GreenAkeys

Welcome 2012

2012-01-15T20:10:00.000-08:00

We haven't had snow on the farm since this day back in October. Not that often that you see the trees such vibrant colors with snow on the ground.

At this point we are sold out and full for our trial round of 'pick your own CSA' for 2012. We still have more meat CSA shares available. See website for details but basically it's $300 for 3 months of meat- 10-15 lbs per month with a mix of cuts.

We are almost at lambing season- we start early this year in February because the ram again got in with the sheep a month before were ready. Julica the jersey cow is also set to give birth sometime end of February so we'll be digging out the mild supplies again as we'll be milking again!

The things that interrupt the farmer

2011-11-28T19:31:00.000-08:00

Not a lot of posting during the summer and fall.

20 member CSA is a lot and not something that will happen again unless someone wants to take on the job for us. The focus next year is a pick your own CSA for a select group (3 families) of people to learn this model and try it out. And the focus will turn to goats and cheese..... learn, learn, learn.

In between the farm--- kids and life happen and blogging is not a priority.

Our kids' love of music and theater shouldn't be a big surprise to Mike and I as we both were in theater and have a creative side. I sing horribly but Mike has a pretty good voice.

So to see the kids enjoy this part of life is magical. A singing solo in the middle school play, to the one above who loves to play her flute and now wants a piccolo, to the youngest who plays his sax like he was born with it..... are these my kids?

I wonder if sheep and goats will follow music or come towards it like the pied piper? Might need to perform an experiment....

Our Farm Meat

2011-10-03T19:43:00.000-07:00

I was reminded again today that the quality of our pasture raised meat is superb. I also am debating the ramifications of pursuing a lofty goal. Can I do with lamb what the wine industry has done with grapes? Will customers be willing to learn the breeds of lambs to value the superior genetics and quality of meat?

Tonight I was at a nice restaurant that was serving rack of lamb. Now first off, the waiter said "would you like a petite lamb chop? Now I know the difference between a lamb chop and a piece of rack of lamb but I ignored this error as the waiter likely said this as it is easier to say lamb chop than rack of lamb. It was very good lamb so I was very curious of the breed as it was very mild like our Kathadin lambs.

So then came my dilemna. Do I or do I not ask my infamous question? My colleagues I was with cringed because they knew what was coming. After 2 glasses of a great Cab- Beringer- I had to ask. So I asked the waiter.... would you happen to know the breed of lamb just like grape of this wine I am drinking? He said, "Yes! This is Colorado Lamb!".

Oh boy-- that's like saying this is California wine when a merlot is absolutely different from a Chardonnay.

So then the poor waiter had to listen to me for a few minutes while I said I raised lamb and that the breed of lamb is like the type of grape for wine. Poor, poor waiters who fall into this trap at every restaurant I visit. But if you want to make an impact on society and the world in general then teaching people about lamb is a practical and achievable goal.

Just like people think that Angus steers are superior meat due to the marketing efforts, Kathahin lambs could be the breed of choice for lamb!!!

2-3 more people got the lamb lecture from me tonight---- billions left to train...... maybe....

Taking orders for fall/winter lambs

2011-09-18T17:45:00.000-07:00

Tonight I am in Marketing mode...... lamb for sale. And not just lamb-- the most amazing lamb you've ever had for sale. When Mike told me he wanted a farm and he wanted to raise sheep I kind of whined and said "sheep? but I hate lamb". Then I got the speech about eating the WRONG kind of lamb. So lamb is like wine. All kinds of wine out there. You can drink wine from a box. My dad will drink wine from a box and doesn't really care about vintage wines- me, I'm kinda hooked on a nice Cab but I don't like a Merlot that much. Our lambs are Katahdin lambs and they are grass fed. The grass feeding makes a difference. I've had Katahdin lamb that was 1/2 grass, 1/2 grain fed and it was not the same as 100% grass fed. It was good - but not as sweet. So our Katahdin lambs are like a vintage wine and you have to try it and see if you like the 'vintage'. We sold one early lamb 4 weeks ago and just got the report back. Outstanding was the verdict. Ask my kids what they want for dinner-- they will say "RACK OF LAMB!!!" - totally spoiled children and I remind them there are only 2 racks per lamb so sometimes we also have to eat lamb burgers and lamb stew and leg of lamb. My oldest is a picky eater and even she loves lamb. Kids come to our house for dinner and we don't tell them till afterwards that they ate lamb (they always think it's flavorful meat-- but no idea what it is).

So that's my pitch. We raise a wonderful high quality product and we want to sell to you if you are interested.

Below are the details:

We are currently taking orders for fall/winter lamb.
Our lambs are 100% grass fed, no hormones and are the Katahdin breed.
This breed of lamb when grass fed produces lamb meat that is tender and sweet.

Whole lambs dress out at 40-55 lbs and will be sold for $7.5 per lb.
Total price for a whole lamb will then be $300-$412.50.

If you are in a co-op and buying for many families then if you purchase 2+ lambs the price will be $7/lb.

You will pick up your lamb at our partner butcher in Littlestown, PA at Stoneypoint Market.
Lamb will be available in Oct/Nov/Dec.

Normally once you tell us you want a lamb, we will then send to the butcher the next available Monday as this is the day they process USDA for small farmers like ourselves. The lamb then needs to age a week or two so you will get your lamb about 4 weeks after you order it from us.

This price includes butchering costs and all cuts are vacuum packed in a heavy duty plastic so cuts will stay fresh for up to 6 months. We like this method of storing meat in freezers rather than butcher paper.

Over the past few years, we have found that the following cuts of lamb are usually the most popular so if you are unsure of how you want your lamb butchered, we will take care of that for you and cut it so that you receive the meat per below (the lbs/cut will vary based on the weight of the lamb):

2 rack of lamb - normally 1-1.5 lbs each
2 lamb spareribs - .5 lb each
2 bone in whole leg of lamb - 5-7 lbs each
2 packages of lamb shanks -1 lb each
5-8 lbs of ground lamb wrapped in 1 lb portions
6 lbs of lamb chops
2 lbs of lamb stew meat (can also be used as kabobs)
lamb neck bones - .25 lbs - for seasoning sauces/soups/stews
4 shoulder roasts boned and rolled (2-3 lbs each)- if you decide you don't want to use these pieces as roasts you can also cut them up for kabobs later so this gives you some flexibility.

Email mikeakey@yahoo.com or call 443-340-9986 to reserve your lamb today.

Long time-- no post

2011-09-17T19:35:00.000-07:00

Running a 20 member CSA along with milking a cow daily is a lot of work when you also have a very busy full time day job. Add in that a certain child now needs to be at school early for play practice and the cow milking must stop.

I've learned a lot over the last 5 months about milking a cow and milk in general and I'll be ready when she has a baby in the spring and I'll know what to do with all that milk each week.

Today I had a lot of great help from CSA members on the farm and it was a great day even though it rained on and off. I still think that this has been the best part of the farm and the CSA- meeting our customers and gaining new friends. I would have no reason to meet some of these wonderful people thru my life but for the CSA and our farm.

As the days are getting shorter-- my blogs will get longer. Our house is under some major-minor construction (we have some closets now!!!!!) and so after October I don't know what I'm going to do with my time as the inside of my house will be all organized!!!! :)

Special Farm Visitor - June Brown

2011-08-08T20:21:00.000-07:00

In the background of this picture you see in White paint 1942 and the initials NJB.

I met NJB, June Brown last weekend. I have no idea her first name as I am realizing right now but I do know that she didn't remember putting her initials on the barn. 1942 is when the barn was last painted. June is 84 years old and she was born in my room. Her room was where our bathroom is now and her grandfather who was blind died in the room that is now our kitchen.

She basically lived in the basement as that is where the kitchen was and our backdoor was her front door. June raised Pekin ducks and her father milked 6 cows by hand each day. They milked and then put the milk in the spring house which is still across from the house.

The cherry and apple trees she remembers are gone but when she told me there were daffodils in the corner of the property I nearly fell over. Those daffodils still come up in the same place after 80 years. Next spring I'm going to invite her back to pick those daffodils.

The fascinating thing for me was to imagine life 80 years ago. No car, no car insurance. No electric bill, no cell phone bill, no water bill or gas bill, no tv bill, no internet bill. June told us how her parents used the horses to till the fields and to help pull the hay up to the top part of the barn. She said one of her favorite things was to take a pie her mother had made and sit in the grass next to the house and eat that entire pie with her father. What a beautiful image. I think we're going to have to make a pie this weekend and have a family pie picnic.

BUSY!!!

2011-08-03T17:41:00.000-07:00

No time for posts-- maybe I'll start posting again in October or when I go on a business trip and have time in my hotel room and am bored.

I am BUSY!!!

I can make buttermilk (with a starter and the real buttermilk left after making butter)

I can make butter.

I can make a whipped cream that will make you cry. My favorite quote from one whipped cream taster was "can I get a direct IV of that stuff?"

I have made a hard cheese (without cheese wax-- cheddar- just to see how it's done)

I'm learning sour cream-- haven't gotten it right yet.

Made yogurt but didn't like the culture- need a yogotherm bucket I think.

I can milk a cow by hand or with a vacuum pump, pasturize milk and separate it with cream separator in my sleep.

I can also throw stuff away and rearrange my house every week so that we can build closets. After 200 years or however old this house is-- we are building closets!!!!

We met a woman who grew up in this house in the 20's, 30's and 40's--- our back door was her front door. I'll write about that later but it was fascinating to view our house from her perspective.

I have so many potatoes and thank god for potato digger attachments.

I hate squash bugs-- but I love that the tomatoes are starting!!! Fresh salsa!!!

Enjoy your summer! I'm enjoying mine.

Gotta go....Making twice baked potatoes to freeze for kids-- great way to use extra potatoes!

The Case of the Missing Calf

2011-07-08T17:54:00.000-07:00

Every day is an adventure on the farm. Tonight we were going to just feed the baby goat and feed the dogs and then have family game night.

One of our cows appeared to either be delivering a baby or already delivered a baby calf.

How would you know that a cow has or is about to deliver you may ask? Placenta hanging out. The hard part is knowing whether it's the water bag or the placenta until you get closer.

Now here is the crazy part. We have 1 bull calf that was born a week ago that is pictured below. He was running through the pasture while his mother and the other new mamma cow with placenta hanging out are running after the calf. So 2 mothers running after the same calf. Our milking Jersey cow, Julica was also running after the 2 mothers and the baby calf. Then the rest of the herd was running and following the 4 of them.

HUH?

We stared at the sight and Mike and I looked at each other totally puzzled. So what's up with all this running around?

Mike's version: She didn't have her baby yet and she thinks the other calf is her baby. So both mothers are running after the baby. Now most people don't know that cows run. It's pretty scary as that's 1,500lbs running.

Annette's version: No way she's running around if she hasn't given birth (I've had 3 kids-- there would be no running prior to birth.) So where is the new baby calf? So the search ensued.

We searched around and found the baby on the other side of the pasture near the fence. He must have been about 2-3 hours old as he was licked clean and his umbilical cord was chewed down but he still wasn't standing well. So what do I say? Hey hon, now's the time, let's 'steer' or 'band' him and tag him now. So we run back for supplies and Mike tags him and turns him into a steer. I won't go into details about this process but it's what you do if you don't want a bull. So then we picked up the baby and drove him over to the correct mother. It took about 5 minutes before momma realized which baby was hers. Picture Mike holding a calf between his legs and calling out "hey momma-- this is your baby-- hey MOMMA!".

By the time I said- I should get the camera, the baby had nursed and collapsed to take a nap. See below picture.

Then momma laid down next to baby and all was calm again. You can barely see the baby in the picture but he's there.

An hour and a half later we were ready for family game night. Monopoly Deal - YES! I finally won. Life on a farm is definitely not boring...

The things that bring us together.....squash

2011-06-21T18:40:00.000-07:00

Food brings people together. Amen. End of Story. Now I know lots of things bring people together but having this farm has allowed me to make new friends anywhere. ANYWHERE.

Tonight I was talking to a bunch of folks in my profession at a conference and while we had polite chit-chat, people really asked me more questions about was my farm. Why is that? Are we all programmed to want to live off the land? (I know I am)

Then even on the bus ride back from the networking event to my hotel, I had a fantastic conversation with the bus driver John who told me about the Urban garden a few blocks from the hotel and we chatted about squash and tomatoes. He laughed when I told him I planted about 300 varieties of tomatoes.

Sometimes when you do something for a good reason - have a farm to repair the earth, be self sufficient and try to break even-- what happens is that you have unintended things happen as well. For me the biggest surprise was my ability to have a conversation with anyone about food and the wonderful new people I have met along the way and in the most unlikely places.

So John, I hope all your squash plants work out and the bugs stay away!

Week 4 of Green Akeys Veggie CSA

2011-06-20T19:57:00.000-07:00

This year we made a few improvements to the farm. One improvement was to paint the walk-in fridge green (for Green Akeys). We then used chalk board paint on the side and that is where we write the notes for what CSA members take from the fridge or outside tables.

Onions are growing nicely!
Raspberries and blackberries. Enough said- look at all those little red spots.

Kohlrabi

Rows of potatoes-- all we need is rain. We are in a crazy area that sometimes does not get rain, so help out and do a rain dance-- potatoes need rain!

Happiness is......

2011-05-25T19:35:00.000-07:00

Having your own milking jersey cow. Her name is Julica but we call her Honey.

If you get a cow, make sure you order your milking equipment BEFORE the cow comes. Although the pleasure and peace of hand milking at 6am and 6:30pm is also fine for a while.

Also-- make sure you have a way for her to get in and out of the pasture on her own. (that part won't be done till end of June-- so I'm getting good at leading her around with her halter).

Cream separator and butter churn coming in a week as well. In the meantime--- I'm back to making cheese, kefir and right now cooking up some fromagina. Will need a cheese press by end of the summer and a big ice cream maker. Cereal with fresh milk and cream is really fabulous and my coffee was never better.

Cows are fun.....

My Favorite

2011-05-19T20:19:00.000-07:00

Garlic and shallots--- they love the rain. YEAH!!!

Rosa and Rocky will meet their new dog buddies tomorrow. We now have 2 more Great pry's. Sheila and Susie.

Julica arrives tomorrow.

I Can't Keep Up

2011-05-18T20:07:00.000-07:00

With postings that is....

Every time I take a picture, whatever I took a picture of doubles in size. Take this Tarragon bush for example. It is now twice as tall. For those in the CSA-- the herb garden looks fabulous and you should cut herbs all summer and dry them. Dry them and crumble them up and put them into containers or even little baggies. Then use them all winter and save yourself the cost of buying herbs.

The peppers were planted last weekend in the wonderful cloudy days. I told myself I'd go easy on peppers this year and I again failed. 3 full rows of peppers.... one CSA member told me recently that he still has peppers in the freezer from last fall. Me too-- I still have one and a half gallon sized bags left. This is good! Peppers are easy to freeze and are wonderful to use all winter long.

The garden is going to go quickly as the weather warms up. Beans will go in along with melons memorial day weekend.

