Back On The Mic

We’re back after a stretch where life got real fast. I share why the show paused, how my wife’s serious surgery reshaped our days, and why you sometimes have to set aside the things you enjoy to take care of the people you love. The messages, calls, and check-ins meant more than I can say, and that support is part of what helped us steady ourselves again. 

Just as she started doing better, I ended up sick and in the hospital. That experience sparked a surprising reflection on recovery, perspective, and food. After weeks on a clear liquid diet, “normal” meals hit differently, and yes, I even found myself praising hospital food. It’s an honest reminder that you can be health conscious, bike ride, and still get humbled by something you didn’t see coming. 

From there, we turn to one of my favorite pantry experiments: fermented garlic honey. We talk through why people have made it for thousands of years, how fermentation creates gas you need to release, and what changes as it ages from a few weeks to a full year. If you care about gut health, traditional food prep, and simple DIY wellness habits, this is a great place to start. We also get into sourcing: how to spot domestic versus imported garlic by looking for roots, and why that detail exists in the first place. 

And because life isn’t only about health, I share a joyful side story about a peach tree gift that turned into hundreds of peaches, plus a hard truth for gardeners: the best time to plant was yesterday. We wrap by teasing new local restaurant finds and a frank take on tipping culture, including those checkout screens that try to pressure you. Subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review so more listeners can find us.

Transcript

Welcome Back And Theme Music

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Well, we haven't heard this beautiful music in a while. And I'll let you know why. If um if you remember the last few shows, we're gonna turn Tipatina. By the way, I'm the your host, Tim Harrison. This is Tipatina. It's uh Professor Longhair's music. This is done by young man Ethan Lingwood. And my goodness, can he play the piano? So that's why we use it as the intro and the exit exit music. Because it's so good. But at any rate, if you remember the last few

Family Health Comes First

SPEAKER_00 0:55

shows that we did, we had a we had a while we didn't do a show. And we, you know, I explained, look, my wife had, if you like I said, if you listen to the last couple of episodes, uh, you'll you'll you know, she had some some serious surgery done. And so, you know, when that something like that happens, you have to just stop what you're doing, even the things you enjoy, and you take care of your family. And and that's what we did. And so we just had to step away from everything. I but I tell you what, uh the the support and the emails, the texts, phone calls, all my friends, it was just wonderful to have so much support, and and we appreciate it so much. And then as soon as she was, you know, maybe it it took a good while, but she she's getting better at the time, very good condition, everything was going good.

Getting Sick And Rethinking Food

SPEAKER_00 1:50

And lo and behold, I get sick. And I tell you what, this is what I learned about about my some health issues that are going to get better and I'll be fine. One more procedure that has to be done, hospital one night, and I'll be good now. But I tell you what I've learned. Hospital food is actually good after about two weeks of being on a liquid, clear diet. Then when they first sent me out the the, you know, I could eat some mashed potatoes and from the hospital, and you know, them things are nasty. It was so wonderful. I had some some real food I could bite, I could feel in my and you know, and I'm sitting here and you know, we were there, I was there for 11 days, and I'm sitting here thinking, oh the restaurants I've eaten at, and and you know, and it isn't because of bad health, you know. I take care of myself. We, as you know, what we've talked about, we my wife and I, we bike ride, you know, 10, 15 miles every day. So we we really health conscious, we try to keep up with our health, eat right, even though we we like to eat out at restaurants, but still, you know, everybody, you know, you can't control everything. And so, but boy, after after, you know, a certain amount of time, they started letting me eat some solid stuff. And oh my goodness, I was bragging about hospital food, if you can believe that. So, you know, you live and learn. Everything is everything is going good. Like I said, I have one little, I say little, one, one procedure to have done that's gonna fix everything up, and I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be just

Why Call Gary Today

SPEAKER_00 3:30

fine. So, but after, when I'm looking at the show today and deciding what we're gonna talk about and who, and I said, you know what? Definitely gonna get my buddy Gary Pokey on the phone. That's my Cajun friend from down in Louisiana, and and get some little updates from him. But as I was thinking about the show, I passed by my food pantry, and it isn't anything big, just a little something to keep some

Fermented Garlic Honey How It Works

SPEAKER_00 3:55

extra spices in and some food and stuff. And I look up, and if you remember, I did a show on on garlic and honey fermented together. And we did about 72, 75 jars. I remember I told you we we stayed up, Miss Carrie, my wife, Miss Jenny, my daughter. We stayed up to like two in the morning, and they didn't want to, but they did because I was excited about making this new this new thing I found. And so we peeled garlic until about two in the morning. Because I wanted to make a bunch, and I did. I made the 70-something jars, the small masonry jars, uh mason jars. Because I wanted to give some away too, but you have to wait. You know, you can wait two weeks and you can start eating it, and it's good. It it it the honey, and you know, when you first put it in, it's thick, real thick. And man, after about two or three weeks, it gets thin like it's almost water, and it starts turning brown and dark. Well, from what I understand, it doesn't get real good until about a year or two. Well, mine is a little over a year. And I said, Well, absolutely, we're gonna talk about that. The garlic, and you know, it has so many benefits to it, but when you when you put that with with honey, two natural antibiotics, the benefits, the health benefits is incredible. And and all you have to do is just let it sit there until until it gets right. For the first, I think for the first week or two, you have to crack the jar open every morning and let the gas out. But that means it's fermenting and it's so good for your gut. This this this stuff has been around for thousands of years. So anyway, I passed by there and I saw that and I said, My goodness. I said, I, you know, it's time to tell you, because I took a jar out about six months ago and it was delicious, and now it's just incredible. So if you want to, you know, look up a recipe because there's different recipes for how to do it, but garlic and honey fermented together. And and read how to do it or watch a video. That's what I did. You watch, you know, YouTube settles everything. And you come up with a version. You don't have to do that many jars. And if you want to go to Sam's, you can buy, you know, after the fact. We see that Sam's whole

