The Fruits of Summer

It is pouring outside. I woke up this morning around 5am, thinking about my 6:30am running date, and I smiled when I heard the rain beating on the roof. Eliza and I have a deal that we don't run if it's raining. We've been running together Mondays-Fridays since April, and this is the first day that we've actually gotten to use our rain rule. I'm fully enjoying it!

Yesterday the fog was so think you could barely see the end of the dock, and the mosquitoes were buzzing around everywhere, looking for exposed flesh to bite. But Lil's currants and my raspberries needed picking, so I put on long pants and a sweatshirt to protect against those nasty little suckers and I headed down to Lil and Chuddy's to pick and pick and pick those juicy currants! I've never seen her red currants like this. They're dripping from the bushes. Big, fat, red berries dangling on skinny vines up and down the branches of each laden bush. I picked the vines off of the branches a few at a time and then swept my finger and thumb down the vine to remove the berries. They dropped into my two-quart bowl and before long the bowl was filled up. I poured the berries into a gallon-size bag. I worked methodically, cleaning one branch at a time, moving slowly around the bush until it was picked clean. Three hours and dozens of mosquito bites later, I went home with three gallons of red currants. And I only picked one bush. There are still two out there just as heavy with fruit.




The original plan was to make room for all those currants in the freezer. When I got home and looked into the freezer I realized that was impossible. It's completely full. Filled right up to the top with bread and meat and rhubarb and cider and all sorts of things that we need to begin to use up. So, what the heck to do with three gallons of currants?! I put them on the counter and went out to take care of the raspberries while I thought about just what to do. After about an hour, I had two quarts of red raspberries and the idea of raspberry-currant jam circulating throughout my head.


I came home and began to page through my Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving, but once again I was dismayed by how much sugar the jam and jelly recipes called for. One recipe for berry or currant jam called for five cups of fruit and seven (SEVEN) cups of sugar. That's one cup of sugar for every eight ounce jar of jam! Crazy. I searched for the book for an alternative with less sugar, but all of them called for at least one cup of sugar per jar of jam or more. Then I decided to look for a recipe on-line. I found the recipe I was looking for here: Strawberry-Currant Jam

This recipe calls for half of the sugar in other recipes, just about 1/2 cup per jar. The jam turned out perfect. The flavor is not too sweet, in fact a bit tart and powerfully berry-ish! It jelled beautifully without the use of any added pectin. Apparently currants have enough pectin in them naturally to jell without adding any more! The color is just beautiful--bright red and fresh.

The recipe is as follows:

Strawberry-Currant Jam
(Makes about seven 8-ounce jars)

1 quart (4 cups) red or white currants, or gooseberries (I used red currants, and I didn't boil them with water to make the juice/puree. I have a great foodmill that strains berries, tomatoes, etc. without cooking them first. It's called the "Roma Food Strainer Sauce Maker")
1/4 cup water

2 quarts strawberries (I used one quart of red currants and one quart of red raspberries)
4 cups sugar
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

Put the jars into the canner, and cover them with water by at least an inch. Bring them to a boil, and boil them for 10 minutes.

Wash and drain the currants and put them with the water in a sauce pan. Bring to a boil and boil, stirring gently, until they are all popped, about 5 minutes. Press them through a sieve, and reserve the puree. Discard the skins, stems and seeds.

Gently rinse the strawberries and drain them well. Mash them in a large canning kettle or pot; a potato masher does the trick nicely. Mix the currant puree, sugar and lemon juice into them.

Bring to a boil, stirring constantly until the sugar dissolves. Boil hard until the mixture reaches the gell stage, about 20 minutes. Stir occasionally to prevent it from scorching. Remove from the heat and skim off any stubborn foam. Fill the sterilized jars and seal with lids prepared according to the manufacturer's instructions; generally boiled for 5 minutes. Return the jars to the boiling water in the canner for 5 minutes.

Let cool, check that the jars have sealed, label, and keep in a cool, dark place until opened, when they go into the refrigerator.

I still have a gallon of whole currants that I managed to squeeze into the freezer. Additionally, I juiced 3 quarts for future jam. The rest I gave away. I'm planning on making another batch of the raspberry-currant jam and a batch or two of blackberry currant jam this fall when the blackberries are ripe. I'm so excited to have a reduced-sugar jam recipe and to know that currants eliminate the need for added pectin!

The other two bushes are still loaded. If they're not picked by Friday afternoon, I'm going in for more!

Early Summer

A distant cousin is visiting from Denmark. What a joy it has been to share with him the beauty of the island and the surrounding areas. It's like seeing everything again for the first time. Yesterday we hiked to the top of St. Sauveur Mountain in Acadia National Park. It's an easy hike. It begins in the woods and it doesn't take long for the trees to begin to thin and to get the feeling that you're walking above their canopies. The summit itself is disappointing. It isn't wide open and rocky the way you would imagine a mountain top to be. Instead it's a rounded area surrounded by short trees and shrubs. But, you don't climb this small mountain for the joy of the summit: you climb it for the views just a few meters away. Stepping out from the trees and shrubs you find yourself above looking down upon Somes Sound and Southwest Harbor. Boats zigzag across the water below and in the distance you can see the Cranberry Isles, Isle Au Haut, Swan's Island, Frenchboro and the Duck Islands. Yesterday was a perfect day for this hike with the sun bright and shiny and the sky crystal blue.

