Rainbow Swiss Chard

Everything fresh from the garden is good.  We enjoy meals that are made from things that we grew right out our back door around fifty feet from our kitchen.  One thing that makes fresh foods even better is when they look good.  We try to grow foods that 'pop' with flavor AND color.  Take for example Rainbow Swiss Chard.  

Why do you think they call it RAINBOW Swiss Chard?

If there is something in the garden that catches your eye more than Rainbow Swiss Chard, I haven't found it.  Swiss Chard is in the beet family(you can see the similarity in the texture and shape of the leaves), but it doesn't make a big edible root like normal beets.  Instead, it makes sweet leaves and stems that can be eaten.

A different color

Although we grow mustard greens, turnip greens, and kale, Swiss Chard is our favorite green to eat.  In addition to tasting great and looking great, it is one of the healthiest vegetables available.


More colors...

We usually saute the chard, but it can be eaten raw as well.  It is a cool weather crop and once the temperatures start hitting the mid to upper 80's, the quality starts diminishing.  Thankfully it has still been in the 40's during the night while reaching into the 70's during the day.

Speaking of the day... The days are getting longer.  That means I can actually get more done in the evenings.  It feels so good to come home and enjoy the sights and sounds of the outdoors after being cooped up in an office all day. This afternoon from the garden, I watched Benjamin playing 'Army' in the back yard with his gun.  He ran across the field of battle and with great theatrics, fell to the ground, shot by a musket and writhed around kicking and moaning before taking his final breath.

I hollered at him, "Benjamin, don't pretend to die on the battlefield!  You know what General George Patton said about that, huh?"  He said, "Nobody ever won a war by dying for his country.  He won it by making the other dumb guy die for his!"  I sanitized the quote a little bit to remove Patton's salty language.  Man, that guy could cuss a blue streak.

From colorful language back to the colorful garden - while I was turning over some dirt right next to the mustard greens, Nosy Rosie came to tell me hi as the brilliant sun set in the sky right behind her.

Hello Rose Ethel!

Finally, I watched as the setting sun put pink highlights on the clouds.  I enjoyed the view for a while and then decided it was time to go inside and eat some supper! 

Pink sky at night, sailor's delight



Red Beans & Rice

Red Beans & Rice!  This is a family favorite dish that we all love.  Tricia likes that we love it because it is so simple to prepare.  I have never planted red kidney beans, but I'm going to figure out how we do it so that we can grow our own.  Until then, we start out with the best - Camellia Red Beans from New Orleans (Since 1923).  We pour them into a colander and wash them because everyone may not have washed their hands like Momma told them to.

Washing the red beans

We soak our beans overnight after adding an ice cube of pure lemon juice into it.  There are several reasons for soaking beans.  First, soaking helps to remove some of the complex sugars from the beans that are indigestible.  Soaking the beans helps to minimize gas -not a nice thing to think about - but a good benefit. Second, soaking reduces the cooking time.  In addition to being a quicker meal, the expedited cooking time preserves some of the nutrients.  Third, beans may be dirty as discussed above.  Finally, soaking helps break down phytic acid.  Among other things, phytic acid inhibits enzymes we need to digest our food.


Soaking the beans

We let them sit and soak overnight.


Soaking red beans

In the morning, your beans will be all swollen up and most of the water will have been absorbed.  Drain off the water that remains and place the soaked beans in a dutch oven or large pot.  We add a bunch of cut up onions and start the beans simmering.

Simmering red beans

We always like to add some bell pepper and some homemade smoked sausage for some extra flavor.  Some people add ham, pork chops, tasso, etc. 

Adding some good stuff to the pot

We chop up the sausage and remove the casing (optional, of course) and chop up the bell pepper.


Chopped up

Add this all to the simmering pot of beans along with some salt and cayenne pepper.  We use our homemade ground criolla sella pepper.  Continue to simmer.  Now would be a good time to make some homemade cornbread to accompany this meal.  Red beans & rice and cornbread go together like bacon and eggs.

Adding in sausage and peppers

We're almost done.  A nice step at this point to thicken the red beans is to take a wooden spoon and mash up a bunch of the red beans against the side of your pot.  This makes the red beans nice and thick and creamy.  Continue to simmer until the beans are cooked.


