The Frog and the Cucumber

So...

Frogs like cucumbers.

And sometimes cucumbers (are) like frogs.

And everyone loves a nerdy eggplant penguin.

With thanks to the European vegetable carving championships of 2011.

"Participants may bring their own pumpkin".

Who knew?

Bean there, done that

Another day, another harvest.

Lettuce eat

Sometimes it IS easy being green.

Backyard self sufficiency

The frogs are pretty excited about this whole backyard farming business.

Who knew that food came from gardens?

Having mastered wheat/beer, wheat/weetbix, wheat/ puffed wheat and, of course, wheat/ flour/bread, the frogs find there is also joy in simple crops.

 Tomato. 

And basil.

Frog wonders if they will go together....

A grain of sense (9)

But you can't eat flour.

Well, not uncooked. It's yucky.

Frog decides to make a little flat bread.

A few drops of water.  A little salt.  A bit of kneading and.... voila.

 Dough.

The dough rests.

  Before being rolled out as thin as possible.

And after dancing quickly in a hot pan, Frog has his flat bread.

Never eat anything bigger than your head? Hah!

Bite by bite, the bread is consumed.

Frog feels a little full.

But proud.  Oh so proud.

From this:

To this:

Cool, huh?

A grain of sense (8)

The milled whole wheat flour...

Is then sieved, leaving behind the bran and a few other bits of wheat germ

(so that's what they make wheatbix out of)

Leaving lovely fine unbleached flour as the result.

A grain of sense (7)

Our Farmer Frog decides to opt for a little "modern" technology in the quest to turn wheat into flour.

Mortar and pestle.

Still stone ground.  Just a little easier to manipulate.

A grain of sense (6)

Of course there's one other thing you can make with wheat.

Flour.

The grain must be milled. 

Traditionally stones were used to grind the grain.

Frog finds first one stone...

..and then another.

But it's hard work and the results are not promising.

A grain of sense (5)

And as well as puffed wheat and beer, let's not forget breakfast cereals.

A grain of sense (4)

What else can you do with wheat?

Ah yes.

Beer.

Lovely, lovely wheat beer.

A grain of sense (3)

The winnowing is over. 

The grain awaits.

What will it become?

How about....

Puffed wheat?

Like popcorn.  Only a lot, lot smaller.

A grain of sense (2)

Just picking the wheat is not enough though.  Much more work is required to make it palatable for human frog consumption.

Farmer frog first threshes the ears of wheat.

And then sorts the wheat (or grain) from the chaff.

A grain of sense

The paleolithic diet may be all the rage at the moment, but smart frogs know that sooner or later grains will come back in to fashion.

Our farming frogs have been out harvesting wheat in the back yard from the field.

In fact, you could say they are all ears.