Guest Blogger Postings

The newly established Vermont Farm and Garden Exchange has been a wonderful source of information and opportunities to barter farm items, but most of all it has introduced me to extremely generous folks with interests similar to my own.  Every locality should have such a dependable resource and connection to their community such as this, in my opinion.  Being graciously offered the opportunity to contribute to their blog forum, I have written two posts, which I will reference (and provide links) here instead of repeating the information.  The first was an introductory approach to making a soft cheese from fresh goat's milk entitled "Easy Home Cheesy" and the second, a cursory guide to processing acorns for human consumption named "Robbing Squirrels".  I hope you will enjoy them both.

I have many posts to contribute to my own blog.  At the moment, however, the time dedicated to actually tending a farm is keeping me off the computer, temporarily.

There's No Time Like the Present...Nah, there's just no time

If August hasn't kicked my butt, then September is definitely going to smack me around a bit.  Aside from harvesting every day, canning tomatoes and freezing veg like Armageddon is near, and on top of the usual milking/feeding chores, we were gifted with two more milking goats.  Thelma and Louise were sold as kids by our farm and cared for by a very sweet friend, who has more important duties now than to milk a couple of unruly first-freshening goats.  These girls have GREAT potential as second fresheners, with long easily-expressing teats, they could be better than our top producers, their half-sisters Cordial and Constance.  For now, though, they really just want to mule kick me in the face.  My milking helper actually brought her biking helmet out of storage to approach these girls for the morning chore.  Every first-freshener has a breaking period, but for it to be this late on a strong, heavy gal is wearing me out.

To make matters worse, my neighbor helper is taking a week off this month, just before my inlaws AND great-inlaws arrive for a visit.  We have three family birthdays to celebrate in September, meaning gifts and homemade cake, at a minimum.  The meat birds are going to ice camp, etc.  AND for some reason, we now have a newly hatched chick (singular...no friends) chirping in my ear at the moment for my 5 yr-old to scratch her (fingers crossed that it's not a damn rooster) head.  Oh...and my newly 2 yr-old daughter needs weaning and shots.  Insert curse words and beer here!!   Come on winter, I really can't wait to sit down!

Thelma

Louise

            

Guineas' Farewell Extravaganza

Our first attempt at raising French Guineas was a mild success.  It was not warm and fuzzy, but cool and easy for me to manipulate a sharp blade across their necks.  On one hand these semi-wild birds were quite excellent in that they require very little feed input, but their management, for me, has had severe drawbacks.  I've read that they obtain 90% of their diet from forage, which I believe considering how little commercial turkey food they consumed.  We started them to control the tick population on our wooded property.  They have a wide range, eating greenery and bugs along the way.  Their antics are endearing as they are curious creatures of habit.  I never minded having them in the yard.  Even the noise was tolerable.  They are hardy and have out-flown a neighbor fox on several occasions.

Putting them away for the night was where our story becomes ridiculous.  I discovered that they wouldn't return to their coop in the evenings to roost.  In the beginning, I tried chasing them in, which was fairly useless and frustrating.  Then I would entice them with dinner, shaking a coffee can of pellets and rounding them up from the neighbor's yard.  They liked to be together, follow the leader and do whatever the hell they pleased.  If lead bird wasn't ready, then they would all walk up to the door, check out the situation and then turn away, one at a time.  All I could do was wait, coerce and curse.  If I left the door open with food in the coop, then they would go in to eat and be back outside before I could close the door.  Leaving it up to them was not an option, because they would choose to roost in the trees and be taken in the night, by predators, one at a time.  Every day has been a struggle for me.  I let them out in the morning with full knowledge that it might take me 2 hours to get them back in at night.  I've chased and caught the noncommittal stragglers in a fishing net for the past week.  This exhaustion weighs on my energy to do other chores, like milk and feed our 12 goats, 2 pigs, 10 layer chickens, 26 meat chickens, cat, two children, and a hungry full-time working husband.   

So on the hottest day of the year, I am more than happy to put an end to our Guinea adventure by killing, scalding, plucking, gutting, and freezing them all.  All except for the one bird that flew over my head and scratched my back on her way to freedom.  If she returns to live with the chickens, we will extend a rare pardon and try Guinea eggs.  I think she's seen enough and will take her chances in the wild.  Good luck and good riddance!

