There is a hard frost warning for tonight so we have been harvesting like crazy the last two days in order to preserve as much of the cool season crops (and the last of the summer produce) as possible. It is not so unusual to have a frost at this point in the fall but we had such a long run last year without a frost that we got spoiled with the harvest lasting well into November. We clearly remember still picking spinach the week before Thanksgiving since we enjoyed it so much! So Dave has been out in the fields harvesting for hours and I’ve been washing and putting it all away as fast as I can. Since there is still so much out there to try to protect tonight, he is devising some “blankets” and we just installed our portable cold frame for the more delicate plants. Things like the carrots and turnips won’t be affected much but most of the leafy veggies will not be happy.

Here is what we brought in today and we did nearly the same yesterday.

The good news to report is that we will surely be over 1600 lbs of produce for 2013 after these last two days. Although the tomatoes will still ripen (very slowly and without as much flavor), we may be stirring up some fried green tomatoes in the next couple of days!

I spent the morning clearing out the potted annuals that were on the back terrace. I do this with mixed feelings since by this time of year I’m tired of watering and caring for them but it seems as if we lose all the color that we enjoy so much. I often include various sweet potato vines in my plantings so it is always fun to uncover the ‘potatoes’ produced by the plants. Here is the out come from one of this year’s pots. What an interesting mix of shapes and colors.

Other fun things have been happening in the last couple of days at Seven Oaks. The last driveway pour was completed last week and the crew acid washed it and have now sealed it as well. It should be drive-able tomorrow! It was good that they did this since the leaves (and acorns) are beginning to fall and it becomes a bit trickier to get this just right with all of the debris plus the chilly temps we are currently experiencing. We are waiting to have the edging stones that need to be re-placed to be put into their spots around the beds. We will cheer when this gets done! In fact, here is an advance cheer if it helps….YEAH! They plan to be out tomorrow to do this final work.

Since most of the concrete/masonry construction is finished, we are now in the midst of planning the new planting beds at the rear of the back terrace which will flank the new steps and out door kitchen. I met with our horticulturist, Mary Ellen, and the arborist, Jon, yesterday afternoon to review the plans and keep this part of the project going forward. We met during the slightest bit of a chilly rain sprinkle and wouldn’t you know, we were greeted by another wonderful rainbow that I just had to capture with my camera.

The other fun thing that happened yesterday was the final installation of the outdoor gas grill. Our very favorite plumber/friend Mule,  arrived first thing yesterday morning to hook up the gas to the grill. In addition to brewing his own craft beer, he also knows a thing or two about grilling so he was able to help me through some of the set up details with our grill. I asked him if he would pose for a pic and he was okay with that. So here he is lighting the first round of flames! Thanks, Mike/Mule!

He and his family like the veggies we grow so I made sure he was laden with some goodies before he left! He has been one of our pickle testers, so I added a jar of pickles to his sack for both his family and his mother, Joyce. I will look forward to feedback on those!

So with the new outdoor grilling area up and running (the electricians came after Mike and finished up their end of things) so we were hot on the trail of something to grill last night. Dave made a run to Sam’s for some shrimp to use with our favorite shrimp recipe and I marinated it all day and put it on the ‘barbie’ last night along with some of our eggplant. Here it is cooking away. It was yummy and there is plenty left for another taste tonight!

No paper or scissors, in fact, nothing but rocks. Or as some may say, stones. This weekend was dedicated to moving the stones/rock that edged the old driveway. We decided not to put them back in place since they didn’t really ‘go’ with the new driveway style. So, we have been carrying them from the front driveway to pallets in the rear of the back driveway since they will make nice dry stack stone wall material for the future rear garden beds.

The majority of this work has been done by Dave but I helped. Kind of like Scout, in To Kill A Mockingbird, whose emphatic voice I hear when I say, “I helped”! But not nearly enough since someone had to sit with Farley, right!?! 😉

The last concrete pour on the driveway is scheduled for tomorrow. We are eager to get this underway and I suppose the crew is too since it gets tiresome for them too. They are all set for the last pour.

We have the burden of filling in the gap between the grass the the new driveway. Dave started this challenge this weekend but I’m afraid it will take many more weeks to complete this task.

The roses we planted in the front are blooming like crazy despite the disruption of the driveway project and having the edging stones at their feet.

There are many other areas that will be turned from hardscape into landscape areas. This little spot will be turned into my future herb garden since it is right out side of the back door. Much work necessary to make this happen still!

We have been fortunate to have a the opportunity to run all of the downspouts and other drainage under the new driveway. Water is certainly a blessing but also our enemy. Managing the water is the key to success in all areas of the Farm.

So tomorrow, we are expecting the last of the concrete pours, the masons to come and clean up their left over mess (ugh, enough already with the mess!), and the grass guys to come and aerate and seed the affected areas. We are hoping that everyone plays nicely! All of us, especially Farley, are eager for the project to be behind us!

In the meantime, we are enjoying the fall crops which provide much of a leafy matter for our table. The lettuces, spinach, bok choi, kale, swiss chard, cabbage, carrots, radishes, kohlrabi and turnips are flourishing.

We have high hopes for some rain tomorrow night and Tuesday! Wouldn’t that be nice!

The buzz around here these days is a repeat of last fall when I got swarmed by yellow jackets. Yes, they are back, but this time, they were after the concrete guys and not me! Luckily, no one got hurt!

We had noticed some recent yellow jacket activity at one of the ‘islands’ of river birches out near the street. This is where we had activity last year, but they had moved to a new location after being exterminated almost exactly a year ago. Apparently they get rather agitated and mean when this time of year. We warned the concrete crew to be aware of them as their work approached that part of the driveway.

The concrete guys attempted to get rid of the nest using an old remedy. They came very early in the morning (when the flying activity is at its lowest) and poured gasoline down the entrance to their nest, and then plugged it with a rag. This didn’t work for very long since yellow jackets often have a rear exit to their nest and this was no exception. So they flew out the other way and were just mad as hell. They responded poorly to the vibration and sawing noise of the crew as they worked on the last sections of driveway preparation and so the crew had to pull off until we could get an exterminator out to do the job with heavy duty chemicals.

We called the same company that helped out last year and they were out within a couple of hours to help us eliminate this nest. What excitement! Here is Chuck, posing by his truck.

He sprayed the nest from both entries and then all around the general area. He was in his full ‘swarm’ regalia and asked me to stand back and away by at least 30 feet while he did his work. After he doused the area thoroughly with his spray, I crept back to see the end result. He pointed out the queen to me who had dragged herself out of the nest and was floundering around as she tried to escape. The queen is about twice the size of the rest of the bees. The chemical takes 24 hours to kill them all thoroughly, but they were rather dazed and silly as they sauntered out of their nest and tried to figure out what had happened to them.

We hope the concrete crew can return safely to do the final pour at the mouth of the south end of the driveway! In the meantime Scott worked on acid washing and sealing the part that had been poured last week so progress continued despite the ‘buzziness’.

The fall crops are enjoying the cool nights and In the last few days I’ve been attacking the mounds of green beans, green peppers and hot peppers as well as the eggplants in order to keep processing the bounty from the farm. As of yesterday, the total harvest year to date is just over 1,545 pounds! Tomatoes finally climbed to the top of the list (topping the cucumbers)! That is a lot of tomatoes, but remember that 15-16 pounds reduces to about 5-6 jars of sauce, and even fewer jars of ketchup. Here are the weights (in pounds) of the top ten items of 2013:

1.  Tomatoes           320.859
2.  Cucumbers        319.641
3.  Cantaloupe        243.266
4.  Strawberries      159.234
5.  Eggplant             148.750
6.  Potatoes               83.016
7.  Watermelon        78.813
8.  Pumpkins             51.313
9.  Green Peppers    42.813
10.  Green Beans        19.203

We are still enjoying the watermelons since they keep well in the refrigerator and taste wonderful, especially when someone cuts them up and has them all ready to eat!

I froze 5 pounds of green beans, 4 pounds of green peppers and have used a pile of eggplants in several dinner dishes as well as in some pasta sauce that I currently have cooking on the stove. The hot peppers were turned into 3 more batches of Sriracha sauce.

The STL newspaper had an article about Sriracha sauce in the recent food section. Although they did not indicate how to make the sauce, (too bad) they had a couple of interesting recipes that use it as an ingredient. I might try using it the next time I make chicken wings. I have gifted a jar or two to those whom I think would be appreciative and it is getting good reviews so far which gives me confidence to continue to make more.

