June Went

July is here.  June is past.  June went fast at this little place here.

June began with:

• still eating an abundance of asparagus.  Then the heat and the rain came, and the asparagus went.  By the end of the first week of the month it was growing something like a foot or more overnight, and unfurling it's ferny fronds.  Time to let it go, to recharge the crowns (roots) for next season.  Goodbye, asparagus, we look forward to eating you again next spring!

• the massacre of my little chicks.  They had only been at this little place here not even two weeks when a coon found a way to open the door of the coop and killed them all one night.  So then June nights continued with setting the live trap.  Three coons were caught and terminated in a four night period.  Farm justice.

                         

June continued:

• About that time, strawberries started to get ripe. First a handful, then a quart.  And right when I needed to go out of town, they really came on: putting out a quart per row of strawberry plants. I hurriedly made jam and froze several quarts of berries for future use before hitting the road.  When I got back, just in time for the last eight quarts of berries, I sold some at the farmers market, froze a few more quarts, and tried a new recipe with the last of them.

Strawberry Pie.

--Make and bake 1 crust for a 9" pie

--Take 4 oz cream cheese (half of an 8 oz box) at room temperature, and beat until smooth.  Spread evenly in the bottom of your pie crust.

--Wash and hull 2 cups of strawberries, then mash them (I use a potato masher) to measure about 1 cup.

--Wash and hull another quart (4 cups) of strawberries and leave whole.  Set aside.

--Put the mashed berries into a 2 quart saucepan and add 1 cup sugar, 3 Tbsp cornstarch, 1/2 cup water and 2 Tbsp lemon juice.

--Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a rolling boil.  It will thicken as it heats.  Boil 1 minute, continuing to stir.  Remove from heat and let this sit a few minutes to cool.

--Meanwhile, get your pie crust with the cream cheese in it, and your whole strawberries that you set aside.  Fill the pie shell with the strawberries. 

--Now take your saucepan of strawberry mixture and pour it into the pie shell over top of the strawberries.

--Put the pie in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours to set before serving. Try not to eat it all in one sitting (some of us had seconds, it was so tasty.)

This tasted really good, although I think next time I make it, I will use 8 ounces of cream cheese instead of four.  The cream cheese flavor was kind of faint with only 4 ounces, and DD2 and I decided more cream cheese would definitely add to the taste of the pie.

• Along with the strawberries, the hay came on too.  And so did rain nearly every day.  Watching and waiting for a 3-4 day spell of dry weather for cutting hay made me feel like a woman in the ninth month of pregnancy.  I just wanted to get it over with! Finally,  a favorable weather forecast came through and the hay was cut and baled.  500 bales this year, up 50 bales from last year, down 100 bales from my best first cutting ever.  Unfortunately, it happened to coincide with a competition DS2 was in down in IL, so I was out of town when my hay was done.  Upon returning from my 'vacation' in IL, I spent several days putting hay in the barn, as well as waiting for the people who had pre-reserved some 'off the wagon' months before to come after work to pick up and pay for their hay.

• In mid-June the farmers market started, and I attended two weeks out of three (being in IL in between).  Both weeks, it rained during the market.  That's the way it goes sometimes.  Can't complain too much about the rain, though, my hayfield is quickly rebounding from being cut and should make a good second cutting this summer, and I have not yet had to water my garden.  The garden is doing well. Corn is knee high in the 'short' spots and close to waist high in the taller ones.  "Knee high by the fourth of July" is the corn gauge around here, so upper thigh-high corn is awesome!

Although, with the prevalence of wet weather and me being out of state for part of June, the weeds in the garden are also knee to thigh high!  Not so awesome.  Must get mulch.  I've been looking for an abundance of straw and not wanting to pay the high "one bale" price for quantity.  Although, after talking to several people, it's looking like cheap bulk straw in square bales is a thing of the past.  Apparently the new larger combines used for harvesting wheat faster and more efficiently are not square baler friendly.  The straw windrows spit out the back end of a new combine are much more the width of a round baler than a square one.  Or so I'm being told.  Hmmm.  Must figure out how to get ahold of equipment for transporting round bales.

Meanwhile, it was hand weeding, pulling the taller stuff so that I could get the rototiller in to chew up the smaller stuff, and free my rows of veggies from the weed jungle that grew while I was gone.  And so June went.