Month: September 2018

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

chestnuts, fresh and dried hibiscus roselles (for tea), Carola potatoes, sweet banana peppers, jalepenos, Tobago seasoning peppers and eggplant, hard red winter wheat, sweet potatoes.

I made this Greek Eggplant Dip on Sunday for the Panthers game- I always like it but I was surprised that Shane really liked it. Lots of garlic and smoked paprika 🙂 A double batch because it’s better the next day.

I’ll have our 100% grass fed & grass finished, Animal Welfare Approved Angus beef in these cuts:

NY strip, osso bucco, short ribs, stew beef, philly steak, cube steak, brisket, sirloin tip roast, eye of round roast, boneless chuck roast, liver, and hot dogs made from our 100% grass fed Angus beef, no added nitrates or nitrites.

Ground beef special – Buy 5, Get 1 free.

Bulk pricing on our beef: quarters, halves and wholes – $3.50 lb hang weight plus the cost of processing (.75/lb)

Here is my current vegetable situation – grasshoppers ate most of the lettuce, all of the beets and carrots as soon as they came up, and the napa cabbage. I have green cabbage coming in soon and then broccoli and cauliflower I hope. The beds with the cabbage, brussels sprouts, broc and cauli flooded during Florence and stayed really wet so there are some rot problems there. I’ll have turmeric in October, but the ginger was a total crop failure.

I have green onion and leek transplants to put in, but there’s no point in planting anything else. I bought a ton of insect fabric to protect the crops but they just ate through it. Once it gets cold the bastards will die off and I can plant in the hoop houses but by then it will be too late to plant anything outside; anyway it will be November before I have any kale, beets, etc.

I pinned this recipe for Coconut Hibiscus Iced Tea Latte that sounds amazing, but I haven’t made it yet. Hibiscus is also known as sorrel, and this is the sorrel drink recipe with ginger and cinnamon that lots of customers have told me they love so much.

See you tomorrow!

Tea hibiscus. The massive plants got pushed over by the rain we had from Florence but they’re doing ok.

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

chestnuts, hibiscus roselles (for tea), Carola & Huckleberry Gold potatoes, sweet bell peppers, sweet banana peppers, jalepenos, Tobago seasoning peppers and 3 kinds of eggplant: purple, Rosa Bianca Italian and mini fairytale, hard red winter wheat, sweet potatoes.

Chestnuts are here! I wish ALL vegetables and fruits grew inside a treacherously spiny hull like that.

I’ll have our 100% grass fed & grass finished, Animal Welfare Approved Angus beef in these cuts:

NY strip, sirloin steak, skirt, osso bucco, short ribs, stew beef, philly steak, oxtail, cube steak, brisket, sirloin tip roast, eye of round roast, boneless chuck roast, liver, and hot dogs made from our 100% grass fed Angus beef, no added nitrates or nitrites.

Ground beef special – Buy 5, Get 1 free.

Bulk pricing on our beef: quarters, halves and wholes – $3.50 lb hang weight plus the cost of processing (.75/lb)

This recipe for hibiscus lemonade arrived in my inbox just yesterday, from Anthony William. He says that hibiscus has antioxidant properties similar to those in red wine. Who knew?

4 cups water, divided
2 teaspoons dried hibiscus
½ cup fresh lemon juice
4 tablespoons raw honey or maple syrup

Directions:
Bring 1 cup of water to a boil in a small saucepan. Remove the water from the heat and add the dried hibiscus. Allow the resulting hibiscus tea to steep for at least 10 minutes, and then strain the tea into a mug and place it in the fridge to cool.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the remaining 3 cups of water with the lemon juice and honey until the honey has completely dissolved and a smooth lemonade has formed. When the hibiscus tea has cooled, stir it into the lemonade base and enjoy! For a more medicinal tea, double the amount of hibiscus.

He also says it can be frozen into ice cubes to add your water anytime-awesome idea.

Chestnuts – how to roast! Here is a link to some really cool info on roasting that I wasn’t aware of, but all that aside, simply score the flat side with an “X”, spread onto a sheet pan and roast at 350 for 20 to 40 minutes or until the kitchen smells amazing and the shells are curling up at the X. They will mostly just pop out of the shell when you break them, although sometimes there is still shell attached which can be eliminated according to the info in the link.

AND I made something so delicious while we were in the house during Florence. Sweet Potato Hot Fudge Cake. Fudgy cake that’s not too sweet and makes it’s own hot fudgy sauce.  Holy bleep. So good. We killed it in one night and it was amazing, except it has coffee and cocoa so I was up til 2 am, sigh. Definitely a keeper though.

