A rainy day. We've had more rain in the past 24 hours than at any time this spring, which is good. The vegetable garden hadn't yet gotten a full soak. I finished putting up the fish I caught on the Copper River last week. The smoked fish batch came out of the smoker early this morning. I then basted it in Bushmills Irish whiskey, in honor of my dear friend, James Acord, who died in January.
He and I shared many, many bottles of Bushmills over the years. In the spring of 1976, we showed up in Cordova from Seattle on St. Patricks Day. At the Alaska Bar, they thought they had run out of Bushmills, but a guy who had worked there as a bartender in the 1950s was sitting there as a customer. He remembered a box of Bushmills that had somehow gotten stored in the wrong place. The bartender let Jim and I come along on the search. We found the box. The bottles had cork stoppers, and had been shipped to Cordova in 1949.
Below is some of the King Salmon ceviche I made from carcass scraps from my fillet of the big one from our trip. With purple corn nacho chips and Rosenblum Aparicio Zinfandel.
The flower of the Black from Tula heirloom tomato is the most interesting tomato flower I've ever seen. This one is about the size of a silver dollar. Here's one, from my greenhouse.
The tomato itself, when fully mature isn't very pretty, but it is the most delicious tomato I've ever tasted. The flower is second generation, from seeds I saved in 2010.
8 comments:
Why do you drink that Bushmill's swill?? If it's Irish you want, get Jameson's or, even better, Tulamore Dew.
The Bushmills connection is historical. Jim liked Bushmills. That's why I basted the fish in it.
That tomato looks unbelievable. I wish I could taste it! And I love that you remembered your friend with the Bushmills. A nice tribute.
I'm ready to come to dinner at your house, Phil!
That tomato flower is amazing! The tomatoes are beautiful!
I'm sure I'm not the first to do it but have been cross pollinating my tomato flower, dab the paint brush in that plant's flower then in this flower over here... hoping for a prolific summer.
flying fish,
We keep the greenhouse door open a fair amount, so bees do the job.
Thanks for sharing. Yummm!! For the tomatoes and the whisky!!!
I'll have to try these. I raise Black Krim and Cherokee Purple, they also can have a huge flower and the tomatoes look like yours. They are soooooooo good. I can't taste a real difference between them and rate them as the best tomatoes I've ever tasted (as do my parents, now they are raising them, too) and they raised tomatoes for years to take to market.
I'm beginning to notice a lot more heirlooms for sale in the stores. I think once people start tasting these wonderful fruit, they (like me) will never be able to eat one of those super market (peices of leather) tomatoes again.
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