Spring Break Pickle Camp: El Cosmico Marfa

I can’t wait for March and not just because the poppies I planted in November will be at full tilt, but because I’m headed back to West Texas. I’m teaching two workshops which you can sign up for here. The friendly folks at El Cosmico said that accommodations that are not-camping are pretty much snatched up already, but what could be more fun than pickle camp?! We’ll be camping out in the desert at one of its prettiest times.

They have tents that are already set up if you’re still building your camp skills, and there are bathrooms, showers, and sinks for washing up.

Hope you can join me in the high desert!

Field Trip: New Orleans Pharmacy Museum

Last month I visited the New Orleans Pharmacy Museum (research and geekout heaven!!!) and I’ve been meaning to share with you some of the shots I took from there.

Admission is $10 and touring around this historic building (and upstairs home) was worth every penny. A woman came in the museum during our visit and informed the clerk that she was the great, great granddaughter of the building’s first occupant and America’s first licensed pharmacist, Louis Dufilho, Jr. The building was constructed in 1823 to be an apothecary for Dr. Dufilho, Jr. and his family’s home upstairs. He sold the building and pharmacy to Dr. J. Dupas and his wife in 1855, who operated a medical practice upstairs and the pharmacy downstairs until 1871. The building was later abandoned and damaged from hurricanes, until the museum was founded in 1950. The collections within are primarily donated from local apothecaries and Loyola University.

An old soda fountain, common in pharmacies, for the dispensing of healing herbal tonics.

Bitters heaven. I thought about the history and the hundreds of brands on the market in the 19th century, which I read more about in Brad Parsons’ book on the subject.

Also, a bottle hoarder’s dreamland…

I now want drawers for all my herbs and botanicals…

More bottles upstairs, filled with vintage botanicals. Also an eyeglass collection, for those interested in specs.

Hmm…sounds like a tasty project, in the name of medicine, of course:

Grapefruit margaritas

Citrus season is officially here in Texas. I’m currently (happily!) elbow deep in Meyer lemons, grapefruit and tangerines from the Rio Grande Valley.

photo courtesy of TexaSweet

I received a complimentary box of Rio Star grapefruit from TexaSweet and decided to make grapefruit margaritas with these lovely fruits. Since they’re not certified organic and I wasn’t able to ask the farmer directly about their pesticide spraying practices I opted to just use the juice for this recipe below, but check out these ideas for using rind, pith and seeds for folks who do have organic fruit to work with.

Grapefruit Margaritas

yields 4 8-oz glasses

1. Start with 3 large grapefruit, juice them for a yield of ~1 cup juice (I don’t strain mine), pour into a quart-sized mason jar. I recommend using a quart jar as your shaker since this quantity of margarita will overfill your regular sized cocktail shaker. Pour a splash of the juice onto a small saucer if you would like salted rims.

2. Add 2-4 Tbs light agave syrup (depending on your sweetness preference) and 4-6oz of tequila (depending on how strong you’d like them to be) to the jar.

3. If you have bitters on hand, I’d add a few dashes of grapefruit, lemon or chipotle bitters to the mixture now.

4. Prepare your glasses. I’m a salted rims kind of gal. Scatter a few tablespoons of kosher salt onto another saucer. To get the salt to stick, dip your glasses’ rims in the grapefruit juice saucer or slide a wedge of any un-juiced citrus along the rim. Plop rim in salt. Get fancy like I did and dip them in grapefruit zest salt. Fill glasses with ice.

Take a potato peeler and shave off 4 strips of zest (carefully) from the remaining halves left from juicing. 

5. Cap the jar with your margarita mixture and shake! For pretty foamy top, toss into the shaker a few ice cubes (or frozen grapefruit juice cubes if you have them) and shake!

Pour mixture into prepared glasses, filling each glass halfway at first and then topping off to make four even glasses. Drop zest pieces onto the top of the foamy beverages and enjoy!