A Memory From the Past

I was driving between Bell City and Lake Arthur, Louisiana on Friday on my way to an appointment for work.  It was drizzling off and on and I was looking out at harvested rice fields and crawfish ponds which were being flooded up for crawfish season.  As I looked out the window, something bright yellow caught my eye in a roadside turnrow.  I've posted about this vegetation before.

We called these things "stink melons."  I looked them up and I think their real name is a "musk melon."  Whatever they are called, these things brought lots of fun to kids growing up on the farm.  They would grow at the field's edge, with long vines that reached out to the edge of the soybean field.  We were attracted to them like flies on poop.

I'm positive I've written about stink melons before.  They were created by God to fit snugly in the palm of your hand.  They are smooth and easy to grip.  The stink melon weighs just the right amount - not too heavy, but not too light.

Their purpose, you ask?  They were made to be thrown at your brother.  Trust me, I know.  If your aim is true and your stink melon finds its target, it will do one of two things.  If the stink melon is a little under-ripe, it will ricochet off your brother's torso, invoking a wail of pain and prompting him to find a stink melon of his own to throw back at you.  If the stink melon is ripe, upon hitting your brother, it will burst and release a jelly-like stinky substance.  What fun!  We had many a stink-melon war on the farm.

As I held it in my hand this past Friday, I could sense that the stink melon wanted to be thrown.  It was begging to be thrown.  So I obliged.  Since my brother was not around, I threw it in the ditch.  Lucky for him, he wasn't around.  

Three Mile Island Pepper

Last week we showed you how we dehydrated jalapeno peppers and then ground it into pepper that we use to flavor dishes.  I used a lot of it today on top of some purple hull peas & sausage over white rice.  It added some flavor depth - hot, but not swell up your tongue and watery-eyes hot.

Our son, Russ, saw what we had done and wanted us to try to dehydrate and grind into ground pepper some of his peppers.  He had a very productive habanero pepper plant or two this year.  He put up four gallon-sized zip loc bags of habaneros in his freezer.  This week he brought over two of the four bags for us to process.  He had already cut them into rings so they'd fit better in the freezer.

We poured them onto the trays of the dehydrator while they were frozen and then used a fork to spread them out evenly so they would dry in a uniform fashion.

Pretty soon we had every rack filled.  We would have to do this in two separate batches.  I was a little concerned about them being frozen, buy they dried just the same.

The habaneros shrunk up to half its size in no time as all the water was removed in the drying process, leaving just the heat.

While hot and dry, Tricia put them into the food processer and gave it a whirl or two.  Here's the part where we wanted to be really careful.  That red dust in the air would be really painful to get in your eyes.  It also would not be pleasant to breathe it in.

Here's what a habanero looks like whole.  It's candy-apple red and has a pointed tail.

Two gallon-sized ziploc bags of peppers yielded this much ground habanero pepper.  We have two more to process and then we'll be done.

I haven't worked up the boldness to try this yet.  I can handle jalapenos.  I just don't think I could do habaneros.  These things are just really hot.  Radioactive hot.  I think we'll label this container, "Three Mile Island Pepper."  It'll put hair on your chest, for sure.

Turn It Up Tuesdays

Largely due to recent crime waves and unrest in our cities, we've made a concerted effort to stay away from cities.  We try (when we can) to shop local and support family businesses - mom & pop stores that built things from the ground up with blood, sweat and tears.  In many of our towns, Main Street is drying up, boarded up storefronts because it is hard to compete with the large retailers.

Our town, and many more, across our fruited plain is alive.  This weekend Jennings (our town) is hosting Jennings Alive Fall Festival at Founder's Park from 9AM to 2PM.  Main Street will be blocked off.  There will be live entertainment with Gritz & Gravy live on the pavilion and there will be booths of shopping, family fun, and great food!  We intend on being there.  Later there will be movies at The Strand, our historic movie theatre. 

On Tuesdays, there is free music in an event called, "Turn it up Tuesdays."  On a beautiful night, we arrived to enjoy the music.  Jamie Bergeron and the Kickin' Cajuns were playing and a whole lot of folks showed up with lawn chairs to enjoy the music.  There was a dance floor up front where people were "cuttin' the rug." 