Spotting Domestic Versus Imported Garlic

SPEAKER_00 6:25

sells a quart, almost a quart, a pound of it for uh for $9.99, $9.95, something like that. And Carrie and Ginny were kind of upset because you know, we say, but uh what here's why. I wanted to do domestic garlic. I want to do it hand peeled, I just want to do it all fresh, you know. And most of the garlic we get, as you may know, it it comes, most of it comes from China, which is okay. I don't like the way it's grown there, but but it's that's where most garlic. And now if you want to know how to tell what's domestic and what's foreign, imported, when you go to Walmart, wherever you shop, pick up a pot of garlic and see you know, some of them look like somebody took a uh a grinder and grinded off all the roots that's imported. If you see the little roots coming out of it, that's domestic. And the reason they do that is because anything imported, they don't want any soil bugs or anything that can come and contaminate the soil over here. So that's why when you pick up a thing of garlic and all the roots are gone, well, now you know what's happening. That it's more than like about 90% of the garlic we get come from comes from China. Or a very big percentage. I don't know the exact, but it's very, very high. So anyway, that's a little thought on that.

The Peach Tree That Keeps Giving

SPEAKER_00 7:59

And also, about three, maybe four years ago, I guess more like four years ago, my buddy I was just telling you about, he gave me a peach tree. Now, what went down in South Louisiana, extreme South Louisiana, all along the river parishes, and you get the best citrus and and any other kind of plant, too. It's just so the the soil is so rich. You know, remember for for thousands of years, the Mississippi and and the Chafalaya and all of that just overflowed freely with all of this rich soil from up north and and it's spread out everywhere. Well, that soil's still there, and boy, does it produce. It's incredible. And plus, you get good weather. You know, you don't get too many freezes down way down there. So you come out with some real good. Well, anyway, he gave me a peach tree from his from his place, his property, and the thing was maybe maybe a foot high. Well, since then, for two seasons, I've gotten so many peaches, I I don't know what to do with them. The the tree, I've pruned it away, it was about 19 foot tall. I tr I pruned it back two years ago, and now the thing's back up to probably 20, 20 something foot. It's giant. And when I tell you I got peaches off of it, I'd tell my friends, they'd say, look, come outside and this evening and pick all the peaches you want off the ground because they they would fall every day. Now, the the ones the squirrels would get to, I'd tell we'd throw them way out the way. So then the evening, if you see anything on the ground, you'd probably 20, 30 of them on the ground every evening for maybe a week. I mean, it's not exaggerating. There was hundreds and hundreds. And we gave so many of them away. I still have a refrigerator, probably two, two bags of them. I don't know what we're going to do with them. I try to eat as many as I can. But boy, if you haven't, uh, you know how they say the best time, there's there's there's two best times to plant a fruit tree, uh, whatever you want to plant. Two best times. The best time is yesterday, and the second best time is today. So I, you know, I look back and I'm like, boy, we've been here for 20-something years in Long Beach. Boy, I would have, it would have been great if had I planted other things. And I did plant some other fruit stuff and it's growing fine. But boy, when you think back, if had I just done that, boy, I'd have so many fruit trees. But anyway, you can't do anything about that. So here's uh we have I have so much to catch up on.

Tipping Culture And What’s Next

SPEAKER_00 10:42

So much we have a couple of new restaurants that moved into the area. Fantastic. Oh, I'm gonna do a show. I did a show already on this, but I'm gonna do part of a show, not today coming up, but on on tipping. I I love the tip. I tip more than 20% every time. If it's horrible service, they're gonna get at least 10%. If it's I'm telling you, horrible service, I'm still gonna give them a little something. Maybe they're just having a bad day. I don't know. But it it's it's getting to a point. I went to an ice cream place the other day. Me and my wife, my son, daughter-in-law. So we get, you know, we get ice cream scoops, and so the next thing I know, they turn they turn the screen around to me. And the only option it gives me is big options, you know, 20, 25, or 15, 20, 25, whatever, something like that. Percent. And it's looking, and then in small print at the bottom, it just says, no tip. In other words, you're a cheapskate. So, and and and now you got people behind you, and and they they watching it. I mean, they know what they're doing, but you don't get a tip for scooping me a scoop of ice cream. You you don't do that. You know, at a restaurant, it's different. But what have you found about, and I have an interesting story, a true story about 12 of us going to a restaurant and and what happened with that. I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna tell you about that. Maybe, maybe the next show, we're gonna do that. But at any rate, we're we're we're back. I appreciate everyone, all of you who have just hung in there. And and like I said, the emails, the phone calls, the text messages, the the messaging, it's just been overwhelming. And I thank you so much for it. So so what we're gonna do now, let me see. I'm gonna see if I can get in touch with with Gary. I told him I'd be calling. Uh he said he'd be available. And let me see if I can get him on the line or just check to see if he's online. And if he's on the line already, then he's just sitting there holding. Either way, we're going to we're gonna let me see if I can get him on and we're gonna talk about some other interesting things. So let's hold tight.