Pleasant Valley Farm

It's Monday morning, and once again I'm doing a bit of stuff online while the canner heats up and my day in the kitchen begins. I'm still trying to can as much of the produce as possible. While I have popular favorites I try my best to keep on the table at the stand, for me, some of the most fun is trying new things. I'll be doing pepper rings and pickled beets this week, because they are so popular. But lately I've tried (and succeeded!) at some new stuff as well.

I love growing hot peppers, and I sell lots of canned products that use them. I have hot pepper jelly, hot and mild pepper rings, and of course, salsa. But a few weeks ago, I expanded my mustard line to include a hot pepper mustard! Although my other mustards are thick, whole-grain creations, this one is different. It's bright yellow, and kind of thin. I had to play around a bit with it to get it to thicken at all, and it's still on the thin side. It's been a big hit with my friends though, who love the flavor and said that the texture is just right for sinking into a bun when you're grilling out. And as the garden slows down even further and I have more time to experiment, I'm also hoping to begin playing around with a few more mustards. I'm still trying to replicate a champagne-dill mustard I love, but I just haven't gotten the results I want, at least not yet. And as fall moves along, I hope to have an Oktoberfest beer mustard, which I think will be fun.

Another new thing I've created recently was a plum preserve. Dan has worked for years for a man who has a small, private orchard and sometimes Dan comes home with a bucket of some kind of fruit or another. Last week, it was some apples and plums. Apples will keep, so I wasn't in as much of a hurry to use them. But what to do with the plums? I found a great recipe, so simple it called for only pitted, halved plums, sugar and water. No chopping the fruit, no adding pectin or lemon juice or anything. I've made lots of jams and jellies, but this was my first time making one without the pectin, so I had to figure out how to do a gel test to figure out when it was done. (A gel test involves putting some metal spoons in the freezer, then dipping them in the jam and observing how it runs off when tilted. It will run off in drips at first, then as it thickens it will look more like it's coming off in a sheet.) The fruit flavor was super intense, and I think it's a great new addition. Time consuming to make, as it needs to cook for a good long while, but in the end I think it was worth it. I may have to try and source some local plums to make more of it!

And this week, I hope to get to those apples. Last year I offered a jam called Apple Pie in a Jar. It was a great flavor, and I plan on doing it again this year. Also, Dan and I bought a cider press, so we're hoping to get to that and make our own cider, at least for ourselves. I'm also hoping to make enough cider that I will be able to set some aside, ferment it, and be able to offer real cider vinegar, which will probably not be done before the stand closes. But vinegar will keep until spring, and if nothing else, I'm excited to have it for my own cooking. I'm also hoping to partner with a local farm to be able to offer fresh apples to our customers in the near future.

Well, the canner is starting to bubble so it's time to get the jars sterilized and begin with the peppers and the beets. Then I also hope to get some sauerkraut started, get the Apple Pie in a Jar done, maybe make some more Bruschetta or Garden Relish, and who knows what else will be canned and for sale by the weekend!

Hello again, blog!  It's so easy to neglect you this time of year...

August is rolling by mighty quickly, it's hard to believe we're already halfway through!  It has been a typically busy late summer so far, and it's set to get even more hectic.  The end of summer is always exciting in Tionesta, as it brings the Indian Festival, our community's week-long celebration.  That started on Saturday and will run through this coming weekend.  The following weekend will also bring lots of visitors, as it's Rumble on the River, a motorcycle rally that takes place at Wolfe's Corners fairground, only 2 1/2 miles from the farm.  We are sure to have busy weekends because of this, both with increased traffic at the farm stand and also because friends & neighbors will be gathering to share food and fun.  

