Things started off slowly, with a bit of whining from the kids. They aren't pleased to be missing their apples. They seem to understand the point of the challenge though, which is half the battle.
They baked 4 loaves of banana bread & four loaves of rhubarb bread. Fruit breads used to be their basic breakfast, but somewhere along the line we fell out of the habit, and fruit breads became more of a treat. It's good to see them coming back. I don't actually do much baking these days. I supervise, wash dishes, help with new recipes, etc. The kids do most of the ingredient gathering, measuring & mixing. We're down to 7 bags of frozen rhubarb now, with fresh rhubarb almost ready to pick, and half a laundry basket of frozen bananas.
They've been adding blueberry & raspberry sauces to ice cream. They've had blueberry smoothies with a batch of very watery home made yogurt.
We finished off the last bag of corn in the freezer. We have a bag and a half of green beans left. We had a couple of good stews, using some of our frozen turnip, the last of the brussel sprouts, and a bit of frozen cabbage.
Grandpa picked us some wild leeks. We've been looking for them in our woods, but haven't found any yet.
Twice we attempted dandelion greens, but didn't get to eat them. The first time I left them soaking in a bowl of water and forgot about them. The next day they seemed slimey, so I tossed them. The second time #2 was cleaning the dandelions, and left a large root attached. I didn't notice until I started serving. Yuck. Want some sand with that? We did make two batches of doggie stew with dandelions as the base for vegetation. I don't worry about cleaning them as thoroughly for the dogs.
Dandelion buds have been on the table at least twice a week. I think they're a winner. They're easy to pick, easy to clean. It's easy to throw a handful into soups, stews, and casseroles. No one really even notices them. I fried some in butter last night with mushrooms and garlic. Very yummy, but a little soggy. Next time I'll leave them out until the mushrooms are closer to being done. I've also got half an ice cream bucket put in the freezer for next winter.
Hubby bought his own green onions for steak one night. He couldn't live without them, and I just planted ours. The kids are still eating carrots. Can't really stop them when they're in the house. Of all the things to complain about, my kids are eating carrots! lol.
Asparagus is just starting to sprout, and as soon as the rain clears, we'll be out to harvest some cattails, which are supposed to be a lot like cucumber or asparagus. We'll see.
All in all, I think May went fairly well.
No comments:
Post a Comment