Sugarin'

Last fall, we found a homemade hobby maple syrup evaporator for sale just down the street from us.  It was a great craigslist find and the seller even delivered it for us.  Excitement aside, there are a few issues with this setup.  First, the built in thermometer is at an improper height to be functional, which is not a big deal except that we don't have another that is long enough to reach into the sap with the dial out of the steam.  The steam that comes off a good boil is impossible to see through, so a temperature reading is very important to make sure the sap is not about to burn.  Then the welded baffles that serve to increase heating surface area do not meet up well with the curved pan, creating a space that is impossible to clean (old toothbrush and much cussing).  Finally, the flue pipe could use some added length.  I managed to melt the edge of my polycarbonate roofing on our first boil...whoops.

However, it is just the right size for 20-30 taps and was a very modest investment.  We don't have enough trees to justify several thousand dollars of start-up cost, especially if we decide that it's no longer enjoyable.  So far, it has been a big treat from the open-fire boil we employed last year with one of my cooking pots that is still blackened.

We had five gallons of sap to try out this evaporator on the second weekend of February.  Last year, we hadn't placed any taps until the end of the month.  The weather has been unpredictable to say the least.  Recently, the temps have either been too cold during the daytime or above freezing overnight.  Sap won't run without a good freeze a night and near 40 degrees during the day.  Collecting sap is a breeze without the usual three feet of snow, so we have placed more taps than we originally planned.   It's great exercise with a toddler on my back.  Maybe that will burn off the calories consumed in maple syrup covered pancakes every Saturday from now on.  

Milking room converted to sugar shed.

Potential Energy

I feel like I'm teetering on the top rung of a ladder, reaching for more fruit while risking a fall that could crush everything I've picked so far.  My hope is that this potential energy will remain unrealized with the added support of my husband, daughters and neighbors.  Someone is holding the ladder down below so that I can abandon two arms for the harvest.

The spring crazies are here without much winter reprieve.  I won't belabor talk of the winter that was not.  Instead, I'm making preparations for a very EARLY and busy spring.   We have a continuation of projects past and new endeavors to report, in brief. 

We'll be raising two Berkshire/Tamworth piglets this summer, in collaboration with our neighbors.  They will have whey from our small cheesemaking operation, homegrown organic vegetables, and acorns from our mature oaks.  They will be slaughtered on our farm and then butchered at a local farm.  We wanted to do the cut-up ourselves, but without a cold-room I fear the outside temperature in October would not permit a proper hang.  

Maple sap started to run a week ago, so we will try out our new/used hobby-sized evaporator this weekend.  We have placed about 26 taps and hope to produce enough maple syrup for ourselves (and one neighbor) so that we can avoid cane sugar altogether this year.
 
We've started leeks and onion seeds in the basement.  Brassica are next up, followed by tomatoes/peppers in March. 

Our 2012 goat kids are due in less than three weeks, so the girls have had their hooves trimmed, CD&T vaccinations, selenium-E supplement, and a copper bolus administered.  We added black oil sunflower seeds to their usual fixin's a week ago.  They also enjoy kelp, free-choice loose minerals, baking soda, an increasing grain ration, 1st and 2nd cut hay, AND we will be adding yeast extract next week.  I'm pretty sure they eat better than I do, at this point.  But then I'm not pregnant again, thankfully.

We're also expanding our usual poultry (layers and meaties) to include guinea hens because from what I've read, the ticks will be worse than ever this season.  Last year, I had to pick them off of my daughters with all too much regularity.

Our garden is expanding to the neighbor's as well, so we are adding many new crops, including some for our four-legged friends.  Storage crops are getting a real boost with the extra space.  I'm so excited and terrified at the prospect of it all.

Cheers, for a spectacular spring! 

2012 Kid Reservations

Our first priority is placing goat kids into loving situations.  In 2011, we quickly sold all eight of our available kids (mostly wethers) to pet homes.  They were bottle-fed and very literally jumping into visitor's arms.  It was a rewarding experience for me and I continue to assist our customers with knowledge gained from experience, which grows every season here at Capsand Creamery.  We began a verbal reservation list at about this time last year, which is solely intended to make kid placements occur more smoothly and free up time for me in the spring when we are busier.

 

We've seen some big changes on the farm, recently.  Midsummer, we were very fortunate to purchase a new buck named Dragonfly IH Bandito Burrito *S (thank you Niko H.).  He originated from Joanne Karohl's farm in Massachusetts through breeding ARMCH Twin Creeks MB Stellaluna *D 'E with PromisedLand Incredible Hunk *S.  These wonderful animals haven proven themselves in the show ring and pass on genetics for great milk capacity.  We've bred all of our does to Bandito this fall and intend to keep a few select doelings out of him just to see what they are capable of next year.

Our first fresheners turned out to be very productive milkers, owing in part to having ARMCH Rosasharn's Uni 3*D E as a granddam.  We couldn't ask for more from our girls.  Except when you begin making hard cheeses and selling milk shares, there's never enough milk.  So we also added a mature and minature horse-sized purebred American Oberhasli named Wynona.  Despite her incredible size she is very gentle and cooperative.  She will give us registerable mini-Oberhasli F1 generation kids in March, which ideally should be an intermediate size while giving twice as much milk as a Nigerian Dwarf and hopefully retaining the high butterfat and protein levels that they are renowned for.  This is a new venture in exploring a breeding program that favors feed efficiency and milk production in a gentle smaller sized animal.

Finally, the biggest change has been a MOVE into our neighbor's solar-powered post-and-beam horse barn.  For our use, we now have three large stalls, two beautiful pastures, copious woodlands, and an insulated milk room with hot water, a milking machine, and a refrigerator.  More importantly, we have our dear friend, milk customer and compatriot in goat-loving right next door.  It's been a big year!

