Farm Life adventures of the Happy Hoer

OK, so this is supposed to be the “slower” season for farmers.  I still haven’t figured out “slow” in what way?  Well, maybe slow in that I don’t have to beat the sun up every morning–that’s quite a break in itself.  The high tunnel is going great; harvesting greens about every 10 days or so.  The Happy Hens are still busy laying beautiful eggs.  Last week I went to the pen to find two of them laying lifeless in the pen and their heads were gone!  I knew that was a clue as to who did it, so I quizzed “Granny Google” and it was either a raccoon, weasel, or owl.  So, knowing the critters around here, I’d say Rocky Raccoon had chicken brains for supper one night.  No more….I found the breach in security (aka hole in the fence) so now the Happy Hens can rest easy again.  It’s amazing how something like that affects egg production.

A couple of months ago I found a really cool blog of a vegetarian chef in Denmark.  I’m always looking for recipes to share with members and customers on creative ways to utilize the bounty of the farm.  Although this particular recipe has nothing to do with produce grown on the farm, it’s the holidays and I thought this healthy snack fit right in.  Her website is called My New Roots and the address is http://mynewroots.blogspot.com/.  You know how you get to clicking and clicking and end up, well, in Denmark, reading interesting things.  She had a recipe for Date Balls that is really amazing.  I tweaked it of course, but not much.  She rolled hers in toasted sesame seeds, I used coconut.

2 cups chopped dates (finely chopped would work really well)

2 cups chopped walnuts (again, finely chopped)

Coconut, for coating the balls

Put the dates into a food processor and process until very finely chopped–they are really tough.  Do the same thing to the walnuts.  Mix the two together and roll into 1″ balls.  Roll them in shredded coconut.  They are very sweet and tasty and no added sugar!   Note the finely chopped–I didn’t chop fine enough and it made the balls hard to get to stick together.  They are delicious anyway.

Merry Christmas, everybody!

Last year, while in the produce section of the local supermarket, I purchased a rutabaga.  I did a blog about how wonderful it tasted and made a note to grow them this year.

In mid-July I planted three rows, each about 180 feet long.  The seeds germinated, I dutifully thinned them to 5″ apart, the cabbage worms came, I sprayed Bt, and I kept watching and waiting—man do they grow slow!

Botanically speaking, a rutabaga is a cross between a turnip and cabbage.  I’d say culinarily speaking it tastes like a cross between white potato, sweet potato, maybe a tad of cabbage, and a faint hint of turnip.  It’s a great taste, anyway.  They kind of look like turnips but they aren’t colored as brightly, have more roots on them, and they are harvested at a much larger size than turnips.

The last CSA delivery of the season was last Friday.  I ventured into the rutabaga patch to see if there were any “early birds” fit to put in the day’s delivery.  I was pleasantly surprised!  There were just enough large ones to fill the shares on Friday AND I got 2 monsters to try meselfeee.  One of them is about the size of a cantaloupe and the other was about 5″ in diameter. (The big one just to the left of the middle is the cantaloupe size one and it may be like cutting a pine knot.)   I cut the second-to-the-largest one up and roasted it with some sweet potatoes and again, YUMMEEEE!  I peeled and chunked the veggies up into 1″ squares and tossed them in a baking pan.  Then I mixed up 2T olive oil, 2T honey, 1t lemon juice and drizzled that over the veggies and roast at 350 for 30-45 minutes or until tender, stirring every 10 minutes or so.  Very tasty and simple.

This has also been a very good turnip year.  They are firm and sweet and great either raw, mashed, or roasted.  Some people boil them but I don’t particularly care for them that way.  Anyway, I love pulling turnips–it’s kind of like hunting purple Easter eggs.  When they are ready to pull they pooch up out of the ground so you can see the pretty purple tops on them.

Several of the farm members had never tried them before and said that they actually liked them once they tried them.  It’s a good substitute for a radish in a salad too!

Eating in season this time of year is very satisfying because a lot of the veggies are “comfort” food.  Personally, I think any food is “comforting” if I’m hungry!

p.s.  We’re having a gorgeous fall here in Tennessee–hope everyone else is too

Bananas don’t grow on the farm, but a friend of mine gave me a recipe for Banana pudding that I just can’t keep to myself:

1 c. flour

1 stick butter

1 c chopped pecans

Cut butter into flour to resemble coarse crumbs.  Stir in pecans.  Spread in 9×13 baking dish.  Bake 350 degrees until light brown.  Cool.  Top with 2^nd layer.

2^nd layer:

1 8-oz pkg cream cheese

1 cup powdered sugar

1 c. cool whip

4-6 bananas, dep. On size

In bowl mix cream cheese until softened.  Slowly add sugar and mix until blended.  Gently sitr in Cool Whip.  Spread over first layer then slice half the bananas and spread on top of this.

3^rd layer:

2-3 oz. boxes instant vanilla or French vanilla pudding mix

4 c. milk

Combine pudding with milk until well blended and pudding has thickened to spreading consistency.  Spread half the mixture over top of
bananas then add another layer of bananas and another layer of pudding.  Top with additional cool whip (I usually omit this step and just sprinkle nuts at this point).  Refrigerate until ready to serve.

I’m not one who’s particularly fond of Halloween decorations these days.  Sure, when “we were kids” it was fun to dress up the house, our bodies, everyone’s yard in the neighborhood….too much information…

Anyway, I do like fall decorations of corn stalks, pumpkins, gourds and such, but who has time to do all that when you’re a farmer?   The entire summer seems like it’s been spent at a “dead run” keeping up with crop production and routine farm chores.

The inside of my house has been sorely neglected, but the good news is:  This is the one season my house is appropriately decorated for the season with spiderwebs that glimmer in the late afternoon sun.

The bad news is that I LOVE Christmas decorations and spider webs just don’t coordinate with those, so a good thorough house cleaning is on tap as soon as the gardens are put to bed!