Farley has finished off all of his steroids and muscle relaxers and is doing well on just the pain meds and seizure meds. Crossing fingers and paws that he continues in this direction!

Thank You, Thank You! I received an outpouring of messages from concerned friends, family (and even strangers who read my blog) since my last post about Farley’s health issues. I wish I had more time to write a post before now to give an update on his status but as you will read, I’ve been a bit distracted.

We have had pretty positive news to report since Farley does appear to be on the mend, thanks to the prescribed rest regime as well as a huge number of meds from the vet. Thankfully, the vet modified his meds at one point to lessen his agitated/anxious state which is typical in the combination of steroids and pain meds. He is much more comfortable in this photo.

Here is one of the cute cards that a friend sent over which I love! Thank you, Kathy Waldemer!

I was scheduled to travel to Taos, NM for a 3 day knitting workshop last week but I was not sure if I should go due to Farley’s health status. In the end, we hired our Joyce to help out with some dog sitting time for two of the days so that Dave could continue with his obligations at the farm and I kept to my travel schedule.

It is not easy to get from here to there. I flew to Albuquerque via Dallas, then drove to Taos thru Santa Fe and after leaving very early on Tuesday morning, I arrived late that afternoon. The drive time in New Mexico was delightful. One of my favorite road signs was this one, which depicts the warning of a cow crossing as well as a UFO in the same image. Seriously, these were every couple of miles and I thought they were fabulous!

I stayed in an old inn called the Hotel La Fonda which was conveniently located on the plaza in the old part of town.

The hotel worked great for me since it was in walking distance of the Convention Center – where the classes were held – but the age of the hotel meant that the walls were thin and I could hear every sound from the couple/guests next to me.

After the first night of listening to their ugly banter, I nearly knocked on their door to suggest some marriage counseling!  Perhaps I should have made some innocent noises on my side of the wall so that they would have better understood the dynamics of the sound barrier – or lack there of!

The best part of the trip was the time I spent in the workshops, both led by Janine Bajus, aka feralknitter.com, who is a wonderful and wise knitter and color theory guide. She did her best to share her knowledge of Fair Isle knitting and color work to a group of eager, relatively experienced knitters. So the first day, I arrived about 30 minutes early as did just about everyone else taking the class.

As we all congregated and plopped down our knitting gear, I realized that I was among my people. Comfy foot wear and clothing was one common denominator. Another was our casual hair styles…I was not the only greying, 50 something, gal in the room who was not about to disguise any aspect of my age or appearance! The knitting was the focus for all of us and continued to be so for 3 days as I spent my lunch breaks and evenings addressing the challenges of the class work!  Janine shared with us all of the colors available from the Jamieson Spin Drift wool line for our experimentation. This she called the play pen!

The two day process was evident in the outcome. I will continue to work on my inspiration from this class as I develop my swatches for the knitted project I will create for my Master Hand Knitting Level 3 submission.

Arriving home on Friday night, I met up with Kate who was coming in for a wedding. We shared a late night cab from the airport and then talked and giggled into the early morning. Dave had the farm report ready for me which took on a new format while I was away….he created a computerized version….which revealed to be 1500+ lbs of produce harvested YTD.  We celebrated a little bit of rain this weekend but it was not enough to make up for the drought! We continue to harvest the last of the summer crop as well as the latest of the fall crop.

Here is a pic of the fall planting…we have plenty of several varieties of lettuces, radishes, turnips, carrots, bok choi, kale, kohlrabi, swiss chard, spinach, broccoli.

We continue to harvest and enjoy the fresh veggies. I have several pounds of green beans to freeze but here are some more goodies for us to use in future meals!

The driveway and other hard/land-scaping continues forward. We believe that there are only 2-3 more pours of concrete to finish out the driveway. The north side of the driveway became accessible in the last couple of days so we were able to return our cars to the shelter of the garage.

Rain totals here this weekend were just shy of .25 inches. Better than nothing, but not enough to make up the lack of water during the last few months!

