Oct 17

Well, can you believe it? I'm home. For good. I'll miss Heather, the boys, Buddy-the-farm-dog, the cows and the farm itself. I'll miss the work (mostly!), being outside all day, the CSA members I met, Becky and Diane who helped on pizza nights.... I could go on forever, I think.

It is nice to be home, though. While running some errands today, we stopped for lunch and it hit me, right in the middle. I turned to Erica with a smile on my face and said: "Hey! I don't have to pack up and go back to the farm tomorrow!" It felt good to be able to say that.

Anyway, it's difficult to sum up the summer but, as encouraged by Heather, I've written some reflections on my experience as a whole. Since it seemed a little like a 6th grade assignment, I titled it "What I Did on Summer Vacation". ;)

(Oh, and thank you, to you all who have followed along. Trying to express myself during all of this has been easier when I know there are people reading!)

What I Did on Summer Vacation

Every time I tried to start summarizing my summer here at Suncrest Gardens, I ended up with a novel. Trying to condense it into a manageable size is difficult! I learned so many things, some that are even hard to verbalize.

I arrived here with some basic knowledge about gardening and my goal was to see if small-scale farming was something I wanted (or even COULD) do. Honestly, there were some days when I doubted both of those, but at the end of it all, I say yes.

The list of things I've learned beyond that is long and varied. Obviously, a lot of it was about veggies. I now know how to grow and prepare: veggies that I'd never heard of before, veggies I've heard of but  never eaten, and veggies that I thought I didn't like, but if prepared differently are actually good!

I learned that the importance of healthy soil goes beyond just throwing a shovelful of compost in the garden every spring (although, that's not a bad first step!). I learned about plant families, their characteristics, likes and dislikes. I learned about how to take care of veggies when planting, growing, picking and after they've been harvested. And, I think every day showed me a new step in the “Circle of Life”.

The knowledge I gained went far beyond growing veggies, though. And, I think those other areas might be where I learned the most. I believe there is a unique way of thinking involved in running a successful small-scale farm. (Rule #1: Don't call it a “hobby farm”! It is a business, not a hobby.)

This can, and should, be work you enjoy doing, but the “successful” part is all in the numbers. And the numbers have to be on your mind all the time. How many pizzas do you have to sell to make it worth starting the oven? What is the value to the customer in being open “rain or shine”? Even during “rain”? How many CSA members do you need to have to make another drop-off site worth the time? Worth the gas? What is the retail value of this box of veggies? The 1st box of the season? The 10th box of the season? Is it fair to the member receiving the box? What is the cost of raising a chicken? Feed, water, chore hours, equipment, processing? What do they provide in return? Eggs? Meat you can use or sell (at what price?)? Do they provide entertainment to the people coming to the farm?

Everything has a value—even though some are fuzzier and harder to quantify. But, to be successful, I will have to know what each enterprises' value is to the big picture.

It was also reinforced to me that “thinking outside the box”—as cliché as it now is—is vital. Using materials already on hand instead of investing money in something new; not reinventing the wheel; learning to do some things yourself, but also making use of other people's skills as well (when your time is better spent elsewhere); having diverse sources of income to minimize financial risks; bartering and other creative solutions that solve more than one persons problems; networking and really being part of a community.

Even though these ideas weren't really new to me, seeing them played out over and over and over, here on the farm as well as across the community made their importance stand out to me.

This summer has been invaluable to me in so many ways. My ideas of what I want to do have solidified, my faith in my abilities has grown, and I know that I can grow beautiful, healthy food that people will enjoy and be happy to pay for.

Oct 12

Today, we packed up the last CSA boxes for the summer. Potatoes, onions, 2 kinds of squash, garlic, purple carrots, collard greens and perpetual spinach. Much smaller boxes than the peak of the season, but still 9 different items.

This afternoon I started separating the garlic bulbs into cloves for planting. The area of the garden they will go in is all tilled up and some "nice" fresh compost has been laid down. After planting the individual bulbs, we'll cover them with a thick layer of straw to help protect them over the winter.

Late last week we finished clearing out the hoop house, tilled it and planted winter spinach. I was noticing today that the first seeding is starting to germinate! When I first came to the farm, last February for a little preview of the farm before I officially became an intern, it was almost 60º in the hoop house, and the spinach was growing like crazy. Yet another example of the "circle of life".

I was home last weekend (late Sat night through Mon evening) and had a very hard time leaving to come back here, even though I knew there was only one week left.

But, now that I am here, I already feel like this last week is slipping away from me. I'm trying to savor my time, and it feels like it's flying by!

