A Journal of Urban Living

• Oysters
• Limes
• Figs
• Peaches
• Grapes
• Shallots
• Frisee
• Salad Greens

We decided on an outing to the Atwater Market yesterday.  (We can’t grow everything.  Our corn and watermelons need more time, our raspberries are done for the season and our chickens aren’t quite plucked and dressed.)   Simon spent the morning asleep in the stroller, or so we thought.  It was only after getting him back into his car seat that we realized he was shopping under protest:

Fighting the power, since 2011

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

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

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

• Cherries!
• a bunch of other stuff but that doesn’t really matter because:
• Cherries!

• Strawberries
• Red Ruby Grapefruit
• Black Kale
• Radishes
• Carrots
• Celery
• Celery Root
• Rainbow Chard
• Green Garlic
• Butter Lettuce
• Frise
• Oysters

• Asparagus
• Celeriac
• Fava Beans
• Butternut Squash
• Cippolini
• Shallots
• Green Garlic
• Spring Onion
• Eggs
• Apples
• Carrots
• Radishes

I thought we were going to have people over but that doesn’t look to be tonight.  The apples may become filler for turnovers rather than the crisp I’d intended.  And all those favas.

Late Edit:

• Ruby Red Grapefruit

• Apples
• Strawberries
• Tangerines
• Snap Peas
• Kale
• Celery
• Spinach

Not too much today.

First off a little house keeping.  Anonymous reader R is complaining that this web log thingy isn’t all that exciting without pictures.  I blame the web 2.0 crowd.  Web 2.0?  Show me the RFC for that.

Anyhow, just to prove that yes, there was abalone for dinner the other night, well, here you go:

And that’s all that’s left.  It was……okay.  I think we’ll stick with their oysters.

And now on to the rack.  I’d mentioned previously a batch of beer.  Here it is just hours ago:

It’s now racked to a secondary fermenter.  It will sit for maybe a month.  It could stand to clarify out and I’m not convinced fermentation completed.  The yeast were about 18 months old.  The rest of the recipe was more or less:

• 7 lbs American 2-row
• 1 lb crystal malt
• American Ale liquid yeast
• 1 oz Cascade Hops
• 1 oz Fuggles Hops
• 0.5 oz Wilamette

I used a 2 step infusion mash this time.  I normally do a decoction mash but I didn’t feel like I had the four or so hours.  After a protein rest at 130F for 20 minutes I added 4 gallons of boiling water to get a nice 155F mash for 45 minutes, sparging with 4 gallons of 170F water.

The boil was 75 minutes.  the cascade half of the fuggles went in at the boil, the other half of the fuggles and the wilamette were used for flavor and aroma.  The primary fermentation was six days which is abnormally long but the yeast were so old.  The brew didn’t start bubbling until a couple days into the process.  When this is all over the beer will be kegged and I’ll make the next batch with 6 row barley (to avoid a stuck runoff) and livelier yeast.