It is a fact of life that when you grow zucchini (courgettes), you end up with too many. Neighbours will run from you, even in a small town, people start locking their vehicles, you are marked as 'those people trying to give away zukes'! If you don't want to be ostracised for the rest of the season, and if you have eaten all the zucchini you can for one season, you need some good, wholesome recipes to preserve your summer squash.
Zucchini Relish
(Yield: about 4 half pints though we usually quadruple the amounts)
2 cups of chopped zucchinis (about 3 medium) remove seeded middle if the zuchini are large, no need to peel.
1 cup of chopped onion (about 1 medium)
1/2 cup chopped sweet green pepper ( about 1 small)
1/2 cup chopped sweet red pepper ( about 1 small)
1/2 cup chopped hot pepper (we use habanero but whatever you have in the garden)
2 tablespoons of salt
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 teaspoons of celery seed
1 teaspoon of mustard seed
1 cup cider vinegar
Combine zucchini, onion and peppers; sprinkle with salt; cover with cold water. Let stand for 2 hours.
Drain; rinse and drain thoroughly.
Combine remaining ingredients in a large saucpan, bring to a boil.
Add vegetable, simmer for 10 minutes.
Pack relish into hot jars leaving 1/4inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Adjust 2 piece caps.
Process 10 minutes in a boiling-water canner.
Zucchini Bars
(These freeze well)
3/4 cup margarine softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon of vanilla
2 cups grated zucchini
1 3/4 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
3/4 cup of coconut
3/4 cup raisins
Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 10x15 jelly roll pan. Cream margerine and sugar together till light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and beat well. Sift flour, baking powder and salt, add to creamed mixture. Stir in remaining ingredients. Spread in prepared pan and bake 35 minutes or until tooth pick comes out clean.
Variations:leave out coconut and raisins and replace with 8 tablespoons of cocoa for brownies
or: add 1 cup of mini chocolate chips for choc chip bars.
you can also add nuts.
While the zucchinis are still growing and blooming, try battering and deep frying the flowers. You can even stuff the flower before battering it. Guaranteed to impress your dinner guests!
There are always those people who say they do not like zucchinis, rest assured no-one will notice the 2 recipes above contain zukes unless you tell them!
Monday, September 26, 2011
Friday, September 23, 2011
Mummy, what's that smell?
Unlike many farms, we are limited in our choice of outbuildings, so we try to make the most of what we have. We are fortunate to have an 80ft pole barn and try to keep it productive as much of the year as possible... layer chicks, broiler chicks, lambs, kids, we even have rabbit cages in there. One thing you can not do with a pole barn is keep it warm in winter; particularly not in South Dakota winters. We work with that by trying not to lamb before the end of March and, as we ideally want to have our kids at a similar time, that means segregation of the sexes until the 1st November. We have not always been succesful but we do our best. This year the barn reminds me of West Berlin stranded in the middle of East Germany! We have woven wire fence reinforced with barbed wire. We have gates reinforced with hardware cloth. We have electric fence and we have stock panels, all adapted for one reason, to delay procreation. We are considering giving inspirational tours to fathers of teenage daughters!
We have two buck lambs living with the goats, segregated at night so they can't get into the goat feed, which has a higher copper level than they can tolerate. Oh yes, there are layers of intricacy in this Orwellian form of segregation, food plays a role too! We have ordered a new sheep buck from a neighbour, a handsome suffolk, fortunately he is not being delivered till November, so we have not had to corral him this year. As yet the young rams have not caused any problems, though I have noticed the ewes laying round the fenceline making eyes at them, so we are on red alert for the sheep population. We should be fine as long as we keep an eye on the fences and keep the gates well closed.
Goats, on the other hand, are far more creative than sheep. Their powers of mental agility exceed those of a dog or small child. They are both greedy and intelligent, persistent and opportunistic, strong and agile, all powerful combinations. The girls, Petal and Daisy, still have their hands full with their 3month old kids, they appear to not be responding to the call of the wild from Randy, our buck goat. Appearances can be deciving!
Randy has been living with the ewes and has decided that he would prefer to be in with Petal and Daisy. He now ignores the sheep and lays along the fenceline making strange noises and performing even more bizarre rituals. Twice he has managed to break in, we have caught him, led him out and addressed the weak section of fence that he used for his break-in. It looks like he didn't have time to encourage the girls to reciprocate his yearnings, so he continues his courtship.
