Most of the corn fields are on par for the year, but it was a rainy spring so some got planted late. The benchmark is "knee high by 4th of July." This field by my house made it.
07/06/2011
06/25/2011
Potatoes came up!
They are such survivors. :)
06/23/2011
Desert=boring
I've been on a road trip.
I think I would be very boring if I had grown up in this part of UT...
06/16/2011
Flowers for the record
Well I failed miserably as a blogger in May. I was too busy taking pictures of everything growing around me. And work was insane…
I was all ambitious starting out this barn blog endeavor. And I was happy with April’s flower update…seeing them all there in one post with little descriptions. Worked for me.
But apparently this format is not sustainable. Here I am mid-June and I have 36 May flowers to write about. I’m not sure how to face these flowers. From now on I think I will just upload things as I see them. That will probably be the best way to keep track of everything chronologically anyways. So what follows is a ridiculously long post. Written on a plane to Seattle...I couldn't sleep because there was a Jamaican apple picker trying to get a green card sitting next to me. If anyone wants to go to Jamaica, he will throw us a party...
So here is May…quickly. Or as quickly as I can write about flowers in May...possibly the most prolific month. I organized it by weeks. I haven't re-read this for edits. So if anyone actually reads it...my apologies. Pictures will be uploaded slowly but surely. I want to get this up so that I can get off to a fresh start with June!
Week 1.
Forget-me-nots—I love this color.
Redbuds
I can’t decide whether I like redbud trees or not. On one hand they are a gorgeous color and stay in bloom for a long time. On the other, they bloom in a really odd way and caused a really foolish controversy when I was in college. In short, when Cornell announced it was going to cut down a stand of redbud trees to put in a parking lot, a bunch of hippie students went all Greenpeace and camped out. It lasted a long time. What got me was that the trees were planted as ornamentals by a past Cornell president. The trees were neither old nor native. Crazy hippies. There is now one more parking lot on campus by the way. But in negotiations over the trees, I think the “Save the Redbud” group got students free bus passes. So that’s good. http://www.sustainablecampus.cornell.edu/transportation/univaveparking.cfm
PS. this tree is the one from which I hung the coon.
Week 2.
Apples in bloom
Apple trees were in bloom for a few weeks. Gorgeous from the time the buds started to show through when their petals covered the ground like snow. And their timing was fairly good too. They managed to be in bloom for the one week that it wasn’t pouring rain. I think the bees had a chance to do their thing. So hopefully there will be some fall posts about apples!! This is the view out the old glass window across from my bed. :)
Planting Dahlias
Dahlias have to come out of the ground each fall. They get stored in the basement all winter, and in the spring Ruth rehydrates them and puts them in the ground. Mid-may is the time to plant. Stand-by…if I remember correctly, they’ll be blooming in the fall.
Grape Vines
The grape vines went from looking quite dead to having leaves all over them this week. Last fall, as I was gorging myself on wild grapes from horseback in MA, it occurred to me that I had never seen
grape flower. So this year I watched carefully for them to flower. But here we are two weeks into June and the vines have developing fruit. I missed the flowers again! Elusive little buggers. Maybe next year.
Tulips
If you don’t know what a tulip is, I’m surprised you made it this far reading this blog. Tulips come in every shape and size and color. They are pretty.
Marsh Marigold
They are bright yellow and live in marshes. Fun to look at I suppose.
Ramps
This was the first year I had heard of Ramps. Quite often I will hear about something for the first time and then it turns up EVERYWHERE. That happened with ramps this spring. It went like this: I blogged about the coon. Ian recommended stew with ramps. The next day in the grocery store I saw the “Edible Finger Lakes” magazine had an article on ramps. Then my coworker posted about a dish she made with ramps she got at the farmers’ market. At this point I had seen a few pictures of ramps without ever having to google. So I searched Ruth’s property, but had no luck. I was going to give up on my quest for a ramp. Then I got an urge to bike 15 miles one night. Low and behold, in the middle of nowhere, on the side of the road at the bottom of a bank was a mother load of ramps. So the next day I parked my car and used the skills my mother had taught me with lilacs to smuggle some ramps. There was a posted sign up the next day. May be a coincidence…but maybe not. Anyways, they taste like shallots. No better, no worse. I’m not sure what the hype is about. But I had my coon stew with ramps.
