Harvesting apples & peaches today from our farm's orchard

Today was the big "our family's share" of the apple harvest day. Our Community Supported Agriculture (csa) members have received our orchard's apples & peaches for a few weeks. Now, it was time for our family's share!

I will spend some time canning in the upcoming week. Apple sauce & apple butter are in the plans.

In spite of the drought, our little orchard produced so much fruit! I hope to get enough apples canned & peaches frozen to last us for a couple of years. Always good to plan ahead, apple trees don't produce like this every year!

It sure was a *wild* day at Wishful Acres Farm

.
How do I describe yesterday?  The first term that comes to mind is WILD!

The day began with the removal of 2 live birds from our woodburning stove chimney (we ended up taking a part of the chimney apart, with the birds inside, and released them back into the wild outside).  They had worked their way into the chimney the day before, and when I tried to light a fire, it became obvious that they were in there... to my horror and the horror of my 3 young sons.  Needless to say, no fire could be lit until they were removed.

Then the day continued with my husband's efforts to remove a squirrel from our attic.  This darn squirrel got in through the attic roof - in a place my husband had patched last year when repairing the raccoon damage (those who have been reading my blog for a long time remember when we first bought our abandoned, foreclosure farm last year that we had to remove 9 raccoons from the attic).  So this squirrel has been in the attic for a few weeks... we've tried trapping him, but he was a wily one & way too smart.  He evaded our efforts.  In the meantime, he's been waking me at all hours of the night, crawling through the wall next to our bed, scratching in the ceiling, chewing who knows what in the floor crevices.  Arg!  So, my husband climbed on the roof to patch the tiny hole in the attic roof.  While up there, he could hear Mr. Squirrel running through the attic soffit (did I spell that right?).  Then, he saw the squirrel stick his paw out the attic hole.  My husband, who had gloves on and was quite sick of this squirrel by now, reached out & grabbed his paw!  The scene that followed can only be described as a tug of war.  The squirrel began pulling back.  My husband didn't let go.  Finally, the squirrel freed itself and began running through the attic soffit (the part of the roof that overhangs).  My husband followed it along the roofline, banging on the wall as he followed it.  It worked!  Mr. Squirrel quickly ran out of the attic hole, which was immediately patched after him.

Then.... I was re-stocking our Farm Store refrigerator (we've spent the past several months renovating the 2 mobile homes located on our farm, one into a Farm Store, the other into Intern Housing).  So.. I'm putting eggs in the fridge, and I hear something from the back of the mobile home, in the bathroom.  When I enter, I hear something rustling under the bathroom sink, in the cabinet.  We have a cat who finds her way into the mobile home (it's a work in progress, there is still a small hole in the floor under the bathtub).  This cat is about to give birth, so I'm wondering if perhaps it's her, and she's hiding her kittens.  Well, I've lived here long enough to know better than open that cabinet.  First, I went outside and called the cat.  She came waddling up, still very pregnant... and obviously not inside the Farm Store.  I called my husband off the farmhouse roof, and we went to investigate.  My husband slowly opens the cabinet, looks left, then right, then quickly jumps up and slams the cabinet.  "A coon"?  I ask.  "Yep", he replied.

Mr. Coon has since found his way back under the mobile home.  We've blocked the holes out, and today we'll set a trap.  Once we get him, we'll remove him to a new home and release him (at least 10 miles away).  And yes, we will get him out.

Wow!  What a wild day.

.

A goat in the kitchen! Oh my... only here at Wishful Acres Farm...

.
I was cooking dinner for my 3 young sons a few days ago, and looked up to see a baby goat casually strolling into my kitchen!  Followed by my giggling 6-year old son.  The things that go on here!  Goat was quickly rounded up and herded outside, as I hid my smirk and tried not to laugh out loud.

A couple of nights later, this little mischievous kid (my son, not the goat) then proceeded to come outside as I'm doing evening chores.... dressed in his spiderman pajamas, with daddy's huge muck boots on!  The boots came up to his thighs and were so big he had to take giant steps just to keep them from falling off.  Can you imagine it?

Ah... this is my life.  Insanity.

.

Accounting, Expenses. Income. My life the past month!

The past month has seen me up to my elbows in paperwork!

