Fruitcake is in the Oven!

After a month of candying pineapple, cherries, lemon peel and orange peel, the Christmas fruitcake is finally in the oven. It's only two weeks late!  I can't wait to try it!  This year I candied everything but the citron - that came from the Kroger.

It takes the big bread bowl in the foreground to mix the batter into all the fruit and nuts!

This year's cake will have an extra hint of orange.  When  candying the orange peel you toss it in sugar as it comes out of the hot syrup.  The sugar gets a lowly orange flavor, so I saved it to use in the cake batter.  I tasted some batter and its was nicely flavored with a little extra orange.  I think it will be wonderful!  Orange is a nice complement to the Sherry in the cake - and the Sherry I will doused the cake with when its out of the oven and cool.  

In the baking oven with the heat shield at the top to keep the temperature about 275 degrees. The cake will bake for close to four hours. 

Poinsettia Update

Remember those poinsettias I saved from last Christmas?  Here's a couple of pictures of them today. The biggest  is the one that didn't loose its leaves in the spring. It has longer branches.

The poinsettia that didn't loose it leaves in the spring. Its leaves are smaller than those of the other plant.

The smaller plant started loosing its leaves in April so I cut it back as my gardening books advised.  Then I set both of them outside in their original pots. I sunk the pots about halfway into the ground and watered them good.  They were placed in a flower bed on the east side of the house and received good morning sun and light shade in the afternoon. They did very well and were healthy beautiful green plants all summer

The plant that lost its leaves in the spring. It now has larger leaves but is a smaller plant,.

I brought both of the plants indoors in late October when we started getting heavy frosts.  I realize now I should have re-potted both of the plants before I put them out for the summer as each had roots that had grown out of the pots and four or five inches into the soil. Tearing them out of the soil was very stressful for them.  They are also both really too big for the little pots.  Another mistake was not feeding them more. 

I brought the plants inside and placed them in south facing windows with sheer curtains filtering the  light. Immediately their leaves started drying up and dropping off the plants. Still, they continued to have healthy green leaves so I just kept them watered.

One of my garden club friends told me not to worry about making sure they had twelve hours of light each day. She said they would turn red regardless, and I guess she was right. Granted these still have mostly green leaves, but I don't mind the red and green theme. After all, those are traditional Christmas colors. 

Making Candied Fruit for Fruitcake

Fruitcake seems to be one of those sweets that most folks just tolerate for the holidays.  I've tasted those red and green cherry studded loaves and they really don't taste like much of anything but corn syrup with an overlay of something that just isn't quite right.

Pineapple chucks drying after candying process.

Years ago, my mother and sister and I began making fruitcake from a Ladies Home Journal recipe. It's a white fruit cake and is full of store bought candied fruit. We love it. We baked the weekend after Thanksgiving and made several cakes baked in angel food cake pans. That's a big cake but we had a bigger family then and all the old folks loved the fruitcake.

 When they were cool we wrapped them in a piece of old sheet and stored them in a round tin, dousing them a couple of times a week with Sherry until Christmas.

When I grew up and moved away from home I missed the fruit cake baking and decided to bake my own.  I was horrified to see how much candied fruit cost, particularly the pineapple. That lead me to try candying my own pineapple.  It was such a success that I've made homemade candied fruit a part of my November ever since.

Candied pineapple just off the stove

I get my recipes for the candied fruit  from a favorite cookbook of mine called Better Than Store-Bought by Helen Witty and Elizabeth Schneider Colchie.

It's an easy recipe of sugar and corn syrup and canned pineapple chunks.  I have a large shallow pan that fits perfectly on my Aga's boiling pad and it works great for two 20 oz cans of good quality pineapple.  I usually get Dole pineapple.

This year for the first time I'll be able to candy cherries from our own trees. There are no green cherries in my fruit cake just red tart ones that are used for pies.  I tried candying sweet cherries one year but they were too sweet.

Last year I started candying lemon and orange peel. They both make a delicious sugar plum like candy treat. I make extra for that purpose.

That leaves only Citron to purchase along with golden raisins, currents and slivered almonds. It's a little time consuming to make the pineapple, cherries, lemon and orange peel but it is so worth it.  The flavor is wonderful. You taste the good white cake and each of the fruit's flavor as well.  Maybe next year I'll grow Citron melons and candy them. Currents, golden raisins, why not. Too bad we can't grow almonds around here!


Transferring candied pineapple chunks to drying rack

First Seed Catalog Arrives With Many Wonderful Seeds for Sale

Usually by the end of December the seed catalogs begin to arrive.  Since I purchased from a couple of them last year, I expect to receive lots of catalogues this winter.  I'm pretty sure they all share their mailing lists, which is fine with me.

