Porch Check update: our porch produce stand will be having a “soft opening” next weekend. Here’s some of what we should have ready: zucchini, crookneck squash, green beans, grapefruit, blood oranges, acorn squash, giant onions, garlic, and tangerines. Hopefully, the corn and peaches will be ready (fingers crossed!). Hope to see you at the Farm!
It’s What’s For Dinner
We’d like to introduce our newest addition to the Farm – “Socks” the cow:
He is about a year old, and he’ll be with us on the Farm for about another 6 months or so. Make sure you stop and say hello when you are visiting the fruit stand over the summer.
Socks was delivered on Saturday by Cheryl Lange, who runs a livestock operation in De Luz. We’ve known Cheryl for years, and used to get all of our pigs from her operation years ago. Our last cow was also from Cheryl. Socks is a Hereford/Mini-Hereford cross.
Here’s our first introduction with Socks – as he was coming out of the trailer:
After he was released into his cow pen, he was understandably unsettled. However, within a few minutes, he settled into the nice shady spot of the pen and sat down and looked very relaxed. He even discovered the sycamore tree, a favorite of many of our previous cows, in the middle of his pen and ate a few leaves.
We’ve enjoyed raising our own beef over the years, and look forward to having Socks on the farm through the end of this year.
March On The Farm
March is almost gone, my how time flies…
We’ve been keeping VERY busy with our blood orange crop. Our buyer has been requesting plenty of boxes, and that means lots of picking, cleaning, and packing. Even though it is plenty of hard work, it is worth it because it is always nice to be able to sell our crop. Blood orange season is winding down however, so that means our time and focus gets to shift.
March has seen huge growth of our tomato seedlings. Farmer Dave planted about 80 tomato plants and was able to sell those seedlings to friends and others in the community. Spring is officially here, and while it seems funny to plant summer plants in the spring, now is in fact the time to get ready for your summer garden. Spring marks the transition in the garden from winter crops to summer crops. We still have some winter crops producing for us, but we’ve definitely been getting ready for those summer crops.
Along with the tomato seedlings, Farmer Dave has been getting summer corn seedlings ready. The time to get your corn going is now, ensuring that the seedling can get enough sun to grow and have enough time to create those delicious ears of corn.
If you have any gardening/crop questions, of course feel free to call The Farm and talk to Farmer Dave.
March also saw 2 new additions to The Farm – Linda finally got the vineyard she’s always wanted, and we’ve also welcomed 8 new baby chicks to the property.
The vineyard has been a long time coming, and after much hemming and hawing, we finally have started growing wine grapes. We have a couple rows of Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, and Thompson Seedless growing out near where the little log cabin used to be. The vines are waking up, and some even have started producing some little leaves. We are very excited at the prospect of making wine with actual grapes to go along with our other fruit wine creations.
As for the new baby chicks, we aren’t having them join the other egg-laying chickens we have on the property. These 8 baby chicks are here on the farm because we are going to experiment with raising our own eating chickens. We aren’t exactly sure how this will end up, but we figured it was at least a try.
We’ve received some nice rainfall, which is always appreciated, and we’re happy to see Spring’s arrival, along with the added evening sunlight of Daylight Savings. All in all, it’s been a busy March, but a good March.
Happy Spring, and get outside and garden!
Blood Orange Sherbet
Here’s a fun way to use our organic blood oranges – Ryan and Lindsay (our son and daughter-in-law) found a delicious recipe from the Food Network’s Alton Brown for orange sherbet, and they modified it slightly to incorporate our blood oranges. Wherever the recipe called for oranges, they used blood oranges. The recipe was really easy to make. All you need are a few items, and having an electric ice cream/frozen yogurt maker helps. The sherbet was sweet, tangy, and delicious.
Here’s the recipe, courtesy Alton Brown, 2009
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/orange-sherbet-recipe/index.html
And here’s how the dessert experiment turned out:
