Caerwyn Farm and Spirits

The reason I have been away

2011-11-15T19:30:00.001-08:00

        Well it was my intention to post every day this month and apart from a few slips I think I have been pretty good. But you will have noticed that I have not posted in some time. That was due to our annual deer hunting trip to north western Minnesota.
        I alway had an interest in hunting ever since I was a child. I remember my grandfather hunting a few times and I remember his guns and hunting clothes in the front hall. Hunting always seemed like some great and mysterious secret that men knew, or at least the kind of men my grandfather was and that was fine enough an example for me. I wanted to hunt. Sadly my father was not a big part of my life at that age and my step father had no interest in hunting at all. I satisfied my self with learning woodland skills like tracking animals, making camp fires and learning to identify and forage for plants. I also developed a keen interest in fishing as well, also to be more like my grandfather. But hunting had to wait.
       Many years after high school and my time in the Navy I spent some time in the Army National Guard as a medic and it was there that I met my hunting mentor and all around great friend James. You see he was also ex-navy and also had a love for fishing and food. I also learned that he had some experience hunting. I don't exactly remember how I first talked him into letting me go duck hunting with him but for me it was a door opening and I rushed through it. In the many years since we have hunted everything from squirrels to deer. I have introduced other friends of mine to the joys and challenges of hunting as well. It is through him that I have met many great and wonderful people and had many fantastic days in the field. He helped me learn to butcher what I managed to harvest and even been a fine example of just what a person can do with wild game. You really should read his blog if you have not yet. Thanks James!

Scroll down for dead deer picture.

2011-11-09T19:45:00.000-08:00

Great video I found over on Cricket Bread. It is not really about crop mobs but rather a reading of the essay New Blood in the Old Body.

Crop Mob: An Introduction from Cricket Bread on Vimeo.

Lastly since I will be away deer hunting this weekend I want to present another version of somone preserving the past as a way to save the future.

There's No Place Like Here: Liberty Tool from Etsy on Vimeo.

An example of the relocalization we should expect.

2011-11-08T19:02:00.000-08:00

So today I heard through twitter about a great story that was done on The Faribault Woolen Mill.Via MSNBC. Faribault is just a ways up the Cannon river from Cannon Falls and up till now I had not heard the story of the reopening of the mill. The Mill is one of the only fully integrated mills still in existance in the US today. That means that they take in raw wool and produce wool goods. Looks like the are currently focusing on blankets and throws.I just love the story of a town deciding loving it's business enough to not sell the machines of to other lands but rather keep both the machines and the skill to run them right where they belong. To me the first step would be to keep the mill in operation by generating a sufficient demand for their wares. That would bring back more local labor to the plant and also provide the capital to the business for the next part of the plan. To get the plant to once again take advantage of the power the river offers to run the machines. Once that has been done all that remains is to encourage the use of local wool suppliers and we could have a business that is ready for the future of America by preserving the past tools and knowledge and combining them with the technology of today.
About The Mill from Faribault Woolen Mill Co. on Vimeo.

So if you need a fine wool blanket and have the means I can think of no better use of that means than to buy a blanket and help put America back to work

Wordless Friday

2011-11-04T20:54:00.000-07:00

Well that didn't last too long now did it.

2011-11-04T03:48:00.000-07:00

Last night I got to cooking and totally failed to make my promised blog post. I don't have much to tell you this morning so I guess I will tell you what I was cooking that made me miss my appointment with you. First the hens have begun laying eggs and I had been purchasing hard boiled eggs for breakfast at work so I figured it was about time I hard boiled a dozen eggs for lunches and such.Next we had some onions , carrots and celery that were going soft in the fridge so I decided to make a big batch of veg stock. We ended up with 4 liters or so of stock. Gotta love having stock on hand.Then I had some pumpkin puree I was cooking down with spices and brown sugar in the crock pot. I am really happy with it. Next I decided to see how the Musquee de Provence pumpkins were doing so I started cutting up and processing one. I roasted around a quarter of one in the oven and steamed the other quarter in the microwave. So that was last night, two stove burners, the oven, the microwave and the crock pot all rocking in the kitchen. Now I have to get changed and go to work to get some rest.

Shed dreams

2011-11-02T19:06:00.000-07:00

So I have been following the videos of Deek Didrickson of Relaxshacks.com for a while now. I love his take on reusing materials and his punk rock shed esthetic. I was also looking through the redesign of Treehugger yesterday and found this great garden house. I am thinking of trying to combine the two and see what I can get built this Winter. I am hoping to make the small guest cottage be the majority of the space with a weather tight tool storage area built into the back. I am thinking that with the proper planning I can build it in sections and move it out to the fielden this Spring and assemble it on site as soon as conditions permit. It would be great to have a small sunny space to sit out in the fielden as well as being able to keep tools and supplies closer to hand.
This evening for dinner we had Sunchokes that I cooked overnight with a rich rabbit stock in the crockpot. I have heard that a long slow cooking can reduce the "windyness" of the sunchokes. Will let you know tomorrow I guess. We also harvested a big bunch of kale and made kale chips for dinner as well.

Fear Not Mortal!

2011-11-01T19:05:00.001-07:00

Do not be alarmed. This is an actual blog post you are actually reading on Caerwyn Farm and Spirits.

Sorry I have been away a while. Lots of things have gone on of late and I plan to tell you about them soon.

You see I am making a pledge to post something at least every day this November starting today.

So what do you have to look forward to?

Duckies,

Bunnies

Chickens

Worms

Cooking

Hunting

A recap of our 10 year anniversary trip to the shores of lake superior.

A permaculture inspired windbreak.

All that and much much more!!!

Welcome back!

It has been that kind of Spring

2011-06-12T07:42:00.000-07:00

We are so far behind this Summer. Crap! Is it Summer already? I have not been posting as much as before and here is why.

We have had a very cold and wet Spring. It was colder than our average except of course for the few days it didn't rain but instead went to 100F with 20 MPH winds. I guess it is better than hail.

Also this Spring I took a long planned trip to th boundary waters on the Minnesota Canada border.I had a great time and can not wait to go again next year but it also pushed back planting a week. I did catch my first lake trout, one more MN species off the lifetime fish catch list.

Then our new senior doe rabbit appeared to be gaining weight. Turns out she was just being too well fed. This combined with a previous failed breeding by the folks we got her from means she is probably too old to conceive That sets us back on this plan as well as our junior doe will not be old enough to be mated until September.

Also earlier this spring an old ash tree decided it would be much more comfortable laying down. Unfortunately for us it decided to lay down on the house. There was a fair amount of damage to the old summer kitchen and we are now getting bids to make the necessary repairs and dealing with the insurance company. So far they have been unlike a good neighbor and not so there.
We are also moving the ducks and chickens along. They have booth been moved to their permanent housing and are being introduced to the pasture today. Which mean I need to quit messing around here and get out there.

FF Rick.

Update on Spring happenings

2011-05-04T18:57:00.000-07:00

It has been a while so forgive me if I ramble a bit.
First the weather. Following one of our colder and wetter Winters, we are now starting on a cooler and wetter spring than normal. This has made it a bit tricky to get into the garden but with a bit of diligent help from my darling bride we have managed to get almost half of last years garden expansion planted up.
Next came the rabbits. We had been thinking that rabbits would make a good addition to our homestead for some time. Our friend Jamie had a chance to taste and fall in love with a rabbit terrine at Corner Table. He was very supportive of us getting the rabbit project off the ground so we thought now was the time. We decided on champagne d'argent. We were able to find a local breeder and meet up with them in a gas station parking lot. It was all quite cloak and dagger. We brought them all home and set them up in the garage and they have been doing well.

Then we have been looking to get a flock of layers back on the farm. We ordered 15 silver lace wyandottes and 5 araucanas. We received those on Monday and set them up in a brooder in the garage as we have been seeing freezing temps at night. We also got a few indian game roosters for future meat bird breeding stock.

Lastly we also ordered ducks again this year. We decided to try a Rouen ducks. We plan to raise them in the orchard again this year. They also arrived this week. We had to pick them up this morning. We brought them home and placed them in a second brooder in the garage.

Well that is enough for now. We have also begun composting in a big way. More about that later.

Rick

Season extension works

2011-03-22T18:23:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday while it was out in the yard I decided it was time to peak under the low tunnel and see how things looked. It was high 40's and breezy and I had to shovel nearly a foot of snow off the tails of the poly to get access to the tunnel. I was amazed by the hot wet waft of air that hit me as I stuck my face into the enclosure. I was quite happy to see the mustard, spinach and mizuna all looking great. And I had my first taste of fresh home grown greens since November right then and there, on my knees in the mud. It was fantastic. The ground outside is still frozen hard but under the cover it was soft and moist. I ran my hands through the soil just to remember how it felt and was even more surprised to watch a worm pull away back into the soil. That sold it right then and there. We will have a hoop house constructed as soon as finances and conditions permit. I have been reading Eliot Colman's book Four Season Harvest and am quite excited about what we could produce with even a small greenhouse.

Will let you know how it goes.

No worms part two for now.

2011-03-10T18:14:00.000-08:00

I decided the other day that, as we have just had our worm bin for a short time I would probably just increasing the noise about the issue on the Internet with a follow up post on the subject. I guess I don't like doing "how to" posts. I would rather share with you what we are doing and whether or not it works for us. That way you can decide what works best for you.

We have a couple of other irons in the fire at the time.

We currently have some maple taps out and I hope to produce some of our own syrup this year.
We have started looking for breeding stock to raise meat rabbits this year and acquired some cages to house them in.
We have ordered ducklings and replacement laying hens for the season.

Lastly we have submitted the paperwork to the secretary of state's office to become incorporated. To me that is a big step toward making the farm a legitimate business enterprise.

Busy, busy, busy!

The Worm Bin Part 1

2011-02-22T17:21:00.000-08:00

This winter my lovely wife let me set up a worm compost system in the kitchen. I had dragged her to enough lectures on vermicomposting so she was on board but you have to recognize just how awesome she is.

