beingstray.com » Gardening

Recipe: Sussex County Beans

isak — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 22:14:27 +0000

A friend and I have been swapping our ideas on comfort food and I remembered one last night I need to add to the list: gravy. I love gravy! And for dinner last night, I had a gravy sandwich — a couple pieces of honey wheat berry bread smothered in gravy. Hmmmmm.

But this post has nothing to do with gravy or with pets. It has to do with another comfort food: Sussex County Beans.

When I was about 10 years old, I lived with my folks and three brothers in Frankford, Delaware located in Sussex County. We had a babysitter named Mrs. Bunting for my little brother, Lad. Lad couldn’t pronounce “Bunting.” It came out as “Bumpy” and so Mrs. Bunting became Bumpy to us all. Lad and I, we were the youngest of the four, were sometimes left in Bumpy’s care on afternoons my mom had to be other places with my two older brothers. She was always cooking something or another and I learned a lot about cooking, even at 10, from her. The big two are Slippery Dumplings (no cake dumplings in southern Delaware) and Sussex County Beans.

It’s a cold day today here in Texas; it was sleeting earlier — a good day to pull out the crock pot and make Sussex County Beans. Essentially the recipe is lima beans, corn, tomatoes and bacon with a touch of sugar cooked slowly together. I don’t eat bacon very often but I thought I could make a pot of Sussex County Beans today… and then some Black-Eyed Peas by New Year’s and use up a small package of bacon.

Seems most people I meet don’t like lima beans, so why are they so expensive in the frozen food section of the grocery??? $5 for two pounds. I bought the dried ones: $1.49 for one pound. The dried ones don’t retain their wonderful green color, so the end result will not be as pretty with the dried ones, but great stuff anyway.

Here’s how I am cooking them today:

BUMPY’S SUSSEX COUNTY BEANS

Ingedients:
1-lb dried lima beans
1/2-lb frozen yellow corn (or about 6 ears of fresh corn cut off the cob)
3-4 roma tomatoes (any tomato will work; romas have less seeds)
4 slices of bacon cut into smaller pieces
2 Tablespoons sugar
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Add all the ingredients to your crock pot, fill with plenty of water (because the beans are dry and will absorb lots of water), cook on high until the liquid comes to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and let things cook for a few/couple hours.

Bumpy served them as a side dish, but I use them as my entree with some bread or rolls. I especially like a crusty bread with a soft inside.

It’s hard for me to say how many this will serve because I will eat them all in a couple days, but maybe 6-8 servings.

If you google Sussex County Beans, you will not find this recipe — or I didn’t, but I found this:
Grown primarily for processing, lima beans are planted on more acres in Delaware than any other vegetable crop. Baby limas and Fordhook varieties are used in processing; the small amounts of pole lima beans grown in the state are strictly for the fresh market.

Enjoy!

Canine Underground Railroad is Traveling a Road Near You

isak — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:14:09 +0000

Several months ago, I was searching the internet for suggestions on how to move my pets back East. I am contemplating a move back home to Delaware from Texas to be closer to family, but I don’t know how to get my dogs and cats there. I have several of each… more than a car full.

So I started looking on the internet. In my search, I stumbled upon several groups of people that transport dogs — and probably cats, too — from one side of the country to the other; north and south, east and west. And this is quietly going on all the time.

I never knew.

It has been going on long enough that there are certain protocols established: a health certificate from the vet, spayed/neutered, proof of rabies, sound temperament, paperwork, bowls, water, leashes, harnesses/collars, sheets to cover the inside of your car, paper towels and so on. There are pilots that volunteer their time and their plane to relocate small animals within their region. And there are volunteers that offer their time and their vehicles to drive “legs” of a dog’s journey from Point A to Point B. Some “legs” may be just an hour and some may be more.

Often the transferees come from death row in a shelter where their time is running out. They may be going to another shelter in a new area, a rescue organization or sometimes even a forever home. When the need arises to transport a dog, a notice is posted online with all the pertinent info: who the dog is, often a photo, temperament, special requirements, what he/she will be bringing, what you need to know, then a list of all the legs with dates and times. The core of volunteers regularly checks the various requests and signs up for the legs they can do.

From my tiny perspective here on the outside, it is incredibly orchestrated like a team track event. Instead of passing a baton, these people are passing a dog. Driver B meets Driver A at a certain location. The dog gets water and a potty break, is moved to the new car and begins the next leg. Driver C meets Driver B at a certain location. Water, potty break and on to the next leg. This goes on until the dog gets to the final destination. If it’s a long drive, someone volunteers to take the dog in for the night and the next day, the journey continues.

What a wonderful service they provide.

This morning I stumbled on a post from one of these “drivers” and got a really good belly laugh from her story. She is essentially a cat person, so you have to admire her willingness to step outside her preferred species to help three dogs for one leg of their life saving journey. As someone who has dogs, I know what she is explaining so well… it just smacks of DOGS! (This is an example of why dogs always lose the “Who’s better — dogs or cats?”)

