Spices Don't Get Any Fresher Than This

Each year we plant a couple Criolla Sella Pepper plants in the garden.  I raise them from seed normally, but this year a couple plants came up volunteer from last year so I just transplanted them where I wanted them.  They produce prolifically and keep us busier than Peter Piper harvesting the peppers.

At first they are green .

And then when they are ripe they are bright Jack O'Lantern orange.  That bright color against the green foliage means they are easy to spot when picking.  You can see the small white blooms next to my pinky finger.

I'll pick a bucket and bring them inside, wash them, cut them in half and put them on the food dehydrator trays and let them dry overnight until they break in half easily with  snap.

I use an old potato/carrot peeler blade to insert into the pepper and de-seed them.

Normally I'd throw them into the food processor and pulse until the peppers turned to powder, but I was feeling like doing it the old fashioned way tonight.  I pulled out Tricia's molcajete.  That is the Mexican version of the mortar and pestle.  It works nicely for grinding.

With a little effort the dried peppers are pulverized into ground pepper.  I wish you could smell the 'smoky-hot fragrance' of the freshly ground pepper.  Wonderful!

The bright orange-colored pepper against the white plate makes a stark contrast.  It kind of makes black pepper boring, don't you think?

We funnel it into pepper containers and use all year long.  We'll make batches of fresh ground Criolla Sella peppers as long as the plants produce - that will be until winter.

Sorry McCormick.  Criolla Sella fresh ground pepper beats the pants off of store bought ground black pepper.

Our First Try At Growing Black Beans

Tricia likes to cook Black Beans.  In Spanish they are called frijoles negros.  I have also seen them called black turtle beans.  Tricia makes refried beans with them.  We always buy dried black beans to soak and then cook and so I thought, "What the heck?  Let's grow some."  I purchased a package of seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (rareseeds.com) and since they are open pollinated seeds, I'll save a few to replant next year.

The heat of summer is upon us and repeated rainfall has really played a number on the black beans since they are planted on the lower end of the garden.  They look kind of sickly in spots, but they are full of pods.

Since I have never grown them before, I did a little research on when to harvest them.  I actually opened up a green pod to see what they look like and oddly, they weren't black yet.  I read that you don't want to harvest them when the pods are green as they aren't ripe yet.

You also don't want to harvest them when they turn pale yellow either.

You really want to wait until they are dried and the pods are brown.  Of course, you have to time the harvest perfectly, because if they get too dry, the pods will burst open and your black beans will scatter all over the ground.

The other problem with waiting for them to dry on the stalk is that with our amount of yearly rainfall, leaving them in the pods to ripen exposes them to the risk of sprouting in the pod if it stays wet.  With more rainfall approaching, I figured that I should harvest now so as not to risk losing the crop.  I went out and pulled the mostly ripened dry pods off the plants.

I sat in front of the television tonight and shelled a bowl full of beautiful black beans.  Some of the beans were sprouted, but most were perfect.  I'll let them dry for a bit and then we'll cook them up.

There are plenty green pods still on the plant, so I'll check for ripeness in a week and harvest more of them  It will be nice to eat some, put some dried black beans in the pantry and save some for planting this fall and again next spring.

How to Make Chèvre

Chèvre is a soft, delicious, creamy cheese made from goat milk.  It is great for crackers and dips.  It is very easy to make.  First, you need a goat!  Annie, our Nubian goat will provide the goat milk to make our chèvre.  I coax her up onto her milking stanchion and when she puts her head in the squeeze, I lock her in.  She'll get to eat some dairy ration while I milk her in a minute.

A couple of things to note in the picture below.  First, I hobble her left rear leg so that she is not quite as mobile.  Otherwise, she begins stomping her feet.  She's really not a good milker, but we still put up with her stomping foolishness and milk her once a day.  Her momma, Nellie, was a very good milker.  You can see that her teats are full of milk. Time to get started.

We use a quart sized mason jar with a muslin cloth rag fastened over the opening with a rubber band that serves as a filter to keep out hay and goat hair.  We wash her teats with a washcloth and then we simply milk her.

Milking a goat doesn't take long.  In no time flat, I have almost a quart of fresh goat milk. It is warm.  The photo below looks odd as it looks like there is a bird sitting on the edge of the jar about to drink some of the goat milk, but it really isn't.  That is a chicken in the background sitting on the barn gate.

We bring the goat milk inside and put it in the fridge.  Now in order to make chèvre, you have to use a culture.  We get ours from culturesforhealth.com.  It comes with instructions below and packets of chèvre starter.

We used a half gallon of goat milk and heated it to 86 degrees Fahrenheit.  Do this very slowly and then remove from the heat.  Add 1 packet of chèvre starter and mix it up.  Then cover with a lid and let it culture in a warm place for 12 hours. Once 12 hours have passed, the culture is set.  You can see the whey has separated from the curds.

