Pleasant Valley Farm

I've mentioned many times how so little goes to waste on a small farm like ours- manure becomes fertilizer for the garden, garden leftovers are canned, and the scraps from that process supplement our pig's food. The same is true for lots of stuff here- non-organic “stuff”, that is. The original produce shed was a humble 8' x 12' building. Sales quickly outgrew it, but when our current stand was built, the old one didn't just go away. It made a very serviceable garden shed for a number of seasons, housing tomato stakes, irrigation equipment, hoes and more. Last year, we brought it closer to the house, did some repairs and maintenance, and our flock of Delaware chickens happily called it home. This year, we're breeding fewer varieties of chickens and we don't need the extra coop, but unused space rarely stays that way for long. This little building is now a fully functional forge, which is also a great way to recycle scrap metal from around the farm.

Dan isn't the first farm resident to try smithing, nor is this the first forge here. In fact, the original forge is still here. It's located in the workshop building, which is the oldest building on the farm. (It's older than the barn, which was built in 1894.) It was once a busy place, shoeing teams of horses and mules on their way to the town of Nebraska just over the hill. (The town is long gone, a boomtown that had mostly disappeared before being flooded under what is now Tionesta Lake.) The original stone forge is still there in the center of the shop, but the chimney leans at a pretty significant angle as it passes through the second story. While it would be really neat to use it again, the chances of the building catching fire are just too high, and we decided to err on the side of not burning it to the ground! So the anvil, the hand-cranked blower and other tools such as hammers, punches, chisels and tongs have been moved to the new, smaller forge. The anvil & blower are old, probably 100+ years, and have been on the farm much of that time. At least a pair or two of the tongs were likely made here in the old forge, as blacksmiths routinely make their own tools. The smaller workshop does have the advantage of being quite warm and toasty in this winter cold, as the heat from the coal fire necessary to heat the metal up soon warms the building as well. Dan has already made a few projects for the house, including a poker for the woodstove and decorative hooks for my cast iron skillets to hang from in the kitchen. Although I'm not much help besides cranking the blower to help the metal heat faster, it's fascinating for me to watch an ordinary piece of scrap metal be turned into something useful and beautiful as well. It's a wonderful way to pass some of the winter away!

It's hard to believe 2010 will be history in a few short days.  What a year it has been!  It was exciting to be open for a full season, which was a first for me.  It was a big leap to go from a full time job away from the farm to being here full time, but I'm a firm believer that everything happens for a reason, and the elimination of my work position was just a way to show me that I was ready for this new challenge.  It gave me the time to expand the different products I make here, and it's amazing to look back (or in the pantry!) and see the variety of goodies that came from the garden and the kitchen.  Making vinegar was a new adventure, and one that turned out very well.  I really got more comfortable in the kitchen with old and new recipes and have really come to enjoy cooking with cast iron, something that was pretty much foreign to me at this time last year.  I only hope to get a good industrial blender for mustard making in the new year, as I ruined not one, but two this past year trying to blend up experimental new batches that were a bit on the thick side!

We had a nearly ideal growing season for almost everything this year.  While the nights didn't get quite cool enough for the sweet corn and we did get hit by the late blight (thankfully it was at the end of tomato season anyway) the garden was amazing.  It's nearly unbelievable how much food came out of such a small space.   We had heaps of beets, potatoes, squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, rhubarb...the list could go on!  Of course, there is always room for improvement...I'd like to hope I'll do better weeding the garden next year, and find a better way to keep the birds (sparrows and the like, not my birds) from carrying off the blueberry crop.  All in all though, the hardest part of the garden this year will be the same as last, and that is narrowing down all the seeds I'd like to buy to a list we can afford, both financially and with garden space!

There were changes in the livestock, too.  We got out of the goat breeding business but added heritage turkeys.  We doubled our permanent Dexter cow herd to two brood cows.  Peachicks (baby peacocks) hatched here for the first time.  The sows continue to deliver healthy litters of piglets and the sheep had a nice crop of lambs.  I continue to get more comfortable driving the horses and using different machinery.  Running the plastic mulch layer was a fun first this year.

 The meats went well too. Our little farm produced not only a nice variety, but an amazing quantity as well.  We couldn't keep our chickens in stock, which is a great thing! I have really improved my plucking skills, too- practice makes perfect!  Pork continues to be our #1 meat, and folks come looking for the Italian sausages now too, which is neat.  The beef and lamb also sell well, and I think I've gotten to the point where I really understand each cut of meat, how to prepare it, and what cut to recommend if a customer is looking to make a particular recipe.  That was something completely overwhelming to me not that long ago, but since we rely on what we raise for our own groceries, I can say I've learned how to use everything by trial and error in my own kitchen!  We also renovated our meat processing kitchen, putting down a new easy-to-clean floor and repainting.  We also made a huge improvement when Dan installed an industrial sink & spray faucet and built a new, larger meat cutting area.  Those improvements will serve us well for years to come.

So after all this success, how can I possibly hope for more next year?  Because I want to continue to grow, both as a person and as a business.  I'm looking forward to hatching our own little Bourbon Red turkey poults and transitioning to only heritage turkeys for sale at Thanksgiving.  We'll also be butchering a Dexter for beef at some point (Lil's male calf from this year, not one of the girls), and again, we're looking to make a transition towards farm-raised heritage breeds.  Lil and Finni are both expected to have a calf in late spring or early summer, which is also really exciting.  I've never seen a calf born here, and Dan misses it from the days when this was a dairy farm.  And speaking of dairy, we're expecting to transition our household to Dexter milk when this happens, so milkmaid (and possibly amateur cheese artisan!) will be yet another title to add to my job description.  We'll try more heirloom vegetables in the garden this year.  I hope to finally build a new rabbit hutch.  Dan is working on setting up a place to do blacksmithing here.  There are always lots of repairs to be done and although we did lots last year, there is still a long list of things we'd like to see completed in the coming year, like repairing the milkhouse, replacing the steel roof on the upper side of the barn and painting everywhere-house, barn, hog house, etc.  I'm sure some of it will get done and some will be on the list for 2012, we'll just wait and see which is which!

