Pasture Pastimes

Part of our livestyle entails limiting the entertainment that we purchase and instead creating our own fun.  To this end, Calvin and Johnny designed a 5-acre maze in the pasture.  Calvin was the primary designer, creating his plan on paper.  He and Johnny staked out key points in the pasture, and Johnny created the maze with Helen, our riding lawn-mower.  This Friday we host our annual homeschool end-of-year party, and will invite all 19 kiddos to partake in getting lost in the weeds.  After this Friday, Johnny will quit mowing this and appreciate adding that extra hour back to his regular farm work.   

A couple of times each week I walk my goats.  This gets the goaties out of their enclosure and allows them access to much more varied forages.  Plus I get a kick our of leading them around.  They know all the sweet spots rich in clover or lespodeza or acorns in the fall.  And they get to actually browse as goats prefer to do. 

The latest addition to our home entertainment system is a donkey.  I have long yearned for a ridable donkey, and this weekend serendipitously made my dream a reality.  A fellow vendor at the farmers' market had been trying to find a new home for this young man for some time (thank you Cara!).  He is broke to ride and was used as a pack animal in the recent past.  He is very affectionate, tame, and snuggly.  Johnny is off to town today to get a halter, a bridle, and hopefully a bareback pad.  He came with the dignified name of Atticus.  He seems especially fond of Calvin, so we'll soon be fighting for turns to ride Atticus to the mailbox and to check on blackberries and the like. 
Speaking of which, now is the time to go blackberry hunting.  I've already made 16 pints of jam, a cobbler, froze over a gallon, etc.  While many are still red, there are pockets of huge, sweet, ripe ones. 

More edible flowers

Each spring I anticipate the redbuds, and envy the trees in town the blossom before ours up in Rose.  I gather the purple flowers and add them to apple-carrot-raisin salad, stir-fries and more.  This year our dear friend David Gahn insisted we smell the wonderful locust blossoms on his trees.  Not only do they smell fantastic, but he informed us they are also edible.  I tried to imagine what would best capture their fragrance, and came up with locust blossom fritters.  They are simple and a great vehicle for these sweet, delicate, albeit transient treats.
 To 4 cups of locust flowers, add 2Tbsp flour and 2-3 egg yolks.  Next, beat egg whites (2-3) with 1-2 Tbps. sugar (optional) until stiff peaks form.  Fold this into the blossom mixture.  Then just cook like pancakes.  Enjoy immediately.  They are great plain, but even better topped with a little local honey. 

Here we go again!

I just said to Johnny the other night that while I don't feel particularly idle in the winter, I suddenly feel like 'here we go again'.  Our (tiny) dairy goat herd doubled in about 10 days.  Our seasoned Sanaan mamma delivered three babies, two of which were born alive and are doing well.  And our two first-time Oberhausli mommas each had relatively easy births.  Calvin and I spent an hour one afternoon watching Sorrel deliver her baby and witnessing his first steps just 17 minutes after entering the world.  Amazing!  The farm has taken on such a lively atmosphere with the four babies frolicking about all the time. 

And Johnny and Calvin have been busy mowing and then tilling in cover crops and planting seed for spring crops.  Our broccoli and cabbage seedlings are in the ground, along with green onions, carrots, lettuce, chard, kale,  spinach, and more.  

Johnny on his home-made row-maker!



Wildflowers are blooming!  The chickweed is in full bloom and is on its way out, but we have buttercup, trout lily, spring beauty, yellow corydalis, and many varieties of violets, including some edible ones!  The elms are seeding, and I finally figured out which are the Slippery Elm trees.  I gathered bark for decotions/teas.  

Notice the hairless seeds of Slippery Elm

Even the return of the ticks can't get me down this time of year!

Crowder Pea Hummus

The winter before last, our tractor "died" before we could till in our cover crop, so our field peas made peas instead of packing all of that good nitrogen into the soil.  But you know what they say; when life feeds you lemons, make lemonade.  In this case, I've been finding new ways to prepare crowder peas.  And after the drought of last summer, I have a new appreciation and respect for crowder peas.  All over our crop field, even where we don't irrigate (and our corn shriveled up and died), crowder peas grew, bloomed, and made peas. 
I have eaten more beef since moving to Oklahoma and raising our own cattle than at any other time in my life, but I still love vegetarian dishes.  I have learned to make hummus from all sorts of lovely legumes, and crowder peas are any easy hit:
Soak crowder peas (a double handful - 1-1.5 cups) in at least that much water, overnight.
The next day, drain and rinse the peas.  Match the volume of peas with salted water and cook about 45 minutes.  Add desired seasonings (bay leaf, thyme, oregano, pepper, cumin, etc.)
 Drain peas and add to blender with hummus ingredients: 2 Tbsp. tahini paste and/or toasted seasame oil, 1 Tbsp. lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste, cumin, and any other seasonings you like.  You could add some pesto or cilantro.  Parsley is not too strong in flavor, and is refreshing.  I almost always add fresh raw or dried granulated garlic.  Blend, adding liquid to desired consistency (water, vegetable broth, lemon juice - not too much, oil, etc.). 

