Using Veggies

My vegetarian daughter is home, and I have some veggies to use up.  I was thinking about making veggie balls.  I am kind of mashing together (pun intended) a few different ideas to make these; I am hoping they will come out well. 

My idea is to cook various root vegetables until they are soft, mash them to get the right consistency, add peas and a little flour, egg and garam masala (which I have to make),  form the mixture into balls and roll them in panko and fry them in a few tablespoons of olive oil - or put them in mini-muffin pans with a small amount of olive oil which is my short cut way to make meatballs.  I am hoping they taste a little like the samosas I ate in London, only without the pastry.  Probably, I will serve them with the very last of the lettuce and some home made hummos.  It doesn't seem like a lot of food, but it does seem a little fiddly.  Maybe I will feel full just from all the handling of the food, but my family will be hungry...I should think of something else to serve with it.  Eggs, probably, because we are still in that awkward between harvests time and there aren't many other choices.  And rice, because this is, after all, Hawaii. 

Moulting Chickens....

That's what I assume from the dearth of eggs and the gobs of feathers blowing around on the ground, anyway.  We're only getting 4 or 5 eggs a day from our 14 hens - mostly from the 5 Buff Orpington's. It looks like the Araucana chickens are the ones most off their production. 

It has been rainy and it is getting a bit darker earlier, so that probably has something to do with it.  About half the chickens just hit their first birthday, and the other half are 18 months, so that might have something to do with it.  I will have to start chicks again this Spring. 

Minnie the ewe is looming large and laying around looking like she is approaching imminent labor, but she's got at least 4-5 weeks left.  I think she is just a whiner.  I was pretty much a whiner at the end of each of my pregnancies - especially the one where the baby was 10 lbs 10 oz....boy, was I cranky when that one went over a week overdue!   I sympathize with Minnie.  She was a terrible mother the first time around; she left one of her twins behind several times and my husband had to carry the lamb out to the back of the pasture several times.  She was only a yearling, so we'll have to see how it goes this year before making any decisions.  She looks to be carrying twins again. 

The alternate pouring rain and rather gloomy skies mean the garden is growing slowly - except for the turnips; they are growing gang busters.  I haven't been able to do much out there because of time issues and now this stupid back thing.  I was feeling a lot better last night, but I must of overdone it, because today, I am aching again.  This is getting annoying. 

Hurting

Yet another day I am thinking about mutton.  Specifically, ram burgers.

Remember this past summer when that darned Elvis rammed me twice?  Well, he must have damaged my coccyx pretty good, because every once in awhile I step in a hole or carry a feed bag wrong and there I am again - in pain. 

Sunday and yesterday were the worst it has ever been.  I even missed work.  I never take aspirin or acetaminophen, but yesterday, I took both - and sat with a heat pad and hobbled around like an old lady and tried every stretch I could stand without screaming.  Believe me, I hobbled out to the sheep barn and gave Elvis the evil eye, too.  I didn't expect that to help anything, but it sure improve my mood. 

My son even had to drive today because I am too sore to even attempt the clutch, although I am at work today.  For someone who prides herself on her strength and stoicism when in pain, I sure have been acting like a baby.  I couldn't sit at home and look at all the stuff that needed to be done - too frustrating.  I can't sit (or lay down) anywhere without pain, so I might as well sit at work in pain and grade papers and give the kids a laugh as I move around like a 100 year old with osteoporosis.  

Here We Go!

My older's son's last race - well, last race I will see, because I am, of course, planning on him going to the State Finals!  I am far more nervous than he is, because I am also hoping for the whole team to be able to go.  He's hoping for that, too, but he cultivates this "I don't care," attitude about anything to do with school these days.  I remember everything counting too much at his age, but I guess we deal with growing up in the best way we can.  Senior year can be so stressful:  so many decisions to make and so many changes coming up that you both long for and are just that nervous about. 

My younger two have races, too, which I won't be able to go to because they are quite far away and I promised to help with the course this weekend.  I feel really bad about not being able to support ALL the kids this weekend.

