pizza and pigs

yesterday jana and i enjoyed one of the wonderful, wood fired pizza's from Inn at Ship Bay. we had it topped with italian salami and some of the nettle that we had picked earlier was placed under the cheese. we had beers and sat at a very nicely finished picnic table with some friendly locals and their crazy kids.
my brother learner was the lead hired for the construction of their mobile cob oven! when i saw them at the farmer's market last year i resisted their tantalizing pizza because it is made with white flour, and i try to eat only fresh-ground, whole grain flour products (mostly sourdough bread and porridge). but i do occasionally make exceptions and this was a good occasion to do so. the weather was fair and we were on the way home from a strenuous hike up Turtle Back Mountain. i rarely eat out and wanted to share this special treat with jana, my guest from chicago. we even had some marionberry cobbler. i was relieved when i heard that annie, the chef, uses lard in her baking.
pigs are raised at the inn and annie took us and the friendly locals to see them after dinner. they are Mangalitsa pigs, a wooly variety. a bit of nearby foliage, elderberry i think, that i tossed to them was eaten very slowly. i didn't know before that this inn was such a radical place!

peruvian purple potatoes

these are the biggest peruvian purple potatoes i or my brother learner have ever seen(i placed a canadian quarter for comparison). they came out of a bed of jerusalem artichoke i'd planted at Wild's Edge last spring, in which these spuds had been grown previously. i didn't think i'd have the pleasure of digging them, but they were left in the ground all winter, and i dug them when i was there for those few weeks after getting back from Chicago. doing this part of the work of growing root vegetables such as these is like digging for buried treasure. i found it very satisfying. the j-ru didn't produce as much as they may have if the goats had not eaten all their foliage at the peak of the summer.

'j-ru' for short

march 22nd meals

-porridge with wood stove baked yam and two fried eggs for brunch (at noon!)
-banana/chocolate/butter/peanut butter heated in a cast iron pan for my afternoon snack
-leftover stirfry (broccoli, onion, parsnip, yam, shitake mushroom) over red quinoa plus nettles (fresh-picked nearby) cooked in coconut oil with garlic, ginger, and caraway seed plus marinated (in coconut vinegar, garlic, ginger, sea salt, hot sauce), raw fish (snapper?) for dinner. shared with my new housemate.

bread not beard

i've been making a lot of sourdough bread at wild's edge and also have participated in making a batch every time i stay the night at my other brother's house near town. the last batch i baked between 5 and 6am. it rises too fast to make loaves at night. i prefer to start the 'sponge' before bed and then make the loaves to rise during the day. then i can keep an eye on them and put them in the oven at the peak rise.

since i got back i've made some loaves with orange and lemon zest. it adds a nice dimension that many have said they enjoy. i like it for sure. it is said to be especially complementary in rye breads.

need more stomachs

to my great pleasure, at wild's edge we have been sharing meals since i got back and this new couple, gavin and megan, moved into the smaller cabin. on the first night we shared dinner gavin had this complement for the meal:

'this is the kind of meal i just wish i had some extra stomachs so i could just eat all night.'

the blessed meal included:

leftover soup (by gavin + megan), tart vegetable/bean made with beef stock,
raw chooped liver optional
mashed potatoes (davis), with mushroom/oregano gravy of a lard base
squash/onion/mushroom (davis), sauteed in coconut oil w/ rosemary, lemon zest, +
toasted sourdough wheat/rye bread (collab) and kalamata olive/garlic bread (gavin +megan)
with yogurt cheese (davis) italian herb, made in chicago
local lamb liver (megan +learner) breaded with garlic and onion
dried bull whip kelp
red wine

eating old man's beard

on sunday i worked on for a guy clearing some alder branches from trees he had felled. these trees are in a damp area and many branches were covered in these hanging lichen called usnea. i was impressed with by the abundance, and remembered the goats i help care for eating some on a walk the other day.
when my workmates went off to pick something up and have some lunch in town, i stayed behind. after a while i noticed i had left my bag, with my lunch in it, IN THE CAR! i knew i would be getting hungry before they got back, but what could i do? well, i ended up eating some usnea to stave off the pains of hunger. it is very rubbery at first and then yields nicely with continued chewing. the flavors are released and there is a distinct sour (VIT C) present. the slight irritation in my throat was not enough to deter me. i found this a satisfying food to eat in small amounts.

3am Chili

Trying to stay consistent with cooking healthy meals at home is difficult now that Davis has returned to Orcas Island. I find myself struggling to fit in soup making and bread making with my work, social, and sleep schedule. But, with the right timing, things are starting to work out!

For example, yesterday I knew I had to make this lamb chili, and I had to do it that night. The beans had been soaking for 24 hours and the lamb sausage had defrosted in the fridge... everything was go. I went out for a drink with a friend around 8pm but ended up having such a good time talking, I didn't get home until 3 am. But, I had to make that chili. I was determined. So i chopped up everything, and set all of the ingredients to simmer, and went to bed. In the morning I woke up to an amazing aroma coming from my kitchen... now I have lunch for the rest of the week!

Bread has been working similarly... with the right timing, I can wake up early to bake a batch of bread before I have to leave for work.

It was much easier when I had a team-mate around to share cooking and cleaning duties!