Glimpses of Fall

I refused at the time to admit I saw it, but I did. I know I did. Not just because I saw it, but because one of the kids did, too - and had the nerve to verbalize it...

"Look! Mom! That tree... it's starting to turn!"

A perfectly innocuous thing to say, but it does not jive well with my current state of impending Fall denial!

I don't want it to be fall yet.

I'm still just trying to settle into summer and truly savor the glory of it all.

I don't want the kids to go back to school yet.

I don't want to be cold yet. (Well, but I'd also not like to be quite as hot as the past week has been either! Finicky, huh?!)

I don't want to get rained on a bunch yet.

And I'm not ready for the gray days yet.

See - it's not really Fall I'm dreading, is it? It's more winter. Fall is just the first step toward winter, of course. Fall can be simply glorious here. I love the years when we have a lingering summer and enjoy dry, temperate weather far longer than is typical. I could go for a Fall like that.

It's hard to be in Fall denial, though, when one spends hours upon hours at the high school getting the kids' schedules and yearbooks and textbooks and photos taken care of!

It's hard to be in Fall denial, as well, when the high today was I think less than 70 degrees.

And it's hard to be in Fall denial when it rained - not just a tad bit - and soaked the yard (and me!), and looked not so much like summer - gray, damp, a little bit dreary.

But, I'll survive it. I don't know why it's so profound this year. Maybe it's because I've got two kids in high school this year? Maybe cause I'm feeling like the time is short to hold them tight and love them well? Maybe because my neice and nephew started their school year today, now that they are safely back to their own home after having spent the better part of the summer here.

Whatever the case, I'll reflect on these lovely verses:

Be glad, O people of Zion,

rejoice in the Lord your God,

for he has given you

the autumn rains in righteousness.

He sends you abundant showers,

both autumn and spring rains, as before.

The threshing floors will be filled with grain;

the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.
'I will repay you for the years

the locusts have eaten —

the great locust and the young locust,

the other locusts and the locust swarm—my

great army that I sent among you.

You will have plenty to eat, until you are full,

and you will praise the name of the Lord your God,

who has worked wonders for you;

never again will my people be shamed.

Then you will know that I am in Israel,

that I am the Lord your God,

and that there is no other;

never again will my people be shamed.

Joel 2:23-27 (NIV)

It really is about perspective, isn't it? Seasons are a good thing. And once again, I'm thinking too far ahead - not reveling in the beauty of this lovely remaining season and the good things God has in store for me while it yet remains. So I'll try not to miss the present in anticipation of the future.

The thrill...

Will I always feel that thrill when I open the door to the nest boxes and see this? Will I ever be able (willing?) to go to the coop and check for eggs without camera in tow? I'm sure that at some future point in time it will change from a feeling of utter delight to drudgery perhaps... maybe in the dead of winter? Nah... I don't think so!

I actually have a spreadsheet that I'm keeping that includes which hen laid which egg, what time of the day, how much said egg weighed, and the age of the hen. I'm sure some additional fields will eventually make their way in there, but thus far, these fields seem to be sufficient. I'm such a wierdo sometimes! LOL!

Suffice it to say that the egg watch has retained it's high level of importance at our house - from the youngest kid on up - we're all still thrilled with the discovery of a new egg.

Today Millie joined the egg-laying ranks! Woo Hoo! Her first egg was 1.5 ounces - just like Henrietta's first real egg. But note the difference in color! Millie's egg is on the left, Henrietta's is on the right. Interestingly enough, Henrietta is the lightest in color of our three Rhode Island Reds. Wild, huh?

Henrietta's egg shown here was 2.25 oz - thus far two of hers have been 1.5 oz, and two have been 2.25 oz. We haven't cracked the second 2.25 oz egg yet, but the first one was a double yolker. Jonathan has dibs on the second one, and I'm sure will be a part of his breakfast in the morning!

This is the first time I've raised eggplant. This is an Ichiban variety, and is supposed to be good eats. If lovliness of a plants flower has any weight for the flavor argument, this one is gonna be really good. Wow - isn't it gorgeous?
John's pepper plants seem to have gone bezerk all of a sudden. One day you can't find a pepper, the next, this!
Tonight at dinner John actually took one of these Hungarian wax peppers and diced it to enjoy with the tacos. (Yes, he was the only one interested in consuming it!) He reported that it's a very sweet pepper thus far, but he's read it has the potential to kick some serious butt!

Aren't they gorgeous?
And look! The new planting of green beans are doing their thing!

By the way... I know this is difficult to see, but if you're good at deciphering clues, you'll find as we did - HOOF PRINTS! That's not all we've found... more plants uprooted, green tomatoes with bites out of the sides of them, etc. Darn deer!

Thankfully, we've got enough tomatoes that the few the deer have gone after thus far have been inconsequential. (I could get QUITE cranky, however, if they don't watch it!)


Last year our cherry tomato offerings were a little bit paltry. That will not be the case this year!

I think one of the most astounding things in life is to find a tiny little zucchini one day, and the next come back to find a ready to pick and consume fruit!

Of course, there is no such thing as too much yellow crookneck squash, but WOW - we're getting lots of it, and it's only just begun! Isn't it pretty?


I'm watching the berry bushes daily (and of course quality control testing) the fruit to determine if it's time to start picking. I hope to harvest many, many times in the coming weeks so that we'll have plenty of jam, jelly, syrup, pie filling, and frozen fruit. I'm sure I'll find some other things to do with the berries, too - just give me a little time! :)

And our first green bean patch is growing like crazy - there are blossoms all over, and baby beans left and right - hooray! I can hardly wait to start canning these for the coming year!

We took a ride out to Ag West today to pick up a couple of things. My heart just yearns for a place that we can call our own... driving through the countryside just outside of the urban growth boundary was a call to my heart... oh, please Lord! Let there be a place for us one of these days!

25 hours later...

Can you see her in there? There's our Henrietta - who for the better part of an hour hung out in "her" nest box (bottom right) - arranging the pine shavings, moving the wooden egg here or there, squking now and then, and as William observed, "looking kinda angry!"

Yesterday we retrieved egg number 1 at 1:08 p.m. Today, egg number 2 was retrieved at 2:08 p.m. According to Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens by Gail Damerow, "Approximately ever 25 hours, one ovum acquires enough layers of yolk to be released into the oviduct..."

So, makes sense, huh?

And not only did she prove to be consistent in terms of timing - the next quote from Damerow, "As a hen gets older, her eggs get bigger."

Yep! Yesterday's egg was 1.5 ounces. Today a whopping 2.25 ounces.

WOW!

That means egg number 2 is just shy of the jumbo eggs that we purchase, and nearly double of yesterday's egg!

Wow!

As William reported today, "Henrietta rocks!"

I think he's absolutely correct!

It's an egg!

Today - a full week after the first (sort of) egg was laid we heard Henrietta squaking like there was no tomorrow. We were eating lunch and could hear her all the way into the house - pretty unusual - but we've heard her loud before. This time, it was pretty sustained.

After lunch William went out to investigate, and came back yelling, "It's an EGG!" To which we dropped everything, grabbed the camera and raced out to the coop - where Henrietta was smart enough to lay her egg - in an actual nest box. Good chicken!

Isn't it cute? The wooden egg on the left is pretty good sized, but this is decidedly a petite egg.

But pretty, huh?

Compared to the Jumbo sized eggs we buy (which weighs in at 2.75 oz) I don't think our 1.5 oz egg looks too bad, do you?

Here she is - the woman of the hour - Henrietta! I'm so proud of her!

Here's hoping it doesn't take a whole week for the next egg!

Pesto!

It's really been time to make pesto for at least a week - but time, you know - it just evaporates and then I find myself looking down a row of basil that just simply needs attention NOW! That's where I found myself this afternoon - with a spare hour to my credit - so pesto had to happen!

Believe it or not, pesto is one of the easiest things to make. It doesn't really take much - a couple of cups of basil leaves, some pine nuts, some garlic, some parmesan cheese, and some olive oil. Being the lazy girl that I am, I really feel strongly that a food processor is high up on the list of necessary ingredients of making pesto! :)

See - only takes up a little corner on my counter:


But of course, we start with the garden - where the basil is yelling, "Dina! Get out here! We need attention! NOW!"

Ideally, you want to wait until your basil plants are at least 10 inches tall before you start harvesting the leaves. And if you hadn't heard it before, it's time for you to know that plants that go to flower tend to be bitter - so you want to harvest when they start to flower. Important note: if you deadhead (i.e., pinch off the flowering part of the plant) it doesn't actually halt the flowering of basil, it just spurs the plant to produce more flowers. Rather than deadhead, cut at least six leaf pairs down the stem. The plant will then begin leaf production again - giving you more to harvest soon! (See Organic Gardening magazine for some excellent resources on growing basil.)