Randy spends the night looking through the gate into the barn, doing what male goats do and getting smellier by the day. By the time we go to milk in the morning, walking through the haze of his natural 'aftershave' makes your eyes water. If you have ever had a group of teenage boys in your house getting ready to go to a dance, you would recognise the haze. Last week, when he had to be removed from the female area, I came back to the house, dropped my clothes in the washer, continued upstairs and showered...TWICE! The next morning when Anita came home from work, she still asked if I had been wrestling with Randy. Does are responsive 24-40 hours every 21 days, I wish someone would explain this fact to Randy. Fortunately by the middle of November he will return to his usual sweet-smelling, friendly self. Hormones are not only affecting his odour but also his behaviour and we are being extra cautious around him. Jake has already tackled Randy when he shows signs of disrespect to us, it is good to have such a good stock dog.
I am hoping that come February this blog will not have cute photos of lambs or kids!
We have two buck lambs living with the goats, segregated at night so they can't get into the goat feed, which has a higher copper level than they can tolerate. Oh yes, there are layers of intricacy in this Orwellian form of segregation, food plays a role too! We have ordered a new sheep buck from a neighbour, a handsome suffolk, fortunately he is not being delivered till November, so we have not had to corral him this year. As yet the young rams have not caused any problems, though I have noticed the ewes laying round the fenceline making eyes at them, so we are on red alert for the sheep population. We should be fine as long as we keep an eye on the fences and keep the gates well closed.
Goats, on the other hand, are far more creative than sheep. Their powers of mental agility exceed those of a dog or small child. They are both greedy and intelligent, persistent and opportunistic, strong and agile, all powerful combinations. The girls, Petal and Daisy, still have their hands full with their 3month old kids, they appear to not be responding to the call of the wild from Randy, our buck goat. Appearances can be deciving!
Randy has been living with the ewes and has decided that he would prefer to be in with Petal and Daisy. He now ignores the sheep and lays along the fenceline making strange noises and performing even more bizarre rituals. Twice he has managed to break in, we have caught him, led him out and addressed the weak section of fence that he used for his break-in. It looks like he didn't have time to encourage the girls to reciprocate his yearnings, so he continues his courtship.
Randy spends the night looking through the gate into the barn, doing what male goats do and getting smellier by the day. By the time we go to milk in the morning, walking through the haze of his natural 'aftershave' makes your eyes water. If you have ever had a group of teenage boys in your house getting ready to go to a dance, you would recognise the haze. Last week, when he had to be removed from the female area, I came back to the house, dropped my clothes in the washer, continued upstairs and showered...TWICE! The next morning when Anita came home from work, she still asked if I had been wrestling with Randy. Does are responsive 24-40 hours every 21 days, I wish someone would explain this fact to Randy. Fortunately by the middle of November he will return to his usual sweet-smelling, friendly self. Hormones are not only affecting his odour but also his behaviour and we are being extra cautious around him. Jake has already tackled Randy when he shows signs of disrespect to us, it is good to have such a good stock dog.
I am hoping that come February this blog will not have cute photos of lambs or kids!
Friday, September 16, 2011
The passing of the seasons
Last week we noticed orange brown patches in the soy bean fields, it never takes long for those patches of colour to grow and devour the entire field, in fact, there have even been a few attempts by eager farmers to harvest their beans, a sure sign of changing seasons. Our own dried beans have been speaking to us and only the lima/butterbeans have been holding on to their harvest, slower to ripen and dry than their more exotic neighbours in our garden.This week the burning bush and the sumac started to change colour, another indication that summer has already drawn to a close however reluctant we might be to admit it. Soon, the leaves on the trees will follow, accompanied by the echo of 'oohs and aahs' at Mother Nature's dramatic display of colour before she draws her winter cloak around her and rests in monochromatic coldness.
Perhaps as we get older we are more in rhythm with Mother Nature, less reluctant to be caught unprepared. That may even explain our rush to collect firewood. I would love to say it is our inner selves connecting with nature but, in truth, the simple answer is that we bought a log splitter last winter! Other years I have split by hand and so had to wait till temperatures were well below freezing to attempt large or knotty pieces of wood. We would go out in the snow dragging sledfulls of firewood to the pickup, splitting a load at a time, never having much more than a cord of wood stacked and waiting. So far this has worked for us but, we had to admit, we were getting older and trudging through ditches of snow was not necessarily the wisest of activities. We have our eye on several dead trees yet, but at this point, mid-September, our permanent 8 pallets are full of firewood and we have laid down the temporary ones to fill next week.
