Independence Days Update: Fruity Goodness
Sharon July 6th, 2009
First of all, it stopped raining. Don’t get me wrong, not forever, it might rain a little tonight, and a lot tomorrow. But for three consecutive days, we had sun. And the air was dry. Laundry hung up on a line dried in less than three days. This is very important, because we don’t have a dryer (ok, we have one, but it doesn’t work and mostly holds potatoes in the winter). After 27 out of 32 days involving heavy rain, and the rest of the time the air being so swampy that nothing would dry, I finally did something we’ve not ever done – I broke down and went to the laundromat. So you can imagine how grateful I am for a breeze, dry air and of all things, sun!
We didn’t make it to the permaculture convergence on Saturday, which was probably good, because 3 1/2 hours each way all in one day was crazy to begin with with three kids. The decision was made for us when a postal employee called and told us that the chicks that weren’t supposed to come until Tuesday had arrived. That six am phone call ruined our departure time, and frankly I’m grateful.
The garden is pretty stunted from all the rain – not the upper beds, but the lower ones. I’ve got to raise them up again – the drainage trenches can’t handle this much rain. Of course, we’re not supposed to *have* this much rain, but since nature hasn’t heard, I’ve got to do more garden revisions. Bleah.
I’m virtually sure both goats are pregnant. Selene looks it, Maia is a little more borderline, but then again, she’s still milking (we’ve got to start drying her off). In two weeks, our new girls – Bast, Mina and Jesse arrive, and Mina and Jesse will be our dairy creatures while Selene and Maia hang around, gestate and stand on the car. In no way has Selene’s large abdomen inhibited her ability to climb up on anything she wants, just in case you were wondering. I wish I’d been that agile in pregnancy.
The cheap vodka is flowing at my house – not into my mouth (ugh), but into tinctures and herb liqueurs. I’m trying a trick my friend Jesse told me about, running really cheap vodka through a Brita filter, which supposedly makes it taste like not-so-cheap vodka. We shall see – it certainly takes a while. I’ve made a lot of tinctures this week, and am about to make currant liqueur. As soon as more of the black currants are ready, I’m also going to make black currant wine. Its a boozy week. And is there anything more wonderful than the smell of chopped up elecampane roots?
The meat birds are huge – this is actually the first time I’ve ever raised Cornish Cross Roaster birds, although I raised another variety of Cornish Cross before, mostly because I ordered late and didn’t have most of my usual choices. I’m reminded of why I don’t like them – yes, they are meatier than the Buff Orps or the Delawares, and yes, they mature faster. They are also stupid, messy and don’t forage well. These chicks are supposed to range, but we have to chase them out of the barn – they won’t go out. I don’t think I’ll mind eating them.
The kids are loving harvest season. Isaiah is my right hand in the garden – he wants to do everything. He spotted the first ripe Glacier tomato this morning (which we solemnly divided six ways and said schecheyanu over), and keeps asking me “what can I harvest?” He spots wild yarrow and viburnums, and wants binoculars in his own size so that he can birdwatch. He told me yesterday he wants to be chef and a naturalist and a farmer and teach math. This is a good thing. Asher wants to weed everything, and one must watch carefully that what comes out are actually weeds, but this is a trait to be encouraged. Simon mostly likes to talk about the garden, but isn’t that interested, and Eli mostly likes to sit in the wheelbarrow and eat strawberries. But then again, on that last, who doesn’t?
Plant something: Cardoons, dill, cilantro, carrots, turnips, beets, alyssum, gomphrena
Harvest something: Strawberries, cherries, rhubarb, last of the peas, broccoli, bok choy, kale, collards, cabbage, 1 tiny tomato, yarrow, peppermint, crampbark, milk, eggs.
Preserve something: Strawberry rhubarb jam, dried peaches, cherry almond jam, tinctures of yarrow, red clover, elecampane, valerian, nettle, crampbark and peppermint, dried and froze lambsquarters, dried beets.
Waste Not: Made sour milk biscuits and shortcakes for July 4th red-white-blueberry shortcake. Have resolved to try collecting scraps again for the chickens from our local diner at least on days when Eric is passing through. Found homes for some of Inge and Cyrils nicer chairs. Have offered a good home for any cinder blocks people have lying around, but still many blocks short of my raised bed fantasy (anyone local want to barter a lot of cinder blocks for a spot in my AIP class? 
