Seasons & Growth

It has been too long, Steemit!!

Seasons changed fast around here. 😳 Last week felt like we were scrambling to cross Ts and dot Is in terms of getting everything done before summer ended and then... Boom! It did. We went from 85+ degrees (F*) to mid 60s and overcast and rainy. The animals and the garden really liked the change in weather.

Burger steaks with gravy and oven roasted red potatoes with onion, pepper, and parmesan cheese

We harvested our corn, dug our potatoes, and pulled all our onions. The squash plants and cucumbers are going crazy and we started getting some decent tomatoes, finally, after having to cull a significant number of them early on due to blossom end rot (a little bit of epsom salts goes a long way). I’ve been cooking a lot — over a year ago, my husband and I made a commitment to eating healthier and more ‘natural,’ which meant I committed to cooking more food from scratch — and I’ve been pretty pleased with some of the culinary dishes I’ve put together for the family.

I am most proud of this one. We planted a bunch of scalloped squash plants (aka “pattypan”) not knowing what we’d get, and when they came on, I successfully cooked the first batch up. 🙂

Stuffed Pattypan Squash
(From https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/39304/stuffed-pattypan-squash/ )

• 4 med to large pattypan squash, 6 if smaller
• 6 slices of bacon
• 1/2 cup diced onion
• 1 1/2 cup breadcrumb or crunched up saltines
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
• salt & pepper to taste

-Boil squash for 10 minutes until you can pierce the rind near the stem easily with the fork.
-When done, remove to a tray and when cool, slice the tops off and scoop out the seeds. Keep scooping so you can save some of the squash for the stuffing.

Then:
-Fry up your bacon and dry when done. Save the grease.
-Dump the onions, breadcrumb/crackers, parmesan, and saved squash chunks in the hot grease and saute for 1 to 2 min.
-Remove from heat and stuff the squash. Pack the filling in.
-Cover with tinfoil and bake at 350* for about 15 to 20 min.

Presto! Stuffed bacon squash “pot pie!” 🙃

We have begun homeschooling our oldest. I figured it can’t hurt, and he seems to to be doing well. He is learning at a pace that astonishes me, even the things I don’t think he understands quite yet, he’ll turn around and do perfectly. The hardest part has been developing a routine we can stick to, but at least we have been getting some school in every day, and learning on the fly when we are doing chores or reading books at bedtime. Cultivating the discipline to do it every day has been good for both of us. 💕

In the meantime, I’ve just been hustling to sell the last of the fruit crop before the wasps eat what is left on the trees and preparing for the series of ukulele classes I’ll be teaching at a library here in a few weeks. Right now I’m focusing on basics and essentials, but eventually I’d like to teach some beginner classes on songwriting. I’ve been writing a bit of poetry lately and then practicing turning them into songs, and it has been fabulous creative work as well as therapeutic as I have dealt with my own creative blocks (see “Healing Our Creative Voice” https://steemit.com/motivation/@heatherthebard/performance-traumas ). I think songwriting has amazing potential for helping unlock emotional doors so healing and inner transformation can take place, and I’d love to share that with others... One thing at a time, though. 🙃