Finally, I have a new challenge/adventure for the coming year.  I would love to incorporate what I do now with the skills I have from college and away-from-farm work.  I'd love to be able to supplement the farm income by going out and speaking about why farms are important, why how your food is grown matters, and all the things that I, as an educated adult, really never thought about or knew anything about before I came to the farm.  I'd like to be not only a speaker, but an advocate for farming.  It's an idea I've tossed around for a while, and I'm really excited to announce that this too is coming to fruition.  In March, I'll be putting on an hour-long presentation about Heritage Livestock breeds and why they matter at the Farm to Table conference in Pittsburgh.   I'll be sure to post all the details when I get them, and I hope some of you will come out to see me there.

A sincere thanks to everyone who has supported our farm over the past year through your patronage or just by following our adventures here online.  We couldn't do what we love without you!  We hope to see you again in 2011, and send our wishes for a healthy and happy New Year to your family! 

Although they don't get much attention in this blog, we also raise rabbits here at the farm.  I just like them, and I'll have young rabbits for sale periodically.  I can watch them out my kitchen picture window while I'm cooking or doing dishes.  The pens all have outdoor access, and some are moveable "tractor" pens which make great mowers as I move them across the back yard.  One such tractor is currently right outside my window and houses Honey Bunny, who basically looks like a wild cottontail, and Leo, our tan and white lop-eared breeding male.  He's got a short face that looks like he's got some Lion Head rabbit in him, and he's quite adorable.  Both bunnies are quite tame and docile.  Although that might sound like a weird thing to say about rabbits, I've lost more blood to the bunnies than all the other farm critters combined (including the cats!)  They have legs made for digging and sharp claws, and if they kick and scratch you while you're moving them to a different cage, it's often worse than a cat scratch.

Anyways, Honey and Leo have been in the same pen for about two months, so yes, that means there are babies! Usually I do try to take the buck (or male) out before the blessed event, otherwise there's a good chance the mama will be pregnant again before the litter is weaned.  It's hard on her to not have a rest between pregnancies, but things have been so busy I just let it slide this time.  There are 5 little rabbits who just opened their eyes a few days ago.  When I looked out at the pen yesterday, I saw Leo, Honey, and a small, grey-white baby bunny outside.   The rabbits get outdoors via a ramp, so I have to put up a small piece of wood to keep the babies from falling out- I call it the "bunny baby gate." By the time they are old enough to climb over it, they seem to be smart enough to get back up into the warm, dry enclosed pen.  However, since the baby didn't seem to be distressed, I figured I could finish what I was doing in the kitchen before climbing in the cage to catch it and put up the gate.  There isn't much cuter than a farm baby, and tiny bunnies are so fun to watch!  It seemed to be snuggling up to mama until she went inside.  Now, many people who raise animals of any kind will tell you it's a bad idea to let a breeding male around the babies because no matter what species, the males will harm or kill the little ones.  I'm not denying that this can happen (I've had male rabbits fight until one was severely injured)  but I also think giving an animal the kind of environment it was designed to live in eases this.  Our lambs are born and live on pasture and Rambo the ram looks after his whole flock, babies included.  When we bred goats, I never saw the male harm the little kids, although other females would head-butt them away from their own offspring.  Leo has been in with babies before and I had no worries about him, but I found it truly fascinating to watch him with this little one.  I looked away, and when I next checked, the baby was nowhere to be seen.  Leo appeared to be grooming his toes or something.  On closer inspection, Leo was actually grooming the baby by licking its little head and letting it cuddle into his fur just like a mother would do.  And yes, since the parents look nothing alike, I'm sure it was papa.  When I caught the baby and put it back upstairs, it was Leo who seemed to be guarding the rest of the nest.  

Raising livestock in a more natural way means that they get to interact with each other in ways more meaningful than just through the bars of one cage to the next.  While the disadvantages to this are that yes, sometimes they can and do fight for dominance, and accidents can and will happen, all farm animals are social in nature.  I do try not to treat the animals as human, but when you interact with them you can see that, if you get to know them, they all do have personalities and even emotions(some more strongly than others).  I think an important part of raising animals naturally is allowing them to have a social life, with members of their own kind and even across species.  To me, it's fascinating to watch how these interactions play out, whether it's a bunny family's dynamics, how a mother hen protects her chicks, or how the cat sunning himself reacts to an inquisitive turkey.  I often think I'd be $10,000 richer if I could only capture some of these moments for America's Funniest Home Videos.  But in addition to providing me with constant entertainment, being observant about these things helps me to be a better farmer.  Giving them natural interactions means my animals will be less stressed, and if I use their natural reactions to my advantage when I handle them, it makes life easier for all.  That, and lots of snacks!

The last major farm task for the year is over now.  This weekend we filled our freezer pork orders, and everything is cut, wrapped and frozen,  We're just waiting on the hams & bacons now, as the smoking process takes about a week longer.  Between the whole and half hogs ordered this time, we had 4 total hogs to do over the weekend.  Each time in the past, Dan's father has come up to lend a hand and offer his expertise when we have more than one to do.  However, he lives about 4 hours away and the forecast was for a couple inches of ice topped with a foot or so of snow.   In the interest of safety, we told him to come visit another time and tackled the big project ourselves.  In the past this would have completely overwhelmed me, but since Dan and I have done so many over the course of the season for the stand (although one at a time!)  we pretty much have it down to a two person routine; he cuts and I wrap and label.  I can even tell by looking now the different roasts we offer (shoulder, loin end & Boston butt) whereas a few years ago, I couldn't have told you the different names, much less what they looked like or how to cook them!

