Fresh from the Farm

Open wide for good farm food!


Did you know that the US wastes 40-50% of the food we produce? Wow! At first, I figured it was mostly due to things people throw out at home and at restaurants. But it turns out a huge portion comes from the production end of food. Farmers toss plenty of perfectly edible vegetables for cosmetic reasons. Cucumber not straight enough? No one will eat that! Carrot has forked roots? Disgusting! Lettuce has a few bug holes in it? Throw it all away!

In our continuing effort to make Sand Holler a sustainable farm, we strive to reduce food waste. However, this requires a partnership with the people that consume our products. Many people are already aware that fresh local food grown to sell directly to the customers might not always be quite as pretty as the wholesale production items that can be purchased in the grocery store. But many of you might also know that these 'ugly' vegetables are just as good - or even better tasting!

So why am I going on about this now? Well, let's just say I hope you enjoy your holey chard this week...(don't worry, as the spring flush of bugs dies down the chard and other veggies will recover and be more hole-free in the future)!

We are right in the transition from cool season to warm season crops. You would think this would be an abundant time of year. However, it tends to be a lean time - the cool crops are petering out in the heat, the warm crops still haven't taken off as the season is early. But its a unique time of year for the diversity and it doesn't last long. In baskets this week:

All baskets:

Red Norland Potatoes: These beauties are packed in plastic clam shells to keep them all together but they prefer a little more air circulation so be sure to unpack them when you get them. They've been left dirty because washing them prevents the skins from 'healing' as fast (which makes them last longer). Their delicate new potato skins mean that they won't last like mature store bought potatoes even after fully dried though!

Little Finger and Purple Dragon Carrots: Don't forget that carrot greens are edible too! The Carrot Musuem lists several recipes and other ideas to try out.

Ruby Red or Lucullus Swiss Chard: Wonderful green that lasts well into the summer and originates from Sicily.

Empress Green Beans: I knew these were almost ready but didn't expect them this early!

Sunburst Squash: The UFOs of the vegetable world.

Parlsey: Italian in the half baskets and curly in the full baskets.

Half baskets:

Early Fortune Cucumbers: The Romans used this vegetable to treat scorpion stings!

Full baskets:

Ichiban Eggplant: A Japanese variety, but the eggplant originates from India...and is botanically a berry!

Baby Bull's Blood Beets: This beet variety is typically grown here more for it's leaves...but the bugs took over so these were harvested as itty bitty baby beets.

Herb of the week: Rosemary


Recipe:

Not an exact recipe, but just a serving idea. Roast potatoes with olive oil and rosemary. Sprinkle with chevre and salt and enjoy!


Soon to come:

It's amazing looking at the garden and seeing what we will be producing in a few weeks. Amazing...and making us all impatient! There's loads of green tomatoes, buds on the okra, and blooms on the melons. And some of the corn is even shoulder high now!

Five out of six...

We bred six goats this year (hopefully...our seventh goat is looking a bit pregnant but I swear she wasn't exposed to a buck!). Out of those six goats, FIVE of them had problems kidding. It's made us question all of our management practices. But each one has had a different issue so we are having a hard time pinning it on anything like nutrition, parasites or diseases. Hopefully it's just a fluke year and this is our last kidding problem for a long time.

Miranda is one of two does we kept from last year, along with her littermate Matilda. They were the only does out of the 7 kids. Matilda was rejected from the first day by her mother Savannah, so she never knew she was a goat. We HAD to keep Matilda since we were her family but she did also bond with her sister Miranda, so we HAD to keep her too! When they went off to get bred (the buck we have here, Val, is their father) Miranda was the only one to come into heat so Matilda came back unbred...supposedly.

This morning as Mom went out to milk, she saw Miranda was in labor. She quickly delivered a little girl! Miranda hadn't been very big so Mom was sure that was it (you'd think after all the surprises we've had, we would not be sure of anything anymore!). But another pair of hooves appeared. It looked like the baby was upside down - the bottom of the hooves were up. But Dale quickly realized that the next body part to come out was a butt and not a nose! Miranda was a champ and delivered the breach birth with no assistance. But things weren't right.

The little buck had severely contracted tendons - like Lilly but in all four legs and far worse. There was no way he could stand and the same cramped space he was in had also caused deformities of his head. His breathing was labored, his eyes were rolled in the back of his head, his tongue was lolling. Fortunately, Dale is made of sterner stuff than us wussy vegetarians and he did the only humane thing possible for the struggling buck. It was sad, but yet another part of farming life.

Miranda and the little girl, Dahlia, are doing just fine. Matilda never left Miranda's side during the birthing process and I'm sure she'll be a good auntie!

Farm cats

I can't really imagine the farm without the cats now.  They came to us from my brother Shea.  They had a bizarre back story that we really don't know the details of.  The momma cat and her two kittens showed up on Shea's doorstep one day and of course were given food.  A neighbor soon told them that he had brought them there - he didn't speak fluent English so it was a broken conversation.  But the gist was the neighbor had rescued them from an abusive household and he wanted Shea to take care of them (apparently, Shea has 'sucker' printed on his forehead since he raised another stray momma and her kittens the year before).  Alas, Shea was not actually thrilled to have yet more cats added to his household, so the trio was whisked off to the farm to become barn cats.

Well, barn cats they are not.  Momma Cinder and her now grown babes Momo and Barley, have never even set foot in the barn.  But this year they have finally proven their worth catching gophers!  The gophers made a mess of our garden last year and we hope that the cats actually prove a good deterrent because nothing else we did kept them at bay.  Here's the first gopher Momo caught - I'd never seen a gopher so up close and personal.  They are nasty things and could probably do some real damage with those claws!

And they are always a pleasure on a rainy day when we are all cooped up inside.  Nothing beats seeing some kitties snuggle!  Momo and Barley are champion snugglers.

