Simon Feavearyear is the guy who (among other things) built the Toolshed here in Dixon. So many wonderful events and special moments happened there. The Dixon Players are truly grateful for this legacy. Thank you Simon. Your gifts to this community will always be cherished.
Eggscription Drive!
Updated and Revised for July 2022!
Are your egg yolks pale and sickly looking? Do you wonder about the nutritional deficiencies of pallid eggs? Well, look no further, neighbors! Your egg needs can now be fulfilled! Yes, I've got eggs with yolks that glow like the sun!
We have a new batch of maturing hens that are on a strict organic diet. They are now beginning to lay a bounty of gorgeous and hearty eggs. These eggs are colorful both inside and out, from dark brown (Cuckoo Marans) to pale green (Whiting True Green).
I'm offering these eggs to all my neighbors via a subscription plan. $33 gets you a punch card good for 7 dozen eggs. They're also sold a carton at a time if you'd rather not fool with a card at $5.50 per dozen. Then just drop by or arrange a pick up of your dozen (or three).
If you want to get on the list, just click here to send me an email! Operators are standing by.
Pondering whatever hens might ponder...
Rick's Addendum
Rick De Stefano from “the Taos wing of the Dixon Community Players” has submitted this jolly bit for Holly. Enjoy!
Holly's Birthday Tribute
A few folks wished Holly a Happy Birthday…. If you missed out, you can leave a note in the comments!
Honoring Rose Mary Crawford - Sweet Sleep
Rose Mary Crawford March 5, 1933 to January 15, 2021
SWEET SLEEP, is a movie that Rose Mary and I made in 2000 with the Taos Film Initiative, a course in filmmaking created by James Lujan, who presently teaches filmmaking at IAIA in Santa Fe. We learned how to create every aspect of a movie. Rose Mary wrote the screenplay and we both directed. It turned out to be a 54 minute film which was later shown at Taos Community Auditorium.
You will recognize many of our Dixonites who were coerced into acting in our film project, and places in Dixon that are no longer here, like Atencio's Store and the old library. The PO used was the original Embudo Station building.
Please add comments below on your memories of this great spirit, Rose Mary.
Hope you enjoy this fun film.
Holly Haas
Out of the Closet
The Jansport External Frame… the legend.
When I was about 14 years old, I signed up to do a backpacking "Wilderness Adventure" camp in North Carolina. Our guides would be Outward Bound grads and we'd learn the ins-and outs of self sufficiency in the Blue Ridge mountains for a week.
To be honest, my favorite part of the whole adventure was getting to Asheville. My dad worked for an airline at that time and we got to fly around for free or steeply reduced prices (flying stand-by of course). So my dad and I flew from Houston Intercontinental to New York where we were met by an old college buddy of his. We had dinner in Chinatown and saw a few sights like the Statue of Liberty, the top of the World Trade Center and the wonders of living in truly tiny apartments.
Then my father and his friend turned me loose at Newark airport and I flew to Charlotte and then hopped on a puddle jumper to Asheville where I thought I would be greeted by a camp representative. Upon debarking, I did not see anyone who appeared to be looking for a kid traveling alone. So I sat myself down in the bar and ordered a Coke. Perhaps an hour passed before the camp counselor found me. He said he'd seen me earlier, but I looked too at ease in an airport to be a lost kid. So I got in the van and trundled up to camp headquarters with a half dozen or so "lost kids".
I suppose in all there were about 25 of us kids and maybe a half dozen counselors who came and went as we were prepped for our coming week. None of us had our own gear, so we were introduced to our packs, our cookstoves, our tarps (and how to tie them) and the food we'd be carrying for the next 6 days. This was 1979 so Gore-Tex and other modern and lightweight miracles were not available to us. I guess we didn't know any better, but we were happy to be away from home and meeting folks from other parts of the country. I immediately, bonded with a guy named Clay from Mississippi who was more keen on Frank Zappa than even I was.
We learned about the joys of cooking with bulgar, sleeping in the rain and digging your own latrine. It was largely miserable, but we had a blast nonetheless.
When I got back home to Texas, I put "backpack" on my Christmas wish list and I still have that pack today. It has been all over Colorado, The Sierras and the Pacific Northwest. Unfortunately, that pack has been in my closet for 20 years, but last week it had the opportunity to break free and we can now say that it has seen the backside of the Truchas peaks.
It was insanely windy and a couple of nights, the temps dipped below freezing. It was miserable. It was also a blast.
