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Jun. 9th, 2005 08:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickThe multiflora roses are in bloom. Multifloras (R. multiflora) is a are single, white, cluster-flowering, once-blooming, big sprawling bush of a rose, a non-native species classed as invasive here in Pennsylvania. I believe they're originally from China. They have a heavy, sweet scent that fills the air, almost cloying but not quite. Multifloras smell like summer. (Yes, I'm in a general summer theme here. Get over it.)
This is also a good time to look for old, once-blooming roses, at least in Bedford and Everett, because they're blooming now. I rather admire anything that grows without being taken care of much (hence the orange poppy theft here a couple of weeks ago) and roses from before the 1930's that have survived to modern times are probably worth investigating, particularly ones that live in my area already. When I was cutting the grass today, I noticed that the building next to 629 (this is the one that the heirs fought over until it became near-worthless) has a hell of a nice pink cabbage-type rose out back of it, near the trailer with the really big (I'm judging this based on the size of the dog shit, having never seen the dog itself) dog. It's too big of a bush to steal, but I could take a cutting and nobody would ever notice. There's also a lovely, different pink cabbagey rose at 315, nestled underneath that shrubbery on the property line. I'd like a cutting of that, too. The broad, blue-green leaves on that one make me think it's got Alba heritage. The problem with all of this is that I totally suck at rooting rose cuttings. I understand about half-grown wood and diffuse light in a humid environment and so forth, but my actual execution apparently sucks ass because stuff dies before it roots. *sigh* However, nothing ventured, nothing gained. I should venture out with my clippers at the close of work some day and make off with bits of shrubbery to see what I can do in the wonderful world of vegetative propagation.
Speaking of propagation, I've also started a sourdough culture again because I have this great flour that I got at the (new, this year) local farmer's market. This flour is stone ground at Stanton's Mill in Grantsville, Maryland (this, like most of Maryland, is apparently located near some sort of historical civil war something or other, a half-vast fact I mention here to keep![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
fooliv from falling asleep) and it's a nice-enough flour that I want to make bread out of it. It's really nice. It's exceptional. Should anyone out there in the studio audience have a need for whole-wheat flour, I'll vouch for the quality of their product. It's quite good, ground fine enough for bread, tastes better (fresher, wheatier) than store-bought, and is certified organic, which probably impresses the granola-and-birkenstock crowd. It's also reasonably priced and comes in five pound paper sacks tied shut with string. Starting a sourdough culture isn't the rocket science that bread-making webpages will have you believe it to be. You mix water and flour together until it's about pancake batter texture and let it sit (open to the world, no lid) 24 hours. Then you take one teaspoonful of that and put it into a fresh jar of flour-and-water mixed to pancake batter thickness and wait twenty four hours and then... lather, rinse, repeat. You don't need more than about half a cup of liquid at any given time and usually in a week or so, you'll have something that froths nicely. At that point, you're ready to make bread with it... just add flour, water, and salt. If you want sour bread, let it rise twice. If you want less-sour bread, one rising will probably do ya.
I'm on day two and it's frothing pretty nicely. I should be able to make bread with it by Sunday. (Yes, I know that there exists store-bought yeast that I could make bread with today. I don't like store-bought yeast. I like home-made yeasts, such as one cultures in a sourdough. They're more interesting.)
This is also a good time to look for old, once-blooming roses, at least in Bedford and Everett, because they're blooming now. I rather admire anything that grows without being taken care of much (hence the orange poppy theft here a couple of weeks ago) and roses from before the 1930's that have survived to modern times are probably worth investigating, particularly ones that live in my area already. When I was cutting the grass today, I noticed that the building next to 629 (this is the one that the heirs fought over until it became near-worthless) has a hell of a nice pink cabbage-type rose out back of it, near the trailer with the really big (I'm judging this based on the size of the dog shit, having never seen the dog itself) dog. It's too big of a bush to steal, but I could take a cutting and nobody would ever notice. There's also a lovely, different pink cabbagey rose at 315, nestled underneath that shrubbery on the property line. I'd like a cutting of that, too. The broad, blue-green leaves on that one make me think it's got Alba heritage. The problem with all of this is that I totally suck at rooting rose cuttings. I understand about half-grown wood and diffuse light in a humid environment and so forth, but my actual execution apparently sucks ass because stuff dies before it roots. *sigh* However, nothing ventured, nothing gained. I should venture out with my clippers at the close of work some day and make off with bits of shrubbery to see what I can do in the wonderful world of vegetative propagation.
Speaking of propagation, I've also started a sourdough culture again because I have this great flour that I got at the (new, this year) local farmer's market. This flour is stone ground at Stanton's Mill in Grantsville, Maryland (this, like most of Maryland, is apparently located near some sort of historical civil war something or other, a half-vast fact I mention here to keep
fooliv from falling asleep) and it's a nice-enough flour that I want to make bread out of it. It's really nice. It's exceptional. Should anyone out there in the studio audience have a need for whole-wheat flour, I'll vouch for the quality of their product. It's quite good, ground fine enough for bread, tastes better (fresher, wheatier) than store-bought, and is certified organic, which probably impresses the granola-and-birkenstock crowd. It's also reasonably priced and comes in five pound paper sacks tied shut with string. Starting a sourdough culture isn't the rocket science that bread-making webpages will have you believe it to be. You mix water and flour together until it's about pancake batter texture and let it sit (open to the world, no lid) 24 hours. Then you take one teaspoonful of that and put it into a fresh jar of flour-and-water mixed to pancake batter thickness and wait twenty four hours and then... lather, rinse, repeat. You don't need more than about half a cup of liquid at any given time and usually in a week or so, you'll have something that froths nicely. At that point, you're ready to make bread with it... just add flour, water, and salt. If you want sour bread, let it rise twice. If you want less-sour bread, one rising will probably do ya. I'm on day two and it's frothing pretty nicely. I should be able to make bread with it by Sunday. (Yes, I know that there exists store-bought yeast that I could make bread with today. I don't like store-bought yeast. I like home-made yeasts, such as one cultures in a sourdough. They're more interesting.)
