Short-term Exercise Program, Long-term Benefits

Gardening is a short-term exercise program that offers the promise of long-term edible benefits!

Admittedly, I got out of the hard work of gardening this year because of my broken leg. Chris really came through and tended the garden to keep the weeds out. The weather cooperated and voila!

Chris has recently been busy gathering the veggies. He brings them in and I wish I could say I take it from there, as usual, but Chris has also helped with food preservation. That is really quality time! Many of the beans and corn are already processed for later enjoyment. And others have been given away. Our potatoes, squashes and pumpkins soon need to be gathered and put in storage.

Now that I'm about to lose my walking cast, the work for me will get intensive. I'm gearing up for it with a daily workout program of Pilates and Yoga but I miss the aerobics of gardening and hiking!

Our family meals are largely Mediterranean-based and require plain tomato sauce, plain so that the sauce can be adapted for different purposes. Although we planted a wide variety of tomatoes, I'm especially pleased with the Romas this year. They're hanging in thick, heavy clusters that remind me of bananas. I'll start by first processing tomato sauce, then salsa and whole tomatoes. By the end of the season, close to frost,  the mix of stragglers will go into a blended tomato juice that can be added to other veggies for a little nutrition boost. Maybe making tomato juice will keep me from drinking the salsa!

I encourage all my readers at some point in your life to try making your own sauce and salsa. The fresh taste is amazing! And the health benefits are long-lasting! You don't need to pay money to join a health club!

Duckling

Chris really enjoyed this meal. Duckling! 

When I plated this for dinner, Chris said I had to get the picture. Here it is: duckling with brown and wild rice with orange-flavored cranberries, green beans fresh from the garden, served with a glass of cranberry-grape juice. A salad plate of cranberry sauce with orange slices
was already on the table.

Serving a meal of duckling seemed appropriate for Labor Day since the ducklings had been a labor of love from the very first moment of picking up the tiny yellow peeping fluffs at the post office to all their daily care, the heat lamps, the coddling. Then, when the Pekin ducks were beginning to get their white feathers, we moved them outside to the Hoop Coop, complete with its swimming pool and shaded area. By then, they were big enough and had their natural oils, necessary so that they wouldn't drown in the pool. The ducks have been a joy to watch, and we gave them the best life we possibly could. Chris worked really hard.

In a similar manner, my dad raised pigs on his hog farm. When I was a teenager, questioning the eating of meat, I asked how he could justify eating one. 

He simply said, "I give them the best life possible. The good Lord provides us meat, necessary for our bodies. When we eat meat, the animal becomes part of us, nourishing us, an ultimate 'thank you' for the nurturing care we give them." 

To kill and prepare what you've raised is humbling, like nothing else. My father had a reverence for all life, an attitude that is lost as we distance ourselves from the animal, the source of our meat, and go instead to the plastic-wrapped environment of a grocery store.

When Chris and I ate this meal, we knew that humble feeling, but we also experienced an adventure in both cooking and eating, and we soon realized this is a process we'll go through again. For Chris, it convinced him that we don't need to pasture steers for beef. He actually prefers the flavor and texture of duckling to beef! I enjoyed it too, very much! The meat is mild and tasty, like the dark meat of turkey that is properly prepared.

I have friends who wouldn't come see Pauley's Pampered Poultry because they knew we planned to eat the ducks eventually. Come on! Are we so far removed from the reality of our food that we can't accept that fact?!

Frankly, I don't want to take anything's life! I take a house spider out to the flower bed! But, in reality, my body dictates that I eat well and that means including meat, moderately, in the diet.

Garden Give-aways and Possible Trades

In our record-breaking harvest this year, my gimpy leg has been a mixed blessing. Breaking a leg really slows down the ability to get into the gardens to gather the vegetables but it speeds up the willingness to share! Right now, as I write, I'm gathering up the energy to take this gimpy leg out to gather more green beans. As the garden grows over the next week, I'll probably find more green beans and sweetcorn than we can eat. For my viewers who are willing and able to pick, please give me a call or shoot me a comment. When possible, I love working out trades. It's such fun!

This year's harvest for us is not only abundant, it has been pretty much blemish-free. Chris and the little ladybugs have been out there doing their work while I leave them alone. (What can I say? He likes the little ladies and I'm reminded of the chicks.)

Remember my tomatoes that got out really late? Thank goodness! Even though we are now out of last year's canned salsa and tomato sauce, trying to hop up on the cabinet to hold down the tomato press while I crank away (yes, really!) would be quite a chore if I also had to watch my leg to keep it out of the way and painfree. The tomatoes will come, but by then I'll have full use of this gimpy leg! And then, again, I'll be back in business, making my salsa. Even canned, it tastes so fresh and yummy! Sometimes I just drink it!

Keep watching my post. The Roma tomatoes are coming on slow but plentiful, maybe more than I can crank out, and they are a very meaty tomato, great for sauce.