At least the worms managed to make a quart of castings before they died. I was impressed. 

I have a writing deadline to meet, which means that this weekend my writing process kicked into high gear. That process being to do everything else I could possibly think of to do around the house other than sit down and write.

In addition to cleaning out the worm bin and getting it ready for worm family number two, who move in on Monday, I rearranged the tomato garden, did multiple loads of laundry, cleaned the bathroom, cooked a zucchini-feta fritatta, improvised some refrigerator pickles, and tried to jump start the kombucha.

That last project (pictured far right) appears to have initially failed as the result of excess creativity on my part. Standard kombucha recipes tell you to use plain black or green tea. But, why not jazz it up a bit, I thought, and brewed up two gallons of Market Spice Tea. I stock up on this stuff once a year; it tastes, to me, like being a teenager in Seattle in the 80s. 

So of course it could only be better kombuchified, right? 

Not so much.

The kombucha mother, it turns out, has an unsophisticated palate, and shrinks in horror from anything spicy. 

Such as, say, the cinnamon, cloves, and orange oil found in Market Spice Tea.

Other, more experienced kombucha brewers assure me that she’s probably not dead — she’s just in shock. So I’m trying to talk her back to life with a nice soothing bath of weak, sugary Lipton. We’ll see.

The pickles are from Vera — or, rather, the cukes are. Lately she’s taken to bringing whatever doesn’t sell at the Andersonville Farmer’s Market by the Hideout after bingo, and giving it away to any takers. As a result, bags of tiny Persian (on left) and Asian cucumbers are taking over the crisper. The Persians in particular are terrific raw — but how much Greek salad can one person eat? So: pickles.

I packed the cukes into jars along with some pickling spice, some dill, and sweet onions and/or wee heads of garlic, then drenched them in a very boring, old-school brine of white vinegar and sugar. At the last minute I remembered to add in some horseradish leaves — the tannins in them should help keep the pickles crisp for at least a week or so. So far they are quite tart, but I’m hoping they mellow out in another day or so.

Now, what do do with these green tomatoes?