Intermission

June things

Dear Readers,

Before we keep meeting Minnie & Company, I have a few current events to mention.

I’ll start with the most recent. My youngest son turned 21! All birthdays make me reflective, but this one really hit. Felix was buzzing around the house Saturday, figuring out what wiring led to the back porch, which is about to get demolished. Our house is on a hill and there’s a four story rickety enclosed stairwell that we’re taking off and replacing with decks. This plan has been in the works for decades, but only when he’s built enough skills to help make it happen – work on the drawings, get the plan approved by architects, bring the plans to the city; plan the demolition and next steps – is it finally on the verge. How could this baby be big and competent and oh so very helpful?

My june baby and Juneberries, the best berry around! If you live in a city, look for service/Saskatoon/June berries -- they are commonly planted street trees and just extraordinary eating.

We’ve delighted in a number of celebrations, including dinner with my mom at an old school delicious Italian place – I need to know about their bread! On the actual birthday, I made sourdough cornmeal-rye waffles for breakfast and he went on a pub crawl with his brother and dad. The next day I made a war surplus cake into an ice cream cake for dinner with his external siblings – three kids from two families in the neighborhood. We saluted him with a toast and “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow” and again with Happy Birthday. The way he looked at us, at his friends and their parents – who are friends with him too – so satisfied and happy, oh, I think I’ll hold that forever. He knows he is loved, and he loves who loves him. May we all be nearly so lucky.

Last week, I joined Valley Malt’s annual farm tour. Since this pioneering malthouse started in Western MA in 2009, Valley Malt has done so much to help develop craft malt, and regional grains, including adding a flour mill, Ground Up Grain in 2019.  

From the start, Andrea and Christian Stanley understood that relationships are key to revitalizing Northeast grain farming and use, and have created lots of opportunities to bring people together to learn and have fun.¹ The Farmer Brewer Winter Weekends they held were deep educational dives into malting and brewing for a new generation of beer and malt pros. These farm tours follow that social learning plan.

This one brought their employees, plus a dozen colleagues in the grain chain to visit farms and fields, with pitstops at farm breweries like Arrowhood and Dancing Grain. I could only join for one day, but it ended with a splendid build your own pasta bar at Oechsner Farms. The pasta was freshly made bucatini from Ground Up’s new pasta machine, and there was enough asparagus that everyone could get their fill. I’m so glad to have witnessed again the power of convening. I reconnected with some great New England brewers, and by great I mean the people are fantastic. I’m sure their beer is too but I quit drinking a zillion years ago. Another bonus: hours in the car with Jonathan Stevens from Hungry Ghost Bread talking about baking and writing and families and hearing about his book, which comes out this September.

There’s nothing like seeing grains in the field. I’ve been trying to learn about grains and farming for almost 15 years and every time I listen to a farmer talk about their work, I learn a little more. Special thanks to Thor Oechsner for always teaching.

I can’t recommend this activity enough, and recommend you look for a field day near you. They’re often run by ag support orgs, and you can find them through cooperative extension, public universities, and checking in with your local mill. If I were in Madison, WI this weekend I’d be headed for Meadowlark Organics Farm and Mill!

In reading matters, The Eighth Moon: A Memoir of Belonging and Rebellion is incredible. I found it because I’m on the email list of a bookstore in the Catskills, Diamond Hollow, and from the description, I knew I’d love it. Jennifer Kabat writes about time and place and being where she is and considering all the when’s of a place, from geologic time through Anti-Rent Wars of the 1840s and beyond the infamous January 6th. I wrote a brief review of the book for Civil Eats² and I interviewed the author for Electric Literature — what a delight to speak with her and write up our conversation. Please put this title on your summer reading list, and check to see if she’s coming near you! ³

June was also full of parties and people in Troy:

• My husband and two of his friends had a huge party for their 60^th birthdays that felt, some said, like a wedding. The now old men rented a house on the river, and since they’re artists and performers, had a few performance-y things, including my baptizing them into old age, a pig roast, a LOT OF FOOD, and a giant chocolate cake, guess who made that?

• My dear pal Ellie Markovitch came to visit and led two workshops, one on the concept and practice of being a host and one on basic fermentation.

• The FlagSSS Day Parade in Troy!

• Troy Bike Rescue’s incredible Bike Fest fundraiser, including a Cake Auction. Felix and I got to be auctioneers and netted $400 for one cake and $500 for another. This is one of the best — silliest, tastiest, bikey-ist —days of the year.

  

  

  Intermission is over, folks, please head back to your seats and keep cool if you can. Look for me in your inbox Sunday morning with another round of the women who baked me!

  Yours, Amy

1. I’m so wowed by their work, and you will be too: read what I wrote about them on Wordloaf, or in my book, The New Bread Basket.

2. For Civil Eats, I also wrote about Amrikan, Khushbu Shah’s cookbook about Indian cooking in America.

3. If you read anything I recommend, I’d love to know!