This last week marked our third anniversary of our ownership of Seven Oaks. We closed on the property September 21st 2010, which meant we signed paperwork that day but did not take possession until 8am the following morning. I was so eager to get the keys to the property that I drove over to Kathy Bussmann’s house (our wonderful, patient, friend and real estate agent) bright and early that morning. I met with various parties at the house that day to begin work right away and received several curious friends, who were interested in our latest project!

First, we had a dumpster delivered in back along with our POD from the old house.

We tried to access both of the double garage doors and neither one was operable. After a quick call to get those fixed – new springs and new openers – we were on our way forward. This was only the first hint of our ‘over-sized’ ownership discoveries since we knew we were up against layers of homeowner issues here.

We photographed nearly every day of our progress since that day so I will try to share some of those initial  pics here to remember the progress as it developed.

We got the wall paper strippers to start removing the paper which was on nearly every wall and ceiling in the house. Stripping the wallpaper revealed all sorts of leaks from the roof as well as black mold from floor to ceiling in some rooms!!!

Then we removed all of the old carpeting which covered many of the rooms.

Rooms that didn’t have carpeting had either a 1″ x 6″ oak, herringbone, parquet flooring or a VCT (vinyl composite tile) covering as shown in my office below.

The sad part about the wood parquet was that it was “pickled” or “bleached” to look white, and was severely damaged in many areas from the former owners’ pets. We did not think it could be saved but my great wood floor man, Jerry, was able to restore all of the hardwood to a gleaming finish with restorative results and we then found more of this same raw flooring material in Canada and was able to match it perfectly to continue the pattern in much of the rest of the house as the restoration progressed. Here is Jerry beginning the big job of sanding.

Of course the kitchen was Big Bird Yellow and quite lovely!

All of the landscaping was overgrown, over mulched and over watered and had to be quickly dealt with to keep the house from further deterioration. Crab Apple trees in front were quickly disposed of.

The roof had holes that were larger than basketball hoops and were immediately addressed by a crew of roofers we hired.

This was only the work that was attempted during the first week of ownership! There has been three more years of nearly constant and earnest work that has gone into the changes necessary to make Seven Oaks a comfortable place to live while providing us with a pantry and freezer full of our ‘field to table’ produce to eat and share with family and friends. We hope to report more news on the fall/cool season crops that are coming up now. The 2013 harvest totals as of last week are just short of 1450lbs! I continue to process the fruits of this labor by canning and freezing as much as I am able.

In other news, our little Farley (King of Seven Oaks!), all 12.75lbs of him, is suffering from the back ailment that he had in the spring of 2010. The technical diagnosis is Intervertebral Disc Disease which is common in the long backed Dachshund breed of dogs. As his discs age and deteriorate, the nerves that follow his spinal cord are subject to injury and are inflamed by being pinched.  His back legs/extremities suffer the results and he is immobilized (can’t control his rear end). As you can imagine, nothing good comes of this! 

We successfully treated him last time (spring of 2010) without the extreme measure that would indicate surgery. Having faced this previously, we avoided the painful (and costly) trip to the amazing Mizzou Veterinary campus in Columbia that we endured last time around.  We have been treating him at home under the helpful guidance of our vet.  This involves immobilizing him (i.e. crating or tons of lap time), medicating him (all sorts) and treating the side effects much like we did today when we realized he had not urinated for more than 20 hours nor had been able to drink any water.

This resulted in our second, early morning trip to the vet for another blood test; they gave him a subcutaneous water infusion to help re-hydrate him. This was not fun for him and he looked like a balloon for a while, but the affects were positive since he was able to pass water and later in the day, drank some too. I hope this is not TMI but he is a beloved family member and we are caring for him dearly and hope we can report better health news on his behalf soon.

The concrete continues and has moved to the front of the property.

As the crew continues to form and pour the new sections in the front, the rear sections were starting to be acid washed and then sealed. 

I would like to acknowledge that my friend, Brenda Zanola, correctly pointed out that the hummingbird moth that I had cited in my earlier post, was indeed, the Sphinx Moth aka, a ‘hummingbird’ moth due to its proclivities in the nectar gathering world, but is solidly in the moth category rather than the aviary group. I happened to find one on the sidewalk the other day to photograph…sadly, it may have been due to his imminent demise?

