The family. We are a strange little band of characters trudging through life, sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that binds us all together.

- Erma Bombeck

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Bountiful Harvest

The garden has come into its own in the last week.  We have so many wonderful veggies that are growing.  I can hardly keep up with the harvest.  I think that the turn in the weather has made a huge difference.  It is much warmer now than over the last month.  All of the plants were just waiting for summer...

Beets
Many of the beets have grown large enough that I had to pick them, regardless of a specific purpose.  I decided to can several of them.  I ended up canning four pint jars of straight beets, no pickling.  They are a beautiful deep red color.  We have also eaten a lot of them, although I cannot seem to get the boys to eat them.  They've all tried at least one beet, but nobody likes them.  I don't understand.  They are so sweet!

The carrots are finally large enough to harvest.  I knew when I planted them that they had a long growing period, but it seems like forever.  They are wonderful, crunchy and sweet.  I have been putting them out before dinner and the kids eat them like candy.

Nantes Carrots
The bunch onions are big enough to harvest now.  K likes to raid the row and just eats them raw...but I suppose I am glad to see him eating out of the garden, as that was the whole point.


Blue Potatoes
The potatoes are doing great!  We had a few deer sample the tops, but not much.  My only concern is that I cannot tell if I miss a large potato when I try to harvest them.  I don't pull the whole plant, but rather, reach my hands in through the dirt and feel around.  I'm doing it this way so that the plant can continue to produce, although I don't know if they actually do that.  I have found a few russets that were huge!  I guess at the end of the season, we'll see if we missed many big ones.  The dirt is pretty hard around the center of the plant, so I cannot get my fingers in there easily.  I don't want to use a tool because I can easily cut the potatoes.  Dillema.

The lettuce is pretty much over.  Not only did the heat hurt the beautiful heads I had growing, but the deer found them and laid waste to much of the rows.  Funny, they are very specific in their choices.

The snow peas are producing like gangbusters!  I cannot believe that just two weeks ago I was worried that they wouldn't produce for me at all.  The heat brought flowers and the flowers brought peas.  We can pick the entire row in the morning and by the evening it looks like we haven't picked at all.  The kids (and I) are eating them as fast as we can and still I have bowls and bowls of them.  I hate to freeze them, as I don't think they are nearly as good, but I also don't want them to go to waste.  I have been able to sell them at a very good price...$2.00 for four ounces!  And people buy more and more each time I have them.  Not a bad profit.

Speaking of, I should list the prices I'm using so that I don't have to figure it out again next year.

Bunch Onions - 12 in a bunch - $1.50
Radishes - 6 in a bunch - $1.50
Carrots - 9 in a bunch - $2.00
Snow Peas - 4 ounces - $2.00
Beets - 5 in a bunch - $3.00
Lettuce - 8 ounces - $2.00
Spinach - 8 ounces - $3.00
Beet Greens - 8 ounces - $3.00
Blue Potatoes - 1 pound - $3.00
Red Potatoes - 1 pound - $2.50
Yukon Potatoes - 1 pound - $2.50
Kennebec Potatoes - 1 pound - $2.50
Russet Potatoes - 1 pound - $2.50

And while I'm at it:
Broiler Chickens - 4 pounds - $15.00
Pork - on the hoof, you pay butcher/cut/wrap - $1.75/pound
Pork - we butcher/cut/wrap - $3.50/pound
Raw Goat Milk - 1 quart - $3.50
Duck Eggs - $6.00/dozen
Goose Eggs - $1.00/each
Chicken Eggs - $4.00/dozen

Ok.  Other notes on the garden... 

I had a cucumber just appear on one of the plants.  It was the size of a large sausage, but the end looked funky so I picked it just in case it was going to rot.  Otherwise, the cucumber plants are limping along.

The yellow onions are growing great...except for the occassional sacrifice to the tiller (the row is a bit narrow and it's easy to catch the side with the tiller).  I want to pull one, just to see, but I want to wait till they are larger.

The second set of beets and carrots are doing well.  The beets should be ready in a week or two and the carrots...who knows...they are slow pokes.  I would like to plant more beets next year.  They are easy to can and SO good.

The pepper plants are finally starting to flower.  I don't know that we will get much from them, but I am encouraged to see them growing a bit more after their rough, frosty start.

The tomatoes are flowering, but no fruit yet.  They have been sampled by deer a bit too.  I'm not sure, but I feel like I should trim off their bottom limbs to encourage them to spend more energy up top.  I'll have to look it up, but they just seem very "bushy."