But in order to have a little free time on the weekends, that means I need to stay extra busy during the week!  It seems the canner goes nonstop through the week, usually except for one day which I use to run errands like going to the feed store or picking up more canning jars to hold all the garden goodness!  Last week alone, I made cases of Carrot Cake Jam, Emily's Own Dill Pickles, Pickled Beets, Sweet Garden Relish and added my medium-spicy Fiesta Salsa to the product lineup down at the stand.   Today I'm packaging sun dried tomatoes to offer this coming weekend, plus this week I'm sure I'll be doing some of the previously mentioned products, plus Hot Pepper Rings and Bruschetta in a Jar, possibly Dilly Beans, and whatever else I can come up with to preserve what is in the fridge right now. I have a new batch of Mulled Blackberry Vinegar that is ready for bottling, and I need to check on my first-ever batch of Malt Vinegar as well.  I'm also busy freezing things like chard and zucchini for my own personal use over the winter.  And of course weeding, drying herbs,mowing the yard, working in the garden and taking care of the livestock & poultry.  And did I mention I'm experimenting with some artistic projects that I hope to have on sale soon, possibly even this weekend?  (More details to come on that when I actually complete them!)  So it's crazily busy here right now!

 We're also butchering.  It's nice to have a break from doing chickens right now, but I can't believe how demand has gone up since just last year- I can't keep them in stock, which is a great problem to have!  We'll be doing pork again the next couple of weeks, with sausage this week and the return of chops and roasts next, with ham & bacon returning the week after once the curing process is complete.  

So even though that is more than enough to keep us busy, I'm also excited to be adding a new crop to our farm.  I place my order with Seed Saver's Exchange this morning for a quantity of garlic, something I have not grown before (but Dan has).  It will ship the middle of next month.  We'll plant it then and look forward to offering garlic scapes early next spring and garlic next summer. I'm always excited to offer new things, and garlic has been something we've had requests for from our customers.

Well, I best get back to the canner...stop by and see us if you're visiting Tionesta over these busy, fun weekends! 

Another crazily busy week here on the farm, but that is just July for you!  We were so happy that the oppressive, 100+ degrees temperatures broke, but most days we're still seeing upper 80's and into the 90's, so with the humidity it sure feels like summer anyway.  But I can't complain, because finally we got some summer rains!!  The ground was so dry here that the creek through the pastures dried up and the garden soil on the unirrigated parts was about bone dry as well.  Between the heat and the dry creek, we've spent much more time than usual hauling water to the livestock- up to 5 times per day in the worst of the heat, up from our usual schedule of 2x per day (morning and evening).  The tomatoes and peppers have been doing great with the drip irrigation under them, but we were starting to worry that we'd lose the entire sweet corn crop if we didn't get some rain.  Fortunately, we got a plentiful amount, and over a few days, not all at once in a single, severe storm. Dan swears the corn stalks grew a foot one day while he was away at work as a result of the rain.   The creek is even showing feeble signs of life again!

But hauling water isn't the only thing that's kept me busy.  I love to find great canning recipes to use up the garden bounty, and the canner has been getting a workout lately.  I've got dilly beans (green beans pickled with dill), hot pepper rings, pickled beets, and my popular dill pickles, made with my own secret recipe.  Those have all been great things to make, and I've enjoyed doing that over the last few years, but I also love to see what else I can find to make-  every cook gets bored with the same old things day after day!  So this week, I made something I'm calling "Sweet Garden Relish".  It's like a sweet pickle relish, but instead of using cucumbers (the heat has not been kind to them) it uses zucchini, onion and bell pepper.  A combo that really works for what the garden is producing right now, and it tastes amazing! I admit, as I was finishing canning it and tasting the final product, I started craving a hot dog or burger from the grill, anything on which I could pile this relish!  

Meats have been keeping us busy, too.  I got to visit my friends from Hirsch's today as I picked up a whole carload of ground beef.  After reading my post about saying goodbye to Buzz, you might imagine that it was an awful trip, but it wasn't.  It was hard to say goodbye, but there is almost instant closure to it, at least for me.  I'm not going to cry about it anymore, or refuse to sell, handle or eat that meat- I respect my animals by treating them with kindness and dignity while they are alive, and not wasting the food they provide later.  If I had trouble moving on like that, I doubt I could farm the way we do.  

