donk79

I am about to go pick pawpaws here in Virginia. I checked them last week and they were still a little bit green. This week I think they will be ready. @gfron1has been posting about picking pawpaws this past week in his area, and I am benefiting from the fact that his are ripening sooner. Especially today, as he posted a video on Facebook of how he processes the fruit. Hopefully this link will work, as it will definitely change how I approach the task. https://www.facebook.com/724934844/videos/5445230762240407/ Thank you, Rob!

My favorite shop will bag beans for me from their bulk bags that they have for pourover, etc. The price is often better than I get otherwise, and the beans are almost always fresher than the retail packs. I'm sure not every shop will (or has capacity to) do this, but it might be worth checking. I always tip for the service as well ( It's still cheaper than shipping). That might help encourage the practice to continue!

What currently remains of the harvest.

I did this earlier this summer, and got better than a cup of coriander from two plants. It's rather fun, and has encouraged me to start using coriander in ways I never have before. Coriander corn muffins are on the list I really want to try. A coriander heavy bean dip is my favorite so far. All that said, the winnowing is fiddly business. Be prepared to spend more time separating the seed from the chaff than you expect. I also probably lost a fair bit using wind to carry off chaff.

My brother has a 200+ year old house with heart pine floors that he and his wife had refinished. There are people who specialize in this type of thing, but they probably will be more pricey than your standard floor contractor. It's almost more of a restoration trade than a refinishing trade. That said, I think my brother just had a contractor with experience in old houses. I think you will want some sort of new finish, unless you are really into a weathered look. Otherwise, it sounds like you can expect pretty swift staining around the sink and stove. A lower gloss option might give what you are looking for, or maybe some sort of oil finish. I am definitely not one of those expert contractors I referred to above.

I'm not sure! But tips and suggestions are welcome. I saw several more while hiking today, but not enough to bother harvesting. I may go back to my first spot in a day or two. There should be lots more developing, and i harvested less than a tenth of what I found.

Found a nice patch of cinnabar chanterelles the other evening. It was my first time harvesting them, so these just went in a pan with butter. I didn't want to cover up the taste. They are small. The tops range in size from a penny to a silver dollar. This amounted to a couple of tablespoons worth when cooked. The flavor was so delicate that the butter predominated.

Real wood is the best. 15 years ago my wife and I bought a house with 40 year old red oak floors. Before we moved in we sanded off the old finish and put two coats of polyurethane on. Unfortunately we had to sell the house six years later. Otherwise those floors would still be one of my favorite parts of the house.

I believe the Opinel #10 is a folding knife. I also have to say, that the styling is simple and aesthetically pleasing and absolutely unthreatening. To me, it would be the perfect picnic knife.

That sounds fascinating. Are you removing the strings before drying? Is there anything else of note in your process?

But the more you run out, the more we learn!

This is batch 21, same recipe as batch 20?

I am deeply regretting that I didn't plant okra this year. No one else in the house eats it though. In the past I have grown enough to harvest a good gallon of pods a few times a week. So, I have picked and eaten a lot of okra! One of the things that I have observed about okra is that toughness is much more a function of the age of the pod, than size. I have harvested plenty of nine inch pods that were perfectly delectable, and plenty of three inch pods that it turned out you could barely shove a knife through. In fact, I consider the feel under the knife to be the only reliable test of tenderness. There's always that one pod in the patch that it turns out you overlooked for a couple of weeks. I know this doesn't help much if you don't grow your own, but I do want people to know that large okra is not necessarily bad. It can be some of the best!

Catalpa?

Could it be that after years of the above, @liuzhouhas simply what good corn tastes like?

I was wondering if there were any brands produced locally that you would recommend. If this is trending, I fully expect the market to fill with bad knock-offs.

For great cherries, you need a tree. We had a terrific one years ago, but unfortunately it died and became firewood. Even a few hours after picking, the cherries were nowhere near as good as fresh off the tree.

About a month ago I purchased some Lundberg brown Jasmine rice. I have been eating this for lunch a few times a week, enjoying the chew of it's grain, a few times a week. Then I stumbled across this thread and found the Rice Factory to be of great interest. So when I saw this video it seemed injust to not share it.

On a grill pan I think you may be okay. Many years ago, I did such a thing on a charcoal grill with a trout that I caught. I will never do THAT again.

Amazing thread and photos, Shain. Thank you so much for sharing!

@liuzhou I have very good friends, but I still envy you for your friends!😉

If it's not the cheese, it could have been the cream you used. I have found some brands of cream to be more liable to separate than others. I suspect that the more industrially produced, UHT and gellan or carateenan type versions have produced poorer results for me in the past, but that is probably just prejudice!

Also, if you can find a good tea shop, they will be happy to guide you.

I'm hoping you have used those Lion's Mane by now. They are very delicate, both in terms of flavor, and shelf life. I think they are good, and my wife loves them!

I tried one about a year ago, after they opened up near my mom's. It wasn't bad at all, but it was quite greasy and expensive. I'm not saying that I will never go back, but I am not in a hurry either.