Flower seeds from Pinetree

Much to my surprise though, I received a Pinetree Garden Seeds & Accessories catalogue last week! That's the earliest ever.

I've heard about Pinetree for years.  It's a well respected family owned business in Maine, begun about 30 years ago.  Their focus is the home gardener and their seeds are very reasonably priced. 

I was taken with the variety of flower seeds, especially perennial seeds. For example,  I've never seen Edelweiss seeds for sale before.  Edelweiss is the national flower of Austria. You might remember it from the song Herr Von Trapp sings at the music festival in The Sound of Music movie.

Marshmallow

I'm also taken with their herb selection and how they group them together by their purpose.  There is a great selection of medicinal herbs.  Here at last is Marshmallow seeds and Elecampane, two of the plants I've been trying to find for Glendower's medicinal herb garden.

Marshmallow is used for stomach and urinary tract problems.  It also soothes skin aliments.

Elecampane's roots are used as an expectorant and it also has antibacterial and anti fungal properties. It grows to be eight feet tall.

Woad

 Pine tree also has a section of herbs for dyeing.  I've always wanted to grow Woad for the color blue.  Remember in Braveheart the Scots painted their faces in blue to intimidate the enemy. That blue paint was made from Woad.

I can find plenty of dye plants producing yellows, greens and browns growing wild on the farm, but blue, red and lavender are pretty much impossible.  Woad has long been a staple for blue. Pinetree offers Black Hollyhock for lavender and mauve and Bulls Blood Beet for red.  I've not seen either the Hollyhock or the beet discussed in my dye books, so I'll be anxious to try these two plants and see if they work with just an alum mordant.

Round Bales Arrive for the Winter

The first 18 round bales arrived yesterday afternoon, just in time for the first snow of the winter.  The cows were happy to see them and are munching on a couple this morning.  These bales weigh  somewhere in the 700 pound range.  I have a big spear attached to my tractor's front end loader that I use to spear the bales and move them around. 

I cleaned up the garden yesterday. I still have a little mulching to do and a lot of herbicide to spray on honeysuckle bushes but basically it is time to start a my winter exercise program. From here on out most of my winter activity will be sitting on the tractor moving round bales into round bale feeders. I miss my garden!

Fluffy Cows

Spring calves in their early winter coats



After the killing frost Thursday night I was up early trying to take some video of BTAP ZZ Tom. Tom is for sale and I wanted to try to show some video of him walking on You Tube so prospective buyers could get a look at him without traveling to the farm.  It was just at sunrise and Tom was a bit sluggish so the video didn't work out, but I snapped some pictures of the spring calves in their early winter coats. they look so soft and fluffy, you just want to cuddle them. As you can see from their attitude they are not in to cuddling - all but BTAP Samantha that is.

BTAP Samantha

Sammy, as I like to call her, is a daughter of BTAP Blackberry Bramble and granddaughter of Buttercup. All of this cow family is very gentle and naturally comes to me to be petted. I was trying to get Tom to pay attention and Sammy wanted me to pet her. You can see how annoyed she is that I wasn't paying attention to her in this photo. Sammy is BTAP Thor's daughter and will be a beautiful cow next year. She was the first calf born this year. If you go to www.YouTube.com/vtappy1 you can see video of Sammy, Frosty and Lady's Man last April having a race.

BTAP Zooey at the salt feeder. The mud begins!



Wrought Iron Trivets

My AGA Cooker making breakfast. Sausage in the oven.

Distelfink

I've been cleaning out the basement and came across a box of wrought iron trivets my mother gave me when she and my Dad moved out of their old farm house 20 years ago.  I kept them on the kitchen counter for a few days trying to decide what to do with them. My counter tops are granite so iron trivets aren't necessary there.  I could use them on the kitchen table. Then it hit me, they would look pretty good on the wall behind the AGA - that major blank space that was supposed to be tiled and enhanced with a decorative hood - but never was.

I picked up the heart shaped one from Helen English at the Old Post Office Flea Market. It is stamped on the back "Distelfink T-47. It's very Pennsylvania German looking and the  Distelfink is a Pennsylvania German graphic.

 The other three my parents and grandparents had purchased on the travels in the 1950's and 1960's. 

The round one has a picture of Robert E. Lee on horseback embossed into it. It says" 10-18 Confederate States of America, "Deo Vindice".  The back says CSA Trivet,  Copyright 1962, VA Metalcrafters". There are some makers marks as well.

The one at the top is the heaviest and my favorite but it has no marks.

The one at the bottom has a broken curlicue and is signed on the back "JZH 1952".  There is also a number 17 and a number 23.  All of the information is stamped into each piece.

