A Mad Hatter feeling is coming over me. I seem to be rushing to catch up, and blogging is sliding farther and farther behind. But I just have to tell you about “Teach a Chef to Fish,” an event being held in Boston, Chicago, and Toronto. The subject is saving the sea, and the object is to introduce chefs to sustainable species. Boston’s event is Monday, Sept. 28, at the Fairmont Battery Wharf, and will include presentations, discussions, and lots and lots of examples of how to get going on serving sustainable fish. It’s from 3-5 p.m. and is $50; part of the proceeds will go to the New England Aquarium.

Coincidentally, that’s the day I’m taking 15 people from around the country participating in an Elderhostel (soon to be Exploritas) Dine Like a Critic to see Legal Seafood’s plant and to hear Max Harvey, of Jasper White’s Summer Shacks who lectures at BU on sustainability.

Saving the sea will be the hot topic for Monday — and beyond.

Jacky and Iris Robert

Last Sunday, I got to catch up a little with Jacky Robert of the growing Petit Robert Bistro empire — it was his birthday and he threw a house, well, actually a backyard, party at his own Maison Robert. His daughter, Iris, was in from New York. Right now, Iris is cooking at Jean-Georges in New York, part of a series of jobs she’s taking to round out her culinary education.  (Vongerichten is bringing his culinary brand here with a Market restaurant opening in the new W in the Theater District next month.)

Iris, who basically grew up in the kitchen, opened Petit Robert Bistro on Columbus for her father before moving to New York. She’s a talent, completely at home in the kitchen, and despite her youth, able to create wonderfully delicious and unfussy food. Her sights are next set on working in kitchens in France for awhile.

And then somewhere down the line, she’s thinking of a return to Boston. Perhaps there’s a new Maison Robert in Boston’s future?

Just as the mood in Boston restaurants is at its glummest, there’s a flurry of new places opening or in the works. Orinoco in Brookline – which is about to become taco central, as unlikely as that is. Abbey Park and 88 Wharf in Milton, another unlikely new restaurant hub.  Sonic on Route 1, which is mobbed — Sonic, a fast food creation that we in the Midwest thought was cheesy decades ago!!!And coming soon, the behemoth Post 390 on Clarendon Street, which threatens to suck up a lot of the dining oxygen at 300 seats with plenty of money behind it.

Add to that changeovers, BanQ will become Ginger Room, Excelsior will become something else, and more rumors are in the air.

Is this the end of the recession? Cheap rents? Panic? Time will tell, and hopefully diners will be able to sort out the new from the good, quality from the chaff, good value from the cheap bargains. Maybe the dining public is digesting this right now while waiting in line to order Sonic burgers and a malt.

Dill spears and bread and butter pickles

September’s here; summer’s gone. A few Sundays ago, I put up some pickles, all the while remembering watching my aunt Florence can beets on a broiling hot day many years ago. My father’s sister was a no-nonsense mother and aunt. Every summer when I was small, I’d go to visit her and my cousin Susan on a farm not at all like the idyllic view we might have of rural life now. No indoor plumbing, swimming in a mossy horse tank, walking to call in cows in the evening through rough terrain where rattlesnakes hid — for a timid girl who longed for city sidewalks, the farm in Southwestern Kansas held little allure.

So why after all these years, do I dream of Florence, with her arms up to her elbows stained red with beet juice? She was known as the smartest in her family and could do anything in housekeeping — take a zipper from a purse to make a child’s pants, grow sweet, sweet watermelons, fry chickens to perfect crispness, stretch a dollar farther than seemed possible, and though she wasn’t the giggly type, comfort a visiting sick child. Putting up vegetables wasn’t a romantic notion — it was necessity. And if it took days to scrub away the beet stains, so be it.

Here are some of my pickles. I wish I had Florence’s beets to put in the pantry beside them.