Purple Hull Pea Pickin'

The hot July summer sun relentlessly bakes what remains of our spring crop into the ground.  This poor zucchini that brought us a bountiful harvest of beautiful, large zucchini that we've eaten for weeks slowly fades...

Her neighbor desperately clings to a tiny sliver of life, but resistance is futile.  The cycle of life of a zucchini in South Louisiana draws to a close.  We've still got some in the vegetable drawer in the fridge, but once that's done, we'll wait until next year.

The cucumbers are dealt a similar cruel hand by nature.  The once green vines filled with yellow blossoms and cucumbers in all stages of maturity now are only skeletal remains, a dry reminder of crisp, cool cucumbers sliced in the fridge.  We have a few more and then it's all done. 

But there is one crop just coming on.  It scoffs at the heat and dry conditions.  "Bring it on," it mocks.  That would be Purple Hull Peas.  I walked out to check on the progress and noted that I could go ahead and pick a half bucket.  They were just beginning to ripen with lots more to come.

The neighboring row has peanuts and then blackeyed peas on the next row thereafter.  The blackeyes will be ready real soon.

I quickly pick all the peas in which the pods are mostly purple.  It doesn't take long.  There are many more to come in various stages of maturity.  I'll have to pick every other day to keep up.

You can see why they get their name: Purple Hull Peas.  It is a southern staple.  We had a preacher that grew up in the Great Depression.  He used to tell us that they were very poor but always had food on the table that they grew from their land by the sweat of their brow.  He'd always say, "We'd have rice and beans one night and then momma would mix it up and the next night we'd have beans and rice!"

They are a good source of protein and are just good to eat.  Served over rice with some tasso or smoked sausage for a little flavor and maybe a skillet of hot buttered cornbread on the side - wow!  That's some good food, right there.

It is always a relaxing thing to sit down in the evening and shell peas.  The rhythmic plunk, plunk, plunk of the peas being released from the shell and slowly filling the bowl is a comforting sound - a sound of sufficiency, a sound of sanity in a crazy world.  Pass the peas, please.

Random Sightings From the Garden Today

In the late afternoon we drift into the garden.  We do a little harvesting, a little weeding, and a lot of just observing what is going on.  I am making lists of things that need to get done this week.  One of the first things is to go ahead and cut all the tomatoes down and remove their trellises to make room for the fall crop that I'll be planting later on.

I harvested a few peppers from a new variety that I planted this year.  They are called Lipstick Peppers.  This organic variety is a sweet pepper that is great for roasting. We'll have to check them out.  They sure pass the eye test.  That is a pretty pepper right there!

The trellis that supports the vines of our Birdhouse gourds and Luffa gourds is overflowing with healthy vines.  They are unaffected by the heat.  These things are like kudzu.  I halfway worry that I'll wake up tomorrow morning to find that these vines have enveloped our house and vehicles.

If you peek under the canopy, you can see the birdhouse gourds growing.  I'm hoping to harvest a bunch of these this year and make into birdhouses.  I still have two hanging from the limbs of a pecan tree that I made several years ago.

We have a habit of always tossing something over the garden fence for the animals to eat.  They enjoy the bounty of the garden, too.  So they are conditioned to gather around when we are in the garden.  Below you can see one of our roosters. 

This is a 'rescue rooster.'  The sister of a friend of ours got this fellow from Tractor Supply when it was just a chick.  He was supposed to be a hen.  He had other plans.  As the rooster grew older, it became clear that this guy was going to lay no eggs and would also make a lot of noise.  Roosters aren't allowed in the city.  So, we ended up with him.  I think he is a nice looking rooster.  Sometimes when new birds are introduced, the other birds gang up and attack and will sometimes kill the newcomer.  This guy held his own.  He is a welcome addition to our flock.

Of course the goats, being nosy, social critters that they are, they gather around the garden fence, too!  Annie, Matilda, and Agnes are attempting to look nonchalant and not actively begging me to toss them some greens.

When I don't immediately toss them something, I get a stare-down from Annie, a well-done attempt at making me feel guilty. 