We place the curds in a muslin cloth and let the whey drip out of the cheese.  We pull the edges of the cloth up to make a bag and let the whey drip through the cloth into a jar for 12 hours.

After 12 hours your cheese looks like this:

Here is the whey that we captured in jars below.  We'll save this whey for future use.  Lots of times we will pour it in a dish for the chickens.  They love it.

We chopped up some parsley and some dried dill that we had in the herb pantry and added to the chèvre.

You can roll it into a ball, place in a bowl and drizzle some good extra virgin olive oil over it.

It is snack time!  Perfect for dipping with a cracker.

For the second ball, we rolled the herbed chèvre in chopped pecans.

Chèvre is a delicious cheese that is very easy to make.  We will continue to make and consume this cheese.

Saturday Morning Stroll

Saturday mornings are a glorious time.  No rushing out the door.  No deadlines.  We go at our own pace.  The cows and chickens aren't overly concerned that we are a couple hours later than we usually are.  We get our morning chores done at a leisurely pace and then enjoy a good cup of coffee on the front porch in the rocking chairs while talking.  After a bit, I'll go out and just walk around observing God's creation all around me, soaking it all in and seeing things that I might otherwise miss.

I spotted a lady bug on the post in the garden.  Seeing this glossy red bug is fortuitous because this girl is a beneficial insect.  Most insects I see in my garden are not friends, but this one certainly is.  She eats aphids and other destructive insects.  She lays her eggs amidst the aphids and her larvae eat up the aphids too. I'd like to encourage more and more lady bugs in and around the garden.

As I closed the gate to the garden and noted that the entire picket fence is in disrepair, something bright and yellow caught my eye.  I walked up and saw this sight:

These bright yellow flowers belong to our Birdhouse Gourds that are growing on a trellis. The vines are resplendent in big yellow flowers opening to the sun.  They must be full of sweet nectar, because as I was standing there admiring the beauty, honey bees flew amonst the vines going from flower to flower.  As I looked closer, I could see fire ants climbing on the flowers as well.

Those flowers will soon be transformed into birdhouse gourds, named as such because the gourds from this plant can be easily transformed into birdhouses.  In fact here is a tiny one below.  While it is only two inches long right now, at maturity it will be two feet long and large enough to house a family of birds.

On the same trellis just six feet over, the luffa gourds are also growing.  Their flowers aren't as pretty and look like off-white crepe paper.  I don't see any luffas yet, but they'll be full of gourds that we will use as shower sponges.

It's interesting all the things that you can see if you slow down and enjoy the garden.  I noticed a serpent in the garden.  It was coiled up on one of the bell pepper plants.  Tricia told me she wouldn't be picking peppers when this guy was around. He's just a harmless garter snake and not a bad one.  He was not up to any evil and he certainly didn't talk or tempt us into eating fruit in the garden.  We all know how that ended up.

Just a few plants over there were other cold-blooded creatures sunning themselves on the leaves of the eggplant.  Check out the lizards at the 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock positions of the picture below.

In addition to observing nature and enjoying the morning, I'm also making notes of things that I need to do.  For now, at least, I'll enjoy the coolness of the morning. Pretty soon the sun will rise above the oak trees to the east that keep the garden in shade.  Then it will be unbearable in the garden until the late afternoon and things once again cool down.

Treasure in the Garden - Butternut Squash Spoon Bread

Each afternoon when I get home, I grab a bucket and go looking through the garden for the freshest, most delectable treat that I can come inside and turn into a meal. Especially at this time I'm picking a lot of cucumbers.  I like the crispness and flavor of a Boston Pickling Cucumber, but for cutting up and eating raw, there's nothing that comes close (in my humble opinion) than a Suyo Long Cucumber. They originated in Northern China and have small seeds.  Long is their middle name for a reason!  They mostly get to be 18 inches long and are quite hard to keep in the bucket.  It actually looks like a bucket of snakes.  I'll take them inside and cut them, adding apple cider vinegar and some kosher salt and black pepper and a splash of olive oil.  It makes for a nice lunch tomorrow.

But hold on just a minute, there's something else in that bucket...  A couple of butternut squash.  Butternut squash is so sweet and delicious.  How can we prepare these?

Well, we're all about trying new things and the October 2011 Southern Living Magazine had a recipe for Butternut Squash Spoon Bread that looked very interesting.  I don't think I've ever eaten spoon bread.  Corn bread?  Absolutely.  But not spoon bread.  Let's give it a try...

2 cups buttermilk
4 large eggs, separated
2 cups pureed butternut squash (doesn't get much fresher than this!)
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan Cheese
1 cup cornmeal
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup butter melted

Preheat your oven to 350 F. Cook buttermilk over medium high heat, stirring often, 4 to 6 minutes, but do not boil.  Remove from heat.

