A Quick Pictorial Tour Through the Fall Garden - December 2021

We haven't posted any photos of the garden in a while.  I thought tonight I'd give you a tour.  These photos were taken a week ago, so things have changed a bit since then.  We've had temperatures in the upper 70's so things are really growing!

These is the last thing I planted - Turnips.  We'll eat the greens and feed the turnip roots to the cows, unless I can develop a taste for them.  I love the greens.  Hate the roots.  Oh, you'll also see the first of the oxalis rearing its ugly head in the center of the photo.  We'll be battling oxalis again this year, it appears.

Behold the Lilac Bell Pepper!  A beautiful pepper for sure.  The peppers are really coming in right now.

Dinosaur kale.  These will be producing heavily over the next few months.

Purple Kohlrabi.  A bizarre looking vegetable, indeed.  This was some free seed that I got from rareseeds.com with an order last year.  I'm gonna be honest.  I've never eaten kohlrabi.  I don't know how to cook it.  I don't know when it is ripe, but I'll learn the answer to all of those questions and report back.

Fresh broccoli.  The warm weather has it growing fast and just about to bloom.  We're racing to pick it before it is full of yellow flowers.

Tomatoes.  Hopefully, we can get these ripened before a frost hits.  It would be nice to have some fall 'maters.

Green kale on the left.  Cabbage on the right.  

Plenty of green onions for winter "stick to your ribs" dishes like Gumbo!  Red Beans and Rice!  Homemade soups.

Sugar snap peas growing on up the trellis.  No blooms yet, but they'll be coming any time.  Nothing like eating these raw, right off the trellis.  Sweet as honey.

Carrots.  These should be done next month!

Here is one of the two varieties of spinach we have growing - Monstrueux de Viroflay is the name.  As you can tell, it comes from France.

And here is the second variety.  This one from Israel - Galilee is the name.

Here is the row of mustard greens.  Yum.  Get the pan of cornbread cooking to pair with this.

French Breakfast Radishes.  (That's what they're called.  I've never had radishes for breakfast.)

Lollo Rosso Lettuce.

Red Wing Lettuce Mix.

Oak Leaf Lettuce

And finally, Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce.

Fresh veggies incoming soon!

RIP Cupcake

As the title of this blog post suggests, it was a sad morning on Our Maker's Acres Family Farm.  When I walked out to milk Clarabelle this morning before church, I found Cupcake dead by the garden gate that leads into the pasture.  You might remember our posting about Cupcake, our disabled goat.  You can click the hyperlink and read about her disability.  She was about 10 months old.

Frankly, I don't know what caused her death.  Other than her front two legs which didn't work normally, she was the picture of health.  Tricia spent hours splinting her legs and doing 'rehab' with her.  Here lately, she was walking on her own (bowlegged, of course and limping) about 300 feet to eat grass in the pasture.

Although she didn't really need to, it became an afternoon tradition that Tricia would walk out across the pasture each afternoon, pick up her little Cupcake, and carry her back to the barn.  Last night was the first night in months and months that she didn't do it.  We are guessing that perhaps one of the other animals (one of the milk cows, or Buckwheat, the buck goat) head-butted her and fatally injured her.  They were really rough with her at times, and Tricia would rescue her and put her in one of the stalls in the barn to segregate her from the others.  For the most part, she made it just fine on her own.  She and Tricia were closely attached.

I hated to tell Tricia this morning, but she said, "I'm a farm girl.  This kind of stuff happens.  Before you bury her, I want to tell her goodbye.  She had such a cute little head."  We had church today and caroling for shut-ins this afternoon, so it was after dark before I could tend to Cupcake.  I got a shovel and measured her footprint and dug a 2 1/2 foot deep hole in the very back of the garden.

As Tricia watched, we laid little Cupcake to rest.

I heard a rustling behind me and turned around to see the saddest thing.  Agnes, Cupcake's mom, had come by to bid her farewells to her little girl at the impromptu ceremony.  It was kind of touching.

We'll miss little Cupcake.  She was a fighter and determined not to let her disability keep her from living a somewhat normal life.  It will be different without her on the pasture.  But, newsflash!:  The does are all getting fat.  I think they are all bred and we'll be having a lot of baby goats on the farm this spring.

Cilantro Salad with Kalamata Olives, Avacado and Limes

Our cilantro plants last year went to seed (coriander seed, technically) and every single doggone one of them germinated.  We have a FIELD of cilantro!  We've made a bunch of salsa and pico de gallo with it and cooked it with scrambled eggs, and we'll continue to do that, but I was looking for something else to do to use up this excess cilantro.

I searched on the internet and found a recipe for Cilantro Salad with Kalamata Olives, Avocadoes, & Limes.  It is a middle-eastern dish and seemed interesting.  We made it up last night.  I'll share the recipe and give you my review.  Here is the credit for the recipe: SAVEUR

Ingredients

4 packed cups cilantro leaves, coarsely chopped

2 poblano chiles, stemmed seeded, and thinly sliced (2 cups)

2 cups red onion, quartered and thinly sliced 

1 medium lime, peel and pith removed, flesh quartered and thinly sliced

1/4 cups fresh lemon juice

1/3 cups extra-virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

10 pitted kalamata olives

1 firm ripe avocado, thinly sliced

Here is the peppers, red onion and lime all thinly sliced in a big bowl.