)
Prep/Want Not: Getting the boys into serious kindling collection mode (ie, you can play in the woods if you come back with sticks ), made experimental cotton bra out of too-tight tshirt – not sure if this will end up in the rag-bag or be incoporated into future models.
Community Food Systems: Nope.
Eat the food: Nothing new. Not sure what I did do last week
How about you?
Sharon
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Blogged my update here:
http://inthepurplehouse.blogspot.com/2009/07/independence-days-challenge-week-10.html
(With a photo of our version of “sit in the wheelbarrow and eat strawberries.”)
I’ll be curious to know if that Britta trick works. I made my first tinctures last year, following a recipe that called for “cheap-ass vodka” (and yes, that’s what I asked for at the store).
Lise
We got 2.2″ of rain on July 4, but it sure didn’t stop the locals from shooting their fireworks stashes off. Fireworks are legal in Missouri, and very popular.
Planted: sweet potato slips, grown from stored tubers from last year’s harvest. Butternut squash, naked-seeded pumpkin. We should have 90-120 days of growing season left … these crops will need all of it.
Harvested: collards (two kinds), bolting lettuce (it’s OK, somewhat bitter, but we can eat it), walking onion topsets, rocambole garlic, the lone shallot that survived winter, turnip thinnings, garlic chives, parsley, shiso (aka beefsteak plant or perilla), opal basil, nasturtium flowers
Preserved: calendula, lambsquarters (by drying)
Waste not: found and brought home six bricks while a stream team I belong to was doing water quality monitoring. It’s an urban stream so bricks can get carried by the current during floods. Eventually I’ll have enough bricks for a project. My DH is continuing to work (slowly) on the solar food dehydrator. Made more compost from the weeds collected out of the garden and the remaining stash of last fall’s leaves.
Prep/want not: ordered book on fermentation.
Community food systems: gave the sweet potato slips I ordered to my neighbor for her garden, and told her how I grew my own this year.
Eat the food: the bolting lettuce made a pretty decent salad. But then I like dandelion greens, too.
Yes, way too much rain for gardening, but my young plums and bush cherries are loving it!
planted: beans, sage (i hope its not too late!) , chamomile, cosmos, beets, some other herbs, I forget what
harvested: mostly lettuce and arugula and lambs quarters.
preserve: made jam from last years berries in freezer
prep: does lots of time moving chickens and sheep count? plus started mapping out orchard.
community food: yes! helping to organize Food Preservation day, brought to you by your local food security blanket, august 1, wheelock mountain farm, vermont. there will be workshops on freezing, canning, butter and cheese making, drying/dehydrating, sausage making, lacto-fermenting, root-cellaring, oh, and of course mead and wine making!
And I did make it to the permaculture convergence, my first, it was really fun– Ecspecially good presentation by Eric tosen… and Brian Tokar giving a greatly needed global perspective on climate change, lots of stuff Sharon writes about but good to hear again.
I will post my update on my blog, but I did want to comment on the Cornish Cross birds.
Yes, definitely messy …. They eat and poop, and eat and poop … drink a little water … eat, poop, and then, eat and poop. I’ve heard them referred to as “meat blobs”, and I’d say that pretty well describes them.
I use “cheap ass vodka” for making extracts – vanilla and peppermint are the two I’ve made. It makes a nice vanilla extract, which I use in cooking to replace the artificial stuff. It seems to work just as well. At least, no one has complained
. And it smells wicked good!
Hot here in Spokane…until today, highs in the mid-nineties. Put “fruit condoms” on the seckel pears and the apples to ward off coddling moth and apple maggot.
Plant something:
Old USDA honey locust cultivar for livestock fodder. Supposedly 40% sugar in the pods according to “Tree Crops”.
Harvest something:
More strawberries than ever…ate strawberries until looking at them made me bilious.
Lambsquarter; the family has begged for quarter from lambsquarter.
Kale and black mustard, day-lily blossoms and 20+ pounds of rainier cherries.
Big flush of shaggy parasol mushrooms.
Do eggs from the chickens count as a “harvest”?
Raspberries…not as many as last year, but very intense flavor; could be due to the heat.
4-5 year-old bamboo stalks for plant stakes etc.
Harvested garlic.
Harvested and dried oregano.
Preserve something:
Canned 15 pints of jam-syrup hybrid; might have needed to cook it a bit longer for a better “gel”, oh well, live and learn.
Three quarts of reduced fish stock two quarts of veal stock and two ice cube trays of demi-glace were added to the freezer.