It's that time of year.  Accounting.  Doing the farm books.  Sorting through the farm receipts.  Adding expenses, adding up income.  Sorting the income & expenses into different sectors: egg sales, CSA, farmers market, produce..... on and on and on.

So far, there are some interesting numbers coming out, although not too surprising.

To the woman who yelled at me and stalked off this summer at farmers' market when she discovered I was charging $3 per dozen for my big, brown, free-range Eggs..... I would like her to know that I made no profit whatsoever on egg sales.  None.  I basically broke even on egg sales, because I had to pay for chicken feed, waterers, the chickens themselves, brooder lamps, more chicken feed, straw, fencing for their outdoor run, more fencing when a tree fell on our original chicken run, and did I mention chicken feed (we do feed our chickens all of our kitchen and garden scraps, plus some pasture for those who fly over the fence, but darn those birds eat more than you can believe and must have a lot of grain or feed in order to lay eggs).  And that of course doesn't include any money for our labor costs (meaning we're not paying ourselves anything for taking care of the chickens).  I'd like to pass this info on to the people who freak out when told my price of $3 per dozen.... just saying!  :-) 

So, yes, as I had been told by other sustainable farmers, there is no money in eggs.  I'll keep doing it as a service to our customers and because we ourselves love the delicious eggs from our well-treated hens (and really you can't pay me money to eat supermarket eggs). 
 
I have a feeling I'll still be deep in the paperwork for the next few weeks, although I can see a light at the end of the tunnel now!

Our lettuce mix

Wishful Acres lettuce mix - so good we dream about it all winter! Only fresh local lettuce can taste like this.
.

Know what this is???

This, my friends, is the light at the end of the tunnel.  For the farm purchase.

We finally received the last bank-required contractor inspection results today, and the bank has finally given us the green light.

We are set to close on the farm early next week. 

As I've been telling people, at this point I'm more scared than anything else.  We still have no offers on our current home and I'm deathly afraid the farm will be like Tom Hanks in the Money Pit movie...  it will suck all our money, require me to get a part-time job again, require my husband to work overtime again or get a second job.  The last two months were just like that and were very stressful.  Please God, just let everything work out!

.

WE GOT A FARM!

.
Our offer on the farmhouse was accepted yesterday!  It's the same foreclosed 11-acre farmette we've been trying to acquire for about a year now (yep, the same one I posted about last winter).  This time around, the bank was more negotiable.  We're excited but also SCARED TO DEATH!  We'll be carrying 2 mortgages until ours sells.  Yes, you read that right.  But, before you have a heart attack along with me I must say that my wonderful in-laws want to rent our current house until it sells.  Love 'em.  Don't think this deal would be possible without them being willing to rent from us.  (Once our current home sells, we'll be moving my in-laws into a newer trailer on the property, which they will be renting (trailer will be renovated)).

I've been out applying for a couple of part-time jobs this week (which, let me tell you, is no fun when you are on the tail-end of a cold and have a humiliating coughing fit in front of potential employees - but that's how serious I am about this, not letting a nasty cold keep me down! Er, well at least not more than the first 3 days...).

While this is truly a dream come true, we're both have our eyes wide open - the place needs lots of work (the house is not in bad shape - hopefully the furnace, well, & septic will be in good working order, it's sold as-is!).  We definitely have our work cut out for us, but any property that was in our price range and has a good amount of acreage is gonna need some work, quite frankly.  A couple of the smaller outbuildings will need the most work.

I'll keep you all posted, lots pf pictures and tours to come.

Thanks for visiting the All-Natural-Mama blog, home to Wishful Acres Organic Farm!  Or, maybe a name change will soon be in order - to Wish-fullfilled Acres Organic Farm?  :-)

Building a backyard greenhouse for $110

.
Our backyard greenhouse is finally finished - it took a few weeks -we spread it out.  Figuring out something from scratch like this can be frustrating and we found that when something went wrong (which it did) and needed to be redone (of course, it did) it was best for us to walk away for a few days or a week before starting again.  Better that than start bickering at each other, which happened a bit anyway.  Ah well, that's life!  :-)  But now, it's finished, and we are SO STINKIN' PROUD of ourselves!!!!!! 