We also have been busy processing chickens.  Although it's still just Dan and I, hand plucking and processing, we're trying to up our output a little bit, as we have the wonderful problem of selling out of chicken every week we offer it.  We've talked about making a nice processing pavilion, one that would streamline the process a bit, and we've gotten that underway. If you have wondered what the new building with the green roof is behind the greenhouse, now you know!  We do have some siding up now, which was so nice in this heat to be out of the direct sun.  The gravel floor is down, and now the next step will be to pour cement.  We'll also be running some lines for a sink and the cooling tubs soon.  It's already much nicer that before, and I can't wait to get it all done.  I've been trying to take pictures of the construction process, so hopefully soon I can post a whole start-to-finish slideshow of that project.

I also took a rare day away from the farm this week to attend a field day put on by PASA, the PA Association for Sustainable Agriculture, along with WAgN, the Penn State Women's Agriculture Network.  (I know, it's a mouthful!)  The even was in nearby Brookville at Quiet Creek Herb Farm and focused on Chantrelles and exotic PA mushrooms.  I learned a lot and was really happy to attend, the folks there were amazingly knowledgeable. The workshop was a fun mix of mushroom hunting for personal fun and use (which Dan & I started just last year), cooking with mushrooms (and an amazing lunch!) and a bit on growing & selling mushrooms to the public.  It's something we may like to try in the future, we are always looking to keep up and expand the diversity of our farm stand offerings.

 So, it's been more than enough to keep us busy, but we don't expect any less from the summer months! 

Happy fall to everyone!  It has been so busy around here,  I feel as though I've been neglecting my blog.  So here is my attempt to get you caught up with our goings-on!

I've meant to mention that Finnbar has gone home to Muirstead Farm.  He was the Dexter bull we had on loan for the summer.  He is a beautiful example of the Dexter breed; well muscled, docile and compact.  Although I was nervous about having a bull here, as they can be dangerous animals, we had a wonderful experience with him.  I'm always grateful to breeders who value not just production, but temperament as well, and the Muirstead Dexters are joys to work around.  Having Finnbar around for a few months also gave me the confidence that if Dan and I ever expand our little Dexter herd enough to warrant keeping a bull around all year, that with proper care and handling it would be no more stressful than having the other intact males here, like Rambo the sheep or Wilbur the hog.  And speaking of expanding our Dexter herd, we did do just that.  In addition to the calf we'll expect from Finni early next summer, we purchased another cow.  Lil came on loan with Finnbar, so we could have a chance to milk a Dexter this year.  We liked her so much that we chose to purchase her.  She is a former show ring champ and has had quite a few beautiful Dexter babies.  The Muirs have enough of her lineage in the breeding herd they maintain, so they agreed to let us purchase her.  She'll also be due with a calf in late spring or early summer, so we are so very excited!

Today is the first day of fall.  The official first days of summer and winter always seem to arrive a bit after the season starts in my opinion, but fall is right on time.  The leaves are starting to change and the garden is transitioning as well.  Our tomatoes finally succumbed to the blight, but we had a wonderfully productive year anyway.  While we won't have fresh ones at the stand again this year, I have lots of packaged sun-dried tomatoes available and I'm working today on making some more Bruschetta in a Jar with the last of the Romas.   But as I say good-bye to the tomatoes of summer, I'm saying hello to our fall crops.  We've been digging onions and potatoes and last week were able to start picking some winter squash as well.  This week we'll be able to offer acorn, buttercup, butternut and sweet dumpling squash, plus a few pumpkins and a blue hubbard or two.  Later, I'll have some really neat looking gourds (a frost will really bring out their colors) as well as kabocha and giant pink banana squash.  We also tried planting a bit of Bloody Butcher corn, an heirloom deep red corn, this year, so once it dried I'll be excited to try grinding it for cornmeal and see what color we end up with.

