jalapenos

Boxing Day, September 23

planorcanLeave a comment
Welcome to fall. The watermelon have disappeared and the squash have arrived.

So John,

On Monday evening, I told a friend there was a 30% chance we’d end up buying a house by the end of the year. After a tour on Tuesday, I had our odds up to 50%–pretty likely actually. At least until we talked to our agent again today and decided not to write up an offer after all. Even in this market, 18% annual interest is a lot. Especially when it was just bought two years ago.

I’m thankful for working with an expert who tells us not to buy a place that’s overpriced. Or another place that will be awful to try to sell. Or that has more deferred maintenance than the price suggests.

I’m thankful that we have the flexibility to stay. Even if I never expected the housing search to take a year. Or if it did it was because we were losing bids. Not that we weren’t putting in offers. Nevermind winning bids and then failing inspections.

For now, I’m putting our chances of 2021 homebuying at 29%. The listings posted today weren’t inspiring. That’s okay. We’ll keep looking.

In This Week’s Box

  • Honeycrisp Apples
  • Kiwiberries
  • Arugula
  • Butternut Squash
  • Cilantro
  • Fennel
  • Mixed Yummy Peppers
  • Purple Fingerling Potatoes
  • Sweet Onions
  • Habanada Peppers

Garden Potential

  • Starfish pepper
  • Paprika
  • Jalapenos
  • Lombok peppers if we want them
  • Few tomatillos
  • Volunbeans (let ’em dry!)
  • Last of the Roma tomatoes?
  • Vorlon tomato
  • Dahlias

Still in the Fridge

  • Cucumber
  • Figs
  • Greens: Butterhead Lettuce
  • Peppers: Banana
  • Squash: Delicata, Red Kabocha, Acorn
  • Sweet Potatoes
  • Fingerling Potatoes
  • Herbs: None
  • Celery
  • Sunchokes

Open Preserves

  • Preserved eggplant
  • Quince jelly
  • Dill pickle
  • Lacto-fermented & Lacto-fermenting green cherry tomatoes
  • Lacto-fermented blueberry jalapeno hot sauce
  • Pickled red onion
  • Radish kimchi
  • Sunchoke relish
  • Quince jelly
  • Kicky cranapple chutney
  • Peach jam
  • Apple butter
  • Quince jelly
  • Veggie stock
  • Probably still more uninventoried

Starting points

  • I’d forgotten the cucumber. We should use the cucumber! It’s the last cucumber from the garden. Classic cucumber, onion, and yogurt side?
  • Squash + cilantro = we can do the mole verde butternut squash. Or acorn squash. Or Kabocha squash…
  • Other cilantro + tomatillos + jalapeno for another green salsa.
  • Apple fennel salad. Because this fennel cannot last as long as the previous one did.
  • I want something light for the lettuce. Tomato and sweet pepper with a sweet vinaigrette.
  • Whereas, I thin the arugula can go loud. Blue cheese and honeycrisp and roasted sweet potato with a balsamic.

~s

Experimentation

planorcanLeave a comment

Dear John,

Greetings from our home laboratory. While you’re sitting at the computer presenting on your simulations, I’m a room-length away, mixing and chopping and scheming. While these concoctions simmer, I’ll be a dutiful scientist and document my four experiments. Maybe it’ll make it easier to plan something in the future.

#1 Growing

Our cilantro has all flowered and faded. We’re left with the seedheads. And, while coriander is a pantry staple, I’m more excited about the possibility of more cilantro this fall. The plant does better in cooler weather anyway, right?

I’m attempting the trick we learned from Ros of starting seeds in plastic bottles. I took a couple of water bottles out of the recycling, found a flatter circle going across the diameter and used it as a guide to cut them in half. Bottom half got a handful of potting mix. Four to six seeds poked in with a chopstick. Splash of water. I cut a slit at the top of the base so I could squeeze it together and put the top half of the water bottle back on top. Voila window sill greenhouse.

Next question, will we get sprouts? Tune back in 7-14 days.

#2 Fermenting

We decided to take the CSA jalapenos and try fermenting a hot sauce. Here’s what went in the jar:

  • 340 grams jalapenos
  • 35 grams red onion
  • 140 g wrinkly blueberries (I’ve been putting the mushy berries in the freezer. This seems like the right use for them)
  • ~1 gram of coriander seed from the garden (That which did not get planted)
  • 3% brine
  • Dash of brine from last year’s fermentation

Waiting a week, or two, to see how it tastes.

#3 Cooking

Enough of the volun-beans have dried on the vine that I can cook with them as a dry bean. I took a half cup of beans, covered them with water, added some dried rosemary, salt, and pepper corns. It’s been simmering on the stove for a while now. To be fair, I didn’t give them any soaking time. That’s supposed to be the great equalizer of beans. I figure we know these dried beans are fresh.

They’re not done yet, but the ones I’ve tested seemed nice. Trying again in, let’s say, 7-14 minutes.

#4 Reducing

Recipes for canning tomatoes start with at least a few pounds of tomatoes. Although our harvest is coming in quicker than our consumption, we haven’t amassed that much. But since the collection on the counter is all paste tomatoes and since some of them were starting to pass their peak, I’m trying my hand at making a paste. Mostly following the conserva recipe from Six Seasons. Cut them up, put them in the dutch oven with a put of olive oil. Currently they’ve cooked to sauciness. Next step is to dig out the food mill and use it to separate the seeds and the skins. (And yes, I’m going to try making tomato skin salt.) Then keep up the low and slow cooking. Decision here, maybe 7 hours. Who doesn’t love a theme?