Are you familiar with the sweater curse? If you are a knitter you are. Another version of the proverbial curse is to attribute the same to family members or friends. You spend hours and hours — weeks, even months of your time knitting some article of clothing or an item that you hope they will enjoy and will offer them a piece of your heart, and it gets relegated to a back closet somewhere or worse, treated with disregard: on the floor, the dog chews on it, you get the idea.

I would like to propose a version of the sweater curse as it applies to organic produce. As a gardener, you spend hours and hours preparing the soil, agonizing over organic, heirloom seeds. Start those seeds indoors, baby them along, harden them off and finally plant them in your carefully tilled garden. Then they are tended: protected from hail and varmints, heat and cold,  and bugs meticulously hand-picked and disposed of. Weeds kept at bay with a hoe — back breaking work, but worth it for the result of wholesome, organic sustenance for your table.

Then comes preservation! Picking, shelling, chopping, pitting, preparing, mixing. Jars to sterilize, boiling pots of water to heat in the thick of summer. The canning, the checking of lids. All in the name of quality organic sustenance for your family.

Eggs! What of organic eggs? The maintenance of the flock, the cleaning of the coop. The feeding, the watering, the doctoring when needed. All for those organic wonders to place in a cardboard carton.

I admit, when I hand over a basket of produce, a jar of jam, a carton of eggs, it is difficult to let go.  This is so much more than mere groceries — it is true sustenance, obtained by many hours of planning and laboring. I am hopeful that the recipient will realize what a gift from the heart it truly is. I know when I am the lucky recipient of such — I take it for what I hope it is worth. I am grateful — excited — wanting to be worthy of such a treat.

To me, the best I can do is to return the favor, in kind. Some of my own produce that has made it this year, a carton of eggs, a few jars of wild raspberry jam. Or even, perhaps, a hand-knitted hat or mittens in preparation for the colder months to come.

*Image by Swedish Folk Artist Elsa Beskow.

We broke down and got a “Have a Heart” trap to get that pesky skunk that keeps skulking around here at night. It’s been set and waiting for a week now. So far we have caught:

2 of our own turkeys

4 of our hens

The neighbor’s cat

I was getting pretty discouraged until Bean came in screaming that there was something in the trap! And it is black and white! Hurry Mommy! Hurry!

I rushed out, not sure what the heck I was going to do about this situation, beings Mark was not home and I am not getting near a smelly critter locked up in the trap. Indeed, the closer I got, the more black and white fur I saw, wriggling around in there.

This is what I found:

Does he look contrite? I am hoping so . . .

Step one:

Wait for a huge blizzard that shuts down the entire state for two days.

Step two:

Drive your dad nuts because he is home from work and you are stir crazy in the house because you have been cooped up for two days.

Step three:

Get your dad to start telling you stories about the BIGGEST BLIZZARD EVER that hit when he was a kid and they had a blizzard that BURIED all the CARS and they couldn’t EVEN SEE THEM! They had to dig down into the pickup box to get the shovel to dig themselves out! You could SKI up to the second story window!WOW!!!

Step four:

Listen bug-eyed to your dad’s story.

Step five:

Start talking about how COOL it would be if the snow COVERED THE HOUSE!

Step six:

Get bundled up all the while talking about the BIGGEST SNOWMAN EVER in the Guiness Book of World’s Records.

ALL this adds up to this:

. . . so you can build the BIGGEST SNOWMAN EVER!!!

Well, both my cameras broke. So I can’t take pictures right now. No idea what the deal is but they won’t hold a charge. Either of them. On top of that Dell sent me a new computer, which broke and they sent a replacement which is different than the computer I ordered – albeit better – however none of my graphics programs will work on it because of the accelerated graphics card. So now I have two new Dell computers, one broken, one nice but not useable. Dell keeps calling me every other day to tell me my real replacement is “in production.” Remember what I said about Dell a while back? Well, let’s just not go there right now m’kay?

I have 40 lbs. of peaches sitting on my counter. The twins are insisting on “honey spiced peaches.” Which is fine, I like to make them happy. And it does sound yummy. But, remember all that big talk I had about not doing any more canning. Well, let’s just not go there EITHER — m’kay? Luckily my mother-in-law has given me all her canning stuff. I have the goods, the equipment and the eager diners.

Yesterday I put up about 16 lbs. of freezer pickles. I must say, they are scrumptious. But now I have no freezer space.

No pictures! But here are recipes:

Honey-Spiced Peaches

Makes about 3 (32-ounce) quarts

What you will need:

8 pounds peaches (about 24 small)

1 cup sugar

4 cups water

2 cups honey

1-1/2 tsp whole allspice

3/4 tsp whole cloves

3 sticks cinnamon

3 (32 oz) quart glass preserving jars

Directions:

1. PREPARE boiling water canner. Heat jars and lids in simmering water until ready to use. Do not boil. Set bands aside.

2. WASH, peel and pit peaches. Leave peaches in halves or cut into slices, if desired. Treat fruit to prevent browning.

3. COMBINE sugar, water and honey. Cook until sugar dissolves. Add peaches in syrup one layer at a time and cook for 3 minutes.

4. PACK hot peaches into hot jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Add 1/2 tsp allspice, 1/4 tsp cloves and 1 stick cinnamon to each jar.

5. LADLE hot syrup over peaches leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Wipe rim. Center hot lid on jar. Apply band and adjust until fit is fingertip tight.

6. PROCESS filled jars in a boiling water canner for 25 minutes, adjusting for altitude. Remove jars and cool. Check lids for seal after 24 hours. Lid should not flex up and down when center is pressed.

