Crow At The Moon

Despite our efforts to keep the chickens inside their mesh electric fence, once in awhile we have an escapee.  I am talking about the chickens that are kept in the fallow section of the garden who rotate around the pasture grazing and enjoying a peaceful existence.  They are kept inside a fence to protect them from predators - skunks, opossums, and coyotes to name just a few.  It's not just us humans that crave a delicious organic chicken from time to time.
The other night while doing some late evening chores we spied a rooster, outside the fence and roosting, well, on top of the west hoophouse.  No doubt this is the highest point he could find in the entire garden.   Chickens like to roost at night whether it is a roost made from 2 x 4's or one provided by Mother Nature - bush, tree branch, etc.  But they do seem to like to be as high as possible and those highest points are usually taken first when the chickens return to roost in the chicken house at night. Sort of a king of the mountain idea.
So, here was the rooster.  He had climbed up the side of the hoophouse to the highest point to roost for the night.  And to make things even more dramatic, a full moon stood out behind him.   What a sight!

This went on for a few nights until Brian decided to catch him and return him to the flock.   Probably for his own good because he would have made a tasty dinner for one hungry owl!

July...Going, Going, Gone!

Sungold Cherry Tomatoes Ripen in

Early July from our East Hoophouse

You can tell from our silence the farm is keeping us busy.  It's been a month since we've posted news and it has been a busy time.  We were under water at the end of June having just received 2" of rain in an hour's time.  Since then, the moisture has moderated and we've even hoped for rain on a few occasions. 
We have spent July trying to dig ourselves out of the hole from all the rain.   Planting on several crops was delayed and the weeds grew like mad drowning out our second plantings of carrots, beets, kohlrabi, and radishes.  The weeds took them over and we mowed them down. We had lower areas on our ground where water either stood or saturated the soil setting back that section of crops - some will never reach their full potential.  The west ends of the peppers, brussels sprouts, green beans, basil, and eggplant all look stunted and yellow after having wet feet for so long.  We are sidedressing many long season plantings like tomatoes, peppers, basil, eggplant and more with our own compost to help with the soil fertility lost or depleted from all the moisture.

Planting Napa Cabbage Transplants

It's been an odd year but the weather seems to have turned around a bit and we're moving forward.  The shade house is filled with greens some large enough to harvest.  The CSA shares are receiving lettuce and greens once again after weeks without.  The tomatoes are coming in well especially our hoophouse tomatoes where they are protected from harsh weather.  The Sungold plants are nearly 8' tall and producing loads of delicious fruit.

A Red Admiral Butterfly Joins David

While He Plants Green Beans

Five pigs joined the farm at the end of June and another 10 arrived about one week ago.  Fifteen pigs on the farm right now - more than we've ever had but there is high demand for pastured clean pork.   These pigs are raised with certified organic feed and a steady supply of plants, vegetables, and good clean mud!

Rain, Rain, Go Away....

Harvesting Turnips in Standing Water After Heavy Rains June 23

Notice Brian's Reflection In The Water

Come again another day....   About 10 days, that is.  It seems the only topic the last couple weeks has been the over abundance of rain and thunderstorms. This has certainly been the wettest June we have ever seen and the most violent with fast moving storms, incredible lightening and high winds.  And it comes at a time when so much work needs to be done in the garden.  This is the month when the weeds grow as fast as the vegetables and staying on top of it is a must.  Somewhere around the middle of May, the garden looked really good.  Brian is getting the hang of using the tractor cultivator which happily displaces much hand weeding.   The rows of our April planted spring crops looked great and we were on track.  But the rains came and never left.  The tractor sat.  The mower sat. The weeds grew like mad choking out a second planting of root crops almost completely.  Our hand weeding was no match.

Kelsey Floats A Bin Down The Aisle To Harvest Turnips

And our planting continues to be delayed.  We are still waiting to plant such crops as those wonderful pineapple tomatillos.  Those plants are sitting in the greenhouse waiting to be set out in the garden.  We also have the next round of lettuces and greens that continue to sit.  We had a gorgeous second planting of spinach in flats ready to set out but those declined in the greenhouse because of continued delays and we tossed them.  I piled up a stack of several flats of young transplants ready to dump in the compost pile that simply could not hold out any longer in their small plug cells. 

Young Parsley Plants Under Water

And the potatoes.  Still not hilled.  Potatoes need to be hilled 2 or 3 times in a growing season.  Each plant will produce potatoes in the gap between the seed potato and the surface of the soil.  Widen that gap and we'll have more potatoes.  The potatoes haven't been hilled once and plants typically start dying back in July.   There is not much time left to hill them and see our yields increase.

But we do see a light at the end of all these storms.   The weather forecast for the next 10 days shows no rain this entire week and moderate temperatures.  It will take all week for the ground to dry and mellow so we can do some tractor work - tilling and preparing beds for planting.  But we'll be weeding by tomorrow afternoon again trying to salvage what we can from a garden in distress.

This Big Chicken Went To Market

"It's heaby, Mama!"  Yes, it is Laura.  The chickens Brian took to Arthur, Illinois last week for processing averaged over 5 pounds and they are beautiful.  A few even topped out over 6 lbs and we promptly roasted one for supper.  Brian will make 6 trips to process the broilers this season.  Many of you probably don't realize but Arthur, Illinois is the only federally inspected poultry processing facility in the state of Illinois.  With truck and livestock trailer, it is over 3 hours for Brian to haul the broilers for processing.  He is supposed to arrive by 7 a.m. so it makes for an early morning.  And a long day.  Since it is so far to drive, Brian sticks around until the chickens are processed, packs them in ice and drives them home arriving back at the house around 5 p.m.  We have no other alternative if we want to take the chickens off the farm and sell them.  There is some talk about a new facility here in north central Illinois but we don't expect anything real soon.

