Been really into making fermented hot sauces lately! With a mixture of home grown and store bought ingredients. Playing with adding things post-fermentation as well such as roasting second rounds of peppers, pomegranates & plums, kaffir lime leaves & curry leaf, soy & tomatoes, etc. in diff batches!
Milo is my childhood fave and my go-to, Valrhona makes the most reputable "fancy" cocoa powder so I would assume their hot chocolate mix would also be rly good too, I also like to pre-make a bunch ahead of time and store it in tins / jars so it's ready to go! Toasted milk powder is a great addition.
This hip harness by RiverQueer has seen me through a LOT of body changes over the last ~5 years, and I still love it dearly.
"Pack leader" this, "alpha male" that, that's all crap, but if you wanted me to put you in your place, all you had to do was ask!
Acorn is such a happy rooster when feasting on the fallen apples! He's such a good boy too, calling the hens over to check out all the good fruit he finds!
The chickens are getting braver and venturing farther from the coop when free ranging, and have discovered the apple and cherry trees! They have loved pecking at the fallen fruit and weeds!
Quick little sunset photo dump of the garden. Cosmos, wild fireweed, and nasturtium!
dark blue-purple kyoho grapes, and burst black, purple, and red plums simmering in a green ceramic pot. Some of the grapes have their skins splitting from the heat. Juice oozes from the fruit and jam is beginning to thicken around the flesh.
Some very sexy late summer early autumn jam I started at 9am this morning - kyoho grapes, late summer plums and apriums, might throw some foraged blackberries in, dark purple blooms and blood crimson juices. it smells great in here.
So cute ~ We have tons of native big leaf maple, hazels, and willows that need to be pruned and even thinned to keep the forest healthy (right now it's just a giant fire hazard due to being mismanaged for years) so it's a great way to utilize some of the material!
My chickens are really loving this super simple enrichment of some random tree prunings jammed into a pot!
Sweet woodruff ice cream!
Two large clear glass mason jars filled with St John's Wort alcohol-based tincture, which is a dark reddish liquid, sits on a wooden shelf near a window. A hydrangea cutting sprouts in a corner, framing the jars.
2oz metal tins of St John's Wort salves at various stages of setting. Some at the top of the image are opaque as they begin to harden, while others near the bottom are still clear and golden and liquid.
I'm still very much in the early stages of recovery from my hip surgery, but I've been able to work on a few projects here and there! Here is St John's Wort two ways, with the help of my partner! Alcohol tincture, and topical salve, using local raw beeswax.
For me, solidarity looks like enduring brambles, mosquitos, full body rashes, asthma attacks, & MCAS attacks to everything around me, even right before surgery, even through med changes, so I can learn to make medicine for community and comrades. We have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable.
