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This is a use-what-you-have sort of dish. I cook to a pot based on the number of people eating. I vary the veggies according to what I have and according to the dislikes of those I am serving. Some veggies retain their shape well when sauteed – broccoli, cauliflower, beets – and some shrink considerably – many greens – and some are somewhere in between – beans, pod peas, squash, cabbage, onions, garlic.

I use a cast iron Dutch oven. I put oil in the bottom and let it start to warm. I add my firm veggies and put some oil on top. Then I stir or toss the veggies and the oil. Next I cover it with the lid and let it sit for a minute or two. Then I add the next batch of veggies, again adding some oil on top, stirring and tossing. Once again I cover it and let it sit another minute or two. And finally I repeat with the greens. Once the lidded pot starts steaming, I put the heat to low, letting it sit for 4-5 minutes in between stirrings. When the solids are finally soft, then I serve this. It may be over rice or just a side of meat and potatoes. And the veggies still taste good the next day, though we don’t usually have many that last that long. Here is a printable form of this meal.

About 10 years ago one of my meat customers asked me for smoked pork chops. I had never heard of them, but sure enough my butcher could make smoked chops. So we started getting some of our pork chops smoked.

Smoked chops taste like smoked ham slices. The smoking and brine is the same. The consistency of the meat is more like regular chops. So you have a smaller piece of meat with a smoked flavor. If you don’t want to use all 3 at once, just thaw the meat enough to take one chop off and then refreeze the rest.

Other ways to use these is to cook them over potatoes either in the crockpot or in the oven. The flavor from the meat goes down and flavors the potatoes and makes it all a good meal. In this crockpot recipe you could substitute it for the beef steak giving the dish a smoked ham flavor. All in all, smoked chops add good flavoring to dinner dishes.

Other posts about ragweed can be found here and here.

Here are recent views from the farm…

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Here are some weeds we recently sighted around the property. All are fun to observe, but two, ragweed and wild parsnip, we are especially careful around.

Various veggies continue to grow. Lots of water, sun, and heat all work together to make them grow. Of course they are not the only things growing. Weeds or unintended plants also grow. With drier weather this week we hope to get into some of the beds and convert the unintended plants to mulch.

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(Note: while we grow red Russian kale, we do not always have it available to sell.)

Some interesting things to note:

Biennial, annual, and perennial differences:

• A biennial is a plant that flowers and makes seeds in the 2nd year, not the first year. The brassicas, like broccoli or cabbage, or the beets, like Swiss chard or early wonder tall top beets, are biennials.
• An annual flowers and makes seeds in the first year. Spinach or squashes are annuals.
• Self-sowing annuals also distribute the seeds which then come up the next year even though they weren’t planted on purpose. Cilantro and dillweed are like this.
• A perennial comes up every year. It may also make seeds, but the mother plant comes up whether it goes to seed or not. Rhubarb and asparagus are perennials.

Pork is the name of meat that comes from pigs.

And as the seasons permit they are moved to different paddocks eating the brush, grass and local vegetation.

We aim to raise our pigs to 250-300 lb. They get this size by 7 months and then we have them processed by Kelly Meats in Taberg, a USDA-inspected facility. They cut and vacuum pack the meat into the normal chops, steaks and roasts. They use some of the ground meat to make sweet Italian, hot Italian and breakfast sausage. And they smoke some of the hams, chops and bacon. You end up with well-raised, tasty pork. Local food grown for you!

With the rain this spring and the heat of June, hay fields have grown and hay has been collected.

It is good to have a nice green hay ready for the cows and goats when grass is no longer available.