The Power of the Internets

Have you seen the ads on t.v. for farmersonly.com?  It's the equivalent to Match.com for farmers.  We laugh, but truly, The Internet has become a wonderful tool in gathering perfect strangers with common goals and helping them establish a community and become good friends.

When we moved to Enumclaw, I started driving around looking at farms for signs of what I considered to be sustainable farming:  cows in the meadow, chicken tractors with chickens afoot, and things like that.  One farm that I particularly admired had a banner out front.  A name that I googled and found had a website and a Facebook page.  After a few weeks spent reading the content on the owner's Facebook page, I contacted her with a question.  That one question led to a coffee date where we discussed farm building and chicken rearing and all other kinds of interests we had in common--and more importantly, I felt I had found an inspiring mentor.  During our discussion, Joyce mentioned that she had this idea that maybe there were more people like us lurking about the Plateau, and she thought it would be neat to start an online forum for sustainable farmers in our area to share ideas, ask for feedback, and have gatherings.  It was a marvelous idea.  And thankfully, one she went home and put one together.

After a few weeks, we had our first potluck in an old schoolhouse in the area.  Man, did we eat like kings?  Sausage and kale soup, fermented foods, homemade kombucha, tapioca pudding, and apple cake...the list goes on.  All from food that we all had collectively grown.  But the best part of the day wasn't the food, but the seeds of friendships that were started that day.  Some of the people had already known each other, and then there were people like us that had just moved here and were looking for a community to belong to.  It was one of the best days of my life.

From that one meeting, we've found ways to support each other.  Some of us buy produce from one another, and some of us trade items.  We promote each other's endeavors with our friends and acquaintances outside the area.

Since that simple little action of starting a Facebook page to connect us all together, a beautiful opportunity has presented itself.  A member of the group has reached out to people she knows through a local gym, and has developed a relationship with customers interested in purchasing locally produced foods--a partnership I've seen referred to as "Farm to Gym".  The concept couldn't be more perfect!

The reception was so remarkable, that a collective of producers has been formed to hopefully create a local farming co-op called Plateau Producers.  There is research going on to find a commercial kitchen with a small store front, in hopes to support the canners and bakers within the group as well. Others in the group are contributing their talents by designing websites or logos.

The point being, from something as vague, yet simple as starting a forum online for a small group of like minded people, has sprung a supportive community of inspirational people with the goal to start a grassroots local food movement in our area.  And in supporting each other both personally and professionally, I feel we've made a pretty great group of friends for life.

What actions have you taken to help build community in your area?

Random Thoughts With a Purpose.

Happy July!  Hope you enjoyed your 4th!  We had a wonderful time participating in our local parade with some of our farming friends and new acquaintances we met by joining a group to promote labeling of GMO's, watching a movie at the theatre in town, and working a bit around the farm. 

Since our move, we've been working on changing our diet a bit too.  As with anything, slow and sure wins the race, but the longer we're at it, the better creativity seems to flow through me.  Sure, some lifestyle changes are as easy as switching to your local dairy for raw milk or avoiding walking down the aisle of chips so you aren't tempted to purchase them.  Then there are the harder things...like the question that comes up every day, three times a day:  "What am I going to make for (insert breakkie, lunch, or dinner)?"

Maybe you can relate: once you find a tasty recipe, you tend to make it for a few months and then tire of it and move on to something else.  That has happened a lot with me this year, especially because my time I used to spend searching for recipes is now spent growing food. :)  So I fall quickly into a pattern of cooking by the seat of my pants:  smelling spices and throwing together a few that seem to work together, throwing in what ever veggies I have, and making twice as much as I need, in hopes of not having to think of what to cook another day.  Honestly, sometimes this works out, and other times...well, we have a crumby tasting meal a couple times that week.

Yesterday was a banner day though in the fine art of the throw together.  Can't go too wrong with burgers, although if there's a way, I'll be sure to find it. I wanted to share, not only in case you are on your journey to incorporate more spices and veg into your diet, but also to document it for my Swiss cheese brain.

I started off dicing half a small onion and a clove of garlic.  Then I used half a zucchini--slicing it lengthwise into as thin of strips I could make with a knife, then I diced those into small pieces.  I knew I didn't want to shred it with the box grater, because I was afraid it would be too slimy to incorporate into the burger with all the fat in it.  Added a teaspoon of sage, marjoram, and a little salt and pepper to taste.  Rosemary might have been really good in here too, now that I think of it.  Cooked those burgers up and added a little butter to the buns to toast them.  They were mighty tasty. 

