Fall into Gumbo

 All I can say about the first frosts and freezes of the season and their resultant devastation of our remaining hot-weather garden, is "Thank y'all!" 

I've never liked tomatoes before, and suddenly I love them. My experience growing them was nearly zilch, and the garden produced like wild, wild weeds. 

Okra and peppers and several fantastic pots of beans were THERE. Not everything Jack and I started back in the spring amounted to anything, but overall, what a wonderful summer of work we did.

Nothing but grateful from this gardener.

We finished the season with flouish in some of the most beautifully velvety gumbos to ever be created. Our okra - especially the late "Motherland" variety, which didn't start producing until 5 or so weeks ago - was creamier than any okra either of us have had before. In gumbo, it transformed into silky perfection with hearty chicken and rings of andouille sausage. 

I'm not blowing it up, either. This stuff (with a light dusting of file on top) was every bit'a that good. 

Baby Turnips

 Despite the disappointment of the peas, the fall garden DOES have some really nice things happening, and turnips are among them. 

These are some baby ones we pulled to thin our row of purple-topped globe turnips. Jack cooked these whole in the InstantPot with a double-handful of ham-hock flibberts, and they were delicious.

With cornbread.

Peas of Mine

 

(Peas may or may not be shown actual size)

Get it? Peas of mine... peace of mind... 

No? 

Maybe I'm not as clever as I tell myself I am, but it's a better effort than I expected when I sat down to type this brisk fall evening. 

Y'all might remember when I planted about a thousand peas on the hottest day of late August - the 27th to be exact - and predicted the first harvest on or about October 20th. Well, this is it. 

This is actually a third of it, because somebody called ME kept eating precious tasty pods as soon as I picked them, because they are 100% as delicious as I want them to be. These are little, but I had to have something to show for myself for the on-time harvest, right?

I'm trying not to brag too much or be too proud of the way the fall garden project is coming along, because deer, rabbits, raccoons, groundhogs, squirrels, and stuff I don't even know to worry about could eat it all to the ground in a single evening. 

Aside from that, the garden is on the edge of a walnut grove and might be susceptible to jugalone poisoning, which I'd never heard of until we had a bunch of stuff planted already. Here's an article about it from The Morton Arboretum if you're interested:

https://mortonarb.org/plant-and-protect/tree-plant-care/plant-care-resources/black-walnut-toxicity/#!

Back to the peas, though. 

After I picked those, I harvested the last bit of okra - six tiny, blotchy, mildew'ish pods - and said goodbye to the gigantic stalks Dad and I grew over the summer. Some were more than 2 inches in diameter at the ground and grew tall - 7 to 8 feet tall and were GENEROUS with the pods they gave us. They were beautiful in their prime but had gotten spindly and piddling in recent weeks with a frosting of powdery mildew on the larger plants. I worried about that stuff spreading to the pea plants before I could get them whacked-out and dragged-off.

This sheet pan dinner included both, so I guess you could call it a transition in seasons with the last of summer and the first of fall on the same plate. The peppers were from the garden and the other things, carrots (always carrots), mushrooms (ALWAYS mushrooms), and broccoli, from the store, it was perfectly delicious over some brown rice.

(Peas were added at the end to keep them lively. Throw them on, cut the heat, wait 5 minutes, PERFECT.)

Garden Update, Up a Ladder, Other Stuff

Is everybody surviving pumpkin spice and decorative gourd season? 

Have you worn a sweater because it's October and we're supposed to? Are y'all OK? 😅

God help me, I've used an emoji in a blog post, but so what? Traffic through this joint is so sluggish that stooping to smilie use probably isn't going to kill my monthly visitor count of "about 5." 

I would put another one here, but no - too much.

Fall rolls on, but my sweaters are still in the closet. 

The garden is coming along nicely, if I do say so myself. This is what it looked after Jack and I finished prepping for the rain we got early last week.

From left to right, we've got purple-top turnips, broccoli, early wonder beets, French breakfast radishes/Nantes carrots/white icicle radishes (interplanted into layered row), bok choy, three kinds of branching broccoli, Georgia collards, cabbage, and cherry belle radishes/Detroit beets interplanted.

Dad said to plant enough to share with the critters - there's a den with at least three generations of groundhogs less than 50 yards from where I stood to take this picture - so I did. Especially if they like radishes.

So far, knock on wood, we haven't had problems with pests other than weeds. 

Two days after the Hurricane Ida rains passed, morning glories, wild violets, and all manner of grass came for us, but I threw down like a rug on fire with our little electric tiller, Jack muscled a hoe until damn-near-dark, and we got everything in order before the last batch of rain moved through.

The pea patch I talked about last time is still plugging along and will hopefully give us some goodies in just a couple more weeks. Blooms are here.

We've also got a bed for a gazillion turnip greens, a bed of spinach and (crossed-fingers) artichokes come spring, and a bed for bulb fennel, because fennel has no friends and needs its own private space. 

Now we wait. And weed and wait some more. And weed some more. And wait.

What else has been going on?

Carpentry and power tools is what!

Dad's been wanting to complete the finish-work on the back porch he and Mom had built this time last year and hit me up to help him out with it. He helped me craft a bread peel from red oak in the spring, and I demonstrated appropriate safety and basic competence in using the power tools, so I got invited back for another round. 

I don't have any pictures of that, but I should add some, because we did AWESOME, and the finished product is A+. I got checked off on the mitre saw and demonstrated my competence with the nail gun. We worked hard for two days, and I had to <gasp> climb the ladder, and some of y'all know how I feel about climbing more than a step stool. It's all good, though, but wow! 

