Who was that lady?

I am late; I apologize. I had to take a couple days sick leave, but all seems to be well again, so here I am.

Before I gave in to this short illness, I found this lady walking down my street and I thought I would share the picture. She is in my neighbor's driveway. I often see flocks of turkeys walking down the street as well as lone females, but I had never seen a white one. I thought that a wild, white, turkey was most unusual but, after musing on the subject, I thought just maybe not.

The big breasted, white feathered, turkey that has graced our Thanksgiving table for all these years was developed right here in this town. It began as a young boy's 4H project, grew into a thriving business and was later sold for about 9 million dollars. Most of the world now uses some form of the bird that was developed here. When I first moved to Sonoma County there were frequent ads in the local paper seeking turkey sexers. Apparently it is a special talent. Turkeys are still part of the agriculture here, but most of the industry moved on when it was sold. The deteriorating turkey barns are still to be seen as you drive through the Valley of the Moon. Obviously, these large, meaty, white birds had to come from somewhere, so one must assume white wild turkeys existed. By the way, my spell check does not believe that "sexers" is a word, but it is what the ads said and determining the sex of the baby bird is what they did.

I didn't miss much in the garden while I took time out. the weather has been so dismal, the sun so lacking, that not too much has happened. I did pick my first cucumber. That was a treat. It was nice, fat and about seven inches long. This year I planted Diva, seeds from Pinetree Garden Seeds. Since I have never grown this particular cucumber before I needed to open the first one to be sure I knew at what size they should be picked. This one was perfect; it tastes great, it is crisp and the seeds have not yet formed. Can cucumbers have a hat trick? If the rest are as nice, I think I will stick with this variety.

There is what looks to be an enormous number of cukes coming on. I am afraid I overdid again. But the neighbors might like a few. You do know, don't you, that there is probably a place near you to share any over abundance you might have. Check around. Kitchens that feed the less fortunate can use extra vegetables, some food banks, etc., all welcome this type of gift. I have neighbors with a magnificent vegetable garden. They put out a small table in the front of their house and what they don't need goes there for anyone who walks by.

The dill I planted a month ago seems abnormally slow. It is up but appears to have stopped at about four inches high. Could it be stunted? It just might need more sun than we have had. The plants appear to have stopped at a height of four inches. I am planting another patch anyway. And if the first planting eventually fulfills its potential that is OK, too. You can never have too much dill, or at least I can't.

My daughter, Cee, she is also my neighbor, shared some lemon cucumber plants and I put those in the raised beds yesterday. That is where I added the dill. It is among the beans, near the cucumber. Since they companion well and get more sun there we should have dill.

In that same bed I planted a second crop of carrots, this time "rainbow", we will see if we actually get a colored crop...red, yellow, purple and orange. Remember the more color the more nutritious it is. I pulled the last two of the former crop today. Those were just plain orange, but tasted great. I have also started the second crop of beans, Roma and yellow wax, this time.

The weatherman said this was the coldest June in 15 years. Then we had a one day heat wave of 85 degrees. Today is is chilly again. My poor plants must be so confused. The chilly weather is just the excuse needed to have soup, see recipe.

A new food has been discovered around here. Months ago, on Chowhound, there was talk about Cauliflower leaves found in CSA boxes. Some grandmothers seemed to have distant memory of this as a vegetable. After I picked the Cheddar cauliflower I picked some of the very long, but more tender of the leaves, avoiding the extremely large tough ones. I left the plant in the pot to see if it would produce more leaves, but I don't think it will.

OK, what to do with them? They do well in a stir fry. Most of mine ended up in a family recipe of "Do It Yourself Soup". They need just a couple of minutes heat, in this case in broth, to become tasty. It takes a couple minutes longer if you want a soft vegetable. Since I was doing a Chinese type soup I did not want it too soft. The leaves taste a little like cauliflower but very mild, almost sweet. If you do not grow cauliflower watch for them in the farmer's market.

What is "Do It Yourself Soup", you might ask. When I was a kid, maybe nine or so, I used to accompany my mother to the movies. We would often stop for lunch on these excursions. We lived in Sacramento at the time. Often the restaurant was the Capitol Tamale, but my favorite place to stop was a nearby Chinese restaurant where they served "Chicken Noodles". In my family culture that title would conjure up a vision of a large pot of stewed chicken with broad homemade noodles (my grandmother's) and lots of broth. At this Chinese restaurant it meant something quite different. In a deep bowl there was a mound of noodles surrounded by a moat of chicken broth. Over the top was strewn shredded chicken breast and char siu, that most wonderful of all pork delights. Floating in the moat were quarters of hard cooked eggs. Chopped scallions decorated all.

Recipe

I have carried those memories for a long time and when I married and had my own children I translated them into a soup like that one. One can never replicate a memory exactly so I adapted it to our family.

Do It Yourself Soup

Here is what you will need.

Good Chicken broth

Wheat Noodles: thin Asian noodles, thin egg noodles or, in a pinch, anglehair spaghetti

Vegetables: Any Asian cabbage .. Won bok (napa cabbage), bok choy or those long cabbage leaves. Sugar Snap peas, Chinese peas.

Hard cooked eggs, quartered

Char siu, or strips of ham steak that have been browned

Shredded cooked chicken breast

Green onions (scallions), chopped

Cilantro leaves

Soy sauce

The Asian vegetables usually don't need cooking; the very hot broth is enough but if you wish to do a little more cooking, do it. The cauliflower leaves could use a few minutes simmering in the broth as they are tougher than the Asian vegetables. Separate the larger part of the leaf vein from the green outer part and discard. Cut the rest into bite size bits and drop into the broth. Almost any vegetables could be used.

For our family, I would fill each person's bowl with the cooked noodles (follow package directions) and, over that, pour the hot broth. Each would add the rest as to their taste ... more of this, less of that.

For another recipe check out http://yummyletter.com/ and go to the "Cook" section