Are those autumn olive flowers in your jar?

Yep! I've working on infusing all sorts of stuff in vodka for P.U.B. - the latest spinoff of hot potato. P.U.B. is pop.up.bar, a party we are planning where all the drinks are cocktails made from local infusions. Rhubarb, elderflowers (if I can find any), autumn olive flowers, hawthorn flowers, horehound, etc.

Over the past few weeks, lots of poke and milkweed to be had. I've come to like pokeweed a lot more than milkweed, although milkweed's plus is that it offers more edible parts as the year progresses.

Urban Milkweed


Urban Pokeweed


I took the Fung Wa to NYC this weekend, and the Lucky Star back. Brian and Jordan had a great party. Who says vegans can't barbecue? Brian grilled up old but reliable chicken mushroom. We just reconstituted it since its 6 months in the freezer left it a bit dry, then soaked it in BBQ sauce, and it was pretty darn good.

Watching the black locust flowers cover the trees along the highway was painful. I hoped the rest areas would have them, but they didn't. However, the rest area on the way home, just off Rt 84 in Connecticut, had a nice outcropping of wild grapes, which we stuffed last night for hot potato 4, coming up this Friday. I also got a veggie burger and fries at BK because I couldn't stop myself. Whatever addictive substance BK throws into their whoppers etc, they throw in the veggie burger as well.



I did some foraging yesterday in East Boston/Winchester. The foraging wasn't great, but the bike ride was. You jump on the blue line, jump off 5 stops later, and it feels like you've just started your vacation on the Jersey shore. It is so different over there. Deer Island is beautiful too, and I learned from one of the signs there that they process the waste from over 1/2 the people living in Massachusetts. That's crazy stuff. I ate some curly dock from Deer Island. Also crazy.