GEORGE SHIRLEY

[Melba's Jammin']

The old goat died at 12:30 a.m. this morning, December 27, 2019. I had
a note from his daughter on behalf of George's wife Anne.
He was a knowledgeable food preserver who loved to share what he knows
about the subject -- or any other. It was my pleasure to be a guest in
the Shirley home when they lived in SW Louisiana.

He was a tough bird who served his country proudly in the United States
Navy and who prevailed over several mini strokes that ultimately took
their toll.

Keep Anne and George and their family in your prayers. His daughter
Merrie said he and the love of his life, "Miz Anne" observed their 59th
wedding anniversary yesterday. God rest his weary soul.


Barb
www.barbschaller.com, last update April 2013

[Boron Elgar]

Dammit.

[Nyssa]

Oh, no! Such sad news to end the year on.

I often think of George when I'm planning or working in my
garden.

He was such a font of wisdom and knowledge and wasn't shy
about sharing it with others. I've mentioned some of the
info from his posts to friends, always giving him credit
and wishing he were still posting to this and the garden
newsgroups.

A good life. I can only hope his last months were full of
Miz Anne and his family rather than pain and discomfort.
My thoughts are with them today.

R.I.P. George. You will be remembered and missed.

Nyssa, who is trying to pay it forward and share things
she'd learned from George's posts over the years

[songbird]

he always said he never expected to get very far as his
family history was poor but the medicos kept him going
quite a lot longer.

59 years with love. lucky guy.

RIP George. my thoughts are with the family and i hope
that Miz Anne is taken care of and has loving family around
to help out.


songbird

[Melba's Jammin']

I should have proofed this better. "Merrie said SHE (Miz Anne) was
the love of his life."
Dammit about says it, Boron. When I visited him and Anne 12-1/2 years
ago in Sulphur, he gave me a crash course in pressure canning. And I
think Tillie Dawg was still with them. George was very proud of Anne's
artwork and I bought a painting from her. I liked her work, too.
Lovely woman. Their 59th wedding anniversary was the day before he
died.

--

[Melba's Jammin']

Well said, Nyssa. He'd been quite ill since an October heart attack.
He received hospice care at home. His ashes will be put aboard a Navy
vessel and dispersed over deep water. God rest his soul. He was a
good guy.
--
--

[Melba's Jammin']

On 2019-12-28 14:29:56 +0000, songbird said:

Melba's Jammin' wrote:

(snipped)

>> Keep Anne and George and their family in your prayers. His daughter
>> Merrie said he and the love of his life, "Miz Anne" observed their 59th
>> wedding anniversary yesterday. God rest his weary soul.
>
> he always said he never expected to get very far as his
> family history was poor but the medicos kept him going
> quite a lot longer.
>
> 59 years with love. lucky guy.
>
> RIP George. my thoughts are with the family and i hope
> that Miz Anne is taken care of and has loving family around
> to help out.
>
>
> songbird

I think she'll be okay, although I don't imagine she was an awful lot
younger than he. The move to Texas was to bring them closer to kin.
--
--

[Melba's Jammin']

On 2019-12-28 23:00:37 +0000, heyjoe said:

> On Fri, 27 Dec 2019 21:37:11 -0600

> in Message-ID: <news:2019122721371174218-thetattooedlady@gmailcom>
> Melba's Jammin' wrote :

>
>> died at 12:30 a.m. this morning, December 27, 2019.
>

> So sorry to hear this. I've missed his wit and wisdom for a couple of
> years - and now . . . never to return.
>
> Hoping he passed at home in comfort and surrounded by those he loved.
>
> God Bless, George and yours.

Amen.
--
--

[Unknown]

I found the link to Jorge's obituary:
https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/americanpress/obituary.aspx?n=george-milton-shirley&pid=194910452


Barb, 1-4-2020
--
--

[Drew Lawson]

In article <2019122721371174218-thetattooedlady@gmailcom>

Melba's Jammin' <thetatt...@gmail.com> writes:
>The old goat died at 12:30 a.m. this morning, December 27, 2019.

Once again, I fall offline at the wrong time.

I only knew George from this group, but he shared so much --
knowledge, his history, events in his life and family -- that I
felt like he was an old friend.

This past spring, when the group was seasonally quiet, spring fever
had me itching to can something, or at least read about canning.
So I zapped my usenet setup and got all the posts my provider had
for this group. That turned out to be about 13 years. So I am
still wandering through discussions from before George moved to
Texas.

Given my slow reading, I'll be enjoying George's posts for several
more years.

He even has my bland palleted self looking at peppers in seed
catalogs and considering pepper sauce.

Thank you, George, for all you gave and shared.

--
Drew Lawson | Radioactive cats have
| 18 half-lives
|

[Bass...@nowhere.com]

George was a very knowledgeable & generous man, I was lucky to have met him
online & he was kind enough to give me a lot of good advice. I will think of
him when I plant this year. John

[Kate]

Thank you for posting, Barb. I haven't been on this forum much in recent years but always liked to stop back in and see a message from George. What an interesting and worthwhile life he led. He always seemed a like a kind person and it was apparently how much he cared for Miz Anne even via his posts here. The kind of relationship everyone would be lucky to have.

