x Weed

Japanese knotweed has ended its prime time (pickling worked, wild fermenting is stinking up my kitchen, and pan seared knotweed tops -- or "knotweed calamari" is good) and milkweed shoots are out and pokeweed is just poking up. Book hard copy #2 is out and in the hands of 5 new recruited editor friends. MIT press interested in carrying it, as well as Rodney's and Darwins and maybe TeaLux. I'll measure success in 10s, not 1000s :)

High Rise bakery provided me with 2 beautiful and huge whole wheat sour dough loaves the other day, which will keep me honest for a couple weeks.

Vineyard next week!

Garlic mustard weed - a crunchy invasive

Garlic mustard weed scapes a good size for picking right now. Thanks to Sam Thayer's new book, Nature's Garden, I learned that this is the best part of the plant. And sure enough -- crunchy and light and a bit of a symphony in the mouth - lots of tastes happening. Great chopped up into a linden salad.

Again: preserving Japanese knotweed

It seems like overnight the knotweed has gone from little red stumps to two foot stalks, so I gathered a bunch from the Charles river (that patch just north of Harvard sq is coming along well) last night and set to preserving it. Four different ways. Hot Hot pickle, where I boiled it in vinegar and water briefly, added some spices and salt, including hot pepper flakes, and jarred it. Cold garlic pickles. COld sweet pickles (a touch of maple syrup in the water/vinegar solution, no spices, except a little salt too). Finally, the most adventurous, wild fermentation. Chopped it in mini food processor (wanted to shave it but couldn't get that going) and added some salt, into an open ball jar, and now fermenting - hopefully - on my counter.

It would probably save me time if I just flew to Japan and asked the locals there what they do with it. They'd probably tell me they prefer sushi.

Perfect Linden salad time, and getting some burdock and wild carrots too, and still plenty of evening primrose.

Just finished J.D. Salinger's "Raise high the roof beam, carpenters". That writing really puts you smack into NYC 1950's white intellectual culture. Interesting that he headed off to the country so completely.

From the dumpsters: bagels, foccacia, 6 eggs, and some hair coloring dye that I didn't take.