Monthly Archives: December 2009

On making do with what’s available

Posted on December 30, 2009 | 25 Comments

Had we moved to a “regular” farm (you know, the one in your imagination:  turn-of-the-last-century farmhouse with big red barn, tall silo, chicken shack, smokehouse, big fenced pastures, etc.), owning many kinds of farm animals would have been a natural thing.  But we moved to a fruit farm.  Fruit farms aren’t all that heavy on outbuildings.  In fact, all that remains in your mind’s eye about our place is the big old farmhouse.  What few outbuildings there are here were specifically used for fruit processing and storing tools…and now house cars and the lawn tractor just fine, thank you.  Housing chickens, pigs, the family milk cow were secondary concerns to the original owners.

Luckily, our chosen animals aren’t terribly picky.  Goats, in particular, just want a dry place to flop down.

Wait:  Did she just say “goats?”

Doesn’t everyone have a goat in the back seat of their old hatchback?  Yes, we were humming the themes of Green Acres and Beverly Hillbillies as we drove down the highway.

Meet our newest critter, an Alpine doe.  She’s a 4 year old family milker.  And:  she’s due to have kids on Feb. 21st.  And:  she’s living, with the rabbits, in my potting shed!  Whee!

→ 25 Comments

Posted in dairy goats

On the art front

Posted on December 29, 2009 | 6 Comments

Pine (Remembering Andrew Sie), by Thomas Allen, 2009

Not much happening on the garden front, so I thought I would share art stuff.  Tom’s got a portfolio in the January issue of Harper’s.

You can see more of his work here.

→ 6 Comments

Posted in sweat

On a cold end

Posted on December 27, 2009 | 7 Comments

Stepping into the new greenhouse, it smells…kinda like damp licorice.

This isn’t a bad smell at all, incidentally.  Outside now it’s all crisp, white…winter blandness; that particular fresh smell that accompanies the howl of blowing snow. It’s a scent you’d love to bottle, this clean frostiness, but it is particularly devoid of botanical stink. The greenhouses are a bit of a relief to that whiteness.  Step inside, and even if it’s early morning, you still smell…earth.

But back to the licorice.  The anise-y smell is coming from The Fennel Forest.  I said they’d be good until Christmas, and they are, barely.  A bit of frostbite, but that’s fine; chopped, tossed up with some crisp apples and a yogurt dressing…mmm.

→ 7 Comments

Posted in seeds, weather

Dark Days, Week 5

Posted on December 20, 2009 | 17 Comments

I looked forward to posting this week’s meal because I figured it would well illustrate two things:  one, what it is I eat when I eat alone, and two, how much of a glutton I can be on really simple peasant fare.  You see, I planned on telling you all about a lovely vegetarian dinner of polenta with foraged wild mushrooms:  both main ingredients being things verboten, nay, HATED by my family…thus, best to eat when they’re away.  And:  it’s a meal I *crave* for them to leave so I can make it.

But a funny thing happened on the way to dinner.

I had to dig, deep, in the bigger chest freezer to retrieve the last two-pound bag of Bloody Butcher cornmeal from a grower in Nashville, MI: wonderful meal that yields gritty, deeply-flavored polenta or cornbread; cornmeal well worth digging to the bottom of a freezer for.  But, with each successive layer of frozen items I dug through, the angrier, and colder, I got.  And:  what I was digging through was so much more…in the way of instant gratification (i.e., steaks) that I finally said SCREW IT!  gimme some MEAT!

So, here’s the meal:

And it went down well with two glasses of red wine put up by a friend of ours in honor of his son’s birth, six years ago.

→ 17 Comments

Posted in Eat Local Challenge

On flock protectors

Posted on December 17, 2009 | 20 Comments

Don’t mess with her

It’s a good thing that Ruby is in with the chickens!

The dog was whining terribly, and as I couldn’t really hear anything over the music I was playing, I let her out…to see a hawk in the chicken run, fighting with our hen turkey.

Ruby got the upper hand, I have not a clue how.  The hawk was terribly injured, so I put it out of its misery.

Ruby is fine, though flustered.

Don’t blame me for this one, says Little Edie

→ 20 Comments

Posted in chickens, etc., death

On the flock

Posted on December 16, 2009 | 3 Comments

Welcome, Edna!