From One Classic to Another
My grandfather promised me his 1966 Ford Mustang on the occasion of my 16th birthday. The only catch attached to this wondrous bestowment was, I had to go get it. We lived in Rockwall, Texas at the time and the car (and my grandparents) were in San Diego. So, with brand new driver’s license in hand, my dad, my sister and I flew to San Diego and drove the car back to Texas with an overnight stop at the Grand Canyon. (My dad floated the idea of getting up at the crack of dawn to watch the sunrise, but in the wee hours of the morn, the wake up call was ignored). When we finally managed to rouse ourselves, our road trip commenced after a late breakfast and a scant 5 minute viewing of the canyon.
It was definitely a cool car to own. Strangers would often stop me and ask about it, I even had offers from folks who wanted to buy it on the spot. My grandfather was the original owner of the thing, and the glove box even contained the original receipt for it. He bought it in 1966 for $2400. Which is about what I sold it for when I finally decided I had no interest in tinkering with 20 year old engines (or in driving a car without air conditioning).
I sold it to a co-worker in Irving, Texas. It wasn’t in the greatest shape. It needed a paint job and there were rips and stains in the interior (my grandfather’s pipe smoking left a tar stain on the ceiling that could not be removed with gallons of industrial solvents) and there were a few dings on the body and chrome bumpers that definitely devalued the thing. Looking back though, I do think she got the car at quite a bargain.
She paid cash and after work that day, I went to an electronics store and bought a laser disc player and a couple of discs.
Yes, you had to flip them over like a record…
To this day, most people don’t know what you’re talking about when you mention LaserDiscs, (just think record-size DVDs) but I got way more enjoyment from those things than I ever did with that Ford Mustang. I guess I fancied myself some kind of audio/cinephile back then, but with a pauper’s budget, you can never have the “best” gear, so I had to make do with the lower shelf items. Still I loved my laser disc player. At the time, the advertising claimed that resolution was at least twice as good as VHS, and certainly the digital sound could not even be compared. Plus, with proper care they would never degrade unlike VHS. (after doing some research however, I find there is a thing called “laser rot” in which the glue used to seal the two sides of a disc can sometimes oxidize and create “glitches”). It’s always something.
Throughout the 90’s I spent a lot of time at Tower Records and other specialty stores digging through stacks of laser discs, looking for films that I thought I’d need to watch more than once. One of the great selling points of these shiny objects was that they often contained supplemental material as well as secondary audio tracks (voiceovers by the directors, actors, etc) which, for a movie geek was like being given a back stage pass. Discs usually ran in the $25-$30 range, but sometimes the deluxe editions would run up to $100 or more. The LaserDisc Database tells me the MSRP of my collection of 50 discs totals $2448.50.
My player (a Pioneer mid-range model) moved with me several times over its lifetime, but when my house got hit by lightning in Dixon, everything plugged into the ungrounded outlets in my front room got fried. My player went to the scrap heap and the discs themselves were rendered useless. Laser Disc player production ceased in 2001 with the proliferation of the DVD.
My brother in law happened to be cleaning out a closet at his workplace (The University of Texas at Austin) around that time and came across an abandoned laser disc player and sent it to me. It worked fine, and it did give my discs a new lease on life. Unfortunately, it needed a remote control to access some of the cooler features of the machine, so with this handicap combined with the joy and ease of streaming services, Laser Discs were more than obsolete; they were cumbersome and archaic and as my girlfriend recently pointed out… they were in the way.
The idea of just tossing these beautiful discs into a landfill hurts on many levels. Even if they never get played again, surely they can be used to create some sort of art project, right? So, I launch on a quest to recoup some of my investment and to at the very least, find a comfortable home for my beloved laser discs. A quick internet search reveals that most of my titles might fetch me less than a dollar each, but a handful of the titles could fetch up to $50 from the 12 LD collectors scattered across the planet. So if you or anyone you know (or if you know someone who knows someone who) might have an interest in acquiring any of these titles on “Classic” Laser Disc, let me know… I’ve got a bargain for you!
Eggscription Drive!
Updated and Revised for July 2022!
Are your egg yolks pale and sickly looking? Do you wonder about the nutritional deficiencies of pallid eggs? Well, look no further, neighbors! Your egg needs can now be fulfilled! Yes, I've got eggs with yolks that glow like the sun!
We have a new batch of maturing hens that are on a strict organic diet. They are now beginning to lay a bounty of gorgeous and hearty eggs. These eggs are colorful both inside and out From dark brown (Cuckoo Marans) to pale green (Whiting True Green).
I'm offering these eggs to all my neighbors via a subscription plan. $32 gets you a punch card good for 7 dozen eggs. They're also sold a carton at a time if you'd rather not fool with a card at $6.00 per dozen. Then just drop by or arrange a pick up of your dozen (or three).
If you want to get on the list, just click here to send me an email! Operators are standing by.
