Apropos of nothing, here’s a funny video for parents or friends of parents who wonder what the heck happened to them.
Monthly Archives: July 2010
No escape from the heat
Here on the East Coast it has been unbearably hot for what seems like the entire summer. I can’t remember experiencing a month of 90 degree temps. I feel as though my brain is as fried and crispy as my garden is. What little grass we have is more tan than green. The tomato plants have a tan tinge to the leaves. Between the nibbling chickens and the heat, the sweet woodruff I planted in the spring has croaked. I think one of the two plants may survive. The winterberry seems to have shrunk underground and the spicebush I planted looks like a dead twig. This shouldn’t be happening so early in the summer.
Between the brain sizzle and working on a huge casting, I haven’t been posting much. Hopefully the heat will break and my brain will start working again. Until then, here’s a photo of the world’s largest frying pan.
How to make kombucha
Kombucha scoby
A few weeks back I took a fermentation workshop with Sandor Katz. One of the many foods and beverages he covers in his book Wild Fermentation is kombucha. Kombucha is a fermented beverage made from sweetened tea. What gets the fermentation action going is a gelatinous clump of bacteria and yeast called the scoby, the mother, or the tea beast (love that one!) It’s a rubbery disk that is pretty unappetizing looking.
I was lucky enough to get a scoby from a generous person at the workshop, who brought extras. You see, when you make kombucha, you use a starter scoby, but then a new one forms. So then you have two, so you can then get two jars of kombucha brewing. But then you have 4 scobies. You can see how this can get out of hand quickly. In fact, if anyone lives near downtown Brooklyn and wants to try their hand at making kombucha, I can pass along a scoby to get them started. Just email me!
Fabric lid
Kombucha Recipe adapted from Wild Fermentation. To make 2 quarts.
Ingredients:
2 quarts of water
1/4 c. sugar
4 teabags of black tea
1 c. mature kombucha (you can buy it at most health food stores) This is like sourdough starter for kombucha.
kombucha scoby
Add sugar to the jar and boil water. When water has reached a boil, pour it into the jar (in this case a 2-quart jar) just to the point of where it starts to taper in. Stir to dissolve the sugar.
Add the teabags and let steep at least 15 minutes. Allow the liquid to cool to body/room temperature.
Add the mature kombucha and then the scoby. Put the scoby in opaque side up. Cover with a cloth which allows air circulation but keeps flies out. I take the metal disk out of the 2-part mason jar lid and put the screw ring on over a piece of fabric.
After a few days, taste the liquid (I pull some out with a straw. You know the trick where you dip the straw in and then put your finger on the end and pull up the liquid in the straw…). This part is really subjective. Kombucha ferments faster in warm weather, so keep that in mind. It’s been crazy hot here and I’ve still let my kombucha ferment on the counter for a couple of weeks. The longer it ferments, the more of a tangy, sour flavor it will have. If you let it go too far it will turn into vinegar. When it is to your liking, remove the scoby and store the kombucha in the fridge. If you like to flavor your kombucha, this is the time. I added lemon juice, some chopped ginger and some raspberry purée I happened to have on hand. I was emulating the trilogy mix by Synergy. I fill Synergy bottles, which are 16oz with my finished brew. To this I added juice from 1/4 lemon, a few slices or chunks of peeled ginger and about 1 t. raspberry puree. I have some in the fridge now with a few blueberries floating in the bottles.
When I pour the kombucha into my drinking glass, I always strain it to remove the ginger and any slimy bits (I know. Real appetizing. Makes you really want to run out and make some when I mention slimy bits) . It’s a little effervescent and very refreshing. And much to my dismay, kombucha is very trendy right now.
And if you don’t have any takers for the scoby, you can compost it, bury it with fruit trees or give it to your chickens. Mine wolfed it right down.
UPDATE: After several months of brewing kombucha, I’ve decided to take a break. I don’t have any more scobys to pass along. There are sites that explain how to grow a scoby from commercial kombucha. Here’s one.
Dry Your Clothes Outside
The other day I asked Lindsay if she wanted to help me dry our clothes the old fashioned way – meaning outside. She looked at me like I was nuts, because I almost always hang our clothes out to dry. For her that was the normal, contemporary way of doing it. Yea!
In the aftermath of the BP Oil Leak (can you say aftermath when it’s still going on??) I think it’s important to think about ways we can save energy. Drying your clothes outside is a very nice and simple way of saving some energy. Plus, you do get that amazing outdoor smell that no amount of dryer sheets can compare to. I happen to have a particularly crappy dryer, which takes about 1 1/2 hours to dry a fairly small sized load. So hanging my clothes out doesn’t take any longer, and in many instances, is much quicker. Plus with the temperature here in the 90s for what seems like freaking forever, it’s nice not to heat up the house with the dryer running.
