Tuesday, September 28th, 2021 09:45 am
A pottery tray covered with an array of purple popcorn ears

My 2021 harvest from my selected purple popcorn! Progress! Everything was purple toned this year. I still lost some whole ears to mold, tops of ears to worms, but it wasn't too bad. Growing later in the year worked and not rushing to get a crop in. Can imagine planting more with sweet potatoes. The sweet potato failure this year i blame on the rabbits. Fie. And, i say failure, but i won't really know until i harvest. The vines haven't been crazy rampant.

Monday went pretty well personally, meh at home. I got things done according to my to do list; less so at work. A little overwhelmed by minutiae plus a "yam" (ie: something that has become unpleasant to an outsized amount.) I am spending lots of time on to do list management: i hope it's productive and not creating more to keep up with (record) than i need to. Today, Tuesday seemed about the same. A significant yard thing was mowing the steep banks up by the road and eradicating the stilt grass. I'm not sure that any wildflower plants survived under the blanket from last fall's seeding. I'll see about scattering seeds from the "meadow."

In the evening i started a new sourdough starter, Kitta Grau. I tried a 50-50 mix of water and rye, it seems far too stiff. Tonight i adjusted to 50-25-25 water, rye, previous starter. If that works, it will soon be essentially two parts water, on part rye. I guess rye flour's hydration properties are significantly different than wheat's.
Wednesday, September 29th, 2021 03:07 am (UTC)
They look great!
Wednesday, September 29th, 2021 09:22 am (UTC)
Colourful!
Wednesday, September 29th, 2021 11:34 am (UTC)
Beautiful corn!

And yeah, rye requires and soaks up fluid like nobody's business.
Friday, October 1st, 2021 02:00 am (UTC)
Ah, I can believe that souring-not-starting thing. In my experience with rye flour its relationship with yeast is Curious and Obscure.

Have you worked with rye flour much? Please tell me your secrets!
Sunday, October 3rd, 2021 12:23 pm (UTC)
You sound more systematic and determined than I have ever been. So I can't tell whether you like or do not like The Rye Baker?
Monday, October 4th, 2021 02:41 am (UTC)
Hurrah bubbles!
Monday, October 4th, 2021 11:44 am (UTC)
Also: I have now bought The Rye Baker.
Thursday, September 30th, 2021 08:39 pm (UTC)
The sweet potato failure this year i blame on the rabbits. Fie.

You need coyotes in your neighborhood. My neighbors around the corner were avid gardeners back in my suburban days, and they were always delighted when the coyotes rotated dens and ended up near us.
Friday, October 1st, 2021 03:54 am (UTC)
Hurray for purple!