Wild strawberries (and non-wild if you’ve got ‘em)
There are a lot of wild strawberries at Ruth’s. I think I mentioned setting the mower deck high so that I wouldn’t hack off their flowery heads. Since I’m writing this in June, I’ll just kill two birds with one stone. Strawberries (wild and non) are ready for the pickin’ in the second week of June. Yum!
Pear, Plum, and Wild Cherry
I lump these together because they all bloomed at the same time and were (unfortunately!) not very spectacular. It poured all week and it was cold. I don’t know if a single bee left the hive. So the blossoms came and went and were not pollinated. Tragic.
Lilacs
The boldest sign of spring is the lilac. Even non-plant people enjoy a nice lilac bush. They are pretty, smell wonderful, and are easy to pick and keep as a bouquet. I felt blessed to live at Ruth’s this year because she has an awesome collection of lilacs. Pink, white, lavender, and dark purple—
all around the yard. The smell was everywhere…which was great!
One has since been eliminated. I came home the other day and Ruth had dug it up…by hand…and filled in the hole.
Makes mowing easier, but I was surprised to see it gone when it wasn’t in the worst shape. Ruth said it was getting old and needed to go. A bold statement for an 87 year old.
My memory of lilacs is of my mom coveting others’ bushes. She has ones staked out around town. Each spring she keeps clippers in her car and stealthily stops, throws on the flashers, jumps out, and picks one or two stems for herself. Bouquets in her car are a sure-sign of this thrifty thievery. I think this is the worst thing my mom has ever done or will ever do. She is a saint. I should really buy her a lilac bush one of these years…
Week 3.
Bleeding hearts
Bleeding hearts are fun flowers. They look like little jewels. And I love the contrast with the blue barn. The closely related, mini-version—dutchman’s breeches are fun too…probably because of their name.
Buttercups
Buttercups are weeds I suppose. They do kind of take over, but they do it in such a pretty way that I find it hard to resent them. Unless it’s in a horse pasture. Buttercups are poisonous for horses. Luckily they avoid them on their own. But ever spot a buttercup grows is a spot that grass—that could feed a horse—does not. So I guess in that case they aren’t welcome.
The fun thing about buttercups is that they leave a mark wherever you press the flower. I forget what we used to say before smooshing one on our faces. I think we would say, “Do you like butter?” and if the yellow showed up on our faces then that meant you liked butter. Of course you would always turn yellow…but who doesn’t like butter?
Azaleas
I never quite understood azaleas. They are rhododendron wannabes…Ruth’s azalea is a particularly pathetic specimen. It gets crowded out by the strawberry plant. I’m not sure why it is so stunted. But I commend it for trying.
Dogwood
Dogwood trees are my favorite flowering tree. My mom had a ring that was in the shape of a dogwood flower that I always admired. And when my family took a trip to Washington, DC and visited our relatives’’ graves in Arlington National Cemetery, there was a Dogwood blooming nearby. Neither of these memories are all that significant to my life, but they are pleasant and I remember them every time I see a Dogwood in bloom. They are just gorgeous. And they stay in bloom for a long time…very hardy for something that looks so perfect. Ruth's is kinda rough looking, so I also took pics on campus.
And for good measure I found some little wild dogwoods (I don't know if they are actually related to the tree...as a matter of fact, I'm not sure that's what they're actually called. I call them wild dogwood.)
Wisteria
Wisteria is a gorgeous flowering vine. The flowers are big clumps of purple. Ruth doesn’t have any, but I did see one growing along the road in NY, so I think it can make the blog. Segway to Maine—we have a wisteria vine on the island that hasn’t bloomed in at least 10 years. More I think. Two years ago we re-did the deck which involved ripping the well-established vine off of its trellis and hacking it up a bit. After the project was complete, I trained it up on the deck railing. I went back for Memorial Day weekend and was thrilled to find the vine had bought into my scheme…and it had a buds! Very exciting. Maybe in a few years I will have the wall of wisteria I have envisioned. Unless another Taisey project takes over…construction always takes priority over plants.
Lily of the Valley
These are the sweetest little flowers. The blossoms are dainty and perfect. And if you get your nose anywhere near them (which requires you to either pick a stalk or do some yoga contortion to get your nose to the ground) you are hit with an impressively strong aroma. This is another one I used to pick mini-bouquets of for my mom.
Jack-in-the-Pulpit
This is one of the coolest flowers. It’s carnivorous! Seems so exotic for central NY. They are subtle plants, but if you keep your eyes peeled, they show up all over the place. There are 3 in this picture. Can you find them?