This summer has been a dream. Last year at this time we were about two weeks into a six week run of fog and drizzle. This year it's completely opposite. Nearly every day we wake to clear blue skies, bright sunshine and soft warm breezes. On the days it's not sunny and warm, it rains just the right amount to water the gardens. I'm waiting for the moment when I wake up and find myself confronted with a real Maine island summer (read fog, lots of fog), but for now I'm enjoying every little bit of this fantasy summer!

With this delightful mix of sun, warmth and rain, the garden is growing and growing. With the exception of a major slug and snail infestation that I'm battling right now, the garden is in good shape.


The peas are up and growing. It took three plantings before they grew faster than the slugs could eat them, but now they'll make it. One lone survivor from the first planting is producing sweet, snappy peas right now. I'm enjoying them one by one. The flowers are just just beginning to bloom and just today I picked the garlic scapes from over 80 garlic plants. I made some of them into a spicey pesto for lunch and more are waiting to be cooked over the next week. My first crop of beets and scallions are growing beautifully, and the second crop of both are just poking their first leaves up today.


I'm going away for a course next week. I hope that the garden is still in decent shape when I get back! Keep your fingers crossed for just the right amount of rain and sun.

Just in case you're wondering, we're just finishing up the 105th piece of the frame. Jason is up to his elbows in boat work, but that should be slowing down just as I'm getting back from my course. Then we're cutting, cutting, cutting until we're ready to raise. The end is in sight!

The Countdown Begins!

Here's a model of our frame:
Here it is again, but the finished pieces are deleted:

We've cut over 90 pieces--we're half way there! The countdown is on!

Drilling the Well

We have a well! After 140 feet of drilling through ledge, we have clear, tasty water!

Jason and Gary Gould setting up the massive drilling truck. They were kind not to crush the gardens.

Feeling a bit nervous (and excited) about what we would get--luckily the well spirits were with us that day!

Getting ready to drill...
After a noisy couple of days, the well was all finished. Now we just need that house!

The Book on my Kitchen Table

The first time I attempted to bake bread, I learned quickly that it's not quite as simple as baking cookies, or cakes, or making a supper dish. It wouldn't rise! No matter what I seemed to do, or how long I waited for the action to start, it just didn't work. I tried, and I tried, and I tried again. I can't tell you how many cups of flour and jars of yeast were thrown out after each of my failed attempts. I gave up. I was not destined to be a bread maker.

And then one day I was working with my students, and I heard myself giving them some really good advice: if it doesn't come easy right away, you have to keep trying until you figure it out--it's a challenge--have fun with it! I sat back for a moment and thought about my latest failed attempt with yeast bread. And then I decided to listen to the words I often repeat to my students. I found myself determined to bake yeast bread. I got right on-line and found a recipe for a rustic country loaf from www.kingarthurflour.com. I read all of directions over and over again. I went to their tutorial pages and read about all the details that go into making bread. Finally, I felt ready to give it a try. To my great surprise and delight, it worked!

My first bread was OK. It wasn't anything really special, but I was so thrilled it may as well have been the best loaf of bread I'd ever eaten. But from then on, it got better and better. After awhile, I decided to try kneading the dough by hand rather than let my kitchen aid mixer do the work. I loved it. I loved the warm springy feeling of the dough and I loved the feel of the flour on my hands. The bread was even better with hand kneading. Next I began to experiment with different ratios of white-whole wheat-rye flours. I began to put more and more whole grain flours into the mix, but eventually I found that the bread began to get dry and overly dense if too much whole grain flour went into the dough. I was bummed.

One afternoon while I was kneading a batch of bread, I began to wonder what people did to make soft, chewy bread before white flour. It wasn't that long ago that people would have had no choice but to use whole grains in all their cooking. What did they do to make it palatable?

Around the same time Eliza had us over for dinner. She had just received a buying club order. I had ordered a big jar of lacto-fermented sauerkraut to go with the pork ribs in my freezer. She ordered the sauerkraut, but also bought a jar of lacto-fermented gingered carrots. They were totally amazing. I can't really explain them, but think crunchy, salty, gingery, carroty, and pickled. Simply delicious. But soooo expensive! I marched right home to find a recipe for those delicious pickles. I found one in a book called Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. The crazy thing is that in the same book I found instructions for how to make 100% whole grain breads that are soft, light, chewy and delicious. Weird how the universe works, huh? I ordered the bread with some birthday money and waited not very patiently for the book to arrive in the mail.

When the book finally arrived, I raced home and began to devour.

Here's the key to making 100% whole grains soft, light and moist: soak them in a lacto-fermented liquid (yogurt, buttermilk, or diluted raw apple cider vinegar) for 12-24 hours before using. When I read this, I thought disgusting. Before trying to make a loaf of bread and failing miserably, I decided to start with something needing less flour. Since Jason loves waffles, we decided to start with that.

