Month: June 2016

I’ll be at the Charlotte Regional Farmers’ Market tomorrow until 1 with:

sweet corn! Only 60 dozen ears, because organic corn can get wormy and not everyone is game. They’re just in the tip usually, so chopping about 1-2 inches off the tips takes care of it.

I have lots of tomatoes: Bloody Butcher, Sungold, Brandywine, Cherokee Purple, Giant Belgium, Azoychka Russian, Limmony, Kellogg’s Breakfast, Persimmon and more. 4 kinds of potatoes: German Butterball, Carola, peppermint and Huckleberry Gold; okra, 3 kinds of onions: sweet, red and cipollini; cauliflower and a couple cabbages. Cucumbers: minis, Asian and slicers. Lemon squash, kale, garlic, sweet potatoes, wheat berries.

Our grass fed, grass finished, Angus beef in these cuts: whole ribeye and strip loins, ribeyes, NY strips, filets, sirloins, flank, skirt, flat irons,  ground beef, stew beef, philly steak, cube steak, oso bucco, short ribs, brisket, soup bones, liver, sirloin tip roasts, eye of round and bone-in chuck roasts, and hot dogs and andouille sausage made from 100% grass fed beef without any nitrates/nitrites. We have marrow bones and oxtail tomorrow.

Soup bones are still BOGO 50% off.

Yum, this is so delicious. Raw corn, red onion, cherry tomatoes, avocado – lots of salt and pepper, and smoked paprika.

Cherokee Purples

NOT FRIENDS. tomato hornworm.

Ahhhhh.

Just got back from girl’s vacay late Tuesday night. Wendy’s honey got us a serious hook-up with a free room and most of our food. Who can say no to that?? We went on 2 sailing excursions! So fun. So beautiful. So peaceful.

We ate some amazing food in Charleston and Folly but it’s not too hard coming home to this amazing food either.

So hungry. Starving. I had to go to town earlier and I was so famished I ate 16 curiously strong peppermint altoids on the way. Then I texted Shane on the way home and said Pleeeeeeez come home and make margaritas and steak tacos with grilled cipollini onions and guacamole and homemade salsa and use the Bloody Butchers for it and the spicy red onions!!!!!

He’s been hauling straw bales out of the fields for DAYS but when I got home he was already in the kitchen. He makes the best guac but his margaritas are like POWZA!! way too strong for someone who can’t hold their liqour, like me.

I’ll be at the Charlotte Regional Farmers’ Market tomorrow until about noon with:

Bloody Butcher tomatoes and sweet/tangy cherry tomato mix; a little okra, big tomatoes are starting to come in! Cauliflower, broccoli, and only 3 cabbages??  And then next week of course 300 cabbages. Sweet onions, red onions, cipollini Italian roasting onions, fresh Siciliano garlic, 4 kinds of potatoes: German Butterball, Huckleberry Gold, Peppermint and the creamy dreamy Carolas that I always grow. Lemon and zephyr squash, cukes, sweet potatoes, 3 kinds of kale, wheat berries, aaaaaaaand…stick a fork in me.

Our grass fed, grass finished, Animal Welfare Approved Angus beef in these cuts: whole ribeye and strip loins, ribeyes, NY strips, filets, sirloins, flank, skirt, flat irons,  ground beef, stew beef, philly steak, cube steak, oso bucco, short ribs, brisket, soup bones, liver, sirloin tip roasts, eye of round and bone-in chuck roasts, and hot dogs and andouille sausage made from 100% grass fed beef without any nitrates/nitrites. We have marrow bones and oxtail tomorrow.

Bags of soup bones are still BOGO 50% off.

Looks like sweet corn next weekend! We are eating some for supper but it’s not quite ready. I found a couple that were almost perfect. So excited!

tender lemon and zephyr squash – so pretty!

You’ll never guess what I’ve been eating: Sqoodles!! Practically no calories.

Summer squash noodles (used a spiralizer) Sqoodles seasoned with salt, pepper and Italian seasoning, then bake @ 415 just 15 minutes!! What! Then:

Does that look super delicious?? Marinara I jazzed up with balsamic and fresh garlic, lots of basil, and grated pecorino. After I took the photo I added lots more cheese 🙂 This is my new favorite thing, except for maybe this:

Potatoes and sweet potatoes that aren’t too round (kind of a flatter shape) cut in half the long way, just a touch of coconut oil rubbed on the cut side and on the skins then bake at 425 maybe 25 minutes until when you turn them over they look like this –

Oh shazam. So good. Small ones cook in 15. That is so fast for potatoes, right? We like hot sauce and butter on the Irish potatoes, and coconut oil and salt on the sweet potatoes. Skins and all. I don’t know what kind of results one would get with a regular cookie sheet. I use a ceramic coated one.

beautiful calendula flowers in my herb garden. I cut the heads and let them dry then use them in stuff for my face. So it doesn’t look so leathery.

Cucumber/apple/lime/turmeric juice (my turm from the freezer!)  Cucumber juice is the very very best tasting, most refreshing juice EVER. And also delicious with Ciroc coconut vodka for happy hour.

Shane called and told me to come help get my fancy pants wheat out of his combine so he can cut his triticale (a cross between wheat and rye). Draaaats. It’s a dusty, messy job and I got grease from the skid loader all in my hair and then wheat all stuck to it and I was in a golden shower of wheat that didn’t make it into the bag and I just can’t tell you how itchy and just BOOOO. But the new crop of wheat – hard white winter wheat – is so pretty! I can’t wait to try it but it has to be cleaned and all that stuff.