Rhubarb
This will get its own post. I love rhubarb.
Wild blueberry
This is really a Maine thing, but I was in Maine for Memorial Day, so it can be here. Wild blueberries are the cutest little bushes. And their flowers are bizarre little bells. I think there are “low-bush” blueberries in Central New York too, so maybe there will be a fall post revisiting these guys.
Poppies
I didn’t get any pictures of poppies, but I wanted to put them on this record because I really like them and will want them in a garden someday. So, note to myself for when I grow up: Poppies bloom mid-may so plan that perfectly manicured garden bed accordingly. (I can dream, right?)
Week 4.
Chestnut trees
Chestnuts used to be the predominant tree in the New England woods. Now they are somewhat rare
Definitely rare in the wild. Amazing to think that within 100 years so much can change. Ruth is doing her part to bring them back by planting them around the yard. I was traveling when they were in bloom, but I was in Maine where they were also blooming, so I took this shot. Aren’t they pretty? Like vanilla ice cream cones on each branch.
Columbine
Columbine is a very cool flower. They are dainty and delicate. I think it’s because they spend so much effort growing in difficult places, that when it comes time to grow leaves and such…they don’t have much energy left. This is a bogus explanation, but it’s what comes to mind when I see them. Cultivated varieties come in all sorts of stunning colors. But the wild ones are my favorite. They appear perched on cliffs and rock faces where you can’t imagine there is any soil for their roots. But there they are, putting on a show for the world. A very cool plant. Next time you’re hiking in the spring (end of May apparently), look up—you might see one.
Rhododendron
Step aside Azalea. Rhododendrons are excellent bushes. There is one on the island where I grew up that has reached tree-like proportions. Again, I think I like them because of the memories that come when I see them. My chore growing up was to sweep the fallen flowers off the deck. Despite the fact that I didn’t particularly like the chore or the fact that my grandmother nagged me to do it, I still like the memory. A time when my grandmother was alive, and the most burdensome thing on my agenda was to sweep some flowers onto the ground.
Mayflowers
My parents must have locked me out of the house a lot in the springtime. As I am reading this, every flower is evoking some memory of my childhood. These little guys grew in big clumps all over our yard and I used to love picking mini-bouquets for my mom. Do other people have this memory? I’m not sure…the flowers like to grow in lawns and I can imagine most families mow before the end of May. Luckily for my flower-picking, my dad never really got around to mowing our “lawn” until it verged becoming a “field.”
May Apple
As you know from April’s flower recap, I’ve been fascinated by the May Apple. The bizarre little spikes came out of the ground on 4/17 and have changed weekly. I would love to see time-lapse photography of their growth as the come up, unfurl like an umbrella, create a rainforest-like habitat for the tiny forest creatures, and then put out beautiful white flowers. What a cool plant! And I hear the “apple” part comes in the fall. Perhaps they will make another blog appearance in the fall.
Honeysuckle
Another obnoxious, invasive weed that I like. Honeysuckles take over the ecotone—where fields meet forest. They do make impassable thickets which is a bit of a pain. And attract bees to the point where you can actually hear the bushes humming. But they make the world smell like honey for a week. And their branches are twig-like so you can easily snap a few off and make a bouquet. Most are yellow, but you can find pink ones too. In the fall, they have red berries. The horse I rode in high school used to straddle honeysuckle bushes and sway back and forth to itch the bug bites on his belly. He would pop the berries in the process and would come out of the thicket covered in red stripes. We called it his war paint. Pretty clever if you ask me.
Iris
I have to see what pictures I took of Irises...they come in a few varieties that range in size and color. Really pretty flowers. And they have a unique minty smell.
Chives
A lot of alliums (the group name for onions) bloom in the spring. The range from huge blossoms to little purple chives. All have a stalk with a round clump of flowers on top. Many are purple. Oh, and they smell like onions.
Chives are great because they are hardy, easy to grow, have a pretty little flower (that makes a pop if you squeeze the bud before it actually blooms—great fun for kids…not so fun for the flowers), and you can use them to cook with or garnish. Very Martha Stewart.
