Preparations for Spring Begin While Garden Sleeps

The holidays season on the farm was sunny, bright and 50 degrees. With our mild winter so far, the chickens are still laying and having a great time out in the sun.
Our Christmas Eve feast consisted of the gift of venison from Derek. I marinated it in blueberry pulp, left from making the sauce, 6 garlic cloves, Thyme, red wine and olive oil for 8 hours. Then roasted it for 1 1/2 hours and served it with Blueberry Barbeque Sauce, my own recipe. I also made a potato gratin with Gruyere cheese and layered with swiss chard (from the garden of course). Brussell Sprouts added the green to the plate as well.

The Blueberry Barbeque Sauce is the tastiest thing I've made yet. A bit tart with a hint of chili, great on chicken, pork and venison! It's even better than my Ginger Pear Marmalade. I won't share the recipe but you can order an 8 oz jar of it for yourself ($6.00 per jar) by going to epitherrienfarms@gmail.com and place your order. Shipping costs vary or just arrange for drop off.

I have placed our order for our new chickens. They will be delivered the first week of February. An earlier delivery than last year. They should be old enough to withstand any heat the summer can bring. 25 assorted heritage layers will soon be joining the farm. I can't wait!

Seeds and plants will be ordered by end of January as well. Onions and Potatoes will be first to go in. This year I will plant red, white and blue potatoes to be ready for the 4th of July holiday!
Who wouldn't want a red, white and blue potato salad at their pic-nic!

Seasons Greetings From the Farm

As the cold sunny days are passing, we are already planning for our next growing season and hope the winter will be a mild one.

2011 was a much improved year and we all have a lot to be thankful for. Steve's been working all year at a heated frenzy to catch up from the slow winter of 2010-2011. He lost so much work because of the harsh winter that he felt 60 hours a week was necessary. Thankfully he was able to catch up and his business is expanding south (good thing with these gas prices). He also sub-contracted for a commercial construction and paint company as a crew supervisor.

The farm is doing well. This year our pond was stocked by the MO Dept of Conservation and the veggies were plentiful even though the tomatoes and cucumbers were a disappointment. The summer was too wet, then too hot. For our Thanksgiving feast we picked 3 baskets of gems that we included in the dinner: leeks, beets, lettuce, carrots, purple cauliflower and radishes. It's now December and I am still picking lettuce, beets and swiss chard. Fresh eggs too of course from the hens.

USTA Missouri Valley is still as satisfying as ever. Steve was able to travel with me to Palm Springs and has since become my "ace" volunteer. A week in the sun for pennies doesn't hurt either. This year he plans to join me in NY for the US Open!

I have also begun to work with our team of programmers, creating better, faster and mobile- friendly systems for TennisLink Leagues. Who knew? 5 years ago, I couldn't use a flash drive, now I am a subject matter expert! Ha Ha!

Derek has moved back to Kansas City after two years in San Diego CA. The struggles in such an expensive city just became too much. He's back working for the same company that Steve also worked for. He's kept up with his hunting and our Christmas Table will be centered by the roast venison. Yummy!

Willie has been working in his field this year as an electrical engineer at Sunnen Systems which build circuits for many types of machines. He is living in St Louis where he graduated from SLU and attended one year of graduate school. His girlfriend Lexie is still in law school but will gradute this spring.

The 3 cats are doing great! Blackie is slowly making friends with Patch and Rex, since she likes to come in from the cold more often that ever now, especially since she discovered the big food bowl, just inside the back door. We are still mourning the passing of Stubby, our blind but amazing cat. We think of her often and hope she rests peacefully in kitty heaven.

We are blessed in many ways and hope your blessing grow like a garden this year.

Have a Happy and Healthy Holiday Season!

God Bless!

Thanksgiving Bounty

Steve, Lian and Geoffrey came from Columbus OH to share our Thanksgiving. Sue had to work and her Mom just had surgery. We miss you Sue! We jhope your Mom is doing great!

Thursday morning the sun was killing off the fog and the temps rose quickly to 40 degrees. It would be 65 by the time we sat down at the feast table.

I went off to the garden to harvest our veggies for dinner.

Purple Cauliflower, beets, carrots, leeks, radishes, lettuce and swiss chard all were covered with cold dewy drops.

