Yard Long Beans Red Noodle Beans and Dumplings

 

We began harvesting Baby Monkey's yard long beans a couple of days ago. We grow both the green variety and the red noodle variety. The picture above is disappointing. The bean pod that looks black is actually a very beautiful dark red. They stay pretty red when they are cooked unlike other colored vegetables that tend to turn green when put to heat. These need to be harvested everyday. If one is missed, it will turn into something that resembles a lumpy snake. Even then, all is not lost, those can be saved for seeds for next year. Racquel from Perennial Garden Lover showed off her yard long beans a couple of days ago, I just couldn't resist showing ours off as well.

Yard long beans (Vigna unguiculata) are also known as asparagus beans. I have saved the seeds of the green variety for years. I bought the seeds for the red noodle variety from Territorial Seed Company last year. They are easy and a lot of fun for the kids.

We had chicken and dumplings for dinner tonight.

I make chicken stock from 1/2 half an onion, 1 celery stalk, 3 chicken bullion cubes (Mexican varieties are best), pepper, three chicken leg quarters and about a gallon of water give or take. It simmers most of the day and the house smells wonderful. When the chicken is done put it out to cool, skin and bone it then return to the stock. Add extra water as needed.

Dumplings = 3 cups flour, 1 cup shortening, 1/4 cup dried parsley, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 1/2 cups buttermilk. Cut the shortening into the dried ingredients and add the buttermilk. Turn the mixture out onto a cutting board and kneed until the dough is elastic and smooth. Roll it out to 1/2 inch thick and cut with a pizza cutter. I make a diamond shape just for giggles. Add them to the boiling chicken stock in two batches. It takes about five minutes for the dumplings cook through. Stand back so as not to get trampled when the family realizes it is ready.

Disclaimer- I don't really ever measure anything. My grandmothers taught me to cook. They seemed to feel that measuring cups were optional. Things rarely taste exactly the same from batch to batch. The above measurements are fairly close. If the dough seems to stiff add more milk, too loose, more flour. I would rather teach someone how to make something than write down a recipe.

Did you have anything special for Sunday dinner?

Where Aunt Debbi Goes to Work on the Farm

 
 

Today was the big day. I visited Eden's Garden the CSA farm I have joined for a working share. For three hours of work per week during the three growing seasons (approximately 30 weeks) I will get my share. This is a pretty good deal at approximately a $15 per hour exchange and I will love the work. Hopefully, I can one day use what I learn from this farm to help develop a community garden in my own town. This farm is only about 15 minutes from our home and about five from the library. Now I am looking forward to learning and eating.

We love our little garden, but it just doesn't produce enough food for us and I want the boys to experience a real farm like I was able to as a child. That's right kids are encouraged to work. There were little girls running around catching grasshoppers and feeding them to the rooster. This is going to be great for us.

Turns out that the farmer worked at the same nursery I used to work at, just at different times. She says the strongest pesticide they have ever used is Bt. One of the members is a retired engineer and he designed a wind turbine and solar panel set up to run the pumps that move the water from the stock tank to the plants. This is the first time I have ever seen a homemade wind turbine. It is pvc pipe cut into the blades, a metal frame and there are license plates as louvers to turn the blades into the wind. The whole thing is painted green. Gotta show Manly. Maybe he can do it for us here.

Since I stayed up until after 1:00 am last night, after my morning in the library and the farm tour, I was worn out. I took a late afternoon nap and woke up to thunder rolling in. It looked like one storm from the south and one from the north west collided right over our house. The air smelled like electricity and the sky was green. My rain barrel filled up in minutes. We pulled up the overflow buckets and all four of them are full as well as the rain barrel. We had more than 2.5 inches in about 45 minutes. I was so worried about not having enough rain this summer, but the last couple of weeks have been blessedly wet.

Update, news says the middle school across the street only reported 1.67 inches. Can't be true.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Fire and Lemons

 
 

The garden clean up is rolling right along. My mom told me that it looks better than ever. This is high praise from my mom. Audio books have changed my life. I can work for hours and not even notice because the story keeps me entertained.

Tonight I worked for about an hour cleaning up the tomato row. Only two of the plants are still alive. The others were pulled out. Because they had been infected with a fungus, I knew not to compost them. I put them in the little chiminea and set them on fire. Then Middle Monkey burned some old rose canes I had trimmed a few weeks ago. The first picture is the fire.

The second picture is my Meyer lemon tree. Several of the lemons are beginning to ripen. The monkeys are eying them suspiciously. I hope I get a couple for myself.

Tomorrow I go to the meet and greet at Eden's Garden the CSA farm I am joining with a working share. I will post all about it tomorrow.

Have a great weekend.