I fall victim to her shaming and quickly find something to toss her to eat.  We'll see ya'll tomorrow.

And A Milk Cow In a Pear Tree

Tuesday afternoon it cooled off after a very hot day.  We milked the cows, moved the temporary electric fence into the yard and moved Rosie and Clarabelle into the yard to mow down the grass.  Belle ran around, and it was generally a happy day.  Until, Belle didn't listen to Tricia emphatically saying, "NO!" and grabbed the electric fence with her mouth.  The pulse of electricity popped her in the mouth and Belle ran away yelping faster than I've ever seen her run.  I'm guessing she won't do that again.  Poor girl.  Sometimes they don't listen and have to touch the stove for themselves to see if it's hot...

Rosie was meandering with her head down like a machine, reaching her tongue out to grab swaths of Bahia grass and tugging it loose with a mighty crunch.  All of a sudden she discovered the pear tree.  She used that same tongue to reach up with amazing dexterity to pluck a pear leaf from the branch.

Then, like any cow would do, she used the trunk of the little tree to get a good neck rub.  Scratch, Scratch, Scratch...

But she wasn't done, no sir.  She eyeballed a pear and before we could stop her, she pulled it off the branch.  Now these pears are 'baking pears.'  They are hard - not tender and soft.  For us to eat them, we cut them up with a paring knife (pardon the pun).  Once she had the pear in her mouth, she didn't quite know what to do with it.

Rosie is a persistent and determined old girl.  She was not going to let that pear defeat her.

We watched her roll it around in her mouth and gum it and chew it until we finally heard the load crunch, crunch, crunch of the pear.  Fortunately, the other pears in the tree were out of reach.  Well, if she could stand up on her hind legs, she could reach them.  But she's not like us.  You might say she is impaired.  Bad puns, today, I know.

Grandpa's Pocketknife

Back in September 2012, I posted this: Pocket Knife Post from 2012  It is about pocket knives.  I came into possession of a pocket knife recently that reminded me of that post.  Here is the knife:

My cousin, Patrick, mailed me a package containing this knife.  It belonged to my grandpa.  He called it his couteau (knife in French).  I didn't recognize the knife, but looked on the Internet and discovered that it is a Remington pocketknife, likely manufactured in the 1930's.  The acorn shield on it tells you that one of the blades is a leather punch.  It is the blade on the left hand side below:

Remington Arms Company manufactured pocket knives for Boy Scouts.  In the above link, I have a photo of my scout knife.  It is very sad to me that 2020 finds the Boy Scouts in bankruptcy.  That is a story for another time.

Not many carry pocketknives any longer.  I use one daily at work, so I carry one.  I carry a cheaper "throw-away" knife that clips to my pocket.  I probably go through two or three a year.  They aren't meant to last like quality knives of the past.  I don't want to carry knives like my grandpa's as I would hate to lose it.  Also, you risk getting it taken from you by the TSA if you are boarding a plane.

I can distinctly remember my grandpa always having a pocketknife with him in the pocket of his coveralls.  After he retired, he'd drive out to the farm and watch the rice harvest.  His truck would drive in and a cloud of dust would billow up and cover us as we sat underneath a big cottonwood tree seeking shelter from the hot summer sun.  The whine of the combine engine roared in the distance.

My grandpa would walk up to us and say, "How's it going, Old Top?"  He always called us "Old Top."  He would sit on the grass next to us and set an old, worn brick down in the St. Augustine grass that grew around the old homeplace we waited around with the rice truck.  He'd reach in his right front pocket and pull out a pocket knife (probably the one shown above).  He would spit on the brick, open the knife, and begin a slow, rhythmic motion of sharpening the blades.  The knife rubbing against the wet brick would make a scraping sound and a fine orange sand would appear from the brick, soon darkened somewhat by the blade.  He'd shave the hair off his arm in a spot to gauge the sharpness of his knife.

