Blueberry Jam and Syrup time, plus some garden goodies.

Haven't posted for awhile, because we have been consumed with cleanup from the tornado - had to move everything out of the entire upper floor of our house and the garage so the roof repairs could commence - ceilings and rafters and damaged roofs torn off, dumpsters full of the detritus of that activity, huge vehicles destroying the lawn delivering wood and roofing materials - we look like refugees in a war zone at the moment. But as of yesterday, the roofs are enclosed again - what a relief!

But, in the midst of this, a neighbor got free blueberries from a friend and shared them - Darrell made blueberry jam when he wasn't building the new chicken coop, and plans to make syrup with a few more pounds of berries that are coming our way. I had to travel for my business and came home to find a dozen jars of jam awaiting our "from the kitchen at Coach Stop Farm" labels that I create.

And, the beets in the garden, which I had sampled the day before I left on the trip, have yielded more. I'm debating if I want to can them with or without pickling - maybe some of both! I roasted a small bunch of beets and made a beet salad on Monday evening.

Last night's supper included cole slaw made from a big head of cabbage, nice and sweet, that I cut in the garden after we did evening chores. I need to make sauerkraut with some of this year's cabbage. Broccoli is about ready, also.

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Leftover Thanksgiving Turkey - fun with Corn Chowder!

Many of you who know us know we usually make Turkey Pot Pies (see the recipe on our blog) with leftover Thanksgiving goodies. We still love Turkey Pot Pie, but we still have so many from last year (an even bigger bird than this year!), we decided we would do other things with this year's leftover turkey (we roasted a 33# bird from the flock we raised). So I made a Turkey Corn Chowder that is savory and yummy out of part of the leftovers. Here's how it came to be: Finished Turkey Corn Chowder First, right after Thanksgiving, I put the turkey carcass, from which most of the large meat pieces had been removed, into our 22-quart stock pot, along with some carrot, onion, and celery, to make turkey stock. When the stock was done simmering, I had pulled the carcass bones and all the meat that had cooked off out of the pot, picking out bones from the meat. I had about 2 quarts of small chunks and bits of turkey, most of which was the very tender, sweet meat that is around t...

Big turkeys from our farm - happy customers at Thanksgiving!

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Mushroom & Andouille Sausage Soup

For our retail pork offering, we had some sausage processed as "andouille", which is used a lot in spicy southern cooking, especially Cajun/Creole. We wanted to try some of it ourselves, so went searching for recipes calling for andouille sausage. This recipe comes from this link for Southern Food and made a great "chilly, rainy night" supper for us. This is a delicious creamy mushroom soup with a little cheese and chunks of andouille sausage. Feel free to use another variety of smoked sausage in this recipe. Ingredients: 1 tablespoons vegetable oil 12 to 16 ounces andouille sausage, halved lengthwise then thinly sliced 16 ounces sliced mushrooms 4 tablespoons butter 4 green onions, thinly sliced 1 clove garlic, mashed and finely minced ...

Good Food Down on the Farm

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