Now you can learn from our mistakes and frustrations - here it is!  Directions to build your own unheated greenhouse - technically called a "hoophouse".  These directions will build a 20 foot long by 12 foot wide, and 6 foot tall greenhouse.  (20'x12'x6').  

I decided to build the frame out of low- cost PVC plumbing pipe.  It will also require some wood, hardware, and plastic sheeting.  You'll need a hacksaw for cutting and a good power screwdriver (we used a cordless drill with a screwdriver bit), a long measuring tape, and some sort of flags or markers you can push into the ground.  Here are the "ingredients":

• 11 PVC pipes, measuring 3/4" wide and 10' long
• 1 PVC pipe measuring 1 1/4" wide by 10' long
• Plastic sheeting: 2 packages 6 mil thick 10'x25', 1 package 4 mil thick 8'x25' (you'll only use a small bit of the 4 mil package)
• Wood: 2 pieces 2x2, 6 pieces 1x2 firring strips
• Hardware: 3 packs mending plates, 1 package corner brackets, 1 package of 2 hinges, 2 packs 3/4" steel pipe strap
• Duct tape, one large roll

To start, you'll need to plot out the spot where you want to put the hoophouse.  I placed mine over a portion of my already existing garden.  Look for the ground to be fairly level and somewhat sheltered from wind (the rear of mine backs up to a bush row, and there is a tree directly to the left and another about 30 feet to the right).  Now, most importantly, since this greenhouse is unheated, we need to get the most sunshine possible to hit it.  So, really, this greenhouse will be passive solar heated.  To do this, you want to orient the hoophouse so that the long side is facing the south.  In the winter, the sun is lower in the Southern sky, and you want the sun to hit the greenhouse for as much time each day as possible (of course, here in my area there is a lot of cloudiness in winter!).  If there are trees partially shading the greenhouse, remember that the leaves will not be on the trees in the winter, so there will be less shade and it will probably be alright, just so long as it will only be shaded for a small portion of the day.

After you've picked the spot, get the tape measure and wire flags.  You'll want to plot this out.  Decide where the door-side of the house will be and place a corner flag there.  Then measure 12' exactly across from this flag and place another.  This is where the first "hoop" of your hoophouse will go.  Keep measuring out until you've plotted out the entire 20 foot long house, or 5 hoops.

Next, I connected and glued together 2 PVC pipes using a tee-connector.  Then I pushed the ends of the PVC pipe into the ground where the flags were (you may need to dig a hole and water the ground where the pipe will go, to make it easier to push into the ground).  This seemed to work great until we bent & installed the hoops.

 But then a few days later, after we had put the plastic on, 2 of the joints popped out.  You can see them below, in the middle.  They came out of the tee-connector on one end. 

Back to the drawing  board.  We brainstormed at the local hardware store, and my husband came up with a very simple solution: buying a larger PVC pipe that could slide over the thinner ones.  We bought a 1 1/4" PC pipe and cut it into 5 pieces, each about 18" long.  Remember that the pipes came apart in the middle?  So we now have 2 pipes sticking out of the ground, no longer connected in the middle (no longer making a hoop).  Over one of these pipes we slid the newly made 1 1/4" PVC connector piece.  Next we took the two PVC pipes that were already in the ground but had come apart (Use 2 people for this!):  , standing on a ladder, and held them together while the other person quickly taped them together using duct tape.  Then we quickly slid the 1 1/4" pvc connector piece over the joint of duct tape.  Then we duct taped over it all, just for good measure - why not?   Like the first three hoops you see here:

Next, we added some stability by attaching wood to the sides.  I also wanted the wood as a place I could staple the plastic to, but that would allow me to roll up the plastic a few feet on the sides (meaning the plastic is not permanently attached to the ground, and can be lifted up until this piece of wood, so I could vent the hoophouse when it gets too hot in late spring or early fall.  We attached the wood to the pvc using 3/4" galvanized steel pipe straps.  It's basically a half-circle of metal with two screwholes on each side. These were connected on the inside of the hoophouse. We attached each piece of wood to the next piece using mending plates, on the outside of the wood.

