Adventures in Eco-Living

Our Seed Order

I've done it! I've finished our seed order for spring! And well ahead of time, which, these days, is quite an accomplishment. It seems that life with a 1 and a half year-old has been an exercise in "catching up".

In the past I have ordered from mulitple seed companies. Since we are not going to be selling seedlings at Farmer's Market this year, just growing our own food, I opted to limit our seed purchases and order only from Baker Creek (one of our favorite heirloom seed companies). As much as I love to try new varieties of heirloom veggies, we just don't need 25 varieties of tomatoes if we won't be selling any of them. I must admit, though, it was truly hard to narrow down my selection!

Seed shopping can quickly get out of control- I mean, who can resist those gorgeous photos of oh-so-ripe fruits and veggies, a delicious reminder of warm sunny days to come?), so it's best to come up with a budget BEFORE you start browsing. This year I decided to keep our order under $100.

Now, this may sound like a lot, but not only will the garden provide all of our veggies for summer and most of our veggies for the year, but I will also have tons of extra seeds to give away/save for next year.You certainly don't have to spend this much, but at between $1.75 and $3.00 a packet for most seeds, it quickly adds up. Plus I am a sucker for trying interesting and unusual varieties, for not only fun, but also for growing for farmers' market.

When you buy seeds, you usually get anywhere from 15 to 200 seeds, depending on the type of plant you will be growing. Small seeds, like lettuce, come in very large quantities, whereas bigger seeds, like beans, tend to come in smaller quantities. Then of course how rare the variety is also determines how many seeds/how expensive they might be. 

If you want a large selection of veggies for your garden, and especially if you want to grow more than one variety per veggie, chances are you'll find yourself with an overabundance of seeds and a large cost to boot. The solution? Either find a friend or neighbor who would be willing to split an order of seeds with you, or properly store your seeds for next year. And by properly, I mean throw them in a bag or jar and store somewhere where they won't get wet or eaten by mice. I theory, they shouldn't get too hot either, but I have to be honest here: we have stored our seeds in the most horrid of locations (left in the greenhouse all summer, baking at 120+ degrees for months) and *still* had germination the following season.

Although a lot of seed companies will tell you that you should buy new seeds each year, we've had great success with continuing to use our old seeds for up to three years. Sure, the germination rate goes down with each year, so you'll need to be sure to plant extras, but you should end up with at least some plants. This can save you a lot of $$$ on seed purchases. In 2010, I bought approximately $125 worth of seeds (we were selling at Farmer's Market that year). I was very lazy about storing them, and so some of them ended getting ruined throughout the course of the year, but in 2011 I bought absolutely NO seeds. I simply used leftovers from the summer before. And actually, we used leftovers from 2009, too. That means that for less than $65 per summer, we were able to grow two years worth of food and over $1000 worth of plants to sell at market. Not bad!

So, the big question then is what to grow... Here is our shopping list from this year, just in case anyone is interested. I always like checking out other gardener's lists, looking for cool new varieties to snag.

• Empress of India - Nasturtium
• Tiger Eye Mix Sunflower
• Henderson's Black Valentine Pole Bean
• Contender (Buff) Valentine Bush Bean
• Early Wonder Beet
• Calabrese Green Sprouting Broccoli
• Mammoth Red Rock Cabbage
• Chantenay Red Core Carrot
• Green Macerata Caulliflower
• Dakota Black Popcorn
• Marketmore 76 Cucumber
• Listada De Gandia Eggplant
• Nigerian Saybo Gourd
• Russian Red or Ragged Jack Kale
  
• Early Purple Vienna Kohlrabi
  
• Carentan Leek
• Rocky Top Lettuce Mix
• Charentais Melon
• Laxton's Progress no. 9 Garden Pea
• Orange Bell Pepper
  
• Monstrueux De Viroflay Spinach
• Costata Romanesco Zucchini
  
• Connecticut Field Pumpkin
• Table Queen Bush Squash
• Five Color Silver Beet Chard
• Golden Midget Watermelon
• Yellow Brandywine Tomato
• Purple Russian Tomato
  
• Jersey Giant Tomato
• White Tomesol Tomato
  
• Hawaiian Pineapple Tomato
  
• Nature's Riddle Tomato

Have any favorite varieties that you will be growing this year? We'd love to hear about them!

Making Your Food Go Further: Freezing Leftovers for Baby

Since we're talking about growing your own food, I thought I'd take a day here to talk about making your food, and making it go as far as possible, especially when it comes to babies and toddlers.

Thinking that you don't have the time to make healthy, nutritious meals? Over the years, we've learned what is probably the easiest, and most obvious, trick to saving money and time (although, in truth, we don't always use it...don't ask me why...). By making food in large batches and then freezing the extra, you make multiple meals in just a little more time than it would have taken to make just one. It also means you might be able to buy your ingredients in bulk, which saves money, too.

Where we really use this is with baby food. Our 16-month old son can be picky. It can be somewhat disheartening to create a healthy meal that I was so excited to put together, only to discover that he just isn't into it, at least not today, at this meal. We've found the most expensive part about feeding a baby or toddler is the waste. *Sigh*.

The solution? A muffin pan and a freezer. I take the leftovers and freeze them in muffin-sized portions, then throw the "muffins" in ziploc bags to pull out another day. And usually, another day finds Chris more in the mood for whatever it was that he refused the first time.

This works for whole foods, like cous-cous, mac-n-cheese, spaghetti, chicken parmegiana, and such, but it also works for smoothies, yogurt and fruit mash-ups, oatmeals and other cooked cereals, and even baby food jars or pouches that I've opened but he won't eat. Just freeze in a non-stick or silicone muffin pan (silicone works great, because stuff just pops right out when you bend the pan), and pop out (using a spoon, if necessary).

Here is an example of the last meal I froze for our son. I had made Annie's Homegrown Organic 5-Grain Elbows & White Cheddar Macaroni & Cheese, which I then mixed with spinach, carrots, granulated kelp, and nutritional yeast for a healthy boost. Mac-n-Cheese is his absolute favorite, but for some reason (and, oh my, are there lots of reasons with toddlers, as you probably know!) that night, he wouldn't touch it. 

I froze the leftovers in a muffin tin, which left me with 12 muffin-sized servings (anywhere from 6-12 meals, depending on how hungry he is). The next night, he asked for "nunus" (noodles), so I popped out a portion, thawed it in the microwave, and voila! He gobbled up the whole bowl in minutes. (FYI, the macaroni in this is made from super healthy grains like quinoa, spelt and amaranth, so it's super high in protein. The dish itself is a little high in sodium, like all packaged foods, but the other healthy stuff makes me feel a little better about it.)

And if you do the math,  at about $2.50 per box, the macaroni and cheese I made comes out to between $0.20 and $0.40 a meal for Chris. Not bad!

If you need to freeze stuff in smaller amounts, for a younger baby or for  smaller snack-sized portions, we've found the absolute perfect method involves using this Wilton Silicone Brownie-Squares Baking Mold. Because it's made of silicone, it bends, and the cubes just pop right out. Then you can throw them in a ziplock bag or airtight container, label, and freeze. They won't stick together, because they are already frozen, so you can easily take out cubes one at a time. This is how we made Chris's baby food from the time he was 6 months old, and actually, I still use it for freezing his 10-grain breakfast cereal and yogurt. He happens to really like frozen foods, so we let him chew on just slightly thawed cubes, which are reminiscent of frozen yogurt, and which, I think, feel good on his sore teething gums.

And while we're on the subject of baby, I should mention our two favorite baby food books: Super Baby Food and The Baby-Led Weaning Cookbook. The first one has the healthiest "super porridge" recipe I'd ever seen, made from all sorts of ground whole grains (which, surprisingly, was much easier than I thought it would be). Our son thrived on and actually quite enjoyed this addition to his diet.

So do you have any tricks to freezing food, or other ways to save time and money, that might make it easier to make nutritious, homemade food? We'd love to hear!

Seed Starting Basics

In my previous post, I mentioned some of our favorite heirloom, organic seed companies. Now is the time to start browsing, dreaming, planning, and getting excited about your garden!

But what do you do when your seeds arrive? Those tiny little bundles of garden promise must be planted and nurtured indoors until the cruel chill of winter has passed. Although every plant has its own timetable for germination and transplanting outdoors (which means that not all seeds should be started at the same time), and some seeds can be sown directly into the grown, mid-March through mid-April is roughly the appropriate time indoor seed starting here in Michigan. Before that time comes, you will need to  determine which seeds to start indoors and gather all of your supplies.

I think one of the best things you can do to prepare for a gardening adventure is research. Blog posts can only cover a limited amount of information at a time, so I would strongly recommend investing in some good books that will serve as a reference for years to come. Some of our favorites are:

• Mini Farming: Self-Sufficiency on 1/4 Acre
• The Heirloom Life Gardener: The Baker Creek Way of Growing Your Own Food Easily and Naturally
• Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long
• Grow Great Grub: Organic Food from Small Spaces 
• One Magic Square: The Easy, Organic Way to Grow Your Own Food on a 3-Foot Square
• You Grow Girl: The Groundbreaking Guide to Gardening
• Rodale's Ultimate Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening: The Indispensable Green Resource for Every Gardener

After a bit of research, you'll need to plan what to plant your seeds in. We have about a gazillion of the 72-cell plant trays which we purchased for peanuts at a local farm auction, but you don't have to be that fancy. You can use empty egg cartons, which are perfect and since repurposed, very eco-friendly, but you need to start stocking up if you want to have a decent collection of plants. You can also make cute little pots out of newspaper using this cool handy-dandy
PotMaker® The Original Pot Maker tool, which we actually did one summer. (OK, I have to be honest here... our friend Ron was staying with us at the time, and he was the one who made all the pots, over 600 of them.... I'm not sure I could have had the patience for that many, but if you don't need 600, it might be a  great solution! A good job for kids?).

If you are a complete newbie to seed starting, you might want to go the easy (albeit slightly more expensive route) to seed starting and purchase a starter kit. Hydrofarm makes a nice starter kit, the Hydrofarm CK64050 Germination Station with Heat Mat, that includes a 72-cell tray, a heating mat, and a dome lid for around $25. With this kit, you will still need to purchase your planting medium, but that gives you some choice and flexibility to choose organic , which is nice.

We use and love Light Warrior® Agro-ponic® Grow Medium   for starting our seeds (on Amazon, about $25/bag with shipping). It is so chock-full of nutrients that we do not need to fertilize the little guys. When we transplant to pots, we use the Light Warrior again, providing a burst of fresh nutrition, and it is quite some time before the plants are in need of fertilizer. You might want to find a hydroponics store locally, to save on shipping, although we still pay almost $20 a bag at our favorite local organic grow store, Horizen Hydroponics in Kalalmazoo. If you use soemthing like peat as a starting medium, you will need to fertilize regularly, since peat has no available nutrition. A great fertilizer to use would be Bonide Fish Emulsion Plant Food, 16 oz..

Where to keep your seedlings once they germinate? In most cases, simply setting your tray of plants in a sunny window will not provide adequate light, and your seedlings will be tall and spindly, if they grow at all. My husband is quite the handy guy and was able to build us a grow shelf out of 2 x 4s, pressed board, and standard shop lights (photo above, post to follow soon with instructions). Building your own grow shelf is by far the cheapest way to go, and you'll also end up with a much sturdier product, but if you are not inclined to building your own, then check out the
Hydrofarm JSV4 4-Foot Jump Start T5 Grow Light System . It gets pretty good reviews and should provide ample room for starting seeds for a small to medium garden.

Once your seedlings have reached a height of a few inches, they will need to be transplanted. You can use plant pots, or you can use paper or plastic cups, or you can be super eco-savvy and recycle household items like empty yogurt and cottage cheese containers, coffee cans, frozen juice cans, etc. Whatever you choose, it should be able to withstand at least a few weeks of watering without completely deteriorating.

Once your seeds are planting, you should mark them with the name of the plant and the date you planted. There are special wooden plant markers that they sell for this purpose, but they are outrageously expensive and unnecessary. We buy a jumbo box of popsicle sticks and use those. Voila! Any leftovers can be used in a kids' log cabin building contest.

And finally, you will need to provide ample water and and nutrients to your little babies. A simple watering can is all that's needed. This OXO 1069727 Good Grips Indoor Pour & Store 3.17-Quart Watering Can, Blue is a nice little one if you want something sturdy and attractive. But why not be eco-friendly, and turn an empty 2-liter bottle into a watering can following these simple directions? So easy, free, and green! (Just make sure your holes aren't too large, you don't want to drown your delicate seedlings.)

