Ruffled Feathers and Spilled Milk

Farming with ducks and dairy goats, chickens and children.

Wait for it….wait for it….

Posted on | June 5, 2013 | 4 Comments

It started at the end of April.  With just a few shrimp from the store I managed to make an almost home grown meal.  With lettuce, spring onions, cilantro, and celery from the garden, I put a luscious grilled shrimp salad on the table.

Speckled romaine is my new favorite salad green.

Because the kids think they are just eating a speckle, instead of a snail, when I fail to wash it well.  And let’s face it, feeding my kids that extra bit of protein makes me the special parent that I am.

Never mind how enjoyable it is to harvest celery from the celery plant.  Which I don’t think is actually called celery plant.

But a friend gave me a cutting a couple years ago and told me it tastes just like celery, but is a perennial, grows throughout winter (well, our winter) and summer, and doesn’t develop full stalks.  So you can grow it year round, harvest it repeatedly, chop it easily, and the kids can’t try and pick it out like they often do with celery.  Perhaps it’s only downfall is that it’s too narrow to spread it with peanut butter.  Eh.

In May, we discovered bamboo shoots were available at the farmers’ market.  Until the very moment we stumbled upon them at the market, we didn’t know they existed.  But when the vendor told us a huge bundle was only a dollar (a dollar!!!), we snatched them up.

Turns out that once they are peeled,

shredded,

and sauteed with some spinach from the garden,

it made a side dish recipe that I should have tripled.  Because one pan just wasn’t enough.

By the time pick-your-own strawberry season started and we were eating fresh grilled chicken strawberry salad,

and chocolate dipped strawberries for dessert,

we were remembering what the fruits of summer were like.

Then the first zucchini

and squash arrived.

Which combined with some homemade pesto using fresh basil from the herb garden made a delicious pasta dish.  I’d show you the basil plant but all that’s left is stalks for the most part.  I might have jumped the gun on harvesting the basil.

But at least there was some pesto left over.  Until the basil recovers.

Now that it’s June and we’ve had the first taste of freshness, we are craving for all our meals to come straight from the garden.  We are just waiting for the snap peas to fill out

because we really, really, really need to make this:

Bamboo shoot and snap pea stir fry with bacon

  • 1/2 small to medium cooked bamboo shoot (about 4 oz / 120g), sliced
  • 2 cups snap peas, de-veined if needed and trimmed
  • 2 slices bacon, cut into small pieces
  • 1/2 cup white parts of spring or green onions sliced
  • 1 Tbs. oil
  • 1 Tbs. soy sauce
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • pepper
  • a few drops of chili oil

Head up the oil in a wok. Add the bacon and cook until just about crisp. Add the onion, stir fry a couple of minutes. Add snap peas and stir fry until bright green and crisp-tender. Add bamboo shoots, soy sauce and salt and pepper, and the chili oil, and take off the heat.

But while I’m waiting on the snap peas, I never, ever look at these.  Never.

After all, everyone knows a watched tomato never turns red.

And eyeballing the blackberries before they fill in is just an invitation to Japanese beetles.

Better to stay busy.  Which is easy to do.  ‘Cause when dinner comes from the garden it cuts down on the amount of time spent at the grocery store.  And that, in turn, means more time for this:

Now if someone just knows a recipe for a snapping turtle that steals your hook and breaks your line, I’d love to have it.

Unless we catch 20 more of the 6 inch bass….

we’re gonna need a good turtle soup recipe.

Sometimes waiting is just the name of the game, people.

Name of the game.

Comments

4 Responses to “Wait for it….wait for it….”

  1. melanie
    June 6th, 2013 @ 3:07 am

    The “celery” plant is likely lovage.

  2. Jill
    June 6th, 2013 @ 4:01 am

    awesome! I would never have thought of eating bamboo. Family have it in their backyard in CA and the stuff grows faster than weeds and spreads…soon you have a bamboo jungle!

    Enjoy the food of summer… It is what we live for, right?

  3. Sherry Herry
    June 6th, 2013 @ 5:12 am

    I enjoy eating right from my garden too. Yesterday I was excited to serve some boiled potatoes that I dug up and a salad that included lettuce and broccoli that came from my garden. It brings me great joy to know that I grew something to feed my family.

  4. Ferne K
    June 6th, 2013 @ 8:42 am

    Everything sounded delicious. Enjoy the fruits of your labor.

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