you get the salt, I'll get the dill

it truly is summer: the first future pickled things of the season have been immersed in brine.

I had a morning work session last week with jacob, one of the adamahniks, to do some experimental pickling and see if we could get a seasonal product out of it. I've pickled turnips and garlic scapes in the past with some delicious results, so I was trying to replicate what I did before and also try some other new things. we also pickled some kohlrabi, which is a root like veggie with the consistancy of an apple, an unearthly purple peel, and a nice sweet interior. I've never pickled kohlrabi before, so I'm curious to see what happens. we pickled on . . . thursday, I think? and I tried a few slices today - they have good consistancy but could be pickly-er. keep on proliferating, little lacto-bacilli.

altogether, we made about 10 jars containing turnips, kohlrabi, dill, garlic, garlic scapes, pickling spice, hot peppers and bay leaves in pretty much every permutation you could imagine. I'm very excited in particular about batch gimel, which has turnip, dill, pickling spice, hot peppers and garlic scapes.

perhaps you are curious about what the heck a garlic scape is.

that picture ist a nice amalgam of my job nowadays - sometimes I'm stuck at the computer, sometimes I get out into the fields to do a quick harvest. those green spirals are garlic scapes - essentially the immature garlic flower. when the garlic really starts to mature, it sends up the scape, which we cut off as soon as it reaches a certain amount of spiral (I say one, ellie says two). the idea is that by stifling its reproductive urges at one end, it'll send all its energy into the bulb and make it nice and fat. then we're left with these lovely scapes, which have a mild garlic flavor and are really fun to cook and pickle.

in closing, a quiz: which one of these is not a pickle?

no fair using the internet to cheat.

long days

oh hey guys.

made it in just under the month mark! would it make you feel better if I told you that every time I thought about my blog I felt guilty?

ok.

so. the adamahniks are here! here they are:

I guess we've been working them a little hard. a little naptime never hurt anyone.

let's see, what's been going on? I went to boston again (clay's law school graduation - midnight sailing and some good quality byrnes family time), I went to philly (outdoor block party world cup watching and excellent pho eating and settling), and although it might sound as though I have a glamourous jetsetting life in reality I have no free time!

farm life is busy. I've been shaving goats, making cheese, teaching milking, building things, weeding, making jam, walking fence lines, accidently weeding rhubarb out of perennial gardens and then driving to burlington, ct to trade veggie starts for established rhubarb found on craigslist, making spreadsheets, almost picking up snapping turtles, writing newsletters, obsessively checking the weather, and every once in a awhile I look around and revel that I live in such a beautiful place.

here's a picture of lauren:

"uhm, I have a question about the schedule? I'm in the sadeh, like, every day?"

time's going quickly - I've already been here two and a half months! crazy. I realized the other day that I'll be here until sukkot, which right now seems like a long way away.

now that I'm not in the fields so much anymore, whenever I get out there things are so much bigger. we've got broccoli, kale, chard, radishes, lettuce, peas, strawberries, scallions, kohlrabi, boy choy, garlic scapes, dill, and probably some other things I can't even remember right now. summer is definitely upon us and our veggie and dairy csa's are both up and running.

alright. with that quick update, the daunting task of keeping y'all informed has been put to rest - maybe now I'll update more often. no promises though!

I'll leave you with this, the anticipation of things to come: