A SONG IN THE NIGHT ~ Week 11

Greetings!

Another week has flown by, and here I sit again! The quiet of the farm on Saturday mornings is almost "deafening"! Everyone but my youngest (who is reading quietly, and also soaking up the stillness) and I are serving you at a Farmer's Market somewhere in middle or east Tennessee! 

These few weeks in August are our hardest times of farming. Your shares only contain the basics this week. We'll soon be transitioning into the (prayerfully) bounty of the fall crops. I can feel fall in the air most mornings lately here on the mountain, and seeing the first signs like, the tall purple Iron Weed is beginning to bloom here in the higher elevations. So God is sending me messages of the changing seasons. 

Your shares this week contain:

Tomatoes

Yellow Squash

Zucchini

Lettuce

New Potatoes

Okra

Basil

I'm about to fly north to New England with my daughters for our first vacation together in 14 years. Since my oldest daughter is 15, you can understand our need. I'll not be posting the blog during that time. I don't anticipate any new challenging vegetables coming in during this slower time...thus our choice of our getaway! Keep on enjoying your vegetables, experimenting with them in different ways. I'm including a few links to blogs today that I want to try possibly while we're away. There are many food bloggers out there that experiment full time! Here are the links to a couple of my favorites.

I make a chocolate zucchini bread that is fabulous. This is a gluten free version that is double chocolate! I really enjoy Nicole's energy in the kitchen, and want to give this a try. I'll substitute Trim Healthy Momma's Super Sweet Blend of Erythritol &Stevia. for the sweetener in the recipe.

I've tried all kinds of healthier pizza crusts. We enjoy using my fermented dough that I use for the market's French Baguettes, but when zucchini is in season I like to use it in many different ways, as you can tell from my past few posts. This "pick up the crust" vegetable/zucchini pizza looks amazing, and I hope to make it while I'm on vacation. All of my other vegetable pizzas are only fork friendly. The picture of this zucchini pizza gave me a pizza craving!

Again, I'd like to say that I don't earn anything for recommending products or websites to you. I feel that if I've found something helpful, I should pass it on. 

This is the site where I've been learning to culture

vegetables this summer. The recipe on this page is for Tomato Bruschetta, and is VERY similar to what I've been doing without knowing it was a real recipe!
I'd encourage you to snoop around this site a bit for great ideas to make your healthy vegetables healthier!

We've been busy about the farm as usual. In the farm's kitchen this week we put up corn, (16 quarts) and made about 3 gallons of lard from our own pork. You can do this too! It is soo easy! This next link is to one of my blogs I've made just to teach you to make lard out of fatback. We have an ABUNDANCE to sell, so go by your farmer's market and pick some up to try!  I love the convenience of having jars of lard in my pantry. I keep large quantities of the healthier oils such as, coconut, lard, and extra virgin olive oil for our family and farm's use. 

This week the Lord brought back an encouraging story I'd read about Mrs. Charles Spurgeon, wife of the famous evangelist. It gave me purpose for the lessons He is bringing into my life, and He prodded me to share it with you...

Mrs. Spurgeon spent many years confined to her

couch, living in pain. Life went on as usual for the folks outside her door, not knowing, or possibly even caring for her confinement. 

One long night, as she laid on her couch before a fire she heard a trill of a song, like a Robin that used to sing outside her window. But this was nighttime, and not the season for a bird's song. Where could that beautiful song be coming from?!? She decided to enjoy the gift of music in her night. Soon afterward it was learned by a servant that the notes came from a log on the fire.  The fire was releasing the "imprisoned music"!

She pondered, as she laid in pain on her couch that evening a lesson from the Lord. Was it possible the wood had soaked up the song

years before when it had stood strong in the sun and a bird had sung among its branches?

The tree had grown old since then, with ring after ring of knotty growth which had sealed in the sunshine and song. The flames that night were burning away years of callousness and releasing the long-forgotten song. 

Do you have a song hidden by pain and hurt within you? Allow the Lord to burn away the calluses of your heart, and let the song out. ONLY through HIS touch can this happen. Echo my prayer this week, "Lord, enable me to [sing in the fire] for Your glory!"

Abundant Blessings!

The Farmer's Wife

Val