Seasons

"To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven" Ecclesiastes 3:1

It was with sadness, yet a certain understanding, that I read this morning that the Kansas Milkmaid will no longer be making her wise and wonderful contributions to the community of Christian agrarian bloggers. It's good though, in a way, to see the agrarian community reflecting life, with it's ups and downs and it's comings and goings. Kansas Milkmaid, we haven't met, but I'm still going to miss you. As spring follows winter so do newcomers to this wonderful life in His garden. Lately, I've been enjoying the freshness of the Ante Family Agrarians, a young family new to life on the land, and would encourage others to support their efforts.

It's an absolutely gorgeous, sunny day in the southern plains today. Dave brought in 12 bales of nice, bright straw, which was a blessing to find as I fear we have a bit more winter ahead. He also brought me 3 big bags of potting soil so I can get caught up in the greenhouse. Best of all, last night he brought me a wonderful gift - a bright red Kitchen-Aid Artisan mixer. I've admittedly coveted one for some time. I'm not usually one to get excited about "stuff", but to my mind homestead equipment that will last a lifetime isn't "stuff."

There's a buffalo chuck roast in the oven. We raise most of our own meat - pork, goat, rabbit, duck - and also hunt for venison, but we buy buffalo from producer members of the Oklahoma Food Coop. We all agree it's better than beef! Here's what I did:

First I seared the roast in a hot cast-iron pan. Probably the most important technique for cooking meat is the searing process. It carmelizes the sugars on the surface of the meat and makes the base for the richest and most flavorful gravy. Once the meat was good and brown I sauteed an onion in the same pan in a little butter. The meat then went back in the pan with some salt and an herb mix, "Better Than Salt" from another food coop producer. The blend contains oregano, onion, marjoram, basil, savory, garlic, rosemary, lemon, sage, thyme, pepper and bay leaves. I topped the roast with the sauteed onions, added about 1 cup of water and finished with about a quart of carrots and celery that I had in the freezer. After covering and baking in a slow oven (250 to 300) till the meat was good and tender, I made gravy by running the cooked onions, carrots and celery through the food processor and adding some fresh cream. Our nice lunch was rounded out by mashed potatoes, fresh green salad, sourdough bread and peach cobbler.

This afternoon was spent in the greenhouse where I planted 3 types of cabbage, 2 types of Chinese cabbage, 2 types of Brussels sprouts and 1 type of broccoli. I also planted 19 different varieties of tomatoes and a flat of bunching onions, and did some straightening up. I found that the 4 flats of bulbing onions and 1 flat of leeks that I planted a couple of weeks ago are up and running.

I haven't forgotten the promised pantry list, and will be posting it as soon as I get it typed up.

That's it for today. Blessings to all.