As the season goes on, I have more and more neat things I've dried or processed.  Something new we'll have this week is dried sage from the herb garden.  I'm also finishing up processing some peaches into a recipe called zesty peach barbecue sauce.  It's more like a hot peach salsa, so I'm thinking about what name to put on the labels as the jars are bubbling away in the canner.  Either way, it's a favorite here at home, Dan especially loves it with ham so I think ham steaks are going to be dinner tonight! (it's great on chicken or pork chops too.)  Then it's on to making the  Bruschetta and possibly, if the rain lets off, I'll be digging some horseradish to prepare and sell.  I might make some horseradish mustard before the week is up too!

 I'll also be cleaning up the brooder pen in anticipation of our layer chicks which are due to arrive Friday. As the seasons change, I'm always realizing how farming truly is a year-round occupation.  While most of the produce arrives within a fairly small window of time, we're always planning and preparing.  In addition to the hens, we're also deciding what kind of garlic to plant now and what we need to do to keep our fields, buildings and livestock in good shape over the upcoming winter.  It's always a busy time here!

Although Labor Day weekend is supposed to be summer's last big celebration,  this weekend sure seemed like an introduction to fall instead with rain, cooler temperatures and the first leaves coming down.  We're really glad it didn't stop folks from coming out to see us on Saturday though, as we had a wonderful day at the stand, seeing lots of old friends and making some new ones.   

Although I hate to let any produce go to waste, it seems even more critical now as certain plants are reaching the end of their season.   At one point, I felt inundated by cucumber, and while I pickled what I could, I didn't feel terrible about feeding some to the pigs as well.  Now each is like a final green gem from the garden, and I'll miss their cool crunch for many months once they are done. Cukes are actually my personal favorite garden veggie, I like them more than the ever-popular corn and tomatoes, but once they are gone I fall back on my pickles.  I won't buy a tastless, slimy one coated in wax from the store.  Although it's a long wait between the end of  the season in September to the first new ones in June, there are also so many tasty foods we grow or that I preserve here, it doesn't ever feel like deprivation.  It's more like a decadent overabundance when the season is here.

I really hate to waste tomatoes, they seem especially precious after the blight destroyed almost the entire crop last year.  This year we're selling them by the literal bushel and I'm still looking for ways to preserve the rest.  If you've visited us, you've likely seem the hot and mild varieties of salsa and our sun dried tomatoes for sale.  I have also run quite a few through my food mill and frozen the results.  Late in the year or early next, I'll defrost the squished tomatoes and spend a day making chili and spaghetti sauces for myself.  I'll enjoy the all-day process of boiling it down when it's warming the house from winter's cold.   But for now, I still have tomatoes, so I'm always looking for something different, and something that doesn't contain hours of processing...a summer recipe!  Last week, I found one for Bruschetta-in-a-Jar.  Chop the tomatoes, pack in hot jars, and fill with a boiling mixture of wine, vinegar and Italian spices.  Easy and delicious, but not one you could really get a taste of before processing.  One of the labels was rather lumpy-looking, so I told Dan Saturday morning he could have it.  He asked what exactly it was supposed to be.  I replied that he should imagine spreading it over warm garlic bread, possibly sprinkled with cheese.  He popped the jar open and sampled it with a tortilla chip I had set out for salsa samples.  I warned him as I had made it just days before, it may not have had time to fully incorporate the flavors.  He argued that it couldn't possibly get much better and when he offered me a taste of the finished project, I had to agree.  I'll be making lots more of it this week!  Along with another effort to let no tomato go to waste, I'll have lots of other projects as well.  The hot peppers will either be made into hot pepper rings or a batch of salsa.  I'll be making dilly beans and pickled beets.  Also, the dehydrator will be running full of herbs, tomatoes or anything else that seems like a good candidate.  And who knows, I may find another wonderful recipe during the course of the week like the Bruschetta.  While it can be overwhelming to try to put up all the food the garden produces, it's a wonderful challenge and one that's filled with nearly limitless possibilities of flavors and colors! 

Saturday was tour day, so last week I spent much time finishing cleanup, laminating signs, and sorting the poultry into separate pens (which they did not stay in!).  Unfortunately, between the high heat & humidity and the fact that most of the stops were in southwest PA, it didn't really attract many new folks.  But I am glad we gave it a try, it was a good learning experience for me.  But I always say either my house or my barn is clean, and since last week was devoted to rarely-completed chores such as washing the windows in the chicken coops,  Sunday was a day to get the house back into shape. 

As July turns toward August, the garden is really producing an amazing amount of food.  My goal today and for the next few days is to get some serious weeding done.  Today I'll be picking off zukes & cikes to make pickles, relish, and to try and prevent having only ones the size of baseball bats on Saturday.  We planted a pretty good assortment of hot and bell peppers and I cannot believe the production of our "inferno" banana peppers!  Not only are they very hot, they are just loaded with beautiful peppers, so I've made some extra-hot pepper rings along with some really great flavored hot pepper jelly.  As soon as I have some extra tomatoes, I'll definitely be using them to flavor my hot pepper salsa as well.  I love the challenge of seeing what is producing in the garden or leftover after we close on Saturday, and then trying to find an amazing recipe to can.  If it passes a private taste test here at the house, I'll put it out for sale.  So far I've had very few that didn't make it to the stand, and most of them were due to the fact that they were delicious, but too time-consuming to make a regular part of my canning menu.  Dan usually hopes something doesn't seal properly or that I have only half a jar so that it can go into our fridge instead!  I'm also grateful to Betty, my mother-in-law, for being gracious enough to share some recipes for farm stand favorites she made in years past, like her pickled beets. So I'm off to weed, stake tomatoes, and generally inspect what's going on out there...I know there is a lot that's been happening while I was busy cleaning the chicken pens!

Today is my 4th day off in a row, and by "off" I mean not commuting to my day job, because as usual, I've been busier here than I am at work!  Friday, Dan and I worked until 1 AM getting the butcher shop finished.  Although the Stevensons have always done some of the processing here, the kitchen was in need of a good cleaning and a coat of paint.  Not only did we paint, but we also put down a new tile floor, added much needed shelving and built a larger butchering table.  It turned out wonderfully, will be easier to clean, and if yesterday was any indication, a better workspace makes the whole process easier and more efficient.  We'll be butchering 3 more hogs today with the help of Dan's father, Tom, and that will complete our freezer pork orders.  Soon we'll be moving on to hogs we'll be selling at our stand when we reopen for the season on May 29. 

Of course butchering hogs & making sausage makes for busy days, but I've also been working hard on getting other things ready.  This weekend alone I made Honey Mustard, Cranberry-Peach Compote (like a chunky jam, but with almonds too!), Thai Hot & Sweet Dipping Sauce and repackaged all of my flavored vinegars into the new bottles.  Today I hope to bottle a bit of the champagne vinegar I made, buy more champagne because it turned out so well, and split the mother of vinegar to make some real white & red wine vinegars as well.  I also have some Blueberry Basil Vinegar that's nearly done and will need bottled in a week or so as well as some Dried Herb Vinegar, so I think I need to order more bottles too!  I filled some of my new herb containers with dried chamomile and the oregano in the dryer should be done today, so I'll package that and set more oregano on the racks to dry.  

The baby turkeys arrived, but they must have had a bad trip because only about half survived the 48 hour period after we picked them up.  There was a guarantee though, so Welp's hatchery sent us replacements.  There weren't enough turkeys to ship safely, so they filled the box with extra chicks so everyone would stay warm.  They look like Barred Rocks, so I'll gladly keep any hens and add them to our egg laying flock, since that is a breed we have here.  To date, the new turkeys and the survivors from the last batch are doing great and growing like weeds! We also picked up a batch of broiler chicks Saturday, and they are all doing well too.  We've been getting to know our postal workers pretty well, because this morning we went to the office before they opened again, this time to pick up hatching eggs.  We're going to try raising Cortunix quail for eggs and meat, so if they hatch well we may be offering those products at the stand by the end of July!

