Fall Bacon

Yesterday, cleaned up the garden, pulled up the last of the tomatoes, pulled in most of the basil (pesto was made), spread out some compost onto the garden beds. Planted 98 cloves of garlic into the one garden bed, the other will lie fallow.

Smoked bacon today. Started the bacon on the 3rd and smoked it today. As usual made one sweet and one savory. That day I started out with a 7 lb pork belly with ribs attached. After trimming I had 2 pre-bacons, a 2.5lb slab for sweet, a 2lb slab for savory and a belly full of spareribs.
Sweet:
1/4 cup dry cure*, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 4 tablespoons Crown Royal maple finished Whisky.
Savory:
1/4 cup dry cure*, 3 bay leaves, 5 smashed garlic, 2 tbs cracked peppercorns, 5 thyme sprigs, 1tbs coriander seeds
Smoked the bacon with Hickory wood chips to an internal temp of 150 degrees F. It took about 2 1/2 hours, grill temp was just over 200.
Sweet was good, but didn't have as big a maple taste as I had expected, but the Savory was fantastic, not too salty, a bit peppery, very savory.

*dry cure from Charcuterie by Ruhlman & Polcyn, 1 part Pink Salt, 4 parts sugar(I use turbinado), 8 parts kosher salt

Hickory Smoked Bacon

Savory

Sweet

Flora
Cyclamen are coming up, I had bought 2 white ones this past spring at Stonecrop Garden's spring Alpine sale, but I don't see them. I expect they will show up next spring.

Cyclamen

 My new Heaths and Heathers all seem to be taking. They all look like they have some new growth at the tips. This one, Erica x Watsonii "Truro" is in bloom and looks great.

Heath "Truro"

Had yellow fall blooming crocus on the side garden and there is a purple one in the backyard. There were more purples in the back, but they must have been disturbed when I prepared the bed for the Heather garden. I didn't get photos of them.

This month's beer list