tour de ferment

Hey, wanna help out? Then get on your bike because it's time to ride for our local urban-ag heros City Slicker Farms! (CSF).


This Sunday, our "Tour de Ferment" (but one event in a series of fermentation based fundraising called Ferment Change) will be taking a tasting tour of five homes in the North Oakland and South Berkeley area where the craft of home brewing is in full swing. Bring your own bike (uh, and helmet please), an unbreakable cup, stories of your own crazy ferments if you have them, and a small donation for CSF. Then take a beautiful ride on a (so far likely) gorgeous afternoon with friends and community members who enjoy helping out their hardworking friends by enjoying a few good brews.

How can you beat that?

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pick-up truck

My pick-up truck. I can haul all sorts of stuff home on it. In particular, I enjoy pedaling home with the bartered bounty from the farmers' market. I bring various fermented goods (english muffins, beer, cider) and as was the case here (August '08), came home with not only food but also building materials. I was in need of bamboo (at least, in theory) for my garden projects. At first, I wasn't sure how I'd get the bundle of eight foot lengths on my truck, but some careful bungee work made for a solid haul. Not wanting to challenge other bikes to a jousting contest, I made my way slowly home among quieter streets. I was so proud arriving, I asked for a photo.

The following month, there was a clearance sale on soybeans. They were cheap! With a beer involved, I think they were a buck a plant. I brought ten home. It was not unlike lurking behind a hunting blind. (The perspective is bad here, but riding home at 5+ feet in width, I made sure to ride way out in the middle of the lanes.) Testing my camouflage, I took busier streets. It was a breezy day and the plant stems blew all this way and that. It brought back thoughts of having a sling-shot as a kid. It was so much fun, I took a picture when I got home.

The beginning of August this year found the farmers' market once again overflowing with fruit and veggies. Well, it was overflowing before that, but by August, the seems burst and if you are around when things close up at the end of the night, you might find yourself coming home with 20 pounds of tomatoes, 20 pounds of peaches, a cooler with a few pounds of tofu, cheese, leftover thai food, and a canvas bag of various veggies. Overall haul was near 80 pounds, including a backpack not pictured.

Then, this load. Damn. I think it took me twenty minutes just to get it strapped on my truck. Requiring no less than five bungee cords, two panniers, two plastic milk crates, and one small wooden crate. 60+ pounds at least, but fluffier than the last load. I made sure to check all the bolts on my racks before taking off. Making it home, safely, yet again, I took a moment to be thankful for my able-bodied-ness in regularly bringing such stuff to it's temporary home, where it will be ingested and recycled, turning into fuel to pump my legs back to the market.

I love my truck.

opium bialys

Please excuse the quality of this picture. My knee was KILL-ING and I just didn't have the patience to take more.

I went for a lovely bike ride this morning, however about 4 miles into it, I ate it. "Wow this old road bed is great! Hey looks like its turning to gravel up ahead but still looks smooth and undulating, cool! (Suddenly) Is that a gully cutting perpendicular to my path? Oh crap! (brakes, hard.) Yeah I'm slowing down, looks like I'll stop in time......NOOOOO!," (loose gravel for the 10-15 feet before the gully, and a change in pitch=I start skidding and begin to go over handlebars.) Somehow I landed on my feet with the majority of by bike behind me, before my momentum and loose footing did me in. I found myself saying aloud "I'm ok....I think" even with no one around. Ow. Left knee abraded and bloody in places, and going to be very bruised from impact. Left shoulder also abraded some (thank you shirt, or probably it would look like my knee.) I hobbled around some, contemplated calling H for a ride, then realized I would have to go at least a mile in either direction in order to rendezvous for a pick-up. I went back to my bike, it looked in working order thankfully, and decided that I should just keep going and not let anything like pain or fear of further abrasion stop me (I did ride slower, and after some of the grit in my knee fell out after more riding, I took out the first aid kit and did up a nice field dressing.)

So, yesterday we were at Grandma's and we made another one of those savory bread puddings. It looked much like one from earlier in the week and tasted pretty good too. My mom said she would like to make one for her sister when she is over, but said that she doesn't just have great sourdough leftovers laying around the house for such use. "Hey, the Monkey is staying with you tonight, the least I could do is make you some bread!" (That's right, we went on a date last night.) So why am I writing all this? Well, the dough I made this morning was white and fluffy, and quite large when it came time for the final punch down and shaping, so I trimmed it a little. Made a few crusts for some bialys. Carmelized an onion, added a ton of poppy seeds (praying that the opiates would aid the knee) spread it on top of the crusts and baked em at 400 for 20 minutes. Damn they were good. Nice sour flavor on the crust, and sweet-tangy-nuttiness on the spread. Mmmmm. Think I'll have another.

Wow, now I'm craving another one.....wait a second, are these things addictive?