Codex Perductum

I cannot believe what a geek I am. The cardoon flower bloomed last night (see picture). This is so awesome because it works as a vegetarian rennet for cheese making. But the fact that I have cardoon coupled with this extremely detailed analysis (see other picture) of the dna, chemical properties and distribution of clotting enzymes from a book scan on Google Book Search has me so excited.

If it weren't for Google Book Search I never would have found this article about the properties of the cardoon flower. Since I did find it, I ordered seeds from a vintage/heirloom seed company, planted the cardoon in my backyard, cultivated it and now plan on making homemade artisan cheese from it.

It is so unbelievably geeky foody nerdy engineery off-the-gridy wacky that I'm going to wet myself. Trivia question: What do I have in common with Portuguese farmers? We both make Serra Estrela cheese (sort of. I'm going to use goat milk instead of sheep milk)