Food

Veggies affordable

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

Continuing in my veggie saga, the next thing I wondered was how the box of local veggies compared to the local grocery store.

This past Saturday, Wife gathered some prices of veggies at the local HEB. Last night we did some rough math.

We couldn’t do a straight apples-to-apples comparison because the veggies aren’t totally the same, we don’t have scales to weigh out what we have and so on. So it was a lot of estimating and “well, this veggie was the closest thing” and so on.

But more or less it seems to work out, may even be cheaper in some regards… like we got a huge bunch of basil, and herbs are expensive. That there makes up (for) a big portion of the cost.

We’ve got 3 more boxes in our initial “subscription”. Once that’s up, we’ll see what to do from there. Who knows… the farm is trying to raise a lot of up-front capital to purchase more land and are offering things like a 1-year weekly subscription for $1500 (works out to $28.85 per box, and thus a $216 annual savings provided the regular box price doesn’t rise from its present $33). Maybe we’ll do that because we’re going to buy and eat veggies… I’m all for 1. long-term cost savings, 2. if it helps them grow their business, awesome!

Anyways, I’m satisfied in the financial aspect of this and the food/quality and every aspect of this. All feels good to me.

Huzzah!

Veggies consumed

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

So the veggies were ordered, brought home, and now consumed.

I knew it would be wonderful. 🙂

Given what was in the box, Wife made a ratatouille (ish) side dish with it all. I think what stunned me the most was the eggplant. I’m not a fan of eggplant, but boy this was much better than the big-ass purple eggs you typically find at the grocery store with their thick leather skins.

Now I knew it would be like this. I knew that it would taste so much better. All I kept saying through dinner was “man, I really want this to work out”. I just have to be mindful of how to afford it. And realize, it doesn’t necessarily have to just be a dollar-for-dollar exchange. It can also mean that we find something else in our lives to cut back/out so we can afford this — prioritize, determine what’s more important, and so on.

Of course, we have other adjusting to do as well give my new fitness program is having me consume food like a zombie at a brain-festival. Need more red meat. 🙂

And you know, I really need to get better about taking pictures of things. Like here, taking a picture of the ratatouille.

Veggies bought

/ hsoi / 7 Comments

Earlier I wrote about our new veggie experiment.

We just returned from picking them up.

I have mixed emotions. 🙂

First, we see the box. It’s full. We open it. The smell of fresh basil overwhelms you.

Bliss. 🙂

Then you start to look through the box and… I felt a little disappointed. I mean, when you look at the pictures it seems like this bounty. And well, it is… but there’s no size reference, and so, everything’s small.

There’s no way this box will last a family of 5 for a week. Maybe a couple of days?

But I think I’m jaded by huge commercial, massive fertilizer, hormone pumped blah blah blah… so I’m expecting huge stuff. I mean, we’ve got a cucumber in the fridge from the HEB and putting that next to one of the cukes we picked up? It’s David and Goliath.

Then… I cut into a tomato.

O…M…G….

But this I knew. The flavor was wonderful, so much better than you’d get at the big store. But again, I knew this would be the case. If in fact the veggies were picked this morning for pick up today? Heck, can’t get much fresher than that.

I want this. Yes I do. Honestly tho, we’d probably need 2 boxes to feed the family. But wow… $66/week on veggies ($33/box)? Granted, Wife does the grocery shopping so I’m detached from the cost of such things, but it just seems expensive.

But at least now we KNOW what comes in the box. Wife needs to go to the grocery store tomorrow for some stuff anyways, and she’s been tasked with trying to do as much of an apples-to-apples comparison of what we got in the box vs. the prices of stuff in the store. It’ll have to be a guesstimate, since say I doubt HEB will have purple bell peppers. But, we’ll do the best estimating possible. If it comes out to being say $10 for all that? IMHO that’s not worth it since that’s a huge amount of money per month. But if it’s say $28 or more at HEB for the same? I’m fine with that price because it’s close enough, it’s better quality produce, better flavor, and all the other joys of it.

Hey… I’m head of the household and the money man, so I have to worry about these things. 🙂

Still… that tomato was sure yummy. Wife’s preparing supper as I type this. I can’t wait to see what she makes. 🙂

Buying veggies

/ hsoi / 5 Comments

Wife’s been wanting to try one of those vegetable delivery things.

I groaned.

But the more I thought about it, the more it appealed to me.

First concern for me was cost. If this is going to cost more than just buying the same stuff at the H.E.B., I’m not interested. I’m still not 100% sure of the cost breakdown since produce costs vary so widely on a daily basis. But, estimates put it at “close enough”.

Second, I didn’t want to get some potluck of veggies that then don’t get consumed. For instance, Wife hates fennel, and if the box is 35% fennel, that does us no good and is a waste all around.

I found this place called the Johnson’s Backyard Garden. It looked alright. I like that it’s truly local. I like that the produce is picked and delivered on the same day. I mean, you can’t beat food that’s allowed to stay “in the ground” or “on the vine” until the last minute. Whereas your big grocery stores have to have the food removed from the ground well in advance of ripeness, then all sorts of things are done to help get it to market, and it’s just not the same.

Now, I’m not really caring about crap like “organic” and “free-range”…. but hey, its fun to prod the hippies about how free-range organic the meat is from the deer I shot. 🙂

And that’s I think what I’m liking more about this: I know where it comes from. We’re getting far too removed from many things in this world, and that tends to create a lot of mystery and uncertainty. I’m growing to like knowing where things come from, especially the things I put into my body. So hey, if we can know where our veggies are coming from, if we can support some small family businesses, get better tasting food, and it doesn’t cost a whole lot more? Fine.

The crazy thing is, since I signed up, I’ve been getting excited about picking up our first box (we pick it up this evening). Click here to see what’s in the boxes (pictures!). In a way, it feels like Christmas because there’s an element of unknown and surprise: what are we going to get this week? It feels kinda fun. Plus, it’s going to challenge our cooking and palates… because hey, there’s fennel in this weeks box. 🙂

I signed up for the initial 4 box trial and we’ll see how it goes.

Click if you Like hunting

/ hsoi

Looks like the man behind Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, only eats the meat he kills:

Mark Zuckerberg has begun slaughtering animals with his bare hands. The Facebook co-founder and chief executive recently vowed to only eat meat that comes from animals that he has killed himself, reports Forbes. The gruesome goal is the latest iteration of what the 27-year-old Internet billionaire calls his yearly “personal challenge” to better himself.

Seems like he gets stuff from local farms and processes them himself. Apparently he takes on these personal challenges as a way to have something else to do in life than running Facebook, and to try to better himself.

“I started thinking about this last year when I had a pig roast at my house,” he wrote. “A bunch of people told me that even though they loved eating pork, they really didn’t want to think about the fact that the pig used to be alive. That just seemed irresponsible to me. I don’t have an issue with anything people choose to eat, but I do think they should take responsibility and be thankful for what they eat rather than trying to ignore where it came from.”

Good for him. It seems both the people he runs with and the author of this article are way out of touch with reality, so it’s refreshing to see someone, especially someone in a role and position as Zuckerberg, to be willing to get a clue and not be so out of touch with reality.

Tapioca Pudding

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Tapioca Pudding.

Some people love it. Some people hate it.

I love it.

But not just any tapioca pudding. It has to have large pearl tapioca in it. Why? Because it’s fun… or at least, as a kid I sure thought so. I still do.

When my paternal grandmother died a few days ago, I couldn’t help but think of tapioca pudding. She made it for us all the time. For whatever reason, she refused to use the small little “grains” even though she could conveniently buy them at the local grocery store. No… she would drive all the way to the PX to get the large pearl ones. Just for us (me and my sisters).

Any visit to Grandma’s house had this implication of tapioca pudding. We looked forward to it. Sometimes she didn’t have it; maybe a bread pudding or a rice pudding, which were good too, but they weren’t tapioca. It’s those big tapioca pearls in your mouth.. the way it feels.. it’s just fun. I think that’s why Grandma made it for us — the fun.

So when Grandma died, I went online and found a place that sells large pearl tapioca. I ordered some for each of my sisters and some for myself. Younger Sister received hers first and immediately emailed me… she knew, and she thanked me. Older Sister received hers just a few hours ago; I haven’t heard from her yet, but I know she knows. It holds the same special place in each of us.

As soon as my shipment arrived (and I realized that 5# is a LOT of tapioca), I demanded some be made. Wife understood — it’s a memory, it’s a tribute, it’s a memorial. Half a cup of pearls started soaking….

I didn’t realize that they had to soak overnight.