-------------*whew*-------------
And just like any painfully long event, I’ve saved the award ceremony for last…
Winner of the sweetest smell award: Lilacs. Very honorable mention: Lily of the Valley, Honeysuckle, Apple, and Peony
Winner of the coolest plant award: Jack-in-the-Pulpit (the judge may have been bribed with insect-catching)
Most functional: Rhubarb—even though I just made two pies and a ton of jam. I used these goods to trick friend and acquaintances into thinking I was a good cook and had time to do things like bake pies and make 15 jars of jam. So functional due to its power of persuasion. I’ll post about rhubarb. Honorable mention: ramps.
06/11/2011
Ugly babies
I know babies are supposed to be cute. Usually I agree. But this week has involved some ugly ones—snapping turtles and starlings.
Ruth does a tai chi class in town and there was a snapping turtle laying eggs in the front garden on Friday. So I have added to my calendar to check for snapping turtle babies on August 30th. Prior to today I did not know the gestation period for snapping turtles, but someone in town is apparently an authoritative source (or at least speaks confidently...as good as wikipedia I would argue). She had the following facts to share:
- eggs hatch in 81 days, but the males may take longer
- snapping turtles cannot retract their heat under their shell
- one should not move a large snapping turtle by having it bite a thick stick and dragging it...they may skin their feet and get an infection
81 seems too precise, but we shall see! This story falls under the heading "ugly babies" because I have had experience with baby snapping turtles. They are cute from a distance...like a turtle struck with the gun from Honey I Shrunk the Kids. But when you look one in the face you realize they look evil. Angry. Like they hatch out knowing that for the rest of their long lives they will be met with hatred and people will try to drag them across roads by having them bite sticks. I found a few of them at a swimming hole a few years ago. I may have pictures on another computer...
The other ugly babies are the awkward baby/teenage birds that are flopping out of nests left and right this week. I say flopping because the ones that actually manage to fly, fill out and look like normal birds. But I have come across three baby birds on the ground this week with part downy fuzz and part pinfeathers, looking tired and pathetic. I feel bad for them.
They always look hungry and lost. It must be rough to go from a custom-fitted bed with room service and an outstanding view to the hard ground in about 3 seconds. But on a positive (selfish) note, I no longer wake up to this noise:
Download Hungry bird alarm clock
Some questions for an ornithologist (Nate??):
- What are the chances for these little guys that don't "fall with style" on their first try?
- Can they learn to fly with a running start?
- Do the parents keep feeding them on the ground?
- Is it good to put them back in their nests, or will they just jump again and possibly break their neck?
06/05/2011
06/01/2011
You've got to be kidding me...
Can you believe it?! Near the end of my run tonight I stepped into some weeds just off the sidewalk to let Nash do his thing. And...you guessed it! I didn't have the tools with me on my run and I think I would look odd walking through the manager's reception in the hotel lobby all sweaty, leading a dog, and carrying a dead baby raccoon...
I am not in the country. I'm in Yonkers, NY! I guess I'm just...lucky?
I guess this is as good a time as any to do a quick overview of some of the insects that made an appearance in May.
Beginning with the blow fly (aka green bottle fly). These flies lay their eggs on freshly dead things, like baby raccoons. The maggots eat the fresh carrion. If you find a bunch of them (blue or green and metallic looking) banging against the inside of a window, you probably had a dead mouse nearby. The maggots grew up eating it and what you've got is the resulting flies. Suck them up with a vacuum or open the window. They are really pretty little flies—
I've been meaning to catch some, dip them in some sort of clear coating, and make earrings. I know it would be weird, but...pretty! And I love the name Lucilia for a girl's name. A self-confident girl...this would be her namesake---->
Next we have the dobsonfly.
At least once a year I get a photo of one of these with an accompanying text message that says "What the f**** is this?" That's a direct quote. Usually the males' morphology brings out the profanity.
They've got some impressive mouthparts. They're pretty harmless though if you don't stick your finger right in a female's mouth. The male's long mandibles are used to help him do the dirty and are useless for biting. In fact, they're only adults for 7 days...and eating is not their focus during this time.
The larvae are known by fishermen as hellgrammites. I just wikipedia'd this for the spelling and saw this factoid: "South Texas tradition has it that the name comes from a child asking if the larvae will bite, the obvious answer, 'hell, it might.'" But I am suspicious of wikipedia...and this is the first time I have referenced it for this blog.
The mid-May heat brought out the carpenter bees in droves. Three people I know were altering their normal behavior to avoid these clumsy bugs. No need my friends, the big guys that are hovering and burrowing into wood are pretty harmless. The males (usually what you see) act tough, but can't sting. The ladies have stingers, but you've gotta go out of your way to piss them off.
