Friday, June 24, 2011

It has been a long week.  I’ve been playing a lot of catch up because I’ve been balancing a lot of projects lately.  The strawberry pick is in full swing, and I headed out and picked another 27 pounds.  So far, that means I have picked a total of 123 pounds.  I’m not done yet either.  I think one more pick and I’m done for the season.  I’ve got 90 pint bags in the freezer full of berries now.  I would have made it to 100 last night, but I am completely out of freezer space.  I am going to have to do some rearranging, because I should have SOME space, but apparently 3 freezers is not enough for me!

My rabbits, Thing 1 and Thing 2 both kindled again!  I’m very excited about it.  There are a total of 20 kits out there, and I’m confident that they will all make it!  These rabbits are reserved to be sold to our restaurant customer, Thistle.  The head chef there is very excited to have a source for a heritage breed rabbit.  The good news is that my does that were born in February should be ready to breed this month, so they will make it into the production line soon.  I also spoke to the person who bred them this week, and she told me that her does are due to kindle soon, which means I will have a source for two more does to step up my rabbit production!  I love these American Blues!

The weeds taking over the garden have started to bother me, so I’ve been getting up at 5 am to weed.  I weed just two rows and then call it quits.  It is actually really easy to do, and weeding at 5am is my new favorite time.  I am out where I can see the sun rise, and it’s just me and the birds.  The garden is doing well now that it is not being choked off by weeds.  I think I will even be able to harvest my first summer squash here in the next week or so.  I see fried zucchini sandwiches in my future.

I made it out to weed my new raised herb gardens.  The grass was threatening to take over, so Daphne and I got on the job and got it weeded and then we mulched it with a heavy layer of straw.  It looks so nice, and those plants will be very happy.

I got on top of it, and after a week of not being able to use the mower for various reasons, I mowed and mowed and mowed.  I LOVE the look of a freshly mown lawn.  Our place is really starting to look like something.  I am still playing catch up because no one took care of the property for two or three years before we moved out here.

We got some bummer news this week.  Just when we thought we were going to close on the loan for our house to officially own it, the bank denied the loan.  After jumping through various hoops to make other things OK (banks don’t like to lend to people who file Schedule F’s, we are also considered self-employed), the bank threw a fit that our property is on two tax lots with a road dividing it.  They denied the loan unless we could figure out how to purchase our lower lot separately.  We are not scrambling to restructure everything so that we can order a new appraisal and then they might be ok to close.  The buggers.  I’ve been a little bit down about this situation.

I spent the evening getting things caught up in my kitchen.  I had so many fermenting things that needed my help and attention.  The vinegar needed to be bottled, the wine needed to be stirred, the sourdough needed to be fed, the cheese needed to have the brine changed, etc.  I spent the whole evening taking care of all these things, so now I have no unfinished projects sitting in my kitchen.

Oh… my hen hatched out another 3 (so far) chicks, so it will be fun to see them wandering around the barn yard.

Sunday June 19 and Monday June 20, 2011

Busy, busy lots to do.  I’m trying to write every day, but it can be so hard because of all the projects I have going on.  I was determined to get some projects done this “summer.”  Well, the spring has really only started, and tomorrow is the first day of summer.  Of course, it is also the solstice, which means that though it will be the longest day of the year, it also marks the six month decent into darkness and rain… and less light and ambition to get some work done around the farm.  All in all, we haven’t even been at this property for a year, and the improvements are wonderful, so who am I to complain?

Anyway, a few weeks ago, I decided to tear apart the playroom and see what I could do for some restoration.  Behind the horrible 1970’s paneling, I discovered some beautiful wood plank boards.  The ceiling, the walls and the floor were all this beautiful wood.  I know what I want to do with the room now, but it involves getting the ceiling done first.  I had to remove 4 layers of wallpaper from the whole ceiling, which was a nightmare.  It involved steaming and boiling water and scraping paper off the walls at 4 am while the kids were asleep.  I was glad when that was done.  Next came sanding, and that was just as bad.  I like to sand, but not really up over my head.  It took about 5 hours to sand the ceiling,  But boy was it worth it.  That ceiling looked amazing sanded down and loved.