And if the garden isn't keeping us busy enough, we did fill in with new blueberry bushes, plant 4 cherry trees, 3 peach trees, more cut flowers, sunflowers and cucumbers last weekend.

We also have 4 new goats (nubian goats), 2 new great pyr guard dogs that come in the next week along with our new Dairy cow Julica who comes on Friday (she comes with a name and we don't feel right changing her name on her as she is 4 years old).

Yes, dairy cow comes on Friday. I have had dreams about making butter and homemade whipped cream for 2 years now........ the dream is going to come true very soon....

Glorious Rainbows at the Farm

2011-05-07T19:33:00.000-07:00

We've had short rainfalls the last few weeks. On Friday night we had a special treat, a quick shower followed by a double rainbow. As we saw it out the window we all squealed- the girls ran to get their phones and I got my camera.

On the other side of the rainbow it lead straight down on top of the new eggmobile for the hens. So I guess the pot of gold are eggs from hens raised on pasture (now being fed organic feed). I couldn't agree more...

Green Akeys Family Farm and The Dukan Diet

2011-05-03T19:26:00.000-07:00

I had no idea what the Dukan Diet was until I heard that Kate's mother is on this diet. And yes, I did watch the wedding last week-- loved it!

So I had to read about this diet, what is it all about? (disclaimer- I work for the company that publishes this book)

Ah-- all about proteins again. Serious protein phase then slowly add back veggies and other good items in the last phases.

So what does this all have to do with Green Akeys Family Farm?

Well, as part of the diet you need to eat lean meats. Where can you get lean meats? At Green Akeys Family Farm of course! Dr Dukan says that lamb is prohibited in phase 1 of the diet but he hasn't seen or eaten our grass fed lamb- he'd change his mind if he saw it and tested it out. But our grass fed beef fits right into this program as well as chickens and turkey.

And what else should you eat on this diet? Eggs-- eggs from hens raised on pasture would be the best. So yet again our farm is down with all the latest buzz out there in the real world. :)

I'm thinking of trying out the diet and seeing what it does for me. We had a little too much fun making and eating goat cheese this winter and consequently I did gain weight over the winter. So back to lean proteins and veggies.... I know where to get them!

Spring Green Akeys Farm Update Part 2

2011-05-01T08:16:00.000-07:00

Lilacs are in bloom! Nothing says spring like the smell of lilacs in the air.

I planted 1 row of zucchini in hopes for an early crop. The other 2 rows will get planted in a few weeks as the weather warms up. I am testing a few of these 'hotcaps' to see how they do.

The potatoes are all planted. This year we were smart and planted them in order from Early harvest to very late harvest. Didn't really think about that this last year and I learned my lesson. It's a lot of potatoes out there. I really hope they all do well. Though if they do well I have no idea if the CSA can eat that many potatoes? We'll sure try.

I am in love with my garlic yet again this year. The cool weather and the wonderful rain is helping them out. They are looking so good. Each year the garlic plot has doubled in size, if that keeps up it won't take long till the entire farm is garlic. I do think I will try to double the garlic for 2012 as I still see varieties out there that I want to try.

I love when all animals share the shaded areas in the pasture.

And speaking of pasture. It is growing! This year, as much as we want to put the animals on this pasture, we must wait for fall/winter as the grasses need to get established. If we put the animals out there now they would pull the grass up root and all. That would not be good. So these grasses will grow tall and we'll cut them once for some hay for winter. Then in the fall/winter we'll be able to let them graze.

This year we have 2 bee boxes. Unfortunately that means no honey again as we need a year of comb building and the honey that the bees do make needs to be for them to survive the winter.

Special Short Peak Season CSA Share

2011-04-27T18:47:00.000-07:00

This email went out to those on our mailing list last night and we are already down to only 6 more shares available.

New Offering with 10 Shares available

While we are closed out for the full CSA season, due to demand we are offering a Peak Season CSA Share as we are able to adjust our growing and increase our planting now for those weeks.

This Share will start July 25th and go 6 weeks and end the last week of August.

The price for this share will be $300. These are the weeks of the year where many items are available for members and therefore the highest amount of produce is given out during these weeks. If you love tomatoes- this is the short CSA offering for you as you will have lots of tomatoes to eat and process to freeze for the winter.

Items that you could expect to receive in those weeks:
garlic
potatoes
tomatoes
peppers - hot and bell peppers
cucumbers
zucchini and summer squash
melons
beets
eggplant
herbs
flowers- cut your own
greens - asian greens and other greens
beans
pick your own raspberries

Please email us if you are interested and we will take requests in the order we receive them.
Pickup will be at our farm for those 6 weeks.

Annette@greenakeys.com

Spring Green Akeys Farm Update

2011-04-15T19:41:00.000-07:00

Lots happening on the farm. CSA is officially closed for the season. Sorry to those that keep emailing me, but check back next year and get on our mailing list.

We have also gotten lots of requests for a meat CSA so we hope to put together an offer that would start in July. Stay tuned....

Baby lambs being born daily. We've officially lost track. I think we are about 34? but could be 37. Won't know till the ear tagging is done on all new babies. In the daytime you hear mommas and babies calling out to each other. It's a lamb nursery. Baby calves are next--- should get 4-6 new calves.

Garlic is thriving!!! Yeah!! CSA members will get to try 13 varieties of garlic this year. Every year I save some garlic for next year and buy 2-3 new varieties as garlic is very expensive to buy. It can cost 3 dollars and up to 10 dollars per bulb depending on the variety.

One new addition to the CSA this year are garden boxes for veggies that take longer than 10 days to germinate and can get crowded by weeds. Beets, kohlrabi and carrots are amount those that are in the garden boxes this year.

New this year...... chocolate colored eggs!!! This year we have far fewer hens but beautiful eggs. That was my plan, less hens but a wonderful color combination.

The above egg is a speckled as well! We get our hens from Whitmore Farm. Will does a great job raising heritage breeds of hens and so we buy our hens from him. His eggs are used by chefs that have been on Top Chef as they are not only fabulous to eat but gorgeous. So I had to have those hens and the eggs!!! Those hens have been slower to lay eggs but now that they are starting, I am in love with the color!

Lambing - The Happy and Sad moments

2011-03-31T18:20:00.000-07:00

This is a happy picture. 8 lambs born in the last 24 hours. I love to hear them call out to their mommas. I was FINALLY able to witness a birth of twins last night. I sat down in the hay and I just waited it out. 90 minutes later I had witnessed the birth of a boy and then a girl lamb. I now understand what a normal twin birth process looks like!!! YEAH!

That was the happy story. When you raise sheep you know you will have some sad stories and that's the next story.

When I started this blog, I mainly did it so that friends and family could keep up with the farming life and it was a matter of efficiency for me. If someone were to say to me "hey, what's new on the farm?", I could say "um- have you been keeping up with my blog postings? I can't handle telling the same story 20 times".

Along the way I somehow made friends with other people around country and the world and so I realized that I can't just tell all the fun and rosy parts of farming. At times I need to tell the brutal truth and talk about the parts of farming that suck. This posting is about what happened last Tuesday night-- one of those nights that sucked.

It is lambing season for us. Now when a mother gets ready to lamb, they go off to a corner by themselves, they make a little nest of hay, etc. You can tell. Well, the other day this ewe either didn't do the normal behaviors or we missed it or she was trying to give birth while Mike was running errands.

By the time we had dinner and went to feed the sheep, Mike saw her. Thank goodness he did because this mother was not off by herself but with the pack. What Mike noticed- brace yourself- was that she was running around with a baby lamb's head poking out of her.

So we had to catch her and turn into vets. I talked to the mother and petted her head. I then assisted Mike as we figured out how to deliver the lamb. Thank god Mike can handle these things. I pass out when I give blood but I was proud of myself and I hung in there and made it through to help him. Mike was just amazing. I don't know where he gets these nerves of steel. He was in the Marines but I don't know if it's from that training or he just was born that way.

He managed to figure out how to move the lamb so that he'd slide out and somehow we managed to get the big boy out and keep the mother alive. She was definitely in a state of shock. But after 10 minutes she was back up and eating- thank goodness. We have no idea if the lamb was delivered stillborn or if the lamb just couldn't make it out. Ugh. Our farmer friends told us that some years you are lucky and sometimes you have birthing issues. The mom is doing fine in case you were wondering.

After this sad birth we did have 11 more good births in the week that followed and led to the picture of the cute lamb in the picture.

Total of 14 lambs so far since January and about 34 more ewes to deliver.

Lambing season

2011-03-27T10:54:00.000-07:00

We had 3 lambs born in January from the time the ram broke through and found his ladies earlier in the summer. Here are 2 of the lambs.

The rest of the mothers are due right around tax day in mid April. Let the guesses begin on number of lambs. Last year we had 24 ewes that had 45 lambs. This year we have about 45 ewes and 3 lambs so far. We do have a lot of first time mothers in the pack and they usually have a single lamb the first year so we're looking at 65-70 or so lambs this year.

And because Alina is going to ask-- why do some sheep in the picture have a red spray spot on them? Well, sometimes you sort your sheep or mark them for first year or trimmed hooves or to say these are the ones I want to sell after the lambs are weaned. When you get up to 45 sheep, you need a way to mark them to know this- and spray paint is the easy and funny way sheep farmers do this.

Back from India just in time for Spring

2011-03-23T12:43:00.000-07:00

Back from abroad! I had the good fortune to spend two weeks in India early this month. Culture shock was immediate and eye opening. The biggest thing that I took away from my trip was just how amazingly well things just sort of...worked. India wasnt pretty, despite what the photo above shows. It was chaotic, busy, acrid, depressing, exciting, exhilarating, tasty, maddening, philosophical, and did I mention chaotic?

One commonality I found between New Delhi, Calcutta and the "small" town of Jamshedpur was just how good the food was everywhere I went. Street vendors, restaurants, roadside markets, intensively farmed plots next to the airport in Calcutta, gardens, everywhere you looked there was food. It is very easy to be vegetarian in India. My last few hours in Calcutta were at the hotel where a big fertilizer company was having a convention. I suppose a country of over a billion people cant exist without quite a bit of energy directed at the production of food.

India is in a part of the world where they go for months without much rain to periods where they pray the rain will stop. This makes farming extremely difficult. Drought to flood. No fun. Ive seen that at work here. The biggest thing I took away was that the people I saw were all working as "organically" as possible. These are people with no money for pesticides, fertilizers, tractors or even tools. Yet, they were growing some of the most beautiful crops, intensively cultivated by hand.

Makes me wonder how we can do better here with the "advantages" that technology provides for us. But is technology REALLY helping us, or do we use it as a crutch? Are the methods we use for commercial agriculture really helping us "feed the world" or is the world already feeding itself nicely, thank you? Industrial agriculture surely can produce massive amounts of products that are used less as whole foods but as ingredients in industry.

I had a wonderful phone call today with a prospective customer. We spoke at length about the idea of "organic" in the marketplace. I know I have posted about this before, but it is definitely worth another post. Just what is "organic"? Is it a worthwhile goal to produce organically? Are we better off eating organics? Are conventional foods harming us?

I think that my philosophy on food should be made more clearly. Im always wide open to change. I know Im not always in the right. I have plenty of ideas on how to do things better. Always question your assumptions! So, here goes: As far as growing vegetables, we use no fertilizers or pesticides or fungicides that are not approved for use in USDA Certified Organic operations. We do use a very small percentage of seeds that are NOT certified organic, mostly if we cant find a variety that has been grown organically somewhere else. Our beef and lamb are entirely grass-fed. We do not spray our pastures with herbicides, or chemical fertilizers or anything else for that matter. We do spread lime in order to bring the pH of the soil up closer to neutral. We may at some time in the future apply chicken manure or fish emulsion or raw milk to the pastures or perhaps some other minerals if we find our soil testing shows deficiencies.

As far as poultry, well, here is where I feel some pressure to do better. I do NOT feed organic feed to my chickens. The cost is nearly double for the feed. I would have to raise my egg prices up to about 8 dollars a dozen to make it worthwhile. My feeling is that the chickens diet is supplemented with pasture plants and bugs and worms and sunshine for vitamin D, and that is what makes the difference between my product and what you can find in the stores. HOWEVER, I am fully aware of the problems involved with GMO corn. I know I have had interest from one or two people in the past year looking for GMO-free and also Corn and Soy-free rations for the birds. I really do want to switch over to all organic feeds for my birds, but the price has been prohibitive. Im already charging more for my chickens than most people. And Im definitely not getting rich! Its probably the one thing I would change if the demand was there for all organic chickens and eggs.

There are so many people claiming so many different things about organic foods. Let me give you my perspective. I could be wrong. Please feel free to go all Chuck Norris on me in the comments! My view is that the pesticides and herbicides that are in the food system most probably have little effect on any of us when we consume them. We rinse them off, scrub the apples, etc. and 99% of the sprays wash off. Most sprays are not approved for spraying on the fruits or veggies themselves within a certain period before harvest. So, the impact on our health is probably minimal. That does not mean that some people are not sensitive to these chemicals. My motivation for growing organically is not necessarily for my own health but for the health of the environment. I have more issues with runoff into streams and the bay and effects on pesticides with other creatures who interact directly with them.

I make no claim as to the health benefits of Organics. Im happy growing them for the environment, not for my own health. Perhaps there are more benefits than I know about. Im happy to raise grass-fed beef and lamb because I know that it makes no sense to use fossil fuels to bring the food to the animals when we can easily bring the animals to the food! So they grow a little slower. Better slower growth than all the associated issues with fossil fuels and their costs. It just makes sense. Its also much more sustainable.

My view is that sustainability is more important in the long run than anything else. Chickens are particularly problematic for me. Chickens have been bred over the last 60 plus years to grow fast on corn. Plain and simple, the heritage breeds we have today are nothing like their ancestors. These heritage breeds today are improved and have been selected to grow well on corn. Great Grandma's backyard flocks were hardly fed, they were skinny, scrawny, and had lousy egg production. People didnt get 6 pound broiler chickens. At best they had 2.5 pound chickens! And the chicken was tough. It was not the chicken we have today. Any animal that needs corn represents a problem to me. I will keep a small flock of layers, but Im not very interested in the long term sustainability of chickens in the US. Grass-fed lamb and beef is the way to go.

So, lots of splainin' today. Im ready for the season to start! Im all fired up!

Relief Efforts

2011-03-21T12:14:00.000-07:00

A wonderful friend for over 20 years has family in Japan. Thankfully they are all alive and much less affected by the earthquake and tsunami and nuclear catastrophe than many. However, there is an ongoing problem there and many people are going to be hungry and need medical care in the near term and long term. If you feel like you can contribute, here are a few ways that you can do so with only a few clicks of your mouse.

I dont want to make you feel like you need to do this, but if you dont have even a dime to spare because the economy sucks, you can always go donate blood to your local Red Cross. Everyone gots some extra blood they ain't needing. Go donate! You get a free cookie. FREE COOKIE!