Dried two pounds of pitted cherries…BTW, the cherry pitter that Lehman’s sells is awesomely fast. Two pounds couldn’t have taken more than five minutes to pit.
Waste Not:
Saved (2) champagne and (10) 24 oz beer bottles for re-use as fall ale bottles.
Community Food Systems: donated fresh veggies to the local free food cafe. Invited a friends over to harvest stuff I was “so over”.
Eat the food:
Pulled another 10 lbs of German butterball potatoes from the in-ground root cellar…still firm and good despite the heat and the month.
Frosty night last night, though the days have been clear and sunny. My parents are visiting so weekend activity has been curtailed. Still making plans for the backyard terracing, but in the meantime the broad beans, arugula and pak choy are up. I’ll go out with a torch once I get home from work to see how they’ve been affected.
plant something – nope
harvest something – thyme
preserve something – found an apple corer at over 50% off sale, so the bag of apples has now been reduced with batches of dried apples and an apple tart; made chicken stock from the Sunday roast
waste not – fail. Accidentally left the heater on all night, now I need to go top up the pay-as-you-go electric. (oh, BB salvaged scrap wood left in the new house to make a kitchen shelf.)
prep & storage – BB rearranged the back porch and laudry to make more space and keep things tidier.
community food systems – invited friends over for Sunday lunch and swapped crabapples for preserved lemon, talked food storage design issues. Visited nearby town farmers market.
eat the food – trying to remember last week now. There was lots of eating out of storage as we couldn’t grocery shop on the previous weekend. Couscous with preserved lemon and harrisa chicken; marmalade cake; potato, cauliflower and onion soup; finally shopped this weekend so osso bucco with polenta (I am determined to master polenta cooking to add another carbohydrate option into regular rotation); Sunday roast chicken with pumpkin, potato and carrots; BB did stuffed mushrooms and roast parsnips last night.
Haven’t updated here for several weeks, so I’ll dump it all here as I can remember. I’m sure I’m forgetting a lot!
Plant something: hubby planted sprouted potatoes, variety of herbs, okra, beans, and a number of other things I haven’t kept track of. He’s got a nice little hydroponic garden started as well.
Harvest something: our garden is not producing yet for various reasons. (See today’s post for details.) However, did harvest one long bean and one of the sunflower heads.
Preserve something: preserved a lot of food while not updating here for a solar cooking demo at my CSA: candied citrus peels, pickled onions, green tomato relish, refrigerator dill pickles, refrigerator sweet pickles. Recently canned BBQ sauce, tomato sauce, and jalapeno-tomato jam. Dehydrated cherry tomatoes.
Waste Not: Composting everything possible instead of dumping into recycling bin. Traded rainwater barrel set-up advice for a water storage barrel. (Got rid of them several months ago thinking we’d be moving soon.)
Prep/Want Not: bought vanilla extract on sale. Finally tried out my two thrift store food mills. One’s great; the other’s going back to the thrift store. Brought home a bunch of over-size plastic bags from CSA (they can’t use them) for “trash bag” stash in case of flu pandemic and illness. Saved 2 liter bottles from CSA demo – re-using as water storage in the form of ice in my freezer. This also provides emergency ice blocks in case of power outage – common during summer thunderstorms.
Community Food Systems: did solar cooking demo at my CSA for 470 members, using foods that come in the CSA shares.
Eat the food: Yep, eating the food. Sweet pickled onions are great in fresh salads or on bean burritos. Hubby is enjoying candied citrus peels; he never did before but he likes the ones I’ve made with a new recipe. Occasionally adding dehydrated ingredients to meals to round out a dish and get used to cooking with them. Ground toasted pumpkin seeds to thicken soup.
Plant something: sprouted avocado pit went into the ground.
Harvest something: okra, eggplant, oregano, quail eggs, chicken eggs, cucumber.
Preserve something: peaches from a local orchard; made jam, froze some, 4 quarts of pie filling, 2 full pies
Waste Not: peach skins went to chickens, rabbits and quail, composting of most kitchen scraps, dried eggshells and added to chicken/quail feed. composted duck & chicken manure. saved handful of peach stones to sprout
Prep/Want Not: cat litter buckets from craigslist for planting sweet potatoes.
Community Food Systems: nothing this week
Eat the food: still using onions from the garden, ate last of the cucumbers and the frozen okra
When you were all about Shakespeare, Sharon, did you ever think you going to write “And is there anything more wonderful than the smell of chopped up elecampane roots?”
