Fall Garden on a Misty August Morning

It's high summer and the herb bed is at its best. Mint is blooming in the background, Thai basil in the foreground. The tall grayish green plant on the right is sage and a bit of fall lettuce is coming along as well.

A box of sweet potatoes at the end of this row.  The other two boxes will be filled with compost this week and planted with beets, kale and Swiss chard.  As you can see my weed whipper isn't doing well.  It is a huge disappointment.

It's high summer and luckily we've had enough rain to keep things green and growing. My fall garden is doing well with green beans getting ready to bloom, peas breaking ground and lettuce about half way to harvest.  I'm overrun with tomatoes of course and the mint is blooming and full of various wasps and bees - though I've not noticed any honey bees in the fray. The cantaloupe plants are full of small green melons starting to ripen. Can't wait for those. I planted Burpees Ambrosia variety which everyone in the family thinks is the very best melon anywhere.

The mystery plant. This guy grew as a volunteer from one of the compost piles. The leaves are huge - about 20 inches across and its growing mostly in light shade into heavy shade - in other words, its growing toward shade. It has buds but hasn't bloomed yet. We are anxious to see what it is, but don't hold out much hope for it ripening any fruit this late!



Peach Crisp

It was my turn to make Monday night dessert for the family get together and I was thinking chocolate cake - the Texas sheet cake that's easy and very very good, especially made with Hershey's Special Dark cocoa. But then I was reading through my latest Whole Living magazine (one of the Martha Stewart mags) and there was a blurb that said "In August you should eat peaches whenever you can". I knew Irons Fruit Farm next door to me had peaches, so I thought, OK, something with peaches. First I thought peach cobbler, but as I checked through my various cookbooks, I came across a Peach Crisp recipe in The Pioneer Woman cookbook and it looked so good, I decided to try it. It was very good, and I only changed it a little! I added some ground almonds and ice cream. Here is my version of the recipe:

Peach Crisp

About 2 hours before you want to serve the crisp, begin by preheating the oven to 350 degrees.

1 cup flour

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 light brown sugar, packed

1/4 cup slivered almonds, ground fine in a mini food processor

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

a little grated nutmeg

1 stick (1/4 cup) cold butter, cut in small pieces.

five or six large ripe peaches or more if they are small

2 tablespoons maple syrup - use the real thing or leave it out

1 tablespoon lemon juice

A squeeze bottle with a 1/4 cup of real maple syrup.

Mix the dry ingredients together and cut in the cold butter with a fork or pastry cutter until its looks like fine meal.

Peel and slice the peaches. Mix them with the lemon juice, then the maple syrup. Spray a baking dish (8" by 12") with cooking spray. Pour the peaches into the dish and spread them out evenly. Sprinkle the flour mixture over the top evenly. Cover the dish tightly with foil and bake 15 minutes.  Uncover and bake at least 30 minutes longer up to 45 minutes until the crumb mixture browns nicely. Remove from the oven and allow to cool a little. This should be about an hour before you want to serve the crisp.  Put a scoop of vanilla or butter pecan ice cream in a dish.  Add a generous scoop of the peach crisp. Drizzle a little real maple syrup over all. Yum!

I just had to share this picture. An orphaned zoo chimp baby was adopted by a mother dog who had just had pups.



A friend sent me a whole bunch of these pcitures. I'm sharing just a few. Here the pups and the chimp are having their dinner. I'm amazed!

Wild Blackberries and ZZ Tom Update

BTAP ZZ Tom at 4 months

I snapped this picture of BTAP ZZ Tom about 8:30 last night, hence the glowing eyes. He's with his mother, BTAP Violet,  getting some salt and water before going out to graze in the moonlight. He's a super nice big bull calf, probably weighs 500 pounds already and will make a very good herd bull someday. His father was Logan's Tommy Boy.It's getting time to wean him.  He will spend the fall and winter with his half brother, BTAP Thor in the bull pen - or at least until Thor finds a new home.

Wild Blackberries.

The wild blackberry crop was very disappointing this year. The very hot, dry weather from early June until the end of July insured that most of the fruit that was produced was small, dry and seedy. No good at all. The exception is the patch at the end (or beginning) of my driveway.  The patch has been there for years and usually produces berries.  For the last two weeks I've been picking at least a cup of berries - and eating them as I pick - on my way to work each morning.  I have to stop and pick up the newspaper, and there is always a nice amount of berries ripened each day. They are starting to slow down now and I predict I'll have this week to continue my morning picking and then they will be gone. But its been great while it lasted!