The Distelfink is the most useful because it is the largest.  They are all reproductions of trivets from the 18th and 19th century.

 

Pecan Pie

  I hadn't had homemade pecan pie in years and decided to bake a couple for the family dessert night. The Save-a-lot grocery in town had a 6 oz bag of pecans halves for $2.99.  I bought two bags, because its always good to have pecans in the freezer this time of year and that was a good price.

  Then I dug out my old recipe and saw that it called for only 2 oz of chopped pecans.  That just didn't seem right, so I put 4 oz of halves in the pie shell. That still didn't look right, so I tossed in the whole bag.  The result was a pie that tasted like pecans wrapped in a sweet custardy sauce, not a lot of custard with a few pecans.  It was great and every body loved it.  Here's the recipe:

Helen Hill's Pecan Pie with Extra Pecans

 

 

Line a 9 inch pie plate with either homemade or store bought pastry. Blind bake for at least 8 minutes at 350 degrees. I put a round of either waxed or parchment paper on top of the pastry in the pan and add some dried bean. That holds the pastry flat while it bakes.

 

1 cup Light Karo syrup

1 tablespoon butter

3 eggs

1/2 cup white sugar

6 oz pecan halves

 

Mix together the Karo, butter, eggs and sugar either with an electric mixer our a wire whisk and lots of elbow grease until the ingredients are thoroughly mixed - a couple of minutes with the electric mixer.  Meanwhile line the blind baked pie shell with the pecans. Pour the sugar and egg mixture over the pecans and bake in a 300 degree oven until set.  Serve with sweetened whipped cream flavored with a 1/2 teaspoon vanilla is you like.

 

 



Zinnias, My New Favorite Flowers

For years I'd picked up packets of zinnia and marigold seeds at the end of the season when they'd go on sale for half price or more and I had quite a collection in my seed tin. I never seemed to get them planted, probably because my flower beds are all in shade.

This year, with the addition of bees to my property I decided to add flowers to the vegetable garden area where there is a lot of sun.  I added a couple of perennials to a round bed where my kitty Nico is buried - plants that are attractive to bees.  By July 1 I thought the bed looked OK, but there were little patches of open spaces so I decided to plant those old packets of zinnia and marigold seeds.  The ground was well prepared from the perennial bed so I just sprinkled the seeds on the top of the ground and covered them with some soiless mix heavy in peat moss.  Within a week lots of little sprouts appeared.  I didn't pay much attention to them for a while and then all of a sudden I had masses of three foot high flowers!

I had expected flowers about 12 to 18 inches tall.  I guess generous amendments of well rotted cow manure was a good thing.  The zinnia took over! They are wonderful cut flowers, lasting over a week. I've been cutting them and giving away bouquets. I'll not forget these wonderful old flowers next year!

The power of well rotted cow manure.

Cherry Tomatoes and Chicken Recipe

I hate to say it but by this time of year I'm a little over the fresh tomatoes from the garden. In another week or so it will frost and I'll try to hold on to the plants a little longer, but my craze to eat fresh from the garden tomatoes every day has passed.

One of the volunteers at the museum brought in bags of cherry tomatoes yesterday, hoping to give them away to the staff and his fellow volunteers.  Any one who grows cherry tomatoes knows that they can become overwhelming this time of year.  They aren't really something you freeze or can. But here's a tasty recipe from  my sister-in-law, Debbie.  It's very good and it uses cherry tomatoes!

Chicken Breast with Tomato Basil Sauce

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast seasoned with salt and paper. 
1/4 cup flour
4 tablespoon butter, divided
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 shallot, chopped
2 cloves of garlic smashed
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
3/4 cup chicken broth
18 halved grape tomatoes
1/4 cup fresh chopped basil.

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Wash the chicken under cold water and pat it dry. Dredge in flour. In a large heavy skillet melt one tablespoon butter in the olive oil. Brown the chicken in the butter and olive oil on all sides, about 3  or 4 minutes per side over medium heat. Place the chicken in an oven proof dish in the oven.

Meanwhile saute the garlic and shallot in the skillet you just used to brown the chicken, scraping up any brown bits as you go for a minute or two to soften the shallots and garlic. Add the balsamic vinegar and the chicken broth  and the tomato halves.  Saute for a few minutes over medium heat until reduced by half. Add 3 tablespoons of butter and the fresh basil leaves. Return the chicken to the pan and simmer a few minutes longer to combine the flavors.

In Praise of Old Favorites

I have a small round perennial bed at the edge of my vegetable garden dedicated to bee and butterfly plants. It surrounds the grave of my sweet little kitty, Nico who was killed by coyotes two years ago.

