Consommé

I treated myself to this for lunch. It is precious stuff. A quiet, solitary indulgence.

After roasting a rabbit, a chicken and a duck carcass with carrots, onions, celery and garlic, I made stock, adding fresh thyme, parsley, bay, some allspice, peppercorns and salt. Then I strained that liquid and reduced and reduced and reduced. By the end I had three cupfuls, having started with about 12 (I'm guessing). It is intense, rich and deeply satisfying, perfect for this chilly, windy afternoon.

With the rest I will make wonton soup, stuffing each wrapper with a cube of the jellied consommé before poaching the wontons in some more homemade stock, chicken-based, this time. You get a spoonful of the broth, then you bite the wonton, and the melted, warm contents escape the wrapper and flood your mouth with the rich consommé .

Last night I added some spoonfuls to the spicy, roast tomato sauce I was making for our tacos. When the flavour is this concentrated, a little goes a long way. If I'd been feeling fancy, I would have clarified the broth with some raw egg whites whipped in before heating it again; the whites cook and rise to the surface, dragging all the clouding sediment and bits with them, leaving the broth tinted but clear. Good trick for dinner parties - serve in little cups.

Fall colours

Every day the yellow pushes the green out of the fig's leaves.

The roses' leaves give away my Neem-spraying habits of the last weeks. They have never had bad blackspot before, not these two David Austins. It was a grey, wet September. And after a brief blue interlude the clouds have returned and it will rain for a few days. Maybe.

I will sow some more fall greens and otherwise treat with respect my lumbar vertebrae whose noses were put out of joint during our Litter Mob on Tuesday. A heavy roll of fence had to be heaved down and along a slope. At least it is there, now. So is the nerve down the front of my right leg. Ouch.

When did I become this grumpy?

Asters are on That Other blog, now, and fences, later.

Oysters, eelgrass and bathymetry

This caught my attention, and I signed up:

On October 20th, at the Brooklyn College Student Center,  there will be a symposium on the state of Jamaica Bay:

"State of the Bay: Past, Present and Future - Revisited is an all-day event featuring research by top scientists in the preservation and restoration of Jamaica Bay in New York Harbor.

Speakers will address a range of issues impacting the ecology of Jamaica Bay, a unique and irreplaceable ecological resource that has survived and often thrived alongside human habitats. Topics will include water quality and efforts to improve its habitat through projects such as marsh restoration and oyster replenishment."

Here is more information about the day, as well as directions - one of the speakers will be Eric Sanderson, author of Mannahatta.

The symposium starts at 8am and wraps up at 4.30pm. There is space for 300 attendees, and one must register. Soon.

The symposium is free. Anyone who registers for it will be able to join a free three hour cruise of Jamaica Bay on the 21st, aboard the one American Princess vessels.

To register for the symposium fill out this form, or email jbsymposiumrsvp (at) dep (dot) nyc (dot)gov

For more info contact Jessica Browning at  718-338-3338, ext. 246.

Fire escape tomatoes

On Warren Street, Cobble Hill.

October evening

The weekend saw me laid low by a lurgi, so I stayed home. I'd wanted to take pictures at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Preserve, but the Frenchie set off on my behalf, and came back with some gorgeous images.

On Sunday the cat and I went the roof to water the farm. Having a lurgy positively demands a medicinal gin and tonic. The cat has been taking his new pills for three days, now. He still wants a lot of water, so we will just watch, and wait.

This is the Italian kale and it is doing very well, but something is EATING it. Bloody hell. 

The dwarf kale is also fantastic. It doesn't look very dwarfish, I wonder if I mixed the seeds up. I'd better check. Anything is possible.

I lay down on the slender parapet wall between us and raccoon house. The bluestone was warm under my back, and I looked up at the wide open and blue sky and breathed. It's the best I have felt in a long time.

Sky writing

From the roof - part of the multiple sky messages disintegrating over the city Sunday afternoon into evening.

More about them here, and here.

Litter Mob 12

Phyllotopsis nidulans in the October woods

Litter Mob 12 will be held on Tuesday, 9am, in the woods. Help wanted, as usual.

Directions. Please RSVP.

I have been informed that after de-littering our task will be to begin establishing a fence in order to start repairing some woodland floor. Manual labour is involved.

We try to break our three-hour sessions in two: After an hour-and-a-half of dragging heavy bags (bottles are the culprits) around, your wrist gets sore, your trash grabber callous has reappeared and you start to get grumpy. Nothing like some sweat to cure the condition.

There may be mushrooms, there will be asters. Leaves will be falling. you may speak to chipmunks.

All welcome!

(If we are very lucky there will be actual pink soap in the dispensers in the public bathrooms near Flatbush Avenue. It's a new phenomenon about which to gripe (I got tired of observing the always-full barbecue-coal bins): permanent lack of soap. Volunteers are provided with anti-bacterial gel, though, worry not. It's just nice to wash up afterwards.)

Over at the Litter Mob blog there is a guest post from someone who has visited these woods for 20 years.