Finally something other than squash and cucumbers in the garden! The sweet corn is ready! I have missed sweet corn fresh from the garden! I haven’t planted any for the past couple of years. I have to get it in early if I am going to plant it, so…
Author: toadstoolsfairyrings
Frozen Vanilla Cream With Wild Blackberry Jam Swirls
The blackberries for this recipe were hard-won, and there was quite an adventure in procuring them. We used to have lots of blackberries around the pasture. Actually, the pastures were mostly blackberries (Ethan wanted to call it “Poky Pastures Farm”), but between applying dolomite and the rotational grazing, the grass sward has been…
Rainy Day Hot Chocolate
We got more than six inches of rain last week, much of it in a single day. I’ve never seen so much standing water around the farm for all day like that. We’ve gotten summer rain storms that make a creek of the dirt path to the milking area, but on Tuesday it just…
Wild Plum Harvest
This is the time when the wild plums are dripping from the branches. They are tart, glowing and fragrant. Some trees bear large fruits, some small. Some are red and some are yellow. It is interesting to taste each tree’s offering, getting a different mix of sweet, tart, and bitter plum flavor with each one. …
Summer Squash On The Grill
Summer squash can be a pain to grow in Florida, between the bugs and the mildew, but it is so good! Grilled with a light, herb rub, this made a special summer supper, and would be an excellent accompaniment to hamburgers, BBQ, or pulled pork. The herb rub recipe makes more than you…
In The Garden: The Zucchini Has Escaped
I love the early summer garden, before the pests, heavy rain storms, and incredible heat set in. The garden is easy and productive now, and the weeds and bugs feel under control. However, productivity CAN have some drawbacks! We were gone at the Florida Folk Festival over the weekend, and in only a few…
Pig/Chicken Symbiosis
For years we couldn’t have our egg chickens be truly free-ranging because of predator problems, and (the biggest problem) our “livestock guardian dog” loved eating chickens. We tried having a special light-sensitive door that opened and closed automatically, and poultry netting, plastic owls, etc, but it never solved the walking-chicken-dinner problem. This year, we’ve been…
Mock Artichoke Soup
All the ingredients for this soup were home-grown (well, except the black pepper!). The potatoes are just now ready to dig, and the pairing of the fresh potatoes and the patty pan squash give this soup an unusual flavor of artichoke! Benning’s Green Tint is an heirloom variety of patty pan squash that has been…
Grain-Free Early Summer Quiche With Basil And Wild Garlic
Mirin has been reading a lot of survival books to himself lately – Hatchet, My Side of the Mountain, and Julie Of the Wolves. He’s been inspired to forage in the forest and ditches. We certainly do stop to scrump wild plums, harvest wild grapes, mushrooms, betany roots, etc, but I usually draw the line…
A Garden Interview With Tim Noyes
I recently met Tim Noyes at a Third Monday Meeting, and discovered he was a kindred gardener who also gardens with the same “above organic” standards that I pursue. I was so impressed with his knowledge of heirloom vegetable varieties, and the amazing tomatoes he brought to share! “I have been gardening for 8 years. …
Grain-free Cookies N’ Cream Ice Cream Cups
This is the next instalment of Frozen Summer Treat Goodness Experiments that have been going on in the kitchen lately! The cows have been eating bales of just-cut oat hay that smells like oat porridge with honey, and the cream line on the milk has been increasing – the top shelf of the fridge is…
Biscuit-Crusted Mini Breakfast Pizzas
These mini-pizzas delighted my children one morning, when everyone had had a long day the day before, and were all set to be grouchy and snappy that morning. Instead they were so pleased with these little pizzas, they helped cut them out and season them, and even made runs to the garden and herb…
Toadstools And Fairy Rings 