By July 1 I had planted a new butterfly bush to replace the one I killed with too much pruning last winter, three blue salvias, a beard's tongue and an anise hyssop all to attract bees and butterflies.
These joined the Stella Dora lilies I'd planted two years ago.

There was little bits of open space so I dug out all my out-of-date marigold and zinnia seeds and sprinkled them around. Every year at the end of the season I buy marigold and zinnia seeds thinking I'll plant them and never do. The seeds were old so I didn't expect much but I thought I might get a few flowers.

In the picture below you can see a little bit of the lilies in the front and the butterfly bush on the right but everything else has been covered by tall zinnias.

Such a pretty display all summer and now holding their own as well in the fall.

When I planted the zinnias I had no idea they would grow that tall.  I think the packages said 12 to 18 inches.  I amended the soil with well rotted cow manure and covered the seeds with potting soil to help them sprout easily, but otherwise nothing special.  This is also a well drained area, so they got plenty of moisture but were not soggy. I've been so pleased with the display and they have been great for cut flower arrangements. I won't forget to plant these old favorites again next year.

At the same time I had a nine pack of little marigolds. I planted them at the end of this bed of mint and other herbs. Most of the time the mint takes over, but these little guys held them back. .

Golden Days

Angus Bull in early evening

It is that golden time of year. That one or two weeks in late September and early October when the corn and bean fields turn golden on their way to turn brown and ready for harvest, and the trees begin to change color.  The angle of the sun is a little different and mornings and evenings become golden glowing times.

 

Soy Bean Field in mid afternoon.
 

The sassafras and sweet gum trees are starting to change color. I think its going to be a good year for strong reds and oranges in the leaves. I'm looking forward to collecting leaves and preserving them with glycerin for Thanksgiving decorations.  The October 2013 issue of Martha Stewart Living magazine has direction on page 167.  The Halloween decorations from tattoos are wonderful as well. Check it out. Can't wait to try them.

Volunteering at my Garden Club

I belong to several non-profit social clubs that do good things for the community.  I get a lot of personal satisfaction from belonging to these organizations and although my museum work keeps me busy a lot of weekends (as well as my farm work)  I try to be a good member and volunteer when I can.

Connie Tunnison and Chris Earnhart  of Town & Country Garden Club serve guests..

Recently I volunteered for my garden club, selling drinks and snacks to visitors to Thomas the Tank Engine.

The Lebanon Council of Garden Clubs owns and operates the Lebanon Station at the corner of Broadway and South Streets. The city of Lebanon owns the tracks and leases the tracks to the LM&M Railroad to operate excursion trains between Lebanon and Mason.

Years ago that corner of Broadway and South Streets was an eyesore with a rotting old abandoned train station greeting folks as they came into town from the south.  Doris Corson and a lot of other garden club members worked tirelessly to raise the money to replace the rotten building with a new attractive train station styled building in keeping with the historic look of downtown. Long time Lebanon Garden Club member Lynn Ankerstar told me that Doris and the others wanted a pretty building surrounded by a garden  that would grace the south entrance of Lebanon while providing meeting space for the garden club members. Most people would agree the garden club's Lebanon Station is a major asset to down town Lebanon.

Who wouldn't want their kids pictures here?

Our garden club members work throughout the year to raise funds to maintain the station building and its lovely garden.  One of our best fund raisers is selling drinks and snacks to Thomas the Tank Engine visitors.  Thomas the Tank Engine comes to town each year for two weekends in September.  Hundreds of families come to ride the excursion train and have "A day out with Thomas". 

The Garden Clubs are responsible for many of the public gardens around town, but the garden around the station is our pride and joy.

There are three garden clubs that make up the Lebanon Council of Garden Clubs.  I belong to Town & Country and we are always looking for new members.  Cedar City Garden Club and Lebanon Garden Club also welcome new members. We provide many services to the community including scholarships to horticulture students and we support several national service projects. We meet in the evenings for a short program on garden topics, coffee and dessert.  Anyone interested in joining us can contact me at the museum at 513-932-1817.

Tinkerbells and Copter Ghosts

Ragweed, ironweed and wild white aster had taken over my pastures, so for the last month I have been slowly and carefully driving my tractor and "bushhog" mower in ever decreasing circles around and around 40 acres of open fields.  My constant companions have been insects and barn swallows; the insects because the tractor disturbed them and the barn swallows to feast on the insects.

Praying Mantis from National Geographic site

By far the most prevalent insects have been grasshoppers, many kinds of grasshoppers. They seemed to like the ragweed best. I spotted a few butterflies, mostly the little yellow or white ones, sometimes a swallow tail or monarch. Butterflies were mostly on the red clover. There were also lots of very big bumblebees. Bumblebees preferred the purple flowers of the ironweed.

