Farm Kid Fun

I am still in recovery mode from last week.  Last week was the local county fair which is the time in which kids involved with FFA and 4-H get to strut their stuff.  Projects that they have been working on for a while (as well as those that were finished in the eleventh hour) are judged and scored.  Animals that they have been taking care of, teaching to lead, and handling get washed and groomed to look nice for their respective shows.  Lunches and dinners consist entirely of fair food for a week and the temperature in the shade is, without fail, about 110 degrees.

This used to be easier....I come out of the week feeling like something the cat dragged in.  I have driven the road to the fairgrounds so many times that I could do it in my sleep, I have a purse filled with "just in case" items that would make any event planner proud - tape, safety pins, paper clips, pens, markers, rags, lead ropes, lip gloss...you name it and I could probably find it in there. Not to mention the miscellaneous items that the little kids pick up at all the commercial exhibits - the bottles of bubbles, stickers, tattoos, pencils, tooth brushes, catalogs, used paper cups - it gets entirely out of hand.  Sun burned and smelling of whatever animal is to be shown that day, we make our rounds and ride the rides with the promise of Hawaiian shaved ice at the end of the day if there is enough cash left.

Don't get me wrong - I love it!....but it does take its toll on the parents.  When I was a kid, living at the fair was the highlight of the summer and I see the same thing reflected in my kids now, so who am I to deny them that fun? And they have fun while simultaneously learning new things.  During one of my weaker moments during the heat of a day at the fair I questioned whether they actually did learn anything, but my enduring son turned to me and rattled off his list of things he learned:

• How to paint a room correctly and a mural to go with it.
• How to grow garlic.
• How to make a bat house and what white nose syndrome is in bats.
• How to make a rocket out of scraps lying around the farm and get it to fly....and find it again in a soybean field.
• How to build a fire (although I had to call him on this one because he kind of already knew how to make fire...not always safely... okay, so maybe he did learn something. )

Out of all these projects however, the one thing that they do learn how to do well is present themselves and be judged.  There is a lot of hard work that goes into a project - coming up with the idea, research, collecting the parts needed, assembling, experimenting, and completing projects all takes time and perseverance.  Then, to be able to explain to another person what, exactly, you did and why.....that is tough, but ironically what most people have to do on a daily basis while on the job.  Personally, I think the judges are entirely too lenient these days.  I seem to remember more white ribbons given out and more judges not being afraid to tell you just how much better you really could do if you just put in a little more time, but they are still being judged despite the relatively non-existent gradations of accomplishment.  I am probably their hardest judge - if they can get past me shaking my head and giving them the "you could do better" look, they are set for the judge. 

Too few kids are "judged" these days.  We have some crazy misconception that everyone should be a winner regardless of how bad you do and it has very rapidly led to demoralizing those kids that try exceptionally hard and making the lazy kids even more complacent.  We as a society have this crazy fear that if we tell a kid "this really isn't all that great, you could do better" that we will permanently scar and cripple them for all time.  When did kids become such wimps?  I definitely had my fair share of white ribbons and it taught me two things: I either had to work harder or, if I truly didn't like it, move on to something else.  Excel, or redirect.  This is how the best of the best get picked out - for a country so entrenched in Capitalism we sure do a lousy job of preparing our kids.  And, what's worse, we shake our heads and wonder what has happened to the younger generation and can't understand why they don't move out and get a job.   The corporate world is 'dog eat dog' and yet parents have been making sure that every puppy gets plenty to eat and lots of praise - no wonder they don't want to move out on their own and get a job.

Over the course of the week, we had a few rough patches - the sudden cold that my son got that made showing chickens a struggle and my daughter not having any back up music for her talent show competition (but she sang acapella amazingly anyway!)  Overall, I am happy to say that the week went very well. My son came out of the week with two State Fair trips and my daughter came away with a Champion trophy for her calf....yes, Hazel did well! They had put themselves out there and had fun doing it. The thing that I love to hear most of all at the end of the week is, "I can't wait until next year! I am going to take......, "  and the list is usually at least half a mile long.  I nod and smile and try to take fast mental notes that will later be used to direct all that energy and enthusiasm, but for now I am just going to breathe a sigh of relief that the county fair is done and restock the "just in case" items in my purse for going to State Fair.

In A Pickel

Waiting around for my cucumbers to really get going is one of the hardest things about summer.  I hate to say I hover, but I do - much to the detriment of my cucumber vines.  I get all giddy with pickling enthusiasm when the first blossoms appear and then nash my teeth when they either take too long to grow to the right size, or overnight seem to mushroom into an inedible cucumber-zilla, or the vine that they are on dies and takes down the cucumber with them.

Slowly, I finally come up with cucumbers enough to start the pickling process.  I soak them in salt brine overnight and then raid my garlic stores and dill plants to prepare to make sweet and sour pickles.

• Salt brined cucumbers - drained and rinsed
• One head (or maybe two) of dill - I take these at whatever stage they are in but I do usually pick some at the height of flowering and then put them directly in the freezer until the cucumbers catch up
• Garlic - one clove cut into two pieces ( or if they are small, two cloves)  The pickled garlic is actually one of the favorite things to eat in the pickle jars.....my kids fight over it.
• Pickling spice - can be purchased almost anywhere that canning goods are sold in grocery stores.
• Brown sugar - more for sweeter pickels, less for more sour pickels
• Vinegar - I use white, but apple cider works well too
• Water

The reason I so love pickels is that it takes so little time to actually make them - I don't can them in a hot water bath,  so all that is needed it to bring the vinegar and water mixed with a little brown sugar up to a rolling boiling and then pour it over the cucumbers in the jar, and then screw on the lid - they seal as they cool and the vinegar ensures that they are acidic enough not to go bad over the winter. 

There are about as many different pickel recipes as there are people in the world - the trick is to try many and then see which one you like the most.  The hardest part is keeping track of which recipe you used on which jar because you have to let them sit and pickel for at least 3 weeks before you do any taste testing. I have had to hide mine from the kids to keep them from breaking into them early.    One of these years I am going to try fermented pickels - I have been told that this will take the pickels to a whole new level.

Since the cucumbers have (thus far) been disappointing, I have elected to pickel some hot peppers and more of the garlic separately since they are such a hit.  We may have horrible breath all winter, but at least we will keep any vampires at bay and Peter Piper will have nothing on me.