Whatever you choose for watering, I recommend a spout with mutiple small holes, as opposed to a can with just one larger pouring spout, so that you don't flood your tiny plants. Some people mist instead of watering, but in my experience, it takes an awful lot of misting to keep those babies damp, especially if you are using a very bright light.

So start browsing, planning, arranging... planting time will be here before you know it!

 

Hearty Winter Potato Cheese Soup with Leeks and Bacon

Winter.

Cool, crisp air, the crunch of snow under foot, rosy cheeks and frozen fingers, snowmen and snowhoes and layers and layers. Short, happy days... long, chilly nights cuddling cozy under warm blankies.

Steaming bowls of hearty soup that warm the soul.

Homemade bread slathered in butter (decadent, lavish amounts of butter).

Some days, I just love winter.

Here is one of my favorites. Simple, tasty, hearty.

Ingredients:

 Approximately 1 lb. of potatoes (I usually use 5-6 medium to large potatoes)
1/2 cup of chopped leek
1/2 of an onion, chopped
4-6 strips of bacon (really good bacon makes all the difference in the world)
3 cups milk
3 cups chicken broth
1 tub of Buitoni Alfredo Sauce (in the refrigerated section of the store)
2 bay leaves
Dash of red pepper (optional)

Dice the bacon and fry in a large cooking pot with the onions and leeks until bacon is almost crisp.
Peel and chop the potatoes into smallish cubes. Add potatoes to the the cooking pot, add the bay leaves, cover with the broth and milk, and bring to a boil. Cook at a light simmer for about 20-30 minutes, until potatoes are very tender and can be mashed, and desired thickness is achieved. Add water or broth if soup gets too thick. Add the alfredo sauce and simmer for 10 minutes more. Serve with warm bread and yummy salad, and you have quite a meal!

Just so you know, this recipe is not an exact roadmap to soup perfection, but more of a ... rough guide. I tend to "wing it" in the kitchen, adding a bit of this and a bit of that until it works, which sometimes makes it difficult to share recipes. Hopefully, though, it will get you on the right track to a most excellent soup. And if you found you needed to alter something, by all means, please share!

I have an urge to add asparagus, which I think would go well with the cheesiness. I also think a little bit of chopped carrot and celery might be a nice addition. Maybe next time. And perhaps cream cheese? So many possibilities....

Here's hoping your winter days end with many warm soups and full tummies...

 

Just so you know, this recipe is not an exact roadmap to soup perfection, but more of a ... rough guide. I tend to "wing it" in the kitchen, adding a bit of this and a bit of that until it works, which sometimes makes it difficult to share recipes. Hopefully, though, it will get you on the right track to a most excellent soup. And if you found you needed to alter something, by all means, please share

Planning Your Garden: Time to Start Browsing Seed Catalogs

 

Whether you are a seasoned gardener, or a brave, intrepid soul looking to grow some of your own food for the first time, it's time to start thinking about starting your own seeds. If you intend to buy plants at a local nursery instead, you still have awhile before you need to make garden plans. But if you want to experience the joy and miracle of watching your own food burst forth from the tiniest speck of a seed, now is the time to get into garden mode. And, besides, nothing whisks away those winter doldrums like the gorgeous colors and delicious promises of a seed catalog. We spend many a chilly winter eve in front of a blazing fire, sipping hot cocoa, "oohing" and "aaahing" over the gorgeous and unusual varieties that heirloom seed catalogs bring right to our door.

 

Imagine the delicious juiciness of a purple cherokee tomato, so ripe and wonderful that one bite sends your taste buds into a frenzied state of happiness, tomato juices drizzling down your chin. A dash of salt, a splash of olive oil, and my, oh my... a gourmet snack fresh from nature! Seed catalogs offer the promise of heaven, of fruits and veggies that no grocery store can ever offer, tastes and smells and colors that will burst forth from your garden and decorate your dinner plate. And the best part? Starting plants from seeds costs pennies per plant!

 

If you don't have one already, you will need some sort of grow shelf for starting your seedlings, and we will show you our DIY, easy-peasy pumpkin squeezy grow shelf in a later post. For now, it's time to start requesting catalogs so that you can give yourself some delicious motivation to get serious about your garden.

Hands-down, our favorite paper catalog is from Baker Seeds. Their catalog is a masterpiece (and yes, we know it is more eco-friendly to browse seeds online, but I promise you, there is nothing quite as wonderful as flipping through this catalog, all curled up under a warm blankie, photos popping off the pages with their vibrant colors and yummy gorgeousness). Other catalogs worth perusing include Seed Savers Exchange, Peaceful Valley (with its artist-rendered drawings instead of photos, and excellent gardening tips), Bountiful Gardens, and Fedco Seeds (no photos in this one, but once you know what you want, they are very affordable, particularly if you are buying seeds in large quantities).

 

 

So go ahead, request some catalogs, and start dreaming your garden to life. Spring will be upon us before we know it!

 

The Trick to Freezing Corn on the Cob

This summer things got a little hectic. WIth an almost-one-year-old underfoot, a garden overrun with weeds, a bountiful harvest, and pure exhaustion at the end of busy, glorious, sunny days, we needed  easy solutions for storing our harvest. Which meant that this year we opted for freezing all of our veggies instead of canning them, for two reasons: one, it was quicker, but also, and prehaps more importantly, it is much more nutritious to freeze than to can. Canning over-boils the contents and zaps your fruit and veggies of most of their major nutrients.And since I intend to feed those veggies to my little guy, I didn't want to *zap* away all the nutrients.

So when our neighbor stopped by with about 40 ears of the most fabulous corn we have ever tasted, I *sighed* at the thought of cutting all that corn off the cob. Then an idea hit me- with 3 freezers down in the basement, we had plenty of extra freezing space (which is the biggest obstacle to freezing corn on the cob). Why not just freeze the entire cob? Could this be done, I wondered? If only it could be oh-that-easy!

A quick search on the internet uncovered a couple of disappointing facts: it is definitely possible to freeze corn on the cob, BUT the corn was doomed to become ultra-mushy. I thought about it, and decided to give it a shot anyway. 40 ears of corn were quickly husked and thrown in Ziplock freezer bags before I had time to think twice.

The first two ears weren't bad. We thawed the corn, and then threw them on a grill. A little mushy, but full of flavor and sweetness. It all went downhill from there. As time went on, each cob we pulled out of the freezer got progressively mushier. It was a disaster. All that delectable corn, doomed to an eternity of mushiness.

And then we discovered an amazing trick, completely by accident. I had reduced cooking time to a matter of seconds in boiling water in an effort to ward off as much mush as possible. Unfortunately, I pulled a duo of cobs out of the boiling water before the kernels were even warmed on the inside, and since I had already dumped the boiling water, was forced to microwave them for a couple of minutes to warm them up. And then it happened- the crunchiest, juiciest, freshest-tasting corn on the cob ever- straight out of the microwave.

The microwave??! Not what I would have dreamt of as the perfect solution. But should you ever decide to freeze your corn on the cob, know that it is indeed possible to have crunchy corn all winter long!

 

County Fairs: A Slice of American Pie

This past week we have had the pleasure of attending one of our favorite summer events: the Allegan County Fair. Fair days...wandering the maze of tents and trailers, the greasy aroma of sizzling fair food tempting us off in untold directions...getting lost in the hum-drum of happy fair-going families... strolling aimlessly through bustling 4-H animal barns, a quaint Historical Village, and endless odd and unusual spectacles that especially please our 1-year old son (who loves to feed the goats, but is still too young for the camel rides).

County Fairs have deep small town roots and are truly an American icon....catch one this summer if you still can!

 

All in all, a day filled with rainbows!

Mosquitoes Be Gone! How to Get Rid of Mosquitoes Naturally....

Living in rural SW Michigan on 20+ acres of woodlands, we have some of the worst mosquitoes this summer we've ever had, thanks in part to the very rainy year, the high heat and humidity, and some flooded swamplands at the back of our woods. It's been so bad, in fact, that I've had trouble hanging out outside with our baby- we just get attacked instantly!

So I set out on a mission to find a solution... after all, we moved to the country so we could enjoy the great outdoors, and not have to hide out inside. Some neighbors down the road sprayed their land with a chemical mosquito killer, which is absolutely out of the question for us, but it got me thinking. There must be an organic or natural solution that can help.

My search led me to three very helpful solutions that have literally changed our life. Of course, we still get the occasional bite here and there, but are no longer swarmed instantly by hundreds of those pesky biters. We aren't offering them at The Greater Green yet, but they are available on Amazon, so I am including the links in this post.

First, this summer I came across the best natural insect repellant I have EVER found. Actually, it is the ONLY natural bug spray that has worked AT ALL out here. We are absolutely thrilled with the results. It is a tad stinky- be warned- so if you are somewhat sensitive to smells, this might not be for you. But if you are like us, and desperate to keep mosquitoes away without using DEET, then you probably won't care that this stuff doesn't have the most pleasant aroma. And we have gotten used to it over time, so that I hardly mind it at all now. Here is the link:

The next thing we looked into was a really effective bug zapper. We have had zappers in the past, but they just weren't powerful enough to handle the 2 acres of cleared land surrounding our house. I had given up on a zapper, until I looked into the Flowtron line. They have zappers available that are rated for up to 2 acres- crazy! We purchased one that is rated for an acre and a half, and after about a week and a half, the difference is amazing. I can literally go outside and not see a single mosquito for 10-20 minutes- something that was totally unheard of before. At night this zapper goes crazy! The trick is to put it far enough away from the area you intend to hang out in, so that bugs are lured away, and so the zapping noise doesn't drive you crazy. Ours is located on a light pole with an outlet about 25 yards from the house. Here is the zapper we purchased:

 

Finally, we just received some Bonide Mosquito Beater granules. They get pretty good reviews. One said that they smell like citronella (one of the ingredients) and that they work great until rain washes the pellets away. We are going to try an application just before our pig roast, so I'll let you know how they work. I am expecting that with these three products, our yard will be, hopefully, mosquito-free for the rest of the summer! Here is a link to the Mosquito Beater granules:

 

Do you have another natural mosquito solution? Please share!

 

 

Rainy Day Happenings (Yummy Homemade Chicken Broth)

Well, after four straight days in the mid-nineties, the heat has finally broken.  A round of storms has rolled in, and that is just fine with me! I've been doing great with my pregnancy so far, but at 31 weeks, the heat and humidity has been just killing me.  Stepping out into the 90+ degree weather, I instantly feel all of my energy fizzling away. On top of the heat, it's been an incredibly rainy spring and early summer, which means two not-so-good things: more blood-sucking mosquitoes than I think I've ever seen in my life, and out-of-control weeds that I just can't keep up with. I have a feeling that I'm going to have to adapt the old "just do what you can do and let the rest go attitude" with the garden this summer, which is not an easy pill to swallow (but a necessary one!).

So when the rains started falling this morning, I eagerly donned my gardening gloves and headed outside. After all this crazy heat, weeding in the rain was bliss! Messy, yes, but wonderful.  I weeded until I was soaked through and covered in mud, thoroughly enjoying the cooling splash of the light raindrops on my skin. When the storms really started picking up, I headed indoors.

The slight cooling means I can also finally catch up on a few things that are near impossible when it's sweltering: making chicken broth, baking bread, and finally baking one of my favorite spring treats, rhubarb coffee cake, before my last bit of rhubarb goes bad. I simply have not been able to turn on the oven- it's just too hot!

So I thought I'd include a recipe for my "Anything Goes Chicken Broth". It's quite simple- there are no strict rules or ingredients, and it always comes out delicious. I guess really it's more of a chicken AND vegetable broth, and it works well in just about any recipe that calls for either of the two.

Here's how we start: when we cook a whole chicken, I save the back (which doesn't have a ton of meat) and all the bones after we're finished eating, throwing them in a Ziplock bag and into the freezer until I'm ready to make broth. Because we raise our chickens, the best part is that I know my broth will be all-natural and free of nasty chemicals. And it's great to use every part of the chicken for something!

Then when I get to the point where I have some veggies, like carrots, onions, and celery, that are getting old and need to be used up, it's Broth Day. I throw the chicken carcass into a big pot of water, adding any veggies that I have on hand. Onions, garlic, carrots and celery are a must. Keep the skins on the onions and garlic, washing and halving them. Be sure to use the leafy part of the celery, it's the best for adding flavor for broth. I'll even blanch and then freeze that leafy part for later when I have  celery, if I'm not ready to make broth.