So why compost with worms anyway?
Well first of all you can compost kitchen waste all year long. For many people this may not be that important but for those of us up in the frozen north being able to compost during the winter allows you to produce more valuable compost. The compost you get is also said to be superior to conventionally composted material. Plus you also get worms that you can either use for more composting operations or even take fishing with you.

So the bin we built started with two plastic storage containers. like this one.

The first thing you need to do is provide a way to manage the moisture in your bin. Worms exude moisture during the composting process and the food that you add also has moisture in it. That means that if their was no way for water to leave the bin your worms would soon drown. So we made a bunch of holes in the bottom of one of the bins. I have been told that quarter inch holes are small enough to avoid plugging but large enough to keep most of your worms from leaving.

It is also important to make sure that the worms can get enough oxygen so I drilled holes in the top of the bin as well. The lid also helps to keep light out of the bins as the worms are also sensative to light and we don't want to stress them.

Lastly I nested the bin that was drilled into the un-perforated twin. The second bin will catch the moisture that comes off the bin.

So that is the bin. later I plan to tell you how to set one up and how well our first one is working out for us.

Frustrated Farmer Rick

Sometimes others just tell the story better.

2010-12-12T12:02:00.000-08:00

My friend writing about processing deer this year after the hunt
over at You Have To Cook it Right.

Also my buddy writing about the fall festival we through this year.
also at You Have To Cook It Right

And my lovely wife wrote a nice wrap up of what we have been up to as of late as well over at Lefse and Kimchee.

On The Folly of Going Lone Wolf.

2010-12-12T10:54:00.000-08:00

Good afternoon readers. Over the last two days we have received something on the order of 18 inches of snow! Now those of you that are only familiar with Minnesota via the national news probably think this is the norm for us but in fact this is one of the top 10 snow storms in modern recorded history for our area. This storm ground our roads to a halt, buried many cars and even collapsed the roof of the Hubert H Humphrey Metrodome. In short it has made a mess of things. But something interesting can be seen happening. Everywhere you look people are banding together to help each other. Twitter is awash with stories of folks plowing out neighbors and helping to dig out drives and sidewalks. Today while plowing and shoveling out the few bits that my wonderful neighbor could not reach with his giant farm sized snow blower it occurred to me that this is just the sort of response we may need in the face of all challenges. It doesn't mater if the challenge is Climate Change, Peak Oil or just the plain old economic hard times we seem to be currently experiencing the response will need to be the same, we have to help our neighbors. But the key to all of this is that we will need community, we will need the strengths that we all have to make it through.

Trying to get this started again.

2010-12-11T15:25:00.000-08:00

This blog has been difficult for me to keep my nose to as of late. This fall has been a bit difficult We are still following the path of increasing self sufficiency and have made some real gains in that department this fall. There are far to many things to list out but a few of the things we have done are,

We attended a weekend workshop put on by the Women's Environmental Institute (WEI) and Growing Power. There were a number of great classes on things like Hoop house construction and greenhouse operations. We particularly took inspiration from the classes about composting and vermiculture. Since getting back to Caerwyn we have started a large compost heap and also an indoor worm compost bin.

We set up our first proper root cellar in an area under the kitchen. We dug up many of the amazing root vegetables we grew this year and stored them in wet sand inside coolers. Today I grabbed a hand full of potatoes for lunch and noted that the temp was 43F. Last time I picked up some potatoes and parsnips everything seemed to be doing well. I also hope the coolers will help keep the roots from any intrepid rodents which is good as we seem to have a plague of them this year. Probably shouldn't say plague, that might be next.

There was also a hunting trip that was quite successful this year. In fact our freezer is full of great meat.

So things are OK here.

2010-09-12T09:56:00.000-07:00

Well like a mushroom this blog burst forth from something near death.

Err. Or something.

We found the above mushroom growing out of the base of a dead ash tree in the yard earlier this week. I thought it looked like sulphur shelf. With a little help from friend Kathy Yerich via twitter I was able to verify that. I decide to harvest it yesterday and today set about cooking it up for lunch

The first thing we had to do was clean the mushroom as it had been growing quite close to the ground and had incorporated bits of dirt and grass as it grew. After a bit of cutting and trimming it started to look quite nice.

We decided to saute it in butter with some white and red onion and a couple of sprigs of thyme from the garden. It looks great and smells good too. It has a really meaty texture without a strong flavor of it's own. I can see how some people say it tastes like the white meat of chicken

Well time to eat the rest so wish us luck.

quick update

2010-07-27T19:57:00.000-07:00

This is just a quick update post. I need to break the streak of not posting to this blog.

The garden is realy going like gang busters. We are getting three or four courgettes every day. We are starting to get sungold tomatoes by the bowl full daily as well. We have harvested almost all our small shallots along with our onions and garlic. We have let our borloto beans go past green bean stage and now plan to harvest them for fresh beans. We lost one of our towers of scarlet runner beans in one of the recent storms. We seem to be having storms every three days this summer. The ducks are doing well. I cleaned out their pond yesterday and refilled it with rainwater captured from the pole barn.

Apricot Chutney

2010-07-18T20:46:00.001-07:00

We have had our first real harvest from our Apricot trees this year. We decided to pick them all off of one of our trees earlier this week as a windstorm was forecast and the fruit was already starting to drop off the tree at the slightest provocation. We kept them in the refrigerator for the week and they have held up well. We needed the time because we wanted to preserve them but were already sitting pretty from last years jelly and jam. So we poled a few experts and they suggested chutney.

We have seen chutney made on a few cooking shows and have loved the store bought chutneys we have had a few times. This was still our first batch and I was a little nervous about getting it right. As we planned on canning the batch it was important to get the acid right. From my internet perusing it looked like around two cups of acid to about 2-3 lbs of fruit was the right ratio for preservation.

The fruit was made up of six cups of chopped apricots and four red onions from the garden along with a cup of golden raisins and some grated ginger . We used cider vinegar and a bit of orange juice for the acid. The recipe also called for one pound of brown sugar and four tablespoons of salt. I trimmed the salt and sugar just a bit. As for spices we added hot pepper, black pepper, mustard seed, cardamom and cumin to a spice bag and cooked up the lot. From there we cooked the chutney down to a good consistency and canned it. I won't say much about the canning part as I am still learning to get it right. So far so good, but I would rather you looked up the proper method in a reliable source like the Bell "blue book".

There was more than this but I took the picture while the first batch was cooling on another towel.

I tasted a bit of the chutney and it turned out great. Hot and spicy but with the sweet tang of the acid and sugar. I can't wait to try some after it has had a chance to come together a bit as chutneys are supposed to get better with age.

First Zuchini

2010-07-12T20:13:00.001-07:00

We harvested our first zucchini yesterday night. It was actually two of the round variety. We decided to grill them out as we were already roasting a pan of beets, turnips and garlic with thyme and sage. We decided to grill as it was too hot in the house to use the oven. The squash was great and the mixed roast was quite good as well. We also had our usual dinner salad as well. We topped the salad with some smoked lake trout we picked up on the way home from our weekend up north.

I also wanted to put up a picture of the new runner bean trellis. I got this up a bit late but runner beans have never disappointed me when it comes to rapid growth.

Sometimes it is just so good to be home.

Weekend update

2010-07-05T19:25:00.000-07:00

I was going out to the orchard to check on the ducks this morning and noticed how deep green the grass inside the orchard was in comparison to the grass outside the fence. It was my hope that by housing the ducks in the orchard we would be restoring the soil. The soil in this area is incredibly thin and clayish. I think it is actually subsoil that was left behind by excessive turning of the soil in that area. We hadn't realy dug into the soil before having the orchard planted and if we had we probably wouldn't have put the orchard where we did. So now we are stuck with improving the soil around the trees. Last fall I planted clover around the trees and I am sure it has helped as well.

We also gathered these berries last week from around the yard. We planted the raspberries and the strawberries but the gooseberries and the black raspberries are wildings.

We didn't want to let them go to wast but we still have a fair supply of jam from last year so we made them into a galet. It turned out pretty good. I hope to make more out of our raspberries this fall.

Yellow dog has gone.

2010-07-01T19:33:00.000-07:00

I came in tonight to set out my thoughts about the passing of our beloved farm dog Cooper and found that my lovely wife had already written the most perfect post. She posted over at Lefse and Kimchee. So I will settle for a bunch of pictures instead.

To Cooper.

I hope to someday be as good a man as he thought I was.

Garden pictures

2010-06-27T16:10:00.001-07:00

The end of the new garden is looking good.

Also the hollyhocks are blooming and the beets are looking good as well.

The potatoes are also in bloom and look to be healthy so far.

It looks like my gambit of winter pruning out one third of the autumn bearing raspberries is working to get me a small early summer crop.

The scarlet runner beans are about to begin their onslaught of our kitchen.

The asparagus was also loaded up with bees this afternoon. I always wonder if it makes their honey smell funny?

Cherry Pie part one.

2010-06-22T20:23:00.000-07:00

We got the word that there are some strong storms moving into the area tonight and the cherries were looking ripe so we decided it was probably the best time to pick them.

First we had to remove the bird netting that I had put up over the tree. I had not put up netting in previous years and lost most of those crops to the birds. I would recommend it if you have a tree with soft fruit.

As you can see the cherries were in great condition and we certainly had more of them than in previous years. I am not entirely sure why we have so many this year. It could be the clover we planted last year, the ducks providing fertilizer this year or simply the fact that the tree is finally old enough. Whatever the reason we are happy with the result.

Our one tree provided a nice haul of cherries. Jess decided to turn most of them into a pie. She spent much of the evening making the crust and filling and posted about it over at her blog.

There was still a few cups left over, we plan to dehydrate those for use in cherry scones this fall.
Also all the bruised and damaged fruit was thrown to the ducks. The seemed to enjoy them and even came close to watch us finish the picking.

Tomorrow... homegrown cherry pie with Cedar Summit ice cream we bought at Ferndale. It doesn't get much more fresh and local than that!

Falling behind and catching up.