Most of our plants survived the early frost, so we're anxious to be offering things like rhubarb, spring onions and lettuce when we open.  But for now, I've got to go, we've got lots to do today! 

As the year goes on, I'm finding more and more of our home-canned goodies are selling, but I've had a few comments that too much of it is hot for some tastes.  I like a good spicy sauce, but I realize not everyone appreciates it and some people have bigger a sweet tooth.  So I went back to my big book of canning recipes to see what inspired me.  I found a great recipe to use up carrots that hadn't sold over the weekend...a carrot cake jam!  Spreadable carrot cake was just too intriguing to past up, so I collected all the necessary ingredients and went to work.  I must confess, I was fearful of a flaming disaster when, after the 20 minutes of boiling was up, I still had a pot of fruits and veggies without much visible liquid.  I expected it to look more syrupy, and thought there was no way in the world that the large amount of sugar I had would ever dissolve without adding water or something my recipe didn't call for. But there was nothing to do but grab the big bowl full of sugar, dump it in and stir. To my surprise and delight, it stirred right in and the result makes a plain piece of toast into dessert!  

Since we're all but done with butchering, I feel like I have more time to create in the kitchen.  Even though I'm not home all day now, it gets dark out so early that canning a batch of something seems like a great way to pass a chilly evening.  Also, with the garden being done I feel like I have more freedom to choose what I'm doing.  Although I try my best to let no tomato, hot pepper, green bean, etc, go to waste, the only home grown veggies I have left to can are tomatoes I've already run through the food mill and frozen.  So there is no hurry to get to them before they go bad.  We try to be as self sufficient as possible, but sometimes it's ok to buy some of the ingredients, so I'm looking for tasty treats now instead of a way to use up all these hot peppers or whatever I was overrun with at the time during the growing season.  Next up, I have my eye on a Black Forest preserve...cocoa and cherries and sugar! Yum!  It should go well with the ice cream maker that arrived via FedEx today that we're excited to try out. Or maybe I'll do gingered pears, or a recipe for spiced pumpkin that sounds like a holiday treat.  I'm going to try to set aside time for canning tomorrow, as I have the day to spend at home, but Finniat is coming in the morning and I'm not sure how much of my day will be wrapped up in that!  

I love this time of year in the garden, everything is so plentiful!  We had our first sweet corn this weekend and a few ripe tomatoes as well.  The plants don't look great, but they don't have the killer blight and the tomatoes are finally turning red! It must be the sunshine, which has finally reappeared. As I type, I'm keeping an eye on my canner as I am making salsa with the leftovers from the market- tomatoes, onions, and hot peppers.  Growing up, no one in my family canned, but I taught myself a few summers ago and I really enjoy it.  I love knowing what's really in my food and being able to control the amout of chemicals, salt and sugar that goes into whatever I'm eating.  I love trying new recipies, and I love finding ones that use the herbs and vegetables I have just out my back door! I do make some other things, like mustards, that I need to buy most of the ingredients for, but they are so much better than anything store bought!  I enjoy canning so much that I have started putting some of my sauces and other things for sale at the stand.  If you stop by, along with 2 kinds of mustards I have flavored vinegar, a sweet & sour dipping sauce, hot pepper jelly, dilled green beans and this weekend, salsa!

 Opening the stand has made us so busy, getting laid off was really a blessing in disguise.  People remember our sausage and we have sold quite a lot of the secret family recipe breakfast sausage.  Dan and I introduced a mild and a hot Italian sausage 2 weeks ago and they were so popular, we're going to have them again this weekend.  So Thursday I'll be busy stuffing sausage and packaging it.  

