Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Crittercized

Critters.

nothing to do with critters. a salad named fresh garden salad. ha. ha.

1st handful of raspberries. AMAZING

A few critter experiences of late.  Coincidence? I think not!

Chipmunks have been a problem in Wisconsin. I found a tip for making their homes less welcoming and sent it to our Wisconsin friends. Hopefully, the changes in their environment will mean they'll move to a better location soon. 

Soon to be moving chipmunk?

(The chipmunks, not the people.) 

Spicy front door.

I found a few friendly little critters while at the garden shop in Wisconsin. Mine is now sporting a nice blue stripe that wasn't there when I bought him. Someone, who broke his little neck, wondered why anyone would keep snakes on the floor. I wondered why anyone would walk without looking. But it's all good.

Snakes on the floor = broken necks, who knew.

The farm this week....the lettuce. Well, let's just say critter season is in full bloom. And if you buy organic lettuce at a decent price, you should probably find the farmer who picked it and give him/her a pat on the back, a huge hug, or a jumbo java. Because, if their experiences are anything like mine, they need hugs, pats and java. Let's just say, after I picked the green or white gutted vermin off the lettuce leaves and stomped them over and over again, I got a wee bit queasy. Not tomato worm weirded-out, but, it changed me. 

Not THE squirrel...a country cousin.

Finally, Mrs. Toad Boy (my daughter-in-law) and Toad Boy strolled to a local restaurant and had an encounter with a squirrel. Now, this girl LOVES squirrels. I've seen her stand statue still for a VERRRY long time to get some good pictures of rodents. So, no doubt, when she spied the squirrel she was probably giddy. 

But, then, it started chasing/stalking them. She said they'd stop and look at it and it would veer to one side and become all incognito and pretend that it wasn't following them. But peripherally she'd see it keeping pace and even creepier, gaining on them. She said they sped up and actually rushed the entrance. Heart pounding, feeling like they had escaped an awful fate, and the squirrel, seeing that they got away, went and hid behind a car and peeked at the door.  Was it waiting for them to come out? 

She said the walk home was a little tense, especially down the block where the incident occurred. They did arrive home unscathed but a little shaky. Methinks her squirrel picture taking days will include a catcher's mask and some leggings now. 

Watch your backs, people. That's all I'm going to say. 

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Let Them Eat Veggies

Cue moving music. We flipped open the flap on the high tunnel and entered into this scene. Amazing.

Yesterday was the first CSA pack of the season. Slim pickings we thought. Even though the spring warmth and sun started weeks ago, how much could possibly be ready to go?

Teeny tiny baby broccoli....cuchie coo!!!!

teeny tiny baby cabbage. awwwww isn't it cute?

For those who are skeptical that the temperature in a high tunnel/ green house gets up there. Yeah. There is serious sweat involved in gardening.

fields of greens - lettuce eat.

HA.HA.HA. Well, a full box. Lettuce, we harvested pounds of lettuce. That's a lot of lettuce. Trust me. We washed and packed Kale, Swiss Chard, there was asparagus, just a bit, since the season started so early. And the garlic. Oh, the garlic. Green garlic that you can use like green onions. The smell was heavenly. I'm going to saute some of the greens with Swiss Chard and toss in some sunflower seeds. I'm pretty sure that's going to be amazing. We even got nice sized radishes. And dill. Oh my.  I've missed my garden box of deliciousness. And, don't forget to hug your favorite organic farmer. This veggie tending is hard work. 

We also met a horticulture student doing an internship. It was her first day in the fields. She is currently taking a class on insects. We asked her if she'd ever encountered a tomato worm. She has not. We have sufficiently terrified her methinks. And I didn't even tell her about the ritualistic tomato worm dance. 

kale...nuff said.

Scraps and Snippets ~ Reading, Cooking, Rithmetic....

We've been taking classes like crazy lately. And learning lots of great information. 

The farmers are taking us to an organic growing class in early December. One of the sessions will be all about non-pesticide pest control. Hopefully they will teach the words and steps to the Horrible-Horned-Tomato-Worm be-gone ritual. 

Until then & and I have signed up for four weeks of Kitchen Chemistry. Sounds dangerous to me, too. Especially with the two of us on board. Good news, we don't actually touch the hot pots, the blenders, the chef knife. We get to eat the examples though. This instructor leans Vegan. 

Our first class was all about fats. Useful information and a few great substitute ideas. Tofu Hollandaise and Caesar salad dressing were actually called tastier by several non-vegans in the class.

