A tide has shifted. The topics I have been interested in for a while are now taking off in a big way in my community of mom-friends. It is exciting to me that truly healthy food is an idea that more and more people are getting motivated to take action on. Now everyone wants to talk about the things going on in my head all the time.
The fev
er to grow has got me in its grasp and I am planning and planting (which it really is too early for, but I might just pull off some very early greens if I channel Eliott Coleman in just the right way). I am also putting as much nutrition into my family’s mouths as possible. Our Saturday lunch of shrimp and veggie spring rolls was enjoyed by all (most noticeably by “Mr. give me a big plate of meat” Paco). He said he thought it was delicious and filling.
My late fall rush to buy and dehydrate tons of kale before the market closed has paid off big time. Dehydrated kale goes into our meals 3-4 times a week. I am buying some fresh kale and chard too as well as cabbage to get fresh greens in our diet too. I am truly torn between buying local produce only (which there is none of basically) or upping the nutrition level with some fresh produce. We are eating lots of dehydrated summer squashes, beets, etc. We still have winter squashes that were purchased last fall at market which have hung in surprisingly well and should last us until we start getting some asparagus and greens off of our own farm. Despite my stores, the pull of some fresh produce is strong and justified.
So, this evening, as I feel I am getting Lily’s case of bronchitis, I am fortifying the soup with dried kale and the tomato sauce with fresh chard. I think one of the greatest disservices we can do our children is to not feed them well and teach them how to cook, grow, and appreciate truly good food. I have often said that Lily’s food sensitivities (and mine) are a blessing in disguise. When a family has to avoid gluten, dairy, processed sugar, and soy (among other things!), there is no way you can eat processed food. At first those restrictions seemed so limiting, but now I see them as freeing. We can eat real food, great food, and healthy food and we make it ourselves. Just like the often heard Pollan quote: “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants”
—–next day—-
It is not lost on my me that the things Lily and I can’t tolerate are many of the main building blocks of the industrial food complex’s greatest achievement–processed “non” food. When it comes down to it, standard American fare is repeated helpings of wheat, dairy, soy, sugar, and corn accompanied by lots of meat (fed the by-products of the industrial production). No wonder we can’t tolerate it, it has been so overused in this society for so long that our bodies are rebelling. Corn is the only thing on that list that we don’t come up sensitive too, but we work hard to avoid it also in it’s GMO form.
So, in the last few years our diet has grown increasingly better and bigger. My latest thinking is to do our best to avoid processsed food everywhere, not just at home. The more we take out of the “usual suspects” the more choice there seems to be. New avenues of taste are everywhere. Many traditional diets have wonderful things to offer us. For instance, last night we had purple rice with our broccoli and bell pepper stir fry. We have been feasting on sushi and veggie spring rolls too. I am about to go make myself a breakfast smoothie with kefir and our own frozen raspberries. I will throw in a little kale too.
The kale and lettuces planted several weeks ago now are doing well and I will have some micro-greens ready to go in a few weeks more. The magic of taking a tiny seed and fostering its development into a plateful of food never gets old with me. I know planting is what I was meant to do.
I am catching the fever early this year and already have some kale and lettuce growing indoors. I put my new potmaker to work and started some broccoli and various greens I hope I can finish in the greenhouse in early spring. I took some pics of my seed organizing and also of the potmaker. The potmaker is advertised to use with newspaper to create individual, biodegradable transplant pots. It is ingeniously simple. I ran some test and I think it works better with a stiffer paper. I use the 8.5 x 11 receipts from our business after I digitally file them. I just cut them in half long ways and add one staple to hold the whole thing together. Check it out:
Since so much of the installation was in 2008, 2009 was our first big fruit harvest and it kept me busy. Here is the run-down in chronological order:
Strawberries: I spent three weeks in May doing literally nothing but picking and processing strawberries! The harvest was huge and picking of them quite labor intensive. I had to pick every other day in order to keep up. They got turned into strawberry syrup (agave, not sugar sweetened) and canned or got turned into jam. We were making strawberry basil mojitos at La Scala and so they went there too. I turned that idea into strawberry basil jam–yum. This coming year I would like to turn some into pie filling. Planting all the strawberries in 2 of the raised beds was a serendipitous choice. Strawberries spread like wildfire.