It is good to be done with the butchering until next May.   I don't cry over each pig or chicken, as I know why we raise them and know we give them the best life possible.  I do get a little more choked up over my turkeys and cows, as I interact with them for a longer period of time, and to some extent you do get attached.  The cows are here for at least a year usually and are the only meat animals I name. But again, I know why they are here.  Even though we send the pigs to a USDA-inspected facility for slaughter, we still cut them up and make our secret recipe sausages here at the farm.  Pork and poultry are lots of work!  It's a big job to coordinate bulk meat orders and have a variety of cuts available each week at the stand, so it's nice to get a break form that for a bit. I also think that taking a break is good mentally...it keeps you from taking an animal's life too lightly.  I think the world would be a more humane place, and that consumers would be much less tolerant of factory farming, if everyone who eats meat out there had to raise an animal once in their life and then eat it.  Five years ago, I wouldn't even have considered myself capable of such a thing either, but I see now how pretending that meat just magically appears on a Styrofoam tray in the grocery store meat cooler is not good.    It's not good for the animals, who suffer in horribly crowded conditions, some never seeing the light of day, being force fed antibiotics and chemicals to get them big and tender quickly without regard to the animals' comfort or health. It's not good for us, because we have no idea where our food comes from or who is producing it, and the end result of that is bad food.  We've seen it time and again with the recalls of meat, eggs, and so many other products.  Recalls prompted by people getting sick and even dying just because of what they ate.  I'm proud to be a part of the movement to change that; I won't sell anything I don't feed my own family, and raising healthy animals is good for them and good for us too.

On a completely different (and lighter!) note: I believe I invented a completely new sentence in the English language yesterday.   Finally, I've had time to put up my tree and do some holiday decorating.  Despite the fact that it was about 15 (without considering the wind chill) I was out on the porch hanging up my lights and putting some tinsel around the porch columns.  Some of the animals were still happily free ranging despite the weather, and about half of my Bourbon Red turkeys came over to see what in the world I was doing.  My tinsel is iridescent white with little foil snowmen on it, and as I was finishing winding it around the column, I laughed when I heard myself say:

"Shoo, turkeys! It's tinsel, not turkey food!"

Saturday was our final day for the 2010 season.  A sincere thanks to all who stopped by this year, you made it a great one for us!  Although I'll miss the weekly interaction with my customers as well as the income, it's kind of exciting to look forward to my first weekend off since May as well.  Our lovely farm stand is enclosed, but it's not heated, and I was very lucky with the weather this year, only having snow the last day.  Today looks like a winter wonderland out there, and with temperatures expected to stay pretty chilly, it's a good thing that all the jars of goodies and winter squash and other storage veggies are safely in my pantry or basement to keep them from freezing.   (If we  were still open, I would have needed to bring everything to the house anyway, but this way I don't have to lug it all back down there!)

I have heard so many comments lately to the effect that since we're closed for the year we'll finally be able to relax.   Although it's surely not as hectic as the middle of summer with the garden, the stand, canning, and making hay all at the same time, a farm is a busy place 100% of the time.  Now that the pasture has finally worn out for the year, we need to start feeding hay and bringing the horses and cows into the barn.  This means more feeding chores twice daily, not to mention the additional chore of cleaning stalls since the animals are now inside.  Inclement weather means every creature will be spending more time inside voluntarily, so the pig pens and poultry houses will also need to be cleaned more frequently.  There's also the ever-present challenge of making sure all the critters have access to fresh, clean water, which will soon mean breaking up ice and putting out rubber pans to prevent the plastic bell waterers we normally use from freezing and cracking.  And as far as a nice, long winter vacation to someplace warm goes, we just can't do it (at least not together!) unless we have someone who is capable and willing to take care of horses, cows, pigs, sheep, goats, rabbits, chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese and peafowl twice a day for as long as we're gone.  I love my animals and our lifestyle, but in some ways it is like a marriage- you have to fully commit to being a diversified family farmer and understand it's a year round obligation, not just a fair weather one.

 So besides feeding, watering and stalls, what will I do all winter?  Plenty!  I have pages I'd like to work on to expand our website, and I'll put out a few email newsletters as well.  The seed catalogs have already begun arriving almost daily, and  I'll have to plan what we'll grow.  Planning a market garden is a big job, we have to figure out what did well last year, what didn't that we won't grow again, which new varieties sound promising, which crops we might be able to transition to heirloom varieties, what we didn't grow last year that customers requested and how much seed of each type (that we didn't save ourselves) will need to be purchased.  Although we stick to a few catalogs, I compare prices and varieties and have it all sent out before the groundhog will be looking for his shadow.  Our home is a lovely 100+ year old farmhouse, and winter is usually the only season we have time to spend working on it.  Winterization is always a big chore, and this year we've planned projects upgrading things like insulation and windows.  It's also a good time to paint the interior, sew new curtains, and other small upgrades.  I also hope to spend some time in the workshop doing things like finally building a new hutch for my rabbits.  Perhaps we'll even get to the new bookshelves we've been planning for some time. A million other projects, too!  And like everyone else, the holidays are almost here and we'll want to celebrate by spending time with family.  And of course, I'll be blogging all about it throughout the winter!

What a week! Our final week of the season has been our busiest by far. This was my first year to process turkeys for sale, and it's a daunting task. While our original plan in the spring was to raise Broad Breasted White birds and process a few Bourbon Reds as well, an error by the hatchery we were dealing with sent us Broad Breasted Bronze birds instead of the white ones we expected. While nearly identical in that both broad breasted varieties are quick growing, have lots of white meat, and are artificial breeds as they cannot reproduce without artificial insemination, the bronze birds are colored much like a wild turkey rather than having all white feathers. It does make for a more attractive pen of live birds, but it's impossible to clean them up as completely when plucking, as some of the colored pigment remains under the skin. It's much like an ink inside the feathers, which made processing a less than ideal job. I personally went over each bird three separate times, and they still didn't clean up as well as I had hoped. Sunday and Monday were completely consumed with turkeys, and yesterday I had a final cleanup before opening for a special Tuesday afternoon for turkey pickup. I simply let our customers know what they were seeing, and they understood that they were buying a farm-raised, hand-processed bird.