Other veggies that I often throw in, if I've got them, include some collard greens, Swiss chard, cabbage, and beet greens. Then I add some fresh herbs (or dried if that's all I've got), like thyme, sage, parsley, oregano, basil, and rosemary.  Whatever you like, really, just throw it in! Finish with some whole peppercorns and salt, and you're good to go.

I usually let the broth simmer for a few hours, and the longer the better. When it's finished, strain all the chunks and pieces out (I use a collander), and then you can freeze the broth in small Tupperware- type containers. I tried using glass canning jars, only to discover that about half of them cracked in the freezer (they are not meant to withstand freezing), so plastic it must be. I try to freeze the broth in one- or two-cup serving sizes, since that is what I often need for my recipes.

And voila, you have homemade, healthy, yummalicious broth!

Ode to Lady (the Wee Little Hen)

We awoke yesterday morning to discover one of our favorite hens, Little Lady, had passed away. Though we had expected this, as something had very clearly been wrong for quite a few days, it was quite sad nonetheless. She was our tiniest hen, and quite friendly- even the larger, more aggressive hens tended not to pick on her like they did with the other girls. She just had this personality that spoke: "I'm just here minding my own business, don't mind me."

Lady has had a rough year. She lost ALL of her back and tail feathers (except for a scraggly two or three) due to our very large and aggressive rooster finding it necessary to copulate with all of the hens multiple times a day. Those poor girls are always running from him (unless there is some kind of danger, and then he is their best friend!). Speckles the rooster is more than twice as large as Lady, and when he jumps on her back, he tends to do some damage. Ever since we've had a rooster, I've always jokingly warned my friends: if you are bad in this life, you will come back as a hen! Poor girls!

So about a week ago, I noticed Lady just sitting inside the coop on the perch, staring at the wall. Very unusual. The hens usually race out of the coop in the morning when we open it up for them. Then the next day, she stayed inside the coop again, staring it at the wall, this time on the floor. When we went to close up the coop late that night, she was just standing there outside the coop, unwilling to move. Something was definitely wrong.

My first guess was that Lady was eggbound. This can happen when a hen's egg gets stuck inside her. It will cause the chicken to lose interest in anything, including food and water, and ultimately, to die if something is not done.  Unfortunately, the "something" involves such measures such as giving the chicken a warm bath, massaging her abdomen, and making her warm oatmeal with a vitamin supplement.

That night we skipped the warm bath, and focused on massaging her abdomen, trying to feel inside her for an egg that might be stuck. Unfortunately, she was so bony that is was hard to tell what we were feeling exactly. I made her some warm oatmeal with nutritional yeast, kelp meal, and raw milk, and after some hesitation, she ate it.

The next morning we found an egg right next to Lady, and hoped that had done the trick. She came out of the coop and even ate a little bit. She seemed to be on the up and up, but by the following day she was back to the same uninterested, sickly looking Lady.

This routine went on for nearly a week, and as I said, ultimately ended in tragedy. Honestly, she had become so scraggly without her feathers that we hadn't expected her to make it through the winter, so we are not surprised that Lady is the first of our hens to die. She was secretly one of my favorites, and so today we are remembering Lady, the wee little hen.

What's Brewing on the Farm

Oh dear! It's been ages since I last posted. Spring has a funny way of slipping by like that.... We wait impatiently all winter for a little warmth and sunshine, and at the first drop of sunny wonderfulness, our days suddenly become a blur. It's wonderful to be busy again, but as usual, I find myself thinking that we'll never get to all our grand plans once again. I think that's the beauty of life- there is always next year, and the dreams we have that get put on hold keep us planning, preparing, and anticipating.

So here's what we've been up to so far:

• We bought another eight fruit trees to start building our orchard. It's not very many, but we figure we'll add another eight or so each year until we have a sizeable collection. Last year we purchased our trees from Menard's, and unfortunately, 3 out of the 5 never blossomed. By the time we realized that the trees were dead, Menard's would no longer take them back. So we certainly won't be making that mistake again! This year we found a great local organization to support, the Van County Conservation District, through their annual Tree Sale. The trees are all healthy and doing great, and at $17 a piece, they were a pretty good deal. No matter where you live, there should be a local conservation district that you can visit, and chances are they have some sort of plant or tree sales. If you live in or near Van Buren County, MI, you can check out our local Conservation District here: http://vanburencd.org/archives/category/shop-online
• I've planted the potatoes, snap peas, regular peas, radishes, carrots, onions, beets, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, and cabbage. Unfortunately the chickens keep sneaking into our garden and nibbling on my lettuce. As spring progresses, they usually find other stuff that interests them and stay out of the garden, but this early on, they can't seem to resist the tender green leaves of my heirloom lettuce. Arrrgggghhh!
• Our chickens have also been wandering over to our neighbor's house, and the neighbors are not happy about it. Chickens can kick up and make a mess of your landscaping very quickly (which doesn't bother us, but of course our neighbors are not pleased at all), and our rooster is becoming quite aggressive. So the chickens only get to free-range in the evening until Alex has the time to install a border fence between our property lines to keep them on our side. In hindsight, we should have placed the coop on the other side of our property, which backs up to the woods rather than a neighbor's house.
• We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our four piggies for this summer. It seems our pig farmer is busy planting his hundreds of acres of corn (there is no rest for real farmers this time of year), so we will just continue to wait.
• It's been four years since we added a big load of manure to our garden plots, so we will be doing that again this year. One of our neighbors raises organic, free-range cows, and has all the composted manure we could ever want. Be careful if you are planning to add manure to your garden- make sure it has been composting at least over winter, so that you do not "burn" your plants with the high levels of nitrogen. You also want to add your manure as early in spring as possible, a good 120 days or so before harvest (the more composted it is, the shorter that time period can be) to avoid any bacterial contamination.
• I am helping out this year with a Victory Garden project at the Bangor Alternative High School where I teach high school completion evening classes for adults. The high school students working on the garden project are so excited, and they are even making a documentary about their work. It's so neat to see the movement toward fresh food and community gardens springing up in schools around the country!
• Finally, we have some wonderful news: we are expecting a little helper on the farm! I am currently 23 weeks pregnant with our first baby. Not too sure how this is going to affect my ability to garden this summer, but I'm ready to take it all in stride. We have cut back a bit on the amount we are growing, though I do still want to have a fresh supply of food for both me and my baby come fall. I'll keep you updated on our adventures.

Wherever you are, whatever you do, I hope that spring is bringing you many enjoyable days and a summer to look forward to!

Spring has Sprung!

The garlic tops in our garden have pushed through their straw mulch, almost overnight, it seems. We planted our garlic in the fall, covered them with a straw mulch, and waited impatiently all winter. Soon we will have delicious garlic scapes (the curly green tops that you can cut off and eat, which have a mild garlic taste that helps ease the anxious yearning for the garlic bulbs).

Wild garlic has sprouted, one of the earliest (and tastiest) signs of spring. We cut the green parts off, chop them up, and use them in our favorite dishes for extra garlic flavor. They can be used in place of chives. They prefer to grow in damper areas, so under trees and bushes is a great place to look. If you live in the Midwest, chances are you just might be able to find some out in your yard. But you've got to be quick and harvest them before grass mowing time begins! Here is a great blog post about wild garlic on Cincinnati Locavore.

Even Speckles is enjoying the unseasonably warm weather. There is finally fresh greenery on the ground, and bugs galore that seemed to have come out of nowhere! We will now start seeing our yolks get noticeably more orange with each passing week. Yay!

And it's back to hanging laundry outside. Nothing beats the clean, sweet smell of sunshine radiating from your sun-warmed shirts!
 

 

 

The Future of Sustainable Agriculture: Aquaponics

Aquaponics. The wonderfully sustainable combination of aquaculture (raising fish) and hydroponics (growing plants in a soil-less water medium). What a brilliant idea! We are looking into this as our next sustainable agriculture adventure in the upcoming year.

Check out this cool video:

But why hydroponics? We haven't had a lot of experience with this type of growing, but from what I have learned recently, there is a big future in hydroponics. For one, it uses 10% of the water that conventional (soil-based) agriculture does, so that right there is a huge savings, particularly as we progress into an era when water conservation is going to become a top priority. Also, conventional, and especially big corporate-based, agriculture is costing us to lose precious top soil at an alarming rate. A soil-less growing method that requires no top soil is going to be so important as many of the world's growing regions become depleted and others become arid. Finally, hydroponically-raised plants grow faster, because you can so directly control the nutrients being fed to the plant, and because the plants have constant, direct access to those nutrients.

And aquaculture? Well, think about. Raising fish creates an inevitable byproduct: fish poop. That fish poop just happens to be an excellent, perfect, organic plant fertilizer. In a properly balance aquaponics system, the hydroponic plants would require NO other fertilizers other than the fish poop being siphoned from the fish tank to the plants. Amazing!

Some of the more common aquaponics systems use goldfish, which are incredibly hardy and can survive the extremes of temperature that are inherent in northern climates, even within a sheltered greenhouse. We are most interested in a system that would raise tilapia, which you could then eat!! We are talking a whole-survival system here, providing protein (fish) and all of your veggie needs. In fact, many developing countries are implementing these systems because of the incredible results and the small amount of input needed. The most expensive part would actually just be the start-up.

Aquaponics is catching on around the country. Though it certainly is not new, this national spotlight is. It's the perfect melding of time and opportunity: people are interested in sustainability because it presents a chance at self-sufficiency and affordability in uncertain times. What is sustainable is often not only healthier, but also cheaper. And aquaponics, excluding the initial start-up costs, is a cost-effective way to grow your own healthy, organic food.

The NY Times just recently ran an article on aquaponics:

"The Spotless Garden"

Check out this cool website about how to build a basic backyard aquaponics system within a small greenhouse:

"Aquaponics, An Ecocircle in Action"

And here are some links to more articles and blogs to learn more about aquaponics:

The Aquaponics Gardening Blog

"Aquaponics: The Urban Food Revolution"

"Aquaponics Raises Fish & Vegetables Sustainably"

"NY City's First Hydroonic Rootop Garden to Produce 30 Tons of Food Annually"

Finally, if you search "aquaponics" on YouTube.com, you will find all sorts of great how-to videos. Good luck!

Words to Live By

My friend Angie shared these famous words by Max Ehrmann with me recently, and I thought they were inspiring enough to post. This is his Desiderata, written c. 1920. Enjoy.

"Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant, they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism. Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love, for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is perennial as the grass.

Take kindly to the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.

Be cheerful. Strive to be happy."

-Max Ehrmann c.1920

Making Wood Stove Heating More Eco-Friendly

Here on our small hobby farm in Michigan, we use strictly wood stove heat in winter to provide our warmth. It's now been three years since we've needed to turn on our furnace (when we first moved out here, we were using a combination of wood stove and propane furnace). All of the wood we burn is harvested as fallen trees in our own forest, minimizing environmental impact. In fact, there are more fallen trees from our violent summer storms then we can manage!

We are currently trying to maximize the efficiency of our heating system. We purchased a new wood stove in 2006 that was extremely efficient and does a great job of heating our house, despite its relatively small size. Still, we burn a lot of wood, and want to try and minimized the environmental impact of that burning.

Wood stove efficiency has come a long way. Newer EPA-certified models are about one-third more efficient than the old pot-belly stove models, and they produce about 90% less particulate matter (smoke) than the older models. Fires also ignite more easily and burn more completely in these new stoves. We added a blower that sits on top of the stove for better air circulation, and a ceiling fan directly above the stove that circulates the heat throughout the room. 

But still, we constantly seek to maximize efficiency with our stove by asking the question, "What else can we use our stove for besides heat?" An obvious answer is cooking food and boiling water. A teapot resting on top of a roaring wood stove brings the water to a boil in no time at all! I am still mastering the art of cooking on the stove, since you can't just "turn down" the flame when needed.

One of the things we've had to address is the extremely dry air that the wood stove produces. Without some sort of humidifier in the room, it quickly becomes very unpleasant. I can remember one night before we realized this, when my dad was visiting. He actually ended up sleeping with a damp washcloth over his face, because he was so unaccustomed to such dry air! Now we place a large pot of water on top of the stove, and let it slowly evaporate throughout the day.

We also realized that hang-drying our laundry would have a two-fold benefit. First, we would save on our very expensive propane bill by not using our dryer (we always hang-dry our clothes in summer, but used to switch to the dryer in winter). Second, as the clothes dried, they would contribute badly needed moisture to the air. A perfect solution!