So if you would like to visit the farm and see what kids will be available in March, we are taking verbal reservations in the order they are received for the breedings posted here.

Please email us at capsandcreamery@gmail.com to ask questions or add your name to the list.
  

 

Sweets for the sweet

We gave sweet potatoes one more try this season after being disappointed with them last year.  From two small shriveled roots, I began my own slips in a sunny window during late winter.  They yielded about five little plants, which I placed in a sandy area side-dressed with compost.  At first, the slips died back from too much sun.  But by then they had already begun to grow roots and once these took hold underground, the leaves returned and the plants flourished.  They were moderately neglected after that.  I weeded once and never watered, but the conditions must have favored them just enough because we had an amazing haul.

From five plants, we harvested 15 lbs of very large sweet potatoes.  We'll be planting these again next year.  I've learned that the growing tips can be used to start new plants and will sprout roots when cut and placed in a glass of water.  We already have about six little plants growing in small pots in a sunny window.  I will continue to propagate these through the winter and expect to begin next spring with an unknown exponential number of little sweet potato starts.  I love that these plants do not need hilling, are disease and pest-free, and then they very nearly pop out of the ground when it's time to harvest.  They store very well, once properly cured, are nutritious and my kids love them.

Do Not Disturb

How can you resist this face?  Glory Days is the energetic, always enthusiastic charmer.  Bandito is older and knows how to take his time with the ladies.  Breeding season is upon us here at Capsand Creamery and I'm learning all about goat psychology.  The does are too hilarious in their pronounced mood swings from rapid flight out of heat to their participation in loving when their hormones turn against them.  They are all quite individualistic and our second year breeders are beginning to divulge their personalities.  I'd feel crude to share anymore details.

It's all great fun for the goats and quite natural, if you consider herd mentality and perpetuation of the species in vivo.  Some of my colleagues are disturbed by the whole process of breeding animals, forcing them to endure a pregnancy and birth, just so we can have milk and cheese.  It's as if they may find a "professional life", doing roadside maintenance or fair displays more rewarding.  I can say, by observation, that goats know how to enjoy life, including the process that brings about new life.  They also mourn their fallen brethren.  We could stand to learn from them, I would imagine, if only someone could speak Goat.  They are teaching me...slowly.

Windfalls

Windfalls come and go but neighbors are (sometimes) forever.  We've collected two foraging forays this season.  Last year, we picked up acorns by the bag-full, shelled and then processed them to make acorn gnocchi all winter long.  This fall we are quickly running out of ground frozen acorn four, and my child is begging for more acorn gnocchi, so I begin looking for "the drop".  I feel that this isn't an oak year (of course, now that we love them) but a BEECH year.  The beech trees are actually producing something in abundance for once.  I remember my husband asking last year, "what about beech nuts, where are they?".  Well this is it...in our area.  Just watch the squirrels in your neighborhood, somehow they know what is good to eat, that year, in your yard.  We have beech nuts everywhere!  So I search the internet on what to do with them, because I'd like to deprive those nuisance squirrels of a meal and make them move to my neighbor's yard.  In reality, we have copious acres for the the wildlife to live and eat so I have no qualms about laying claim to a 20' radius of the house.

Last weekend I spent some time picking up the beech nuts.  My husband said, "don't spend 3 hrs on 'em if you find they aren't any good."  Picking them off the ground, when they are falling like this, is easy...and rewarding considering a squirrel is up top doing the hard work.  I bring them in the house and google them to know what to do next.  There's not too much information on beech nuts out there...probably because they aren't worth the time.  My time's not worth much these days, so I will try.

First, there's the outer shell that is like a bur and opens on it's own, with time.  Then, I've found once you peel out two seed casings (from the bur), that after further opening, some have seeds and some do not.  You can pry all open, if you want, and waste a ton of time.  Many have immature seeds that you cannot harvest.  And it is not predictable, based on appearance alone to differentiate between those seed casings with a seed and those without.  Instead of opening them all, you can put them into a container with water, sift off the floaters, as these will be immature, and only crack open the ones that sink.  This worked with great success, except that some of the "sinkers" will be rotten seeds.  On the whole it saved my quite a bit of effort.  The final seeds are soaking in a jar of water in the fridge to get rid of the tannins after which we will roast and eat them like expensive pine nuts.  If you have beech nuts falling in your yard, be sure to pick up the fresh green ones and process them the same day because they will rot very quickly.

The second windfall came when we walked to the corner food cart for what New Englanders call a maple creamie.  This is "soft-serve" to Midwesterners. with maple syrup added to the mix.....mmmmm.  It's nearly two miles round-trip, so a good walk for my 3-yr old and a nap in the stroller for the baby.  On the way home, I spotted two separate clusters of wild hops climbing up the power lines.  Now, this was no one's yard (in front of a business) nor was it a deliberate planting/harvest scenario since many of the hops were already post-peak and brown, I felt no guilt in my scrambling and giddiness to collect everything within reach and not totally overripe.  I walked home like we had just won the lottery.  This stuff is $4 an ounce at the homebrew store, so we definitely paid for our creamies on this particular outing.  

Blighted and the Light

Several weekends ago, I spent my Saturday pulling all our tomatoes out and burying them in a giant pile.  Last weekend, I killed, plucked and eviscerated our twenty remaining meat chickens.  Talk about grisly work.  For some reason, ripping the tomato plants out was more difficult a chore, psychologically, than butchering.  I certainly had more in common with the animal than the plant, so this emotion surprised me.  The only explanation I have for my reaction is that I failed the diseased tomatoes and instead of watching them continue to blacken and spread late blight to my neighbors, I felt unwillingly compelled to destroy them thus ending our tomato season.  On the other hand the chickens were healthy, thriving and happy, but their end means our freezer will feed us for another year.