But the biggest success of all:  my zucchini-despising family ate it joyfully, without a hint of concern for the little green things they saw in their burger.  Good guys win!

What are some creative ways you've found to incorporate your least favourite veg into your meals?

Results of a Few Experiments Run Afoul

Hi there!  Everything's been so busy the past month, i hope you didn't think we'd gone out of business. :)  Our homeschool is finally easing a bit for the summer, field trips are on hiatus, the tomatoes are humming along without too much from me, and winter gardening in the greenhouse doesn't start for another month at least.  There is so much to catch you all up on.  We'll start today with our fine feathered friends.

A few weeks back we mentioned a few experiments with the birds we had going: we had the ducks in with the chickens and we had a broody hen sitting on eggs from our friend, Liz.

The duck experiment didn't work for too long.  Our drake started mating with the chickens, and was making an absolute nuisance of himself.  The hens would dog pile him, the lil' puff ball roo would (try to) attack him--not a good scenario for egg production.  The last straw was when he hopped on our broody hen in the nest and crushed all her eggs she'd been sitting on for a week and a half.  He and the duck hen have been banished from the chicken pastures, back to wandering around the property.  Thankfully they've been working diligently on decimating the slug population in the Abominable Growman.

So with a broody hen and no eggs, we asked for help.  Our friend Liz came to the rescue as she had some fertile eggs she was willing to give us to help with our predicament.  Our roo is about half the size of our hens, so as you can imagine, about half the time the eggs we get aren't fertile. :)  So we placed the eggs under the hen, and hoped for the best.  Unfortunately, last week was the hatch date, and no chicks materialized.  We aren't quite sure what happened, but we are thankful the hen lived through the 4.5 weeks she was on the nest.  She sure stinks of rotten eggs, but she's slowly putting on weight again and fitting back into the flock.

With the hatching plan defeated and our egg sales picking up, we started looking for ways to add to the flock locally, and our friends in the farmer's network suggested giving Bradley Farm a try.  We are so glad we did.  It has been the one experiment that has worked well lately! :)  Anthony and Joanne run a beautiful operation, they have the most welcoming place, and their chicken set up is really something to see!  It's amazing!  We were sold with the descriptions of their stock, all touted as friendly birds.  Then to see the chickens at the farm--with more than one roo in some tractors--and nary a one making posturing gestures at us while we walked along their homes.  It's absolutely unbelievable!  Joanne is helping us fill our order of 45 chicks total for our 4th flock we'll be raising.

Today we picked up half our order: 20-ish chicks including Dorkings, Light Sussex, Salmon Faverolles, and a couple Marans.  We're hoping with these breeds, and a few Americanas we adopt in the fall, that we will have designed a beautiful and inspiring egg carton for our customers, starting in spring of 2014.  It's so comforting to have babies in the (pump)house again. :)  The building just behind our house that used to be the old pump house makes a great chick brooder.  Not to mention it's so handy for hourly trips out to daydream with the little ones!!

Ready for your (over)dose of sweetness for the day?

Lil Farmer Mac has nicknamed this little one "Dorky"

Dorky at 1 day old

Dorky's housemates

 If you are in need of some chicks, fertilized eggs, or Patriot Feed, we would highly recommend The Bradley Farm.  Would be especially wonderful to support them now as they are transitioning into meat production.  They are located in Puyallup, off of Canyon Rd.

Did you know that it takes a female chick 20 - 24 weeks to mature into an egg layer?  What is your favorite breed of chicken?

Tomato Plant Sale. This Weekend. Be There. Please?

You know what happens to a person who can't bare to cull the promise of a warm, vine ripened tomato by snipping all the extra seedlings during thinning, don't you?  That person has a plant sale.  And you, dear readers, get well loved plants. :)  Hopefully, you'll get them in time for good summer weather, without too much fussing over them.  

We will have tomato and pepper starts for sale this weekend, May 25th through 27th.  We waited til the end of May in hopes the weather might be a bit better for your summer gardening endeavors.  

Here is a list of the varieties we will be offering.

In the Cherry Tomato Category:

Galina:  an heirloom yellow cherry tomato from Siberia with wonderful sweet-tart flavor profile. Flavor improves as cooler fall weather approaches.  Tomatoes store well off vine for a month or two.

Yellow Pear:  a classic heirloom, pear shaped cherry toms growing on vigorous vines.

