Today was dye day with the Lichen and puff ball brew. The lichen in one jar and the puff ball in another, were each soaked and brewed for 30 days in ammonia water. They each created a pale russet to pink colored fluid. I performed the dye ritual at low heat on a selection of pre-mordanted yarns and I got- zip. Nada. No color- not even pale yellow. A total waste of good ammonia- well not total waste as it went to the compost heap to be fertilizer, but a total waste of time. The lichen remaining in the collection bag was then simmered in plain water for about an hour (low heat) and the dye ritual was repeated on fresh yarn- golden-ish color across the board. We have wash fast, and there is a chance of light fast. Definitely more compost material. Puff ball was the same as the lichen in ammonia- nothing.
So a recap of the experiment to date suggests that Tea Tree is a winner, yellow mushroom was very golden and kind of stinky, the eucalyptus bark was very rust colored, and all the others were pale and washed out looking.
Then there was the Indigo dye class- blue, very blue, very messy, very expensive. A good education in social misfits and antiquated colorants.
Sometimes you need to do things you know are not what you want to re-enforce your understanding of why you want what you want in the first place. I want simple, easy, predictable, permanent, convenient, reasonably priced dye products that don't stink, pollute the water ways, or dye my hands blue when I rinse them out. Yo! I am un-natural.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Kitchen Experiment- 2
The first kitchen experiment dealt with Mordanting and some yellow mushrooms from Jack in The Box. There was also some interesting play with my Tea Tree bush and the Macadamia nut tree.
Now that I have some yarn pre-mordanted, I am ready to play again. Eduard and I went on a field trip and collected- Pussy willow flowers, dried wild buckwheat, bark from eucalyptus trees, puff ball fungus, shelf fungus, and lichen.
Today, in the kitchen, I brewed some pussywillow by boiling/simmering it for 1 hour, straining the broth, then simmering a collection of pre-mordanted yarns for 30 minutes. Nice outcome. Didn't smell awful. Not hard to do. Washfast. I will check for light fast when we get some sunshine.
Next, some wild buckwheat. It is brewing as we speak. But I have also started some other brews. Some of the lichen is soaking in a jar with ammonia added. Same for some of the puff balls. Different brewing techniques create different results, just like different mordants. Now some of the buckwheat is also brewing in ammonia.
I haven't decided what to do with the shelf fungus. It needs to be pounded to break it up, soaked in something, and probably boiled outside. Some of these things are a bit stinky to work with. So I thought I would see if ammonia works with the puff balls before I try another fungus.
This is the type of play I like to do when I am at home sorting through papers and feeling crushed by the weight of "stuff".
But in my defense, I will say that last night I spent two hours tossing and sorting. A full paper grocery bag of paper trash went out, and an equal size one is by the fire place waiting to burn. Two boxes of Office supply stuff got sorted, more things got into the donation box, and 10 inches of stuff got put into the file cabinet. I vacuumed more of the room and can actually see that the moving of the file cabinets will in fact happen this week.
So that is why I allowed myself a bit of time in the kitchen to play. I have tagged all my sample yarns from my experiments and am proceeding to write up my notes.
Unfortunately, the house does not look any better for all the sorting and tossing. Except for the shower, which I cleaned yesterday.
Now that I have some yarn pre-mordanted, I am ready to play again. Eduard and I went on a field trip and collected- Pussy willow flowers, dried wild buckwheat, bark from eucalyptus trees, puff ball fungus, shelf fungus, and lichen.
Today, in the kitchen, I brewed some pussywillow by boiling/simmering it for 1 hour, straining the broth, then simmering a collection of pre-mordanted yarns for 30 minutes. Nice outcome. Didn't smell awful. Not hard to do. Washfast. I will check for light fast when we get some sunshine.
Next, some wild buckwheat. It is brewing as we speak. But I have also started some other brews. Some of the lichen is soaking in a jar with ammonia added. Same for some of the puff balls. Different brewing techniques create different results, just like different mordants. Now some of the buckwheat is also brewing in ammonia.
I haven't decided what to do with the shelf fungus. It needs to be pounded to break it up, soaked in something, and probably boiled outside. Some of these things are a bit stinky to work with. So I thought I would see if ammonia works with the puff balls before I try another fungus.
This is the type of play I like to do when I am at home sorting through papers and feeling crushed by the weight of "stuff".
But in my defense, I will say that last night I spent two hours tossing and sorting. A full paper grocery bag of paper trash went out, and an equal size one is by the fire place waiting to burn. Two boxes of Office supply stuff got sorted, more things got into the donation box, and 10 inches of stuff got put into the file cabinet. I vacuumed more of the room and can actually see that the moving of the file cabinets will in fact happen this week.
So that is why I allowed myself a bit of time in the kitchen to play. I have tagged all my sample yarns from my experiments and am proceeding to write up my notes.
Unfortunately, the house does not look any better for all the sorting and tossing. Except for the shower, which I cleaned yesterday.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Cartharsis
Catharsis- It just may not be all it is cracked up to be. There is supposed to be some sense of purification, cleanliness, and new found freedom associated with Catharsis. But that is not what I am feeling. Maybe I will feel it later, when the process is completed, but at the moment it is a gut wrenching, fatiguing, time consuming, exhausting feeliing.
We are cleaning out the "office". And since the garage is full, most of it is getting burned, tossed, donated, recycled, and composted. Eduard has moved the bulk of his large pieces into his new, separate office. I have moved my computer and chair. We are wired and functioning. But the stuff still in the room is daunting. I have tossed or burned about a two foot tall stack of papers this last week. I have gathered another foot tall stack to donate to a school. Eduard has been sorting and tossing also. So far, the amount of stuff coming out of the closet piles up faster than we can dispose of it. Where did all this shit come from before it went into the closet?
And every piece has to be examined and judged- trash or burn, keep and file or toss, is this picture really worth saving? Will I miss it in 10 years? Will I just let my children dispose of everything? (I know you are out there breathing a sigh of relief right now, knowing that I am doing this so that you don't have to.)
Eduard and I have not yet had a fight over any of the work or the speed with which we approach this job. We are both committed to this project. Yet,..pause.. I feel like this purging process is making my entire body react. The dust is making me sneeze and cough. The lifting is fatiguing. The sorting is dredging up old memories and stirring old emotions. And there is a little bit of fear because I actually can't remember where I got some of this stuff. AND worst of all, there is so much stuff I would rather be doing. I feel that I am missing out on lots of fun because I am busy filling the landfill.
I am sure, when the purging is done, I will feel better, cleaner, and worthy of the new organization. But the process is ugly and time consuming. So there is some history here that can be contributed to this process.
In my childhood, we never moved from the house my parents bought in 1956. And things would accumulate, like at all houses. We had an annual cleaning that involved moving the furniture around in the room to try new positions and to clean the old spots. In this process, all old stuff was tossed or packaged to be stored. I did something similar with my children's rooms right before Christmas every year. But the biggest purge came when we moved. There was the moving truck and the donation truck and often they both got full. I have done this several times.
Eduard and I don't want to move, but we never really got moved in when we married. The moving van came to his house, but not the donation truck. He also does not have the annual purge history so things pile up for years. I have been trying to continue the annual cleaning/sorting thing, but I have been lax. More comes in than goes out. I have been cleaning out my closet and drawers regularly. I got rid of books when the new bookcase was done. I have also come to know that I am not going to sit around and wait for Ebay sales or garage sales to get rid of stuff- it is the donation truck for me. This year we purged the Christmas stuff from the garage (all my stuff). We purged books (mostly mine). I have worked down stuff from the kitchen (mostly my stuff). We got Sara moved into the dorm and had her sort out all her stuff. I have cleaned out old towels and sheets, kitchen linens, table linens. I have sawed up most of the wood around the house that we wanted to burn.
We have been purging for a really long time and it seems that it will go on forever. The office purge is not the end, either. We still have to approach the garage.
