Luckily as mood boosters we have Hubby’s homemade sparkling wine coolers. It’s his own concoction, made from our own ‘new’ wines—pear mixed with wild grape—complete with bubbles! It’s really tasty, not too sweet, and a lovely color. And bubbles!
Delicious!
The goats are still impressively darling and annoying and belligerent at once.
Even from a distance it’s hard from a photo to get a sense of how high up they really are!Very surprising the bees tolerate this, but they do!One of the many trees toppled during the tornado now makes a favorite hiding spot
Beautyberries and mist flower don’t mind the late summer heat.
The garden still has many happy visitors, but I’m not one of them!
You’ll find me inside with the air conditioning, an icy wine cooler, and a pile of books and movies to attend to!
Really, yoga’s not enough torture for you, you need hooves to the spine, too?!
We love our goats, but not inside, duh.
New screenplay idea: Goats Who Stare At Men!
Because of the heat and drought the best forage is close to the house, where we are regularly watering. It’s good for the goats, and for us it makes for better entertainment than most TV. There are drawbacks though. Like they eat pretty much all the plants, not just the ones we want them to eat.
And they tend to follow me around, waiting for the extra special treats I bring them from the garden, like their favorite, sweet potato vines and morning glory.
Feeding frenzy
And they want to climb on everything.
Going out on a limbJust out of reach!“I’m too sexy for this grass”
Our once somewhat peaceful morning coffee now attracts a team of show-offs. (I don’t think Bubba approves, considering what they do to his bed.) They do giant leaps off the deck, too, that look a lot like the tricks snowboarders do, but not on cue, unfortunately.
Please feel free to enjoy 2 minutes of Chez Kensho programming!
Just choose the wrong tool, fool Then screw up the cheese, Steve Don’t gum up the dough, Joe And roll it out slow . . .
Hehe, just playin’. My mom used to love that song.
Granny requested in the comments that I use yesterday’s failed ravioli as a teaching moment. As open to that excellent idea as I am, because I agree that failure is the best teacher, still, it’s hard to teach anything when you still suck at it.
We only ventured into homemade pasta last month after buying a hand-crank pasta maker. Hubby started us in the adventure, brave man that he is. He read the directions, watched some vids, and proceeded to cursing his way through a batch of fettuccini, of which a good portion went to the pigs, because the ‘noodles’ were so scrunched and mis-shaped they’d never taste right.
They always make it look so easy in the videos! Alas, manuals and videos are no substitute for hands on failures.
He tried a second time with somewhat better results, but was still discouraged. Enough so that I knew if I didn’t step up to the plate soon the new machine would end up in the back of the storage closet only to be seen again during spring cleanings.
And I know for sure ravioli is going to be my thing. Eventually. I just love to play around with fillings and shapes and assemblages and finger foods.
Ravioli is not a finger food, you might be thinking? But, toasted ravioli is! Which is why I had Mom on the mind, because it reminds me of growing up in the suburbs of St. Louis, from where this popular dish originally hails. It was on the menu of every bar and pizza joint in the region. We ate it often, and it’s so delicious.
You’d think I’d try to master simple ravioli first, right? Nope. Gotta go for the gusto first time out. At least I did it with less cursing. (Hubby was in his man cave, and so can’t verify that fact.)
I learned immediately that the special ravioli attachment was a nightmare-level mistake and quickly gave it up.
When I wrote yesterday that it was all ruined, that was before tasting it. It actually wasn’t too bad. It only remotely looked or tasted like the dish I was going for, but at least it didn’t have to go to the pigs.
As for the multiple learning opportunities, where to start. The filling was very tasty, and all from the homestead (diced liver, sausage, onion and basil), but it wasn’t diced finely enough. That might have worked out ok, except that the dough was drying out too much, too fast, because it’s so hot we have the air conditioning blasting in the kitchen with extra fans blowing, too. To try to moisten the dough sheets just made them gummy, and whether too dry or too gummy, they still tore quite a bit when I tried to form the filling between the sheets.
The dough sheets were getting stuck in the machine on one side and crimping up, I’m still not sure why. So I tried using half the recommended dough amount for shorter sheets, which worked better, but they were still somewhat lopsided with very ragged edges and some small holes and tears.
I thought I might still be able get away with it, because ‘toasted’ ravioli actually means ‘deep fried’. What better way to hide broken dough than with another layer of egg, flour and breadcrumbs, right?