Every now and then I'd see what looked like golden brown fairies flying out of the grass and into the trees on the pasture's edges. I didn't have a clue what they were so I named them tinkerbells.  They were anywhere from 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 inches tall and had golden green and brown fluttery wings.

As the unmowed area of the field became smaller and smaller the insects became more concentrated. I was able to see one of the tinkerbells land in the grass and to my surprise it turned out to be a praying mantis.  I had always thought of praying mantis as those green "walking stick" creatures you would occasionally see, if you looked carefully, on a plant in your flower beds. I had no idea they could fly or that I would see hundreds of them flying around a cow pasture. I Googled praying mantis and found out they are voracious killers of grasshopper and other insects. Nationally geographic had a nice article about them and I copied one of their pictures here. The article emphasized what terrible killers they are with amazingly strong front pincher like legs with barbs on their legs for holding prey which they eat alive. Nationally Geographic was glad they are just a small insect and not as large as a cat.

I snapped this picture of a copter ghost on my back porch.

The other insect that intrigued me was one I named copter ghost.  When it flew up out of the grass this bug looked like a fluttery little white helicopter. They were too big for the barn swallows to eat on the wing so they flew around and around the pasture before landing re-landing in the grass and weeds.  Again, as their unmowed territory decreased, I was able to spot a copter ghost in the grass.  It looked like the picture of an insect I had found on one of my back porch posts. I believe it is a katydid.


Poinsettia Update

The two poinsettias I kept from last Christmas spent the summer in a well protected, shady flower bed with an east exposure.  They lived happily among hostas, astilbe, violets, Jacob's ladder and other part sun, part shade plants.


Here's Zeke checking out a hosta with the two poinsettias in the background.

One of the poinsettias lost its leaves in April, I think because it didn't get watered on time. I trimmed it back to about six inches of stems, kept watering it and waited. By May it was sprouting new leaves.

The other plant kept its red leaves until I put both plants outside in June. Over the course of a month its shed its red leaves and put on new green leaves.

The plant that shed its leaves in April is now the smallest of the two but its new leaves seem bigger.

This is the largest plant, it kept its red leaves until the end of June.

I left the plants in their plastic pots and fed them some time release all purpose house plant fertilizer. That seemed to make them happy.

To keep the pots from falling over, I sunk them halfway in the garden soil and kept an kept watch on their water needs. When it wasn't raining every other day like it seemed to all summer, they needed watering a couple times a week but otherwise were easy care.  Neither showed any signs of disease or insect damage and they look nice in the garden.

Now its time to begin their light and dark treatment to attempt to get them to "bloom" for Christmas.
Beginning the first of September (and I've missed it by two weeks, but we go on anyway), they need twelve hours of dark and twelve hours of light each day.   As long as the weather holds I plan to cover them with black plastic garbage bags. From 7:00 pm until 7:00 am when I do my morning farm chores. There is no guarantee that I'll have red poinsettias at Christmas, but I think even if they remain green I will enjoy them as house plants this winter.

Bulls, bulls, bulls and a couple of heifers

The 2013 calving season has finally ended!  The last calf was born July 27, a bull, and is doing very well. We started calving March 10 when my little crossbred cow Blackberry Bramble calved a black heifer by the Angus bull I call Bobby.  Half a dozen or more calves were born in March including a set of twin heifers.

We skipped April and went right to May. Buttercup calved a heifer  in June, and finally the last two cows calved in July. GMEG Jealousy calved a nice black bull by Thor on July 1 and the Angus cow # 132 calved a black bull, probably by Thor (though it could be Bobby's) on July 27th.   Much of the lag time was the result of failed AI's. Regardless, they are a super bunch of calves. BTAP Thor did a great job! Bobby didn't do so bad either.

A really nice March 2013 Limousin/Angus cross bull calf. He weighs a good 600 pounds.

BTAP Thor was designated as the main herd bull while Bobby was sequestered with a few heifers. Thor was born January 2011 and Bobby the same year in March so they were young to be servicing cows.

Two of the purebred Angus and one of the purebred Limousin were successfully AI'd (artificially inseminated).  That left 11 cows for Thor and Bobby to service.  The result is 14 calves on the ground, eight of which are bulls and six are heifers (girls).


Some of the heifers,  in the center is Buttercup's daughter and on the right is a Shorthorn/Limousin cross heifer.

Here's Bobby, still on the job but looking pretty fat and healthy. BTAP Thor was sold this spring so Bobby has taken over as herd bull. He's moderate framed and calving ease so hopefully it will be an uneventful spring.

Best Tomato This Year



 

For the first time in as long as I can remember, I purchased and planted a variety of tomato plants this past May.  Most years I grow my own tomato plants from seed, but this year events overtook my seed starting plans and I opted to purchase plants from Evers Greenhouse in Genntown.

