After a long absence, I’ve returned to giving classes at Ann’s Place. It hasn’t been from lack of desire or planning but from a combination of illness, vacation and bad weather that has kept me away for two-and-a-half months. I decide to start out with an easy exercise in making vanilla but as it takes (or so I thought) a small amount of time, I needed to add on some extra activities that would fill the session. As food is always welcomed by my clients, I decided to have a vinegar tasting prior to our making vanilla.
You keep learning new things about your clients with every session. One of the things I discovered last year when I made a harvest feast was that many of my clients are glutton-intolerant. So this time I would supplement my glutton-rich potato bread with glutton-free flax-oatmeal muffins. Last year I discovered how to make artisanal vinegars and my early experiments were very successful. So I decided to have a class on making your own dressings and how they can taste superior (and be less expensive) than the stuff you can purchase in a store.
Besides the bread and muffins, I brought in a flavored apple-cider vinegar I made in the summer and a red wine berry vinegar I made this fall with one of my mothers. The red wine vinegar is much smoother than the apple cider one, no doubt due the fact that you can only do so much to a harsh albeit inexpensive vinegar that you purchase by the gallon. I was ready for the class.
A few regulars attended but the vast majority of the attendees were new clients, trying horticultural therapy for the first time. So we started talking to get to know each other.
“What could I start growing now?”
“Your cold weather crops, like leeks and greens. You probably should wait until end of March to start the warm weather vegetables like tomatoes and eggplant.”
“What should I use to grow seeds?”
“None of the commercial stuff that you get at Lowe’s or Home Depot. Stay away from Miracle-Grow soil. It sucks. Either go to a nursery and get specialized organic starter or make your own from a combination of peat moss, vermiculite/perlite and compost/dehydrated manure.”
And the talk went on about what a poor winter we have had and when I thought we could start planting outside. But I needed to break up the questions and start tasting the different vinegars that I brought. I made bread so that clients could dip the bread in the vinegar but most tried the vinegar using small spoons. The wine vinegar was the clear winner though some clients were kind of grossed out when I showed them the mother.
“I got this mother from a monk who said that it comes from France and a lineage that is over 100 years old. I have split it apart and am making vinegars with fortified wine as well as apple cider. Each has a unique smell and taste.”
I then passed around the mothers for everyone to see. They have grown to fill their respective jars this winter and I need to refresh them with more wine to keep them alive.
A good beginning. Time to start making vanilla.
To make vanilla, it is pretty simple. 1) Get some vanilla beans. 2) Get some cheap vodka. 3) Chop up the beans and put them in the vodka. 4) Shake occasionally and wait 2-6 months.
But the key to a good vanilla is to express the beans, which are called caviar and look like very tiny fish eggs, so they are better exposed to the vodka. Another key is not to be cheap with the beans: FDA standards call for at least 6 beans per cup (8 oz.) of fluid but the more beans you throw in, the more potent the vanilla.
I gave everyone a jelly jar to put their vanilla as well as functional and decorative stickers. The clients do like to bling up their jars. So after an initial decoration, they started processing their beans.
Everyone brought their own cutting board and knife and quickly got down to the task of cutting up the beans and scrapping out the caviar. It’s these type of activities that everyone seems to settle into a nice rhythm chatting up a neighbor and concentrating on the task at hand. A few need a little help and encouragement, but overall they chop up and scrape their beans while Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong harmonize in the background.
“Who needs a hit?” I inquire as my clients finish up their processing. A few hands go up and I start pouring more than just a few fingers of vodka. It’s drinks all around (at least for the jelly jars) as I fill everyone’s containers. Between the group we quickly polish off a half gallon of vodka. A dead soldier is dropped in the recycling bin. (I wonder what the art therapist will think when she comes down for class the next day?)
Everyone is all smiles with their vanilla, all of the muffins and bread have been eaten and everyone has signed up for the next class on dried flower decoration, which is almost full.
A new year has begun.