Rhubarb: this was the first harvest year so the yield was light. Turned into a batch of strawberry rhubarb jam, a couple of rhubarb cakes, and a pie or two.
Ground Cherries: The plants are in the same family as tomatoes and tomatillos (nightshade family). These plants stay low to the ground and trail a bit. VERY prolific. It produces a small golden-colored “berry” in a paper husk (think tiny tomatillo). They have a great vanilla citrus flavor. Very easy to grow, tedious to pick. Made several pies and froze quite a bit and still left most of them sit there. Still have lots. Will not plant this year.
Raspberries: we had a small spring crop and then they came on heavy late summer all the way to frost. I picked and picked and picked and picked…….. I froze lots, made jam, and we ate plenty fresh. So delicious!
Blackberries–picked a handful only since they were planted fall 2008, but the canes went crazy and I am expecting this year will be a great crop.
Blueberries–planted this spring. Takes 6 years to get a real crop.
Apples–4 trees planted in 2008. All doing fine, but we will need to move them this spring. Much too close together and too close to the garden. Live and learn.
Peaches–2 planted in 2009
Pear—1 planted in 2009.
Our grapes–6 planted in 2008. Only 2 survive. Likely will plant more this year.
Too much to go through each and every variety grown. Here are the highlights:
Corn: first time growing. We grew corn and beans together. Beans did great, but corn so-so. I knew I had put it into heavy clay soil and then ignored it. Skip this next year. It is such a space hog and good sweet corn is easy to come by around here.
Beans: see above.
Lettuce: good
Broccoli: great crop this year and lots of side shoots
Cauliflower: so-so
Peas: grew just a few vines due to Lily’s allergy. Mostly just enough for me to eat in the garden. Yum!
Tomatillos: grown this year on landscape cloth for weed control. Grew like crazy, again! Had 3-4 times more than we could ever use. plant less!
Tomatoes: Grew so many and lost them all. 42 plants ripped out do to late blight. Small harvest before that. This year will not buy any plants, use only my own to control that possible disease vector. Will try to plant less! Got some Hungarian Hearts that were stunningly beautiful and delicious.
Carrots: Great harvest. Really do well in the raised beds.
Cucumbers: 4 varieties. We still love Mini Whites. Very big harvest of Mexican Sour Gherkins or “mouse melons.” Will try all new varieties this year. Too close together this year.
Eggplant: Hit hard with flea beetles. Minimal harvest. Dustbusting beetles did work, I just did not keep up.
Peppers: All did well. Harvest was down from previous year–I think due to cool summer
Summer Squashes: Wonderful harvest! Squash bugs not too active
Quinoa and huazontle: Rabbits downed all of it.
Beets: Planted in sandier bed this year. Yield not nearly as good as the year before. Also lost some to rabbits.
Kale: Amazing!
Chard: also good, should have planted more
Vining winter squashes: planted in the second pasture this year to keep the massive vines out of the main garden. pathetic harvest.
Here is a recipe for my current favorite dinner. These are super-yummy and nutritious comfort food that can me made in advance or in stages.
ready for the oven
yum
Those of you who want precise measurements will be frustrated by this “recipe.”