The menu:

Bourbon Maple Turkey with cornbread, mushrooms, apple and sauasage stuffing.

Potato and leek gratin

Candied sweet potatoes with maple bourbon sauce (we definitely didn't make enough of these)

Roasted Cauliflower, turnip and beets with balsamic reduction glaze

Green sald with our last two summer tomatoes, lettuce, beet greens and radishes with a classic french vinaigrette.

Pies for dessert:

Maple Bourbon Pecan with whipped cream

Apple Pie with maple

Sweet Potato Pie with marshmellows on top (thank you mama Johnson)

You can see a theme here! Real Maple Syrup. We love it. And this feast could not have happened with out receiving a box from Louisette just in time with cans of Canadian maple syrup!

Blessing to share and enjoy for days. Today, turkey soup and turkey sandwiches! Yummy!!!!!

Animal Tales. You can't make this stuff up!

We have two female ducks, a khaki and a mallard. So, last week the mallard flies to the next door pond. They have 12 ducks or so. Our Khaki duck quacks all day long with the mallard quacking back but she doesn't come home. Next morning, the mallard come back to our pond for a visit, swims around with our khaki for a bit and flies off. Now our khaki quacks and quacks, with the mallard quacking back occassionally but she is not comeinf home. Next door, they have male crested mallards. She has found a mate! Now we have a lonely little khaki duck swimming around and gets excited when we come to visit or the cat hangs out at the pond. Hussy mallard!

Today I went out to the garden to thin out the radishes and cut some lettuce for dinner. I see over at Sue's (our neighbor to the south) and her puppy great pyreneese puppy running after a grey chicken, or so I thought. NO, he's chasing my grey silkie rooster, up and down along the fence. Now I have no idea how he got there since he does not fly like the hens but I had to get him out of there. The dog will eat him since he is not part of their flock. I went in to the bramble and spent a half hour trying to grab him, but no success. I lifted the chain link fence so he could go through, no, too easy. I gave up! Be eaten you stupid bird. I went inside and cleaned the house.

Two hours later, I came out to view the hens and he was standing right below the deck! Stupid bird! Can you get poison ivy in the fall?

Easy Comfort Food to Keep You Warm

With temps dipping down to 29 degrees, burrr!!!, I'm always concocting low calorie, inexpensive comfort food.
Here are a couple of recent dinners:
The first one I can not take credit for, I got it on Guy Fieri's show, DD& D. Then I did it my way. It's Haluski, a dish after my half-polish heart!
Lori's version of Haluski
1 head of cabbage, boiled in water for 5 minutes, then juliened.
1 stcik of butter (I susbstituted 4 TBSP butter and 4 tables olive oil
2 lg onions julienned
1 lb bacon, cooked drained and crumbled (I used just 3 slices)
1 TBSP garlic salt divided
1/4 cup dry white wine
1/2 lb lasagna noodles or wide egg noodles (cooked to el dente)
Boil Cabbage in a large stock or pasta pot, then remove to drain and add noodles to the same boiling water until cooked, drain and set aside.
cook the onions in the butter and oil on medium heat. Let them sweat but don't brown them. Then add the cabbage and sprinkle with 1/2 the garlic salt. Add crumbled bacon, white wine, noodles and rest of the garlic salt. Saute until everything is glazed, about 3-5 minutes. Serve with steamed Keilbasa and mustard! Yummy!

The next dinner was a pantry whip up. I had everything in the pantry.
Pink Penne
1 lb penne pasta
1 can salmon- skin and bones removed, then break up into bite size pieces
2 cloved minced garlic
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 jar lite alfredo sauce
1 jar (about 6-8 oz roasted red peppers, break up peppers into bite sized pieces
1/4 cup grated parmesean cheese
Cook pasta according to directions, drain and set aside.
In a very large skillet or saute pan, add 1 tbsp oilive oil and two cloves of minced garlic. saute for 2 minutes, add salmon chunks, white wine, roasted red pepper and alfredo sauce, mix until smooth. Add Penne and saute until pasta is heated through, then sprinkle cheese and serve. I served it with garden greens in a vinaigrette.

