Rhubarb and long grass...

Last Sunday wasn’t too productive with more precipitation, so spent some quality time in the kitchen with the good old “pie plant”.  No pie, but I made Rhubarb Iced Tea, Rhubarb BBQ Sauce, regular Rhubarb Sauce and canned that, and our favorite rhubarb dessert, Rhubarb Cobbler.  Inspired by that, on Thursday this week I made Sweet and Sour Sauce with Rhubarb too.  This morning’s muffin’s were, of course, rhubarb.

What?  Did she say Rhubarb BBQ Sauce?  Yes I did, and it is delicious!  Nope, didn’t come up with that on my own.  I ran across the recipe on someone else’s blog that I follow, and she got it from another website.  Doing a search, I see there are many other versions, some of which have raisins, and/or mustard in them, but that would NEVER go down with this family, I can assure you.  This recipe was well received by everyone, even my sister Carolyn who is up here for two weeks.  Anyway, the recipe makes a small batch, which is nice when you try something new.  I plan to make a much larger batch this weekend, and can some for future enjoyment.

 

So, because I know some of you are going to want it, I will tack the recipe on at the end of this post. 

picked more rhubarb this morning...

It’s been a rainy, cool week again; too much rain.  The wheat field is decidedly soggy; hay is underwater in places when it should be cut.  That’s the way it goes some times.  As far as the garden, well, the weeds love the rain!  Some of my crops are decidedly behind where they should be, others are doing fine.

The picture above is Chinese Cabbage which is new to me this year.

  I plan  to have some in my salad for lunch today.

  The lettuce in the greenhouse is bolting and about done for.  This lettuce in the garden looks great though!

Kevin's favorite, the peas, are coming along nicely!

 

Vinca and Daisy are enjoying the pasture, but as you can see from the long grass, the two of them do not eat enough to keep it down.  Hmmm, maybe we need more goats???  This afternoon we plan to try introducing the doelings back to their mamas.  Are they weaned yet?  Will let you know tomorrow.

The grass is long in the chicken pasture too.

Ever vigilant, Javier keeps a sharp eye on all activity around the farmyard

When Carolyn comes up north during the warmer months, she stays in her home-away-from home north of the barn.  Her two cat companions, Sunny and CJ, are along for some country air.  You can see them peeking out through the screen door.

City cat CJ gets a view of the country through the safety of the screen door...

Carolyn and I visited the Farmer's Market in Aitkin this morning.   I would encourage all of you locals to stop in there on Saturday mornings and support our area growers.  You can meet some very fine people and find some excellent food there.  I brought home bread, fruit syrup, radishes (mine aren't ready yet) and asparagus.  Strawberries are just starting, so next week I would think there will be some nice ones!

And here is that recipe:  

Rhubarb BBQ Sauce
(from Eating Well Magazine)

1 Tbsp. Olive Oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups sliced rhubarb, fresh or frozen (thawed)
1/4 cup ketchup 
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 Tbsp cider vinegar
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. freshly ground pepper


Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook, stirring, until starting to soften, about 2 minutes. Add rhubarb, ketchup, brown sugar, vinegar, Worcestershire and 1/4 teaspoon pepper; stir to combine. Bring to a simmer and cook, stirring, until the onion and rhubarb are soft, about 10 minutes.

Just ordinary things

It’s been unseasonably cool this week, and somewhat rainy, which is what it is again today.  One morning it was only 39 degrees when we got up!  While this is great for giving us a respite from the ‘skeeters (only until it gets up to 50 degrees or so), it’s not so great for the garden.  The tomatoes and melons are looking downright sulky.  I don’t have too high of expectations for this year’s garden crop.

The six new chicks are doing just fine under the watchful eye of Mama Blue.   With the exception of the little family, and the other two broody hens, the rest of the hens moved last evening to rejoin Javier and the breeding flock at the summer coop.

So, nothing too exciting here, just everyday life.  I decided to share this photo with you.

This is the view from my milking stand.  This is what I look out at twice each day, and each time I do it is a different scene that I never tire of.  The view is across the pasture, then beyond that the field that is now green with young oats.  Then the woods.  Every day is a different experience.  Some days, there may be a horse or two, or a deer or two, or more.  The color of the sky, the endless shades of green in the field and woods; it’s new every day.  Later this summer the greens will give way to less vibrant, but no less rich colors. 

Some folks might look at that and see an ordinary scene from an ordinary place.  I see my home, and I am grateful to live here.

I must mention the fence, those white bands out there.  Kevin just put the fence back up this morning.  Again.  The white strands are new; maybe the deer will pay a little more attention.  We can only hope.

So, that's today, Saturday, June 14, 2014.  Just an ordinary day, in a very special place.

Terrific Tuesday, and News from the Coop

Another absolutely beautiful day to be home.  I haven’t actually made it out to the garden yet, except to harvest some onions for my salad, but I’ll get there.

