Indian Summer

The weather here in the Northeast has been incredible of late: hot, and no rain for what seems like weeks now. But the evenings are cool, so even if it's uncomfortably warm during the day, it's beautiful sleeping weather and the resulting dew in the morning keeps the plants from drying out too much. It's hard to believe we're well into October already; the garden is at a peak we haven't seen since June. With the row covers I'm building, the hope is to have fresh greens into December and then a big head start in March. All the frozen & canned stuff is for those 2-3 months in between.

Tonight, a meal more appropriate to August, but since we have that weather it was just right. Fresh wild salmon, done up the normal sashimi way, with hot garlic-infused sesame oil and then nama shoyu, but then instead of lime juice and jalapeño slices I spooned some fresh salsa I had just made from the last of our cherry tomatoes, plus serranos, lime juice, cilantro, and garlic. All told I got another quart, which will replace the jar we finished last night. To go with the salmon, a perfect salad and chicken-of-the-woods cooked pulled pork style- low & slow with the homemade BBQ sauce. To cap this off, I opened a 1978 Drouhin Vosne-Romanée Les Suchots which I fully expected to be cooked but instead is pretty delicious- a bit thin, and getting tired, but still a rare and special treat- especially given that I had planned on marinating the fish and cooking the mushrooms in it.