Evers always offers a large variety of tomato and other vegetable plants. My purchases included yellow, red and purple or chocolate sweet bell pepper plants and more than six different varieties of tomatoes.

German Johnson Tomato

I planted the tomatoes fairly close together in raised beds and staked them, and added some well rotted cow manure to the bed for richness.  Then the rains came. The plants grew very well but soon the rain and the heavy growth overcame the stakes and the plants collapsed on themselves, so now I have half staked tomatoes running riot over the bed.

The cool weather and rain has made all kinds of fruits  slow to ripen and the tomatoes are no exception.  I picked and ate the little grape tomatoes named St. Nick in early July. By mid July I was getting a tomato here and there, mostly Burpee Better Boys.                                                                        

Cherokee Purple tomatoes on the top right.

Now here in early August a variety of the plants are ripening fruit.  The picture to the left shows Cherokee purple, German Johnson, Carolina Gold, St. Nick, and a blocky ribbed tomato whose name I forget.


So far my clear favorite for flavor is German Johnson - large fruit,  dark pink/red colored flesh and very sweet and flavorful.  The Cherokee Purple is a close second but still not beating out German Johnson.  The Burpee Better Boy and the St. Nick are more acidic and taste more like standard tomatoes. 



Baby Kale - Red Russian variety, So Delicious

Red Russian Kale

It seems every magazine I read is touting the benefits of eating kale.  Last fall I grew a standard garden kale, harvested some of it and tried cooking it like spinach or adding it to vegetable soup.  It was strong and rather bitter and I ended up giving it to the cows. They loved it.  I'm still seeing the same old recipes for kale. Kale chips, kale and potato soup, kale with kielbasa, none of which inspire me very much.

But last January when I was mooning over the seed catalogs I was inspired by the Shumway catalog to order their Red Russian Kale.

The description read: "A tender, colorful variety, also used for baby kale. Purple stems with purple-veined gray-green leaves are non-curled with a tooth edge. Medium tall plants. 25 days to baby kale."

And that is the key - baby kale!  Last night I picked a handful of the young leaves and sauteed it with a little bacon and red onion and a splash of Balsamic vinegar and it was one of the best greens I've ever eaten! 



Close up of young tender kale leaves.

This is such an easy plant to grow. I planted this kale the first week of July. It was sprouted and growing within two days.  I planted spinach at the same time and it has done nothing! So far, no pests are bothering the kale.

I plan to plant more this week and maybe again the first of September with the hope that I can harvest enough to freeze for the winter. 

The leaves were very good, the stems tiny and edible, but I think next time I will chop the stems up separate from the leaves.

Swallowtail Butterfly

 Swallowtail Butterfly feeding on Bee Balm/Monarda

This swallowtail butterfly is enjoying the last of the bee balm's flowers before the next rain shower. The bee balm or monarda has been blooming for a couple of weeks and was a favorite of the bees when it first began blooming. Today this butterfly is all alone feeding on the individual pink flower tubes.

Bee balm is also known as Oswego Tea and is recommended for medicinal uses. WebMD says: People take Oswego tea for digestive disorders including gas. It is also used for fever, spasms, and fluid retention.
Women use Oswego tea for premenstrual symptoms (PMS). Be careful not to confuse Oswego tea with lemon balm, because both are called “bee balm.”

"The Oswego Indians of western New York prepared an herbal tea from dried out fragrant monarda didyma leaves. This was picked up by the early colonial settlers, who used these leaves as a substitute for imported tea, which was in short supply following the Boston Tea Party. The Shakers believed that Oswego tea has the aptitude to treat colds as well as tender throats effectually. On the other hand, some settlers steamed the entire monarda didyma plant and breathed in the vapour to unblock sinuses".
Quote from http://www.herbs2000.com/herbs/herbs_oswego_tea.htm


Bee Balm on the right.

First Tomatoes Despite All The Rain

My garden was pretty soggy yesterday. Fortunately I have raised beds so only the pathways between had any standing water when I checked in the morning. By evening the water had drained. I spent a good hour pulling weeds.

I picked and ate my first tomato, a little St. Nick grape variety. It tasted so good! Like all cherry type tomatoes it has a lot of fruit on every branch. Most of the fruit is still green but I expect by this evening I'll have one or two more grapes tomatoes to enjoy as I work pulling all those weeds that just loved the rain!

Carolina Gold yellow tomato ripening soon.

I buy my tomato plants at Evers Greenhouse in Genntown on Rt. 42, just north of the Walmart. I like Evers for the variety of plants they offer. In past years I've purchased bedding plants and perennials there also.

