Re-visit

Well guys this is my first post in over a year! So much has happened! The farm has been crazy busy as 8 months ago my daughter moved on to bigger and better things; University in England to be precise. It's not quite the same here without her, a bit quiet and so much busier. Thankfully she still comes back in the holidays to visit us and check out the farm.
So lately we've built a wee gazebo in the back yard. It overlooks the main vege patch so my wife and I can sit out in the warm summer sun and admire our accomplishments. It's a regular lunch time occurrence these days.
We've also netted some of the peas to keep the damn crows off! It was quite a rough winter for them this year, got a fair few of our crops. This meant less roadside selling for our son but I think he was quite relived. Too many years of it perhaps? Or just missing his sister. I think I'll stick with the latter.
Great news, my wife has expanded her wee card making business. She's now right into wrapping paper and bookmarks. The interest has been amazing!!! Definetly made up for the crows damage on the crops. So proud of my lovely wife :)
Tomorrow I have arranged to 'barter' with my neighbours. They have so many chickens!! We thought maybe they'd like a few buckets of snow peas in exchange for a chicken and the borrowing of their rooster from time to time. Fresh eggs anyone?

That's all from me for now. Time to harvest!
"toodles"

Hi!

Wow! A post at this hour.. you guys must be special :)
I have to tell you about an improvement we made on the chicken and snow pea casserole. Firstly, we used beef (because we ran out of chicken). I think this added a lot of flavour to the dish. Better than the chicken! Also, we added some extra gravy to the mix. Gravy makes things better right? NO exceptions!
Anway guys, the weekend has snuck up on us yet again! More snow pea sales for me and the kids this weekend. My wife is making a trip into town this weekend regarding her business. Never once did I think I would be the one looking after the kids while my wife made the business trips. Yet I couldn't be happier with my life!
Hope you all have a smashing weekend! I'll let you know how the sales go, maybe I'll even see some of u pop by ;)
Jack

Chicken and Snow Pea Casserole

My lovely wife just made this casserole for our lunch and it is absolutely AMAZING!!! I'd have to say it's the best casserole I've ever tried!
Oh and be warned, the recipie is huge! Makes for good leftovers :)
Jack



Snow Peas are in a bounty this fall and this vegetable is versatile to go into salads, steamed rice, crabmeat, beff, chicken, pasta, mushrooms, babycorns and carrots. Let us check out the following recipe that makes the most of the above ingredients with snow peas.




Ingredients

1 lb Snow Peas
Babycorns
Diced Carrots
Chicken Breasts
2 cups Washed Rice
4 cups Chicken Broth
Salt
Cayenne Pepper
Pureed Cilantro
Crushed Garlic
Olive Oil

Method

1. In a wok heat olive oil and fry crushed garlic, baby corns, carrots, chicken breasts and snow peas.

2. To this add salt, cayenne pepper and pureed cilantro.

3. Stir and cook it covered for 10 minutes.

4. Add rice and chicken broth. Cook until rice is tender and the veggies and chicken have got cooked.

Just a little note

Hey guys
So today I took the family to the annual pea fest in Charagin. After a 3 hour drive there, we enjoyed checking out all the new and exciting ideas people had creatively used to make their peas into art. Is this possible you ask? Oh Yes!
What topped the list would have to be the pea mobile! Not only was it a mobile hanging peas, the hanger was made from peas, as was the string! And pea string help large clumps of snow peas shaped into little animals.. who would've thought?!
Anyway, its been a long day so I'm going to have to leave you for today. But on the bright side, here's a pic for you all to think about :) These were the finger puppets made by one of the locals, thought it was pretty cleaver!

Jack

Drying Peas

hey guys, heres a new snack idea for you all.. Dried Peas!

- Firstly, you need around 500g of peas (because they shrink heaps!). If you want them to last longer, you can do the same with -- 1kg of peas but leave cook boil them twice as long and leave them in the hot water cupboard for a few extra hours at the least.
- Next, slightly cook the peas. You don't want them to go mushy!
- After you have cooked the peas, lay them out on a tea towel and let them dry a bit.
- As weird as this may sound, the next step is putting them in the oven! Use a bit of baking paper on the bottom on a roasting dish and spread the peas out as much as you can
- Cook them for approximetly 15 minutes at 150 degrees celcius (This will differ sllightly so keep a close watch on them. As soon as they start wrinkling, they are done)
- once they are slightly wriinkled, put them in a paper bag, scrunch up the top and put them in the hot water cupboard for a minimum 12 hours. You can leave them longer if you wish, won't do them any harm; the longer the better I say!

These make great snack before dinner, in the kids lunchboxes or even in front of the telly at night!

Enjoy guys!
Jack