Tuesday is over, tomorrow she's going to be showing me some of her systems for bookkeeping and record keeping (I wanted to learn about those kinds of things too), and we'll be prepping more garlic for planting. Tomorrow night, I've got dinner plans with A&K.

Then, it's Thursday already. Hopefully, the garlic will be ready for planting then, and we're going to do pizza prep. Thursday night is potentially a reward night for Ashlan's good behavior at school (she was having some trouble with that!) and he chose to go to a roller skating rink! I want to go, because the boys will be with their dad this weekend, so it will be my last chance to see them.

Friday we have plans to go to an auction held by some of the local Amish. They use this as a chance to get rid of any leftover produce they have before winter. (Last year, she got 5 lb bags of potatoes for $1!) We also may bring the older group of chickens to them. They are several years old and only producing a few eggs per day (when I arrived in April, they were laying 2 dozen + per day) and it's not very cost-effective to have them processed... there's not enough meat to them. The Amish will butcher the chickens themselves, so there is no additional cost.

Friday night is my "last supper". Each intern gets to choose the meal for their last night here. I chose stuffed manicotti, salad and garlic bread. That brings us to Saturday pizza, and then I'm done. Wow. How did that happen?!

Oct. 7

Well, it's feeling like summer again! It was 74º today, and they are predicting 82º for tomorrow and 84º for pizza on Saturday!! Good think I didn't bring home all my shorts and tank tops yet! I really thought the 80º days were over, but I guess not.

We made more raspberry jam yesterday, and cleaned some of the mountains of winter squash and potatoes. Today we harvested the last of the carrots (purple!), leeks and cabbage (red!). Then, washed the carrots and more squash. It's a good thing it's warm in the afternoons these days with all this washing going on! H said last year, practically all of October was cold and rainy, making these jobs pretty miserable.

Tomorrow we'll be prepping for pizza. There's no music, but with the nice weather, we could get a big turnout. Although, maybe everyone will figure they should get their leaves raked on possibly the last warm Saturday of the season....??? Who knows. I've given up trying to guess!

Oct. 4

Ok. So I did an estimated count of the squash we harvested the other day:

Pie pumpkins: 115
Delicata: 360
Butternut: 125
Buttercup: 50
Spaghetti: 120
Acorn: 60
Baby Hubbard: 23

Phew!

The "Fall Harvest Fest" went pretty well on Saturday. We sold about 70 pizzas. There were lots of kids and families out for the hay rides and pumpkins, and live music is always a draw. We had a big bonfire going all afternoon, and everyone seemed to have a good time. It was certainly the kind of thing I would have loved to take my kids to when they were little. We still have pumpkins left (in addition to the "free pumpkin with a pizza" she sold about 20-25 others), and the hay wagon is still set up, so we'll be offering both those things again this Saturday.

There are only two more deliveries for CSA boxes this summer. She does do a winter share also, and has 15 people signed up for this year. It includes mostly root/storage veggies (above-mentioned squash, potatoes, onions, etc.) but also some mixed salad greens (as long as the weather permits) and spinach from the hoop house. Also, a dozen fresh eggs.

And, something completely new this winter.... She's going to be hosting a series of "Dinner on the Farm" events once a month, November-February. There will be a multi-course meal featuring as much farm-raised food as possible...think squash soup, spinach salad with raspberry vinaigrette, etc. She has already lined up local speakers to come in and talk about the history of the area ("Legends of the Valley" is the over-all theme) and is looking into the possibility of a single musician (violinist, etc.) to play during the meal, etc. All of this will be set up in the warmth of the new greenhouse that is just about finished! She's going to put a wood stove inside, and a long table down the middle for seating up to 24. She had fliers out for it at pizza last Saturday, and there were a lot of people that seemed very interested.

It seems like a great way to spend a cold winter night!

Sept 25

The big news this week is the storm that came through Wednesday night through Thursday. A "100-year flood" they're calling it. (But, it's the SECOND one of the summer....How can that be?!?) Anyway, 9-1/2" of rain. Seriously. 9-1/2".

Once again, the gully through the pasture became a rapidly flowing river, moving the water through the property pretty efficiently. At the edge of the property there's a large metal pipe under the road (a drain pipe? I don't know the terminology) to carry the water from the gully to the creek on the other side of the road. Just like last time (Aug. 12-13) the pipe was overwhelmed and the water pooled up until it went over the road at the end of the driveway. As far as I know that area never became impassible (is that right? it went through the spell-checker), but there were many, many other roads in the area that did. The town of Arcadia (and others, probably) were evacuated. Again, we got a bit of a mess here, but no real damage.

