ness

Nice! A good Rueben is a wonderful thing.

BTW that Post-It note is still hanging on! 😀

Did you corn it yourself?

We spent a couple weeks in Ireland this summer. We ate a lot of excellent food and also drank a lot of different whiskeys, beers and ciders. I've always heard, including from @Johnsfolly here, that the Guinness is much better over there and it is absolutely true. Another beer we enjoyed was Smithwick's, which is an Irish red ale. I've had it in bottles here, but from the tap there is really no comparison. (By the way, the Irish don't do the "th" sound, it's just "t", and somehow they drop the W, so it is "Smittix" over there). Our favorite whiskey was Teeling. I've had it here a couple times and liked it. We were in Dublin for a couple days at the start of our vacation and one of the locals we met recommended the Teeling tour. It was really a very well done tour. Irish whiskey is triple distilled, as the guy told us, 'second time to be sure, and the third to be really sure.' At the end I got four samples, and my non-whiskey-drinking wife got a cocktail that was made with raspberry tea, ginger liqueur, Aperol, lemon juice and Teeling. My wife loved the cocktail. I tried it and it was quite good. One thing that was really an eye-opener for us were the ciders over there. They are so much better than the light, thin, sweet hard ciders over here. They're more crisp, full-bodied and retain more apple flavor. Many of them come in a dry or semi-dry version, and we always went for those. My favorite was MacIvor's, but Bulmer's, Cronin and Stonewell Dry were all good too. If you want to find something close here, try Magner's, which is the import version of Bulmer's. I've made hard cider a number of times with good results, but they've been without a lot of character or body. My last batch was really good, but much like a very light-bodied white wine. So I struck out and tried to learn what makes the Irish ciders so much better. Not surprisingly, a large part of it is in the apples that they use, which is a mixture of sweet (eating), sharp (acidic, like Granny Smith) and bitter apples which are high in tannin. I've read bitters are also called 'spitters' because they are so tannic you can't eat them. A lot of times the bottles will say how many varieties of apples are used. I believe Bulmer's said 10 and another said 17. I'm not going to be able to start from apples, and probably couldn't find the right ones anyway. The apple ciders available from the store or from local orchards are typically the sweet with some sharp added in. To get more like the Irish ciders I'll have to supplement acid and tannin. I've done that in my last few batches, but after researching I know I need to boost it even more to get closer. Another thing I've done in past batches is add sugar to slightly boost the alcohol content. But, I've learned that can come at the expense of apple flavor. MacIvor's above is only 4.5%. So I won't add sugar. Another factor in flavor is the type of yeast used. Some ferment out very dry, some metabolize away acid, some produce fruity esters, and some strip out fruit flavor. I decided I'd focus on yeast strains that will give me the best chance of retaining fruitiness while also fermenting out fairly dry. So today I started three 1 gallon batches. I used Louisburg Cider again, no added sugar and supplemented acid and tannin to higher levels than before. I used three different yeasts for this test, but all other variables are the same. On the off chance anyone gives a hoot, I'm going with Safale S-04, Nottingham and Cote des Blancs strains. I'm hoping I can get something better, but I'm sure it won't match the Irish Ciders. My intention is to do these identically except for the yeast, then taste after they're done. At that point I can determine which yeast works best. I can also further adjust acid, tannin and sweetening if desired.

Those rolls! Dang.

Looks good. What’s in the sauce?

Kinda fun to hear about some of these familiar locations. We did a guided trip on the North Platte and did ok, but I get more of a kick out of fishing the small streams for native trout. There’s just something about the close quarters, the wild fish, and beautiful surroundings that appeals to me. More so than riding in a boat. Here’s a pic. We were fishing the Encampment in WY in 2015 and headed up a side channel. ness 2.2 says ‘C’mon dad, that’s too small, there won’t be any fish in there!’ Then the old man proves him wrong. Then the 12-inch leviathan pulled the old man into a side-side channel 😀 Good times.

I really like it. There’s a learning curve of course, but I feel I’ve got it figured out pretty good. Preheat on high 30-40 minutes. Launch pizza and reduce to low. Bottom should set in about 30-40 seconds, then rotate 180 degrees. Keep an eye on it and rotate as needed. These took approx 1½ minutes. Like everything these days there’s too much info out there and a lot of it’s bad. But you can trust ol’ ness!