Almost time to ring the dinner bell

And here is a nice bowl of red beans and rice topped with some fresh green onions right out of the garden.  Some people will slap a piece of fried chicken on top or serve with a big piece of cornbread.


Good, simple eating!

Traditionally, this dish was always served on Mondays.  Monday was laundry day and you could let your beans simmer all day while you did laundry.  When you were finished with laundry, your pot of beans were ready.  Additionally, the Sunday meal was always a huge one and this easy dish allowed a rest from the day's cooking on Sunday.  Leftover meats (like sausage & pork chops) would be thrown in the pot to enhance the meal.

We like this meal so much, though, we eat it on any day of the week!

The Liberator

We always say that at Our Maker's Acres Family Farm, we're raising more than cows, chickens and crops.  We're raising a family.  Today's posting isn't farm related, but was a fun project that Benjamin and I worked on over several months.  We finally completed it last night.

We built a model airplane - a B-24D Liberator to be specific.  This aircraft was an American heavy bomber used during WWII and was used by several Allied air forces.  There were 18,400 of them produced and it still holds the distinction of being the most produced American military aircraft.  It was noted for sinking 93 U boats.  It carried a crew of 11 (pilot, co-pilot, navigator, bombardier, radio operator, nose turret, top turret, two waist gunners, ball turret and tail gunner).  Of interesting note, Jimmy Stewart, (from Mr. Smith goes to Washington and It's a Wonderful Life) flew a B24 as a commanding officer.


This was quite a project!

It took a long time.  It required us to paint everything in intricate detail.  When we put the fuselage together, Benjamin said, "Why'd we have to paint the inside?  You can't even see it now."  Good question, Benjamin.

Fuselage together, wings and propellers on

We didn't get any glue on the carpet.  We were careful and used grocery store circulars to protect the carpet.  This came AFTER learning a tough lesson in Benjamin's room where we were painting.  Olive drab paint doesn't blend into oatmeal colored Berber carpet no matter how much you rub it. 

Gluing tiny parts of the turret together

I have to hand it to Revel, the maker of this model, as the directions were very clear. 


Affixing the landing gear

You can see the tail guns and the waist gunners from this angle.  There were 10 .50 caliber M2 Browning machine guns on this bad boy.


Getting ready to start painting

We had originally glued the bomb bay doors shut, but then we removed them and glued them open where you could see the bombs.  For short range flights (< 400 miles) the Liberator could carry 8,000 pounds of bombs. 

A view of the bombs

Benjamin painted the underside of the Liberator a flat gray.  There were two style of paint and he selected the "Fightin' Sam" paint scheme.

Painting the Liberator

 Look at the detail.  The bombs have a yellow stripe painted on them.


Bombs away

The top of the B-24 was painted a camoflage green color.  

Starting to look good!

Roughly done, but there's still some detail left to paint.


The B24-D Liberator

Front view

You can see the detail of the Fightin' Sam nose art along with the emblems for major victories.
 

Fightin' Sam

Here is the model with all decals applied, a black strip painted on the leading edges of the wings, and yellow striped wing tips.  Nice! 

All "gussied" up.

More detail of the bombs - Benjamin's favorite part.


Bomb detail

At long last, we're done.  With mono filament fishing string, we hung the B24-D Liberator from the ceiling fan in Benjamin's bedroom in a dive bombing position.  What boy doesn't want a WWII bomber hanging from his ceiling?  It is facing his headboard.  As you lie in his bed, you can look up and if you use your imagination, you can almost hear "Fightin' Sam" coming in on a bombing run.  

The B24-D Liberator in all her glory

This was a pretty cool project.  This bomber was used in every combat theater in WWII and is now out of retirement and flying missions in Benjamin's room.

The Trail Ride

Saturday morning I was in the garden working up ground for potato planting.  Even though it wasn't hot, I was in need of a break.  I had pulled up seven rows and was ready for some water to drink.  Off in the distance I heard the sound of music - not the 'boom-boom' music you often hear while waiting at red lights, but Cajun french music and country music mixed in for good measure.  I ran inside and got Tricia and we sat out on the front porch to see what was going on and before long we could see a long line of people on horseback and horse-drawn carriages and wagons - a Trail Ride!  Most of the wagons had American flags flapping in the breeze.


