Green Pie

It's the time of year when gardeners have plenty (that may be an understatement) of greens growing rampantly. Doesn't seem right that we can't consume more of them when come January we'd give our eye teeth to have a colander full of fresh greens.

Following is a recipe I've made for years that gets a huge bunch of greens into your family (and out of the garden) without them even realizing it. You can make it with young comfrey or kale, but our favorite is either spinach or Swiss chard. I think I like Swiss chard maybe the best, but that's just my personal preference.

Recently I took my big harvesting/canning colander and went to pick some spinach. (I used spinach because it really needed cutting and my Swiss chard is still at the baby leaf stage.) How much do you need for this recipe? I was afraid you were going to ask that. I truly don't have an accurate measurement but maybe this photo will help.

I nearly fill my big colander . . . you can see how big it is in comparison to a regular sized one. It might look like a lot for one pie (casserole, really) but remember how greens cook down.

Then chop up the greens (the pieces don't have to be small or even in size). All of the spinach leaves fit into this average sized stainless steel mixing bowl when they are chopped.

Get out your biggest skillet. Melt 1/4 cup butter in it and saute one large chopped onion for a few minutes. (Chopped garlic is also VERY good sauteed with the onions.)

Then add the chopped spinach and stir it up with the butter and onions. (This is where your big skillet comes in handy. Before the greens cook down a little, there is a huge pile of them and trying to stir and turn them at first causes pieces to fly all over the stove top, counter and floor.)

Do this until the spinach is wilted a bit. It will take only a couple of minutes. The greens do not have to be cooked through at all.

Put half of the wilted spinach and onion mixture in a pie plate.

Then add some grated cheese (a nice covering) on top of the spinach. What kind of cheese to use? What kind do you like? I made this Green Pie one half cheddar and one half mozzarella just because I was feeling adventuresome . I have some really good pepper jack cheese that I'm going to try later in the week. Use whatever you have and whatever you like. Give a good sprinkle of black pepper and garlic salt on top of the cheese.

Then add the last half of the spinach and onion mixture from the skillet.

Now beat two eggs in a small bowl, pour over ingredients in pie plate and smooth around with a fork to distribute kinda evenly.

Finish off with one more layer of grated cheese and one more sprinkle of pepper and garlic salt.

Put into pre-heated oven to bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

Unless dinner time is way overdue and you're facing mass rebellion from your troops, let the pie sit for 5-10 minutes before cutting into it. If you can't wait, it might be a smidge bit watery, but no big deal.

I best like to serve Green Pie with Creamy Cucumbers but since there ain't no cucs comin' outta my garden yet, I served buttered corn as a good alternative. A little salsa on the side is nice, too. We like Green Pie cold (or room temp) for breakfast or lunch the next day, if there's any left over.

So get thee out to the garden and rassle up a passel of greens for a Green Pie for dinner soon. It's a dish you can only make with fresh greens so now's the time to enjoy it.

Happy Birthday, Dear Daughter!

In honor of our daughter's birthday today, I thought I'd tell a little story from when she was three years old.

We were living on 80 acres about a half hour out of town. It was the property to which we first moved here in Minnesota. A friend of ours had recently bought some land about a mile down the road from us and was building his own home there. On his way home from work in town one night, he stopped at our place to say hello. Roy and I were outside working on some project and our daughter was inside reading. Well, she couldn't actually read yet, but sometimes when she didn't want to be outside with us, she would gather a bunch of her books, climb up into her favorite chair, and announce she would rather stay inside to "read.”

After we chatted a few minutes with D, he asked if he might go inside to make an important phone call. This was before cell phones and his telephone hadn't been hooked up at his house yet. We said to go right ahead, that our three-year old was in the house, but he should say hello and tell her he came in to use the phone.

D went into the house and Roy and I continued with whatever we were working on outside. It must have been over fifteen minutes before D came back out of the house with a strange look on his face. We asked if his phone call went well. He replied that he never got through, the line was busy, and that he'd been talking with our daughter the whole time he was in the house.

He shook his head a bit and said, "And the scary thing is that it was the most intelligent conversation I've had all day."

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July to you all! I hope you have a fun-filled, sun-filled, safe holiday.

(Watch out for those hot dogs . . . too many can be deadly.)

Tallulah Gets A Boyfriend

Our daughter has one goose in her flock of poultry. That is Tallulah the Toulouse Goose. She (our daughter, not the goose) mentioned a while ago that she wished Tallulah had a boyfriend so they could possibly produce some little goslings to thereby increase her goose population.

It just so happens that we have an extra gander, one wandering around with no name because he was supposed to end up on the Thanksgiving table. Fate, on behalf of said gander, intervened and he lived to see Christmas, Valentine's Day, a couple of family birthdays, Memorial Day . . . well, you get the idea. So we decided to send this handsome fellow to Swamp River Ridge to see if he and Tallulah would find true love.

