Every time I read something about how farmers get too many subsidies, guarantees and benefits, I think about how often they lose their entire crop. Most of the farmers I know have a major loss of their crop every few years. I wonder how the typical business owner would survive after losing his entire year's income?
I saw a recent article that said cattlemen were making about $5 a head on cattle.
Tonight we had steaks on the grill again, with a tomato and zucchini casserole that I found a recipe for online, using both tomatoes and zucchini from the garden. The casserole was quite good, I was afraid it would be really watery but it wasn't. (I left out the garlic in the recipe, of course.) I'll be curious to see how well it reheats.
Sort of like a ratatouille but without the eggplant and with some cheese and bread crumbs.
We had some of yesterday's zucchini cake for dessert.
I picked about 4 pounds of 4th of July tomatoes today, plus a 1.1 and a 1.4 lb Italian Heirloom and an 8 ounce Celebrity.
My wife has decided that blueberries and zucchini aren't a great pairing, I tend to agree, something clashes.
I'll put the chocolate zucchini cake in the oven shortly.
We had tomato and salami sandwiches using tomatoes from the garden.
We had steak, baked potato and sauteed mushrooms for supper tonight.
I'm starting to get 2 or more ripe tomatoes nearly every day, mostly 4th of July ones at this point, but I see ripening fruit in several other varieties as well. The 4th of July tomatoes are usually just under 2 inches in diameter and weigh around 2 ounces each.
You could try what I do--stop the mixer, add the flour, take a piece of parchment and wrap it around the bowl as a cover, then start the mixer and let it run for 20 seconds or so, after which flour spills are unlikely. (I picked up this tip in an online class, if that had been the only thing I learned from that class it would have been worth the class fee.)
Why parchment instead of a towel? Well, if for some reason the mixer blade catches the parchment, it just rips. If it were to catch the towel, it'd drag it into the bowl. I've never had it happen, though.
We had take-out.
I recently read a story where larger animals like deer and mountain lions are becoming more urbanized, they're willing to avoid or ignore the cars and the people to get to easier sources of food, water and shelter.
The Strawberry-Blueberry Zucchini bread is probably not a recipe I'll repeat.
I had another piece of it today and while the flavors have mellowed out, making it less assertively cinnamon, as my wife put it, it isn't worth the carbs.
As I understand it, the reason too high or too low moisture results in fruit falling off is that the vines don't get enough of the right nutrients. Not sure what nutrients lend themselves to stronger vines though.
I picked a billy club today, a 44 ounce zucchini. It was totally hidden except from one angle.
My son made black raspberry syrup last year, then used the residue from removing the seeds with a Foley to infuse some black raspberry vodka.