This year we are also offering online payment and pick-up scheduling.
Pondering whatever hens might ponder...
The Great Romero Banjo Saga
How an 18 month wait became 5 and a half years
Way back in the winter of '12, my good buddy Ken, who was considering the advantages of a career as a luthier, came across a video published by The Fretboard Journal about a banjo maker and his artist wife who made some awfully nice banjos.
Even if you're not a picker, it's a pretty interesting & beautiful video
They had me in the first 2 minutes. By the time the video had finished playing, I had found their website and sent them an email:
... When I was 5 years old, I saw Pete Seeger picking a banjo on Sesame Street and I knew I had to have one... my folks however, weren't as convinced. After a few more years of pestering, they finally relented and found me a used 5 string and at the tender age of 9 they found me a banjo teacher. I've played off and on over the years, and now, in my mid 40's I think it's safe to say, I will play this thing til I die. Your instruments are gorgeous and one can really see the heart that goes into creating them. I am ready to sign up.
The next day, I got this reply from Jason:
Many thanks for this email - I really appreciate it. Sounds like you have a great story - we've always wanted to make it down to NM..... Right now I'm around 18 months out from ordering to delivery. I ask for a $200 (non-refundable) deposit to hold your spot in line...
I sent my deposit that day. That was February 20th, 2012. 18 months would put us in the late summer of 2013. In March of 2013, I asked him how the schedule was holding up. His reply:
We are looking a bit later than summer '13. We've been touring so much that it's set me back a bit in the schedule, but I'm doing my best to catch up. Looking at probably around late fall '13 - but if I have any changes to that I'll let you know.....
Well, late summer cruised on by and according to his newsletters he sent out occasionally, it was beginning to become obvious that 18 months was a bit more than optimistic. In July of 2014 however, his newsletter noted that he was:
Now building orders received in late 2011 and early 2012.
Hey! that's me. "Mine is coming up quick!", I thought. But then the newsletters seemed to appear less and less frequently and it became apparent that I too was being overly optimistic as this email went out to all of us on his waitlist in April of 2015 (three years since I'd sent my deposit):
Dearest patient banjo afficionado,
I’m writing to let you know I haven’t forgotten about you. We have had an unexpectedly full last few of years that have given us a beautiful daughter, a busy touring schedule, and now three duo albums to our name. It has also meant less time in the banjo workshop than I had expected, and because of that I am behind on my build schedule. We are working hard - often seven days a week - to keep up, but there is no doubt that banjos are going out quite a bit later than I originally estimated. If the time has already come when you were expecting your custom build, and you haven’t heard from me, this is why. We are a small shop (just the two of us usually) and everything we make is custom, so I know that many of you expect the time between ordering and delivery to be an inexact science. I still wanted to let you know that I'm further behind than I ever anticipated, and am very much looking forward to slowing down on touring, enjoying some time at home, and focusing on our family, property, and building some beautiful instruments.
So I really haven’t forgotten about you, and if anything the opposite is true. I look forward to working with every custom banjo client, and am excited to have more time dedicated to being in the workshop again. Please get in touch if you have any concerns or questions.
All the best,
Jason & Pharis
So I waited patiently for nearly another year. And as we were just beginning to get used to the idea of 2016, I got this message from Jason:
Hope this finds you doing well, with a great start to 2016. I'm writing to let you know that I'm getting ready to start a new batch of banjos soon, and am looking forward - after your long wait! - to including your banjo in that build. I really appreciate your patience with the extra time it took to get to your build.
If you are ready and this works for you, please take a look at my checklist at www.romerobanjos.com/checklist.html, and let me know what specs you're thinking of. We'll build up a price for the banjo with the specs, and get everything approved before building. Once we're into the build and everything has been finalized, I'll send off the final invoice to you - this is usually a couple weeks before the banjo is finished. I would anticipate your new banjo being ready to send to you in February.
If you're not ready for the build, no problem, but if you could let me know right away that would be great.
Thanks and all the best to you - looking forward to working with you on a new banjo....
Jason
Wow! he's gonna ship me a banjo in February. I opened another bottle of Vivác champagne!
I sent him an excited reply with this drawing as a template for the neck inlay:
Well, then he started getting all experimental on me:
Just a quick clarification…… do you want a traditional bluegrass style with the gibson style flange/resonator rest OR an open back with L-shoes with one of my small vega style resonators?
If you want the first option I might suggest postponing just a few more months. I’m in the process of developing my own Gibson style brass flange but with my own decorative cut-outs. I’m also coupling this style flange with my Bella Rose tone rings for a new “model" if you will. It will be my answer to the traditional bluegrass banjo. I’ve made many before but have always had to use Gibson copy flanges which is a big part of the overall aesthetic and I’ve been wanting to do this for years …… so I’m very excited. I’m currently working with a few machinists and hope to have the first prototype in about 6 weeks.
let me know what you think..