First off, a chicks update.  There are six healthy, fluffy, and totally adorable little ones.  We made a little fence out the front of the coop so Old Blue (she is now wearing a blue legband) can take them out for foraging lessons.  When we first started doing this with hens and chicks, we worried about the cats helping themselves to a chick buffet, but hens are very good at taking care of chicks, so no problem there. 

Almost as cute as goat kids!

And, in other news from the coop, we have a third broody hen!  Yahoo!  This is a mutt hen that I purchased last fall, and she was probably destined for the crock pot this fall… but her fate has changed and she has probably earned herself a pretty long life.  I’m not sure what her lineage is, but she’s passably close enough in looks to my Rhode Island Reds that I will keep her and add her to my breeding flock.  Hopefully, some of her chicks will get the broody trait too.  I would really like my flock to be self sustaining some day.

Dedicated to the task at hand... er... claw...

So, this is Brandy.

I think this is his first appearance or mention in the blog.  He has been part of our family for many years, but recently we have concluded that both of our horses would be better off with a different home.  This is really a tough thing for us, but it is the right thing to do.  I am hoping that Huckleberry can find a place with someone who can train him up and use his speed and power from some gaming or maybe trail riding.  Brandy here will hopefully become a good family horse for someone else. 

Kori and I saddled him up today for the first time in a couple of years.  Honestly, it went so much better than I expected.  I was prepared for a tantrum… “what, a saddle?” … but really he was most cooperative and we had a nice little walk around the pasture.

OK.  Lunch break is over, I am out to the garden.  I  hope to give you a garden tour one of these days, so I had better get after those weeds! 

Chicks!

What a beautiful day!  Especially when compared with yesterday, which was wet and downright chilly.  We were down to Forest Lake to a graduation celebration for our young friend Alexis.  It was well worth the trip down and back to see Alexis and her parents, Mike and Melissa.

The waiting is over for our broody hen; the hatching began yesterday, and continued today.  We weren’t sure that we would get any chicks from this batch, since the hen had gone out the window a couple of times and wasn’t able to get back in until we rescued her from the other room.  The eggs had cooled some, and we just didn’t know.    A couple of the chicks didn’t make it, some of the eggs have not hatched and probably are not going to, but it looks like we will have a few survivors anyway.  Kori helped mid-wife a couple of them…

They're pretty exhausted but will soon fluff up and be on their feet

And, another hen has gone broody.  

Thanks for the colorful nestbox Leslie!

Meanwhile, the doelings are adjusting to their new lifestyle.  Most days they get leashed up and move over to the summer-coop pasture where there is some grass to nibble.  They are getting to be pros at walking on their leashes now.

Notice how I am dressed... it was delightfully cool this  morning, in fact, it was only 40 degrees when we woke up.  The best part was NO MOSQUITOES for milking time!

I’ll be home to garden on Tuesday again this week, so will update you all on the chick situation then.  Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

(Editorial remark:  I think this will say posted by Kevin down below... it's not, it's me Debby (like you can't tell!) )

Terrific Tuesday

I don't know how many of you regulars will see this post, as I usually am only here on the weekends, but wanted to share a little of this day with you. I'll be taking quite a few Tuesdays off this summer for spending in the garden.  These vacation days have been accumulated and protected all winter for just that purpose.  Today was a wonderful day; really nice weather, and pretty productive.  A lot of the planting is now done.  We ended the day with all four of us as a team to get the big corn crop in.  Here are just a few pictures for your enjoyment:

These Jacob's Cattle Beans are almost too beautiful to plant!  (credit hand model Kori)

The lasses hung out in the summer coop yard today.  Here's Chicky having a siesta

Ivy joins Chicky in the shade of the coop

Then later trying to get Javier to play "head-butt"

Javier retreats

Lily was the garden helper of the day

Planting the garden

Better weather today for planting, thank goodness.  Kevin offered up some much needed labor and moved mulch from on bed to another.  The tomatoes are now tucked into a leafy blanket.  I usually wait until the cages are installed, but the mulch had to go somewhere so I could get the melons transplanted.

Please forgive my poor photography!  They really are the most beautiful bright shade of green!

The peas are looking pretty good.  Planted two kinds of corn today, a bi-color for fresh eating, and a new kind of corn-meal corn.  We haven't planted our big patch of canning corn (it's actually mostly for freezing, but doesn't canning corn have a better sound to it than freezing corn?  That's my theory anyway...) but hope to get it in one evening this week.

Spot was also a garden helper today.  She generally just supervises.

If she looks a little annoyed, it's because she wanted a belly rub, not a photo-op!

To come back to the mosquito thing.    It does seem to me that this is the worst spring for mosquitoes than I can recall.  But then, I don't recall much. If you know me well at all, you know that I have a terrible memory. So, I invite you folks, the local ones or use-to-be-local ones, to weigh in on this issue.  Just click on comment down below there, and tell us when you think the worst mosquito spring was in your lifetime.

What say you?