As I clean and clear, I am developing a resolve to avoid shopping. I know this does not bode well for the economic recovery, but I just don't think I want to do this again- and I definitely don't want my children to have to deal with my mess. No more buying in bulk. No more saving something because it might be useful some day. No more stockpile, hoard, and re-purpose. I want to do the projects I already have and not start a bunch of new ones.
There! I am beaten down by the purging process. I only want to plod through the rest of the job to the end and collapse in a pile on the clean floor of an empty room. Stuff 1- Jeri 0
We are cleaning out the "office". And since the garage is full, most of it is getting burned, tossed, donated, recycled, and composted. Eduard has moved the bulk of his large pieces into his new, separate office. I have moved my computer and chair. We are wired and functioning. But the stuff still in the room is daunting. I have tossed or burned about a two foot tall stack of papers this last week. I have gathered another foot tall stack to donate to a school. Eduard has been sorting and tossing also. So far, the amount of stuff coming out of the closet piles up faster than we can dispose of it. Where did all this shit come from before it went into the closet?
And every piece has to be examined and judged- trash or burn, keep and file or toss, is this picture really worth saving? Will I miss it in 10 years? Will I just let my children dispose of everything? (I know you are out there breathing a sigh of relief right now, knowing that I am doing this so that you don't have to.)
Eduard and I have not yet had a fight over any of the work or the speed with which we approach this job. We are both committed to this project. Yet,..pause.. I feel like this purging process is making my entire body react. The dust is making me sneeze and cough. The lifting is fatiguing. The sorting is dredging up old memories and stirring old emotions. And there is a little bit of fear because I actually can't remember where I got some of this stuff. AND worst of all, there is so much stuff I would rather be doing. I feel that I am missing out on lots of fun because I am busy filling the landfill.
I am sure, when the purging is done, I will feel better, cleaner, and worthy of the new organization. But the process is ugly and time consuming. So there is some history here that can be contributed to this process.
In my childhood, we never moved from the house my parents bought in 1956. And things would accumulate, like at all houses. We had an annual cleaning that involved moving the furniture around in the room to try new positions and to clean the old spots. In this process, all old stuff was tossed or packaged to be stored. I did something similar with my children's rooms right before Christmas every year. But the biggest purge came when we moved. There was the moving truck and the donation truck and often they both got full. I have done this several times.
Eduard and I don't want to move, but we never really got moved in when we married. The moving van came to his house, but not the donation truck. He also does not have the annual purge history so things pile up for years. I have been trying to continue the annual cleaning/sorting thing, but I have been lax. More comes in than goes out. I have been cleaning out my closet and drawers regularly. I got rid of books when the new bookcase was done. I have also come to know that I am not going to sit around and wait for Ebay sales or garage sales to get rid of stuff- it is the donation truck for me. This year we purged the Christmas stuff from the garage (all my stuff). We purged books (mostly mine). I have worked down stuff from the kitchen (mostly my stuff). We got Sara moved into the dorm and had her sort out all her stuff. I have cleaned out old towels and sheets, kitchen linens, table linens. I have sawed up most of the wood around the house that we wanted to burn.
We have been purging for a really long time and it seems that it will go on forever. The office purge is not the end, either. We still have to approach the garage.
As I clean and clear, I am developing a resolve to avoid shopping. I know this does not bode well for the economic recovery, but I just don't think I want to do this again- and I definitely don't want my children to have to deal with my mess. No more buying in bulk. No more saving something because it might be useful some day. No more stockpile, hoard, and re-purpose. I want to do the projects I already have and not start a bunch of new ones.
There! I am beaten down by the purging process. I only want to plod through the rest of the job to the end and collapse in a pile on the clean floor of an empty room. Stuff 1- Jeri 0
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Camoflage
CAMOFLage- This is what we are getting- Camo Yarn. So far the Mushrooms have developed a deep golden color on all mordants except the chrome which is a pale yellow/gold. The Macadamia is soft beige; the Tea Tree is deep green or rosey brown. And the copper mordant by itself makes a soft turqouise. With yarn like this, we could hide in the forest forever. Well, maybe not deep winter when some of the trees lose their leaves, but most of the year.