What did I think? What the hell did I know... "Well, what’s a couple more months after nearly 4 years? Sure let’s go with your new model!" I dumbly said.
Well, turns out that yet again, optimism was running rampant at the Romeros. The following month, he sent me this note:
Hi Jeff,
I just wanted to let you know the process of developing this new flange is taking much longer than expected. At this point i’m not sure when I’ll have a working sample in my hands. It could be two months but it could be six.
If you want to move forward with your build using an aged brass gibson style flange I’d be very happy to work this in on my next build starting in around 3 weeks.
Very well then... we'll go with the Gibson style flange. Fine. Whatever.
On March 22, 2016 (more than 4 years since our initial communication) Jason called me and we talked for a bit about the details of what I wanted in terms of woods and finishes and tone. Pharis (his wife who does all the inlay work) emailed me about my design and what I wanted her to use for it... all brass, gold mother of pearl diamonds, brass strands or all gold pearl?
These were some of the details we settled on: Figured maple neck and resonator, synthetic ebony trim, Belle Rose tonering, Fairbanks-Vega peghead, long back strap peghead overlay, light aged brass hardware, curved tailpiece and a goatskin head. And of course the custom design inlay with brass and gold mother of pearl.
My banjo was definitely getting built now. I was sure it would be in my hands before summer! About two weeks later, Pharis sent these images of the cutout inlays before embedding them:
About 10 days later, they sent me these images of the inlaid fretboard, remarking that Pharis had done the work despite having a newborn:
The "vine" is Brass and the "diamonds" are Gold Mother of Pearl.
On May 4th, the Romeros sent an invoice. It was really more than I was comfortable spending, but I knew I would have this thing till I died and *damn* it was such a beautiful instrument, how could I back out now?
I sent a check in and then it was quiet from Horsefly for awhile, so I sent an email to ask what was up. Jason had this to say:
Hi Jeff,
Good to hear from you…… everything is great, just insanely busy. as you know we have a new baby AND are building a new house. i’m on banjos in the morning then the house till i collapse. so this batch has taken a little longer than i’d expected. I put your skin on yesterday and your neck finish and resonator finish is curing. i hope to put it all together next week sometime shipping early the following. I’m very excited to set up another bluegrass style banjo with my bella rose and skin set-up….. i’ll make recordings for the website too
i’ll send pictures of your rim soon….. it looks amazing!
Babies and housebuilding! What do I care about that? Send me my banjo already! And then the new batch of photos came, and I began to appreciate babies and housebuiling a little more:
The resonator. Stretched and stained. That's a goat skin head... I assume from a Canadian goat
This little detail (where the head is a different piece of wood from the neck) is called a back strap. It is made of synthetic ebony. He charged $225 for a detail that only I'm ever gonna see. I gladly paid it.
Most resonator banjos have a metal rod that runs from the base of the banjo up through the neck and into the head stock. Jason invented this sort of bed-post affair that attaches the heel of the neck to the bottom of the tone ring, keeping the banjo lighter and tighter. It probably affects the tone too.
Jason thought it would be a good idea to tease me a bit:
hey jeff,
just been playing your banjo and it sounds amazing!
I'm planning on shipping friday….
That was May 31st, Friday would be June 3rd and I was heading down to Austin for my niece's graduation party. My banjo might just be waiting for me when I got back. I thought.
On Friday as I arrived in Austin, I got this note from Horsefly:
hi jeff,
i just put up a few pictures of your banjo on my instagram page. it’s all together and sounding AMAZING! the skin head combined with my Bella Rose continues to please me.
I want to keep it around for the weekend to make sure it’s dialed in and I’ll ship monday for sure!
A couple of the shots he posted on Instagram at the beginning of June 2016.
Monday, for sure he says. OK fine. I guess that's better as it means I'll be there when it arrives rather than having it sit on the porch for any length of time. Anyway, there's beer drinking to be done here in Austin to distract myself!
So yes, my niece graduated and we were all so proud and everything, and on Sunday morning, feeling only slightly groggy, I got back on the road to New Mexico. As I got home, about 8 or so in the evening, I unpacked, grabbed a bite to eat and then I flipped open the iPad to see what the emails had to say. There was an email from Romero Banjo. Subject line simply read, "Fire":
Hi Jeff
I am devistated to tell you we lost our entire operation last night to a fire and everything in it including your beautiful banjo.