The corn is almost up to my waist and the centers are starting to send up their "flowers."  I sure hope we get corn this year.  Everyone says it's nearly impossible to grow here.  Ours seems to be doing well.

The sunflowers are almost chest high.  No flowers yet, but these are the Mammoth sunflowers so I think they need to get a bit taller first.

The squash are all flowering and there are lots of baby zucchini and crookneck.  No pumpkin or winter squash babies yet, but the plants look really good.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Braised Radishes

I feel like an adventurer, a pioneer.  I decided to try a new approach to radishes.  When looking for a pickled radish recipe, I ran across a recipe for "braised radishes."  I'm not sure that I technically braised them as I started with butter in the pan and didn't really sear them.  I guess you would say that I sauteed them.  Either way, they turned out wonderful.

As I stated, I started with a pat of butter in the pan.  I let it melt and then added the radishes - quartered or halved so that they would be bite size.  I tossed the radishes around in the pan so that they were coated in butter and let them cook.  After about five minutes, I added some garlic - mainly because it sounded good.  I then turned the heat down from medium to medium-low and put a lid over the pan.  I stirred them every once in awhile, but mostly just let them cook.  It took about 15 minutes before I could pierce them with a fork easily.

I poured the whole thing out onto a plate, added a dash of salt, and explored.  As I took my first bite, I wondered what it would be like to have been the first person to try this food.  For me, it was a first.  I have only eaten radishes raw, in salad, and, just recently, pickled.  The had the consistency of a nicely cooked carrot.  But the flavor was new.  There was no hint of that spicy crisp radish you find in a salad.  It was a more mellow radish...one that would be a nice addition to a plate with chicken or pork.  I could see someone asking what type of potato I was serving, as they looked and felt a bit like baby red potatoes.

I have tried lots of unusual foods in my life.  Braised radishes are nowhere near the most exotic fare.  But the act of cooking a radish was a leap of faith...a journey from the foods that I recognize.  And it will certainly not be the last time.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Pickled Radishes

I have decided that I will try my hand at pickled radishes.  While I would like to figure out the roasted radish recipe (try that ten times quickly), everything I read talks about pickling them to preserve.

I used the Ball book recipe for "End of the Garden Pickles."  Other than the straight canning recipe for turnips, it seemed the closest fit.  And it was made with apple cider vinegar, which was the way I wanted to do it. 

I started by washing and topping all of the radishes.  Most of my radishes were at least the size of a golf ball, but I suppose you could use smaller ones just fine.  Once they were washed and topped, I sliced them all into quarter inch slices.  I think it's helpful to slice them as the seasonings soak into the whole radish.  But I suppose you could pickle them whole.
 
Radishes in the pickling brine.
I measured the amount of radishes I cut by putting them into the number of pint jars I planned to use.  I have a nearly unending supply of radishes at the moment, so I didn't have to really plan ahead for an amount.  If I had to guess, I would say between two and three bunches per pint.
 
I then combined 1 cup brown sugar, 1 cup granulated sugar, 2 tablespoons dry mustard, 2 tablespoons mustard seed, 1 1/2 tablespoons salt, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon ginger, and 3 cups apple cider vinegar in a large pot.  I brought the whole thing to a boil and added the radishes.  The smell was pretty strong, but I liked it.  Of course the kids thought it smelled horrible.  In fact, they broke out gas masks and feined death by asfixiation...now I know what to make when they're being bad.
 
I brought it back up to a boil, then dropped the heat to a simmer and cooked it for 15 minutes.  I stirred every once in awhile just to make sure that all of the radishes got a chance in the brine, but the recipe doesn't say it's necessary.  I also prepared the jars and lids while it was simmering.
 
Once the time was up, I packed the radishes into jars and added enough liquid to leave a 1/2-inch of headspace.  I put it into a hot water bath and processed my pint jars for 15 minutes. 

*UPDATE*  My pickled radishes won second place in the Deschutes County Fair!

Worming the Pigs


This is one of the less gross pictures of
roundworms I could find.

So we don't use medications with our animals unless they need them.  We think of them like children.  You wouldn't give your kids a teaspoon of penicilin every day "just in case" and we wouldn't feed our animals medications daily "just in case."  Not only does it create resistence to the meds, it just doesn't seem right.  But when we see a problem that needs medication, just like our kids, we medicate.  And this also speaks to the importance of knowing your animals intimately, so that you see when they are ill.