Nearly every customer was thrilled with their bird, and I was grateful that they were happy with the sizes available, as we don't have full control over that. We can feed them quality feed all year, but we don't have the option to choose toms or hens when we buy (or hatch) the babies, which greatly affects the final size of the bird. Too many toms and folks who are having dinner for two or four will be disappointed with a bird that's too big, and too many hens may mean you don't have enough super-sized ones to feed a dozen family members. This kind of lack of choice is the greatest issue with marketing to the general public; most folks are used to getting a bird that's exactly 17 pounds if that's what they want. This is because Butterball or other large industrial producers raise literally millions of birds and freeze them prior to Thanksgiving and other holidays. Out of a few million, there's bound to be hundreds of thousands harvested when they reach just the size you want. A small farm like ours may only be willing to hand pluck two or three dozen birds, and with a number that small, it's possible that not a single one is exactly the weight you originally sought, especially if you're picking up a fresh bird processed just a day or two before. However, a farm bird like the ones we raise will not be “enhanced” with a solution of salt water that can be as high as 20% of the weight you pay for, so going by pounds alone may not be the best way to compare our birds.

Surprisingly, the Bourbon Reds, while still having pigmented feathers, cleaned up much nicer and with less work. Dan and I are discussing the option of offering only the Bourbons in future years. While we'll likely have less birds to process next year if we don't buy poults, I can't say I love doing turkeys enough to be upset about it, and I love the idea of using only heritage birds. Although they were a month or so older than the Bronzes, the Bourbons who did not get to join next year's breeding flock dressed out lighter. However, the heritage turkeys got the same rations as the laying hens, while the meat turkeys got a special turkey grower feed that had a much higher protein content. It will be interesting to me to see how the Bourbons will perform next year on the higher, weight-gaining ration.

Our Bourbon Tom

So all the turkeys have been processed and picked up, but the hectic pace won't slow down yet. Today's agenda includes going to the processor and picking up a pig and a cow. I'll need to sort out the frozen cuts of beef for freezer beef orders that will be picked up Saturday. The pig, as usual, will be cut here, so tonight will include spicing the meat that will become sausage and wrapping roasts, chops and ribs. During a normal week, this would be done on Thursday, but Hirsch's will be closed tomorrow. Friday we'll grind and package sausage as usual, and Saturday we'll finish out the year for our farm stand. When the doors close for the year, all the unsold products will need to be sorted. Canned goods & vinegars will keep, but will need to be moved to the pantry or basement where they will be kept from freezing or direct sunlight. Storage vegetables that we'll use to feed ourselves over the winter will get the same treatment. Extra vegetables will be used to supplement the pig's rations. We'll try to condense all the unsold meats into one freezer so we'll be able to unplug the one in the stand ASAP, and that will be our meals for the months to come. Nothing goes to waste!

Oh yes, in the midst of this madness there's a holiday thrown in too! Since we've got so much going on, we won't be traveling for the big meal. I'm cooking dinner for Dan and I plus Dan's brother Matt. While I'm a master of roasting a whole chicken, this will be the first time in my life that I've single-handedly tried to manage a turkey and all the trimmings. It's also a known fact that I'm no baker, but I hope to have a delicious surprise or two for them. I'm excited, and my guys are the least picky eaters ever, so I'm very optimistic that our dinner will be a success. With sustainably raised ingredients and ones I love sharing the table, how could it not be?

From our farm to your family, we wish you safe travels and good times with family, friends, and (sustainable!) food. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

One of this week's projects for me has been making cornmeal.  It's not the bright yellow you may have come to expect because instead of using yellow corn, I use an heirloom variety called Earth Tones Dent that we grow here at the farm.  "Dent" means that it's not a sweet corn to be eaten fresh, but rather an Indian corn type which is not harvested until the kernels have dried out, resulting in a dent at the top of each one when the moisture is gone.  It's an heirloom, open pollinated variety which means that it is not a GMO like the corn used commercially for meal, it's not a hybrid, and the seeds can be saved from year to year.  The ears come in a variety of colors from deep red to a mix of blue and purple.  

Once the dried ears have been picked from the stalks, the husks are removed.  We store the husked ears in onion sacks hung from the ceiling to make sure there is enough airflow so it will keep well until we use it.  To make cornmeal, we start by removing the kernels from the cob.  It's a time consuming job if done by hand, but we were fortunate to find a corn sheller at auction last fall.  It looks like a big red box with a large metal wheel on the outside.  A handle is turned until the wheel is revolving quickly, at which point ears are dropped in one at a time through a slot in the top.  Inside, there are large plates with teeth that revolve which separate the cob from the kernels.  The kernels drop out into a bucket or pan placed under the machine while the cobs are spit out the side.  

After that, I grind using a cast iron grain mill in the kitchen.  While this can also be turned by hand, Dan has put a small electric motor on it which powers the grinder using a belt from the motor to the large wheel.  It can be adjusted from a coarse to a fine grind.  The kernels go into a hopper on top, and come out the bottom.  This has not only the cornmeal, but also the hard outer part of each kernel, so the next step is to sift out the usable meal using a simple hand cranked flour sifter.   Finally, I weigh and package it.  We're happy to have it back in stock just in time for Thanksgiving, and are proud to advertise that our cornmeal is grown here, ground here, and hand sifted!