Bats and Beaks

As the evenings became crisp last fall, we removed the air conditioning unit from our bedroom window in preparation for a long winter.  Looking back now, I remember finding what appeared to be extra large mouse poops on the underside of the exterior portion.  It seemed odd, but I wasn't going to rule out giant mice on our rooftop.  Two years ago, there was one mouse in particular who used to roll acorns across our bedroom ceiling and then down the gutter drain spout.  I was very pregnant at the time and not sleeping well, so the sound was deafening to tired ears and completely inexplicable.

The air conditioner usually sees a few weeks of use every year.  Last night we decided the uncomfortable warmth was enough reason to pop out the screen and hoist the heavy machine halfway through the window opening to find some relief in a cool sleep.  We stuffed some old shirts into the spaces on either side of the unit to keep the bugs out of our bedroom.  Everyone slept well and would have woken feeling rested, except....I heard some flapping at about 3am.  Now, if this had been a rhythmic noise I would not have heard it.  Random flapping, on the other hand, is reason for alarm.  About an hour later my husband woke me up to say a bat had just brushed by his sleeping face.  We both army-rolled out of bed and spent the next half-hour catching and later safely releasing a very large brown bat.  What is it about bats that is so creepy?  I've been face-to-face with bear and moose, but this little flapping bat had me ducking with closed eyes.  I wish they would go live in the bat box we built instead of roosting on the air conditioner.  There must be something attractive about its vibration, like hundreds of friends flapping their wings as if to say, "come join the party!"

After the bat episode, I was too awake to go back to bed.  So, I began contemplating our bird issue.  We have too many foul spread around in separate housing and I need to consolidate before winter.  There are old layers (3) and a rooster living in the coop who are on yard duty, the younger layers (2) and pullets (4) are occupying a goat stall that I need available for breeding season, the Guineas (12) have a shed of their own, we have a batch of meat chickens (25) in a garage brooder, and finally there are two newly hatched chicks from our incubator project.  We'll see who makes the cut.

RI Red and Copper Maran cross

   These two are adorable already.  I've never watched an egg hatch and shared my daughter's amazement in the process.  There's nothing quite like reality to stave off kids' boredom. 

Ramblings from the Farm

These are baby Oyster mushrooms in the early fruiting stage.  In the past few days, since taking this picture, they have changed yet again.  I'm so curious to watch these phases take place and will be guessing at when to harvest them, especially considering how we have neither grown nor eaten this type of mushroom EVER!  My husband has refused to eat mushrooms of any kind, for as long as I've known him.  I'm hoping to convert him with these tasty homegrown delights.







 We took another gamble this week by installing new bees (a 5-frame nuc) in our hive, which saw only two months of occupancy nearly two years ago.  I was sad and tired of seeing if sit empty in the garage.  The Italian package originally installed were mostly drowned by my inept attempt at feeding and then finished off by our voracious dragonflies.  The nuc I placed a week ago seems healthy and vigorous.  As I was opening the cardboard package, several frames tipped over onto the ground.  A simple adjustment from vertical to horizontal positioning was enough to warrant an attack directed at me.  Several made their way under my shirt, which I had neglected to tuck in, stinging me on the belly.  So as my visiting mother and children watched from a window of our house, I high-stepped and cursed my way across the yard in a sprint, covered in angry bees.  Lesson learned.

Remarkably, all of our tomatoes have begun to set fruit.  These are Sungold cherry tomatoes.

And blueberries are coming along ahead of schedule.

We also added a Copper Maran rooster to our older laying crew.  "Harold" is quite handsome and friendly.  He took his male duties very seriously and we collected six fertilized eggs from our Rhode Island Red hen, immediately.  My nearly-five-year-old was too excited about the prospect of hatching chicks to let this project slide.  So, we a built a cardboard box incubator using an old desk lamp, a wire rack from the toaster oven, and a recycled refrigerator shelf. 

Poor Harold lost his gorgeous tail to a fox the same day I took this photo.  Since then, he has been severely depressed and failed to crow at dawn.  I'm actually looking forward to his recovery.  I miss all the racket and farmyard reminder to get moving out of bed.

Fruit Wine-not?

Last autumn, during apple season, we frequented a family-owned orchard located about 5 miles up the road in the Lake Champlain Islands.  We've gone there since before our 5 yr-old daughter was born and returned every summer for weekly indulgences of cider donuts, utility apples, kiddie playground, and cider by the 5 gallon carboy.  It's run by an lovely older couple, who are always working the register, cider press or tractor and are in such amazing shape that I'm convinced an apple a day may just keep the doctor away for good.  They are also the most friendly and genuine people I've ever met.   I'd like to be them one day.  Not now, since I'm only half their age, but if I could live the remainder of my days the way they do, I would not complain.  I've certainly never heard them complain for the amount of tedious, yet enjoyable, work that must possess their livelihood.