This year I am trying for the first time Cherokee Purple, German Johnson, Amish Paste  and this little St. Nick grape.  I also purchased several full sized yellow tomatoes called Carolina Gold, a couple of Brandywines and my standby Rutgers. For slicing I got a couple of Burpees Big Boys, always a reliable tomatoes. 

This is the first full sized tomato that is almost ripe. It's suppose to be a Brandywine but the tag says Carolina Gold. There is another Carolina Gold right next to it, so I think I just put the wrong tag out.  You can see it has some damage which is not surprising given the weather we have had. Tomatoes prefer dry conditions.

All together I put out 14 plants representing at least eight varieties. In my opinion, you can never have too many tomatoes.

Lots of Cats Means No Mice or Rats

When you live in the country cats have a way of just showing up. That's how I have eight of them living both inside and outside of the house.  The oldest is a very fat female named Katty Kay. She showed up in the barn sleeping on the tractor seat the fall of 2009. She wasn't fat then but once she was given access to house and food she filled out quickly.


Pippi aka Pipster,  and Pipper he's the main man of the house.

The neighbors gifted me with Pippi and Tigger. There were four kittens all together but only Pipper and Tigger remain.  Tigger took off about this time last year and was gone a good six months. When he came home he was very thin and scared of everything. Now he is very fat and lazy.  He lets Pipper be the man of the house, but can't resist smacking him from time to time. 

Pippi has decided, at least for the time being, to spend his summer sleeping on top of my Boston fern. I have no idea if the fern will survive and he was greatly put out when I came by and watered the plant this afternoon.



Here's Tigger trying to sit on a fence post. He's too fat and falls off.
 

Tigger is obviously worm infested. He has several issues around the problem. I've ground up worm pills and tried to get him to eat them in his cat food. No success. All the cats eat a dry cat food, so they are not used to canned food and don't get too excited about it.
I found some liquid wormer at the feed store. The label says its has a fish flavoring so I bought them some canned sardines.  I divided up the sardines in their eight separate food bowls (yes, they each have his or her own bowl) and poured some of the wormer over the top like a sauce. Most of them ate it. I'm hoping that does the trick for Tig.

Little Joe hangs out on the back porch.

By far the cutest of the eight is Little Joe. He is one of two black and white tuxedo kitties and he is very playful.  Joe arrived two years ago courtesy of a little wild mama cat who spent the winter on the back porch and deposited a litter of kittens in the barn.  When it was time to wean them she brought them to the porch. Three of the four have become real pets, but the fourth remains at least partly wild. He is a grey tabby tuxedo and I call him Matisse.  He won't let me any where near him most days, though at present he's a sleep behind the couch in the living room. He's the only one who uses his voice to tell me he wants to go in or out of the house.  The others use their claws on the screen door.

Joe tried to get my attention.

Both Little Joe and the other black and white kitty which I named Zeke, love to hang out on the back porch either sleeping on the porch furniture or in a nice soft cat bed.  One of their favorite things to do is to lay on their backs or sides and pull themselves up and down the porch via the bottom of the porch furniture. If I'm sitting on the porch and they want my attention they pull themselves from chair to chair until they reach me. Then they make a big play for me to pet them and scratch their jaws.  If I ignore them they bite my toes!  I guess cats are the same the world over. I think everyone I know has cats who display the same behavior.  

The main advantage of having so many cats is that I no longer have any mice around the house (never have had them in the house so far) and especially no rats in the barn.  Time was, when we only had one cat whose name was Walter that we had rats all over the barns. They were not the least bit afraid of us and ran around the barn at will. .  Sometimes I would find three or four dead rats in the cattle's water tanks. They were their for the grains spills from when we fed the cattle.  Cattle love to take a big mouth full of grain then put their heads up, close their eyes and munch on the grain while bits of it drips from the sides of their mouths. Cattle are very messy eaters.  I still feed grain, though not as much as I used to, but there are no rats on the property at this time.  Decapitated mice show up on the back porch a couple of times a week, but no rats. Cats are a good thing on a farm.



Wild Elderberries Are Good For You

You may have noticed the elderberries blooming this last few weeks.  They like to sprout in fence rows - probably because birds sit on the fences



Elderberies in bloom. From All About Thyme.com
 

eating the berries and "depositing" the seeds.  They are a very pretty sweet, scented tall bush with  white flowers that produce little dark purple juicy berries. The flowers and the berries are both used for wine, jams etc.

The International Herb Society has proclaimed the Elder or Elderberry to be the Herb of the Year for 2013.  The honor was given to the Elderberry this year for its use as a medicinal herb.  Elder has always had some known medicinal value, but apparently the scientific community is finding many new good uses for the plant.  Elderberry is one of those things in nature that we think of as a wild flower but in fact its really good for us!

