We're Busy Laboring

Whose bright idea was it to schedule the holiday to honor the laborer right during farmers’ (our local laborers) busiest time of year? While everyone else gets a long weekend to celebrate, us farmers are laboring over our harvest. If you haven’t thought about it (or listened to farmers’ conversations), let me point out that this is our yearly paycheck time! We don’t get bi-weekly or monthly paychecks, this is all or nothing for the entire year until next harvest. We aren’t about to let the crops set in the fields an extra day (or three) in order to go sightseeing or to the lake. You never know when Mother Nature might decide to turn loose that great white combine.

Okay, rant over. I feel better for having ranted.

Now in a cheerier mood, I’ll recount our yearly fall sighting of at least one hummingbird in our yard. (I missed seeing any come through this spring.) There could be more than one, but we only see one at a time. They move very quickly. The one I got a photo of is really iridescent green, and it took a break while visiting one of the husk cherry plants. Those plants are all green, so it was hard to pick the bird out from the foliage while zooming in so I didn’t scare it away. Dennis thought he saw a different one but it turned out to be a hummingbird moth. Those have translucent wings, and hover over flowers just like a hummer. We’ve also had an outbreak of beautiful butterflies in the past week. They’ve been enjoying all the sunflowers. Makes me glad I hadn’t jerked all those volunteers out from the corn patch.

I’ve been doing a lot of watering. It’s been so hot, dry, and windy. The trees and all the perennials need to go into fall/winter well hydrated. Of course, that also means I’ll have to use the new mower again. I’ll see if I remember my lessons on it from last week.

It seems as though I just submitted a column, especially as I just got last weeks’ issue in the mail today (Friday). The deadline for submission was moved forward from Sunday to Friday to compensate for the holiday weekend.

If we were in Florida, we’d be attending the grandsons’ ice hockey tourneys. They don’t take long weekends off - they just get lots more games played. One grandson is in Orlando, while the other is at Wesley Chapel (closer to home). I think Mom and Dad flip a coin to see who goes with which son. We’ll try to catch some of the action via LiveBarn or ESPN (or hope one of the moms I’m friends with puts it live on Facebook - another reason I stick with that app. If it’s there, Dennis can watch it when he comes in from laboring.)

I prepared a big meal for the harvest crew (four extra men) on Friday. I’d thought I had a large beef roast in the freezer. Turns out I had a two pound pork loin roast and a smaller package of corned beef. I fixed both. Corned beef is one of my favorites, but Dennis won’t eat it. I added a can of sauerkraut to the corned beef, after draining the beef.

For the pork loin, I crushed together 1 1/2 tsp rosemary with about 3/4 tsp freshly ground pink Himalayan sea salt with 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper, and seasoned both sides of the roast heavily. I let it set in the fridge for a couple hours, then let it set at room temp for about 20 minutes. I roasted it at 325° in a small roasting bag for an hour. The recipe called for making a sauce/gravy with the juice plus 1 1/2 Tbl sugar and 2 1/2 Tbl cornstarch while the roast “rested.” Then stir in 1 1/4 C crushed pineapple, 1 1/4 C orange juice, plus 1/8 tsp ground cloves. (This was for a three pound roast). They wanted it garnished with a pint of strawberries. I skipped all that. Strawberries are too dear right now, and Dennis would think they were ruined used that way. He isn’t real big on gravies, either, and I’m okay with that.

My side was boiled new potatoes with the skins left on. After draining, I added a big glop of ghee (clarified butter), with a generous tablespoon of Italian seasoning. My Italian sister-in-law does her spuds this way often. Measurements are not critical.

To go with the fresh fruit for dessert, I made fake maple bars. I used a package of Grand’s southern style buttermilk biscuits. I melted 1/4 C butter in a 9x13” pan, then gently stretched the biscuits into oblongs. After placing them in the melted butter, I flipped them over and baked according to instructions. (The recipe actually calls for the biscuits to be fried in hot oil.) While they baked, I made this maple glaze. The excess I may use for graham cracker sandwiches.

Maple Glaze

1/4 C butter

1/2 C brown sugar, packed

3 Tbl milk

1 Tbl corn syrup

2 tsp maple extract

2 C powdered sugar

Melt the butter and brown sugar together, over med-low heat. Once the sugar is dissolved, whisk in the milk. Remove from the heat and whisk in the corn syrup and maple extract. Add the powdered sugar 1/2 C at a time, whisking well after each addition. Keep warm until using, stirring occasionally to stop it forming a crust. You may add more milk if too thick, or more powdered sugar if too runny. Store excess in the fridge, warming up before using.