Carrots

We've had a bumper crop of carrots on the farm this year.  In the desperate search for ways to use up the orange roots, I've learned quite a bit of trivia about what I thought was an ordinary vegetable.  I did know they come in a plethora of colors (we've grown them all!) and I just love this picture from the USDA:

The carrot is an ancient vegetable, most likely originating in present day Afghanistan.  Originally, the plant was grown for its medicinal properties but over the centuries has been developed into a sweet taproot that serves as a culinary vegetable today.

And then people went nuts and started growing bizarre carrots for county fairs.  You know those enormous pumpkins that are hauled on a trailer?  Well, carrots don't get that big, but I was still shocked at the world record holder...18.985 lbs.  And it's a horrible monstrosity.

There's carrot festivals and even a World Carrot Museum (though I think its just a 'virtual' museum, it's still kooky).

I'll be posting some of the carrot recipes that we will try in the next few weeks.  Stay tuned!

Nearly a month later!

It's a busy time of year for everyone.  I'm still making the hour drive to the farm with the new little one, but she keeps me occupied for much of the day and I haven't been as active in all the work.  But it doesn't mean anything has slowed down!

We started our vegetable subscriptions for the year and are now providing produce for 6 families.  We hope to add more customers as the summer veggies start to trickle in...speaking of which, I think we will get our first summer squash this weekend!  It's one of the eight ball squashes I've been dying to try.  Dale continues to dig new beds and get the entire garden under cultivation.  He's making amazing progress.  Also in the garden, the construction of a "shed" has been underway for a few weeks.  It's hardly a shed - I'll post pictures and a description soon.

And of course all the goat babies means that we have tons and tons of milk!  Mom and I have made two batches of cheese so far - feta and mozzarella - and I'm gearing up for more hard cheeses this year.  The dairy is a ton of work but I really love it.  I'm hoping to find an 'apprentice' this year to help out with the process.


Spring is fun on the farm - but boy, is it a lot of work!

Been a bit busy...

I just wanted to check in quickly to let everyone know why I haven't been updating the blog very frequently.  Shortly after the last post my water broke!  Willa made her appearance in the outer world almost 4 weeks before my due date, so I was taken a little by surprise.  Anyway, we are adjusting well and I'll be back to updating you on the goings on at the farm soon!

Just a quick note - both Elise and Savannah had their kids!  Elise had twin doelings and Savannah had twin bucklings, but one was still born.  We really had some odd issues with the goats this year and I don't know if it was luck of the draw or something we need to reassess in our management.  Don't worry, pictures and stories to come soon!

Sping Baby Update

With all the troubles on the farm this spring, I just wanted to update everyone on all the wonderful successes!

Chicory, the little premature goatling born to Rabbit whose triplet siblings were stillborn, is a complete toot. It took him over a week to assure us he was going to live. I guess that makes sense - that would have been his original due date, so his development must have finally caught up with the fact that he was outside instead of inside momma. He is a lean little scraper and loves to torment all the other goatlings. When feeding time comes, he is always willing to throw you for a loop. He either sprints right over and downs his milk without needing help...or he decides that a little game of chase is what's called for before having a civilized meal. You just never know with that guy.

Tiger Lily, our bow legged munchkin from Shelli, has made leaps and bounds of improvement. It was quite nerve wracking when her contracted tendons began to stretch, but her muscles weren't yet strong enough to hold her up. It appeared she was getting worse for a number of days. And then...she was just simply better. Woke up one morning and you could no longer pick her out of the crowd by her stance! She still has a funny little gait and tends to hop like a bunny when she wants to move somewhere quickly, but she is getting better and stronger every day. Whew.

Dandelion, the HUGE boy from Maxie who was passing blood on the second day of his life, is simply still a beast. He picked up on the bottle feedings faster than any of the other goats and has just not skipped a beat since his miraculous recovery. You really would never know anything had ever been wrong with him!

We are still brooding some 60 baby poultry. After the initial heavy losses, we have kept the others healthy and strong. We do have one chick that is a bit wobbly on the legs but I think she'll be fine, or perhaps we are just going to have a replacement yard chicken who spends her time around the house instead of foraging far and wide with the flock. I'm sure we won't mind that! And the ducklings are HUGE. I can't believe how fast they grow.

But the young poultry has once again suffered the consequences of tenacious raccoons. The ducks have a fully wire enclosed pen to spend the night, safe from predators...or so we thought. But apparently a raccoon was able to sneak up on them and grabbed one through the wire before she woke up and was able to run. But we quickly solved the problem by putting a layer of tiny mesh around the bottom 2 feet of the enclosure so no naughty hands can be thrust through the openings. I hate lessons like that. But the coons had the taste of a fresh meal so they have probably been back checking the defenses each night. All was safe for a few days. Then they discovered that they could dig under the chick brooder house - which we thought would be ok since the entire floor is wire mesh with several inches of dirt over it. But the coon kept digging until all the dirt from the floor fell through. And then must have just waited until a hapless chick or two wandered too close and pulled them through the wire. ARG! More security has been added and hopefully we've got the place locked down now!

And of course Ace and Mac, the spring lambs, are doing great. They have grown enormously but have unfortunately picked up more of their mother's traits than their uncle Linden's. They are skittish and we plan on working on that in the weeks to come. I still want to milk the sheep, so I will be giving the little boys a bottle every once in awhile. That's what made Linden the friendliest sheep on the block!

We still have more babies to come. Savannah and Elise are due this weekend. They are both absurdly huge and I fear they are going to have triplets! Hopefully they just have big twins, or at least all the triplets have had plenty of room to grow in there. And Miranda, our youngest bred doe, is due in May. And then the spring baby season will finally be over!