The Harvest Basket

I remember exactly the day this basket came into my life.

I was at a farm auction with my first husband. We'd been living in West Virginia about two years and had finally moved out to our land, and into the house we'd built that was nowhere near finished. Life was exciting, challenging, and most of the time I felt like I'd won the lottery even though we had no electricity, the running water was intermittent and the toilet was at the end of a path up the hill.

I'd been raised in town. When I was very young we lived in the pine woods of Centreville, Virginia, just a random assortment of owner-built small houses in a place where no one wanted to live because the soil didn't perc and there was no city water so everyone had outhouses. When I was five we moved to Manassas, to a large foursquare built around 1914 in a quiet neighborhood that became anything but after our family of six-and eventually 13--children moved in.

We had a vegetable garden and fruit trees, and Mom had her herbs and flowers and did a good bit of canning, but nothing really prepared me for life on this rugged land in West Virginia. Even my first home after I married, didn't do that. It was outside of Manassas on an acre of land and in the country where we could have chickens (I got my first flock when I was 19) and raise a garden didn't prepare me for the life I thought I wanted, a self-sufficient homestead far away from anywhere, and in the mountains.

It was a big learning curve when we moved in--a very big one. But we learned fast and it was all an adventure to me then. Being young makes a person feel they can do anything, doesn't it? Our first winter was a rough one for sure, one of the worst on record in this area, with temperatures down to -30F for weeks. We managed, and it was all pretty exciting, even if rough and tumble to make it through.

Spring came, and with it came the farm auctions. I remember this one in particular because I coveted almost every single thing they were selling--the fenceposts, the pile of oak boards, the wagons and trailers and plows and high-wheel cultivators and kitchenware and quilts and on and on. I knew that this was a sale of a bygone lifestyle, really, things necessary for the very life I wanted to live.

We still had some money from the sale of our house in Virginia at this point, and I bought a lot of stuff. My husband squirmed every time my hand went up in the air. We took home two truckloads plus one of the small trailers from the sale, also loaded full.

Today I still have several things from that sale. The apple butter kettle, the trailer, some old tools, a yellow Lipton's teapot. The fenceposts built our first goat fence and the lumber built the first chicken house and woodshed. I still have some of the crocks and probably a lot of the hundreds of canning jars too.

And I still have this old basket, worn and broken but still here because I refuse to part with it. I used it almost daily for a good while, repaired the rim with some oak splits I'd made myself in a basket-making class, and preserved its finish with orange shellack a time or two. I quit taking it to the garden when the bottom got weak and used to to store potatoes and onions in the kitchen, then later for magazines in the living room. Finally it became too fragile to use, and I hung it from the rafters in the kitchen, where it's been for at least the last 25 years.

Today I looked up and saw that the handle had pulled loose from the rim. It is too weak even to hang by its handle any more. So I took it down and carefully maneuvered the handle back into place.

I'll give it a good washing, and then it will go to rest on top of a cabinet where there is no strain on that handle hand-carved to fit beneath the rim so many years ago by some unknown hand at that farm on the top of Chestnut Ridge.

 Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

A Rough Night

There was hell-raising in the henhouse last night. The kind that brings us bolt upright in the bed and groping for flashlights, shoes and a gun.

It had been a strange night anyway. Clyde, our male cat, jumped up on the bed earlier and meowed continuously as he walked all over us. Clyde never does this; he's an outside boy and rarely comes in at night. And he despises being petted usually. Last night he wanted stroked, he wanted scratched, he wanted to curl up right against me. And because his behavior was so unusual I let him. I am not a pets-in-the-bed person; it disturbs my sleep and I wake up sore and cramped. But this was an unusual situation.

It was just a little while later that the ruckus in the coop began. Larry jumped up, grabbed a light and his shoes and headed down the hill to investigate. Nothing. There were two hens out in the chicken yard because he had not closed up the coop as he usually does. But other than that there was nothing out of the ordinary--except for two eyes up in a tree, watching him. The birds were highly disturbed, however, so something was going on. He put the two hens in the coop and closed it up tight.