Part of the fence did come down, though, and the curious cows found their way through a shallow section of the "river" (with their friends, the llamas, following along). Once again, I was here alone, with animals on the loose! And, in my attempts to "herd" them back to the pasture, I managed to get the golf cart (my trusty steed, remember?!) stuck in the mud. Things like that never happened to Drover, in the movie Australia!

I was forced to call in reinforcements this time. A neighbor and two passers-by came to my rescue, dragging the golf cart out of the mud (and rapidly rising river) and getting the animals back into the pasture.

All's well that ends well, I guess. It's almost funny now, when I think about it, but I had my moments of panic at the time!

A cool day is on tap for pizza today. Possibly rain this afternoon, too. Oh well. Such is the season, right?

Going home for the weekend again. H thinks things here will be wrapping up around the middle of October, so this may be my last "visit" home? We'll see.

Sept 22

The weather is our master!

More times than I can count, our daily (even weekly) to-do list is planned around the weather. It rained last night? The field is probably too wet to weed or till. Hot and sunny today? Harvest the leaf lettuce as early as possible, and get it out of the sun. Going to rain like the dickens tomorrow? Get outside tasks done today, and save the indoor stuff for tomorrow.

Today, we picked over five gallons of raspberries between the two of us. They are still going strong, and we're having trouble keeping up with them. Now we have a little issue with mold developing on some of the most mature ones, if we don't get them picked in time. And, of course it spreads like crazy once it gets going. We knew the rain that was predicted for tonight and all day tomorrow was not going to help the situation at all, so raspberries got bumped to the TOP of the list today.

Tomorrow, because the freezers (there are 3--one regular fridge/freezer unit, plus 2 chest freezers) are already full of berries (and other stuff, of course) it's going to be Jam Making Day for me! Also, because of the rain, for H, it's Drive-to-Green-Bay-Day! The clear panels for the greenhouse are ready, and in the interest of saving $300 for shipping, she's driving (almost 250 miles each way) to pick them up. Yikes. I'd rather make jam!

Recap of the last few days: Last Saturday's Pizza was a partial bust. Very cold for the regular pizza hours, so less than 20 pizzas total. A & K--the troopers!--came, and even brought friends!

After the "public" hours, the co-op from Winona held a staff party at the farm. They ordered about 10 pizzas over the 10 that is included in the party package. Lots of families/kids running and playing around, and checking out all the animals. A chilly evening, to be sure, but they all seemed prepared for it, and seemed to have a great time socializing.

This week's CSA box: Potatoes, garlic, peppers, "delicata" squash, broccoli (or cauliflower for some!), leeks, perpetual spinach, leaf lettuce and a bundle of cilantro and dill just for fun! I should also mention that, over the last few weeks, everyone has gotten a pint of raspberries, just not all the same week. The boxes are getting lighter (at peak, a full size share box weighed 30 pounds!) and some things are on their last harvest, like the broccoli and cauliflower--they were mostly the side-shoots from the main heads that were part of the boxes a couple weeks ago.

One other distraction in my day today was filling 5 additional 1/2 share CSA boxes. They were part of fundraiser for a local school. Instead of the normal gift-wrap/candles/candy sales that so many schools do, and people are sick of buying, or just plain don't want, the school (through some very dedicated and motivated organizers) decided to plan their own local-foods fundraiser. They approached  a lot of local food purveyors and asked them to offer products for the school kids to sell. The producers still got paid--it wasn't a donation, per se, but the school increased the price of each item by a certain percentage, that the school would receive. H offered a 1/2 share CSA box (5 sold), packages of farm-raised lamb kabob meat (4 sold) and pizza gift certificates (4 sold).

By-products: Raising awareness of local foods and local food producers, and getting her name out there.

Sept 13

Today was "Sunday" for me. With Pizza now on Saturdays, my weekends are Sunday and Monday, so even though it's Monday, it felt like Sunday...you follow?!?

Yesterday, I ran some errands (which translates into a 1/2 hour drive--each way--to Winona to get to a Walmart!) and  a garage sale I heard about in Alma. I hit the mother lode of baby girl clothes! Best of all, she'd been born in the winter, so there was a lot of cold-weather gear in little-bitty sizes! Score! The only thing that stopped me from buying the place out was that I'd only gotten $20 from the cash machine. Ended up with 5 long-sleeved, footed play suits, 3 pairs of pants, one long-sleeved top,  a pink cable-knit suit with a fuzzy hood and little mittens to cover her hands, one completely adorable summer outfit that I hope she'll fit into, and something that I don't think existed when I had babies.... It's a padded little bed that you can put on your bed. The baby can sleep with you, without you worrying about rolling over on her. It  even has a little night light so you can check on the baby in the dark. And, it folds up so you can bring it with you and the baby can sleep on someone else's bed, too. Until she can push herself up and/or move around, of course. I've got an email into the manufacturer to see if I can get a different cover for it.