A few days ago, I noticed a roundworm in the pigpen.  These are not the same kind of roundworms that people get.  These are real worms.  In fact, they look a lot like earthworms, only they are longer (like 12 inches) and mainly white.  They are also firmer in texture - I've picked them up with gloves on (and then washed my hands like twenty times after I threw the gloves away).

I went to the store and picked up some Atguard.  It is amazing how little of it you use...something around a teaspoon of these little crystals mixed into the food takes care of a full-grown pig in one dose.  I mixed the wormer into the pig food (I treated everyone because although it may only be one pig, I have no way of knowing which one in the pen has it).  Today when I came out to feed, I found a familiar (albeit gross) present.  Several large masses of roundworms were mixed in with the pig feces.  In fact, there was one worm that hadn't quite made it out of George yet and was swinging around like an extra tail.  Yeah, I know, you didn't need to know that.  But I'm trying to share the whole farm experience...

The problem with roundworms is that they live in the soil for up to four years.  We knew that we had them when we first bought pigs.  Kevin had worms when we got him.  We didn't know until he was home.  We treated him, but that set the stage for worms to reappear from then on.  I guess that's why most bigger farms (farms that have the space/ability to do so) quarentine new livestock for a month to make sure that all medical issues are cleared up.  We would have to have a concrete-floored pen to do that in, but it might not be a bad thing to work toward.

In the end, we will watch and treat our pigs when necessary...just like we would our children.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Training Belle

Tuscon, waiting for his turn to play.
We (a friend of mine is helping me do this) began training Belle, our Quarab (Quarter Horse/Arabian) filly today.  Honestly, she has been in training since we got her, but today was the first real "lesson" for her.

I led her out with a halter while Tuscon and Honey watched - wondering why Belle was getting such special attention and they weren't.  She walked nicely for me into the other pasture.  We used this space just in case she bolted and we needed to catch her.  I only had to tap her behind a couple of times to keep her moving.

Once in the pasture, we started with some desensitisation.  We took a carrot stick (stick and string not veggie), and rubbed it all over her.  We swung the string over her back and slid it around her feet.  She looked like she might just fall asleep.  We took a plastic bag and did the same thing.  No response.  Belle has been around lots of strange things from the day we got her.  The kids play in the field with her all the time, running, shooting her with the squirt gun, waving things.  She is not sensitive to things around her.  She is calm.

We then practiced backing up.  Using the halter to apply pressure, I pushed her back and said the word "back."  She took three steps and I stopped and praised her.  Then we moved forward.  When walking forward, I stood next to her neck and made sure not to look at her.  I am the leader.  She is the follower.  I need to show her that I have no doubt she will follow - I don't need to "check" by looking.

After a few steps forward, we stopped.  Then we went backward again.  This time, I stood by her shoulder.  She walked backward, but swung her butt out a bit.  We continued until she did three nice straight steps back.  Then she licked her lips - she was thinking about what we were doing.  I gave her a pat on the shoulder...by reaching over her back and applying a bit of pressure on her withers.  She didn't like it too much, but she'll get used to it.

Finally, we did a little bit of lunging.  This was tricky as she had never lunged before.  We created a triangle using my arms and her body.  One hand kept her head straight (with the halter) and the other hand pointed to her butt (to "apply pressure" so she would move forward).  As we walked together like this, I let the rope out a bit and created a bigger triangle.  The carrot stick became an extension of my arm and I was able to "push" her forward with it from behind.  When I told her to stop, I pulled in the rope and she turned to face me.  Beautiful!  We turned and started the whole thing in the opposite direction.  Remember, you always have to train both horses - the left side and the right. 

We ended her lesson on a good note with some scratches and a couple of real carrot sticks.

Tuscon was almost begging to come out and play, so we put the halter on him and brought him around.  He wasn't half as well mannered as Belle.  When we started some lunges, he didn't want to go in the direction I pointed.  He pulled back on the halter and tried to convince me that he was in charge.  Unfortunately for him, I'm a pretty stubborn gal.  He eventually gave in and went the way I had asked.  He had a couple more tantrums when I told him to keep going and to switch directions (although he did fine when I asked him to stop and come in for a scratch or a treat).  We only worked a few minutes and then I put him back in the pasture.  He'll be fun to tune up right along with training Belle. 