Except my homemade breadcrumbs weren’t fine enough and uniformly-sized like the store-bought varieties are, so while deep frying they didn’t cook evenly. Some parts were burned, some hardly browned. My ratio of edges to filling was way off on some of them, leaving large edges so crunchy they tasted more like dough chips.
The results reminded me of that McDonald’s skit by the young Eddie Murphy!
I’ll take it in stride, and give it another try, before throwing the machine in the back of the storage closet. 😒
As hot and dry as it still is, we’re still managing to get-r-done. Much has died in the garden, but the weeds and grasses still thrive with irrigation. We used to complain how well we grew grass and weeds, and little else, but we have a different attitude now. It all serves to feed the critters, who in turn feed us, which is a pretty good deal.
The honeybees love the purslane, and we love the honey.
The goats love the morning glory, and we love the goat cheese.
The bumblebees love the luffa flowers, and the pigs love the luffa fruit, and we love the bacon. How fortunate for us this cycle of life!
The volunteer cucumber has shown me we can indeed get fruit in 100 degrees, it just has to be from a fresh plant.
Fence clearing duty, thank you! And who doesn’t love pink zinnias?
Chestnut and WalnutPeek-a-boo!
I think we can tell who will be the next herd queen—Bluebonnet, daughter of the current herd queen—go figure.
Bluebonnet, Queen of the HillMy favorite new pepper this year—Hot Purple Czech; Zucchini still producing somewhat; And grapes ripening very oddly
A fantastic shot from a friend in the northeast US, so amazing, I just had to include it!
Wow! Almost makes me want the new IPhone.
And last but not least, Bubba and Buttercup in their favorite places, which is always, as close to Hubby as possible. 🙂
Just posting some happy snaps to distract our attention away from all that’s dying in the garden. And the fact that the hens have mostly stopped laying, our oldest goat is looking dangerously thin, the grass has turned crispy, and there’s no end in sight.
Bubba trying to keep cool
Still, the kids are growing like weeds.
Walnut’s nearly as big as her mama already (back left) and even little Athena (front) is catching up to the rest of the kids.Morning glory, another goat favorite
The birds and the bees are still doing their thing while we can’t manage to stay outside past 11 am.
Unfortunately, so are the ants. The leaf-cutters are slowly destroying our young fruit trees. Only the more mature pear is escaping their attack.
Young peach tree strippedA trail of chopped up leaves reveals the culpritAlmost ready, fingers crossed!
Plants are simply amazing. The purslane and arugula are growing fine and make a great pesto. The sweet potato vines are a goat favorite, the okra’s just coming in, the peppers and watermelons are still hanging in there.
The zucchini hasn’t given up either, and somehow we still have broccoli that’s not bitter.
Just as the old cucumbers got bitter, the new volunteer is producing like crazy. Not too shabby! 😁
It’s hot. It’s dry. It’s miserable. Every day we enter the garden and the orchard knowing we’ll find something else dead.
First it was the tomatoes, then the salad cucumbers and cantaloupe, now it looks like even the tomatillos are giving up before ever producing well. The squashes are all struggling and the peppers and figs are mostly stalled.
I wish that meant it was time to rest on our laurels and have some long, slow and sweet indoor days of movie marathons and Kombucha cocktails.
Cantaloupes out, Watermelons in. Still broccoli and carrots in this heat? Now that’s a big mystery.
But no such luck, because it’s time for making wine!
Our painstakingly cultivated Muscadine grapes are not doing well, we expect a minimal harvest, at best.
But, the native Mustang grapes are a lot tougher, apparently.
So, fortunately! We’re still able to make some wine and jam.
Did I mention it’s really F’ing HOT? And dry?
I’d whine a lot more, except I keep going back to the miracle of all the critters and plants who can take it so much better than we can. Though, I know they are struggling too, and are just less whiney than I am.
And just for those keeping track, the ‘chemtrails’ have not abated.
Just a wee hodgepodge of happy snaps and some light commentary for today.
Our preserving efforts have been at fever pitch with bushels of cucumbers and melons coming in. The Noirs des Carmes cantaloupe that was my main prize experiment for this summer has been a success, for the most part. We’ve gotten loads of melons, way too many to count, and the majority of them have been good.
But many of them have ‘exploded’— and that’s not just split, but within a day, before even being fully ripe, they’ve blown open completely. Some are tasteless even though fully ripe. Some are softening while still small and unripe.
