Cream of Broccoli Soup

Hello again! Happy 1st day of October! It was 36 degrees when I went to bed last night, and I expected there'd be a killing frost by this morning, but I was wrong. The clouds must have kept the chilliest air at bay.

This morning was cold indeed, yet it was trying to be sunny. But the rain clouds have been moving in since my morning walk, and it has just started sprinkling again. I started the fireplace when I got back home, as it was 58 degrees in the house when I woke up. I had every intention of bringing in firewood today and firing up the wood furnace in the basement, but instead I ended up baking to warm up the end of the house not heated by the fireplace!

I started a pot of Cream of Broccoli soup and a batch of Pecan-Onion Bread to have with it. Then I headed out to the Berry Garden to pick raspberries, and to the vegetable garden to plant garlic. My neighbor Gary had given me a strain of garlic developed and grown for many years by his neighbor further up the road, and I planted this along with some garlic I had picked up at the Co Op in Middlebury, Vermont. I put in over 100 cloves; not a lot according to some folks, but I ran out of garlic, so it'll have to do! And besides, it had just started to rain as I was finishing up, so I headed back into the house for some bread and soup! Here's the recipe if you'd like...

Cream of Broccoli Soup

In a large pot, over medium heat, combine 4 Tablespoons of Olive Oil, a whole bulb of minced garlic and a large chopped onion. Saute til the onion and garlic are softened, then add 1/3 cup of flour. Stir the flour into the onion-garlic mixture til incorporated, then add between 6 and 8 cups of vegetable (or chicken) stock. Reduce temperature to a simmer and add 2 heads of Broccoli that have been chopped into pieces. *Reserve about a quarter of the Broccoli for later if you want a chunky soup. Simmer for about 15 or 20 minutes til the Broccoli is cooked through and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Transfer the cooked mixture to a blender and puree, working in batches if necessary. *If you have reserved some chopped broccoli, dump the pureed soup back into the cooking pot and add the remaining chopped broccoli... cook for another 10 minutes. Either way, add about 1/2 cup of heavy cream to the soup and blend well. If thinner soup is desired, simply add a bit more stock or water. Serve topped with grated cheese if you like.

~Harvest blessings to all from Laura of Wildenblue Farm!~

Here is a rather poor photograph I took a few days ago of a naughty fox that has been snooping around the fields and barnyard. I am sad to say that our cat Luna has been missing for a few days, and with this cold weather bringing wildlife closer to home, perhaps a fox or coyote or owl is to blame...

Birthday Greetings to my mother

     I had to stop in to wish my mom a Happy 71st Birthday! We had lots of family here for dinner in celebration... mom made her much-loved Spaghetti Sauce, and I made Coffee Chocolate Cake for dessert.

     The coyotes have been howling up a storm... they woke me up at five this morning with all their yipping and calling. To top it off, two owls joined in the early-morning conversation, along with the 3 or 5 coyotes. As I was walking mom out to her car tonight, we heard them again. It reminded me that Halloween is but a month away!

     It has done nothing but rain here for several days, with only a few breaks in between. I took advantage of one today to pick raspberries and pack up an order for Sweet Annie and Bittersweet. I am grateful for the rain, as it has been very dry. However, we had planned on a kayak jaunt tomorrow, but it's not going to happen on account of the rain. But I will be babysitting my grandson, which is better yet!

   

    There are still a few more days to enter my SWEET ANNIE GIVE-AWAY! See the post below for further information!

   

    Well, it is near bedtime and I have a co-op order to put together first, so I must be off. I'll be back come October!

Enter my Sweet Annie Give-Away!!

My favorite non-edible herb is in full swing for harvesting here on Wildenblue Farm. It is known affectionately as Sweet Annie, due to its heavy sweet scent. Botanically it is known as Artemesia Annua. I just love harvesting and bundling up the boughs of my Sweet Annie and hanging the bunches wherever I want a primitive country feel. As it dries, I reach up and grab a handful to sprinkle on my braided rugs just before vaccuming them. It makes a bit of a pleasure of the monotonous chore!

Sweet Annie is also lovely for entwining into sweet-scented wreathes, or for use in potpourri or sweet bags. Never use Sweet Annie for culinary purposes. It is not meant to be consumed, but is used strictly for decorative purposes.

If you live in the continental United States, you may purchase Sweet Annie bundles from my Wildenblue Farm Primitives Etsy Shop, which you can click on to the left of my blog page, or on this link: http://wildenbluefarm.etsy.com/ They are available for a limited time due to the impending heavy frosts!

If you have the room and the desire, Sweet Annie is easily grown, but be forewarned! It self-seeds readily, and can become an invasive PEST! One of my Strawberry Beds (and Berry Garden... and gravel pathways... and Barnyard... and....) is loaded with Sweet Annie seedlings and plants, which must be removed before the seeds develop and drop, lest I have double the trouble next year!

Now, I have a surprise for a lucky faithful reader who is a residence of the continental United States. (I'm so sorry to exclude International Readers, but due to Postal Customs Restrictions, I cannot ship plant material outside of the United States.) If you care to send me an email, I will enter your name in a Sweet Annie Drawing! I will accept emails for ONE WEEK... til October 3rd, 2009... and on October 4th, 2009, I will draw a name and I will post the winner of a Sweet Annie bundle that evening.

To enter the drawing for a bundle of Fresh-Cut Sweet Annie... send an email with your complete name and mailing address to WildenblueFarm@aol.com

I will fairly select one winner who shall receive at no charge what-so-ever a beautiful fragrant bundle of Sweet Annie. This will be fresh-picked from my garden on the day of shipping as weather permits. Because it is fresh, you must unpack it as soon as it arrives, give it a gentle shake and hang it to dry in a dry, airy spot. Please know it will be wilted or will wilt soon after delivery... this is normal! DO NOT place in water.

Here is a link on some information about Sweet Annie that you may enjoy! http://www.herbcompanion.com/Projects/Annie-Sweet-Annie.aspx

Autumn blessings from Laura of Wildenblue Farm!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Anthony!

Here are some pictures of Anthony's third birthday celebration we had tonight... HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANTHONY!!!

love, Gramma Laura

Garden update

As anyone who lives in the North Country knows, the potential for a killing frost for the gardens becomes more likely as the days tick away towards mid-September. The plants still continue their somewhat-slowed growth, seemingly unaware of what lies just ahead. The cucumbers, Kentucky Wonder pole beans, Yin Yang bush beans, and Butternut Squash stretch their tendrily fingers, bedecked with blossom rings, ever-forward toward fences and arbors, reaching to claim more of the space they occupy in the garden.

Pumpkins are taking advantage by day of what little is left of the warmth and sunshine, still sending out blossoms of gold despite evening temperatures dipping into the mid-forties and below. Other crops are submitting to the beginning of Autumn; the Spaghetti Squash, Garlic and Potato vines have withered and dried, offering their fruits as sacrifice and testimony of the time passed.

A smattering of blushing leaves have released themselves from the grasp of the red maple branches and pinned themselves to the mossy-green cloak of lawn... they beckon the others still on the trees to let go and follow along, for they know that cold winds are not far away, waiting to dislodge them all with one frosty breath.

Catnip and especially Basil are waiting to be harvested before frost blackens their leaves and takes away any will to survive. The Catnip has been nestled in a blanket of row-cover all season long, which offers protection from our seven marauding cats. Yet it will offer little protection from a heavy frost. Thus, this becomes a chore of necessity which must be tended to within the next few days.

When mom and I built the little greenhouse last October, she commented on how the cattle panels we were using in its construction would make ideal arbors for beans and gourds to climb on. Needless to say, when the garden went in this spring, so did the cattle panels. At about $20.00 per 16' X 4' panel, it proved to be a fairly inexpensive and very sturdy trellis for peas, pole beans, gourds, cucumbers and morning glories to meander up and over. They were easy to bend in half, and I secured them in the ground by driving a steel fencepost in the center of each side and using plastic cable ties to secure the panel to the posts. They stand easily 7' tall, and I kept them about 4' apart width-wise.

I would definitely recommend them for this purpose, and will absolutely use them again next year. They withstood the weight of birdhouse gourds which I planted on one side of a trellis. On the other side, I planted scads of Kentucky Wonder pole beans. The cattle panels didn't move in the winds, nor did they buckle or cave under the weight of the crops leaning on them. Out in the back garden entryway, I covered one arch with Hop's Vine and Morning Glories... both of which grew heavily and thickly to completely engulf the cattle panel. I can still grasp the top of the arch and hang my weight from it and it does not bend. I'm very pleased with mom's idea!

