Home Cookin’

In addition to Cade’s Cove Pole Beans growing out on the trellis, we have several types of butter beans growing, including Snow on the Mountain, Multicolored, and Dixie Speckled Butterbeans.  They have grown to the top of the 8 foot tall trellis and now the foliage spills over the top and cascades downward.  There is so much foliage it is really hard to see the pods until they dry and turn brown.  That’s when I go out and pick them.

I like growing different types of peas and beans that have different colors, shapes and textures.  Once they are shelled, they are just nice to look at… and good to eat.  Here is a visually appealing bowl of assorted dried butterbeans that I picked.  They are just sitting there on the window sill in the filtered morning sunlight waiting… patiently waiting.  There are also some black-eyed peas and some Ozark Razorback peas mixed in there as well.

Assorted Butterbeans

Tricia knows that there is nothing better (to me and Benjamin) than a bowl of beans & rice or peas & rice.  It is a simple, but healthy and delicious meal.  We were both very happy when we saw what she had simmering in the pot!  Someone put a pot of rice on and we’re good to go.

Just look at this “spoonful” view!

In anticipation of harvesting butter beans, Benjamin and I had been hard at work.  In the Good Book, it says:

“For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order: if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either.” 2 THESSALONIANS 3:10

We know that one thing that puts a meal of beans and rice over the top is homemade cornbread.  Benjamin and I had been busy grinding corn in the grain grinder and had a fair amount of cornmeal ready to go.  We had put in the work and were ready to eat.

Tricia converted that freshly-ground corn meal into a big pan of cornbread. 

Let’s put all the components of our supper together, sit down, thank God for His Provision and eat.

Butterbeans & Rice... Now you see it,

In a disappearing act that would rival anything that David Copperfield could do, it only took mere minutes for this to take place:

Now you don't

While beans and rice with some cornbread on the side isn’t a meal that you can get at one of those fancy, high-brow restaurants, I’m telling you, it is a hearty, satisfying simple, home-cooked meal that just makes you happy.

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

The heat of summer reduces the chores in the garden.  Basically the only thing growing right now are peanuts, sweet potatoes, basil, green onions and lima beans and I already weeded them.  So there wasn’t much to do in the sun-baked garden.  Russ came in from college and it was a nice time to visit with him.  Saturday just seemed like a perfect, albeit hot, day to put “The Garfish,” our canoe, in the water.  Tricia did not want to participate in our excursion as she’s not fond of the alligators that lurk in the muddy waters.  She likes clear water where you can see the bottom.  There’s not much of that around here.

We pulled the seaworthy vessel from its resting place in the garage, loaded it in Russ’ pickup and drove a couple of miles to the end of a dirt road.  It dead-ends right in the bayou.  We dodged numerous cypress knees and a water moccasin to put her in the water.  When it rains Bayou Nezpique overflows her banks and fills sloughs with water.  When the water level subsides, it traps water in these sloughs.  We have to put the canoe in the slough paddling for a short bit until we hit dry land and then we carry the Garfish and put her into the Bayou.  Here is a picture of that slough, filled with tupelo gum trees.  It is truly a beautiful place, I think.

You can see the water level is low based on the water marks on the trees.  Russ and I had a hard time getting the Garfish to the other side as we hit numerous logs on the way.  Finally we made it to the bank of the Nezpique.  Wild muscadines littered the forest floor and crows could be heard in the treetops.  It was a very hot and humid day, but under the canopy of huge cypress trees, it was cool and shady.

Bayou Nezpique makes its slow, lazy journey and empties into the Mermentau River, which empties into Lake Arthur.  Rice farmers are letting the water off of their rice fields for harvest now and much of that water makes its way into the bayou, slow-moving and the color of chocolate milk.

We set our noodle fishing lines out and then threw our fishing lines baited with earthworms into the water.  It didn’t look promising for the fishing due to the muddy water, but we patiently threw our lines out there.

No bites.  None.  As we paddled to try different spots, we noticed huge wasp nests filled with angry red wasps hanging in the cypress limbs.  We tried to steer clear.  Russ had been stung recently and is not a fan of wasps.

We gave up on the fishing and decided to just explore, looking at the different types of trees that lined the bank.  We did see some garfish and buffalo carp jumping, but no success getting anything to bite.  We found a muddy area that had wild hog tracks running through it right off the main channel of the bayou and saw that it opened up to a larger tributary and decided to try to paddle through it.  Paddling through the rotten, muddy area caused bubbles to filter up, bringing with it the stench of decaying leaves or other nasty stuff to the surface.  