The only problem was creating the space to hang the clothes without having them be constantly in the way. Our wood stove is right in the middle of our living room, and so the clothes would have to hang in the living room, too. The solution? Alex designed a simple but functional hanging rack, suspended from the ceiling along the side wall, and it has worked perfectly, saving us money and keeping the air humidified! When not in use, he made it attractive enough to not be an eyesore. It's working so well, I might even ask him to build another!

Have any other uses for your wood stove? We'd love to hear about them!

What to Feed Chickens in Winter

As the ground quickly becomes blanketed in snow, it becomes harder and harder for the chickens to find anything other than their scratch and layer crumble to eat. In summer, greens and bugs galore filled their tummies, without us having to do much at all. Now, however, we have to make a point to help them find some healthy goodies.

We noticed at the end of summer, when we finally let the chickens in the garden to clean everything up, how much they liked plants in the brassica family (cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower). So as we were cleaning out the garden and pulling up the debris, we purposefully left all cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower plants in the ground. You can see them reaching out of the snow here, their leaves amazingly still not totally frozen:

About once a week, I pull up a plant, roots and all, and toss it into the chicken pen. By leaving the plant intact, it is easier for the chickens to pull off the leaves. This time of year, these greens are a delectable treat, and they devour the whole plant! 

By the way, we no longer let our chickens free range, as we have had a number of nights when the chickens did not return the coop, for some odd reason. We suspect that a possum may have gone in their, trying to bed down in the hay, and spooked them. Regardless, searching for chickens after dark with a flashlight, in over a foot of snow and freezing cold weather, is not fun, neither for us nor them. So they are currently remaining inside the pen.

We also make sure the chickens get plenty of scratch. The cracked corn in it is a bit like junk food for chickens, without a lot of nutrients, but it does help them to produce more heat, apparently, so is good for those bitter cold wintry nights.

I still make my chickens their oatmeal, yogurt, kelp meal, nutritional yeast breakfast once in while, and they just love it. The kelp meal is chock full of micronutrients and a wonderful natural supplement for just about any animals. If you are not able to find the kelp, please email us. We have some available for sale here at The Greater Green as a special order item.

We also added a brighter light on a timer in the coop, in an effort to keep our chickens laying a bit longer. As the days shorten, the internal clocks of the hens signals that it is no longer a good laying season. By setting a light to go on early in the morning, and stay on for at least 14 hours, we "trick" the hens into laying throughout winter. It is not good, however, to leave the lights on all night. That is what they do in factory farms, and it causes the hens to overlay, shortening their life and stressing their bodies.

The First Egg

Our new batch of hens have started laying! We just found our first newbie egg... these chicks came home on May 12, so they took about 4 months to lay. Not bad!

In the photo, the front two eggs are from our 16-month old hens, and the back tiny egg is from one of the 4-month old hens. It's so cute, no?

The hens aren't even full-size yet, as you can see from this recent photo, so it might still be a bit before the rest start laying... but we're in no hurry!

Nature's Garden

This year we opted to plant acorn squash instead of butternut squash- the acorn variety is easier to cook the way we like (baked or grilled and filled with a brown sugar, butter,cinnamon, and raisin mixture). The smaller size makes it easier to dole out individual servings, too- each person gets half.

But I do like butternut squash, and nothing beats the scent of Carmelized Butternut Squash roasting in the oven on a cool wintry evening. Imagine my surprise, then, when I walked back to the compost pile (which I have been neglecting for quite some time), only to discover a giant butternut squash plant weaving its enormous leafy vines around the pile, with three fairly large squash already on it!

The plant must have sprouted from a rotten squash that was added to the pile last fall. Go figure. With no care, no planting, no watering, nature has carried on the way she usually does, turning seeds into plants and plants into fruit.

That is the natural order of things, after all. It was a gentle reminder that I am not really master of my garden, that in fact, I don't really do the growing at all. I am just the designated caretaker, the custodian, of nature's greater plan.

Sometimes it's nice to marvel at the beauty of it all...

Freezing Fresh Sweet Corn for the Winter

Mrs. Korpak popped in the other day and has once again outdone herself. Just when I thought her corn couldn't get any sweeter, any juicier, couldn't possibly be anymore delicious, she has amazed me. The Korpaks' corn this year is, bar far, the best corn I have EVER eaten. Ever, ever, ever, yum!

But no matter how hard I try, a girl can't possibly eat three dozen ears of corn while they are at their peak of freshness (and boy, did we try). Even after giving quite a few away to our most recent visitors, we found we had more corn than we could reasonably handle, and it become apparent that it would have to be frozen.

Although relatively simple, I had never frozen fresh corn before. We usually eat our way through any and all fresh corn that comes our way (is there anything better??). Besides, I was under the impression that freezing corn is a lot of work (and to be honest, I wasn't totally mistaken, though it wasn't as bad as I thought). Once you get going though, you can get a couple dozen ears in the freezer in about two hours or so (and hey, you might be even faster than me- I'm not really known for speed! :)

Here are the steps:

First things first.... shuck the corn (remove husks). I grabbed a large cardboard box and shucked the corn on our back porch right over the box, to avoid a big clean-up later on (all those silky hairs could drive one mad if they ended up on the floor, on your shirt, in your dog's fur...trust me!). The more organic your corn is, the more likely you are to find bugs under those husks, as well, so outside is definitely an all-around better place to do this! When I was finished, I simply carried the box out to the compost and dumped all the husks there.

Next, blanch the corn (still on the cob) in a pot of boiling water for just a few minutes. I barely blanched ours, as it was so tender and juicy and fresh. The color of the kernels turns a brighter yellow almost instantly, and it's good to go.

 

Take the corn out of the boiling water and immediately immerse in ice water after blanching. This stops the corn from cooking any longer.

 

Now here's the time-consuming part (for me, at least): cutting the kernels off the cob. I seemed to have trouble finding the balance between cutting too much into the cob, and not cutting off enough of the kernel... but I guess after awhile I started to get the hang of it....

 

And lastly, after allowing the corn kernels to sit and dry just a bit, we packed them into quart-sized freezer bags.

And - yummo!- you are ready to enjoy fresh sweet corn all winter! I suppose the whole process has the potential to get a bit messy (think: renegade kernels flying wildly around the kitchen), but well worth the effort- especially if you remember the starchy, tasteless corn that seems to turn up in the grocery store mid-winter!

Happy freezing!

What's for Dinner?

As the summer harvest begins to roll in, we start to run into the same dilemma as always: we spend so much time gardening, harvesting, planting, freezing, and canning that we almost forget to EAT our harvest!

See, I'm so tired by the end of the day, it's easy to forget how much I enjoy cooking with fresh vegetables and herbs, how aromatic and uplifting it is to fill the house with the delightful scents of fresh herbs and veggies simmering on the stove top.

Sure, it's great to preserve a bunch of our harvest so that we can enjoy our organic veggies later on in the year, but frozen zucchini just can't compare to a fresh zucchini roasting on the grill. Canned green beans just don't measure up to fresh beans sauteed in olive oil with a bit of garlic. And dried basil is well.... so much blander than fresh.

So this is the time to savor the most delicious food that we will eat all year. So why do I keep working outside so late in the evening that I find myself too tired to cook anything more than a simple meal???

Today I decided to find an easy pasta recipe (as it turns out, in the latest issue of Hobby Farm magazine) that utilizes most of what is ready to eat in our garden: eggplant, tomatoes, basil, peppers, onions, and garlic.

Above is a photo of some of those veggies that I picked for dinner tonight, including purple onions, Mark Twain tomato, Goldie Yellow tomato, Black Diamond eggplant, Orange Banana Paste tomato, and a Jimmy Nardello sweet pepper. Yum!

The recipe is fairly simple. After sauteeing the veggies together with some garlic, a bunch of fresh basil is tossed in, and the whole affair is eaten over penne and topped with a ricotta-mint mixture.

Since the recipe called for some ricotta cheese, I decided to try making some (for the first time) from our farm-fresh raw milk, which we buy from a local dairy. HERE is the recipe for ricotta- which, as it turns out, is so super easy, there is almost no reason to buy ricotta from the store. Who would've thought??!

Making the ricotta was fun! Here's a photo of the ricotta cheese after the curd has formed but before straining:

And finally, nothing goes better with pasta than a loaf of fresh-baked bread. But (if you are a tad on the lazy side, like me) who has time to bake bread?? YOU do... If you are making No-Knead bread, that is.

Check out one of our previous posts here that describes this fantastic bread and gives some great links, including one to a video that demonstrates how to bake the easiest, and possibly most delicious, bread you have ever eaten!

Blueberries by the Bushel- It's Finger-Pickin' Good!

Every year our very kind neighbors invite us over to their house to pick from their enormous, 80 year-old blueberry bushes. What a treat! And this year has been exceptionally good for blueberries, with all the rain we had this spring. Gobs and gobs of giant, juicy morsels....is there anything better??

Unfortunately, it has become so popular around here to plant blueberries that the market is now flooded with them, driving the price down to only 29 cents per pound. We've heard of some small farmers around here that aren't even going to have their berries picked this year, because they can't make any money when the going wholesale price is that meager.

It's amazing to think of what most people pay for blueberries in the store- a lot more than the current wholesale price, that's for sure. So who is all that profit going to? Unfortunately, not the farmers, who do all the work and take on all of the risk. And even more unfortunately, current market prices are hardest on the small family farms, who simply cannot compete with the larger corporate agribusinesses.

So if you are looking to eat some tasty blueberries this summer, why not go straight to the source? Support your local farmers by shopping at Farmer's Market, where farmers get a fair price and nearly all of the profit (which they rightly deserve- farming can be brutally tough work), or find a local U-Pick farm and take the family for a fun day of berry picking (and eating!). It's one of the best way to get super fresh produce (which you just can't get in the grocery store) while helping small farmers survive.

Small Blessings on the Farm

Life has been keeping us pleasantly busy lately. Sometimes it seems a bit overwhelming in summer, because our list of projects never seems to end. The key to enjoying our busy lifestyle, we have discovered, is to focus on what we have accomplished, while trying to enjoy the anticipation of perhaps tackling other projects one day in the near future (rather than regretting that they haven't been done).

It would be easy to get discouraged about the goat fence that still isn't up, the apple trees that we haven't planted, the weeding that never ends. But if I stop and look around, there are so many beautiful, wonderful things going on. I guess life is one big lesson in perspective. Someone wise once told us, focus on the journey, and not the destination... and enjoy all the small blessings along the way.

So today, being Monday morning, and because I woke up feeling the weight of all the things that need to be done this week, I am making myself a list of small blessings. Here they are, in no particular order:

Our zinnias are in full bloom and they are gorgeous. I am not really a flower person, but am trying to change this- I have discovered that walking out to a field of brilliant colors makes me smile!

We have picked about a half dozen quarts of wild black raspberries, and they make the most heavenly smoothies. Yum!

I was lucky enough to have both of my parents up this past week to share in our farm-life adventures. It means so much to me that they love it here so much and are so willing to help out!

The first red tomato of the season is a gala affair, and it was picked this morning. That alone is cause for celebration!

We made the first few quarts of homemade strawberry jam and they are gone already! The rest of our strawberries are still in the freezer, waiting for a cool, quiet night when I can set aside a few hours to do the canning.

We lost none of our 25 new chicks this year. Thank goodness!

The nights have been so clear and and the stars so stunning. Millions and millions of balls of fire millions and billions of miles away...

Our piggies have been such an adventure for us! The hard part is yet to come- I am learning the hard lessons of raising your own food, but it is important to me that I continue to respect and appreciate the lives that are given up so that we may eat meat.

There is nothing like the vibrant orange yolk of a free-range chicken. Beautiful, glowing in its orangeness, and full of flavor!

The dragonflies are everywhere! They are beautiful and delicate and they devour the mosquitoes. Go dragonflies!

Our raw milk continues to delight us! Milked first thing in the morning, we get to pick it up later in the day, in a big glass jar like the old days (which of course I never experienced - plastic jugs were king by the time I came along, so I think it is just so cool!).

The sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, my husband still has his job, our garden is feeding us, and we are healthy. I guess I couldn't possibly complain!!

There, now I am ready to get back to work with joy in my heart!! Have a wonder-filled day, wherever you are!