2010-06-19T20:10:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I wrote. I think it has something to do with the natural tension between working the land and writing about working the land.
We have also been up to a few things.
First we held our second annual summer festival at the farm. It was a great success. So many great people came out and joined us and the weather was not that bad. I got a chance to see some old friends Like Sharyn who took some great pictures of the event. I also got to make some new friends like John Scott Auterino who took some great pictures of the event.
My friend Jamie did most of our part of the cooking and it was excellent. He has a good post about it over here. We also collected a big box of food for the food shelves. I would like to raise even more at the fall festival.
We have also been trying to keep up with the new expanded garden. Everything is growing well. It is taking me a while to get everything in but what is in is doing great. I hope to post some pictures some night this week.
We also went and took a class this afternoon on butchering whole hogs with the Scott Pampuch of Corner Table . We had a great time. We broke down some hogs from Hidden Stream Farm in Elgin. Butchering an animal is something that I am familiar with after years of butchering my own deer but there were a few new wrinkles where hogs are concerned. I learned the correct way to remove the jowls for guanciale by first demonstrating that I could cut them out the wrong way. Scott also showed Jess how to hold a knife correctly.

We also brought a bottle of the nocino and helped to "raise awareness" of the fine qualites of good nocino after the knives were put away. We all had a lunch together at a long table in the restaurant. It was a great afternoon and the experience was great. The thing I learned about that most interested me was nettle salt. It looked like dried nettle tops ground fine and mixed with kosher salt. It had a fabulous smell, very green and herbal.

A little something

2010-06-09T11:06:00.000-07:00

I just found this site that has many River cottage videos up to watch for free. Not sure about the exact funding and licensing mechanism for the site but it looks legit. So here is the link that will get you guys to many of the river cottage videos.

I can't recommend Hugh enough.

Then there were nine.

2010-06-05T11:52:00.000-07:00

While mowing this morning I noticed feathers in the corner of the duck pen and looked closer.It was then that I discovered that I have been visited by a freelance security consultant.

I did a quick headcount on the ducks and learned that my fee for the testing of my electric fencing was in the amount of 2 ducks. Looks like we will start having to usher the ducks into their house and locking the door in the evening. The chickens naturally do this but the ducks have been fond of hanging out under the trees at night. Well no more of that. Also it looks like I will have to arrange a meeting with the consultant before he can evaluate my chicken pen as well.

So Jess decided we should have some strawberries and Cedar Summit ice cream with lunch to take our minds off the loss. She picked a bowl of fresh strawberries and macerated them with some sugar, balsamic vinegar and black pepper.

I feel a bit better now. Just the same me and that furry little consultant are going to have a talk!

Ducks in the orchard!

2010-05-24T17:00:00.000-07:00

No it is not a code phrase. we really have ducks in our orchard now. We had fenced in the orchard a while back but the orchard was in need of a gate, pond and electric wire.
Well first I built a gate for the orchard.

I know that the gate is a bit bent but it is kind of tricky to make an eight foot gate out of five foot or less lengths of board. But I am proud of how it turned out just the same.

Then I finished digging in the pond liner. It doesn't look like much but it is quite deep and contains 160 gallons of water. I plan to catch the run off from the pole barn and direct it into the pond to help keep the water fresh.

And last but not least the fence was strung and electrified and the ducks were rolled in. They stayed in their mobile home most of the first day but have now taken to wandering the yard as a herd.

Wild part two.

2010-05-19T19:53:00.001-07:00

Last Sunday we had the chance to head back down to the farm for the actual Where the Wild things are dinner at the farm. Jess and I got there early and helped wash and sort greens again. We sorted greens until the first farm tour took place. I snuck away to hear Ralph talk about his system for raising his cattle. I didn't get the chance to hear him talk about the cattle last year and realy wanted to hear it this year. Ralph took us around his pastures and explained the way he rotates his cattle through them to maximize his return from the land while at the same time minimizing his negative impact on it. One point he mentioned was that with cattle he locates the bale feeders in the areas of the field that are most in need of fertilization and the cows take care of it while feeding.

Ralph took the crowd out to meet the herd. It was interesting to see the cows up close. I was surprised to see how few flies his herd had. I didn't get the chance to talk to him about pest control. Maybe I will ask him next year.

After the tour I went back to help out with the greens again. I had Jess take a break and get some of the wonderful cheese and wine that were available. Soon it was time for the main event.
It was great to see Scott and his staff preparing the meat on the open wood fired grill. It was even better to eat it. There was so much on offer and it was great to see the nettles and greens we had worked so hard to gather in turned into wonderful dishes.

After dinner there was a few talks and the opportunity to meet tons of great people. We stayed until everyone left and helped to put away the benches and pick things up.

There were some nettles left over so we asked if we could take some home. We had a few recipes we wanted to try and didn't want to see the nettles go to waste. The first recipe was to make a nettle pasta. The first step in that recipe is to briefly boil the nettle tops and then shock them in ice water.

After that the moisture is wrung out of the nettles and they are blended in the food processor untill they make a smooth puree.

The next step will be to mix the paste into the pasta dough and then roll it out to sheets. In one of his shows Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall made a dish with these and a squirrel ragu. Since we didn't plan to make pasta that night the pure went into the freezer until the next time we want to make pasta.

The next recipe is also from River Cottage. It was for a nettle beer. The first step was to pour boiling water over the nettle tops and let them gradually cool for an hour.

Then the nettles were removed and some orange and lemon juices were added. Also the sugar was added and then the brew was left to cool to below 100F so that the yeast could be added.

Finally the whole thing was set aside to ferment someplace warm. It started to bubble almost immediately so I have high hopes for this batch.

Well that brings us up to last Sunday night. I will write tomorrow to bring you all up to speed on the new duck house

Where the wild foods are Pt. 1

2010-05-15T19:59:00.000-07:00

Today Jess and I joined Slow Food Minnesota for a day of foraging in preparation for the third annual Where the Wild Things are Spring Feast. We spent the first part of the day foraging around some of the pasture for chickweed, lambs quarters and nettles. After returning for weigh in at the farm house it was determined that we still needed more nettles so Ralph led us to a corner of his property that had fields of nettles and we set out to pick as many as we could. It was just Jess a guy named Kelly and myself. We were told we needed to just pick the very tops and that we needed 50 lbs of them. As we were picking and getting stung I had time to think. At around a gram apiece we were going to have to pick just a pit over twenty two thousand nettle tops. I am not sure if we got them all but we put in a heck of an effort.

When we got back the farm house everyone was already busy washing and sorting all the salad greens that we had gathered earlier in the day. The three nettle pickers took a second to weigh our haul from this trip and it came to just under twenty five pounds (eleven thousand nettle tops)! Then we started to settle in to the task of washing, drying and sorting the greens for the salad tomorrow. We spent the rest of the evening picking over salad greens and drinking the occasional beer and chatting about all things sustainable and slow. We had an excellent dinner and wrapped up the greens cleaning. While another crew cleaned the amazing pile of ramps they had managed to find.
Seriously that is one mondo pile of ramps!

We brought our the ducks and chickens the stems from the chickeweed we sorted and now if you will excuse me I am going to go pass out and dream of nettles.

Duck housing update

2010-05-09T20:11:00.000-07:00

The ducks have been growing so fast that we had to do something to get them more room but the duck house is not set up for heating. We decided to construct a temporary pen in the garage and hope that the ducks stop growing so fast. We were also concerned that they were not getting the exercise that they needed to strengthen their muscles to support them.
We constructed the below pen out of some two by fours and some plastic fencing we had from a prior chicken pen. The ducks seem happy with it.

We also had a freeze Saturday night. We had plenty of warning of it so we covered the garden and moved our burn barrel and our portable fire pit into the orchard. We started a big fire in the burn barrel and loaded it down with wood at dusk. I let it burn a bit and then choked down the exhaust so it would smolder all night. We also piled up dry wood in the fire pit. I went out at midnight and started the fire pit as it was getting close to freezing out and added more wood to the barrel. It wasn't immediately clear if it worked this morning but we have our fingers crossed.

Jess and I also managed to plant two types of potatoes, two types of onion, two types of popcorn, and our borlotti beans today. We also got half of the new garden fence up.

Now I am watching the news and having a nice rhubarb daiquiri.

Big projects with pictures.

2010-05-02T19:11:00.000-07:00

Well the ducks are growing like mad. At only a week and a half old they appear to have doubled in size. They have been eating and drinking like crazy. It has been fun to watch them so far and they really appear to be thriving in their current housing but at the rate they are growing they will need a new house and soon!

I have gotten thier new home nearly finished. One of the crates I got from work a while back is in the process of being converted to duck housing. I still need to add the roofing and paint it but otherwise it is complete. The next three pictures are of the pen that some friends came down and helped build this weekend. My friend B & J came down on Saturday and helped set the posts and plan the enclosure. Then J came back and helped me hang the fence today. The only steps left are to add a gate and run electric wire around near the top and the bottom.

The idea to put the pen around the orchard was something I got from a permaculture video I saw. The idea is that the birds can root around and eat any insects that may be under the trees and fertilize the trees with their droppings. The trees will shade the ducks and provide them with any fallen fruit. So it is win-win.

Speaking of duck droppings. I added this litter to the garden expansion and tilled it all in this evening.

Lots going on.

2010-04-27T19:47:00.001-07:00

So much has been going on since the last update that I just wanted to stop in and let you all know that I am still out here.
We have been working on expanding the garden. So far the sod has been cut, rolled and stacked. The soil has been worked a bit by fork at the north end and all of it has had two passes with the tiller. I have started adding some composted chicken litter and old leaf mold to the garden and working that in. I also added a bit of lime and some ground oyster shells that the chickens didn't seem interested in.
We have also been keeping a close eye on the new ducklings. It is amazing how fast they are growing and also how cute they are.
We also transplanted a bunch of tomato seedlings to larger pots. I am excited because they are doing better than most of my seedlings have done in the past. If I can keep from killing them until they are big enough to plant out we will be awash in Brandywines and Romas.
We have also been eating up as much as we can from our freezer and pantry in order to make space for our summer produce.
We have been also eating our eggs and have started to eat our spring onions and asparagus regularly.