Then we added the cilantro leaves.  I just realized that we didn't coarsely chop the cilantro.  We did sit out in the garden and pick out all of the stems.  Coarsely chopping the leaves would probably enhance this dish.

We sliced the olives and avocado.  The peppers just north of the knife were some Anaheim peppers that Tricia didn't want in her salad, so I reserved them for mine.

Then we whisked the lemon juice, oil, salt, and pepper together for the dressing.

We tossed it all together, gently in the big bowl.

We garnished with kalamata olives and avocado slices.

And we served with Roasted Sweet Potato Soup with sweet potatoes that had just finished curing.  Delicious!

Review:  The salad was good.  The cilantro was a little over-powering (and we love cilantro).  I think in the future, we'll substitute half of the cilantro with lettuce to tone it down a bit.  The recipe makes A LOT!  We have a field of cilantro in the garden, so we have a lot more to go through!

Still Harvesting Eggplant

Sometimes things work one year and absolutely flop the next.  No matter how you try to think about it, there are too many variables to isolate on what made it work or what made it fail.  This can apply to many things, but tonight I'm talking about eggplant.  Each year on January 1st I start all my tomato, pepper and eggplant seeds indoors in seed pots.  (Hard to believe I'll be doing this again in less than a month!)  Once germinated I move beneath grow lights until the last date of frost has passed and then I'll transplant into the garden.

Eggplant have a particularly long growing season.  You want to get them going early.  Last year, same as every other year I planted.  The eggplant germinated, languished, and gave up the ghost.  This year, using the same seed and doing everything else in similar fashion, they absolutely thrived.  Three eggplant plants have yielded more eggplant than I can count.  We've eaten caponata, oven fried eggplant, eggplant parmesan many times.  We've given some away.  They keep producing.  It is a good problem to have! 

Eggplant have an interesting history.  They are native to China and India.  It was brought by the Spanish into Europe.  Explorers brought the eggplant to the New World, but it did not catch on in American immediately.  As part of the nightshade family (along with potatoes and tomatoes), people thought they were poisonous.  One brave soul finally tried it and didn't die and, well, here we are today, cultivating them in our gardens and eating them in our kitchens.

It is December 1st and the eggplant are still blooming, still producing.  We'll undoubtedly harvest quite a few more before we have our first frost.  I think the flowers are very pretty on this plant.  It is a pinkish flower that the honeybees like to visit.

I took this last photo of another bloom on one of the eggplants and as I looked at it closer, I want to share something with you.  If you look directly beneath the center of the bloom, you can spot the silhouette of a dreaded garden pest I didn't see when taking the photo.  A Stink Bug!

Had I seen that booger, I would have squashed him on the spot.  He (or one of his offspring) will find a place to over-winter and will be attacking our tomato plants next spring.

That Rascally Rabbit

When the kids were younger, we read them the Beatrix Potter stories.  They were all pretty good, but our favorite was Peter Rabbit.  It had suspense and danger in it.  You'll remember it, I'm sure.  It started off like this...

“Once upon a time there were four little Rabbits, and their names were Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail, and Peter.”

What a bunch of mischievous bunnies, right?  We all thought they were so cute (and Mr. McGregor so mean!)  The rabbits were given instructions that were very clear.  The limitations to their journeys even contained a horrific explanation of just what had made Peter Rabbit's mother a widow...

“You may go into the fields or down the lane, but don’t go into Mr. McGregor’s garden. Your Father had an accident there; he was put in a pie by Mrs. McGregor.”

I always thought that was a little too much detail to tell young bunnies.  Maybe she should have told them that Papa Rabbit was away on a business trip.  The other thing I always wondered about was: Rabbit Pie?  Mr. McGregor did not live in south Louisiana.  No rabbit pies.  Papa Rabbit would have been cooked in a dark brown gravy or smothered down in a fricassee.

Well, in our garden, a rabbit or two has been helping himself to our produce.  We thought it might be worms doing the damage, but then I spotted the rabbit poop.  In addition to devouring our entire green bean crop, he's nibbling on the lettuce, beets, and swiss chard.  That row of beets at one time was full from end to end.

I've gone out at night with a spotlight and a rifle.  No luck.  In the book, Peter was chased by Mr. McGregor!

“He lost one of his shoes among the cabbages, and the other shoe amongst the potatoes.”

If I were to catch the rabbit, he would lose more than his shoes.  Surprisingly, the row of carrots have remained unscathed.

We've never had rabbit issues before.  Since I've failed in shooting the rabbit, I have a three pronged attack plan, and I've implemented 2 of the 3 action steps.

First, I went out past the perimeter fence between our property and the woods with an ax, a machete, and a swing blade.  I cleared a 12 foot opening.  It looks like a manicured lawn.  My thinking is that a hawk or an owl will more easily spot "le lapin" and swoop down and devour him before he comes to dine in our garden.