I have found that the mordants, while making things grab the color quickly, have not had much affect on color or washfast/lightfast ability. The real change came in the Tea Tree when the Alum and Copper grabbed the green. The un-mordant yarn took a rosey brown.
All things considered, this has been a good experiment. And there will be many more. I am creating mordanted swatch pieces so that I can test small quantities of colorant material in all the mordants at one time. I still need to get some iron and tin samples made, but life moves at its own pace- these are not close to the top of the list of things to do yet.
I have pretty much decided that the professional chemicals are still my favorite- as I have yet to go get the cochineal bugs. But it is good to know what is in my yard and what it can do for me.
I also have come to realize that as a society we are so spoiled. The yarn I am using was spun on a machine. I do make my own yarn, but to make this much just for test swatches would have been really hard. The chemicals are already reduced and in their simple form I need. I could go get some copper and vinegar, but hey! I didn't have to steep the plants for days in wood ashes, either.
This is a fun thing, and I don't have to do it for a living every day. None of us do. We all have lovely, colorful clothing and fabrics at our fingertips, with great ease and variety. As I spin the next fleece, plan the next sweater, knit the next socks- I am so glad that I am not making every piece of textile my family needs. I would be out of my mind sewing, weaving, spinning, knitting, dying, and collecting bugs. In fact- I am going to take a nap today, again, because I can.
I have found that the mordants, while making things grab the color quickly, have not had much affect on color or washfast/lightfast ability. The real change came in the Tea Tree when the Alum and Copper grabbed the green. The un-mordant yarn took a rosey brown.
All things considered, this has been a good experiment. And there will be many more. I am creating mordanted swatch pieces so that I can test small quantities of colorant material in all the mordants at one time. I still need to get some iron and tin samples made, but life moves at its own pace- these are not close to the top of the list of things to do yet.
I have pretty much decided that the professional chemicals are still my favorite- as I have yet to go get the cochineal bugs. But it is good to know what is in my yard and what it can do for me.
I also have come to realize that as a society we are so spoiled. The yarn I am using was spun on a machine. I do make my own yarn, but to make this much just for test swatches would have been really hard. The chemicals are already reduced and in their simple form I need. I could go get some copper and vinegar, but hey! I didn't have to steep the plants for days in wood ashes, either.
This is a fun thing, and I don't have to do it for a living every day. None of us do. We all have lovely, colorful clothing and fabrics at our fingertips, with great ease and variety. As I spin the next fleece, plan the next sweater, knit the next socks- I am so glad that I am not making every piece of textile my family needs. I would be out of my mind sewing, weaving, spinning, knitting, dying, and collecting bugs. In fact- I am going to take a nap today, again, because I can.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Color from my Garden
My current thing, well there are many things that are current, but this one is about wool and dying. Not death dying, but getting color into the wool by some complicated, unnatural process. There is also cheese, bread, garden, spinning, knitting... the Things going on here are numerous. Any time I can combine things makes life simpler and more rewarding.
So back to my current thing- dying wool with natural plant materials found around my home. Yesterday, I dyed some yarn with Macadamia nut hulls. Since I have a macadamia tree, it seemed to me a good idea. Walnut hulls are the tried and true plan, but I don't have a walnut tree. SO- Macadamia it was, and it created a lovely, soft, yellowy beige with no mordants. It is wash fast, but I haven't completed the light fast test.
Then I cut some of the flowers from the New Zealand Tea Tree/bush and it made a beautiful red water. I added some vinegar and the red nearly disappeared. The wool dyed a soft, reddish brown and is washfast- still working on the lightfast test. So that brings us to the current pot of stuff.
I am mordanting the current yarn in Alum/Tartar. This process involves simmering the yarn for an hour in a solution of Alum (aluminum salts) and Cream of Tartar (tartaric acid). After the yarn is mordanted, it will be simmered in the red water bath from the second collection of Tea Tree/bush flowers to see if the pre-mordanted wool keeps the color better.