I'd been wondering how he was a few weeks ago and I'm sorry to hear the news. Sending good thoughts to his family.

Kate

[Drew Lawson]

In article <2020010409...@news.iphouse.com>

Melba's Jammin' writes:
>
>I found the link to Jorge's obituary:
>https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/americanpress/obituary.aspx?n=george-milton-shirley&pid=194910452
>
>
>Barb, 1-4-2020

I kept marking this post as unread, as I wasn't ready to read it.

Having read the obit, and reflecting on George's stories over the
years, it feels too short. I shared the view, that I think others
voiced, that George should have written a book on his experiences.

I never voiced the suggestion, as I had the impression he wouldn't
have seen the value in it. But I would have loved to read that
book.


--
Drew Lawson | Though it's just a memory,
| some memories last forever

[Nyssa]

Drew Lawson wrote:

> In article <2020010409...@news.iphouse.com>
> Melba's Jammin' writes:
>>
>>I found the link to Jorge's obituary:
>>https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/americanpress/obituary.aspx?n=george-milton-
shirley&pid=194910452
>>
>>
>>Barb, 1-4-2020
>
> I kept marking this post as unread, as I wasn't ready to
> read it.
>
> Having read the obit, and reflecting on George's stories
> over the
> years, it feels too short. I shared the view, that I
> think others voiced, that George should have written a
> book on his experiences.
>
> I never voiced the suggestion, as I had the impression he
> wouldn't
> have seen the value in it. But I would have loved to read
> that book.
>
>

I agree.

I'm wondering if we could somehow gather George's old
posts from this group and rec.gardens.edible and arrange
them into some sort of digital format books.

Saving and savoring his words of wisdom, jelly-making,
gardening methods, and just plain good humor would make
the effort worth it, at least to me.

Anyone have an archive of old posts from rfp and rge
they could share with someone who could work on this
project?

I'd be glad to help with the sorting and formatting, but
I don't have the raw article archive to start with.

Nyssa, who doesn't really net Yet Another Project, but feels
that this one would be more than worth the effort and is
willing to try

[Drew Lawson]

In article <r079h1$mis$1...@dont-email.me>
Ny...@LogicalInsight.net writes:

>Drew Lawson wrote:
>
>> Having read the obit, and reflecting on George's stories
>> over the
>> years, it feels too short. I shared the view, that I
>> think others voiced, that George should have written a
>> book on his experiences.
>>
>> I never voiced the suggestion, as I had the impression he
>> wouldn't
>> have seen the value in it. But I would have loved to read
>> that book.
>>
>I agree.
>
>I'm wondering if we could somehow gather George's old
>posts from this group and rec.gardens.edible and arrange
>them into some sort of digital format books.
>
>Saving and savoring his words of wisdom, jelly-making,
>gardening methods, and just plain good humor would make
>the effort worth it, at least to me.
>
>Anyone have an archive of old posts from rfp and rge
>they could share with someone who could work on this
>project?

I have r.f.p back to 2003 (all my provider had last early spring),
it is about 31900 posts (one file per post), with the oldest from
2003. That is 22 MB compressed.

I could filter those down to posts from George. Quick try says
that is 3966 posts in r.f.p. So about 3 MB compressed.

Checking r.g.e, I only have current things, but the earliest post
on giganews is also 2003. I could bundle that up. (Started the
fetch. Looks like it is 150k posts, so may take some time. After
that, grabbing just George's should be fast.)

But I wouldn't have a clue as to how to organize any of this.

>I'd be glad to help with the sorting and formatting, but
>I don't have the raw article archive to start with.
>
>Nyssa, who doesn't really net Yet Another Project, but feels
>that this one would be more than worth the effort and is
>willing to try
>

--
Drew Lawson | It's not enough to be alive
| when your future's been deferred

[Bloke Down The Pub]

<Melba's Jammin'> wrote in message
news:2020010409...@news.iphouse.com...

I enjoyed George's posts and am very sorry to see him gone. I read the
obit. and he still managed to surprise me. Apart from the shirt, he looked
nothing like I imagined him. this not being facebook most of you are in my
mind as radio characters.

Mike

[Drew Lawson]

In article <r0nsog$16lj$1...@newshost.furrfu.com>

dr...@furrfu.invalid (Drew Lawson) writes:

>I have r.f.p back to 2003 (all my provider had last early spring),
>it is about 31900 posts (one file per post), with the oldest from
>2003. That is 22 MB compressed.
>
>I could filter those down to posts from George. Quick try says
>that is 3966 posts in r.f.p. So about 3 MB compressed.
>
>Checking r.g.e, I only have current things, but the earliest post
>on giganews is also 2003. I could bundle that up. (Started the
>fetch. Looks like it is 150k posts, so may take some time. After
>that, grabbing just George's should be fast.)

rec.gardens.edible turned out to only have about 50k articles.
943 of them are from George. They seem to start about 2006.

I've put what I have at
http://www.furrfu.com/GeorgeShirley/

The tar and ZIP files have the same content. tar compressed better,
but I don't know whether everyone can open that.