I am continuing to dig potatoes and garlic, and will soon need to start digging up some Jerusalem Artichokes. When it began raining this afternoon, I headed out to transplant over 100 autumn Forget-Me-Not plants and seedlings which had taken over a good chunk of the berry garden. I have some lovely fall Raspberries that are sending out still more side shoots, and because the berries are so large and prolific, I will transplant the

new shoots to a brand-new bed to get a good start for next year. So the rampant blue seedlings must go elsewhere. I'm appreciative of the gentle rain we've received this evening, and won't mind if it continues all night, for the sake of the transplanted flowers and a few fruit trees my brother brought up that I finally got around to planting the other day!

Tomorrow afternoon, there will be a Baby Shower here for Nicole, my middle son Jake's girlfriend. Sunday, we have plans to meader about the countryside in New York and Vermont for a Cheese Tour of Washington County. I'll bring my camera!
I will leave you now with a few more photographs from the garden today, and I hope you all have a lovely weekend! Til next time...

Congratulations Travis and Ashley!

~ CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR WEDDING!~
Travis and Ashley, August 22nd, 2009 Here is a photograph of my oldest son Travis and his wife Ashley, who were married here on August 22nd, 2009. They are the parents of my grandson Ryan, who is shown in his (serious) wedding finery above! Much love and best wishes!

This is my family... my brother and his wife, my mom and I, and my children and their families, except my grandson Anthony did not get in the pictures, as he was too busy playing!

Here is Anthony sneaking off with a fruit kabob!

Well, I figured I'd best get to writing here again, lest I be too forgotten! WHERE did August go to? And how did September get here already? Aside from the wedding, not much out of the ordinary happening around here. The weather has been beautiful, and the gardens continue to grow and flourish... unaware of the impending frosts that will soon come and end their lovliness. I've been dehydrating zucchini, mushrooms, and green beans, and making Hot Dill Pickles, thanks to an exuberant crop of cucumbers. They have been coming on so fast that the chickens and geese and guineas and ducks have been feasting on too-late-found, too-large cukes and zukes! Even though I planted a late crop of peas, the weather got too hot again and thus they are spent for the season. There are lovely orange Cinderella Pumpkins and some rather green Howden's coming along. Fall Raspberries are beginning to ripen, and I've had a few Ever-Bearing Strawberries to snack on as I continue to weed and tidy up. I really need to transplant the beautiful autumn Forget-Me-Nots that have taken over a portion of the Berry Garden. I started them from seed last July, and they scattered themselves all over the garden, even managing to spill out onto the pea stone pathways. They are such a lovely shade of china-blue!

The Morning Glories have been rampant in their growth, taking over the fence, sunflowers, and even growing along the ground, wrapping their tendrils 'round any plant in sight. For years, I've not planted any deep-violet Grandpa Ott Morning Glories, as they've reseeded themselves year after year. But I did seed several new varieties this spring in different shades of sky blue... each with a lighter-or-darker star in the center. They are rambling over the back fences and across the arbor that is filled with the Hops Vine that was transplanted this summer from mom's garden. I really need to pick and dry the Hops flowers, too. This morning, I finished harvesting and bundling bunches of snowy white Artemesia and hung them to dry in the garden shed. And I finally salvaged a single crop of Catnip from the evil paws of our seven cats, and that must be tended to this week. There are bunches of Basil waiting to be dehydrated for seasoning, as well as to be made into batches of Pesto. I made a triple batch last week and got that frozen, but must get the rest into the freezer lest a frost ruins the whole lot. So all in all, a very good gardening season, even though it got off to a late start due to cold weather. My daughter and I are anxiously waiting for Apple Season to begin next week. I pressed a bit of Cider last year with our apples, but due to spring frosts, we do not have many on the trees this year. Which is the best excuse I will come up with to visit our local orchard for Cider AND cider doughnuts!

If you want to try a recipe for Apple Pizza, look in my Blog Archives from 2008, and simply scroll down til you seen the Apple Pizza recipe, and click on that! Have a lovely Labor Day weekend!

Clovers and other ramblings...

I've been sneaking into a few of my favorite old books when I find a minute or two... I love every "spelled-as-it's-spoken" poem written by James Whitcomb Riley, and I am equally smitten by the works of Eric Sloane, whose pen-and-ink renderings and quaint if not historical paintings of America's fading past have always tugged at my heartstrings, as well as given me great inspiration in my own paintings and artwork. There is no doubt that my beloved topic-of-choice when I get out my own paints and paintbrushes is a long-forgotten farmhouse or empty forlorn barn.