Fluffy Rooster

Watch out, he may look cute but he hates red! If you wear red clothing, he will chase you down and fly at you with his talons high. He's usually very sweet to me because I feed them every morning. But if the guys are out in the farm yard or anyone wears red, he's a crazed maniac! Today I am working from home, went to the kitchen for a cup of tea, turned around to the back door and Mr. Rooster was at the door, looking in (full paned glass) and checking out the kitchen. Ha! He actually had to come up on the deck, cross the 15 feet or so to the back door. Crazy little dude!

This one is a Crested Polish Hen. I call her Phyllis Diller. She has a huge mop of feathers on the top of her head, just like the feathery hats Phyllis Diller used to wear. I am showing my age!

75 degrees and sunny!

Another week of Indian Summer. I picked the last two eggplants and a couple of poblano peppers. Greens and brussel sprouts are still thriving. Beets, carrots and lettuce are doing well too. Dinner was the cover recipe of Cooking Light, mac & cheese. It was awesome. Instead of bechamel sauce, you make a puree of butternut squash cooked in milk and herbs.
It was one of the best Mac & Cheese recipes I've tried!
To go with it I made a green bean salad that will defintiely become a regular side at our table:

1lb fresh green beans, blanched and cooled
1 large beefsteak tomato, fresh from the garden, cut in chunks
1 large shallot, thinly sliced
1TBSP capers with 1 TBSP juice of capers
1 TBSP red wine vinegar
1/4 cup french vinaigrette

Place sliced shallot, capers, caper juice and vinegar in small bowl. Marinate the shallots for 30 minutes.
Place cooled beans and tomato chuncks in salad bowl. Add marinated shallots and juices. Add French vinaigrette and toss to coat. Serve with fresh ground black pepper. Yummy!

Burrrr! Time To Cover Up!

What a shock! A week in Palm Springs with over 100 degree temps each day and coming home to 32 degrees at night! I headed out to my garden with my harvest baskets. I picked 32 peppers (sweetgreen, poblano and hunan)two cucumbers, eggplant, tomatoes, green onions, swiss chard, collard greens and radishes and green beans. Enough to last me a month!
Now it's time to cover all the plants with plastic, especially my herbs, swiss chard and lettuce. I want to keep them growing for as long as I can.
The chickens are doing fine. Time to set up their heater in the coop though. I want them nice and warm so they will keep laying those lovely eggs.

Melt-in-your-mouth Oriental Pot Roast

I had to try my new Presto 23 quart Pressure Cooker. I couldn't wait. I had fresh pak choy picked from my garden so I decided to try an Oriental pot roast. Melt in your mouth, soak up the last of the juice, yummy, in just 45 total minutes! I'm in comfort food heaven!

Lori's Oriental Pot Roast
4lb chuck roast
1 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, sliced thinly
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2tbsp minced fresh ginger
2 tbsp hoison sauce
1 cup teryaki sauce (I made my own)
1/2 cup mushroom broth
1/4 cup beef broth
2 bunches pak choy, cleaned, separated but left leaves whole
1/2 lb carrots (I picked mine from the garden)
Optional :1 hunan dried chile, crumbled

Heat oil in clean pressure cooker, add roast and sear until each side is brown. Remove roast and set aside. Add Garlic and onions and saute for 1 minute. Place roast back in cooker, pile onions ginger, carrots and pak choy on top of roast.
In small bowl add rest of ingredients and wisk to combine. Add to cooker, seal with lid and heat to 15 PSI. Cook at 15 PSI for 30 minutes. Turn off heat and let pressure reduce on it's own. When it is finished, open lid and serve on a bed of udon noodles. Finger licking good!
I served a Syrah wine with it and a green salad.
Now I am in Palm Springs enjoying light fish meals! But I can't wait to come up with more recipes for my new cooker when I get back. Rabbit stew I think! I just have to get Derek out there to bag a few for me!

Summer is not over yet!

It's 80 degrees, unseasonably warm for October and my tomatoes are coming back. I had one tomato plant that got so heavy with fruit, I had to pick 3 of the tomatoes to keep the rest from lying on the ground. I've wrapped them to ripen and set them aside. Sunshine, warmth and worm castings have really kept my garden going this fall. I just planted radishes again and I have several beds of new shoots: beets, beans, carrots and italian kale! I even picked 3 pickling cucumbers and have a volunteer pumpkin plant with 5 mini pumpkins growing.