 Another thing keeping me busy lately is working on the website.  I've added a lot on new pictures of the animals and the stand.  I'm also working on a page with pictures and descriptions of the various polutry we raise, which is taking some time and isn't live yet.  If you'd like to check it out, the address is www.pleasantvalleyfarm.weebly.com.

If you're planning on being in Tionesta for the Rumble on the River Bike Fest, stop by and see us!  We always enjoy meeting the people who follow us online.  And if it isn't too hot, you can meet Puff, our cat who thinks he is the farm stand mascot.  He love to be the greeter and be petted by everyone!  

What is a scruff hen? At our farm it's a hen that came to us that we weren't really looking for.  As in, I buy a particular chicken at an auction and it comes with another, less desireable chicken.  One such gal came to be know as "Super Scruff Hen" as she looked to be molting when we got her, and was in no hurry to get her feathers back.  She's a small gold and black barred bird that lays white eggs quite consistantly.   I think she's probably a Campine.  We were going to take her back to the auction, but she just kept laying eggs.  Then we moved her to a pen that, unlike the first, was not completely enclosed, and she became a barnyard bird as she could figure out a way out of the pen daily, no matter how short her wings were clipped or what you did to the fence.  But, being the extremely cagey bird she is, she would see me at chore time and follow me back into the coop, where she would safely spend the night.  Several weeks ago I stopped seeing her, and I was sad, but we had lost quite a few hens to the predators, and all seemed to be my favorites! We found out what happed to Super Scruff Hen this week...she had relocated herself to a secret location in the haymow and made a nest to sit on.  I found a rather soggy chick last night and put it under the heat lamp to dry, but we couldn't find its mom.  Super Scruff Hen reappeared today, with two more tiny chicks in tow!  Now if I can just lure her back to the henhouse...

I sit typing this as my first "full time farmer" activity.  Tomorrow is my first day of being laid off, so I am keeping my head up and making the most of it...it's a great time of year to be home on the farm!  Tomorrow Dan and I plan to put the finishing touches on shed cleanup and we'll be set for the grand reopening on Saturday from 10-2.  I've canned some dilly beans, blueberry basil vinegar, and a Thai sweet and hot dipping sauce to sell and I intend to get some mustard made in the next day or so.  I hope to see some of you there, but I must go now...time to mow while the sun shines to make the place look presentable!

Summer is officially here! The garden is so close to full production I can almost taste it when we go out in the evenings. Actually I guess we have tasted it- I've been able to make a few small salads with fresh greens, spring onions and a few baby radishes, served with a delishious bluberry-basil vinegrette from vinegar I made myself! Delicious!  The peas are blooming, as are the tomatoes and zucchini and last night we put up trellis for our rapidly growing pole and lima beans.  I have a few hot peppers that are getting to pickable size, now I'm busy looking over my canning cookbooks for a good hot pepper relish. If you have a good recipe, I'd love to hear about it.  I can't wait to get started canning for the summer! 

Hay production is going well, as of last week we had 2 entire fields dry and put up in the barn, which put us exactly 2 fields ahead of where we were last year! Dan spent yesterday cutting more, and if the weather is as beautiful as the forcasters are predicting, we will hopefully be done with our first cutting hay by the weekend, including the oat hay which I cultipacted much earlier in this blog.  The fields that have already been cut are growing back at an amazing rate, and we fully expect to be getting a good second crop later this summer.

Our broiler chickens have done so well out on grass, despite the unpredictable weather, that they've reached butchering size in just 7 weeks.  We started processing the first ones last night and hope to wrap this batch up by the weekend.  Chicken is the one thing we butcher start to finish here at the farm, but I don't mind too much.  Dan and I each have jobs to take care of during the process, and it runs pretty smoothly.  We have had orders rolling in for our chicken so if you are interested, contact us soon.  We're already sold out until mid to late August, so don't miss out!   For me, the first real taste of summer comes with some absolutely fresh chicken cooked over our charcoal grill with a wonderful garden salad.