We had company this weekend and cooked a lot of great food, and the most fun part was saying, "All of this is from our farm." Yesterday, we had a roast turkey with stuffing (including garden-fresh celery, carrots, and onions), gravy made with our goat milk, a winter squash, green bean casserole with our beans that had been frozen, and fresh baked rolls. For appetizers, we had goat cheese and turkey liver pate. The only things that came from the store were the crackers for the appetizers and the potatoes for the mashed potatoes. The potatoes would have been homegrown also, except that Hurricane Ike dumped so much water in the garden in September that the potatoes rotted in the ground.
Today we had a Mexican casserole with the leftover turkey meat. It included sweet peppers, banana peppers, onions, and tomatoes from our garden, as well as tortilla chips and cheddar cheese from the store.
Tonight is supposed to be our first freeze, so we worked like crazy this afternoon trying to bring in the last of the vegetables. We never got the cold frame up, but Jonathan and Margaret brought in giant bouquets of celery, as well as a basket of tomatoes and peppers. I also pulled up two cayenne pepper plants and have them sitting in the living room, hoping the rest of the peppers on them will ripen.
An unexpected challenge is making life a bit more difficult -- the refrigerator stopped working, so we're eating and drinking quite a bit of food tonight. We do have a smaller frig where we've tried to store a lot of stuff. Also, we put a 20-pound frozen turkey in a cooler to act as a giant ice pack with more stuff from the frig. Between all the frig refugee food and the garden celery and peppers, the kitchen and dining room are a botanical mess.
All of this celery needs to be chopped and frozen. Right now my house has the most overwhelming aroma of celery that I've ever experienced. You have no idea what a strong scent celery has until you've picked it fresh. I think we'll have cream of celery soup tomorrow for lunch.
Tomorrow I'll post my split pea soup recipe with serving suggestions!
1 comment:
Okay, you are true inspiration! I will do a better job of harvesting and preserving next year. Have you any experience with spaghetti squash? Go to my today's post and tell me what you think of the mystery squash. Oh egg advice too!
Post a Comment