An hour later, another racket arose. Hens sqawking, flapping, the rooster crowing repeatedly. If you have chickens you know the kind of noise I mean. Then there was one long, drawn-out wail from a hen, a sound I've come to recognize as "I'm being dragged over the hill, help! Help!" Once again Larry took off, this time taking the .22. And once again, nothing. All hens accounted for. But they were upset and chattering like crazy.

We tried to settle down to sleep again; it was 4:00am after all. Both cats jumped up on the bed. Both are supposed to be outside, you know, but Charlie in particular doesn't recognize my ruling in this matter. They curled up against me, leaving me no leg room and no possibility of changing positions. The rest of the night was not restful but at least the hens were quiet.

So what happened down there in the coop? I think it might have been a raccoon coming for a late night snack. We've had some hanging around because of the corn and perhaps they thought a side of chicken would be tasty. We may never know, but one thing is certain--the coop will be secured tonight.

And the cats will be outside and the doors closed. This old lady needs her sleep.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Fried Chicken, Quick Potatoes and Zucchini Chips

 When was the last time you made fried chicken? I know it's been years for me-probably at least thirty years to tell the truth. With the concern over fried foods I quit frying anything but eggs, and those in spray olive oil.

I got the cooking urge today. After so many days of eat-and-run I was in the mood a home-cooked dinner. We almost always eat breakfast here, but after that it depends on what the day brings, and dinner can be as simple as a salad or a fried egg sandwich! But today I wanted to cook and I had this big package of chicken drumsticks bought when we had company.We ended up going out to eat then, and the chicken has been taking up space in the freezer ever since.  I got to thinking about fried chicken and decided to give it a try. Surprisingly I remembered how to make it.

I mixed a cup of plain flour, a teaspoon of paprika, some salt and pepper (not a lot, just a few shakes of the shaker). I heated one cup of canola oil in my cast iron chicken fryer to medium hot. Then I dipped the chicken pieces in milk (I think my mother taught me that), rolled it in the flour mixture and put them into the pan. I cooked them for about 10 minutes on the first side, then turned them over and cooked for another 5-10 minutes. The drumsticks cook more quickly than bigger pieces like breast and thigh. Took them out, drained them on a paper bag, and I was done. I could have made gravy with the drippings and had smothered chicken, I suppose, but I think the fried chicken as enough sinnin' for one day!

While the chicken was cooking, I put the potatoes in the oven. I used my mother's method for fast baked potatoes. I cut the potatoes in half lengthwise, then scored the cut surface into roughly 1/2" squares. Then I sprayed a cookie sheet with olive oil and laid the potatoes cut side down on the sheet. I baked them at 375 for about 30 minutes. The result is a nicely gold-to-brown surface--and no butter needed on these bakers.

I also made something I saw on Facebook this morning. It's called Zucchini Parmesan Crisps. We are getting a lot of squash suddenly and I needed a fresh idea for it. Here's the recipe:

Zucchini Parmesan Crisps
(Source: Foodnetwork.com)
To Save, Click Share and Recipe will post to your timeline 


Ingredients
Cooking spray
2 medium zucchini (about 1 pound total)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan (3/4-ounce)
1/4 cup plain dry bread crumbs
1/8 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Coat a baking sheet with cooking spray.

Slice the zucchini into 1/4-inch thick rounds. In a medium bowl, toss the zucchini with the oil. In a small bowl, combine the Parmesan, bread crumbs, salt, and a few turns of pepper. Dip each round into the Parmesan mixture, coating it evenly on both sides, pressing the coating on to stick, and place in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet.

Bake the zucchini rounds until browned and crisp, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove with spatula. Serve immediately.

I didn't have fresh parmesan so I used the kind in the shaker, and it worked just fine. I thought the recommended temperature was pretty high so I baked them with the potatoes at the same temperature (375) and they were fine. They're delicious! Crispy, crunchy and yet the taste of the vegetable wasn't covered up the way so many recipes seem to do.

So that was our mid-day dinner today, along with some fresh broccoli from the garden. It was fairly quick and I used up some things that really needed to be cooked. 

Linking today to Try a New Recipe Tuesday.

Copyright 2012 Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

A Fruitful Year?

