Mike Nolan
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I've always wondered how the commercial growers get such perfectly formed and uniformly colored red peppers, mine look like a fugitive from a Dali painting.
I got the impression they might still be willing to sell to end consumers in 40-50 pound bags, but whether their prices, including shipping from the west coast, are better than from other suppliers, such as ones closer to where the grain is grown and milled, is just one factor in deciding what to order and from where. Sometimes it's all about availability.
I didn't get to watch the full presentation yesterday because I was dealing with some installers on site, but he was using some kind of foam levain, taking a small amount of starter and whipping it with water and flour to add air, which speeds up the ripening process for the yeast so you get leavening without increasing the acidity much.
Try pickle juice.
In yesterday's symposium presentation, he was aiming for a rye bread that wasn't SOUR, because he doesn't care for a really sour bread at breakfast. (Neither do I!)
I ordered both of their rye flour selections, mostly because there weren't other places that had that wide a selection. Still haven't found sources for several of them, even if I buy 50 pound bags, and for quite a few of those the shipping winds up being more than the cost of the flour!
I'm thinking I might try to source some cleaned rye berries, and just make my own whole meal rye flours.
Its unfortunate, but not really unexpected. We are losing businesses every day. (And God help you if you're a small landlord, because the government isn't!)
Today's Johnson & Wales International Bread Symposium demo was on baking using freshly milled whole grains, the whole berries have the advantage of being easier to store than milled flour, though not necessarily cheaper or easier to find suppliers for.
We did have the fish and broccoli tonight.
My wife had her first PT appointment on her shoulder today, and it wore her out, so she had soup and I had a couple of hot dogs. The fish will last another day, it was in the freezer until late last night.
Fish and broccoli tonight
We had the last of the pork and then a hot dog, both with some of the tomato relish on top.
Raccoons are good at that. Something is nibbling on my tomatoes, almost looks like a bird is pecking at them. One of them was high enough up that I don't think it was a rabbit.
Those are definitely some nice looking tomatoes and peppers. I picked my tomatoes pretty heavily yesterday so I was sure I had enough for my relish, I wound up with probably about a double batch, but it is very good on hot dogs and my wife had some with her beans and wieners for lunch today and said it was great!
We had left over pork roast, and I'm making a big batch of tomato relish, about 11 quarts before it reduces, probably about 8 quarts net.
It has been a few years since I made this, I made several large batches of it back then, but overcooked one of them and it just wasn't as good, so I threw what was left of it away today. I've already got my diffuser on the burner to limit the heat. I'll turn it down further shorter and probably take it off sooner than last time as well.
I'll probably freeze some of it, even though it last nearly forever in the fridge because it has a lot of vinegar in it.
The counter-depth refrigerators tend to be pretty shallow, but we have a two-drawer refrigerator under the prep counter, and it is large enough to hold a full-sized pizza box, which won't fit in the big fridge. It also holds my 3/4 sheet pans, which are about 17 x 22.
The big SubZero fridge is mostly emptied, and with the temperature set almost at the highest setting it is holding at around 42 degrees, so I haven't been in a panic to move everything to the basement, though I've taken some stuff downstairs. Milk and other perishables that we didn't toss are in the under-counter fridge, which is usually for veggies and fruits.
The freezer is holding at about 13 degrees, so I've been moving some items downstairs for the last few days, too. I should know in the next day or two what we'll be doing, at this point I'm leaning towards replacing the SubZeros with the Frigidaires, depending on availability, of course. If I had to I could pick up a small upright fridge to tide us over, moving it downstairs or into the garage at some point.
Once basil flowers, the leaves turn bitter. Pinch off the buds as they form and you'll get a few more weeks of good picking.
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