I visited the garden by flashlight last night, and the hole the dog dug was in a place that didn't disturb any particular bed - she dug up the walk way and maybe edged a little into the herbs on one side and the lettuce on the other. 

I picked greens for stir fry last night:  turnip, chinese mustard cabbage, collards, the outer leaves of the brussels sprouts and, of course, my favorite sweet potato leaves.  They were very good with the eggs and rice and portuguese sausage - a change from the usual pre-race pasta. 

Oh, and I taught two math classes yesterday - of course, I taught note-taking and not actual math, because I am good at daily math, but Algebra kicks my butt.  I heard a sophomore say to a neighbor, "Why is the English teacher here? That's weird."  I was very nervous, not because it was a math class, but because it's always nerve-wracking to get up in front of a new bunch of kids and in front of another teacher.  You'd think I'd be more used to it, because I have had EAs in my class for years and because I share a room with a teacher who enjoys being able to work at her own desk and who am I to kick her out of her own room? But I am not, apparently.  All was well, though.  Once the activity was started, the kids were engaged and interested. 

The math teachers' rooms face the mala/garden area.  I kept looking out the window and wishing I could start a garden out there to grow food for the Food Bank.  I mentioned it to the kumu in charge of the mala and to the math teacher, and they are both pretty enthusiastic, so it's time to figure out who the heck you are supposed to ask about these things.  The school is quite a bit lower in elevation than my house, so it's sunnier, but there will probably be more pests.  The ground is pretty much lava rock covered with a thing layer of dirt, so raised beds are the only possibility.  Lots to think about: which kids will participate (probably 9th graders and volunteers), where I will get materials (donations), seeds/seedlings (me and hopefully, volunteers), how will we get the results on Thursdays to the Food Bank....pretty exciting.  The seniors have to do a legacy project - that would be another source for student leadership. 

I don't know why I have this urge to plant gardens everywhere to feed people. 

Big Weekend

I have been coming home after dark, so the garden is a bit of a mystery, right now.  My husband reports that a dog, or possibly a couple of determined chickens, have dug a hole in the middle of the garden.  I really need to get a permanent place for a garden, surround it by a dog and chicken proof fence and go from there.  It has to be the little dog, because the big dogs spend their days on a long run line.  When the sheep are locked up, the dogs are allowed off for a bit to run around and do their thing.  We notice that they pretty much lay around where they can reach with the run line, after running around the yard for about ten minutes, so I guess the run line is long enough for them. 

This weekend is the regional final race for the Cross Country season.  It's also the last race I will see my son run in, ever, since even if he gets to states (probable), the State meet is on Maui, and I won't be going.  It's feeling a bit bittersweet, because I don't know if my other two will choose XC in their high school career, so it might be my last race, ever. 

I am the "team mom" so I am getting a bit of flack from my counterpoint on the girls' team for not getting "enough" course marshalls.  I honestly don't know what I can do beside ask - I can't fine them, or coerce them to volunteer.  Sigh. 

At work, I am braving the wild world of Math.  I am delighted that the Math teacher asked me to come in and present a lesson on Note-taking in Math class.  I will have crazy busy days tomorrow and Monday, but it's progress...people are asking me for help!  I like to work. 

My daughter is coming next week for a visit.  I can't wait.  I hope that she comes home some and doesn't spend the whole week at her best friend's house.....I miss her ridiculously and tear up everytime I think of her being at home.  I am such a weenie that way.  Hopefully, when all four are out, I am not some sad sack missing my babies.  See - I always thought, with four kids, I would completely be over the moon when they all left. 

My ten minute little break is done here - off to the rest of the day.  I even eat at my computer, trying to work out the online lessons I am making.  If only the software would do what I wanted it to.....without all the little faking-it-out tricks I need to do.

Butternut Squash Soup

It wasn't pumpkin, but it was good!

Unfortunately, I had a crop failure on the butternuts this summer, so it was a store bought squash.  I cubed it and cooked it in chicken broth with a chopped onion (also store bought, as I have not yet been able to grow an onion this year - I have no idea why).  I added some paprika and cayenne at the end and mashed it up with a masher - I was too lazy to pull out the blender. 

