FROM THE HOFFSTEAD -- August 2021

ANIMAL — We continue to hatch baby chicks this summer as my broodies just can’t quit. This latest little love bug is hanging out with me while I trim the basil and the lavender.

Phoenix and I also are having fun after taking last year off from competing. With a busy summer of writing and corporate event work at the college, zipping off to the barn in the early mornings to beat the heat remains my happy place and fills my tank. We are learning Training Level 1 and while his down transitions feel a little like a freight train without brakes, we’re getting there.

VEGETABLE —Okay, so you really came here for the veggie pie recipe, and I can’t blame you! But first I have to explain how I was able to grow squash with limited square footage due to starting another 45 tomato plants. This summer, I dedicated the majority of the real estate space in my interior garden for nightshades and herbs. J built a raised bed for basil, strawberries and lavender, and I made a cucumber frame, but everything else went to tomatoes and peppers which are undoubtedly our family’s favorites.

This meant I had no space this year for those ramblers like squash or widlflowers in my interior garden. However, I have lots of real estate inside my chicken run, which is 40x40 and surrounds our interior garden to keep insect pests to a minimum. I have had luck growing a Concord grape ‘chunnel’ which gives my birds some shade, and our cherry tree in the run is thriving.


My solution was to use real estate inside the chicken run to create towers out of old tomato cages. I lined the sides with straw to slow erosion and filled the towers with chicken compost, just like I would potato towers. When the soil was tall enough to be out of chicken range, I planted seeds for bush zucchini, yellow squash, butternut squash and wildflowers, and then covered the tops with wire to keep birds out until they filled in. Before the plants came in, I admit they looked a little like the Hollow Men from Eliot’s poem, but now they are doing exactly what they are meant to—provide a space saving way to grow squash and flowers INSIDE a chicken run.

MIRACLE — the result of this is the amazing veggie pie, which is a recipe Piper and I came up with six or seven summers ago to handle an abundance of zucchini, eggplant, and other late July veggies.

First, you go to the store and buy a pre-made frozen pie crust because jeezus I can’t do everything. Then you use your regular peeler to shave curls of the squash, and roll them. For zucchini and yellow squash, I leave the outer skin on for color, but obviously you have to kind of hack off the butternut outer layer because it gets too thick. Roll the curls up and nestle them together. I have also added eggplant, but we didn't do any of that this year, and my jellybean tomatoes often add a perfect pop of color tucked in between the curls, but those are taking forever this year since I direct-sowed the seeds.

I throw a bunch (5-8?) eggs into the vitamix with some ricotta and herbed salt. Pour that mixture over the curls. Then I add shredded parmesan and cheddar, snip some fresh chives over the top, a little fresh pepper and into the oven she goes. Don't ask me what temperature. Hot? I was finishing a sourdough at the same time so I had it cranked to pretty darn hot, like 475?

I promise this will be delicious. We had it with a salad, some Prosecco, sourdough and gnocchi with homemade pesto.