Ok see you tomorrow!!

I’ll be at the Charlotte Regional Farmers’ Market tomorrow until 1pm with these beautiful sweet onions and:

that cauliflower, and freshly dug potatoes – new kinds! The German Butterball that I always grow plus Huckleberry Gold (purple skin, creamy yellow flesh) and Peppermint (named that because of their white skin with pink splashes, they have waxy white flesh similar to new potatoes). Red onions, LOTS of broccoli, green cabbage, the first little bit of okra, some tomatoes, fresh garlic, cukes, squash, 3 kinds of kale, basil, sweet potatoes, wheat berries and our grass fed Angus beef in these cuts:

whole ribeye and strip loins, ribeyes, NY strips, filets, sirloins, flank, skirt, flat irons,  ground beef, stew beef, philly steak, cube steak, oso bucco, short ribs, brisket, soup bones, liver, sirloin tip roasts, eye of round and bone-in chuck roasts, and hot dogs and andouille sausage made from 100% grass fed beef without any nitrates/nitrites. We have marrow bones and oxtail tomorrow.

AND a special on soup bones – BOGO 50% off!  I use these to make bone broth and we also give these bones to the dogs. When I make broth, I freeze a lot of it in ice cube trays then store them in a freezer bag, and when I’m making rice or whatever I can just toss a few broth cubes in and it’s super easy.

newly planted baby sweet potato slips, in a couple weeks they’ll be all leafed out.

first planting of sweet corn is tasseling – I have hoed myself to oblivion the past 2 weeks. Pigweed and lambsquarter can easily overrun the corn if you look away for 2 seconds. We cultivate the middles with a tractor before it gets too tall, but I have to hoe in the row. A trillion bazillion rows…

Oh my gosh. I have too much broccoli coming ready at once so we’re eating it like mad. Just put 3 gallons in the freezer today. This garlic roasted broccoli recipe is so good and really fast to make – I like to grate some parm over it when it’s almost done roasting. And THEN I found this recipe for General Tso’s Cauliflower, (tastes as delicious as it looks in the photo) you know like the chicken? But the cauliflower is the chicken. Oh my GAH! I changed up the ingredients a little but it was super delicious, and I ate an entire giant head of orange cauliflower by myself for a snack. Broccoli also very delicious made this way, it’s what’s for supper tonight.

Ok see you tomorrow!

Getting the field ready for sweet potatoes! But first, we added lime, manganese sulfate, sulfur and boron. AND a deer fence. After they ate all 2000 sweet potato plants in 2 days last year, I’m not taking any chances. Then I gathered up my hubby’s dirty work shirts and hung them on the fence posts. Plus the one he was wearing. I demanded he remove it and put it on the fence. Deer deterrent. He wasn’t enthusiastic about me taking all his favorite work shirts but reluctantly agreed since I promised it was for just one night. And by one night I mean until October.

Anyway my sister came to help plant them and we rode on the 2 seat planter and Shane drove the tractor. Then afterward: strawberry ginger margaritas, Boston butt from the crock pot, fresh slaw and   homemade pickles. Thank goodness Sister works for food and drinks 🙂

Freshly dug, uncured garlic. Susanville – a super flavorful variety

I’ll be at the Charlotte Regional Farmers’ Market tomorrow 6/4 until 1pm:

broccoli, green cabbage, some Bloody Butchers, the fresh garlic, cukes, squash, 3 kinds of kale, probably the last or next to last week of chard, lots of basil including Thai basil, mint, onion bunches, sweet potatoes, wheat berries and our grass fed Angus beef in these cuts:

whole ribeye and strip loins, ribeyes, NY strips, sirloins, flat irons,  ground beef, stew beef, philly steak, cube steak, oso bucco, short ribs, brisket, soup bones, liver, sirloin tip roasts, eye of round and bone-in chuck roasts, and hot dogs and andouille sausage made from 100% grass fed beef without any nitrates/nitrites.

That happened. Was not expecting to find that when I reached into the nest box.

The day before, I had gone to the storage building, flung open the door and went FACE PLANT into a big black snake hanging on the inside of the door. I don’t mind them, but that was WHAAAA! and I screamed (sheepish face).  Shane came flying over on the Gator to see if I was being murdered. Sorry! He loaded up my stuff (score) and when I got home I ripped open a bag of potting mix and ARGH! snakes in the mix. Snake face plant numero dos. Thank goodness I didn’t slash the bag with a knife like usual!! So I got her on the broom handle and carried her to the woods. Next day…she’s eating my eggs.

So I guess she just lives there now. I try to get eggs before she can steal them and she’s always there in her “apartment”. I guess I don’t mind. They eat mice, and have a shy personality, pretty much just slowly sneaking away and hiding unlike the encounters I’ve had in the past with rattlesnakes, who are super mean and just glare at you aggressively like they can’t wait to fang your eyeballs out.

THEN when I was loading up the hi-cal lime there was a black widow on the bags, and her 2 egg sacs. She also got relocated to the woods. This place is a death trap.

Does anyone know about these turtles? I got questions. I’m really hoping for baby turtles in the tomato hoop house!! Could it happen??

Thankfully not our tractor, but another farmer who was I think baling hay. No one was hurt.

See you tomorrow!