As I was reading a particular poem from the old 1901 edition of Riley's Farm-Rhymes that mom had given me some years ago, I was immediately overcome with memories of my dad, who has been gone for two long years now. I ran to the stairway and picked up another old book that I always keep close at hand, Lavender & Old Lace. I have never read this book yet it serves a much more useful purpose, and that is to hold dear amongst its many pages all the four- and five-leaf clovers that I stumble upon as I work around the barnyard and gardens.

You should know that my father could always find a four-leaf clover, and he was always keeping an eye out for them! When my children were small, he would go with them down near the barn nearest the sheep and goats, always on the lookout for clovers! I can remember the boys saying with disbelief... perhaps slightly hidden disdain?!..."Grandpa found another clover!"

I have always pressed my found good-luck treasures between the pages of books; when I was a little girl, their home would be a huge old Webster's Dictionary that mom kept in the livingroom on a stand near the front door. But I would also tuck them into any book that was handy, and would rediscover them ages later. (Nobody knows this, but when I was little I was playing out in the back field near our home, and found several clovers.. even one with NINE leaves, so I tucked them into my pocket to press in the dictionary when I got home. Hours later, I was horrified to realize they had shriveled and died, so I decided to promptly eat any clovers I found when I was not close to home... that way, I wouldn't lose any of the good luck they were purported to give me!) I can open an herb book that was well-used by me in the early 1990's and find them in there, along with pressed roses from my Grandmother's funeral and dried flowers from a Mother's Day bouquet I received from my friend Greg's children a few years later. I absentmindedly slip them into pages of cookbooks and puzzlebooks too. But this unread book has been filling with all the clovers I've found since my dad's passing... close to two dozen and counting. My daughter and I know of two patches near the well where we can often find lucky clovers, but these in my book have not been searched for. They show up when they do. To me, they are each a memory of my dad, so I keep them close in my book.

forever in our hearts

January 29, 1937- July 21, 2007

The Clover

Some sings of the lily, and daisy, and rose
And the pansies and pinks that the Summertime throws
in the green grassy lap of the medder that lays
Blinkin' up at the skyes through the sunshiney days;
But what is the lily and all of the rest
Of the flowers, to a man with a hart in his brest
That was dipped brimmin' full of the honey and dew
Of the sweet clover-blossoms his babyhood knew?

I never set eyes on a clover-field now,
Er fool round a stable er climb in the mow,
But my childhood comes back jest as clear and as plane
As the smell of the clover I'm sniffin' again;
And I wunder away in a bare-footed dream,
Whare I tangle my toes in the blossoms that gleam
With the dew of the dawn of the morning of love
Ere it wept ore the graves that I'm weepin' above.


And so I love clover- it seems like a part
Of the sacredest sorrows and joys of my hart;
And wharever it blossoms, oh, thare let me bow
And thank the good God as I'm thankin' Him now;
And I pray to Him still fer the stren'th when I die,
To go out in the clover and tell it good-bye,
And lovin'ly nestle my face in its bloom
While my soul slips away on a breth of perfume.

~James Whitcomb Riley, 1883

Summer happenings...

Hello to all... thought I'd better drop a line or two lest my Wildenblue Farm Journal dries up and blows away! My apologies again for not being more up-to-date... life is busy and I have been trying to keep up with things, plus find time to enjoy what little warm and sunny weather we've had on occasion! I got the fields in the barnyard mowed last week, everything was growing so tall that the chickens and geese could barely wade through the pastures! My daughter's homeschool graduation get-together was fun; we had only a bit of rain which quickly turned to sunshine, so all turned out well for that. My grandson turned one year old on July 16th, they are expecting again in November... perhaps a little girl!? (My middle son and his girlfriend are expecting shortly thereafter... another boy, if the ultrasounds are correct!) My mom, daughter and I finally finished stripping all the pine floors on the main level of the house... we got them oiled and cured just a few weeks ago! WHEW!!! A job I am so glad is finished! I've been trying to keep up with the gardens; first the strawberries, then the rhubarb, now the raspberries. There are also currants and gooseberries waiting to be picked out in the back garden. Mom and I headed over to Hick's Orchard, a local pick-your-own farm where we picked about 25 pounds of sour cherries. I made a batch of jam and a pie or two, and froze the rest for pies for the winter. We've been sneaking in a bit of kayaking when we can, as well! The chickens are still laying about a dozen or so fresh eggs a day due to the fact that the weather has not been blisteringly hot nor humid, thank goodness! I've been picking flowers and herbs to bundle; the garden shed is filling quickly with assorted bunches... last week I picked Lavender, Delphinium, Yarrow and Silver Artemesia, along with Cat Mint and Baby's Breath. I have a lot of Tansy that will have to be picked and hung to dry in the next couple of weeks, and following that will be Sweet Annie. Our seven kitties have destroyed every single Catnip plant in the garden here, but luckily mom has bunches of it in her garden! The next big thing around here is the upcoming wedding of my oldest son and his fiance towards the end of August, and whatever comes along in-between! With that brief update, I'll leave you with some pictures of the goings-on these past few weeks and I'll be off, but here is a recipe for scones which I made this morning! Blessings to all of you! xox