So, yesterday I get a call from one of my Foodie Friends,Bruce. We get in a discussion about preserving all my goodies for the winter and asks me if I have a canning pressure cooker. Well I certainly remmber my Mom making the BEST pot roast and beef stew in her pressure cooker. I used to wash dishes and the thing was so heavy I could barely lift it, okay, I was young! Well if Bruce sells realestate as well as he sells pressure cookers, he must be very successful.

I decided on the 23 quart Presto Pressure Cooker. it has only one psi setting of 15, but being a canner and a carnivore, I won't worry about cooking delicate fish in mine, I'll stick to canning and Beef!!!! I can't wait to make my first pot roast on a cool evening and Steve won't have to wait until 9:00PM to eat dinner.
Thanks Bruce, I'll let you know how it goes!

A lucious fall swiss chard recipe- Super Easy!

I picked about 2 lbs of Swiss Chard last week end. Fall temps set in as well as the rain. The garden looks nice and green but we wanted a warm comforting meal Sunday night.
I grilled some salmon fillets with a honey, chinese mustard, rice vinegar and lemongrass marinade and served this yummy chard with it:
2lbs of Swiss chard, cleaned and cut in one inch pieces
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves of minced garlic
1/4 cup organic chicken broth
1/4 cup of white wine
1/2 cup of dried cranberries

heat oil in pan, add garlic and saute until soft. Add White win and chicken stock and swiss chard. Toss to coat and stir while cooking for 5 minutes. Add cranberries and continue stirring until broth and wine are reduced to half, about another 3 to 5 minutes. Serve!

Still Loving September

Just back from a fabulous trip to Aspen with the family. Gardens and mountains and beauty everywhere motivates me to get going here at home. I have rotated my worm bin and have a bucket of liquid fertilizer for the garden and worm castings to add to soil for new planting boxes.
Picked Swiss Chard, spinach, hot peppers, green beans and collards.

For dinner we had pork chops seared with Trader Joe's Ginger Mango chutney (to die for) and I steamed the collards in a saute pan with sweet red pepper and cubed mango with a bit of red pepper flakes, garlic and 1 cup of organic chicken broth. Wow, great combination, you've got to try it!
Our new rooster is doing fine, lots of singing, and the teenage hens are blending well with the ladies. Two hens are in nesting mode but we don't have any fertilized eggs yet. What a waste. We gave them golf balls to sit on! They love it.

Another Fox has moved in!

I thought we got rid of our # 1 enemy, the fox, but alas, it seems we have another one taking residence near by. One of my beloved Rhode Island Red hens is gone. They are too sweet and lovable to have been kidnapped by that rascalian fox. Off with his head!
We'll have to work on that.
Now, things are much greener in the garden. Baby eggplants, green beans, new shoots of lettuce are all appearing. I seeded a new row of carrots twice and don't see any sign of new shoots. I don't know why they aren't sprouting! I keep them moist, it hasn't been too hot (this week it is but not the two last weeks I seeded) and the soil has been boosted with composted manure.
What to do. I've even tried other seeds, thinking I got a bad batch.
Don't tell the racoons but I have 3 Moon & Stars melons growing now. SH SH! Don't tell those critters. Last year we had some autumn cantalopes that were delightful. Hopefully these will make it to picking time too.
Last night I made Creole Style Fish that was Crohn's disease safe. It was fabulous, so I'll share!
2 lbs white fish fillets (I used Swai, very inexpensive)
2 stalks celery, washed and sliced thinly
1/2 sweet red pepper, chopped into small pieces
1/4 lb oyster mushrooms, chopped
1 TBSP Olive oil
Bowl of season mix (see recipe below)
1/3 cup dry white wine
Chop vegetables, set aside. Wash fish fillets and dry with paper towels.
Add vegetables and oil to skillet and saute until celery is tender, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle half of seasoning mixed and stir to coat veggies. Add the wine, stir well and simmer for one minute. Add fish fillets across the top of veggies, sprinkle remaining seasoning over the fish, cover and simmer for 5 minutes on medium low heat. Serve! YUMMY!!!!!
I served this with fresh choped Swiss Chard, steamed with apple cider vinegar & red pepper flakes.
Season Mix: 1 tbsp kosher salt, 1 tbsp paprika, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp dried basil, 1 tsp dried thyme,1 tsp black pepper,and 1 tsp creole seasoning. Mix all ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.