I spent today pretty quietly, mostly working on a sewing project, but also laundry, and some cleanup in my room.

Next Monday is Heather's youngest son's 3rd birthday, and I made him a sock monkey! He's big into tractors, and stuff like that, but it's hard to sew a John Deere! I hope he likes the monkey. I think it turned out pretty cute!

Sept 11

I hope today finds everyone happy and healthy and that we all took at least a moment or two to remember those who lost their lives, and those who lost a loved one, on this day 9 years ago.

Today was the second-ever Saturday pizza day. Because the number of people coming out to the farm on Thursdays has always dropped so dramatically after the kids start school, she decided to try Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. in September and October. Last week there were about 20 pizzas. Today 40. We'll see if word gets around. We'll also see how long the weather holds. We were very fortunate that, with all the rain we got this summer, none of it was on Thursday night!

A photographer from Midwest Living magazine was here today, also. The article they are preparing is expected to run in next May's issue. Magazines have to plan their articles so far in advance to get complete stories, pictures, etc., and have them published at a time that is meaningful to the reader. We're still not sure of the gist of the article, or how prominently the farm will be featured.

My "weekends" are now Sunday and Monday. No big deal to me, really. I haven't had consistent Saturday-Sunday weekends for about 7 or 8 years now!

I'm staying at the farm this "weekend" to work on some projects I haven't been able to get to with Labor Day weekend and all. Ethan is turning 3 in about a week and a half and I want to make him a sock monkey! Shhh! Don't tell!

Sept 8

Ah. Here we are, firmly in September. Labor Day weekend is over, there has been a slight chill to the morning air, some leaves are even starting to change color.

Thoughts are shifting around here as well. Projects that will need to be started before the ground freezes are being planned (most notably a new greenhouse above the root cellar). Seeds for the winter cover crops are being purchased and seeding them is on the weekly to-do list. Pizza has shifted to Saturdays, 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. to better accommodate the back-to-school set. And the laying hens out in the field have their winter plans formalized. (For a variety of reasons, they will be going for a "visit" to a nearby Amish farm This is similar to a "field trip".)


Things already seem a little more relaxed for us, too. The produce we are harvesting for the CSA boxes isn't quite so fragile as the things we packed in those first weeks in June. Now we are able to harvest things when they are ready, and we have the time, and they can be held in the walk-in cooler until they are distributed to the members.  And, just the number of different items in a box is going down as well. At the peak, a CSA box had 15 different items in it,  and it weighed almost 30 lbs! This week, although I didn't weigh a box, there were only 11 items. (Still, quite a bounty, though, really.)

The weather (especially) feels good to me, and seeing things come full circle is amazing. Still a lot going on, but a new mindset.

Aug 31

Wow. Seems strange to write that date! August is OVER!

There is still a lot going on here on the farm, but gears seem to be shifting again. I noticed it before, when we shifted from planting and weeding to weeding and harvesting. Now, there is actually not much weeding going on (well, the collards could use a little attention, but...) and the harvesting is finishing for some crops. One row of cucumbers has been tilled under (there is one more that is being very fruitful...the full-share CSA's got 6 in their boxes today!). A row of yellow squash and zucchini have slowed production considerably. (There are two more short row of zucchini, green and yellow.) The beans, which have been the bane of my existence (OK, I guess that's a bit of an exaggeration...) are done for the year.

The poor, poor tomatoes, also. They have had the deck stacked against them almost from the beginning. We were delayed in getting them trellised, we were delayed in getting them mulched, they were overcome with weeds, completely saturated with 2 occasions of +5" of rain and many others of lesser amounts, most accompanied by high winds...the poor things were fighting a losing battle. And, after the hot spell we had a couple weeks ago, shortly after they were really coming into full flower production, I learned  something about tomato plants I didn't know before. If the overnight temps don't fall below 70º, the flowers will drop off the plants. No flowers = no tomatoes.