What Was I Thinking?
Sun, 2009-06-14 13:47 — Robin Olson

So I volunteered to run another load of rescued Brittany Spaniels up to Hartford. This time it was going to be in MY little car and this time no puppies, but adults-so no crates, just loose dogs. No problem. I can do this.

Last night I prepped the car, put sheets all over the seats, packed up cleaning supplies, treats, water and a bowl. I knew where the pickup and drop off points were located, so I was ready! Now I just needed the doggies.

I reached the pickup location early and Debra was already waiting for me. I could tell the dogs wanted to BOUNCE OUT OF THE CAR. I grabbed Margo, who MUST be kept in the front seat, away from the other dogs or she gets pissed off. Debra grabbed Bailey and our new amputee, Kiley. The second they were out of the car it was complete chaos! Thank goodness we had a good hold of the leads. The dogs wanted to get moving! It was all we could do to get them to settle down enough so we could get them some water-which they inhaled, and get all their papers and other things transferred over to my car.

Then it was time to load my car. Debra was awesome and got two in the back while I held onto Margo. We loaded her last and it went fine, but the dogs didn’t want to sit down. They all wanted the front seat!

Margo is giving me that look…too bad I don’t know what “that look” means in dog-speak!

This is where I start wondering if I’m an idiot.

Look at them! Little Kiley and Bailey are so sweet…ha ha ha! For NOW!

I get the car moving, realizing that the dogs have moved the sheets off the seats and are sliding all over the LEATHER cushions with their dirty feet. Oops.

The dogs settled down fairly quickly for which I was very grateful. Margo wanted to put her head in my lap, but it was too dangerous, so I just kept my hand on her head as I navigated through the traffic. So far, so good.

After a few minutes, the dogs were bored and started to shuffle around the car. I opened the small windows in the back and the dogs got all excited and bounced all over each other. Nice. Ok. Close windows. Settle down…whew…

The next 30 minutes were relatively fine, until I heard puppy Bailey make a funny sound. I looked over my shoulder to see him vomit something huge over my back seat and onto the floor. Then the stench of pepperoni dog barf filled the cabin. Ack! I almost barfed, myself. Nice. This is going great.

A second after that, Kiley farted some sort of death fart. The blend of doggie smells was intoxicating, cough cough…

It certainly motivated me to DRIVE quickly to get to the drop off location. I was running early and I prayed that Rachel would be there to get these beasts out of my car! I pulled myself together, took a breath, then Kiley BARKED suddenly and loudly! It scared the shit out of me and I almost drove off the highway!!!! I need to get these dogs OUT OF MY CAR!!!!!

Ok. It’s going to be OK…really..ha ha ha ha ha…oh boy.

There are no more photos. I got to the drop off place and had a hair raising time getting all the dogs into Rachel’s big truck. Margo discovered FOOD and was doing everything she could to pull the paper wrapped sandwiches towards her drooling mouth. The other two dogs wanted the front seat, too, but Margo would flip out if she hadn’t been so focused on the treats. I feared for Rachel, but she was calm. Ha ha ha..for now!

I waved farewell to Rachel and the goggies, then went to work cleaning the puke and mud out of my car. I am very happy to know I helped some goggies have a better life, but please, next time, no barfing in the car, OK? Cat barf is one thing, but dog barf…WOOF!
………………………………………………………….
reprinted from Covered in Cat Hair blog

Yep, this is pretty much what I would expect my leg of the journey to be like. Thanks, Robin for the wonderful laugh this morning.

Taters in a Barrel

isak — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 17:46:38 +0000

Just want to add this info a friend emailed to me so I know where it is when the time comes. What does this have to do with the pack? Alternate source of food for me and yet another project I am pondering.

Peggy M. Mills tells us how she grows her…

Taters in a Barrel
Issue # 62 – March/April 1980

Remember what potatoes used to taste like . . . hot and steaming from the oven, full of fluffy white meal, and with an earthy flavor that didn’t need the help of butter or sour cream? Well, you can raise your own spuds and recapture that special flavor, and you won’t have to do a lot of backbreaking digging, either. You can do what I do and grow taters in a barrel. . . and what’s more, that container is filled with sawdust. Yep, you heard me right, sawdust! Here’s how it’s done:

First, get yourself a barrel. You can use an old metal or plastic trash can, or even a discarded whiskey keg. However, the size of the container will determine the number of “earth apples” you’ll harvest, so make your selection accordingly. To prepare your growin’ bin, poke a series of holes-spaced about six inches in each direction-in the bottom of the container. The drainage provided by the bores will help keep your spuds’ “feet” dry … an important consideration. Then spread a sheet of fiberglass screening over the holes, and put about six inches of soil in the bottom of the barrel. Next comes a four-inch layer of sawdust . . . and-with that in place-you’re ready to plant the seed potatoes.