They burrow into wood (about 1/2" diameter holes), lay an egg, and pack the egg a lunch. They will return from year to year, so it's best to plug up the holes and paint the boards. Or replace the board with pressure treated wood.
Bumble bees have hairy abdomens (back body part), carpenter bees' are shiny.
Rounding out the group is the june bug. I know it's not June yet, but I had my first sighting on May 30th...so that's pretty close! I'm not sure if they're out in NY yet.
I was in Maine this weekend and as I worked out on the porch these guys started dive bombing me (the light near me). They are clumsy—flying at full speed into inanimate objects and literally bouncing the the ground. They can be clumsy I suppose. Their elytra are HARD. In fact, if I rode motorcycles I would get a face mask simply because of this bug. (All beetles' front pair of wings have evolved into hard wings called elytra. They are used for protection, like a suit of armor. The cellophane-like wings they fly with are neatly folded underneath.)
I find june bugs to be quite charismatic. Even in their destructive larval ("grub") stage when they're snipping roots underground. I'm not sure my mom agrees.
I saw lots of other bugs that held my attention too, but I thought I'd pick the big ones that people ask me about for this blog. If I posted about every bug that distracted me I'd never catch up!
05/31/2011
Putting stuff in the ground
I've put a lot of things in or on the ground this month. The leaves, weeds, and dead animals will become dirt (or "soil" to be PC for all those dirtologists). And the seeds I planted will hopefully grow me some flowers and veggies!
Some have already come up...and some seeds got dug up and eaten by a squirrel before they had a chance to sprout. I was going to let the seedlings go a little longer in their little yogurt cups, but after one feast, the squirrel had it in its pea brain that there were seeds in the cups. Each day there would be new little holes dug around the base of the sprouted seedlings. I tried moving the trays of seedlings all around, but this squirrel is stealthy. He even found them on the tractor seat! So I gave up playing hide and go seek with the squirrel and my trays of seedlings and planted them in the ground. The squirrel is on Nash's hit list. Unfortunately (for me) Nash has never killed a thing in his life.
For future reference...plant these things in May:
Morning Glory & Chinese Lanterns: They climb, so give them a trellis or something. Ruth uses string weighted at the bottom by a T-post. Soak and scratch the Morning Glory seeds to give them a head start.
Dahlias: These were dug up in the fall and stored in the cellar. They were put in the ground at the beginning of May and the first leaves showed up last week.
Gladiolas: I probably should have put these in the ground (6" deep) in April, but I didn't get to it. I got them at the dollar store and I buried them shallow...a rough start to life, but we'll see how they do.
Nasturtium: I put some seeds I collected in previous years in the ground, but was so excited to see these flowers, I bought a plant and put in by my front walkway. I'm not necessarily a fan of blaze orange, but my grandmother always had nasturtiums so they show up in many of my happy memories. See it?
Strawflower & Statice: I've never grown these before, but there was a barren area next to the barn so I sprinkled a bunch of seeds there. If they come up I'll have nice cut flowers I can dry for winter bouquets. Right now there is a bunch of stuff coming up...I'm not sure what's good and what's bad. So I'm letting everything grow up a bit. We'll see what I've got in that area next month.
Veggies and tomatoes!
I planted in about 1/3 of the fenced in garden area. Peas, beans, lettuce, cucumbers, sqush, zucchini, green onions, green peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, and basil. Watermelon and pumpkin went to the squirrel.
I started all but the peas, beans, lettuce, and onions in yogurt cups in the past few months and transplanted them outside this month. Note: when transplanting tomatoes, bury the stems a few inches—almost to the first set of leaves.
The remaining 2/3 of the area will get filled up with staggered plantings of peas and beans (to ensure I am sick of them by the end of the summer) and whatever Ruth wants to plant. Probably some swiss chard (which I OD'd on last year), more tomatoes, and whatever else catches our eyes at stores in the next few months. I also planted the tomatoes kind of close to each other because the ones I started from seed look so pathetic that I don't think they'll make it. If they do, I may transplant them again and space them out more.
I also planted potatoes for the first time. Another case of seat-of-my-pants gardening. I've heard people talk about planting potatoes over the years, but never really looked into it. Even when I went to plant them. Ruth went out of town for a few weeks and as she was leaving she said, "I bought some potatoes to plant, they are in the fridge." I always envisioned putting pre-sprouted potatoes in the ground. But I suppose they are probably even more inclined to sprout if they are already in the ground.