So I just need to get some pictures and share them.

Today was just ducky!

2010-04-21T20:29:00.000-07:00

Woot!
The new ducks arrived today. We got them all tucked in to their nice new brooder and they are doing great. One of our plans this year is to raise a flock of ducks in the orchard. The idea is to start integrating some of our systems. In the past our orchard, livestock and vegetable setups were all disconnected with hte exception of us. The plan is to start knitting those areas together again.

But enough of all that. Time for some cute ducky pictures!

Busy, busy, busy!

2010-04-19T18:50:00.000-07:00

So much has gone on the last few days that I hardly know where to begin.
First the county was out to look at separating the waterline that ran to the pasture across the street that is no longer part of our property.

We also have had a week of above average temps again so all the perennials are going like gangbusters. The rhubarb has already needing to be pulled. So Jess made a rhubarb compote that we had over some English pouring custard she made with some of our eggs.
The asparagus is starting to show itself as well.

We also rented a sod cutter and started our expansion of the garden. Turns out cutting sod is pretty easy with a sod cutter but lifting, rolling and finding a place to put the sod is less simple.
So far I have found places to stash some of the sod. Low places in the yard that needed to be filled. I also put some on the hill where previous tenants had buried something along with all of the topsoil. I still have enough sod to build one or two sob cabins like the old timers did. So far the plan is to use up what I can and then make a berm or two with the rest and let it rot down to a nice even loam.

All this and we rented a truck this afternoon to pick up supplies for the new duck enclosure and fencing for the garden expansion. We also picked up a tiller to start converting all the new garden to usable land. I don't actually intend to till the soil much after we get the soil worked up and compost and organic mater worked into it. No till would be good but with our garden and time available we will have to settle for minimal till.
We also laid out our plan for the ducks. The plan is to build the enclosure around the orchard so that the ducks can patrol for pest insects and fertilize the trees. We also plan to direct run off from the pole barn into a small pond form for the ducks to splash in.

All this and we got a great bloom on the apricots and few decent bee flying days so fingers crossed for apricots this season.

Picture post.

2010-04-13T18:17:00.001-07:00

In the following picture you can see the new expanded chicken garden. I still need to plant this up but so far it has a row of peas that we will probably eat but the chickens will get the shells and trimmings.

Here is the strawberry bed after a bit of weeding. If you look close you can see that the strawberries have escaped and are colonizing the grass. I plan to pot them up and try and grow them on the deck.

Jess and I planted up a number of the garden beds with spring plants last weekend. We also added another compost bin.

The apricots decided to wait until the good weather was over and bloom in today's high winds and rain.

Kind of an over all shot of the garden to give you an idea of the progress. It is amazing that we have all of this and it is still early April.

Even the hops are practically shooting out of the ground.

Well maybe more pictures tomorrow.

First planting and more.

2010-04-07T19:10:00.000-07:00

I got the chance to plant a quick line of peas late last week that I am still waiting to see poke their little heads up. But other than that I have not planted any seeds outside yet but this evening I was finaly able to get one of the beds I had prepared earlier planted up. This evening I planted a 10 foot row of mixed radishes, a row of older spinach seed, a row of daikon radishes, a row of mache and a row of mesclun lettuce mix. I also planted a small bed of coriander.
I have also been weeding the garden beds and giving the dandelions and grass roots to the chickens. The girls love them and convert my weed problem into eggs and lovely chicken litter for the compost pile.
We also picked up some wonderful couches and a great chair second hand from Jess's folks over the Easter weekend. Our old couch pillows have already been added to the dogs bed and the old couches have been moved to the garage until I have a rainy day to start breaking them down to constituents for possible future use.
We have been seeing a warmer and drier spring so far this year so I have put out the first rain barrel to catch the pole barn run off. I have big dreams of completely re-roofing the pole barn and adding a 500 gal sump but for now a 100 gal watering trough is a good start.

All this and I still need to get ready for the ducks to arrive on the 19th.

So much to do. So much to do!

First harvest

2010-03-30T19:35:00.000-07:00

Well we had our first mini harvest this evening. it was just a bit of chive and a leaf of dandlion. As harvests go it was small but it was still significant. The chives could be combined with the eggs that our chickens are now producing with very little effort to make a nice greens omlet and we could serve it up with some garlic wilted dandelion leaves for a March fresh Minnesota grown meal. I know it can be tricky to eat locally some months of the year around here. But combined with the remnants of last falls pickles the march Minnesota garden can in fact feed you quite well.
In gardening notes,
I have extended the chicken garden. By forking over the loose soil and sod and throwing the sod to the chickens along with the dandelion roots I have already doubled the size of the chicken garden. We plan to grow some grains for storage and for feeding to the chickens during the winter. We will also grow chard to feed them during the summer to supplement the grass and grubs they get on their own.

The sun is ours now!

2010-03-22T18:32:00.000-07:00

Well I hate to break it to you southern brethren but the sun is ours now. You have had your dance with our dear sweet sun but now the tune is fading and it is our time. It was a long time since it our days outlasted our nights here in the north but that time is at end for another year. We are pretty far north so even though the days have been lengthening since December it is only now really starting to work it's dependable annual magic.

Earlier this year I started getting a bit antsy and went out into the snow to build the following structure in an attempt to catch a bit more of the sun and possibly get a jump on the season.

Now to get the full effect you have to imagine me knee deep in the snow and digging out a place to build this ill thought out structure. So what was wrong with it? First off I didn't measure the windows and ended up with a structure that was too wide and let in the winter air. Second I managed to put it in the shadow of the big maple even after trying to account for it. So major fail there.

So plan B involved moving the straw bales and windows to the garden which even now has a small corner of snow in it.

So far that is working out much better the soil is almost hot on a sunny day and I think I should be able to start some plants in it this week. Which is good as my windows in the house are already full.

Also here is the annual first rhubarb picture! It has become a bit of a thing to post this picture each year so there it is. You may rejoice once again.

I also managed to fork over a few of the beds I had covered with chicken manure last fall. I am hoping that this helps the soil to warm up a bit quicker. I also hopes it starts the process of the soil making use of the remains of last fall's compost addition. I am thinking of starting seeds of spinach and radishes this week.

In other news I am nearly finished with the duck house. I just need to add the wheels trim down and mount the door and paint it. I spent quite a few pleasant hours working on it in the pole barn this weekend. I also need to put together the crate that is the new shed soon.
So much to do! So much to do!

We eat well.

2010-03-15T19:38:00.000-07:00

So we have been eating quite well lately. Jess already posted about our lasagna that we made wit hour own tomato sauce, pasta and home made cheeses last week. I really felt it was an accomplishment to grow and make so much with our own food.

Last night we made ravioli with ricotta cheese that Jess made and pasta made from our hens eggs. To be honest Jess did all the hard work and I just helped with the sauce at the end. Last year we made a few small batches of garlic scape and walnut pesto and froze them. I combined them with butter and served them over the ravioli. It was delicious and looked pretty good as well.

We also made a batch of Lemon Ricotta pancakes made famous by Hell's Kitchen in Minneapolis.
Ours turned out quite well but still are no threat to the originals. You really should stop in and try them if you have the opportunity. We served them up with a few slices of Lorentz bacon and it was wonderful.

In other news I have adjusted the blog to a more spring like look and added a twitter feed for things that I would like to share about the farm but are to small in themselves to make a good post.

Other than that Spring is in full swing around here. I took down the snow fence and almost all of the snow has melted from the yard. The sun is heating the garden beds and I hope to be planting frost hardy crops by possibly this weekend.
Woot!

Quick update

2010-03-10T18:47:00.000-08:00

Just a few quick notes.
Spring is starting to show itself. We had our first rain a few days ago and the snow is finally on the retreat. We are supposed to have temps in the 35-40F range for most of the rest of the week.
I have not yet planted the mache that I had hoped to. Perhaps tomorrow will give me time. I also need to start some leeks and maybe the fava beans.
This evening I got the chance to cut down last years hop bines and put them into the burn barrel. I hope to get to the raspberry canes this week as well.
The hens have started to lay us some eggs again. Not that many as the girls are getting a bit long in the beak but still enough to keep us in eggs for now.
I also ordered up a beer kit to make a witbier for summer drinking and a new species of hop rhizome as well. They should arrive this week.

I still have a ton of projects to get going for this season. Luckily we will get an extra hour of after work sunlight this weekend. Woot!

Tsukemono!

2010-03-02T18:11:00.000-08:00

I have been thinking about other traditions to prepare and preserve foods. A while back Jess and I had a great dinner at a Korean restaurant on the way home from work and the meal was served with a selection of lightly pickled vegetables. This led me to begin thinking about Asian influenced pickles in general and I remembered being served some umboshi once in the service. Umboshi are Japanese pickled plums and since we had so many plums this year the idea of pickling them sounded great. Well a bit more research later I learned that those are not the same types of plums but it also led me to the entire class of Japanese preserved vegetables called Tsukemono. One of the first things I found was a tsukemono press that is used to help brine and draw out water from vegetables like a weighted lid is used when making sourkraut. Since this seemed like an elegant way to make quick tasty salt preserved produce during the growing season and also make the occasional batch of sourkraut with, I ordered a press of Amazon. I know this is not terribly frugal but to be honest that has always been the biggest part of this life for me.

So to test drive the press we picked up some turnips and a bit of dried seaweed known as kombu. I first peeled and cut the turnips and quick rinsed the kombu and cut it into strips. I then added them to the press with around a tablespoon of pacific sea salt and closed the press and cranked down the plunger. I let them sit overnight in the press in the refrigerator. Sure enough there was liquid by morning.

To me the result after around a week tastes a bit like the sea. The smell takes me back to the smell of the ocean far out at sea and the pickles taste like licking your lips after an afternoon swim off the coast with a bit of a radishy crispness. Not bad at all!

I will definitely be trying this again this spring and summer with various vegetables. I can hardly wait to get some kale into this thing.