About a week ago, we got a knock at the back door.  It was dark out (and we have no lights on the back porch) so we figured it was something pretty important.  Honestly, the only visitors we have out here are delivery people, and that is with enough regularity that we know their names, even their birthdates…anyway.  The other people who come to our door are proselytizing types, but that’s usually during daylight hours.

This was a neighbor who lived two doors down.  I had never met her.  But:  she had a chicken!  A poor, lonely chicken whose sisters had all been eaten by a raccoon who had clawed his way into their pen.  Could we possibly find a home for her in our flock?

So, here she is.  She’s a Buff Orpington, but is really tiny, and shy.  I’m hoping her ashy comb reddens up, but she’s beginning to feather out nicely.  I cornered her in the chicken condo for this picture:  you should have heard her clucking with indignation.  She’s been picked on, but she just usually hangs out with the other low-totempole chickens.

Queen Ruby

Ruby and Earl (the turkeys) are living with the chickens now too, because, well, they like the company as they miss the geese.  So:  this makes 31 birds in the back yard.  Wait:  did I just say that?  That’s a looottt of birds.

→ 3 Comments

Posted in chickens, etc.

Greenhouse update, early winter edition

Posted on December 14, 2009 | 19 Comments

“New” greenhouse on a chilly but sunny morning; that’s snow outdoors and on the plastic.  I removed the covers to show you the growth. Sorry about the drunken, pre-coffee angle.

Thankfully, gratefully, I report a gentle fall to round out the growing year of 2009.  Though our weather this growing season wasn’t as calamitous as many experienced it, it was an unusual year, definitely on the cool side.

Many people don’t realize it, but late spring and late fall are times of moderation, as far as temperatures go:  the swing on our thermometer only changes 20* or so between daytime highs/nighttime lows.  Inside the greenhouse, things are more moderate, too, with a 40* swing found on a sunny day, 20-30* on a cloudy one.  The temperatures slowly drop, but the highs drop too, so now we’re still seeing that swing but it’s happening between cold and colder, not cool and cooler.

This hasn’t always been the case.  Often, November hits us with a bang, and we’ve even  been known to have snow accumulation in mid-October.  Finally, in late November, it got cold.  And I got the Reemay out.

Reemay fabric covers, which stay on until mid-Feb. for warmth.  I always think of Madeline when I see these little beds (there are 12 in the new greenhouse, in two straight lines…

Lettuces fairly well packed into a bed:  notice how they’re not full sized.  I transfered them in as tiny plants in late October.  They’ll grow very slowly throughout the winter, but I’ve made sure there’s enough growth to 1. have a decent harvest and 2.  keep the lettuces smaller to avoid too much frost damage

I invested a mere $20 for 1/2″ PVC sun-resistant conduit to use as the Reemay supports this year.  #9 wire (9/16″ diameter) is recommended:  it’s easily bent, can be stuck in the ground with ease, and the rowcover fabric can easily be clipped to stay in place with clothespins.  But I couldn’t find it at a price I was willing to pay, so the conduit will do just fine…plus, I can reuse it on outdoor beds if I ever do find cheap wire.  Fastening the fabric to the hoops helps the fabric from bellying downward under the weight of frozen condensation.  In the greenhouse, see, there’s no chance of wind blowing the fabric off, but the fabric does get damp.  It can therefore freeze to your lettuces, poor babies.  But:  bow it will.  And as long as you aren’t expecting salad for breakfast, that’s fine.

Wee bit of frost during first light of day:  this Romaine will be fine

This second covering of the veggies adds another 10* or so of temperature moderation.  If the outdoor air hits 30*, the indoor air will be 40*, but below the rowcovers, it might stay at 50* overnight.  A string of cloudy days will drop everyone’s temperature, yet it will still be warmer under the covers.

Winter’s here, though.  Daytime sunny highs hit 80* in the greenhouses while it’s 35* outside; nighttime lows in the low 20s outdoors…but not even 30* in.  I’ll take it!

→ 19 Comments

Posted in greenhouses

Dark Days, week 4

Posted on December 11, 2009 | 7 Comments

For this week’s Dark Days dinner, the selected meal was a pantry-raided, complex-carbohydrate-rich affair.