An August more like September

The heat has finally broken, rain has come and the temps have been more like Autumn. Cooler evenings have givien way to thriving greens in the garden. I see new blossoms on the tomatoes and eggplant and the collards are beautifully lush. I've dug up the remaining potatoes and onions. I have enough to last a couple of months at least. In their places I am planting carrots, pak choy, lettuce and kale. Next week I'll plant beets and spinach.
I am still grievaning over our sweet corn. 2 big raccoons ravaged the corn field, pulled the stalks down and ate every cob we had. Then they ate all the watermelon! They even dragged the watermelon plants away. Suckers! We'll take care of them! Now we'll have to go to Johnson's farm for their sweet corn. At least we have good neighbors!

Saturday night I made Quinoa salad. Derek had never tried this fairly new grain product so we were curious if his system could handle it. Big success!
Crohn approved Quinoa Salad
1 cup Quinoa, cooked as directed.
1 small japanese eggplant, chopped to bitesize pieces
3 cloves garlic minced
1/2 cup sliced small white mushrooms
1/2 cup chooped sweet red pepper
1 tbsp minced fresh oregano
1 tbsp minced fresh thyme
1/4 cup olive oil
Heat the olive oil in a skillet, add all ingredients except cooked quinoa. Saute for 5 minutes until veggies are tender. Salt & pepper to taste. Add the cooked quinoa and toss with veggies. Serve warm.
I added chopped heirloom tomatoes on top for the non-Crohn eaters and sprinkled with feta.
Beautiful!

Keeping up with the heat

With our 3rd week of over 100 degree temps here, all I seem to do is water, water, water and it's not enough. Cucumbers, squash and greens are all burning up. Crispy critters!

Tomatoes and peppers are doing well so far but the tomatoes are starting to stress. It finally rained this morning, which will help.

The 4 baby chicks we have left are doing fine now. Active, noisy and having fun.

We have a new addition to the farm, our oldest son Derek is back home from San Diego. California living is not all it's cracked up to be with a bankrupt state and high cost of living. He's here to find a job and learn to be a farmer. Today we organized and cleaned the chicken coop! The ladies are all doing well.

Steve just came to the back door with another black snake wrapped around his arm, found him trying to eat one of the eggs in the chicken coop! He's sending him to a new home!

Derek and I picked 12 tomatoes this morning and I'm going to make home made salsa.

Classic Salsa (Medium to hot)

6 large red tomatoes

2 tbsp olive oil

1/4 cup diced red onion

2 garlic cloves (minced)

2 tbsp lime juice

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 diced Holy Mole Pepper, heat like a jalapeno but twice as long. (if not available use 2 jalapeno peppers)

Place all ingredients in Food Processer, pulse until done.

Derek has Crohn's Disease. I am lucky to have a garden full of veggies he can eat. Tonight's dinner, we had Maple Mustard glazed grilled chicken, with roasted steak fried potatoes and Crohn's safe Ratatouille.

Ratatouille:

4 small eggplants- size of tennis balls, chopped in bite size pieces

1 large sweet red pepper

2 large stalks of celery

1/2 can of black olives

1 clove of garlic

1/4 cup olive oil

Add olive oil and garlic to a heated saute pan, add 1 pinch of dried,crushed red pepper and cook until garlic starts to pop. Add eggplant, celery and red pepper pieces and saute for 5 minutes

then add the black olive and 1 teaspoon of each of these herbs: basil, thyme and oregano. Saute for another 3 minutes, then serve.

Heart Break in the Heat!

I have not posted in a while as we are still in mourning. Last weekend we lost 21 of our 6 week old chicks. A plaque of some disease wiped out the entire flock leaving only 5 seemingly healthy birds. Our farm vet thinks the heat lowered the chicks immunities and when one got sick it quickly spread. Steve stayed with the babies all weekend and is ever watchful still. They have been removed from the brooder coop to a temporary coop in the barn as we don't want our adult hens to catch the sickness. We are hoping the 5 will make it and be okay. No visible symptoms yet. I sure wish this heat would break. Even adults have difficulties making through a day in this 107 average temp at the farm this week.
I have been very distracted during this trying time and drove off to work on Tuesday with the watering system still going. Man, that will be some water bill this month! But the cucumbers and tomatoes are doing great! 4 types of heirlooms are doing the best, Lemon Boy, Brandywine, Russian Salad and Mr. Stripey.
The corn is finally starting to produce cobbs. It won't be long now! SH! Don't tell the raccoons!