Whether it's a good thing, or a bad thing, most other area farms are experiencing the same fate with their tomatoes. Featherstone Farm is a large CSA farm located in Rushford, MN, just south of I90, between Rochester and La Crosse. They estimate they've lost $130,000 in crops this year from weather-related issues alone. Obviously, our troubles are nothing compared to that! But, the weather has certainly taken it's toll.

As some crops finish, though, there are other things to take their place. The collards, for example! And, we've planted more successions of leaf and head lettuce. There's more plantings of broccoli, cabbage, cilantro and dill. We haven't even gotten into the winter squash yet, and, oh gosh. I can't even remember what else is still out there. It's different, though. And some rows are done for the year. They will be getting cover crops planted soon, so the weeds don't move in! (The cover crops she has chosen will stay in the ground for the rest of the season. The frost will kill them off, but, they'll stay on the ground to protect it from erosion, etc. The dead plants will be tilled under in the spring adding organic matter to the soil.)

This coming Thursday will be our last "Pizza Night". We will be open, with pizza available, on Saturdays, from 11:00 to 6:00 throughout September and October, though. It will be more of a "harvest" festival kind of atmosphere. Hopefully, if that works into peoples' schedules better, we can get some folks out here!

Aug 24

Well, a little behind again. I always have great intentions about keeping up....

The week is going well. Yesterday was hot, but today, much better. Even so, lots of short, easier to accomplish tasks makes me feel like we're accomplishing things. The row of squash that has always been such a pain to harvest is slowing down in it's "old age". The beans as well. There are newer rows of each, but they are shorter rows and feel easier to manage. I never realized I was so susceptible to "Jedi Mind Tricks".

Got the CSA boxes packed today. Actually finished packing before noon for the first time since C left. Another rainbow of nutrition: White garlic; yellow beans & squash; green kale, broccoli, cukes & zucchini; purple eggplant & beans; red peppers, watermelon & tomatoes. Doesn't it make your mouth water?!?! Throw in an herb share with parsley, rosemary, basil and oregano and I'm in heaven!

We were inspired for dinner: Buschetta with fresh tomato, basil and garlic and some "research" into possible appetizers for the upcoming family vacation to Madeline Island.

Tomorrow is delivery of the CSA boxes. I'll be helping out this week, since H can barely fit all the boxes in her van, and this week there are watermelons, too! I volunteered for the Winona delivery and will be having dinner with A while I'm there! Can't wait to see him!

Aug. 20

Another successful Pizza Night last night. 124 pizzas! Not a record, but a good night. We were all a little delirious by the end of the night. There were several larger groups. One was a company party with 11 pizzas (which we knew about ahead of time) and there were a couple others with 5-7 pizzas each. It all adds up. And, with her new addition this year of a beer license, people are able to, ahh... occupy themselves with some grown-up beverages while they wait for their pizza.

She is also taking advantage of the wait times with a couple of "appetizers". We're serving chips and salsa in a little paper boat, and for the last couple weeks, a melon bowl with fresh,  naturally grown cantaloupe and watermelon. If they tell you when you order that your pizza that it will be an hour-and-a-half wait, but would you like some chips and salsa or a melon bowl?!?! What are you going to say? Ah, Yes, please! And a couple extra beers! Woo hoo! Suddenly a $24 order becomes a $39 order. No brainer.

Today, Friday was a little laid back. Late start, then only a couple of tasks. Harvest beans from the newer lanes (that only took until 12:45!!) and try to get through the summer squash/zucchini and cukes. Got through some, but then had to get up to the Cities.

An uneventful drive home (always good!) and a fun evening with Erica, Shane and John.

Erica & Shane have officially given notice at their current  place and, after months of minor conflicts that are starting to accelerate, are moving their stuff in here. Will make for a full house, but, semper gumby, right???

(Semper Fi... the motto of the marines, "Always Faithful"??? Semper Gumby is "Always Flexible"!!)

Aug 17

Today's laugh comes from one of the crazy roosters.

This guy is quite the athlete. He can get up and over a 8'+ fence by a kind of combination of running and flying up the fence. Quite a site to see, actually. When he is on one side or the other, though, the place he wants to be is the other side. He tries to make you feel sorry for him, but he is perfectly capable of getting up and over any time he wants.

Today during afternoon chores, I gave them some fresh grain in the feeders inside. Then, I went out into their yard to check their water. He was up on top of the fence, pacing back and forth. All the other chickens had gone inside to get some of the grain. The little guy on the fence was acting all insulted that they were having some kind of fun without him. He was squawking away, going back and forth, back and forth. Finally, he couldn't stand it anymore (or no one was paying any attention to him), and, he works up the courage fly down and see what all the excitement is about. Except, he completely mis-calculates, and smacks head-first in the the side of the barn!