Moving on to pickles. I went out to the garden and found bucket after bucket of cucumbers ready to go. The twins have been eating the cucumbers right out of the garden like bananas — so I had no idea I had this many ripe cukes. I went to work finding a good recipe, and I wasn’t in the mood to do another canning bath so I researched these freezer pickles.

Surprisingly, these pickles are really, really good. Better than I thought they would be. I cut down on the sugar by two cups. Doesn’t seem to make a difference. And I did use organic turbinado sugar. And red onions from the garden.

4 pounds pickling cucumbers, sliced

8 cups thinly sliced onions

1/4 cup salt

3/4 cup water

4 cups sugar

2 cups cider vinegar

Combine cucumbers, onions, salt and water in two large bowls. Let stand at room temperature for 2 hours. Do not drain. Add sugar and vinegar; stir until sugar dissolves. Pack into 1-pint freezer containers, leaving 1-in. headspace. Cover and freeze for up to 6 weeks. ( I think they’ll keep much longer than this) Thaw at room temperature for 4 hours before serving.

What I did was use up every empty jar I had in the house that had a lid. Vlasic jars, salsa jars, jelly jars. Which is nice because it doesn’t take expensive specialty “canning jars” with special lids. Courtesy of Mother-in-law I got a ton of jars to use for this. Thanks Charlotte!

Mark and I went for a nice ride last night. He rode Loki the new big boy and I rode Bean’s mare Stella who is as sweet as pie when she is out with other horses. Alone she is horribly barn sour and no fun at all. I need to work on that.

Yaya, the dehydrator was a cheap Nesco one. I tried to find it on Amazon but they don’t carry the same one. I think it was made specially for the big box store where I got it, and as such will not hold up for very long. I have my eye on a really nice one from Cabelas once I can save up my pennies! I really think dehydrating is the way to go and I am dehydrating about 10lbs. of these peaches. I’ll use them in granola for the twins over the winter.

Edited to add:

This is my bad — I wasn’t very clear on this and Yaya’s comment made me realize it. I didn’t freeze the odd jars, those are in the fridge for quick eating. I did use the can-or-freeze jars that I had handy to freeze. I also found some recipes where they just did ziplock for the freezing of the pickles and that worked for them.

Turnips! Turnips are the garden now. Usually what I make with turnips is an awesome chicken or turkey frame soup. But alas, it has been 90 + degrees, not exactly soup weather. So, I’ve been dicing and blanching and freezing for fall.

Last night I heard our little Sheltie dog barking up a storm. She stays in at night, but really wanted outside badly! I knew something was afoot. I groggily opened my eyes and nudged Mark and then –ewww!! skunk! Unfortunately, Lena our big black shepherd dog got the brunt of it. Oh boy did she stink. She did keep the offending rodent away from the red hens, though. A large bottle of white vinegar took care of it, although she is still mildly pungent. I hope the bugger doesn’t come back.

For walking-around spending money, I play in a local folksy type band. It is a lot of fun. I play bass guitar. We have a fun outdoor gig scheduled for this weekend. I am pretty excited about that. If you are reading this blog from a local area, please stop by and see us. We are at the Firehouse downtown. It’s a really cool venue. Non-smoking — yay! And its an actual converted firehouse from the days when they had horse-drawn firewagons. I remember going there as a kid with my dad and eating hamburgers that were huge! The size of my plate. The gig starts at 9 and goes until 1 (yikes!)

Other than that I have been just plain lazy. But hey, it’s summer, it’s hot and I have a hammock in the backyard under the aspen trees

Last year I participated in an eat local challenge. I wrote a short blog about it here: blackhills.wordpress.com. Our “big city” paper found it and came out last night to watch and photograph us preparing a local meal. Our spring has been so wet and cold after seven years of intense drought, that the garden is really behind. We still have lilacs blooming for heaven’s sake! With not much on hand, I was in a panic on what to make.

The Farmer’s Market proved to be a dud except for some hot house tomatoes and some baby red onions. I did get a big bag of spinach, but my kids ate it on the way home (I have weird kids who actually LIKE vegetables). I did have eggs. Lots of eggs! The hens must be getting tons of bugs to eat and other good stuff from wandering around the place. They have also been hidey-holing a nest which I found. I tested all the eggs*, and they were good, so I knew I had eggs to work with.

So here is what I had:

From the Farmer’s Market: tomatoes , red onions
In the garden: lettuce, spinach, cilantro, radishes , rhubarb
In the freezer: a side of buffalo, shredded zucchini from last year’s garden
From the neighbor: Jersey milk & cream
From the three red hens: eggs, lots of eggs!
From my sunroom: limes from a little lime tree I purchased from the hardware store a few years ago
From a local winery: a dry red wine

What did I put together?

Grilled buffalo steaks marinated in a red-wine cilantro-lime marinade
zucchini souffle made with eggs and red onions
A beautiful salad of lettuce, spinach, radish and red onions
Homemade rhubarb ice cream (this was to die for!)

The reporter and photographer stayed for dinner and really enjoyed it. I’ll post a link to the article when it comes out. Sorry no pictures, but I was so nervous when they were shooting while I was chopping and marinating I didn’t even think about it.

Thanks to the hens though, who keep laying without fail — keeping us in eggs.

* to test eggs, drop them gently into a bucket or pan of cold water. If they sink they are good. If they are floaters, feed them to the dogs.

We finally got some produce out of the garden!

Colored Pencil on Bristol Board