It's alive!

Note: I wrote this some time ago, but never posted it. It's not finished, but I'm posting it now anyway.

Good news: my new ginger starter is bubbling.

I'm keeping it in the oven with just the light on, to encourage it to grow a little faster.

Sunday morning I arrived in the kitchen to make breakfast. Took a peek at the jar and saw a ring of tiny bubbles around the edge.

Late Sunday afternoon I checked again and found that the entire surface was covered in bubbles. Yes!

Now that the starter is ready, I'm realizing that I'm not ready.

Lots of food made today

Note: I wrote this soem time ago, but never posted it. Here it is for your enjoyment.

1. Fermented oatmeal and fried eggs for breakfast

I picked up some steel-cut oats yesterday. It's quite different than the quick/rolled oats I'm used to. It takes 40 minutes (instead of 5) to cook, so it's certainly not as convenient. You can't even leave it - it needs regular stirring.

2. Sourdough bread

It's baking right now. Contains only water, spelt flour, and a pinch of sea salt.

3. Sauerkraut

Picked up a head of organic cabbage yesterday. Fresh cabbage really works better than week-old. (I have a bad habit of buying ingredients and then letting them sit in the fridge for a week.)

4. Ginger soda starter.

Took the sediment from a very good bottle of ginger soda and combined with sugar, fresh organic grated ginger, and water. Not bubbling yet, but I'm hopeful. I keep it in the oven with the light on and the door cracked, to create a warmer environment. (I keep my house at 64deg F, and a lot of stuff grows pretty slowly at that temp.)

5. Kombucha

My last batch of kombucha seems weird - it grew very slowly. At 2 weeks the new babies were very thin. Even at 4 weeks they're not very substantial. But it sure is sour!

6. Failed chicken stock

I had a chicken stock going for two days. Cracked the lid open to get it to reduce faster. It all boiled away, leaving only a scum at the bottom. Damn. At least I was able to get the pot clean.

As you can see, I've been busy!

How to undermine the entire establishment

Want to be part of the antidisestablishmentarianism movement? Too bad, I don't know what that means.

My brother mentioned the idea of becoming "corporate". He got himself a regular haircut & took out some peircings, etc.

Here's my off-the-cuff reply:

You're not really corporate. Realize that the idea that how you look defines who you are is a huge marketing ploy, mostly from the folks who want to sell you clothes & makeup. The broader ploy is that buying product A vs. product B defines who you are. They even sell anti-corporate values. Want to reducing the impact of logging? Buy recycled paper. Want to reduce polution from cars? Buy a hybrid car.

In actuality, the only way you can truly disarm corporate power is to not buy from them at all. When they stop getting money, they lose power.

One way to reduce how much you spend is to reduce how much you earn. Earning less has other implications, so then the challenge becomes "discover happyness without money".

Another way is to only buy from non-corporations. It's hard to find people doing things that aren't big money for someone. When I do, I try to jump at the opportunity. My son and I saw a street musician on Sunday. He wasn't very good, but we gave him $5 anyway. I know that 100% of that went to the musician, not the RIAA. We buy milk and butter directly from the farmer (actually we own part of the herd!).