I looked at them. Within 30 minutes they felt soft enough… did they really need to soak overnight? They’d be dissolved and useless, wouldn’t they? But OK… we’ll follow the recipe. And gosh, they are a little bigger from soaking up the water, but they still seem smaller than I remember. Hrm. Is this going to turn out right?

Sleep. Wake. “Come on, Wife… let’s make pudding!” In fact, I gave Wife a bit of a hard time about making the pudding; it had to be a the priority for the day! I didn’t want to miss it. Hanging on to Grandma, just a moment longer.

I leave for a doctor’s appointment and Wife has started cooking. Very involved process… not difficult, just time consuming. You have to tend to it and stir and such for at least 30 minutes.

I return. Pudding.

I dig into it.

It’s not exactly as I remember it… but honestly, I have a hard time remembering it. The last time Grandma made us tapioca pudding was very long ago (she wasn’t well for many of her last years). But the exact flavor and texture didn’t really matter… it was all about the large pearls. 🙂  I fall back to my childhood, to being at Grandma’s house. I see the spoon, the bowl, the pearls, Grandma smiling at us and us smiling back at her.

This is the first time I paid attention to what it takes to make tapioca pudding. No it’s not hard, but it is time consuming. It takes a lot of planning — you can’t just decide to do it and whip it up as some 30 minute meal. You have to think ahead, you have to plan ahead, you have to work ahead. It takes time to obtain the tapioca. It takes time to soak the pearls. It takes time to cook and prepare it. It takes time for it to chill. You have to be thinking of things… you must have these things on your mind, long before they’re in front of you.

I never knew.

But now I know. And I can see… just how much love Grandma had for us.

My son’s first hog

/ hsoi / 11 Comments

Oldest just passed a milestone — he bagged his first hog; in fact, he bagged his first anything. And it’s a doozy.

The Big Weekend

I’ve been trying, struggling to have a weekend hunt with my long-time friend Charles, of Tactical Gun Review. Something always comes up, usually on my part, and we can’t get together. Charles has a deer lease in the South Central Texas area, but what makes it a great lease is not just the property but that he has year-round access to it. Outside of deer season you can go fishing, dove hunting, turkey hunting, and yes… hog hunting. A few months back we set this weekend on our calendars as a “must do” and it happened. It wasn’t going to be just us tho, we brought our older sons with us as well, who have known each other for just as many years as Charles and I have known each other.

The goal for the weekend? Have fun. If we could bag a hog? even better. And while I would have loved to have bagged a hog myself, what I really wanted was for Oldest to bag one. He’s been out in the field with me before, sometimes a bust, sometimes we got something, but it was always me that did the work, he was just a spectator. This time, he was going to do the work. 🙂

Friday after work I packed my car with food, some clothing and essentials, a few rifles, and away we went. On the rifle front, I originally wanted him to use the 6.8 SPC. The whole reason I bought the 6.8 was for kids to use it because it doesn’t recoil that hard, shorter and thus easier to manage, plus some time ago I bought a powerful red LED flashlight to mount on the rifle precisely for hog hunting. But I changed my mind. Instead, I had him shoot the Savage bolt-action in .308 Win. My reasoning? It was a simpler manual of arms to operate (no gun, light, etc.), and that .308 would provide a much wider margin of error. Being as this would be his first time, he’d get excited, heart pounding, might rush things… never know. I figured the .308 would work out better for him. Prior to the hunt I had him work the rifle dry at home: get a feel for the trigger, learn how to work the bolt. He learned how to work the gun, but he had never live fired it. In fact, he’s never shot something as big as a .308; he’s had aversions to shooting rifles larger than a .22 LR because he doesn’t like the noise, but acknowledges that if he wants to bag something he has to. So, this was into the fire feet first. 🙂

First Night

We arrived Friday evening but with more than enough daylight to get us into the blind and wait. We parked our cars, pulled out the rifles, climbed into “The Beast” (an old Toyota 4×4 Charles keeps at the property for getting around) and headed for a stock tank on one side of the property where hogs had been seen. Unfortunately the pop-up blind blew into the tank, so we just plopped down on stools under a tree and obscured by tall grass. We waited. Night fell, but with that “super-moon” out you could see a lot going on, it was so bright.

