All 40 boxes of chocolates have been claimed! Thank you so much for your support over the years.
Chocolates for Charity 2018 – final bow!
All the boxes are now claimed! Chocolates for Charity is closed. Thanks for your support over the years.
Yep, it’s that time of year again…with a twist!
The twist is that I’m getting ready to retire from chocolatiering. This year marks 30 years since I started cooking up chocolate bonbons in the kitchen of my college dorm. Since an Imperial ton is only 2,240 pounds (and a metric ton slightly less than that), I think I can safely say that I have made a ton of bonbons in the course of my gloriously excessive career as an amateur chocolatier.
Chocolates for Charity, likewise, has been running since 2003. Your generous sweet teeth have raised over $50,000 over the last 15 years for the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, the American Textile History Museum, the Susan G Komen Foundation, and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. Thank you.
This year, Chris (who’s been one of my chocolate helpers for some years now) and I are teaming up to do Chocolates for Charity. Chris is pretty expert by now, and is thinking about possibly-maybe-perhaps continuing the tradition next year, so he and I are working together and we’re going to do the chocolatiering at his place. We’re splitting the planning and the work 50-50, so he can get an idea of what’s involved, and then he’ll decide whether he wants to carry the tradition forward. (I hope he does! It’s a marvelous tradition and I would hate to see it die out.)
Anyway….this is a long way of saying “Get your chocolates while you can!”
This year’s beneficiary is, again, the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles. Chocolates this year are $120/box, of which $90 will be tax-deductible. I have 30 boxes available.
(All the boxes have been claimed.)
A few other tidbits:
- The chocolates are perishable, as good chocolates are wont to be. Eat them within a week or else put them in the fridge. If you put them in the fridge, my advice is to let the chocolates come to room temperature before eating them; you’ll get better flavor that way. (of course, I have never been disciplined enough to follow this advice, but maybe you have more willpower than I do!)
- You can see the chocolates (and flavor lists) for the last few years here:
A bit about my chocolatiering:
I’ve been chocolatiering for almost 30 years now, making about 90-120 pounds of bonbons every November for friends, family, and Chocolates for Charity donors. I spent one winter training with Richard Donnelly of Donnelly Chocolates (who frequently appears in Top 10 lists of American artisan chocolatiers – the most recent appearance was in National Geographic’s Top 10), so I’m pretty good at chocolatiering now. I’d put my work on par with some of the best artisan chocolatiers – though I don’t have the equipment to do some of the really fancy stuff, you won’t find better chocolates elsewhere. I also do a lot of exotic flavors that you won’t find elsewhere.
I have 30 boxes available this year. I’ll update this post when all the boxes are claimed. (Don’t wait – they’re usually gone within hours!)
More than my weight in weasels
101 days ago, I was a couch potato. Today?
That’s me squatting 780 weasels (195 pounds) – more than my body weight!
And here’s me at 99 days, deadlifting 700 weasels (175 pounds):
That kind of improvement exceeds my wildest expectations – in fact, it sounds like something you hear about in an ad on late-night TV. You know, “I was a 48-year old couch potato…but after 101 days of Weasel-Power! Boot Camp, I was squatting over 780 weasels!” That would totally have me going out and buying their Weasel-Power video series and their “Weasel-Flex” exercise widget! (For the more gently minded, of course, there would also be “Weasel Yoga – Make yourself supple as a weasel!”. Or – for you digital folks – the electronic game with social media leaderboards, “Wea-Fit”.)
But the amazing part (to me) is that I’ve made this massive improvement without a single injury. I’ve had plenty of muscle soreness, and I’ve tweaked my wrist, shoulder, etc. a few times, but no major injuries and no soreness lasting more than a few days. This kind of improvement isn’t my expertise and certainly isn’t luck: it’s having an excellent trainer. Touissant has done a fantastic job of encouraging me to push as hard as I can without going beyond my physical limits (general or from minor injuries), and helping me improve my form so I can lift more efficiently while staying safer.
Just as importantly, working with Touissant has gradually enabled me to trust that I’m not going to hurt myself lifting, which has enabled me to put everything I’ve got into the workout, rather than worrying about whether I’m going to hurt myself this time. I have a long history of overdoing it exercising and then losing months to injuries – now that I can trust him to watch out for me, I don’t have to unconsciously limit myself and can put everything I’ve got into the task at hand.