I tried to call and will try again
So sorry
At first I thought this was an elaborate hoax... the background was so vivid and incongruous and the signage so oddly placed, it had to be a fake, right?
I quickly sent off a note of dismay and condolences. I mean for me it was "just a banjo", but for these guys... man. Their livelihood... gone. As well as a slew of their own vintage instruments. Fortunately, they DID have insurance and Jason told me he'd send my money back when they got their insurance check. And that once they got the shop rebuilt we'd figure out where to go from there.
The fire made the news. It clearly was not a hoax. I had not been scammed. Sure it was a disappointment after so much anticipation, but really, all along it was just an idea anyway. I really did feel bad for the Romeros... but they were all safe and they were keen to rebuild. So the hope of a fine handmade instrument was still alive.
Jason thought he would have a new shop by the fall. And he did. They received lots of love and money from all over the world.
He wired my money back to me and sent this note in late October:
hi jeff,
I sent your wire transfer yesterday. you should have it in a few days. sorry it took so long….
and again sorry your banjo was lost in the fire. i’m sure you can imagine that i spent a fair amount of time thinking of things i could have done in hindsight….. like moving all our pre-war guitars into the house or wishing i’d have really pushed the shipping date of all the completed banjos…. but i had to let all that go in coming to terms with the fire.
I’m just so sorry for all the waste of such beautiful instruments and that one of them was meant for you.
j
He built a batch of banjos from wood salvaged from the fire and posted pictures of them in early 2017. In March, he sent this note:
We are up and running and the new shop is great! I am nearing the end of my "out of the ashes banjos" and will then start to work on the banjos lost in the fire. I can’t build all the same banjos in the same batch for several reasons but will build one of the 5 lost in the each batch to come until I finish them.
If you’re still interested in us building your banjo let me know and i can give you a rough timeline on when i’d build it, probably sometime this summer.
Of course I said YES, please. Then in early July he was ready again:
Happy to say that your banjo is coming up in my next build. I hope this works out for you? I’m so appreciative of your patience while we get up and running, and can’t wait to actually get a banjo in your hands sometime soon.
We’re on a major power outage due to wildfires right now, so I’m not starting on anything right away, but anticipate on starting around July 22 or so. When you have a minute, could you let me know your specifications - the same as last time, variations, or totally different? Anything is great….. And as with the last build, when we have everything in line we’ll do up a budget. The base price is the same as your last build…… Let us know if you have any questions.
And - if you’ve made other plans and are planning on passing on the build, no problem at all - just let us know. The other consideration is that we have our new custom flange out to a CNC brass machinist right now, but he is s-l-o-w and we’re anticipating getting the first run of custom flanges from him within hopefully 3 months. If you wanted to wait for those, let us know.
That’s about it for now. Hoping you’re well, and enjoying a great summer. Best -
jason & pharis
No to the custom flange. Let's get this thing built already! His guess of three months was accurate. As Labor day passed and September deepened, Jason sent a few photos of the new build.
Definitely a different goatskin. I think I like this one better!
Poor Pharis. She had to cut all that intricate stuff again.
Pharis sent a note about cutting that inlay again:
Thanks again Jeff. It was pretty fun to cut that inlay design again.
I told her I could just imagine all the "fun" she had.
Ha! I think I thrive on finding fun in unusual places. All good!
And then she sent a sound clip of Jason tryin' it out...
...and then a video clip:
Then a few more shots on Instagram;
My neck in a vise!
The Michael Angelo of banjo creations!
The banjo was finally shipped off on Tuesday, September 26. Was held up in Kamloops BC for a couple of days for inspection and then finally....
My banjo was on a truck headed for Dixon....
Arrived! Safe & Sound. Beautiful in craftsmanship, aesthetics and tone. October 2, 2017. Every bit worth the wait. Now the real fun begins. Happy picking. Indeed.
Floating the Rio Embudo
Where does chicken come from?
This past winter, our local source for organic whole chickens literally fled the coop and we were left wondering how to fill the gap in our dietary repertoire. We know that we can get chicken that is labeled organic at any number of outlets in the area, but what if anything, did we really know about what those chickens ate or how they were raised or slaughtered?
It was decided that we would venture into the murky pool of raising and slaughtering our own. The raising part sounded easy. I've had laying chickens for several years and have even had to kill a few when circumstances required. But to slaughter, dress and store a whole mess of them? Well, stop being such a pansy fer chrissakes!
We found a willing partner (squeamish about the killing, but otherwise, perfectly willing) and in February we ordered 30 chicks from good ol' Murray McMurray hatchery in Iowa. As the winter had been pretty mild, I figured that chances were relatively good that our birds would arrive safely, and on February 24th the package arrived with all but one bird standing upright. To create a little more heat in the shipping box, the hatchery included two extra chicks, one a meat bird (we opted for the Cornish Roaster... as the Cornish Cross is famous for leg problems and poor health at high altitudes) and an Auricana.