More pics from this year's garden. I think this might be a fine year for fruit, if the weather cooperates.

What's under here? Cherries! I am hoping to keep the birds out and the cherries on.

 So far, so good:

 Peach trees are all loaded with fruit:

and the little plum tree, in its third year, has a few plums on it:

The grapes are so prolific I can see we'll be selling or giving away quite a few, if they continue to thrive:

The apple trees are full of young fruit too:

Not a fruit, but I think this cardinal posed for me:

We've picked basket after basket of strawberries; now the raspberries are ripening and the volunteer elderberry in my flowerbed is in bloom. Last year the derecho storm stripped and broke the elderberry and left it looking so forlorn, but it has recovered and may have some berries this year:

There are still so many things that could go wrong: blight, bugs, mold, windstorms, drought...but maybe this will be the year that fills the cellar and freezer with fruit? I can dream, anyway.

Copyright 2012 Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

New Growth

The weather might still be wintry, but a few things are starting to grow. Most years, I already have potatoes, onions, peas, carrots, beets, spinach and all manner of other seeds in the ground, but this year my instincts have told me to hold off, and for once I listened.

It's the same every year. I chomp at the bit to get things planted because I can't wait for the first taste of lettuce, onions and other early crops. Most years it comes off well; we get super-early veggies and a jump on the season. A few years ago, I even planted green beans 6 weeks before the last frost date and the gamble paid off with beans ready by Father's Day, unheard of in our region.

But this year I've been content to wait. Maybe it's because I'm so busy with other projects but that seems unlikely since I'm always busy with projects, and this year is no busier than any other. I think it's just that inner gardener who is telling me it's not time yet. So the gardens remain muddy and unplowed, the seeds safe in their packets.

Except for a few. About 2 weeks ago I convinced Larry to get a lettuce bed ready, and we planted Black-Seeded Simpson lettuce and Cherry Belle radishes. The seeds are already up, protected by a wood and glass frame from the daily sprinkle of snow we seem to be getting this month.

It's heartening to see these wisps of green under the glass. It's enough to keep me content to continue waiting for the weather to settle and the ground to dry.

What else is growing? Those chicks! We have 21 of all different kinds and they are getting their feathers

and testing their flying abilities in their plywood home. And making a lot of dust too. I don't remember the other chicks we've raised being so dusty.

We'll have to just deal with it another two weeks to be sure they're mature enough to be put into a brooder out in the chicken house.  I am liking all the colors in this flock. I can't tell you exactly what kinds we have because unfortunately the feed store guys were unclear themselves. I do know we have some Americaunas, some White Stars, and some Partridge Rocks but other than that, I'm clueless. I was disappointed not to find any of the Silver Spangled or the Barred Rocks, but I think these will be fine.


The older chickens, sadly, will have to go. They've been laying just 2 eggs a day for the past 2 months. I'm patient with them during winter when their laying slacks off but now they should be pouring out eggs. So if they're reading this, they know they better get to work. But more likely is that we'll be giving them away in the next week or so and get the coop ready for this new flock. That means no fresh eggs for several months and that makes me unhappy--but not as unhappy as buying eggs AND laying mash does.

Those of you further south have probably already got your gardens in, and I'd say we're green with envy up here--but so far, we're really still kind of brown.

Copyright 2012 Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Creamy Broccoli-Cauliflower Cheese Soup with Other Veggies

I felt like cooking today. It's been snowing all day, cold and windy and although the snow hasn't accumulated it still feels like winter outside. The maple is trying to bud and the snow piling on it makes it look like cherry blossoms. So, to warm me up, I cooked.

First was vegetable-venison soup for the canner (recipe here). I like to keep this soup on hand for those days when there's no time to cook.

As I put the first pot of soup together, I realized that I needed touse up some things there were in the freezer compartment of my fridge: cranberries, broccoli and cauliflower. That meant more soup--and cranberry orange bread.  When the bread was in the oven, I got to work concocting a recipe to make some thick, chunky, satisfying soup on this snowy-thinks-it's-still-February day.

This makes a large batch so you'll have some left to freeze for later. (I know, I needed freezer space and now i'll be putting soup back in there! Oh well.)