Update on Farley’s health: I wrote most of this post much earlier in the week. Things got worse before they got better for Mr. Farley. While Dave was out of town for his Aunt’s funeral service, I had some dicey moments with Farley who was so agitated by my absence at work on Friday morning that he clawed his way out of his crate.

I ended up missing out on the Light the Night walk for Leukemia that I was hoping to do for Kathy Bussmann.

I think she understood since she is a dog lover too. Here is a photo of the team that walked in the We Are Family! group that night. The best news is that Kathy’s health is on a positive trend and she enjoyed the company of friends and family at the LLA walk. I wish I had been able to join the group!

So much has happened since the last time I posted that I don’t know where to start! As I found out today, if you blinked, you missed it! Although I missed a bunch of the progress today, due to various appointments which took me away from the action here, I happened to have been around for some of the key moments. My best example of this was the incredible rainbow that came along with a late afternoon thundershower just as the driveway/concrete guys were finishing up their day. Dave alerted me to the phenomenon and I whipped out my camera to take this pic.

Upon scanning the rest of the vista, I saw that I had the entire arc in my vision. Can you see it??? I’ve never seen a ‘complete’ rainbow before! It reminds me of childish drawings and unicorns. Not sure why since rainbows do exist but you can’t exactly touch them and yet unicorns….well, who knows! Here is my panorama of the complete arc. 

The driveway crew told me that the rainbow was right over the newly poured concrete! I guess if myths have any basis, that means a pot of gold in our future? Or perhaps it is closer to say that it symbolizes that we just spent a pot of gold! Hmmm! The crew finished the back turn around area (which we now call the helipad) at the days end. 

If the rain doesn’t add too much to the complexity of the underlayment, they will be moving forward with the front sections next.

The masons returned to work this morning despite receiving .40 inches of overnight rain. They were able to finish their part of the outdoor kitchen and the steps off of the terrace. They were rather proud of themselves with the outcome and will return after several days to acid wash the stone to get the masonry joints cleaned up. It will look much better after they do that, but here are some pics. The countertop will come next.

In other news, Dave had an accidental mole kill yesterday but we think the coincidences involved were worth reporting here. How does one achieve an accidental mole kill? He was weeding and using the very guillotine – style edger that we purchased from Garden Savvy, aka Mary Ellen Hetenyi. As an aside, this tool was sharpened by Mary Ellen’s husband, Imre, who is rather Ninja like in his stealth but, particularly in the sharpening area. (I look forward to getting some lessons in this area from him!) So, after noticing that a mole was working in the tomato patch, Dave was working on the weeding and edging and found that he had the accidental fortune of having ‘collided’ with a working mole. I hope it doesn’t upset anyone to show the outcome here…this fella is definitely a bit worse for wear?!?!

The coincidental part of this was that this was the 17th mole kill on our property and occurred on Sept. 17th which was my birthday. The last mole killed here was by me, on Dave’s birthday, June 11th. Whoa! Go figure!

The top news for the farm would be the rain we had over night and again this afternoon. Boy, do we need it. There is more expected and it will be welcome as long as it is not torrential. The fall plantings are all rooted by now so they should not be washed out and will be happy. Our last Farm Report is just shy of 1,400 pounds of harvested produce. The summer crops are slowing down but the fall crops will kick in soon. An example of this is the pie pumpkins we are starting to harvest. Aren’t they lovely?

I plan to cook them for pumpkin puree that I will freeze and use this winter in various ways. Pumpkin pie and breads will be the point of use for many of them. If you have not made a pumpkin pie from fresh pumpkin, you should! Please let me know if you are interested getting one of these and using it for this purpose!

Also interesting is the presence of a new type of humming bird that has appeared to flit about our pots recently. We were used to a more typical hummingbird that had been attracted to our flowers this summer but I recently spotted a newer image of something that I first thought looked more like our killer cicada wasps. After getting a closer look at this hummingbird, I think I have identified it as a Clearwing Moth Hummingbird. Here are some images. The first from the internet, the second from my camera. 

We have sad news to report on two fronts. My Aunt Marie (one of my dad’s dear sisters) died earlier in this month and Dave’s Auntie Jo (his mom’s sister) died peacefully today. Both were surrounded by family in their final days. We cherish these dear ones and keep their memories fresh and foremost in our thoughts as we go about our days.