Raspberry Scones with White Chocolate Chips

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, set aside. In a large bowl, sift together 3 & 1/4 cups flour, 3/4 cup Sugar, 1 tablespoon Baking Powder, 1 teaspoon Baking Soda and a pinch of Salt. With a pastry cutter, cut in 3/4 cup Butter to make a coarse, crumbly mix.

In a small bowl, add 1 cup of Milk, 1 tablespoon white vinegar, 1 egg and 1 tablespoon Vanilla Extract or Framboise Liqueor; mix well. Dump this into the dry mixture, along with 1 & 1/2 cups of White Chocolate Chips. Blend til all is combined, then gently fold in 1 & 1/2 cups of fresh Raspberries. Drop by heaping dinner-table spoonfuls onto parchment lined baking sheet about 3 inches apart and bake for about 12 to 15 minutes til golden brown. Cool.

Well, I've been away from my blog for quite a while! I'm sorry about that. Life has been so busy, with sudden unplanned events pushing out the planned ones. The biggest problem began about a week ago with the appearance of a very large red fox who began preying on the Guinea Hens that always fly over the fences and into harm's way. (They are not very bright birds.) I believe this is a mother fox who has been running ragged to keep her babies fed, and she soon discovered that a bunch of less-than-brilliant Guineas outside the barnyard make a quick meal. However, my patience wore thin when I spotted her inside the fenced pasture farther back nearest the woods. She had made her kill inside the fenceline, and I startled her as I drove round the back corner, and caught sight of her jumping easily back over the fence. Needless to say, my mother and I spent the next several days (and far too much money) installing 6-foot tall fencing around the whole perimeter of the fields that the poultry free-range in. The back part alone measured 600 feet. I have one final step in completeing this project, and that will be to install a two-foot tall runner of hex-wire all along the bottom of the fencing that is now in place. This will allow further protection from coyote or fox digging at the base. But I have to sell a lot of eggs before this can happen! I am down to 13 Guineas, so I will be keeping an eye out for a hidden clutch of eggs, and I will have mom pop them in the incubator should we find any.

In the meantime, the Strawberries are ripening daily, and I need to take the time to freeze several batches and to make some Strawberry Jam. We received some much-needed rain last night, and I really should be putting in the remainder of my garden instead of typing in my blog, as it is supposed to turn to thundershowers later this afternoon. I was out earlier this morning moving a section of a stone border with the tractor, as I had put up an 80-foot length of split-rail fence nearest the barn, and getting into the gate by the narrow pathway between stones and rails was cumbersome to say the least. So that's done, and I also transplanted some blue and white irises amongst the fence posts to finish it off.
My oldest son and his girlfriend are getting married here in August... the 15th, I believe! So in between, I've been trying to prune and trim and pick up and do whatever needs doing! Mom came up yesterday and helped me cart stones into the garden to line the asparagus bed and to put around the rhubarb/onion section. My daughter and I are planning a small get-together of family and friends to celebrate her completion of 13 years of homeschooling. She's the last of the four children to homeschool, and I myself shall breathe a sigh of satisfaction that this part of our life is complete! But where one chapter closes, another opens... I am going to be a grandmother again in November, and then again about a week later! And I so want to finish the pine flooring in the rest of the house before the heat and humidity set in... sigh!

Ah, well! What gets done does and what doesn't won't! Now, I must be off before it starts raining again. Hope all is well with everyone as we scoot into summer. Blessings to you and yours. ~Laura of Wildenblue Farm