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| 20 gallon brew pot |
Put down that Bud Lite, step away from that frozen dinner and boxed brownie mix, and take just a minute before you take another sip of that coffee released from the can and fed to your Mr. Coffee just a short time ago. Now before you get all defensive on me, relax and breathe - this isn't a diatribe against the evils of mass produced food (and food products). I confess to having partaken of all the afore mentioned products - though less so in recent times. This also isn't a lesson in self sufficiency. It is about consciously engaging your head and hands in labor where your taste buds, as well as your creative soul, reap the rewards. The farm is a labor of love and it is also about loving what you labor for. The spirit of the Lost Road Apiary and Farm is, in its essence, about living fully and living well, which, by definition, must include the culinary arts. For me, any serious discussion of gastronomy must include the topic of beer.
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| Homebrewed Porter |
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| Erin's Spent Grain Bread. |
One of the few things better than drinking great beer is brewing great beer. My own brewing has evolved from following recipes using partial grains and malt extracts to all grain brewing using our own recipes. You won't find any fizzy yellow stuff in our fridge, unless it's a hefeweizen. Some of our best work also includes chocolate stout, strong scotch ale (and lager), and a vanilla porter.
Creative all grain brewing involves some knowledge of chemistry, good brewing techniques, and a playful sense of experimentation. I say "creative" because if you drink a hundred different Porters you'll find something unique to each one. Even when you attempt to clone someone else's recipe, you'll end up with a different brew due to variances in grain, yeast, or the conditions it was brewed in. Being a home brewer has changed how I drink beer, even those not crafted by my own hands. I find myself drinking consciously, mindfully mining the flavor profiles of the beer in hand and guessing at the techniques involved in its creation. The Pacific Northwest is a mecca for craft beers and homebrewing and I feel fortunate to have found my little place in it all.
In the spirit of the organic nature of the farm, the spent grains from brewing find an afterlife; used either for bread or compost.
With all that craft beer being consumed, perhaps it's not surprising that the NW holds another all abiding passion. Drive through any town or village of more than five households and you'll find another constant - coffee. You are more likely to find a drive-thru coffee/espresso shack than you are a gas station in many places.
In the search for freshness, I suppose it wasn't a big leap to transition from ground coffee to buying whole bean and grinding my own to, finally, purchasing green beans and roasting small weekly batches. No expensive equipment here to accomplish that task. My technique for roasting is simple: throw the green beans in a fry pan between medium and medium high heat, stir constantly, and look and listen (the beans emit different cracking sounds at different phases of the roast ) until you get the roast you want. I joke (only partially) to Denise that the next step is to get a nice winter farm of five acres on Kauai to grow our own coffee. She gives me that "as soon as you come up with the money" look, and I settle for the satisfaction of home roasting.
Naturally if you have a quality beverage in hand, you want the food it compliments to be of like quality. In my more youthful days I was enthusiastic about cooking and trying new recipes. As life progressed and my wife and I found ourselves rushing about with careers and raising our daughters, we were seduced by "labor saving" prepackaged meals. Cooking real food, while hardly rare, took a lower rung on the ladder of priorities. We still cooked some great meals, but routine pretty much overruled creativity and exploration.
With the birth of The Lost Road Farm concept in the last few years, the sense of adventure and joy I once held for cooking has returned. Cooking with fresh ingredients minutes out of our own garden or recently acquired from the farmer's market more than enhances the dining experience, it pushes me to up my skill level in the kitchen; to pay proper homage to the high quality foods our locality produces. Put a perfect homebrew Porter in my hand, add the smell of Anaheims roasting for chili verde, or the sound of grass fed beef browning in the pan for "boeuf a la mode" and you have a recipe for contented happiness.
To coin a phrase from Rocky Balboa, I'm a 'ham and egger' musician, have the drawing skills of a preschooler, but I can creatively express myself with some competency in the kitchen. I'm living fully when sitting down to a home cooked meal made from homegrown ingredients, shared in the company of loved ones. Anyway, that's how I'd paint perfection.
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I recommend Dorie Greenspan's cookbook: around my french table.
