Sarah's Slow Food

When I was first introduced to the idea of slow food, I thought; "what the hell? who has time for more time in the kitchen"? I've come to realize that for me at least, slow food isn't slow to get on the table, nor does it necessarily take more tome to make, it just takes a bit of planning and preparation. What you see took around 10 minutes of active work, and 2.5 days of just sitting around. It's tonight's pizza dough made with a sourdough starter I got in Toronto.

And here is a nascent loaf of bread made with 5 of the same minutes of effort as the pizza dough, and another 5 minutes all for itself. 2 of those were finding the recipe.

And here's some rhubarb beer sauce for cooking and beverages in the winter;

In a way it is weird how little 'hands on' time all this takes. Even canning is shockingly easy and not timing consuming. Particularly when I consider the intense satisfaction and pride I get out of having this stuff around I think it is a very small price to pay. Here's the deal; Christopher asked me to spend less time 'on screens' and more time away from them. Shocking what amount of time you have when you spend less time on screens. Plus, there's the envy and admiration of friends who taste your amazing products or even admire them in their shiny rows on the shelf.

Don't get me wrong, there's still the occasional convenience food, but I gotta tell you, very little tastes as good as salmon you cook to your own taste (for me just barely cooked) and layer on salad greens from your garden dressed with Mom's Sturbridge Dressing:
1/2 tsp dry mustard (keens)
1 tsp sugar
dash black pepper
2 dashes Tabassco
1-2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tbsp vinegar
1/3 best olive oil, or avacado or nut oil
2 tbsp water
Measure all into glass jar with screw top lid. Shake vigorously. Dress salad to taste.

Windy Whitehorse

I don't believe I've written about how horrendously windy it is often here in Whitehorse. Where I grew up it would be windy just before and during a storm. Here its windy almost all the time. Really windy, all the time. I changed my commute route today to stay off the road more and I remembered why I don't go that way; the WIND! It took more than twice as long because it is a longer route and it is very exposed along the river where the wind has full thrust.

The only upside is the wind keeps the bugs down and we do like wind chimes. And it is good for line drying. Wind is rather a hard thing to photograph I've found...

PONG! Fermented Suint Method of Cleaning Wool - updated

When we arrived home from the Atlin Arts and Music Festival I wanted to see how my wool was doing. I've been trying the fermented suint method to clean some of my fleece this year. I thought I'd try it because it is less energy intensive and we'd be able to have a bath on the days I'm washing wool. The unbelievable stench that arose from the containers when I disturbed them stuck with us for hours. A lingering miasma of swampy sewerage smell pervaded our entire home and possible environs. There was some gagging on the part of my long suffering husband. He was very polite, giving the shit sandwich review of the process; "I'm glad you're trying to save the planet, but this unholy stench cannot occur again, nice try dear".

At the moment I have no idea whether the stench will eventually leave the wool I started the process with which is in the washer right now. I am also rather hasty sometimes, so there is fresh wool occupying the horrifyingly stinky watery remains from the starter batch. I've decided I can't disturb them until the washer is available to deal with the stink.

 

The photos are unremarkable - the wool looks cleanish, but it is the full sensory immersion experience that will stop me from doing this again. The next few fleece did come out pretty clean, but the stench remains. Less invasive than the first go around for what ever reason. Definitely wear gloves when dealing with this sort of pong - it really sticks. 

We do hope that this chunk of the lawn will look lush and green in another few days because of all the fertilizer... We fear that it may get burnt (like the dog pee parts) with a green fringe around the edge...

Atlin Arts and Music Festival

Smoking Salmon

Smoked fish has always been one of my favourite foods. I'll never forget my first taste of the iconic Willy Krauch's smoked Atlantic salmon. Since then I've sampled smoked fish whenever I get the chance. Today, I'm trying to make some myself. A friend has kindly loaned us his Bradley smoker, saving me from doing something possibly dangerously combustible in the BBQ. We got a pile of lovely, georgeous, fatty fresh wild sockeye that we butchered - really, cutting fish is an art - into fillets.

Salmon Gravlax

We got some fresh, wild, sockeye salmon yesterday and cutting it up today I thought it was too beautiful to just put in the freezer. i decided to try and make some gravlax, for the first time ever in my life. Time will tell, the fish was fresh, the rest seems pretty simple. A bit of high test liquor, salt, pepper, sugar and garden herbs...It's resting in the fridge right now...