P I C N I C

The door has been repainted and put back on. To prevent the paint from peeling again I build a little roof as well.

My mother mailed me this article from the New York Post, about a chef who makes cheese from his wife’s milk.  Here we have a perfect example of how ones ideas of what is edible determine ones tastes. The very fact that this is an article points to grown ups revulsion to eating or drinking human milk. As the NY health department says, ‘It’s not intended for adults, or for wide public consumption.’ Who intends these things? I’ve always wanted to do this myself, but I suppose I’ll just have to wait until I have a lactating wife.

The cheese was described as ‘slippery, slightly crunchy, and tasting like pickles.’ I don’t think this is reflective of the milk, which I’ve heard tastes mild, like cows milk.

Leslie and I drove to some vineyards in the Eola hills to sample their wine. Amity, St. Innocent, and Cristom. I was also interested in pruning methods. We had been to Cristom in the fall, right before harvest and I had taken some photos of the vines. With all the foliage and growth it was hard to tell what was going on. Now in the spring it looks so bare and simple.

September

March

The stout is done and I just dropped off some bottles with Joel and Elle.

From the barrel of the 2009 pinot I drew off 4 bottles to taste and see how it’s going. Kate thought the fermenting yeasty aroma was still quite strong. It’s aging on the lees, so this is to some extent the point. It’s quite dangerous experimenting with destabilizing winemaking techniques when I have yet to make a ‘clean’ wine, but I think it’s working well. It’s light, as you can see, but nonetheless moderately tannic. The cherry fruit flavors are very fresh, the wood is rather unintegrated at the moment. It’s very drinkable and Chris, Kate and I polished off the whole bottle before dinner was over.