Here's what you need:

1 head of cauliflower, or a bag of frozen cauliflower. (I used a quart bag I'd frozen last summer)

1 head of broccoli (or ditto on the frozen)

1-2 cups of grated cheese (cheddar is best, but I used cheddar and the rest of a bag of Mexican grated cheese)

 2 medium sized potatoes

 1/2 cup of celery, chopped (I used 2 TBSP dried celery leaves because I was out of celery)

 1 onion, chopped

 2 cups of sliced carrots

1-2 teaspoons Worchestershire sauce (I used 2)

1 teaspoon black pepper

Cook all of the vegetables until tender. I cooked the broccoli, cauliflower and onions together, the potatoes and carrots each in their own pans. I added the dried celery leaves later.

Puree cauliflower, broccoli, onions and celery. Mash the potatoes and carrots (I left them a little chunky to add texture to the soup). Mix all of the vegetables together. Add the Worchestershire sauce and the pepper. Set aside.

Next you need:

2 TBSP butter
2 TBSP cornstarch
3-4 cups chicken broth (1 1/2-2 cans)
1 to 2 teaspoons paprika

Melt the butter in a heavy, 2 quart saucepan. Add the cornstarch and stir with a whisk til smooth. Add the chicken broth slowly and continue to stir. Cook over high heat, stirring constantly, until it reaches a boil. Continue to boil for one minute, still stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add the paprika and the grated cheese. Stir until the cheese is melted and the paprika is well blended into the mixture. (Then taste--it's divine! A little salty at this stage, but that will change).

Add the chicken broth and cheese mixture to the vegetables. Stir well. You're done!

This makes between 3 quarts and a gallon of soup, so it's plenty for a large family, for company, or to store away the leftovers in the freezer for later.

Linking today to Try a New Recipe Tuesday. Need inspiration? This is the place to find it!

 Copyright 2012 Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

The Baby Chicks Are Here!

We picked up our baby chicks today. Some years I order them, but this year I decided to see what the feedstores might bring in, and also see if it's less expensive to buy them locally.

I was well pleased with the variety of chicks available today. White Rhode Islands, Buff Orpingtons, Americaunas (these lay the blue and green eggs), partridge rocks, and a few other kinds were available. I picked an assortment of kinds, 15 babies in all. They are a quiet lot, and seem to be happy in their new home.

Larry originally put a big heat lamp on them which is why the photos look red. I thought we were going to end up with chicken nuggets because it was just too hot, so changed it out for a 60-watt bulb and that seems to provide sufficient heat.

We learned a trick a few years ago: we make a box for them without a bottom, and put down a plastic dropcloth under the box. Then when their bedding needs to be changed, we just pick up the plastic and take it to the woods or the garden to dump. So much neater and easier than trying to clean the bottom of a box.

These little ones are supposedly all pullets. Our old girls will be given away when the young ones start to lay. I find it not at all worth the trouble to dress them out, and usually someone takes them and keeps them to lay for a few more years, which is fine by me. After five years, though, their production is really poor and it's not cost-effective to keep them in my book.

The cats are intensely interested, so we've got the babies under a good security system. The cats usually lose interest in a couple days, which is a relief. I, however, will probably spend a lot of time every day just watching the chicks peck around and sleep. There is something restful about it, and I can dream of them being big girls out in the coop and tending to the business of providing our breakfast.

Copyright 2012 Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Country Things: Winter To Do List

The weather turned cold last night

and colder air is coming

Check the light in the cellar

stock wood for the fireplace

put gas in the tractor and put on the blade

add bedding for the hens

bring the dogs in by the fire

let the cats curl on the couch

add extra quilts to the bed

turn the water on

just a trickle

fill a few jugs with standby water

fill the kerosene lamps

stack waiting books by the rocker

Settle in for winter

Photo from January 2010

Copyright 2012 Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

A Frugal Life and Toothpaste

I never really think about the fact that we live a frugal life. It has been a lifelong habit, looking for savings, comparing prices, buying at thrift stores and cooking from scratch. I suppose it's not surprising since I grew up in a large family where nothing was wasted because money was always tight. But for me, it's nor need necessarily that makes me look for bargains. It's the hunt, the score, and the satisfaction sometimes of putting something once useful back into service.