 

Next came the plastic sheeting.  This was the most expensive part of this project.  For high wind and heavy snow areas, 6 mil plastic is recommended.  This is super thick and heavy duty, but also not cheap.  It cost us about $22 for a 10x25' roll, and we used 2 rolls.  We had to splice it together with duct tape.  Next time, I'm splurging on a huge roll so we don't need to use tape.

Before we attached the plastic, I made my rows and planted the fall seed.  I tied up the remaining tomatoes to make room for more seeds on the left side as well.

Next we put the plastic up, and my 2 older sons helped to water them with our new backpack sprayer.  This was purchased for use in watering seedlings on the farm garden, as I have no water access there.  But we decided to break it open and use it here at home.  It reminded me of the Ghostbusters backpacks...

Next, my husband tried making a door, but the 1x2" wood was splitting on him & causing him a lot of frustration.  I finally got him to nix the idea.

I remembered that we had a bunch of old storm windows in the attic.  One of the first projects we did on our old house when we bought it almost 10 years ago was to take off the old storm windows and replace them with storm/screen combinations.  The old storm windows were so beautiful I didn't want to part with them.  I'm glad I kept them - it made a perfect door.

My husband build the frame around the storm window, and attached it with hinges.  Next, we spliced even more plastic wrap over the frame so it would reach the ground (I used the cheaper 4 mil on this part), and I stapled it tightly to the frame.

I used a utility knife and cut off the excess.

For winter, I plan on using straw bales along the outside base, to sit on top of the plastic edge and also supply a bit of ground-level insulation.
Viola!  There you have it.  A homemade hoophouse.

It's toasty warm inside!

1 day after finishing the plastic installation, the outside temp was 75 degrees, and the inside temp was 94.5!

The cost of the hoophouse was just under $110.  The most expensive single item was the plastic sheeting, at almost $50.  The pvc frame cost $20, the wood was $12, the hardware & duct tape was $25.

A very similar hoophouse in a growers catalog that I receive sells for $1000.  Theirs is the exact same size, except it uses steel hoops.  So we built ours for 90% cheaper than ordering the kit.  Now you can see why we're so proud.  I love it when something comes together like this.

I'll have to keep an eye on heavy snow loads on top, maybe brushing off heavy snow if needed (even the tall steel hoophouses have been known to collapse under heavy, wet snow).  My goal is to keep the cold-tolerant crops from freezing.  I will be using row cover and possibly and interior layer of plastic over the crops as well.  My goal for this first year is to keep spinach growing all winter.  I'm in a zone 5 , right on the border with zone 4.   Think I can do it?  It will be fun trying!

Thanks for visiting the All Natural Mama blog, home to Wishful Acres Organic Farm!

We found a farm. Let the games (er, negotiating) begin!

.
You know I grow a large garden on a farm.  But did you know that the garden is grown on rented farmland?  Yep, we live in town.  My garden is about a 15 minute drive from our house.  We've gone back and forth for years about purchasing a house in the country, where our sons can run and we can grow on our own property.  Problem is, land around here is prime farmland and expensive.  The taxes are high and properties are costly.

Still, when you have a dream it's hard to shake it from your skull. 

I haven't mentioned this yet, so it's fresh news!  Last week we made an offer on a rural property.  Yes, I'm excited, but also scared out of my wits.  Why, you ask?  Well, let me tell you!

We're bidding on a property in foreclosure.

You may be thinking, "Great!  They'll get a good deal!".  Which you would be right about.  But.... when you buy a foreclosed property you can't have a contingency (which means, "here's my offer, but before I can buy it you need to wait for me to sell my current home").  Nope.  If you already have a home, which we do, you'll have to buy it without selling your current home first (*gulp*).  So, we could be carrying two mortgages for a while until our home sells.

How would we manage?  Well, even though we're on a single income (my husband works in a warehouse), we're thrifty.  We squirrel away money and have quite a bit of savings.  We'd have to dip into it if we couldn't make both payments.  We would qualify for the homebuyer's tax credit since we've been in our current home for over 5 years (that would also help replenish some savings).  We'd probably be okay, even if our current home took a year or more to sell.  We renovated our current home top to bottom, so I hope it wouldn't take a year to sell, but who knows.  Another way we'd hope to make ends meet is by renting out a trailer on the new property. 

