Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

I feel like I have a little explaining to do, as I’ve been getting involved with projects that may seem a little out of the blue, but aren’t. Since the snow fell, the cold came, and the outdoor food world froze into ice, I have had time to park myself at an imac and get stuck into building out some of the businesses that were conceptualized through this last growing season.

Story Chaser has finally been born. The video production opportunities are increasingly piling up and it was well past the time to put together a team to handle the workload – it’s already more than I can take on. One of the cool pieces of the puzzle is we’re going to focus on producing hunting, fishing, and agriculture video production – a niche that will be really fun to fill. I had no idea there was as much work as there is in the video production world, and can’t believe the scope of the projects we’re already working on. I feel like I should be sending Daniel Klein a royalty for getting me started down this path.

Shovel & Fork was born from the workshops I put on over the past season – which I put on because folks had been asking me to for years. I learned a few things doing them. First, and most importantly, is that I’ve long known that I really don’t enjoy being a teacher. Learned that being a music teacher through university. Not for me. Secondly, I learned that a lot of folks really enjoy learning in that hands-on way. So rather than tap out, which was my intent, I’ve teamed up with chef and culinary instructor Chad Moss who will rock the instruction bit. We’ve also built the gig to incorporate folks with other skill sets and knowledge to teach workshops in their area of expertise – not only in #yeg but elsewhere too. It’s become a really, really fun project, and is already changing the landscape of the food scene here. Love it.

And there’s more on the way, including a rebuild of this very site which will focus a fair bit more on KevinTV than it does now. Lactuca will continue to consume a fair bit of my brain, as we figure out expansion and employee logistics for the coming growing season. In the end, it turns out that I’m really, really enjoying tackling entrepreneurial projects that create vast opportunities to do projects with social good pieces attached. So much fun. I’m really, really grateful to those of you who support what I do and make it possible. I will long be in your debt.

This is a bit of redemption for me. 2 years ago, I wrote about pickling whitefish, and failed at documenting the recipe or approach to it. So this time around, I’m taking notes as I plan on doing this often. It’s not fussy, it’s tasty, and strikes me as the kind of thing every good northerner should be happy to tuck into with a beer or vodka. So when the fish in the photo below came into my life, I knew its fate. I’ll never forget this fish. I’d never caught a whitefish. And for whatever reason, they kept popping off the hook while just coming out of the ice hole. Flopping in the hole, no hook or line attached, trying to sort out escape. So I panicked…or rather…thought quick on my feet. Whitefish number one that day was scooped out of the hole with my kitchen spider [which does only a marginally good job at de-slushing a hole, btw]. The bad boy in the photo below, which looks kind of like a minnow in the photo but was actually a foot and a half + long, I scooped out with my hand – my reflex being to plunge my arm down the hole after it, and fling it out onto the ice. Some good laughs were had. This one fish made 3 pints of pickled fish.

So here’s the deal with the pickling. Fillet. I took the rib cage off via filleting from the back toward the abdomen. The bones go soft in the pickle, so no biggy if they’re left in. Cube the fish into 1X1″ pieces. For 3-4 fish: 1 cup salt, 5 cups water. Make a brine. Let the fish sit in the brine for 96 hrs. Drain. Cover fish pcs with white vinegar. Let soak for 96 hrs. Drain. Prior to jarring, make and chill a brine solution of 1.5 cups white sugar, 2 cups vinegar, 2 tbsp pickling spice or other aromatics of choice. Pack jars tightly, pour on brine, and eat from a week later to a few months later. Too long and the texture goes mushier – when fresh and with 96 hr cure times, the texture is pleasant, dense, and if you hate pickled fish, these could easily change your mind. They changed mine. I’m sure you could use less salt and sugar, but to me, these are like junk food – like tying into a bag of chips. Now: patience. Hard to wait that first week. Need to catch more whitefish.

Today was one of my favorite days of the year. This is my third vintage of apple products from my backyard tree, and today was go-day. I left the apples on about 2 weeks longer than normal, religiously collecting windfalls every day, hoping for a more aromatic and sweet apple. Mission accomplished. The pruning over the years has meant fewer apples of larger size, which is a positive for eating out of hand, but slows down crushing with my gear. If you want to see a video of how I crush and press, there’s one here.

The big difference this year though is what I’m doing with the juice. Apparently my recent visit to Normandy had some influence, as nearly all of my process has changed, as have the products I’m seeking. The past two vintages I’ve made strictly apple wine with these apple, an oaked one. This year, first product I’m taking is straight-up juice. It’s lovely. Next up is pommeau. I’ll then let it ferment with natural yeasts [normally use Lalvin D47], and will bottle some as sweet hard cider. The rest will be let go to ferment dry. So many lovely products from such a simple starting point.