1. Brother's Brother Foundation (BBF) in cooperation with the Japan-American Society of PA.

BBF is a 53-year old Pittsburgh-based international charity. Brother's Brother Foundation received 100 % or higher rating in charitable commitment, donor dependency and fundraising efficiency.

http://www.brothersbrother.org/11_japanearthquake.htm

2. American Red Cross
Donation through American RC will be sent to the Japanese Red Cross Society
TEL: 1-800-733-2767
http://www.redcross.org/
Donate Funds page:
http://american.redcross.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ntld_main

3. The Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City - Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Fund
The fund will direct 100% of your donation to disaster relief efforts. The Mayor's Fund does not retain an administrative fee.
https://www.nyc.gov/html/fund/html/donate/donate.shtml

4.Unicef.
The U.S. Fund for UNICEF (USF) is raising funds to help children in Japan impacted by the recent earthquake and tsunami.
https://secure.unicefusa.org/site/Donation2?df_id=9640&9640.donation=form1

5. Text-to-Donate for Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami Relief Efforts
You can donate through one of the following organizations by simply sending a text message from your mobile phone (billed to your mobile phone bill). mGive, the agency working to collect and process donations on behalf of the following organizations, charges a fee (for RC, $.25 fee) per donation.

The American Red Cross: Text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10.
Convoy for Hope: Text TSUNAMI to 50555 to donate $10.
GlobalGiving: Text JAPAN to 50555 to donate $10.
World Relief Corp of National Association of Evangelicals: Text WAVE to 50555 to donate $10.
UNICEF: Text JAPAN to 864233 to donate $10
Salvation Army: Text JAPAN to 80888 to donate $10.

When prompted, please remember to reply with YES to confirm your one-time, tax-deductible mobile donation. After the process, you may text STOP to avoid further text receiving and fee. This donation will appear on your next mobile phone bill. Message and Data Rates May Apply.

Things that last a long time....

2011-03-20T20:13:00.001-07:00

I watched a lot of the 100,000 Pyramid game when I was younger. So here are the clues...

friendships, girlfriends, sorority pledge daughters, trident gum, cats, bank barns, last 10 lbs of body fat, a ball of yarn, squash.....

Yes! Things that last a long time!!!! $100,000!!!

These are my squash that I still need to eat. If you take the time to count them-- more than 40. Yikes!! Holy squash. I had better get a move on it. It is almost the end of March and I still have 40 squash left! I started in the neighborhood of 100 or so last October so clearly I don't need as many to last me through the winter. This year the squash were in the basement area and were it was around 40 degree temp all winter. I think this is the perfect temp for keep squash. When I would bring the squash or a pumpkin upstairs for more than a week, then the seeds inside the squash/pumpkin would start to sprout. Funny, no? Freaked me out the first time though...

So squash lasts a long time kept in the right temp.

Now how about friendships and girlfriends? Those can also last a long time. Tonight I had the pleasure of being in a southern state for business and was able to have dinner with a long time girlfriend. Now I will say that she and I have probably known each other for a total of 10 full days of running time throughout our lives. But the time we spend together is always quality time and we got to know each other very well over the years. Our fathers spent time in the Air Force together and hence they got together every so often throughout our lives and since we are only 3 months apart in age, we became friends very quickly. It was so wonderful to reconnect with her and spend an evening together. (I also told her I'd blog about her.... she is one of my readers who never posts a comment)

And then you may wonder what the heck the sorority pledge daughter listing in the things that last a long time was all about? Well, in my younger days I went to college. My freshman year of college I did try to join a sorority but the 'smart' sorority didn't put a bid out to me and I wanted to be in the 'smart' sorority. I did get chosen by the 'beautiful women' sorority but decided that even though I was beautiful, that sorority just didn't fit me. So freshman year I was on my own and doing my engineering thing. Sophomore year, I decided to try again for a sorority and I didn't get selected again. But then the day after the big pledge party night, I got a call saying that they needed 3 more pledges because they fell short of their target and would I consider joining? Now, I was a sophomore and that's why I didn't get on the first round list because you can't have a pledge call of all sophomores because then you have no one to live in the sorority house and your sorority roster will be out of sorts. This happened to be the sorority that my roommate got chosen to join the night before and this was the 'party' sorority. Since I fancied myself a party girl (although I could have fit into the smart, beautiful or party sorority in those days) I decided what the heck, join this sorority. Good thing I did join because another round of special friendships formed because of that sorority.

Now we get to present day. Would you know that my pledge daughter friended me on Facebook? At first I thought, who is this very beautiful woman that wants to friend me? And when I saw an old picture of her in her facebook pictures, I said to my husband "oh my gosh, that's my pledge daughter!". Little did I know that I would have to explain sorority life to my husband who didn't get the whole daughter thing and in the end I gave up. So evidently pledge daughter relationships can last a long time as well.....I now have a new old friend on the west coast!

Here's to things that last a long time! (and if you need any squash-- let me know)

Single, full time working, diversified farmer mother

2011-03-15T18:03:00.001-07:00

I tried an experiment the last 2 weeks. I let my husband go literally half way across the world for 2 weeks. I instantly became a single, full time working, diversified farmer mother.

I can now imagine what it would have been like if I had been a farmers wife with 3-8 kids and my husband went off to fight in the war. I can also imagine what it would have been like if I then decided to make some extra money and went to work at an industrial job helping make bombs or airplanes or whatnot.

Time is an interesting thing. It stretches and somehow things get done. Sometimes when you have so much to do and it just MUST get done, you tend to focus and really make it all happen.

I can tell you that my kids got good at walking home from the bus stop - even in the pouring rain one afternoon. They learned to get along for a few hours before I got home from work (I only had 1 phone call of tattling on a sibling). They remembered 75% of the time to let the dogs out to pee. Poor dogs did have to wait the other 25% and were looking at me like I didn't train the kids well. So the kids did well. I had to lean on them to help me out and they did. Maybe I don't ask the kids to do enough on a regular basis- I'm going to do more of that in the future as I think it helps them become independent. The kids did learn how to make homemade soft pretzels and they made huge batches on Sunday while I had a friend over helping to start the seedlings. And my youngest actually cleaned his room on his own. I nearly fell over when I saw it. Mom, I needed my table to be clear and I just got on a cleaning kick so I can't stop now. Amazing! Who's child is this?

We all learned how to make crock pot meals that cooked all day so we didn't have to eat out the entire time. I make a mean crock pot dish - leg of lamb, beef stew and beef BBQ.

I am great at driving the tractor now and I can carry 2 bales of hay at the same time and fling them up to feed the sheep. I can fix gates and learned to use pliers.

We did have help the first weekend from Grandma Mary. I do think grandparents are important and I do wish ours lived closer. If I had been that working mother in my imagination I would guess I would have had support from a grandmother or sister or aunt.

And neighbors help as well. I think I have some of the best neighbors in the world. I did so well the entire 2 weeks, would you know what happens on the last day?

I must not have closed the barnyard gate correctly and the sheep and 2 guard dogs escaped. Our neighbor was kind enough to track me down at work. Imagine my surprise when a colleague says to me "um Annette, some guy says he's your neighbor and that your animals are out".

When I found out it was just the sheep and the guard dogs I was happy. The sheep weren't gonna go far because they just wanted to eat the grass because as they say THE GRASS IS GREENER ON THE OTHER SIDE. And my daffodils were a nice tasty snack for those pregnant mommas. It only took 3 minutes and Frank the Border collie had the sheep back in the barnyard. Rocky was a little tougher to get back in the barnyard as he wanted to scope out his land. He kept ignoring me and pretending he didn't hear me. But after 10 minutes all was back to normal.

So I did learn that I can do things that I let my husband normally do and that my kids are fantastic. I also learned that we miss our father, husband and that when families have to be apart that it is hard. I'm happy to be back to married, full time working, diversified farmer mother- that's a piece of cake!

The Paradigm Shift for Training and Living with Dogs

2011-03-05T19:07:00.000-08:00

This weekend I had the opportunity to meet some wonderful authors.

One of the authors that I met was Jennifer Arnold. Below is Butch. Butch travels with her and the photo below is of Butch giving a woman a hug. (from an online clipping I found) My daughter got the same type of hug from Butch but I didn't get those photos yet.

PHOTOS

http://www.canineassistants.org/founder.html

I have a prediction and it is very simple : Jennifer Arnold and her method for teaching dogs will become THE predominant method for training dogs in less than 5 years. Either she'll have a weekly dog TV show someday- or someone who teaches her methods will. She is a beautiful woman with great emotion and a great heart and so I hope it is her on my TV screen.

For those of you that have dogs, you need to read about her and buy her book. There are not that many books that I shamelessly promote but Jennifer has a message and I am 100% behind it.

Dogs rock!! Dogs can detect a seizure before onset. Did you know that dogs can be trained to detect cancers? If the dog smells your breath it can detect several types of cancer. Dogs can detect cancer sometimes at a 98 percent accuracy level. Now I don't know about you- but I want dogs going around and sniffing me out. I want a dog to suspect I have a problem and then I can go get the catscans and whatnot.

Jennifer's methods for teaching dogs is referred to as the Choice teaching method. Her method does NOT involve chock collars, dominance toward a dog or punishment. Her method uses positive reinforcement and getting the dogs to Choose to follow your commands. I've seen the rise and fall of business books from 30 years ago that advocated the 'dominance' and carrot/stick approach to managing people to the books of today that advocate teamwork, shared vision and positive reinforcement. Her method of teaching is a true WIN/WIN for human and dog. Jennifer's Choice teaching method will be the new paradigm for training dogs in the future.

I did not know that living on a farm would cause me to fall in love with dogs. I thought I'd fall in love with chickens, lambs, cows, etc.

But alas, we have gone from 1 sheltie to:

1 sheltie, 2 border collies, 1 Great Pyrenees, and 1 akbash/anatolian sheppard.

I never would have guessed we'd have 5 dogs living with us with thoughts of adopting a few more.

Thanks to Jennifer Arnold I now know that it's ok when my dog doesn't sit right away. He or she will sit- but normally not within 5 seconds. But I know they are thinking about it.

When I tell my husband to sit- it takes him 30 seconds or so to sit. So why would I expect a dog to sit within 3 seconds? Because we think that dogs should be quick to react to our commands?

Not only did she help me see the world through our dogs eyes, but she made me feel sane. Those who have been long time blog readers know that I will swear our animals are talking to me. And the animal that I swear talks to me directly through eye contact is Rocky the Great Pyrenees dog. At first it scared the heck out of me but I now think it's because I just connect to this dog more than any of our other 4 dogs. After reading her book, I know that Rocky and the other animals on our farm are talking to me and I should continue to listen to them. I should also spend more time with Rocky and see what he has to say about life. I think I could learn a lot from him.

If you haven't taken your dog into your arms and told him that you love him lately, you should. They won't care that you haven't hugged them in a long time and they will forgive you.

Dog are a farmers best friend.

Night

2011-03-02T18:45:00.000-08:00

If I knew how to take a night time picture with my camera, you'd be looking at Orion.

Living on farm gives you the opportunity to see the stars in all their glory. One of us is 'forced' to go outside every night to feed the guard dogs, let the border collies run around, collect the eggs and milk the goats. Sometimes I grumble because it's cold outside. Once I get outside and see the stars, my attitude changes.

I look up at the sky and I imagine what life would have been like with no electricity and no internet and 'gasp' no electronics whatsoever! It would probably be a little harder but you'd probably talk more with your kids or your husband. You'd do more singing and telling of stories and playing of instruments.

I know that I desperately love both lives.

I love gadgets and technology. I will never forget the hours, weeks, months when I would write programs on our 'new' TRS80 and I had to store my code on a tape recorder. I remember my mom getting a microwave. I remember when the 5th grade class figured out that if we all called each other and got a busy signal that we could 'group chat' in between the beeps (yes, beep, you, beep, learned, beep, to, beep, talk, beep, like, beep, this, beep, crazy, beep, huh?) I remember when phone cords were about 40 feet long so that you could walk around the house dragging the cord with you. I remember when you had to turn the knob to change the TV channel. And I'm only slightly over 40!

I also love the simplicity of life. When I was younger, I really did not like camping or being outdoors- hotel life was my thing. But as I've grown older, I have come to appreciate the outdoors and simple living. I love to be outside and hear the birds. I love to have a bonfire and sing songs. I love to go collect my own eggs. I love to sit and play board games and card games. I love to watch my tomatoes grow. I love milking a goat and making cheese or yogurt. I love playing in the dirt. And most of all I love to stare out at the stars.

Thinking of Spring

2011-02-20T08:42:00.000-08:00

This is the time of year where I have to hold myself back as I'm itching to start my tomato plant seedlings. If I start them too early, then I've found that they get too big and are hard to transplant. I've also gotten better at growing seedlings so I have a good idea of how long it takes to get them to a good size to transplant in my area.

I wrote in a post a while ago that I was going to try print advertising. We had an advertisement placed in our local Carroll County Magazine that is free to households and are distributed to local businesses to put in their waiting areas. As a result I can say that the print advertising did work and lots of friends and neighbors told us they saw the ad. Now how many that saw the ad purchased meat from us or joined the CSA? Much less than saw the ad, but still more than enough to pay for the ad several times over. So select print advertising seems to work for our farm. If anyone local has other ideas of where we should advertise, let us know!

We are donating a 1/2 share of the CSA that you can bid on at the silent auction at the Carroll Community College Random House Book Fair on March 5th at Carroll Community College. So come out and check out the Book Fair and bid on Green Akeys Family Farm Products. Full disclosure- I am the chairperson for the event. It's a wonderful event and all proceeds are used for student scholarships.

CSA Inspiration

2011-02-09T18:41:00.000-08:00

The attached link is an article from the NY Times written by Michael Pollan.

“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

My absolute favorite line in the entire article is:

Don't eat food that your great-great grandmother wouldn't recognize.

For me that statement means I'm eating what they ate in Poland around 1800. I think I'm covered. In the CSA we have beets, cabbage, carrots, beans and most importantly we've got raspberries.

I'm certain that my great-great grandmother had a cow and made homemade ice cream every once in a while..... thank goodness..... 4 more months till the picture above becomes a reality....

Shout out to our Website Developer - Small Farm Central

2011-02-06T13:15:00.000-08:00

When we started this farm, I started this blog.

Then we realized we needed a website. Ugh, how do you build a website and actually have it be more than a landing page.

We then found Small Farm Central through a referral from our friends at Whitmore Farm.

It took a few hours to learn how to use the website and to setup our options but as I learn more of the features, the more I am so happy that Simon created this software for small farms.

Learning to use your website and use it well is like learning a new strategy game. Below is Kensington. My favorite game of all time. If anyone wants to come over and learn to play the game with me- let me know. I need a worthy challenger as I'm really good at this game. My father used to play the game with me all the time - that is until I kept beating him at it. I had to compromise and play backgammon with him as he won 98 times out of 100 when we played that game.

Using your website to be more than a landing page takes thought and strategic moves.

The feature that I wasn't taking advantage of until recently in the software was the automatic member mailing list feature. I am up to about 50 people who want to receive a monthly email. And if someone wants to unsubscribe, the software automatically takes the person off the list.

It is unbelievably easy to stay in touch with the people who 'asked' to receive information and the information can then go onto the website for those not on the mailing list.

