What to do With an Abundance of Hot Peppers

We love hot peppers and grow a bunch of them every year.  This year someone offered us some free hot banana peppers - five plants, actually.  We have the normal jalapenos and anaheims that we normally grow.  We had a strange arrival, too.  One of the seeds that was in the shishito package was NOT a shishito pepper.  It was a brilliant orange pepper and this bad boy was hot.  So what do you do with a bunch of peppers that are too hot to just eat plain?

Well, we'll show you what we do.  First we enjoy the electric colors of the hot peppers.  Makes a pretty basket, doesn't it?

Then, after washing them, I cut them in half and removed the seeds and the ribs.  This is the point at which you want to remember NOT to touch your eyes or your face.  Not even after washing your hands.  Ask me how I know!

Load onto the rack of the dehydrator and put on the 'vegetable mode' and run that baby until the peppers are shriveled up and dried completely.

Then we put the dried peppers in the food processor and run until the peppers have been ground into, well, ground pepper.  I wish you could smell this!  Wonderful, rich, aromatic!  Sprinkle just a dash onto your food and it livens up the dish nicely.

We always make Emeril's Essence Seasoning using the following RECIPE.  If you click that link, it will bring you to the recipe.  In place of the 1 tablespoon of cayenne pepper, we substituted our mystery hot orange pepper.  We'll call it Emeril's Very Hot Essence!  We'll be making a lot more as out pepper supply seems limitless this year.  That's a good problem to have.  Stay spicy, my friends!

Hot & Dry

Summer is always hot, but this summer we're hot AND dry.  Below I've taken a photo of the log that I track daily rainfall.  Tomorrow it will have been a month since it rained.  Everyday high temperatures have exceeded 100 and with no rainfall, well, it's getting serious.  We normally average almost 9 inches of rain in August.  We are at a serious deficit.

The grass is dying and the dirt is now dust.  Apparently there is a high pressure system sitting over the south that won't let up.  Normal afternoon thunderstorms are non-existent.  We have been praying for rain for weeks.  The forecast has not looked promising.

The cows and goats have eaten all of the remaining grass down to the ground.  We're supplementing with hay.  That hay is normally reserved for the fall, however.  Never had we begun haying the cows this early.  Now that I've gotten the chainsaw blade sharpened, I've been lopping off live oak branches that need pruning and tossing them over the fence for the animals to eat on.

Not only is the drought concerning for the pasture that the cows, goats, and chickens depend upon, but it is delaying getting the fall garden in.  We normally have fall Irish Potatoes planted by now as well as getting the cole crops planted by seed.  I haven't even begun any of that.  Afternoons are spent watering sweet potatoes, peppers, okra, butterbeans, etc. that are struggling in the garden.  Five of our Seven pumpkin plants waved a white flag and withered into the dust.

We'll continue to pray for showers of blessing that will bring a refreshing to the land.

Childhood Chore War Stories

The July/August edition of Farm Journal contained the following poll on the last page.  I liked the graphic and the topic of the poll was thought-provoking.

As my wife and I sat outside on a concrete bench under a live oak tree finishing our coffee, I showed her the Farm Journal poll and she asked me what items would make my most-dreaded childhood list.  It didn't take me long to compile my list.  Here goes:

1.    Pulling red rice and coffee weeds in rice fields.  This tops the list.  In growing seed rice, you cannot have red rice or coffee weed seed in your sample.  Inspectors from the Department of Agriculture would inspect the field on horseback.  If they found some, your field failed and you could not sell it as seed rice.  Seed rice carried with it a premium in price.  To eliminate red rice, it involved the enlistment of childhood friends to spread out and walk the entire field, shoulder to shoulder and pull the offending red rice and coffee weeds.  It was swelteringly hot.  Mosquitoes were everywhere.  Your pants immediately got soaking wet and you would get chafed between your legs.  Your arms would get cut up by the rice.  You'd get stung by wasps.  It was exhausting work.  It is, by far, the childhood chore I don't miss.  It is amazing, though.  I have friends who are successful doctors and financial planners who worked with me as a kid pulling red rice.  They look back and always tell me that although it was a hellish task, they've never forgotten doing it.  The comradery we shared, songs we sang, egg fights with marsh hen nests we'd wage, and work ethic instilled made it an unforgettable and formative part of our youth.

