August 2011 NewsletterJim Casada
Web site:
www.jimcasadaoutdoors.com
Thinking maybe his mother could provide the requested coin, I said: “I bet you mother’s got one.” To my surprise, he shook his head in a knowing and seemingly somewhat exasperated fashion and said “No, Momma doesn’t have a peenie!” About that time my sister-in-law showed up and immediately got the gist of the conversation. She then explained, somewhat red-faced, that my nephew wasn’t referring to coinage but an essential part of male anatomy. Small wonder he was so adamant about his mother’s lack thereof, and I’m sure he wondered about a fellow who had dug through his pockets the way I did and still couldn’t come up with a “peenie.” That recollection evoked plenty of chuckles, but it paled in comparison with a goat tale told by Ken. There was a patch of that vegetative inspiration of the devil, kudzu, alongside the branch separating the yard at his shop from as fertile a garden as you will likely ever see. I casually mentioned to Ken that he needed to get a goat or two to eat the kudzu down. He grinned and then told of how his next door neighbor had some goats when he first acquired the property. “I decided to burn down the old building which was here,” Ken related, “and the fire got a lot hotter than I thought it would.” He then told of flames roaring a hundred feet or more in the air, carrying with them large, burning pieces of the roof. One of those airborne missiles drifted next door and somehow came to ground atop a goat. It burnt the tether holding the goat and understandably the scorched critter lit a shuck for the adjacent mountain. Ken’s description of the whole scenario was priceless, as was his understated replay when one of the teenagers present asked him if the goat was really burned. “Well,” he said, “he was mighty hot!” Ken Roper is a fine example of some of the stellar aspects of mountain character. In terms of formal education his training might not be anything special, but let me assure you his mind and thought processes are sharp as a well-honed Case pocket knife. I’m going to offer two examples of the kind of genius he brings to his trade of metal working. Both first came to my attention when Tipper covered them on her Blind Pig & the Acorn blog. One is an ingenious device which can be attached to tomato stakes (Ken uses rebar for stakes but he made some adjustments to the same device so it fits eight-foot metal fence posts I use to stake tomatoes—there are 20 of them, holding 40 plants with a plant on each side of the stake, in my garden now). A knob and threaded extension allow one to slide the device up the stake and tighten it where you want. Using this approach, you can tie your tomatoes to stakes and move the tie up as they grow, rather than having to go back, time and again, to add more binder’s twine, baling twine, or rag strips to hold the vines. The second device is a walnut cracker. As anyone who has ever done any missionary work with black walnuts knows, they are truly a tough nut to crack as well as demanding indeed when it comes to picking out the meats. Ken has taken a cog wheel, attached a lever which fits so that you can exert downward force from the ideal angle, and fixed things so that the nut is held in place while you apply just enough pressure to crack it without crushing everything to smithereens. He even makes a sort of box to go with it. Quite simply, these two devices, straight from the fertile imagination of a staunch son of the mountain soil, exemplify the sort of practicality and “home engineering” abilities mountain folks I’ve known as boy and man always seem to possess. Ken isn’t into production of these items in a big way, but I can assure you that if you raise tomatoes and find staking and tying them an ongoing pain, or if you love black walnuts in any of the many ways they can provide tasty eating (see recipes below), you might want to try and persuade him to sell you these items. He can be contacted at kenroper@frontier.com. It’s gatherings such as the one I’ve just described which help a soul get through what in my view is the worst month of the year (although a case could be made for February). Stifling heat, high humidity, weeds running rampant in the garden, indifferent fishing, and general misery seem to typify August. It’s a month to give a man (or woman) the mollygrubs. There are, to be sure though, bright sides. Just before seating myself at the computer to write this newsletter I put up about a bushel of tomatoes. My approach is to clean them, cut an “X” in the top, drop them in a bath of boiling water for 30 seconds or so, then plunge them in an ice water bath. The skins come away readily, and once you cut out the core you can quarter the tomatoes and place them in freezer bags. Such frozen goodness will furnish the delightful underpinnings for soups, stews, venison chili, and the like come the lean, mean times of winter. The goodness of home-grown tomatoes, with their rich, piquant taste, is so much finer that stuff from grocery store shelves pales by comparison. Then too, August may mean misery in terms of being out and about, but my does it bring a bonanza on the food front. Just last night, for example, I enjoyed corn on the cob (my favorite way to eat it fresh), okra, cukes, crowder peas, sliced Cherokee Purple tomatoes, and grilled eggplant topped off for the last minute on the grill pan with Parmesan cheese. With such fixin’s a body doesn’t need meat, and the summer meals of my boyhood were often meatless ones. Cornbread (perhaps cooked with cracklin’s) and green beans or leather britches (dried green beans) cooked with streaked meat were about as close to meat as we came. Yet there would be an array of six or eight vegetables, home-churned butter to decorate one’s cornbread, and an impressive choice of pickles and relishes on the side. These would include things like pickled peaches, watermelon rind pickles, bread-and-butter or 14-day pickles, pickled okra, hot peppers to chop up in beans if you wished, chow-chow, and more. Simple fare, but it was supremely satisfying. Moreover, if one got peckish in mid-afternoon or after supper, there was always the choice of sweet milk or buttermilk accompanied by a big chunk of cornbread. Nor was the sweet tooth ever neglected. Fruit or berry cobblers were our most common dessert, although this was the season of drying peaches as well. Grandma and Momma both made it an annual practice to put up runs of peach butter and to dry a couple of bushels of peaches. The latter, spiced just right and used as filling for fried pies, have to rank as one of my all-time favorites in the dessert sweepstakes. In other words, August wasn’t all bad, and even amidst the nastiest of dog days you knew that cooler weather and hunting season weren’t all that far off. I reckon that will about wrap things up for this month, because I’ve plain out written myself hungry. Accordingly, here are some recipes featuring walnuts, along with one for use of fresh maters. Once I’ve got them typed up, I reckon I’ll fry a few slices of bacon, cut up a big Lemon Boy tomato which has reached the peak of perfection, slather some bread with mayonnaise, and enjoy the pleasure of a bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich. I’ve got a big chunk of blueberry coffee cake to follow. Miz Ann has left me and gone to look after our granddaughter for a week, but she did do me the big favor of turning some of the last of this year’s blueberries into something truly delectable. Incidentally, we had a bountiful crop of blueberries, as is invariably the case, although predictably it has been an ongoing fight with robins and mocking birds as to who gets to enjoy the harvest. I use a bunch of netting but even so am never able to rout the avian attackers completely to my satisfaction. Part of the problem, to be sure, is that our 35-year old blueberry plants are about 10-feet tall, and it’s the very dickens to get them completely covered. Thanks, as always, for letting me share some ramblings, and I hope there’s some tidbit or other here to tickle your fancy, revive a memory from yesteryear, or suggest something in the way of good eating. BLACK WALNUT AND BANANA BREAD½ cup vegetable oil Mix vegetable oil, sugar, eggs and bananas well. Add flour, salt, baking soda and walnuts and mix until thoroughly blended. Place in greased loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees for an hour or in four small loaf pans with a baking time of 40 minutes. TIP: Ripe bananas can be frozen, and it is also often possible to pick them up in grocery stores at greatly reduced rates. TIP 2: Small loaves make a nice addition to a fruit basket or hostess gift. BLACK WALNUT BARSCRUST ½ cup butter FILLING 1 cup brown sugar Cream butter and brown sugar. Slowly add flour and mix until crumbly. Pat into 7 x 11-inch baking dish. Bake for 8-10 minutes at 350 degrees or until golden. Combine brown sugar, eggs, salt and vanilla. In separate bowl, add flour and baking powder to coconut and walnuts. Blend into egg mixture and pour over baked crust. Return to oven and bake for an additional 15-20 minutes or until done. Cut into bars and place on wire racks to cool. BLACK WALNUT VINAIGRETTE DRESSING¼ cup chopped black walnuts Toast nuts and cool. Briefly chop nuts in blender with salt. Do not chop nuts too finely; chunks should remain. Add oils, vinegar, lemon juice, lemon peel and pepper; pulse to blend. Taste to adjust flavors. Wonderful over a mixed greens salad, sliced tomatoes, or an avocado half. TIP: If you are especially partial to the rich, nutty flavor of black walnuts, double up on them and leave the English walnuts out. TOMATO SALSASalsa with corn chips is a favorite munch of mine, especially if the chips are made with blue corn or are of the type where you really taste the corn. Here’s a salsa which is simple and scrumptious. It’s the perfect way to use a few dead ripe tomatoes which will go bad in a day or two if not worked up. 1 ½ pounds ripe tomatoes Coarsely chop tomatoes, seeding if you wish (I don’t—too much trouble). In a medium bowl, blend the other ingredients, stir in tomatoes, and chill. TIP: You can use this salsa to make guacamole. Just add avocado, some more onion, lime juice, a bit of cumin powder, and sour cream. Blend with salsa and you have great guacamole. Thank you for subscribing to the
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As
has been mentioned several times in past newsletters, I have been at
work on a detailed bibliography of the literature of turkey hunting for
several years. The 200-page book will go to press the second week in
August and should, if things go as expected, be available no later than
the middle of September. The book is being done in a limited, numbered,
and signed edition of 750 copies. It will come with a linen slipcase,
all edges gilt, color illustrations, the use of gilt on the spine and
front cover, a ribbon marker, top-quality acid-free paper stock, and all
the physical attributes of a fine book.