Perhaps as we get older we are more in rhythm with Mother Nature, less reluctant to be caught unprepared. That may even explain our rush to collect firewood. I would love to say it is our inner selves connecting with nature but, in truth, the simple answer is that we bought a log splitter last winter! Other years I have split by hand and so had to wait till temperatures were well below freezing to attempt large or knotty pieces of wood. We would go out in the snow dragging sledfulls of firewood to the pickup, splitting a load at a time, never having much more than a cord of wood stacked and waiting. So far this has worked for us but, we had to admit, we were getting older and trudging through ditches of snow was not necessarily the wisest of activities. We have our eye on several dead trees yet, but at this point, mid-September, our permanent 8 pallets are full of firewood and we have laid down the temporary ones to fill next week.
to give some perspective to the pile, Anita is 5ft tall:
This spring we knew we had more than enough preserved vegetables,ketchups, relishes and pickles to last several years, we made a list of the things we would need and decided, with the surplus space, we would grow a variety of dried beans. It has proven to be a good decision. We planted Yin Yang beans, Vermont Cranberry beans, Jacobs Cattle beans, Fordhook Bush Lima beans (butterbeans in the UK), Great Northern bean and another attempt at Dutch Capucijner beans, all ordered from R.H Shumway's who, we are happy to say, we would recommend for the quality of their product and service. We expected the Great Northern to be prolific in our climate as well as the Vermont cranberry but the Yin Yang and Jacobs cattle have exceeded our expectations. The jury is still out on the lima beans as they have the longest growing season of all the beans we planted, the bushes are full of pods and we hope that the weather will allow them to mature and ripen before the first snow, it does look positive. While not failing completely, the Dutch Capucijner was the only disappointment and we will not attempt to grow it again in this climate, no matter how much I love to eat it. Halfway in our harvest now, we already have almost 2 gallons of dried beans. Mixed together they have a cheerful, colourful look and will feed us well for some time to come.
Each year we have raised leeks from seed, starting them at the end of January. Handmaking pots from newspaper, we became quite good at keeping the costs low and producing some hardy little seedlings to transplant to the garden. Leeks are relatively expensive here at $1 a piece, so we have improved our yield each year as we learn something new. Trimming the tops to encourage the growth to go to the girth rather than length, raking and banking the earth regularly to increase the ratio of white to green growth, it seems each year our stock lasts a little further into the winter. We were a little sceptical when a friend suggested a supplier of leek plants rather than seeds, the friend lives in Arkansa, how would her supplier, in Massachusetts, translate to a garden in South Dakota? The price made us even more suspicious, we could not raise 300 seedlings for the price he charges. So, we considered the source, allowed our trust in this friend to rule the day and placed our order with http://www.morgancountyseeds.com/index.html. We were not sorry, and we will be placing another order next year, especially as he allows you to determine the date you wish to receive the plants, an important factor in South Dakota.
One of the many weeds that likes to grow around here is catnip. I have recently read that the oils contained in this herb/weed are 10 times more effective against mosquitoes than DEET. We may well have to ponder this thought and allow it to grow here alongside the milkweed we grow for our monarch butterflies. It will soon be the season to ponder! The bustle of autumn will fade into the contemplativeness of winter. Do not mistake this season for hibernating laziness, it is the time to read and acquire more knowledge, the season for sewing and quilting, the season to enjoy the preparations we have laid down the entire year. The time to plan for the next year.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Random Recollections on this day
As I drove home from work this morning, I recalled this day ten years ago. I not only remember, I still feel that day.
I confess: when Ray was on the road, I usually slept on the couch in the living room....and I usually had the television on. Seems I sleep better in a wash of sound at times. The phone rang. It was kind of early, but I instinctively responded to the call. Ray often called when he was 'between things', when he stopped to fuel or was going through a port, when he was waiting to unload. I knew he had offloaded the components for a steel building at a spot somewhere in the Northeast the previous day and would be on the way home or to pick up a backhaul to bring him homeward. He, on the other hand, knew that it was my mom's 75th birthday and that I would be spending the afternoon with her to celebrate. That was not the reason for this early call, however.
I was a tad groggy answering the phone, but when he said that "some fool in a plane hit the Twin Towers", I responded in the typical "Good Grief" sort of way, not thinking at that moment what it actually meant. I, like most others at that point, thought it was an accident. I didn't have my contact lenses in yet and, therefore, wasn't able to actually see what was on television, though I knew it was news coverage. As we chatted a few more moments, I regained consciousness somewhat. Ray then said, "Oh, shit! Another one just hit the other tower!" It became hideously obvious that this was no accident at all. There came a gut reaction of horror, shock and sadness.