So - as you can see, this plant is definitely at least 10 inches tall - in fact, it's 18 inches tall - so time to harvest! A good rule of thumb is to cut the stems just above the second set of leaves (counting from the ground up). This will cause new stems to form at this juncture. (Cool, huh?) If you trim your basil often - every 10 days or even less - the better flavor your basil will have.


Here's the same plant after it's little - ahem - hair cut.


Not a bad harvest, huh? And just to make sure we've got some truth in advertising going on here, this is harvest from TWO plants, not just one.


I typically put the collander in the sink, pull the leaves from the stems, and put the just pulled leaf into the collander. The work goes pretty quickly. I pull all of the leaves I can possibly get from a stem - avoiding any flower or seed "spikes" that are at the apex of the stem.


Once all of the leaves have been pulled from the stems, I wash them thoroughly - seriously, can take up to five full minutes to make sure they're thoroughly clean!


That was a lot of leaves, huh? Would you have guessed it was only 4 cups of leaves? Make sure to pack those leaves down pretty firmly - and don't forget to drain out any excess water that might settle to the measuring cup. (By the way, I'm making a double batch here.)


The step I forgot to take a picture of is the one where you throw those leaves into the food processor and pulse until they're pretty finely chopped.

Next, you add the pine nuts. I used about 7 tablespoons of them. Also, some people prefer walnuts - it's fine to use either, but I love the pine nuts myself. Pulse some more, until they are chopped and incorporated.


Now you add the garlic. Some people keep minced garlic on hand. See - true confessions come out there... I've got a bad attitude about the minced garlic you get in the jar - I just really don't think it tastes as good or fresh (well, cause it isn't!). I, of course, recognize that for some folks it really is the best choice for them - but for me, not. Soooo... if you add minced garlic, you don't need to pulse much here - if at all. If you add cloves of garlic, make sure you pulse until they are minced and incorporated. The recipe calls for 3 garlic cloves - being the garlic-loving girl that I am, I usually double that.


Now the parmesan cheese. Again - going back to the lazy girl thing - while I could pull out the microplane and hunk of parmesan and grate like crazy to get the 1/2 of a cup of parmy, but instead, I hit the freezer for my handy bag of frozen shredded parmesan from Costco. Hey, it works! Go ahead and pulse to incorporate the cheese.


Now, while the food processor is running, gradually add in the 1 cup of olive oil. I use extra virgin olive oil - use whatever you prefer.

Then, I do something that really isn't called for in any of the recipes that I've seen yet, but I do just 'cause I like it this way: I transfer the ingredients from the food processor into a mixing bowl and throw in about another 1/4th a cup of shredded parmesan and use a spatula to mix it in.

Now it's time to package the pesto. I pretty much make it to put in the freezer - where it will store nicely for up to a year. Woo Hoo! I use 1-cup freezer containers and fill leaving just a little head space. I've found over the years that adding a little layer of olive oil on top of the pesto works wonders at keeping it fresh tasting once it's thawed.

And - voila - I now have my first three 1-cup containers of pesto in the freezer for the coming year.

I think the best part about having basil plants in the garden is that it really only takes a few minutes to throw together a batch of pesto - whether it's a small batch to be used immediately, or a larger batch to prepare for the freezer.

And just in case you don't have a way to use your wonderful batch of pesto, here's one of my favorite ways to do so:

Dina's Favorite Pasta Salad

1 pound of orzo
3/4ths pound Italian roast beef (1/2 inch thick slice)
3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup shaved parmesan cheese
1 small zucchini (peeled, sliced thinly)
1 jar pickled baby corn
1/2 cup pickled carrots
1/4 cup pickled asparagus
1 small jar marinated artichoke hearts
2 cups fresh mushrooms, sliced
5 green onions, sliced
1/3 cup cold pressed extra virgin olive oil
3/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup balsalmic vinegar
3/4 cup pesto
1 large avocado, diced
6 small tomatoes, wedged

1. Dice up pickled vegetables according to your personal preference. Combine all prepared vegetables (omitting avocado and tomatoes) into a large mixing bowl. Add diced italian roast beef. Toss together.
2. Cook orzo according to directions. When done, drain - but DO NOT rinse. Toss the hot pasta with the vegetables and beef. (This will steam the vegetables a bit.
3. Quickly add in and toss with the pesto, vinegars, and olive oil. Mix thoroughly.
4. Cover and place in the refrigerator overnight.
5. Shortly before serving add in grated parmesan cheese and avocado.
6. Once completely mixed through, garnish with tomato wedges and sprinkle with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, as well as a few shavings of parmesan cheese. Serve.