The farm property.... let me tell you a bit about it.  We first looked at it late last summer, but then it went to auction and sold.  We figured that was the end of it.  But a couple of weeks ago it was put back on the market.  (This is beyond my understanding, but apparently it was purchased back by the bank from auction).  Back to the property... Best of all, it's over 10 acres of land!  At least 3 acres are woods, at least 4-5 is tillable for gardens.  It's a rolling piece of land, very beautiful.

I have no idea what the former owners did for a living, but they put so much money into this place - it's crazy.  There is the old 1880 farmhouse, which they renovated (but left some awesome original details which I'll tell you about later), and added a new 3 story addition.  The house, with the addition, has 4-6 bedrooms.  It's big.  Which is also scary, because it's currently heated with only propane.  We had a contractor go through it last week, and he estimated it would cost us $4000 per year to heat it with propane.  $4000!  I almost choked when he told me that.  Don't worry, though, we had already planned to purchase a wood stove or two right away.  By using a wood stove, the furnace would (hopefully) only kick in at a bit at night.

In addition to the house, there are two trailers.  One is newer and salvageable, and has a newer pole building / garage.  We'd rent that trailer out, probably to my in-laws.  The other trailer we may need to get rid of, although I'm hoping it can be salvaged to house farm apprentices in the summer.

There is a garage with a lean-to that would make a great chicken coop.

An old barn on the property was renovated, and now has a steel roof and walls, horse stalls, and a few other rooms.  The darn thing has it's own newer furnace.  That's crazy, to heat that barn with propane.  We sure wouldn't do that.(maybe I could eventually attach a greenhouse to it, and heat that for a few weeks in the spring with the furnace...just thinking out loud here).

I've saved the most unusual outbuilding for last.  There is a poolhouse.  Or at least, that's what the former owners used it as.  My mother-in-law and I believe the poolhouse is actually an original mid-1800s log cabin that was re-sided and renovated inside.  The inside setup still looks like an original log cabin of our area, with the sleeping loft up top.  But, it's now renovated & modernized and has it's own kitchen, pipe for wood stove (stove is gone), stained glass windows, tanning bed (ha! me? no thanks), attached sauna (again, ha!), and indoor jacuzzi.  The little kitchen is cool, but I would have rather been handed an original log cabin, ya know?  Anyway, there is a wrap-around deck with another outdoor jacuzzi and a swimming pool.

Now, before you wonder how we have this much money, let me tell you that everything is pretty much trashed.

The place has been empty, we're guessing for at least 2 years and maybe up to 4 years.  Teenagers were partying out there a couple of summers ago (our realtor lives nearby and remembers, lol).  So, doors are kicked in, the central air unit was stolen, the trailers have a lot of indoor water damage (from side doors being left open for months, maybe years now, and rain & snow getting in).  The pool is shredded, who knows if the hot tubs are usable or sellable, and the poolhouse (log cabin to me) has some rotted siding and missing doors.  The decks around the cabin & pool may need to be torn down.

The main house is the best-kept building on the property.  One of the doors is kicked in, some pipes were cut in the basement (maybe one burst), and there are a few other things.  But compared with the other buildings the house is in good shape.

We have no idea about the well and septic.

So now you see why I'm freaking out....

The bank has finally dropped the price to 1/2 of the asking price before foreclosure.  The amount we offered is much less than that even, and is not much more than what the land alone would cost.  There is so much work to be done out there, and so many unknown variables, we figure that our offer is pretty realistic.

So, we'll see what happens.  I'll keep you posted.  Keep us in your prayers, that it will work out whichever way is best.

Thanks for reading the All-Natural-Mama Blog, home to Wishful Acres Organic Farm.

Five Color Silverbeet (Swiss Chard)

Prior to this summer, I've never eaten Swiss Chard. That was before I read "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle", where Barbara Kingsolver claims "Five Color Silverbeet" is her favorite seed to grow.

Sifting through the seed catalogs last winter, I saw how beautiful the plant really is. The colored stalks are very bright and beautiful amongst the green foliage.

Most of my crop didn't grow. I think this is due to my husband cultivating with the tiller too close to where I had planted the seeds. We learned our lesson: never, never till between the rows until the plants have fully sprouted! You may end up tilling seeds under.

