!!!! SEPP to Boot: Stephen's Experience (BEL)

BRK #181

Happy Fermentation Day to you...!!!

This was one of the best Half-Assed Holidays I've experienced yet, personally speaking. This is in large part to the presence, coaching, and enthusiasm of our guest, SEPPer Austin Durant! An enormous thanks goes out to him for the planning and shepherding he did for us today, leading the team through a menu of all manner of fermented goodies that we'll enjoy for months to come.

We had an impressive agenda set up for us today. We tackled all the items on this list with the exception of kimchi, as we used all the cabbage for the sauerkraut. Not sure how we'd have been able to cram it into the schedule anyway...



Here's a photo of Grey with a jar of soaking, salted cashews. We'll be using some of these for the sourdough granola, however they're a nice treat on their own.



Speaking of sourdough, here's one of the loaves ready to go into the oven. Boot Jeff and I worked with Austin to prep two loaves last night.





A personal highlight for me was the preparation of sourdough granola. Austin was here for this past summer's PTJ, and he and his team prepped a bunch of this stuff. I enjoyed it as part of my morning oatmeal for over a month afterward. I definitely wanted to replenish the Wheaton Labs supply while he was here.

Here's the oat and flour base.



Making brine from water and salt was a near-constant practice today. Here's the brine I prepared for some of the seeds to be used in the sourdough granola.



After mixing, the brine is added to a jar with the seeds, just enough to cover them.



We'll drain all the seeds tomorrow morning, then after mixing all the ingredients it will be added to the dehydrator to dry it all out for preservation.

Around 3pm, we were done with our first set of projects, and ready for round two! Here's the setup for sauerkraut.



We ended up making two separate batches, and I was fascinated with the process. The first step was to - of course - chop up a bunch of cabbage.



You then add a bunch of salt to your cabbage and begin mixing-and-mashing with your hands, and let the cabbage "sweat out" some of its moisture.

With this particular batch, the salt turned the exudation from the red cabbage a lovely blue indigo colour. I'd never seen this before and it was fascinating.



The final mix for the first batch I helped with included green and red cabbage, turnip, and ginger.



I jammed it into a large glass jar, then weighed-down the contents with some glass "pickling pebbles." This will work to keep the solids completely submerged in the brine.



The second batch included red and green cabbage, turnip, carrots, onions, and fresh oregano.





Other projects included pastrami, which ought to be ready by the middle of next week. Hope the crew enjoys it! Here's Caleb dropping the brisket into the brine he mixed.



Another project we completed was escabèche. This consisted of coarsely-chopped carrots, cauliflower, jalapenos, and onions all set in a brine to ferment.



Boot Jeff whipped-up this mustard, and it should be officially-ready in three days. I had a taste today however, and I'd say it's ready to go.



And for a historic moment: the first time I've photographed my food... And it's worth it! This was my first-ever sourdough loaf. Eating a toasted slice with some oat-based, fake-buttery spread on it was an incredibly satisfying, simple meal: most-definitely delicious.



That's all for now. Thanks for reading, and enjoy your day...!

BlinkBRK #182

The Fisher Price House carries the scent of fermenting, toasting sourdough granola...! Things are looking pretty good in there: sauerkraut percolating, mustard fermenting, sourdough granola in the dehydrator. Lots of good food happening for the next few months. I'm grateful for it.

Today was Cleaning Blitz day, and a focus on Nest labor. The project I'm currently working on is "beautify the gate leading to the FPH paddock." The gate needed repairs late this past December, and it currently looks like this:



While doing some research, I stumbled upon this picture of a driftwood chandelier that inspired me to create something similar atop the gate.



Here's a picture of the top of the gate, an MS Paint rendition of how I envision it:



Ideally, the entire motif will stretch across the front porch/deck to reach the front door.

My guiding sketch with some prototype measurements is here, from my day planner.



Well, I started work on it with full branches. I cut them to length, then lashed them to the top bar with some left over nettle twine from a previous half-assed holiday project. To describe it in a single word: "meh." It needs work.



One of my main gripes are the curved sticks. Maybe I just need to hunt for more straight ones? Maybe I'll shape-up and trim-down some scraps from our 3/8" boards? This is a dilemma of sorts because the central branch is already 42" in length, and we'd prefer to use the majority of the 3/8" for wall paneling. Maybe combine the two together, to provide some contrast? Should you have suggestions, feel free to comment here.

But that's all for now. Thanks for reading, and enjoy your day...!

BRK #183

A Monday has arrived, and we're back at it full-steam. Seemed to be a lot more fun stuff than a typical Monday. For instance, here's Caleb hauling a gigantic snowball around with the tractor.



In all seriousness, it was worthwhile to change out the different tools on the front of the tractor. We had to move a pallet of bricks today, and you know, there was a big pile of snow in the way, so... Yeah. We took care of that.

Up at the Lab, we hiked around and surveyed the next few locations for firewood and lumber harvesting. While out there, I couldn't help but compare these tracks. Large elk, or a moose?



On the way back to Basecamp from the Lab, we had only Doug (our blue pickup truck). There are only two seats in the cab so... Guess who drew the short straw?



Finally: we're continuing to organize the contents of the Berm Shed. Here's the "before" look of our future lumber storage cell. We finished the clean-out today (including that pallet of fire bricks!).



Thanks for reading, and enjoy your day...!

Stephen B. Thomas wrote:
You then add a bunch of salt to your cabbage and begin mixing-and-mashing with your hands, and let the cabbage "sweat out" some of its moisture.

With this particular batch, the salt turned the exudation from the red cabbage a lovely blue indigo colour. I'd never seen this before and it was fascinating.

Great to see all those beautiful projects!
An interesting tidbit on the red cabbage: You probably know that red cabbage is an indicator for pH value, so it is sometimes used in school experiments.
In Bavaria, a red cabbage side dish is called Blaukraut (blue kraut), in Northern Germany Rotkohl (red kale) because of the difference in preparation especially regarding vinegar addition. Easy to find out by the name alone that in the north you use a bit of vinegar

BRK #184

Taco Tuesday today...! While it's all happily digesting, I figure it's time for a brief update regarding today's happenings.

Spent a fair amount of time building stuff today. Here's part of the frame for a new set of shelves we've devised for the Berm Shed. I teamed-up with Grey for this one. It's about 12 feet long, to accommodate the longest lengths of lumber processed at the Sawmill up at the Lab.



Also built these bunk bed frames in the afternoon, teaming-up with Caleb. Paul is interested in testing out the "narrow twin" size mattresses, and we'll set-up a pair of these in the Solarium. In general, I think they're big enough for young kids or small-framed adults, so time will tell whether our guests prefer them.

The mattresses, by the way, are some of those fancy "memory foam" mattresses with quilted tops. So they'll likely have a very comfy night's sleep, provided they're short enough... I'm just short of 6ft tall, so I'm likely not the best person to ask.



Every time I walk into the kitchen, I see these jars jeering at me, triple-dog-daring me to dig into them early. But no! I must resist...! Must...resist!!!



One last question: what is this? I found it along with a couple others similar to it, in an area where bricks and maybe cob supplies were stored. Anyone with an idea of what this might be used for? The other boots and I were thinking this would be used for carrying mounds of cob, though admittedly the edges of the metal seem a bit sharp (though they may also be cutting implements for cob forms, for example). Any ideas?



That's all for now. Pina Colada Day is tomorrow... Thanks for reading, and enjoy your day...!