Tuesday, May 24, 2016

May 24th and 27th

Spring Flowers 

Spring has finally made her way through...and with a blaze of beauty!  Despite having to mow the lawn almost twice a week right now, I love the vibrant colors of our farm this time of year...and yes, that even includes the golden glow of dandelions!


Our yard is a bit of a jungle of colors and textures, not exactly what you would call "landscaped", but it's certainly Eden for our family.  Zach and I have spent many joyful hours planting little things here and there over the last 13 years, but whoever had the foresight to plant the Quince many years ago was brilliant and we are thankful.  Hummingbirds love to dance in their burst of pink.

The fruit trees look amazing!  FULL FULL FULL of flowers and the weather since they bloomed has been brilliant.  Sun and dry, the pollinators are in heaven...which should in turn bring us loads of fruit this fall.

Although the bees and flowers may be happy to show off their dazzle in this dry spell, the crops are singing a different tune.  (And the farmer is trying not to whine about it too much).  We have been running around setting up drip irrigation as fast as we can.  Although we don't have much water to spare (our wells don't pump out very much), The small drink we can give them will hopefully carry them though this dry spell.  We planted over 3000 plants this week, now let it rain....please.


This Week's bounty:
carrots, onions, parsnips, scallions, chives, hoop house greens, asparagus


CARROTS!  Glazed, roasted, raw, pickled, soup, bread, spiced, pureed....



Sunday, May 8, 2016

May 10th and 13th

Spring Rains...and Snow Showers

Welcome to the 2016 season!  If this is your first time reading our blog, you will find it to be filled with fun veggie facts, cooking tips, lots of photos, animal updates, activities happening on the farm and talk of the weather.  I try not to fill the pages with too many farm woes, but a few may slip in from time to time.  The trials and tribulations are not added to make you fell sorry for me, the farmer, but to bring awareness to the many events that are out of our control while growing your food, what it means to eat seasonally and what the term "feast or famine" means when it pertains to a particular crop.  Get your taste buds ready...here we grow!


The 5" of late April snow has disappeared...along with the glorious sun and 70 degrees we had! This spring has surly been up and down. The earlier dry spell and heat allowed us to get fertilizer spread and fields prepped, and a solid planting of Patriot's Day peas.  Since then, we have been transplanting onions and other seedling between rain events and freezing temperatures.  All in all though, things are looking good and I am confident a good dose of sun will perk things up. (Including all of us humans I daresay!)


Our little onion soldiers.


And our ten pig friends have arrived as well.  We are getting them used to us and their new home. Next week, their pen will be expanded and they will humor us with their rants around the field...hopefully within their fence and not outside of it, however!  be sure to take a walk out and say "hello", they love visitors!


This week's bounty:
carrots, onions, parsnips, chives, spinach


The Farmer's Table:
(Here I will post recipes shared from you, recipes we find appetizing and also tell you what we eat--many of our meals consist of foods fresh from the fields, preserved foods from our cupboard and local goods like bread and dairy)

Plum clafoutis (from frozen plums from our tree)

Crawfish Gumbo and Dirty Rice -- although the crawfish came from the south (my husband's work does a crawfish boil every spring), it was seasoned with many things from the farm (frozen tomatoes, sausage, beef liver, carrots, garlic...)

Egg & Sausage Breakfast Burrito with homemade peach salsa and spinach

Anadame Bread French Toast and frozen berries

NY Sirloin with spinach and garlic

Pork Taquitos with spinach

Beef Tongue Tacos

Ribeye Steak with sauteed spinach, garlic, Winterhill Farm blue cheese and homemade chimichurri