Enter milk paint.  I’ve known about milk paint for a while, but I’ve recently fallen in love with it.  I have plenty of milk around, and plenty of lime.  It is so easy to make.  It is also non-toxic, so when the kids want to help paint and they all but roll in it, there is no harm.  In fact, they could eat the stuff and be just fine.  It is also the most durable paint in the history of man, yep, really.  I hear that if you want to change the color of something painted with milk paint that you actually have to sand the top layer of the wood off.  Luckily, I went to Europe and studied art and painting and pigments, so making my own colored paint wasn’t so hard on me.  The first coat of the ceiling is red.  Oh man, is it a beautiful red.  I almost swoon every time I walk into the room.  And though I am going to paint over the red with something less dramatic in the future, I am enjoying the red for now.  In fact, I might just clean up the room and let it become a playroom for another few weeks while I admire the best paint job anyone has done anywhere.  It is THAT good, I mean it.

I had made a gallon and a half of milk paint for the ceiling.  I didn’t want to run out in the middle and have the color change on my slightly.  Well, it was way too much paint.  As I was contemplating what to do with it, i.e. where to dump it, it occurred to me that the red chicken coop in the barn could use another paint job.  And so, off the kids and I went to work on yet another project.  Painting the chicken coop was so far down my to do list that it hadn’t even made it on the list yet, but I must say that it makes our place look pretty darn spiffy.  It is a nice, dark, deep, rich red.  I like it.  I do have to coat it with a sealant, but I won’t mind looking at that color for the next 40 years of my life.

Today, Monday, I headed over to Julie’s house to eat breakfast out, just for fun.  MMMMMM, poached eggs and scones.  We then headed to check out the nitty gritty details of another friend’s new house that she just moved into.  it was built in 1920, and it is cute.  I love looking at old houses.

We then went on a hunt for a place to pick strawberries that did not spray fungicide this year.  The berries we picked first this season were sprayed.  The berries are so porous that the chemical can’t be washed off, and the berries actually taste like chemicals to me.  I picked another 30 pounds of berries for the freezer.  I think I’ll be done in two more picks this year.  Lots of work, but we will have lots of berries.

I was feeling overwhelmed with all that I had to do when I got home to make dinner tonight.  I then checked my email and saw that we are well on our way to turn the farm’s lease into an actual purchase.  In fact, a little bird says we may get to sign the paperwork this week.  This put it in perspective for me.  This truly is our little spot of Heaven, right here.  I’m so happy and honored to live here that I could burst with wonderful joy.

Friday, June 17, 2011

Lots of fun for us today.  We got a lot of general busy work done.  First things first, I walked right in from milking the cow and got on processing milk.  We made some creme fraiche and some butter with the cream.  I then put the milk in a pot to make a wheel of Manchego.  While the Mancghego was ripening, I also got some feta going.  Making cheese is so fulfilling because the milk in the fridge turns into something so beautiful and delicious.

I finished processing the strawberries, one more load into the dehydrator, and some more in the freezer.  We are up to 40 pints in the freezer so far, and there is more to pick still.  My goal is to get 100 pints in there.  I calculated the yield of the berries out.  I can pick about 3o pounds of strawberries in about an hour or an hour and a half.  If I pick into 2 gallon buckets, that is ideal.  They are big enough to fit quite a few berries, but not so big that the berries on the bottom get squished.  Each 2 gallon bucket holds about 10 pounds of strawberries, so that’s about 5 pounds of strawberries per gallon of container. Just good to know for the future.  Also, one 4-tray dehydrator full translates to a quart jar of dried strawberries.

After everything was processed and cleaned up, the kids and I went out and drove up Baker Creek to a park to hang out and play.  It was a blast.  The sun was just warm enough for a bit of light swimming.

When I got home, my cows were running around the driveway.  They had been out in the field on long lines eating grass.  Jared had poped out of the house for a quick errand, and in the interim, someone came up onto the property and cut the tether lines on the cows.  We did some detective work, and it is clear they were cut.  The cuts are very straight across the lines, not torn.  The tethers were also not at the end as if they had been pulled taut and broken, they were loosely laying on the ground.  Also, my milk fridge on the front porch was unplugged by the hoodlum.  This is the kind of thing that was happening with the pigs, but REALLY?  Those lines are expensive to replace, and I just don’t get the motivation.  I’m considering filing another police report for documentation in case we find the jerks messing with my farm.

We had a friend out to visit with her son.  They enjoyed checking out all the animals, and we even peeked in the bee hive.  It is looking VERY nice in there!  I might be ready to do a bit of a harvest on one hive soon!