1. Plant something – Not a thing this week!
2. Harvest something – Zukes! … turnips, turnip greens, favas, potatoes, dandelions, elephant garlic, onions, peas, chard, mustard, lettuce, spinach, strawberries, basil, chives, knotweed. Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb.
3. Preserve something – blanched and froze fava beans. Putting up garlic braids, storing “new potatoes.”
4. Reduce waste – Made an awning from recycled burlap coffee sacking. It shades the entire south wall of the house and cot less than $10!
5. Preparation and Storage – drying fava beans and kale pods for seed. Garlic, potatoes. We now have four compost piles going.
6. Build Community Food Systems – selling duck eggs; giving away veggies at work as conversation starters.
7. Eat the Food – From frozen: pear, apple and plum sauce, used to make reconstituted juice. From poultry: duck eggs, chicken soup. From storage: wheat, spelt, oats, rye, pasta, molasses. From garden: turnips, turnip greens, potatoes, zucchini (finally!), favas, elephant garlic, onions, kale, chard, dandelions, peas, lettuce, spinach, chard, strawberries, mint, basil, chives, still mostly peas. Experimenting with whizzed-up green drinks.
Plant something:
Collected comfrey and scullcap seeds to distribute in flower beds. (I originally got these plants from the roadside and have propagated them in my flower beds.)
Harvest something:
Eggs, beans, potatoes, squash, tomatoes (the first!), blueberries.
Preserve something:
Froze beans.
Reduce waste:
Collected garden and lawn waste for compost.
Community Systems:
About to visit local farm for peaches.
Eat the food:
Eggs, beans, potatoes, squash, tomatoes, blueberries.
1. Plant something – This week, I ‘planted the pantry.’ I raided my pantry for seeds – anything I thought might grow – and planted them in recycled plastic containers. I don’t know what will grow, but that’s the fun of it. My pantry yielded: four colors of pepper corns, fennel seeds, coriander, allspice, cloves, caraway, poppy and chia. I didn’t have to wait long for the chia – it was up the next day. We’ll see what the rest does. I also planted a chunk of ginger from the grocery store – since the expensive piece I ordered from Gurney’s rotted in the ground.:-(
2. Harvest something – mostly herbs but a few okra pods. I harvested some dollar weed from the garden but haven’t gotten up the nerve to eat it yet (why is that so hard, I wonder?) My garden has really slowed since the weather got so hot and dry. I recently found a couple of leaks in my soaker hose so I’ve switched back to hand watering. Maybe I’ll get better results now. I hope . . .
3. Preserve something – maybe never? I did buy a book, Well Preserved: recipes and techniques for putting up small batches of seasonal foods by Eugenia Bone. Bone gives basic advice as well as detailed instructions for preserving foods – everything from cherries in wine to smoked scallops, along with recipes for using the preserved food. Stay tuned.
4. Reduce waste – I was in Target this week (hey, my shopping options are extremely limited . . .) and noticed that the Starbucks counter was giving away bags of used coffee grounds to one and all. I took all they had.
I also asked my mother’s hairdresser for her hair clippings. I had read what a wonderful mulch/compost they could be and thought it worth a try. But the hairdresser pointed out that the hair contains not only all the good stuff from our system (vitamins, minerals), but all the drugs as well. Changed my mind!
Made a quilt from scraps in the sewing room. Took second place in our guild challenge!
5. Preparation and Storage – I learned to make my own pita this week. I used the recipe in Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Hertzberg and Francois. Wasn’t all that hard and turned out really well. I did find out that cooking the pita less was better than more, more being rather tough and crunchy.
And I’ve spent huge amounts of time on the internet – I discovered Freedom Gardens, an interactive community where I joined groups all the way from ‘making ink’ to ‘permaculture’ to ‘culture club’ (as in yogurt and sour dough and other cultures . . . )
And I’ve been fantasizing over property in other, more amenable-to-self-reliance locations. This place is just too hot, too dry, too sandy, and too vulnerable to hurricanes!!
6. Build Community Food Systems – blog (on occasion) and comment on other people’s blogs.
7. Eat the Food – I made a fantastic Greek salad with cucumbers and peppers and herbs from the garden (to go in my yummy pita bread). The okra goes in my ‘refrigerator soup’ made from leftovers.
Planting: cranberry bushes, carrot tops, petunias.
Harvesting: strawberries (ours and the pick your own orchard), raspberries and more raspberries, June/Serviceberries from campus, peas, arugula, anise hyssop, baby zukes and summer squash.