Probably not very sympathetic of me, but I literally laughed out loud at that!

He fell back, ruffled his feathers a bit, (almost as if he was saying "I meant to do that") and made his way, uneventfully, into the barn to get his dinner.

And put a smile on my face.

Aug 15

Last week was simply too hot and humid to think about anything, other than just getting as much of the to-do list done as possible. And, even that was difficult.

The weather has broke now though, and I'm looking forward to a much more pleasant week!

Looks like I'm two weeks behind on Pizza Night updates.... August 5th was another record-breaker! 160 pizzas! I still can hardly believe it. A&K were here. They arrived just before 8:00 he said, and they could see how crowded it was, so they ordered right away. Each pizza is numbered, so a quick check of the last pizza out of the oven, subtracted from your order number gives you how many are in line ahead of you. Times that by the 2 minutes to cook each pizza, and you've got your wait time. They got their pizza at 10:00. I heard some people arrived after they did, but decided not to wait and went somewhere else.

There wasn't live music, but it had been a nice day. And, maybe being a few weeks after 4th of July, and a few weeks before Labor Day was a factor...people looking for something to do. We've given up trying to figure out WHY people come when they do!

Speaking of WHY.... Even with the weather forecasters carrying on about the heat index of over 100º last Thursday, the 12th, we still had 60 pizzas. I know. By comparison, that's pretty minor, but I can't imagine wanting, on a day like that, to be just hanging out, outside, eating a hot pizza. Ugh. Oh well. To each his own, right?

A big storm came through early Friday morning. I first heard the rumblings of the thunder a little after 3:00 a.m. Woke up a few times as the storm crashed through, and when I got up at 6:00, it was starting to let up a little. We got 5-1/2" of rain!

Through the pasture is a gully, or waterway, they purposely "sculpted" I guess is the best word. It runs from one end of the property to the other, with the purpose of diverting excess rainfall. And, yes, it works! Friday morning outside my door, was a river. All the animals were safe, but some of the fencing posts were being overtaken. We unplugged the fence and moved the ones we could get to. There's a lot of branches and other debris laying around the area. Also, the flour mill next door is in the process of adding a warehouse, so there is a large section of their property that isn't graded. With all the water rushing toward the end of the shared driveway and out to the road, some of the farm's section of the drive was washed up pretty bad. But overall, minimal damage.

I stayed on the farm this weekend, and had a couple nice quiet days. (H and her boys went to a cousin's lake place for a couple days.) I'm thinking of going home next weekend. And looking forward to our annual vacation to Madeline Island over Labor Day. Then, we'll be full into September, and I imagine here on the farm we'll start thinking about fall crops and frost dates. Wow.

Aug 10

Miserably hot and humid, but the CSA must go on!

This week, for a full share, from left to right:

3 summer squash

3 Regular cucumbers

3 pickling cukes

1 large head garlic

4 sweet peppers

2 large bunches kale

1 large eggplant

8 ears sweet corn

3 zucchini

2 lbs tomatoes

1-1/2 lbs carrots

1 cantaloupe

1 large cabbage

1 patty pan

Aug 4

This week's CSA boxes were beautiful (again!). Carrots, cauliflower, summer squash, zucchini, cukes, perpetual spinach (it's actually a variety of chard, not spinach), sweet corn and tomatoes! Yum!

This week is Cynthia's last week on the farm. We will all miss her and her hard work. We've had some great conversations and lots of laughs together. I guess it is customary for the interns to pick the menu for one of their last dinners on the farm. She chose a vegetable lasagna with white sauce, garlic bread and cheesecake for dessert. It was all so good! For the lasagna, we used an Alfredo sauce with ricotta cheese melted in, and layered it with slices of eggplant, zucchini and tomato, and a sauteed mixture of corn, peppers, onion, garlic and shredded carrots. All the veggies except the onion and peppers were from the farm! "Eating Local" doesn't get more local than that!

Oh, and the homemade cheesecake had a raspberry sauce with berries from the farm, too! Delicious!

The weather forecast for tomorrow is: Beautiful. Less humid, mostly sunny, a little bit cooler. We also have live music scheduled, so we are expecting big crowds for Pizza Night. We're thinking of planning for 120 dough balls. We'll see if that's enough!

Cow Adventures

I was at the farm by myself this past weekend. I guess I mentioned that before, but it's important to note it again as I retell my cow adventures from Saturday.