We paddled on and found ourselves in a lonely, dark area and as we continued paddling we saw that we were circling back.  There was an island in there.  I had never noticed that.  We heard the rumbling of thunder and decided to turn the Garfish back toward the main channel, pick up our noodle lines and head home.  We paddled quickly out and successfully beat the rain.

No fish were caught, but it was a nice afternoon experience not far from home, getting to experience the beauty of nature on a steamy, sultry, Saturday afternoon. 

At The End of the Day

Ecclesiastes 1 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

² “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher,
“Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.”

³ What advantage does man have in all his work
Which he does under the sun?
⁴ A generation goes and a generation comes,
But the earth remains forever.
⁵ Also, the sun rises and the sun sets;
And hastening to its place it rises there again.

The repetitive cycles of the seasons and the days always intrigue me.  Each morning the sun rises in the eastern sky and each evening it takes its place in the west slowly dipping beneath the horizon until all that is left is a brilliant tableau of God’s handiwork.  I like to walk out across the land during that time and just observe and listen as everything around me – both man and beast – prepare to rest after a full day.

It is not only the sun that moves in a predictable pattern.  Animals have set routines as well.  Each of our (oh, I don’t know 70, maybe?) chickens has their own personal roosting place where they sleep at night.  Some roost in the hen house.  Some roost out in the chicken tractors.  Some roost atop the woodpile.  And there is a new group that has taken a liking to roosting on top of the hay ring.

Settling in for a long summer's nap

These four birds – three barred rocks and an Aracauna, are settling in for the evening and I really like the silhouette of them against the painted sunset.  These old girls probably gossip a bit about scandalous barnyard happenings before closing their eyes and dreaming about whatever chickens dream about – worms or bugs, maybe?

A balancing act

How in the world do they sleep balancing on the top pipe of the hay ring?  Anyway, they sleep there until around 5:30 the next morning when they hear the creak of the gate latch as we sleepwalk into the pasture with our milking buckets.  Then they hop down and follow us to the barn, eagerly anticipating the hearty breakfast that we’ve prepared for them – a bucket of fermented grain and laying pellets.

As I walk back to the house this evening, I hear the sound of cars and trucks passing by on the road home, neighbors heading back to their own “roosting spots” after a full day and I take another look at the sunset.

Before I walk inside to see what Tricia has cooking in the pot for supper, I take a last look out in the pasture and take in the stillness of the evening and capture a full moon rising up over the barn, illuminating the landscape.  The cows are appreciative of the moonlight as they’ll take advantage of the lighting to eat grass out in the pasture past their normal bedtime.

A Full Moon on the Rise...

As for me?  Well, I’ll go inside and eat a nice meal and enjoy my own routine until bedtime, and then we’ll get up and do it all over again tomorrow.  The sun also rises tomorrow...

Sticking Out Your Tongue

This weekend Tricia and I brought the milking buckets out to the barn for the afternoon milking.  The cows are always way out in the pasture eating grass. Normally Daisy looks up and sees us and she'll start walking toward the barn - not because she likes us, but because she knows that we're going to give her a scoop and a half of Dairy Ration with a cup of alfalfa pellets on top and maybe, a drizzle of molasses too.

Rosie, on the other hand, ignores us.  We bang on the side of the bucket.  We clap our hands.  We call her name.  No response.  So I walk way out into the pasture and get her.  When I walk up to her she lifts her head and slowly begins ambling in with me.  Every third step, however, she looks down,, stops walking and stretches her neck out and grabs a big mouthful of green grass.

I watched her for a minute and took a couple photographs.  Here's the weird thing. Cows have no top front teeth.  They only have bottom front teeth.  So they can't bite grass like a person eats corn on the cob.  So what does Rosie do?  She uses her TONGUE.  If you watch her, it is truly a sight to see.  She sticks out her long tongue and wraps that tongue around the grass and pulls it into her mouth, breaking it off. It is pretty amazing to watch.

When I watch her eating grass, I think how much that would hurt if I would try to eat grass like that. The sharp grass would cut my tongue.  OUCH!  But cows' tongues are different.  If you've ever felt the tongue of a cow, it is like sandpaper and is a tough, big muscle. It is made for the job of eating grass.  She breaks off the grass and moves forward and does the same thing - again and again and again.

Rosie's tongue

She rolls that grass around in her mouth, mixing it with saliva and swallows it whole.  The ball of grass goes into her rumen, the first stomach, where bacteria in the rumen begins to break down the grass.  Much later, she'll mosey over to the shade, sit down and belch up big wads of grass that she'll chew (her cud).  Then she'll swallow it again and it travels through her other three stomachs, where the grass is fully digested and that nutrition is converted into milk.

It all starts with the cow's amazing tongue.  But now it is time for Rosie to put her tongue back in her mouth and walk back to the barn with me to get milked.  She can come back out and eat grass once we're done milking.

Making Tamales

We have been wanting to make homemade tamales for a long time now and finally on Saturday, we did it!  Tricia is of Mexican heritage and she grew up making tamales.  In addition to being able to enjoy eating delicious tamales, it was a nice family tradition.  Everyone had a job to do.  We decided to incorporate this family tradition in our family.  Tricia called her mom and got some tips from the expert and then we got started.

We had a 9 pound (Bone-in) chuck roast from the steer that we butchered and we cooked it for four to six hours with onion, garlic, chili powder, salt and pepper.  It yielded 3 1/2 pounds meat once we shredded it, removing the bone, reserving the broth and 1 pound (or 2 cups) fat.  We didn't throw away the fat, though. The fat or tallow is an important ingredient in making tamales.

That is a big chuck roast!

Tricia shredded the beef roast up real good, chopping it with a knife.

She moistened the meat with some of the broth and added chili powder, garlic, cumin and salt.

Then she began moistening her corn husks while we worked on other tasks.  The husks were weighted down so that they would get wet, making them easier to work with when we started rolling them.

She poured 8 cups of dry masa harina in a big bowl.  This is some non-GMO masa that she purchased from Azure Standard Co-op.

To the masa she poured 2 cups of warmed beef tallow, 6 cups of warmed beef broth, 4 teaspoons salt and chili powder.

Then she mixed it all up, kneading it with her hands until the consistency became just right.  She had to add a little warm water until the masa was perfectly workable.

Now here is where the fun part came.  To set the mood, we put some salsa and mariachi music playing in the background sung by Selena (who was from Corpus Christi where Tricia is from). Then the assembly line started. Tricia cut the corn husks after drying them and using a butter knife, we spread the masa onto the husks - not too thick and not too thin, enough to cover the husk.

Russ took one rounded teaspoon of meat and lined it a little to the right of center on the masa.

Then you simply roll it up, pinching the bottom and folding over the top of the corn husk.

It started off kind of slow, but Tricia told me that this old gringo (me) got pretty fast at it.  We stacked them in dozens off to the side.

When all was said and done, we had enough masa to make 7 1/2 dozen tamales. Our meat would have made about 8 1/2 dozen tamales had we not run out of masa. Now that we have our quantities figured, next time we'll make 10 dozen tamales and that should need 4 1/2 pounds meat, 11 cups of dry masa and 2 eight ounce bags of corn husks.

Of the 7 1/2 dozen we made, we decided to eat 2 dozen of them for supper.  We stood them up to steam them, adding water in the bottom and we allowed them to steam for 45 minutes.

Then, it was time to eat!  I kind of tore these up getting them out of the husk, so it is not a great picture, but you'll have to excuse me.  I was more ready to eat than I was at executing a really good picture.  We added some homemade salsa on top.  There wasn't much talking around the table as we were busy eating.  They were really good!  I think Tricia was pleased with the outcome.  I know we were.

Tamales freeze well, so we froze the remaining 5 1/2 dozen in the deep freeze. Tricia will bag these up in Zip Loc bags and we'll be able to thaw them, steam them and enjoy them again sometime soon.

Homemade tamales - a new tradition in our family.  Good to eat and a lot of fun to make!

Cleaning Up After the Bees

We’ve had a colony of bees living in the hollow column of our side entrance for years now.  Due to the location of the hive, we’ve been unable to get any of the honey, but we’ve enjoyed them living there due to the fact that they pollinate our plants.  In a post from early May, we showed you the bees bearding up outside the entrance to their hive.  They either do this when it is too hot or when a new queen is leaving in a swarm.

During the last week of June, we noticed diminished activity in the hive, with only a few bees flying in and out.  Then, one afternoon we opened the door and smelled a foul odor.  It was a sickly sweet fermented odor, with a slight alcohol scent.  We looked down at the base of the column and noticed honey running out of the bottom.

Fermented honey (meade) running out of the bottom of the column

It really stunk and it was attracting bugs.  I knew that something had to be done to clean out the honeycomb filled with souring honey out of the column.  I got our jack and a 4 x 4 and jacked up the roof of the side porch enough so that I could pull the column out.

The fiberglass column, even though it is hollow, was very heavy and as I pulled it out, maggots began falling from the cap of the column that contained some honeycomb.  it was just a nasty exercise. Benjamin helped me pull the thing out of the way so that we could start working on it.

Pulling the column out

As we pulled out the column, a bunch of honeycomb with rotten honey and maggots poured out.  

Quick inspection showed that there was a lot of honeycomb still in the column, lining the interior and going about 4 feet down.

