Thai chicken and lentils

Roger thought I ought to save this recipe. It was a really tasty dish! Since I had sort of winged it on this one, I decided maybe I should write it down while I remember how I made it. My inspiration was that I had some cilantro and a partial can of coconut milk that I needed to use up and a new bottle of chili lime sauce that was begging for me to try.  I will adjust the recipe size up a bit, assuming that usually you would have full can of coconut milk to use.

2 cups small green lentils
3 - 5  chicken breasts, thawed and cut into chunks
1 T coconut oil
1/2 large onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves minced
1 tsp. curry powder
1/3 cup chili lime sauce (more or less)
small bunch of cilantro, chopped

Saute onion and garlic in coconut oil in large skillet. Add the chicken chunks to the skillet and cook until mostly done.
Meanwhile, start cooking lentils in separate pan.  Bring lentils to boil in four cups water and 1/2 tsp, salt and simmer.  They should cook in about the same time as it takes you to cook the skillet mixture. (abt. 15 min.)
Stir in coconut milk and curry and chili lime sauce to chicken mixture.  This chili lime sauce has some serious kick, so maybe do the smart thing and pour into measuring cup and add a little at a time until it has the right amount of heat to  match your palate. (I poured out of the bottle directly into the skillet and kind of gulped worriedly that I might have over done it, but with the addition of the lentils, it was toned down enough to be really tasty, but not too hot.  Drain the lentils and add to the mixture in the skillet.  Let simmer on low awhile to blend all the flavors.  Top with cilantro and serve. This could be good with a few chopped peanuts sprinkled on top too.  I purchased this chili lime sauce at Sam's Club, but if you want a smaller bottle, I'm sure there are others available. I won't promise it is as good though!

Happy eating!
Linda

Seeding - 2014

Loading the new dry fertilizer tank

As I promised, I am sharing some pictures of loading the new dry fertilizer tank on to the air seeder.  It was a major job to build and paint the tank, but I soon learned that was only the half of it. The liquid tank had to be removed and then the new dry tank put on in its place, then they put the liquid tank (black) back on behind it.  Next Roger began the long and arduous job of beefing up the hydraulics on the tractor getting all the hoses in place and hooked up to get the fertilizer from the tank to the shanks that carry the seed and fertilizer into the ground. What a maze!

On the left, you can see all three tanks in place, ready to run some tests to make sure things are working to get the seed and fertilizer applied at the right rate.

The Midnight ride

Roger finally got everything working pretty much to his satisfaction. Now he will be putting some long hours in getting the spring wheat all seeded this week. (if all goes well)  We had all our peas and lentils seeded earlier, as we don't need to apply fertilizer on those fields..  Pictured on the right are all of the controls inside the cab.  There are cameras on the back of the seeder which can be viewed on the screen.  You can also monitor the tractor speed and rate of application of the seed and fertilizer.  There is lot to keep track of as you go down the field.  If you could take a ride up around the field, as I did, you will come to understand how valuable GPS guidance and auto steer are!  

What was the point of the new tank, you might ask?  We just applied liquid fertilizer ever since we got this new seeder, but the costs are quite a lot more for liquid than for dry, and we just felt we needed to save a little...no, a lot, by going back to dry fertilizer.  We may use both in some instances.  We have that capability now.

Good old days
picture above taken in 2008

All of this has had me longing a bit for the 'good old days', and wondering what it would be like to go all 'organic'  In the 'good old days'  before we go the Seed Master seeder, We had a much smaller and simpler Flex Coil.  In response to Phosphate costs that had gone sky high, we started making use of the tractor exhaust to and putting it into the ground along with the seed, rather than let it evaporate into the ozone.  We were using very little to none of added fertilizer then.  I wrote a bit about that in a post here. We don't think our yields or crop quality suffered all that much.  Maybe in time the soil nutrients would be depleted, and if we had lots of rain, the crops might have been short on nitrogen.  Since the 'lots of rain' usually doesn't happen, we were probably better off using less fertilizer.

I think a little applause is in order for our old faithful Ford Versatile.  It is a 1993 model and was brought new to our farm about then, and it is still plugging away.  It has a little less than 6,000 hrs. on it.  I wonder how many miles that would be? up and back and around many a field!  The hours don't build up so fast anymore, because it never get's used for summer fallow any more.  The sprayers all the work of battling weeds now.

I love green ....and the smells of spring, rain showers and freshly seeded soil!

Have I mentioned how much I love the color green?  Seeing the green grass and and crops really does a heart good, especially after the long and cold winter and spring that we have emerged from.  

Brandon

Well, now that you've had your lesson in farming, how about a big dose of cuteness? Annie just shared these darling pictures of Brandon.  He loves to "help" :-)  Just give him a rake!  His favorite thing to do while he was at my house, is to get a broom or mop out and do some "cleaning" :-)

Till next time,
Linda