They are a six member band and play the accordion, drums, base, guitar, keyboard and fiddle and play a wide variety of cajun, swamp pop, zydeco, and country music.  

The local chapter of the FFA had a booth offering po-boys for sale.  The hungry crowd supported them and they sold out before the show was over!

We visited with friends and swayed to the music.  Tricia wanted to get an up-close view to watch the dancers' smooth moves.  I have two left feet, so I was a spectator, you might say.

Small town America has difficulties, to be sure, but the heart and brotherhood and neighborly spirit is alive and well.  We'll make it a priority to show up at most of these events and support the revival of small town good times.  Laissez les bons temps rouler!  (Let the good times roll!!)

Not So Lucky

Ginger is our cat.  Sometimes we call her "Meow Meow" and other times she is known as Gingivitis.  She couldn't really be described as a house cat as she spends most of her time outdoors.  From time to time she'll scratch on the window screen or the French doors to let us know that she'd like to come inside and sleep all day in the sunroom.  Ah, the leisurely and independent life of a cat.

True to the reputation cats have gained of being finicky, she will beg for cat food, even when there is some in her dish in the garage.  Over time we have come to understand that she wants "fresh" food because if we scoop a little more food on top, she'll eat on it.  Can you believe, the cat thinks her food is stale if it sits out for a few hours.  Ginger doesn't do leftovers.  Well, please don't tell her.  This will be a secret between you and me, okay?  When she's not looking, I'll quickly poor the "stale" food back into the container and then scoop it out again.  Magically, it is fresh again.  She has not caught on to my trickery... yet.

A couple of days ago, Ginger wasn't interested in food at all.  We were wondering if she might be sick.  Here is the patient.  She doesn't look ill, does she?

Tricia had me look outside on the patio outside the French doors.  Ginger wasn't eating because she was sick.  She wasn't eating because she was FULL.  The old girl had hunted the previous evening and killed a rabbit.  She dissected her kill, leaving the head on top, the cottontail to the left, the entrails to the right and two rabbit's feet.

I am not a superstitious person and I don't believe in luck.  But if I did, I would say that the lucky rabbit's foot saying has been proven to be not true - for the poor rabbit at least.  Le lapin.

Some Like It Hot

Peppers are a staple in our garden year by year.  We grow sweet peppers like Emerald Bell, Lilac Bell, Horizon Bell, Chocolate Bell, and Banana peppers.  We also have some mild peppers like Anaheim peppers and criolla sellas and then some hot peppers like jalapenos.  We cook with them, make pepper jelly and eat them raw.  We make a lot of Jalapeno Poppers.

The peppers grow and produce throughout the year, but they really produce in abundance during the fall.  Last year we cut a bunch of them up and put them in the dehydrator.  We have a full one gallon ziploc bag of dehydrated jalapeno peppers.  Whenever we cook, Tricia will grab a tablespoon full and put in the pot.

In anticipation of another bumper crop about to come in, we decided to do something with the dehydrated peppers from last year.  We got them out and poured them into the food processor.

After processing for a while, what's left is ground jalapeno pepper.  As soon as we took the cover off of the processer, we both began to sneeze.  The hot pepper was in the air!  Even though we couldn't see it, our sneezes evidenced that fact.

We poured the ground jalapeno pepper into a spice container.

Just yesterday, we had Chicken Fricassee for lunch.  Ground jalapeno pepper was sprinkled on top and it added a whole additional layer of flavor.  Delicious!

32 Years Ago

On October 20, 1990:

• The price of gasoline was $1.33 per gallon
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average was 2,520.79
• The median household income was $36,659
• #1 Country Song was "Friends in Low Places" by Garth Brooks
• George H. W. Bush was President of the United States

In other news, on October 20th of that year, Tricia and I were married in Corpus Christi, Texas.  We are simple people who are easily amused and entertained.  When I asked what Tricia wanted to do to celebrate our 32nd year of marriage, she had an idea.  She wanted to go together to Lafayette, LA, which is a 45 minute drive east and both go shopping in a specialty grocery store that has a lot of fancy shmancy upscale food items.  We were to pick out a bunch of things to fill a picnic basket and then go to a park and picnic and celebrate.  That's exactly what we did!