2.    Spreading the bins.  This comes in at #2.  After rice harvesting was done each day, there was one final job that needed doing.  We called it spreading the bins.  The bazooka carried the rice by auger up and into the bins leaving a big cone of rice.  The rice was dried by air pushed by large blowers.  If you didn't knock the cone down level, the air would go to least resistance (the edges) and the center would never dry.  We would climb in the bins with shovels and level them, going round and round shoveling the rice to the edges until it was flat.  It was oppressively hot and humid and dusty in the bins.  When we would emerge, it felt like air conditioning even though it was 90 degrees outside.  We'd remove our masks and blow our noses.  Black boogers would come out from all the dust!  We'd be soaking wet with sweat.  A shower or a jump in the pond felt so good!

3.    Cleaning out the pit.  The pit was a cone-shaped hole that the bazooka sat in.  Rice or soybeans would be dumped in the pit and the bazooka carried it up to the bins.  The pit would fill with rainwater.  The rice or soybeans in the pit would sour.  This all had to be removed prior to harvesting each day.  We would take a Prestone coolant jug and cut it with a pocketknife to make a scoop.  After pumping most of the water out of the pit with a pump, we'd shimmy down the pit with the scoop and a 5 gallon bucket and scoop the soured grain and water out to fill the bucket and dump outside the pit.  There was always a bullfrog or a snake or some other critter in there.  I remember the smell of the soured sludge!  It would get on your hands and stunk so bad that soap wouldn't remove it.  You just had to let time wear the smell off.

4.    Picking up pine knots on new land.  You always wanted to plant "new land."  Land that had never been planted in crops.  The soil was rested and yields would be great.  After clearing the land, you'd disk it up.  Numerous pine knots would arise.  We'd hood an old wooden wagon to the back of the John Deere 4020 and would walk the land, throwing pine knots on the back.  Disking the land again would reveal more knots and we'd repeat the process.  It was hot.  The sun was unforgiving.  The pine knots were innumerable.  One positive was that disking the land also exposed old timey bottles and homemade glass marbles.  I've got some of those treasures somewhere at Mom & Dad's.  Once the pine knots were removed, we'd empty the wagon by hand.  

I sent this list to my Dad and brother.  Dad looked at the Farm Journal poll and remarked, "Our list was much harder?"  I agree!  My brother remarked, "Ha.  Yep.  Good memories, though.  I learned about the dignity in hard work and what it takes to be a man.  Thank you Dad."

Indeed and Amen!

Cooling Off With a Glass of Lemongrass Tea

It's hotter than a two dollar pistol.  This morning driving to work at 5:18 AM, the temperature was already 85 degrees.  At the end of another summer day, we are all exhausted - animals and humans alike.  We feed the chickens, gather the eggs, feed the goats, and get ready to milk the cows.  We have a little more than two more weeks of milking and then we will "dry the cows off."  There will be no more milk for several months until they start calving.  We've been milking twice a day for a year and a half.  It is past time to take a break!

Summertime is hard on us all.  At the end of the day, the cows gather around the water trough.  It is their sacred time.  They dip their mouths in the cool water and draw deeply.  You can watch as the gulps of water glides down their long esophagus.  It is a peaceful time.  The breeze gently blows, signaling a respite from the sun and heat for at least the evening.

Even Belle has found a cool spot underneath the pecan tree.  Unfortunately she's made some sort of a nest in the foliage of Tricia's lillies, destroying them in the process.  She doesn't know any better.  The leaves must be cool, I'm not sure.

Cows love drinking water in the shade.  Dogs like lying in a cool spot.  Humans have come up with a multitude of ways to cool off and refresh.  I'll show you one of the things we do.  A couple of years ago I purchased some Lemongrass Seeds.  There weren't many seeds in the package.  They were small, and light.  I was not impressed.  I didn't think that they would grow.  I planted them in our raised bed for herbs and lo and behold - they grew.  They proliferated and prospered.  I cut them back in the winter.  The Lemongrass survived over the winter and here it is in its second year:

It smells so good!  Even walking past it, you can shake the leaves and smell the refreshing fragrance of lemons.  On Sunday I cut off a handful right at ground level.  I washed it up in the kitchen and then began to cut the stems and leaves into little pieces. 