Honey didn't seem to want to play.  I gave her some rubs, but she was pretty content to just eat her hay and watch.  I will be bringing her out more often though.  She needs some work with desensitisation and a little more exercise.

Planting Pole Beans

I have tried just about every incorrect way of creating a trellis for my pole beans.  I am not sure why, but I have had a major block when it comes to pounding in posts and doing it right.  So tonight, I delegated it to J.  I told him that I had planted the beans (which I had) and that I was incapable of creating a proper trellis.  He went out and did it.

I know it is very late in the summer to be planting pole beans (even for our climate).  I am not expecting a lot from them.  But I knew that if I didn't plant the seeds, they would be worthless for next year.  So what am I losing?  The trellis did not end up as tall as it should be (more like 4 feet instead of 7 feet).  But again, with the lateness of the season, I'm thinking that these beans won't grow as tall anyway.

I'm actually wondering if it is possible to simple cut the beans back as they reach the top of the trellis.  Would this encourage them to flower and put energy into fruit?  Or will it stunt them?  Do they have to reach a certain height in order to create beans?  We'll see.

I did plant a small row (about three feet long) of pole beans next to one of the corn rows.  I want to see if the idea of letting the beans climb the cornstalks will work.  But I don't want the beans to hurt all of the corn if it doesn't work.  This particular variety of corn only grows about four feet tall, so it may end up not working due to size.

Other notes...
I staked the tomato plants last week.  They are doing alright.  Not flourishing, but it hasn't been particularly warm here.  The bottom leaves are a bit yellow.  The gal at the nursery said that they may be calcium deficient...which makes it hard for them to absorb nitrogen...which turns the leaves yellow.  She suggested Miracle Grow.  I'm thinking we may just let the tomatoes fight this year and then amend the soil with egg shells next year.

The corn is over a foot tall now.

The carrots are actually looking like carrots.  They may be ready in a few weeks.

The beets are starting to get big...about the size of golf balls now.

The radishes continue to be prolific growers.  I have way too many to eat.

The lettuce is still doing well.  Much of it has turned red...it must be their mature color.  It still tastes great.

The snap peas are starting to flower...they are almost two feet tall now and VERY thick.  I hope they produce for us.

The yellow onions look good and the green onions have finally grown big enough that they can be picked.  They are super flavorful.

We turned off the pivot two days ago, so we will be watering by hand until the hay field is cut.  It's a pain, but that field needs to be cut (it should've been cut two weeks ago).  If we don't get it cut, baled and put up soon, we won't be able to grow a second cutting before the end of the season...and that's a lot of hay to miss out on.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

You've Never Had a Potato

I've decided that you've never had a potato until you are eating one that you dug out of the ground for yourself that afternoon.  The texture and flavor is so different than what you find in the store.  They are creamy and light.  There is no bitterness to their flavor at all.  They don't need to be mashed and salted, they are perfect right out of the steamer.

I will be planting potatoes every year from now on.  And I will look forward to the time of year when the first little potatoes can be found underground.  I'm sure that these potatoes will become something closer to "store-bought" after we store them awhile.  But for now, I am going to relish the pleasure of my fresh little tubers.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Retail or Not?

So, a local grocery store chain called this morning to talk with us about supplying them pasture-raised eggs.  I was floored that anyone would be calling our meager little farm in the first place, but I also didn't think we could handle the numbers that they would want.  They got our information from FoodHub - a website that we are listed on.  It helps local stores/restaurants find local farmers to supply them.  Pretty cool, eh?  I'm not mentioning the store name, just because I don't know if the store would want to be on my blog, but suffice it to say, it's a big chain that specializes in "whole"some foods ;-).

I called the gal back and sure enough, we aren't quite large enough to supply the store on a weekly basis.  But she asked if we would be interested in growing our egg production.  I told her that I wasn't sure.  We are trying to create a diverse farm where we know all of its residents by name...if we grow too big, we are defeating our own purpose.  But then when I talked with J, he jumped on the idea.  He thinks it would be a great idea to grow enough to supply them.

So then the debate in my head turns to "What is the purpose of our farm?"  I guess it's time to write a mission statement.  Because if we add enough hens to supply the store, I will have to quit selling my eggs to local clients (I won't have enough eggs).  We will need to have about 50 hens...not too many.  We have the space.  They are easy enough to care for.  But I would want them to still range the same way...through the pig pens, in the fields, around the house.  What impact would doubling the hen population have on the farm as a whole?  I need to talk with Joe Salatin.  I know he discussed these challenges in The Omnivore's Dillema.