Yesterday was his day of departure.

Here he is, strutting (waddling) around the poultry pasture, unaware of what was to befall him. Our daughter was to stop by on her way home from a town day to pick him up yesterday evening. Roy and I thought we would give a try at corralling him and having him ready in the transport cage when she arrived.

Roy got out an old, large fishing net . . . where (or why) we ever got a net that size I certainly don't remember. It was big enough to net a sturgeon. Or a goose. So out into the pasture we went. We put all the rest of the geese in their house and closed the door. It was late enough that all the chickens were already in bed for the night. That left Goosie -Gander outside alone for us to capture. He was having none of it. He went down to the pond, then up into the small patch of woods. Then a few fast circles around the goose house and back to the pond again. This went on for a while. I reminded the man with the fishing net to keep his sense of humor. It really was kinda funny, but we were wondering who was going to give up first. Us or Goosie -Gander. Finally, we cornered him and he went into the chicken's solarium where I could hold the top lid open and Roy could reach to even the farthest corner with the long-handled net. A couple of frantic, wing-flapping moments . . . and we had him.

Just as Roy lifted him out of the top of the solarium, the net ripped completely off the frame. Luckily the goose was tangled enough in the net that he didn't escape before Roy gathered the ends and unceremoniously carried the not happy goose to the waiting cage.

With slightly ruffled feathers, but none the worse for wear, he was ready for the pick-up by our daughter.

Here he's being loaded up for his very first truck ride. (Doesn't look too eager, does he?)

Securing the cage with cables so his cage doesn't bounce all over in the back of the truck.

We've had several reports today and the goose now known as "Shettie" (he's a Shetland goose) is seemingly very content in his new home surroundings although there have as of yet been no noticeable sparks flying between him and Tallulah. These things take time.

Summer Was Short This Year

We're back to cool, sunless weather again after our few sunny, hot days. (I KNEW we shouldn't have complained about the heat!)

I planted my beans like the day before the hot weather started (how smart am I?) and they had time to sprout and make good growth. But for the last week they've had no sunshine and cool temps. If you can read the ruler in the picture, you can see they're not even 4" tall yet. But they did germinate rather than rotting in the ground, so I'm betting all will be well as soon as we get out of this (once again) current, gray, cool period.

I'm wondering if it's lack of sunshine that's affecting my nasturtiums, too. Whadda ya think? I've got 4 boxes like this one and 4 hanging baskets and they all look the same. Not the healthiest color and some downright yellow leaves. I'm confident it's not from over-watering so maybe they, too, will look better with the return of some sunny days. (Heck, I even know some people in this very house who would look better with more of a sun tan on their skin.)

I think (cross my fingers, toes and nose) we're going to have a really good strawberry harvest. I just told a friend this morning that we didn't have anything close to a ripe berry yet. Then I went out to the patch expecting to see only berries like the ones pictured above.

But I found two that looked like this one (whahoo!) and a TOTALLY ripe one that I gave to my strawberry lovin' husband . . . which he immediately gobbled up.

While doing some weeding in the blueberries I took a careful look and have to report we don't have a lot of blossoms on the bushes. Last year was a really, really good harvest so I'm thinking it's maybe gonna be an "off" year for them this year. That's okay. Everybody/thing needs a rest now and then.

The raspberries, on the other hand, seem to be ready to burst forth with a great crop. Looks as if we may be relying less on blueberries and more on raspberries and strawberries for jam and smoothies this year. Nothing wrong with going with the flow and trying to live with what Mother Nature provides. All is well. Well . . . it would be if we could conjure up a bit of sunshine soon. A little warmer weather (high of 62 today) would be kinda nice also.

Bee Balm Help

I'm putting my lack of knowledge right out here today and asking for help.

Early this season I purchased eight perennial bee balm plants.

At least that's what the tag in each pot said they were.

Plant in sun or partial sun. Check. Blooms in summer. Well, not yet. Prefers consistent soil moisture. Okay. Striking flowers attract butterflies and hummingbirds. Great. Fragrant leaves make a delicious tea. Good. Divide every 2-3 years to control spread. Wonderful as I wanted them to fill in this rather bare space so I wouldn't have to plant annuals every year. Height: Grows to 30". HA!

These guys have been planted out for at least six weeks. They look exactly the same as the day I planted them. No growth whatsoever.

From what I can tell by the picture on the tag, the leaves look kinda the same . . . except mine sure don't have any "stalk" or "stem." They are just this low cluster of leaves about 2" high at the most.

Do I really have bee balm plants or did I buy something that was mislabeled? Do I just have to be patient and wait longer for them to start growing? Are they unhappy where I planted them? Have my thumbs turned black? Help.