Big turnip

I planted a fall garden in August and then went to Houston in September for three months. While I was gone it got pretty cold, but a neighbor put some blankets on the garden for a few of the coldest days.  When I got back a week ago, it got very cold:  down below ten degrees.  But because there were four inches of snow and blankets over the beds, most of the vegetables survived, including this huge turnip, which weighs almost two pounds.

What do you do with a turnip this big?  I made a pot of soup along the lines of Leek and Potato soup, only it was Turnip and Onion soup.  I fried some bacon, then sauteed some onion in the fat, added the turnip and some water, and simmered till the turnip was soft. Then I pureed the soup and added some cream.  Good!

Grissini

Grissini are sort of like long skinny biscuits, although they are baked longer, so they get hard.  Maybe they are like long skinny biscotti then.  Or dog biscuits for people.  (I found out that dogs like grissini too.)

Anyway you use the same sort of ingredients you use in biscuit-making, and you make a stiff dough as for biscuits.  But then you take a piece about the size of a super ball or a marble, and you roll it out to make a long thin worm, and you bake it.  It's a lot like playing with playdough.

I found out that if you roll these worms out with two hands, gradually spreading your fingers apart as you roll, it makes them stretch to ten inches long, which is what the recipe specifies.  Well, maybe some of mine weren't quite that long.

Here's the recipe I used, from an old Gourmet:

Yield: Makes 32 breadsticks Active Time: 1 hr Total Time: 1 1/2 hr 1/2 cup rye flour 3/4 cup all-purpose flour, plus some extra for dusting the counter 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon sugar 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 cup Kalamata or other brine-cured black olives (3 oz), pitted and finely chopped 1/2 cup well-shaken buttermilk 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature 1 large egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water to make egg wash Special equipment: parchment paper Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment. Whisk together flours, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt in a large bowl, then stir in olives, buttermilk, and butter until a dough forms. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead 5 or 6 times.  You might have to add more flour if the dough is too wet. Halve dough and form each half into a 12-inch log. Cut each log into 16 pieces. Roll each piece into a 10-inch-long rope and arrange 1/2 inch apart on lined baking sheets. Brush breadsticks lightly with some of egg wash. Bake, switching position of sheets halfway through baking, until golden and crisp, 25 to 30 minutes total. Cool on sheets on a rack 30 minutes.

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/printerfriendly/Black-Olive-Grissini-235790#ixzz13ChipLOC

Beware the Packsaddle Worm!

Today I got stung by a packsaddle worm. 

Here's a picture (I didn't take it; it's from a website):

It's been a while since I've had the "stingin' worm" experience.  Years ago, I used to get stung pretty frequently while looking at my corn patch.  I could never see the bug that got me.  Finally somebody told me that there were these almost invisible bugs in corn that sting very badly, called packsaddles or stinging worms. 

I forgot about them, though, because for years it didn't happen to me. Then it did, today.  I wonder why the stinging worms came back.  Maybe it's because we've had such a wet, hot year.  Today I researched the packsaddle worm online and found out that their scientific name is Acharea stimulea.  Presumably "stimulea" means "it hurts."

A PBS site about American words supplied some quotations illustrating the use of the word "packsaddle," rather like the OED does:

From 1884:   "I wonder if Harris ever saw a pack saddle. Well, its as putty as a rainbow, just like most all of the devil ' s contrivances, and when you crowd one of em on a fodderblade you ' d think that forty yaller jackets had stung you all in a bunch. "

From 1925 Dargan Highland Annals:   "You said I must git another big mess ' fore the frost struck ' em heavy, an ' that field was plum full o ' pack-saddlers. One stung me ever ' time I laid my hand on a roas ' in ' year. Hit hurts worse ' n a hornet fer a minute, an ' it ' s harder on a body ' s temper than a hornet is."

It does hurt pretty much like a hornet for a minute, but then it stops hurting; however, the little swollen bites remain.

Anyway, if you have a corn patch, don't let little kids go in there, and if you go in yourself, wear long sleeves and/or gloves. 

colorful produce

The other day I harvested a big bucket of vegetables.

Included in the haul are:

yellow squash (Early Straightneck)
sweet red Italian peppers (Jimmy Nardello variety)
green beans (McCaslan)
purple beans (Louisiana purple pod)
Cherry tomatoes (Matt's Wild Cherry)

luna moth

I saw a luna moth at the kitchen door the other night.  This wasn't the hugest one I've ever seen, but it was really cool looking.  It kept banging itself against the door, and the only way I could make it stop was to turn off all the lights inside.

Another visit to Three Sisters Farm

The Cookeville Master Gardener's group made a field trip last week to Three Sisters Farm near Cookeville.  The farm has a booth every Saturday at the Cookeville farmer's market.  There really are three sisters who do the work of growing the vegetables, along with their mother.

Here is Ashley, welcoming the group to the farm:

The first thing I noticed was baby figs growing on a fig tree. I think Wendy said it was a Brown Turkey fig:

Nearby was a companion plant to figs, arugula.  In Italy, figs are often served with arugula.  The arugula had been under a low tunnel or hoop house, which you can see in the background.

The vegetable garden is laid out in neat wide rows with mowed paths.

Although it was pretty hot that evening, everybody enjoyed walking around and looking at all the food.  We saw tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, pumpkins, okra, peppers, gourds, and these interesting long beans.

Long beans are in the same family with black-eyed peas, and they are easier to grow in hot weather than regular beans.  Insects don't seem to bother them. Some of them are almost two feet long!

Another unusual vegetable we saw was this red okra:

The farm also grows and sells flowers. The sunflowers were particularly spectacular when we visited.

Some of us went down to the barn to see some new baby goats.  They were very sweet and tame, and you could pick them up and cuddle them and kiss their lips, and they didn't mind at all, even though both were billies.

These two little billies are twins.

After the tour we had watermelon, and chips and salsa, and we sat in the shade and talked.  Trevor told me about his deer hunting plans for fall, and he climbed up into a deer stand in the backyard.

Blueberry Ice Cream

Tom and I picked thirty pounds of blueberries yesterday, at Hidden Springs Orchard, near Cookeville, TN.  That amounted to about 8 gallons or so.  They were very beautiful and sweet.

I made jam this morning of course, using a pretty straightforward recipe:  9 cups of berries to five cups of sugar, cook to gelling point, ladle into jars, process 10 minutes.

Also this evening I made blueberry ice cream. OMG. The best ever.  Just the color alone would be reason to make this, but it is also awesomely good.

I used this recipe from an old Gourmet, but I messed with it a little:  I used creme fraiche for part of the cream.  Creme fraiche is sort of like sour cream.  I make it by warming cream to 86 degrees, then adding a little buttermilk (1/4 cup per quart of cream) and letting it sit on the counter overnight. It thickens and gets tart and is good in everything, savory or sweet.

Also, the recipe instructs you to strain the blueberry/sugar mixture after cooking it, but I didn't, and neither did most of the cooks who reviewed the recipe on the epicurious website.  The ice cream has a little texture of blueberry seeds and skins, but that seems perfectly ok.

So go to Hidden Springs Orchard, pick your blueberries and go to it. You only need two cups of blueberries for this recipe, so you could just buy them at the Cookeville farmer's market on Saturday from Brinna.