As we get more mailing list members I can group the people into those that are CSA interested only or meat interested only. Wonderful!!!

Thanks Simon and Small Farm Central!!!

Longer Days = Eggs!

2011-02-02T19:17:00.000-08:00

Our hens are outside and without artificial light. Why is this important you may ask? Because hens are day light sensitive and only lay eggs when days are about 10 hr or more of daylight. So they are starting to lay eggs again! I'm getting 6-7 again each day and I am thrilled and I know a few of my die hard egg buyers will be thrilled as well.

I can't remember which blog I was reading the other day but I learned that you can freeze eggs in the summer or fall when you have more than you may know what to do with for those time in the winter when I had no eggs. You scramble them up and add 1/2 teaspoon salt per cup of eggs and then freeze them in an ice tray. I'm going to do this next year to last me through winter as I was about 4 dozen eggs short this winter.

We have about 40 new hens that are almost 16 weeks old and in 8 weeks or so will they will be ready for this season to lay eggs for us and our CSA members. We are only selling eggs to CSA members and a few other die hard egg purchasers this year as we are scaling back the eggs from last year. We're going to switch to organic feed and concentrate on this small group of hens. (yes 40 is small compared to 140 or 150 we had last year)

All new hens have been carefully selected in order to optimize the 'beauty' factor of the dozen eggs. I'll have greens, whites, hopefully pinks, deep chocolate and lighter brown with and without speckles. I can't wait!

CSA Frozen Winter Goodies

2011-01-30T07:59:00.001-08:00

Take peppers that you froze in November out of the fridge. CSA members could take as many peppers as they could handle.
Combine with onions and olive oil. (ideally I would have grown the onions but those didn't last the winter)
Take sweet italian whole hog sausage out of the freezer and thaw and grill. Best sausage in the world in my opinion-- whole hog sausage is the only way to eat sausage.

Cut up sausage and add to pot.
In large saucepan add 4 quarts of homemade tomato sauce, add in carmelized onions/peppers, and sausage. Serve over pasta or on italian bread. (this was so good we ate in all in 2 days)

Take shredded zucchini out of freezer (you will have cut it up and bagged it in July).

Follow Martha Stewart recipe for zucchini bread- makes 3-4 loaves and uses 5 cups of zucchini.
Each one loaf and freeze the rest for quick breakfasts later in the month.

Find the Dogs...

2011-01-29T10:26:00.000-08:00

How many dogs do you see in this winter wonderland?

CSA Signup Time-- Going Twice

2011-01-27T18:15:00.001-08:00

In this snowy paradise, I'm dreaming of summer and veggies.

We're just about at our self imposed limit for CSA shares! Wow. If you have not signed up- do so now!

This was one of my favorite pictures from last year. We had 8-9 members come out and help pick potatoes and we were done in 5 hrs. It was fabulous! And we ate potatoes starting about week 8 thru to the end of the season. Yum!

January Ramblings

2011-01-24T19:59:00.000-08:00

My year of food education is depressing me. In my last blog I had squash from the basement and bananas from the grocery store. So I decided to read about Bananas.

One of my favorite news sources these days is Grist and they had this to say about bananas.

I should have realized I was eating 1 kind of banana my whole life- it's no different than tomatoes, beets, green peppers, etc. But it makes sense from a distribution standpoint to have only one type that can travel well.

That's the tough part of eating local- if you want to truly eat local. I guess I wouldn't get to eat bananas.

The things that make me happy while I ponder bananas are random things I find in my house. The kids do what they want in our house-- it's like a big playhouse and they are always setting up something. This week: Margaret's clay shop. The best location for the forms turned out to be in front of the toilet.

If you can't read it:

I make it, you take it!!! It is for FREE!!! All you need to do is fill our a form. The clay thing you want will be a little version of the real thing.

First 3 lambs of the year born last week. I stood around for 90 minutes hoping to see a lamb be born. No such luck. Mike comes home after being gone 3 days and goes outside and sees the 2nd of the twins being born. Not fair at all. I just want to see one birth this year, that's it.

He tried out this warmer to heat up the lamb--it worked.

How to Eat a Boatload of Squash

2011-01-21T19:22:00.001-08:00

I keep bringing up squash and pumpkins from the basement and putting them on the table in the middle of the kitchen as a reminder that I need to eat squash everyday --till May.

I've gotten great recipes from everyone and my favorite is from my BFF ( friends since we were 3 or 4 years old). You cut the squash into french fry pieces, sprinkle salt on them, let them sit so the moisture comes out, then resalt and put them on a tray sprayed with Pam and bake them 20 min on one side, flip for 20 min on other side. 425 degrees. Full recipe here and cool website.

Our first lamb of the year was born this morning. I went out at 7am and there he was in the straw surrounded by all these momma sheep. I put momma and baby in their own little area and they seem happy. We have this one Ewe who thinks that every lamb born is hers or she just wants to help. It's pretty funny actually. I need a name for her as she really cracks me up. My husband will read this post and know exactly which Ewe I'm talking about- and with 55 or so Ewes- that's saying something about her. Name ideas anyone?

The Farm Community

2011-01-15T11:54:00.000-08:00

MLK weekend is a time of reflection for me. I love what is unique and different and people are all unique. Sometimes, you need something to bond all those differences together and what better thing than food. We all have to eat. We don't eat, we die.

When we started this farm, we had this vision of CSA members coming together once a month for a potluck dinner. Last year we had our annual bonfire (which had to be a camp fire due to lack of rain). This year we are going to have more opportunities for the CSA members to come to the farm and meet their fellow CSA members. I can tell you that you are all unique and you've touched our family's life in different yet wonderful ways. We love the chance to chat with you as you pick up your shares and we're going to make sure you get the chance to talk to each other as well.

In this world of technology, how do we take the time to smell the roses and talk to each other? Maybe farm communities can offer a way to form friendships and bonds through great food.

We are going to do our part to create community within our farm. So here's to food and creating a farm community.

CSA Signup Time

2011-01-13T18:41:00.000-08:00

Ah... a picture from Week 12 of the CSA last year.

I see watermelon, cantalope, spaghetti squash, cucumbers, squash, 2 kinds of potatoes, garlic, and I see on the board there are tomatoes around the corner from the picture and greens in the fridge.

And evidently I had just brought the cat back from the vet as the cat carrier is right there in the picture as well. If you have a farm, you need outdoor cats, that's just the way it goes.

We break our CSA rules every year, we say we only want 8-10 members and then we end up with 12-14. Oh well, it's hard to say no and it's not as if we can't feed more members- we always have a lot of produce.

This year we said we'd wait till Jan 15th to open up the CSA to new members other than our returning members and we already broke that rule. We have 4 new members already signed up and paid (plus 1 returning member). So we are at 5 CSA shares so far.

So how do you make sure you secure a spot? Send us a check. Quickly. We really do stop at 12-14 and then we start the waiting list and see if we can find someone to work on the farm.

The CSA has 2 options:

Full Share: $800 for at least 20 weeks of produce

$600 for the same 20 weeks but you come volunteer to work on the farm for 2 full days (16 hrs)

Half shares are half the above and you will pick up your share every other week. So 10 or 11 weeks of produce in total.

We love CSA's and if you read the heading of this blog you'll find out that being in a CSA is why we ended up with this farm. If you don't know what all those veggies are in the store and you avoid buying them, this is the way to try them because you are just gonna get them in your box and you'll have to figure out how to use them.

Our pickup days will be Tuesdays and Fridays. You come anytime after 12 noon. If you can't come on Tuesday then your share will still be there on Wednesday. If you miss a whole week, you are out of luck. Most folks give their share to a friend when they go on vacation so you'll make a friend happy that week. The whole process is kind of grocery store "like". I have the list of what you take that week: 1 bag of lettuce, 10 tomatoes, 1 bag of potatoes, 5 squash of your choosing, etc.

We also have pick your own herbs, pick your own raspberries, blueberries and flowers.

This year I'm adding a bunch more raised beds for more pick your own items. Sometimes CSA members spend a few hours walking around the farm eating raspberries or playing with our Border Collies and they then realize "oh yeah, I guess I better get my produce". The good news is that when you are at the farm you can also get an egg share and get fresh pastured eggs and grass fed meat. We are switching to organic feed for our hens, so the egg share is $100 for 20 weeks. Or you can always buy a dozen eggs for $6 or an extra dozen for $5 if you have the egg share.

We don't do a farmers market so all the produce we pick that week is for the CSA and we just divide it up. The shares are pretty big so a full share will supply a family of 4 but those with only 2 in the family and the desire to freeze items will love our CSA as well. Our goal is "all on farm sales" as we want to spend time on the farm with our kids and not at a farmers market. So that means the CSA members get our extras all summer long. Last year we had some bonus weeks where CSA members could try cajeta and some goat cheese. We can't sell it to you- but when we get a good week of milk and we don't know what to do with all that cheese, we share. Plus we want some feedback as we're learning how to make cheese and we need lots of practice and feedback.

So..... sign up now. Questions? email us...

Winter Squash

2011-01-07T17:03:00.001-08:00

Wow. Winter Squash is soooooo under rated. Actually, I don't think it even makes it in our culture to be rated at all. Or are there folks out there that are eating lots of squash and I've been the only one missing out? Here is my squash advice. GROW and/or BUY and EAT SQUASH! Organic or naturally raised if possible of course.

And....drumroll.... squash is good for you.

The tally is still 90+ squash in our basement. I'll post picts of it later after I put in all in the same area.

Above is a Pink Banana Squash. It's not very pink as it just didn't turn pink but I have to say that this squash is not only HUGE (Mike cooked half of it for dinner) but it was so sweet and delicious. Mike cut it into chunks and then steamed it and then added some brown sugar and cinnamon. Although it did not need the brown sugar as it was sweet enough on its own.

I still have 2 more Pink Banana in the basement. This one is definitely on the list for the CSA next year in large quantities. I think each CSA member needs 4-6 of these during the last 4 weeks of CSA so that they can have squash till February.

One CSA member told me to try using these Carnival squash (orange ones) and the Sweet Dumpling squash (the little green and white ones) by stuffing them with sausage. The Carnival squash were good--but the sweet dumpling was OUTSTANDING!!!

This is a terribly focused picture of the stuffed squash but lets just say it again--- outstanding!

So note to self, go lighter on the carnival squash but triple up the sweet dumpling squash plants for next year. The sweet dumpling squash soaked up the fat from the Whole Hog Sausage and we had to fight each other for it--- seriously.

I'm gonna make Mike post his funny story about our Livestock Guardian Dog tomorrow. I might need a short video clip to complete the story..... so more to come.

Lastly, I'd like to ask a favor of you if you are reading this blog.

I've used Google Analytics to track the number of views of the blog, but then it started counting spammers after we linked to Facebook and the numbers got goofy.

I can see my followers on this blog but I don't believe they all follow the blog.

And I say all this because I still wonder how YOU found my blog and why YOU read my blog.

It's kind of funny when we get a call- like today- and someone knows about you and actually reads your blog that you don't know. For the woman who talked to Mike for 2 hours today-- he forgot to ask you your name again at the end of the conversation so send us an email. I think I have about 40 regular followers (mostly friends, family and CSA members and meat buyers) but maybe I've got more.

So do me a favor and just add a comment after reading this and say how you found out about the blog and why you read it.

That's it-- or if that's too much, just say hi.

Or if you don't like posting publicly, send me an email at annette@greenakeys.com.

I'm just curious.....

2011 -The Year of Food Education

2011-01-01T10:00:00.000-08:00

I'm not really one for New Years Resolutions, however last night while at a party, I was struck so hard with the reality that we all still need lots of food education.

When folks don't know us and meet us at a party, and then find out we have a farm, what either happens is they say "wow" and then go talk to someone else or they start asking questions about farms or animals. Goes like this, "I always wondered...."

Last night a mother was explaining that the family was out at dinner and the conversation came around to "Hey, have you ever milked a cow?" and then how do they get the milk out of cows? and then "why do you milk them 2 times a day", etc,etc

The wife says to me, "My husband said that there are special kinds of cows that are dairy cows". I said, why yes, certain breeds of cows are usually used as Dairy cows because of the amount of milk they can produce in a day.

Then we get to the part of the conversation that threw me for a loop. She said something to the extent, "My husband also said that these cows are born as dairy cows and so they don't have to have baby cows to make milk". Now that's not exactly how she said it- but I really can't remember because the teacher in me said "Oh, no. Dairy cows are just cows that have had their babies taken from them and then usually someone else raises the baby. The cows need to have a baby cow every year or their milk production will go down." Generally there is a certain amount of time you let them rest after milking them and before you have a new baby cow but I don't know that yet, but will be learning soon". I think the mother felt like she knew this was the answer but wanted her husband to hear it- I have no idea if that was the case because after my 3 minute answer the conversation soon turned back to Dick Clark and football playoffs.

So I left the party wondering and perplexed that this seemly smart father didn't know about dairy cows. Well I thought, I didn't know anything about dairy cows or goats or chickens or anything about the food I eat until I got this farm and was forced to learn.

Why is it that we spend hours of research deciding what car we want to drive, or what computer to buy or what types of pots and pans are the best but we don't give our food much thought? A car payment and insurance can run $300-$600 per month which is about the same amount of money a family would spend on food.

I say this and then I also question myself. Do I pay attention to the kind of butter or sour cream or snack crackers I'm buying when I'm at the store? Do I know what kind of corn goes into my favorite chips? Yikes- when I think about it, it can be overwhelming. Maybe that's why I haven't done the research myself. It's time consuming.

So part of this blog this year will be to take 1 item a week and research it. The first few topics will be dairy related as we have 2 milking goats and soon we will have a family cow (my Christmas present!). She doesn't have a name but she's coming from a gorgeous dairy farm on the eastern shore. She is a Jersey cow and this type of cow is known for its creamy milk and high butterfat content. I see lots of homemade butter and buttermilk in our future as well as homemade ice cream. I guess I'm also going to learn a lot about veal and the harsh reality of milking an animal and the tactical choices for what to do with the baby cow when it is born.

Below is the link to the farm where our cow currently lives until she has her baby.

http://www.stbrigidsfarm.com/aboutus.htm

Here's to a year full of food education.

Winter means Squash?

2010-12-18T05:24:00.000-08:00

This year as the CSA progressed through the fall, I kept bringing our share of squash into the basement. I didn't have time to learn to cook it in the fall so I figured we would learn this winter. Squash is full of vitamins and lasts all winter. I'm not sure why folks don't eat more squash but my guess is that like everything else, we don't know how to cook it correctly.

So what have we got in the basement in December? Squash, squash, squash.

Mike made a Hubbard squash soup yesterday with homemade turkey stock and homemade goats milk ricotta. It was fabulous. We'll be eating that soup for 3 days. 1 squash down and about 80 squash to go.

Food Coma Bragging Rights

2010-11-25T19:38:00.000-08:00

Good gravy, Im full.

Wow. That was one fantastic Thanksgiving day. Thank you Carl and Sherry for having me to dinner at the last minute. Perfectly cooked turkey! Wonderful meal.