I've got my tomatoes up against a 4 foot cedar plank fence, so it's not exactly surprising that squirrels run along the top and grab or chew on tomatoes. I did put in a 3 foot fence that finally defeated the rabbits. But the squirrels, who I'm calling the a-holes of the animal kingdom, are worse than ever. I've used the commercial pepper spray and it doesn't work very well. I've made a concoction with hot pepper sauce and it didn't do much either. Saw Marty's post about a homemade spray and got to noodling and Googling on that. I wanted something really hot, cheap and that would stick. Ended up doing 2 tablespoons red pepper flakes in a quart of water. Boiled it for a few minutes and let it cool. Ran it through a coffee filter. Put it into a spray bottle with a couple drops of Dawn, which I think will help it stick. So far, so good. This stuff is caustic though. Get a little breeze blowing it back at you and it's gonna make you cough. Doesn't seem to have any negative effect on the maters.

Ooni Koda 16

Did a fully sourdough pizza, and it turned out really well. Using the same culture I've been keeping since the beginning of this thread in 2014. Same one I shared with @BilletHead and @Chief Grey Bear a few years back. Took the culture out of the fridge on Wednesday and fed it a few times. It was going strong by midday Friday when I started this. The plan was to do a 2-day room temperature ferment and cook on Sunday. Recipe: 600 grams Caputo 00 Pizzeria flour 390 grams room temperature bottled water (65% of flour) 18 grams salt (3%) 10 grams culture (1.7%) Bulk ferment Friday until Saturday. I balled it up to four ~250 gram balls Saturday and placed in individual containers. The balls were getting close to finished by Saturday evening, so I put them in the fridge. (The guy whose process I'm following ferments at 65 degrees which is cooler than my room temp, and his takes the full two days.) About midday Sunday I took them out of the fridge and let them finish proofing. We cooked around 4:00. I was really happy with the results. I think the longer ferment encouraged better dough structure because this was very nice to handle. The final pizza was better than what I have been making. The crust was airier, crisper and had larger holes. There was significantly better leoparding too. The results were a lot better than the two day cold ferment with yeast I've been doing. It's a little extra work but I'm already maintaining the sourdough culture, so it's minimal extra. This is definitely a keeper.

^^^ That right there. And I'd add a lot of the fun is doing it in beautiful or unique places. We were over in Ireland in June and I had a guide trip set up here. That was a bucket list trip for me. A couple days before they let me know the river was low and the water too warm, so they closed the river to everyone, even us paying customers. Bummer.

Oh my, how cool is that?? Cherish these times with your young daughter!!!

Yeah -- so many good memories from there. Too bad the next generation didn't want to keep it going. I wondered if they were still standing. Where'd you guys stay?

I love RMNP! Looks like a great trip. And, those are some great looking and good-sized fish! Just had lunch Friday with a buddy of mine that has a second home just below McGregor Ranch who offered his place up to us. Not sure we'll get up there this fall, but I'm gonna take him up on it at some point.

Hmm. I've only had the occasional problem with BER so haven't felt the need to do the calcium thing. We try to water consistently, which helps, but I like the idea of getting calcium in when you transplant as a preventative measure. I've got a bumper crop of great looking green tomatoes right now. Can seem to get anything to turn though. I found a nice red one on the ground with the side chewed out of it, dang it. I never saw it on the vine or I would have brought it in.

I don't know why you feel the need to have your stuff deleted. You've got a few thousand posts, and only a couple hundred were really stupid. And, you're an anonymous internet guy who goes by Gavin. Nobody knows your real last name is McLoud, so why worry?

BTW, a tomato this early is a rarity for me. Always hear of the 4th of July target, but it has only happened a few times for me in 30 years of gardening. There’s no other maters close in the garden right now except the cherries which are coming on fairly steadily. They’re coming, I don’t worry about it.

We've had a handful of Sun Gold cherries. Had a nice Black Krim on a BLT yesterday. Squirrels are taking their cut, as usual.

Great trip report! Keep the updates coming!!

Sounds like a wonderful trip! I'm looking forward to the reports. For OAF-ers that don't speak trout Latin, I have Googled the species names for your convenience: Oncorhynchus clarkii clarkii = Coastal cutthroat Oncorhynchus mykiss stonei = McCloud River Redband Oncorhynchus mykiss aquilarum = Eagle Lake Rainbow Oncorhynchus mykiss newberrii = Great Basin Redband Salvelinus confluentus = Bull Trout ( I actually knew this one) Oncorhynchus mykiss gairdneri = Columba River Redband

LL Bean, B&H, Walmart. I'll click to help get things caught up.

…but can’t see them on my phone. ??

I'm on a desktop and can see them fine.

They’re just digging I think, not eating. I found a peanut in the garden the other day. 😀 The neighbor feeds the squirrels. They’re leaving the suet alone for now, but they’ve been on it before. We’ve got a downy woodpecker that we see a lot on the suet feeders. Hummingbirds and orioles are here!