Harvest 2015: Here We Go Again!

Tonight’s Dinner:

Whole Wheat BLT’s and LT’s

Fresh diced veggies

Iced tea

This is Harvest 2015. This is one of the earliest that we have ever started harvest; one of the hottest, and I am doing this all without Mama Jan here to back me up on harvest cooking. It’s a true tragedy, and test of all that she had taught me in the past few years to attempt to do all of this without her.

Therefore, I decided to try…and I stress try…to find the time to blog about my feeble attempt at harvest cooking and my humorous attempt at raising pigs with my 4-H kiddos again this year, because if she can’t be here to listen to me cry, yell, laugh, and cuss as I walk into her -now my- clean kitchen with pig poo all over my legs, then by golly someone out there is going to have to hear it! (Thank goodness we DON’T have sheep this year.) 

Therefore, sadly… minus Mamma Jan…here is how day 1 has gone so far:

This morning, I actually did the harvest shopping by myself. WOOT WOOT! Score 1 for Amy!  That in itself should be enough to allow any farm wife a full day off – if not a complete vacation with a cabana boy to wait on her! The Boss doesn’t agree unless he gets a Cabana Girl but that not happening. Anyway…I digress…Holy WOW! I hate harvest shopping. But I did it! Store, by stinking store. Needless to say, I don’t need to lift weights tonight because my arm muscles are now rock solid!

After shopping, and picking up the “twins” from their rouging jobs, I came home to find the…oh I don’t know…100# pig scale sitting on my porch. So, oh hell yeah, who needs a penis for this, am I right ladies? Starting TODAY I am now a farm wife, so therefore, I hitched that heavy sucker up in my new super arms and hauled it all the way down to the barn to weigh the pigs. (Granted, I was a little ticked that I got my new shirt dirty, but I digress) Alas, day 1 of weighing porkers coincides with Day 1 of harvest so…here we go again…it’s like a repeat of last year; Jack’s pig is a monster at #230 and Maxx’s pig is #155. 

Thus, if you want to spit wine through your nose while your enjoying your evening libation, stick around for the next few weeks friends, because Jack and I are going to start pig-walking. I could take a picture of our view for ya’ll, but all that we get to see is Porky’s BIG bum walking up uphill and downhill and downhill and uphill. And then just to liven it all up… he poops…and we wait…and he walks and poops again. This is my life people! This is my now poop-filled life!

Next, after a long shower using a lot a lot a lot of the Boss’s Lava soap, Jack and I cleaned out the basement pantry, stocked her full, and then started cooking…which is where we get to the first problem of the season:

How does a wanna-be vegetarian survive harvest cooking breakfast, lunch and dinner for a greasy mob full of hungry carnivores? 

Well, here is hoW I hope I can do it: Tonight’s dinner…which I am planning on sharing with ya’ every night…consists of Whole Wheat BLT’s - or LT’s for those who can’t eat the meat that comes from the animal that they just Lava’d the poo off of their legs – and fresh vegetables. Thus, while the bacon was sizzling on the griddle behind me, I filled containers with oodles of diced peppers of all colors, chunked cucumbers, sliced tomatoes and lettuce, and fresh broccoli. YUMMY YUMMY YUMMY! Not only will that allow the boys something cool to add to their BLT’s, but it will also save me from eating every no-bake cookie that I plan on no-baking for lunches tomorrow. 

Until then…as I go find a place off-ground to dump this icky bacon grease, I want to sincerely wish good luck to all-ya-all on the Palouse. I hope it turns out better than any of us expect, and, if you have any easy healthy meal ideas that can please the meat-eaters and non-meat eaters on this farm, please share! and if you have any funny stories to share along the way, feel free to tag in here and I'll do what I can to get it on. After all, laughter is sometimes the only things that saves us ladies during harvest!