{"id":512,"date":"2010-10-23T18:40:28","date_gmt":"2010-10-23T22:40:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chuckzumbrun.net\/?p=512"},"modified":"2010-10-23T18:40:28","modified_gmt":"2010-10-23T22:40:28","slug":"a-good-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chuckzumbrun.net\/?p=512","title":{"rendered":"A Good Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

With harvest wrapped up for 2010 things are returning to normal here at Skunk Hill. I still have about 90 acres to spray for weeds this fall, but there was a chance of rain today (didn’t materialize, as has been the norm here since July) and I really wanted a day off. So I took my first day off since we started harvest back on September 18th. <\/p>\n

In the morning I picked all the open-pollinated white corn I’d planted with our sweet corn. I had a couple of bushels, I’d guess. I intend to make that into whiskey this winter. Oh wait, that’s illegal. I’m going make it into ethanol to power my vehicles. <\/p>\n

Then I went to Orchard Hill Farms<\/a> near Kendallville to get apples and cider. It’s a very nice operation, if you’re in need of apples or cider it’s a pleasant drive on an autumn day.<\/p>\n

The cider I’m turning into apple wine. I’m taking special care to keep the equipment clean and to kill the wild yeasts to try to defeat the off taste I keep getting in my wine.<\/p>\n

It’s a deary day, so I decided to make cassoulet for supper. I’m loosely following a Michael Schlow recipe, but since I didn’t have the ingredients he calls for; lamb, garlic sausages, and duck confit I’m doing a Hoosier version with country spareribs, bratwurst, and a chicken leg quarter. It’s smelling ridiculously good with about an hour of cooking time left. The best thing about this Schlow recipe is that it calls for a cup of wine. What to do with the rest of the bottle? I’m sure I’ll think of something!<\/p>\n

Now that I’m a man of leisure again, it’s time to resume exercising. I put in half an hour on the treadmill walking. I’m going to try to ease back into running, but I’m not sure my aching feet, ankles, and knees are going to allow that.<\/p>\n

I finished reading Anthony Bourdain’s book “Medium Raw” today. An excellent read, I highly recommend it. If you haven’t read his “Kitchen Confidential” you should read it first though. A lot of “Medium Raw” is explaining or expanding on “Kitchen Confidential.” Note: if you’re easily offended you’ll want to avoid anything Bourdain writes. He’s foul-mouthed and irreverent.<\/p>\n

While the cassoulet was finishing I considered recipes based around beer. (Corn whiskey, apple wine, cooking with wine, cooking with beer – my entire life does not rotate around alcohol. Really.) Last night Dan Comparet (who’s a homebrewer) and I were talking about doing a dinner themed around different home brewed beers. So I was looking at recipes today and considering such yummy sounding creations as “Chocolate Porter Cake.” <\/p>\n

The sun is setting on Skunk Hill. It’s time to eat the cassoulet and appreciate what a good day it’s been.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With harvest wrapped up for 2010 things are returning to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,8,7,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-cooking","category-farming","category-wine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chuckzumbrun.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chuckzumbrun.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chuckzumbrun.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chuckzumbrun.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chuckzumbrun.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chuckzumbrun.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chuckzumbrun.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chuckzumbrun.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chuckzumbrun.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}