The pigs have been the great beneficiaries of these rejects. I do understand why this melon is not commercially available and is not a favorite at farmer’s markets either, even though when they’re good, they’re delicious. Though some of these issues could certainly be the extreme heat and drought, they do not last long once they are ripe. They must ripen on the vine, and once ripe they last only a few days before rotting.
For us they’ve been prolific and very tasty even under stressful conditions, so they will be a keeper. Needless to say, we’ve been eating A LOT of melon! Melon for breakfast, snacks, aqua fresca, desserts, juice, syrup, jam and smoothies.
A small fraction of our harvest, preparing to make preserves.Our marmalade efforts were disappointing. Three different recipes, two with pectin, and none of them set! 😩 They are still delicious and will go to good use in desserts, kombucha and cocktails, but still, it’s not what we were going for. And, now I won’t give any of them as gifts, which was the plan. And, it’s annoying not knowing what happened. Old pectin, maybe? Anyway, I’m sure I’ll forget about all those ’ands’ this winter when the fresh melons are long gone and I’m pouring our yummy ginger-melon syrup over french toast! 😁
We’re trying to take advantage of the heat by trying out a recent gift, a sun oven!
Our place is so small and we love cooking, but it’s hardly economical heating up the whole house every afternoon, when it’s blazing hot outside, and while inside the air conditioning is blasting away.
Our first attempt, baking a spaghetti squash in our new sun oven.
The kids are growing so fast! I’m slowly, gently trying to ween them. In this heat I don’t dare take too much milk for us, just enough for our morning coffee. But the daily training is still essential, for us all.
Around 5:00 am I separate mamas and kids for about 5 hours. The kids are eating grains and forage already, but they don’t like to be long off those teets, that’s for sure! By 9:00 they are wailing and it’s hard to listen to them while we’re working away outside, but it must be tolerated.
I train them on the milk stand and bring them a wheelbarrow full of sweet potato vines, which they devour.
Lots of banana peppers and figs, but they seem to have stalled in their growing or ripening.Hercules and Athena in left photo; In right photo is Chestnut and Walnut on the left and Summer with Blue Bonnet nursing on her to the right. .
A few baffling successes have been carrots and broccoli that are still producing in this heat! This is a first for us. I guess I got the timing and variety just right, for once. They are both under shade cloth and not totally productive or tasty, but good enough for us and a very nice surprise.
I’ve started some seed trays of tomatoes and lettuce indoors for the fall garden. Fingers crossed, I’ve never had successful fall tomatoes so far, but you never know, considering those carrots and broccoli!
Just trying to keep cool these days, physically and mentally. We can’t spend all day outside anymore, as we’d prefer. It’s crazy hot and dry and we’re losing the crops at a rapid clip in these unprecedented June temperatures.
Fortunately, we can spend the hot afternoons in the cool kitchen, adding to our skillsets and our supply of delicious homemade staples—such as ferments, my domain, and canning, Hubby’s expanding speciality.
Canned dill pickles on left and an array of ferments fresh from the garden—cucumbers, radishes, carrots, tomatoes, beets . … and our first ‘Noirs des Carmes’ melon of the season.
It’s so hot and dry, and generally miserable day and night, that I find myself continually amazed at how resilient some species are.
Swamp lillies on left, in part shade and getting supplemental regular watering, and poppies, so lovely and tolerant.
Also getting supplemental water and looking great, the most cheeriest of all the flowers, no contest.
We’ve lost the tomato crop prematurely. It wasn’t a total loss though, we’ve got enough for fresh salads and salsas, but not a bumper crop for canning, unfortunately.
And the fresh ones are delicious! Literally, the variety is called ’Delicious’ and they really are not fibbing. Saving those seeds for sure.
And, we’ve got a cucumber first, a volunteer! And with that another mystery with a pleasant surprise.
‘Arkansas Little Leaf’ pickling cucumber
I’ve planted this variety for several years now because it’s been such a great producer. But I’ve not planted it with any intention of seed-saving, so it’s gone in right next door to other cucumber varieties, and melons, and squash, without a second thought.
And yet, it’s produced a true-to-type volunteer, which I most certainly will be taking seed from! We regularly get cherry tomato volunteers that produce beautifully, and always get volunteer tomatillos, Luffa, cilantro, basil, but this is a first for cucumber.
Volunteer ‘Arkansas Little Leaf’ coming back over the fence
Other crops like the peppers are still producing fine, but the spaghetti squash is also starting to peter out already.