Captain Garden

 
Here is Captain Garden
Protector of potatoes
Champion of chives
Defender of dill
Warrior against weeds


He is standing on the cedar stump I stole from the neighbors curb.

Feel free to add your own silly knight stuff.

"I say bow to me my little peasant flowers! Kiss my feet and I may feed and water you, Or off with your dead heads! I am tired of looking at your wilted leaves! Bloom or I shall compost you!" By Cindee
Captain Garden, 2009 July 31

First Lemon Basil Harvest of Summer 09

 

Nothing smells better than fresh picked lemon basil. We will behaving pesto and Italian fried chicken for dinner. I will also make a tomato, mozzarella and basil salad with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Maybe a bowl of tomato basil soup for a snack this afternoon.

Have y'all got any great basil recipes?

Garden Clean Up In 10 Parts

Part I. Time 1:28 pm.

The weather looks like it will finally cooperate and not scald our skin whenever we try to step outside. The forecast shows that we should have five days of cooler cloudy weather with the possibility of rain.

My little garden and flower beds around the house are in pitiful shape. The heat has kept me inside or severely shortened the amount time I can stay outside. I love to garden, but I am not willing to risk heat stroke for it.

I intend to use these next five days well. Today, I want to clean up as much of the little garden as possible. So far I have done one of ten sections that need to be cleaned up. These sections are seven raised beds and three borders. So far today, I finished one section. This is were Senor Werm lives along with the Mexican mint marigold, leaks, comfrey and a strangely still living stand of collards.

I will update this post when I finish part II. I hope to get the whole garden weeded and mulched as well as cleaning up the paths all in one day. Wish me luck.

Part II. Time 2:33 pm

The last of the four squares of the knot is cleaned up. Wish I had enough Austin rock to finish the edging. Maybe after I pay for all the back to school stuff. Once I get the three borders and the walkways cleaned up, half of the garden will be finished. This is the first part of the garden that is seen when we walk out on the deck. It is also the part of the garden I take pictures of most often.

Taking a break to eat veggies and steal a couple of stumps.

Part III. Time 3:59 pm.

One of the borders is now cleaned up. It was full of hack berry suckers. I hate hack berry suckers. This is one of the borders were Middle Monkey grows his hardy hibiscus. The two on this side are pitiful looking because of the weed infested dry soil in the beds. Hopefully, they will be happier now that the weeds and hack berries are gone and that there is a nice thick layer of grass clippings mulch put down. Back out to do border #2.

Part IV. Time 5:22 pm.

I weedeated the walkways. Is weedeated a word? I think Nola used it last week so it must be a word. I think completing the whole garden in one day was a little ambitious. I will finish the last border and maybe call it a day.

Part V. Time 6:21 pm.

Uncle, I cry.

The Bermuda grass is so awful in that border that I am going to have to go back out there and water until the ground is soft enough to pull that stuff out. I've got a blister on my index finger from yanking on it. Plus, the rose bushes kept pulling my pony tail and poking my fingers. I think I may have gotten into some poison ivy and I definitely have a sunburn. Am I pitiful enough yet?

Tomorrow, I will get back out there and finish it up. The other part of the garden should not be nearly as hard to clean up as the side I worked on today. There are no stinking hack berries on the other side of the garden.

Enough for today, have a nice evening.

Thank You for Being My Friends

The recent medical revelations and acknowledgment of my body's need for care has made me a little nostalgic and reflective today. I have been imagining and preparing for the next stage of my life for a few months. They boys are not little anymore, I am back to work and Manly and I have discovered our love of traveling together.

Priorities are shifting. Plans and dreams are changing. I no longer want a big house and acres of land. I don't see my future self as rich or influential. I want a pretty home and to be involved in our community. I want to get on a plane and go far away with my man to see and experience different lands and cultures. Instead of taking on the debt of a huge new home and land, I want to pay for college for my boys outright and saddle neither myself nor them with debt for their education.

I want to be thin and healthy again. I want to live as much of my life as I can without physical limitations. Yes, vanity plays a little into this, but I will take advantage of that motivation to reach the goal of a healthy body.

I've been thinking about all the people that have touched my life virtually and face to face since I have started this blogging thing. I count people from all over this country, England, Australia and Japan among my friends. Many of you have shown me opportunities to think outside of my life and into a larger world community. Some of my plants' babies are living and growing in far away gardens and some of your plants' babies are living and growing in my garden right now. Several of you offered support and reassurance regarding my medical situation. For that, I offer a special thank you. (At this point I should begin linking everyone, but there are just too many of you.)

Thanks for being part of my life. I am really looking forward to the future.


Okay, I'm finished being serious now so-

Why do melons have fancy weddings? Because they cantaloupe.

Please forgive me for leaving out my friends in Canada. That we are all "north Americans" thing just let me slip up. Apologies