Sunday, June 1, 2008

Happy Holly Days

We said good-bye to our friend, Holly, today. It was a lot of fun having her stay with us for a week. She washed mountains of clothes. She helped bake bread and wash dishes. She braided girls' hair and read stories. She helped in the kitchen with many yummy meals.

Thursday we made the first chevre of the year. Chopped up loads of dill, green onion and garlic. Made a big fat ball of creamy deliciousness. We had worked in the garden for several hours that afternoon planting okra, more green beans, corn, eggplant, more peppers and I don't remember what else. We were so hungry that within a few minutes at least 8 ounces of that cheese was gone! It was so good. Then I took the rest of it and put it under the skin of a couple of our pastured poultry and roasted it. We picked the first baby turnips. I have a confession to make. I have never liked turnip greens. I have memories of green slime out of a can. Metallic yucky green slime. Sooo, typically, those organic turnip greens go straight to the pigs or chickens or compost. Well, Holly assured me that fresh turnip greens are nothing resembling my memory. I stretched myself and trusted my protege's words of wisdom. I sauteed bacon and onion. Added garlic. Threw in those turnip greens. Added a chopped up store bought tomato. Put a lid on it and waited. The baby turnips went into a little pan with milk and butter. We chopped up potatoes and fried them up in a cast iron skillet swimming in duck fat. Set the table. Poured milk for kids, wine for grownups. Lit the candles.

OK, I LOVE turnip greens! I will eat them, Holly, yes I will!

And by the way, everything else was yummy, too. Isn't God good to give us so many wonderful things to eat!

BTW, I was so excited about our wonderful cheese making that on baking day I decided to make some more so we would have good snacks the rest of the weekend. It was so easy and effortless and all that. So, in the middle of baking day, I warmed up milk, was too impatient, didn't really wait for the temperature to be just right. It was about 15 degrees too hot. Made it anyway. How could I go wrong with something so easy and effortless? Well, we made cheese, but it was sort of hard and squeaky. Not terrible. Not great. I will eat it with salad or put it on a sandwich or something. Note to self: baking day is for baking. Stick to baking. Easier to concentrate. Cheese making must move to another day.

Tomorrow is garden picking day after school. More turnips, greens, peas, more broccoli. Lettuces and spinach still looking good, especially after a little shower this evening. We will miss Holly as we plan our meals. What a blessing to have good friends who like to come to the farm.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It's pretty great to hear about life on your farm! I made my first yogurt and yogurt cheese yesterday --granted, it is not from raw milk from my own goat, but its a start!

Sandra