Using a T-post I started scraping the interior and pulling out honey-saturated honeycomb.

Here is a closer look:

The Honeycomb hideout

It was pretty nasty stuff:

I wish we could have gotten to this while it was still good

We sprayed as much of the honey and honeycomb out of the column as we possibly could and sprayed a bleach and water solution on the inside out outside of the column to try to knock down some of the awful smell.

We had a big pile of honeycomb and sticky rotten honey by the back door that fell out when we moved the column and another pile that we scraped out in the yard.  We shoveled all of the honeycomb that we removed into a 5 gallon bucket and we threw it in the pasture.  We learned a couple of things in the process:

1.       Chickens like to eat honey-drenched honeycomb, and

2.       Black socks and flip flops aren’t going to get me on the cover of GQ magazine.

Oh, one other thing we learned: I’m going to talk to some beekeeper friends of mine.  I already miss the bees.  I want to see if they’ll bring a new swarm of bees to our house.  This time in a beebox and we'll put it in the backyard.  We'll be able to get the honey off of this one.

The Strange Fruit Taste Test

We had our niece and nephew visiting with us from Houston for the week.  They love helping out with all of the farm chores and have named our guinea fowl interesting names such as “Beak” and “Marshmallow” and “Pepper.”  Our niece and nephew have spent a great deal of time out in the pasture and up in the loft of the barn where they discovered a broody hen sitting on a nest of 13 eggs.  (No wonder we’ve been collecting fewer eggs!)

In the evening we have been playing games.  They taught us a game called “sardines,” which is simply Reverse Hide and Seek.  In this game, one person hides, the others look for them and as they find them, they hide with them.  The last person to find the hiders is “it” and they hide for the next round.  We also have had interesting conversations at supper time and we got to talking about our favorite fruits – mine is mango.

We got to talking about durian fruit.  Yuck!  I would NEVER try that.  Then, Noah, our nephew, told us about Dragon Fruit.  I had never heard of it.  He told me he’d like to try it.  So, at lunch on Monday, I went driving around Lake Charles in search of strange fruit.   At Albertson’s I found the following “strange for us” fruits – from left to right: Mango, Papaya, and DRAGON FRUIT!!! 

Mango, Papaya and Dragon Fruit

Who would have ever thought?  Noah was pretty fired up!

Dragon Fruit, also called pitahaya, is the fruit of a cactus that grows in Mexico, Central America, and in Asia.  The flower of this cactus blooms only at night and are pollinated by bats and moths.  It is a weird looking thing – a bright pinkish-red thing with fleshy soft spines with a yellowish tinge on the top.

Dragon Fruit

Time to try our cornucopia of tropical fruits.  We gathered in the kitchen and cut up the mango and promptly devoured that thing.  Delicious!  Even the huge seed was stripped of all its flesh.  Then we cut open the papaya.  As opposed to the large seed of the mango, the papaya has many small seeds resembling the poop of our baby goats.  That’s not very appetizing, I know.  I scooped out all of the seeds and sliced it up.  It was good, but it doesn’t really compare to the sweet awesomeness that is the mango.

Papaya

Alright, time for the pièce de résistance.  I cut the Dragon Fruit in half, revealing a bright fuchsia outer layer and white flesh, speckled with tiny white seeds!

Cutting open the Dragon Fruit

I peeled back the rind and pulled out the flesh and began slicing:

Ain’t that something else?!

We assembled a nice platter of strange fruit for us to snack on, papaya at the upper portion of the plate, dragon fruit at the lower right, and mango on the lower left.

Our Strange Fruit Tray

I have waited until now to tell you how the Dragon Fruit tasted. With a $9.75 price tag, I really expected the Dragon Fruit to cause a flavor explosion on my taste buds coupled with fireworks, flames billowing out of my mouth like a fire-breathing dragon and a burst of energy that would make me fly around the room. I think my expectations were too high. It didn’t happen.

The Dragon Fruit had a subtle scent, reminiscent of a rainforest with a slight oakiness, hints of leather and a finish of berries, vanilla, coupled with cherries on the tongue. Okay, I’m lying. The Dragon Fruit smelled fresh and had the taste of a kiwifruit with a bit of watermelon. You can eat the seeds, similar to kiwi. It was really good, but from a sheer taste standpoint, we agreed the strange fruit ranking was:

1. Mango,
2. Dragon Fruit,
3. Papaya

It was a fun experiment and we all enjoyed it – even the ‘big’ kids, Tricia and I. We’ll do it again soon. I already saw another fruit we’ll try – quince. I’ve never eaten quince. I’ll tell you this, though – I ain’t trying durian, no sir!