The verdicts are rolling in from all over the country. Thats right. Our turkeys were served in multiple states this year. Annette and the kids drove 4 birds to Illinois to family and friends. And I must say the results look fantastic!!! 37, 23, 36 pounds represented below:

These bronze turkeys are the best turkeys Ive ever eaten. You absolutely cant go wrong with them. I will definitely be raising them in the future. The bigger the better!!!!

WBFF FOX45 - Top Stories - Environmental Group Urges Agribusiness Crackdown - John Rydell

2010-11-18T20:22:00.000-08:00

WBFF FOX45 - Top Stories - Environmental Group Urges Agribusiness Crackdown - John Rydell

Mike evidently has a great news worthy voice and great one-liners.

I wish they had mentioned our farm name....maybe it would have brought us a few more customers.

Farmer as Marketer and Salesperson

2010-11-17T16:16:00.000-08:00

Back to another "farmer as" blog posting.

Our original goal for 2010 was to get to 100 customers. You'd think that would be an easy task, right? It's only 100 people. But we also had a rule that a customer needed to buy a certain amount and/or be a recurring customer. We're up to 45 customers with 6 weeks to go till the end of the year. If we did get to 100 customers by the end of the year, we'd probably run out of products to sell at customer number 88 but we'd then be set for next year!

We are listed on Local Harvest and some other local websites which is where most folks find us. We are stepping out this month and putting an ad in our local Carroll Magazine. It's a really great local magazine and it's free to all households as the ads pay for the magazine.

So we'll see how it works. We currently have 191 friends of the farm on facebook and about 40 email address of folks who have purchased products or want to be kept informed about products. We average 4-5 sales transactions a week with 1-2 as low dollar transactions $10-30, 1 as a mid range - $60 transaction, and 2 larger stock up orders - 30-40lbs of meat being the most common.

Now I also understand why small farms don't advertise much. One ad will cost us $600. It's a good price but in relation to our sales, it's a large expense. So we'll see how it works and I'll give the results in a future blog.

Lamb burger

2010-11-12T18:48:00.000-08:00

Tonight Mike made lamb burgers. Wow!

Ingredients:

2 lbs of grass fed beef (2lb packages available for $10 each)

1 lb ground grass fed lamb (1 lb packages available for $10 each)

1 egg (free range and from hens living on pasture of course)

parsley

salt, pepper

he put in some fennel

finely diced onion

mix it all up and it will make 6-8 of the most wonderful lamb burger patties.

We ate it on buns with some yogurt, dill, garlic, sour cream topping

It tasted almost like a gyro hamburger -- fabulous!

I should have taken a picture as we had the burgers along with salad greens. The lettuce and greens are still growing in the garden and are perfect right now.

A lesson about hens and eggs

2010-11-11T17:55:00.000-08:00

I had a few questions today from a co-worker so I thought I'd blog about it.

The first question: How many eggs does a hen lay in a week?

The Answer: It depends. Some hens are production hens so they lay once a day while other heritage or as I call them 'cool colored laying hens' lay 5 -6 times a week. My husband is reading over my shoulder saying, "once every 25 hrs they can lay an egg". It also depends on the amount of daylight or just light a hen gets each day. In the winter, many hens stop laying until daylight starts to increase in late January. If your hens are in a barn or somewhere you can install a light with a timer, then you want to turn the lights on early when it is still dark out and this will cause the hens to lay more. It also depends on weather. Some birds don't lay well when it is too hot or too cold.

The second question: Can you get an egg from a hen without a rooster?

Answer: Short answer: Yes. This is perhaps the single most asked question I receive.

The long answer: This is my simple analogy and I know it's not going to be exactly perfect but you should understand this after reading it. I'm going to compare a human woman to a hen.

A human woman at some point ovulates and releases an egg a month.

A hen releases an egg just about every day.

In a human woman, that egg travels thru tubes towards the uterus.

In a hen, the eggs travels in a similar manner and starts to get larger over a few days. (if you kill a hen you will find 2-3 eggs of varying sizes still in the hen)

If there are no human men around, the female expels the egg or whatever happens to it and it is no more.

For a hen, even if there is no rooster around, they will expel or lay the egg. Kind of like giving birth to an egg about once a day- in a manner of speaking. No chick will ever come from this egg as it is not fertilized. And this egg looks and tastes just like the fertilized ones you'll read about below.

If there is a human male around and fertilization occurs in the female human, then the female egg gets fertilized in the tube and heads toward the uterus where it hangs out for 40 weeks.

If there is a rooster around and fertilization occurs, then the hen can lay a fertilized egg which if you collect it within a day or 2 or 3 is just a regular eating egg. Now this egg can wait for a week or so while the hen lays a bunch of eggs to form her clutch. The egg won't turn into a chick unless the hen sits on it for a few weeks and keeps the eggs at a certain temperature.

And concludes our lesson for the day. If that helps-- let me know. It's my best analogy yet.

The Breakeven Goal Update

2010-11-10T19:04:00.001-08:00

Back in the beginning of the year I posted about the roller coaster farm life and our desire to break even this year. Drumroll please.......

We are just about at break-even. Now I'm going to count breakeven after we get a tax refund in March/April so without that we're still not quite there. I do have confidence that we will be at breakeven in 2011. That would mean after 2 full years of animals on the farm that we might make say $5,000 profit in 2011. Actually that means Mike's salary would be $5,000 so I'm not sure I can call it profit but it makes me feel good so I'll just pretend for now. Mike has watched me create P&L's for every aspect of our farm and he dreads it when on a football Sunday afternoon I say "hey honey, come over here and see if my spreadsheet looks right, I need to sit with you for 20 minutes to review this".

The point of this posting is to say that diversified farming is not easy. What we've learned :

Value added products make you more money.

Pork sells better than beef and lamb combined in our area (but we're working on the lamb-- you have to try it folks.)

You need to have a steady income before you can hire people so work on your customer base.

We really only need about 100 steady customers to support our farm.

We need to create value around our products - it doesn't magically happen.

If you give away the first dozen eggs to someone- they will be hooked from that point forward.

You can find a customer anywhere (Mike actually solicited a customer at Safeway based on the disappointed look on her face and she trusted that he wasn't a crazy person and followed him home to buy some meat.)

And the most important lesson: FOCUS on one or only a few complimentary products. We're still thinking about this one as it runs counter to the name "diversified farm". Now I know that focus is extremely important in my job and in any business. So why wouldn't it be important for a farm as well? Mike and I will be exploring this question as well as redefining the focus of the farm.

Thanks to all for helping us get to 'almost break-even'. You know who you are and I thank you for your support as customers. Happy eating!

What's for Sale

2010-11-07T18:24:00.000-08:00

Lamb is for sale. Grass fed, no hormones, no antibiotics. Just good old grass for these fellas. We have 3 more lambs left we could sell whole- $7/lb hanging weight and then we move onto individuals cuts. This lamb is so good. The lamb are not your massive breed but a nice size breed and the meat has been outstanding. We had lamb for dinner last night - the kids never tire of it especially when we can celebrate with a rack of lamb!

I'm showing the chickens because around the 2nd or 3rd week of December we will have stewing hens for sale. $7 per bird. These are the hens that are 2-4 years old and that we have decided to replace. Next year I'll be all about egg colors. I need more variety in the colors and I also have no chicken left from our broilers so we needed some chicken for ourselves and for a few customers who routinely ask for chicken. We are reducing the size of the flock from 140 to around 60. But the mix of those 60 will have deep brown, speckled brown, white, green and light brown colors. Email us if you want any stewing hens, best to place an order now as the chicken seems to go fast.

The bronze turkeys are almost sold out. I thought by Nov 1 - but could be tomorrow or Nov 10. I just need to make sure my husband doesn't sell them all again like he did last year and forget to leave a few for us. I can't wait to process these birds. The Tom's are gonna be 30+ lbs and the hens should be right at 22lbs.
Last but not least- we will have more Beltie beef for sale the second week of December. For those who are scheduled to come pick up meat this week and those who I am seeing in 3 weeks over the holidays- you are covered. But then we'll be totally sold out (other than the liver, heart and tongue). We've got #12 at the butcher and he is hanging aging right now. #12 was the hardest steer yet to get into the trailer but we outsmarted him- poor guy.

What do you do with lots of end of season peppers?

2010-11-05T17:03:00.000-07:00

The bell and sweet peppers were outstanding and prolific this year. So prolific that last weekend I was left to pick the rest before the frost would kill them. I picked about 4 bushels and I said, that's enough! What is on the counter is about 3/4 of a bushel all cut up and then frozen on sheets in the freezer for a few hours so they can be bagged up.

We now have peppers ready to use during the winter. Unfortunately there are 3 bushels left. Anyone need some peppers? I may try canning some this weekend and see how that works.

Farmer as Vet

2010-10-31T18:08:00.000-07:00

Back to another Farmer as posting.

Mike is playing doctor these days and I guess I was the nurse this weekend.

The saga of Eddie continues. See post from a few weeks ago about Eddie. Well, Eddie was visited by our vet and she made sure he won't reproduce. We had to watch him and make sure he was doing ok and by day 3 he wasn't looking too good. Evidently he healed too quickly and the blood wasn't draining properly.

So the vet came back and fixed Eddie up - Mike is not squeamish but even he wiggled a bit while telling me the story.

Eddie is fine but he is getting penicillin, pain relief and vitamin B shots twice a day. I hold Eddie while Mike does the 3 shots. The penicillin is the hardest as it's a lot. It's kind of funny to see him getting the shots ready twice a day. Eddie is now happy and he still follows us around almost like a dog. I think it was a good call to keep him.

Fall on the Farm

2010-10-30T20:41:00.000-07:00

The farm is in full color this week.

We had our first frost last night so all the sensitive plants died. Basil, squash, tomato leaves and other summer herbs.

I'm finally in the mood for winter squash, pumpkin pie and baking and stews and making cheese......

The CSA is over and daylight is over. The only time I see what's left of the garden is on the weekend. Next up-- purge and clean the house......

Our First CSA BABY!!!

2010-10-26T20:34:00.000-07:00

No, this is not MY baby but she is just so darn cute I immediately asked for permission from her father to post this picture. I did get to hold her and walk her around the garden on Sunday while her CSA parents picked some raspberries. Her mother did eat our CSA veggies and our meat while she was getting big enough to join us on the outside so I did my part in helping her grow.

Now if she turns out to be a genius- then it will be because of the high Omega 3 content of our food and nothing to do with her parents genetics (she has very smart parents...).

She is surrounded by week 19 or 20 squash/pumpkin selection in case you were wondering how much squash our folks got each week these last weeks.

With this post, our 2010 CSA season is complete. What a wonderful way to end!

River Cottage: Healthy Chicken?

2010-10-24T06:35:00.000-07:00

Eddie the ram lamb

2010-10-21T21:08:00.000-07:00

Eddie was born to a mother with mastitis and who was going to die. Momma held on for 3 weeks and barely ate a thing all three weeks. All 3 baby lambs had to be bottle fed. 2 girl lambs and 1 boy ram who we named Eddie. Bad call in giving him a name. Our son bottle fed him and Eddie became a pet. Momma and all 3 babies lived. Picture above is son with Eddie.

Fast forward to last Sunday. Eddie was in the round up to go to the butcher. We considered keeping him as a castrated lamb but that would mean having a vet come over and pay $150 to castrate the guy because we didn't do it when he was young (Alina -- you are not allowed to ask questions-- I'll explain when I likely see you in November). So I said "mike are you sure you can 'process' Eddie'. Mike says ' he looks great- of course'.

So the rams are rounded up Sunday night and Mike is ready to load then into the trailer early Monday AM- 6;45am ish. Our son sees the rams through our bedroom window and sees Mike ready to put them in the trailer. He says- Mommy - isn't that Eddie? Is Eddie going to the butcher? gulp- ahhhhh. Yes son, Eddie is out there and ready to go to the butcher.

Visualize son instantly tearing up and starting to cry. "Can't we keep Eddie?". Oh son, Eddie is just a ram lamb. More tears from son- but Eddie needs to live with us forever- we can't eat Eddie.

Oh gosh son-- if you feel bad you better go tell your father- and quickly.

Son gets himself composed (8 years old) and puts shoes on and goes out to Mike and says "daddy- can we please keep Eddie?"

At this point I'll call it the Pat Conroy father moment. If Mike says no way- Eddie is going to the butcher, our son will grow up and write a book about Mike and how he made Mike kill the ram he bottle fed. I am watching this dialogue take place from my bedroom window. I'm cheering for son and father. Father Mike says-- "no son, he needs to go". Son tears up again against his will. Father Mike says-- son, are you upset? Son gulps and in as loud as a voice as he can musters "yes daddy- I want to keep him, we can't send Eddie to the butcher". Father Mike pauses and the Pat Conroy moment flashes. Ok son, Eddie will stay with us.

Father realized it's the best $150 he'll spend in his life- son is happy because in his own words " oh mommy- I just couldn't know I was eating Eddie. Now that mean rooster Joe I could eat- but Eddie, no way".

Still no vegetarians in our family --- but who knows-- some day.

Squash!!!

2010-10-19T18:18:00.000-07:00

Again, another lame picture post. I am so proud of all my squash and pumpkins growing that I had to share it. It's blurry because its already dark when I get home so I didn't stand still enough for the shot. CSA members should have squash to last them till at least December if they took all that was offered the last few weeks. I could not have done it without the help of CSA members. They helped mulch the areas and weed and that's why it was such a success. 4 people working for 3 hours instead of 1 person really makes a difference!

Those big round green things are gourds. If pumpkins fail- gourds always grow so they are a great backup- so now I've got gourds! I grew bottleneck gourds and 'bowl gourds'. Evidently I can let it dry out and make a bowl! Hubby again thinks I'm crazy....but what else is new?

Next post.... Eddie's stay of execution... a heart wrenching story- get your kleenex ready.

Last Minute Meal

2010-10-18T19:59:00.000-07:00

I'm a good baker and a good canner-- not always the best at combining flavors for a meal though and so for that I try to stick to a recipe. However when I have an idea-- I just go for it (imagine husband cringing).

Beets were a bust for me in the garden this year. I didn't weed them well enough and they got lost- several times over. However the other day I was walking through overgrown lettuce and what did I see? 4 beets! Not enough to put in the CSA but enough for an impromptu dinner.

Now I was at a cool restaurant and they served beets with goat cheese on top. So I figured how hard can that be to make?

he-he... well beets take a while to boil but once they are done the skins slip off and they slice nicely.

At the restaurant I think the goat cheese was covered in bread crumbs or something and then fried lightly. No problem I thought. However we had no bread-- ok we had old pita bread but that wasn't going to work so I saw these mustard flavored pretzel bits and thought- that will work! So I chopped them in the mini cuisinart and then fried them up in some oil. Now the pretzels didn't stick so well to the cheese so the crumbs started frying off the cheese. I said oh well and put the cheese on top of the slices of beets and enjoyed my meal.

I offered some to hubby when he got home 15 minutes later but he declined which was fine with me! I guess the only one who likes my impromptu meals is me...

