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Hi Everyone,
The week started off rainy and ended rainy—but all the days in between were beautiful. Monday was a wet and nasty day and therefore Mom and Papa could not work on the picnic tables. Before the weather got too bad, I did manage to weed in the East garden tunnel for over an hour before it was lunch time. As soon as Steve finished bottling the milk he came out to the garden to help me. I was working hard to get the beds ready to plant the potatoes and green beans on Thursday. We did manage to get the last big row all weeded before Mom called us in for lunch. Since it was so wet and nasty, Steve decided to call it a day and went on home. Papa changed his errand day from Tuesday to Monday—so he headed to town to get ice and feed. Last Saturday had not gone as Mom and I had planned so a rainy day was very welcomed so that we could work on getting some of the things on our “To Do List” done. Since we were going to be gone on Tuesday I went ahead and made the yogurt on Monday. Then Mom made a new batch of chocolate syrup and I made a batch of horehound candy. Making candy is no fast process for it requires an attribute I seldom possess—patience. You have to stand at the stove for an hour stirring the boiling mixture of herbal tea and maple syrup until it reaches 300 degrees which is hot enough to make the candy hard when it cools. I was about forty-five minutes into my stirring when Papa got home from town—and I proceeded to pull a Tom Sawyer trick on him. I began to tell Papa just how much fun it is to stir the sticky mess of hot boiling liquid. He laughed and was willing to help—but then I bumped the thermometer with the wire whisk and knocked it out of the pot and some of the hot liquid splashed on my finger—and I really did need help stirring the hot boiling mess because my finger needed to be cooled under some cold water. It took another fifteen minutes to reach 300 degrees—and Papa stirred it the whole time. Once the mixture reaches 300 you poor it into a buttered dish and let it cool—but it cannot cool all the way before you score it. As the candy mixture begins to cool you have to score it so that it will snap into bite size pieces. You cannot let it get cold—or it will be one hard block and if you score the candy while it is too warm it just melts back together—so you have to score it at just the right time. In the end we had an over flowing plastic quart container of little horehound candies. We store them in the freezer so that they do not stick together. You are supposed to individually wrap each piece—but who has time for that. The first time we made horehound candy we all gathered around the kitchen island and as the mixture cooled we pulled apart little sections and rolled them into balls in our hands and then we placed them in a glass quart canning jar and put them on the shelf in the cupboard. To our dismay the warmth of the house caused the candy to melt slightly and stick together and to the edge of the jar. We had to use a knife to chisel out a piece when we wanted to eat one. Then one day the knife slipped and the jar shattered and we were very unhappy campers. So ever since then we store the candy in the freezer.
Tuesday morning Mom and I got the cows milked while Papa did his morning chores, and after that I bottled the kefir. Then Papa, Mom and I loaded up and headed over to a friends house to pick up a hay wagon. It was the perfect size for converting into a farm tour wagon. We had a lovely visit with Jesse Green. We learned about planting turnips, rye grass, and clover for the cows to graze. He is 86 years old and does a wonderful job growing grasses for his cows to eat something green year round. He has lots of wisdom, and if you would like to glean some of his wisdom you can here. A fellow YouTuber goes around interviewing small farms and gleaning what knowledge she can from them and then shares it on her YouTube channel. About a month ago Breaking New Roots did an interview of Jesse Green and it turned out real good. So if you want some tried and true farming advice check it out.
When we got home from Jesse’s the egg party was wrapping up. The joy of having a family help you package eggs is that if something comes up and we cannot get to the eggs—they still get done. I headed straight inside to put together the produce order for the Jacksonville delivery. Then Steve and I headed to the garden where we picked every possible leaf that we could sell from the mustard plants, collard plants, kale plants and broccoli plants. We also sold 21 heads of lettuce. We had almost 60 bags of veggies—the biggest harvest we have ever had I do believe. It took about an hour to harvest, and then a few more hours to bag and label.
