FRESH!

Butternut Squash Soup

A friend asked for this recipe and I thought someone else might be interested too.
Enough evoo to sautee onion and garlic until golden
2 TBL butter
1 medium onion
1 large apple
1 cup apple cider
4 cups chicken stock (veg is ok too)
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 two pound squash, peeled, seeds removed and cut into 2″ pieces
Sautee [...]

Rain

I’m not going to market tomorrow.  There’s enough ready to harvest for my local customers but not enough for market too.  I’m surprised at how well plants are growing.  The potatoes are beautiful and putting on blossoms, broccoli is heading up nicely, lettuces are doing well.  Unfortunately the pigweed and hairy galinsoga are growing faster.  [...]

What’s Going On?

The new business cards should be in next week.
Here’s what’s going on – turkey hunting, seeding, growing, transplanting, sweating, swatting black flies, squishing grubs, grumbling about flea beetles and wondering where I put the spinosad.  We put in 2,500 onions, 500 leeks, carrots, radishes, potatoes cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce mix since I last wrote.  I [...]

What’s Growing in the High Tunnel

Winter Density
Lettuce
Bok Choi
Spinach
Endive

Moving Right Along

I’m being lazy today. I had errands to run earlier but I’ve been home an hour and a half and accomplished none of my physical work.  Emails have been answered, a little research done but not one seedling has been potted up.  Not one plant in a greenhouse watered, picked or one inch of ground [...]

Another Must Read

Cathy at Maternal Gardens has a through provoking blog today.  I’ve paid close attention to Cathy’s entries because she’s accomplished so much in so little time.  She is one very determined woman.  When the idea of ducks came up the ground was frozen.  Bill thought she should wait on the ducks until she could set [...]

Wake Up America! by Alan Bishop

Alan gave me permission to reprint this. I think it’s something everyone should read. You can visit Alan’s Homegrown Goodness board online.
Wake up America!
Your local farmer, produce suppliers, and mom and pop stores need you more than ever, and chances are your going to need them!
A call to end “Big Box” mentality in [...]

Frustrated

In the 1950’s the USDA told farmers they should get big or get out.  Fifty years later many people still believe this.  A lot of farmers did get big.  They buy and/or rent big acreage, have big equipment, big fertilizer bills, big pesticide bills, big stress, big pressure, many have really big subsidy checks.  They [...]

Oppose USDA’s ‘Naturally Raised’ Meat Label by January 28, 2008

Rather than spend time writing something Lucy has already said well I’m going to direct you to her blog.

In Defense of Food

Meg and Kelly went to Philadelphia to hear Michael Pollan read In Defense of Food.  They’ve written a review that includes their great notes.
I’m still listening to the CD’s.  I now wish I had the book.  It would be nice to spend tomorrow curled up with tea and the book while it snows (local news [...]

In Defense of Food

In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan

The postman just delivered this, part of what I spent my Amazon gift certificate I won in the photo contest.  I didn’t mean to order the CDs.  When I realized what I’d done I logged back into Amazon to change it and changed my mind instead.  I can write [...]

Column

This month’s newspaper column is out. I bought the paper last night, scanned the column and uploaded it to the website.
The number of farms in Washington County is growing. You can buy meat, milk, cheese, vegetables, fruits, herbs and more. There are an almost limitless variety of value-added products available to us. [...]

Sound science is killing us, Joel Salatin

This entry at Food Democracy should be read by everyone.
I’ll be back to writing tomorrow.  I’ve been out straight  (Yankee for very busy) for days.  Tomorrow’s storm will give me time to finish an entry I started on Thursday and tell you about Friday.

Today’s Harvest

I spent a lot of time around the greenhouse and a little time in it today.  Around it to clean up poly, look for screws and nuts and other things we missed when cleaning up, and hauling the black plastic I used to control mint in the garden to the trash can.  I was inside [...]

Mincemeat

I put up the mincemeat this afternoon. It’s very good! Next time I’ll use a little less molasses. I cut the sugar to a little more than half of what was called for and am glad I did. Biting into an apple or raisin is sweet enough. I’ll definitely make [...]

It’s Good To Be The Boss

Tom is the reigning supreme turkey again.  Junior and Stoopid are now residing in freezer bags in the shed.  It’s 21°.  Junior and the chickens will continue to freeze til noon when they’re moved to the basement freezers.  Stoop’s coming in to thaw in the fridge.  He’s invited to dinner Thursday.  Actually, it’s more than [...]

Remember that proposition?

Remember me being propositioned?  I’m meeting with the editor/publisher tomorrow morning.  He’s “intrigued.”  I’ll meet Paula at 9:15 a.m.  Cross your fingers, toes and eyes for me!

Dull Day

23* at 9:30 p.m.
Dull day on the farm. J and B were here at 7 a.m. to start the roof. I kept the meat birds in most of the day so that they wouldn’t chase the guys around in hopes of being fed again. I also kept the chickens and most of [...]

Sunday Morning Musings

I slept in this morning. That’s easy to do now that it’s dark in the morning. At 5:45 am it was just starting to get light out. Sunrise isn’t until almost 6:30 am. It’s 35°. I cheated and turned on the furnace for a few minutes instead of building [...]