So I chopped the potatoes up so that each piece had at least 2 eyes and buried them about 4" deep. When Ruth got home she asked if I had left the chopped pieces out to dry first, which I hadn't. I had never heard of this part. We'll see what comes up. Just in case I may leave some potatoes out to sprout...
05/30/2011
Now we're cookin'
May has completely gotten away from me. So much is happening with life and work and nature. I can hardly keep up. In fact, I haven't kept up with this blog! I blame the fact that I spent almost two months at home which is unheard of for me. I got sidetracked from sitting in front of my computer all evening by things like kittens, horses, getting back in shape, and sunsets.
Luckily (for my desire to have this be a record of what plants come up throughout the year) I have taken A LOT of pictures that have dates associated with them. And I am back to my nomadic life style where I bounce between the barn and hotels. There aren't too many distractions at hotels. So I can slowly catch up.
I shall start tonight. (I'm not in a hotel yet, so don't feel bad for me on Memorial Day). And if I'm diligent I'll be all caught up with May by the end of this week...June!
I have to start off by saying that nothing has happened to top the raccoon. As I said, I have set a high bar for this blog with that little episode. My apologies in advance for the posts this week. I didn't do anything too extreme lately. At least that I can think of... yesterday I went for a swim in the Maine ocean. Does that count?
Note all the other Mainiacs...
FYI, when the water temperature is below 60F you can't swim very far. A friend and I tried what seemed like a simple swim out to a buoy (pictured in the distance to the right) and back. By the time we got back to the dock we couldn't do the crawl because our arms wouldn't listen and come out of the water. And I got my yearly reminder of what a non-ice-cream-induced brain freeze feels like.
Okay, so back to the barn blog. I have to stay focused on that part of my life. I'm not sure where to begin...I want to give you all a tour of the barn, catch up on what's going on in the veggie gardens, report on May flowers and bugs...yikes! I'm going to pick a short topic since this is already getting to be a long post.
Last weekend I cooked in the barn kitchen for the first time. I'd been sleeping out there for weeks, but since food is more important than sleep (to me), I wanted to save the first meal for a special occasion.
One of the perks of being an adult is that you can have sleepovers whenever you want to. If you have cool friends. Which I do. One of them is named Christa, and she joined me for the inaugural feast of fresh picked asparagus, pasta with goat cheese and kale, and Ruwan's homemade beer! It was delicious and gave us the nutrition we needed to get 2nd and 3rd place in a 5k the next morning. (Out of more than 3 female runners!)
(Note the tall grass...we're on the 3rd mowing!!)
This fine meal was prepared without a glitch in the quaint barn kitchen where I have 2 electric burners, a mini fridge, and a sink. I have small pots and pans out and Christa commented that it is like cooking while camping. Not a bad skill to perfect. I think I am going to enjoy the challenge of cooking without an oven (I've already passed the no-microwave test by living in the house). And maybe I'll start making a lot of smoothies.
The kitchen has an eclectic mix of dish, cook, and silver ware from many other guests. I counted 5 percolators. Unnecessary.
I went through and picked out the stuff that appealed to me (going for white and minimalist) and stuffed the rest of it in a cupboard. I brought in my cookbooks, wine glasses, and trunk of spices, oils, etc. What you see below is the kitchen...although I think I may refer to it as a "galley." Feels more like a galley than a kitchen. Not a demotion...just different. Narrow and basic. I'll be an awesome cook for overnight sailing trips after this summer.
I sanitized it and have yet to see fresh mouse turds on my counter. To be safe, I'm not going to cook wild rice for a bit...
One of the books in my collection that I dusted off has a reference page I think is really neat. The book is "What Einstein Told His Cook." Enjoy!
05/17/2011
Neither drooling nor foaming at the mouth
I'm a little hesitant to post again about the coon. I'm getting typecast as a roadkill eater. I arrive home each day, reluctant to see whether a friend has left me something on the porch...and today I walked into work and was immediately confronted by a coworker asking me if I had experience butchering ducks.
It gets better.
Someone in front of her hit a group of mallards on her commute to work. Two died on impact and there was "nothing to salvage." (Damn.)
One survived, but he was wounded. She brought him to me. At work.