Patriotic trail riders

I later looked online and saw that this was the Grand Marais trail ride that was going on March 9 - 10th.  I wish I could have been able to take pictures that would begin to show you how many people and horses were involved.  I should have counted them.  They all stopped in front of the house while waiting on an escort to cross a busy highway.

There were all types of homemade wagons and all different kinds of horses with riders, young and old.


This wagon had a pexiglass cab to protect the driver from the elements

Some of the wagons had a deck on the back with a barbecue pit grilling lunch for the day.  This one was smoking and no doubt making the guys on horseback right behind it very hungry.  No wonder they were following closely.

Trail Ride Barbecue

Although the revelers occupied most of the road, traffic could still pass by them.  They were very organized and had the Sheriff's Department stop traffic when they crossed a main road and had a gentleman on horseback with a neon orange flag escorting vehicles passing the trail ride in order to make sure people were safe.  

Vehicles passing the trail ride

Among the wagons, stage-coach looking things, and other 'vehicles', there was an Amish-style horse and buggy that looked pretty cool.  


Amish-styled carriage

Acting as caboose of the trail ride (appropriately) was the restroom - Guys and Gals port-a-potties, and it looks like there is a line to get into one of them!  Must take some practice to learn to use the restroom on a sloshing, bouncing, moving trailer...

Modern Style cowboy restroom

Ride 'em Cowboy!

Almost the end of the cilantro

We always grow a lot of cilantro in our garden.  Tricia is from South Texas and grew up cooking with the herb being used in lots of Tex Mex dishes like Pico de Gallo, pinto beans, Mexican rice, etc.  It is also a popular herb in Chinese and Indian dishes as well.  We planted it one time, let it go to seed and it self propagates.  Every year around the December - January time frame, lots of cilantro pops up volunteer in our garden.

There is one problem with cilantro.  It bolts.  It wants to flower and produce seeds.  The seeds from a cilantro plant are the spice, coriander.  Anyway, once it flowers, the flavor changes, so you want to harvest prior to the flowering stage.  The photograph below shows cilantro in full bolt.  The big vertical shoots are the stems from which the flowers will soon pop out on.  When the temperature hits 70 degrees, it wants to flower.


Bolting Cilantro

Here is a picture of the flowers of a cilantro plant.  The bees love them and they are pretty to look at, but they signal the end of the cilantro, unless you want to plant again so that your tomatoes and cilantro are ripening at the same time so that you can make pico de gallo!


Flowering Cilantro

So, Tricia and I brought the produce bucket out to the garden to salvage what we could of the cilantro.  We picked and cleaned a bucket full of the pungent smelling, but flavorful herb. 

Bucketful of cilantro

Tricia put it in a colander and washed it up.


Cleaned cilantro

She got out a gallon sized Ziploc freezer bag and heaped the cilantro into the bag.


Bagged Cilantro

And now it is ready to go into the freezer.  As she cooks beans or makes pico de gallo or other dishes that call for it, she'll simply go the the freezer, open the bag, pinch off what she needs, and in this way extend the cilantro harvest for a few more months.


Ready to freeze

Now the garden area that the cilantro was in can be used for something else in the Spring Garden.  Speaking of the Spring garden, we'll be talking more about that in the up-coming week.

Potato Planting

Today I finally got the potatoes planted - six rows in all.  It is really late for potatoes.  I usually have them planted on Valentines Day.  However, this year we got lots of rain and the ground was too wet to plant back in February.  Today was a good day to get it done.  The cows provided supervision.

Rows worked up and ready for planting.

A little over a week ago, I cut up the seed potatoes so that each chunk of potato would have one eye.  Over the past week, the potatoes scabbed over and healed.  The scab helps keep the potato from rotting in the ground once planted.


Seed potato scab

Planting is simple.  All I did was make a trench in the middle of the row and drop the seed potatoes in, spaced 8 inches apart, and then cover with dirt.  

Drop them 8 inches apart

All done!  1 row of white potatoes and 4 rows of red potatoes. 
 

Potatoes in the ground

Here's a little trick I always do.  Between the rows I put down cardboard pizza boxes or feed sacks to keep weeds from coming up.  Then I put leaves over the top even with the height of the rows on either side.  This serves several purposes:

• Keeps weeds from coming up in the walkways between the rows,
• The leaves rot and compost, becoming organic matter to be incorporated in the the soil next year,
• The leaves help the soil retain moisture so that roots from plants on the rows can draw it. 

