Jeff Smith

I remember seeing a YouTube video of some aunty make arepas. Wish I had the bookmark. She definitely had this technique moving the pad of dough between her hands before putting on a very large iron pan/comal.

Didn’t know they would like hops. Goats I wouldn’t even trust around aluminum cans, but I thought sheep might be a bit more picky.

Well I wonder what sheep meat tastes like if they are living on hops. Spanish pigs taste pretty nice from the acorns.

20L bucket nearly full of hops

1.4kg of Perle hops. The EKG dried enough in the dehydrator but I don’t even have enough racks to dry this many hops at one time. On a board for now and will rotate onto racks. Need to build frames with screen.

Or do they not go from fluffy to dino and then finally bird?

Sleepy proto-dinosaurs

Don-key!

For my poles to suspend the hops I’ve dug holes for PVC pipe that the thick bamboo ~5-6m poles then sits inside. We have tons of bamboo growing nearby but it just has always seemed such a waste to cut new poles every year. Had a few survive the previous year but that was clearly an anomaly

Some of the fresh hops on metal drying rack ready to go into the dehydrator

On to the racks for drying

Still need to pick the Perle hops and have some Riwaka and Wakatu. One bine of the Riwaka found its way to the bines and string for the EKG but fortunately that hop cones are quite different shape so can mostly tell which are which.

Large stainless steel bowl of fresh hops

East Kent Golding hops harvest. First time for these bines. 469g wet so should be about 79-94g once dehydrated

I have neglected my hops this year while busy with the new job. One lesson is to always cut new bamboo for my poles. The don’t hold up in the windy and wet weather a second year

Best post I’ve seen in ages

There's people, important people, saying the US and Israel war against Iran is going so badly for Trump that he will have to release the Epstein files as a distraction.

mastodon.nz/@jeremy_pm/1...

@mbrobergmoffitt.bsky.social do you still want some East Kent Goldings hops? I need to pick mine tomorrow and put in the dehydrator, then vacuum pack. I’ve neglected my hops this year with my new job and I can give you my entire harvest of EKG (it won’t be a lot but I have one bine worth)

”I tried donating blood today. Never again!

Too many stupid questions. Whose blood is it? Where did you get it from? Why is it in a bucket?”

The moon going from full moon to a red moon and starting to go back to a normal full moon, then my camera battery door fell off.

Here's my first edit on the March 3rd Lunar Eclipse. 15 moon shots, 1 foreground. Taken over a 3 hourish period.

Feed me Seymour

I had no idea. Krausen added to beer has a similar impact in a way. And it also results in a stronger, healthier fermentation because the yeast are in full swing.

What makes it Jamaican style?

Glad to see you have your still running again

Crying in my champagne and caviar

Bookmarked! Thank you!

When I found provolone at Costco last year I nearly broke down in tears in front of all the cheeses.

Sure as hell beats the life our parents had of needing to walk to school, both ways up hill, in the snow.

Of course insider knowledge but if you place a bet there must be someone on the opposite side of the bet, no? Who would that be?

For these people to “win” there must be people betting against. Is this just straight up money laundering and bribes dressed up as betting?

One of my favorite scenes from Star Trek TOS. The highly evolved Mr. Spock (who is fully capable of violence) drops a line on Capt Kirk that resonates to this day.

How did your tomatoes go this year?

My tomatoes were not so great this year. I just didn’t have the time to take proper care of them. Back to a very busy job in a startup compared to being on sabbatical last year had a significant impact on garden maintenance.

Just want to buy momotaro tomatoes!

I’ve neglected my garden since mid January but the chilis are just nuts. We had a good spell of quite warm dry weather.

And I found a bittermelon today. The vines all started themselves and now growing over the deceased tomato plants. Also found a pumpkin vine that started itself.

Green Hatch chilis in a stainless steel bowl on the left and a mix of red and green small chilis, Sport chilis, in a more shallow but much wider stainless steel bowl

Another trip to the garden. Huge bowl (from only two plants) of sport peppers (aka the chilis used in Chicago style hot dogs) and another good harvest of Hatch chilis. Looks like enchiladas this week!

Two mostly white small ceramic bowls. On the left is a cucumber pickle with myoga and on the right is the eggplant pickle with myoga.

Now some pickles to enjoy with a cold beer and probably some sake this afternoon.

Cutting board with a knife in the left edge, half of a cucumber, two eggplants, some sliced myoga and a pile of whole myoga

Second round of harvesting myoga ミョウガ (Japanese ginger blossoms). A nice jar of amazuke already done and now some quick cucumber plus myoga and eggplant plus myoga pickles.

That time of the year

@mbrobergmoffitt.bsky.social I love your posts, man, but all these food posts after I’ve already had dinner - I’m too full to appreciate them.

So many. Sa-key, Toe-key-oh, Cary-OKey