One of the things we're known for, and a point of pride for us, is that we do all our field work and hay making with a team of draft horses.  For us, this is truly what "sustainable" is all about; the horses help us to make the hay in the summer that will sustain them all winter, and we use the manure to naturally enrich the soil of our farm the way nature intended.  They are born here and trained here- our mare Dolly is a 3rd generation Pleasant Valley Farm Belgian!  It's definitely a commitment not taken lightly:  the horses actually require more care in the winter, when a tractor can be parked.  Using horsedrawn equipment can be a challenge to find or to maintain, as some pieces we use are nearly 100 years old and parts aren't readily available.  For us though, it is a labor of love and I wouldn't trade Dixie & Dolly for a John Deere, no matter what its retail value might be.

However, we choose to work horses, and unlike the Amish, aren't bound by any restrictions against changing that choice if we feel like it on any given day.  So this weekend was a bit of a noisy one, as Dan and his brother Matt rented a tractor from the neighboring Builder's Supply store.  I asked Dan and he said the real name of the machine would be a compact escavator, or a compact backhoe would also be acceptable.  I'm not really up on the names of construction equipment, so Dan knew if he didn't tell me otherwise I'd probably end up calling it the "orange diggy thing"  or something like it!

 I'm amazed at the number of people who comment that the work must really be winding down, because on a farm work never really slows, it just changes form.  Right now we're putting our energy to building repair, maintenance,  and winterization.  A few different projects got lumped together for tractor time this weekend.  The scooper on the front of the tractor saved my back and arms from wheeling loads of gravel from the pile by the road to the house.  We're putting a gravel floor in the basement, and I'll be excited to have that space available to use someday soon.  Then the next project was digging a ditch and installing a French drain behind the barn, then filling the ditch with gravel.  One problem that occurs whenever we get heavy rain or a significant snowmelt is that water will come into the barn, leaking between the barnstones that form the foundation and into the horses' stalls. That project went very well, the most difficult part was keeping the cows from sneaking past into the haymow for an all-you-can-eat lunch! The rest of the gravel was spread over the parking lot, so neither we nor our customers will be stepping out of our vehicles into mud puddles anymore!  It was great; 3 projects down and 21 tons of gravel moved with minimal hand work.  

The milk house between the barn and the road recently received a new steel roof, (the goats had put holes in the shingles) and next up is to repair the part of the block wall that has fallen in, so the orange diggy...I mean compact backhoe... was taken around the barn to dig out behind the wall.  The angles of the building itself, the corncrib and barn, and the slope of the hill made it a bit tough, but it will be less hand digging now for that project.  I suggested using it to move some of the mud & muck that has accumulated near the gate by the barn and that went well.  The gate is near what we call the "lower part" of the barn, which is primarily used as a run-in shed where pastured animals can get out of the elements.  The problem is where animals congregate, manure happens.  Since that area is dirt, you tend not to notice how much has ended up  there, decomposing and becoming part of the soil, until it reaches a point where water no longer flows past but rater is retained in all that organic material, creating a terrible mess to trudge through while doing chores.  Not something that was crucial on the to-do list of the farm, but while we had the tool to make it a quick project, it just made sense to make life a little easier.  Also, a little drainage ditch was put in to ease the giant mud puddle that forms on the lane through the barnyard down by the road. To me, it seems like when you get access to some new piece of machinery, especially when you pay for it, you can think of 101 projects you'd like to get done before that time is up!

It was a very productive weekend for us, and I'm really thankful Matt came and helped us out so much while I was waiting on the stand.  It's wonderful to have all these projects  well underway or completely finished.  (Believe me, on a farm with numerous 100+ year old buildings, there are always more things you'd like to do than you ever have time or money for!)  However,  we will be completely content to return the tractor and go back to the real horse-powered life.

I truly enjoy canning.  I love the process of creating something wonderful from scratch, something that will last for months or longer until I open it up to savor a flavor of something that was plentiful seasons ago.  I love playing around with recipes and trying out new ones.  For years, my mother in law made the stand famous with her pies and baked goods.  While I don't share her talent for baking, nothing is a bigger compliment to me than when someone says they stopped by just for my dill pickles or some carrot cake jam or any one of the products I work so hard to create.

Taking stock of what has been produced over the course of this year, I've made 9 kinds of jelly, 3 mustards, 2 salsas, various vegetable pickles using cucumbers, beets, beans and peppers, 6 vinegars, some assorted stuff like Bruschetta, Thai dipping sauce, prepared horseradish, or peach barbecue sauce, plus an assortment of dried herbs.  Now that the farm stand season is winding down to the final month, it's been on my mind to take stock and see if I want to continue all of them into next year.  

The answer is...no.

 Most of my canned products are the result of trying to preserve something I have a bounty of during the growing season.  If I have to buy all the ingredients, it may not make sense for me to expect to make a profit, especially when I factor in my time and now that I have built up a selection of recipes tailored just to what we grow.  (That's why, to the disappointment of some, I don't offer blackberry or elderberry jams...we don't grow those here!)  So that is a consideration.  The next is how time-consuming the process is, as the more involved it is the less time I can spend on the numerous other things I may need to be doing in the course of a day.  Some of the really messy or hard ones never even make it to the stand, as Dan and I will eat them when I know it's not a project I would look forward to doing again.  I had a recipe that made both blueberry butter and a blueberry ice cream sauce.   Both turned out to be delicious, but took forever, only produced a very few jars of each, and by the time I was done, everything in the kitchen was stained some shade of bluish-purple, especially me. Not a winning recipe in my book.  

But the final and most important test is whether they sell.  If my customers just aren't interested in them, it makes absolutely no sense to spend lots of time and materials making more of whatever it is. I know many folks don't want to spend their hard-earned money on something they've never heard of and might not like, so I have offered free samples of something or another all season long.  While I have a pretty good sense of what's being purchased since I work the counter every week, I also kept track of how much I made of each over the year.  If I only made a batch or two and still have most of it left, it's a good candidate for retirement.

