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.

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.

My neighbor has a Jersey cow. She calved on Tuesday and had twins! Unfortunately, according to my friend, twins in cows means the babies will be sterile. Sad news for her as one of the cuties is a heifer calf and she was hoping to raise this calf for a milker. But they are still all kinds of cute:

Momma cow won’t let us get too close

The cuteness! Oh the cuteness!