"Carl's Lounge" (Off-Topic Discussion, Traditional Knife "Tales & Vignettes")

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Some years ago (maybe 10?) I got into home roasting coffee. My set up was an old 1500 watt air popcorn popper and a metal strainer. It has been awhile since I've roasted, but my wife is hosting a baby shower tomorrow and asked me to roast some of the last bags of decaf I had on hand (all the regular has been roasted and consumed). I usually roast outside, but I thought I'd try inside today to stay out of the heat. I think I managed ok, since none of the smoke detectors fired! Here are some pictures, with my #35 Churchill playing the star:

The first picture shows my set up (you may spot the finished jars in the background). The second picture is the "roaster" base and reservoir (had to show how much sediment has accumulated over the years). The third picture is the top of the roaster, which was originally a translucent orange, but has since become a smoke-burned brown.





Fresh roasted coffee is the best, hands down. You can make the roast as light or as dark as you please, and the source of the beans makes a lot of difference in the flavor you experience.

 

@Peregrin Gary, your trip ended all's well and that's the main thing! That picture you posted of a white bearded dude reminded me of a certain grandee of the SFOs beginning with C....

 

Man that was fast just had this message on Ebay

You received a refund
We've issued a refund of $ xxxx back to the original funding source you used to purchase this item. Please allow 48 hours for it to process.

We didn't receive valid tracking information from the seller.
Final decision:
This case was found in your favor.

Checked PayPal and the money is already there.

 

That's great news, Randy!
I'm sorry your purchase "went bad" and you had to go through the hassle of reporting, but at least you didn't get permanently victimized. I hope you can find an even better knife to buy with the money that was refunded!

- GT

 

I could not agree more! The smell of freshly roasted coffee brewing is one of my favorite things. This is about 12 hours after roasting.


If you like to use mason jars, I picked up these Coffee Caps a while back. They seem to do a good job letting the roasted coffee off gas, plus you can give them a squeeze when you walk by and get a whiff of coffee. They were originally designed for fermentation and they are also sold in bright colors under the name Pickle Pipes.

 

Those look cool! I’ve let gasses escape by leaving the lids loose, but those caps might work more efficiently.

I love watching the bloom form when you pour the perfect temperature water over the grounds and the smell bursts up like a flower pollinating the air.

 

I heard America's "Tin Man" on the radio Friday afternoon. It has been playing in my head since. Listening to America, Gordon Lightfoot, Jim Croce, Simon and Garfunkel, Pure Prairie League, Cosby, Stills, & Nash, Eric Clapton etc always reminds me of my High School and college years. Much about those years were dark for me. Dark years. But the music wasn't.

 

When I was a kid there was a coffee roasters in Sheffield called Pollard's, and when they were roasting, the gorgeous smell would travel half a mile or more This pic was taken a while before I was born I can remember my mother buying me brandy snaps from the shop when I was 3 or 4 years of age, and being served by the gentlemanly and mustachioed Mr Pollard



Ever since I was young, I have also been very fond of the smell of hops being 'mashed'. With several large breweries in the city back then, their aroma would frequently permeate the 'mucky' Sheffield air. My affection for the smell even survived working at Sheffield's largest brewery, and actually weighing out the hops and pouring them into the huge coppers. Unfortunately, you don't encounter these smells anymore, or only very rarely (the last time I smelled hops mashing it was in the small town of Tadcaster - with Earl Barlow - which houses three large breweries, two of which are very old). I don't know why, maybe there are regulations about emissions or something. I do miss the smell of coffee and hops though

 

Roasting smells --- I remember traveling to Rabaul a few times in the early '90s. Some plant there would roast coconut. It smelled great!

 

I grew up in a small town that had a Hunts food factory. The whole town smelled horrible during tomato season

 

We live by some industrial plant that produces a fish smell every so often. They had to settle a civil class action suit with the residence (among which I am one). I hope my small coffee and bbq smells are more appreciated by my neighbors!

 

That can't be pleasant.

 

It isn’t, but thankfully it is infrequent.

 

In 2003 Nestle closed it's Fulton, N.Y. factory, started in 1899. Driving into town you were enveloped in the smell of chocolate. I'm no chocolate addict but even I loved it!

 

So I'm an idiot. Or maybe not.
I made a couple of questionable purchases yesterday. I think the Queen is a worthwhile addition, but what was I thinking when I bought that Schrade? Maybe I'll do a GAW for lunatics.
Anyway, $5 each, and knives don't take up much space. Third day of a three-day sale.

I couldn't decide which picture was less hideous, so here's the other.

 

I remember going to visit Hersheytown, PA as a kid. The locals said that they couldn't smell it unless they went away for a bit and came back.

I just got back from a week in NYC. I had a nice visit with family, which included a day at Coney Island. If y'all get a chance to go there, check out the B&B Carousell.

For decades, Coney Island was something of a carousel headquarters. In the late 1800s, carousel makers set up shops there and by the turn of the century two dozen merry-go-rounds were operating on the island. There even evolved a Coney Island school of carousel design, distinct from the more staid Philadelphia and County Fair styles. The Coney Island style was characterized by a flamboyant, aggressive-looking horse — neck straining, nostrils flaring and tongue lolling.

The B&B was built in Coney Island, with a frame dating to 1906, and at some point it operated in New Jersey, although it it unclear for how long. In the early 1920s it received a new set of horses that were carved by Charles Carmel, one of Coney Island’s celebrated carousel makers. It had returned to Brooklyn by 1935. -nytimes

 

I have no idea what you're talking about. That Schrade looks great! (but then again, I'm a lunatic)

 

Fascinating stuff Rachel, glad to hear you had a nice family visit

 

As I was watching the Ken Burns series about Vietnam, the music in the film is largely the type of music you mention and it was interesting to me to listen to the lyrics while witnessing scenes from the war overseas and the civil rights wars going on in the U.S. I'm sort of glad I was born in 1974... I really like Gordon Lightfoot's music

 

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@r8shell
I like carousels too. They are fun and pieces of history and art, kind of like your knives. Thanks for sharing.