So, I know you're curious, and yes, decisions have been made.  Fans of Carrot Cake Jam or Black Forest Preserves (chocolate & cherry flavored), don't worry.  It looks like these will be around a long, long time.  However, if you're a fan of the Gingered Pear Preserves or the Oriental Rhubarb Jam, you may want to stop by before the close of the season since you won't be seeing them in the spring. The pears don't really use much of anything produced here, even if they are tasty and not especially hard.  I can use up my rhubarb in the Orange-Rhubarb jam, which is much more popular.  This is the first time I've discontinued any of the products I make, and it is a little hard.  But I want to have room to find new recipes that I love and hope you will too!  So come by and stock up on your favorites now so you won't have to miss them over the winter, and be sure to check back next year to see what new things have been dreamed up in the meantime!

Although Halloween is mostly a children's holiday, here at the farm it feels like a celebration of the end of the growing season.  The pumpkins have been gathered up and put in the stand where they are protected from the freezing temperatures we have had lately.  One was particularly interesting- looking, big and warty and orange.  However, its base had a blossom end like a buttercup squash.  I've always loved Halloween and  usually carve a pumpkin, and since it's my garden I get to choose the coolest looking one now!   This must have been an accidental hybrid, as when I opened it up there were hardly any seeds, not enough to bother separating from the goo, so Dan didn't get any roasted seeds from this one.  I had fun carving it up with a special farm design!

Happy and safe Halloween to all! 

I don't think it's a big stretch to say that we do many things here at the farm that are rapidly becoming "lost arts".  The most obvious is our choice to depend on draft horses and antique machinery for our field work and hay making.  Raising heirloom plants and heritage livestock is another area we've ventured into.  It's no surprise to me that most people have no idea how to blacksmith, making tools and useful items with hot metal, coal and a hammer, although I think it's really neat that Dan can, and one of these days we'll find some elusive spare time to do it more.  What is surprising to me, however, is how cooking is becoming a lost art as well.

Although I've seen articles touting the resurgence of home canning, and I think that's great, what I see more often at our stand is that people simply don't know how to cook whole, unprocessed foods anymore.  We have beautiful bone-in hams, but many people are so accustomed to deli food that I frequently get requests for a pound of ham.  When I explain that it is a several-pound piece of meat that will need to be cooked thoroughly, plenty will find another item to buy that isn't "so much work."  Folks don't have a clue how to pick out a good squash, or what to do with it when they get it home, so they put it back down on the table. I lose sales by offering only whole chickens and not skinless thighs or breaded, frozen chunks of white meat.  Folks either don't know what to do with a whole bird anymore  or feel that it would be wasteful since there would be leftover food.  How self-reliant can Americans really be these days if we can't put together a meal for ourselves or our families without step-by-step directions on the packaging?

I have to admit though, it wasn't long ago when I considered making a Hamburger Helper meal to be "cooking".  I'm proud of how far I've come, how I can make an entire meal with only what we've raised on the farm, other than a bit of olive oil or a dash of black pepper.  I guess what is surprising to me is that it really isn't that hard if you just give it a try.  Sure, a chicken or ham might take 2 hours to cook, but once you put it in the oven, you really can just go about your usual routine, watching TV or helping the kids with homework, while it cooks. The longer cooking time seems a small price to pay for knowing exactly what is in your meal (ever read the ingredients on packaged convenience food?  It doesn't really tell you what's in there unless you have a degree in chemistry!) not to mention controlling the fats and salts that we all know we eat too much of anyway.

I also find the more I learn about cooking from scratch, the less I waste.  This really isn't much of a surprise, as the virtues of cooking the way our grandmothers or great-grandmothers did valued feeding your family even when food was scarce.  While virtually all my kitchen scraps get fed to another creature on the farm, there are ways to stretch each meal a bit further and I try to master new ones all the time.  Pigs are omnivores and enjoy most everything we do.  I could give my boar, Wilbur,  the scraps of the chicken I made for dinner last night, but it was so good, roasted with a bit of my white wine vinegar and home grown sage and rosemary, that I'm making chicken stock with the whole carcass today. This again, isn't hard, but it's something I haven't really tried before.  After picking off all the meat I could, I put the whole picked over bird into a big pot full of water, added some big slices of onion and a sprinkling of salt and pepper, put a lid on it and turned up the heat.  It's been simmering for an hour and a half now, and all those last little bits of meat are falling off the bones, the liquid is deep golden yellow and it smells like something you can't get enough of on a rainy fall evening.  I imagine I'll strain out the bones soon and then I'll need to decide how it will become dinner.  A hearty stew, or maybe a rice dish, cooking the rice right in that liquid.  I do know it will be good, that it will be healthy, and that it will be worth any effort it took to make sure I respect the chicken that gave its life for our meal by not wasting any more than necessary. 

I'm sure everyone has heard about the big egg recall by now.  Even though I have plenty of my own fresh eggs to eat, I still keep up on food related news.  We sold out of eggs quickly last week and I've already had preorders for this week as well.  It's a shame that it takes thousands of people getting sick to get some people to think about how their food is grown or where it comes from.

Most adults realize that advertising lies to us at times to get us to buy a certain product.  Here at the farm, we gladly accept clean used egg cartons (along with canning jars and plastic bags)  both to keep our costs down and to be eco-friendly.  Because of this, I frequently see how commercial egg producers try and paint a picture of themselves as small friendly farms rather than the monstrous factories that they really are.  Locally, the affected brand is Hillandale Farms and I see those cartons all the time, much more frequently than the organic free range advertising ones.   It is noted on the front that they are distributed by farms in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Iowa and when you open the carton there is a large printed American flag along with the words "Thank you for purchasing Hillandale Farms eggs! Just 12 (or 18) eggs to you, but a reputation to us!"  

