Backyard Farmgals

I love beets.  I love the way they smell, the earthiness of their taste, I even love the way they stain your hands pink.  The problem with beets is that I feel there are so few ways to prepare them, and I think that people get bored with the same old steamed beets.  I love mine roasted with sea salt, olive oil and balsamic, but that heats up the kitchen, and in 100ºF weather, I can do without heating up the kitchen! A friend gave me a recipe for beet salad, and I have given it a bit of a Farmgal makeover, adding a few things, and getting rid of a few ingredients.  This is lovely and fresh.  Best of all, it is raw and requires not one bit of heat (which is good news for my kitchen!).  All you need is a mandolin with a small julienne attachment - just be sure to use the finger guard, those beets are slippery!  My seven-year-old gobbled this down, the four-year-old was a bit more cautious but eventually ate it too.  It's tasty and has definitel...

Luck would have it that I would be called off from my usual job on Friday, which meant an extra day of camping.  We had planned a trip to Moosehorn Lake in the High Uintah's months ago, but only for one night.  Giddy with excitement we threw our stuff into our 1970 Rancho El Rae Camper (It's vintage and oh... so... HOT!), grabbed our dog Paisley, and headed up hoping to find a spot near our reserved spot on Saturday.  Luck found us once again, and we were able to switch our reservation to the spot next door and stay an extra night without moving.  Hooray! Nature made rest stop! Paisley came along for the fun, she loved camping and especially enjoyed hiking. Camping is what my boys live for, they LOVE it!  Wilderness, fishing, hiking, campfires, yummy dinners cooked over a fire, and places for all their endless energy to go!  Camping is something I wish I had more of when I was a kid, but I think I am getting a second chance at that - kind of makin...

Part of this whole Backyard Farmgals gig is that I get to misbehave... often!  Which really, misbehaving comes very easily to me... ask anyone, they will tell you!  I'm bad... I was greeted at the farm this morning by an obscene vegetable.  Really this is the most suggestive vegetable I have ever laid eyes on!  I will show you a picture... you can take it from here!!! An almost 3-foot-long zucchini!  I planted this very odd heirloom variety of climbing zucchini called Zucchino Rampicante which is a cross between a pumpkin and zucchini.  It is a glorious vine, it is covering a teepee trellis at the farm and one of the cattle panel arches over a walkway.  I had checked the squashes on the arch yesterday, they were getting big, but overnight, one of them exploded in length!  I quickly picked the zucchini and went to find Jules... Jules was cleaning Cluckingham Palace while I was supposedly weeding.  Boy was she going to be surprised! ...

Let's talk slaw... I despise the drippy, gloppy, limp cabbage slaws that seem to be sent my way.  Cabbage, in my book, was never meant to be overpowered with mayonnaise and goop.  I like crisp, beautiful slaw with intense flavors.  I guess you could call me a texture and flavor junkie.  I love food that makes you think about what's in your mouth, that leaves you with a smile and knowing that you have experienced something extraordinary.  This recipe is right up my alley... It comes from a fanatastic site called Sprouted Kitchen , a very earthy and healthy site with great photography.  Intense flavors, gorgeous pictures, fresh beautiful ingredients are all of what you will find on this site.  Check it out, there are some very original ideas that are sure to kick your cooking up a notch.  This recipe is easy, fast, healthy, and tasty.  Thanks Sprouted Kitchen... CHILI LIME CABBAGE SLAW Adapted from Sprouted Kitchen z...

It's raining, my house is clean, kids are napping, laundry is folded, bread is baking in the oven.  I love days like this.  The only thing missing is chocolate!!!  Sooo... I made this lovely little chocolate pie to fill the void and make the perfect Saturday. This pie recipe came from a farm magazine that I love: Hobby Farm .  The magazine has great information for small farmer's like me.  Over the course of it's publication, I have learned a lot about farm animals, composting, crops, and it has some delicious recipes.  You can find it at larger farm stores and large booksellers should have it in the periodical section. This is fairly simple to make.  The filling isn't baked, but the eggs have to be tempered.  Go slowly and stir like mad when tempering to avoid scrambled eggs in your filling.  Don't rush the process, add a little milk at a time.  The crust is what I think makes the pie.  I love the almonds.  I am a n...

Sweet relief, it is raining.  After 38 days of dry, almost suffocating heat, day 39 has brought rain; heavy rain that sits on the mountains, soaking into our parched desert.  I think it's raining because of all my rain dancing, chanting, and meditating.  Julie thinks it raining because she finally washed her car.  She may be right!  There is an audible sigh from the farm as the water sinks deep into the soil.  A short break from the heat, July has just begun and historically, it is hot and parched.  For now, the chickens dash into the rain looking for worms, the horse whinnies and trots in circles, and the goat bucks all in great appreciation. About a month ago, I noticed a beautiful nest being build low in one of the aspens back by the farm plot.  Bits of twigs, strings, weeds I had just recently pulled, and straw from the pathways were all interwoven in this beautiful tapestry of a nest.  A bird's nest is bits of it's life all twisted and...

I have discovered that the things I tend to plant in the garden are things that have a piece of someone attached to them.  Not literally, of course, but in the sense that there is a memory or a flavor, a smell or a shape that brings a flood of memories into my mind.  Seeing as I grew up in the garden and was raised by different people at certain moments each in their own gardens, I have hundreds of memories in the garden and with food.  Garlic is one of the most powerful memories for me.  In my mind garlic is the equivalent to Grandpa Wood. Grandpa Wood has been one of the most influential people in my life.  He was practical, knowledgeable, wise, earthy, sustaining, unafraid, dignified, and tough.  He loved to garden.  He kept a salt shaker in the garden for any of us swiping a tomato to eat on the spot.  He talked me through my first gardens, congratulated my triumphs, and taught me when I failed.  When first married, we bought th...