Everything was going well. After lunch I decided to indulge in a nap. When I woke up, I wanted to start on a new apron I'd been planning in my head. I found my material, got the machine set up, and when I glanced out the window of the door, there was a cow looking it at me. Being able to see the cows in the pasture from my window is not unusual. This cow, however, was RIGHT outside the window. Not in the pasture, on the other side of my door. Pardon my language, but the first thing out of my mouth was, "Oh, shit."

There are 6 cows on the farm. Three of them are about 2 years old. Three of them are just a few months old. The guy outside my door was one of the big ones. His head is about as high as mine, he out-weighs me by, oh, about 500 pounds, and he has horns. Heather grew up on a dairy farm and has told stories of how dangerous the bulls/steers that they had occasionally could be. She says they can even "smell" (or sense, somehow) certain hormonal fluctuations in a girl. Yikes. Now I've got three of these beasts wandering around loose.

They were already moving along by the time I got my shoes on and came out the door. I had several advantages: #1, cows don't normally move very fast. I suppose they could, if they wanted to, but they mostly just mosey along, #2, they're not accustomed to close human contact for the most part and tend to shy away if you get too close, #3, these guys have been together their whole lives, so they had no inclination toward scattering, #4, I'd just watched the movie "Australia" about a cattle ranch!

I wanted something big I could wave around to help guide them in the right direction (and to make myself look bigger). I couldn't find a branch or anything like that, but there was a plastic kiddie bat laying in the grass! One of those bright fluorescent-colored ones that are about 3 times normal size so little kids can hit a ball easier, you know? So, I start talking to them, in my sternest voice, waving this bat around, banging it on a tree or the ground, etc. to get their attention.

Well, there's only one of me, and I didn't have the benefit of being on horseback, like Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman did. So, they kind of just looked at the crazy woman with the bat, and instead of walking across the yard along the shortest route back to the pasture gate, they went up the hill, toward the house, and the gardens, which are behind the house. As they meandered their way out to the gardens, I tried to circle around to the side of them (through the prickly raspberry bushes, of course) and get them back down the hill toward the pasture.

I wanted them to be leery of me, but not too frightened. I don't know if cows have a "fight or flight" instinct, but I knew I didn't want to push it, just in case. They did head down the hill to get away from me (crazy human with the orange bat, again), but they went past the pasture gate and into one of the lower gardens.

That's when I saw that the llamas were out, too! Mama Llama is even more shy around humans than the cows, so she scurried when she saw me coming. I didn't see where she went, but later I realized she went back to the safety of the pasture the same way they all got out. The other llama, Rocky, is such a mamma's boy that when she took off, so did he. The cows found some particularly tasty stuff in the lower garden, (new green beans, it turns out) and that gave me time to run to the barn and get the golf cart (my trusty steed!!). At least I could move faster, now. Still armed with my bat, I went up the hill and came back down behind them, again trying to get them toward the gate.

I was having some luck! They were almost to the pasture gate! But, to my chagrin, the gate was closed!!! How did they get out?!?! I looked toward the wood shed, and saw that the small gate in there was knocked down. The llamas were right inside where the gate had been, so I ran there first and put a board up across the opening.

The three big cows were still fairly close to the main pasture gate, so I calmly (yeah) made my way around them to open it. That startled them, and they took off again, back to the lower garden. I did my circle-around trick again, and stayed on the golf cart, kind of zig-zagging behind them. With the gate open, they had an escape, and trotted to the safety of the pasture!

Ok, I tell myself, three cows and 2 llamas secured. In all the running around, I hadn't seen any sign of the baby calves or the sheep. Before the baby calves were put into the pasture with the "big guys" they got loose once. Jason, Heather's friend found them a little ways up the road! Oh, jeez, I thought. How would I find them out there?!?! If I did find them, though, I had an idea to get them back. Milk.

Yay! All eight sheep still in the pasture!

A quick spin along the back fence of the farm netted me 3 baby calves! Yay! At least they weren't wandering around the valley! I didn't want to startle the babies with the golf cart, so after I got close I went on foot to tempt them with the milk in the familiar (I hoped) bucket. One of them was curious about what I had and came to investigate. I got back to the cart before he could get too much milk, just a teasing taste, and started off toward the pasture holding the bucket out for him. Sure enough, he remembered the good stuff that was in the bucket and followed like a champ...for a while. I don't know if he got bored with chasing this bucket that was always just out of reach, or if he forgot what he was doing, or just spotted something more tasty, but every 50 feet, or so, he'd stop, and I'd have to show him the milk again, or even give him a little taste. It took some time, but I eventually got him back in the pasture. It was the same with the next two, but at least I could get them to follow the bucket together!