In other non-pickle notes.
We went to meet with the folks from Transition Northfield on Saturday morning and found them to interesting people. They sent us away with a book to read and some suggested videos to view. We also heard about a permaculture class that they were sponsoring at the co-op on Monday night.
Sunday I decided to build a cold frame out of some straw bales and old storm windows. This will be the subject of a future post once I can clean it up a bit.
Jess and I decided to stop by the co-op early on Monday and picked up some milk for cheese making and some Sunchokes to see if we liked them before adding them to the list of veggies to grow this year. We attended the lecture and ran into some of the folks from TN again as well. Then we came home and made our very first ricotta cheese with the milk we picked up. We can't wait to make lasagna this year with our own pasta, tomato sauce and ricotta and mozzarella cheeses.

Energy

2010-02-25T18:52:00.001-08:00

Well one of our goals here is to prepare for a time when energy may not be as plentiful and cheap as it is today. It is our feeling that as oil stocks are depleted that the world will move to electricity to fill the gap initially. We are already seeing it with some cars and with geothermal heat in many parts of the country electric heat is comparable if not favorable to petrofuels. I have some concerns with the possible ramifications of removing heat from the earth in the winter in the quantities that we need it and rejecting it in the summer in the amounts we probably will. But that is fodder for another post. But the point is that electricity will probably only get more expensive and may rise sharply when oil loses many of it's advantages and the economy shifts to the grid.
So what to do about it? Well first we should look at insulation. In our home one of the biggest electricity users is the furnace. We have forced air heat and the fan uses a great deal of energy. Since we added insulation to the house last summer we have noticed a decrease in the amount propane we seem to be buying but as the beginning of the season was warm and the propane use is difficult to gage we were unsure of how much less we were actually using. Well we now have at least the electricity number for the first two months of the year and we have saved a almost 1300 KW hours so far. We tend to be high users do to the old house and having a well and a barn light on the garage but that is still pretty significant. To put that into perspective it is more electricity saved than we used all of last April. We are really happy with this and it has motivated us to be even more dedicated to reducing our use. So I have acquired a logging meter and have begun to go around the house measuring the use on everything. It is almost fun. I need help.

In unrelated notes we are thinking of throwing a crop mob at the beginning of the season to help us get our big expansion of to a good start. I discovered the idea over at Cricket Bread some time ago. Cricket Bread also has one of my favorite posts ever written.

Just a few quick notes.

2010-02-21T10:27:00.000-08:00

Still not to much to write about here. We are still tightly in the grip of old man winter. It can sometimes be frustrating watching others around the net talk of planting and first crops while I am trying not to think about the fact that I need to go shovel the walk again. Still the sun comes up a little earlier each day and sets a little latter each afternoon and fells quite strong while it is shinning down. Someday we too will have spring.
We went to the Annual Sustainable Farming Conference at St. Olaf College in Northfield yesterday. It was not as good as I had hoped. There was just not enough practical know how sharing going on. Too many people seemed focused on the negative and not enough focused on what we collectively can do about it. I heard a good deal of frustration, fear and uncertainty in the people in the audience and I totaly understand that. Many of the people allied there had been concerned about issues like Peak Oil, Global Climate change, environmental issues and social justice for a long time and have lost some of their positive outlook and zeal. One common thread was that we all need to find ways to bring more people into the effort. We need to find ways to communicate both the importance of these issues but also the opportunity for society they could represent. So I encourage all of you to keep sharing what you learn with others who may be open to hearing you.

Frustrated Farmer Rick

Winter wonderland

2010-02-13T10:38:00.000-08:00

For those of you who have had to suffer with early planting dates and warmth, I thought I would share the beautiful view yesterday morning as I went to get eggs from the girls.

Go Jamie!!

2010-02-12T06:49:00.000-08:00

I found out yesterday that Jamie Oliver was recently awarded a TED Prize for his past and future work in correcting our current horrible food culture. If you are reading this blog the odds are that you are already interested in sustainable food culture but please take the time to watch this and re-post it in front of as many people as we can.

Yes it is 20 minutes long but I promise you that you will be better informed and even more motivated after you watch this.

Update.

2010-01-27T17:44:00.001-08:00

Well it has been a while since I posted and the longer I wait the more important it seems to write something of substance. Truth is I need to just write something. So here it is.

First Jess and I just got back from a trip to Phoenix last week. The idea was to lay in the sun and recharge a bit but fortune had other plans. I managed to catch a sinus infection on the way down and was sick much of the time. It also rained much of the week as well. We did get out a few days though and had a good time. I can really see the appeal of the southwest when my home in Minnesota was covered in a frozen blanket of snow and ice. The citrus fruits that were in all the yards were wonderful to see. I am definitely jealous of that. They also have so much luck growing Rosemary they plant it in the medians of the roads. Here is a picture I tried to take as we drove past.

Here I am lucky to keep one alive through the winter in the house.

Other than that things here are going along well. The insulation that we added to the house is paying off. We have had to fill our propane tank much less frequently and also we have noticed a significant reduction in the amount electricity we are using as well.

Keep warm
Rick

Be it here resolved.

2010-01-05T15:21:00.000-08:00

So I suppose it is time to publish this years resolutions for the homestead.

We recognize that having food in the pantry is good for both body and mind. We therefore resolve to grow, dry, can and freeze even more food in the coming year. We also resolve to cook even more of our own meals using the quality ingredients we will gather in. It is sad but true that we don't use as much as we should of our own home grown foods and we plan to change that. We plan to experiment with cold frames and possibly a small hoop house in order to extend the amount of the year that we can enjoy our dinner salads. As part of our resolution to grow even more food we plan to rent a sod cutter and a tiller to till up approximately an acre of the yard this spring and plant it.

It is also not acceptable to me that others are not fed properly and I resolve to do something about it. For that reason we plan to plant approximately 1/4 acre of this garden with the intention of giving it away to the local food shelf if they will have it. If not we will find some other way to get it into the hands of those that need it. We will also be asking for food donations at events we host throughout the year.

We also recognize that allowing things to go to the dump is neither financially nor ecologically smart. For that reason we resolve to generate less waste in the coming year. We plan to accomplish this by increasing our recycling and composting operations and also by reducing the amount of expendables we bring into our home.

And finally we resolve to find a way to produce some small part of our own power here on the farm. We believe that though the future is not clear to anyone the wise prepare today for difficulties tomorrow. We also believe that every homestead should be as resilient as possible. To this end we plan to either install a small alternative energy system or solar thermal system by years end. We plan to design the system with an eye to future expansion.

Rick

Year end post.

2010-01-02T08:37:00.000-08:00

I have been wanting to write a year/ season ending post for some time but have been having some trouble wrapping my head around just what to talk about.

First I think was great it was to see the larger food culture continue to move twords the fresh, local and organic. From going to see movies like Fresh and Food inc. to the increasing availability of food events like Tour de farm and Gastro non grata it was great to be involved in a the trend to a more sustainable and healthy food culture. We were also able to attend events with Slow Food Minnesota and Simple, Good and Tasty as well. We even held our own fall harvest festival.

We expanded the garden to include a new satellite garden by the chickens for the growing of some of thier food and three additional beds in the main garden. We grew pole beans for the first time, though our trellis design still needs work. We grew our own cabbage and carrots this year successfully. We learned that kale can be biannual at least in our climate. We also had challenges with cucumbers and parsnips and got our squash and pumpkins in too late.

The orchard gave us our first ever apricots and also plums galore. We planted our first nut bushes and along with some red currants and high bush cranberry.

We insulated the house and had the siding upgraded to improve our home energy efficiency. It is too soon to be able to tell just how much difference this will make but so far it looks to be a significant improvement. We also have made our pole barn a more useful and productive place.

We foraged for walnuts to make nocino and managed to put a few birds and some deer meat in the freezer from hunting. We also foraged for nettles to make nettle beer and ferns for the spring table.

Well I guess that was really quite a great deal to do in one year. I am already thinking about what we will need to get done next year but I will save that for another post.

Late post

2009-12-28T21:06:00.001-08:00

So here it is the winter solstice again.
In our part of the world it seems to come too late to mark the beginning of the winter and too early to mark it’s middle. One thing it does do is mark the end of another solar cycle and the beginning of a new one. Or at least it would if cycles had endpoints and beginnings. For me it is always a happy event to know that the sun will start to come back soon. Living this far north the days tend to get too short for my liking. I don’t really tolerate the absence of my dear sun to well. During the waning of the sun I tend to get all bearish. All I want to do is eat sleep and growl at people. I put on a layer of fat and very much wish to be left alone. I am always aware of it and try to rise above it but it is a deep drive, a chemical certainty that is only really effectively countered with significant amounts of will, which is sadly in short supply. But the return of the sun always gives me hope.

Here is hoping you all had a good holiday and are warm and safe this winter.

Winter is for baking

2009-12-13T08:40:00.001-08:00

We had the chance to bake a loaf of no knead bread today. Wish we had time to bake a loaf everyday.

Sometimes I think I should move!

2009-12-09T19:25:00.000-08:00

Seriously, Why do I continue to live here!

Jess and I spent several hours and what might have been my last nerve shoveling and clearing the 3 foot drifts. All this with high winds and temps near zero. And to top it all off the plow took out my mailbox again!! I end up repairing my mailbox a few times each year. I tried to move it further away from the road but the letter carrier started sending me nasty grams, first it was too tall then it was too far from the road. I think I am going to have to talk to the local post master or something before I reinstall the damned thing!

Bah!!

More TED talk

2009-12-05T10:41:00.000-08:00

Garlic planted.

2009-12-02T19:47:00.000-08:00

I finally got the garlic planted back on November 21 st. It was an awfuly late time to be planting but the outside temp was near 50F. So first the soil was forked over to remove weed roots and loosen the dirt. Then I added a quick dusting of agricultural lime as this was one of my oldest beds. I didn't check the pH first but it may have been a bit sour as I have added aged chicken litter and compost over the years. I then worked over the clumps with the tiller attachment for my weeder until it was a fine tilth. I then leveled the bed by raking until it looked like this.

