It may seem unlikely the craving for soup in this dog daze, but things came together in such a way it was electric. Low pressure moving in from the west cooled things off that we actually considered turning the stove dial. The first root harvest, beets from Star Route Farm, could have been added to one of many summer salads we've been having (gotta have your roughage, right?), but we weren't feeling it and then in search of inspiration, we turned: we spotted storage potatoes sprouting in the cellar and resigned to the idea we would be done with last year's harvest if we didn't have it now; we're down to the final shallots, the last of our alliums, sad we won't overlap with this year's; volunteer dill weed swayed in full solstice splendor while my late-planted cukes can hardly be counted on to synchronize for this year's pickles, so we had to act; we've burned through so many steaks lately there's a longing for the braisers we usually reserve for winter. Our family visiting from western Pennsylvania brought the first heads of cabbage and there was a nice three-piece shank in the freezer, so I thought: borscht.
Almost like the way we grill Christmas steaks in winter's wood stove, we decided to have some summer borscht. Beef shanks, beets, potatoes, shallots, some spring garlic, finely sliced cabbage, fresh dill, a touch of celery for stock and we've got a warm dinner for this cool evening and then, after chilled, lunch tomorrow after we run to knock down some hay in the morning. Like the season, we are discombobulated here at Flaca Vaca Farm. That's July for you.
PSBTW: takeaway? Get some beet seed in the ground for autumn harvest. If the borscht is good now it will be lifesaving in December.
