From Farm To Table

Farm to Table is easier said than done.  We talked about the tomatoes last week. This week we are battling the birds for our blueberries.  Tricia tried the old trick of tying pie pans from a string on the blueberry bushes to frighten the birds away. Actually I think I saw a bluejay picking blueberries and filling up one of the pans before flying away with it balanced on his head.  Maybe I didn't actually see that.

I also tried tying a white rubber snake to the blueberry bushes, but I'm not sure of the efficacy of this tactic since there probably aren't a lot of albino snakes in the area and birds wouldn't be afraid of it - especially one hanging by its neck.

We have also been peppering the birds from the back porch with .22 rifles. Benjamin ended the life of a blackbird this afternoon that had an affinity for our blueberries.  Thou Shalt Not Steal!

Anyway, we have been able to pick a good bit of blueberries so far and have a lot more to pick provided we keep the birds in check.  We eat a lot of them just snacking on them.  This morning before church, we made our favorite - blueberry pancakes!

We spoon a good sized bit of batter on the cast iron griddle and flatten it out a bit. Then we sprinkle a few fresh-picked blueberries atop the pancake batter.

I put a bit more batter on top to cover up the blueberries.

I flip them once so that they cook to perfection on both sides, and they come out golden brown.

There's only one problem with homemade blueberry pancakes made with blueberries grown right out in the backyard...

They don't last long around our house!

Making Pumpkin Pancakes

While the hot and unusually dry months of July, August and September severely impacted our pumpkin crop, we were able to salvage some of the harvest and picked a number of Jack Be Little, New England Sugar Pie, and Jarrahdale pumpkins.  Here are a few of them in the corner of the kitchen.  You can see the curious-looking blue Jarrahdale pumpkin sticking out like a sore thumb!

Some of the harvest

We will eat every last one of them.  To process them, all you do is cut them in half and scoop out the seeds with a spoon.  We'll save the seeds for next year's crop.  Cut the pumpkins into quarters and put them in a baking pan with a half inch or so of water in the bottom, and bake them until the flesh is soft.  Scoop out the pumpkin flesh with a spoon, leaving only the hard 'skin' of the pumpkin.  You can put that in the compost pile.

Now here's the best part - eating the pumpkin!  We're going to make pumpkin pancakes.  Here's the recipe we'll use with minor changes:

Pumpkin Pancakes

2 Cups of Flour (we used 1 cup Spelt and 1 cup Kamut flour that we ground)

2 Tbs sugar 

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 cups milk

1 cup vanilla yogurt (we used some homemade kefir from our cows)

2 eggs

1/2 cup - 1 cup pureed pumpkin

4 tbs melted butter

This recipe came from a newsletter that I get from some friends of ours: Gotreaux Family Farms in Scott, Louisiana.  Check them out.  They are an amazing family!

Here are the ingredients all laid out.  Let's get going!

Look at the beautiful orange homegrown pumpkin!

Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and cinnamon together in a container with a whisk until it is all combined.

Mixing the dry ingredients

In a separate container pour in the kefir, the pumpkin that we pureed in the food processor, and the eggs from our hens.

Here goes the pumpkin

Finally we pour the milk from Daisy and Rosie into the bowl of wet ingredients and add in the melted butter.  Stir this all together until it is mixed up.

Nice dark yolks in the bowl

Now it is time to combine all the ingredients, so pour together and mix.  

Now it all comes together

We almost forgot the vanilla!  Add it in and stir.

Last but not least

Tricia heated up the cast iron griddle and put a pat of butter on top.  When it is ready spoon on a perfect amount on the griddle. 

First pumpkin pancake on the griddle 

When that one is ready put another on.  There are lots of hungry people gathering in the kitchen by this point and there is no time to waste.  Keep the assembly line going.

Golden brown pumpkin pancakes!  Can you smell them?

That is a fine looking pumpkin pancake!

We make a stack of them on a plate with a few pats of butter melting on top.  Then it is time to pour some Steen's Pure Cane Syrup on top of that.

Ready to Eat

They were delicious.  You could taste the pumpkin flavor, but it wasn't over-powering.  Forget Wheaties.  This is the breakfast of champions.  Savor the fall flavor of pumpkin pancakes accompanied by a cup of Community Dark Roast Coffee.  Even if it is still warm and muggy outside, we can pretend it is fall, can't we?