"MY FEET FEEL BROKEN!" I chatted to my friend Matt. 

"You were up a ladder, silly," he immediately countered, like I completely failed to put two and two together.

Well, duh.

Anyway, I dealt with my fear of falling from a ladder and breaking my bones into pieces, got more experience using a nail gun (which is fun and you need to try it), and hung with two of my favorite people. PLUS, the porch looks GREAT!!

Sunset at the farm

10/07/2021

COVID19: Safe Distance Thanksgiving on the Farm Photos

 

COVID19: Happy Birthday All Around - Scorpio Edition

Dad's birthday was the same day as the election. Mom's was today. 

Two Scorpio parents.

I'm not into astrology enough to know what that means and had to check with Google to be reminded what sign influences those born in the first three weeks of November.

Scorpio, according to the few sources I checked, is strong-willed, sensitive, and nurturing. They are also most compatible with Pieces and other Scorpios, so there you go. Mom is one of the most strong-willed people I know. Dad is, too, but he's a lot more subtle. I looked to see what sign he's closer to than Mom, and it's Libra, and according to the internet, Libras are charming and beautiful, and they are driven to orderly, balanced, aesthetically-pleasing things. 

Chris' birthday is two days after Dad's. Sis is a Pieces. 

So, there you go.

Happy Birthday, November people I love. 

COVID19: Fancy/Not Fancy

The first acorn hit the roof over the weekend, so fall has arrived. 

No matter what the calendar says, and we've already talked about how the buckeye in the front yard is naked by the end of July, the season is official when we hear the first BANG>rattle>rattle>rattle on the roof. Jack and I have both seen and heard and been struck by falling acorns in recent days, but until we hear the first one. From inside. With music or the TV going. That's the official. Officially.

In celebration of the change of seasons, I made this pie, which is actually a galette, with two apples Mom and Dad gave us and one apple that came in our first box from Misfits Market. More on that in a future blog post.

Anyway. Here's the pie:

Isn't it pretty? The apple shape was unintentional, but when it turned out like that by happenstance, I took it as a good sign.

Galette is the easiest way in the world to do pie. When I told Mom what I planned to do with some of the apples she and Dad had just given us, she accused me of being fancy. Maybe this seems fancy because the name is French, but I've seen, and probably made, mud pies fancier than this. 

The crust is a plain'old homemade crust (or use store bought - it's fine) with mostly butter and a little bit of lard rolled out in a basic circle shape with 3 apples sliced thin, a teaspoon of cinnamon, a tablespoon of lemon juice, and 3 tablespoons brown sugar tossed together and arranged into rough stacks. The pastry gets snugged up tight with some loose pleats and light squeezes here and there. Drizzle the juicy stuff from the bowl over the apples, give the pastry a brush of egg wash and a sprinkle of coarse sugar, and slide that puppy into the oven for 40'ish minutes, and you have galette. I roll my pastry out on parchment then move it onto a sheet pan. Add filling. Flop the edges over. Hug around it with your hands. Boom. Pie.

Not fancy.

There's no rolling pin magic trick to get the pastry into a pie pan or crimped-edge expectation, no top crust to bungle, no trimming off the excess or guess-work about whether the inside is done yet. The most tedious thing is thinly slicing your fruits. If the slices aren't thin, the pie will be soggy. Use vegetables, like onions, peppers, and spinach, for a savory pie. Add onion powder or a spice blend to the flour for the crust to up the ante. 

Jack made whipped cream, and we grated a bit of nutmeg on top. Maybe that's fancy. It certainly was delicious.

Falling Leaves and Wedding Bells

Happy Fall, y'all!!

Can you believe October is almost here? My friends who love "pumpkin spice" everything are excited, and as luck would have it, I ran across the dogs' Halloween bandanas by accident the other day, so I'm not going to have to spend a half a day digging though closets and drawers looking for them. Hooray!!

The last month has flown - the whole summer really - seems like we just killed the big copperhead at the front steps last week, but no, it's been several weeks. We ARE still taking big precautions, though - we don't take a step outside without a bright light and a keen eye for where our hands and feet are going.

Sink Creek Photography was in action over Labor Day weekend to photograph the wedding of our dear friend, Brad, to his long-time love, Rodel. We don't shoot many weddings, because they're so stressful and offer no room for error, but this one was special, and we were thrilled to do it.

Jack took this beautiful shot, which seems to be everyone's favorite from the day.

Brad and Rodel first met back in 1997 - only a couple of weeks after Jack and I met - and maintained a long-distance relationship all these years, because without the option of marriage, being together wasn't a realistic possibility. They were engaged last August - just weeks after the U. S. Supreme Court's Obgerfell decision, which extended the right to marry to gay and lesbian couples.

Some of the photos were difficult to shoot, because the moments were so tender, I had to wipe tears from my eyes. Aside from that I was hot and sweating like a pig, so I had to keep wiping sweat and condensation from my viewfinder throughout the ceremony.

The reception was a beautiful affair at Short Mountain Distillery, which is truly a hidden gem in this area - great food, great service, impeccable everything.

Everyone had a wonderful time throughout the evening, and like all great celebrations, there was a gorgeous and delicious cake from The Sweet Shop.

Rodel's relatives from Texas and Virginia were delightful. Here they pose with Brad's dad's classic Mercury. I think it's a 1953 model.

Rodel had relatives attend from both Virginia and Texas, and I loved meeting and spending some time with them. They were so excited about the big day, and every time I swung a camera their direction, they smiled beautifully and were naturals for the lens. If all families were so good-natured about getting their photos taken, I might be inclined to do more wedding work.