The construction at Seven Oaks has progressed nicely this week. The last two days were a bit crowded here since we had the masons, (who are working on the finish work of the terrace steps, outdoor kitchen and sidewalks), the concrete guys (who are tearing out the old driveway and some of the old fencing, putting in the new underlayment and pouring the driveway cement), the fence/gate guys (who are placing their posts for future gate at the driveway and other fencing), the electricians (who had to place sleeves under the hardscape of the future sidewalk and into the raw foundation for the outdoor kitchen, the gate openers and the landscape lighting), and the plumber, Mule, (who is running the gas line from the house to the built-in grill). Oh, and of course there are a myriad of trucks of other shapes and sizes  dumping loads of rock, picking up loads of debris along with the concrete trucks which are delivering the goodies. At one point I counted 16 trucks or vehicles parked in the driveway.

It is a dance, to be sure, and I was running my day jobs last week plus trying to keep this all under control. Today it seemed as if there were just too many trades here demanding my attention, so I postponed my work meetings and worked from my home office so that I could be around to give direction when needed. One of the best things that happened this week was that the fence on the driveway turnaround was removed. It was an OMG moment for me since it means that when driving into the back of the property, the view is wide open and unobstructed! 

The concrete guys and masons had a major push this week. The masons started off the week working on the steps and got as far as they could. We decided to add two more steps in order to make the elevation a bit more gentle. Those will be in addition to the ones you see here.

They then moved to the out door cooking area. They formed the walls with cinder block and used all of my instruction for the built in grills to make openings to fit their dimensions and needs.

Then they started cladding the block with the stone veneer that I had left over from the front portico.

They got as far as they could go before needing the floor to be poured on the interior area so they moved on to the sidewalk.

For the step treads and sidewalk, I am repurposing stone from another job site that I’ve had in my stone pile for more than a year. It feels good to get this put to good use and it worked well with the house. 

Yesterday we had a break in the weather and today was lovely. For once, I was thinking, “it is okay if it doesn’t rain today” since I wanted to get all this work done! This break in weather was ideal for pouring exposed aggregate concrete which is quite a process.

First, you chose the color of stone that you wish have exposed on the surface of the finished material. We chose a stone combination called ‘Illinois Glacial’ which consists of a blue/grey/green stone mix of smooth pebbles. The stones look like this.

This mixture of stones is poured into the forms that the concrete crew have meticulously laid out. The truck comes to dump its load and it is all hands on deck.

The guys immediately go into action to spread and smooth the surface.

After it is all smooth, they spray on a retardant to keep the very top from hardening.

Yes, it is pink!

After letting this sit up over their lunch hour, they came back and powerwashed the surface while broom-ing it off to expose the aggregate. This is why it is called exposed aggregate!

The crew will return tomorrow to pour the next segment of cement. After they expose each section, they will let it sit for about three days to let the lye in the concrete rise to the surface. They will then acid wash this lye away and then ultimately seal the whole. Dave and I watched with great interest as they toiled away today. The good weather made for wonderful working conditions.

The good weather has also benefited the fall planting that Dave continues to foster. The summer veggies are slowing down somewhat but he continues to harvest daily. The Farm Report from yesterday shows a tally of 1,327 pounds of produce! We are about at the end of the melon harvest but the tomatoes continue to give us fruits which is great since I am still eager to make lots of pasta sauce for the winter.

Last night I decided to use up some of the basil that I have in pots outside of the kitchen door. My plan was to roast some veggies and cook up some pasta to have a pesto/roasted veggie pasta dish. After getting my veggies (diced eggplant, pepper, onion, cherry tomatoes) into the oven to roast, I started on the pesto.

I used my brother’s pesto recipe since it is reliably tasty and the ingredients are always at hand. I used garlic, basil leaves, Parmesan cheese, pine nuts, oil and water as the main ingredients. 

Pop those into the Cuisinart in the right sequence and, viola, pesto! 

Even tho we use very little of this recipe for our dinner for two, we love to have this mixture left over in the refrigerator for snacking. We spread it on sandwiches and we eat it with crackers.

I will reprise parts of last night’s dinner tonight as I am pulling eggplant patties from the freezer to add to the leftover roasted veggies for our simple dinner which I will serve after a tour of the job site. We are so pleased with the progress but chilled enough to need a sweater this evening!