We never saw any hogs. Some deer, an owl, lots of other critters. But alas, no hogs. We piled back into The Beast and checked out some other tanks, parking The Beast well away from the area and stalking up on it. It was obvious there was activity, just not when we were around. Ah well. We eventually headed back to the cabin for dinner and hanging out around the campfire drinking beer (boys – root beer, dad’s Dogfish Head brown ale) until the wee hours.

Saturday Morning

After a few hours of sleep we headed back out. Charles put Oldest and I at one of the stock tanks we visited Friday night, while he and his son headed to another area. The sun came up. A turkey was calling and showing and we watched him for a while. Then across the stock tank, probably 100 yards or so away, 2 does. No, 3 does… 4… 5… 6. It was nice to watch all those does grazing, but darn that the season is well-over. 🙂  After maybe 15 minutes or so we noticed the does spooked and took off. Seconds later we see why.

Hogs.

We were atop a high bank on one side of the tank. The opposite bank was probably 60 yards away, then up that bank 35 yards or so starts a tree line. Deep within those trees we saw all these little black masses running across the way. Yes yes yes! Hogs! But they were way back in the trees running in a manner that took them directly away from us with no chance of a shot. Oh man!

“Son, get your gun! get your gun! get it up! get ready!”

I of course went for my gun too, but I put it down. This was for him. Yes I’d love to get one myself, but this was for him. I was going to be the eyes, the coach.

Come on piggy… come on… please don’t run off…. yes!

We see the pigs turn and one by one start to run into the area. It’s a stock tank. Water. Plus there was a corn feeder at the far end. Food. A perfect ambush spot: at food and water. A swarm of piglets runs out. I don’t know… 30, 40, 50 of them? A lot. They all headed right for the feeder. Adults follow out of the trees but head down to the water.

YES!

One goes to drink but is head-on facing us. “No son, can’t” Come on… turn… turn…

More big hogs come down to drink.

“SONSONSONSON! There!  That one!”

A big one. Drinking. Perfectly broadside. And… holding still. You see, hogs almost never stop, they are almost always in motion so windows of opportunity for a shot can be hard to come by. But drinking? He stopped, he was still. Perfect opportunity.

“You got him?”

“Got him.”

“OK, let it rip!”

And the rifle roared.

He got him.

The hog ran for maybe 25 yards, did a circle and dropped.

High fives all around.

I don’t know if I’ve ever seen Oldest so excited. 🙂  He was wired. Electrified!

Once we confirmed he was down, and of course all the other hogs scattered from the sound of the gunshot, we left the blind and headed over to see him.

I thought he was maybe 150 lbs? But I’m terrible at such estimates. We snapped copious amounts of pictures. We sent text messages to Wife (and kiddos back home), to Oldest’s grandfather and uncle (Wife’s family, life-long hunters). Much happiness.

While waiting for Charles to come get us, another hog came through the trees! I snapped up my rifle and knelt down, got a bead on him and was prepared to take the shot, but a clear shot never presented itself. Either the hog wasn’t positioned well or there were trees/brush in the way. Eventually the hog got close enough, noticed us, and took off running. A second hog would have been nice, but no matter.

Heaving this big boy into the truck was a chore, even with a winch. But we got him back to the cabin, hoisted him up and weighed him.

Just over 250 lbs..

That’s big.

We gutted him (I got more practice at cleaning an animal) and while looking at the organs I saw the heart. The bullet had fully penetrated the heart. Right through the shoulder — and the massively thick “shield” (and his was a formidable one), right through the heart, and complete passthrough. Based upon how the entry and exit wounds looked, it looks like that Barnes Bullet functioned as advertised. This is why I love Barnes Bullets. For the record, it was a Federal Premium P308H Vital Shok (165 grain Barnes TSX). I figure he was shot at about 60 yards, so he got hit with that 165 grain bullet going about 2500 fps and probably hit with 2300 ft/lbs or so of energy, with that Barnes Bullet expanding and dumping almost all of that energy inside the body.

The Rest of the weekend

After we dressed the hog, we put him in a walk-in cooler because we were tired and not in the mood to clean him fully. Went fishing, and Oldest caught a nice bass. Best I did was get some nibbles and got one on but he jumped and threw the hook. Charles landed a nice one, and his son did too. But fishing didn’t last long as it was getting hot and we were all tired and hungry. Back to the cabin, eat, nap.

