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Next on tap for the non-alky spot in the warehouse’s kegerator? Hibiscus soda!

I love root beer, but the ingredients are expensive, and I’m still on the fence about adding caramel color to make it more appealing to the masses. So what other sodas can be kegged? Numerous ones – though I’m not a straight-up cola fan, and am generally not into fruit sodas either. However, our other brewer on the premises suggested a hibiscus soda – not unlike a common Mexican summer drink, oaxaca or sweet waters – made with jamaica (hibiscus), lime, cucumber, strawberries, or other summery ingredients. After checking out several recipes, I opted for the simplest: dried hibiscus blossoms, sugar and water. The test batch, completed Tuesday night came out with great color and flavor – even working with a recipe that listed “sugar: amount to taste”. I already liked hibiscus in herbal tea – this just brings it to an evening drink with the carbonation. It also competes with the trendy pomegranate drinks, since hibiscus is also high in Vitamin C.

The keg is carbonating for several days with 4 gallons of water – on Monday, I’ll make up what is essentially the hibiscus soda syrup in one gallon of water to be added to the keg and carbonated for an additional 3-4 days. That makes it ready to go for 4th of July weekend – and the following weekend’s art show. Here’s the basic recipe in case you feel like trying it – the non-keg, quick’n’dirty way to carbonate is to make it with half the water and top up with club soda:

Hibiscus Soda

2 quarts water

1 cup dried hibiscus blossoms (at groceries stores in the West, or in Mexican markets)

1/2 cup sugar

Boil the hibiscus blossoms in the water for ~4 minutes. Let steep another 10-15 minutes and strain. Add the sugar and mix thoroughly. Carbonate and pour over ice. Makes 2 quarts (duh).

One of my strongest memories of my maternal grandfather was of him fishing. He loved to fish, mostly with rapalas, and to this day I could probably pick out for you what he considered the best rapala for rainbow and german brown trout. I of course learned to fish, though I haven’t used the skill in years – which is OK, since trout is not one of my favorite dishes. However, most of his visits to see us included long afternoons by a river or lake, complete with one cooler filled with sandwiches and drinks, and the other empty and waiting for the fish that almost always filled the cooler. Like all fishermen, his stories grew with time, although the photographs did his skills justice at least in number of fish caught, if not in size of each fish.

Bragging about catching fish is normal, but he had one skill while engaged in fishing that my brother and I found decidely NOT normal. One of his favorite spots near my parents’ place was a lake regularly stocked with fish due to its proximity to a fish hatchery. The lake wasn’t particularly interesting to kids, but it did have crawdads. Crawdads, as the smaller, blue collar version of lobster, were not worth good fishermens’ time to bring them home and fix them for dinner. But my brother and I could poke at them with sticks in the shallow water at least, with their claws swiping hazily at our efforts. But when my grandfather would discover one, he would scoop it up without a word, toss it in his trucker style hat, and plop the hat back on his head. He’d look at us and say, “What? That’s what you do with crawdads!”

Shocked and a little awed at the man who exposed his scalp (for his hair was starting to thin in his 70s) to the pinchers of the small beast, we’d tug on our mom’s shirt, to get her to explain this behavior. More than half the time, she hadn’t seen it, and so didn’t understand our confused looks. The crawdad would be kept under the hat for a while, and returned to the water soon after.

I still don’t know why he’d do that – other than to stop the fussing of his grandkids for a good half hour. And when I see crawdads now, I have a tendency to believe their first use is as something to keep under one’s hat, at least long enough to confuse children.

The new garden is going pretty well – with lots of bare spots as I think carefully about what to fill up the remaining space with. There’s a section for herbs that includes some Iranian varieties gifted by a fellow gardener (because who would refuse Iranian tarragon?), peas twisting around the fence, a scattering of greens that is fighting off some determined insects, basil that can’t grow fast enough for my taste, potatoes, onions, brussel sprouts and nasturtiums doing quite well, and multiple types of peppers and tomatoes that are fighting the irritating flea beetles. Sometimes organic gardening rules feel like a serious handicap, although usually it feels like cutting out additional work.

This is mainly true as we consider whether to raise beans. Since the green bean in black bean sauce recipe has been perfected (to be posted soon), it’s a nice fantasy to imagine bringing home healthy green beans and garlic from the garden to be mixed with black bean sauce, other seasonings and served over Texmati rice (my stomach is growling already). But if there is one thing I am being warned away from planting, it’s beans. Specifically, the bean beetle (I suspect it is the Mexican Bean Beetle described here) is a terrible scourge – serious enough that some gardeners propose that everyone make a pact to not raise beans for one year, just to discourage the insect. Others recommend an intensive plan of covering the plants in a tent of red tulle (red, I am told, lasts longer in the UV rays than white tulle. No other colors were discussed.) that you must quickly and covertly enter when harvesting beans. Stories of dive bombing beetles, of beautiful beans that disappeared overnight, of a garden plot turned practically brown with the thick layer of bugs all have me thinking I may have to give up on beans in this plot.

My only hope at this point is a friend’s suggestion: why not find a beetle-resistant variety of bean? I suppose we’re not too picky: just something with the texture and general taste of a fresh green bean. But the internet isn’t yielding any answers – most research into producing beetle-resistant beans has been limited to soybean crops. But if I could find a good resistant bean, I’d be all set – though I’d probably try the red tulle plan too just to be sure.

In the meantime, spinach, the garden’s first crop in most years is ready to eat! After this weekend, we’ll be able to start having summer salads and use herbs too. I can’t wait to see the crazy brussel sprout stalks shoot up, and tomato flowers forming. A drip irrigation system is in the plans and if I can keep up with the volunteer sunflowers and other weeds there will be much to enjoy out of the garden this year. Having sunlight kicks ass.