The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
8/18/2011 column
It has been a good summer for harvesting a bountiful crop from both the fields and the garden. Just when we thought things were going to wither away to dust, timely and abundant rains arrived in the nick of time. Be careful what you wish for though. In the last ten days we have baled and stacked over 12 racks of straw. Chopped, baled, wrapped and stacked third crop alfalfa. And of course my garden is starting to come in full force at the same time with cabbage, beets, sweet corn and late beans. Thank goodness the tomatoes and cucumbers will be late this year. Did I forget to mention I have to squeeze a rehearsal dinner in there for Jonathon’s wedding?
As the sheds are busting at the seams with straw and hay bales, my freezer is at capacity with food for the dinner. I’m trying to keep things simple so I can enjoy the evening as well. The shredded beef is cooked and frozen. I’ll just plop the cooked meat into my roasting pan to warm up and serve. I still need to cook up a big batch of Grandma Green’s BBQ sauce to top off the meat. I shredded a few extra heads of cabbage for freezer slaw to serve with meal. And it can’t be a summer meal around here without fresh sweet corn and a roasting pan of new potatoes.
We planted 3 sweet corn patches around the farm next to the field corn and under the pivots. Last year we had no corn at all due to poor seed. Luckily I had extra corn in the freezer from the previous year to tide us over to this year’s crop. When I was driving chopper boxes up on the 80 the other night, I jumped out of the cab to look at one of the patches. The corn husks were just starting to dry up. I found an ear of corn and ate it raw. Nothing tastes better than the first ear of sweet corn of the summer. I figured the patch would be ready to freeze in a couple of days if the heat kept up. The next day Mark came in the barn and said that patch of corn was gone. It wasn’t quite ripe enough for us, but it was perfect for the raccoons!! They cleaned it out! I’ll give that one to the thieves but they better leave me the other patches for my freezer and wedding guests..
Here are a few summer recipes and new tips I’m looking forward to trying from other great cooks.
1 medium head cabbage, shredded
1 carrot, grated
1 green pepper, chopped
1 tsp. salt
Dressing
1 c. vinegar
¼ c. water
1 tsp whole mustard seed
1 tsp celery seed
2 c. sugar
Mix salt and cabbage; let stand 1 hour. Squeeze out excess moisture; add carrot and pepper. While cabbage is standing, process the dressing. Combine dressing ingredients and boil 1 minute. Cool to lukewarm. Pour over slaw mixture and put in freezer bags. Squeeze out excess air. Freeze. I pull this out in the middle of winter to remember what summer tasted like!
2 c. ketchup
1 c. brown sugar
2 tsp salt
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 c. cheap BBQ sauce
1 tsp mustard
½ tsp oregano
½ tsp chili powder
1 tsp liquid smoke
Mix and heat over low heat. (I make big batches and process in pint jars to give as gifts to nephews and brother-in-laws.)
Potatoes
1 # butter
Salt and pepper to taste
Garlic powder (optional)
Scrub and cut potatoes into bite size chunks. Fill roasting pan 2/3 full with potatoes and chunked up butter. Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste. Mix. Cover and cook for 1 ½ hours to 2 hours at 300 degrees stirring occasionally.
Husk and stack corn in a clean cooler. Pack cooler with corn until full. Pour boiling water over corn and place lid on tight. Let stand for 15 minutes. Serve.
I haven’t tried this yet, but my neighbor swears by it for cookouts at the cabin. The boiling water can be a little hard on your cooler over time but the insulation keeps the heat in and steams the corn to perfection.
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As their four children pursue dairy careers off the family farm, Natalie and Mark are starting a new adventure of milking registered Holsteins just because they like good cows on their farm north of Rice, Minnesota.