Warm Winter Rumblings

This has been an unseasonably warm and thus fruitful winter for us.  We are still harvesting beets, carrots, and many greens.  We butchered one of our steers, which took two entire days, and a third pair of adult hands (thanks, Cagney!).  Karen extracted the tongue and marinated it in a brine, and later made slided sandwich meat - yummy!  Johnny built a frame so we could stretch and tan the hide.  We spent Christmas trampoline jumping on the skin.  And we are celebrating that we are officially organic now with the Oklahoma Dept. of Ag, Food & Forestry!  And our first farm workshop will be coming up at the end of March. 

Johnny has been busy building raised beds in our personal garden.  Our dairy goats are busy growing babies.  And Karen is expanding her list of things to cook from the farm, which include: beef, carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, greens, and some frozen and canned ingredients: bell peppers, broccoli, snow peas, tomatoes, tomato-basil sauce, dehydrated green beans (these are awesome), and pear pie filling. 

In addition to endless stew concoctions (including a Moroccan stew inspired by "Girl Hunter"), there is the obvious spaghetti, chili, burgers and baked sweet potatoes, but other goodies like Potato-Carrot-Root Soup with baked wheat rolls, and "Snoopy Wellington", which has beef, potatoes, carrots, and greens wrapped in puff pastry and baked - YUM! 
When time and internet access allows, I'll add recipes.  Until then... The Barefoot Farmers

Most recently I was cleaning out the freezer in preparation for butchering our steer in December.  I found a bag marked "goat soup bones" from 2009.  I boiled those on the wood stove with water, salt, bay leaves, and basil.  I also set some crowder peas out to soak overnight.  I took the broth off the stove and set it on the screen porch overnight (it was at a safe temperature - I should mention I'm a dietitian).
The next day I skimmed the fat (my dogs loved it) and trimmed much meat from the bones.  The dogs also loved the bones.  I added back the meat with our potatoes in our root cellar from summer, sweet potatoes from a recent harvest, carrots that are still in the ground, and greens that are still growing (kale, mustards, beet tops and spinach).  Oh, and the crowder peas.  And more herbs and salt. 

I also ground some of our wheat in my coffee grinder and made rolls.  Yum!  I think this will feed us for 5 nights.  Good thing even Calvin loves it. 

Why Aren't We CERTIFIED Organic?

The short answer is that we basically are organic. We use no chemical pesticides or herbicides. Our primary defense against insects is growing healthy plants and hand-picking. Our defenses against weeds are mulching in our smaller space on raised beds. In our crop field we plowed in the winter to freeze Bermuda grass roots, cover cropped, hand-weed, and cultivate between rows. We use no synthetic fertilizer. We run our chickens over rows in the winter in "chicken tractors". We cover crop and till in this green manure. We spread manure from OUR farm animals on our beds. We have a giant compost pile.

So why aren't we certified? We think what we are doing is good enough, and we hope you will take our word for it. Or better yet - come visit and see for yourselves! We don't want to spend 5x the price for certified organic cover crop seed to be mailed to us when we can pick up untreated seed at Coop. We also germinate most of our seed, but peppers don't do well for us. We buy little pepper plants locally - usually at Farmers' Coop. These little transplants aren't certified organic, so we can't be certified either.

We buy our garden seed from a few companies - primarily FedCo and Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. This later company offers some seed that is certified organic, but some that isn't. Regardless, none of their seed has been treated (with insecticides) and none is GMO. That's good enough for us.

None of the vegetables you buy from us will ever have been sprayed with anything - ever. Not even organically certified sprays. Some of the organic sprays are broad-sepctrum - meaning they impact both nuisance insects and beneficial insects. And what about insect-eating birds, such as the kingbirds that eat bugs in our garden? I'm not sure. We paint squash bugs eggs (on the leaves) with brignt nail polish, which keeps them from hatching. This isn't approved by organic standards, but we think it's okay. We also occasionally spray a bug infestation (the bugs, not the squash) with water & dishsoap. We use about 1 tsp. soap per 2 qt. spray bottle. I figure this is okay too. Heck, I use the stuff on my dishes and my food touches that.

It'd be great to slap the magic word on our market stall sign (*organic*). But it's not worth it right now. And we can't use the magic word unless we pay the man for his okay. That kinda ruffles our all-natural feathers. We know what we are. And now you do too.

To learn more about what organic is and isn't, visit the Kerr Center: http://www.kerrcenter.com/. We are in support of the organic. So much so that we do all the work without the credit. As found on the Kerr website, organic growing is about a cultural system based on natural principles. It is about building a fertile living soil and an environment that supports the healthy growth of plants and natural biological control - a situation where synthetic pesticides and fertilizers is unneccesary - even counter productive.