Secondly, I set a trap.  I have it baited with carrots and celery.  So far, no rabbit in the trap, but no additional evidence of him eating.

If I'm unsuccessful in stopping Peter Rabbit and friends, the third prong in my plan requires spending a little money.  I'll purchase some chicken wire and run it around the entire perimeter of the garden.  I really don't want to have to do that.  It costs money, requires a lot of work to install, and it can be easily damaged by the goats when they stand up on the garden fence to try to crane their necks over and eat what's growing in the garden.

Hopefully, like the skunk and possum blog post, this story will have a happy ending (for us - not the rabbit.)

The Valuable Shoe Shine Box

This post really has nothing to do with our little homestead farm, but I'll share it anyway.  I don't know about you, but every so often when I look down at my "church" shoes, I am not greeting with a nice  shining reflection.  Instead I see a dull, sad reminder that I'd better get out the old shoe shine box and get busy.  Shoes that are polished are a refection of a gentleman's attention to detail and civility, I have been told.

So I got out the shoe shine box and did a quick number on them, using an old tee shirt as my shoe shine rag.  Keep in mind, I am nowhere near a professional shoe shiner.  My polishing work leaves a lot to be desired, but it did at least resurrect the leather from dull, lifeless, and lackluster, to at least some degree of brilliance.  Hopefully I moved the needle closer to "civilized."

My shoe shine box is very old as shoe shine boxes go.  I would guess it is about 30 years old.  It is actually an old shoe box.  It is filled with an assortment of Kiwi shoe polish in varying colors, brushes, toothbrushes, and a rat's nest of various shoe strings I'll never use.  Not a fancy box, to be sure, but one that has performed its duty admirably in keeping a lot of junk together in somewhat of a semi-organized fashion.  When I need to shine my shoes or Tricia's cowboy boots, I know where everything is.

Now, one might think that it would be a fruitful endeavor to peruse various websites to procure a real shoeshine box.  This one is just tacky.  Perhaps, if I was ambitious, I could make a shoeshine box.  Or, I may have to repair it by getting some duct tape to 'firm up' edges of the box and the box top.  Age brings on wear and raggedy appearance in both boxes and people alike.  Should I just throw it away?  Nah, my old shoe box that serves as a shoe shine box will continue to perform its duty until I no longer need to shine shoes.  The reason it is important to me is not due to what's in it.  The treasure is on the outside of it.  Some 25 years ago, my daughter, Laura Lee, my aspiring artist, drew a self-portrait on my shoe shine box.  It is a happy drawing of Laura Lee and her brother.

The most expensive shoe shine box I could ever purchase couldn't come close to the value that I ascribe to the one I currently have!

Supply Chain Upheaval

Prior to Thanksgiving, I was listening to some ladies talking about the absence of necessities for cooking the Thanksgiving meal.  They were opting for alternative brands or skipping certain dishes altogether.  What a shame!  There is also talk of shortages of fertilizer in the spring, pushing prices higher and supply lower for many staples we rely on.  Very troubling.  

We have lots of seeds saved, but I figured in anticipation of breakdowns in our supply chain, I had better inventory our saved seed and make an order from my favorite seed supplier: Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.  They can be found online at www.rareseeds.com.  I ordered and walked out to the mailbox today and lo and behold, my seed order had arrived!

I opened the package and everything I had ordered had arrived!  The package contained:

Verde Tomatillo: We make roasted salsa with this.  First time order!

Blue Lake Bush Beans: To replace the beans that the rabbit devoured!

Lima Beans: I love some lima beans cooked with some smoked sausage.

Cauliflower: Both PURPLE and white.

Okra: Burgundy, Clemson Spineless and Jing Orange (a new variety for us)

Stowell Evergreen Corn: We'll hope for a better harvest next year.

French Breakfast Radish: Fast growing and delicious in salads or a dip we make.

Blackeyed Peas and Contender Green Beans: Favorites of ours we order again and again.

Brunswick Cabbage and Mustard Greens: Well make sauer kraut with the cabbage and eat mustard over cornbread with the pot liquor poured over!

Russian Red Kale: To replace the last of the seed we had saved.

Butternut Squash: Is there anything better than a creamy butternut squash soup?

Roma II Beans and Purple Hull Peas: Romas are a flat, Italian bean we love and purple hulls are a high protein survival crop hardy in heat and draught.

Black Turtle Beans and Sugar Snap Peas: Black beans for refried beans and sugar snap peas are our year in - year out favorites for snacking.

There are a few benefits for ordering from Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company:

1. Shipping is free!

2. Seeds are open-pollenated, so they can be saved year after year - unlike hybrids,

3. The Baker Creek Seed Catalog is beautiful,

4. When you order, they always throw in a FREE packet of seeds.  I like this as it enables you to try a new variety that you wouldn't have otherwise ordered.  It has introduced our family to some new things.

The free seed that came with this order was Uzbek Golden Carrot.  It comes from Uzbekistan and is called the "muscle" carrot as it is blunt and powers through tough soil, yet has a very sweet taste.  It is favored in Russia and China.  There is a video about it that can be viewed HERE.  We will try planting them and see how we like 'em.