As you probably know, spuds-unlike most vegetables-aren’t usually raised from seed. Instead, they’re sprouted from the eyes of fully grown tubers . . . known as seed potatoes. So, if you grew your own crop of taters last year and set some of the bumpy beauties aside, you’re ahead of the game. If not, don’t worry: There are commercial vendors of certified seed potatoes listed at the end of this article. (There’s one source to avoid, however: store-bought spuds, even If they are beginning to sprout. The commercial edibles have usually been sprayed with an antisprouting chemical . . . and even the ones that do put forth new growth will develop poorly.)

Slice your seed potatoes so that each chunk contains two eyes, and let the severed spuds sit for a day or two while their cut surfaces dry. Next, take the “seeds” and push ‘em down into the layer of saw dust in the barrel . . . just far enough so they’re covered. Now dampen the tree shavin’s and stand back. In only a few days you’ll find little plants sproutin’ through the sawdust. Then, each time these young’uns grow a couple of inches above the woodwaste, dump in another load to cover ‘em up, and give the crop a soaking. Since the new potatoes form above their parent eye, you are-in effect-creating room for more down-home delicacies each time you bury the plant! By the time the container is full, you’ll have two or three feet of barrelgrown beauties to harvest.

Come September, when it’s time to gather your May-planted crop, you can forget about your spading fork. Simply tilt the barrel over on Its side, give it a shake or two to get things moving, and pour out the most beautiful crop of luscious spuds you’ve ever seen! And-after you’ve taken those terrific taters from their nest you’ll have some mighty fine organic material left over to work into your garden soil. But plantin’ time !s coming on, and seed potato stocks are often limited … so you’d better get crackin’ if you want to raise a banquet In a barrel!

EDITOR’S NOTE: You can order certified seed potatoes from Park’s Seeds, Dept. TMEN, Greenwood, South Carolina 29647 (Red McClure and Russet Burbank varieties, $2.95 plus 65d handling for enough to plant a 25-foot row). . . Jung’s Seeds, Dept. TMEN, Randolph, Wisconsin 53956 ($3.95plus 75d service charge for approximately 50 potato “sets “of Kennebec, Norland, and Superior … and $4.75 for a like quantity of the new BelRus cultivar) . . . Gurney Seeds, Dept. TMEN, Yankton, South Dakota 57079 ($3.98 plus 70d handling for sets of Norland, Kennebec, Norchip, Irish Cobbler, Red Pontiac, and Norgold Russet … and $4.25 plus handling for Bake King). And, for organic growers, there’s the spudmelster of Aspen: Wilton’s Organic Potatoes, Dept. TMEN, Box 28, Aspen, Colorado 81811 ($5.00-plus $2.50 shipping-for five pounds of Norland, Norgoid, or a mixture of the two).

Ahhhh… that elusive thick green lawn

isak — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 17:16:35 +0000

Well, it’s February and we are flirting with spring-like humidity and temperatures — the windows are open, so my mind turns to once again having a wonderfully thick, green lawn… something I lost when “the pack” invaded my little corner of the world. Combined with lots of rain, they quickly reduced my yard to a muddy, slimy mess with a few couple small spots of green. I developed the mentality that “green is green.” I am so happy to have green that I do not care WHAT it is — weeds or grass. Of course, this being winter, I have some larger areas of winter rye. But as I sit back admiring those areas, a voice in the back of my head tells me it is just a matter of time and temperature before that “green” is gone. So I am trying to guess what to plan to try this year.

I placed some sqaures of grass/sod in the yard last year just to see what would happen. Just as I envisioned, the dogs quickly tore those up. Okay, that’s not the way to go. Good thing they were free.

I have tried putting down some soil, mixing in some grass seed and laying fencing wire on top. That seems to work pretty well. But with 1 1/2 acres in their running area, I don’t think that is a feasible idea. Maybe I can fence off areas and do it piecemeal (sounds like that might take a few years).

The biggest problem is that with no green on the ground and a very rainy year, any good soil I had has all eroded to some other area. It’s not so much a problem that we have had a lot of rain as it is that when it rained, the rainfall was fierce and excessive — like an inch or two in an hour. Or 4-6 inches in an afternoon. It rained so hard sometimes that the rain built up backwards on my roof and found places to leak into the house that it would not have found otherwise.

However, I do not want to complain too much. For 6 years, we experienced drought. I worried so much for the trees during that time(I live in a rural woodsy area).

I want to look at that straw-like stuff you roll out to hold seed. If I can make that work, I can maybe recycle the hay from the dog houses to the yard and maybe gain a grassy yard in the process. Maybe spread some new dirt down mixed with the hay and grass seed.

Sprinklers are out. The dogs think those things are GREAT FUN! Their favorite is the one that sprays around in a circle, then once it completes one circle, goes quickly backwards to the start of the circle. All these are good for is making a very muddy circle of paw prints. Realkly screws up the yard.

I also need to find some scent that dogs hate. I could mix that in or spray it on so the dogs would leave the area alone.

I know there has to be way…