The most interesting part about the trip is the time spent waiting for the birds to be processed.  Sometimes the wait is 5 or 6 hours.  And with Arthur being in the heart of Amish country, there is always a story to tell when Brian arrives home.  Lucy has been quite lucky when she tags along.  On one occasion, a few young Amish kids were hitching up a 4 wheel open cart to a pony and one of them asked her if she might like to go for a ride.  I can only imagine Lucy's eyes big as saucers and the biggest smile.  As if that wasn't good enough, the kids unhitched the cart, put a saddle on the pony and took Lucy for a pony ride.  As if that wasn't good enough, Lucy has also had the priviledge of riding in a real Amish buggy.  While Brian was loading up the processed chickens, Lucy stood watching an Amish woman hitching up a horse to a buggy.  Brian apparently asked the woman if she minded Lucy watching while he went about his work.  It was no problem and then before he knew it, there goes the Amish woman and Lucy driving by in the buggy!   The Amish have a reputation of being very private so these experiences are unusual and very special.

Lucy Unloads The Processed Broilers

Maaaaary Poppins!

Mary Poppins.  That's exactly what came to mind on Saturday afternoon after another heavy rain came through. Lucy hopped on her bike, grabbed her umbrella and rode in the dwindling drizzle.  It brought relief from the heavy air and heat but doused any hope we might be back in the field soon.  And then another rain on Sunday.  And another this morning -Monday - the day we begin harvesting for week 3 of our Main Season CSA.  We held off this morning until 9 a.m. as the last of the rain moved to the northeast.   We didn't even try the root crops - just stuck to the greens.  The radishes and turnips would have come up so heavy with mud it would have taken us twice as long to clean them. 

The rain has really slowed our field work.  We have our next planting of lettuces and greens that need to get in the ground, potatoes to hill, cultivating, tomato staking, WEEDING.  It is all on hold until the ground dries out a bit.  But a garden does better in a wet year than a dry one.  Lack of rain hurts us more than too much.  It may delay some things but the garden will still produce.  In a dry year, things struggle, wilt, die.  It seems no amount of irrigating will help - it's got to be the real thing - rain.  

"Out Came The Sun And Dried Up All The Rain...."

This week marks the beginning of the 2010 CSA deliveries and it has been hectic.  Brian caught a bug and was down Monday and Tuesday and that's a big hit at this time of year with all the garden work and animal chores.  And top it off with another round of storms coming through Tuesday night and knocking out the power until 11:30 Wednesday morning - the morning of our first delivery to the Peoria area.

Fortunately, we have a generator and Brian was feeling well enough to get it set up to power up our cooler that was full of produce waiting to be delivered Wednesday afternoon.

The storms that came through Tuesday night brought heavy rains.  More rain on Wednesday night gave us a total of two inches and standing water in a few places.  But just like the little diddy goes, "Out came the sun and dried up all the rain...", the sun DID come out Thursday and helped dry things out a bit.  But the harvest this week was muddy.

Muddy Aisles Between the Kohlrabi and Turnips

Self Portrait

The Graceful Garlic Scape

The scapes were ready just in time for the first vegetable boxes this week.  They are one of the most unique items we include in the boxes.  The seed heads of our garlic planting, the scapes emerge in late May or early June gracefully twisting and turning into the most fantastic shapes.  Each plant sends up just one scape and we snap them off so the plant put its full energy into bulb production.  We can't tire of looking at these wonders and their fresh garlic flavor is a sucker punch right to the taste buds.  Here is a recipe that received rave reviews last year.

Garlic Scape Pesto

Garlic scapes 6-8 ct, chopped

1/3 cup walnuts

juice of 1 lemon

1/2 cup parmigiano-reggiano cheese, grated

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

coarse salt and pepper, to taste

Blend everything but the olive oil, salt and pepper in a food processor or blender. Slowly drizzle in the oil with the motor running, and blend until emulsified and smooth. Taste and add coarse salt and pepper as needed.

Who Turned On The Heat?

Laura Snags A Ride Home From Brian On A Windy Chilly Afternoon

Wow, what an extreme change in the weather.   Last Thursday, we were shivering in the spitting rain and cold wind as we tried to finish our green onion planting before the rain set in.  The rain that was supposed to hold off until evening came through about 1 p.m. and stopped our work once again.  We have been having some trouble getting in the field the last few weeks due to the wet conditions.  We had rain again on Friday - just brief but heavy showers on and off all day.  Even as the rain began to fall, Brian was hurriedly laying down plastic mulch for the tomato planting that took place on Monday morning.  By covering the prepared beds with the mulch, it prevented the rain from saturating the soil and preventing our planting.  Monday morning, we set out close to 500 tomato plants and have new varieties such as Black Cherry and Red Zebra.  You always have to try new tomatoes as you may happen upon one you can't live without.  In our case, that is the delicious Sungold cherry tomato and the pretty pink Arkansas Traveler.  Now on to the peppers and eggplant and more and more and more.

Lettuce and Garlic With The Shade House In The Background

Saturday morning broke with a heavy fog and the garden was beautiful.  The dew drops hung everywhere especially on the edges of leaves like this Red Russian Kale.  The leaves repel water and the droplets shimmer and shine.  It's always a sight that catches my eye no matter how many times I've seen it.