I'm sure Google has more, but they've made that difficult to search.

--
Drew Lawson

I only came in search of answers, never planned to sell my soul
I only came in search of something left that I could call my own

[Nyssa]

Thanks for digging this up and setting up the files.

I've grabbed both formats; since I'm on Linux, both should be
readable with no problems.

Once I get time to take a look at what's there, I'll start to
figure out how best to present them, probably in some sort of
ebook format, probably epub unless someone has a better idea.

Anyone have a preference for how George's posts should be
grouped? Chronological or by topic?

I'd love to put a few of these on my website under the
gardening or kitchen topics, but I wouldn't feel right doing
that without Miz Anne's permission. Does anyone know how
best to contact her about it?

Once I've gotten a handle on what's there and start working
on it all, I'll post my progress here and in rec.gardens.edible.
Just don't expect a fast turnaround what with all my other
to-dos going on, but I will get aroundtoit.

Nyssa, who seems to keep piling things onto her to-do list,
but that's better than sitting around doing nothing...or
watching TV which pretty much is the same thing

[Bloke Down The Pub]

"Nyssa" <Ny...@LogicalInsight.net> wrote in message
news:r0q90f$u47$1...@dont-email.me...

Hello Nyssa. I think this would be a very worthwhile project. My preference
would be by topic, my theory being it would be easier/more pleasant to read
through to the end of a thought rather than to have to jump about. I like
epub for my reader but PDF might work for everybody that wants to browse
without having to use more software.

Mike

[Nyssa]

Preferences noted. I too think that by topic would be easier
to read/find if someone wanted to re-visit something specific.

I'm leaning towards epub since it's fairly standard and there
is conversion software available. PDF's main negative is the
size of the resulting files (I'm on dialup, so size matters).

OTOH I could always use epub, then convert into various formats
once it's done.

Thanks for the feedback. Now to find some time where I can
do some work on yet another project.

Nyssa, who still has three new articles in-progress for the
website to finish

[Kathi]

It's been eons since I've posted in this group, but I check in every once in a while, particularly to check on George (you too Barb). I am SO very sorry to hear this. He was a special guy and so generous with his knowledge and recipes and gardening adventures. I think of him every time I pull out the canner (you too, Barb) or more importantly, make his moussaka recipe (entitled 'George Shirley's Moussaka Recipe" in my recipe book)

RIP George

[Boron Elgar]

On Wed, 12 Feb 2020 14:09:23 -0800 (PST), Kathi <kat...@storm.ca>
wrote:

Here is the recipe that he shared, I believe. Does it match what you
have?

MOUSSAKA MELITANES

1 1/2 kilos (3 lbs) eggplant (I use Ichiban eggplant that are
naturally sweet so don't need the salting and squeezing.)

1/2 kilo (1 lb) ground meat

2 medium size onions

1/2 kilo (1 lb) fresh tomatoes or a tablespoon of Tomato paste diluted
in a cup of cold water.

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 cup dry white wine

1 stick cinnamon

olive oil for frying

4 eggs,
1/2 cup milk -
parsley
1 tablespoon butter (for ground meat)

1 cup grated cheese (Parmesan or other) (I have used both parmesan and
shredded mozzarella with success)

1 tablespoon breadcrumbs

Bechamel Sauce:

4 heaped tablespoons butter

5 heaped tablespoons flour - 2 cups milk

nutmeg - salt – pepper

Slice the eggplant thickly sprinkle with salt leave on a platter
for1-2 hours

Rinse in cold water and squeeze a little, wipe dry. (see note above)

Heat some oil and fry eggplant with lid on pan until soft on both
sidesput into sieve and drain on thick paper boil ground meat, onions,
butter, in a cup of water. When water is absorbed let meat and onion
brown with the butter which is in the pan.

Add parsley and cinnamon,
salt and pepper

Pour wine over the mix and cover with lid - let wine be absorbed Add
tomato juice and sugar

Simmer until thick Discard stick of cinnamon If mixture is too greasy
add 1-2 tablespoons breadcrumbs

Grease large baking pan or pyrex dish layer eggplant in the pan

Sprinkle eggplant with grated cheese, spread half the meat mixture,
sprinkle with grated cheese, spread another layer of eggplant,
sprinkle with gratedcheese,

cover with third layer of eggplant.

Note: You can stop at this point if you intend to freeze the moussaka
for later use. I put the mix in an aluminum throwaway pan, freeze it,
then put in a vacuum seal bag and seal. If you do this then you do the
last part of the recipe once the moussaka is thawed. If you intend to
cook and eat then leave out this noted part.

Beat 2 egg yolks and 4 whites with 1/2 cup milk, Pour over the
pie.Make bechamel sauce: Heat butter and work in flour until smooth.

Add little by little the milk, nutmeg, and salt, stirring all the
while.

Cook until fairly thick. Beat remaining two egg yolks in the bechamel.
Add a handful of cheese. Pour over the pie.

Sprinkle generously with the remaining cheese and breadcrumbs and a
few dots of butter.

Bake for 45 minutes in a moderate oven (350F) until golden brown. Let
it cool a little and cut into squares before serving.

[Kathi]

yep, that's it exactly