I also have a collection of mushrooms that I harvested from a nearby location. I am hoping to extract whatever color possibilities the mushrooms may have this week and dye some wool with it. After wandering around the house looking for mushrooms, I am sorely dissappointed in my landscape. Last year, mushrooms were abundant. This year, zippo. But I have other plants that offer possibilities.
Leaves, twigs, flowers, roots- I am looking for plants with color chemicals that will grow in my yard. As I am not a serious botanist and my yard is not a scientific laboratory, I am doing what I can with what is "natural" here. I suspect that I will have an abundance of - earthy brown, lazy yellow, and mild beigish pink. But when white becomes tiresome even that little selection is delightful.
Some of my friends are taking classes in dying with indigo. I am relatively certain that it is not growing in my yard, yet. Nor madder, for that matter. But the things that I do have are exciting. There is a cactus down the street, positively covered with cochineal bugs. I am planning on scraping them off into a pot soon. And I am going to explore other mordant chemicals- chrome, copper, tin, iron. Eventually, there will be some color variety that I can say is natural to my surroundings.
But right now, we are looking at some serious brown conditions.
So back to my current thing- dying wool with natural plant materials found around my home. Yesterday, I dyed some yarn with Macadamia nut hulls. Since I have a macadamia tree, it seemed to me a good idea. Walnut hulls are the tried and true plan, but I don't have a walnut tree. SO- Macadamia it was, and it created a lovely, soft, yellowy beige with no mordants. It is wash fast, but I haven't completed the light fast test.
Then I cut some of the flowers from the New Zealand Tea Tree/bush and it made a beautiful red water. I added some vinegar and the red nearly disappeared. The wool dyed a soft, reddish brown and is washfast- still working on the lightfast test. So that brings us to the current pot of stuff.
I am mordanting the current yarn in Alum/Tartar. This process involves simmering the yarn for an hour in a solution of Alum (aluminum salts) and Cream of Tartar (tartaric acid). After the yarn is mordanted, it will be simmered in the red water bath from the second collection of Tea Tree/bush flowers to see if the pre-mordanted wool keeps the color better.
I also have a collection of mushrooms that I harvested from a nearby location. I am hoping to extract whatever color possibilities the mushrooms may have this week and dye some wool with it. After wandering around the house looking for mushrooms, I am sorely dissappointed in my landscape. Last year, mushrooms were abundant. This year, zippo. But I have other plants that offer possibilities.
Leaves, twigs, flowers, roots- I am looking for plants with color chemicals that will grow in my yard. As I am not a serious botanist and my yard is not a scientific laboratory, I am doing what I can with what is "natural" here. I suspect that I will have an abundance of - earthy brown, lazy yellow, and mild beigish pink. But when white becomes tiresome even that little selection is delightful.
Some of my friends are taking classes in dying with indigo. I am relatively certain that it is not growing in my yard, yet. Nor madder, for that matter. But the things that I do have are exciting. There is a cactus down the street, positively covered with cochineal bugs. I am planning on scraping them off into a pot soon. And I am going to explore other mordant chemicals- chrome, copper, tin, iron. Eventually, there will be some color variety that I can say is natural to my surroundings.
But right now, we are looking at some serious brown conditions.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Doors, beds, floors, walls
"Well, well, well," she said to herself as she admired the finished work.
That is really a lie, because nothing is ever really finished. This weekend we "finished" the living room, for now. The doors finally got installed on the cabinets and to my distress, the design I thought would just work fine needs a bit of fine tuning. So I ordered two more doors to "finish" it better and now must go get two more handles. This work will be done in January or February 2011.
Then, Eduard finished and assembled the cabinet/secretary that he has been refinishing for a year+. It is in place, but we haven't moved most of the office stuff into it. It will be a working secretary and move the bills file, office tools, and little stuff out of Eduard's desk. This is a good plan because his desk will someday be in his separate office in the pink room. But not yet. So there is no hurry to get the stuff organized into the secretary.