The night before making the first waffle batch, I put the wheat flour in a bowl and covered it with two cups of water and two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar. I mixed it up, covered it all up and left it to rest on the kitchen counter. The next morning I uncovered the mixture and added the rest of the ingredients. It was a weird consistency, not at all like the waffle batter I was used to. It was difficult to mix because it was kind of slimy, but it wasn't really thick. Just sticky....and slimy. I was very skeptical, but I plugged in the waffle iron anyways. When the iron was hot, I poured 1/3 cup of the batter into the iron and let it cook away.

To make a long story short, they turned out amazing. Jason even admitted that he preferred this recipe to the usual waffle batter. The waffles were light, crispy and very flavorful. With that experiment under my belt, I was ready to try a yeast bread recipe from the book. I started with a recipe that soaked the wheat in yogurt for 24 hours. The dough smelled kind of funny, but it was easy to knead, soft and it puffed up beautifully. The bread turned out to be moist and soft and easy to cut into thin sandwich slices. Very yummy. Lately I've messed with the recipe so that I soak the flour in the water/vinegar solution and I don't add the 1/4 c. of butter called for. This makes an equally delicious bread (in fact, I liked it better than the first loaf) and it's far less expensive to make.

Fermentation. Jason and I started exploring this wide world last summer when I was inspired by a friend to try to brew some ginger beer and Jason wanted to harden off some of our home-pressed cider. I never would have guessed that months later I'd be climbing deeper into this rabbit hole. What fun!

Jason just poured me a glass of his hard cider. We pressed the apples in the fall, and he carefully fermented the cider this fall and winter. At first the huge glass carboy sat in the corner of our living room burping and gurgling merrily away. After the action stopped, he moved the amber liquid into the spare bedroom closet where it continued its process. Now he's siphoned off the cider and packaged it into various reused jars. It's delicious and it makes me think of the fun we had in the fall, picking all those apples and pressing in the sunshine.

By the stove is a ginger bug bubbling away, ready to be turned into ginger beer. I started it two days ago with one cup of water, two teaspoons of sugar and two teaspoons of grated ginger. I mixed it all together, poured it into a quart sized mason jar, covered it with cheese cloth and waited. As the hours went by the invisible life all around us went to work. Now, just two days later, the bug is fizzing away, evidence of the wild yeast that found its way into the sweet solution. When I get off island on Tuesday I'll pick up a couple of lemons and a big piece of ginger. I'll mix the bug with more water, sugar, lemon juice and ginger, bottle it up, and put it away in a warm dark place for two weeks and wait while the yeast works its magic. After ten to fourteen days have gone by, we'll have delicious ginger beer!

Just tonight I began a batch of kombucha. It's just beginning to brew in the spare bedroom closet. This stuff is pretty funky. I began by brewing three quarts of black tea. When it was boiling hot I dissolved one cup of sugar. Then I took it off the heat and waited all day for it to cool down to room temperature. When it was finally cool I removed the tea bags, poured the tea into a gallon-size glass jar, and poured 1/2 cup of finished kombucha into the bottle. Finally, I added the mother. The mother is a round, flat mushroom that looks like a jelly fish and feels firm and slimy. I slipped it into the jar and it floated up to the top. I covered the jar with a cloth and put the whole concoction in the closet. Within a week, if everything goes well, the mother will have made a baby that can be used to make more kombucha. I look forward to tasting this fizzy fermented drink next week!

The next fermentation I'm very excited to try is those gingered carrots, but that will have to wait for the first carrot crop to come in this summer!

Logging

How do we get the wood?

First Jason goes in and trims up the fallen trees. He takes off the branches, and I drag them away to a pile for burning or chipping later. He then measures out the log and begins to cut the log into smaller pieces.
Next Jason sets up a block in a tree to help pull the log from the woods.
Then I operate the winch on the back of the tractor, and we begin to pull the log out of the woods. Jason wiggles the log back and forth to keep it from getting caught up on stumps, roots and other bumps along the way.When the log is out of the woods, we hook it up to the back of the tractor and haul it home to the sawmill!

Cutting the Frame

Here's a model of our frame:
All together, there are about 180 timbers that go into making this frame. So far we've cut 36 braces, 2 principle posts, 3 common posts, and 5 joists and purlins. Jason is working on laying out a connector right now.

Cutting one of these timbers is quite a process. After milling the lumber, Jason brings the wood over to the shop where he sets it up on sawhorses for cutting. Then, with the help of a timber plan, he begins to lay out each cut. He carefully measures and draws the cuts on the timber. He checks every measurement several times. Some timbers have five or six cuts, some timbers just have one or two. Depending on the complexity of the timber he's working on, this stage can take quite a long time.

When he's done laying out the timber, he begins to cut. Some of the cuts he makes with saws and other power tools. The finer cuts he makes with chisels.















I have learned to chisel braces.











We only have a few braces left to cut! Yippee!!











Once the pieces are cut, we sand and oil them.

When the oil is all soaked up, we stack the pieces outside, where they will wait until we're ready to put the frame up in August.