Harvest findings and whatnot . . . especially whatnot

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I’ve learned a few things during this busy harvest period, and I’ll share a few of them with you, my Gentle Reader, because I love ya, I really do:

• Basil is not the only thing you can make pesto out of! Take a look at this link on how to make kale pesto! Here I’ve been jealously guarding my basil against the frost, just because I hadn’t made my winter’s supply of pesto for the freezer yet, and now I find out that I can make delicious pesto from kale! (And kale is cold hearty, a blessing for procrastinating gardeners everywhere.) Which reminds me . . .
• I planted oodles of kale this spring. Gobs. Multitudinous plants. Don’t laugh at me. Please. I planted it in March, when I was starved for good, garden-grown greens. I sold quite a bit at my farmer’s market table, but we’re done with farmer’s market for this year, yet our kale is still going strong. What to do with it? Here’s an idea: make juice and freeze it! Pulling out this superfood juice will be so refreshing in the middle of the cold, long winter here. We’ll drink our vitamins! So I’m going to make this kale juice, out of kale and celery and ginger for my freezer. I’m going to include carrots to the recipe,  so I’ll have to get out there in the mud and dig up the rest of my carrots, already. And that brings to mind:
• Did you know that carrots–if left untended in the ground–just keep growing and growing and growing, until they are nearly as big as the state of Rhode Island? And–get this–you can still eat them, at that? They aren’t, say, as tender and sweet as when they are the size of your little finger, but still–it’s nice to know, isn’t it?

Exhibit A: a Very Large Carrot, indeed: and still edible, incredible!

• Also! A few select carrots, when they’ve decided in their orange (or red, as above) heads that they simply are finished with the growing stuff, already, put out absolutely beautiful seed heads (you can see some in the background behind Mack, above) which make perfectly lovely cut flowers that last for quite awhile! I’m trying to figure out the timing on how I can have a row of carrots going to seed next year as early as possible, so I can tuck some in to my farmer’s market bouquets.
• It’s a lesson I didn’t know: Carrots Get Tired Too. Carrots, in this way, are like mothers, don’t you think?
• I had the privilege of spending yesterday afternoon enjoying my granddaughter Anya. It was a beautiful, cool, golden fall day and we spent most of the afternoon out in it. Anya loves to “frow” things into our little pond, so we collected a bucket of rocks and headed down there to do just that. When we ran out of rocks, we broke sticks up into pieces and threw them. I can say honestly that there was absolutely nothing I would have rather done, then sit down by the pond and “frow” things into the pond with my granddaughter. Amalia was just feeling better, after a bout with a nasty virus that kept her out of the thick of things for several days, and little Mack was doing his best to out-frow us, pitching bigger limbs and making bigger splashes.

It took a bit to help Anya learn the difference between a “drop” and a decent “frow.” Here, I do think she got it!

• Here’s an interesting bit from Huffington Post on 11 Reasons Why You Should Drink Coffee. I suspect that you, Gentle Reader, like me, don’t need a blog article to tell you why you should drink coffee. It’s Hot, and Tasty, and Good. So you drink it. But still . . . it’s kind of nice to know that there are plenty of great reasons to drink coffee, including (get this!) According to a study done in 2005, “nothing else comes close” to providing as many antioxidants as coffee. While fruits and vegetables also have tons of antioxidants–we discuss them all the time, don’t we, and we’ve agreed that they are worth seeking out–the human body seems to absorb the most from coffee.

So go ahead and pour yourself another cup, Gentle Reader. It’s okay. I certainly intend to, believe me. 🙂

• Here’s something interesting. In China, cash-strapped farmers are turning to (get this!) growing huge rats for fun and profit. It seems that the rat meat is a popular delicacy in some parts of China and the rodents prepared in a variety of dishes. Yup. Also, the biggest ones can be skinned and turned into fur coats. What do you think about that?
  
  

  This farmer looks quite happy, I’ll give her that.

  Here’s the link if you want to read more, or if you think I’m making this up and you want to check up on me and my dubious sources. Now before you turn up your nose at this bit of strange news, get this: rat meat costs over four times more than chicken or pork and twice that of beef in China. Plus, eating rat is even said to prevent baldness. Uh-huh. Now you’re giving it a second thought, eh?

• (Don’t worry, Bryan . . . though I’ve thought longingly about getting a couple of goats or a milk cow or a homestead hog, I’ll never, never, never, NEVER ask you if I can start raising homestead rats. So there’s that you can be thankful for, right?

I think that’s probably enough scintillating news and cool bits of whatnot for one day, don’tcha think, Gentle Reader? Oh, I have a favor to ask you (although you already do so much for me, reading my dribs and drabs and also making very nice comments and not to mention telling your friends about vomitingchicken.com) and that is, have you “liked” my Facebook page yet? I share lots of cool things every day on Facebook that never make it here onto my blog, and I’d love it if you joined us over there!

You can just press the Facebook “like” button at the top of this post. So easy, and thank you, thank you, in advance!

Now go out and have a lovely weekend, YOU!

• ← It’s true! Backyard chicken eggs are more nutritious!
• Weekend Musings and an afternoon off with Anya →