But don’t take my word on it, lots of people are singing the praises of line drying. Lyandra has a post here and my sister Lisa has a post here. One word of caution, if you have chickens, don’t wait until too late in the day to bring your clothes in…eeuw…dirty chicken claws.
Cholesterol Drug for Kids
I saw the article below and it made me so disgusted. People are more willing to stuff a pill down their kid’s throat than make them exercise and eat healthy food?!? This kiddie version of lipitor has been approved for children as young as 10 years old. Isn’t it tragic that kids that young have high cholesterol? Shouldn’t we think about what is really wrong here?
I also have a hard time buying the whole “it’s nobody’s fault the kid is fat, it’s just bad genetics” argument. Are the overweight families feeding their children fresh produce and taking them to the park? Or are the kids eating the same high-calorie meals that they are eating and sitting in front of the tv?
Advertising has taken away all the personal responsibility. If you want to lose weight, just drink a diet soda or eat a diet chocolate bar. God forbid you actually examine what lifestyle choices got you there in the first place! It’s not your fault you are heavy. Blame your family tree and buy our products. Gah!
By LINDA A. JOHNSON, AP Business Writer – Tue Jul 6, 12:32 pm ET
TRENTON, N.J. – The European Union has approved a new chewable form of cholesterol blockbuster Lipitor for children 10 and up with high levels of bad cholesterol and triglycerides, a type of blood fat, Pfizer said Tuesday.
The approval includes children whose high blood fats are due to an inherited disease that causes extremelyhigh cholesterol levels, familial hypercholesterolemia.
New York-based Pfizer Inc. won U.S. approval for Lipitor use in children 10 to 17 with that condition in 2002.
Lipitor is the world’s top-selling drug, with 2009 sales of about $13 billion, but its U.S. patent expires at the end of November 2011. Pfizer, the world’s biggest drugmaker, will quickly lose most Lipitor revenue once generic competition hits, so the company has been trying to boost sales where possible before then.
Pfizer said last fall that it plans to apply for a six-month extension of its patent in European countries, after doing studies of Lipitor in youngsters.
As in the United States, the European Union allows drug makers to seek an additional six months of patent protection for medications if they test them in children, who generally are excluded from the drug studies performed to win approval for a new medication.
Pfizer already won such an extension for its crucial U.S. patent on Lipitor.
For blockbuster drugs, those extensions can easily bring hundreds of millions of dollars in additional revenue. Normally, they are for drugs that are widely used by different age groups.
Until recently, cholesterol drugs have been primarily taken by adults with heart disease, but their use has expanded to younger patients as more obese, sedentaryteenagers and adolescents develop heart disease and diabetes.
Lipitor is approved to lower risk of heart attack and stroke, but can cause dangerous muscle pain or weakness, and it cannot be taken by patients with liver problems or by nursing or pregnant women.
Feeling Patriotic this July 4th weekend
This weekend we visited friends in Rhode Island. I just did my photo school foible #2 and forgot to pack my camera. Don’t ask me how, but I did. I relied on my friend Jim’s camera and will post some photos once I get the photos from him.
So the photo above isn’t one of mine. When we were driving home in the hellacious traffic that is I-95, we decided to try an alternative route. We turned onto Route 1 and worked our way down towards New Haven. At one point we drove past a little inlet and saw an osprey nest on a platform. And then on a giant telephone-sized perch next to it was a bald eagle. It was pretty unmistakable with its white head. I had never seen an adult one before. I had seen an immature bald eagle (they don’t have the white feathers on their heads when they are young) in Cooperstown, NY many years ago, but it was pretty far away. Somehow this sighting on July 5th felt like an appropriate way to finish Independence weekend.
Happy Independence Day
We got back from the North Fork of Long Island on Monday. The weekend was lovely and we joined hands for Hands Across the Sand at a small, local beach. There were about 2 dozen of us. I haven’t checked the website since Saturday to see photos from other beaches. I didn’t get photos because, well, my hands were linked and I couldn’t push the button. Sigh.
This weekend we are going up to Rhode Island to see good friends of ours. Last year I was an elderberry maniac and we had to pull the car over to pick elderflowers. I think the season has passed, but I’m going to keep my eyes open. I made french toast dipped into the flowers and then fried them up.
I’m also going to keep my eyes peeled for milkweed florets. Stephanie at PureAndStrangeAsWhatISee sauteed the florets in butter and likens them to asparagus or artichokes. Yum!
No better way to celebrate your independence than by foraging for some food from the wild! Oh, and going to a polo match. Hope you have a great weekend.