Knives were everyday tools back then.  Why, you could whittle a stick while passing the time (no cell phones).  You could clean your fingernails or dig out a splinter from the palm of your hand.  You could open a can of Steen's cane syrup.  You could clean a squirrel or skin a catfish.  A man without a pocket knife was like a fish without water or rice without gravy.  True story:  One time my grandpa had set a trot line to catch fish.  Trouble is, a big bird got tangled in the lines.  My grandpa eased up in his boat and put the bird out of his misery.  Then he proceeded to use perhaps this knife to cut the bird up and re-bait the trot line to catch more fish!  (You gonna fish or cut bait?)  Both!

This knife must have been special to my grandpa.  These days when my $9.99 Amazon special knife breaks, I throw it away and get another.  This particular knife broke on my grandpa, but he didn't throw it away.  One side is made of bone.  If you flip the knife over (below), you'll see it has been professionally repaired with wood.

I imagine it broke and it was too special to throw away or put in a desk drawer somewhere.  No, he wanted to continue using it, so he had it fixed.  The precision of repair is pretty remarkable.  You can see below how a slight groove was carved in the wood so that my grandpa could put his thumbnail in the indention and flip the small blade open to clean used motor oil out from under his index finger nail.

Like my grandpa's old pocketknife, I'll keep the memories of him and good times of the past around, pulling them out, spending time with them, careful to not lose them and hopefully keeping the memories sharp and in good repair.

Cool Spot For The Cows

We are in July now.  There is no end in sight to the hot days.  Inside the barn we've improved things to attempt to make it comfortable for us while we milk the cows.  We've installed circular fans and position them so that they point directly at us while we milk.  In addition to moving the air to make it somewhat cool, it also helps combat flies and mosquitoes.

One additional improvement is the 'wings' that come off the northern and southern roof of the barn.  This was a no-brainer that we should have done years ago.  These wings give protection against the rain and much-needed shade for all the animals.  They all seek respite from the sun's rays in the shade.  One added benefit is we don't have to give Rosie a bath before milking her every day.  In prior years, Rosie would lay in the mud to cool off.  You can actually see her old mud hole in the photo below.  It is right above the third water trough in the center left of the photo.

She would lay in the mud and get up for milking/feeding time and we would have to spray her down with a hose every single day.  Well those days are gone as she just lays up in the shad under the wings of the barn.  We even put up another lean-to on the eastern side.  For some reason the chickens really like to retreat under this roof.  I think they hide out under here from the hawks that terrorize them.  The old goat barn adds more area under roof.  This old goat barn still stands from years ago when the kids were young and showed Boer meat goats.  Now, the chickens and goats and sometimes cows get in there when the weather is bad.  We never leave the main milking barn open for the animals.  They are not good house-keepers and it would be a wreck!

As I was walking back from the barn this afternoon, I caught a glimpse of Annie with her doeling, Matilda.  They jumped up on top of an old water oak tree we felled a couple of summers ago.  Goats love to climb on things and this wood pile is their favorite - especially for Matilda.  Belle, our Great Pyrenees puppy, likes to play with Matilda.  Trouble is, she plays too rough.  She chases her throughout the pasture, running at full speed. 

We are always uncertain if she is going to harm Matilda.  Is Belle going to eat Matilda?  We keep a watchful eye!  When this occurs all of the goats enjoy running and jumping atop the wood pile for safety.  At least for now, Belle has not attempted to jump up there.

You can probably see above that the chickens really like the shade underneath the log.  The earth is cool and no sun can shine.  We've had to check beneath the log as hens like to lay nests of eggs underneath the log.  Speaking of finding a cool place in the shade, I'm heading in now!

A Few Things Still Coming Out of the Garden

It is July now.  The tomatoes have all but stopped producing.  Those few that ripen are so damaged with stink bug stings that they are only good for feeding to the chickens.  The yellow squash and the zucchini are still producing well.  This may be our best year.  The Boston Pickling Cucumbers are about done, but the Suyo Long Cucumbers continue to produce.  The green beans are finishing up.

The cowpeas (purple hulls, ozark razorback, and blackeyes) are putting pods on now, oblivious to the heat and dry conditions.  The sweet potatoes are vining all over the garden.  Finally, the okra are just starting to produce and will continue to do so until the first frost in December.

