Friday, August 14, 2015

Lemons into lemonade, so to speak

This morning while doing chores, I waded through a shallow sea of crunchy maple leaves. Then I got to the Ram-ada Inn lot, which is a leaf-free zone. Why? When one falls, it's food! My sheep love maple leaves like people love chips.

Then I had a thought. Why waste time, effort, and petroleum products cleaning all those leaves off the driveway? Why feed hay when there are leaves aplenty? I just had to think up a way to keep the sheep down where the leaves are, so they didn't find their way to my flower beds or rhodie bushes (see scary story here). I had a rare morning at home, so I dragged some panels across the lower driveway and let Browning and Bart out to happily munch.

Then I took Lance out for a short ride. When I got back Browning was yelling because Blake was out. How he got out and why Browning didn't is a mystery; fortunately, my ram is a mellow fellow, easy to catch, halter, and lead. I put the boys back in the Ram-ada Inn lot for the time being; but I will try "leaf turn-out" again.

Speaking of food, this morning for sandwiches I opened one of the jars of half-sour pickles I made using the recipe from Susan's blog. They are bright green and crunchy, with good flavor after one week. I will definitely be making more of these. The only drawback is that they must be kept in a frig, and mine is small and FULL. I might try canning a jar along with my lacto-fermented batch sitting on the counter to see if I get a satisfactory shelf-stable product.

This afternoon I needed to make dishes for two potlucks. I headed for the local farmer's market, better know as my garden, and got cukes and tomatoes for this salad, rhubarb for crisp, and harvested a few ripe peppers while I was at it. With Brian's help at the cutting board, the recipes were quickly prepared. We're eating good in the neighborhood!

That's it for now from . . .

2 comments:

thecrazysheeplady said...

Lovely produce :-).

Around here I've been told the maples are poisonous. Different variety maybe?

Michelle said...

Thanks; the produce is one perk of our hot summer. These are native big leaf maples, and the sheep AND horses love them without negative side effects. The sheep will eat my Japanese maples, too, if give the chance.