3 Acre Farm

The High Tunnel is Raised in Turlock, Stanislaus county, California!  Thank you to all hands! 

Now we are installing the purlins.  Next week we will need volunteers to help pull the cover over the top and would love to have you here.  Email us at janelle@3acrefarm.com and we will give you a date and time to be here.  

I know it is hard to know what to do with all the squash, so I decided to give you a couple of suggestions! Above, is what we had last night for dinner. Grilled Romanesco and Goldy zucchini, Japanese eggplant and French red shallots on a Rosemary skewer. Marinated Summer Vegetables Grilled on Rosemary Skewers from Williams Sonoma recipes! Very pretty! I will have the Rosemary available on Friday for pick-up. Although there are not any green beans this week, this next recipe is heavenly! I made it last year and everyone raved about it. Not only is it tasty, but it is colorful and pretty too. Sweet and Sour Pattypan Squash and Green Beans from Myrecipes.com. Now some of the Pattypan squash are getting big so fast so I had to look for a recipe to use and I remember my mom used to make stuffed zucchini so I thought hmmm, that sounds good! I found this yummy recipe. Stuffed Pattypan Squash from Allrecipes.com. Don’t forget, you can blanch and freeze while there is an abundance!

Belle is a ‘Fainting’ or ‘Myotonic’ goat.  She has never ever stiffened up or “fainted” but her kids have done both.  Belle is very tame and will come up to me and rest her head on my leg for me to scratch or pet her.  She just delivered quadruplet baby goats today at noon!

Goats have about a 155 day gestation and Belle was bred the first week of November.  Last time she had kids she had triplets and two survived.  Those kids became pets for my friend Sally’s grandkids.  See a video of the little kids only 30 minutes old  at www.3acrefarm.com  go to the blog and click on 'Belle's Babes'.

In the dirt now!  

Sugar peas, snap peas, florence fennel, Golden Globe turnips, White Egg turnips, French grey shallots, French red shallots, Dutch yellow shallots, Petit Dejeuner French breakfast radishes, Optima butterhead lettuce, Red salad bowl lettuce, Parade salad scallions, Genovese basil, catnip (well, we must keep the pets happy!) Australian brown onions, High Scent sweet peas, fava beans, Swiss chard, five types of garlic, Cylindra beets, Chioggia beets, Red Sails lettuce, Dark green Bloomsdale spinach, Scarlet Nantes carrots. Volunteer potatoes, Red Kuri squash.....that is about it for now!  More later!

Every single day I go out to see if my raised beds have any sprouts..........

After searching for seed...I didn't realize how difficult it would be to find organic seed for all the shallots and garlic I wanted, so I waited until the last moment and had to visit practically every web site to find it, I planted shallots and garlic for the first time this season.  French grey, French red, and Dutch yellow shallots are all in their own raised beds, protected from birds with netting on top and from gophers with heavy cardboard underneath.  I'm hoping the cardboard works or else I will have fat, happy gophers!  

Every day I go out to see if I have any green sprouting up and I understand why we have small children plant radishes, beans, corn, and other seeds that sprout quickly!  I just want to dig them up a little to see if anything is happening.  

I can't wait for the shallots to be ready to add dimension to my meals, a sweet side taste to the dishes I cook. 

The garlic is a little better.  I have five rows of garlic in my eastern most plot of dirt.  Finally I have small fingers of green popping up.  It is so exciting!  

 I can smell the aroma of garlic, sizzling in olive oil, ready for the tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and squash...mmmmmm!  

I love my hens!  But they are all grounded![Read More]