The sad (for my reputation) thing is...I have 3 knives in my office, all of which would do in the duck just fine. I haven't killed a bird before, but I think I could figure it out if the poor guy was suffering. Youtube works wonders. And I have said reputation to uphold...
There's a reason for having each of those knives, but just to give you all lots of material to laugh at me for, I won't tell the three stories. I have a small collection of knives and a bb gun...all given to me by guys...some for valentines day. Nothing says "I love you" like...a Red Ryder?!
Note to future boyfriends: I LIKE FLOWERS AND DIAMONDS. Like many ladies, I love shiny things (that don't involve hooks and a pole!) Maybe a gift certificate to a spa?!
That said, I've used all the knives and the gun and am very grateful...
I digress...when we got out to her van, Mr. Mallard had had a miraculous recovery. So we made him a little oatmeal and set him up with a tupperware full of water. Good luck duck. You couldn't have picked a better week to recover...for a duck.
Back to the coon—I'm glad I've brought some laughter into your lives...and your coworkers'...and their friends. I've had a good laugh myself.
I'll have you know that four people in my life thought this whole thing was relatively normal. Probably a testament to my very large and varied friend group more than my being close to normal. Two friends had advice on cooking, three knew about tanning. One has a book he is going to lend me...he thinks it has a chapter on coon! Friends are better than Google.
So, without further ado...how to eat a coon. Allie-style. Very little research/expertise went into this. All survived. Except the coon.
1. Kill, cut, and brine in water, salt, and baking soda. Preferably at 2am.
2. Let soak for 24 hours and then transfer into marinade (I chose teriyaki)...and went more than 24 hours to get off the 2am schedule.
3. Let marinate for a day.
4. Enjoy...or at least try it after all that work.
a. Pan fried in olive oil: not too tough at all and VERY flavorful. This ended up being my favorite.
b. Make coon stew. Beef stew...without the beef. I used a crock pot for 6 hours. I heard it was a very tough meat. 6 hours was more than enough...it fell apart nicely.
Ruwan suggested I get scientific on this brining of red meat. I brined some cubed beef, marinated it, and put it in the stew too. The beef had almost no flavor after so much cooking. Maybe some flavor blanched out in the brine? The raccoon tasted a bit gamey and I detected a lot of iron. It's a very red meat. Colin and Erika were the brave souls who tried it too. They weren’t huge fans, but blamed the brussel sprouts in the stew, not the coon.
c. Jerky. Sprinkle some salt on top and bake on low heat (~250) for a few hours (~4). Turn over when needed so both sides are equally leathery. Following making this, I looked up how to make jerky (it’s been a busy two weeks…I didn’t do my research beforehand.) If you want to make jerky, follow my instructions. But before marinating the meat, put it in the freezer till it’s hard, but not frozen and then cut it into pieces. I think this is just so you get a clean cut rather than a hack job…doesn’t change the flavor. But I could be wrong.
I got a straight cut on mine because Ruth has NO sharp knives. She is actually known for the dullness of her knives. (My knives are in my storage unit with my other worldly possessions.) So I used the kitchen scissors to cut the meat. Find a way or make one.
Sonny tried the jerky with me. It’s pretty good. Tastes like meat.
This was also a good study in human behavior. Few people wanted to try the stew or pan fried, but many said they want to try jerky. Are we used to thinking of jerky as exotic and well preserved? Does this make even homemade jerky more palatable? I felt safer eating the stew, but I didn’t tell Sonny that.
Lessons learned:
-
If you see a coon, run it over then put it in a large tupperware. It will be well worth it for your friends.
- Definitely worth skinning, but get the right tools.
- If you’ve skinned it, you might as well eat it too. Make most of it into jerky so that your friends will help you eat the beast.
It just occurred to me that I have eaten almost an entire raccoon in a week…gross! - Damiani Wine Cellar's Meritage pairs well with coon...
As a final note, I have used every bit of the raccoon. I buried the guts and carcass in a very shallow grave at the edge of the lawn.
How is this a use? I think if it as a murderous monster monitor. If any large animals live in the nearby woods, I think they will dig up and feast on the coon before proceeding to Nash and I in the barn. So far, no activity. This helps me sleep at night.
Someone remind me to dig it up next fall. A winter jigsaw puzzle? I have a friend with expertise in these things...check out his mouse!
Barnblog
I'm going to live in a barn and remain a functional, good-smelling member of society.
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