Black Cherry:  an heirloom variety known for its sweet, smoky, complex flavor.  Fruits are large and reddish brown.

Velvet Red:  bares sweet red fruits on vines with these peculiar fuzzy leaves.  As much for food production as for ornamental gardeners, and an heirloom variety to boot.

Snow White:  extremely productive heirloom plant with oh-so-sweet cream-colored cherry tomatoes.

Isis Candy:  an amazingly prolific heirloom that grows stunning red tinged golden fruits.  Very sweet...perfect for getting those wee folk hooked on tomatoes. 

In the Slicing Tomato Category:

Oregon Spring:  known as the first tomato of the season, nearly seedless fruits of this plant ripen early summer.  No staking required, as these are compact bushy plants.  Determinate tomato whose production will cease around mid summer; just in time for your indeterminate varieties to start to produce.

Sheboygan:  an indeterminate heirloom paste tomato with great flavor and texture that doubles as a slicer, perfect for eating fresh or canning or freezing.

In the Bell Pepper Category:

CA Wonder 300 - classic green bell pepper variety with resistance to Tobacco Mosaic Virus.  Matures in 68 days.

Sunrise Orange - short season colored pepper that starts off yellow, turns orange, matures into a red bell pepper.  Resistant to Tobacco Mosaic Virus.  Matures in 60 days.

Purple Beauty - short season purple bell producer that matures into red bell pepper.  Hybird, yet open pollinated variety.

All seeds are from organic sources and so is the soil they've been raised in.  Plants will be $2 each.

  

I will be posting growing instructions later this week.  

Hope to see you this weekend!  Don't let that rain get ya down...summer's coming. :)

Our farm is located at 40622 - 196th Ave SE, Enumclaw at the old Thunder Mountain Nursery.

Curious Minds Want to Know (aka Hi Mom!)

Talked to my mom the other day.

She wanted to know why she hadn't heard from us in a while.  

"Been really busy in the greenhouses."

She replied, "Well, put up some pictures so we can see!"

And this is the real drag about living 400 miles from your family. 

The other drag being that we can't share this glorious bounty with them!

So here is your proof, Ma, that you and Pop successfully cultivated a green thumb in your little girl.

Here is the first bed Moose and i have tackled in the AG.

Planted are Early New York storage onions, Walla Walla's, brussel sprouts, broccoli, and cauliflower.

Here in the second bed of the AG, we cleared last fall, and planted Musik garlic.  Transplanted a type of red lettuce that was the only seed to germinate out of last year's mesclun packet.  These were started in February.

Here's a head from last year's Jericho lettuce that I let go to seed during the summer.

You can see where I'll be taking the short hauls this year. :)

"Sugar" snap peas (under the string) have started germinating along with the French Breakfast radishes (upper left corner) and Bull's Blood beets (lower left corner).

Moving on to the seed nursery...

The tomatoes are slo-o-o-wly being potted up (aka taking over everything).

These are the Galina and Yellow Pear cheery toms.

Snow White cherry toms and Sheboygan paste toms

and more Yellow Pear and Black Cherry toms.

The idea this year is to have a mixed cherry tom basket to offer.

Practicing this stuff now in case Lil Farmer Mac wants to work a farmer's market next year.

The bell peppers.

And more onions. 

I got this great idea from a podcast I listen to from Chicken Thistle Farm in NY state.

Use these bunched like this to grow bunching onions that are easily harvested.  

I seeded up a combo of red, yellow, and white onions this way.

In Rosie's greenhouse, Moose has been starting on his potato tower. 

Plans to finish it next week when he is on vacation.

Yellow Finns are going in here.

And there you are...a photo update. 

I'll leave you with one last one...

She said she wasn't going to smile until a customer showed up. 

A discussion ensued about how her Irish dancing in the parking lot to draw attention to our eggs might be a better advertising strategy. :)

Happenings :: April 2013

Spring is humming right along here on the farm.  

Hope you are finding ways to enjoy the season.

Mr. Farmer Mac is weary with weed detail.  He is hammering away at the unwanted vegetation in the large greenhouse, affectionately referred to as the Abominable Growman, or AG.  Hammering is actually not the gist of it...he's having to pull everything by hand, as the ground is way too wet to use a shovel out there.  He has done an amazing job in a short amount of time he's got outside of his day job, and our seedlings (and Mrs. Farmer Mac) are grateful for it!  You're the berries, Mr. Farmer Mac!  xo, Mrs. Farmer Mac

Last weekend while I was planting the onion seedlings in the AG, I noticed our chives were in desperate need of a haircut.  I took a handful in and mixed them in my scrambled eggs.  They tasted heavenly of sweet onion and early spring.  Also tried my hand at drying them.  After chopping them up and placing them on a stoneware plate, I set the plate on our propane stove's grill.  I couldn't believe how quickly they dried in just a few hours!  So the jar of dried chives is full again, but there are still more chives to be had.