We awoke this morning and were greeted by darkened skies and a threat of rain that eventually became a reality! In other words, we had rain this morning! Several friends texted me to share that they were excited for us since rain would be our salve! I tried to sound very enthusiastic in my replies, but basically, it would take a week of rain make up for what we missed out on in the last 8 weeks! Although the rain has currently let up enough for the Cardinals to play baseball and the Rams fans to do some tailgating, there is some prediction for more rain later tonight, so we have our fingers crossed.

One of the best parts of getting some rain this morning meant that Farmer Dave had a day off from the constant watering. Not knowing that the rain would amount to much, we still ran our sprinkler system in the front landscape beds since the oak trees out front sap everything they can from the other trees, so there is no amount of over watering out there that could happen at this point.

I was very glad that Dave had some time to read the latest Organic Gardening magazine in our quiet time this morning. I had managed to read it while waiting at a doctor’s office last week and we are both huge fans of this publication – so much so that we even read the ads with interest! You know you are too busy when you have too little time to read! Arg! We are resolving to fix this in the future!

Dave then worked indoors on his record keeping after weighing yesterday’s harvest and proudly presented me with the Farm Report with totals to date as of yesterday. Our cumulative harvest is 1,275.953 lbs!  Cantaloupe alone accounts for 235 lbs of this, but cukes are still in the lead with 314 lbs. Tomatoes follow at 216 lbs., strawberries 159, eggplants at 105 and potatoes at 83 lbs. Of course these are just the leading crops…he has details on everything else. The future contenders in the weight category will most likely be the pumpkins which are looking pretty sweet right now. They are pie pumpkins so they won’t be enormous, but we will be looking to make some pumpkin puree for pies and even some pumpkin butter, which my grandmother used to make and sounds intriguing.

I, on the other hand, had to jump right into kitchen chores which is something I love to do but sometimes gets kind of hectic. Whenever I walk past the prep kitchen refrigerators, I’m constantly reminded of the produce waiting to be addressed – whether preserved or cooked in one way or another. Today, I was facing massive amounts of red hot peppers, countless melons, and a sizable number of tomatoes which were hiding out in the laundry room. Don’t get me wrong, I was delighted to have these quantities to have to deal with today!

I started out by cutting up the tomatoes to get them on the stove and had just enough to make some meat-less pasta sauce using 30 lbs of tomatoes, our green peppers, and some other ingredients such as garlic and mushrooms from the store. While these were cooking, I prepped the red pepper for some additional Sriracha Sauce, this time, wisely using rubber gloves which were not fun to work with but hopefully protected my hands!

I had enough peppers to make a triple batch and so decided this would be a time saver in the end. Whoa, a triple batch calls not only for 3lbs of peppers but for 4 cups of peeled, blanched, sliced, garlic! That is a lot of garlic!

It also consumed 6.75 cups of rice wine vinegar, something we have not been able to find in the economy size, even tho we checked at Sam’s Club this weekend!

Oh, what delicious smells have been wafting from the kitchen all day long!

While the masses of batches of chopped and prepped items cooked away, I found time to cut up 10 of the cantaloupe and will take some to my mother as well as a family dinner tonight. Bummer that I will have to stop my processing to attend said dinner, since I still have sauces on the stove cooking away and will have to divert my attention to see a visiting nephew, Henry, who is in town briefly, on his way driving from Boston to LA. Of course, I’m happy to get a chance to visit with him! Here is some of the Sriracha in progress.

My sister, Lisa, served some of our farm produce at dinner which was great. She served our cantaloupe slices as part of the hors oeuvres, then roasted our potatoes and made a salad of cucumbers and tomatoes. Here she is about to put the potatoes into the oven.

I had to run back home to finish up the Sriracha and pasta sauce processing before she served dessert…which was a wonderful blueberry pie! I hope everyone understood this need for an early departure from Lisa’s lovely dinner. After 12 hours or more in the kitchen with processing, I am still waiting to pull jars out of the pressure cooker! Burned fingers along the way due to my negligence. Here are the 12 jars of Sriracha plus the lovely 8 pints of pasta sauce!

Such a great weekend!

XOXO