Spaghetti squash ripeningThe spaghetti squash planted under the corn is far smaller and not thrivingGarlic curing with spaghetti squash and just-harvested melons; the big green sea of ‘Noirs des Carmes’ cantaloupe now ripening; sweet potatoes and Black-eyed Susans, un-phased by the heat, as long as they get plenty of water.
The birds and bees and 4-legged manage much better than we do.
Though, let’s not forget, they are watered and fed and do no real work and lay around all afternoon and evening!
The milk stand has become their playstation!
There’s not nearly enough milk for cheesemaking yet, but I’m studying up!
Thankfully for the good old-fashioned snailmail I’ve gotten a divine treasure—a guide to traditional French goat cheese-making—originally published in the 1950s, in a humble effort to save the world from industrialized cheese.
Obviously, he did not succeed, not by a long shot.
But it is still a fascinating read on a sweltering Sunday.
These really did come off the same plant, same age, Hubby just happened to harvest some before I got a side-by-side photo. Next time.
I have the big seed-saving goals this year, but there is a learning curve for sure.
Because of space requirements, and that learning curve that seems to be getting steeper by the month, I decided to start with just a few crops. I already do most of the herbs, and the other easy stuff, like okra and sunflowers. I’ve ventured slightly into peppers and tomatoes, with negligable results.
Cucumbers, melons and squash are all in the ‘challenging’ category. I thought I planned correctly when I put the ones I want to seed-save at opposite ends of the garden, but then. . .
In my reference book, The Complete Guide to Saving Seeds by Robert & Cheryl Gough, it seems pretty hopeless. “Recommended isolation distance for varieties that can cross-pollinate is 1 1/2 to 2 miles; recommended isolation distance for other Cucurbita species is 1/4 mile.”
As in, Miles?! Oh my.
And furthermore, there’s another squash mystery. I’ve got zucchini right by Trombetta, as already mentioned. Yet the zucchini leaves, which look gorgeous, better than I’ve ever seen them, are flowering, and not producing. Yet the cucumbers and Trombetta are producing like crazy, and the Trombetta leaves are not really looking too good.
Zucchini in foreground looking happy, Trombetta at left, yellowing
Any gardener, myself included, would immediately claim a gorgeous zucchini plant flowering just fine, but not producing, is the result of poor pollination.
But, I know, that’s highly unlikely. First, I’ve seen bees on them. Second, the nearby Trombetta and cucumber, also bee-pollinated, are producing just fine.
So, what gives?
And furthermore, more, why does spellcheck capitalize Trombetta and not zucchini?
Busy days on the wee homestead as we try to maximize our production with the swelter season clock ticking. The scheduled weather is HOT and DRY for us for the foreseeable future and just staying on top of the watering is a big task.
Hubby’s pond water pumping system is a life saver for the plants, but it still requires an entire morning per section in the garden, around the house, in the orchard, which means he’s walking back and forth, moving hoses, rearranging sprinklers, and sweating. It’s not easy, or free, but comparatively it’s our best option and I’m very grateful for it!
Adding shade cloth and screening wherever we can.
And, while I’m on the gratitude train, let’s give a big cheer and thank MAN for the air condition! We’ll be spending much more time indoors for a while, me especially.
Welcome new additions to the garden this year, Poppy and Nigella. Very happy for these, I’ve tried many times for poppies with no luck, and the nigella was gifted from a friend and the blue and white flowers are so darling and the seeds so delicious!
We continue to experiment with different preserving techniques and flavor combinations and it’s SO much more enjoyable for me to have his company and help in this endeavor, now that he’s home all month long!
Last year’s experiments of watermelon rind pickles and melon butter were a fine success we hope to repeat again this summer. Lately he’s also been making cream of mushroom soup from our foraged chanterelles that is SO delicious, as well as blackberry preserves. He’s also canned a bunch of potatoes and made a huge batch of ratatouille for the freezer. That’s a first for both of those, so we’re looking forward to the taste test.
The cucumbers are coming in well, the melons still looking very promising, but the heat is definitely taking its toll on the tomatoes already. That is disappointing because we do love tomatoes and needed to re-stock our marinara this year. Hopefully we’ll find some neighbors with a bumper crop who are willing to trade for some of our prolific squash!
Roma never does well hereNoire des Carmes getting close!Suoy Long a salad cuc favUp, up and away!Sweet potatoes and Black-eyed Plenty of forage for the growing herd!Precious Athena, my favoritePhoebe and her other kid, HerculesBumble bee on ZinniaSpice basil flowering WAY too earlyCastor bean flowering WAY too early
Lots more to share, on another day! 😁 Thanks for stopping by!