And if we have 50 hens, can we still maintain the level of quality and happiness that our hens have now?  The fact that our girls have space makes them happier, and thus healthier.  Crowded conditions (even when they free-range) isn't a good thing.  The thing is, even though the chickens have the whole 40 acres to roam, they really stick pretty close together.  So I need to make sure that they don't crowd themselves.

Then there is the debate over how selling to a retail chain affects our purpose.  We sell local produce to local people.  We aren't trying to feed the entire community, just a small part.  And if there are lots of small diverse farms doing the same thing, we create a culture of local production.  If we focus our production on one thing - eggs - and sell to a retailer that marks it up, then are we still promoting the small farm?  I want to encourage retail stores to buy local.  I think it's good that they are trying to source things locally.  But does it help or hurt our local farming community?  I don't want to become a "chicken farm."  We are a family farm.  We are diverse by design.

In the end, this may be putting the chicken before the egg.  We haven't had this gal come out to the farm.  We don't have our egg handler license.  We don't have farm insurance.  We haven't even talked money yet.  So while the philisophical debate lingers in my mind, we're still just a family farm.  And maybe, as my dad suggested, we will be known as a family farm that declined an offer from a retail chain due to a difference of purpose.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

The First Potato

I know that it's a bit like peeking on Christmas Eve, but I couldn't help myself.  After mounding dirt over my potatoes a few weeks ago, I needed to know that something was happening down there beneath the soil.  So when J mentioned that a crack in the dirt pile around the plant meant that a potato was growing under there, I just had to check.  Look what I found.

Now I know it isn't much to look at.  It's not even big enough to really have to cut in two if you were going to cook it to eat.  But it is the first potato that I have ever grown.  And for that, it is amazing.

I have always felt that I have a knack for growing things...from plants to animals...I nurture things well and they tend to grow for me.  But this amazing little treasure growing hidden under the ground was a coup that I never really expected.  And some of the amazement is a shared awe that I have as I look around our farm and see our plants and animals thriving...knowing that I have a hand in it all.


The First Potato
a small treasure grows
hidden under the damp earth
waiting to be found

a haiku by R

Common Table

Yesterday the kids and I picked almost the entire row of radishes (and a bunch of lettuce), boxed them up, and took them to a restaurant downtown.  We delivered them to the chef in the kitchen.  She will be using them in a featured dish on Friday night.

I know it's not that big a deal.  We didn't even get paid for the radishes.  We dontated them.  But I just love the idea that people - the general population - might walk into the restaurant on Friday night (maybe on their date night), order a salad, and eat MY radishes.  They will be eating things that I planted by hand.  They will be savoring the flavor that I thinned in my yard.  They will be experiencing the crunch that I weeded on my hands and knees.  They will be enjoying my hard work - the work of a farmer.  It is a very satisfying feeling to "feed the people."

I have sold produce before.  Bags of lettuce, spinach, radishes.  People have come out to the farm and bought eggs or milk or meat.  And I feel a sense of accomplishment from that.  But this is different.  Maybe because when you go to a restaurant, you expect a level of excellence.  It would be like having my produce featured at the local grocery store...accessable to the whole community - even those people who don't take the initiative to find a local farmer and buy directly.

So, on Friday night, my radishes will be in the spotlight.  On someone's plate.  At Common Table.  Enjoy.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Pictures of the Garden

Here are a few pictures of the garden today.  I spent a couple of hours after this tilling in between the rows and making sure the plants were clear of weeds.

The new tiller is a wonderful tool.  It makes weeding the corn and the majority of the row plants so easy.  It doesn't seem to work well for me when I have to be more careful (i.e. going around staggered plants like tomatoes or squash).  In addition, I find that tilling the "pig weed" that grows, well, like a weed in our garden, is VERY hard to do.  The stems are so thick that the tiller seems to chop them in half, but not actually pull the roots.  On the other hand, pulling pig weed by hand is easy.  So, while I tilled most of the garden, I hand-weeded the pig weed.

Notes...a few random things so I don't forget for next year. 
The ducks have found the lettuce.  My only saving grace is that there are several unconnected rows of lettuce.

The beets next to the grass hay seem to be turning yellow.  Not sure if that is an indication of a lack of food...maybe due to the grass sucking it up.  The beets that are a week younger but are further away from the grass are thriving.