Which leads me to toothpaste. Not that I make my own; I don't. But I have found that toothpaste is one useful cleaning tool for things besides teeth. For example, you can use toothpaste to smooth out the scratches on a DVD or CD. Simply rub the toothpaste in small circles over the disc, rinse it clean, dry with a soft cotton rag (t-shirts or old hankies work great), and that's it. If you have a DVD that sticks (it happens a lot with movies we check out from the library) this may well cure the problem.

Toothpaste is also great for cleaning white leather tennis shoes. Scrub it in with a brush, rinse and dry. Then use whatever product you like to condition the leather again. It's awesome around the soles; I keep an old toothbrush to scrub the creases and seams.

I use toothpaste to remove stains on cloth too; it's my desperation measure and it sometimes works. I wet the item rub in the toothpaste and scrub gently. Then wash as normal. It also works on stains on glass and china items.

I bet there are uses for toothpaste that I have yet to discover. Do you know any?

Copyright 2012 Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Drudge Work and Gardens

Today was drudge work: cleaning out flower beds, weeding, cutting back, deadheading, etc. My hands are a total mess but the gardens are beginning to look better. Another day or two should finish the job.

The vegetable gardens, however, are at that worn out, beat down, and weeded up stage. Does your garden look like this? Kind of embarrassing to show it, but we don't want to till it under yet because we're still getting a lot of food from it: cucumbers, tomatoes, broccoli, corn, cabbage, beets and peppers.

 The little yellow pear tomatoes are volunteers and producing like crazy. 

The small, new upper garden has the late planting of squash, onions, green beans, radishes and lettuce. All are doing well but the lettuce. I think Larry must plant the seeds too deep because whenever he plants lettuce it seldom germinates properly. But everything else is thriving, and the broccoli planted this spring is still producing.

 The knockout roses continue to do just that--they've been stunning all summer, even with the heat and dry weather.

 The red grapes are almost ready. They seem to be more susceptible to black rot than the other  varieties we have. I can't remember what variety these were...I planted them over 30 years ago.

 I do remember that the white grapes were Niagaras. They do fairly well, especially if they are pruned. I will probably use these to make more juice, or perhaps some jelly--if I can find enough jars. I am almost completely out of canning jars. We made apple butter yesterday and I had to BUY jars. And I bought jars last year too. I think they dissolve in the dark in the cellar. Right now I have about a dozen empty pints and a bunch of half-gallon size left, and lots more canning still to do.

We harvested most of the Concords already--they're the ones we made into juice. There are still some on the vines below the deck, however. I grazed my way around the yard while I took these photos, eating tomatoes, broccoli and a few of each kind of grape :)

The yellow apple, a volunteer tree that is about 33 years old, is loaded once again this year. When we made the apple butter yesterday, we made too much sauce for the kettle to hold so I canned 14 quarts. (We make applesauce first, then put it into the copper kettle and boil it down. Takes less time and works just as well as cutting up apples and cooking them down.) I'm happy to have applesauce again as we did not get any apples last year on our trees.And the apple butter! My goodness, did it come out well. We got 34 quarts, which we split with our son Derek who always helps with this big project. We have tons of apples left, on this tree and two others. We'll make cider, more applesauce--and maybe I'll freeze some pie filling, if I have time.

The pear tree is full this year too. Last year we made pear cider because we had no apples and I love it. I want to make more of it, too, and I will can some pears and make spiced pears and maybe some pear conserve. Even with all of that, there will be pears--and apples that may go to waste because we just have more than we can use. Oh, to have had this bounty when my sons were young! Nothing would have gone to waste then.

In between garden work and this evening's ramble through the gardens, I caught up on mail and paperwork. My, what a pile! In summer I have a hard time keeping up with all of it, with my busy storytelling schedule and the gardens. Now the fall schedule is beginning to look pretty healthy so I need to take advantage of these few quiet weeks and get everything in as good an order as I can. 

What's going on in your gardens? I bet some of you have veggie gardens that still look beautiful!

