Don’t Be Sour

by forumholitorium

KA and I welcomed this basil plant into our kitchen this week. It was time for another supermarket herb plant in my life. I have good luck with basil. But since I end up abandoning it for weeks at a time when I go to the U.S. and have no one with a green thumb to take care of it while I am away, this has meant the six month survival rate of kitchen herbs is null. Still, the life expectancy of these supermarket plants is short to begin with; in most cases, a basil plant doesn’t survive one pesto genovese, so I like to think this one is getting a better deal.

We’ve watched a few documentaries on bread and rolls and mass production of baked goods this past week. I have decided to make sourdough bread again. Yesterday I consulted Sandor Katz’s classic Wild Fermentation and then mixed together 2 cups of whole wheat flour and 2 cups of water to prep the sourdough starter. I stir it whenever I happen to think of it. There should be bubbles in a few days. If you try this yourself, make sure the water is not heavily chlorinated and use a whole grain flour where the whole grain part has not been removed and then reintroduced to white flour (i.e. like much flour sold as whole wheat in the U.S.). The yeast is in the air and in your kitchen, so you don’t need to add it yourself. Here’s to our friends, the microorganisms: There would be no bread, no cheese, no sauerkraut without them.

It surprised me how blue I felt when Elizabeth Warren bowed out of the presidential race last week. Blue as in down, not Democrat. Sad that it will be at least four more years before it is possible for a woman to take over at the rudder and right the course. To deal with this surprise grief, I baked a sour cherry and cocoa cake. I am still tinkering with the basic recipe I mentioned a few weeks ago. This one had more flavor than the last but needs a bit more tweaking before I am completely satisfied. KA gave it the thumbs up, so I guess it is good enough to dedicate to Kamala, Amy, and Elizabeth. Thanks to your efforts, we are getting closer.

In knitting news, I am finally authorized to share a picture of the pullover I test knit in February: Hedgewood. It was my first test knit and I thoroughly enjoyed the process. It did me good to funnel all my knitting energy into just one project at a time. But towards the end, I vowed that my next project would involve zero cables. The pieces of the cardigan below are cable-free and just need blocking and sewing.

Wishing you peaceful coexistence with the microorganisms around you!