Leaves between the rows

And we're all done.  Daisy and Rosie give our job a "Two hooves up" rating.


2013 Potato Patch

 I checked the weather and tomorrow we have an 80% chance of rain.  This ought to get the potatoes growing.  Before long we'll see the potato plants popping up out of the ground.

Though the flock should be cut off from the fold...

You ever had one of those days?  Or maybe a series of days where it seems everything goes wrong?  Perhaps things are not going well at work?  Or you are waiting on an email for good news and it arrives and the first sentence starts off with, "We regret to inform you that...?"  Or health issues come up out of the blue?  Or tough family problems have you perplexed?  If so, you can probably relate.  Stick with me until the end.  I'm trying to encourage myself and maybe you need some encouragement as well.

The past two nights in a row we've lost a meat bird.  They are one week from butchering - almost there - and a predator has killed two.  The frustrating thing is that he just pulls the head off and eats the neck.  He totally wastes a perfectly good bird.  This is the sight I've been greeted with for two successive mornings now.  This particular chicken probably weighs around 4 pounds right now.


Don't lose your head

I asked a good friend who specializes in problem animals and predators and he told me that this shows the signs of a kill by a mink, a raccoon or an owl as they all pull the heads off.  So, I went by Harbor Freight after work, bought a trap, baited it with a can of salmon and we'll see if we can catch the villain in the morning.  This story is "headed" somewhere, thanks for patiently waiting... Pardon the pun.

So these bad days we were talking about?  What do we do?  How do we get through these "spells" where nothing seems to go right?  I know what we should do.  It's just not easy to put it into practice.  It takes discipline.  It takes faith.  You have to be tough.  (I'm a work in progress and I'm still learning.)

Just so happens I was reading something just the other day that came to mind in my current pity party.  In the Old Testament book of Habakkuk, the Prophet is lamenting with God over the fact that Judah has turned its back on God and are in open rebellion against Him and His ways and it seems like this evil is going to go unpunished.  Habakkuk asks God if He's seeing what's going on.  (Paraphrasing)  God tells Habakkuk, though, that He is going to send judgment on them and it is not going to be pretty.  The problem that the prophet Habakkuk has with this is that the judgment God is bringing is coming at the hands of the Babylonians, a people more evil than Judah.  This just doesn't seem fair from a just God and Habakkuk questions God about it.  God tells him to be patient, the Babylonians will eventually be punished and true faith will be rewarded.

Okay, now we're coming to the 'meat' of the story:

 Here is the prescription for what you are to do in difficult times.  I can't say it any better than Habakkuk:   

¹⁷ Though the fig tree should not blossom
And there be no fruit on the vines,
Though the yield of the olive should fail
And the fields produce no food,
Though the flock should be cut off from the fold

And there be no cattle in the stalls,
¹⁸ Yet I will exult in the Lord,
I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.
¹⁹ The Lord God is my strength,
And He has made my feet like hinds’ feet,
And makes me walk on my high places.

So did you catch it?  Our faith or our happiness should not be dependent on our circumstances.  This book was written 600 years before Christ.  These were primitive agrarian people who were primarily keepers of animals and growers of crops, orchards, and vineyards. 

It's easy to trust God or be happy when all is going well, right?  It doesn't take faith for that.  No, the real test of faith comes when your fruit trees don't blossom, or the yield of your crops is low or you experience crop failure.  Or your chickens get beheaded.  Or you lose a calf.  Or all those other things that I discussed in the first paragraph happen.  What are you gonna do then?

Well, you exult in the Lord.  You rejoice greatly.  It hurts to say that because I don't feel like "exulting."  But if we trust in Him, He's given us salvation and you know what?  He's with us.  We don't walk alone.  And we will overcome, because He is a good God and in Him we find strength. 

A hind is a deer.  What he's telling us is that God has designed us to be like a deer - to run fast to Him (Nothing runs like a Deere), to climb to the highest heights with Him and to be sure-footed so that we may walk in the high places.  Who wants to hang out in low places?  Keep the faith.  Be strong.  Though things crumble around us, may we keep our eyes fixed on Him!