Copyright 2012 Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Kitchen Stuff

A couple weeks back my kitchen faucet began to leak around the place where it swivels. Not a big deal, really, or so I thought. Just replace the washer, right? Only this was a washerless faucet. It looked like a new faucet was in the offing.


Then Larry remembered that when our oldest son remodeled his kitchen, he took out his white enamel sink and faucet to install the new one that would match all the brushed steel they were adding with new appliances. (You ought to see that kitchen--they had a designer to plan it. It's beautiful.) Where was that white sink? Why, up in our cellar top. As it has been for lo these past, ummm, 9 years? Hard to believe it's been that long! We brought it home with us because we figured we'd need a new sink sometime, and here was a perfectly good one...the junker's mind is a dangerous place.

So while I was away last week, Larry put in the new sink. Now we only needed a faucet, but he figured he might as well change the whole thing. The sink is pretty cool--it's VERY deep and wonder of wonders, the sprayer works! It doesn't take much to get me excited, does it? My sprayer has never worked since we put it in back in 1997. Or maybe it was further back than that. The memory gets hazy.

But guess what? The "new" faucet leaks in the same place! This one, however, has a washer so it should be an easy fix.

The other change is even smaller. You know I love my Tappan Deluxe stove, the one that's as old as I am. One of the things I love is the lights on the back. They make such a pretty glow in the kitchen. One burned out a while ago so I found a replacement and after much finagling in a very tight spot, I got it in. But it didn't work. Disappointment ensued. I figured we needed to have a look at the wiring or maybe replace the light socket. But then I turned on the oven, et voila! A new light, one I didn't know was there, came on!

What I had done was replace a different burned out bulb. Now the other two lights are both out, but I've got this cool OVEN ON light. As soon as I can remember them when I'm in town I'll buy more replacement bulbs and do some more finagling to see if I can replace them. This time, though, I'll unplug the stove because last time I stuck my finger in some place I apparently should not have and got a little tingle. Larry thought it was right funny. I did not.

Speaking of my stove, this is how a 25-pound turkey fits in the oven:

It's a close fit, but the turkey cooked beautifully. That's the one I canned today. Did you know a 25-pound bird will fit into 6 quart jars? When all the bones and skin and etc are gone, the meat can be packed into a pretty small amount of space. I like having canned meat in the cellar for fast meals or unexpected company. I'm canning venison this evening.

Enough rambling for this evening!

Corny Cornbread

Larry has picked most of the Bloody Butcher corn and I have been drying it by spreading it out on a table in the sun. What is Bloody Butcher corn? It is an old-time variety grown especially for making cornmeal and cornbread. The kernel are dark red, but when ground the meal is whitish, with red flecks. It makes lovely cornbread.

My corn wasn't really quite dry yet, but granddaughter Grace was visiting and she was so curious about the corn that I decided to try it out. I was curious myself--could I grind corn meal in my blender? I have a Corona Mill, bought in the 1970's when I last grew Bloody Butcher. It has been packed away in the outbuilding ever since, because I knew I would one day want to grow my own corn for meal again.


Grace and I picked a likely looking ear and shelled off about half of the kernels. I do this by rubbing the kernels hard until they work loose. It wasn't as easy as usual because the corn wasn't completely dry and the kernels held to the cob pretty tightly. But in about 3 or 4 minutes we had enough corn to grind. I dumped it into my blender, Grave pushed "puree" and we watched the corn bounce around. This wasn't going to work...or was it? We saw loose powdery stuff begin to fly around in the blender too. I stopped it and shook the blender jar a few times, and after 5 minutes we had corn meal.

This wasn't perfect meal, however--it was more gritty than what you might buy in the store. We forged ahead anyway. I turned the oven on to 400 degrees to preheat.

I tried to sift it but the meal was damp and that didn't work well so we just dumped all of the meal (about one cup) into a bowl, added a cup of self-rising flour and a tablespoon of baking powder, 2 tablespoons of sugar, 2 eggs, and a cup of milk. I heated 2 tablespoons of cooking oil in a cast iron skillet while Grace beat the batter lightly with a fork, just until all the ingredients were moistened and mixed in (about 50 strokes usually). Then we poured the batter into the hot skillet and put the skillet into the oven.