I harvested our first Swiss Chard on the first day of summer. It's so gorgeous I had to show you. It is a relative of the beet and rhubarb plants; you'll see the familiarity. The stalk colors range from beautiful bright yellow, pink, orange, purple, and red.

Peas

Harvested the first mature snap peas the third week in June. Delicious raw straight from the shell!

New Potatoes!

I've never harvested new potatoes before. These are the first, tiny potatoes that the plant grows. New potatoes are supposed to be a delicacy.

Last year was the first year I've grown potatoes, and I just waited until the plants died back and then I harvested the fully-grown potatoes.

However, I've read more gardening books since then! :-)

I've read that when the potatoes flower, the new potatoes are ready. A few weeks ago, the first flowers appeared. I tried digging under one but got a bit scared. You have to be very, very careful when harvesting new potatoes. You need to take a few potatoes but not disturb the plant or roots so that it can keep growing and provide more potatoes. Plus, new potatoes are delicate. Their skin is so thin that if you slide your finger down it you'll strip the skin right off!

Well, a few days ago I was a bit more adventurous. I dug around until I found some. After seeing how they grow and where to harvest them, I dug under several more plants. I even harvested a few of the "All Red"! I tried to take a few of the "All Blue", but those plants grow so differently from the others! They spread all over, send their shoots far underground, and all around made me so jittery that I decided not to mess with them right now. I got one. Yes, I am a wimp. (Click here to see what these potatoes looked like when I cut them to plant them back in April!)

But, look at my new potatoes! Now, some of these are too large to probably be called new potatoes. I was just too nervous to dig a few weeks ago when some of the first blossoms appeared. Live and learn. Next year perhaps I'll be a bit more adventurous! I do love a challenge.

I'm officially a farmer

When I purchased my vegetable seeds last winter, I had intended to sell my organic veggies at our local farmer's market. Back in February when I contacted them, the market was already full and not taking new vendors.

So... I have been slowly making plans to open a self-serve vegetable stand here at my home, in the driveway. One of the items on my to-do list was to contact my insurance company. In case someone were to fall on my property buying vegetables - you know, just wanted to know if my homeowner's policy would cover any liability. I spoke with my insurance company a couple of weeks ago and got the a-okay. However, last week a new homeowner's policy arrived. Apparently there was an extra item I needed. So... for $15 a year, I now have a policy which includes "Incidental Farming Personal Liability" coverage.


Guess I'm now officially a farmer.

As for the farm stand:

I am hoping to have it up and running this week or the next. I'm moving slowly, waiting for a few more vegetables to be ready. Right now all I have to offer is lettuce, a few peas, a few onions, a bit of greens, a few beets ... not much. I did notice a few very small zucchini at the farm plot yesterday so hopefully there will be more soon.

I do plan to offer some baked goods as well. Perhaps cookies, breads... that type of thing. I'm perplexed about how much to charge for the baked goods and some of the produce. I plan on making a trip to our local market this week to get an idea.

I drew up plans for the money payment box a couple of weeks ago. Used my rusty algebra and put my thinking cap on. I then transferred the plans to the piece of wood. I began cutting... and almost immediately broke the jigsaw blade. Luckily, my husband was kind enough to help me out with his circular saw (something I wouldn't touch myself!). It turned into a family project. It's now almost complete. We just need to cut the payment slot, attach the lock, and get it hung on the garage.

My signs are almost ready. One for the front yard, one for the side yard. I spoke with a city representative a few weeks ago to get the rules on signage in yards because I know there are city laws I need to abide by. The boys all helped me paint the wood (and themselves).


I also used my rusty graphic design skills and created a promotional flyer that I plan to hang in a few places around town. What do you think?


Comments and suggestions appreciated!

I'll send out a notification to friends and family via email and post on my blog when the stand opens. I also plan to create a listing on www.localharvest.org . The flyers will be hung as well.

It's slowly all coming together!



.

Close encounter with a deer

It was the second week in June and I was out at my farm plot weeding.

I was all alone; it was before 9 am and the farmers weren't out working yet. Just me and pasture as far as I could see.

As I hoed the tomato rows I had a strong urge to look up. I don't know if I heard something; but for some reason I needed to look up.

My heart flew up into my throat as I saw a beautiful doe standing about 10-15 yards from me.

