Fourth of July

Goodness, it has been a whirlwind of celebrations and staying up late. We picked another quart plus a little Montmorency cherries. I made a pie for our Fourth of July celebration.

Fourth of July Montmorency cherry pie

I didn’t take any pictures at the actual party. Kate, Pat, Nancy, and Jane came. Terry grilled chicken (not our own); I made baked beans, and Hilda made potato salad. Our guests brought snacks. We had tons of fun. We discovered that we could see the fireworks from Sharon, WI over the trees. We sat in the backyard late into the evening, watching not only the fireworks but hundreds of fireflies over the hay field. We are very pleased to have such a large firefly population three years after we converted the corn/bean field to hay and stopped the spraying of chemicals.  The fireflies seem to synchronize their flashing so it goes in waves. I’ve been going to bed too early, that’s for sure. I miss sitting out at night.

I had to harvest the last 6 Napa (or Chinese) cabbage because the earwigs were turning the outer leaves to lace. I had to remove the leaves all the way down to the tightly-packed core to get beyond the damage and the frass. Nasty. Earwigs are creepy, primordial looking creatures that give me the willies.

One of my goals for this year was to try making kimchi. I’ve never eaten kimchi, but the recipes read like it’s just spicy sauerkraut. What’s not to like? I found a recipe in Wild Fermentation (Katz, 2003) for a very small batch.

It starts by weighing down Napa cabbage, carrots, and radishes in brine for several hours to pull some of the water out of the vegetables.

Weighing down the vegetables in brine using my dumbells and a collander

Meanwhile, I mixed the spices. It was too soon for me to have fresh red chili peppers, so I used a smoked Mariachi chilis from the freezer. I had garlic and spring onions from this year’s garden. I had to buy the ginger, of course. Katz says to mix the spices into a paste. I threw them in the food processor.

Spice mix

I mixed the wilted veg and the paste, stuffed it all in a quart jar, and weighted it down with a bag of brine. Every morning, I poke it down to release the bubbles of carbon dioxide that have formed overnight from fermentation. After two days, I had to move the jar to the root cellar because it was stinking up the kitchen with onion smells. Not so bad in the short term, but tiresome day after day and all night long.

When it stops bubbling or after a week, I’ll call it done and give it a try.

Fermentation jar

I made a video of the morning feeding frenzy. Here’s Hilda opening the coop and the broilers running for the food. They are so heavy and bulky that they have to flap their wings to get up much speed. Jackie circles around, taking advantage of any opportunity to get to the trough. Don’t worry about him. The broilers do take a break, and Jackie has plenty of time to eat then. The other morning, I heard a pathetic attempt at crowing from inside. I suspect it was Jackie, but I couldn’t see who it was. It sounded like someone holding the opening of a balloon tight so the air squeaked as it escaped. Haven’t heard it since.