Dear Annet,
November 8, 2011
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Weak, Polar Circle light illuminating a dried pear
Thanks for bringing those most tasty and juicy pears to the food co-op last pickup day. We bought 4 kilos and the next day had already eaten an entire kilo! The last 3k we dried because they were threatening to go soft. Just look what they turned into! Golden, chewy, hint of vanilla, sticky, full of flavour!
Please let us know if you’ll be harvesting again soon, because I’d love to go with you and help pluck. Of course I’m happy to dry a bunch for you as well; dried pears bring a huge amount of happiness into the home.
Merçi, verheugnis alom en tot straks op een pluk dag,
Debra
debra at 14:34 | Comments (2) | post to del.icio.us
The Spore Report
November 7, 2011
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A spore print, probably of an agaricus arvensis.
What an exuberant spore print, probably of an agaricus arvensis, or maybe an agaricus campestris, possibly an agaricus bitorquis, or if I’m lucky, an agaricus silvicola. They’re all edible. Still, most likely it’s a horse mushroom, agaricus arvensis. I found it along the bike path, cutting through the woods, near the border of some grassland.
Ruling out the poisonous possible doppelgängers, it’s unlikely to be an agaricus xanthodermus. Why? Because it’s flesh is not turning yellow when bruised or cut, and because it doesn’t smell of creosote. It smells of anise, and of sweet leaf mould, like the woody path it came from. It smells like it’s going to be delicious fried in butter and served on toast at lunch.
And there’s at least one more…
debra at 10:16 | Comments (2) | post to del.icio.us
A fridge’s eye view of urban agriculture
September 25, 2011
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The author’s fridge, filled with home-ferments, foraged, syruped, home grown greens, raw milk and vodka!
At the moment my fridge is filled with the bubbling product of home-fermented foods, lots of home grown and a visit to milk lady at the farmer’s market. A few days earlier Mark Menjivar’s photo essay about what can tell us, popped up on my radar again. The first noticeable difference between my fridge at harvest time and all but one of Menjivar’s subjectsis the lack of packaging. An ever earlier Autumn and ’tis the season for pickle and sauerkraut making up here in the Polar Circle, for salting and sugaring food away. That coupled with a penchant for making (dairy) kefir that has been enlightening on many levels; the amount of milk it ‘costs’ to keep a culture happy, the numerous uses for kefir and whey, and the discovery that in the olden days all of these cultured products probably kept just fine without a fridge. Apparently it’s all the rage… The ship contains the shipwreck once again.
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From Mark Menjivar’s You Are What You Eat, image used entirely without permission. Midwife/Middle School Science Teacher | San Antonio, TX | 3-Person Household (including dog) | First week after deciding to eat locally grown vegetables. | 2008
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From Mark Menjivar’s You Are What You Eat, image used entirely without permission. Bar Tender | San Antonio, TX | 1-Person Household | Goes to sleep at 8AM and wakes up at 4PM daily. | 2008
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Owner of Defunct Amusement Park | Alpine, TX | 1-Person Household | Former WW II Prisoner of War | 2007
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From Mark Menjivar’s You Are What You Eat, image used entirely without permission. Short Order Cook | Marathon,TX | 2-Person Household | She can bench press over 300lbs. | 2007
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Six years ago my fridge was a different place, yet vodka and lime juice still feature prominently.
debra at 19:10 | Comments (3) | post to del.icio.us