Preserving: froze strawberries and Juneberries, made a test batch of rhubarb Juneberry sauce (yummy! my Mom absconded with it), getting ready for major jamming this week.
Waste Not: composting & scraps to the chickens, green mango turned into salsa – okay, that’s really yummy, too! Green mangos, avocado, tomatoes, black beans, salsa or fresh ingredients thereof, red onions, scallions, lime juice, salt. And took our extra Juneberries and kohlrabi to our barter market.
Community: Helped start up our neighborhood barter market on Wednesdays again; we want more days so I’ll be setting up in our yard on Sundays! People exchange whatever, mostly extra produce but also jam, bread, homemade soap, maybe services like bike tuneups (I hope.) Will watch the neighbors’ chickens while they’re out of town. Got together with a fun group last night to discuss money related issues like patronizing local businesses, insulation, preparedness, austerity, and healthy eating.
Want not: Eating up our 1/4 cow, getting creative with our CSA box.
Kathy
St Paul, MN
It’s been a few weeks, so I’ll try to remember all I’ve done.
Plant Something: planted fall crops of beets, chard, peas, broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, bush beans
Preserve something: froze broccoli and sugar snap peas
Waste not: planted my starts in recycled plastic containers
Prep: ordered pickle crocks, grain grinder and pasta maker
Community Food systems: Started teaching classes on preserving. This week will be 3 classes on water bath canning, showing them how to make jam. Then we’ll do pressure canning, dehydrating and making and storing convenience foods like soups etc. Lastly in the fall will be a class on seed saving.
Eat the food: Lots of lettuce, broccoli, peas, zucchini, basil and mint.
Heather in MA
My report’s here:
http://safirasilv.livejournal.com/211059.html
Worrying a bit about late blight, though I started most of my tomatoes from seed and bought the rest at small local nurseries…
Sharon, could you please share how you make a tincture of yarrow? I planted yarrow this year as well as a number of other herbs but am struggling with how to harvest and use them. Much thanks, Lisa
Here is my update for the week.
Highlight: Using a tincture that I made from a feral patch of yarrow and having it actually work for the purpose I intended it for! Yeah for herbal remedies!
My update is here.
I’d love to see the recipe for tinctures as well. Herbs is an area I’d like to expand my knowledge on. Thanks!
Plant: Transplanted to garden commercial starts for early girl, better boy and rutgers tomatoes and threw out all my seed grown tomato starts which weren’t progressing after much pampering for reasons that defied a specific diagnosis even by the extension service (and last year, I had such success with seed grown starts, sigh); more spicy globe basil starts interplanted with tomatoes; moss rose in the fence bed at the request of my partner (over the tulips, we’ll see how this works out); and from deck pots to fence bed, columbine.
Harvest: Kirby cucumbers; chard; kale; red, green, and oak leaf lettuce and romaine; chives, thyme, lemon thyme, rosemary; “big leaf” shiso; nasturium leaves; tasted a bee balm petal
Preserve: Froze blueberries and rhubarb.
Waste Not: Put a lot of things in compost that should not have gone bad except that neither of us in hot weather mode yet and left cooked rice, oatmeal out on counter; refilled kitchen/pantry containers as needed and updated storage log; re-used the ubiquitous blueberry boxes to cage the base of the tomato and basil plants in hopes of dissuading baby rabbit munching; discovered another layer of sweet potatoes in the storage area and triaged same; got my partner to re-containerize sunflower seeds that had attracted a friendly nibbler (probably a chipmunk); made yogurt from shelf-stable milk that I’m rotating.
Want Not: Read up on late blight; got a simple propane grill so that we have an alternative to charcoal for outdoor cooking (and to make my partner happy); and with mixed feelings but to preserve productivity (and to make my partner happy), installed the window air conditioners in the upstairs and downstairs home offices.
Community: The usual farmer’s market and garden talk with friends.
Eat: West african peanut soup with storage sweet potatoes, homegrown kale, homemade broth, and peanut butter, peanuts and tomatoes from the pantry (really good, a big hit – a Mark Bittman recipe); blueberry ricotta cheesecake using the last frozen blueberries (I meant to make this for my partner’s birthday last month which might have been pre-fresh blueberries); blueberry buckwheat pancakes with blueberry syrup; the first peaches of the year with and without blueberries; mixed greens and vegetable salad (our first this year all from backyard) with homemade tarragon vinegar; a daily ration of cucumbers; lots of shiso in salad, sandwiches and as plate liners.