I filled a pot with water and began to boil the water.

When it started to boil, I turned the heat down, put a cover on it and let it simmer for a while.  After a while, I just let it steep.

I poured it through a colander to separate out the stem and leaves and put the lemongrass tea in a glass pickle jar we use for tea.  Once completely cool, I placed it in the fridge.

After coming in from a hot day working outside, I like to put some crushed ice in a glass and fill it up with homemade lemongrass tea.

So refreshing to drink with a lemony taste and fragrance.  It can be served hot or cold, but on a hot day like today - I like it COLD!

Trying to Beat the Heat - Late July 2017 Edition

“I dislike the thought that some animal has been made miserable to feed me. If I am going to eat meat, I want it to be from an animal that has lived a pleasant, uncrowded life outdoors, on bountiful pasture, with good water nearby and trees for shade.” - Wendell Berry

I like our animals to be comfortable, too.  Especially in the hot, humid Louisiana summers that are oppressive, our animals struggle to have this "pleasant" life outdoors that Wendell Berry speaks of.  The animals aren't stupid; however, they seek out the shade under the trees to find a respite from the heat.

The chickens gather between the dairy barn and the goat barn beneath the shade of the water oak trees.  The dirt stays moist and cool in the ever-present shade here and they linger here during the hottest part of the day.

They do this thing with their wings that I show in the photo below.  When we get hot, we take off a jacket or sweater and dress appropriately.  Chickens can't do that so they do the next best thing - they hold their wings out to allow better airflow next to their bodies to cool them off.

The cows chase the shade across the pasture.  They know at certain points of the day where to position themselves to enjoy the shade.  They are as methodical in their routine as a Swiss watch.  Later in the day, they gather by the water trough and drink deeply of the cool water.  It is a peaceful, fulfilling time for them.

Rosie lifts her head when she's done and savors the cool, refreshing water while a few drops fall back into the trough.  This is no time for rushing - just a time to relax in the shade and drink water.

It is this time of the afternoon that Tricia and I walk around the perimeter of the property, taking in the sights and sounds of the end of a long, hot summer day.

Life has its bumps and gives us a fair share of heartache and trouble, but truth be told, we are blessed beyond comparison.  In the cool of the day, we find many blessings to count.

Touring the Spring Garden in Late December

It's not really spring, but it feels like it.  Let's take a look at the garden.

Today it was 77 degrees and tomorrow it will be 81,
Christmas Eve in the South underneath a hot, muggy sun,
In the photo below there's broccoli, bok choy and eggplant,
The broccoli and bok choy are starting to pant!

We picked some beautiful eggplant, purple and shiny,

They were huge - not in the least bit tiny.

Tricia cut them up and sauteed them with garlic, onions and butter,

They were so delicious, they made me stutter.

 

The Red Romaine was growing real nice,

I'll cover them up, if we ever get ice,

That doesn't seem likely as it is 80 degrees,

I'll have a nice tossed salad, if you please.

There's some Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce right down the row,

Healthy, green, and curly, don't you know?

As I survey the leafy lettuce, I'm starting to sweat,

I think I'll have this with a nice vinaigrette.

These types of lettuce are named Rocky Top Mix,

Blushing and pink - just for kicks,

So pretty to look at, you may not want to eat,

They're so colorful, fresh, healthy and sweet.

This last type of lettuce is called the Oak Leaf,

It pairs nicely with chicken or with beef,

The leaves of this type looks like its namesake,

But pick them with your fingers, not with a rake.

And here's a row of broccoli with a nice big head,

Eat a bunch of this and you won't soon be dead,

You can feast on the head and eat the leaves too,

Green and tasty and healthy for you.

Here's an odd cauliflower, and yes it is purple!,

Eat this for supper and it will cure your hirple,

The definition of hirple means "to limp",

If you eat purple cauliflower - you're no wimp!

And there you have it, girls and boys,

Fresh vegetables under the tree - not any toys!

And I heard him exclaim as he rode out of sight,

"Eat your veggies today or eat them tonight!"