We were itchy for something toothsome the night before, so the next day I baked some beans and bread.  Baked beans, bread and salad:  simple, hearty fare that was so welcome on this, the first harsh night of our winter season.

  • Beans: One cup of our cranberry beans, one Copra onion, two cloves of Big Stinky (an unknown but huge hardneck garlic), with dried sage and other garden herbs; two chunks of smoked pork belly (Hopeful Farms pork from Ligonier, IN; smoked at Miller’s Smoke House of Middlebury, IN: both these are Amish-run, so, no websites), and honey from Honey Hound Bee Farms, Eau Clare, MI.
  • Bread: Whole-wheat boule with 50/50 spelt/hard red spring wheat from Ferriss Organics;  butter made from cream from the school’s cow share
  • Salad: greenhouse goodies

→ 7 Comments

Posted in Eat Local Challenge

On LOVEN (our wood-fired masonry oven)

Posted on December 9, 2009 | 24 Comments

The time has come:  I have helped make two of these things, so now, after much agitta and self-denial, I bring you (taDA!!) the beginnings of our own outdoor masonry oven.

Truth be told:  these things are not for everyone.  I was already a baker; we live on a farm with lots of trees; I’ve been looking for ways to lower our food-production footprint steadily for years.  And truth be told:  I know how to build things.  That said, feel free to 1.  ask questions  2.  live vicariously.

The Skinny: Modified Alan Scott plan; no, it’s not complete yet, though we’ve passed the halfway point to its first firing.   They can be quick to make it but is certainly not a Weekend Warrior kind of thing…more like 8 weekends, plus.  Easily-found materials.

The Plan: I will use this once or twice a week, year-round.   There’ll be a once-a-week breadmaking day, then the cooling oven will cook things like casseroles, and, overnight, things like dried beans or yogurt.  I will probably be selling some of the food.  It’s also great for dehydrating food, making jerky, drying fruit, etc.  And no, the food doesn’t have to taste like wood.

The Concept: Masonry ovens store heat.  They’re thick:  the thermal mass involved leaks the heat out slowly; there’s a door to the oven that even keeps the smoke from escaping.  You fire it up, scrape out the ashes, wipe it clean and then stick in  your food.  And yes:  leave the fire burning in the back and you can cook pizzas directly on the floor of the hearth.

Mon., 16 Nov:  slabWed., 18 Nov:  side wallsSat., 2o Nov:  formwork/reinforcing

Sun., 21 Nov:  hearth slabs pouredSat., 28 Nov:  hearth fire bricks laidMon., 30 Nov:  back, side walls set2009 December through 2010 March:  Winter!  SNIFF!

→ 24 Comments

Posted in masonry oven

On manual labor

Posted on December 7, 2009 | 15 Comments

Until the weather turned “normal” late last week, I’ve been obsessively building something outside.  It’s something that will bring a lot of my efforts together, not necessarily effortlessly, but certainly enjoyably.  We should all aim to get a lot of enjoyment out of life.

But I wanted to talk about the process of building.  I have mostly LOVED getting extremely sore:  I enjoy this about gardening, too.  Certainly, I haven’t strained myself into a hospital visit, but solid hours of lifting anything is not part of my normal day:  at most, I lift my laptop and piles of drawings, sometimes a book…my normal work is not exactly physically demanding.  But construction!

I am trying to puzzle out what it is about manual labor that is so immediately appealing to me.  We discussed something similar to this over the Thanksgiving table.  My father in law seriously believes I should go into pie-baking as a sideline.  “But once you do it for a living, you probably wouldn’t enjoy it,” he said, taking another bite.  So:  is it the novelty of construction?  I build things all the time for a living, and though the same kind of thought process goes into it, doing architecture on the computer isn’t the same as constructing architecture with my hands.  But I think I have figured it out, why I enjoy it so much:  it’s the time required.

I believe I get more accomplished in 3 hours of laying bricks than I do in 3 hours of computer time.  It’s actually productive time, well-spent, with progress observed and felt.

