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Hi Everyone,
There is no doubt that it is April—with all this rain I cannot wait to see the May flowers. The rain has definitely made the vegetable seeds to creep out of the dirt and reach for the sky—how I wish that I had all the vegetables planted. Today I took my camera to the garden and strolled around taking pictures. The first round through the garden the sun was hidden behind the clouds, then the sun came out and I retook all the pictures wondering if the garden takes better pictures on a cloudy or a sunny day. When I came inside and loaded them on the computer I could readily tell that the “cloudy” pictures were far superior to the “sunny” pictures. How I wish that I could take you for a walk with me through the garden, and how I wish that when the stroll was over we could sit down and have a good chat—while we pulled weeds. While the showers are making the garden grow, they are also making the weeds grow—which I think grow faster than vegetables and flowers. Our worker Steve says that weeds are his job security.
Sunday’s are definitely different around here—very relaxing, but it always seems like the day disappears before you know it. The one difference we have is that we have to cook a Sunday dinner—we usually eat lunch at church, and then snack when we get home. If you read my recipe blog An Easter Menu topped with Carrot Cake from last week, you would know that last Sunday’s dinner turned out to be a superb success. Well, I cannot say the same for this week’s Sunday dinner. We had some leftover chicken from a lemon barbequed broiled chicken I cooked Saturday night, and we had fresh asparagus from the garden. I really wanted to cook the asparagus and mix it with the chicken and serve it on top of noodles topped with hollandaise sauce. I had one problem—since Mom cannot eat grain, I could not cook noodles. So we decided to try making homemade noodles using Cassava flour. While Mom made the noodles I cooked the asparagus and chicken, and made the hollandaise sauce. When all was said and done, the noodles looked a little heavy, and the hollandaise sauce looked like melted butter and raw egg mixed together. We knew for sure that the asparagus and chicken would taste good, and the fried pears would taste good too—but we were not sure about the rest of the meal. I found out that I didn’t heat the butter hot enough to make the eggs to emulsify when I added the butter to them. So I thought that I would just heat my flop up, and try to blend it some more. I probably heated it too much for the egg truly cooked, but when blended it was at least a pasty consistency—it was no longer runny, but neither was it creamy. Mom and I had a good case of giggles, and when Papa came to the kitchen we had even more laughs. He asked if the noodles were boiled pie dough, and if the hollandaise was scrambled eggs. I can at least say that it all tasted good. Papa said that it was okay. Usually if it is nasty he will not tell you, but will say, “I wouldn’t order it at a restaurant.” I could honestly say that if he ordered this meal at a restaurant, it would taste better. The best part was that when the meal was over—we were full.
Last week we had no problem getting our eggs packaged—it rained so much that we only made it to the garden once. On Monday while Mom and Steve packaged eggs, I made kombucha and worked on the orders—it is a job trying to sort through all the meat orders. After lunch Papa headed to the butcher to pick up our meat, and returned with empty boxes. Due to complications, the butcher was not able to get our meat cut up the week before. So, since the rain had stopped for a little while, Steve, Mom and I headed to the garden to pull some weeds. It rained again on Tuesday, and while Steve and Mom packaged eggs I made lip balm and elderberry syrup—and worked on the orders. After lunch the eggs were all done, and it was still raining—so Steve went home. Mom and I headed to the green house where we potted up some paprika, cayenne peppers, flowers, and basil plants. They all should have been potted up about 6 weeks ago—but alas life doesn’t always come out perfectly.
Wednesday morning I was up at the crack of dawn to get a shower. When I can I like to brush my wet hair outside—so I do not have to clean up the floor of the strands of hair that like to exit my head when a brush arrives. After being awoken all night by severe thunderstorms, that morning I found the front porch to be a very peaceful place. The birds were singing—all kinds of birds, so all kinds of songs. The crickets were chirping, and in the midst of all the singing the next door donkey decided to bray—hee-haw, hee-haw at the top of his lungs. You just had to laugh.
Thursday was full to the brim! We got the milking done first thing, and then Mom had to head to town to pick up the newest shipment of 50 broiler chicks. I was glad that they had arrived on time, for I have heard that many chicks are dying in route due to slower delivery times—less air travel. Steve cleaned out the brooder from the last batch of chicks and got it all prepped and fresh for the new batch. The Crane Contracting Crew was here working on our plumbing, and in the afternoon our new four compartment sink for the poultry kitchen arrived and they worked at getting it installed. Mom made a shelf to go above the sink so that the sprayers would have something sturdy to be attached to. I worked on writing my latest recipe blog. After lunch Papa headed back to the butchers to pick up our meat—and came home with 6 full boxes. Steve, Mom and I then worked at getting the meat organized in the freezer, and packing the orders that we already had.
As the orders poured in for meat throughout the week, I began to get a little heavy hearted. So many people want chicken, and I knew that the batch of birds we would be processing had lost a bunch during the first two weeks. I was hoping that we would have over 35 chickens left, but when Papa counted them Friday morning, there were only 30—and they were all sold! The good news was that we made our best processing time. We actually got all 30 birds butchered in one hour. The Cranes got the sink finished that morning, and we were able to use it to package and cut up chickens that afternoon.
Saturday we were able to sleep in until 7:00. We started the day off with some buttermilk pancakes—well, that is what the recipe calls them, but I use kefir in place of buttermilk. For the flour we use Cassava flour—therefore they are totally gluten and grain free. With our tummies full, it was now time to milk the cows. Once the cows were milked Steve bottled the milk, I packed the milk order and then I headed to the garden to harvest the greens, and Mom packed the meat part of the order. When the orders were all packed and the receipts all printed, it was time for Papa to deliver it all to our faithful customers. Then Mom and I took some time to relax—although my relaxing only lasted a short time before I set up the ironing board. While I ironed we watch Cooking with Molly—Healing Soup. We had such good laughs as she and her son worked together to make a soup, and made plenty of little blunders. The best part was that she is no Rachael Ray or Paula Dean; she is just a typical housewife showing others how she makes a healing soup. We were almost done when a customer showed up to pick up an order. Dinner that night was scrumptious as I cooked a chicken under the broiler and topped it with a lemon barbeque sauce. Alongside it I served green peas and a salad. After we ate we did the dishes and locked up the chickens for the night—and then the day was over.
It looks like more rain is in the forecast for the week—but it also looks like there will be some sunshine too. I am glad for we just have to get the garden beds finished so that we can start planting the rest of the spring garden on Friday.
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare