Pickled okra and venison cube steaks...

Who knew pickling okra could be so easy?? I found out it's much easier than pickling cucumbers :) I had about 2 lbs of okra that I got from Daryl and, as always, that was way too much for us to eat before it would go bad so out came the cookbooks and I was off and reading. I found a few recipes that sounded like they would taste good but there was so much work involved I just didn't think I'd be up for all that.

I finally found a recipe on the internet that said "Easy Pickled Okra." Now you're talking! I was shy just a couple of ingredients but they were easy enough to find while I was doing my regular shopping. I assembled the ingredients - 6 or 7 maybe including the okra. While the liquid and spices did their thing on the stove, I sterilized 4 pint size canning jars. Once the okra was dropped into the seasoned, boiling, liquid I shut the burner off and set the pot aside so everything could cool down.

When the mixture cools, you ladle it into your jars, put the lids and seals on and set the jars in the refrigerator. You can eat the pickled okra right away but it's best to let it sit overnight - at least. Talk about some good eating! You come inside from the heat (we're having a heat wave here people) and pull one of those cold jars out, pop the top and crunch away on some tangy, juicy, pickled okra... ahhhh summertime!

Speaking of heat, gosh it's hot as can be outside. Our temperatures are supposed to be over 100 degrees in the next couple of days. It's predicted to be hotter here than in Orlando... and I know you have the humidity and all but hot is hot and a 100 degrees - is DARN hot!  I've been rolling up a bandanna and tying it around my head just to keep the sweat out of my eyes while I'm in the garden, hanging clothes or working in the yard. Two showers a day is not unheard of around here.

We stayed home Friday night. Neither of us really felt like leaving the farm so we had a lazy night. Wally was on the bull dozer when I got home so I got on the 4 wheeler and took off looking for him. I rode through the new trails up by the gate but he wasn't there. I rode down the front yard and out the gate where the horses come up. He had been there for sure, I could tell by the new trails and by all the trees that were down and piled up on the sides of the road. I tried getting through but there was a big tree blocking the path and I didn't want to venture off for fear of getting lost down there. Little did I know, had I ventured about 10 feet from that fallen tree, I'd have found him. I couldn't hear the bull dozer though so I thought maybe he was at the barn. Up the hill and up the drive way, through the gate and down the holler I went.

He wasn't at the barn...darn it, I knew he was around there somewhere but I sure didn't know where. I rode off down by the horse pasture and down to the next gate by the creek. Finally I could hear that monster machine running! I got through the gate and through the creek and then I saw him. He had cleared so many trees that I hardly recognized the place. It's perfect for riding 4 wheelers or horses - heck, at this point you could even drive a truck through there. It's amazing what he's done with that bull dozer.

Well, I stayed down there with him for a little while and then he was ready to come off of it and get back to the cabin so he could clean up and cool off. We took the 4 wheeler home and settled in for the night. I fixed dinner and cleaned up afterward, then we both took to our chairs watched some tv while the hummingbirds emptied the feeders. We watched a show called "Tennessee Wildside" and on there they did a segment about hummingbirds. We found out that they will migrate to South America over the winter months. I just can't imagine those tiny, little birds flying all that way from here.

Saturday I thought I was going to try and sleep in. Wally went downstairs and within about 15 minutes I got up and followed him. Sleep is overrated apparently because it just wasn't happening for me. It was a little cooler than usual Saturday morning and we even got a light misting of rain. Not enough to even keep the dust cloud down on the dirt road but it was nice for the garden. I headed for Food Lion while he went to work with the bull dozer.

I was at the store so early that they didn't have the produce out so I couldn't get my lettuce for the week but I had a list of stuff I did need so I made my way through the aisles hoping, by the time I got done, that the produce would be out. Nope! I was all done shopping and lettuce-free. The grocery stores aren't close to where we live and the farm stands along the road have everything but lettuce so I was out of luck, or so I thought. I knew there was another store just a little ways further past the Food Lion so I figured I'd give them a try. It was a good thing too because not only did they have lettuce, which was way over-priced, but they had ground chuck on sale for $1.89 lb. So what I spent on the over-priced lettuce, I made up for on the ground chuck deal - woo hoo!! LOL thrifty I tell ya :)

I fueled up my car at $2.47 a gallon and headed for home. The fuel at the next station was $2.72 so I figured I did alright there too. By this time it was about 10am and it was super hot outside. I got all my groceries in the house and put away and then headed for the laundry room. I knew my clothes would be getting dry really fast today so I hung out the load that was done washing and set another to going. Before I even finished pickling the okra, those clothes were so dry they were crunchy... LOL I got them in off the line and hung up the next load. They look so cool (as in neato) out there with the sun shining on them and the little bit of a breeze we get just gently making them flutter. I love looking at a full line of laundry, drying in the sun, with the browns and bright greens of the woods as a backdrop.

Curt had given me a grocery bag full of venison so I took out a package that said venison jerky on it. Unbeknown to me, I had to make the jerky. It was the cut that the label described, not the actual product inside. I've never made jerky and I don't own a dehydrator. I couldn't let that meat go to waste but I sure didn't have a clue about what the heck to do with it. Fortunately, Wally did. He said to just turn the oven on a really low temperature and season the meat with the steak seasoning we always use and let it cook for about an hour. Amazing how good that stuff came out. I was nervous about even trying it but it was perfect! It tasted just like the beef jerky you get in the package but it was way more tender and way more flavorful. So now you know what I'll have to do. When I get my first deer, I'll definitely have them cut me some jerky strips!

Saturday we were invited to go to a party at Hidden Valley so we got cleaned up and headed over there around 6pm. We were both tired from working around the farm all day but we told Jeff we would be there so we went and we were glad we did. It was a lot of fun meeting his family and friends. They have a really nice space in the park and had everything set up perfectly for a party. They had tiki torches burning citronella oil, chairs spaced out around the karaoke area and picnic tables loaded with food. We had fresh caught, fried bass, hushpuppies, cole slaw, white beans and my taco layered dip. Full bellies I tell ya!

Everyone was singing and cutting up with each other and we really enjoyed ourselves out there. We thought we were going to get rained on but it never happened. Instead, it just cooled off a little bit and made for a perfect Saturday night in the Tennessee summertime. I felt like I was part of a story like you read in Southern Living magazine on the last page.

Sunday dawned bright and early for us. I made a huge breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, biscuits and gravy, cantaloupe and sliced tomatoes. We didn't care to eat again until suppertime :) ha ha ha. I called Mom and told her Happy Birthday and we talked for a little while about the heat and how she didn't really want to do anything on her birthday because of it. I could certainly relate but I had chores to do and they weren't going to get done otherwise so we talked another minute or two and hung up.

I wanted to clean off the porches so Wally could pressure wash and I still had another load of clothes to get hung out. While the clothes were drying, I cleaned the floors and the bathroom and then rearranged the freezer again. If I don't do this every other week or so, I forget what's all in there. Things get pushed to the back or moved to the bottom and even though I know they're in there, it's hard to keep up with where. I filled the bird feeders and checked on the garden.

Billions of tomatoes, none orange or red yet. I did have to stake up the two that were topped off by Jimbo earlier this year. They have reached about 3 feet tall. The other ones are all taller than I am except for the German Queen. I think that one is going to stay just as tall as it was when we brought it home. It's very full of leaves and the stalk is really strong but we still have just the three original tomatoes and they aren't ready yet either. I hear a tomato sandwich calling my name from afar!

Three new cucumbers are getting all fat and long in the shade of their leaves. No squash yet but I see a difference in the blooms now. Instead of just a really big, pretty flower, the flowers have these little pod-looking things. I'm sure they must be squash to come!

My radishes are looking very healthy and the leaves are getting bigger and bigger. I don't remember how many days they have to grow before I can pull them up but I'll check the seed packet. It seems like 30 or 45 days. Either way, I have probably 50-100 little radish roots growing in this rich, golden, soil. No potting mix here. You just don't need it. Strange huh?

My chives finally broke ground as did the cilantro. They are very small yet but there's a bunch of them. I have a feeling they will have to be thinned out much like the radishes were. I don't know why I worked so hard to hoe the rows and space out the seeds when the rain took no time at all to wash them into one spot and it's not even one of the rows I hoed...it's in the walking area... lol! Oh well. There's nothing I can do about that except watch where I'm walking. The other herbs are doing well with the exception of the dill. It's doing its best to produce but it's just not looking as good as my dill has in previous years. I had to use dried dill weed in the okra because of it. :(

We watched that crazy Pocono NASCAR race and were totally shocked by the ride Elliot Sadler took! Wow - in all my years I've never seen the engine come completely out of the car. He was so lucky to be alive. I thought Sam Hornish was going to win under the rain delay but they finally got them back on the track and racing. I didn't catch the points update but I did enjoy watching that race. It's been a while since I was able to actually catch the whole thing. While we watched the race I had two packages of venison cube steaks thawing. I followed Daryl's advice on these when he said to marinate them in beer, some Dale's Seasoning and some garlic powder. 

We rode off on the 4 wheeler and Wally started bull dozing again. This time I got to ride along with him and we were out there for probably 3 or 4 hours. Man, was that ever cool. I had so much fun on that thing. He let me shift whenever he wanted to back up or go forward again and I learned how to level the scraper blade with the foot pedals. We knocked down trees, drove through big old bushes, cleared out rubbish and talked about what we had planned for the space. We were so dusty and dirty when we got through - oh my gosh!

Well, we got cleaned up and I cooked the venison cube steaks along with some of the remaining few rattlesnake green beans. The gravy from that meat was to die for. Wally poured it over some bread and it was even better! By this time I was already full though so he got to enjoy that by himself. It was very nice of Curt to give us that bag of venison. He says they eat so much of it that they get tired of it... not me baby!  LOL I still have a roast and a couple steaks still in the bag so you'll be hearing more of that later on.

Today is CSA basket day so you have something to look forward to tomorrow... :)  I won't be home in time to cook supper so I put some white beans with ham in the slow-cooker. Those beans and ham with some cornbread will be perfect for when we get home from Pee Wee's Place. Maybe I'll have enough left over to bring some for lunch tomorrow :)

I hope I've brought you a good mental picture of how my life is on the farm. I'll get a hold of Wally's phone and post some updated pictures of the garden and other stuff on the blog. My phone has decided to change the appearance of the pictures so that they now come out way too big to post. I have no idea why. I swear I didn't touch anything other than the same old buttons but it's messed up just the same.

 "Lead your life so you wouldn't be ashamed to sell the family parrot to the town gossip." - Will Rogers