Breadin’, fermentin’, and stretchin’
While on vacation in Maui, I read the Omnivore’s Dilemma and Micah read In Defense of Food, both by Michael Pollan. We traded books and when finished. I loved the OD much more; it was such a beautiful, sometimes difficult narrative of a history of food to get through. But as was reflected in the book, it was a book to savor and enjoy.
There’s much to be taken from both books, but the nuts and bolts of his writings can be summed up in the tag line of In Defense of Food: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” With all of this cozy fall weather, Micah and I have been staying in a lot, cooking more and eating out much less, eating less meat, buying simple whole foods with ingredients that we can pronounce or making our own food that we would previously have bought.
As a result, we’ve made all kinds of tasty bits and dabbled in the art of bread making. I made a tasty chive dinner bread, a sourdough mother, and failed an attempt with sourdough, but I’m not discouraged. Micah made some amazing white loaf bread last night that I’m nomming down on for breakfast right now. Cleaning out the freezer has inspired me to make beet chocolate cupcakes and pumpkin sweet breads with leftover purée from last year.
October has given us two lovely weekends of which we spent two days harvesting grapes and making wine. Last weekend we completed the last harvest of the season and got 130 lbs of pinot noir grapes, which are currently in the first stages of fermentation. Some of Micah’s family joined us for the grape harvest and the doggles had a blast running around the vineyard. We’re exploring the pipe dream of buying land close by and starting our own vineyard… fun thoughts and dreams. 
Ashtanga is great too; I love being able to slide outta bed, put clothes on, and practice yoga at a great school only 2 minutes away from my house. I’m learning a lot, I’m stronger, I’m more flexible, and I have a great teacher and camaraderie at the school. I’m still limited in my practice in many ways, but that’s the beauty of yoga; it doesn’t matter how limited you are, because there is always more to learn and places to refocus yourself, much like painting the Golden Gate bridge. It’s never done, but it’s the practice of doing it and the trying that matters the most.
All in all, there are stressful moments each day, but we’re trying our best to not live in a state of frantic unbalancedness, being unable to cope with stress as we have unable to do well for so long. It’s important to be a balanced person and the process is certainly not easy or effortless. But I like the positive changes that we’ve made thus far.
Themocracy
Look, all I need to know is this – when you start this winery, are we going to get a discount?
That or you can make your own for free!