Spring Dreams

A dreary Sunday afternoon in February, snowy frozen fields outside, a fire in the fireplace and the Olympics bubbling away on the TV inside; it’s a perfect day to plan what to do this spring.

I’ve generated a ridiculously long list of what I’m going to grow in the garden this year.  Even under the spell of the Burpee’s catalog I realize it’s delusional and I’ll be cursing come July trying to keep it all under control.  But what to cut from the list?  It all sounds so good after 3 months of winter.

Then I’ve been reading Charcuterie by Ruhlman and Polcyn (excellent book, it’s on my Christmas list in case anyone wants to get a jump on their gift buying 🙂 ) and The Art of Making Fermented Sausages by Marianski and Marianski.  Now I’m dreaming of cutting up more pork and making salami and German cold-smoked sausage.

Which gets me drawing sketches of my long planned outdoor cooking area with a hot grilling/smoking pit plus a masonry bread oven that’s vented into a large chimney for cold smoking.

Here’s an old world smokehouse from “The Art of Making Fermented Sausages.” I’m thinking something similar to this, except on a much smaller scale, and the firebox would be the bread oven sitting at ground level.

And finally untouched on top of my reading stack is “The Year-Around Conservatory.”  Maybe this year I’ll start doing something with the greenhouse I built as part of the chicken coop 4 years ago.

Big plans on a lazy day.