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Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Nettle Soup

My faithful subscriber Orin made a reference to nettle soup as a possible menu addition for the Blue Goat.
I found a recipe for it on Kev's An English Homestead Blog.
Link for recipe click here.
I encourage you all to check out Kev's blogs. I find it very interesting to see how people accomplish the same things I attempt to accomplish, using different traditions and perspectives. For some reason I keep expecting a giant paper foot to descend from off camera and squish his blog or perhaps a group of lumberjacks to stride out and start singing but I suppose that is a bit xenophobic of me.

I've had wild greens for salad at a very short-lived upscale Mexican restaurant in McMinnville. It was really quite good. You get some very interesting and not unpleasant flavors from thistles and other weeds.
I also had a very tasty pigweed salad at a Hispanic friend's house.
One day a day-old calf showed up in his back yard. It seemed fairly happy although it spent a lot of time tied with a halter and lead rope to a stake in the yard. I thought perhaps he was going to have his very own ox cart. But I was wrong and one day it was gone...
Later I got an invitation for dinner.
It was a good dinner although I felt a little squeamish eating pigweed salad and dead baby calf. They are so cute when they are little...
I should open my own restaurant. The main feature would be cute and efficient waitresses. They would have to be friendly and quick witted enough to deflect banter from annoying old farts.
I think if you had quick food and lower prices, it probably wouldn't even matter what you served... People started going to the deli at Dad's market just because it was fast and the heat lamp chicken was not terrible, plus they make pizza, and it used to be really entertaining when the two larger-than-average girls behind the counter tried to fit by each other.  (I apologize for that sounding mean as I actually liked the girls. Still, when the one was wearing low riders and hot pink poke-a-dot underwear it kept reminding me of that Stevie Ray Vaughn video...)

But I digress,
 I could just see the farmers sitting around drinking coffee, harassing the cute waitress and enjoying fresh road-kill and a weed salad. "Half a possum and a salad for $5!- Hah, you had the possum! That is so gay! I had the roasted Nutria, got it in 5 minutes!... How about those fescue prices? Oh well Barenbrug never returns my calls. Think I'll just plant everything to wheat this year..!"
"Oh Yeah! if I had a swing that big I'd paint it red and hang it in my yard!"
And I'd have subliminal messages programmed into the muzak, like, "tip well," "you like Nutria," "Eating road-gift makes you manly," "I like banjo music," "Hire Budd E. Shepherd to no-till for you," "I like grapes."
I'd be ringing up the cash register and becoming rich! Rich I say!
or not...
Reminds me of this joke...
Duck walks into a bar, say's "bartender you got any grapes?"
I suppose you have all heard that one before...
Have a nice day...

6 comments:

  1. Hey thanks for the link! You guys and your monty python references - I'm sure you've all watched it more than we have, last time I did I was in my early teens (I'm assuming that was the reference to the paper foot!)!
    If you're into your wild food you'd love the book I'm reading at the moment - It's call The Wild Life by John Lewis-Stempel (heres a link but might not work http://www.amazon.com/The-Wild-Life-ebook/dp/B004E10RVI/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1340747663&sr=1-9&keywords=john+lewis+stempel) And its about a guy who lives for a year on only what he shoots or forrages on his 40 acre farm. From October to January he eats 56 rabbits! I like rabbit but I think I'd be sick of them by then. It's set just the other side of the county from us (about 50 miles).
    Now if your excuse me I'm going to walk around with my unbrella out doing some funny walks...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kev, you see our understanding of Great Britain comes from viewing Public broadcasting reruns of "Are you being served?" "Downton Abbey," "Monty Python," and so on. I really hope your view of the USA doesn't come from watching "90210." Reality is much more like "Married with Children."
      I prefer those stories where rough and tumble characters live on venison and fresh trout with a little nettle soup on the side. 56 rabbits would be roughing it!

      Delete
  2. Road kill is like a treat down here. Redder the better. Don't forget to scrape the skin off the exhaust pipes.
    Duck and the Grape joke. An all time favorite.
    Thanks for the coffee and the smile.

    ReplyDelete
  3. dh, remember when announced she had the s..ts? Used the slang term for a medical condition in church! They were pretty cool people.

    ReplyDelete

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