We are picking some eggplant.  They are the long green variety - Louisiana eggplant, I think they are.  Tricia has peeled the skin off of them and is dicing them up.

The vegetable dicer contraption is a big time-saver.  She made a batch of caponata to eat as an appetizer with some crackers.  Man, was it ever good!  Too bad I didn't get any photos.  We ate it too quickly.  We have more eggplant on the way, so I'll try to remember to capture the photos next time.

Ah, peppers.  Criolla Sella, Anaheim, Chocolate bell, Emerald Giant bell, Lilac bell, Horizon bell, jalapenos' lipstick peppers - just some of the varieties we're picking.  They will continue to come in until late fall.  We do cook a lot with them, but we're putting some up, too.  Here's how we do it.  We use the same vegetable dicer to cube them up.  Then we lay out on the food dehydrator:

They shrink in size, but we still get a lot off of every tray.

Then, once fully dehydrated, we bag them up.  Every time we cook, we'll take a handful out and add them to the dish while cooking.  They rehydrate in the broth/gravy/sauce and contribute great flavor to any dish.

In about another month, we'll be thinking about planting broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, etc. from seed.  Amazing how fast the year has passed.  Always harvesting - always planting.  A never ending cycle of good stuff from the garden.

Out There, Or In Here

Image Credit

We don't watch the news.  We don't have cable.  I have only seen Fox News or CNN when traveling, and that's not often.  ABC, CBS, NBC, NPR don't get turned on in our home.  Most of the time in my commute, I'm listening to an audiobook, so I don't listen to the radio much.  I'm not totally ignorant to what is going on.  I like to get informed of current events from a LSU website called TigerDroppings, believe it or not. 

People will post current news in the form of excerpts from a New York Times article, for instance.  They'll link the story so that you can read the entire thing.  There are folks of every political stripe on TigerDroppings.  Some will critique the article and debate the errors in the journalist's slant.  Others will support the article with arguments in favor of the thesis of the story.  Both sides of the story are discussed and you walk away truly seeing the merits and pitfalls of the story.  I like that.  The story, from whatever publication or video is posted, may be biased, but after reading other people's opinions - both pro and con, you are able to sort out truth from fiction.

There is so much politically charged rhetoric, especially today.  It makes me want to do like Henry David Thoreau and escape to Walden.  I don't like how it stresses me out and how it makes me feel.  So I ran across a quote today that made me think.

Back when I was managing the family grocery store in the late 1990's, things were stressful at times.  A Methodist preacher friend of mine would meet me and we would sit in a swing under a big oak tree behind the store and he would read to me from C.S. Lewis' book, The Screwtape Letters.  Screwtape Letters was a book about a chief demon named Screwtape writing instructions to his nephew, Wormwood, a junior demon.  Bro. Charlie and I would discuss the reading for the day and pray.  Looking back, it was a real special time sitting under that oak tree reading together.

In the book, Screwtape is helping Wormwood prevent his "patient" from coming to a saving knowledge of God and to tempt him.  Screwtape Letters  was written in 1942, but here is one of the letters that I thought was particularly pertinent to today:

"My dear Wormwood,
Be sure that the patient remains completely fixated on politics.  Arguments, political gossip, and obsessing on the faults of people they have never met serves as an excellent distraction from advancing in personal virtue, character, and the things the patient can control.  Make sure to keep the patient in a constant state of angst, frustration, and general disdain towards the rest of the human race in order to avoid any kind of charity or inner peace from further developing.  Ensure the patient continues to believe that the problem is "out there" in the "broken system" rather than recognizing there is a problem within himself.

Keep up the good work,

Uncle Screwtape"

How appropriate and timely.  Many times I'll read something and think (or say), "Look at these crazy people!"  I'll allow the situation to get me all worked up.  I'll focus on the brokenness of others and completely miss the many faults in me.

This reminded me of the Psalmist in chapter 51 where he said the following:

Psalm 51:10-13 

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.

Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

Lord, forgive me for looking out there instead of in here.  Help me to be obedient to you, to trust you, and to leave it all in your Hands.  Amen.