I then set out the garlic cloves to get my spacing. I used the bottom of a one gallon bucket to space my cloves out by around 8 inch centers. And pushed them in to a depth of approximately two inches.

As you see below a 4 x 9 bed can allow you to plant quite a lot of garlic.

After planting the soil was firmed up around the cloves of garlic. I didn't water them in as rain was predicted for the next afternoon. I finished it all up by bedding the new planting in with a covering of some of the straw that was left over from our fall festival.

Now all I have to do is wait till I can enjoy the delicious garlic scapes late next spring.

Minnesota winter hardy plants

2009-11-21T17:27:00.000-08:00

We all know that Kale is hardy and ours has survived well into the freezing days of November. This is the plant from last year that I let grow again this spring and provided us with leaves in spring and seeds in the fall.

We also discovered last year that chard is also quite hardy. It is hard to believe that these plants have already been completely frozen a number of times.

Some of the new discoveries this fall have been...

Carrots, I guess that makes sense and probably applies to all root crops.

Parsley is also quite hardy which I was surprised to find out. I figured it as a warm weather crop like cilantro but man was I wrong.

For greens we really like how late in the season Mizuna lets us have spicy salads. I think it is a brassica so I guess that makes good sense.

Well that is a few of the things still growing in our garden as of today.

Make Hay While The Sun Shines

2009-11-08T20:17:00.000-08:00

We had one heck of a lovely weekend here. Sunny and highs in the 60's. Which while a little concerning was at least helpful in getting things done. I finally got most of the leaves gathered up and put into a new leaf bin. I still have a number of leaf piles to gather up and add to the bin. I also picked up a number of sticks from the yard and added them to a growing stick pile I hope to burn soon. I also got a bunch of room made in the garage by taking things to the pole barn.
Jess was a wizard on the home front as well. She made a nice ragu of Callister chicken with home grown carrots and herbs. She also added some of our home made tomato sauce and cooked it down until the meat fell off the bone. We also made a batch of home made pasta and served it over that. All that and managed to bake a loaf of no need bread as well.

Overdue Update

2009-11-03T16:31:00.000-08:00

Well not a lot has gone on here as of late. We had one of the coldest and wettest Octobers on record and that has slowed down happenings in the yard and garden, not to mention sapping much of my usual fall enthusiasm. I usually go into "bear mode" some time in mid November but this year I have had to fight it off much sooner.
I did get the chance to clean up the spent tomatoe vines and the bean trellises last weekend. I also recently acquired 3 waste packing crates from work. So far they are destined to be a duck house next spring, a possible fish house this winter and a garden shed next summer. I really hate to see decent materials go into the waste stream and I was glad of the opportunity to divert these to re-use. Currently they are in a state of partial reassembly in the pole barn. I hope to have them finished soon.
It has been too wet to deal with the leaves yet. I am hoping to gather them for use as bedding in the chicken coop this winter. The chickens shred the leaves for me and along with their waste it makes a great addition to the compost pile. You can also make such great soil amendments and mulches out of leaves and so many bags of them have been residing by the curb up near work that it is a good thing we don't have a truck yet or I think I would have brought home half a ton already.
Also I got a wonderful care package from Jo over at 14 Acres. We had talked about trading seeds so Jo sent me a bunch of seeds. I can't wait for the opportunity to sit down and go through my seeds and send her a bunch as well. Well lots to do and preciouse little energy to do it. I guess I should get to it .

Fall Festival

2009-10-24T08:56:00.001-07:00

Well last weekend we had a little celebration of the fall season here at the farm. It was so great to see so many wonderful people and gather around the fire with them. We roasted a pig and had tons of great side dishes as well. There was a canned goods swap and a pumpkin pie contest. I think a great time was had by all. My lovely wife wrote all about it over at Lefse and Kimchee so I won't go on too much about it. But it was a lot of work and bit of an extravagance financially but we will still be doing it again next year.

Rick

Snow!

2009-10-10T08:38:00.000-07:00

In a place like Minnesota snow is inevitable. But it still always fills me with a bit of sadness to see it happen. This year it has been made worse by the fact that it happened so soon. Usually at this time of year we can get by with covering the tomatoes against a light frost. But this year it seems we will be losing most of the non freeze hardy perennials today. Hopefully it will warm up a bit soon as now I will have plenty of space to put in my garlic.

Ted talk on food and how it shapes the world

2009-10-06T15:51:00.000-07:00

This is a great talk about food systems and also a vision of how they shape the world we live in. I love and recommend the TED talks to anyone who wants to know more about the world. I particularly like her vision for Sitopia.

In other news it is raining here and has been for the last six days or so. I am beginning to think if it goes on much longer I may have need of an ark.

Rick

2009-10-04T07:38:00.000-07:00

Well it has been a while since I have written. The combination of so much to finish and the diminishing daylight both conspire to keep me from the blog. We have been involved in a few new adventures around here. First Jess has started a blog about food, life and song over at Lefse and Kimchee: A life in Meals and Song. My wife is a much better writer than I will ever be, so I urge you to give her blog a read if you have the time.
Also it is now hunting season here in Minnesota and I have spent a few days in the fields looking for some high quality protein. There is an ancient native american word for the type of hunter I am and it is "Vegetarian." Truth be told I have had to press upon my friends to teach me to hunt and they have graciously obliged. But I can't always prevail upon them to take me hunting and so I have had to learn much of it on my own. I think it will be a craft that I will continue to improve upon for years to come. I have had some successes over the years, there were a few white tailed deer, a coot and a goose or two. This week I have been to a game farm and came home with 10 pheasants for the freezer but duck opener success alluded me this year. I also spent an afternoon last week walking the woods and looking for squirrels, they must have had other plans that day.
In addition to all this we have had a near frost and had to spend an afternoon/evening trying to gather it all in. We gathered quite a bit of raspberries and beans as well as the last of the tomatoes.
Now just to finish getting ready for our harvest festival in the barn.

Rick

Seeds

2009-09-23T19:49:00.000-07:00

Well we are busy gathering the seeds for next years garden. We have so far saved dill, coriander, scarlet runner beans, some white pole bean, dragon tongue beans, 4 kinds of tomato and seeds from our Red Russian kale.

More posts this weekend.

Late summer insect plague

2009-09-16T19:11:00.000-07:00

I get these insects every year. I think they are some sort of cucumber beetle but not sure which one.

This year they seem to be more prolific and more voracious. I am sure if I could let my chickens free range a bit more they would be less of a problem. I am also thinking about growing no curcubits for a year but that would be pretty extreme and besides they seem to be willing to eat anything.

Siding and my crystal ball.

2009-09-09T20:08:00.000-07:00

Well we are just about complete with all our siding upgrades. We have significantly upgraded the weather tightness of our house by adding sheathing under all our siding. We also upgraded some of the insulation on the south side of the house as well. This combined with the work done for us by TCSP earlier this summer really has us excited about our energy bills this winter. I am kind of amazed that I am saying that.
Around here we believe in a coming energy crunch. I am sure that at some point soon oil will be less available at anything near the prices we have gotten used to. The truth is that on a pure energy per dollar basis it looks like we will be unlikely to see anything else come along that is even remotely close to oil.
So what to do? First and foremost we as individuals need to cut our demand while we still have the resources to invest in the changes necessary. If we are still overly dependent on oil when it begins to get scarce most of us will be too busy looking for extra shifts to make energy upgrades around the home front. If we wait untill it is painfull to continue we will have missed our opportunity to make a significant change in our fortunes. Like in personal finance the time to start saving is before you need it. Once you are up against the wall it is too late to look for places to cut back. Also like in personal finnance reducing your investments made during a time of plenty will pay you back many times when things get tight. So my advice to my readers is simple, find ways to cut back on your energy usage now before you have to.

Rick

A glut of plums.

2009-09-04T22:03:00.001-07:00

We decided today that it was time to gather in our harvest of plums. We had quite a few of them. There were a few that were damaged by insects so we gave those to the chickens.

My wife did most of the heavy lifting in making this sauce. I was more of an adviser. First she cut the plums in half and put them in a saucepan with just a pit of sugar.

After a bit of stewing and breaking them up with a wooden spoon it looked like the following.

That was looking pretty good but once you have made tomato sauce using a food mill you start to look for other things to put into it as well.

The finnal sauce ended up glossy and smooth. We left it mostly unsweetened for use in sauces and possibly sorbet. I am thinking of making a batch of barbecue sauce with some of it.

After all that we still had all these plums left over for fresh eating and cooking with.

A food weekend in pictures.

2009-08-30T18:30:00.000-07:00

We made and processed a bunch of food this weekend.

Friday evening we started by mixing up a couple of batches of no knead bread. One was destined for for pizza dough and the other was to be baked for bread.

Saturday was a bit busier.
First my lovely bride made a batch of scones.

We then processed a batch of tomatoes into tomato sauce.

We also worked on canning some cucumber relish.

We also made a gallon of quick vegetable stock. I didn't get a picture of the stock vegetables simmering but here is the extra stock ready for the freezer.

We decided to make a recipe for corn soup that I can't find the source for now. It is basically a fresh corn minestrone.

First we cut some corn from the cobs

Then we then put the cobs into the vegetable stock to simmer.

After the vegetables were added to the stock it really started to look good.

We had the soup with a bit of the no knead bread.

We also made pizzas with our fresh vegetables and our home made tomato sauce. I didn't get
a good picture of those either but they turned out fairly well.

Jess started another batch of heirloom tomato sauce Sunday afternoon.

Soon we will have to make sauce from our abundance of plums.

All this and we cleaned house and the garage and the pole barn a bit. Can you tell that the internet was out for us almost all weekend?

Rick

Great video

2009-08-25T20:37:00.000-07:00

I found this video over on Permaculture TV that touches on many important topics like sustainable farming, peak oil and permaculture. It is worth your time to watch all 5 parts.