In about 15 minutes we had a nice, browned pan of cornbread. It looked a little different when we cut it though. Uh-oh. Was this going to be edible? And no, it wasn't THAT purple on the left side--the photo came out very oddly, didn't it?

No photo will upload to show the happy faces eating the cornbread (thanks, Blogger!) but it was gone in less time than it took me to write this post. Tasty, with just a few bigger than expected bits, and an interesting color--it really looked like I'd added blueberries to the mix! The guys topped their pieces with butter and honey. I just added butter to my slice--it was delicious.

When the corn is dry I'll be making more, and we'll see how that turns out. As for the blender? I'm not convinced it's any easier than the grinder and I think the blender would wear out a lot sooner from grinding such hard kernels.

Making Bouquet Garni

It's herb harvesting time, and the dry weather we're having is a good time to cut them. I like to cut my herbs in the early morning before the heat of the day so that I get the best of their essential oils and fragrance before the sun takes it out of them.

Yesterday I harvested basil and have it hung to dry. An airy place out of direct sunlight is best for drying herbs. I have an old oak wall rack that was designed as a towel rack that works perfectly. It folds away when not in use. My rack hangs over a shaded window, and since my ceilings are fairly high there is plenty of air circulation to dry the herbs quickly. I've been using this rack for over 30 years; surprising to realize that so much time has passed since we rescued it from the scrap pile at the site of an old house being torn down.

I also harvested the curly parsley yesterday; I put it on a cookie sheet in the oven (with only the pilot light on) to dry. Twenty-four hours later, it is dry and ready to be stored away.

Today I cut thyme, flat parsley, winter savory, chives, marjoram and celery leaves. I am making bouquet garni to store away for winter use. Bouquet garni is a bundle of herbs used to flavor cooking. The combination considered "classic" is thyme, bay leaf and parsley, but you can create any combination you like. I've made several different ones this morning, the classic along with combinations of the other herbs I harvested.

It is simple to make a bouquet garni. Pick fresh herbs, wash and pat them dry with a clean towel, then pick and choose a combination to suit your taste. I like winter savory, celery, thyme, parsley, and bay leaf for stews and beef or venison, and celery, thyme, parsley, bay and marjarom for poultry dishes. I will make some with rosemary too, for beef and venison--that combination will be rosemary, parsley and bay. Today I am cooking rice with bay, winter savory and parsley to serve with chicken for tonight's dinner.

It takes just a sprig of each herb, and a leaf of bay, for each bouquet. You can put the herbs into cheesecloth and tie with string, or just tie the bundles together. To differentiate between the kinds you have created, you can tie them with different colored strings or ribbons--red for bundles best suited for beef, for example, pink for chicken, etc. Once your bouquets are made, hang them to dry as above, then store in a dark, dry place until needed. They do look pretty hanging in the kitchen, though! Just be aware that they will lose color and potency if exposed to light for any length of time. I have seen wreaths made of bundles of bouquets, and these are very pretty--again, they will lose some flavor and color, but if you're not worried about that, a wreath is a fragrant addition to the kitchen.


To dry multiple bundles, suspend them from a ribbon or piece of string or rope in a dry, airy place that is out of direct sunlight, as I described above. You can also put the bouquets in paper bags, 2 or 3 to a bag, and hang them like that to preserve even more color.

A simple way to dry multiple bouquets is to suspend them from a coathanger--I used a metal hanger and safety pins to hang the bundles; it's a little tricky to keep them in place! It might be easier to secure each bundle to the coathanger with a little piece of tape.

To use, suspend the bundle into the cooking pot or just drop it into the pot; remove it when the recipe you are making is done. Some people like to tie their bundles into cheescloth to assure no pieces of herbs get into the food being cooked. I just drop mine into the pot and fish it out when it's time. You could also make a hanger from a paper clip and use that to suspend your bouquet into the cooking pot. Whatever method you sue, be sure to remove the bouquet when you're finished cooking so that no one gets a surprise on their plate.

Back to the kitchen. There is still a pile of herbs waiting for me.