Today in Boise
We first moved to Boise in 1996, when our children were in elementary school, and they're all grown now. That gives us some perspective on what used to be normal weather here. We used to get occasional thunderstorms coming through in the summer with torrential downpours or hail. The thunderstorms that pretty much stopped except for very rare circumstances. We never had smoky skies here in the city until a few years back. The worst we had was 3 years ago when it was so smoky you could see the smoke looking down the streets. Seattle is really smoky, as are parts of Oregon, and meteorologists and scientists are saying this may be the new norm. When you have environmental issues, droughts, stupid people who light fires intentionally/accidentally, a combined with other events and fires rage. Ironically there have been very few fires in the Boise foothills this summer. Most of the fires in Californian and British Columbia are large enough that all the smoke comes into our valley. When it's nice outside and 80° you want to do something outside. All you have to do is look at the foothills, or where the foothills used to be, and say I don't think so. When you have respiratory issues and allergies it just exacerbates them even more. I've had to break down and use steroid nasal sprays because I've been so congested from this. I avoid that when possible, but wind up using them several times a week. We use a good furnace filter and we have a HEPA filter that I run all hours in our bedroom except when we sleep. You do what you can to keep the contaminants out but it always comes in anyway. I started thinking if I want to keep living in Boise long term is every summer going to look like this? Time will tell, but it's sad. I'm very grateful that we don't have any risk of fire in our city, like people in other areas.
Last weekend I made my first batch of Armenian fermented pickles! I checked them after 3 or 4 days, but they weren't very sour at all so I waited until today. Fermented pickles are one of those personal preference, taste choice things. The longer they ferment the more sour they will get. It's all about what tastes good to you. When I tested one this morning I was happy to see that they were crunchy! I had added a black tea tea bag in the bottom of the jar as I had read that helps with keeping the pickles from getting soggy or mushy. The flavor was good, but I think next time though I would add more garlic and more pickling spice. I strained the liquid and then put the pickles back into the fridge. It's very normal for the liquid to be murky and a lot of that will normalize after it gets cold.
My fermenting kit comes with a regular plastic jar lid and so you just take the fermenting lid off and use it on top. Into the fridge they went. They will still ferment a bit more slowly and get more sour and that's fine.
From The Quiet Man
Movie Star Maureen O'Hara's Estate Sale-
On my the pickles luck yummy! I always loved Maureen O'hara!
ReplyDeleteThanks, loved her too
ReplyDeleteI have the same fermenting kit I think. I should make sauerkraut soon too. Have a great week.
ReplyDeleteYes I've used it to make curtido spicy Kraut as well and it's really paid for itself! I really like having a safe way to ferment things
DeleteI thought (and still think) that Maureen O'Hara was the most beautiful film star ever! Boy, that smoke is really bad! I am so thankful that we are not on the air stream of any of the awful fires out west. And I hope I didn't just jinx us... Fermented vege is so good for you - I've done the curtido and sauerkraut, but never pickles. I am going to have to try it. I like it, too, because you can do small quantities.
ReplyDeleteYeah she was a great star and I loved her spunkiness! Yes I'm glad you're not in the Smoke stream either. I'm not sure how much longer this will last but usually wants Autumn kicks in the weather patterns will change and that should help. Yes I like the small quantities to which is two of us for fermented foods. Dave's not a pickle fan but he will eat the curtido!
DeleteSo sorry to hear about how smokey it is there. That sounds horrible. I think I would have constant sinus headaches. I hope it gets better soon! We've been lucky here....there have been fires but the wind has taken the smoke in other directions. My cousin, however, lives in southern Washington and she said it's been super bad for weeks. She said they read that it's the worst air quality in the world there right now...even worse than China! Wow! And, the weird thing is that the smoke is coming from California, Oregon, and Canada. I sure hope weather patterns change so the west can start getting rain again. It seems like such a rare event to ever see water coming from the sky here. :-(
ReplyDeleteThat sounds interesting to ferment pickles. I've only made refrigerator pickles so far. I've been thinking of trying to ferment cabbage/sourkraut. And, I've made kombucha. This gives me one more possibility.
Have an awesome day!
Thanks Acorn and yes with Autumn around the corner hopefully once the weather patterns change that will dissipate the smoke. And fermented foods are great for your stomach with all those good probiotics and really pretty simple. I just added a small amount of salt to the water, the spices and the cucumber and let sit. It's definitely faster and simpler than canning unless you want to do large quantities.
DeleteSure do hear you about the smoke issues. Along with all the smoke coming up from California and down from Canada, we have a lot of new fires here since we had a lightning storm last Thursday night. I, too, am feeling trapped indoors with the caustic thick smoke we have had here in central Oregon. I run the whole house fan on the furnace 24 hours a day and have a HEPA filter set up at each end of the house. Maybe trying the nasal steroid would help me, too. Will check with my doctor soon. Hang in there - fresher air is on the way from the west for a few days at least... Most of all, I am just grateful to be safe in my own home versus the many that have had to evacuate!
ReplyDeleteYes I do appreciate the fact that we are safe from fires here! Yes we do the same thing, we run our furnace fan 24/7 to help clear out the air bit. The nose spray I use does seem to help but if you use it too often you get nosebleeds since it dries out the skin
DeleteFascinating tidbit about Maureen Ohara. I loved her characters. She was so classy. It was nice to hear she lived with her grandson, and oh a teacup would have been fantastic.
ReplyDelete