It was quite good, and I had some of it for lunch today - it was even better today than it was last night. 

I am still craving pumpkin everything, so I was happy to see that all the kabocha seeds I planted almost two weeks ago popped right up and looked strong - the plants in the greenhouse just aren't making it, so hopefully these outside versions will do well, even this late into Fall. 

The turnips, radish, mustard cabbage, and sweet potatoes are going gangbusters, and I can see quite a few carrots popping up - still no green nor red onions, which is just confusing.  Green onions, at least, usually do well up at my house, so I just don't know.

Always something to learn. 

I bought a 5 cu ft chest freezer on craigslist last week, so I am looking forward to finding someone butchering a cow.  I figure I can fit a 1/8 cow in there and still have room for the turkeys that go on sale at the grocery store this time of year.  I am a bit leery about the chest construction, but I was thinking I would just divide everything up into week size portions and then pull it out one by one and put it in the inside fridge - so one week I might end up with a steak, a pound of hamburger, and a chicken and I would have to figure out what to do with them on whichever day.  It shouldn't be too hard - to make things easier, I have a weekly rotation of basic ingredients: Monday is chicken, Tuesday is beans, Wednesday pasta, etc.  If something gets out of whack, I just switch it around.  We had chicken last night, so it's something different today.  If I can buy meat in bulk, we can eat a little more of it - right now, we eat beef about once a week, chicken once a week, and the rest is beans, pasta, or eggs. 

I helped proctor the PSAT on Saturday morning, but in the afternoon, we drove out to Ahualoa to look at a "tractor".  That's what the ad said on craigslist - "tractor".  It looked fairly big and it was very cheap because it wasn't running.  Well, when we got there it was more than fairly big - it was enormous!  It wasn't really a tractor, like a farm tractor, either - it was a one of three machines brought in to build the H-1 freeway on Oahu.  It was a monster. 

Sometimes you get that craigslist fever, like here is this deal and you want to get it because you drove hours to see it.  Somehow sanity prevailed and we said we needed to think about it.  After a few hours of thinking, it became just funny - it was so big my husband would be crashing into things, and I would probably come home and find five new ponds (it had the hugest backhoe) and no trees on the property!  It gave us the giggles thinking about it! 

Beyond that, I didn't accomplish much this weekend - desultorily pulled a few weeds and took the longest nap in the afternoon on Sunday.  I must have needed it, because I feel a lot better today than I did last week, but now I am regretting all those seeds that didn't get planted and the bread that didn't get baked....

Food Hubs

I am really fascinated by the idea of food hubs.  There a couple of different ideas about what that means - for the USDA, it means small farmers banding together to create on brand to be more attractive to larger scale buyers.  On this island, that might mean several small farms with sheep working together to be able to provide a steady supply of lamb to the resorts on the Leeward side or restaurants all over the island. 

Another definition is a central place to either garden or distribute food to the community.  I suppose you could consider a Farmer's Market (of which this island is lucky to have so many) a food hub, but I was thinking more about a program I saw advertised at church where farmer's/gardener's donate extra produce which is distributed to low-income seniors one day a week.  A similar idea is the arrangement someone on a sustainability group (internet based) I belong to made with the Hilo Food Bank.  They've agreed to accept produce dontations from gardener's/farmer's on Thursdays for distribution on Fridays to needy families.  The group has been asked to "grow an extra row" for the community. 

I would sure like to get that even more organized.  There is a church near where I live which hosts a charter school during the week, and there is a community center nearby.  The land is pretty rocky, not much soil, but there is some, and there is always the possibility of ripping the lava, and building raised beds on top of it.  I bet that charter school would really like to have a gardening program which could work with the senior center....  and there is another charter school up the road where my friend is the principal....this could be a good idea whose time has come. 

I am not the person to organize it - I am just getting my feet under me as a gardener myself, but I find the idea of the community coming together to make sure the vulnerable have food really attractive.  At least I can start talking about it and asking people who know more than I do for help.