) if it freezes to
the ground.
See Roses/Page 2B
Hillary Levin/St. Louis Post-Dispatch-TNS
Despite the complex fl avors of a curry, the egg shines through in this egg curry.
C URRYING F AVOR
Daniel Neman
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
My house smells amazing.
I just cooked six types of curry, and my
house smells like a food stall in Calcutta,
or a kitchen in Guangzhou, or a home in
Thailand, or a crowded street in Tibet, or a
cafeteria in Kashmir, or a pub in England.
Actually, it smells like all of them, all at the
same time.
It’s heaven. Absolute culinary heaven.
Curry, in its original incarnation, is any
kind of sauce or gravy in Indian cooking.
Usually, it is heavily seasoned with a mixture
of pungent and potent spices such as cumin,
fennel or cinnamon. The British, who colo-
nized India, loved the fl avor of these dishes
but apparently misinterpreted the Tamil
word “kari,” which might have meant “sauce.”
They thought it meant the assortment of
spices that fl avor it.
Eager to bring these tastes back to Eng-
land, British soldiers blended a mixture of
their favorite Indian spices and called it curry
powder. It is this powder that went around
the world, creating what most of the globe
thinks of as curries.
The exception is Thailand. While some
dishes in that country do use a mixture of
dry spices similar to the English conception
of curry powder, most Thai curries begin with
one of several pastes made from ground-up
herbs.
I set out to do a quick world tour of curries,
looking both at how different countries make
them and different proteins that are used in
them.
I started where curries began, in India, to
Hillary Levin/St. Louis Post-Dispatch-TNS
Dishes made with curry includes this Chicken Fried Rice with Green Curry Paste.
make an egg curry. Egg curries are not as
popular in this country as they are in India,
but they should be. It’s like eating a very
young version of a chicken curry.
I love them. Along with ginger and onion,
the one I made is fl avored with cinnamon,
fennel and turmeric, plus tomatoes. In what
strikes me as a brilliant beginning, the hard-
cooked eggs are browned in hot oil — they’re
really pan-fried, but I don’t want to scare
anyone away with that information — before
the curry is made.
Despite the complexity of the curry, the
bright taste of the egg shines through. It is a
marvelous contrast: the simple purity of the
egg sitting amid a mélange of wonderfully
mild spices.
Next, I headed north to the mountainous
region of Tibet for a chicken curry that is easy
to make. But the stellar fl avor belies its ease
of cooking.
Chickens in Tibet are quite small, about
two pounds each, with fi rm fl esh. In these
respects they are not unlike Cornish game
hens, so I used Cornish game hens to make
mine, but you could use a regular small
chicken.
See Curry/Page 2B
EXPLORING THE HISTORY OF THE 1000-1100 BLOCK OF ADAMS AVENUE
The move to modern buildings — and technology
By Ginny Mammen
The history of the build-
ings in the 1000-1100 block of
Adams Avenue is an interest-
ing one as it was constantly
evolving. As mentioned in the
last article this was very early
on the location of homes and
businesses for many of the
Chinese living in La Grande.
After 1893, most of these previ-
ous buildings were removed
and sites were developed for
new homes and businesses.
The Sanborn Maps from 1903
through 1923 show that sev-
eral fairly large Chinese busi-
nesses had been reestablished
— a laundry and a restaurant.
The building currently
housing Guyer and Associates
CPA’s at 1005 Adams is a new-
comer, having been constructed
on ground that originally
housed a Chinese laundry
which was later converted to
a Chinese restaurant. Accord-
The next building, at 1009
Adams, sits on the former site
of two of the small wood frame
shops that located in this area
in the late 1880s and early
1900s — a stove shop and a
photograph shop. By 1903 the
Sanborn Map shows at this lo-
cation a two story building of-
fering “furnished rooms.” This
had its designation changed to
“Japanese lodgings” in 1910.
Since all of the early build-
ings in downtown La Grande
Fred Hill Collection were wood frame construction
The original building at 1009 Adams Ave. housed a stove it was just a matter of time
shop and photograph shop. A larger, two-story concrete until they would be replaced
building was constructed between 1910 and 1913.
by buildings made of stur-
dier materials. Between 1910
ing to the National Register of rent building was erected for
and 1913 a larger, two-story,
Historic Places, “This structure professional offi ce use.
concrete commercial build-
was probably the last wooden
The new brick building
ing fi nished with stucco was
building associated with the
was constructed by Dr. Robert constructed at 1009 Adams to
nineteenth century Chinese
Stewart to house his medical
house the Home Independent
presence in downtown La
offi ce, which had previously
Telephone Company.
Grande to be demolished. It
been located in the Foley Build-
The year 1898 was when
stood until 1961 until the cur- ing for 14 years.
telephone, telegraph, and
electric lines came to La Grande.
In March of that year The
Observer reported “Mr. S.
Sandburg with a force of ten
men arrived from Hilgard last
night and will begin the work
of placing the telephone wire
for the Inland Telephone Com-
pany.” April 6 news was “La
Grande is becoming quite met-
ropolitan, if innumerable tele-
graph, telephone and electric
wires are an indication.” On
April 9 it was reported, “The
Inland Telephone Company
had had a force of men at work
today putting in the telephone
boxes and a stranger would
almost think that the city was
full of alarm clocks from the
sound of telephone bells.”
By November of 1901 there
were 185 telephones in La
Grande. It appears that Inland
Telephone Company lost
its City franchise in 1907 to
Home Independent Tele-
phone Company. With the
expectation of expansion in
the business, it was probably
wise to move to a new modern
building.
It is interesting to note
that even in those early days
competition was prevalent.
Someone was always ready
to step in to cash in. There
was a lawsuit involving Home
Independent Telephone Com-
pany and the Eastern Oregon
Co-operative Telephone Asso-
ciation over service to various
Eastern Oregon communi-
ties according to a May 1913
Observer. Then in 1929 Home
was taken over by West Coast
Telephone.
1009 Adams was still home
to the telephone business in
1925. It is currently the loca-
tion for two businesses — Bugs
and Butterfl ies and Brother
Bear Cafe.
Keep looking up! Enjoy!