Put one more wheel barrow load on the potatoes.  If I finish writing this right now, I just might be able to get up early in the morning to finish it off.

I was out in the barn late tonight to find that one of the eggs a hen was sitting on had fallen from the nest.  It got pretty cold down on the ground, but I did pick it up and put it under her.  Hopefully it will be OK.  If only those damned chicks would hatch out so I could see.

I’d like to get the house  and the farm cleaned up tomorrow.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

The sun made a nice appearance today.  Seems a bit like late April, early May around here in terms of weather.  Of course, the date on a calendar is not what matters.  We’ve got tons of things to do.  I like this time of year.  It’s not generally too hot, yet the sun is shining and the grass is growing.

Our little place is looking so good.  The appraiser came out on Tuesday, and if all goes well, in the next week or so, we will officially own our farm.  Not that it doesn’t feel like we own it now, but it is nice to have the piece of paper that says that it is ours for good.  No more of this leasing business.  That said, we are SO grateful to our seller for allowing us to take our time to buy the property.  She is, no doubt, ready to move on with her life, but she has nicely agreed to work with us, we really appreciate that.

The strawberry pick is still on.  After getting the first 30 pounds in the fridge yesterday, we headed back out for another 36 pound pick today!  I estimate that we are about half way done.  I was thinking yesterday about my progression in preservation of food.  Ten years ago, I bought a flat of strawberries at the farmer’s market, and that was my yearly need for fresh berries all year long.  This year, we’re hoping to get a 100 pound pick!  Julie and I pooled our berries to start some strawberry wine.  It’s now mashed, sugared and waiting for some yeast to send it off.  This should be a fun project.  The rest of the berries are going in the freezer for today, but the next pick will be to make a gallon or two of strawberry syrup.  We’ve decided to stop our dependency on maple syrup in the house since it is so easy to inexpensive to make our own berry syrups.

We headed off to the farmer’s market, but for the first time ever, came home empty handed.  Julie swears that she’s never going with me again because I yak and yak with all the farmers around.

We had a nice dinner with the kids’ godparents.  Linnea is headed off to the south for the summer, and we will miss her.

When we finally made it home, the kids and I worked on getting some chores done.  I cleaned the cow stall a little bit more, which meant more potato hilling!  I’m getting close to getting done.

I also fixed the sprinkler so the garden got a nice thorough soaking!  Add some sun and we might actually get some food!  It’s time to start planting the winter garden OH MY!

Our house is looking a little junky, so I spent the remainder of the daylight hours cleaning it up.  I did manage to clean out the milk fridge really well, so as of now, the milk will be in the new Cast Iron farm, milk fridge!  Very exciting for us.

My neighbor (who also gets milk from me) called me and said she was having some problems with a goat that had just kidded.  The mama’s udder was all plugged up and the kid wouldn’t nurse.  I headed over to help out.  It is so nice to have a like-minded neighbor.   She is so sweet, and she offered to help our around here as she could.  Now that’s what I call community.

Lots to get done tomorrow…

Wednesday, June 15th 2011

Finally feeling better after almost two weeks of being sick.  What is it with the sickness this winter?  Everyone has been sick several times, so I was a bit broadsided with yet another illness in June!  the house has now been aired out and we are all spending at least an hour in the sun a day, so hopefully that will keep everyone well.

I finished processing the first 30 pounds of strawberries we picked.  It translated into 17 pints for the freezer and 2 quarts dehydrated.  Of course, we ate a bunch as well.  Fresh Oregon strawberries are the BEST!

Julie came over and we weeded the corn and replanted any that had died or been eaten.  The birds are eating some of the small plants in the garden, so I encourage the sun to come out and make them grow!

I realized that my sprinkler is a piece of garbage, so I am now in search of something that will actually suitably water the garden.  Yet another expense.  The sprinkler search is tricky because out water pressure varies so much from one place to the next that not all sprinklers work out in the big field.  I’ve got to get this remedied because the plants are getting thirsty.

The kids and I worked on cleaning out the loose hay on the ground in the barn.  This worked very well to use to hill up the potatoes that are now growing very nicely.  The potatoes are about 75% hilled and the barn is getting cleaned, I like how these projects supplement each other.