By the time slaughter day came around 12 weeks later, we took 24 birds up the hill. (We lost a few to natural causes and the Auricana stayed behind as he didn't have enough meat on his bones just yet (his day is coming though). "The hill" is in the Upper Llano and is in fact the same place where our organic chickens used to come from... all the equipment (and expertise) was there so for our first time out, it seemed like a logical choice.
Heather had to deal with her bees way down in Monticello, so Christine and I set out at 9 am on a Saturday, birds in tow. Our host Johanna took care of the actual killing (we were relieved about that) and Christine and I were put at the Evisceration table after a brief lesson. We were out of there with our fully packaged birds by noon.
In the end, because of the high cost of organic feed and the hiring of skilled labor, we didn't save any money on the whole enterprise, but we learned a lot and will make a few adjustments next time (which may be in just a few weeks) which will save us a bit of money. But the money wasn't really the point. Damn good chicken is the point, and we know exactly what they were fed and how they were treated. If you want to raise your own birds, but are not so sure about the killing part, I can put you in touch with the person you need to talk to.
The following photos are from our slaughter day in Upper Llano. Some are quite grisly. The squeamish may wish to proceed with caution.
Who are you... Where are you from
Not much in the way of keen insight from me here... just thought everyone might oughta want to check this out...
I'll Smoke Anything That Moves!
Ripe jalapeños washed, stemmed, sliced (not seeded). Ready for the smoker.Back in early June, I bought a dozen jalapeño starts from Eremita at the Dixon Farmers Market. Fine and robust specimens they were, and they took quite readily to their new life in the semi-fertile ground of my little garden plot.
The jalapeño was my first introduction to the chile world when as a youngster, my mom trotted out a new after school snack – Nachos topped with canned jalapeños. While I avoid commercially canned chilis now, at the time, they seemed like a spicy version of a pickle, and I was quite taken. The jalapeño remains my favorite raw chile and the roasted kind (like they serve [for free] at the Guadalajara Grill in Taos) is a menacing treat. When one has a dozen fruitful plants however, a fellow can only consume so many of these things raw before that fiery chemical strand begins to infect his dreams. So I roasted a bucket full and gobbled them up like large incendiary raisins.
Still there's a bunch of peppers here. What else to do with them? Well I could experiment with creating a tabasco like substance, but that sounded too involved, yet may still happen if the cold weather keeps its distance for much longer.
Chipotles. Of course! Smoked and dried jalapeños… I’ve often thought of this, but had never actually attempted them. I dusted off the smoker, scratched at a few cobwebs inside and got a fire going in the base of the contraption. I put a few dozen peppers sliced open (so the smoke will easily find its way inside the fruits) with their stems removed in the lower grill and tossed some soaking mesquite into the coals.
Sitting in the smoker. Try the top level next time... you ninny!After two hours I took a peek at the progress of my sunken fruits. Egad! They were burnt literally to a crisp on one side while soft and slightly gooey on the other. I cut off the burnt bits and made a hell of a salsa with the gooey halves. I couldn’t rest though with chipotle failure weighing on my shoulders, and a week later I tried again. This time with a much less robust fire down below. Just a few coals, and plenty of wet wood, and the chiles arranged on the top grill. Smoke billowed, but the chiles were bathed in warm, not scorching air.
I began this project at 3 in the afternoon, and by the time I went to bed that evening, all were softened and shriveled but still quite full of moisture. I gave them all a turn and went to bed. Of course, I couldn’t exactly sleep soundly knowing there was something on fire just outside my door, so I got up and checked on my chipotles every so often. At 3 am, I added a few more coals and went back to bed. At 7 the fire was dead and the chiles were rather cool but still quite moist and pliable.
Smoked and dried... awaiting your imagination.I stoked the fire again, threw in some more soaking mesquite chunks and went about my business. After 24 hours in the smoker, some of the smaller chiles had completely dried and were ready to come out, but some still had plenty of moisture. Over the next several hours chilis were checked for dryness, removed as needed and after 36 hours in the smoker, the last of the jalapeños had completed their journey to Chipotledom.
There will be chipotle flavored everything this winter… salsas of course, but once you rehydrate these little puppies, they can be tossed into salads for a bit of smoky zest, ground up and rubbed on meats, tossed into soups and stews, and wrapped up in breakfast burritos.
That smoky aroma is so intoxicating, I'll bet if you smoked a dish rag, it'd be pretty tasty. Yes and after my thanksgiving chipotle-pumpkin pie, I believe I’ll wash it all down with one of these:
Chipotle Beer? If it's from Stone, you bet!Cheers!