I learned the following: That very little flavor comes from the fat, including butter. Fat is added for texture, heat transfer and binding. So it can be tweaked with to avoid some fat. She suggested that fried foods can be roasted if the heat transfer issue is handled correctly. Fried foods need the frying oil to be at the 300-350 stage so that the oil immediately sears the food and seals it. So the oven needs to be set to 450 to compensate. A cast iron cooking source (i.e. pan or griddle) or baking stone can be preheated with the oven. Then the veggies laid upon it (allowing space for proper cooking) and the food put back into the oven. A nice crust/sear should occur and create a texture that is similar to frying. Hmmm. Going to have to try that out. She also said that nut meals can take the place of some fat and some flour. 1/2 cup equals 2 TBSP fat, 2 TBSP flour. I'll be trying that out as well. Veggie and fruit pulp can be used in place of oil in salad dressings and other items. Potatoes can add cream to soups. And when doing a vinegar oil dressing. Always put the spices/seasoning in the vinegar and let it sit for 5 -10 minutes. The water soluble portion is what accepts the flavors. 

I'm also partnering with & at a Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University class. Uhh, if you don't have common sense money skills, hate money handling, have a desperate need to make some changes, look into taking this class. Seriously good information. I actually understand the concept and a tiny bit of the language of investing after just one video lecture.

Scraps and Snippets ~ Farmish Thoughts...

This will automatically post while I'm at the farm today. How fun is that? 


Okay. Fun might be overkill. I do love the autopost feature of Blogger, though. 


There is a rumor that it will hit the mid-70's today. And if the weather today is anything like yesterday, it's going to be fabulous. 

Did I mention we found a tomato worm while we cleaned up the garden? Remember the tomato worm? The horned devil of the bug/insect kingdom? The farmer had a ritual dance to make them go away. And to dispatch with one is horrendous and hideous, and may necessitate counseling. This sucker, the one we found, had fortunately already crossed over and it was as long as my pinky finger, and as thick around, too. UGH! Shudder. I'm thinking the farmer dance might just be a natural girlie reaction to a wicked ugly critter vs. a chant to make them go away. 


Tomorrow won't be a Vegan or food post at all. Just so you know. Today was going to be the same, but I'll be at the farm. Farm = food and veggies. And I've found out that today is World Vegan Day. The US has a total of four events to celebrate. But worldwide, whew, apparently there are lots of Vegans out there. It's a whole alternate reality for sure. Here's a comprehensive website if you are interested.

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Farm Sing-Alongs

Come farm day, I'm not even looking at the temperature now. I just assume it's going to be suck-the-air-out-of-your-lungs-and-spring-outta-your-step hot. So I wasn't disappointed when I hit the sizzling pavement after work and drove to the country.

Yes, indeed, it was hot.

I will admit there was a breeze. And that my outside job, after yanking turnips from terra firma, was washing them and the radish harvest. Me, being the less than coordinated woman that I am, managed to soak myself so thoroughly that my faux-crocs squeaked and squealed when I walked the rest of the day and my underwear finally thoroughly dried HOURS after the hose encounters.

But the water did save me from wandering lost and dazed in the tall corn. So we should all be thankful. Can you imagine the stories that would come from that kind of incident?

My musical theme music started playing in my brain when we found that we lacked zucchini but one of the farmers had harvested a few new little squash. Buttercup squash. If you've ever seen the hilariously stupid 90's gem "The Three Amigos" remember Little Ned's hit song. Ha. Ha. If you've not seen this movie (Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, Martin Short) you really, really should look into it.

The second part of farm songs (errr chants) follows: I did not have to squish bugs. I suppose, as a Vegan, I should be alarmed about squishing bugs. However, as I've pointed out, I'm a health motivated Vegan. (BTW my aunt tells me that technically I should call myself a whole-food-plant-based eater because lots of Vegans, who are of the animal rights version eat crud that doesn't do a whole lot for them healthwise. But I digress.) ... 24 was assigned tomato wrangling and squash picking. She killed lots of squash bugs and a few new little critters that come straight out of a horror movie....wait for it...wait for it. The Tomato Worm. Now, apparently this guy is about the size of a pinkie finger and squirms whilst being squeezed, so much so that the farmer said strong, strapping males recoil at the sight of a dying Tomato Worm. 24 shuddered when she told the story.

The farmer added elements of horror while she carried armloads of turnips to one of the tables for sorting. She said that these horrible little bugs even have horns, "like demons." And suddenly she burst out in a little bizarre chant of "ooh..ooh...oy." and kind of hopped skipped to the table while waving the turnips in the air.

The room grew silent. Then we slowly realized that this was no demon-begone-turnip-waving-dance-and-chant at all. She was simply trying to keep the aforementioned armload of turnips from tumbling off the table. Ahhh. Fun and games, kids. Nothing like a little heat exhaustion and talk of killing and demons to add a little spice to your life.

And. I have discovered a sweet little bonus (Oh, my, speaking of sweet. We actually shared an ear of freshly picked sweet corn. RAW. Still slightly warm from the sun. Oh, oh, my was that tasty!!!) again, I digress, remnants of sun poisoning, no doubt. The benefit is, now with all these pounds of produce coming in, there are seconds that are not fit for CSA boxes or market. A blemish, a few too many bug bites...and well, we get to take a few little misfits home with us and eat them, too. Wahhhahhahhahha.(Meet Casper, the white ghost eggplant.) Muwhahahaha