The cows finally made it out into the grass field, which I like.  I went out and drove some stakes out for them and they were out from 6am to 9pm.  They really liked being out in the tall grass with plenty to eat, hopefully it increases my milk production.

The fridge came back from the painter, and it is beautiful, a nice shade of yellow, and it’s got the Cast Iron Farm logo on the front.  It’s now sitting on the front porch, and people can come get milk and eggs from it without having to come into my house.  Yes, I like this arrangement very much.

I’ve been giving the goat pasture a rest for a while and the goats have been in, but I finally felt bad for them being in while it was so nice out and I let them back out.  There is plenty to eat again for them, and I think they will be happy.  Of course, it started to rain the second I let them out, but that’s life, right, oh no, it’s just farming.

The dairy goats were reassigned the task of eating down the blackberries in the chicken coop.  I suppose another day or two in there and they will get to go back out with the cows to work on the blackberries and the thistles there.

On my way into town to celebrate my birthday dinner (it was postponed because of illness), I noticed that a farmer had cut some lovely clover hay I’ve been watching (and admiring).  I stopped by on the way back and left a note asking if he’d have the hay for sale and also asking if he might consider coming on down to cut some hay in our field.  It was a bold move for sure, but I wasn’t getting anywhere by sitting and watching the grass go to waste.  Next year, it will be fenced some more, so it wont need to be hayed, but until then, it would be nice to have a barn full of hay for the winter.  Now if only we had a hay elevator to get the hay up off the constantly flooding barn floor.

We are approaching the solstice, and it’s lovely.  I love those cloudy 70 degree days.  Jared and I just went outside at 9  to sit and enjoy and admire our beautiful farm!

Cheese Curds

With all the milk we have around here, making cheese is almost a daily activity.  Way back when, I decided to perfect making cheddar.  I kind of get on cheese “hobby horses” meaning that I make one kind of cheese intensively and then get bored and move on to another type of cheese.  Cheddar was my hobby cheese for a number of months last year.  I instantly learned that making cheddar has one amazing side benefit–the cheese curds!  Just before you put the cheddar cheese into the press, the curds are sweet, salty, squeaky and savory all at the same time.  Coming out of the 100 degree whey bath, they taste AMAZING.  They quickly became a favorite snack around here, and every time I made cheddar, I purposely made more than would fit in the press so we would have leftovers to eat.  Eventually, I decided I didn’t like making cheddar as much as some other cheeses, and I moved on to gouda, Parmesan, montasio, manchego, etc.  You see, cheddar takes the longest to make, it has to age the longest, and I was having issues with the curds not knitting every time.  I was also having issues with mold ONLY on the cheddars during aging, so I gave up and decided to come back to it another time.

That decision would have been fine except for the LOUD clamoring from my family that they need cheese curds!  I started making batches of cheddar just for the curds.  It is an easier undertaking because I know it doesn’t have to be perfect.  It doesn’t matter that the curds get mixed exactly every 15 minutes, because we are going to eat them fresh, and if they are warm and squeaky in the end, we’ve achieved our aims.  Well, last week, I made a five gallon batch of cheddar only for the curds.  This overwhelmed everyone and of course we had tons of left overs after the initial squeak wore off at around the 36 hour mark.  I thought I was doomed to feed all that hard work to the chickens.  Then, a light turned on, and I started adding cheese curds to the things I was cooking.  It started first with some scrambled eggs as I was desperate to not throw out the cheese.  The curds got soft and melty and even took on some squeak again. After a full week of cooking with them (fried cheese, YUM), I dumped the remaining curds into a pot of risotto to get that final creaminess at the end.  Low and behold, this completed my revelation.  The cheese melted and was amazingly creamy and delicious.  I know aged cheddar gets sharp and delicious, but fresh curds have a sweet, innocent savory wonderfulness that I am now in LOVE with.

I must admit that I was loathe to give up on making cheddar because I like it’s unique flavor in cooking, but I’ve now figured it all out.  If I make cheddar and stop at the curd stage, we have an ideal situation.  Most importantly, we can eat curds to our hearts content.  I don’t have to worry about a failed knit or mold, which relieves the stress of making such a long, involved cheese.  After the curds have lost their squeak, a few more days aging in the fridge and I have a delicious cheese that works well in any oven/casserole/melted cheese dish.

This works well for us.  I’m excited to get a bit more cheddar flavor in my life without having to worry about failure and oh… the deliciousness.