pomegranate mead day

We stripped off as many ripe to mostly ripe-ish pomegranates as we could, this morning. This particular unknown cultivar has a tendency to split if it ripens too much in direct sun, so the seriously split ones are earmarked for the hens (they are pomegranate junkies; if the dood so much as reaches up to the tree growing directly over their run and coop, they go nuts) and we’ll be popping the arils out of the other fruits. I filled up two bags, eek. Good thing there are lots of cooking shows on PBS on Saturdays.

Going to use an orange blossom honey I got at The Oak Barrel in Berkeley, and orange blossom is something I haven’t even dared to spring for at the grocery store in ages (it’s always too spendy). They said it’s ‘local to California’, so at least it is not some mystery mix of clover honeys from east of the sun and west of the moon. Last time I bought one of those 10 pounder cans of clover honey at the market, the can which has had the same plain yellow label with red printing on it since I was a kid over 30 yrs ago, I was amazed to see some of the honey comes from as far away as Argentina! Now, I have nothing against the Apis mellifera tribes of Argentina, but the carbon footprint is just unacceptable.

Also on deck, boiling up a couple pots of beans to use up beans bought last year that are getting real tough. One of the pots needed to be soaked for three days, with water changes once a day (the plants love that soaking water), and is getting boiled up with turmeric, whole cloves of garlic, and a bay leaf. The other is being boiled up with just the garlic. So that’ll be beans for a couple weeks. For frying, adding to dishes, maybe making some hummus with, etc.

And then I need to cook up a pot of tomato sauce. We are having insane wind which blew half the jersey devils off their branches in the wee hours, and they’re ripe enough for cooking. The chickens got the smaller ones which displayed blossom end rot, early this morning when I was spot-watering. And it looks like I’ll be cooking up some costoluto genovese as well, because they all ripened at once.

This morning I strung up a bunch of bright yellow ho chi minh peppers (these little suckers are hot!). They’re so cute and innocent looking, but this batch will be ground up and jarred once it has dried sufficiently. The plants are just kicking them up by the bunch. So at least I have ONE reliable hot pepper growing. The padrons are looking like crap. They did so well last year and I was able to toss them into a hot pan with olive oil to make them puff up and blister, but this year? I think I have two that are almost mature between three plants. Dangit. The jalapenos are looking like crap. The pasillas are looking like crap. The santa fe grande is MIA. It’s okay. There’s enough to eat from the yard without sweating the small stuff like temperamental capsicums.

So today I have to put on my Domestic Goddess apron, and get busy. After I fry an egg for Daisy, who has been waiting patiently next to the food dish since noon.

Off to cook that egg and then start splitting up pomegranates.

Here’s some music from one of the many places where pomegranates are cultivated.