The October Update

2010-10-08T18:53:00.000-07:00

I love these bronze turkeys. If you have not ordered one- do so now as they will run out- I can't tell you how many calls we get the week before T-day. They will be gone by Nov 1. Whenever I go out to see they turkeys, they try to impress me with their strutting around. I gobble-- and they gobble back (for a few more weeks that is....)

The pumpkin patch. It did ok and I fought away enough of the powdery mildew to get a semi decent crop.

Ring of fire peppers! Lots and lots of peppers this year.

Flowers and Squash

2010-10-04T18:55:00.000-07:00

My Dahlia's are in bloom!!! Those who know my dahlia stories will understand. I've been trying to grow these flowers for 2 years.

The squash is also in season. Though I'm not eating any yet---just storing it.

We have some whole hog sausage and pork chops left- but not too many- so get your order in now. We also still have beef for sale. We made a roast yesterday and we all declared this round of beef the best ever. OMG as my kids would text.

Last but not least we have turkeys for sale now and again in 2 weeks. We have 25 left to sell- that's it. First come first serve. They will need to be frozen as they'll be too big at T-day time, unless you really want a 40lb turkey. If you want to know about the whole fresh vs frozen turkey deal-- read posting from a few weeks ago. Fresh or frozen-- pastured turkeys are fabulous. I'm keeping 10 turkeys for myself- if that's any indication about how good they are. We sold too many last year and didn't keep enough for us- bad move on my part. I am correcting myself this year. And the price is $75 flat price per turkey. I wouldn't have gone as low as $75/turkey but Mike made the sales call and I've got to live with it now- so get them now before I take that posting down and raise the price!

A Warning to All Chefs

2010-09-26T21:17:00.000-07:00

Owning a farm and knowing about food is a blessing as well as a curse.

I cannot go into a restaurant without asking 'um- could you ask the chef if he knows the breed of the lamb? Colorado lamb isn't a great description for me." "do you know what type of goats are used for the goat cheese? or the farm your goat cheese came from? Is the salmon wild or farm raised? When you say Amish chicken-- does that mean free range- and do you know if the chickens are really pasture based or are they free range in a large chicken house?"

Beware-- I will come to your restaurant and ask all these questions and hope you know the answers. So far I'm not doing well- I'd say 2% of restaurants can answer my questions- mostly the farm vs wild salmon question and that's it. Andy Little-- you score 100% so you get an A+ in my book.

And to Donna-- who I met tonight and said she had a dream of one day owning a farm. It is possible. You may not get 10 acres in prime real estate areas-- but we need organic, pasture based food all over the country- we know folks all over the US and they are doing it. So find a smaller town within 2 hrs of a big city with a reasonably priced farm and live your dream. And we learned the hard way that you don't need 63 acres-- 10-15 acres is enough. You won't be rich- but you can do it if you really want to. Most farmers have outside jobs and do their 'farming' at night and on the weekends- we need all those farmers we can get as it strengthens our national food supply. I hope to one day hear your farm story...

Turkey Time: A Rant

2010-09-23T05:57:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone.

It is that time of year, time to buy your Thanksgiving turkey. That means its time for a little education! There is an assumption that is common as the holidays roll around that turkeys are CHEAP. Turkeys are anything but cheap to raise. There is a dirty little secret that the grocery stores dont want you to know.

Turkeys are a "loss leader".

Thats right. Turkeys are nothing more than a tool to lure you into the store to buy all the other stuff that goes with your big meal. Stores lose a ton of money on turkey sales, but they dont care. They make it up quickly on the margins of all the other goods we buy. Like cranberry sauce in cans, pre-made stuffing mix, jars of gravy, etc. So when you see big ass turkeys at .59 cents per pound, you should realize immediately that the store is losing money.

Lets look at the facts. Turkeys eat about 4 times as much feed as chickens eat. Makes sense in that a turkey at maturity is about 4 times the size of a chicken when its processed. So, if a chicken costs $1.99 a pound at the store, how the heck can they charge less than a dollar per pound for turkey? Another thing to consider is that turkeys cost much more to process than chickens. They take up more room in the cages that are needed to transport them to be processed, that means more expense for trucking, holding, etc not to mention the extra costs for the processor. Turkeys are expensive to purchase too. One baby chicken, or peep, can be as cheap (cheep?) as .$50 cents per bird when bought in bulk, but usually are about $1.00 per bird when I purchase them. Turkeys are much more expensive. $5.50 per day old turkey poult is normal, more like $12 per poult for heritage turkeys. So, turkeys are 5 to 12 times as expensive to buy than chickens. Turkey feed is also 35% more expensive than chicken feed. There is a higher protein content in the turkey feed, therefore much more expensive, especially with the cost of wheat this summer.

So its not a cheap transaction to purchase and raise turkeys. There is another trick the stores use and that is the label "fresh turkey". Fresh turkey can be labeled as such as long as the turkey has been stored at 29 degrees F. They might have killed and processed that turkey months ago, but since it was held at 29 degrees, its technically still "fresh". The flesh wont completely freeze at 29 degrees as there is enough sodium in the meat to keep it from freezing at that temperature. So, its still "fresh" even though its not really fresh. Think about it. How would millions of turkeys be able to processed, distributed and sold in a matter of about a week? They cant be, so they are processed ahead of time and held at temperature as a "fresh" bird.

So here is the real meat of the story. We raise our turkeys on pasture. Free range. Completely free range. They have livestock guardian dogs with them to keep the fox and hawks away. They have access to feed and grit free choice. They wander and eat all the grasshoppers and bugs they can find. They eat grasses and plants. And snakes and mice and voles. Anything they can find. They have shelter but they prefer to camp out under the stars every night. Rain or shine. They are happy birds.

Because we are small, we cant offer specific weights for our customers. Big or Small is about as close as we can get. The birds are already approaching a really nice size. We are going to have to process a few of them soon so that they dont end up as 45 pound birds or bigger. These babies get BIG. We cooked a 29 pound bird last year and it was the best turkey we have ever eaten. Leftovers are awesome!

At the risk of keeping this post going longer than necessary, remember this: if you want a real free-range, bronze turkey for Turkey Day, you should let us know NOW and get your order in so that you can guarantee yourself a great bird for the holidays.

We are pricing our birds at $75 per bird, regardless of size!

A 20 pound bird then is about 3.75 a pound. A bigger bird costs less per pound. That is an increase from last year but these birds will be BETTER. We have bronze turkeys this year and they are delicious.

In my opinion, our birds are the same fresh or frozen, if anything, the frozen birds are even MORE tender than our fresh birds. So, if you want a smaller bird, get yours NOW (or as soon as we process them) and put it in the freezer. If you insist on a fresh bird, you can get yours before Thanksgiving but these are going to be big turkeys.

Another suggestion is purchasing a big turkey, cutting it into pieces and roasting them that way. Saves time cooking, everything cooks evenly, browns evenly and you dont have to worry about mis-timing the bird. You may not have a big bird to carve for the family but you wont have to worry that the green bean casserole hasnt gone in the oven yet because the bird wasnt cooked!

One more thing, as far as cooking instructions for our birds, for whatever reason, fresh or frozen, these birds cook up FAST. Much faster than conventional turkeys. I have no idea why. They will surprise you. I think about 10 minutes per pound at 300 degrees is about right. Prepare for them to be finished cooking early.

So, lets recap:

Turkeys are a loss leader. They really are expensive to raise. They arent cheap for us to raise, thats why we charge a lot. They eat a lot!
Grocery stores call things "fresh" even when they arent truly "fresh"
Our birds are truly free range.
We are small and dont have the luxury of raising a bird for you to a specific weight. You can opt for a bigger or smaller bird, but beware, the smaller birds are probably going to be pretty big...
$75 dollars per bird this year. No matter what the weight. The bigger the bird, the better the value!
Honestly, if you freeze your bird, it will be even more tender than buying a bird fresh. The freezing process helps to tenderize and "age" your turkey making it taste great
Cut up your turkey and roast it in pieces, or freeze half of it and cook the other half.
Our turkeys will cook up FAST!!! Be prepared for them to be done early. Check them often!

Thats about it for today. Order now, they will be going quickly.

Cheers!

Growing Fast

2010-09-19T17:47:00.000-07:00

The turkeys are getting big. I think we're going to have to process them in 3-4 weeks. They will be too big at Thanksgiving- for the normal person. Me though, I want a few really, really big ones for myself. Last year I was able to save a few turkeys for ourselves and I cut them up into pieces and froze them. I love the big turkey breasts and I plan to use them for the kids for lunches.

We may have a few turkeys left that we can sell- so let us know if you still want one.

Correction

2010-09-17T19:22:00.000-07:00

I'm learning my squash this year so excuse my mistakes. The squash from a few weeks ago is NOT a delicata squash but a Pink Banana Squash.

I don't have a good record of what seeds went where for the squash- so I THOUGHT the delicata squash was in that row but I guess the Pink Banana Squash is what was in that spot.

I have a good excuse though as planting the squash was a rush job.

Mike and I planted the squash literally 5 minutes before a nice thunderstorm during the month of July. Why is this important you might ask? Umm-- have you ever tried to move a hose around and water a field of squash? Best option is mother nature- so timing is everything.

The hills had been planted and I saw the rain coming so I said-- honey, quick-- help me plant the squash. It's not too hard to plant squash. You just take 3-4 seeds and put them into the hill every 4 feet or so. We only had to do this for about 400 ft of rows.

So as the lightning approached- Mike got nervous and said- ok- time to go in.

I said no way-- we finish. It started to rain. He said-ok the seed packets are getting wet.

I said no way-- we finish. The lightning got really close....

And we barely finished. I think I had to go back after the rain and plant a few more seeds as a pretty big bolt of lightning did get close enough to give me a little scare.

Sooooooo..... Pink Banana Squash it is!!!

In the Flower Garden

2010-09-16T18:29:00.000-07:00

As part of the CSA this year I planted a flower area. Who knew I could grow flowers so that they could have a beautiful arrangement on the table each week! Strawflowers are cool-- those are the 'flowers' that are the base of the arrangement and then all you have to do it put a few other flowers in front of it and it looks like you are a florist!

On my Kitchen Table

2010-09-12T18:22:00.000-07:00

Random items from the garden seem to end up on my kitchen table. They all do have something in common- they are usually food items. Mostly leftovers after the CSA for the week is over. Leftover potatoes that are not holding up well that must be eaten soon, little pumpkins and leftover squash I find in the garden. And then a bowl of hardboiled eggs. Seeds- and evidently dental floss is important in our house.

Today I was left with 20 or so various tomatoes leftover from the CSA week so I got out Mr Squeezo and we whipped up a sauce today. Potatoes on the table are not going to hold up so a few older round steaks were taken out of the freezer to be slow cooked with potatoes tomorrow.

Rosie

2010-09-10T18:36:00.000-07:00

I give the turkeys and chickens the older tomatoes or ones with holes in them. Evidently Rosie likes orange tomatoes!

Pink Banana Squash

2010-09-09T19:21:00.000-07:00

I sure hope my CSA members like winter squash. The only reason it is growing is because I'm watering every few days pretty well. I think it's been almost 4 weeks with no rain-- maybe close to 5 weeks. Lets all do that rain dance again.

The Most Fabulous Meal We've Made so Far on the Farm

2010-09-05T18:57:00.000-07:00

Steps have been omitted due to not taking enough pictures along the way.

First step- get a goat and milk it.

Then pasturize the milk. If you are making ricotta cheese you don't have to pasturize as the temp of the process basically pasturizes it- but you'll need to pasturize the mozzarella.
Get your citric acid and salt for the ricotta cheese. Make 3 lbs of ricotta cheese- this will require about 3 gallons of goats milk.

Hang your ricotta till it is the right consistency. Feed the whey to the chickens - they will love it.

Then make 3 lbs of mozzarella, make 4 batches of fresh noodles using pastured eggs (of course), make a pot of tomato sauce using tomatoes from your garden, green peppers from your garden, small zucchini from your garden, garlic and herbs from your garden and stew with a pork neckbone from one of your processed pigs. Also cook some loose pork hot/sweet italian sausage for layering.

Make the lasagna and put it in the oven for 45 minutes to cook.

Then wait patiently for 5 minutes when it comes out of the oven as you don't want to serve it all soupy.

Eat one large piece with a glass of red wine and sit back and admire your work. One family of 5 will only be able to eat 1/3 of a big lasagna pan so you'll have plenty of leftovers. Or better yet, next time invite some really special friends to your house to share your creation. One very special CSA member came to help pick peppers this evening and got to try the lasagna.

Prep and cooking time: about 2 days - prepare cheeses the day before, make sauce, noodles and lasagna all in same day. Or you can make 2 lasagna at one time and freeze the second for dinner a few weeks later (we did this).

My Vacation

2010-09-02T18:17:00.000-07:00

I used to go places on vacation. Now I have farm vacations. So far we've milked about 8 gallons of milk from our goats. I have also developed some mean looking forearms. Using muscles I never knew were there.

Of the 8 gallons, 4 gallons was used to make cajeta. A goats milk carmel sauce that is out of this world (in my limited experience with cajeta). Even daughter #1 who doesn't like goat anything didn't know it was made with goats milk. I'm hooked. Now we are on to cheese! We've got the equipment- pasturizer and whatnot. We just need a clever way to put this suction valve on a hose. Our kitchen sink has one of those cool spray nozzles and so that's not going to work. So we are going to totally hillbilly it up and use the hose that is below the kitchen window and feed it through the kitchen screen window. We just need the hose to provide cold water to chill the outside of the milk container after it's been heated to pasturizing temperature. Those familiar with beer making will know this kind of cooling process as a wort chiller type process though the milk stays in the container sealed until it gets to the correct temp to then make cheese. So cold water goes in while another tube sucks the warm water out. To do this you need a tight seal- so fancy kitchen spray nozzle won't work.

In the meantime, I'm enjoying my tomatoes. This is my favorite tomato this year. Green Striped Zebra or some combination of those 3 words is the tomato. It is green inside and sweet while at the same time tart. Excellent tomato.
We now have pork again! Pork sausage, boneless pork chops, spareribs, bacon and limited canadian bacon. The limited pork ends are spoken for already. Also new beef round and more 1/4 lb hamburger patties of grass fed beef available. We had the sausage tonight and it's fabulous as always- Sweet Italian, Hot Italian, Sage, Apple and then just plain old pork link available.

Rosie

2010-08-31T18:32:00.001-07:00

Rocky now has a guard buddy. Meet Rose - or Rosie as she'll likely be called.

She is a Anatolian Sheppard and Akbash mix. She looks pretty big in the picture so I'll have to put one that shows her next to Rocky. Though she will get taller than Rocky- she's going to be a big dog. I sold a few chickens yesterday night to a very nice couple who just built a gorgeous coop and really wanted laying eggs. I know the feeling of having a coop but then realizing that it takes 20+ weeks before hens will lay eggs if you buy baby chicks. So every so often I'll sell a few laying chickens depending on how many eggs customers I have. So then that money went towards Rosie as we did need to buy her- Rocky was a sort of rescue/find a good home for him dog.

