Our Favorite Recipe of the Month: Southwest Chicken Chili
It is chilly this week! February is packing a punch. Soups and chowders are one of my favorite comfort food this time of year. They are easy and give us leftovers for days. This month’s featured recipe uses our country sausage to make a creamy and delicious chowder.
It might be spring, but the windy weather still makes a pot of chili the perfect meal after a long days work.
Check out the recipe below!
Spring: The Slow Green Up
It has been a slow green up this year, but Monday morning there was a significant change. We had a warm thunderstorm overnight with an inch of rain and when I walked out of the house in the morning, I could see the green in the pastures. It always amazes me how quick the change can be from brown to green. How many inches grass can grow even in an afternoon.
The cattle have been out on pasture all winter, but with the new grass peaking up, it was time to bring them in. It seems counterintuitive. If the grass is starting to grow, why would you keep them from it?
New grass needs to be treated tenderly. As it begins to grow, the new plant is putting roots down into the soil and when it is grazed in spring can change how the grass grows for the rest of the year. The cattle love the new grass. If I let them on the pasture, they would trim and trim and trim the young grass as it grows. This kills the roots that you can’t see beneath the surface which means the grass will grow slower, shorter, and produce less.
I’m in the business of feeding grass to my animals. So treating grass tenderly in the spring allows me to feed my cattle more grass into the Fall. It is a practice of patience. I am as eager as they are to get onto grass, but I’ve learned that fast responses to change often have unintended consequences.
Sometimes I think this deliberateness and intentionality is something we are missing in our society. We love our quick fixes, our quick responses to change that will be the magic bullet to make everything better. I think slowing down and looking at the broader picture of cause and effect is hard when we are driven by the need for results. But what if the slow down allows us to yield better results or to see people in the process? Not even this is a magic bullet, but a reminder to myself that as with farming that forces slowness and patience, life is sometimes the same.