Frog Log

It was Friday morning, August 22, and Holler Fest would begin in a few hours. I had lots to d0 - I had more things to do than I even knew I had to do! I was up at the barn "doing" - focused, intent, and looking down at the task at hand. Something made me look up. The barn overlooks the garden, and as I straightened up and looked out, I caught a glimpse of the new lettuce patch. This is the patch that we seeded weeks ago in order to have a fall crop. We planted it in our best ground, watered diligently, and waited...and waited. This year's drought seemed too much for us, and we had all but given up the possibility that those tender seedlings could or would even want to germinate into the relentless sun and heat that has characterized the summer of '08. Daily we would check for seedling emergence and daily we saw only dirt. Maybe they knew best. But my glance toward the garden that busy morning caught a faint glimmer of green coming from the lettuce patch. I stopped, lo...

From A Word A Day, one of my favorite virtual visits, other than the sprouting community of "ladies food blogs". More on that later. At a time when the bounty of summer produce is starting to pour from our gardens into celebratory meals and gatherings, consider this: A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: Tomatoes and oregano make it Italian; wine and tarragon make it French. Sour cream makes it Russian; lemon and cinnamon make it Greek. Soy sauce makes it Chinese; garlic makes it good. -Alice May Brock, author (b. 1941) And here's something mighty tasty to do with that good garlic. Beet Caviar - adapted from a Khazakstani dish Boil one large or two medium beets until tender; remove skins Grind one-half cup walnuts (may toast them first but not necessary) Mince 2-4 cloves of garlic, depending on how "good" you want this dish to be! Grate beets and mix everything together with one-quarter to one-third cup mayonnaise. Serve as a dip or spread with some good crackers. Incredibly ...

Whew -- last post published July 9 - not good! I'm afraid I'm too busy working in the garden to stop and write about it. Since the last post we started a CSA, and now 25 beautiful boxes of produce march off to market each week to be picked up by the shareholders. It's fun; I didn't realize how invested I would feel in these good folks who trusted us enough to plunk down a major chunk of change that assures them they will eat our veggies each week. Confession: I enclose a one-page "newsletter" with each box. So if I am able to write anything, it goes there. It's not the same as blogging; I play it pretty straight and try to literarily behave myself (no commentary from Spike...yet). We have also gained an excellent helper, Elizabeth, since the last post. She pedaled into our farm life from Ohio and has pitched in mightily from the get-go. As we move into full swing, we find seven or eight part-time helpers each Friday making salad and helping bring the harv...

Well, this is a goodbye to the berries kind of blog. And appreciating the help we had this year plucking myriad little flavor nuggets. As you can see from the photo, picking berries is a crawl on your knees, bend your back over, stick your nose in the foliage kind of proposition. Berries seem to nestle under their leaves, so it takes time and concentration to uncover the clusters of little treasures in the straw. Hours. And more hours. But what you can't see in the picture is that each one of those pickers has probably just eaten a berry or is just about to. The berry picking perks are oh so sweet and keep us going down those rows. Again. And again. Cool nights gave us a long and flavorful season. Hope you got some! p.s. Spike and his buddies cleaned up their last patch and hit the road on Saturday. They aren't so crazy about the warm weather on the horizon; they said they might be back in the Fall.

Yeah, Spike Spinach back. Frog Lady says I should write sumthin' about strawberries cuz all the food blogs is oohing and aahing about them these days. Well, she ain't so creative, I guess, but I s'pose I'll have to join the chorus...in my own way. Yeah, I'm happy to set the record straight on strawberries! Someone asked why they were so hard to grow. I'll tell you why - cuz the berries make it hard! Sheez - talk about prima donnas. They can't grow the same year you plant them - oh no, they have to be planted the year before. AND you have to feed them just right and at just the right time. If they don't like what you serve, they won't make much berries. But, right, you don't find that out til the next year. Talk about holdin' a grudge! And even though they make you plant them one year early, they don't like to go through the winter, I guess, cuz they demand to be covered! Sheez, talk about mixed messages. So the frog farmers get out th...

Yeah, Spinach back. You can call me Spike. We might as well be on a first name basis cuz it's lookin' like I'm gonna be around for a while. Frog Lady and me had a little talk after she found out I'd been postin' on her precious frog log. She don't make it here much so I figgered I could set the record straight on a thing or two. So whaddya know she actually shows up a coupla days ago and she sat there for hours - like she was writin' War and Peas or sumthin'. I thought I was in the clear but she got to the end and saw what I been up to -- guess that last picture of the spinach patch I posted was way bigger than the usual size. And hey, why not, the spinach has been awesome! Oops, I'm goofin' on our agreement. Seems the Frog Lady realized she could use a little help around here, so I'm gonna hang around - check some things out and report back. Only deal is I had to promise not to write so much about SPINACH! Sheez - alright alright. Even th...

What is wrong with this picture? Yes, one bowl contains bananas, the other morel mushrooms. The bowls are sitting next to each other on the same kitchen counter. So what's wrong with that? I'll let Barbara Kingsolver answer the question. Ms. Kingsolver, long a beloved fiction writer, has written a surprising bestseller titled Animal, Vegetable, Miracle , which depicts her decision, along with her husband and two daughters, to eat for one full year only food that is organically grown and locally produced, either nearby or from their own labor on their Appalachian farm. Here is an excerpt from an interview with Barbara Kingsolver, that appeared in the magazine, Shambala Sun, in July 2007. (Interviewer): What was the most difficult thing about eating locally for a year? Barbara Kingsolver: Everyone asks that, and I think the answer people expect is that it was really hard to give up some particular food, but it really wasn't. Our undertaking was to focus on what was new, what ...