It turns out making a sourdough culture during the pandemic was the gateway to fun with fermentation. Tilda, my sourdough, is 3 1/2 years old now and going strong. We make sourdough discard waffles every Sunday—So delicious!

From sourdough we moved on to sauerkraut. James has always been a sauerkraut fan but the canned stuff makes him a little—er, windy—and since I think the canned stuff is disgusting, we never bought it. But when we had a lot of cabbage in our CSA box, coincidentally also the sourdough pandemic year, we thought, heck let’s try making sauerkraut. It was so easy to make—water, salt, shredded cabbage, stir now and then. And the results—no wind and James and I both loved it. Then it became fun to see all the things we could make with sauerkraut besides putting it on sandwiches. It ended up on pizza, in salad, and in latkes. Stir fries too. We loved it so much we went from having too much cabbage to not having enough.

This year we fermented a summer squash slaw that was delicious. I wanted to try fermenting kale but we didn’t grow any in the garden because we always got so much in our CSA box. We got a lot this year too, but not so much that we had any to spare for fermenting. So next year we will grow kale in the garden.

My latest fermenting deliciousness is kefir. Have you had it? So good! Since we are vegan we made water kefir, which is a slightly sour-sweet water that kind of has a soda thing going on, though James thinks it tastes kind of like beer. He doesn’t like it, so more for me! I find the water kefir to be refreshing.

But, the other amazing thing about it is that I can use it with non-dairy milks to make kefir milk, or strain out the water after it has fermented and I have yogurt! I’m so excited about this because several years ago pre-sourdough, we tried many times to make yogurt because non-dairy yogurt is expensive. We never had success, even after we bought a yogurt maker. I have no idea if it was the starter culture or a temperature problem or what, yogurt never happened. But now, with kefir yogurt, I make it on my kitchen countertop—3/4 cup of non-dairy milk, a 1/4 cup of finished kefir water, and a teaspoon of sugar to feed the beasties, cover and set out of direct light for 24-48 hours and then it’s ready to go. Couldn’t be easier.

So far we’ve done walnut kefir and soy kefir. This week we are making oat kefir. I’d also really like to try sunflower kefir and peanut kefir. Pumpkin seeds would probably also be pretty awesome. Who knows what else? If we can make it into milk, we can try and ferment it. My horizons have been broadened!

It’s a gorgeous day today and grocery shopping by bike was more enjoyable than usual. When we got home we were delighted to see goldfinches in the front yard eating seeds from the coneflowers. I love these little birds and look forward to seeing them this time of year as they migrate south for the winter. They didn’t stop at our house last year for some reason and I missed them dreadfully. So it was extra nice to see them. We have our windows open to the day, and can hear them and their low, squeaky chirps as they fly around our garden and the neighborhood.

This is also a marvelous time of year for laundry. I haven’t used a dryer in years and hang my laundry out spring, summer, fall, and early winter, sometimes even deep winter because freeze drying sheets and towels makes them incredibly soft when they thaw out. But for non-frozen laundry, spring and fall are the best times because clothes and linens end up smelling so fresh. I brought a sheet in off the line today and just stood there sniffing it for awhile before I decided I should probably fold it up. But once folded, I had to give it another sniff for good measure.

We had a nice downpour Friday morning. I got to bike to work in it and loved it so much. I have some good rain gear and because of the drought, this was only the second time since June I got to wear my rubber ducky yellow rain cape.

The garden loved the rain too. All the drooping Jerusalem artichokes perked right up and this weekend have decided to start blooming. They are related to sunflowers and their little flowers are bright and cheerful. They didn’t bloom last summer for some reason, so seeing them this year is extra smile inducing.

The garden is pretty much done. I’m waiting to see if the cabbage, radishes, and carrots are going to do anything before frost arrives in mid-October. I have beans drying on the plants still. A pumpkin that may or may not get ripe. And sweet potatoes. At least I hope there are sweet potatoes under those plants. That’s the thing about root vegetables, unless they grow at the top of the soil, you never know what they are doing down there until it’s time to dig. There might be treasure or disappointment, you just never know.