Update

2009-08-14T13:58:00.000-07:00

Well we are finally starting to get our tomatoes. It seems like they are starting a bit late this year. We had a cool first half to summer this year. No days in the 90"s since May up till this month. For Minnesota that is quite cool. But now that we have moved into August the temps and humidity have come up to our usual summer standards. We also started the the growing season this year as quite dry and now we have had rain almost every other day. This has resulted in a few split toms and a bit of mildew on the squash. Nothing fatal yet but I am ready for it to dry out a bit.
I am hoping to make a lot of tomato sauce this year. I hope to make a bit of heirloom tomato sauces a la Hank at Hunter Angler Gardener Cook.

In other news the insulation and siding on the house is nearly finished and should really help cut down our energy bills this year.

Rick

Dragon Tongues

2009-08-09T06:13:00.000-07:00

This year we are trying a few new types of beans. One of the new beans is the Dragon tongue beans. The have a great color and are so easy to harvest. The purple really helps you to spot the beans in the plants. They are an heirloom bush bean. The have a taste reminiscent of wax beans but better.

We decided to can some according to the dilly bean recipie in the Bells Blue book. You really need that book if you plan to start canning. We also added one of our small dried Thai peppers to each jar so I hope they end up extra dragony

Rick

Renovation

2009-08-04T19:39:00.000-07:00

One of the challenges of moving to an old farmstead is the inevitable old farm house. Ours had som issues that had been concerning us for a number of years. Among them was the ancient siding and the lack of sheathing behind it. Well after years of paying massively every winter to keep the place above freezing we finally have the opportunity to do something about it. So a while back Jess and I set out to find a siding contractor to remove the old siding and then insulate before putting up sheathing and siding. We had heard good things about Twin Cities Siding Professionals. Well today was day one and I am impressed so far. The team showed up on time and set to the days work. They stayed in contact with us if they had any questions the asked us what we wanted to do and listened to our wishes. They removed the siding and the cellulose and deteriorated foam insulation underneath. There were also some repairs made to areas of the house that had some rotted wood as well.We had made agreements to have the house insulated with spray foam insulation and that was also finished today. We should definitely have a much warmer and more efficient house this winter.
If it all goes this well from here on out we will be quite happy.

Scarlet Runners

2009-07-31T19:06:00.000-07:00

So a while back I was talking with my mom about the garden and the subject of scarlet runner beans came up. My mom had never heard of them. It occurred to me that possibly other people have not heard of them as well. Well the plant below near my lovely wife is a half dozen or so scarlet runner vines twisting up an obelisk.

As you see below the beans can be quite prolific. We have been picking them young for fresh green beans. But now that the dragon tongue and borlitti beans are coming along we have been letting them get a bit bigger.

We discovered that the beans can be shucked out of the pods and boiled quickly. It takes a bit of work and the skins toughen when boiled so you still need to slip them from their skins but they make a nice addition to three bean salads.

And since they look so nice before they are boiled here is another picture of the beans before they are boiled.

And after all that they can be dried and used in soups and cassoulettes as well.
So there you have it. Scarlet Runner Beans.

Coffee

2009-07-25T17:16:00.000-07:00

You ever have the feeling that you are starting to know all the steps and then suddenly find out you are not even dancing to the same song as everyone else? Me either, I don't dance but I imagine it would feel about like I felt on Friday when we discovered Burley Coffee.
Jess and I had gone into town to run a few errands. We decided to stop in at the Ferndale market and see what was new. We picked up a few things and as we were checking out Jess noticed a small menu card for what looked like a sandwich place. The name said Burley but otherwise it wasn't too descriptive. We had to explore a bit to find the address until we came to some buildings near the old malting plant. We found a small nondescript green building with few windows and a sign that read Burley Coffee. Inside we found a bustling coffee shop and deli sandwich place. We asked the girl at the counter how long they had been open and she told us since December. Honestly Cannon Falls isn't that big and I had not noticed a sandwich place and coffee roaster located right on the main drag! I am so slipping. I guess they are trying to avoid publicity for some reason but it is just the sort of place we would like to see in business so I am telling all of you.

As for the garden things are really coming along. Jess and I have been cooking a meal almost everyday directly from the garden. We had some hail last week and that set things back a bit but it wasn't too bad. Some of the toms got beat up and so did the big leaves but otherwise things are looking good. Even my experimental pumpkin seedlings are coming up.

Nocino part deux.

2009-07-19T18:35:00.000-07:00

First you have to start with some walnuts that are still green. These are the nuts we gathered down at the Callister farm on Wednesday.You then quarter the nuts and trim off any bruised or damaged areas.

The next three pictures are of us making vin de noix. This is the first time we have tried it but we had so many nuts this year as a result of the Callister's generosity it seemed like a shame not to try.

By the way that is the wine that I racked to secondary back in March.

We made a carboy and a large container of nocino on Friday after work. We ran out of containers and had to go get more bottles at Ikea at the Mall of America Saterday afternoon. I won't do that again.

Below you can see the difference between the batch we made on Friday and the one we made this afternoon. You can see how quickly it darkens.

And here is the final picture of all the batches we got started this weekend.

I think people may get some nocino for christmas this year.

Harvest

2009-07-18T17:00:00.000-07:00

A picture of the first major garden harvest.
And if you look close you can see our first 2 apricots! We had them for desert !

Nocino step one.

2009-07-15T19:44:00.001-07:00

Well today after work we went down to the Callister Farm in West Concord Minnesota to pick black walnuts for nocino. We met Al Callister this spring at a dinner put on by Slow Food Minnesota and got to talking about walnuts. He mentioned that he had too many and that they were a bit of a nuisance to him. We offered to help him by taking some off his hands for the making of nocino. We made arangements to meet him and his wife at their farm this evening. They were kind enough to give us a tour of their poultry growing and processing operations. After that it was time to pick the unripe walnuts. The apple pickers we purchased earlier this week worked great. First Al helped us to spot them and then Jess and I did our best to get them down. I think we picked for around an hour and we now have more than enough for the next step.

Here is last years nocino post.

Dinner last night

2009-07-14T18:55:00.000-07:00

Last night Jess and I made a dinner almost entirely from the garden. We made Fried Kale salad again. I love the taste of Brassicas after they have been exposed to high heat. It doesn't matter if it is deep fried broccoli or pan seared cabbage I just love the taste of them all.
We also made a sort of a frittata meets pizza dish (Fritatza??) out of our eggs and Swiss Chard. We topped that with some Blue Cheese and Antelope sausage made by a friend. We finished the plate off with some steamed Runner beans with butter.

We are hoping for rain tonight but the radar doesn't look promising.
I am also attempting to direct seed some pumpkin seeds. Not sure if I am too late but I thought it would make a neat experiment to plant them into some of the mole hills on the north end of the property.

Picture post!

2009-07-13T19:58:00.001-07:00

We are back!

2009-07-12T15:56:00.000-07:00

Well we took a quick midsummer vacation to the north western Minnesota lake country this weekend. We had a wonderful time. We enjoyed quite a few trips around the lakes. We looked at the homes and gardens and marveled at the castles. I was happy to see so many gardens with edibles planted. I notice vegetable gardens more these days. I am not sure if there are in fact more of them or if I am just noticing them more frequently. But either way I think it is good.
I also did a bit of fishing as well. I caught a smallish Pike and we poached it in white wine with lemons and red onions. It was quite good. I may have to try and catch more pike in the future.

Illegal Bees

2009-07-05T20:39:00.000-07:00

Hope everyone had a great fourth and found some small way to be more independent. Things are moving along well here. All the plants are just loving the sunshine and heat. I started some direct sown cucumbers today. We will have to see how that works out. I also planted four Red Lake current bushes on Saturday. I also finally got my winter squash seeds panted on Saturday as well. That is a full 2 weeks later than last year. Well you do what you can and hope for the best.
The title of this post comes from an article I read last week that highlighted the move to legalize bee keeping in New York city. I think it probably should be legal as long as the bees are kept healthy and safely away from people. So here is a link to the projects web site. Check it out if you get a chance.

Compost.

2009-06-28T18:32:00.000-07:00

Compost makes up the major addition to our gardens fertility every year. The majority of that is in the form of aged chicken litter. You see I try and get the most out of everything we buy in and that includes the chicken feed as well. We mostly try to litter our chickens on cut and dried grass clippings but in the winter when they are not outside as much we need to supplement their litter with wood bedding. Usually two to three times a year I clean out the coop and drag the litter out behind the pole barn. Once it is out there I basically leave it to mellow for at least a year and sometimes two. I also add to the compost in and effort to increase the nutritional components. My main additions are charred wood, ash and burned bone.
We have a number of mature trees on our property and that means plenty of sticks for the burn barrel. I used to make charcoal just for the forge but now I make it for the garden as well. I ran across an article on Terra Preta some time ago and ever since I try to add charcoal to my soil when I have a surplus.
I also used that same burn barrel a few years back to dispose of several deer carcasses left over from deer hunting. I burned most of the deer bones by suspending them over the fire which was stoked by the fat from the bones and also some that was left over from the butchering. Afterwords I had an ash that was rich with bone fragments and I figured that would add more nutrients to the pile so I saved the ash and bone to add to the pile.
I also add leaves in the fall to the base of a new pile. Sometimes I also add coffee grounds as well to offset the alkaline nature of the wood ash. That is all. If I get a chance I may turn the pile once or twice a year but that is about it.
In addition to this I also keep a garden compost pile that gets most of the organic matter from the kitchen.

In unrelated news I made a batch of strawberry rhubarb jam this evening and this weekend I dried a ton of dill.

A Night At The Movies

2009-06-26T08:44:00.001-07:00

Friday night Jess and I went out to see the movie Food inc. at the Lagoon theater. I have to say it was well made and entertaining film. I don't know that any of the information presented in the film would be new to anyone interested in organic or local foods. People who have read Michael Pollan or Eric Schlosser are pretty much already familiar with most of the material. I do think that it presents the information in a more visceral way. It is one thing to know that Monsanto defends their patents vigorously but quite another to see the face of a farm worker being legally deposed and economically destroyed in the process. It is one thing to know that food safety regulations to be woefully inadequate but it is quite another to see a mother pushing food safety legislation after the death of her child from a food borne illness. It is this more emotional connection that helps to motivate the viewer. But this isn't some PETA shock film designed to offend and scare the audience. The film does also have Joel Salatin and he is the films beacon of optimism and reform. His Polyface farm exists as an excellent example of what else can and should be done. Joel's effervescent personality and awesome hat raise the mood of the film. (seriously I need a hat like that!) If you have the time I recommend that you see the movie and bring someone who might otherwise not see it.