Ta da!

Strange goings on during the night...

It was a little strange to go out to the garden this afternoon (my first chance today to get out there - it was a busy day!). I was a little puzzled to approach the makeshift gate - which is simply a single panel of the decorative fencing covered with chicken wire, the wire legs get shoved into the ground and - voila! - we have our gate. It isn't fancy, that's for sure, but it is effective at keeping the chicks (and dog) out of the garden! The gate was actually bent nearly flat - as in at about a 45 degree angle. Hmmm... something is definitely amiss!

I quickly ascertained that something had been at our lone zucchini plant!

You see that? Like it's half way dug up! Dang! What would do that?

I moved on...

I don't know if you can see that, but on the bottom left side of the photo you can kinda see through the trellis... See the branches of the tomato plant that have been pulled down to the ground - and kinda trampled? STINK! What's been in my garden?

THEN... The outrage of it all...

something had the gall to take a bite out of one of MY squash! See those bite marks?!

Then a little bit later, I found that something had been in the green bean patch, too!

WHAT pray tell, has been in my garden? I am so not amused! You start messing with my squash, some serious battle has been declared!

What do you think? Racoons? We sure have them around here - a lot! We do have a lot of deer issues... Here's the baby we found leaving the yard last week:

that bite mark was too petite for deer, though, don't you agree?

I don't know, but they better not come back!

Time to Jam!

Saturday mid-day we headed out to Rowell Brother's to pick berries. We really were initially after blueberries - which we did get. They got frozen within hours of being picked and have been used quite a few times since then with wonderful results. (The blueberry muffins Sunday morning were a big hit!)

Same day we also picked 18 pounds of Boysenberries. (The boys insist their real name is POISONberries - and that spies use them to battle the enemy as needed!) We ended up needing to head out of the house Saturday evening unexpectedly so the berries went onto sheet pans and into the fridge. I was sure I'd get to getting them processed into jam Sunday afternoon.

Nope. Didn't happen. On the sheet pans in the fridge they remained. Monday, I'd certainly get them done!

Yeah, not. Too much going on. Tuesday, for sure! Of course, I knew we'd be at OMSI with my niece and nephew - but I thought, we won't be there too late, I can do jam once we get home.

You know what? The best laid plans often get thrown to the wind! LOL! BUT, after dinner Tuesday - with a team effort, we got it done!

Here my lovely assistant pours 4 cups of washed boysenberries into the pot.

She's got a gift that girl - give her a potato masher and a pot of berries and she can really get the show on the road!
"That's a lot of sugar, Aunt Dina!" Yep, sure is! 7 cups of sugar go in, and then we heat and stir.


Yep - that's two batches we got going there. It's amazing how many batches you can get done in one evening if you keep the batches going! I also learned years ago that if you throw a little butter into the heating berry/sugar mixture, that the foam will be greatly reduced after the boiling stage. Very effective.
This is just after it has reached the boiling point, we've added the pectin, and it's boiled for a minute and been removed from the heat.

Now the fun part - getting jam into jars!

Two important notes... I would never ladle jam into jars ever again without having a flexible plastic cutting board beneath the jars and between the stove and the counter. They're wonderful things, those little cutting boards! AND, I simply cannot believe I had never broken down and purchased a magnetic lid lifter prior to this. All of those years burning my poor little fingers - I love the lid lifter!
And here you are - completed boysenberry jam. Yay! 34 pints and 1 half-pint from 18 pounds of boysenberries that were picked on Saturday. I worried that the berries sitting around for those couple of days might diminish the quality of the jam. Quite to the contrary - we tested the finished product and it was fabulous.

I can't recommend the Tri County Farm website enough. If you're in the Portland area and looking for a u-pick locale - this is the web site to check out! If you're in the Portland area and not doing some u-picking of some kind, then why the heck not?! Okay - I know, not everyone gets into it - but wow - we are so blessed with so many great resources here in the lovely Pacific Northwest. If you've hesitated because you didn't know where to find a place - here's your chance!