So we're now up to 5 dogs-- evidently when you get to 25 you need a kennel license (i don't think we'll ever get that high).

It's her first night out there with Rocky- the neighbors have been given a little warning just in case she decides to go under the fence.

Mike on TV

2010-08-27T12:28:00.000-07:00

Sustainable Ag Fair Show

I just have to say on this blog that I really, really like our CSA members. I'd say that I love them but then I don't know them that well- but it's pretty close.

This year folks could choose to pay $600 for the season with 2 days of work (16 hrs) or pay $800 with no work. We were hoping folks would choose the work option and almost all did.

For those out there who think that is a lot of money-- think again- 20+ weeks of veggies-- and I can certainly tell you that our folks are getting their moneys worth. Just a pint of raspberries and a bunch of flowers each week could cost you $10. When those pumpkins come in-- 5-6 pumpkins per family could cost $50 bucks or more if you had to buy them elsewhere.

I can say the work option has been a HUGE success. A few extra hands makes ALL the different in the world. Today my pumpkin patch looks beautiful because I had 2 wonderful helpers. Tomorrow the potatoes will get pulled. My 'pretty' garden as I call it- does look pretty. The key is mulch-- mulch, mulch, mulch!!!

Now one CSA member wrote me a note today to say that he saw Mike on TV. We helped out at the Sustainable Ag Fair this year as we just didn't think it would be right for folks to eat corn fed food at the sustainable fair. So Mike did a short commentary and our CSA member saw it. How funny. I'm going to tape it- details for the next shows on Sunday and Tuesday.

Hey, this is just the first step! Maybe Mike has a future TV career? He-he

Show Detail: Maryland Heartland Sustainable Living Fair 2010

ShowID	3829
Event Date:	6/28/2010
Length:	00:16:56
Category:	Informational/Instructional
Certified Producer:	Craig Paskoski
Show Description:	Annual fair that explores recycling and renewable resources.
Schedule Information:	8/29/2010 at 10:30 PM 8/31/2010 at 9:30 PM

Canning and Reading

2010-08-25T18:16:00.000-07:00

I've been canning the past few days. Lots of yellow tomatoes in the garden this week. They are wonderful! Low acid and nice and sweet.

Now while I can veggies, I like to read. Meaning I listen to books on tape. I am listening to Star Island by Carl Hiaasen this week. Now the CD wouldn't play in my computer for some reason so I had to find an alternative. So what did I find in the basement? A boom box with a CD player. Problem was that I couldn't find the cord to power it.

Who has D batteries in their house? Evidently I do. He-he.

So I was able to do 2 of my favorite things- can and listen to a book.

Happy day!
Lots of calls/requests for eggs this week-- 5 to be exact. I guess the egg recall is at least helping me out. And I was just about ready to thin my flock as I had more supply than demand.

Whole hog sausage should be in next week! I actually sold the last link today- well technically I threw it in a sampler package because it was all I had left and I wanted the person to at least try the pork. I still think it's funny that it's our most popular product when we really never wanted to raise pigs. Next year--- whey-fed pigs. I'm getting to be a good milker. I'm at about 8 minutes per goat and developing strong milking muscles.

CSA Shelves

2010-08-21T19:23:00.001-07:00

This year, my outdoor CSA shelves are loaded up. Cucumbers, zucchini, spaghetti squash, tomatoes, melons, watermelons, potatoes and garlic!

Then the bell peppers and hot peppers are inside the fridge with other greens. Of course will all that good stuff outside- who needs greens?

The Farmer Summer Kitchen

2010-08-17T18:19:00.000-07:00

I love summer and summer garden food. Cute little honeydew melon from the garden.

Yellow, red and white tomatoes.

Zucchini
Zucchini and tomato sauce in back and bread and butter pickles in the front. They are upside down because that's how you get them to seal if they aren't sealing. Yes, somehow I find the time to can as well. I'm really fast at it now.

Garlic.
Goat milk, asian greens and 1/2 a watermelon.

And my personal favorite--- yellow watermelon.

I hope you have as much fun eating the foods of summer as I do!!

The Plunge

2010-08-16T20:10:00.001-07:00

Meet the newest members of the family and another steps towards never leaving the farm. Yes, babysitters wanted and serious offers will be considered. Come enjoy a few days of farm life and live in our house- no charge and you can eat all the food you want. You just have to do a few daily chores and not be scared of animals. Not sure what we have left to get in terms of animals - I really don't want a donkey or an alpaca-- I know- a milking cow....

Ah-- and as it goes for us- we got the goats today and we'll use the rest of the week to figure out what we need to do to milk them and get our process in order. This is our style- jump in and figure it out. I mean how hard can it be to milk a goat? He-he -- not so easy when they are new, you have no milking stand yet and 3 kids who want to milk one goat at the same time.

Grace is the brown goat and she is 7. Sierra is the larger white goat and she is just about 2. The little ones are Phyllis and Fiona and boy can they yell!!!!! If it sounds like someone is dying at our house- check the goats first- they just want attention evidently and are a little stressed from the move today. Folks ask me if my kids like the farm and help with the animals. I always say- well....... But I've never seen them so happy as when they were with these goats. I guess we needed milking goats or milking sheep all along!

Everyone milked except me. I stood there and took pictures or I held the goat still while she was milked. I know how these things go. The kids will want to milk the goats for the first month and then I'll get all the chances I want to milk. It looks kind of fun and relaxing.

Stay tuned for updates on our little goat experiment. We'll need something to do once the CSA is over in October... time to perfect cheese making!

Monday is Goat Day!

2010-08-15T20:39:00.000-07:00

Pictures will be posted tomorrow-

We are getting 4 Nubian goats. 2 of the goats we'll need to milk once a day.

Grace, Sierra, Phyllis and Fiona. Grace is the oldest at 7 years old, Sierra is 2 and Phyllis and Fiona are 4 months old.

Grace produces about 2 quarts and Sierra just a pint or so.

Enough to get us started practicing making cheese! Now I never, ever thought I'd have goats milk in my coffee, but I did yesterday morning. Only a slight goat flavor. Though Mike had the milk with his cereal and I really couldn't tell the difference and would have had no idea it was goat milk and not cow milk. The kids used it to make mac and cheese as well. (We were out of regular milk so we used what we had gotten from the practice session that Mike and the kids went to on Friday. The seller let us keep the milk and take it home.)

We'll be goat proofing the barn and all learning how to milk the girls. We're going to do it the old fashioned way and just milk them by hand into a milking bucket. In a year or so when we have more than 4, then we may get a milking machine and do a setup to milk 4 at a time but for now we'll just have fun doing this ourselves.

Ah-- 4 more animal names to memorize.

Not quite Outstanding in the Field

2010-08-12T14:02:00.000-07:00

If you have no idea what I'm talking about when I say Outstanding in the Field then click the link and find out. We need to attend a dinner sometime when they are close to us. Great stuff happening with them.

This is my humble version. I bought a picnic table recently (actually I bought 2 to the dismay of my husband-- hey- when we have lots of people over for dinner we'll use both of them...).

My favorite thing has been to eat meals outside under the tree and look out onto the pasture.

If you come over and work a long hard day at the farm--- you may get to eat a meal on this picnic table! Grass fed burgers with onion, pepper, parsley was served with asian greens (instead of lettuce- try it out it was a fun change), cantalope, watermelon and a few other leftovers from lunch.

The new things I'm learning....

2010-08-10T20:09:00.000-07:00

One of the things I value in life is the ability to learn new things. I love learning. Recently, we had a little campfire party for CSA members and other customers and Toni and her husband and friends played us music around the fire. Toni played the violin and the penny whistle (like a flute or recorder) and she said she hadn't been playing long. So she inspired me that night- and she didn't even know it!

I decided that my 10 year old was going to teach me the penny whistle. So far I can play Mary had a little lamb and row, row, row your boat and I'm great! I just need to memorize the fingering to the notes and I will be able to slowly play.

On the farm I decided I needed to learn to drive the tractor. I'm happy to say I can drive and I can scoop dirt but I need to learn to till and change the implements. But I'm on my way! (of course when I told my husband on Saturday that I was going to go scoop a load of dirt he did move his truck far away from the tractor so he's still not confident that I won't hit anything). It kind of makes me laugh when I'm driving the tractor. I have no idea why-- I just crack up laughing.

I also didn't know that I could grow cantaloupes and watermelon- but evidently I can!

Now, I did ruin 4 cantaloupes because they got too ripe but I caught on quickly.

Below is a different variety of a cross between a cantaloupes and honeydew. I of course didn't keep great records so I have no idea the variety but it sure was tasty.

This watermelon didn't really have all the 'signs' of a ripe watermelon but I picked it anyway because I just had to see inside. It was perfect. Of course I picked another and it was not perfect. So trial and error and I'll get the watermelon picking down as well.

Key ingredient for lopes and melons--- drip hose, organic fertilizer and it would have also helped if I had mulched them better- but I was out of straw. Next year use straw. I suppose I could try the weed barrier but it never seems to work for me. So if someone knows tricks for the weed barrier and using it please fill me in. Sometimes all you need is a little expert advice.

Farmer as Builder

2010-08-07T18:40:00.000-07:00

Mike didn't really realize that he'd have to learn woodshop skills in order to run a good farm. I suppose we could just buy 3 rabbit tractors but they are kind of a custom item and it would cost too much- hence you learn to make it yourself. These little structures will be for Daisy, Xeno and Pansy (yeah I know- this is what happens when you let your kids name the rabbits). It's similar to a chicken tractor but for individual rabbits. This way they can live outside on the grass, manure the area underneath and get fresh grass and whatnot to nibble on.

Speaking of rabbit-- we have 2 unsold and Daisy just had a little of 9 on Thursday. Rabbit production is ramping up!

The Garden-quick photo update

2010-08-05T19:16:00.000-07:00

The tomatoes are growing. But a lot of them are still GREEN! I really, really don't understand why but they look good- just green. Some are just starting to turn yellow, red, orange, etc- but I'm really afraid that they are going to turn all at once.

But in terms of success-- see that pretty stars and moons watermelon? I have lots of lopes, honeydew melons and watermelons growing nicely. I check them every few days and they are still steadily growing. I'm very, very excited as I've never been able to grow cantalopes before!
The peppers also look gorgeous. The zucchini is starting to exhaust itself though I've got another shorter 2 rows that are started for a second crop.

Pumpkin Patch

2010-08-03T19:42:00.000-07:00

I thought this picture looked good until I uploaded it. You can barely see the pumpkin plants but they are near the drip hose. I'll have to take another picture tomorrow and post it again as this picture is already outdated. It's amazing how fast pumpkin plants grow.

This is the gourd and pumpkin patch. Notice all the hay for mulch. Key item if you want weed free, herbicide free gardening-- lots of mulch to stop the weeds. I'm learning!

Although you will see weeds in the middle of that one row and those will get tilled under this weekend as I ran out of hay/straw for the entire area so I had to go for areas closest to the plants and know that I could till under the middle weeds.

Some of you are probably wondering if the pumpkins will be big by Fall. Yep, they sure will. I planted them 3 weeks ago so even at the longest time of 100 days that puts the pumpkins at 2nd week of October. Can't wait!

Potato Picking!

2010-08-01T19:19:00.000-07:00

For those in our CSA, this is Week 10 out of 20 and is officially declared as Potato Week!

Saturday was a gorgeous day and I managed to round up 7 CSA members to come out and help pick potatoes (to be in our CSA you need to volunteer 16 hrs or pay more- most people choose the work option which is what we really wanted). Some varieties were good in terms of yield, some not so good but all in all it was a decent harvest. We still have more to pick - 2 medium sized varieties plus the baking potatoes won't be ready for another few weeks.

Every year I learn something new about how to grow potatoes. I think I've got it finally figured out and so next year I'll try my refinements. Dig really, really wide hills - 3 feet width and maybe 2 feet high (this is not easy to do even with a cool tiller/plow). Then take a hoe and make a decent ditch in the middle to plant your potatoes. Then after you cover the plants up 2 times, use straw to cover them up after the last dirt covering. Don't count on weeding to do it-- the weeds will win- mulch is the key and then water. Water, water, water. I put my drip hose on too late when I realized we could be in the drought for a long time. And I didn't use straw to mulch. Straw to mulch is critical in my garden.

I'm sure the fingerling potatoes are available at your local farmers market- be sure to go pick some up. They are fabulous and they don't keep long so buy them now!

Garlic

2010-07-29T19:13:00.001-07:00

When you grow lots of garlic you are left with leftover cloves from the garlic that didn't make it passed the drying stage or got too dry or didn't dry enough. Anyway- take those leftover cloves or just break up some of your own garlic.

Slice it- I use my Cuisinart as I chop up a lot. Put in a tray and freeze.

Then take the pieces and store them in the freezer in a container. I use a Ball Jar.- well, 1 1/2 jars that is. Keep them in the freezer and use as you need it!

Then enjoy garlic in the winter and spring after you run out of your fresh garlic.

Turkeys

2010-07-28T19:27:00.000-07:00

The turkey house was fine through the storm and all turkeys were fine. The turkeys crack me up. We've got turkeys, hens and broilers all in the same pasture. I think we need more separation between them as everyone likes everyone else's food.

I'll have to get a video of the turkeys-- they crack me up-- if I gobble at them then they gobble back at me.

Mother Nature

2010-07-25T20:46:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, you just can't plan your day- it gets planned for you. Our evening plans got interupted.

Our neighbors kindly called us to say our eggmobile flipped over. The eggmobile? That thing is huge- how could that flip over?

Well, it flipped. The wind did pick up when the storm passed through this afternoon.

Rocky's house - on the right did not fare well- though the other 2 hoop houses for the turkeys and broilers were fine. They must have missed where the wind gushed.

Thank goodness for Mr Tractor and some work with a chain. the eggmobile was back on it's wheels.
Minor damage to the end of the roof and lots of cracked eggs. No chickens/hens/turkeys died- all made it. Rocky must have kept them safe. One hen stayed on her eggs the entire time. Even though they were cracked she would not leave the nest box till we flipped it back over and had to clean it out.

I guess Mike did some good construction as even though it flipped, it's in good shape.

Rocky's house will need to get fixed tomorrow.

And how did you spend your evening?

The Chicken of Tomorrow

2010-07-21T12:23:00.000-07:00

Robert Plamondon posted this on his blog The View From The Farm. Its the big Chicken of Tomorrow Contest of 1948!!!

Heritage birds, they was.

Flowers

2010-07-19T16:31:00.000-07:00

This year I added pick your own flowers to the CSA. Just a sample of the pick your own.

Yeah!! I can grow flowers!!!

first two cucumbers

2010-07-15T18:26:00.000-07:00

My mom let me have a spot in the garden for my seeds. I planted red lettuce, cilantro,dill and cucumbers. The cucumbers were slowly growing and then it rained and my cucumbers grew a lot!! I was really excited because I looked in and I saw a cucumber! I looked in again and I one more!

by margaret on mommys login

The Coolest thing ever!!