For our appetizer, we had artichoke parmesan dip and crackers with brie cheese and mushrooms on the side.  In addition, we had cold tail-on shrimp marinated in garlic and butter

We had organic fermented sparkling ginger ale to wash it all down

For the main meal, we had an Italian panini with bleu cheese potato salad and Mediterranean pasta salad

For dessert, we had a Tuxedo chocolate cake

On a nice secluded spot on a hillside next to some water, we laid out some blankets and unpacked the basket of food and started enjoying our meal and the great weather.

The food was decadent and delicious.  I was digging the shrimp!

Then it was time to eat cake.  The tuxedo cake had dark chocolate layers and vanilla layers and was rich and tasty.

We didn't rush through the meal, but savored the time, enjoying the company and the food.  We finished most of the food and were stuffed!

We were treated to a beautiful sunset in the west as we looked out over the water.  It was then that we counted five alligators that launched out into the water from the marsh grass you see in the foreground.  We were wondering if they'd flank us and devour us for a fancy meal of their own, so we decided it was time to leave.

On the way back to the vehicle I had Tricia stand by an ancient live oak tree that was lit up in lights.

The old tree has stood the test of time, just as we're committing our marriage to do.  Happy Anniversary, Tricia!

Delicious Sourdough Bread

“Good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying of all foods; and good bread with fresh butter, the greatest of feasts.” James Beard, the cook book author

We've been making sourdough bread for a long time.  It is the main bread that we eat and we average about a loaf a week.  Tricia had been watching videos showing the technique and recipe for making "Artisan Sourdough Bread."  We enjoy the tried and true, but it's always nice to try something new.  I peeked in on her as she added her sourdough starter and began folding the dough.  You fold the dough, let it sit for 30 minutes.  Then you must stretch and fold every 30 minutes for two hours.  Let it rise for 4-6 hours.  Stretch and fold again and make your loaf and let it rise for 2-3 more hours.  It was cool in the house, so she covered it and let it rise.

This bread doesn't go in a loaf pan like we normally do.  It is baked in a round.  Tricia flipped the dough over onto some parchment paper and used a razor blade to score the dough.

Meanwhile she's had a cast iron dutch oven in an oven heated to 500 degrees for 30 minutes.  Yep, that's hot!  Then she pulled the pot out of the oven.

We dropped the dough into the hot cast iron pot with the parchment paper on the bottom.  I was kind of afraid that the paper was going to catch on fire, but it didn't.

Into the oven it went.  You bake it with lid on for 20 minutes at 450 degrees.  Then you take the lid off for 15 minutes or until it is a good color.

This is the color we were looking for!

At this point you cure the bread.  Turn the oven off, crack the door open and leave for 20 minutes.

At this point we took it out of the pot and set it on the counter.

You are supposed to wait to cut into it.  We tried, we really did.  I confess that we ended up cutting into it.  You can see the steam rising from the warm bread.  Just a beautiful loaf of bread.

A little butter on top and we were ready to sample it.

I give this a five star rating!  Our normal sourdough bread is good, but this is at a whole other level.  The taste, the texture was superb.  Crusty on the outside and perfect on the inside.  I'm embarrassed to tell you that we sat there in the kitchen and cut slice after slice of bread.  Before we knew it, almost half the loaf was gone!

This was a hit.  I told Tricia that this needs to be in the rotation.  We learned that it freezes well.  I just noticed that Tricia is getting another batch of starter out to begin making the next loaf.  Can't wait!!

Fall is Here!