I tilled under the section where the first radishes are and planted some cucumbers I bought at the store.  They are struggling...too hot, too sunny, don't really know.  Out of five, one is already a goner.

Goats love sweet peas.

The potatoes are starting to flower.

The spinach has completely bolted.  I picked, blanched and froze half of the crop yesterday and plan to do the rest today.


The corn is taking off.

I still haven't planted the pole beans.  At this point, I'm not sure if we have enough season left to get them to harvest.

The sunflowers are doing very well.

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Pickled Watermelon Rind

  The first step in making Pickled Watermelon Rind is preparing the rind.  I found that slicing the watermelon into triangles like you would for eating was the easiest way.  I could then slice off the hard skin, slice the rind (and a little of the meat), cube the rind, and then cube the fruit.  My kids like to eat their watermelon in cubes and it's a great way to store it as a handy snack in the fridge.

Once the rind is skinned and cubed, it needs to soak overnight in a salt bath.  Mix 1 gallon of cold water with 1 cup of canning salt.  I used kosher salt (couldn't find "canning" or "pickling" salt).  Put the 4 quarts of cubed rind (what you will get from a medium-sized watermelon) into the salt water and leave it.  I stirred every once in awhile just to make sure that all of the rind got time in the brine. 

Prepare your jars just like you would for any canning...clean and fresh.  Don't worry about heating them up just yet, the cooking process takes a bit of time.  I had my jars warm when I started the process and ended up having to re-warm them later.  Six pint jars should be enough for your rind.

Drain and rinse the rind in the morning.  Then refill the pot of rinds with enough cold water to cover all of the rind.  This isn't a precise measurement...you will be cooking and draining again.  Bring the water and rind to a boil and simmer for about 20 minutes or until the rind is somewhat tender.  Be careful not to overcook and let them get mushy.  You have to cook them again later, so you really don't want them too soft.

Drain the rind and set aside.  Fill another pot with 1 gallon of water, 2 cups of vinegar, 7 cups of sugar, 3 cinnamon sticks, 1/2 cup of sliced lemon, and a cheesecloth bag (I used a metal tea leaf container) filled with 1 tablespoon whole cloves, 1 tablespoon allspice, and a 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds.  Bring this mixture to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes.  The smell is heavenly!

Add the rind to the syrup mixture and simmer until the watermelon rind is translucent.  This takes longer than you think.  I think I finally decided mine was done after about thirty minutes.  I'm not sure if it would have gotten MORE translucent, but I was afraid of overcooking it...so I stopped.

While the rind is simmering in the syrup, warm up your jars and lids.  I always spread a towel on the counter and fill jars over the towel.  So after the rind was cooked again, I brought the pot to the counter and filled each jar.  After filling most of the jar, I used the bubble stick to slide a lemon slice down the side of the jar and added a cinnamon stick as well.  I'm not sure if this is comepletely allowed by the recipe and the canning police, but it looked cool and I think it's pretty safe. 

Leave about a 1/4 inch of head space in each jar.  I tried a piece of the rind at this point (expecting it to taste horrible).  I had to remind myself that if I ate all of the rind before I canned it, we wouldn't have any canned.  Needless to say, it was delicious and I am already planning my next batch.

Once all of the jars are filled, put them into a hot water bath for 15 minutes.  Make sure not to tip them when you remove them from the bath...it keeps them from seeping.  The lids on my jars popped almost instantly when I set them down on the counter.  That means they are sealed!  Can't wait for them to cool down so I can open one.

*UPDATE*  My Pickled Watermelon Rind won second place in the Deschutes County Fair!

Reflections on a Gift of Watermelon Pickle Received from a Friend Called Felicity


During that summer
When unicorns were still possible;
When the purpose of knees
Was to be skinned;
When shiny horse chestnuts
(Hollowed out
Fitted with straws
Crammed with tobacco
Stolen from butts
In family ashtrays)
Were puffed in green lizard silence
While straddling thick branches
Far above and away
From the softening effects
Of civilization;

During that summer--
Which may never have been at all;
But which has become more real
Than the one that was--
Watermelons ruled.

Thick imperial slices
Melting frigidly on sun-parched tongues
Dribbling from chins;
Leaving the best part,
The black bullet seeds,
To be spit out in rapid fire
Against the wall
Against the wind
Against each other;

And when the ammunition was spent,
There was always another bite:
It was a summer of limitless bites,
Of hungers quickly felt
And quickly forgotten
With the next careless gorging.