Upon rising, Charles and I went back to the task of cleaning the hog. That was a chore. Son, next time you need to shoot a small hog. 🙂 I’ve never shot a hog this size or dealt with one this size this close up. It was constantly amazing to me how thick his shield was. The entire side of this hog was just armor, thick, and very heavy. You need a solid and strong bullet, all hail the mighty Barnes. We spoke with the ranch manager and he contacted a local guy to see what we could do with the head. We’re going to see about having a European mount done. We don’t need to make a trophy out of everything, but this is not just his first but yes it is a big one. Might as well have something more than just memories. 🙂

We went back out that evening but we didn’t see anything. Charles and his son did have an opportunity, but the hog ran off and they were unable to connect on the running shot (it’s not easy). Oh and Charles’ son had a bummer earlier. While we were cleaning the hog, Charles’ son was still out in the field. Hogs came by, he stalked up, knelt and took aim and… click. The round didn’t go off. Bad primer? hard primer? who knows, but no bang. He was quick enough to work the bolt and chamber a new round, but alas by then the hogs were off. Bummer that he didn’t get the shot off, but he did everything right from staying in the field to stalking to remedying the malfunction. I say that’s well-worthy of praise!

Had to get home early on Sunday so we left before sunrise, leaving Charles and his son sleeping in the cabin. Bummer we had to go so soon, but we were both tired and drained and ready for a shower. 😉  Charles has the bigger cooler and will drop the meat off on his way home. I’ll take it to the butcher in a few days and we’ll have lots of sausage in the freezer.

My take

I’m so happy.

Oh sure, if I bagged one that’d be nice… but this was so much better. It’s great to see my Son so excited, so ready, so happy. But also, so disciplined. He took instruction from me so well, from studying anatomy charts, to listening to me talking about visualizing success, imagining the hog there, calming yourself, finding the target (“Aim small, miss small, right Dad?”), don’t take too long but also don’t rush it, smooth trigger press. He did everything right, and it paid off.

What all did he take from this? I don’t know. He doesn’t really know either, other than the immediate payoff of the joy of the accomplishment along with lots of meat. As his uncle congratulated him, “You put dinner, lunch, and breakfast on the table!”. I’m thinking more about the long-term. Will there be something in his life that will be able to be traced back to this weekend, to that moment? We’ll just have to wait and see.

Meantime, I have guns to clean. It’s all sandy out there and there’s grit and sand in everything. You work the bolt on that rifle and it just grinds and makes me cringe. I can’t expand/collapse the stock on my 6.8 without it sounding like sandpaper. I think that was the only bummer of the weekend was all the sand and dust everywhere.

I must give big thanx to Charles. His support and generosity made this all possible. Thank you, my friend. Y’all go visit and support his site, Tactical Gun Review.

Son, you did good. I’m proud of you.

Mead – my second experience(s)

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

I tried mead.

I liked mead.

I wanted to try more.

Wife said she was curious to try, so next time I went to the store the goal was an introduction for her and further exploration for me. With that in mind I bought one of the same, the Redstone Meadery’s Traditional Mountain Honey Wine. I also bought one of their Juniper varieties. Finally, something totally different, a Chaucer’s Mead.

I picked Chaucer’s merely because it was not-Redstone. But I thought the addition of a packet of mulling spices was a cool thing so hey, why not.

The first thing I wanted to try was the Chaucer’s. I open the bottle and smell. Certainly smelled like sweet wonderful honey. Then I tasted it. The taste was wonderful to me, yes, better than the Redstone (to my palate, anyways). What’s the difference? Well, Chaucer’s tasted and had a mouthfeel that was almost exactly like honey. The Redstone of course smells like honey, but the taste is different. It’s like the Redstone has a honey with a “bite” to it. The closest analogy I can think of is say how Barq’s root beer has “bite” compared to say Mug root bear. But that’s not even really a fair nor accurate comparison, but I know of no other way to convey this by just typing. Mouthfeel as well, with the Chaucer’s feeling “thicker”, more of that glycerin-like honey-ness. But certainly, Chaucer’s isn’t pure honey. I liken it to saying it’s like drinking honey that has some white wine in it. It’s really amazing how honey-like the Chaucer’s is, by comparison to the Redstone, and I thought that was pretty honey-like.

Of course, since I had a bottle of the Redstone Traditional, I cracked it open for some side-by-side comparison to get the above “analysis” down. The Redstone is OK, but my palate prefers Chaucer’s.

So with that, the Redstone Juniper… well, the Juniper added an interesting twist to it. I’m not sure if I liked it or not. Hard to say, because I think I was more mentally caught up on the “Redstone vs. Chaucer” difference. That which made Redstone Redstone stood out more to me and I think I focused more on that than the Juniper. Still, I finished the bottle so it must not have been horrible. 😉

As for the mulling spices. I tried it. I’m not sure I like it, but I’m not sure I gave it a fair shake. I heated up a cup of the Chaucer’s mead in the microwave, then let one of the bags steep for a few minutes. Mind you, their instructions are to use one “tea” bag for half the bottle and two for the whole bottle. So I may have overdone it. Or, maybe I don’t like hot mead. Next time I should heat it up and then try drinking “plain” mead warm. See how that fits me. As well, make it properly according to the directions. Finally, after letting the spices steep, chill the mulled mead back down to say in the 40º range and see how that tastes. Of course, trying other spice mixes could be something to consider as well. I mean, who knows how long this might have been sitting on the shelf and if those spices lost some oomph.

Wife’s take? She doesn’t like it. She thinks it’s neat, but since she doesn’t like eating raw honey, it’s not surprising she doesn’t like this. But she does think it’s cool and even went back to try some again. In fact, she joked that she needs to start eating more raw honey to see if she can acquire more of a taste for it. My take on that? She thinks it’s cool and is willing to continue trying it… so long as it’s closer to the Chaucer’s than the Redstone.

Anyways, this is fun. It’s wonderful to explore new things and expand your horizons.

Mead – my first experience

/ hsoi / 5 Comments

It caught my eye one day while strolling down an aisle at Spec’s,

Mead.

I’ve heard about it throughout my life. One of the oldest beverages. The nectar of the gods. Vikings. Ren Fairs. And so on. But I’ve never tasted or experienced it in any way, other than lore. After seeing it for sale that one day, I figured one of these days I’d have to try it.

Today is that day.

There wasn’t a lot of variety on the shelf. And having no idea what’s what, I picked this one from Redstone Meadery. I picked it because it was “traditional”. The others all appeared to be mead with stuff, like fruits or herbs or whatever. I figure for a first time, I ought to try just “plain old mead”.

The first thing that struck me was reading the label: honey wine. I admit, I had no idea that’s what it was. Sounded interesting.

So I got home, put it into the fridge for a few hours. It was quite helpful that the label explained a few things, like serving temperature. I get the feeling the folks at Redstone know mead is obscure and most people won’t know how to deal with it. So it’s cool they dedicate some label space to the essential questions. A few minutes ago I popped open the bottle and poured some.

The first thing that struck me was, of course, the honey. Wow. The smell is wonderful, if you like honey. That’s what it smells like: a good honey. Then there are other smells, including the “wine/alcohol” that hits you. Not in a bad way, just that it’s not honey. Of course, it’s much less viscous than honey.

The taste?

Honey. Drinkable honey.

It’s actually more complex than that, but of course, that’s the dominant flavor. Even the mouthfeel is honey-like, tho again, not as viscous.

There’s something about it I don’t like. I’m not sure where to place it. It may be the “alcohol-ish overtones” that just don’t jive to my brain: honey isn’t supposed to taste like that! But there’s also something that I really like, because when you bring the glass up to drink and your nose enters the glass and inhales, all that honey smell is wonderful. If I just sit and smell it for a while, it’s really a nice smell; so many subtle overtones. I will say, after having consumed a bit now, I’m starting to feel like I’ve consumed too much sweet stuff. It’s rich. Very vibrant and alive. So while my brain and tastebuds are still figuring things out, the simple fact I keep going back for more tells me there’s certainly something I like and certainly something I wish to continue to explore.

I may end up not liking it. But for now, this is… an adventure. I’ll finish this bottle. Then I’d like to try some of their other “flavored” meads to see what those are like. Then I’d like to try other brands. Might even try it really cold, and maybe even warm it a bit. I figure after once I explore it enough, I’ll know if I really like it or not. But I do like it enough to want to finish this bottle, continue to make sense of the flavors and smells and overall experience, and then go back for more.

One thing that perked my interest. I’ve always thought beekeeping would be kinda cool. Wouldn’t it be interesting to have my own bees and make my own mead? Ah, what fun. 🙂

Off to pour another glass.