A Journal of Urban Living

just born

all 10 fingers, all 10 toes

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Introducing Simon Oscar Stemwedel, born Wednesday, July 13, 2011.

• eggs
• green garlic
• satsumas
• collards
• kale
• leeks
• celery
• butternut squash
• finger limes
• goat riblets

The chickens are growing so the coop construction must be completed soon.  The drip irrigation heads are installed and the lines need to be run.  The Valencia Orange is the last of the potted citrus that needs to be planted.  (The kumquat will stay in a pot.)  The fig and the bay we lost this summer need replacing.  It’s also about time to set up the seedling starting station in the shed.

• Eggs
• Frisee
• Black-eyed Peas
• Tomatoes
• Peaches
• Plums
• Limes
• Padron Peppers

It’s been raining more than I’ve ever seen. The garden is fairly well planted to hopefully something is absorbing all the water.

UP
beets and chard have been thinned and are looking good. Peas and favas are up as well as a single random bean. It’s either the old bush beans I planted last fall or a next generation pole bean. Two cabbages seeded last fall seem happy. Arugula is being thinned and eaten. Turnips, spinach, lettuce and a bit of mache are up. chervil and dill and cilantro seemingly everywhere. Spring leeks and mini purple onions distinguishing themselves from crab grass. Radishes are marking the carrot rows and almost ready to come out. A row of rapini just broken the surface.

OUT
The last of the radicchio was harvested and we have a single jalepeno which will go into a pot of black-eyed peas this week.

ON DECK
This year will see more pole beans including some from Native Seeds in Tucson. Also from Native Seeds some corn, hot peppers and watermelons. We’ll start Padron peppers soon as well as whatever old tomato seeds we can scrounge up. Perhaps shishitos if I can find them as well.

Last Farmers’ Market of the year:

onions
shallots
kale
spinach
salad mix
yuzu
figs
Valencia oranges
satsumas
cauliflower
beets
carrots
sweet potatoes
eggs
spiny lobster

What should I see in the Times today but this:

ONCE you sous vide, you never go back.

That, at least, is the chant of a global pantheon of chefs — like Heston Blumenthal, Joël Robuchon, Ferran Adrià, and Tetsuya Wakuda — who have made this low, slow cooking method the standard in the last decade.

The Cuisinart is dead.  The motor sounds but doesn’t turn.

I discovered this unhappy fact while attempting to make crusts for an apple pie.  I still have a pumpkin pie crust to go.  The Kitchen Aid produced the former.  I may go all old school and make the latter by hand.

Having not been without a food processor this decade, save for the odd weekend ski trip or backwoods camping adventure I’m not really sure how this will impact things.  I’d say it’s  my most used small appliance after maybe the toaster oven and the citrus press.  We’ll have updates on our Cuisinart-lessness, I’m sure.  Happy Thanksgiving.