Now, although I live in a small rural midwest town... I do still live in town.

I've had many run-ins with deer but all have involved me sitting in a car either swerving to avoid them, hitting them, or yelling at someone else to avoid them. I've never been this close to one out in the open. All alone.

I wish I could tell you that I had a picture for you. Unfortunately, with my heart pounding and my hoe frozen in the air as the doe and I stared at each other, the last thing on my mind was reaching for the cell phone in my pocket to take a picture.

After we watched each other for a minute or two, she slowly walked away to the tree line and disappeared.

What a beautiful experience! What a feeling!

I'm glad it was a mild-mannered deer and not a skunk or something.

Now, although I don't have a picture of the actual deer that I encountered, I can tell you she looked just like this, lol: :-)

Potatoes & Corn

The potatoes and corn pictured on the farm at the end of May.

We will be swimming in potatoes this fall!


The corn is also doing well.

First Harvest

The first harvest item from the 1/2 acre farm garden plot is lettuce.
Two heirloom varieties were harvested last week: "Martina's Sweet" (pictured above) and "Amish Deer Tongue".
We had the lettuce eaten quickly. Luckily, the farmers where I rent the land were kind enough to pass on a lot of their extra lettuce as well. They sell at a couple of farmer's markets during the week but sometimes have leftovers.
I prefer to wash lettuce in a sink full of water (clean your sink very well first). First I rinse it, then drop it all in the sink and swish it around a bit. I dry it on bath towels then place it all in a plastic bag (reuse your shopping bags here) in the fridge with a few towels (paper or cotton) thrown in to absorb the excess moisture (keeps the lettuce fresh longer).

Are you a locavore?

Beautiful heirloom vegetables:
Locavore is a new term, defined below courtesy of Wikipedia:

Local food (also regional food or food patriotism) or the local food movement is a "collaborative effort to build more locally based, self-reliant food economies - one in which sustainable food production, processing, distribution, and consumption is integrated to enhance the economic, environmental and social health of a particular place" and is considered to be a part of the broader sustainability movement. It is part of the concept of local purchasing and local economies, a preference to buy locally produced goods and services. Those who prefer to eat locally grown/produced food sometimes call themselves "localvores" or locavores.

100 years ago, everyone was a locavore. Our great-grandparents would have laughed at our desire to eat lettuce in January.

There are so many reasons to eat locally. Here are just a few, courtesy of http://www.eatlocalchallenge.com/:

1. Eating local means more for the local economy.
2. Locally grown produce is fresher.
3. Local food just plain tastes better.
4.Locally grown fruits and vegetables have longer to ripen.
5. Eating local is better for air quality and pollution than eating organic. (This one bothers me a bit because it's very possible to eat local organics.)
6. Buying local food keeps us in touch with the seasons.
7. Buying locally grown food is fodder for a wonderful story.
8. Eating local protects us from bio-terrorism.
9. Local food translates to more variety.
10. Supporting local providers supports responsible land development.

For greater explanations of these 10 reasons, please visit http://www.lifebeginsat30.com/elc/2006/04/10_reasons_to_e.html.

On a more personal note, I'll give you my reasons for eating local foods whenever possible. It makes no sense to me to buy carrots, grown in California, from a grocery store when there is a struggling local farmer who will sell me fresher, tastier, more exotic carrots for the same price.

Having lived my whole life in the rural midwest, and seen our economy slide downhill, I can tell you firsthand how important it is to keep our money in the community. There is the study that shows for every $1 you spend locally it generates twice as much for the local economy. For example, I give $1 to a local farmer who then spends his/her money on items in our local stores, property taxes, other farmers, etc. When businesses are not owned locally, money leaves the community at every transaction.

My two oldest boys and I shelling locally-grown peas, 2008.

I was raised eating locally. This was definitely unusual for the 1980s, but my farm-raised mom would always buy fresh foods from farmers. We also have distant cousins around who farm and we would support them whenever possible as well. Our community has always had a farmers market. My mom would put up food each summer. This usually included sweet corn (which she cut off the cob and froze) as well as canning tomatoes. Some years also green beans, rhubarb, applesauce. There is no substitute for local tomatoes. The tomatoes in the grocery store should be left there. Seriously. They're poor substitutes for the real thing. They were picked before they were ripe, shipped thousands of miles. Plus the variety sold in grocery stores was chosen for it's thick skin (helps when shipping them, doncha know). Yuk. Grow your own. If you don't know how to can, toss them whole into freezer bags and freeze them for winter. Or support your local farmer's market! You can find your local market here: http://www.localharvest.org/ or contact your local university extension office.

