Kudzu - The Vine That Ate the South

In 1876, the lush green leaves and fragrant purple flowers enchanted visitors to the Japanese Pavilion at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia and gardeners were eager to add this exotic Japanese vine to their collections.

Those who lived in the South quickly found that kudzu, given warmth and moisture, can grow as much as a foot a day. And cattle will eat it! An enterprise was born and "the miracle vine" was planted on farms as well as in gardens.

In the 1930s, the soil Conservation Service promoted kudzu for erosion control and farmers were paid to plant it.

It's estimated that around 7 millions acres of the Deep South are covered by kudzu. It can kill trees by keeping the sun from them. Pesticides can't destroy it -- one actually makes it grow faster. Goats can wipe it out -- for a while.

Kudzu is one of many introduced plants that, without natural enemies, can take over. Multiflora rose, bittersweet, and water hyacinth are some others.

We have the roses and the bittersweet on our farm -- but, thank heaven, no kudzu . . . yet.

It's just across the river . . . and growing.



(Here's a terrific site that tells even more of The Amazing Story of Kudzu)

Squash for Squash-Haters

Stuffed squash topped with bacon is the single recipe for yellow squash that actually elicits a bit of enthusiasm from my family. Oh, they'll eat squash in all the other ways I fix it but this is a recipe they'll take seconds on . . . or thirds.

Begin by boiling your squash in salted water till fork-tender.

Remove and drain and let cool a while. Meanwhile, saute some diced onion in some sort of fat -- I used bacon grease this time; olive oil would be better for you.

When the squash are cool enough to handle, cut them in half lengthwise and scrape their little insides into the pan with the onion. Mix and saute.

Now add bread crumbs -- homemade or otherwise. I used Italian flavored breadcrumbs. A stuffing mix would work too.

My mother used to make these and one time, out of white bread, she used caraway seeded rye. That's really good too. If I had some caraway seeds, I'd add them now.

But I don't. I do have cumin seeds so I toast them in the crepe pan to bring out their flavor. I realize this is too much cumin so half goes into the stuffing and the other half into the bucket of scraps for the chickens. I wonder if they'll be pleased?

Stuff the squash halves, top with bacon, and bake at 350 till the bacon is done ( about a half an hour.)

And there's the squash -- along with turkey breast roasted with garlic and Herbes de Provence (just like Elizabeth fixed for Phillip in Signs in the Blood) and a salad of spinach, sliced cucumbers (fresh from the garden) , red onion, gorgonzola and vinaigrette.

It was good.

But wait, there's more! Pat in East Tennessee sent me some more squash recipes and here they are:

These recipes are from the book "Too Many Tomatoes .......". It's a book I got about 35 years ago and is very handy.

ZUCCHINI BREAD

3 cups grated zucchini

1 cup oil

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 eggs, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine the above ingredients.

3 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon soda

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ginger

(I also add 1/4 teaspoon cloves)

Stir to blend.

1 cup chopped nuts

1 cup raisins or craisins

Add and beat 4 minutes - put in a greased bundt or tube pan and bake for 1 hour at 350.

This freezes very well.

ZUCCHINI DROP COOKIES

1 cup grated zucchini

1 teaspoon soda

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup shortening or butter

1 egg beaten

Mix together.

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon salt

Stir to blend.

1 cup chopped nuts

1 cup raisins

Stir in and then drop by teaspoonfuls on a greased cookie sheet and bake 12 to 15 minutes at 375.

Yes, these are similar to zucchini bread. A moist, spicy cookie that also freezes well.

ZUCCHINI GOULASH

1 large onion, diced

1/4 pound mushrooms, sliced

2 Tablespoons olive oil

Using a large pot, sauté until soft.

1 # ground chuck

Add and cook until crumbly.

1 1/2 teaspoons paprika

1/4 cup minced green pepper

2 Tablespoons fresh minced parsley

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

2 teaspoons minced fresh basil

2 cups diced tomatoes

Add, cover and simmer 15 minutes

6 zucchini, sliced diagonally

Add to pot, stir well, cover and simmer 20 minutes or until tender.

Grated Parmesan cheese

Serve in bowls, sprinkle with cheese. I usually have crusty rolls to go with this ... good for dipping in the juices.

I know this recipe sounds a little weird, but it is VERY tasty!

and this:

Here's a yellow squash recipe that I have made for years and is always a hit with everyone, except for Mike! HA! It's easy to make and freezes well, so I make it often when the squash are in and then freeze it in serving sizes for Bob and I when the snow flies!

YELLOW SQUASH CASSEROLE

4 cups squash, chopped

1 or 2 medium onions, chopped

Cook together until tender.

1 cup grated cheddar cheese

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 - 13 ounce can evaporated milk

1 can cream of chicken/mushroom soup ... yes there is such a soup but

it is not always easy to find.

Mix together well.

1 - 8 ounce bag Pepperidge Farm stuffing. (You can use either the

Herb or the Cornbread, but we prefer the Herb.)

1/2 cup butter, melted.

Mix everything together and put in a large greased casserole. Bake for 40 minutes at 375.

and finally -- a link to a recipe for Pineapple/Zucchini Sheet Cake
-- yet another way to sneak a little squash into your family's diet!

A Gentle Rain

After being spoiled with abundant rain for most of July, we've found the past week way too dry. Thunder storms have dodged all around us, giving us a few tantalizing drops to pock the dust and then sweeping off to soak someone else.