After the secretary project got out of the garage, I immediately claimed the space for the bed that is leaving the Wooly Room. In fact, I started working on it today. I had to find some Ashford information anyway, so I started moving out the boxes. Now the lovely living room is completely full of boxes and looms. I moved the mattress from the bed to the other bed (stacked) so that my princess can sleep on two mattresses this winter break. And the rest will go out tonight into that little space in the garage.
Stuff is shifting. The long table will be in the Wooly Room, with two cabinets and a shorter table. And, of course, all the boxes and looms will go back in. Someday, the rest of the bed will go into the guest room. I am aiming for spring- but my aim hasn't been real good lately.
We started this phase of the living room remodel in March 2010 and I expected it to take a couple of months. December 2010 and we are almost done. So maybe the guest room will take a bit longer. It involves a window redo, carpet cleaning, paint, and closet build ins. I have the furniture already. So maybe it will only take 4 months. I really should start working on it now if I want to get done by summer.
There is only so much of me, and I have so much to do, so it will get done when it gets done. In the meantime, I ordered a cabinet for the dining room. It will be built to match the living room bookcase and will replace two of the cabinets that are in the room now. I will have room for my canning jars, knick-knacks, big tools, and linens. It means taking everything out of the china hutch again so that I can move it out of the way while the work is done. Maybe that job will be done by spring. Regardless, it is going to be a long and busy winter.
That is really a lie, because nothing is ever really finished. This weekend we "finished" the living room, for now. The doors finally got installed on the cabinets and to my distress, the design I thought would just work fine needs a bit of fine tuning. So I ordered two more doors to "finish" it better and now must go get two more handles. This work will be done in January or February 2011.
Then, Eduard finished and assembled the cabinet/secretary that he has been refinishing for a year+. It is in place, but we haven't moved most of the office stuff into it. It will be a working secretary and move the bills file, office tools, and little stuff out of Eduard's desk. This is a good plan because his desk will someday be in his separate office in the pink room. But not yet. So there is no hurry to get the stuff organized into the secretary.
After the secretary project got out of the garage, I immediately claimed the space for the bed that is leaving the Wooly Room. In fact, I started working on it today. I had to find some Ashford information anyway, so I started moving out the boxes. Now the lovely living room is completely full of boxes and looms. I moved the mattress from the bed to the other bed (stacked) so that my princess can sleep on two mattresses this winter break. And the rest will go out tonight into that little space in the garage.
Stuff is shifting. The long table will be in the Wooly Room, with two cabinets and a shorter table. And, of course, all the boxes and looms will go back in. Someday, the rest of the bed will go into the guest room. I am aiming for spring- but my aim hasn't been real good lately.
We started this phase of the living room remodel in March 2010 and I expected it to take a couple of months. December 2010 and we are almost done. So maybe the guest room will take a bit longer. It involves a window redo, carpet cleaning, paint, and closet build ins. I have the furniture already. So maybe it will only take 4 months. I really should start working on it now if I want to get done by summer.
There is only so much of me, and I have so much to do, so it will get done when it gets done. In the meantime, I ordered a cabinet for the dining room. It will be built to match the living room bookcase and will replace two of the cabinets that are in the room now. I will have room for my canning jars, knick-knacks, big tools, and linens. It means taking everything out of the china hutch again so that I can move it out of the way while the work is done. Maybe that job will be done by spring. Regardless, it is going to be a long and busy winter.
Monday, November 1, 2010
The Cheese Stands Alone
I have been busy beyond my wildest dreams. And I have had some really wild dreams lately. My dear sweet dragon and I wandered off to China to visit my son and to have a real escape for the first time since, well, ever. I want to really enjoy the empty nest while I have it. And I have been preparing for and recovering from that for a month. Then we had to do some sharing, and spinning, and then I got sick.
Now I will work the election, recover from that and start again on the cabinet doors (still in progress).