While that practically screams that they care about you personally,  the AP article in our local paper painted a very different reputation than implied on the package.  550,000,000 eggs recalled.  1,300 people officially ill, with probably many more affected who didn't seek medical treatment.  I've seen estimates that guess for every one case confirmed, as many as 30 others get food poisoning. in this case, that would up the number of sickened people to as many as 36,000.   As if that wasn't bad enough, DeCoster Egg Farms, the other farm involved in the recall, was also fined in 1994 for environmental violations concerning hog waste, being designated a "habitual violator" in 2000.  In 1997, the affiliate farm in Maine was described as being "as dangerous and oppressive as any sweatshop" by the nation's labor secretary. In 2002, the farm reached a $1.5 million settlement with an employment discrimination lawsuit filed by Mexican women who were sexually harassed, retaliated against, and even raped on the job. The farms have been the subject of multiple raids by immigration, with 51 illegal workers arrested in 2007.  And as recently as June of this year, the farm paid $25,000 in penalties and $100,000 to the Maine Department of Agriculture over videotaped instances of animal cruelty.  While the paper didn't go into details on the latter, I found a web article by Maine Public Broadcasting stating the tapes showed "birds crammed into cages with inadequate food and water; birds left untreated for injuries and illnesses and live birds swung by the neck and thrown in the trash."

Surveys consistently show that Americans support small family farms and don't want food that comes from the Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations or CAFO's (aka "factory farms").  I highly doubt there are many customers looking to support any company that mistreats animals, disregards environmental regulations, hires illegal immigrants, rapes them, and exposes employees to highly dangerous conditions.  Yet they are still in business.  Why?  It says to me that our food system is broken.  That people want to care, but don't know how to start changing their food buying habits.  The government doesn't make it easy to find out about these things, thanks in large part to the lobbies of various big agriculture players. These lobbyists are also buying off Congressmen and -women to prevent the passing of harsh laws that would protect consumers and put places like this out of business, all in the name of protecting the American way of free trade and capitalism. For consumers, it's far more convenient to just pick up whatever brand they are carrying at Wal-Mart than take personal responsibility for those workers and birds we'll never meet face to face.  I'm as guilty as anyone else; before I met my husband I didn't grow my own food and thought very little about who did.  It only hits home when people you know and love can get sick or even die from something as routine as eating breakfast!  

The only way, in my opinion, to fight this is to stay small.  If you, as a consumer, find a farm you can support, tell a friend or two.  Write the farm a good review here on LocalHarvest or other similar sites so others will know what these farms are all about.  Be bold and ask questions about where your food comes from, not only to the farmers at the markets, but to the manager at your favorite local eatery.  Businesses aim to give the customers what they want, and if enough of us ask for local and sustainable, we can make a difference.  And for those of you who visit our farm and other small farms like it, you are the difference that allows us to stay in business doing what we love, treating the animals, humans, and environment that we share with love and respect.

I truly enjoy blogging here, and I get excited when people mention that they read my blog.  Knowing I have "fans" motivates me to post something when I otherwise wouldn't bother.  I am still thrilled to see my name on the LH homepage list of most popular blogs.  That being said, seeing your own words on the printed page is a bit different.  

We subscribe to a number of farm-related organizations, and most send out monthly, bimonthly or quarterly publications.  One such organization is the Purebred Dexter Cattle Association, which sends a quarterly publication out to its members.  We joined over the winter after purchasing our Dexter cow Fiannait, whom I posted about when she arrived last November.  I was pleased to see our names in the spring issue on the list of new members, but the summer edition I received in the mail this week was even more exciting!  Mark and Edlyn, who own Muirsted Farm and have been a wonderful couple to introduce us to these awesome little cows, had read my excited posts about visiting their farm and Finni's arrival.  They had commented on my posts and complimented me on my description of the breed, which I though was pretty neat since I am still such a newcomer to Dexters.  I was unaware that they had submitted them to the PDCA Journal, and I was absolutely stunned to page through my copy over lunch and see my name in bold print on page 27. It turns out my posts Waiting for Wednesday and She's Here had been published as an article!  So thanks to Mark and Edlyn, and thanks to everyone else who reads.  

 Other Dexter-related farm news- we are doubling our herd of Dexter brood cows to two!  We were given the opportunity to borrow Lil, a proven champion Dexter cow, to milk over the summer.  We were also given the option to provide her with a new home, and we're so excited to be able to bring her into the Pleasant Valley family.  She and Finni are both expected to have calves in late spring or early summer of 2011.  Finni was bred by a wonderful Dexter bull named Finnbar, who has been with us for a good portion of the summer.  However, we have to return him and that will be happening before too long.  Although I was more than a bit nervous about hosting a bull, he has been nothing but sweet and gentle and I'll miss seeing him in the pasture outside my kitchen window.  We were very fortunate to be able to host him for a few months and I can't wait to see what a newborn Dexter looks like next year!

Diversity is a word we often hear, frequently it is in relation to race, gender, religion or politics.  That word takes on a whole new meaning here at the farm.  We are a diverse farm in many ways.  We don't rely on a single crop for our income, nor do we raise just one kind of animal.  Our garden is constantly in rotation depending on the season.  Early spring brings peas, rhubarb and lettuce, mid summer has peppers, corn and tomatoes and in late fall  we'll be harvesting pumpkins, winter squash, onions and potatoes. Planting a wide variety of crops (many more than on the short list above!) not only gives us an income throughout a much greater part of the year, it is also a safety net for when weather or pests hit a crop.  For instance, last year, we got virtually no tomatoes due to late blight that arrived fairly early in the season.  While we weren't able to make much of a profit on them, it was fine because we had other things to offer.  I also preserve what I can and am able to offer lots of pickled vegetables or jellies, and I'm having a lot of fun experimenting with making my own vinegar and mustards.  It all helps to make a well-rounded assortment of home-produced goods for our customers!  Another benefit to many varieties of plants is that we nearly always have something blooming, which is great for attracting beneficial insects, especially pollinators.  A colony of wild honeybees is much more likely to take up residence near a field with a variety of plants that blooms from May through October than a monocrop field of acres of potatoes or soybean which is only in bloom for a few weeks out of the whole year.  The bees, butterflies and other insects benefit from us, and we in turn reap the benefits of natural pollination without any input in time or money.  It's a natural cycle that works beautifully. 