I’ve been slowly reconfiguring the garden beds and putting down fresh wood chips in the paths. I haven’t had a chance to get out there this weekend. Even though the days are comfortable, when the sun is full in the garden it still gets hot. And my Saturday and Sunday mornings this weekend have been busy with other need to do things. Maybe this evening I will have a chance to spend a little time.

Last weekend I got my loom set up. After looking around for a pattern I could follow for kitchen towels and finding none, I worked out my own pattern and gave James the chance to say what dimensions he wanted his towels to be. Then I had to do math to figure out how long my warp threads needed to be.

In the weaving class I took in August, my teacher went over figuring out yardage for warp and weft and included a little worksheet in the class booklet. So I used that. This being the second project I’ve ever done and the first one on my own, I have no idea if my calculations are correct. I have no experience with 8/2 unmercerized cotton, how it shrinks, how it weaves, and no experience making kitchen towels and how much loom waste there might be, how much space I leave between the towels on the loom (I warped the loom intending to make two towels). So we’ll see how it all goes!

The warping had some frustrating moments as I made some newbie mistakes. And then winding the warp on the back beam is easier with two people and trying to explain to James what I needed him to do when I barely knew was a challenge. But I eventually got it all set up to weave, even if it wasn’t the neatest and most elegantly done.

And I started weaving. Oh friends, weaving is so relaxing and meditative. I’ve been listening to Ludovico Einaudi, an Italian pianist and composer my friend Cath introduced me to, and Tracy Chapman. Both of them are marvelous weaving companions. Next I think I might invite Yo-Yo Ma.

Coming up at the end of this week is the Autumn Equinox. While grocery shopping today we got all the ingredients James will need to make Harvest Moon Pies for our celebration. I’m really looking forward to the treat!

Reading

• Article: 25 Novels You Need to Read This Fall. Beware, this list is a danger to your TBR!
• Speech: Arundhati Roy: The dismantling of democracy in India will affect the whole world. This is the speech Roy gave when she accepted the European Essay Prize on September 12th. I am grateful for writers like her. She is an amazing woman.
• Article: McSweeney’s: Welcome to Mary Oliver Garden. Because after reading Roy’s speech, you will need to laugh.
• Book: The Road to Roswell by Connie Willis. Sometimes silly, but pretty fun. It does a great turnabout on the prime directive as well as poking gentle fun at alien abduction conspiracies.
• Book: Iona Iverson’s Rules for Commuting by Clare Pooley. Also pretty fun. Sent to me by my friend Care at Care’s Books and Pie. I don’t recall any pie in the book, but it is all about what happens when Iona, a woman in her 50s (yes!) breaks one of the rules of commuting: never talk to anyone even those you see on the train (or bus) every day.
• Book: Tiger Work by Ben Okri. This one is poems, fables, stories, an essay or two, all centered on climate change. It’s a short book and Okri has a fertile imagination, something we need more of in the world right now.

Listening

• Podcast: Accidental Gods: Making the Nettle Dress: A Creative Journey of Attention, Magic and Loss with Allan Brown and Dylan Howitt. Manda Scott talks with Brown, who spent seven years making fiber from nettles, spinning the thread, weaving the cloth, and sewing a dress, and with Howitt who spent seven years documenting the Brown’s creation. I really hope the film makes it to the United Stated where I can see it one of these days!

Watching

• Movie: Polite Society. This was so delightful! Jane Austen gets a mention. Lots of humor that you miss if you aren’t paying attention. And there is also a fantastic torture scene in which, well, I don’t want to spoil it. See it if you can.

Quote

If you knew you were at the last days of the human story, what would you write? How would you write? What would your aesthetic be? Would you use more words than necessary? What form would poetry truly take? And what would happen to humor? Would we be able to laugh with the sense of the last days upon us?

Ben Okri, Tiger Work

James’s Kitchen Wizardry

Sheet Pan Fajitas.
This is the first time we have made this recipe and it was so delicious!