Lightly beat egg yolks and stir in squash and cheese.  Combine cornmeal and the next 4 ingredients and another bowl. Pour warm buttermilk over squash mixture and whisk until smooth.  Let stand for 15 minutes until lukewarm.

Brush a 2 1/2 to 3 quart baking dish or 12 inch cast iron skillet with melted butter. Stir the remaining butter into squash mixture.

Beat egg whites at high speed until stiff peaks form.  Fold into squash mixture and then pour mixture into dish.

Bake at 350 F for 30 to 35 minutes or until top is golden and a toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean.

Well, how did it turn out, you ask?  Well, take a look below...

Spoon bread is different than corn bread in that it is more of a pudding than a bread.  It is light and airy.  Actually, it is more like a souffle than anything, so Tricia served it in our souffle cups.  It was still warm - right out of the oven.

The taste?  Well, it was heavenly.  I told Tricia that each bite kept getting better and better. This recipe is a keeper and we will keep it in the rotation.  The pics don't really do it justice, but butternut squash spoon bread is a hit!

In researching spoon bread, I learned that this dish originated with the Native Americans.  They called it "awandaw."  It was common during the Revolutionary War times and George Washington loved it and served it often at Mount Vernon.

I'm glad that Southern Living Magazine gave us an opportunity to discover this old dish in a new way, by incorporating sweet butternut squash into it.  We have some leftovers, so I'll grab by spoon and eat more spoon bread tomorrow night.

The Spring Tomatoes are Officially Done

This afternoon I cut down the twine support from our Florida Weave Trellis that supports our tomatoes and pulled up the t-posts that anchor the trellising system.The tomatoes were about done.  I stacked up the cut vines and I'll compost them.  First, I threw the remaining tomatoes that were ravaged by stink bugs to the chickens.  They gobbled them up with the quickness.

Overall, we had a really nice crop this year.  If I had a "do-over" I would have transplanted them into the garden a couple of weeks earlier.  Early tomatoes don't have to deal with the heat and bug pressure, but you run the risk of frost damage. We ate plenty of tomatoes sliced.  We made lots of pico de gallo.  We made Italian tomato salad. We put up many pints of stewed tomatoes.  We put up many quarts of salsa.  Here's a few other things we did with the tomato crop:

We cut up the tomatoes, sprinkle with kosher salt and fresh rosemary, and put on the dehydrator overnight.  Here is a post that explains how to do it step by step either in the oven or in a food dehydrator.

The flavor is concentrated and the rosemary adds a nice flavor to the dried toms. They are almost like candy.  We store them in either pint jars or Zip Loc bags and snack on them all the time.

I almost forgot to mention that we also made tomato sauce.  It is a pretty easy task that involves blanching the tomatoes, removing the skins, coring out the stem and any blemishes and then cooking them down.  We use an immersion blender to puree the tomatoes once they've cooked for a while.

We let the tomatoes continue to simmer for hours until its reached the consistency we're looking for, then it is time to put them in jars, top with salt and a tablespoon of lemon juice and then process in a water bath processor.

In most canned tomato sauces they must run the tomato sauce through a sieve to remove the seeds, but we always skip that step and can it with the seeds.

We finished up with a nice little batch of tomato sauce and this should build up our inventory in the pantry and hold us over until the fall tomatoes come in.

Now that the rows of tomatoes are pulled up, I'm thinking about what to plant in that space.  Right now, purple hull peas seem like the logical choice.  It's almost time to plant the fall crop of tomatoes!

Rotating the Cows Through Paddocks

Five cows and four goats on three acres puts a strain on the pasture.  We'll be getting rid of the bull in a month or two, so that should help, but the cows clip that grass down and groom it better than a finishing mower.  It looks like a manicured lawn, doesn't it?

I have 7 paddocks separated by portable electric fence that is rolled up using a Gallagher reel.  I use step-in fiberglass posts to hold up the electrified poly wire powered by a Gallagher Solar charger.  The sun charges the fence and makes the grass grow.  How about that?

I keep the cows on one paddock for two days and then I move them into the next paddock. As you can see below, there is fresh, tender growth on the grass.  This is the most tender and nutritious part of the plant, and the cows know it.  Right over the electrified fence, the cows can see the tender growth, beckoning the herbivores to come eat.

The cows are very resourceful.  They will crane their necks under the fence as far as they can as the photo below indicates.  One careless lift of the neck, however, and they'll feel a pop that will send them running!

The cows have been conditioned to come running when they hear me rolling up the fending on the reel.  That signals to them that a new paddock is opening up.  It is like ringing the dinner bell to the bovines.  They will come running, enter the new paddock and immediately begin eating grass.  Crunch, crunch, crunch...

We still supplement with hay, but if you are a cow, this is where you want to be - on a fresh new paddock that has just been opened up.  In just two days, they will have this grass eaten and will be ready to move to the next paddock.  And so it goes until fall when the grass peters out.  Rotational grazing has helped us better manage grass consumption and contributes positively in animal health.