The bites are fewer now.
Each one is savored lingeringly,
Swallowed reluctantly.

But in a jar put up by Felicity,
The summer which maybe never was
Has been captured and preserved.
And when we unscrew the lid
And slice off a piece
And let it linger on our tongue:
Unicorns become possible again.

John Tobias


Monday, July 4, 2011

Family Weekend

This weekend, my family came to visit us...not only for fun (which it was) but to help out around the farm (which they did).  By the end of the weekend, we had the majority of the garden weeded and the new horse pasture ready for the goats.

It was a pretty warm weekend, so lots of sunscreen was in order.  While Dad and J worked on clearing the fence line with the loppers and chainsaw, Lisa and I worked in the garden.  The kids worked on the trampoline and throwing rocks in the pond.

The horse/goat pasture has been quite a process.  J likes to build fences only once.  He began the process by clearing the line where the fence would go with the ditch witch.  After that he took several old pivot legs and set them in concrete as corner posts.  These posts are super tall and about 4 inches diameter.  It gave us something to really pull the fence against.  In between the pivot legs, J ran a string line and set t-posts at ten foot intervals.

Because the fence roll is very heavy, J took a little side trip and created a spool attachment for the tractor.  He welded the bottom round plate off of a pressure tank to a steel pipe.  The pipe sits in the center of the plate.  The plate is welded to a square pipe that fits into the tractor hitch.  Put the roll of fencing on the spool and one person holds the end while the other drives the tractor along the new fence line unrolling the spool.  Pretty slick.

Once we had the field fence stretched, the guys cleared and attached stand-off insulators to the posts.  Because one of the sides is made up of a four-strand barbed wire, we put two lines of hot wire between the bottom two barbed wire strands.  The far end of the pasture has four lines of hot wire tape.  On the end, we used baling twine (thank God for baling twine) to insulate the tape and stretch it tight around the wooden corner post.

I was pretty excited to put the goats into this new pen because it meant we could move the pigs into the old goat pen and I wouldn't have to chase Abraham around any more.  We didn't get them in before my folks left, but soon after that we did.

In the garden, Lisa and I did a lot of weeding.  But as much as I would like to believe weeds create diversity, they are really out of control.  On Sunday morning, my Dad showed up with a small tiller.  Wow!  Things that used to take days to weed, only took a few minutes.  By the end of the day, we had the majority of the garden weeded...including the elusive potatoes.  Thanks Dad and Lisa for the gift.  It will be well-loved.

Sunday, July 3, 2011

If I Could Do It All Again...

I would plant shorter rows of radishes, lettuce, beets, and spinach but plant them more frequently...so that I would have a much more sustained supply of these plants instead of ten pounds of radishes all at once.

I would put the trellis in for the sugar snap peas BEFORE planting the peas so that I don't have to work around them, thus taking the chance of breaking them before they climb.  (I'm going to do this for the beans, but I'm afraid I am planting them pretty late in the season).

I would mix the carrot seeds with sand and "hand plant" the seeds when it was NOT windy.

I would start EVERYTHING where they have exposure to full sun from the get-go...I guess that means I would start everything in a greenhouse.  I have lost or stunted so many starts to sunburn.

I would hill potatoes every day so that the dirt grows gradually around the base of the stem.  I would also plant the potatoes in a short trench instead of on a hill.

I would make sure that the hot wire worked before putting pigs in the pen...and I would make sure that my pellet gun was loaded and in the bedroom in case the pig still figured out how to escape.

But even with all of these things, I would still DO it all again.  The revisions would just make it that much better. 

Oh, I may add to this list as some of the things are annual events.

How to Hill Potatoes

This comes from a gardening forum, but it explains hilling so much better than anything else I have found online.  I understand the idea of mounding dirt around the potato...this explains how AND why.

"Pull off the bottom leaves if you wish. If this is too much work, then yes, just cover with soil, straw, mulch, compost, etc. Hilling doesn't have so much to do with the stem or leaves as much as the tubers themselves. Hilling won't necessarily encourage potatoes to form all along the stem the higher you go. The goal of hilling is to provide a protected enough environment in order for the actual potatoes/tubers to form without turning green and developing solanine, a bitter and toxic (in significant quantities). Hilling improves drainage, minimizes tuber greening, minimizes frost damage, aids in weed control and facilitates harvesting. If you did not hill, the potatoes forming near the surface would turn green and the stolons near the surface which form the tubers may turn into foliage instead of tubers."