But finally, yesterday evening, came a lovely gentle rain! Perfect timing, as I'd spent the morning whacking back the mock orange that was obscuring our view of the fish pool. Now John and I sat on the porch, luxuriating in the cool, damp air, the patter of drops on the metal roof, and the syncopated dance of rain on the once again-visible pond surface.

Miss Susie Hutchins joined us in our blissful appreciation . . . though I think she believed we were admiring her rather than the rain.

Just before night fell we could see in the distance, the after-rain mists rising from all the grateful coves and hollows.

Of Beans and Blogs . . . and Zucchini Too

Oh, dear, the beans are in. I picked on Sunday and somehow there were twice as many on Monday.

The slender tender beans on the right got steamed briefly and marinated with red onion slices, to accompany John's homemade pizza. The bigger ones got a three-minute blanching and went into the freezer.

And then there' was the zucchini -- the chickens got the biggest one; I grated two more to freeze for zucchini bread; and blanched some more to freeze for minestrone come winter.

And now, re blogs: Margie, of Margie's Crafts recently gave me the One Lovely Blog award. Check out her blog for great pictures of Ireland . . . and possible the cutest car I've ever seen. And thanks, Margie -- I love this kind of travel!

Closer to home, Sam of My Carolina Kitchen just presented this blog with the SPLASH award. Sam is a foodie and you should avoid her blog if you don't want to be stricken with immediate hunger. Right now she's got a recipe for seared tuna and Asian slaw that has me drooling. And the previous post is of a BLT that is as close to the Platonic ideal as they come. And the corn cakes a while back-- I've made them multiple times now . . . oh boy! Thanks, Sam, for the award and the calories!

And one last thing -- I had an email from 'a leading broker of internet advertising.' They would like, in exchange for an annual fee, to place an advertisement on my blog.

Yikes! I wonder what that annual fee might be? And what they'd be advertising? But I just replied that I wasn't interested. It would feel a bit like tattooing a big logo on my forehead.

Last night's pizza . . . with beans on the side.

Bow Pots and Flower Pots

I love making flower arrangements -- though they're never much more than shoving a bunch of flowers into a receptacle of some sort -- certainly there's none of that garden club stuff with Hogarth's curve and the rule of three that my mother-in-law used to talk about.

A friend of mine -- who grew up in the piedmont of North Carolina -- calls this 'making a flower pot' and once I realized she wasn't talking about potted plants, I remembered something similar from Thackery's Vanity Fair (a truly delightful book, by the way.

" . . . we have made her a bowpot."
"Say a bouquet, sister Jemima, 'tis more genteel."
"Well, a booky as big almost as a haystack . . ."

Vanity Fair was written in 1848-- in England. I wonder if 'flowerpot' and 'bowpot' are related. Have any of you heard either term used?

Click on the sundial for an early morning stroll.

Sunday Sermon

. . . And this our life exempt from public haunt
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones . . .

Yes, I've used this quote before ; maybe it's being an old English major that has me seeing a sermon in these plants..

Now, what I wonder is if any of you see it too?






Hint: I'm thinking about parenting.

Weeding

I enjoy weeding -- especially when I've let things get out of hand and the weeding really makes a difference. Weeding also puts you close to all sorts of interesting things. . . Like this lovely little nest, riding lightly on a fern frond. . .

And this box tortoise -- we surprised each other . . .

This fern shoot seemed to be leaning over for a better view . . .

. . . maybe of the bull and his harem who are browsing nearby.

Summer Blooms

I've been awfully wordy the past several posts . . .

Just pictures from the garden today . . .

Happy weekend!

The Gardinel

A recent blog post by my son Ethan, documenting their search for a house in the Atlanta area, commented that Some of the houses we looked at were like Manly Wade Wellman's gardinels, with that feeling that they might chew you up and digest you if you lingered overlong. Maybe it was just the Atlanta climate, muggy and so damnably lowland July, that made us feel like the house was breathing on us all sticky-like.

I've read Manly Wade Wellman's fiction and The Kingdom of Madison, his charming little book about our county, is a much-used reference. But I had to remind myself about gardinels because Ethan's words have given me an idea . . .

So I turned first to Mr. Google.

"They look some way like a shed or cabin, snug and rightly made, except the open door might could be a mouth, the two little windows could be eyes. Never you'll see one on the main roads or near towns; only back in the thicketty places, by high trails among tall ridges, and they show themselves there when it rains and storms and a lone farer hopes to come to a house to shelter him. ... The few that's lucky enough to have gone into a gardinel and win out again... tell that inside it's pinky-walled and dippy-floored, with on the floor all the skulls and bones of those who never did win-out; and from the floor and walls come spouting rivers of wet juice that stings. ... and all at once you know that inside a gardinel is like a stomach."

from "Come Into My Parlor" by Manly Wade Wellman, 1949.

Oooh!!! Creepy!

Now as far as I can find, the Gardinel, (like the Flat and the Behinder) is not authentic Appalachian folklore -- it's probably Mr. Wellman's imagination at work. But it certainly has echoes of the alluring and deadly Gingerbread House that nearly did for Hansel and Gretel as well as Morgan Le Fay's castle of lard and other dainties that was set as a temptation for Wart in The Once and Future King. And, I realized, to some extent, In a Dark Season's house at Gudger's Stand(also in the forthcoming The Day of Small Things) is a figurative gardinel.

And now I want very badly to write a short story about a modern-day Gardinel -- with pink wallpaper and deep piled pink carpet and an alluring woman at the door . ..