joyouslybecoming

fermenting the harvest

lacto fermented: pickled zucchini, pickled cucumbers, curtido, mixed vegetable pickles, saurkraut, more cortido.

I spent a good three days in the garden last week, before the rains came, harvesting vegetables and broadcasting rye seed, our cover crop this year, on ground around existing plants and on the large patches of bare ground.  

I have a fondness for all varieties of fermented food, from yogurt to tempeh, kimchee to sourkraut. I've made kraut in the past from our cabbages but this year I decided to step it up a notch and try lacto fermentation on several other vegetables.

I've been inspired by a couple of the popular books out there on the subject, Wild Fermentation and Nourishing Traditions and couldn't wait to try a few of their recipes. I wish we had a root cellar (maybe next year) as I now need to store them in a cool/cold place and our frig is stuffed with produce. I'm thinking of digging a hole and improvising a root cellar, need to research it.

I've been working on several creative things in the studio as well but everything is top secret right now so you'll just have to wait.  later alligator.

The Circle Game

Yesterday a child came out to wonder 

Caught a dragonfly inside a jar 

Fearful when the sky was full of thunder 

And tearful at the falling of a star 

*And the seasons they go round and round 

And the painted ponies go up and down 

We're captive on the carousel of time 

We can't return we can only look behind 

From where we came 

And go round and round and round 

In the circle game 

Then the child moved ten times round the seasons 

Skated over ten clear frozen streams 

Words like, when you're older, must appease him 

And promises of someday make his dreams 

Sixteen springs and sixteen summers gone now 

Cartwheels turn to car wheels thru the town 

And they tell him 

“Take your time, it won't be long now 

Till you drag your feet to slow the circles down” 

So the years spin by and now the boy is twenty 

Though his dreams have lost some grandeur coming true 

There'll be new dreams, maybe better dreams and plenty 

Before the last revolving year is through.

-----Joni Mitchell

 

another etsy listing

here is a link to my etsy shop