Wild Black Raspberry Hunting

I made a vow this year to pay closer attention to summer's song. To be aware of the slight changes in color, in smell, in temperature that signal yet another season ending and a new beginning. Spring comes and goes in a blink, though her gifts are many, if you are quick enough to catch them. Spring salad, crunchy radishes, snap peas, rhubarb, asparagus, strawberries....here and then all too quickly gone....

I distinctly remember venturing to the edge of our clearing last July and discovering the dried remnants of a bountiful harvest... wild raspberries come and gone. Just like that, I had missed the harvest and would have to wait another year. On top of that, I discovered two or three young mulberry trees, which we did not realize were there, already stripped of their fruits. What a bummer!

But not this summer! Shoko and I ventured out last week to see how the raspberries and mulberries were faring (actually, we have been checking on them twice weekly or so), only to discover the first morsels of black raspberry goodness and mulberries galore. A heavenly treat for a hot summer's day! (who would've thought we'd be in the upper 90s in June??).

Wild raspberries can usually be found on the edge of woods, as they need pretty much full sun, but grow like brambles. Look for arching branches rising above the weeds, but be careful- they are loaded with thorns and, at least where we live, seem to grow in sync with lots of other prickly weeds. I would definitely wear pants and long-sleeves, if at all possible. The berries shoot off of the thorny branches in little clusters, with the top berry usually ripening first. They are quite a bit smaller than commercial raspberries- but that is often the case with wild strains of fruits and/or veggies.

The berries in the photo are not quite ripe yet, as these are black raspberries and will turn a beautiful deep purple when ready. You'll know they are not simply red raspberries if you go to pull off the red ones, and they are still hard and quite stuck to the plant. The ripe black berries will come right off when you pull gently.

Though the harvest has just begun, and we didn't fill but a pint-full, it feels good to know that we are just a little more in tune with the ebb and flow of nature's gifts this year. We are learning so much about each season and how to appreciate its short bounty, by trying to eat only fresh produce, homegrown or local- which means some of our favorite foods in the world have only a small window of availability. But somehow, waiting for fresh strawberries, juicy blueberries, or sweet asparagus all year makes them oh so wonderful when they finally appear!

And nothing beats having a stockpile of frozen black raspberries, picked with our very own hands, in the freezer, waiting for our next smoothie session....

It's Morel Mushroom Hunting Time!

Our neighbors, Kenny and Ricky, just called us over to their place.... they had discovered a bunch of morels back in their woods, and invited us to join in on the bounty. It was our first mushroom hunting experience, and what fun!

Of course, this was more like an Easter Egg Hunt... they already knew where the morels were, and sent us off in the right general direction to see what we could find. But that's what you have to do for beginners like us. And even though we already knew where the morels were supposed to be, we still had the darnedest time finding them. You really have to train your eye!

From the end of April thru the beginning of May, morels start popping up in unexpected places, especially right after a big rain. It is difficult to predict where they will show up, as they seem to jump from place to place year after year. I guess that's why they are considered such a delicacy- a spot that produced hundreds one year can turn up totally dry the next....

We found the most morels under and near some apple trees and back in the woods around some wild cherries. Kenny thinks that the rotting fruit that's fallen to the ground creates good conditions for the morels. But it's just so hard to say for sure....

Though we didn't find too many, it's just enough for a yummy sauteed mushroom and free-range egg brunch for Mother's Day. It'll be a nice treat for my mom, who's never had them before. Maybe Alex's mom will read this and be enticed to come up for a visit, too! :)

Now I'm off to clean and soak my morels in salt water until Sunday. Ricky says I have to slice them in half, rinse 'em off real well, and let them soak in the salt water (to kill any bugs, bacteria, etc.) til we're ready to eat them. Can't wait!

My Breaducation Has Begun: Easy Crusty Bread

In my quest to learn how to make bread that doesn't come out of a bread machine, and doesn't take all day to make, I have stumbled across this most excellent recipe for No-Knead Bread. Yes- this bread requires no kneading whatsoever, and pretty much no work on your part. And as you can see, it produces a wonderfully crispy and tasty bread.

You simply mix up a few ingredients (about 3 minutes of your time), let the dough sit for 12-20 hours, and then plop (literally) into a pan and bake. Couldn't be easier! (And so perfect for the more lazier-inclined of us!) The secret is in the waiting: slow fermentation produces far superior results, and so is preferable (really, it is just an added bonus that you don't have to do any work, either.)

There are a couple of versions of this recipe out there, so I am including links to a few of my favorites. I really like the YouTube Video, because you can get a good feel for what the dough should like at each stage. One of the things I realized after watching the video was that my dough was not moist enough, and I needed to add more water. When you are letting the dough ferment slowly, the dough can be much moister than a quicker-fermenting dough can be. The video also recommends a higher baking temperature than the Steamy Kitchen recipe, and that worked well for me- but play around with your oven and see what works for you.

Now I can bake two loaves of the most heavenly bread each day with only about 10 minutes or so of my time. How cool is that??!!

Steamy Kitchen Recipe: No-Knead Bread that Even a 6-Year Old Can Make

YouTube Video: Easy Crusty Bread

NY Times Article: The Secret of Great Bread: Let Time Do the Work

Shameless Plug: The bread in the photo is resting on one of my husband's hand-crafted cutting boards. They make great bread boards, and are made from sustainable wood. You can check them out at The Greater Green.

Happy Baking!

Chickens and Snow and Fences, Oh My!

New Discovery: Chickens definitely do NOT like snow. In fact, the first day it snowed here (we already have had about a foot and half of November snow), they wouldn't leave the coop. They are new to the stuff, after all. We then discovered that if we shovel some paths for them, they will explore a bit, but they prefer not to tramp through the snow. (see photo at the right.... the chickens are very tentatively poking hteir heads outside of the door)

We also discovered that there is an inherent problem with the dog kennel sun shade we used to cover the fenced-in area of the chicken run, for both protection from predators and to provide some shade in the heat of summer. The sun shade is like a fine, sturdy, slightly stretchable screen, and it does not allow snow to fall through. So right now, it is piled high with a mound of snow, just about stretched to its limits. I think we will be getting up on a ladder today to try and relieve some of the pressure. We will then have to devise some sort of a solution. More on that later....

With the freezing weather we have been having, we now have a new problem to deal with: keeping the chickens' water from freezing. Chickens must have plenty of water every day, to regulate the salt content in their bodies, without which they can quickly die. So now that the water spicket is shut off and frozen, this means bringing a pitcher of fresh water out every day, sometimes twice a day, to keep the old water from freezing. Additionally, we have re-installed the heat lamp we used when the chickens were just little fluffy chicks. Not only does it provide a measure of warmth and keeps the water from totally freezing overnight, but the red color calms the chickens while they are more confined during these winter months. We've already noticed that poor Hawkie is getting picked on a lot, and she isn't laying anymore. This could be either because she is an heirloom breed (Aracauna), which often stop laying in the winter months, or because she is getting stressed....

So now that we allow the chickens to roam through the fenced-in garden area, after a few weeks, they have finally figured out how to fly over the fence to get to freedom. The thing is, they can't seem to figure out how to fly BACK over the fence, to get into their coop. Silly chickens! So this means that every afternoon, before dark (which is currently at about 5:30 pm), we have to do a check to make sure the chickens are not roaming out in the open.

We forgot to do this check the other night until nearly 8pm, and when I went to tuck the chickens in for the night, much to my dismay, there were only 4 hens in the coop, snoozing soundly on the roost. Speckles the rooster was nowhere to be found. Surrounded by a dark, looming forest, I panicked. The raccoons and other predators in the area, including coyotes, would be out and about now, and I wasn't sure I could locate Speckles in the darkness. And what if something had already happened to him??

I started fumbling around the bushes and brambles backing up to the coop. I didn't have to search long. I spotted the silhouette of some long tail feathers hanging from the protruding nest boxes around the back of the coop, through about a foot of snow. And there was Speckles, all huddled up against the outer wall of the coop, almost buried in snow.

Poor guy! He was so cold he let me just pick him right up (he would NEVER allow that normally- I don't usually even attempt to touch the guy!), and I deposited him inside the coop, where he immediately began to check out his ladies and eat a bit of food.

So all is well inside the coop, though winter is obviously going to throw us some curve balls.

Why We Aren't Having Turkey for Thanksgiving

OK, so this one is going to take some explaining to my family. We are having Thanksgiving at our house this year (usually we go to family in Chicago), because my brother and his new wife are flying in from England. But now that we are raising our own chickens and organic vegetables, it only seems fitting that we hold a harvest Thanksgiving- a day to be thankful for and enjoy the fruits of our own labor. And since we did not raise any turkeys, we will not be eating turkey. Seems logical enough, at least to me.....

My grandmother doesn't seem to be taking it so well. Her response was to offer to pick up a pre-cooked turkey meal from Meijer. "No, Grandma," I somewhat hesitantly explained. "We want to eat our chicken and our vegetables this year. What we raised and grew ourselves, and that's mostly it." She again responded by pointing out how cheap those pre-cooked meals actually were. In fact, she would be more than happy to pick one up in Chicago, and bring it up here to Michigan for us (in case we didn't have that kind of thing "way out here").

Oh well..... Hopefully the idea will settle in by the time Thanksgiving arrives...

So what is exactly on the menu? Well, our 11-pound chicken, for starters. No, that wasn't a typo. If you've been keeping up with our posts, you may recall that our inability and hesitance to slaughter our own chickens resulted in their getting quite large. I'm a little concerned that the meat might end up being a bit tough. But that's all part of the learning process, I guess... Additionally, we are going to have a free-range, organic ham that was raised on a local farm (since we don't have hogs... yet). We are expecting between 12 and 14 people, so I'm trying to make sure there is plenty for everyone (especially if the chicken is....well.... a little tough....) It is my first time hosting Thanksgiving, after all, and I'd prefer it if no one went home hungry.

Let's see... what else are we having? We saved butternut squash from the summer, so I'll be baking Candied Butternut Squash (a yummy twist on the popular candied yams). Using green beans we canned this summer, there will be plenty of green bean casserole, and swiss chard with balsamic, and from frozen golden zucchini I will create Zucchini au Gratin. A mostaccioli (I just had to look up that spelling in a dictionary) made from canned tomatoes will be a vegetarian option, and homemade bread will be a-plenty. And for the incredibly snowy and chilly weather we have had lately,venison and pasta stew will be hot hearty to warm everyone's tummy. Freezer pickles, sun-dried tomatoes, and our walnuts (which have almost finished drying and curing) will be setting on the table to munch on. And last but not least, apple pie, with some heavenly Sherman's Ice Cream from the local creamery.

Of course, not everything will have been grown on our farm. Organic cranberries will have to be purchased, as will potatoes (we have already devoured our potato crop- obviously we need to grow more next summer). I'll be buying mushrooms for the gravy, salad greens (our winter greenhouse is not growing as well as we hoped), and a few fresh salad vegetables from our local market.

But there's another reason that we won't be having turkey this year, and the video from PETA at the bottom of this post explains it pretty well. Any time you have some 200,000,000 people deciding to eat the same thing on the same day, well, it kinda spells a recipe for suffering.

WARNING: This video is not for the faint of heart. And it's not just here to gross everyone out, either- but to point out that if you are going to eat turkey this Thanksgiving, it's only fair to know how that bird got to your table. Alternatively, you might want to consider sourcing an organic, free-range, or heirloom turkey for your feast. I realize that becoming a vegetarian is a very noble alternative to the cruelty of factory farming (I've had a number of readers point that out). But realistically, there are many, many people who are not willing to go that route. You can still limit the cruelty and suffering inherent in meat-eating by supporting farms that raise their animals in a healthy, organic, more gentle way. (Here is the article that goes along with the video:Breaking Investigation Reveals Holiday Horrors for Turkeys)

But anyway, however you celebrate your Thanksgiving, we hope you have a healthy, and safe, and enjoyable one, filled with warmth and laughter.

And we would like to send out a most sincere thank-you to those who have helped make our journey so much more enjoyable with their support, and ideas, and contributions. We couldn't have done it without you!

Here are some resources for an organic, healthy Thanksgiving:

LocaHarvest.org: Order an Organic, Free-Range Turkey for Thanksgiving

Article: Where to Buy Organic, Free-Range Turkeys

VIDEO: THE DARK SIDE OF THE TURKEY INDUSTRY

Watch more videos at PETA.org

Harvesting Walnuts

We decided it was time to take advantage of the hundreds of walnuts that fall from the half dozen or so walnut trees edging our property. Our neighbor has been collecting them for years, and though the process sounded like a bit of work, we thought it would be wonderful to have our own walnuts to crack open on a snowy winter evening while sitting around a cozy fire... and the idea that our own land had yet one more way to provide us with sustenance intrigued us. How hard could harvesting walnuts possibly be?

