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Alex and I have entered a new area of interest. We are preserving vegetables by brining and fermentation, as distinct from pickling by vinegar. It is an absorbing pursuit.
We are both of inventive aptitude, and our experience and training have helped us to happily solve problems. He discovered the air-lock mechanism (which I once used to make beer, but had forgotten). I invented a baffled and partitioned container that is a great improvement on the open-crock method.
Both of us are trying different combinations of veggies. We've done pickles and cabbage and onions and jalapeno peppers and brussel sprouts and cauliflower and carrots...and I'm sure he's doing something right now he hasn't told me about.
Interestingly, there is an upcoming event involving fermented cabbage that makes both of us nervous. An old, elderly friend of German descent has invited us to an annual Knights of Columbus dinner. It is men only. It will be a meal of Polish sausage and homemade sauerkraut and two beers per man. The tradition goes back many, many years, and an invitation is a rare honor.
So why be nervous? Both of us know, from past experience with kraut, what will happen shortly after the delicious repast...we will experience catharsis, and it will be persuasive and insistent.
I've already begun polishing (it should probably be Polish-ing) our excuses for avoiding expected invitations to post-dinner card parties. Somehow, we must convey, and I don't think our hosts will be unempathetic, that we'll need our, um, space to digest and appreciate the irresistible ethnic meal, and won't be able to concentrate on right or left bowers this particular evening.
We are both of inventive aptitude, and our experience and training have helped us to happily solve problems. He discovered the air-lock mechanism (which I once used to make beer, but had forgotten). I invented a baffled and partitioned container that is a great improvement on the open-crock method.
Both of us are trying different combinations of veggies. We've done pickles and cabbage and onions and jalapeno peppers and brussel sprouts and cauliflower and carrots...and I'm sure he's doing something right now he hasn't told me about.
Interestingly, there is an upcoming event involving fermented cabbage that makes both of us nervous. An old, elderly friend of German descent has invited us to an annual Knights of Columbus dinner. It is men only. It will be a meal of Polish sausage and homemade sauerkraut and two beers per man. The tradition goes back many, many years, and an invitation is a rare honor.
So why be nervous? Both of us know, from past experience with kraut, what will happen shortly after the delicious repast...we will experience catharsis, and it will be persuasive and insistent.
I've already begun polishing (it should probably be Polish-ing) our excuses for avoiding expected invitations to post-dinner card parties. Somehow, we must convey, and I don't think our hosts will be unempathetic, that we'll need our, um, space to digest and appreciate the irresistible ethnic meal, and won't be able to concentrate on right or left bowers this particular evening.
I love to comment on "most" of your postings.....
This is another I have to be silent about !
Happy New Year.
Great post! That is a great hobby!
kim chee