Having a variety of animals also contributes to the diversity of our products: we sell pork, beef, lamb, chicken, turkey, eggs to eat and in the spring we can offer fertile hatching eggs, baby geese, ducks and chicks as well.   Right now I have peachicks (baby peacocks) for sale as well as another batch of baby rabbits that will be ready to go in another month or so.   Not only is a variety of animals good for our market, it's good for our fields.  Cows have favorite plants in the pasture, as do horses, but they are not the same ones.  Sheep eat plants down close to the ground while the goats prefer the taller brush and thorns.  When a variety of pasture plants are eaten, none get overgrazed and it reduces the need, as well as the expense, of reseeding the pasture. Still, the pastures are important parts of the farm and do require periodic maintenance.  I had noticed a corner of the pasture near the house had grown up in thistle.  Now goats will eat this, but too much can overtake the pasture so I had every intention of going out and cutting them down to encourage the grass to grow.  But, as so often happens on a farm, you get busy with other tasks and before I knew it the thistles were tall and blooming.  As I went to feed my rabbits one evening, a spot of yellow caught my eye among the purple.  My mother is an avid birdwatcher and I knew from years of seeing her feed them that this little drop of sunshine was a goldfinch, and that their preferred food is thistle seed.  As I looked, three of them were carefully pulling the fluff from the flowers and eating the seeds.  Nature loves diversity and everything, even plants we humans don't fully appreciate on "our" land, have a place and a purpose.  Although I will cut the thistle down, it's nice to know when it reappears somewhere else (and it will!) that even something thorny and unpleasant to the touch can still bring such beauty and grace close by. 

Saturday at the stand, we had beets, cucumbers, zucchini, yellow zucchini, pattypan and crookneck squash, bell peppers, jalapeños, sweet banana & inferno banana peppers, Swiss chard, heirloom lettuce, red & white new potatoes and plum tomatoes.  We had fresh herbs- basil, Thai basil, mint, chamomile, chives and cilantro plus 4 kinds of herb seeds for growing at home, dried oregano, chamomile, and coriander.  I have personally canned and offered for sale my secret-recipe pickles in two sizes, extra hot pepper rings, 2 kinds of whole grain mustards (honey & ginger garlic), 3 flavored and one home fermented vinegar (blueberry basil, dried herb, mulled blackberry and champagne) and seven kinds of jelly (mint, hot pepper, black forest, carrot cake, cranberry-peach conserve, gingered pear and oriental rhubarb) and a sweet & hot dipping sauce.  We had free range eggs, pastured pork (bacon, ham, 4 varieties of homemade sausage, roasts, chops, ribs, ham steak & ham hock), whole farm-raised and -processed chickens, and our grass fed beef (ground beef, stew meat, sirloins, T-bones, round steaks, rib steaks, chuck roasts, R.B. roast, rolled rump roast, tip roast).  We also had (but do not make ourselves) six different flavors of raw milk cheese (cheddar, smoked cheddar, jalepeno, dill & bacon, horseradish and goat's milk) from a family-run farm & cheese house in Chambersburg, PA.  As I set up, things looked full and prosperous to me.  I feel that it is an amazing variety for a 50-acre farm worked by hand and by horse, with just 2 employees (Dan and myself- no hired help!) making sure everything gets done.

Imagine my frustrations then, when about 1/4 of our visitors asked variations on the question "Don't you have much of anything today?" Our sweet corn will be ready this coming weekend, as will lots more tomatoes, including the big beefsteaks.  For a quarter of my customers this past weekend, apparently that is all that is worth going to a local farm for.  Some folks were just disappointed that they had to alter the weekend's menu. For others,  "We'll have it next week"  was greeted by "but I want it this week!"  It sounded like a preschooler's tantrum, minus the foot-stomping, and was immediately followed by demands for directions to another farm that might be more cooperative. It was also a slower day, and that made it easy to feel a bit discouraged.  While I realize that as farmers, part of our responsibility to our customers is to help them understand what local and seasonal really mean, not everyone is going to be interested in that lesson, especially if it means they can't have exactly what they want whenever they want it.

 It reminded me of a speech I heard a while back at a forum on dealing with folks in poverty...the speaker addressed "the lack."  Her use of it was basically if someone is poor, they are often seen as lacking anything to contribute, but if you truly look at the person they often have non-monetary things in their favor- creativity, compassion, a good work ethic, etc.  God-given gifts that as humans we often fail to see.  I saw my farm that way this weekend; some of my folks couldn't see the bounty for the lack of corn.  I understand the seasons here and know we did everything in our power to get the corn and tomatoes to ripen (organically!!!) as soon as possible.  But I also know what an amazing meal I had last night using things that were on the table over the weekend- a ham with a glaze made from mulled blackberry vinegar, with sautéed julienned zucchini smothered in cheese and fresh herbs.  Certainly we didn't fell any lack at the table last night, other than a lack of restraint when it came to second helpings!  My beautiful plum tomatoes, which were soundly rejected as being "too meaty" by a customer looking for tomatoes, perfumed my living room as I turned them into sun dried tomatoes in my dehydrator.  So this weekend, as you patronize your favorite farm, try not to be too disappointed if you get there and don't see the product you initially came looking for.  Instead of lamenting the lack, try to celebrate the possibilities!