Another thing that’s made rapid progress possible is that Mike and I are working out together. We get fewer exercises done total, but it’s more fun to be able to work out with a friend and partner, so I’m more comfortable working out and more motivated to show up.
All of which has made me realize how important having a mentor and a peer group is to learning/doing anything new. People have asked me how I learn each new medium with lightning speed. I’ve always said, “Because I focus obsessively on things and I read a lot,” but I’ve also realized it’s because I reflexively seek out mentors and social groups that can answer my questions, encourage me, and keep me from getting frustrated when I tackle my super-over-ambitious projects.
I think this is true for others as well. So the online course I’m developing will offer both direct mentoring (from me, of course) plus a forum where students can interact, encourage each other, discuss the exercises and their current work, etc. Because, especially for people who are nervous about a new topic, having someone to guide, encourage, and support you makes learning much easier (sometimes it’s what makes learning possible at all!), and having a peer group to work with helps you put that learning into practice once class is over.
Speaking of the class…I’ve been pretty quiet about my teaching business for the last few months, mostly because I’ve been hard at work on it! But I’m getting closer to releasing my class. Close enough that I’m comfortable divulging a few details.
The class is going to cover the essentials of color in handweaving. The first part will cover basic color theory: the fundamental properties of color (hue, value, and saturation), how colors interact when interlaced in cloth, and a brief discussion of color mixing.
The second part talks about design: How to set the mood of a handwoven project by controlling drama, energy, and ambiance with color.
And the third part walks you through the design process: Choosing and using a warp color, weft color, and draft to achieve the mood you want.
The class will be offered in two formats. One will be a 1-2 hour streaming video plus handouts. That will (cross fingers) be released in November.
The other class option will be a full online course, with a discussion forum, exercises, feedback from the instructor (me!), etc. I’m planning to open registration in mid to late November, with the first session starting in January.
Here are two slides from the section on the design process:
I hope that, once my course is released, my students will be making weaselly fast progress with color!
![By Keven Law (originally posted to Flickr as On the lookout...) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](https://i2.wp.com/www.tienchiu.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/least_weasel.jpg?ssl=1)
Cat-iversary #5!
Five years ago, one of the last bastions of human freedom fell to invading aliens…
…and there was much rejoicing.
Of course they were the kings and queens of all they surveyed:
They were yin to each other’s yang:
They watched TV together:
Napped together:
And hunted self-driving android mice together:
They became expert photobombers:
And, of course, they ruled the household with an iron paw:
Needless to say, we are thoroughly besotted with our despotic alien tyrants adorable cats, and look forward to many more years with both Fritz and Tigress!
Happy cat-iversary to us!!
Nefarious plots
The National Heirloom Expo and my wonderful visit with John Marshall have inspired me to start planning all sorts of mischief. In particular, I am working on nefarious plots – garden plots, that is. And evil plans (coming soon!) – plans for tools and equipment that will enable me to weave luscious velvet!
I am, believe it or not, already late on garden planning. That’s because I live in an area with extraordinarily mild winters – the lowest temperature all year is usually around 30F, and it only frosts five or six times a year. So gardening year-round is definitely a “thing” – and September and October are the best months to start planting fall crops. That means I’m already late in planning out the garden.
My winter plans are fairly simple. I love English peas, so I’m going to plant pounds and pounds of them all over the garden and then eat peas until I sink down roots, turn green, and start sprouting tendrils. (Don’t worry – if that actually happens, I’ll post photos.) But I’m also going to plant lettuce, kale, brussels sprouts, and this weird hybrid that bears tiny mini-kales on a brussels sprouts stalk (amazing what these mad geneticists get up to in the lab!). And some tasty mustard greens. And oh yeah, didn’t someone mention getting 25 kinds of garlic in last week’s blog post?
Actually, nope. That’s twenty-six kinds of garlic, not twenty-five. Apparently someone is not so good at counting. 🙂
My foodie buddy Chris Cianci and I set out to taste-test the garlics. We decided to split the group into three parts – the softnecks to the right, the hardnecks to the middle, and the Creoles to the left. (The varieties were classified on the fly, so may not be in the right categories – look them up yourself if you want to be sure.)
