New ventures

With LOML's birthday coming up, and with us both wanting to get composting going on a more doable scale (we have a huge unmanageable pile, and a smaller compost bin which was cheap, but is impossible to maneuver) I ordered a Envirocycle: it had good writeups on a number of (apparently unrelated to the company) sites comparing different composters which can be rotated: and came in several hundred dollars cheaper than the top models which we had looked at before. Under $200 including shipping in the end.
If it works well, I'll certainly post updates here. Well, I'll post updates whether it works well or not!

The next purchase was a couple of small brotpicks (danish bread whisks) from King Arthur Flour etc, since I was buying a bunch of yeast from them, and thought to rationalize the shipping: that way when we go to the beach, the four kids can share two small brotpicks, and the five adults can share my larger version. The current plan is for Boo and Skibo, together with B, to teach LOML and Boo's mother to make bread:-) Now that is going to be wonderful to watch (and of course, I will help with the lessons).


Finally, I've decided, after reading various more adventurous foodblogs than mine, that it is time to make mozzarella: I went to buy rennet from our local "health" food store ten miles from here (the nearest, and only one in about a thirty mile radius): and they had never even heard of rennet, let alone stocked it. So that is coming internet bound too. The next few days are going to be fun:-)

Unfortunately, everything I want to buy at the moment has to be ordered over the internet: I would far far rather buy locally, even at a slight premium, than order over the net: I actively want to support my local businesses, but they don't carry what I want to buy. And I'm sorry: plastic mozzarella is no substitute for real rennet!

Yours, action at a distance,
N.