One of my favourite tastes of the summer. And there are SO many. The Heatwave Smoothie. Designed and named by my friend Elaine in Australia who knows about the heat and nutrition. After I passed out last summer with a wee bit of sunstroke I am careful to ensure my body does not get too hot. Now I have my cold, cold smoothie at lunchtime. Every lunchtime. And I try not to work out in the midday sun.
Yesterday’s smoothie had frozen blueberries, frozen strawberries, frozen sliced banana (slice, freeze, bag ), walnuts, freshly picked swiss chard (silverbeet) and a good big fat dollop of home made ice cream sweetened with honey, and covered with milk. I freeze the fruit specifically for my smoothie then I don’t need to add ice but you can if you want. Using my stick blender, buzz, buzz… drink, drink. Perfick.
At the Old Codgers yesterday we discovered that his apple tree had lost a limb. So we gathered the apples and John will cut up the branch for apple wood charcoal. The apples are just short of being ripe but I am hoping to make a few apple pies for the freezer and a couple for the eating. My friend lent me a few of his precious egg baskets to cart them home in. Years ago he and his family raised Leghorn chickens and they collected the eggs in these baskets. Aren’t they just superb? Imagine collecting that many eggs at a time in beautiful simple baskets that have lasted for decades.
And yesterday my hay man and his sons came. The boys played with the dogs while their Dad cut the hay. I am to rake it on Friday and he will bale it on Saturday. He is very pleased with our stand of hay. It grew all by itself, I said. If all goes according to plan I think these bales will be the best we have brought in. I will stack them in a special pile for feeding Daisy after she calves.
Good morning.
Today I will be watering and weeding. ( As well as the usual chores.) As the vegetables are picked and the beds cleared I am planting the autumn garden, though a few areas are put to bed early with a cover crop. This year the cover crop might be oats, last year was buckwheat, though I really want Daikon radishes (they go deep). I need to see what is left over in the seed bags. I just need something that will grow fast, add nitrogen and be ready to dig in by spring. So even though it will die at the first frost it will cover the soil for the winter and add nutrition. Green compost. Good stuff.
Have a lovely day.
your friend on the farm, celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
68 responses to “Heavenly Heatwave Smoothie”
Morning, Celi. I love how your Fellowshippers let the others know where they are writing from. It helps sooo much to have an idea of why they have the weather they do. Just plain fun too.
Those tomatoes are gorgeous. And those egg baskets remind me of–the baskets used at practice ranges for golf balls.
I have never been to a practice range, that might be a source! c
poultry[baby chick] catalogs sell the big wire egg baskets
rather expensive, but worth it
tractor supply sells smaller version
mine are used almost every day
Ron you are a store-house of information, thank you.. I shall go in search of them, I do prefer to have something that will last at least as long as i do! c
I’m a smoothie lover as well. Amazing how many different things will work and taste great. I love your blog and look forward to reading the archives.
Hi there Mountain Woman, great to see you! c
That smoothie would be great mid-day when the temperatures soar, Celi. Good idea! When I go to Michigan next, I’ll keep an eye out for the egg baskets. There’s a man whose property is one big flea market. No telling what he’s got there. It’s been a couple years since I’ve gone by there, so, it’s about time I paid a visit. Great news, too, about the hay. Such a change from last Summer. Enjoy the rest of your day, Celi!
oo, maybe I will come with you.. the flea market sounds like my kind of shopping! c
Goodness that smoothie looks incredible. It barely resembles some terrible fake diet smoothies I’ve been drinking to lose weight. Just looking at yours makes me jealous. I love your farm! That is my dream goal. Followed because I’ll definitely be back 🙂
you can make them even if you don’t grow the fruit, just buy the bags of frozen fruit at the supermarket and add a little milk and you will be at your favourite weight in no time. No bread though! This all by itself will make the biggest difference when we are trying to lose weight. no bread products at all! hard but true.. c
I’ll give it a shot! Thanks for the advice about the bread; it really is my weakness.
Mine too, But I end up with the Bread Belly! The first 5 days are hell! I am bread free for a month now and am going to hold out as long as I can!! Feeling so much better.. take care, good to get to know you.. c
Thanks. You too! I’ll let you know how it goes 🙂
Love the egg baskets!
So do I! and with such history too.. c
I have and old one of about the same size with a feed company label on it. I think it came from my grandfather’s farm. I’m always amazed at how many eggs it would hold! We had 35 hens once but even their daily output of eggs wouldn’t fill it!
And when full it would have been very heavy.. c
Hi Celi! Yes, the baskets are gorgeous. This happens very often with simplest things, don’t you think? The smoothie is a clever solution for hot days, I like it! 🙂
Green is good!
My mom just told me about your blog. She lives not too far from you. I remember you from your stay in the area in high school. I didn’t realize you had come back. I live in Texas now, but your blog brings back good memories of the farm. I’ll be checking back often.
How exciting, well you must know John as well, we were in the same class.. I look forward to seeing you again.. I have been back over six years now! Thank you so much for commenting and thank you to your Mum for putting you in touch! c
Yes, I remember him and his mother as well.
Yu-um. I’ve heard about freezing fruit instead of using ice cubes…love the mix of chard with fruit and ice cream. Crazy, perfect. Excuse me: perfick. Perfick is even more perfick than perfect!
Hello Miss C, pleased you still have your smoothie. I use yoghurt and milk, makes it very creamy.
If you use chia seed they swell up quite a lot with moisture; the seeds are used as an egg replacer in vegan cooking.
I’m very excited with my last exam result 95%…….nearly needed to be picked up off the floor when the result came in. E
Lovely photos and such a pleasant read 🙂 I’ve ended up in the city, but sometimes think I should have been somewhere else. I’ll live my country-home dream through reading your blog. Keep up the good work 🙂
Now that’s a power packed smoothie!
I do love those egg baskets & you’ve got me thinking of going out on a mission to find some…then I’ll figure out what to put in them later since I have no laying chickens.
Congratulations on the fine hay. I do enjoy seeing old machinery and traditional objects such as these egg baskets. I still have my father’s old tools and they have a sense of integrity, when things were made with care and made to last.
I’m a great fan of green smoothies and am making my winter smoothies from curly kale and pears. So good that you have learned from the alarm from last summer and taking care to avoid heat stroke.
and with the heat i hope the haying will go smoothly =) how many times do you cut in a year?
yes heat is a dangerous thing…. and heat strockes are very nasty. take care!