Make Your Own Darn Beer!
I've heard about a mythical beer coming out of the Russian River Brewing Company in Sonoma County, California. It's billed as a double IPA (which means it's pretty hoppy) and has won the Zymurgy magazine Best Beer in America title 5 years in a row now. It's apparently only brewed in small quantities so it's hard to find without travelling to the west coast.
Ingredients and equipment from Austin Homebrew Supply
Well I hate feeling left out so I figured I'd just try to make some. There are several brew supply companies that sell a clone kit that allows the home brewer to try and approximate their favorite brews. I've been successful at replicating the Sierra Nevada Torpedo... but others didn't quite make the grade. With winter approaching however, I figured I'd need some hefty double IPA to get me through the season. I found a clone with pretty good reviews down at Austin Homebrew Supply and on a "fyne and pleasant" August morning I ventured forth with the mini-mash process.
Admittedly, one has to employ a certain lowering of expectations when brewing from a mini-mash kit. So with appropriately lowered aims, I boiled water and soaked grains:
the grains soak in 155° water for a quarter hour or so...After the soaking and a good rinse (this rinse is a bit of a shortcut as a proper sparge will get a good deal more sugar out of those grains), the grain is discarded (fed to chickens, actually) and now we add sugar in the form of corn sugar and malt extract.
Corn sugar and malt extract make up for the small quantity of grain in the mini-mash.This sugary mixture is heated again until it reaches the boiling point. Now we have to control the fire so that we have a good rolling boil without boiling over. We'll stay at that temperature for 90 minutes. At various points over the next hour and a half, we'll add the hops. This is where a beer will find its signature flavors. In this instance, we'll add Columbus hops for bittering, Simcoe hops for flavor and Centennial, Chinook and more Simcoe hops for aroma.
Pellet hops are better for consistency, but they make it difficult to keep your beer clear.Here's where things get exciting. After a couple of hours of watching a pot boil, we have about 20 minutes to cool the whole thing down to 80°. So I put the whole pot in a sink full of ice and run cold water through a wort chiller (that has been sterilized in the boiling mash/wort). A wort chiller is just a coil of copper that transfers the heat of the mash to the water running through the coil. We need to drop the temp so that the wort is minimally exposed to the air while we make the environment (of the mash) palatable to the yeast which we will pitch as soon as we can. But before we do that, we'll mix in some distilled water to get our concoction to fill the carboy and then we'll take a reading of the sugars using the hydrometer.
We were looking for a hydrometer reading of 1.072 but we came up a little short (as you can see the reading is about 1.052 (correcting for temperature). This may just be that the added distilled water did not get thoroughly mixed in with the mash... I'm gonna go with that assumption here. If it really is that low, it means that there isn't enough sugar to get us to the intended alcohol content range (around 8%). But we did add 8 lbs of sugar, plus whatever came out of the grains, so I think it's safe to say there's a lot of sugar in there.
Next we pitch the yeast. I put 2 in vials of White Labs California Ale yeast, which is what they recommended, but I think that's overkill. The fermentation took off like a rocket and was quite violent the very next morning.
It's not uncommon for yeast to take a day or two to kick in, but this batch was motivated!
When the original fermentation was complete (in 5 days!), it was time to get the beer off of all the hops and dead yeasty bits. The beer was transferred into a new carboy along with... MORE HOPS! Again it was Simcoe, Columbus and Centennial for the "dry hop" stage. A second more gentle fermentation takes place here and in a week it was ready to bottle, but there was still a bit of cloudiness, so I'll let it rest another week or so before I disturb it.
The mini-mash kits are in the $40-$50 range and make 5 gallons of beer. So if you spend $10 to $15 for a growler (a half gallon), you are spending well over twice as much as necessary for your beer... and if you're buying 6-packs at Mike's, you're really not doing yourself any favors. The equipment investment is not significant. So Uncle Jeffé says, "make your own, darn it!".
It's a super dry and hoppy, bitter brew, but if you like that kind of thing, it's delicious. I still have no idea what an actual Pliny the Elder tastes like, but hopefully I'll have an idea here soon.
Zombies, Aliens, You and Me
An Important Lecture - ©2000 Jim Gilbert
It's Free on Amazon this Saturday (Feb. 15). A fine Valentine's offering, perhaps?
In 2000 when he was 70, your neighbor and mine published a book of quirky, brilliant drawings entitled Common Threads. The softcover book is available along with prints of his drawings and other fine bits of art on his website. I highly encourage everyone to check that out.
