(Above: [8/27/2021] This is the 3-month birthday of King Gaur.)
8/22/2021: A somewhat toasty day, though not quite so much as the prior couple. This is likely due to a decrease in humidity.
Morning of 8/23/2021: A Sunday morning with a full farm feeding on the agenda. It proceeded quite smoothly, and all creatures on the farm were contentedly feasting within 2.5 hours. Padre provides a leaf-snack to the gaurs of the central beef pasture. Lunch today consisted of a couple slices of toasted swiss-on-sourdough accompanied by a Padre-made & Madre-dressed salad. We found some particularly vibrant ‘beauty berries’ during the evening beef pasture inspection. An especially extravagant dinner of Blue Angus Picanha garnished with plenty of fresh arugula. I also baked a couple medium-small potatoes. Everything was delicious.
8/23/2021: A very warm day with no rain and little cloud cover in the early afternoon. Fortunately by late afternoon, there were clouds and I was able to garden for a little while.
Lunch today was procured from the sushi bistro. The victuals were delicious. I found these two hornworms eating the cachucha pepper plants in Jacobhouse Garden. One of the plants was almost entirely consumed (stem and all)! So, I decided that something must be done. A chiltepin, garlic, and Parmesan omelet garnished with salad burnet and hornworms. The cooking process was somewhat gruesome with the poor creatures writhing about for 10 seconds and then voiding their vegetation-filled bowels into the frying pan. The water content in that “material” commenced to react with the oil and spatter green all over the oven top. I may cook these again because they tasted like tough, fuzzy shrimp, but I will be doing so outside.
8/24/2021: A very warm morning ensued by an exceptionally storm-lade afternoon. Fortunately, after the rain, the temperature had dropped from the high 90s to the high 70s.
Morning of 8/24/2021. There was a 20% chance of rain in the forecast, but these clouds indicated something different. I would not recommend picking grapes in the noontime sun (which is when I did it), but these muscadine grapes were well worth enduring the heat for. This miniature vineyard is located less than 1 mile from Jacobhouse. The rain arrived at about 3 PM and proceeded to drop 2 inches on the farm in less than an hour. Dinner: A quarter loaf of sourdough, 4 eggs, plenty of salad, and a small piece of mushroom & onion puff pastry. I was ravenous and ate it all. Delectable.
8/25/2021: A warm albeit mostly cloudy day. The temperature remained in the mid 80s for much of it.
Sunrise of 8/25/2021 over a rain-cleansed pasture. Lunch today was enjoyed at Lorito’s Italian Kitchen and consisted of 2.5 pieces o’ pizza along with a chef salad. Mid afternoon in the central beef pasture (8/25/2021). An intriguing cloudscape captured in the late afternoon. Dinner: A reverse-seared Wagyu shank steak. It was not particularly tender – the opposite, I’d say – but it did have fantastic flavor.
8/26/2021: Another mostly-cloudy day with temperatures ranging between the low and mid-80s.
Morning of 8/26/2021: Feeding the King during a damp and drizzling dawn. Lunch today consisted of a spicy chiltepin, garlic, ginger, egg, and rice noodle stirfry accompanied by a Padre-made and Madre-dressed salad. Midafternoon of 8/27/2021 (East Pasture). A delicious dinner of homemade Master Blend Belgian Blue country-fried steak. The coating for this was simple, consisting of a light flour dredge, a dip in a scrambled egg, and another dredge in Panko & Chiltepin Salt. It was fried in about 2 tbsp of beef tallow and 1 tbsp of olive oil, and about 1/3 to 1/2 of that oil was left in the pan after cooking was complete.
8/27/2021: More sun today was accompanied by a larger temperature range with highs being in the low-90s.
Dawn of 8/28/2021: A murky and mucky Floridian dawn. This is the 3-month birthday of King Gaur. A particularly ‘sticky’ smart car that Madre and I found in town whilst procuring sushi from Sushi Bistro. Lunch today: The aforementioned sushi along with some soup seasoned with spicy chiltepin pepper. A mid-afternoon thunderstorm approaches. This jumping spider was hanging by a single strand of web, and a fly, much to its misfortune, decided to use the spider as a landing pad. A late summer garden in central Florida. Dinner: A Belgian Blue shank steak marinated for 2 days, reverse seared @ 250 F (finished on the grill), and dressed with a Merlot reduction ‘gravy’.
8/28/2021: A cloudy morning ensued by a partly sunny and very sultry afternoon. Temperature ranged primarily in the 80s.
Morning of 8/28/2021. A morning activity: Plucking plenty more muscadine grapes at the Taylor Gardens Nursery next door. There are still thousands of those delectable morsels available. Lunch today consisted of a baked potato, plenty of salad (adorned with leftover beef), and probably more than few muscadine grapes. Dinner: A trimmed & seared Master Blend Belgian Blue tri-tip roast. This was served with a bit o’ Padre-made & Jacob-dressed salad to the side.
Final Note: It is good to be a ‘giver’ and better to be a responsible one. Givers hold the power. One can control what one gives; the same cannot be said for receiving.