 Our window of opportunity was quickly closing. The squirrels were looting what they could grab, and numbers of walnuts were rotting away on the ground, untouched. Winter was obviously approaching....

My mom and I grabbed a harvest basket, and headed to the brambles. Ducking, dodging, and weaving in out and out of thorny , prickly vines and covered in burrs, we searched for fallen walnuts hiding amidst the leaves. Much to our surprise, walnuts look incredibly like limes, a vibrant green, the size of a small rubber ball.

 We managed to fill our basket in less than 30 minutes. We had Alex shake a small walnut tree that was still hanging on to a couple dozen ripe walnuts- a risky proposition, we realized, as they bopped him on the head during their fall to the ground.

The best (and, as our neighbors might say, most cheatin'est) way to de-husk the walnuts is to run them over with a car. This smashes the husks, which can then be easily removed. (Warning: this process will stain your driveway.)  The husks can't be added to the compost, because walnut husks contain a compound that is toxic to many plants, including tomatoes. Apparently, this is an evolutionary adaptation that helps keep competing plants from growing too close to the walnut tree and stealing vital nutrients.

Now, we had read a recommendation to wear gloves while removing the husks, because the juices in the husk can stain your hands. We thought it would be "interesting" to see how bad walnuts stain your hands. I think it is fair to say we both regret that. A week and countless harsh treatments later (I caught my husband  pouring turpentine and gasoline on his hands in desperation), they are still black as black can be (see photo of Alex's hands to the left). We are told to expect the stain to last about 2 weeks- until the skin and nail cells have had a chance to replace themselves. Yikes! So anyway, we recommend gloves. Strongly recommend.

After running over and removing the husks, we threw the walnuts into a cooler full of water to wash off as much of the black goo as possible. Though a lot of it came off, the walnuts were still full of black and yellow, mushy husk bits,  but that's OK. After a few days of drying out in the sun on a screen (we put them inside a portable greenhouse to keep squirrels away), they were ready to go into our cement mixer for

an hour to tumble off all the dried husk. It worked phenomenally well! The walnuts came out perfect! (If you don't have a cement mixer available, I would suggest putting them in a large bucket or barrel, and stirring them aggressively with a stick- though the cement mixer was certainly a lot easier!)

Finally, we hung them in some old onion and garlic net bags, where they will hang to cure for about 3 weeks. They are hanging off our coat closet door in living room, near the wood stove, to speed up the curing process.

Our Chickens are Now Officially Free-Range

After months of having our chickens penned up in their relatively small coop and fenced-in yard, we finally are able to safely allow our chickens to roam- no small task, since we live in a very rural area where we often see coyotes, foxes, raccoons, stray dogs, chicken hawks, and other potential chicken predators right in our own backyard. We already lost 2 chickens to what we presume to be a raccoon earlier in the summer, and do not want to dwindle our flock any further!

The idea to go more free-range all started after doing some research recently regarding free-range vs. conventional eggs, when I realized a number of important things.

First, we needed to find a source for organic chicken scratch. There are numerous harmful chemicals that can end up in chicken scratch, arsenic among them. Yuck!

After calling local organic farms to see what they use, we finally found 2 dealers in the region, one that sells Fertrell Organic Poultry Feed and one that sells Graham Organics (a local brand, and one that we ultimately settled on). There were not many options in the Southwest Michigan area, but we were very pleased to find the Farmer's Elevator Co-op in Hudsonville, about 50 miles from our farm. We headed out there and bought enough chicken layer mash for the whole winter (hopefully)- 4 50-pound bags at $22 each.

I also have become concerned about the lack of greens in our chickens' diet. I mean, I do pick weeds and greens for them every day, but estimates I found suggested that chickens should have close to 40% of their calories from grass/greens! And since grass is a low-calorie food, that's a lot of grass. But I guess I didn't realize why this is so important....

You know how decades ago, everyone thought eggs were healthy, and then sometime around when I was a little girl, things changed, and we were told to limit how many eggs we eat because they can cause high cholesterol? I think a lot of that had to do with the way that chickens were raised, and was an indication that we had switched from small farm, free-range eggs to mass-produced factory farmed eggs, with dire health consequences.

See, it turns out that we get two essential fatty acids from eggs, Omega-3 and Omega-6. The ratio of these 2 EFAs depends on the diet of the chicken. A high-Omega-3 egg would actually help lower cholesterol, whereas a high-Omega-6 egg would raise your cholesterol. The green part of plants is high in Omega-3 fatty acids, and the grain/seed is high in Omega-6. So when we overfeed our chickens grains/corn/seed, and under-feed greens, we end up with eggs that are high in Omega-6, and therefore contribute to high cholesterol. When chickens are allowed to free-range, they produce eggs that are high in Omega-3 fatty acids, and these eggs are much, much healthier, actually having positive health benefits, especially for our heart and arteries! I think that is totally fascinating!

And that also explains why fish/seafood is so heart-healthy. The ocean only produces plants with green parts, and no grains, and so all ocean life that feeds on seaweed, or on a creature that fed on seaweed, ends up being high in Omega-3 fatty acid, and therefore is a heart-healthy thing to eat.

So we decided that we had to let our chickens free range, if we wanted healthy eggs. We started letting them out for a couple hours a day, when we knew our neighbors' dogs were inside and could not chase the chickens (we think they might be responsible for a dead wild turkey- much bigger than a chicken- that turned up on our driveway). But I cannot tell you how hard a time I sometimes had getting those darn chickens back in the coop when it was time. The first day I chased them for 2 hours (probably as much due to my lack of skill as to their stubbornness). That simply was not going to work.

So we came up with a grand plan! One of our larger garden plots is next to the chicken coop. Since the growing season is over, we decided to let them roam in there, cleaning up the weeds, bugs, and scratching/tilling the soil, all while adding beneficial chicken poop. It's a perfect solution!

So Alex built an enclosure that connects the coop to the garden, cut open the garden fence, and now the chickens have a huge and wonderful pasture to graze upon to their hearts content. Let me tell you, they sure are some happy chickens now! And the best part- they aren't eating half as much layer mash, which will mean big savings for us. Happy chickens, happy wallets. Who could ask for more?

First Frost Last Night

It's happened (and it's rather early, too). The first frost has hit, which has taken out the remaining eggplants, basil, and peppers (hot-weather-loving plants). The cooler-weather plants, like Russian kale and chard and Brussels sprouts, will be fine for quite a bit longer. The tomatoes were already dead/dying, ravaged by a summer of too much moisture, not enough heat, and rampant spread of septoria and blight.

The peppers will have to be picked today, as they can't take this frosty weather.

The frost also means that this was the first morning that I had to start a fire in the wood stove (we've been having fires at night, but not during the day). Winter is coming, and with it, an entirely different set of chores! Feeding and watering the chickens is not so pleasant when it's 30 degrees and your wet hands are freezing! Of course, it's going to get much colder, and so I better get used to it...

We opted not to protect any of our more delicate plants, as we are just about at the end of the season anyway and have harvested plenty. But if we had wanted the peppers to survive, we could have thrown some floating row covers over them, covered them in some sort of plastic or tarp, or ran the sprinklers all night (the moving water prevents the plants from freezing).... which some people may want to do in the next few weeks if there is a frost advisory. When we were living in the city, I don't remember frost warnings being on the news too much, but here, out in rural farming country, it is a top priority to warn local farmers and gardeners that a damaging frost is approaching. It's interesting how different rural news can be from its urban counterpart!

So today I will head out to the garden, pick the remaining peppers and eggplants, and preserve them (I'm thinking roasting and then freezing). We've had a great harvest this summer, despite the goofy weather and pesky disease and pest problems, and so I am thankful. We will certainly enjoy it all winter!

Rainy Day Lazy

It was one of those pleasantly lazy indoor days yesterday. Chilly, damp, and with a steady drizzle beating down from gray skies, even our cats stayed inside.

Sky Wolfe can't help but yawn as I snap his picture. Ducky could care less what I do!

I started a fire in the wood stove, not really because it was that cold, but more to get the damp out of the air (and because I have been looking forward to evenings around a blazing fire for quite some time now!). 

I brewed a couple of cups of Tazo chamomile tea, and spent the majority of the day working indoors...

Look at that yummy cup of tea!

Rainy days are also good for dehydrating veggies. We made a ton of "sun-dried tomatoes" by slicing our cherry tomatoes in half, and dehydrating them at about 135 degrees F over night. They are then perfect for making sun-dried tomatoes in oil: rehydrate by soaking in boiling water for a few minutes, put in a jar and cover with olive oil, and add some fresh chopped garlic and dried basil... and presto! One of the most delicious snacks you will ever enjoy! (Great as a topper on crusty Italian bread!)

Making sun-dried tomatoes- yum!

We are also drying our cayenne and habanero peppers in the dehydrator. After cutting the tops and tips off, and slicing open for quicker drying, they, too, stay all night in the dehydrator. Of course there is a more energy-efficient method- real sun-drying- but these days in Michigan, we don't have consistently hot and dry days to get the job done right. Maybe next year I'll try...

Our peppers before drying.

Here's to a cup of steaming tea, a toasty fire, a lazy nap, and other small pleasures that help us forget the world's turmoil for a few peaceful moments....

Things that Chickens Love to Eat

OK, so we haven''t been able to find a source of organic chicken scratch in Southwest Michigan, which is disappointing, but we're still working on it. In order to keep our chickens as healthy and organic as possible, we supplement with a number of things, in addition to the standard layer mash they receive daily. I've learned what some of their favorites are, in order of preference:

Bugs and worms! Whenever I am in the garden, I take a cup with me, throw in any bugs that I need to hand-pick off the plants, and then when I'm done, give 'em to the chickens. They love it! They actually fight over the bugs, and it's quite entertaining to watch the chickens steal a worm back and forth from each other 5 or 6 times until one of them actually gobbles it down. NOTE: Although the chickens will eat horn worms, I've found that I have to cut the worm into small pieces (too big and scary, perhaps?). Also, if I give them too many in one day, they will stop eating them. Those fluorescent green guts must not be too appetizing. (NOTE: If they can catch one, the chickens will eat small frogs and toads as well.)

Bread: We don't like to eat the end pieces in my house, so I save those for the chickens, break them up into tiny pieces, and let them feast! Also, any bread, pita, or crackers that have gotten a little stale but not yet moldy will be gobbled up eagerly, too.

Broccoli and cauliflower leaves: I have no idea why, but they go crazy for these. If I pick a head of broccoli or cauliflower, and there are any small leaves attached, I strip them off and give them to the chickens. Or else I'll just selectively take a big leaf here or there from the plants. I imagine the leaves are quite healthy, too, just by the nutrient level of the vegetable.

Carrot greens: Another favorite, they just go crazy for!

Wild bird seed: Though more expensive than your typical chicken scratch, they really seem to enjoy a cupful of wild bird seed every now and then (the kind I fill my bird feeders with).

Corn on the cob: We had a ton of corn, and when the corn started to get a bit starchy but was still edible, we threw the cobs into the coop. The chickens love to pick all the kernels out, and their beaks do so very efficiently. Also, after we've eaten corn, I take our cobs out there- apparently a lot of corn is still left on the cob that the chickens can get at with their pointy beaks.

Oatmeal: Every morning I make our (very spoiled) chickens some warm oatmeal, mixed with kelp flakes (which are an incredibly wonderful source of many minerals and vitamins), milk (for the calcium, which makes strong eggs), and either quinoa or barley. They absolutely love it. In fact, that is an understatement. When they see me coming with the oatmeal, they start running and clucking like crazy!

Weeds: The chickens love fresh greens, pretty much of any kind. I pick weeds daily and throw them in the coop. They will pick off the leaves. They like some weeds more than others, so you just have to experiment. They like small flowers, too. I've found it works best to gather a bunch, fasten them to the inside of the coop fence with a twist tie, so that the greens are hanging down at chicken-level, and they can easily peck at and pick off the leaves without any trouble.

Leftover rice and pasta (without sauce): Whenever we have plain leftover rice or pasta that goes uneaten or is about to go bad, I add it to the chickens' oatmeal. They love it, and it keeps me from having to throw out and waste our leftovers.

Melon and apples: Any rinds, seeds, or fruit that is starting to go bad gets set aside for the chickens. They just love fruit!

