Normally I succession-plant my salady-type things up until about the solstice, then relent for a bit until mid-august or so. This year, all our favorite greens shot pretty much straight up after about May 15. Keep in mind that our normal average frost-free date is a couple of weeks after that. So the salad bed is full of raging, verdant sun-boners, and we're moving on perforce to other things, except the other things aren't fully (or at all) ready. Basically, this should be primo salad time, but we're puréeing all the greens to make bitter mash and pesto, which we love, but which are not the same as big, squeaky-fresh bowls of leaves.
There's no question that I have a bunch to learn as a gardener. But it would be a lot easier if we weren't being whipsawed by such meteorological extremes. Having said that, the nightshades and curcurbits are going crazy, and we've got fat carrots and beets. And peas, though my half-assed trellis needs a major stimulus package right about now (the Democratic kind, involving infrastructure–not the Republican kind, involving rented cock).
So the other day was the farm market, and we went over to scare up some protein for dinner. It manifested itself as a couple of pounds of bone-in goat meat, cut up for stew. I browned the cubes in a bit of fat in the pressure cooker, then removed them and tossed in onion, carrot, and herbs to color, and then returned the meat with enough of the chicken-beef stock from before to cover it all. Sealed up and hissing contentedly, I left it for about 45 minutes. Once cooled and opened, I added in the rest of the lovely fuchsia soup from a few posts ago, plus a fat handful of minced herbs, and served it all on brown rice. Looks kinda drab, especially given my plaintive whining about how hot and summery the spring has been. But sometimes you need goat stew to set everything right, and the taste was far from drab.
4 comments:
i love myself some goat but we only really eat it in the cold weather months. which is weird b/c most goat-loving countries are in hot weather places.
i can't wait to see that garden post. gotta see how things are turning out!
This is quite the change from last year, isn't it? This time last year we were buried under day 300 of rain (and there had only been 171 days in the year). This year I hope to have more than 3 tiny tomatoes on the balcony.
Recently I went from never having had goat to finding myself unable to stop eating it at the local Indian buffet. Sadly, I can't get it in my local farmer's markets. This looks like an equally addictive dish.
Amy: Soon enough. The beds are built.
Rachel: I know. I'm very grateful for the beautiful weather; I just wish I had planted a lot more lettuce and shaded it sooner.
I'm so there.
Weather up here still sucks major B-hole. I can feel myself entering a funk that a giant plate of slow cooked goat and garden veg could easily wipe out.
Hmm. My comment lacks sass.
Like I said- FUNK.
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