Embracing My Inner Southerner

The title of this blog may seem slightly misleading to those who know me well, since many of my southern friends view me as a complete Northerner.  In some ways they are right, the first time I went out to eat with a group of friends I made Andy and pretty much everyone else that was with us laugh because I had no idea what okra and/or hush puppies were.  That and prior to moving Virginia for a few years the only time I had been south of the Mason-Dixon Line prior to the age of 22, was for the typical Disney Vacation and a friend's wedding in Tampa, neither of which I really consider the true southern experience. 

 

With all of this to consider, there is a part of me that loves sitting and sifting through my mother in-laws Southern Living Magazines (so much so that my Christmas present this year was my own subscription). Then of course there is this small fact that I married into a southern family all of whom I love dearly.  So of course there was a part of me that was curious about this whole fried green tomatoes thing and had determined that at some point in my life I would have to try them. 

 

Fast forward to this past week at the farmers market.  One of the vendors had one lonely basket of green tomatoes.  I decided it was time and bought them from the man.  Now I have to explain, I live in a small Vermont town, many people up here have never eaten fried green tomatoes and just like me a few years ago have no idea what hush puppies or okra are.  The man looked at me completely shocked that I was actually going to buy his green tomatoes, and sold them to me at a cheaper price than his other tomatoes.  He could not possibly imagine why anyone would buy the green tomatoes.

When we arrived at home, I sliced them up and pulled out the fried green tomato recipe I had kept from one of the Southern Living Magazines.  Thankfully I had all the ingredients I needed for my little project (There has been more then one occasion that I have started cooking something and realized I needed to improvise halfway though because I was missing something: no wonder Andy does not like me in his kitchen).

Overall they did not come out all that bad.  Little Man successfully pulled the breading of every piece he ate and concluded he like the outsides and not the insides, while I determined that they tasted a lot like breaded zucchini with a little bit of a bitter after taste.  That and I can now say I have eaten fried green tomatoes.  I can add it to my southern foods list, along with the hush puppies, collard greens and okra. 

Hide and Go Seek

I may have planted the cucumbers a bit too close together this year.  I am typically pretty good about spacing, but since a garden plot we expected to have ready for this summer was not, I packed too much into the raised beds.  I am having a lot of trouble finding the cucumbers in the bed; thankfully Little Man is a bit lower to the ground and typically is able to spot many of the larger cucmbers.  Note to self: be mindful of spacing next year. 

My How They Grow

I am always amazed at how quickly chickens grow.  We added six chicks to the flock in May and they are already catching up to the four older chickens we already had.  The two with the combs (red part on their heads) are the two year olds and the six behind them are the babies. 

This, of course, is bad news for the older chickens because they have been relentlessly esablishing a pecking order and picking on the younger six.  Often you will find the older chickens in the ideal spots in the coop and outside, while the younger ones are huddled in a corner someplace else.  As the babies have been getting bigger, I have noticed that they are begining to get a bit bolder about where they are in location to the older hens.  Before, when I would bring out food scraps (they love cherries and beet greens) the babies would often not get any, now they are begining to work their way in for the good stuff.  It will be interesting to see how the next few weeks progress as they continue to grow and assert themselves a little more.  The older chickens may have wished they hadn't been so relentless in esablishing a new pecking order when we added the new six to the flock.