One thing we have learned is that we definitely will not be able to let our chickens roam our garden, as some organic gardening enthusiasts suggest. They love plants too much! It is obvious that they would decimate our plant population very quickly. Maybe if I didn't feed them greens.... but we do, and so we can't, and so it is.....

The First Egg

We are in celebration here at The Greater Green Farm. Our little hen, Lady, has produced her first egg! As small an event as this may seem, to us it is astoundingly huge. We have waited nearly 5 months for this tiny miracle. We will now have our own supply of eggs and, quite possibly, our own chickens, since we made a last minute decision to spare the dominant rooster, Speckles (if you missed that post, you can read it by clicking here).

Each day is somewhat like Christmas morning now- we jump out of bed, race to the chicken coop, and search all the nest boxes to see who can find the egg that Lady has so kindly left for us. They are beautiful, indeed. I have never appreciated a simple egg so much....

P.S.- We have not actually eaten the eggs yet (there are now 4). I think this weekend I will make my infamous eggs benedict with some yellow squash muffins and free-range pork sausage. Yum!

Our Tomatoes are Uglier than Yours!

Look at those tomatoes! Cracked, mis-shapen, full of unusual oranges, purples, and yellows.... what's with the ugly tomatoes??!!

They're heirloom tomatoes, of course! So what's the deal with heirlooms? They certainly do not conform to the current idea of a "perfect" tomato: round, red, and crack-free. But there was a time when tomatoes were not that "perfect", and along the way, a lot has been sacrificed in terms of flavor and nutrition in order to get them that way. But recently, many people have been re-discovering heirlooms.

The first time I ever grew heirloom tomatoes, I thought I'd done something wrong. They were deformed and lumpy, cracking, and never turned fully red. We literally threw many of the first tomatoes we picked into the compost, waiting for one that came out "right". Little did we know we were throwing away some of nature's gems!

Much of the store-bought produce you see these days in supermarkets has been genetically modified. (Click here to read our post on some of the major problems  with genetic engineering.) They have been bred, cross-bred, and modified for one of a few particular purposes: to harvest earlier, to transport better, and/or to have more disease resistance. Flavor and nutrition are after-thoughts. If a tomato can't handle being transported 1500 miles while still arriving in good condition, it is virtually useless in today's world of agribusiness. The reason you don't see heirlooms in the stores more is simple: they are delicate, bruise easily, and could never withstand the journeys that our average veggies make these days.

Some heirlooms go back a few decades, some centuries, and some, like Black Aztec Corn, go back thousands of years. Growing heirlooms is like taking a stroll back in time, connecting us with the early farmers of history. There is deep connection between us and the earth that manifests itself in a plant that has been grown (and remained unchanged) for that long...

For all their ugliness, heirlooms far outweigh conventional varieties for their flavor alone. One bite of one of our Cherokee Purple Tomatoes, with their deep and delicious tomato flavor, or Yellow Currant Tomatoes, sweeter than candy, and you will understand The Way of the Heirloom. Once you have discovered heirlooms, you may just never go back.

Looking to learn more about why heirlooms are the healthy choice for our planet? Check out Seed Saver Exchange, where you can learn about the importance of preserving genetic diversity, and also order some heirloom seeds of your own! And if you are in the Southwest Michigan Area, check us out at the Allegan Farmer's Market on Thursdays, from 8:30 am -1:30 pm, at the corner of Cutler and Water Streets.

What's New on the Farm

Boy, have we been busy! And to think we can barely call ourselves a farm, we're so small. Larger farms must be an extraordinary amount of work. I'm sensing that the key to it all is time management. Talking to other farmers at the Farmer's Market, it seems they are up at sunrise (around 5 am, or slightly earlier), and out in the fields often til 9 pm, usually with at least a few other family members to help. That's a long day. Especially when you are battling bugs, scorching sun, and getting dirty, dirty, dirty! Between the store, the farm, and Alex's off-the-farm job, we spend that many hours working, but not out in the fields. Our fields might be suffering a bit, but we're learning...

So, the biggest news around here is that the roosters gotta go. I mean, they REALLY gotta go. They are big, and nasty (all I'm going to say is you can hear chickens poop and it isn't pretty, especially when it's right on top of another chicken), and they are getting MEAN. So far, no one has had any aggression toward me (good thinking... aggression towards food source is not smart). But two of the roosters, Big Fatty and Speckles (see photos) are seriously bullying the smallest rooster. To the point that I fear they may kill him. He barely eats, or drinks, and hides in the corner. I had to isolate him this morning, I felt so bad for him. But there is not much else we can do... roosters get mean. Perhaps we'll build another chamber to the coop, and we can separate any "victims". But if I know anything about Big Fatty, it's that he will find someone else to bully.

So Michael from next door has offered to come over on the next rainy day for The Butchering. He, and everybody else we've ever asked, has told us that we absolutely cannot have a butcher kill our chickens (it's simply ridiculous, they say, you kill your own chickens...unless you are some kind of sissy, apparently). So it's happened that we will kill our own chickens. Trial by fire. We wanted to be farmers... so here we go. I'll write a post, I'm sure, after The Deed, but I probably will spare you the photos this time...

 
The plants are doing very well, but it's becoming very apparent that we did not plant enough for mass production. We will indeed have to step it up a notch next year. But that's OK, this was our trial year at the Farmers' Market, and so far it's going better than expected. There is a lot of interest in our Certified Naturally Grown Farm (yes, we are certified now- with transitional status for 3 years). Our seedlings sold like crazy (OK, I should probably admit here that I actually sold too many seedlings, and shorted myself on a few crops... oops....). Our lettuces were spectacular- true beauties. Gorgeous, colorful, and full of flavor. It's going to be tough to reproduce that flavor in the heat of summer now, but we are going to try.

I found our first hornworm. Otherwise known as The Enemy. A hornworm can literally decimate an entire tomato plant in a few days, if left unattended. The one I found was a baby, and the chickens sure did enjoy it. Wait until they see the full-grown suckers. You haven't fully appreciated a tomato until you have slaughtered a bucket of hornworms in order to get it. I mean, let's just say that they seem more animal-like than insect, and their guts are neon green. Enough said.

Our cucumbers, zucchini, golden zucchini, and eggplant have started coming in. Yum! The spinach and arugula have started bolting, so we planted a new crop, a bit in the shade, and we'll see how that goes. The potatoes are doing well, as is the corn (see photo). A beautiful example of companion growing has sprung up.... all around the corn, clover has started growing like crazy. Clover is a nitrogen-fixing plant, which means that it actually replaces nitrogen in the soil. So, since corn needs huge amounts of nitrogen, but leaves the minerals/nutrients that clover needs, they grow so well together. Often farmers will plant clover as a cover crop, but this clover is just growing naturally. And it is growing at least three times as thick around the corn as anywhere else. Isn't nature cool??!!

Lastly, I have some new pets. It seems our above-ground pool, which flipped over in a storm and formed mini-pools of water, is teeming with tadpoles. So of course, I refuse to destroy this little amphibian habitat, and have even taken to feeding them (fish food flakes), though they do a very good job of munching down any insects that are unfortunate enough to land in their puddles. We are having our annual pig roast in one month, and the pool is a must, so I'm hoping these little suckers get some legs, and quick. Oh, and some lungs and all while they are at it. Our friend Josh says they are Leopard Frogs. Whatever they are, they are destined to eat about 10,000 insects per year each, and so in my book, they are cool. Natural mosquito control!

Oh- and a wonderful update! Our nephew, who was in neo-natal intensive care, is doing great! I know everyone's thoughts and prayers helped, so thank you to all those who were so caring. He's a tough little guy, and a real cutie, too!

Just Another Day

Today was just another day on the farm.  Saturdays and Sundays tend to be our major work days, since Alex's other job often takes him away from the farm during the week. While we are both here, we usually take advantage of it and tackle the larger jobs. Today was Chicken Coop Clean-Up.

Chicken Coop Clean-up is not a fun job. But where there's a coop, there's poop. I originally called my local feed store to ask how often we needed to clean out the coop when we first got our chickies. I had wondered if once a week was needed. He laughed. He told me that when he was growing up, his family raised 14,000 chickens in a very large barn (we now have 10). They cleaned it out 2 or 3 times a year (by the way, yuck! that barn must have stunk!). He said that basically, once it bothered us, it was time to clean. So we relaxed about our lack of cleaning the first month, and procrastinated.

Well, it's now been over 2 months since we brought the chicks home, and basically, they were getting stinky as can be. It was actually a bit repulsive to go in there and feed them, so I decided that must be the "sign" the local feed guy was talking about.

We grabbed a rake, a pitchfork, a flat shovel, and, because the dried chicken poop had turned to dust, some dust masks so we weren't breathing poop (again, yucko!). We raked the straw from the floor into a huge pile, pitchforked it into a wheelbarrow, and dumped it all in back by the woods to compost. Should be great fertilizer by next summer!

After everything had been scooped out, we hosed down the inside. Now we are waiting for everything to dry before we lay down the pine bedding and straw to cover the floor. The chickens do not like a change of scenery and grunted meanly at us as we scooted them first outside, then inside, then outside again while we cleaned the various sectors of the coop and yard. But I would think that chickens would be happy not to have to lie in their own poop anymore (though in all honesty, they really didn't seem to mind much at all). I like to pretend I don't see them picking at their poop every now and then. Maybe that's a good reason to clean the coop more often... we decided to put ourselves on a once-a-month cleaning routine. Hopefully it won't be as yucky then....

I also did a number of loads of laundry today, and line dried them. I love living out in the country and being able to line dry my clothes.... they smell so good. And our rain is so clean that when I occasionally forget to take the clothes down, they still smell clean and fresh, even after a good soaking. When I lived in Japan, no one there used dryers, we just line dried all our clothes. The only thing is the pollution and smog where I lived was awful, so if I hung my clothes outside they got stinky. And many of my neighbors burned their garbage (an acceptable practice, apparently), so I constantly had to be on the lookout. I usually just opted to dry them indoors, with only mediocre results at best.

Then we went for a hike in the woods with the dogs and the cats. That's our new thing, the cats like to go on hikes with us. The trail is about 3/4 of a mile each way, and they are pretty tired by the time we get back. They keep trying to rest along the path. I think they are great at short sprints, but not really cut out for the long haul. We make a funny little entourage through the woods!

In the evening, I sprayed the garden plants with Neem Oil, which now needs to be applied once every week or two as we head full-on into summer. The time for disease and insect infestations is quickly approaching, and it's much easier to use preventative care then to try and treat a full-blown disease or insect problem. We're keeping our fingers crossed. Last year we had a major leaf spot problem.... I discovered today that a lot of our tomato plants have some of the older, lower leaves curling. I panicked. Could it be the start of some sort of blight or fungus? An insect infestation? A deficiency? Fortunately, after a little research, it turns out this is common (though it never happened to us before), and may be caused by either excessive rainfall (which we've had lately) or excessive sunlight (which, interestingly, we've also had), and should not affect yield or ultimately harm the plants in any way. Let's hope.

Yesterday I did some major mulch application. We are covering the entire growing area with a hay mulch, which is actually just our grass clippings. Every time we mow, I get to do a little more. I was able to lay down about 10 wheelbarrow loads full of hay. But before I did, I had to weed the area, which had become extremely weedy. My fingers, hands, arms, back, and legs are reminding me today of all the bending, pulling, digging, pushing, spreading, and lifting I did yesterday. I need a hot shower badly. How wonderful it will be... sometimes it's the little things that make our day!

And finally, please say a quiet prayer for our new little nephew, Nick, who was born on the 24th, but is still in the neo-natal intensive care unit. He has some swelling in his brain, and so they are monitoring him closely. He has my husband's family line in him, so he must be a fighter! He really is loved so much! And we are just thrilled to be an aunt and uncle for the first time. Isn't he just adorable???!

We are learning one of the harsh realities of farming. It is getting very difficult for us both to leave the farm at the same time (and we only have a small farm- imagine the care required for large farms!!). Someone needs to be here to feed, water, and let out the cats (3), dogs (2), and chickens (10); monitor the greenhouse (open it, mist it, water twice a day, and close in the evening or during a storm); and take care of our 4 garden plots, which we are relying on for part of our sustenance. That being said, we are leaving to go visit our nephew in shifts- not the ideal way, but it's just how we have to do it until we can find a "farm-sitter".... anyone interested?

And with that, it's off to my much-deserved hot shower, taco dinner, and a movie rental (10,000 BC). I can't remember the last time I got to sit down and watch a movie, so it's my Saturday night treat. Enjoy your evening, wherever you may be!