Our surplus is your gain...  

Today is the first day we will be stocking packages of chives in the cooler for sale.  What better combination to celebrate spring that enjoying chives in omelets or shirred eggs?  Early this morning, I headed out to harvest, armed with a kitchen knife in one hand and a mason jar of water in the other, and proceeded to fill it with lush, onion-y goodness. Oh, how I long for the ease of a system where we could clean a bundle, tie it with string, and place in a vase of fresh water for the taking.  Alas....you will find the bundles enclosed in a plastic baggie in the cooler. Having compared quantity to the kind customers would find at the grocers, I believe we have them reasonably prices at $3 per package.   Let us know what you think.  We *love* feedback.

Next up was seedling duty in the Mini.  

Galina and Yellow Pear cherry tomatoes are growing up so fast!

Since March, these lovelies have been receiving extra TLC.  All their lounging under grow lights, drinking rainwater has paid off, and I am slowly transplanting them to their individual pots.  They grow so quickly and healthy in the organic potting mix that includes worm castings.  We'll give them another month under the lights in their climate controlled oasis, then they will be planted out in the AG.  I love this time of year...when you walk outside to tend to chores, and you return with your hands smelling of tomatoes and dirt.  Second best only to picking a tom right off the vine and popping it in your mouth, of course.

While I wasn't insane enough to start 300 tomato seeds like I did last year, it looks like there is potential for a tomato start sale this year.  I will let you know when that may be on our Facebook page.

After the chores are done, I like to reward myself with a little adventure in plant exploration around the farm.  I am still trying to learn all these varieties of plants we have here.  I think I've identified dock and loads of spearmint over in the formal gardens.  More time on The Google is needed.

Was happy to discover that our citrus trees and olive plant are budding!  If you need a real pick me up, get yourself a flowering Bearss lime tree (or come smell ours!)  Those flowers smell every bit as wonderful as a pile of freshly squeezed limes!

Please be a juicy lime someday?
And invite your friends to join you!

Potential olives?!?

Very excited to see what olive flowers look like.  

What is your favorite sign of spring?  How do you like to use herbs in your cooking?

Using Your Eggs :: Pucker Up with Lemon Curd

In exploring other ways to use those wonderful farm fresh eggs, we made a favorite sweet treat of ours:  lemon curd.  It is a versatile dessert which can used alone with digestives or scones.  It can also be a custardy base in a fruit tart.  We've used it to fill cupcakes (made a delicious strawberry cupcake that when filled was reminiscent of strawberry lemonade.)

If you pick up a jar of lemon curd at your grocer, you'll find the list of ingredients familiar until about halfway down the list, where things like locust bean gum, "natural flavor", and yellow #5 start to show up.  I don't know about you, but i am curious to know just what makes "natural flavor" and why is it something that they need to list in quotes?  Our eggs are so wholesome that i guarantee you won't need to add any "Yellow #5" to make your homemade curd look yellow.

"What about all those laborious recipes, dirtying half the cooking implements in your kitchen," you ask.  I have a secret for you--you don't have to do all that fru fru stuff (or all those dishes!)  I mean, there's already a dirty bowl from making scones, eh?

Here's what you do:

Homemade Lemon Curd
recipe adapted from Barefoot Contessa 
In a saucepan, combine

1.5 cups organic evaporated cane sugar
zest of 3 organic lemons
1/2 cup lemon juice
pinch of salt
4 larger eggs

Mix all of these together over low heat until combined.  Then add

1/4 pound of unsalted butter, room temperature

Stir rather consistently, you don't have to helicopter, but you'll want to be nearby.  The mixture will start to thicken in about 10 minutes, or if you like to use a thermometer for these things, at about 160 degrees F.

At this point, you could strain it, but i find that i like those bits of lemon peel in my curd.  Also, if you keep the cooking temperature low enough, you shouldn't find curdled eggs in the finished product at all.

And why stop at lemons?  We are experimenting with oranges, limes, and up next i have plans to experiment with honey rather than sugar.


What other creative uses do you have  for citrus curd?