Ray had stopped at a fuel oasis just as he had come out of Elizabeth, NJ. He had put off coming through that area until morning as it is notoriously dangerous in that city. As he fueled, history was being made. He said that all the trucks and passenger vehicles had now been stopped there by National Guard personnel (remember when they took care of stuff here in THIS country?) and he didn't know how long they would have to stay.
As we talked, he told of the smoke rolling and the horrors and then.....the first building coming down. Then he said that the National Guardsman had returned and he had to go. He said he couldn't call anymore for a while. And he was gone. And it was very quiet here. The waves of shock were rolling across the country and had come to my little home in Clark County, South Dakota.
I tried to do the things that I usually did when morning came and a day started, but I don't remember one single thing about that time anymore....except the words and pictures coming on the television.
Ray did call again rather shortly after. He said they had all been told, specifically, that, if they had a place to go, they better do just that...GO! He headed for Pittsburgh because he felt that would probably be the place he would be getting his next load anyway. Little did we know......their share of the horror was just taking place.
I felt that at least I knew he was OUT OF THAT PLACE!
Somehow the time passed, I headed for Watertown to see my mom, thinking, "How dare they!!?? They desecrated my mom's birthday!" That rather trivial thought only touched lightly at the deep anger that so many of us found mingling with our sadness.
I remember the day John Kennedy died...I was just a kid in school, but I can still 'feel' the chair I was sitting on when the news came over the PA system during music class. This day, September 11, 2001, was now one of those rare "I won't ever forget" days, as well.
I join all those around the world who shared the shock and horror of those moments and the anger and the grief and the loss that followed. At some point, the philosophizing stops as the reasons don't work.
No...I don't know and I can't comprehend.....but I recall -- with reverence.
I confess: when Ray was on the road, I usually slept on the couch in the living room....and I usually had the television on. Seems I sleep better in a wash of sound at times. The phone rang. It was kind of early, but I instinctively responded to the call. Ray often called when he was 'between things', when he stopped to fuel or was going through a port, when he was waiting to unload. I knew he had offloaded the components for a steel building at a spot somewhere in the Northeast the previous day and would be on the way home or to pick up a backhaul to bring him homeward. He, on the other hand, knew that it was my mom's 75th birthday and that I would be spending the afternoon with her to celebrate. That was not the reason for this early call, however.
I was a tad groggy answering the phone, but when he said that "some fool in a plane hit the Twin Towers", I responded in the typical "Good Grief" sort of way, not thinking at that moment what it actually meant. I, like most others at that point, thought it was an accident. I didn't have my contact lenses in yet and, therefore, wasn't able to actually see what was on television, though I knew it was news coverage. As we chatted a few more moments, I regained consciousness somewhat. Ray then said, "Oh, shit! Another one just hit the other tower!" It became hideously obvious that this was no accident at all. There came a gut reaction of horror, shock and sadness.
Ray had stopped at a fuel oasis just as he had come out of Elizabeth, NJ. He had put off coming through that area until morning as it is notoriously dangerous in that city. As he fueled, history was being made. He said that all the trucks and passenger vehicles had now been stopped there by National Guard personnel (remember when they took care of stuff here in THIS country?) and he didn't know how long they would have to stay.
As we talked, he told of the smoke rolling and the horrors and then.....the first building coming down. Then he said that the National Guardsman had returned and he had to go. He said he couldn't call anymore for a while. And he was gone. And it was very quiet here. The waves of shock were rolling across the country and had come to my little home in Clark County, South Dakota.
I tried to do the things that I usually did when morning came and a day started, but I don't remember one single thing about that time anymore....except the words and pictures coming on the television.
Ray did call again rather shortly after. He said they had all been told, specifically, that, if they had a place to go, they better do just that...GO! He headed for Pittsburgh because he felt that would probably be the place he would be getting his next load anyway. Little did we know......their share of the horror was just taking place.
I felt that at least I knew he was OUT OF THAT PLACE!
Somehow the time passed, I headed for Watertown to see my mom, thinking, "How dare they!!?? They desecrated my mom's birthday!" That rather trivial thought only touched lightly at the deep anger that so many of us found mingling with our sadness.
I remember the day John Kennedy died...I was just a kid in school, but I can still 'feel' the chair I was sitting on when the news came over the PA system during music class. This day, September 11, 2001, was now one of those rare "I won't ever forget" days, as well.
I join all those around the world who shared the shock and horror of those moments and the anger and the grief and the loss that followed. At some point, the philosophizing stops as the reasons don't work.
No...I don't know and I can't comprehend.....but I recall -- with reverence.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
A bit of flab!