Days on the Farm

I've noticed I've fallen behind on posting.... it's just been so busy here on the farm. Even though it's now late June, we still have a bit of planting to do (not good), there are still plots not covered by mulch, and our plans for a fourth plot have not materialized. I guess our good intentions were not quite enough, although we got a lot more done this year than last. Every year is an improvement when you're this new at farming!

The chickens are getting big! They've decided to try their luck at cock-a-doodle-dooing, and it's quite hilarious. They just don't have the hang of it yet. For one, it sounds more like "gook-guck-gak" than a proper rooster crowing. And then they don't have the timing quite right. One of the roosters decided to belt out some gutteral guffaws today around 3 pm. Definitely not sunrise!

We are laying hay down as our mulch, and it's a lot more work than it would seem! Since our grass is so wild, and not your typical lawn grass, we are able to use it as an excellent source of mulch. The only problem is we need so darn much, and the grass only grows so fast. So every time we are able to mow and sweep up the clippings, we cover a few more rows. We were using newspaper under the hay, but it is really a two-person job on those windy days, and a real pain to lay down sheet by sheet. I found some recycled brown paper in the paint section  at Walmart, for protecting the floor while painting. It comes in rolls of 2 1/2 feet by 140 feet, for about $6.50. Not a bad deal, and recycled, too! So that is what we are putting under the hay. We roll it out down the aisle, and then pile the hay on top until you can't see the paper any more. And presto- weed control, moisture retention, and disease prevention all in one!

The bugs are atrocious lately. Thank goodness for guys like this little toad. I read that frogs and toads can eat 10,000 or more insects in their lifetime. All toads are welcome here! (There is a hitch, though- their skin produces some kind of mucous that is toxic to pets - and probably people, were we to eat them- and if a cat or dog tries to bite them, they will sorely regret it, with respiratory distress, and even convulsions, quickly ensuing. Fortunately they seem to learn quickly to keep away from toads!)

And we even welcome snakes, like this guy, who we think is a Black Rat snake. They help take care of the rodent problem for us. Living out in the country, you quickly learn that mice are an inevitable part of life here!

Well, it's been a long day of working out in the fields, and I think we've earned a quick rest in the hammock, with a strawberry banana smoothie to cool us off. It's off to the hammocks I go, to re-energize before the evening chores ahead of us still....

When Chicks Start to Become Chickens

If you look back at my first post about our new chicks, you will certainly see how incredibly adorable they were when we brought them home. I suppose it is a good thing indeed that they do not stay that way, as it would be all the more difficult to eat those cuddly little bundles of fur.

But the truth is they don't stay that cute. See the photo? They are quickly becoming hens and roosters, which means soft fluff is shed and splotchy, sporadic feathers start popping out all over, sometimes in patches, sometimes individually. And of course, any day now, the roosters' testosterone levels will peak, and... well... let's just say I was told that we would be more than ready to slaughter our roosters by the time they were ready (there is an illegal - and cruel- sport that takes advantage of those high testosterone levels...). The young roosters, in sudden fits of aggression, already run at each other every now and then, pecking, poking, and flapping.

So far, no cock-a-doodle-dooing, though. I'm waiting anxiously (though I imagine I'll eat those words before too long!). They are also becoming good caretakers, warning the hens, who are more skittish, every time something apparently "dangerous" (like Nissa, our pooch) is approaching. A few squawky chirps and they all high-tail it back into the coop.

The youngsters are enjoying the use of the chicken yard now. They took a few days to be brave enough to come out, but now I catch them chick-napping in the sun on lazy afternoons. I guess every day is a lazy day when you're a chicken....

On a side note, I am reading Barbara Kingsolver's book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (wonderful!), and she currently is talking about the dilemma she faces when slaughtering her own animals. This has been an issue for us, as we will be slaughtering our animals for the first time ever in a few weeks. As a former city girl, I am not stupid enough to think this won't be a little difficult for me the first time, and maybe even the second and third. And of course everyone I know keeps pointing this out to me, as if it weren't occupying enough of my thoughts these days already!

But I have this deep sense that what we are doing is the right way to eat meat, if we are going to eat it at all... I just have to get my heart to follow my head, if that makes sense.

I love the way Barbara Kingsolver explains it. She hates when people ask her how she is able to kill her "pets". They are not pets, she explains gently, and they are treated with the utmost respect and humanity their entire lives, so there is nothing cruel about the way they live. In fact, when we stop to think about it, there is so much inherent cruelty for store-bought chickens, that are packed into a barn with 20,000 other chickens, pooping all over each other, never allowed outside, pecking each other to death more often than we'd like to admit. Barbara goes on to explain that her chickens live a wonderfully humane life, full of sunshine, green earth, and healthy food (lots of bugs- yum!!). When it comes time to harvest them (she uses "harvest" because it implies respect and usefulness, whereas "killing" implies cruelty and waste), she says a meaningful thank you to the chickens, and lets their short but happy lives come to an end. She has come to see her animals' death as part of the circle of life, because it allows her to survive, and her children to survive. She has embraced the fact that our lives depend on the deaths of other organisms, be it plants, or fish, or chickens, and by openly accepting her part in that circle of life, she lives with a deep respect for all living things.

So now I just have to get my silly, mushy heart to agree with that logic, which I admire and am attempting to absorb. I am fairly sure that I cannot be a part of the first slaughter, but I will do my best to face up to how my dinner came to be...

Blue Spotted Salamander

Yesterday I moved our trash bin outside, which is sitting atop some dirt on the side of the house, and I found this little fellow hiding underneath. Isn't he cute?! He's a blue-spotted salamander, and to me, he is a bearer of good tidings. You see, salamanders are very sensitive to environmental contamination, because they can absorb water, oxygen, and carbon dioxide through their thin skin. And so they can only survive in areas that are free of pesticides, herbicides, and chemical fertilizers. And here on The Greater Green Farm, we are growing everything organically, and he is proof that it is working. Our land is healthy. Amen.

He is also an extremely beneficial addition to our little eco-system here, because he eats spiders, worms, and other insects (and, boy, do we have a lot of those!). He's good at foiling predators- he'll whip his tail around, releasing a toxin, and if necessary for escape, his tail will fall off and grow back later. Probably many of us don't know much about him, either, because salmanders are so secretive, living mostly under leaf litter and other forest debris most of the year. It is a rare event for us to find one, and I always enjoy the moment. This year I was lucky enough to get a photo, as well!

You can read more about this salamander, and other native Michigan salamanders, here.

The Greenhouse is Blooming!

Our greenhouse is finally finished, and producing some wonderfully lush little seedlings. Our only problem is that it is too full! We obviously will need a larger greenhouse in the near future, but for this year, it will do. We intend on trying to sell seedlings locally for the first time ever, and then in a month or two, start selling veggies and flowers at local farmers' markets.

Our greenhouse adventures were not without near-disasters, though. The first night after the greenhouse was finally finished, we had a wind storm with 50 mph gusts. In the morning, we found eight of the panels over 200 yards away, having been blown right off the aluminum frame. I promptly returned to Harbor Freight and requested an additional 260 panel clips to secure the polycarbonate panels better, and we also decided to use 200 aluminum rivets- making the panels secure and permanently attached. Since then, no panels (thankfully) have blown away! Crisis number one solved!

Not two weeks later, we had a more serious near-disaster occur. Temperatures had been dipping fairly low at night, and so we put an electric heater in the greenhouse, running an extension cord from the garage. That was working pretty well, though it wasn't cranking out the heat needed for a really bitter night, so Alex decided we should put a kerosene heater in there as well. Which worked for a few nights.... until one morning when we looked outside and noticed that the windows of the greenhouse were black.... FIRE!! Apparently the kerosene heater had flamed up, which produced enormous amounts of sooty black smoke, and had continued to do so until we got out there.

It was truly a mess! The windows were coated with black soot, inside and out (the smoke condensed onto the outside of the panels as it escaped through the cracks), and even the poor seedlings were covered with soot and  black particles.  What a clean-up job that was!  The cilantro never quite recovered, though the rest of the plants seemed all right. We used Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Magic Soap to clean the windows naturally, so that there would not be any harsh fumes lingering in the greenhouse. It worked marvelously!! I finally got to put Dr. Bronner's to the test, and, as usual, it lived up to its name!

Since then, our only other mistake has been to leave some delicate seedlings outside on a much-too-chilly night. Because our greenhouse is much-too-full, we move plants outside on a daily basis, to make room for new seedlings. On a  night when we are expecting frost, we move all the plants into the greenhouse, on the floor, under the tables, or wherever we can squeeze them in. We had been celebrating Greek Easter that day, and returned home late, carelessly leaving some cucumber seedlings outside. They did not survive the night, and we learned a valuable lesson.

Having a greenhouse requires a lot of babysitting. The temperature must be checked at least 4-5 times a day (especially in a small greenhouse like ours, with less thermal mass to hold heat and maintain steady temps), plants watered frequently on hot, sunny days, windows opened, windows closed, fans on, fans off, and on and on. I guess I imagined that a greenhouse would create a self-sustaining haven for my plants... and didn't realize how much care I would still have to put in to ensuring their survival.

Every day that we undertake our new farming adventures, I have a growing respect for farmers. It is no easy lifestyle, and their work is so very necessary for our survival. As a former city person, I had become so disconnected from the food I ate... I really had no idea where it came from and how much work went into producing it. This certainly is a humbling journey for us!

Chick Daze

The chickens have finally come home! And what a humbling experience buying our first-ever chicks was. Walking into Belle Feeds in Gobles, where they are having their annual "Chick Days", we realized how little we knew about farm life.

The chicks were all sorted into different Rubbermaid tubs, with a heat lamp hanging over them for warmth. This would be the same set-up we would use (little did we know that until we got there and asked what we had to do!). We chose six egg-layers and six meat chickens, and got all the accesories: red heat lamp (the red glow apparently calms the otherwise-aggressive broiler chickens), waterer, feeding disk, chick feed, and pine shavings and straw for bedding. We got lots of help from the eight year-old boy who was there buying his chicks to raise for the season, who taught us that we might need to add oyster shells to their feed when they get a bit older, to ensure that there eggs have hard shells.

On the way home, we stopped at another Belle Feeds to ask even more questions, like how often to change the bedding (every day or two), how long to keep them on the chick feed (4-8 weeks), and  what we could give them to help raise them as organically as possible (bugs, worms, grubs, and veggie scraps). 

One thing we realized is how little we city kids know. It's amazing to me that 80% of our population lives in urban areas and most of them no longer know how to do these ordinary farm things, like raising chickens and goats, and growing and preserving their own food. Once upon a time these were skills that were necessary for survival. I guess I never thought about it when I was growing up. I mean, chicken comes from the grocery store, right?

We have a lot of learning to do, that's for sure. In the meantime, at least there are a lot of helpful farm kids out there who are more than happy to share their knowledge with some silly old adults!

It's Pancake Time!! (Thanks to Michael's Maple Syrup)

Our wonderfully active and energetic 80-year old neighbor just showed up at our door with two quarts of beautiful golden-brown jars of maple syrup. They are just heavenly! Tomorrow will be blueberry pancake day, for sure.

I am sometimes amazed at life out here in the country. All the ways that people glean harvests and comfort and good living from the land. I walked over to the edge of our property, where our neighbor's maple trees sit, and took some photos of his set-up. Simple, yet magnificent. As the wintry days slowly grow warmer and warmer, and the sap starts to run through these magnificent trees, a small tap or two in their trunks can steal gallons upon gallons of the sweet liquid without harming the trees (of course, only if done properly!).

I found a great article that reveals more than I could ever hope to know about making maple syrup. I love the long winding lines of blue tubing trailing out of my neighbor's maple trees, like some eerie stethoscope pulsing the lifeblood of the trees, and flowing into a giant garbage can (the collection barrel) lined with plastic (to keep it sanitary). My neighbor comes around and uses a small battery-operated pump to move the sap from the collection barrel into drums in his truck. He then delivers it to an Amish family, who boils and boils and boils the sap until more than 35 gallons has produced a mere quart of yummy, gooey maple syrup.

I am thankful for these two quarts, and thankful that I know how much work went into making it. Not just by my neighbor, who spent all those hours collecting all that sap so that we could enjoy our pancakes, but also by the trees that make such a heavenly liquid, and are able to lend us a bit of their creation. It's funny, living close to nature has taught us where our food comes from, and made us so much more appreciative of the tiny miracles (like maple syrup), now that we know.