What would you call a bottle of booze if you could? Consider a blanche absinthe: Simply Ridge Blanche? (Ridge white) I think it must say, “Ridge Distillery” and it must say “Blanche” or some nonsense (Think: Blanchette or Wormwood Blanche). I’m looking for ideas and I’d love friends (and WS friends, esp.) to help me name the impending product. Want to play a game? What would you call it?

For anyone not following WS, the planets are aligning for us. Sure the Wormwood is great and the pontica and genepy are doing fantastic but one of the BIG missing elements fell into place yesterday.

We took a one night vacation to one of our favorite little lakes: Visit with good friends, get away from the gubmint forms and take a badly needed break. I started walking around the lake’s edge just because it’s beautiful and deep in the Montana Rocky Mountains was…pause for effect…

Angelica!

Beautiful, just coming into ripeness, Angelica! $50-a-pound-Angelica!

In less than an hour, we had harvested over $200 worth! But it’s not about the money. Angelica adds a candy-spicy quality to absinthe that just can’t be replaced by anything else. Four pounds was amazing! But that wasn’t all; With my eyes wide open for Angelica, we found plant cache after plant cache on our way back from the little mountain lake retreat. On Tuesday, we’ll return better equipped to harvest our good fortune. This was the missing piece in the rare herbs list and it fell into our laps by the bushels.

Monday, back to the paper work. Tuesday (after faculty orientation) back to the Angelica. Everything is slowly coming together. Peace Out!

What it is? Damn busy. That’s all.

The “farmin’” has to be done. Rapidly, the A.a. is getting too mature to harvest for absinthe production. We’re cutting and drying pontica and genepy as fast as we can. The Costmary needs to be brought in, too.

The construction is, for all practical purposes, complete. There are a few little odds and ends but if push came to shove, we could start cooking in hours. The final step this week was installing a security system…’cuz crime is so rampant here.

The big burden is the paper work. I’m putting together the application papers and it is “two steps forward, one step back” but it is slowly coming together. I *think* I have the surety bonds lined up and everyday is another form or two completed. I’m trying to be patient, take my time and do this right. Three days of thought here will save three weeks later, I think. I’m calling Helena and Cincinnati every other day just to be sure. So far, the only thing I can compare this to is putting together a Master’s thesis. The “Comps” are just around the corner. Despite the bits of frustration, I can occasionally glimpse bits of light. I can almost imagine firing up the alembic and working on the Genepy Liqueur.*

* that reminds me, I better get that Costmary in asap! Damn.