Now, Jim has decided to enter the murky waters of epublishing and a modified version of Common Threads is available on Amazon for about $4! The new ebook, Zombie, Alien, Maybe It's Just Us? can be downloaded and read on your Kindle or other e-reader with the correct app. Now if $4 seems a little steep for you, this Saturday you will be able to download the thing for FREE! Jim says:
The drawings were done entirely with dots. The title was changed to interface with the very complex Kindle book marketing - I am very happy about the choice which was the result of three days of brainstorming with Camille, Gulcin and myself as well as a lot of input from Sylvain Labs the marketing planning company that Xahra works for in NY and Xahra's to be, Billy Veseay, who designed the cover.
Oh, go on.. get a copy of the book in one form or another. It's highly entertaining. And don't forget to visit his website, JimGilbertArtworks.com
Adieu Le Coq
I wandered out to the chicken coop for the afternoon feeding/egg collection ritual yesterday and was brusquely confronted by the sight of a bird lying in the dirt with closed eyes. Ol' Red had kicked the bucket, shuffled off this mortal coil and joined the bleeding choir invisible. This was an ex-rooster.
I purchased him as a wee chick from the Española Farm & Feed several years ago, and Ol' Red has been a reliable alarm clock throughout those years. He was cool with people, but hell on the back sides of the hens. The girls always looked a little rough by the time winter rolled around, but when the weather got really cold, a new set of feathers would show up just in time and he'd take it easy on them until the weather warmed up and the cycle would begin again.
This winter has been pretty mild, but the past few had taken their toll on Ol' Red's toes, and he lost the last dangling tarsal last year. Every once in awhile I'd find an old claw when cleaning out the coop.
Animals deal with hardship differently than humans. If I'd lost all my toes to frostbite, I believe I'd spend at least a few days lying in bed whining and bemoaning my ruined dance career. But Ol' Red remained stoic and never slowed down. He hopped around as if determined to win a 3 legged race.
You've seen him on this site before in a cameo in a Mule Britches video, but we'll not see him again.
Say goodbye, the rooster is dead; Say goodbye my trusty Rhode Island Red
Ol' Red in happier times. Look at those spurs!
Winter Box Blues
I love trekking up to Embudo Box Canyon in the winter months. It's really quiet for one thing. Apart from the river itself, and perhaps a few small birds, nothing seems to move. But the really amazing thing is the ice. The base of the canyon doesn't get touched by the sun for two months or more, so the ice just piles up. As you'll see in this assortment of photos from a recent journey there, the water reflects the canyon walls in brilliant ways and when sunlight manages to creep down, the light is really magical. Enjoy the photos, and then get out and hit the trail and see it for yourself before spring starts to make things noisy again.
When Black Friday Comes...
They call it Black Friday, and if you're like me the phrase conjures up a lot of negative imagery. Fear, gloom, disease... death. I've never gone shopping on the day after Thanksgiving and I have a real hard time understanding what compels people to brave that craziness. Camping out to get a discount on a TV? It seems like madness to me. I think it is an illness... an American one. There are alternatives and that's why I really responded to this short film from PAtagonia that actually encourages you not to buy new stuff. Celebrate what you already have. I think that's a better way to spend Thanksgiving weekend.
Take half an hour to watch this fine little film. Happy Holidays!
March Right In
Last month the Fiestas de La Santa Rosa spread a greasy layer of fun on the dry, and dusty town. Music by local bands and the naming of the Junior Queen on Saturday were certainly highlights. But we all live for the Sunday spectacle. The Parade. This year's excitement was not limited to fancy trucks and low riders, no sir. There were cheerleaders, maidens pulled by tractor, Nelson and Mary as King & Queen and opportunistic politicians. Candy galore as usual and for the second year, the mightier and more well rehearsed Dixon Marching Band gave us rousing versions of, well... marching tunes.
Hopefully next year, I'll have a dolly or at least a tripod to reduce some of that handheld horror movie look infecting a good portion of this clip. March!
Embudo in Sepia
Yesterday the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles opened up its digital collection of images to the public, making them "free to use, modify, and publish for any purpose." As I began perusing the photography (complete with grisly Civil War images, historical portraits and antique cheesecake shots), I found this:
Embudo, New Mexico (Digital image courtesy of the Getty's Open Content Program.)William Henry Jackson took this image from the north side of the Rio Grande somewhere between 1881 and 1896. Although the date stamped looks like 1927, Getty insists it reads 1027. While the actual timing of the photograph is unclear, the location is not.
In a related online find, several years back I ran across a Library of Congress catalog of images wherein I found these Depression era WPA images, also from our neighborhood.
Can anyone pinpoint these locations? I believe the snow scene and the indoor shots are from Peñasco.