The National Gardening Association at http://www.garden.org/ediblelandscaping/?page=july_elderberry has this to say:

Elderberries are one of the easiest and most versatile shrubs to grow in your edible landscape. These Central European and North American natives are often found growing wild along roadsides, forest edges, and abandoned fields.
The prize for growing elderberries is the fragrant, edible flowers and the delicious fruits. The dark purple berries contain vitamins A and B, and more vitamin C than oranges. They are also high in cancer-fighting antioxidants. In fact, elderberry fruits have historically been used to treat many ailments, such as respiratory problems, colds, and flus. Plus, they are tasty when used in juices, jellies, jams, teas, pies, and wine. You can use the umbrella-shaped, elderberry blossoms for making a delicious fritters or even champagne (see recipe in this issue). And if you don't want to eat the berries, the birds certainly will love them. 

Not only do elderberries produce attractive 8- to 10-inch-diameter white flowers and clusters of small, dark purple fruits, there are newer varieties on the market that have colorful leaves, too. These varieties of elderberry were bred for the ornamental characteristics, but still produce useful flowers and fruits. They make great shrubs for a foundation planting or in a mixed perennial flower border.

  'Black Beauty' elderberry combines the easy-to-grow qualities of wild elderberries with handsome black foliage and attractive pink flowers.

Cool and Overcast and Just Right for Gardening

Because GMEG Jealousy had her calf right on time, I had this morning free to work in my garden. Trying to keep everything as organic as possible is truly a challenge this year.  We've had ideal growing temperatures and lots of rain and everything is growing well, especially the weeds.  Some days it seems like all I do is pull weeds. And the really big ones like the iron weed is gimungus already. I can't pull those, I have to chop them down and dig out the roots!

Veronica, day lilies, coral bells, roses, dead nettle and bee balm in a border.

Pretty little pink coral bells.

Here's a picture of the flower border I had planned to extend all along the drive that runs in front of the house. This is as far as I've gone with it in 12 years of planning.  The bee balm is blooming on the right and the day lilies are just starting.  My favorite is a coral bell that has been blooming since May. Tigger is finding the flower bed useful.

I was at the Rural King on Friday and they had all their plants on sale half price. I found a nice azalea bush for $7.50! One of my foundation azaleas in the front of the house had died last year so this looked like a good replacement. When I got it home and read the tag more closely its says the bush will be eight feet tall and eight feed wide eventually. It also says its only cold hardy to 20 degrees F. I'm going to plant it at the back of this bit of border in a vacant spot and see what happens. This area is protected by the house and has an eastern exposure. We'll see if it likes our cold Ohio winters.  I'm still wondering why Rural King was selling it here!

Suppose to be a Moonglow pear tree.

 Three years ago I bought two pear trees from Big Lots.  I think I paid $10.00 each for them.  This one pictured is suppose to be a Moonglow pear, the other is an Anjou.  I always thought fruit trees took at least five years to bear so I was thrilled when the Moonglow not only bloomed but set fruit!  There are just five pears on the tree and I am very hopeful that I'll get to eat all five. The Anjou didn't bloom.

I'm not sure if this is actually a Moonglow.  I thought they were a yellow pear and these have a lot of red on them.  This must also be a dwarf, not a semi-dwarf as I the Anjou seems to be.  I guess I can't complain for $10, and the pears look really nice.

There are wild pears and ornamental pears pretty near this guy. I'm not sure how that has affected it, but some tree pollinated it so time will tell what how the fruit turns out.

Supposed to be a Gala apple with the asparagus gone to flower in the background.

I planted a Gala apple from one of the nursery catalogs at the back of the garden about five years ago. The original tree trunk died and a new one sprouted, above the graft line, I'm pretty sure.  Last year the tree had one apple and it didn't hang on very long.  This year the tree has quite a few apples and it looks like they might make it until fall.  They look like they might even be Galas.  This tree would have been pollinated by the wild apples in the pastures, so anything is possible I guess.  I noticed this evening that little tiny black flies were all over the fruit.  I'll have to figure that out and put up some sticky traps. The flies are damaging the fruit and I'd like to have at least one or two apples to eat. 

Marigolds and mint with some tiny sweet marjorum plants.
 

This year I've been collecting stones from the pastures with an idea of building stone walls for my raised beds.  As you can see the gorund ivy is taking over.  I spend an hour or more every few days pulling ground ivy from around my raised beds. The stuff has taken over the grass and I'm not sure what to do about it, organically.  I could spray it all with Weed Be Gone herbicide, but I don't want to spray any poison so close to my food plants.  I guess I need to do some serious research before the whole lawn is nothing but ground ivy.