Productive!

Yeterday:

* Got stood up by our dinner guests (who “overslept?” please). Thought quickly and invited two other friends over for the fish that was already on the grill. Good times all around.

* Made feeble attempts to clean the garage.

Today:

* Harvested all the green tomatoes. Removed and composted all the plants that did not have ripening tomatoes on them. Note for next year: Plants that don’t have enough sun and air don’t produce ripe (or any) tomatoes. High density planting sucks.

* Harvested the hops. I have a small basketful. They’re air-drying now. Once dried I think they’re a batch or two. Apparently in the second and subsequent years, you can expect 1.5lbs of hops per plant. Most of my recipes call for 1 – 2 oz.

* Harvested 6.5lbs of cabbage. The actual weight was higher, but I was left with 6.5lbs of shredded cabbage to which I added 4.75tbsp of salt, to produce (approx) 4 quarts of sauerkraut. This seems inadequate. I may have to buy some cabbages at the next farmers market and kick it up a notch. See note above about the productivity of overcrowded cabbage. So yeah, I pickled their shredded heads.

* Constructed a firewood holder from leftover lumber from the deck and fence.

* Rendered most of the green tomatoes into green tomato pickles.

* Made fried green tomatoes with the rest.

* Went to the farmers market, bought two watermelons. Rendered the rinds into pickle sized chunks. They’re soaking in brine. It’s pickle-weekend, baby.

My back is feeling immensely better. We’re down to occasional moments of walking like a 90 year old when I stand up too quickly.

Next:

* Attend kegger.

* Sleep. Dream?

Tomorrow:

* Brew beer (using other hops, mine won’t be dry yet)

* Finish watermelon pickles.

* Finish tomato pickles.

* Rent a pickup truck from home depot, drive it to the western side of the state, fill it with firewood for about $100, bring it home, and fill the lumber holder. This was the compromise I worked out rather than adding to his charge of $220 to deliver the wood to me since I’m “so far away.”

* Write my essay.