Take a head of green cabbage. Flip it over and use a knife to cut a cone into the core. You can get the core out or not, but scoring that area will allow you to peel the leaves away later. Simmer enough water in a large pot so that you can cover the head of cabbage. Let the head simmer while you start the filling. This is what I added on this occasion:
- Ground beef
- pre-cooked rice
- bell peppers ( I used dehydrated from my garden)
- dehydrated kale
- onion
- lots of garlic
- salt, pepper, oregano, and paprika
- Tabasco
- canned crushed tomatoes (I used my own crushed)
You can make the filling however you wish. You could change nearly everything. Other ingredients that come to mind are: quinoa, beans, eggplant, raisins, lamb)
Once you see the cabbage head getting loose and a bit translucent on the outer leaves, take it out of the water and let it cool a bit. When you can handle it, carefully remove the leaves. If they are not easily removed, put it back in the water.
Fill each leaf and roll it up burrito style. Lay them side by side in a casserole dish. I always make extras with the goal of using thewhole head of cabbage and freezing enough for another meal. For freezing, I separate them on a cookie sheet, freeze hard and then bag them up. If you do it this way, you can remove them one by one as you want them.
Now, the sauce. To me, this is the important part. A cabbage roll is a cabbage roll if it has this sweet and sour tomato sauce. I take the now empty filling pan, add a large can of crushed or diced or pureed tomatoes. Also add a 1/4 c of white vinegar and 1/4 c of sweetener ( I use agave nectar, but brown sugar is nice if you can have it). I season with salt, Tabasco, pepper, garlic cloves (just a bit!), and a sprinkle of cinnamon. Taste as you go and you will get the seasoning right. I also add as much chicken broth needed to make enough sauce to make sure the rolls are well immersed in the sauce. They don’t have to be covered, but should be surrounded with sauce. Adjust seasonings, sugar, and vinegar as needed to get enough sauce.
Cover with foil and bake at 425 for 30 minutes.
We began 2009 with no goats. We had sold 2 dairy goats the previous summer and lost 2 to disease. We had been through a lot with goats and were not eager to jump into that again. I knew from my foray into dairying that ran from January-September 2008, that we were no longer interested in a dairy herd.
However, we all missed the goats. We loved having them and missed seeing them out in the pasture. We also missed the great brush control they provide. We thought we would be interested in one of the miniature breeds, but were not really looking.
The local zoo, where our daughter does summer camp, has a large farm “petting” herd of Nigerian Dwarf goats. I knew every year they had plenty of new babies for kids to cuddle so I inquired about where those goats went. I was put on a waiting list. Sometime in late August, long after we had forgotten all about it, we got a call. The last 3 were still available. After filing an application, we were told we could take all 3 home.
The first week of September, I put the large dog kennel into the back of the Element and Lily and I went to pick them up. The transfer went well and they seemed a bit nervous but also excited to be moved into a large pasture with loads and loads of fresh pasture and browse. Lillian dubbed them all with literary names–Charlie (Willy Wonka), Stella (Stellaluna), and Horton (Dr. Seuss).
All went well for about a month or so until I noticed some signs of anemia in Stella and Charlie. I blogged the details but many shots, veterinary intervention, and one necropsy later we had lost Charlie to coccidiosis. The loss was pretty devastating after the rough time we had the previous year with goats. Of course, Charlie was the most affectionate and we loved him. Horton and stella have normal blood tests and seem to be doing well.
Stella and Horton seem to be doing fine now. they have been moved into the barn and have enjoyed exploring some new digs. After getting shots for 3 different meds, I am slowly winning them back over. After about a month of shots they would look at me and run. Horton loves to have his wattles scratched and he seems to trust me most of the time. Stella, always the most stand-offish, is a much harder sell. She is warming up slowly.
Of course, most of the shots were happening at the exact same time that my husband was out of the country. It was amazing luck that my parents and nephews chose that time to come for a visit. it got pretty hard to catch 2 goats to administer injections and oral meds. I could do it in the beginning, but after they learned all my tricks, it was nearly impossible. I honestly don’t know how I would have gotten it accomplished without their help.
The sub-zero deep freeze also came while my husband was out of the country. I did my best to put up heat lamps and water heaters and my folks helped out. I am all about doing things for myself, but a one adult farm would be a very tall order.
