So much has happened since last summer when I posted last. Jason and I got married. I got immersed in a new teaching job. And although I still have been gardening, preserving, brewing cider and mead, I haven't had time to take pictures and write about it.
This weekend our good friends Kim and Don came down from the Los Angeles area for a visit. They have had a bumper crop of chard so they brought us some, along with some grapefruits and Meyer lemons, YUM! We put the chard to good use by making chard stem pickles following this recipe
here. Although it seemed like we had a TON of chard, we only yielded 5 pints of pickles-we doubled the brine in the recipe and had a bit left over.
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| Don and Kim filling jars of chard stems |
 | Filling the water bath canner-I love our outdoor burner! |
 | Outdoor burner set up |
On Saturday we also bottled some mead that had been fermenting since February (in a secondary fermentation bucket).
We used the rest of the chard as a topping for pizza (Saturday night) and in a fritata (Sunday morning). Chard is yummy!
 | Paleo pizza crust (almond and coconut flour) |
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| Pizza with lots of chard and other vegetable goodness! |
 | Dinner! |
On Sunday we decided to brew some beer since our carboy was empty. We went to
Homebrew Mart where the EXTREMELY helpful staff helped me picked out the grains and malts to make an American Amber ale. We really need to get a wort chiller because it took about 4 hours for our beer to cool down enough to put into the carboy and we're still waiting for it to be 70 degrees so we can pitch the yeast.
 | Steeping the grain for the beer! |
It's nice to have friends around who like to can and brew and eat good food. Thanks Kim and Don!
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