All in all, it took me about an hour to get everyone rounded back up and secured in the pasture!

July 31

It always amazes me when I check my last blog entry and it was DAYS ago!

Now I have to try to remember what we did last Wednesday?!? Well, I can guess: Harvested yellow squash, zucchini and cucumbers. Oh, and how could I have forgotten the cabbages. Boxes and boxes and boxes of cabbages. Between the CSA boxes waiting for delivery and the cabbages, you couldn't walk into the walk-in cooler! After H took the CSA boxes to deliver them, we started with the cauliflower. Yikes.

Thursday, of course, was Pizza Night. The weather was beautiful, and we knew we'd be busy. We made 91 pizzas! We were well prepared and had enough help to keep things moving along nicely. I don't think anyone had to wait too long. A long day, as always, but it all went well. A reporter from Midwest Living magazine was out, too. She spent almost an hour walking around and talking with H about the farm, etc., before we got started with the pizzas. I think she was here the whole night, too. Maybe trying to get a complete experience. Oh, and she even bought one of my handmade dog toys! H lets me put some of my craft things out on the "store" shelves, with her jams, homemade soaps, etc. It was my first sale here at the farm. (To most of the people around here, dogs and cats aren't "pets" as much as they are in the cities. They are more like predator control, keeping the deer away, or pest control with mice, etc.)

Friday, H and her family left for a wedding in Chicago. C went along take care of the boys after dinner, so H could enjoy the reception. My to-do list included final clean-up from Pizza Night (collecting the garbage, cleaning up the outhouses, bringing in the tablecloths, etc.), the squash/zucchini/cucumber routine,.transplanting cilantro into the herb garden, checking on and harvesting cauliflower, and doing a potato beetle check on the eggplants.

I hadn't planned on going home anyway, so I offered to do the animal chores over the weekend. Otherwise, she would have had to have someone else come in to do it. That seemed kind of silly! Today, after chores, I raided the pizza kitchen for ingredients to make a fabulous veggie-filled omelet. I also have plans to do a little cleaning and organizing, and maybe start a new sewing project. Oh, and if it doesn't rain, I even thought about checking out the Buffalo County Fair which is going on today. Or, maybe I'll just nap this afternoon!!!!

Sunday, when I'm done with afternoon chores, I am going home after all! I get to go along to E's first ultrasound appointment and maybe get a look at the new grand baby-to-be! That is Monday a.m. Afterward, I'll head back here. It's a lot of driving, but I can't pass up the opportunity!

July 27

So hot. So humid. Hard to even think straight.

Got the CSA boxes packed somehow, though! Sweet corn, yellow squash, zucchini, cukes, cauliflower, green beans, carrots, kale and lettuce. It all looks so good! Especially now that we're getting a better variety of colors. Soon we'll be adding reds and purples, too!

After, somehow in the heat, we did some head lettuce transplants and seeded some leaf lettuce. It's supposed to rain tonight, so we wanted to get that stuff in if we could. Leaf lettuce really does not like the hot weather. In our earlier crops we could get 3 or sometimes 4 cuttings from it. The last few we've done we'll only get one before it just wilts in the heat. But, the CSA members love it, and want it. So we plant it, all summer long. When the weather starts to cool, it will be happier out there too, just like us!

Hopefully, it will be cooler tomorrow!

July 26

Today felt good and productive. We harvested carrots, yellow squash, zucchini, broccoli and cucumbers. Also weeded some new broccoli rows. They are so happy now!

The broccoli we harvested was the last crop from that row. A task of mine on one of my first few days here was to plant those broccoli seeds. They have germinated, been watered and weeded, grown and been harvested. Now that area is done for the year. This the first--of many, I'm sure--full circles in the field.

Now, she will mow the broccoli row down, then till under the remaining greenery. We'll let that sit for a little while and begin to breakdown. This adds needed organic matter to the soil. Then, we'll plant a cover crop on the area (oats, clover and something called "hairy vetch" are all popular choices) and let that, along with the remains of the broccoli, re-nourish the soil over the fall and winter. In the spring, it will again be tilled and will be ready to plant.

Something other than a "brassica" will be planted there next year. That plant family (including broccoli, cauliflower, mustard seeds, kohlrabi and Brussels sprouts, to name a few) are "heavy feeders" meaning they take a lot of nutrients from the soil. The foliage from the plants as well as the cover crop she chooses will help rebuild the soil through the rest of the summer, fall and winter.

Wow. I guess I am learning stuff, huh?!?