I’m going to do a series of posts this week as a year in review. This may be of interest to readers, but will be of great help to me when I plan for next year. The topics I will review are:
- Animals
- Garden Vegetables
- Fruit
- Preserving the Harvest
- Equipment/Structures
We began the year with 11 hens. These are the survivors from our Araucana flock of 15 we began in 2008. In March we received our order of 25 ornamental layers and 11 roosters (we only ordered 4). Raising up this new brood went along pretty uneventfully. We were prepared for the about 10% inevitable loss.
By early summer, it was clear we had more roosters than we had bargained for or even could handle. For the size of our flock we knew 2 roosters would be ideal. It was clear from the start we had one really stand out rooster. Not only could he handle his obvious duties just fine, but he also protected his ladies–calling them to the food and escorting them outside and calling them in at the first sign of danger. He got a name, Jethro, and he continues watching out for the flock.
We had to separate the majority of the extra roosters until we were ready to get them in the freezer. The poor hens were terrified and harassed. So, with the help of an employee, all of the roosters got sent to the freezer except Jethro, a beautiful Rose Comb Brown we had ordered for looks alone named Prince Erik, an Araucana Rooster named Prince Charming (saved with hopes we could increase of number of Araucanas), and a small but beautiful Silver Polish Rooster dubbed Elvis. Elvis seemed to be a slow developer and we honestly kept him because of his beauty and the fact that he might as well be a hen! He does not “bother” the ladies much.
It was immediately obvious we still had too many roosters. It was hard to part with Prince Erik. He really was gorgeous, but he was a bully. He was not nice to the flock and most especially us. He would occasionally come after us so he had to go. We also parted with Prince Charming. He was also beautiful but not a very good rooster. So, Jethro and Elvis are our roosters now and they oversee a flock of 25 hens. Elvis has matured and he crows and has charmed some of the ladies, but it is clear Jethro is king, and a benevolent one.
From the very beginning there were 2 polish hens who were small and spent most of their time hiding in a corner. We thought perhaps they were disabled (mentally probably) or had bad vision. One is black and the other, a buff color, died. The black one, as of yet, unnamed, continued to hide. She seems to have poor balance and we assumed very poor vision. Any one looking at the bottom line would not keep this little hen. Our goals, however, are to supplement our protein with eggs and an occasional chicken, but to let these chickens be themselves and to learm from them. We did not think she would ever lay eggs. Just in the last 2 months, she seemed to calm down a bit and let us cuddle her and she has been laying. Right after Thanksgiving, she integrated herself into the rest of the flock and now acts completely normally! I think she was just shy. She is also the one sho loves to be picked up and cuddled.
As I have blogged about, we have one White Cochin hen, dubbed White Pants, who has “gone broody” twice now. Her first attempt, this fall, ended with her throwing in the towel about 6 days to early. The latest one, this December, was fouled up by me. She was getting harassed by the other hens and I took it upon myself to move her to another room. I moved her and her 4 eggs and she never sat on them again. She was quite close to some successful hatchings and I feel awful about it.
In late winter, we got 5 guinea fowl in trade for some goat milking equipment. We knew that the guineas were great at insect control and we would get eggs from them as well. We also knew they were notoriously loud. Loud was right. The problem was they were so loud they upset the hens who hid inside and all but stopped laying. Guineas can fly and it was nice to see them exploring the yard and sitting in the trees. Within a week or two the guineas stayed just around the barn since they had learned that was the way to not have dogs bothering you. So after 2 months, we had guineas who were not controlling insects on the farm and chickens who no longer laid. Goodbye guineas! We returned them to the farm they came from. I think if our dogs did not have the run of the property around the barn, it may have worked out fine.
So, we come to the end of the poultry year in review. Just one more thing to note: Jethro seems to be healing nicely from his frostbitten wattle.