I confess, I have never had to lose weight in my life, my problem has always been that I had to be careful that I didn't get too far under a healthy weight. OK, I can hear several of you muttering the words "I hate you!" but believe me it is no joke having to eat 3 cooked meals a day in order to maintain my weight during the most active times in my adult life. Then, 2 events conspired to add the pounds, I say conspired, because either one will add pounds to a woman's hips but, together it is easy to see the writing on the wall. The first event was the sudden cessation of a daily dose of 2+ packets of cigarettes a day, compounded by the onset of menopause. At first I thought I was getting off lightly (no pun intended) then one day I got on the scales, stepped off in disbelief, poked the scales with my toe as if that would encourage them to speak nicely to me. My jeans had been telling me the truth; there was more of me! I decided this was but a temporary state and allowed myself to buy a pair of jeans an inch larger than the size I had worn since I was 20, summer came and I had to admit that I actually needed to invest in shorts of that size if I were not to walk round naked all season.
We haven't smoked for over two years and I am still wearing that new increased, but decidedly not improved, size of jeans. I have no excuse, I am overweight!
We had a half hearted attempt at Atkins but it just didn't help. We lead an active life, we have a healthy diet, how did this happen, perhaps the pounds will mystically disappear while I sleep....none of these thought processes had stopped me being overweight! When Anita decided to join Weight Watchers online, I decided not only to be supportive, but to toss my own case of denial in the bin and join her. Her oldest friend has just lost 50lbs and looks fantastic and that has been a source of inspiration to both of us. Most people seem to have been on diets but, as I said before, this is virgin territory for me. We made a serious commitment to Weight Watchers, mainly because we paid for it, if we can stop smoking we can lose weight.
Everyone travels a different road in achieving their perfect weight and, so far, I do not feel deprived. I like meat but it is not the most important item on my plate. I am a fruit and vegetable kind of person, so Weight Watchers works for me. A vegetarian curry or stir fry, a meatless salad are not hardships for me and it means I can have the occassional potato which I also like. My weakness is pasta and to not eat pasta is a hardship but, so far, standing on the scales and watching the numbers decrease is more rewarding than any dish of pasta. When I reach my desired weight I will eat pasta again, I will need it to end the weight loss and stop me from overshooting my target, but I will not forget the lessons learnt on this journey!
I confess, there is a sense of pride in watching the numbers decrease, in feeling my shorts slide down because they no longer fit. I rather like playing the numbers game that Weight Watchers presents and staying within my points. I like to win, we both do, and that shows in the fact that we have both lost 17lbs with no intention of giving up. The battle of losing weight seems to be won or lost between the ears, putting aside the excuses, admitting that, for whatever reason, the balance of physical activity and food intake is incorrect and adjustments need to be made.
We owe it to ourselves to be healthy!
We haven't smoked for over two years and I am still wearing that new increased, but decidedly not improved, size of jeans. I have no excuse, I am overweight!
We had a half hearted attempt at Atkins but it just didn't help. We lead an active life, we have a healthy diet, how did this happen, perhaps the pounds will mystically disappear while I sleep....none of these thought processes had stopped me being overweight! When Anita decided to join Weight Watchers online, I decided not only to be supportive, but to toss my own case of denial in the bin and join her. Her oldest friend has just lost 50lbs and looks fantastic and that has been a source of inspiration to both of us. Most people seem to have been on diets but, as I said before, this is virgin territory for me. We made a serious commitment to Weight Watchers, mainly because we paid for it, if we can stop smoking we can lose weight.
Everyone travels a different road in achieving their perfect weight and, so far, I do not feel deprived. I like meat but it is not the most important item on my plate. I am a fruit and vegetable kind of person, so Weight Watchers works for me. A vegetarian curry or stir fry, a meatless salad are not hardships for me and it means I can have the occassional potato which I also like. My weakness is pasta and to not eat pasta is a hardship but, so far, standing on the scales and watching the numbers decrease is more rewarding than any dish of pasta. When I reach my desired weight I will eat pasta again, I will need it to end the weight loss and stop me from overshooting my target, but I will not forget the lessons learnt on this journey!
I confess, there is a sense of pride in watching the numbers decrease, in feeling my shorts slide down because they no longer fit. I rather like playing the numbers game that Weight Watchers presents and staying within my points. I like to win, we both do, and that shows in the fact that we have both lost 17lbs with no intention of giving up. The battle of losing weight seems to be won or lost between the ears, putting aside the excuses, admitting that, for whatever reason, the balance of physical activity and food intake is incorrect and adjustments need to be made.
We owe it to ourselves to be healthy!
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