Last night it got down to 33 degrees!  Tonight it is supposed to be the same.  In anticipation of the very early cold snap, I rolled out a round bale of hay for the cows and goats to eat on.  It's last year's hay, but it's been covered up out of the weather.  We use a tarp that is made from an old billboard.  The sign advertised the Isle of Capri Casino in Lake Charles.  It was damaged substantially during a hurricane and lay in ruins for a while.  It got the nickname of Pile of Debris Casino.  The tarp has kept the hay in good shape.

Rosie and LuLu immediately started eating on it.  They get all excited for new hay.  You can see that they eat the very center of the hay first.  We always joke and say that it's like the center of a cinnamon roll.  You can also see the bull hanging out by the hay in the background.  I forgot to mention to you that we found out the bull's name.  It's Nick.  We call him Slick Nick.  No one is in heat yet, so Slick Nick hasn't done any romanticizing up to this point.  He's pretty quiet and calm.

This morning when I went outside, there was a frost on the ground.  It didn't get down to freezing but there was frost.  Since I didn't cover the vegetables in the garden, I was concerned about the warm-weather crops we have growing like green beans, potatoes, and tomatoes.  Fortunately, the sun warmed things up quickly and the crops don't appear to be hurt by the cold snap.

The photo below shows some of the cole crops.  We have two rows with two different varieties of cabbage, two rows with two different varieties of broccoli, and one row of cauliflower.  It seems that every seed has germinated, so they are too thick.  I've been thinning them out.  I transplanted some and gave to Russ and my Mom & Dad.  I'll also give some to my brother-in-law and his Dad.  In the background, you can see the experiment underway of fall potatoes growing in pots.

The seedlings are all looking real healthy.  These are Brunswick Cabbage plants.  

I've moved a bunch of these seedlings to the bed in the side yard.  Most have made it, but a couple are in poor health due to the shock of digging up their roots.  I think they'll make it.  As we looked out in the pasture, the animals are enjoying the cool weather.  They're frisky and are jumping and running around with all kinds of energy!  Fall is indeed a great time of year.  Maybe we'll light a fire in the fire pit this weekend.

(The First Part of) The 2022 Sweet Potato Harvest

It is about time that I get the last remaining items planted in the fall garden.  That would be carrots, radishes, turnips, mustard greens, and spinach.  But before I get those in the ground, I need some room.  As is always the case, the sweet potato crop is engulfing almost a quarter of the square footage of the garden.  In order to plant the remaining crops, I've got to harvest the sweet potatoes.  

We've discussed previously how dry it's been, so in anticipation of the harvest, I irrigated the sweet potatoes the night before to loosen up the soil, thinking that if I didn't, the ground would be rock-hard.  The crop includes both the Beauregard variety as well as an heirloom Golden Wonder variety.

To dig them up, I use some digging forks.  They work great.  The soil wasn't compacted at all.  In fact the four inches of mulch I had covered the soil with had all composted and added good organic matter.  Here is a nice Beauregard sweet potato.

Here is another and this is indicative of the average size of sweet potato that I was digging up.  They are okay for eating, but mainly for making sweet potato fries or mashed sweet potatoes.

I dug up about a third of the sweet potato patch and decided I'd plant carrots in the harvested area and allow the remaining sweet potatoes to grow for a few more weeks before I attempt to harvest again.

As is the case year after year, the cows line up at the garden fence to eat the sweet potato vines I toss over to them.  They finished them all off in no time at all.

Tricia came and joined me and we hand-sorted the sweet potatoes into four different buckets.  Once sorted, we'll hang them for curing.

These are the "cattle feed" sort.  They are the small, skinny roots that we will feed to the cows.  Cows absolutely LOVE eating sweet potatoes.  We'll supplement some of these into their feed each day once it gets colder and the grass has died.

The ones in this sort or Very Small.  We use these for juicing or for cutting in half and roasting in the oven.

The ones in this sort are the "bakers."  We'll bake these and slather with butter and eat as a side dish.

Finally, this sort includes the "monsters."  These are so big they oftentimes aren't edible as they become hard and stringy.

Last year we harvested 192 pounds of sweet potatoes.  We haven't weighed all these yet, but we will.  I'll keep track of the number so that when we harvest the remainder, we can add the numbers together for our records.