Chris and I decided to start with the milder garlics, the softnecks. We separated out the eight varieties on the right of the photo, picked two cloves off each bulb, and then roasted one clove and left the other raw. For each variety, we tasted a roasted clove, then a paper-thin slice of a raw clove. In between, we cleansed our palates by chewing on bread and Italian flat-leafed parsley, which reputedly is good for cleansing garlic flavor, and rinsing down with plenty of water. We recorded our taste impressions in a shared Google spreadsheet. (Because doesn’t everyone?)
Naively, we had assumed we’d be able to taste all eight varieties in one day – especially since we started with the softneck garlics, which are generally milder than the other two types. But after just five varieties, we had to give up because we could no longer taste anything but garlic, even if we were chewing on something else (like Italian flat-leafed parsley). Truthfully, we should have stopped after three or four – especially since, 24 hours and much tooth-brushing and palate-cleansing later, I could still taste garlic on my tongue.
Clearly, this garlic-tasting is going to be a long-term project.
Garlic, in the Bay Area, gets planted in the fall – usually in October, to be harvested around July. So sometime in the next two weeks I need to figure out where to put 25 – wait, 26! – varieties of garlic such that they won’t interfere with tomato-growing. Since I’m space-limited at home, I’m thinking I may put them into a friend’s backyard. Since my buddy Chris has a nice big backyard that he is not using, clearly he needs a bunch more pots, this time containing garlic as well as tomatoes. (Fortunately, Chris loves both tomatoes and garlic. 🙂 )
Which gets me to tomato planning.
This is what the future of a tomato variety looks like:
These are tomato seeds after cleaning and drying. I’m using two different methods for cleaning seeds – the traditional way is to squeeze the juice, seeds, and gel into a small cup, then let everything ferment for a day or two. The fermentation removes the gel around the tomato seed, which contains a germination inhibitor, and also kills some seed-transmitted diseases. You can also clean the seeds chemically, using TSP (trisodium phosphate, a powerful detergent) followed by a 10% bleach bath to kill pathogens. I tried both ways, and plan to do a germination test soon to see which works better for me.
The notes on the paper plate are my field notes. Every plant has a label with a description of the variety and the number of the plant. Here is Fuzzy Mix #176, which grows upright:
And here’s Fuzzy Mix #301, which is almost flat:
When I collect tomatoes from a particular variety, I write down the plant number, the name of the variety, and any relevant notes about the plant or the fruit (good tasting, upright/flat, etc.). I also note whether the tomato grew from an isolated blossom (covered when flowering to prevent cross-pollination) or from a non-isolated blossom, which might contain an accidental cross with another tomato.
This information then follows the tomato seeds through fermentation, and eventually winds up in my database, which I affectionately call Tien’s Tomatobase. (What? You mean every gardener doesn’t have a tomato database? Scandalous!! What are they thinking??) There is an online wiki of tomato varieties called Tatiana’s Tomatobase that inventories literally thousands of tomato varieties, but mine is far more modest: so far there are only 200 plants and 72 varieties in my database. (See! Still a total piker. Lots more room to obsess.)
I won’t bore you with the details of the database structure – especially since I may be tweaking it soon. But the basic idea is to track the parentage of each plant as I start mixing varieties together. I don’t have a lot of space – I can fit maybe 100 plants in my back yard if I really squeeze – and you really want to grow out at least 25 of each variety you’re trying to create. So I’m thinking I can try creating a max of four new varieties. (Sadly, Mike will not allow me to destroy our neighbors’ houses with a flamethrowing mini-tractor so I can clear room for more tomatoes. If he weren’t the most awesome spouse ever I might get upset with him for nixing all my perfectly reasonable ideas.)
Anyway, I am considering what crosses to try now.
Meanwhile, these are lurking ominously:
There are 61 seed packets so far, each of which will have to be entered into the database. I also need to do germination tests on a couple of the more critical ones to ensure that the seeds are viable. After that I can pull out the plants and start planting peas!
(And making velvet. Lots of adventures around velvet. But this post is already too long. What’s a girl to do?? …next blog post, I promise!)
Meanwhile, tomorrow is a very special day. An anniversary! I’m not telling you of what or who, but I’m betting you can guess. Here’s a hint.
