bubbles ahead...

So!  I want to post quickly this morning before my week gets going too quickly.  We had some fairly stress-filled holiday-related hoo-ha last week, and this week isn't shaping up to be any less busy, so I am going to cross my fingers that it doesn't end up just as stressful. 

I am jazzed about a New Yorker article that was recently published about one of the gurus of the fermented foods movement.  He is the author of one of my favorite books on fermenting recipes and histories.  I believe that he is a huge player in these scary times of nutritional genocide!  That may sound dramatic, but when high fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated soybean oil are part of our country's food triangle... you've got to have a little bit of concern.

There is a fairly good chance of us getting Sandor Katz to come to the Freestone Fermentation Festival this year.  I believe that this year, our tiny little festival may get a bit more press than it has in the past.  If anyone is interested in this exciting movement, be sure to check out this podcast on the topic. 

Abusing Christmas card sites...

So I needed tags for the salve so that everyone knows what is it in and can't call me in three weeks with a rash asking "IF THERE IS ANY EUCALYPTUS LEAF IN THAT STUFF???"

Then my first efforts were not successful (even though I believe I possess fairly legit Windows paint skills) and I resorted to abusing a totally awesome free card site to make these labels.  I was pretty impressed with how simple they have made it was to add photos, alter sizes and colors, and choose fonts.

I emailed it to myself and received the great high quality image immediately.  It comes embedded in an email!  ¡Que fácil!  You can send these things right to a smartphone n' shizz!  I saved them as flat .jpg files, then used a label program in Microsoft to print the right size on my paper.

I am going to use this site all the time for jam/pickle labels, snail-mailed party invitations, and I will probably use the website's online services to send save the date notes and personalized invitations for the fermentation festival that I was recently hired to produce this year in Sonoma County.  Smooth plug, eh?  Ah, I await the day when I have readers to chastise me!

Folks, she loves it.

Salve-ation!

"I'm supposed to be a Christmas Card!!!"

Wrap time

This past weekend was a big one.  I can't comprehend that two days, when we have had nothing planned to do but "catch up, hang out, relax," turned into such a whirlwind circus of crafting and cookery.  Months ago we decided to make salves for friends and family for holiday gifts.  I had purchased all of our herbs, beeswax, oil and containers and this was the last weekend to do it before the supplies would have been schlepped into the closet for next year. 
It really is a simple process.  Except for when you decide to do three separate batches and have a one year old dog that wants to help with everything.  You see, I had not thought about the tiny inconvenience of how WAX manages to get onto everything when you are melting it.  We did our three big batches in many different sized containers and have plenty of gifts for this time of year.  We just didn't have a nice and relaxing weekend to catch up and hang out.

My friends Trevor and Tori recently made salves and they finished them off by carving a tiny heart in the top with a tooth pick.  I obsess over the presentation and delivery of a gift more than the gift itself, so this will be the next step.  I may post again when I have figured out just how to do it...

If ever there were a day to post...

it was yesterday.

Today will have to do, as the second most epic day to post.  Part of the reason that I am so interested in this whole blog hubbub is because I find the time every other day to read a few of my favorite blogs, and when there are triumphs in the lives of these incredible women, I smile at my computer and feel happy.  Lately, I haven't had that many triumphs of my own to share, and quite frankly I have decided not to post a few times when my entry started out negative and whiny.  Still, I sign into the blogger dashboard every few days to check and see what's worth smiling about on the interweb.
I'm going to go ahead and get a teeny-tiny negative and whiny blurb out there so that it can be done and I can talk about all of this bitchen stuff in the future.  I had a job that I loved for two years.  I bragged about the fact that on Sunday night I truly went to sleep thinking, "The sooner that I fall asleep, the sooner it will be Monday morning!"  I kid you not. 
Okay, so I worked at a preschool.  So what if I think that three to five year old humans are way cooler, more original, less inhibited, and all around easier to be with than most adults.  I know adults that feel otherwise, but really, I would enjoy myself with a group of five year olds just as much, if not more, than I would ever enjoy myself with a room full of adults!
With this being said, I felt very valued by the parents of the children in my class.  After months of months of feeling unsupported by my supervisor, I asked for her permission to approach the board of directors (this is a very well established non-profit Montessori school).  Instead of the opportunity to voice my concerns, I was paid out for two weeks of work and asked to leave abruptly.  After such a "wah-wah-waaaaaah" moment in my life, I have been searching for the right position to work which will excite me again like teaching that age group did.
Some of my hobbies include cooking and baking, but another culinary hobby of mine is fermenting.  For anyone whose nose happened to scrunch, you just think about cheese, beer, wine, and bread for a minute!  Sauerkraut and kimchi, wild pickles and kombucha, ginger brew and rejuvelac!  Okay, maybe some of this stuff isn't as popular as I would like it to be in our culture, but to those of you who think Reed's is a good ginger ale should try making your own wild ginger brew! 
I really am getting to a point about yesterday.  Yesterday, I was finally able to meet with the man who started the Fermentation Festival in my area.  This year would be it's third year, however, the incredible man who started this festival was realizing that he did not have the time or energy to shift into over-drive in order to produce it this year.  That, my imaginary bloggy friends, is where I have jumped in.  I am going to work my buns off to make this the best out of the three years.  I have so many grand ideas and concepts brewing in my head... ha!  I couldn't help myself!
Hopefully this will be the start of many more entries, as I have a feeling that I will be on this computer lots more!