But in the meantime, I have been making cheese. I have started collecting goats milk and making goats milk cheese. This is a new culinary adventure for me, although, I had made yogurt, cottage cheese, buttermilk, and yogurt cheese before. Then I did some mozzarella, yum. And ricotta, yum. And a Feta, which was better on the second try. This time, I am doing hard time. I have a Romano and a Cheddar aging.
I have to wait for 6 weeks before we have any idea if there is good cheese for January. As much as I would like to be organized enough to make these things for xmas presents, I just can't seem to make a cheese in August. Upon reflection though, it really doesn't matter if the cheese is ready for gifts in December, because the people I share cheese with will love it whenever it is ready. My family, on the other hand, gets See's candy.
This brings us to a discussion about Family and Holidays and Gifts, always a tricky subject. I can not send cheese to China, so Scott gets something else. My mom believes I am poisoning her, so no cheese there. My dad and step-mom prefer ingredient labels that say low sodium. My brothers would throw it away after a few months in the refrigerator, when the good intentions wear off. Eduard's mom would sample it but doesn't cook much now.
My daughter will get some cheese. And my friends. And they don't care if it is after Dec. 25. I even have a person who is willing to buy some (under the radar since I can't legally sell food). So that brings me to the question of how much cheese should I actually make for my personal consumption and home cooking use, gifts, friends? Is 10 pounds a year enough or too much? I think if it were just me, 6 pounds a year might be a bit skimpy as I really love to eat cheese, so some of the cheeses don't need aging, like Feta, so they don't have lots of planning involved. But 10 pounds is probably more than we could eat in a reasonable diet. Then I start remembering the ricotta in the lasagna and the spanakopita.... we really do eat a lot of cheese.
Well, it is really stretching my future planning to fantasize over my cheese skill when the first hard cheeses have dried for three days. Let's just slow this bus down and wait for the results. If I am really able to make some good, hard cheese- then we can talk about the future and how many pounds might be in it. But for the present- the cheese stands alone on the cheese board drying as I rub the salt on the rind and turning it every few hours.
Now I will work the election, recover from that and start again on the cabinet doors (still in progress).
But in the meantime, I have been making cheese. I have started collecting goats milk and making goats milk cheese. This is a new culinary adventure for me, although, I had made yogurt, cottage cheese, buttermilk, and yogurt cheese before. Then I did some mozzarella, yum. And ricotta, yum. And a Feta, which was better on the second try. This time, I am doing hard time. I have a Romano and a Cheddar aging.
I have to wait for 6 weeks before we have any idea if there is good cheese for January. As much as I would like to be organized enough to make these things for xmas presents, I just can't seem to make a cheese in August. Upon reflection though, it really doesn't matter if the cheese is ready for gifts in December, because the people I share cheese with will love it whenever it is ready. My family, on the other hand, gets See's candy.
This brings us to a discussion about Family and Holidays and Gifts, always a tricky subject. I can not send cheese to China, so Scott gets something else. My mom believes I am poisoning her, so no cheese there. My dad and step-mom prefer ingredient labels that say low sodium. My brothers would throw it away after a few months in the refrigerator, when the good intentions wear off. Eduard's mom would sample it but doesn't cook much now.
My daughter will get some cheese. And my friends. And they don't care if it is after Dec. 25. I even have a person who is willing to buy some (under the radar since I can't legally sell food). So that brings me to the question of how much cheese should I actually make for my personal consumption and home cooking use, gifts, friends? Is 10 pounds a year enough or too much? I think if it were just me, 6 pounds a year might be a bit skimpy as I really love to eat cheese, so some of the cheeses don't need aging, like Feta, so they don't have lots of planning involved. But 10 pounds is probably more than we could eat in a reasonable diet. Then I start remembering the ricotta in the lasagna and the spanakopita.... we really do eat a lot of cheese.
Well, it is really stretching my future planning to fantasize over my cheese skill when the first hard cheeses have dried for three days. Let's just slow this bus down and wait for the results. If I am really able to make some good, hard cheese- then we can talk about the future and how many pounds might be in it. But for the present- the cheese stands alone on the cheese board drying as I rub the salt on the rind and turning it every few hours.
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