Back to my mom. She taught me how to can and freeze foods. As her mother taught her. On and on backward through the generations. My family has never skipped a generation of local eating and food preservation. I'm very thankful for this, and hope to pass my knowledge onto others who may not have had the benefit of growing up this way.

My two oldest boys eating local sweet corn at a farm get-together about 1 mile from where it was grown and picked earlier that same day, summer 2008.

We also ate local meats growing up, as my family does today. You can buy directly from the farmer with other families (each purchase a quarter cow, half a pig, chickens, etc) and have them processed at your local meat locker. Your local meat locker also sells meats purchased from local farmers. Many of these farmers raise organic, grass-fed animals. Just ask.

Another way to find local foods is through your nearest food cooperative. Ask around, you may have one nearby. This consists of a group of people who order natural foods together to receive a reduced price. These foods are usually ordered from a corporation who sells to grocery stores, so they may not be local. However, as co-op people tend to support local foods there will probably be local foods available at your food pickup. Things such as local raw honey, fresh free-range eggs, meats, grains, fresh produce. The co-op I belong to in my small town offers all these and sometimes more.

As for taste and health, there is no substitute for eating local foods. Fruits and vegetables taste so much better when fresh and in season. Have you ever tried eating a grocery store peach in January? Leave it there. Buy some fresh, local peaches during the summer and can or freeze them instead. Same goes for all vegetables and fruits that are grown thousands of miles away and out-of-season. They just taste.... bland. Tough. Dry. Old. Not fresh.
Healthy? Not as much as a local vegetable. The vitamins are more intact the fresher the produce. Plus, if you know the farmer and maybe you've even visited or helped out on the farm, you know how it was grown. You know what they are or aren't putting on their crops. You will know if there is a non-organic disgusting mega-dairy next door that may give nasty runoff and pollute the crops (think e-coli).

Studies consistently prove that free-range eggs and meats are healthier than their corporate-farm counterparts. Tastier, too! Yum!

4 generations of my family putting up bushels of sweet corn picked that morning, summer 2008.

A recent phenomenon is heirloom vegetables. These are unique varieties of vegetables that have awesome tastes. Heirloom means the seeds have been passed down for generations. These vegetables have superior qualities. However, they usually don't make for good shipping... so they can only be bought locally. Want to try some? Find a grower at farmers market.

Local farmers also aren't likely to hire illegal immigrants for pennies on the dollar to harvest the crops.

Eat local! Support your local farmers!

One of our chest freezers full of local foods for winter, summer 2008.

If you are at all interested in this sort of thing, a great book to read is "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver. Although it is a non-fiction work, Barbara is a famous novelist. Thus, the book reads more like a great work of fiction - it's not boring or dry at all.


(I planted some of the lima bean variety shown on the front cover! They're so beautiful. They're growing well and I can't wait to taste them.)

Farmboys

I recently took my two oldest boys out to the farm with me. I worked, they played.



Boys at play. We can run free!



The boys are afraid of chickens. They're kind of menacing looking, I suppose. My 3 year-old wouldn't come anywhere near. My oldest will feed them weeds through the window but keeps his fingers far, far away.




I imagine it would be a blast to grow up on a farm. Aside from the dangers of boys climbing on old equipment (mine discovered a very sharp disk plow in the field across from our garden plot). Yikes. And imagine how much colder in the winter. When it's -10 in the city, it's probably -18 on the farm. No concrete jungle to keep it warm. No wind block from other houses. Each year, when I inevitably consider moving to the country, I keep in mind these things... Also the cost! It's much cheaper to rent an acre every year. Still, my mind envisions being able to look out my own kitchen window to vast acres of growing vegetables... I'm a lost cause.

The season for growing food

I wanted to show you all the farm plot so you can have a better idea of how big it is.

Perhaps a quarter of an acre or so plowed so far. Bigger if we need it to be.
The views.

My office.