Don’t get me wrong:  if it wasn’t for computers, I wouldn’t be able to work from home.  I wouldn’t have all of you in my life, and life would be a lot less easy in so many respects.  But computers are A HUGE TIME-SUCK.  Really!  This is not a unique observation, nor certainly is it new to me, but this contrast between outdoor work and computer work has been very jarring.  Computers steal time from our lives, minute by uploading minute, autosave by refresh by page load.  Somehow, we’ve acquiesced to this, we’ve agreed to spend a large portion of our lives allowing our asses to grow ever larger, sitting in front of a screen, all because we think these tools are indispensable, and helpful.  And so muscles atrophy, brain synapses misfire.  I’ve always thought the television was bad but now I am reconsidering this damned internet connection, seeing it as the black hole of time that it is.

All the more reason to pick up a hammer.

→ 15 Comments

Posted in masonry oven, soapbox, sweat

Dark Days, Week 3

Posted on December 4, 2009 | 17 Comments

I confess we’re not much for leftovers here.

It has been argued that making “extra” food might save you time later:  that, say, doubling your rice means you have enough to quickly make a stir-fry, or pudding.  Knowing me, knowing my family, knowing the Black Hole of Shame that our refrigerator becomes if I actually SAVE leftovers, I have been making a huge effort over the last few years to Never. Ever. Have. Them.

That never quite works out around Thanksgiving, though.

If I were ever to teach basic cooking, I would teach two things:  pate brisee (piecrusts), and biscuits.  [Both make you quickly familiar with a pastry blender (two butterknives also work) and heartily at ease with a rolling pin (excepting drop biscuits, my personal favorite).  Both, too, make you a genius as far as disguising leftovers, if you have them, and hey, even fresh food is special with a crust of browned buttery bread!]  As it is, I teach my kid instead.  And she’s becoming a whiz with a piecrust.

The meal:

  • Turkey pot pie (crust: spelt flour from Ferriss Organics; home-rendered leaf lard from Creswick Farms; filling:  our own Bourbon Red turkey, two Carola potatoes, one Scarlet Keeper carrot, one Gilfeather turnip, one Bleu de Solaize leek; home herbs (sage, thyme, oregano, garlic), bechamel sauce with turkey gravy, spelt flour and milk).
  • Salad (raw sunflower seeds from who knows where, but home-roasted; greenhouse salad of arugula, red and green lettuces, shallot greens; homemade yogurt/garlic dressing)

good enough for leftovers of leftovers!

→ 17 Comments

Posted in Eat Local Challenge

On made-up recipes: apple/pumpkin upside-down cake

Posted on December 2, 2009 | 17 Comments

My goal with this massive winter squash harvest is to come up with multiple, tasty ways of making that squash disappear.  Here’s the latest:  apple/pumpkin upside-down cake.

Use what you have:  Galeux d’Eysines squash puree with our Jonagold apples

With time, I have become more comfortable with seat-of-my-pants cooking, including baking.  I hate to say it but Ruhlman is right:  so much of cooking and especially baking IS proportions:  this much plus that much equals expected output.  And when eating down the stores of something tasty and plentiful, like Thanksgiving’s squash, my other expected output is “well, how bad can it be:  apples, pumpkins, flour, eggs, sugar?”

In a warm oven, put 2 T butter to melt in a 9×13 or similar sized cake pan while you prepare the upside-down topping.  Peel and cube two large apples, retrieve the warming pan and toss the apples in the butter with 2 T sugar and 1/2 t cinnamon; wrap up sides to grease them, then distribute the apples evenly on the bottom and set aside.

Cream 1/4 cup of butter with 1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar (depending on how sweet your squash puree is); crack 2 large or 3 small eggs into the mix and continue to blend until smooth.  Stir in about 2 cups of pureed pumpkin or other winter squash and a cup of yogurt or buttermilk. Set aside.

Sift together 2 cups flour with 1-1/2 teaspoons each of baking powder and baking soda, and 1/2 teaspoon salt, along with another 1/2 teaspoon each ground cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and allspice.  Add this dry mix to the wet and stir together.  Add milk to thin if it seems very stiff.

Bake in a 350* oven until a toothpick stuck in its center comes out clean, about 30-40 minutes.  Let cool slightly, run a knife around the sides of the cake, place a cookie sheet or large platter atop the pan and invert them, tapping the bottom of the pan to free it.  Adjust the apple chunks along the top and try not to eat in one sitting.

→ 17 Comments

Posted in food