Also good review here from the Boston Globe.

Strawberry Jam

2009-06-21T19:06:00.000-07:00

This spring we have had a bumper crop of strawberries. We had been eating most of them as a small snack when working in the garden or a small handfull after dinner as a treat. However the last few days we have been have been unable to sneak down to the garden much. So this afternoon Jess and I went and picked almost a gallon of strawberries from our little 4x4 patch. We decided that this would be a great time to put some away for winter use so we made a batch of strawberry preserves from the Bell Blue Book. we held back a bit of sugar and it appears to have been just a touch thin when I last checked on it but the spoonfull I tasted after we were done canning the rest was a delight.
We also made another batch of garlic scape pesto with walnuts. We made this one with a handfull of spinach as it is just about to bolt. It turned out great. I got the idea to add the spinach from the comments to this post over at Simple,Good and Tasty. We put most of it in the freezer for pasta suppers this winter.

Hope everyone had a great Father's day weekend and made the most out of the longest day of the year.

Miracle !

2009-06-14T20:27:00.000-07:00

Well we actually have apricots!! I know you don't believe me but here is the photographic proof!
I guess there was a fortunate alignment of the stars or something because this is something truly new.

Rick

Update

2009-06-14T08:49:00.000-07:00

Well we are nearing the summer solstice already. And things are starting to happen in the garden. We have had a coolish and wettish June after a hot dry May. As a result the rhubarb is back and going well and the spinach has really taken off. We are starting to get strawberries as well. Probably about a cup a day or so. They taste wonderful straight from the plant. The scarlet runner beans are already showing their buds and I expect flowers this week. We had a lot of rain last week and today we are supposed to see temps in the 80's. It also looks like I may actually manage to grow a carrot or two this year, which would be a pleasant change from previous years. I am however starting to think that I need to find more perennials that I can divide to crop the entire yard with.
Also last night I started two batches of wine. One is a rhubarb and the other is raspberry and rhubarb.

Garden Pictures

2009-06-13T21:23:00.000-07:00

Tour De Farm video.

2009-06-12T15:06:00.001-07:00

Tour de farm

2009-06-09T20:13:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday Jess and I went to Elgin for the first of the Tour De Farm dinners featuring a pork laden menu prepared by the Craftsmans' Mike Philips. All I can say is wow! The dinner was great. All the courses had some amount of pork from the Klein's Hidden Stream Farm. Ther is a link here to a small photo essay put up on the Tour De Farm site.

Rick

Pictures from the tour de farm

2009-06-09T19:57:00.000-07:00

Blog

2009-06-07T12:09:00.000-07:00

I am afraid things are still just coming along in the garden. We did manage to harvest a few strawberries earlier this week. But for the most part the news from the garden has been kind of slow. May was a very dry month for us. Much drier than we usually see here in the spring. But it looks like a change has come now that we are in June as just yesterday we received over an inch of rain. Once we get the June sun back I predict we should practicaly be able to hear the garden growing at night.
We also added 2 more tomato plants. We picked up a pair of sungold cherry tomatos last weekend at the St Paul Farmers market. I am told that it is perhaps the tastiest of all hte cherry toms.

More to come.
Rick

Cats are up.

2009-05-29T17:45:00.000-07:00

Well I thought the seeds might have been too old but it looks like the kittens I planted are starting to sprout.

Pictures

2009-05-25T19:38:00.001-07:00

Update

2009-05-25T08:57:00.000-07:00

I spent most of the day in the garden the last 2 days and things are looking great. I put down cardboard over more paths and covered them in mulch. I am hoping this will help me slowly push the weeds back from the beds. I also set up my first bean trellis and I like the way it looks. On Friday I planted romano beans for the trellis and also 3 rows of bush dragon tongue beans. Yesterday I planted up a bunch of pots of basil seeds. Mostly old seeds but I figured it would be a good time to use them up. I also planted a handful of cilantro seeds as well. I also planted 2 rows of tom thumb head lettuce and 2 rows of mesclun mix.
I also dragged out the hose and filled all the water butts in the garden and also gave everything a good soaking. It has been a really dry spring this year and the plants really needed it. I do hate to use the well to supply water to the garden, but sometimes you have to. I would love to catch more rain water and use that in the future but for now I will just have to bend my ideal. I have a grand idea of using the pole barn and other roofs to fill a small pond and using the pond as a water supply for the garden.
Lastly I spread aged chicken litter on the garden beds as fertilizer/mulch.

Jess and I also went to Gastro Non Grata last night. The food was good the beer was great and the music was unussual.

Recovery day

2009-05-23T07:49:00.001-07:00

Well today is a recovery day. I had quite the food day yesterday. I have a friend who is about to be deployed overseas and we had a dinner last night to see him off. The menu contained some great dishes. From oysters both grilled and raw with horseradish vodka to Kobe beef carpaccio with duck confit, the appetizers were delicious. There was also grilled diver scallops served on wilted spring onions with a soy flavored souce and crisped pig ear slices and open faced softshelled crab sandwiches served with morrel mushroom sauce. We finished it with both cheesecake and cardamom rhubarb cobbler. So today I might just sit and diggest.

Also take a look at the coverage of the slow food event from last weekend over at The Heavy Table

Wonderful Day

2009-05-17T19:29:00.001-07:00

Today was the best day I have had in a long long while. The morning started with Jess and i uncovering the garden. We had it covered up last night as we were quite close to freezing. We then harvested a bunch of rhubarb and made a double batch of cardamom rhubarb cobbler. We then made a breakfast of soft boiled eggs on toast. It was wonderful.
Then Jess and I headed to Lake City for the SFM Wild About You dinner. The Lentz farm was amazing, the weather was wonderful and the food was great. There was foraged foods and small batch beers from lift bridge and flat earth breweries. There was a hike up a bluff followed by a bushwhacking adventure back to the bottom. There was also a tour of the nearby stream and some of the plants and birds that exist along the banks.
But best of all we met tons of wonderful people.

Jamie Oliver's trainees at River Cottage

2009-05-16T14:11:00.001-07:00

Sharing food

2009-05-14T19:45:00.000-07:00

Today a friend stopped by and gathered up some asparagus and rhubarb that we would have been unable to harvest in time. It was a nice feeling to share some of what the garden produces. Not to get too crunchy granola but I have heard it said that the preparation and sharing of food is one of the primary ways that people show love and I kind of believe it. Someday we will have even more to share and I am looking forward to it.

Harvest update.

2009-05-13T15:59:00.000-07:00

I just blanched and froze a pound of asparagus. I vacuum packed it in 2 bags and put it in the freezer. I hope to use it possibly in an asparagus risotto this fall. It has been off and on rainy this week so the plants are getting all the sunshine and moisture they could want this spring. The hops are well over 5 feet up the trellis already. Especially the Fuggle variety which always seems to do best. I also have bunches of flowers in the strawberry bed. I am really looking forward to eating home grown strawberry and rhubarb something or other. I also added a few blogs to the sidebar thing.

Dandelion fritters

2009-05-10T20:22:00.000-07:00

I have known for a long time that the dandelion has many food uses. Well I got the idea from this post over at Rob's World to fry up some dandelion fritters. . I have made dandelion wine before but this was a first. First I gathered some flower heads from the garden. I rinsed and washed the flower heads next. Jess helped by dipping the flower heads in egg wash and adding them to the flour and cornmeal mix. I fried them up in the wok and then drained them on a paper towel. We had them for dinner tonight and they were pretty good. I think next time I will try a lighter batter as the flavor f the flowers was quite delicate. I am thinking of possibly a tempura batter. Or perhaps a regular flour batter with a bit of curry powder in it. With a lawn like mine the possibilities are almost endless.

In other notes.
Add 2 more big bunches of asparagus to the harvest total. But the nettle beer has been a failure. It got infected and i will have to try again maybe next week.

Rick

Plant sale

2009-05-09T17:41:00.001-07:00

Well Jess and I went to the spring plant sale at Umore park this morning put on by the Dakota County master gardeners. We picked up some bee balm and also some Blackeyed Susans. We also purchased a French Sorrel plant to add to the herb garden. The prices were great but you have to get there early. The picture above was taken 15 minutes after it opened.

Plants!

Harvest update

2009-05-05T20:42:00.000-07:00

So far this week we harvested 7 cups of rhubarb and around a dozen asparagus spears.

Living Green Expo.

2009-05-02T19:16:00.000-07:00

Today Jess had a choir practice in the cities and I decided to go with and check out the living green expo at the MN state fairgrounds. I have to say that while the whole "green" thing has been growing I was quite surprised at how much there was to see. There was surprisingly little tie dye or patchouli. There was however a good number of folk schools, CSA's and alternative energy folks.
I spent a few hours looking at the booths and exhibits. They had quite a number of electric and biodiesel vehicles. They even had a Tesla roadster on exhibit. It is a sexy piece of engineering!
There were also quite a few vendors of rain capture technologies. One of which even had one of my old college floor mates manning the booth.
There were also a number of composting technologies being exhibited. I was joined by Jess after her practice and she even sat in on a vermicomposting lecture with me. I am interested in starting a worm bin this year as one of my goals and the lecture was really informative.
We then finished up with a great cooking demonstration by Chef J.D. Fratzke of the Strip Club in St. Paul. He made a salad of pea shoots and blueberries with wild ramps topped with slices of medium rare New York strip. The meat came from Thousand Hills cattle company. I liked it so well that we had to leave early so I could go and order some more at Muffuletta.
By the way if you go do try the jerk chicken at the west indies soul food stand. It was great.