farm share Archives : Cast Iron Forest to Skillet

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01/21/2023 refried cowpeas

Paula has been experimenting with what beans can be refried using the Rancho Gordo refried bean recipe. The refried cowpeas were great! These were the Corrientes cowpeas from last summer. Tacos had ground venison for the meat; the non-tomato veggies were mostly from the farmshare.

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01/01/2023 new year frolic at Lexington

Liverworts near the parking area!

Briar is always blinking when she gets her picture taken.

We saw some very green fine stuff covering the Sandy loam.

Some obvious moss nearby.

Then the green stuff with moss capsules! When I got home I saw Mom’s blog post from today. The very fine green coating appears to be the protonema life stage of the moss! Thanks Mom! Guess ‘tis the season.

Dog eyes open this time.

A big cluster of dead ants. No idea why.

A mystery plant on the edge of the path cut.

The leftover seed heads of the mystery plant.

A second smaller individual of this mysterious plant.

The habitat of the mysterious plant.

Paula spotted this gorgeous greenbriar leaf!

Briar leaps from the water. It was warm out!

Bounce bounce bounce! miraculously she wasn’t muddy. Good clean water.

Enjoying some last smells before we head home.

The Chef made Hoppin’ John for dinner. The green is chard from our garden, frozen from a previous season. The black eyed peas were from the farm share. Paula made cornbread from scratch.

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12/21/2022 split cowpea soup

This afternoon the Chef inquired if he could use this jar of cowpeas. His request was approved.

Corrientes cowpeas, farm share veggies, and a bit of leftover salted pork.

I asked the Chef for the recipe and he said this is what he has documented so far. He had two different meals going and this one was on the left burner (marked L). The ingredients without a burner noted were in both meals. He doesn’t know why one is marked both LR. I’m sure the periodic table of elements was useful somehow in this.

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12/16/2022 rosemary recovery

The rosemary was unhappy near the raised beds as the irrigation leaked there. The roots were rotting. The second plant was almost dead. Hopefully it will be drier here.

Basil getting some sun. We’ve been nursing it along with nights in the garage.

This Euphorbia maculata is still alive and looking lovely.

Wes did some wine bottling today. The muscadine grapes were from the farm share and the elderberries were from our yard!

Shackleton was enjoying scritches and sunshine until Briar showed up to gaze admiringly. He does not like the dog.

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11/24/2022 plenty of thanks

We thought it was supposed to rain today, so yesterday we picked up all the tomato cages and put all the vegetable debris in the city compost pile. (I don’t know that ours gets hot enough to kill any diseases.). We piled the dead marigolds on the bed where we’ll put peppers next year. We put some sugar pea seeds there to see if the debris will shelter them. We took the plastic off the greens so they could get rain. We put cilantro seeds everywhere and carrot seeds among the greens.

For Thanksgiving, Paula started our Corrientes cowpeas soaking.

The Turkey is from Paula’s aunt and uncle in Texas where they raise some. All the veggies in the beans are from the farm share except garden poblanos. Wes used some store apples and store ham as flavors. But otherwise the veggies are all our garden or the farm share!

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10/03/2022 Bean Club dinner and other excitement

My colleague gave me these delicious tiny tomatoes from her sister’s garden east of here. She said it’s a hybrid between tommy toe and another variety and has bred true for two ish years! I’m saving some!

A yellow iris by the rock garden.

Polenta with cranberry beans from Bean Club and fancy sausage from California. Salad includes farm share peppers and the main mean also included summer squash from the farm share.

A cooked cranberry bean. They were very creamy in texture!

The cranberry bean broth was very savory. The Chef laughed at us taking a picture.

Here’s some of the remaining cranberry beans. They have a tan base but occasionally the red speckles and stripes turn the bean almost completely red!

You can see they are nice chunky big beans. Larger than the average pinto.

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10/02/2022 complex dinner

Tomato basil soup (basil, onion, and garlic from garden; celery from farm share), fried farm share potatoes, chicken with garden onions, and farm share peppers on the salad.

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9/29/2022 farm share and Bean Club dinner

Jalapeño poppers with farm share peppers, grilled cheese sandwiches with farm share tomatoes, and farm share purple hulled pinkeye cowpeas, French green lentils from Bean Club, and summer squash from the farm share. Thank you Paula!

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08/24/2022 giant squash time and other things

I thought I saw something in a firewood piece.

It was a mason wasp!

The Chef made a delicious dinner. BLT with farm share tomatoes and Paula’s sourdough bread. The okra and peppers side was breaded and pan fried, with both farm share and garden okra, topped with cholula hot sauce.

These corrientes cowpea leaves seemed maybe diseased because they were covered in light yellow speckles, so I removed them.

Some sort of fungus maybe on the basil? It is the round dark spot I’m pointing to with my snippers. I have been removing them. If anyone knows otherwise, I’d let a leaf miner live.

Trimmed all the basil this evening for the Chef to do a pesto batch.

This corrientes cowpea stem is flat like a ribbon.

Side view of flat stem of cowpea. A mystery.

Last but definitely not least, the giant green-striped cushaw squash.

I’m not sure if Briar was concerned or unimpressed.

We got out the bathroom scale for this magnificent beast. The squash weighed 14.5 lbs. Last year’s big squash was barely 7 lbs.

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08/04/2022

Fall obedient plant is thinking about blooming! I think over the winter I’ll move it to closer to the bird bath to get more water.

One of the two leaf sennas has buds!!

The fluttermill primrose in the rock garden just keeps blooming!!

This “live forever” from Judy is budding.

I thought this was a plant hopper.

It’s insect poop. Technically this is called frass. 😏

This fuzzy plant came with some wild onions I got at Mom and Dad’s. I am hoping it might be snow on the prairie!

Paula said the mysterious pumpkin was ready.

While we were outside, we checked out the cushaw squash. Already longer than Paula’s arm to the elbow!!

Shackleton was neutral about the pumpkin.

Tuqu was interested in the pumpkin and smelled it carefully.

Shackleton was repelled by the fragrant Madhu ras cantaloupe. Tuqu tried to touch it.

Today’s two harvests plus the watermelon from the farm share.