I had the pleasure today of doing a lot of food gathering and processing work.  Fell asleep on the couch at 5:30 pm.  I love it when that happens.

Breakfast 

I am in a breakfast rut, but I like it.

Oct 14 Breakfast

Pheonix bakery toast with Petaluma butter and Willits-area plum butter; Asian pear from Lake County, near Lakeport; eggs from Willits over mediaum; tap water.

After breakfast Wolfgang picked us up (me and the boys) and took us to Redwood Valley to go gleaning at Spenser's place.  He has walnuts and about 20 people came.  This is a bit of a trip, over a ca. 2000 ft pass then down the grade to the northern edge of  the Ukiah Valley.  We harvested bags of walnuts, but I couldn't help thinking that the Energy Returned on Energy Invested was negative given the gasoline consumed.  At least we went in an old Honda Civic.  The kind they made when gas was last expensive and they got great mileage without the swanky and overly complex hybrid drives simply by making the vehicles smaller. 

A sizeable chunk of the Willits population is giddy about how cheap gas is now.  Not just because of the broad trends, but because Safeway installed a huge new station and undercut the existing price structure. And if you use your club card and spend money on food in the store they discount the gasoline too. 

I could puke but local food is too precious so I'll keep it down.

I'll have to describe how to harvest and process walnuts sometime, but for now I'll just mention that I snacked on wine grapes adjacent to the walnut trees.

Oct 14 Snack

I have no idea what kind of grape they are or whether the wine will be good.  Wine grapes are generally sweeter and less juicy than table grapes. 

Lunch 

Sanhedrin Nursery in Willits had a fruit harvest fair today with Richard Jeske and a seed threshing and cleaning workshop with David Drell.  I hauled over some wheat, rye and amaranth and also benefited from the free grub.

Oct 14 Lunch

I was told that all the ingredients were local but I didn't have time to ask for specifics.  That's freshly pressed grape juice; an egg salad sandwich; tomatoes, plum, and goji berries.  I had never heard of goji berries but they appear to be eaten when naturally dessicated and have the texture of raisins.  Via the "information super highway" I just discovered they originate from the Himalayas.  Also had apple pie.  

The folks from Ecology Action at Ridgewood Ranch brought over their grains too.  Every other neighborhood should have this sort of equipment.  But it looks like home video game consols remain more popular.

Cereal Rye

Rye is the easiest grain to thresh and clean. 

Dinner

Kristin arrived back in town after a few days in San Francisco doing the sort of stuff that maintains her medical license.  She reports no official discussions of what to do as a doctor when the electricity doesn't work, but the curious can ponder that here:  http://peakoilmedicine.com/

Anyhow, I wanted to make a nice meal for her and so went after the lamp chops and one of our sacks of potatoes.

Oct 14 Dinner

Beer from Hale's place and tap water; lamb from Little Lake Valley seasoned with sage from our yard; roasted garlic from our garden; our garden potatoes, scalloped with our own onions and herbs (oregano and thyme) and cooked in lamb fat; assorted fresh tomatoes from our garden.

See how there are three chunks of meat in that picture?  I actually ate four.