6.21.2011
6.20.2011
Bacon, Brought Home
Matt arrived home from Farmer Pete's with bacons! Every girl likes to see her honey come through the door with bacons, right? Well probably not, but I sure do, and it never happened to me before, so I danced around the kitchen with my wooden spoon twirling in the air.
It just so happened that I had mixed up a pizza crust, and all that my fixins were missing was a little smoky pork.
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| Clockwise from top right: a small portion of Matt's Five Pound Cheese Block (an incredibly flavorful monolith of pastured raw milk mozzarella that arrives with the bakery order on the back of a truck), sage from the herb garden, bacon!!!, and last year's final shallots (still firm). |
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| Gluten-free pizza with all delicious things on top! |
The story of the bacons starts here, in case you missed it. Since then, as I gather, Pete smoked and froze the bacons.
6.15.2011
Strawberries
We are just now finishing the last bag of our own frozen strawberries from 2010, as this season's berries turn ripe and ready for harvest. This is nice to know: our roughly 120 square feet of strawberries now officially keeps us in pink smoothies year round (32 pounds in the chest freezer so far!).
I'd say strawberries are a highly recommendable crop for urban gardeners, because with a small amount of labor and space, you can get a pretty hefty yield. I thin out old plants in the early spring, throw some shovelfuls of compost on them, mulch them with straw if there is any, weed them once or twice, and spend the rest of my summer drinking bourbon on a picnic blanket beside the strawberry patch. (It's that easy.)
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| In this picture from early spring, the espaliered fruit trees on the right side are underplanted with strawberries. There's also a patch of berries in the foreground. |
If you are very lucky, you will attract a small basket-worth of baby bunnies who shoot like furry ping pong balls out of the patch when you pass. If you are not so lucky, said bunnies will nip the tender young stems of your berry clusters, leaving the berries to moulder away in the mulch. Blasted bunnies.
6.12.2011
It Takes Every Last Ounce of My Willpower...
...not to snatch one of these rotund baby chickadees out of the mountain laurel, and keep it for my very own.
6.02.2011
Oenothera, unfurling
The first few real summer nights, when the backyard is too enchanting to leave before dark, we wait for the evening primrose to open. The plant is a tidy rosette of jaggedy, dandelion-looking leaves, with a little flock of pointed, pale green buds bobbing six inches above.
The unfurling is easy to miss, if you are not there, reclining on the sidewalk with a cocktail in hand. The sheath splits, and then... Well, you can see for yourself, right here (this is in real time, not sped up).
I *believe* this is Oenothera flava or triloba or acutissima, but I am not sure of species. The song is Picador by Calexico, from the Hot Rail album.
5.30.2011
Shiitakes!
It was, like, forever ago that Matt inoculated a little stack of hardwood logs with mushroom spawn. I can't be any more specific in my timeline than that, because the half of this partnership that is in charge of remembering things (Matt!) can't remember what year it was. So my best guess is: 2009-10ish.
A few days ago, after a week-long soaking rain, look what happened! Shiitakes!
I was so happy! The logs are behind my parents' firewood pile, so I cut the mushrooms and brought them home to Matt. I opened the bag to show him, and held it out for him to heft the weight in his own hands. First, I made him behold the giant grin on my face, in case he did not understand the scope of his fungal success.
This brown sack weighed, like, a ton! Oh phooey, of course I did not weigh them. We just ate them.
First there were tofu-shiitake tacos, and then there were biscuits with shiitake gravy. I did not take pictures of the tacos because I was too busy stuffing myself, and I did not take pictures of the biscuits and gravy because only a professional food stylist could make biscuits and gravy look appetizing.
So you'll have to take my word for it: fresh-from-the-log shiitakes don't look like the ones from the store. They are mahogany colored and plump, and they come with integrity. As for taste, I wish I had a chef's palate, but I don't. I'll just say they were excellent. And also: oh, yum!
A few days ago, after a week-long soaking rain, look what happened! Shiitakes!
I was so happy! The logs are behind my parents' firewood pile, so I cut the mushrooms and brought them home to Matt. I opened the bag to show him, and held it out for him to heft the weight in his own hands. First, I made him behold the giant grin on my face, in case he did not understand the scope of his fungal success.
This brown sack weighed, like, a ton! Oh phooey, of course I did not weigh them. We just ate them.
First there were tofu-shiitake tacos, and then there were biscuits with shiitake gravy. I did not take pictures of the tacos because I was too busy stuffing myself, and I did not take pictures of the biscuits and gravy because only a professional food stylist could make biscuits and gravy look appetizing.
So you'll have to take my word for it: fresh-from-the-log shiitakes don't look like the ones from the store. They are mahogany colored and plump, and they come with integrity. As for taste, I wish I had a chef's palate, but I don't. I'll just say they were excellent. And also: oh, yum!