2010-07-12T19:04:00.000-07:00

I will forever get a kick out of seeing pictures of the food we grew used to make someone elses dinner. These photos are from a CSA member (couple to be exact) and the top is our grass fed beef hamburger with cole slaw. Below is a ribeye steak with bright lights swiss chard with feta (not our feta). Tonight we had chicken (pastured), grilled zucchini with herbs on them, pasta tossed with olive oil and more garden herbs. It's such a pleasure to cook with your own ingredients!

Farmers daughter plays spa with Farmers son

2010-07-09T20:05:00.000-07:00

If you decide to move from a regular neighborhood to a farm, do your kids automatically turn into nature loving kids? Well..... depends.

They are hooked on a book called Ecobeauty (disclaimer: I work for the company that publishes this book). Now I thought the book looked cool and it is. My daughter has made about 15% of the items from the book already (on her own with no assistance). Son below has a coffee/chocolate/milk face mask, a hand sugar scrub and a foot oatmeal/cornmeal scrub.

So they may not be into weeding and taking care of the animals, but they are into farm fresh beauty products. Stay tuned because in a few years they'll be making their own soap, shampoo, masks, etc.

Farmer as Bed and Breakfast

2010-07-08T19:49:00.000-07:00

So how many people can sleep in a 3 bedroom farm house? Hmm... normally a family of 5. Tonight a family of 5, a family of 4, plus 2 more adults. Death in the family so Mike's family is in town. I hate to say it but deaths can be the cause for so much joy and great memories. Jerry- we're glad you made it to walk Eliza down the aisle and we're thinking of you as you walk through your new door in life.

Luckily we have bunk beds and lots of aerobeds. But only one bathroom in the house so I guess we'll all be standing in line in the am. Good breakfast though. Fresh pork link sausage, potatoes, farm fresh eggs, onions.....mmmm... good breakfast.

And I have a new screen/glass door. I am sooooo happy!!!

Anyone who wants to help weed and garden for a day-- you are automatically invited for meals!

Give it some consideration..... just not this weekend.

Farmer looking for rain- not picky - just bring it on..

2010-07-07T18:28:00.000-07:00

Yeah. We need rain. The field has turned to hay. We have about 4 more weeks and if we don't get some good rains we'll be buying and feeding hay. I feel like I live in Texas except that people here talk with Balt'mr accents. (that's for all my Texas followers..... God love ya as I don't know how you live in your weather)

So evidently my blog is SOOOO popular that my mom is now a frequent reader. He-he.

Here are her corrections: evidently our garden in our backyard growing up had NO weeds in it whatsoever- only after vacations. You know how memories fad over time. Maybe there were no weeds but I vividly remember being sent out to weed at the hottest part of the day - like 1pm or 3/4pm and weeding 1-4 huge weeds with that long weed gadget before I gave up. She claims I never weeded which is absolutely true. I hated it and still do.

Point number 2 was that she said I didn't have home-ec in high school-- which means she is reading all my past blogs. :) I did have some class where they taught you about babies and family life and yes how to cook. It could have been part of religion class for all I know but again-- this is my blog memoir so only my memory counts at this point.

I look forward to her future corrections. (maybe she'll even comment right in the blog next time... :)) Love ya mom.... send that rain from the midwest out here!!!

Farmer as Master of the Obvious!!!

2010-07-06T19:31:00.000-07:00

I can't be the only person in the world who had no idea what the difference between a Cling peach and a Free stone peach is? Can I?

I was all set to make jam, preserves, etc tonight and I started boiling my peaches and then chilling them in ice water. Then I went to do the old cut and turn where the peach is supposed to split into 2 and the pit falls right out.

Ah-ha-- only if you have FREE STONE peaches!!! I now understand fully what a CLING peach is and a FREE STONE peach. I kept thinking the peaches were too ripe or not ripe enough and my husband gently pointed out- aren't those cling peaches? Huh? I said and that's the end of the story.

Oh boy-- we better eat up, we've got 2 bushels of peaches to eat.

Rain, rain, rain, rain--- please bless us with your presence-- I am soooooo tired of moving watering lines every 3 hours.

Farmer as Gambler

2010-07-05T14:24:00.000-07:00

If you have to feed yourself and 12 other families in a CSA, how many zucchini plants should you grow? Great question. Gardening is a bit like gambling. And I'm a terrible gambler. I take risks when I shouldn't and I'm conservative when I should double down.

Here is your history before you place your bet.

2 years ago you had a great zucchini crop (20 plants and say 30 per plant) and 1 year ago your zucchini crop was horrid (90 zucchini plants and 3 per plant).

So you place your bets or double down and decide how many to plant.

This year I went with 2 rows of zucchini. I have no idea how many actual plants I have in there. Maybe 90-120 again like last year- and then you plant, mulch, weed, water and cross your fingers.

This year looks like it will be a bumper crop-- so lets see 100 or so plants at 30 zucchini each.... he-he---- I guess I doubled down and hit the jackpot.

Turkey Day Pre Orders

2010-07-02T08:00:00.000-07:00

Its really really really early to think about Thanksgiving turkeys. However, we have a limited supply and we are likely to have a much greater demand come September than we can potentially meet. So, if you are interested in purchasing your Thanksgiving turkey from us, please email us NOW so we can reserve a turkey for you.

This year we have Bronze turkeys. They are almost 2.5 weeks old now and are really doing nicely. They run and chase bugs, chatter at me, and are generally wonderful little birds. We will be moving them out onto pasture in another week or week and a half as they feather out. Because we started them in June and not July, they will be about 24 weeks old when we process them. To put this in perspective, last year we processed our white turkeys at 15 weeks. The tom turkeys dressed out at 25-29 pounds each. The hens last year were 17-21 pounds. So...we are going to have some BIG turkeys this Thanksgiving.

I may purchase some more turkey poults from a friend who has heritage birds. They forage well, but they grow slowly. The heritage birds have more dark meat, much less breast meat and have a richer, gamey flavor. I still prefer to eat the Bronze turkeys over the heritage turkeys. The big difference is whether the birds were raised on pasture or raised in confinement, and not the breed, in my opinion. Yes, the commercial breeds have been selected to grow incredibly fast and they get so heavy that they cant reproduce. However, they are hybrid birds and you wouldnt want to keep them as breeding stock anyway.

If you want a smaller bird to fry, let me know ASAP so I can reserve a heritage bird for you. They are more expensive, but they are smaller. $6.50 a pound for Heritage Turkey. $4.50 a pound for our Bronze Turkeys. The Bronze will be pretty darn big by Thanksgiving. If you want a smaller bird, we can process them sooner and freeze them. They will be tender and wonderful for Thanksgiving after you thaw them. If you want a big old fashioned roaster and lots of leftovers, well, then our Bronze birds are for you!

Mmm...leftover turkey...

Cant wait!

Farmer as Weed wacker

2010-06-28T20:09:00.000-07:00

I don't know how farmers did it years ago without a weed wacker.

It is my new favorite farm tool. I can edge my garden and get all those weeds chopped down to size. (yeah- I have a lot of weeds and they grow like you wouldn't believe)

Tonight I chopped down the aisles between the zucchini, tomatoes and peppers. I can walk the aisles again!!

Now you can't see really well, but I've covered head to toe in small bits of green weediness.

Took me 3 washes and conditionings to get it all out of my hair (forgot to wear a hat). But I did remember ear and eye protection!

Farmer as Researcher

2010-06-25T19:29:00.000-07:00

http://www.ehow.com/how_5722524_perform-native-american-rain-dance.html

I'm just about ready to perform the steps listed in this article: How to perform a rain dance.
We water 50% of the garden, but another 50% is potatoes and raspberries, blueberries and flowers where we count on mother nature. Not helping these days!!!

Farmer as Marketer

2010-06-19T06:46:00.000-07:00

Our goal for December 2010 is to have 100 customers. Customers that are either repeat buyers or first time buyers that made a first purchase of more than $100.

So how do you do that with a small farm?

Show people the picture above and say "wouldn't you like to eat quality beef, lamb, chicken, pork, turkey and rabbit raised lovingly on that beautiful farm?"

Or maybe it's all about word of mouth and help from current customers.

We have to Market your product! Yikes- I never took any marketing classes in school so we better read up on it.

Let me say that we are so thankful for each of our customers. We have 15 CSA families and another 22 families who buy our meat and eggs. We are not at a farmers market so we count on you to come to us to purchase your meat. So that's 37 customers down- 63 to go.

The CSA families this year are even more than customers, they are helping in the garden so that we can say that our CSA is "Community Supported". We love the help and it's going to be part of the program from here on out.

If you read this blog and would like to become a customer, the best way to start is to come to the farm and buy a sampler pack of 10 lbs for $80. You can try out some of the basics like grass fed ground beef, a steak, some lamb, and chicken or pork as we have it. When you buy grass-fed and pastures meats you need to make the commitment to cook differently. The sampler package will give you the different cuts and meats to practice.

Another way to learn about grass fed and pastured products is to invite us into your house along with 10-40 of your friends and families to talk about why grass fed and pastured products are good for you and how to cook them. As part of this talk we'll bring some of our products so you can taste the difference (things like: meatballs, a lamb roast, pork sausage, roasted chicken). We'll bring lots of the sampler $80 packages for folks to buy plus some other cuts of meat. You as the host will get 10% of the final sale to use towards your own meat purchase.

I'm a fan of WIN/WIN/WIN arrangements. So the win for us is meeting new customers and selling some of our meat. The Win for you is that you get some meat for yourself. All the other folks win because they will know and meet the actual farmers who are selling this wonderful alternative product.

We did a test run of this concept last weekend and while we didn't have our marketing pitch down perfectly- we did learn a lot and will be making modifications for further events.

If you are interested in hosting an event- send us an email. It's a way to get yourself a credit for more of our meat as well as get your friends eating some wonderful grass-fed and pastured healthy food. Plus it's an excuse to have a party and see your friends.

You can also send your friends to us to buy meat and if they say that you sent them, we'll also give you 10% of their first order as a credit back to you!

Help us reach our goal of 100 customers.... 63 customers to go in 6 months.

Any other marketing ideas of low cost appreciated- pass them on.

How we Became Farmers - Chapter 1

2010-06-12T07:55:00.000-07:00

The number 1 question I get asked is "did you grow up on a farm" or "were your parents farmers".

No- to both questions. However, my grandmothers all had gardens - I had 3 grandmothers because my mother died when I was very young and so my father remarried when I was 3. So I was lucky enough to watch 3 different women cultivate 3 very different gardens. Our family had a garden but it really didn't work out that well as no one weeded it. I hated weeding (still do).

Mike's grandfather was a conventional farmer so his mother did grow up on a farm but he grew up a city kid taking the bus when he was 8 years old (by himself).

What people really want to know is "why on earth did you decide to buy a farm and become a farmer?"

That's the question-- Why?

Before we were farmers we lived in a nice little house in a little neighborhood and had a nice porch and 4 above ground garden beds. We traveled a lot and had an above average amount of disposable income. I'd say we were living a very comfortable upper middle class lifestyle. We ate out at nice restaurants, we watched a lot of TV and in general we had a lot of free time to just sit around with our friends and just talk and eat and socialize.

One day, I read about something called a CSA- community supported agriculture.

Sounds interesting.

It was going to be a 35 min drive one-way to the farm but we could also get an egg share and how cool would it be to eat fresh eggs. I've heard that they are better for you I told Mike.

Ok, let's sign up. With a CSA you pay for being in the share ahead of time and you then share in the rewards and the risks of the farm. Sounds interesting and we'd be supporting a local farmer, how bad can it be? So we sent in the check-- $680 later we were signed up for 20 weeks of a CSA plus a 20 week egg share. Cool.

Little did we know that this $680 check was the check that completed the intergalactic connections and our fate was sealed.....

to be continued.....

Farmer as a Blogger

2010-06-08T19:40:00.000-07:00

So in this modern age, does a farmer need to blog? Maybe not but it does help to have a website or at least be listed on websites like LocalHarvest.org.

I will say that I've met some great people as a result of my little blog. My Junior year english teacher might be proud of me as I finally found my voice. We didn't always get along but mostly because I didn't really appreciate English class even though I did get A's in class.

Today's blog will be about eggplant. I am determined to grow eggplant this year. Not just the plant but an honest to goodness eggplant. I grew 1 last year. ONE! out of say 70 plants.

This year I am going smaller scale but making each one count. Now the bugs are still out that eat the eggplant leaves. 3 weeks ago we went to dinner with other farmer friends and one said that he was giving up on eggplant. Which made me think that I was not going to plant my eggplant in the ground but plant it in these big containers and keep them in my grow area till mid July and then put them in the ground. That's when those bad bugs are gone.

So maybe I've just been trying to grow eggplant too early and fighting mother nature. It was like fighting with my English teacher. I was never going to totally get poetry or love writing a 3000 word essay or discussing what the author was thinking when they wrote their story , but give me the right medium in blogland and I'm golden!

written by annette logged in as hubby....

The Farmer is also a Mortitian

2010-06-04T16:18:00.000-07:00

I've now on a theme for the next week. Started with settlers and now we are to morticians.

Why would this be on my mind?

Unfortunately when I went to get the eggs today a poor hen bit the dust. This happens. They get old, stress, etc. She looked relatively peaceful.

So I have to play grave-digger and dispose of the body. Technically the hen got a procession as she went in the riding cart to her final resting place.

I then realized I forgot my shovel so I used gloved hands to dig a shallow hole and then I had lots of dirt to cover her up with as I was near the compost pile. It was taking longer than I realized so I thought maybe I'd just step on her to push her down in the hole a little farther as it was taking a lot of dirt to cover her up completely.

Well, as I stepped on her-- do you know what happened? All that air still in her lungs came out and she gave me a last cry.

I of course screamed 10 times longer and louder than her cry and then I busted up laughing.

Now this has to happen with humans as well when handling a deceased individual. A chicken scared me half to death so I have no idea what hearing a human release air from the lungs would do to me. I think I might pass out...

Just know-- if you want to be an animal farmer-- this job just comes along with the package even though you don't realize it.

And just how did those settlers do it?

2010-06-01T19:08:00.000-07:00

I know I've been lame with posts lately and making use of photos with one liners as my material so here is my latest wonder.

How the heck did our ancestors make it? And I am talking about this on several levels.

Let me start by asking a question. How many showers did you take on Sunday?

Yes, showers as in water coming down on top of you with soap and shampoo and such.

I took 4 showers. One in the morning, one around 11am after some grimy sweating planting and weeding, then once again in the late afternoon again after more garden work and then again once at night as it was hot and we aren't using the AC.

So how on earth did the folks a few hundred years ago deal with their own smell? I have to believe that no children were conceived during the months of June-August as I am not sure how you could get near another person when you couldn't even stand smelling yourself.

And then don't even get me started about what the women wore in those days.

Maybe the same concept of "when you are in the smell, you don't smell it" rules? Like when you go to a paper mill or a stinky farm and after an hour you don't smell it anymore? Maybe you get so used to body odor that you don't smell it anymore?

These questions have been on my mind the last few days. I'm just extremely thankful to live in an era where I CAN take 4 wonderful showers a day.