Last fall I would swing by with the girls for 10 gallons of fresh cider, which required a minimal amount of time to convert into hard cider.  Recipe: take 5 gal cider, remove <1 gal to dissolve 2+ lbs of brown sugar, return to carboy and pitch in champagne yeast.  Bottle when airlock is quiet ~2 weeks.  One tip...check the sweetness before bottling.  If it is dry, add some bottling sugar (1/2 c to 5 gal).  But if your brew is still sweet, reconsider bottling it or don't add any sugar.  We've had exploding bottles that had to be uncapped (for safety) and consumed immediately due to incomplete fermentation. 

After our success with hard cider, I began experimenting with other wines.  Dandelion wine was alright, but I figured any good flavor (dandelion isn't so good to me) plus sugar and champagne yeast could result in a nice brew.  Wild grapes grow in the ditches along the road I used to walk with my daughters.  A few cups of grapes, heated and smashed to release the juice plus sugar and yeast, with time under an airlock, resulted in a decent wine last fall.  Transpose this process to spring when we have rhubarb and last season's frozen strawberries.  SUCCESS!!!  I took two cups of fresh chopped rhubarb, about 2 cups of frozen strawberries and added 1 gallon of boiling water.  In a large glass jar (reused from pickles), this sat for 3-5 days undisturbed aside from a bit of initial stirring and smashing.  Then it was filtered into a pot and set to boil for 20 minutes with 2 lbs of sugar.  After cooling to room temperature, I pitched in 1 Tbs of champagne yeast, poured it into a clean container set with an airlock and waited.  When the bubbling subsided about 2 weeks later, our first pour tasted like an excellent dry wine, which went too quickly.  We'll see if I can recreate this pleasant surprise.  I will continue our seasonal approach, anticipating blueberries, raspberries, and apples.  Fruit wines may seem hobo-ish to you, but if you appreciate local eating you may also find local malt grains and hops in short supply and more expensive.  Think outside of this narrow box to find your favorite flavor + sugar + yeast wine to cheers our new summer.

Gambling Garden

Kale, cabbage and broccoli under cover

 Never in my adult life have I gambled with money.  No lottery tickets, casinos or memories left in Las Vegas.  Blame it on my perpetual negativity regarding personal luck or simple appreciation for statistical probability.  Never-the-less, I play my cards every gardening season when I plant 2 months before our last frost date in an effort to get fresh food in our kitchen as soon as possible.

We had no snow pack this winter and temperatures near the 90s in mid-March, which ruined our maple syrup crop.  That was just too much of a teaser not to move things up even further, raising the stakes.  To give you an idea, it's tradition in our region of the country to wait until Memorial Day before stepping foot in the garden.  I sowed our root veggies like carrots, radish, parsnip, rutabaga, and beets directly and transplanted brassica starts during this unusually warm late winter.

I've been very wrong before, like last season when a mid-May frost killed all of our tender tomato seedlings.  Or when I put bean seeds in too early and they don't germinate.  But this year, our gamble has paid a handsome return already.  We've harvested all of the main heads from the broccoli crop and the garlic scapes.  The kale is coming in from the garden in quantities sufficient to justify blanching and freezing for winter.  We've even had some beets.

Parsnip up-front, carrots at the back

The carrot bed is full and tall enough that I won't need to weed it again until harvest.  Parsnip are coming on strong since clearing away the companion radishes.

I've a new appreciation for the humble radish.  There is nothing more reliable, care-free or faster growing than a spicy radish.  My previous efforts to slice them for salads did not go over well at dinner until I discovered how delicious they are grated (cheese grater) in a slaw.  We eat slaw in lieu of a lettuce salad, which my infant would choke on and is dependent on finicky lettuce plants that need to be continually reseeded since they bolt if you stare too hard at them.  Carrot, parsnip, beets, radish, and I'm sure any dry crunchy edible (kolrhabi but not cucumber) will make a wonderful salad after grating and adding a dressing like seasoned mayonnaise.  If available, we throw in some chopped napa cabbage for bulk, fresh broccoli and a few garlic scapes.  My 18 month old ate this.

Slaw fixings

 I'm sure there will be disappointment and total failures this season for one crop or another, but for now I'm smiling at our good fortune.  Diversification is not just for retirement portfolios and it certainly takes some risk out of gambling...garden gambling, that is.

onions

3 ft tall garlic

beets