unicornduke reblogged your post and added:
It was super fun!
oh, Vegetable Manager (Aaron) had said he’d intended to join us last night, he was interested in the fire experiment, but he actually fell asleep for like four hours in the evening, so he woke up and it was 10pm and he was super disoriented. he’s been on the tractor until dark at least three nights this week though so I don’t blame him.
He said the final deciding reason we went with Chandler strawberries was that they ripened at a time that was specifically good for the CSA, in terms of what else was in the share at that point, but he agrees, there are more flavorful varieties out there. We couldn’t remember what variety you liked best, though.
Tonight he made an angel food cake to go with the last of the strawberries (they’re not going to officially harvest any more, there aren’t enough for shares, but Farmkid has promised me she’ll come picking with me tomorrow to save some of the late-bloomers from the scavenging squirrels), and we invited him to dinner and he said “oh I have a chicken in the oven” and we said “oh so do we” and so he brought his chicken over when it was done and we did side-by-side comparisons and then had twice the side dishes. We both cut the spines out and cooked them flattened, but he did his under a frying pan (to press it flat) on a cookie sheet and at a much higher temperature for a shorter time, and had marinated it first; I hadn’t really, and did it at 400 for like an hour (it only needed 45 minutes but I forgot to check it), and I had left the spine attached on one side figuring I’d just cook it and then make stock from it. He also dries the marinade off the skin before cooking his, and I just marinated it right in the pan I was cooking in, for a really short time, and then cooked it in like a quarter cup of assorted liquids with a bunch of herbs and an onion.
So his was moister, and mine was more herb-y. Farmkid said she liked his better, but then reassured me that mine was all right. She’s a born politician, that one.
Anyhow-- we’ve all resolved to practice cooking chickens more. Because, well. I mean. We have a bunch of them around.
And now I have all the bones and skin and spines and necks and pan drippings from two chickens in a pot on the stove making what ought to be some bomb-ass chicken stock, to add to the fridge currently full of chicken stock...