My yield this year was just over 3 very full 23L carboys, so about 70L. And I held back about 30 lbs of the largest, nicest fruit for eating fresh – so one more product: fresh fruit. If it starts to go sideways in the fridge they will become chaussons aux pommes, or apple turnovers. Yum. All from one medium sized apple tree in one medium sized back yard.

As I’ve watched and listened to fellow local gardening folks, I’ve been a bit surprised at how early in the season folks are packing it in. It’s made me consider my own rhythm, and I realized a few things. Mid-September usually is the end of the summer crops – the tomatoes, squash, beans, and anything else that’s sensitive to frost. This year, frost hasn’t reared its head here in the city yet. Summer’s still on like donky kong. The turning point for me is frost, as for many others, but that far from heralds the end of the season, but instead the beginning of the shoulder season – the fall garden.

The fall garden is an abundant one. Sure the tomatoes, basil, squash, and finicky plants go to mush at first freeze, but I seem to have an arsenal of frost hardy, even frost loving veg. It seems to be the majority. Brassicas don’t mind frost, some love it. Some are even hardcore, like kale, happy to freeze solid, or take a foot of snow. So brocooli shoots, red cabbage, savoy cabbage, tuscan kale, red russian kale, collards, rutabagas, and brussel sprouts aren’t going anywhere any time soon. Most other root veg don’t care about frost either – so my multitude of varieties of carrots, parsnips, beets, potatoes, and so on will be fine for a good while. And although the allium like onions and garlic are harvested and ready to be planted again, the leeks stand like an army of awesomness to be reckoned with, and will well into the deep freeze.

So frost is only the end of the summer garden. The fall garden is just as exciting for different reasons, and extremely prolific and productive. Last year my final harvest from the garden was mid-November, without cold frame protection. This year I have baby peas, spinach, arugula, kale, and carrots growing now. And I have protection ready for them when the cold whallops upside the head arrive. But that time is not now, not yet.

Over the past few years I’ve watched a few hundred episodes of Gary Vaynerchuk’s Wine Library TV, and am a regular commenter there. Recently, I’ve been enamored with Daniel Klein’s ‘Perennial Plate‘ project about eating locally in Minnesota. So recently I had a bit of a ‘duh…’ moment, realizing that I had the gear to do some video blogging myself, and really should be using it as I really enjoy the nature of video for blogging purposes. So meet Kevin TV. I intend on keeping it a tad ghetto, one-take-esque, and uncontrived. We’ll see how it evolves. I’m especially excited about the video format come harvest and hunting season, and for farm visits.

This one is a simple mid-July garden tour of my recent ex-lawn. I intend on following it once a season over the next few years.

Yeah. I’ve been a little ‘absent’. It happens. I’ve been writing music instead of blog posts, and am leaving tomorrow for the big hunt of the year: calf moose. So more absence. I hope to post about heart, tongue, and general cutting preferences. We’ll see if I get there…

This is embarrassing. No picture, and I’m scraping the barrel of things to post today. I’m not even going to label this one.

Today’s post should really read: “see Tuesday, October 02, 2007”. I’ve been living off tacos, refried beans, and a chili salsa for a few days now. I believe I’ll need a cleanse/detox soon.

This afternoon the landscaping ‘people’ were mass-raking leaves in our condo’s green space. I went outside and had a quick chat with the crew, and soon, they were dumping their loads of leaves and grass next to my garden. So most of my garden now sits under a foot or two of stuff I’m hoping will improve my soil, and protect my perrenials from our nasty winters. It felt like an achievement, even though they did all the work. Maybe that was the achievement.

I talked to my dad who pulled out of the bush camp this morning, and no moose will arrive in my kitchen in the next couple days as anticipated. Oh, they got a couple, but when divying them up, he chose to opt for waiting for calf rather than taking bull moose – something which pleases me greatly. Other than the ‘having to wait’ part. I’ve aluded to this mysterious supply chain of game meats before – one never really knows when to expect its appearance.

Speaking of game meats – I got an interesting lead on use of game offal here. [in the comments]

I tasted another Nero d’Avola [sicilian grape varietal] – a Scurati 2005 this evening. But I can’t tell you about it cause it’s not Friday wine night.

And lastly. I boiled potatoes. Yes. Facinating. But it’s for baby food for my 6 month old little girl. And I had a reminder that food – get this – is actually required for survival. I know. Easy to forget, no? Especially for a snob like me. We actually HAVE to eat, or we will die. Which makes being a foodie the BEST HOBBY EVER.

Yes. My blog is having an identity crisis.