Weather Change is Coming

 Promises to be cooler, good; more rain; bad.  Still no hay.

I read Flower Lady's blog this morning and one of her followers posted a comment about gardens that appealed to me greatly.

She called her Florida lush gardens 'raffish'.   I loved it.  Here is the definiation of raffish:

adjective

adjective: raffish

1. unconventional and slightly disreputable, especially in an attractive manner.

   
   

   "his raffish air"

   
   

 That is so much more appealing than weedy, overgrown, untrimmed and all  those ugly things we call  our 'raffish' gardens.

Here is a picture of mine:(one section of raffishness)

Thank you Lynn McIntosh.

Reading Flower Lady's blog always is uplifting; she has a gift.

I went out this morning to check  around and found the grass was very wet.  I wore my Muck boots so my feet stayed dry but I was  kicking up dew drops as I walked.

General Doings

I went into the new chicken yard to check around and decided to let the new  girls out.  They are almost as big as the old ones. All the old chickens (rooster and 4 old hens) went inside and immediately the new girls dashed to the back of their enclosed pen!. Finally one came  out while DH and I were watching.....the rooster went crazy after  her.  Don't know if he had evil intentions or was just excited by a new female prospect.  He  is really much too old but he is still very 'active'.  We rescued her and locked them back up again.....will  try again.

This is a picture I took looking west out of the chicken yard.  The trees are our west property line.

 

The cows in the far west pasture heard the ATV and headed to the barn where DH feeds them.  It is just a small heard of the two milk  cows, their babies, and a couple of others.

They recognize voices and truck and tractor sounds too.

I took some long shots for more perspective of the yard layout and the beds.  Notice the ATV tracks through the wet grass.  DH was heading east to the drive to go check  the beef herd.

 Smokehouse on the left ;house on right (not seen) and looking east at Kerria (old Ash Tree bed)

This is a long shot of the front yard



and this is the alley way between  the tree and shrub border and the house.  It really shields us from the road now.  There are just a few spots to fill in.  We only have one tree left out by the road.

I cooked our first eggplant and the squash from yesterday for lunch. I made a sort of pasta primavera (used canned tomatoes), onions and the sliced squash sauteed in olive oil with a dash of basil over frozen fettuccine that I had made and cooked some time back.  DH never complained about the lack of meat.....we did have grilled (on my grill pan on the range) egg plant slices.  I coated the pan with olive oil and sprinkled on salt and pepper.  Finished it all off with shredded Parmesan cheese.

This was bread day but our granddaughter called and talked while I was in the process so it wasn't ready for lunch.  We had a hot slice later and called  it dessert.

Weird Squash - Test Pie

We got a scattered heavy frost this morning and are supposed to get down to 28° soon.

After milking yesterday morning, DH and I loaded up the sweet potatoes and took them to the MIlk Parlor.  I sill have to clean and sort them and then will bring them to the house unless I can get the hallway in the barn up to desired temperature.  We use an oil filled heater out there.

We also brought the squash in and temporarily stored them in the west chicken house.  It is insulated with bales of straw in the ceiling but will still be too cold so I will move them to the barn also.

I was so curious about what kind of flesh I would get from the strange shaped ones.....they were supposed to be Butternut seeds and not saved seeds.  Some were quite normal but large and others almost round.

Here is the one I tested.



I used a ruler to give some idea of the size,




I wanted to try the Victorio strainer with it.  I have never used it on pumpkin.  If I am satisfied with the results, it saves two steps:  Scraping the flesh from the skins after cooking and pureeing the remains .


I cut the squash into smaller pieces, added some water, covered and baked at 400 until tender.  It didn't take very long,  under an hour.

Then I ran it through the strainer using the pumpkin cone.  It went very quickly.  The only negative and it may not be too bad is some very tiny pieces of skin also came through.  I am curious about that.

I removed the shield that drains the pulp into the bowl before I took the picture.


The real test is now in the oven.....I made a pie this morning using the recipe from Joy of  Cooking.  The pie made too much for my 9 inch dish.  I will bake the leftover in a custard cup.  Next time I would simply reduce the amount of cream by 1/2 cup or use another recipe......or try to find my 10-inch pie plate!

Lorraine, I also spread some mincemeat over a part to test.  I hope I marked the edge of the crust enough that I can tell because I want to test it first.

I got three one-pound packages with one cup left over from this squash......this means I have enough squash to make approximately 50 pies!  I need to give some away but I am probably the only person I know who would use this method to make a pie (or 50 pies).

Will report back  later.