Wednesday morning we got a new batch of chicks in the mail. Steve had spent Tuesday moving another batch out of the brooder house and out to pasture where they are moved to fresh grass every day. Then he cleaned out the room and got it ready for the next batch—which arrived Wednesday morning. This coming Friday we process the first batch of chickens for 2024. It is hard to believe that we got the first chickens eight weeks ago—which just so happened to be the last week of 2023. We have been out of chicken for a month, so it will be good to have it back in stock. I had ordered enough chicks last year to hold us over until the spring processing started, but we lost so many that we ran short and had to bring in an extra 100 in December (our off season), and then we still ran short.
I have learned that getting ready for our first Farm to Table Dinner is equivalent to opening a restaurant—just on a smaller scale. We need tables and tablecloths; forks, spoons, and knives; plates, bowls and drinking glasses; serving dishes and utensils. Mom and I spent Wednesday searching for the utensils, plates, bowls, and glasses. We wanted quality without breaking the bank. Webstrauntstore.com was very economic for the plates and bowls—but not for the silverware. Amazon was very economic for the silverware—but their shipping reviews for the drinking glasses were pretty poor. Then I found out that I could order the drinking glasses straight from the manufacturer with a guarantee that they would arrive in perfect condition. Finding all that out took many hours longer than it just took me to type it. The nice thing about the whole thing is that when we have the second meal—we will just have to plan the meal.
Thursday was an absolutely beautiful day and we spent it outside. Mom and Papa worked on the picnic tables. It has been three weeks—and only two are 100% done. Two more still need to be sanded, one needs to be put together and three of them still need to be stained. Steve and I headed to the garden to plant. While Steve washed up the milking equipment I marked out where to plant each potato, then after lunch Steve went down the row with the post hole digger and dug a quick hole where every potato was sitting and I dropped the potato in the hole and then he dropped the dirt that was still in the post hole digger back over the potato. That method allowed us to bury 83 potatoes very quickly—and without breaking our backs or necks or arms. Then Steve covered a row with compost and broadforked it in while I weeded a lettuce bed and transplanted some baby lettuce. When Steve was done broadforking I tilthed the bed, marked my rows and planted some green beans. It is a little early for green beans—but I planted them under the tunnel so they are protected. The nice thing about planting the potatoes under the tunnels is that I do not have to worry about covering the little plants with dirt or frost cloth in order to protect them from all the late spring freezes and frost.
Papa had to make an emergency trip to Jacksonville on Friday because we realized on Thursday that we were out of gallon jugs. Mom sent Papa off as soon as breakfast was over and Steve did Papa’s chores for him (feed the dogs, feed and let out the chickens). The goal was for Papa to be back in time for us to have jugs to bottle the milk. Thanks to a bunch of customers that showed up we had lots of delays—but as soon as the last customer left Papa drove up and we had just finished milking and were ready to bottle the milk. While Steve bottled the milk, I bottled the kefir and then I headed to the garden. I have so many plants that need to be transplanted—but I do not have any garden space. So I pulled up a scant row of broccoli that really hasn’t done that well—because the rabbit or rat ate them off to the ground when they were very young. Some recouped better than others, but the majority of the row was just not the best. So I pulled them all up and fed them to the chickens. Then I began to weed the row. I got about half way down when I got tired of weeding and decided to take the side panels off of the tunnel. They were collecting water and making gullies in the garden beds and I wanted them off before it rained—and especially before the potatoes sprouted or I planted lettuce. I was just finishing up when Mom called me in for lunch. I had planned on going back after lunch—but after eating lunch and making a batch of yogurt I really didn’t feel like going back to the garden so Mom and I headed to town to get some supplies. When we got home Mom drove out to the garden and we folded up the cut off tarp sides and picked up all my tools. Then it was time for dinner!
Saturday was another day full of customers and catching up on some much needed house work. We have two weeks to finish getting ready for our first Farm to Table Dinner—and there is still so much to do, on top of all our everyday farm work. So it will be interesting to see how our days unfold, how our time is spent and what all gets accomplished when. I will tell you all about it next week!
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare