Red Bike

We (Steven, Bonnie and I) went camping up in the Poudre Canyon over the weekend. We had car trouble fri and had to stay overnight at Steven’s dad’s house and then borrowed his jeep on Saturday. It was a fun experience, we just car-camped up in the Roosevelt Natl Forest and hung out around a campfire in the evenings, (Bonnie’s very talented with camp fires, just so you know.) We broiled veggies wrapped in tinfoil (buried in the coals.) They were so good cooked that way (green beans, potatoes, summer squash, red onions all from the CSA).

Sunday we came home, and I harvested the first big haul of tomatoes and jalapenos.

On Monday night I had a fiddle lesson which I’d been looking forward to, it was pretty disappointing. We basically went over my bad, self-taught fiddle form, (no hold your thumb this way, no bend your right thumb,) and then she had to take a cell phone call in the middle of the lesson, WTF? Granted changing habits will be good and make playing easier, but its still lame.

Last night we got a huge haul from the CSA Farm, including 3 muskmelons and 4 watermelons. (that would be the full shares weekly supply.)

I decided this morning I want to start a new radical faerie circle, something a little more radical than the other local one, and one that meets in places that are bike-able from the city. Hmm, we’ll see.

just picked up this week’s veggies. I’m so happy I joined the CSA! But with that now there is responsibility and I have no idea how we are going to cook this many veggies in a week… well the potatoes, eggs and onions will be no problem. okay neither will the broccoli and lettuce. That just leaves the beets and snow peas (so many snow peas… I guess I’ll be stir frying this week.)

(by the way this is a full share at Monroe Organic Farms who are unfortunately sold out).

I bottled the There and Back Again Hefe last night. It tasted really, really good! I no longer have any doubts about brewing wheat beer, it was the right decision. Its also quite strong, I had a glass of it while bottling and I got kind of drunk and made a bit of a mess. Can’t wait till its carbonated, it tasted pretty nigh ready last night.

I made lasagna with arugula from the garden this weekend. Steven advised me to use more than I thought it’d need cause it cooks down so much so I used a lot, in fact probably too much, it tasted good but the arugula is pretty sharp. And there is so much arugula left, and it’s starting to go to seed.

I think I may rewrite the everlasting-first-draft messenger novel with some beer brewing and more polka. Bikes, Beer and Polka, now that’s a story. Maybe there’ll be a Johnny Hopseed, that plants hop plants all through Illinois and Wisconsin.

I bought ingredients for a pale ale today tentatively titled Bunny Kicks Pale Ale in honor of the bunny that looks like its sleeping peacefully on the outskirts of my garden this afternoon. I am such a softy, I’m like: I don’t think he’ll eat any lettuce, he prefers the weeds on the outside. Plus its so cute, I walked quite close and it just looked up peacefully, with this ” Holy Shit! there’s plenty for everyone” look on his face. (and No I am not projecting.)

I talked to Richard at the Brew Shop and I asked what’s the difference between Pale Ale and ESB? Cuz I’m using basically the same grains. And he said generally the ESB is more bitter because of heavier hopping. And I thought, hmmm the 2 oz of fuggles I tossed in probably isn’t gonna cut it

I like the Green Man peeking out from behind the grape vines.

Bonnie and I bottled the Proudfeet Belgian Ale last night. We’ll see how it turns out, I’ll try a bottle in a week or so. I’m kind of brewing crazy right now, I want to brew a porter this weekend, (Which means I’ll have to find 48 more non-twist off bottles.) The bottling went really fast. After all the time spent sanitizing, we were done with the actual priming and bottling in less than an hour. I remember it being a longer task at the Bathhouse w/ Steven, D. and K. It also seemed a lot less messy this time around.

The garden is starting to flourish. Last Friday we had the first mini-harvest. Bonnie and I made salads (yes yes from store bought lettuce) but we spiked it with arugula from the garden, the arugula is so good! (Actually, I guess we’ve made mint tea before.) I planted the basil I got at the Botanic Garden plant sale last Thurs morning. Today I planted the tomatoes. I just planted them where there seems to be the most sun. I also just planted bean seeds between the brocolli rows, cuz I think by the time the beans start coming on strong it’ll be too hot for the broc. The beans are contender bush beans, which Steven scorned, “bush beans only harvest for a few weeks!” But I’d already boughten the seeds by the time he’d gone into his antibush rant so I figured they’d go to waste otherwise. Plus I like to grow bush and pole beans, because the bush are ready to harvest 3-4 weeks before the pole beans. I also planted crookneck squash seeds in the NW and NE corners of the garden.

Bonnie mentioned getting a hive of bees, which I’d thought about before, but our house is in the middle of 3 or 4 parking lots, so I really don’t know what they’d pollinate. Otherwise I would, especially since I doubt either of our neighbors would notice or care.

I bought a second fermentation bucket yesterday and ingredients for a Hefe. Maybe called “There and Back Again Hefe”.

Kyle and I went to a party next door Friday night (saw the Fainting Fancies and Worms play) and saw and talked to a bunch of cool people, then went over to VVK afterwards for a party where Morgan encourage me to start a salon. I think this was after I called their garage with ping pong table and two couches Morgan’s Salon. It was so fun biking in the heat in the middle of the night.

Sweet I figured out my Brewing name and beer name theme. After a long 15 minutes of consideration, its going to be hobbits! Hobbits and beer work well together. So the name of the beer bubbling away now is Proudfeet Belgian Wit. I think the next batch will be the Old Gaffer ESB or Porter or something. Eventually I will brew again Old Took Oatmeal Stout. Okay enough, Steven needs the computer back for chess…

I spent one of the sadder moments of my DIY career today dumping out 5 gallons of oatmeal stout. (so I brewed a batch of oatmeal stout last friday and the grains were too big to fit in our regular pot so I used Bonnies huge canning pot, then as I poured the wort into the fermenter I noticed some blue chunks. I later found out Bonnie had died several batches of clothes in the large kettle, so I decided I better dump the wort. It smelled so good.)

I then scrubbed and sanitized everything and brewed a batch of Belgian Wit Bier, with coriander, orange peel and cardamom. The pot I’m trying to use is too small for even this simpler recipe, so I guess I need to find a bigger pot.

Last weekend was kind of drunken time. Friday night Kyle and I sat out on the cherry creek bike path drinking beers, and then came back to my house to a raging party going on next door. Then Saturday night went to the Bar bar to see the Fainting Fancies and Mala Semillas play, that was a fun rowdy night. On Sunday I called my Mom and we talked gardening and then I went to a meeting with the people opening the new Denver infoshop. I’m pretty excited about that project, they’ve leased a building which is kind of small but at a great location right on Sante Fe a couple blocks down from the main first friday drag. I also read Radical Brewing nearly cover to cover, thats a fun read, I kind of want to brew some Viking Beer, and yes perhaps some Methyglin.