Keeping It Cool In the High Desert

As a homesteader on my family's offgrid farm, there where a lot of little moments that made up summer. Like when Mom came back with a couple of those “king cone” ice creams, after getting propane at the convenience store, for my sibling, M, and I. Delightful surprise. We ate that while watching another episode of Sweet Tooth on M's iPad. Or finding out the Junior mints melted in the box in the cupboard. Or drinking iced apple cider, after I hammered in ice into the mouth of the bottle with the handle of the kitchen knife.

To escape the sun beating down on us, we would take an air conditioned, 50 mile ride to Bend, Oregon. My cousin, Mom and I would go to Natural Grocers. I would get a coffee chip ice cream, my root beer kombucha, and a Mediterranean pasta salad. We would sit in the Mini Cooper in the parking lot under the only shaded spot we could find to eat our lunch. I remember after the sheep got sheered, we would spend hours washing and combing the wool. My mom would sell the wool on Etsy. One afternoon at the Barnes and Noble's Starbucks, I drank a funnel cake frappuccino while mom prepared to send the wool to the post office.

Sometimes when I was needed to shake up my day, I would try a new recipe. One day I had decided to use a recipe from the Homesteader’s Natural Chicken Keeping Handbook by Amy K. Fewell. M had used the EBT card to get a pork roast, the day before. I had used it soon because we don’t have a working fridge, just ice to keep the food cool. I cooked strips of the roast. I collected arugula and thyme from the “cottage garden” by Mom’s hut. Then after I wilted the arugula. I needed a place to put the meat and arugula, so I placed it in a seemingly empty pot while I put the pizza crust in the pan. Only, I eventually realized the pot had grounds from the “cowboy coffee” this morning. After trying to brush the grounds off, I put the sliced roast, wilted arugula and feta on the pizza crust. The recipe asked for cracking six eggs over the pizza, so I collected them from the chicken coop. I then put the pizza in the oven using the cast iron pan ‘cause it’s round. Surprisingly, the pizza still turned out good. A lot could’ve gone wrong. I got yolk on my shirt and the summer dress I was wearing underneath, so I guess there’s that.

Having a craving for watermelon one day, I experimented in making watermelon pancakes. I was concerned about it being too mushy, so what I did first was cut the watermelon into smaller chunks then put watermelon and its juice in a bowl. I used a spoon to squish the watermelon to bring out more juice. I put sugar into the watermelon chunks and juice. The juice is what I used as “water” for the mix as I put pancake mix in. I put enough to where even if the chunks of watermelon bleed out while cooking, it wouldn’t be mushy. So the batter thick. I put two eggs for protein and a possible binding agent. I also made watermelon syrup, which I just put watermelon chunks in a pot and poured sugar (and some gelatin, which made it more of a jelly?). I boiled it while I cooked the pancakes. I also added some maple syrup, just because I liked the flavor. It turned out not bad. I’d say with better cooking skills, tools and work space it would be even better. Simply the fun of discovery made it worth it.