Dinner

Now that the ice is gone from the local lakes and rivers, the merry little group I belong to is beginning to think about spring launch. Some of us use a class of shanty barge called “Retreat”. The boats were designed by Wm. Atkin during WWII. As boats go, they are cheap to build and maintain. Tied up to a river bank, the boats provide us with a much needed getaway.

One of the things that really makes life on the water enjoyable is that we don’t have to use any refrigeration. The boats are equipped with ice boxes, but we don’t use them very often. In our case, as we harvest the food we grow, a portion of it is processed and then popped into a dehydrator. The food being dried in this manner does not need to be refrigerated and will stay safe for quite some time.

When we want to take off for a bit, we pack meat, vegetables, eggs and cheese (all dried) and off we go. A short note about the cheese. The cheese I use is a firm white cheese called Nabulsi. I have always had a love/hate relationship with this cheese. I like the texture and flavor but it is really salty. One day I pulled some of it out and offered it to a friend who was visiting. She took one bite and said:
“You eat it like this?”
Yes, I replied. She then informed me that the salt was there as a preservative and the cheese was supposed to be soaked first. My fault for not growing up in Ramallah, like she did.

Tonight I will be sitting down to a dinner consisting of stew, bread, and some excellent rosé from Boskydel vineyards. As always, all of the ingredients that make up the stew were dried.

Life is good