Plant something: red clover cover crop under corn, sunflowers, around grapes etc..
Harvest something: snap, snow and shelling peas, strawberries, lettuce, garlic scapes, cilantro, carrots, more elderberry flowers, basil, broccoli, potatoes
Preserve something: strawberries in rum, froze snow peas, more strawberry jam and frozen strawberries, froze pesto
Waste not: made pledge for birthday to commute by human powered commuting to work x 1 year; so far so good; drastically reduced garbage production continues, though not sure what has caused this
Prep and store: nothing really
Community food systems: no, but I did bring strawberries to work and they were almost worshipped
Eat something: sublime homemade pesto with cups and cups of fresh homegrown basil, stirfrys, potato salad and hasbrowns, salads, strawberries, peas straight up
We had a big software install at work this week and many 4th of July potlucks; these were fun but did through off our schedule and there was no time to yard sale or thrifting (but at least I have a job!).
7/06/09: Planted: nada
Harvested: foraged Telegraph Hill mint, weekly organic veggie box and flowers: carrots, cucumbers, beets, new potatoes, head garlic, yellow onions, apricots, green beans, summer squash
Preserved: nada
Reduced Waste: community composting/recycling; saved glass jars and plastics for reuse; froze veggie scraps/chicken bones;
Preparation and Storage: nada
Build Community Food Systems: trade plums for soy flour and Pyrex
Eat the Food: sausage/squash sauté from frozen sausage, hash browns (CSA potatoes, onions and parsley)
Yard Sales/thrift store: library: Titanic video for 25c
LisaH
My update here: http://smallvictoriesgreen.wetpaint.com/page/July+06+09
We’re having a spell of cooler weather with some rain most days. But when the sun shines, my solar dehydrator is full of herbs and greens! There’s just enough sun (and accompanying warmth) that a number of things are growing very lush.
My elderberries are producing their first blossoms (bushes new to me last year). The black raspberries are ripening and the red raspberries are filling out.
Planted something: zip, zero, zilch.
Harvested: Japanese eggplant, wax beans, green beans, tomatoes, zucchini, crookneck squash, cucumbers, serrano peppers, nasturtium blossoms, basil, dill, parsley, lemon thyme, sage, scallions, a bit of mint. Foraged wild blackberries.
Preserved: attempted recipes for lacto-fermented beet and cucumber pickles. This is my first try, so we’ll see how it goes.
Reduced waste: Composting. Learned I could save those mesh bags you sometimes get onions and potatoes in and turn them into homemade crocheted dish scrubbers, so I’ve started saving those.
Preparation and storage: filled a bin under the guest bed with some long-term food storage items — mostly from what I’ve learned from this blog
Talked to my grandfather about the best methods for growing potatoes in this climate, as he’s lived here a *long* time and I know potato-planting time is around the corner. Convinced my honey to break ground on a little extension for the fall garden — we’ll break up the clods and amend the soil over the next few days, if it stays cloudy (heat index 106 F recently, so the work goes slowly).
Build community food systems: Um, I took some tomatoes to my neighbors, and they seemed genuinely delighted — does that count? Probably not. (It felt pretty monumental, though. I know they’ve been looking askance at the new arrivals who plant veggies in their *front yard.*) Also, convinced my mom, who is skeptical, to start storing food.
Eat the food: a tiny dish of eggplant parmesan, already getting creative with the zucchini – feels like we eat at least one every day, fantastic blueberries from our CSA which didn’t last very long once we’d tasted them, dilled beans, hot salsa, lots of sliced tomatoes with just a sprinkle of salt and pepper, cucumbers with a bit of buttermilk dressing or in Greek salad or as is.
The Brita filter contains small granules of activated charcoal. I’m not sure why the flow is so slow, but likely it has to do with the minimum contact time between liquid and charcoal needed to absorb impurities. There’s an easy way to cheat if watching the filter drip is driving you crazy. Open up the filter case and pour the charcoal into the vodka bottle. Tip the bottle a few times to mix and then pour the contents through a fine cloth or coffee filter. You can probably reuse the charcoal a few times. There are also less costly sources of charcoal like aquarium filters and the caps or tablets often sold at natural health stores for upset stomach. I can’t vouch for the aquarium stuff being safe to use on food, but the caps should be ok, you’d hope. It’s also possible to diy activated charcoal, but unless you’re doing some major water purification project, I can’t imagine it would be worth the time.
Audio started playing as soon as I opened up this webpage, so annoying!