So this is the creek on Saturday morning (I really REALLY enjoyed my day off, BTW 🙂 Note the height of the banks.

And here it is Sunday evening. Completely overran the banks and flooded the woods and the road to the creek. You can’t even see the creek from here, it’s several hundred yards up the road. That little speck beside Shane is Bug, she loves to swim. Yep, she’s swimming.

Flooding across another road…

By Monday morning it was all gone and we just had a couple trees down and no damage, if you don’t count the waterlogged brussels sprouts that are now dying. I count them.

Cleaning out the tomato hoop, one of my least favorite things to do… every season is always my favorite when it gets here, but the weeks that drag on and on during the end of summer are always my least favorite time of year. And tomorrow is the first day of fall!! Woohoo!! I’ll see you then 🙂

Hoping everyone makes it through the storm safe and sound. See you next week <3

… the only photo we could come up with between the 2 of us.

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

Carola & Huckleberry Gold potatoes, sweet bell peppers, sweet banana peppers, jalepenos, Tobago seasoning peppers and 3 kinds of eggplant: purple, Rosa Bianca Italian and mini fairytale, hard red winter wheat, sweet potatoes.

I’ll have our 100% grass fed & grass finished, Animal Welfare Approved Angus beef in these cuts:

NY strip, sirloin steak, skirt, osso bucco, short ribs, stew beef, philly steak, oxtail, cube steak, brisket, sirloin tip roast, eye of round roast, boneless chuck roast, liver, and hot dogs made from our 100% grass fed Angus beef, no added nitrates or nitrites.

Ground beef special – Buy 5, Get 1 free.

Bulk pricing on our beef: quarters, halves and wholes – $3.50 lb hang weight plus the cost of processing (.75/lb)

At long last, I made CRISPY sweet potato fries from the oven. It’s true. I tried out the recipe the other night, and chimichurri to dip them in. I love baked sweet potato fries but I always wished they were more crisp. I substituted arrowroot powder for the cornstarch in the recipe.

I’ll see you tomorrow!

When sunflowers start putting on seed, their heads get to be too heavy to hold up.

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

okra, potatoes: Carola & Huckleberry Gold,  sweet bell peppers, sweet banana peppers, jalepenos, Tobago seasoning peppers and 3 kinds of eggplant: purple, Rosa Bianca Italian and mini fairytale, hard red winter wheat, sweet potatoes and I’m bringing some fresh stevia, although I’ve never put it in the cooler before so I don’t know how it will fare…

I’ll have our 100% grass fed & grass finished, Animal Welfare Approved Angus beef in these cuts:

NY strip, sirloin steak, skirt, osso bucco, short ribs, stew beef, philly steak, oxtail, cube steak, brisket, sirloin tip roast, eye of round roast, boneless chuck roast, liver, hot dogs and sliced pastrami made from our 100% grass fed Angus beef, no added nitrates or nitrites.

We have some nice size briskets, around 3 lbs. I’ve made this brisket recipe many times, and it’s one of my favorites for company since it’s easy and always turns out delicious.

We have the special package buy again this weekend:  a sirloin tip roast,  cube steak, philly, and 2 lbs ground beef for $45 with a savings of over $5.

Ground beef special – Buy 5, Get 1 free.

Bulk pricing on our beef: quarters, halves and wholes – $3.50 lb hang weight plus the cost of processing (.75/lb)

I found a new sweet potato recipe: Pan Griddled Sweet Potatoes with Miso Ginger Sauce. It was really good, and the sauce would be delicious with lots of other things. If you haven’t tried miso, it’s a fermented food, and there are all different kinds. I like the chickpea miso and I get it at Earthfare, and it’s made in Asheville!

I’ve been drying the marigold heads for tea and infused oil. This variety of marigold (the same ones I sold as plants in the spring) has strong anti-inflammatory properties.

Hibiscus starting to put on roselles. Tea time!!

Speaking of tea time, the stevia plant is looking like major shrubbery. Stevia is an herb that is super sweet and has no calories. I’ve already dried a ton of it so I’ll bring some tomorrow, it’s fantastic for sweetening smoothies or tea, like hibiscus tea which is very tart. Just lay it out to dry, store in glass jar, and just steep it with tea. It’s a great sweetener for diabetics because it isn’t metabolized by the body.

Square baling alfalfa. And round baling alfalfa. And square baling orchard grass. And round baling orchard grass. Ugh. I don’t know how he does it. I’d go bonkers.

Curious Georges! As if they don’t see a Gator about 10 times a day 🙂

See you tomorrow!