2024, Fantasy, Food, Nature, Seasons, Uncategorized

High as an Elephant’s Eye

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I was glad to see how tall Ben’s corn is last week.  The summer has been good for me – after last summer’s blisteringly dry heat, I’m enjoying the slightly milder temps and the rain.  I haven’t even had to get the sprinklers out of the garage yet. 

And Iowa must be doing OK as well.  My next-door neighbors were gone for about 10 days – visiting the grandparents south of the border.  When they travel in the summer, I always water their outdoor plants; it’s easy as they just pull all the pots over to the fence and I can just apply the hose to them whenever I am watering my bales.

I’m happy to do it and I don’t think of it as an onerous chore (especially when it rains so much) so I was surprised when they came home with a bag full of corn for me as a thank you.  Straight off the farmstand corn and the pretty kind I like best – yellow and white. 

The only problem with 12 ears of fresh corn is when you are the only one home for over a week.  YA was away on a work program.  There was no way I was going to waste all that gorgeous corn so I rolled up my sleeves and dived in.

I saved two for just eating and de-kernelled (is that a word?) the rest.  Froze one bag then made a double batch of corn salsa (froze some), a lovely fresh kernel cornbread and then a fun garden veggie pizza with ricotta as sauce.  All done in three hours! 

So now I’ve processed cherries and corn this summer.  Wonder what else will come my way?

What kind of foodstuff would you like to have too much of?

37 thoughts on “High as an Elephant’s Eye”

  1. debbie goes to the vo tec colleges every week to do food distribution and if some is leftover she will bring it home. lots of fresh produce gets distributed but every now and again some is left. last week a bunch of gold potatos and yellow onions came home and there were way too many beets to go around. debbies dad took home the beets to pickle but quit because these beets were yellow when they were done and he only does red. i dont understand but so it goes. i have been having potatos every day
    love it.
    my basil is keeping up with my pesto for now and my tomato’s are struggling
    i would like a better source for veggie birger makings
    impossible burhers are better than past offering but not quite right

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  2. Like it or not, and what’s not to like, we have too many blueberries. We went picking last week and they were so abundant we ended up with way more than we have in the past. Other than the ones Robin used to make a cobbler we froze the rest, but if past experience is any indication, we will still have some left when next year’s picking comes around.

    Our basil is in dire need of being pestoed. For various reasons we haven’t gotten around to it. Maybe today.

    Tomatoes have started to ripen. There are plenty of green ones. This year the chipmunks have been stealing them even before they are completely red.

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  3. Tomatoes, corn, strawberries, any other berry for that matter. High quality dark chocolate. Endangered Species Almond and Sea Salt is our favorite.

    And pastries! Can’t forget those. Doughnuts, eclairs, cream puffs, Bismarcks, caramel pecan rolls. Oh hell, just build a replica of Tobie’s in Hinckley for me in my backyard and all will be right with the world.

    Chris in Owatonna

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  4. Does ice cream count?

    Fresh corn is so wonderful in the summer. I like all the things you did with it so quickly, VS. I guess it wouldn’t be summer without garden tomatoes, fresh corn, and cucumbers for sweet pickles. Yum!

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  5. When we drove through Hinckley a couple of weeks ago, the Tobie’s exit was closed and blocked by construction. Not sure how one would get there now.

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  6. We have gone down the Rancho Gordo rabbit hole, and have lots of different varieties of dried beans which we are cooking with on a regular basis. We are waiting for the fruit man to come with the Washington peaches. We have lots of chard in the garden, and will make a chard and cannellini bean soup this weekend. I also freeze 3.5 pound packages of steamed chard leaves for a pie of greens I like to make in the winter. Our raspberries are ripening now, and I freeze them as well as bake with them, and next year we will have strawberries. We replanted the strawberry bed this spring, so no berries til next year.

    I just can’t bring myself to grow sweet corn here. Our climate isn’t right for corn, and nothing can beat MN and IA sweet corn. We will have lots of green beans, and Hidatsa shell out beans as well.

    We will have lots of eggplants from the 8 plants in the garden. That will be a challenge to cook with. I like eggplant in moderation. Husband is excitedly looking up recipes as the eggplants are covered in flowers and are setting fruit. He is the one who decided on 8 plants.

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  7. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    I wanted my bumper crop of pie cherries (like the Door County cherries) which were ruined by excessive rain. I am still grieving that loss. I have a few quarts frozen but that is all. I will “pesto” the basil which looks great. Like everyone else, my tomatoes are kind of pathetic this year–too much rain and cool. I had a bumper crop of beets but a deer got those, while also chewing up my Morning Glories. Bah. Humbug. My zucchini and cucumbers are beautiful. The last few years Asian Beetles have shredded the raspberries, so I tried something another Master Gardener suggested. I sprayed the patch with nematode eggs. Voila–no Asian Beetles this year. The nematodes eat the beetle eggs. My lettuce is thriving in the cool. That becomes Grandma’s Wilted Lettuce which requires a great deal of lettuce and spinach.

    The cucumbers and zucchini will become quarts of refrigerator pickles which will last into the winter. Yesterday I purchased the first corn–that will become salsa, ears to eat, and Lynn Rosetto Kaspar’s Corn Salad. I did replant beets which might produce at the end of the season.

    😋

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  8. Out here it is always a gamble when the first frost will come. We planted Athena canteloupes that are now blooming and setting fruit. Will they ripen before the end of September? We have had killing frosts in August before. You never know. Our weather here is odd lately, as the nights have been cool and moist. The humidity this morning was 100%. The temperatures are to be over 100° today and tomorrow. I expect an explosion of ripening and growth in the garden as we have watered quite a bit these past days in preparation for the high Temps.

    Ben, can you hear the corn grow at night when it is hot and humid?

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    1. Yes, you can on those perfect nights. Now that it’s setting tassels, it’s full height so we’re listening to the tree frogs and fire flies. And bats.

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  9. A huge supply of scarce black raspberries would be my ultimate treat. But also love striped German heirloom tomatoes, young corn, and Colorado peaches. I also haven’t yet made pesto. Basil plants huge. Usually I just freeze the leaves and use them in a variety of ways, but usually add at the last moment to highlight flavor.

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  10. Our vegetable garden is a complete bust this year. Such a disappointment, but what are you gonna do? Hopefully we can get what we need in the way of fresh produce from farmers’ market.

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      2. I saw a meme the other day that said: “If you see someone buying zucchini at the farmers’ market, you know you’re looking at someone who has no friends.” That would be me, this year. I’m pretty sure I have friends who grow them and would probably give me some, I just know who they are.

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  12. I am feeling overwhelmed by the garden this year, as Husband isn’t remembering to harvest regularly. At the moment I am unable to think of any food I would want too much of, unless it’s freezable like (the aforementioned) ice cream. Chocolate probably freezes well, too…

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  13. Husband is rather finicky about the cream for his coffee. It has to be Organic Valley Whipping Cream. Our Cashwise usually stocks it but has been out for several days. Husband is in Bismarck today and stopped at the Cashwise there, and scored several pints of his cream and 4 bottles of Montepulciano de Abruzzi red wine, which our store is also out of. We want for nothing!

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