Time to start sharing!

Heat index of 110 and I still have weeding to do. I began at 8:00 AM Saturday morning and didn't quit until 3:00PM. I felt kind of woozie! I guess I didn't drink enough water while I was out there in the sun! I weeded the eggplant and pepper beds. Thinned out another Collard bed and yes, now I have another 4lbs of collards to go wash, cook and freeze.

I stumbled over the beets as I was walking by and realized I had some for picking. Great! Another 2 lbs of beet greens to cook and beautiful beets to roast for dinner. See picture above.

Sunday, afternoon, with heat warnings in the news, Steve cut the lawn and trimmed some branches and I dug up one row of yukon gold potatoes. Packed them up in individual 2lb bags, ready to go to the office on Monday. I tilled the row of soil, added some worm castings and planted some Edamame and bush beans for my fall planting. Next weekend, I'll have the peas to dig up and will replant some Pak Choy and oriental long beans, maybe a few carrots too.

I started picking about 2 cucumbers a day so I will bring some of those to the office as well. See photo. I have burbless, or English cucumbers and fanfare, (just like the grocery store kind) fat, thicker peels and lots of water.

I am a calves liver fan from way back. And I had more, tender beet greens to cook. So, I made my favorite liver recipe: Calves Liver and onions in balsamic red wine sauce but I added the beet greens with the onions. Wow! It was mouth watering. Steve even said he liked it and beets and liver are his 2 LEAST favorite foods. The key is to mix fresh chopped Thyme to the flour when dredging the liver. Saute the liver in just a bit in butter, place on a platter and keep warm in a 250 degree oven. Add 1/2 cup red wine and 2 TBSP balsamic vinegar. Cook until reduced by half while scraping bits off bottom of pan. Then add the sliced onions to the pan and cook until opaque, then add the beet greens and cook for 2 more minutes. Add liver again and simmer for 5 minutes. Mouth watering! Really! Try it, you'll like it!

Hot, still hot and too much to do!

A long hot weekend but we got a lot done.

Friday, I fertilized the corn, pumpkins, beets and cauliflower with worm casting tea. Thinned the beets. Transplanted 4 large volunteer tomato plants and fertilized them with tea as well. Picked spinach, lettuce, zucchini, cucumbers, peas, and beans. Washed it all, cooked the spinach and froze it.

Saturday, thinned the carrots, thinned one of the collard beds and ended up with 6 lbs of collard greens to cook and freeze. The house smelled really strange after 3 hours of that.

Steve removed the heavy brush growing around the chicken coop and horse corrals. No we don't have horses, but we have a great set up for large animals. Someday! Cows? Pigs? Sheep? Alpaca's? Who Knows. I am reading up on all of them first!

Sunday, picked the above items in pictures. Assorted veggies and 5 lbs of potatoes.

Steve and I emptied and moved the garden shed, giving us about 20 feet of growing space for a new bed. We will use that to start our fall selections of Kale, Lettuce, bush beans and a few other varieties.

Monday, Steve woke me at 7:00AM with a cup of coffee. 67 degrees and only 65% humidity made it perfect for a good training bike ride. 10 quick miles down 223rd St. back at home in 43 minutes. Not too shabby but I have to knock off at least 5 minutes from my time.

I then organized my new shelves in the garden shed. Now I can find everything. Steve mowed the lawn (with our Kubota, pictured above) and by 3 PM we were very hot and sticky. A frosty Corona and a dip in the pool made the afternoon go by quickly and cool. I was falling asleep by 8:30PM.

Turnips get a bad wrap!

When was the last time you had turnips. I remember my Mom serving boiled turnips, pureed with S & P and butter. I wanted to hold my nose to finish the pile on my plate.
Well, never again! You all have to try turnips once again, but in a more sophisticated but easy way!
This weekend we dug up potatoes, onions and turnips! A sea of yellow and white on my harvest table.
I checked my Italian cookbook, Silver Spoon, and found a fabulous recipe just for these three items! This is my adaptation of it:
1 large onion, thinly sliced
1 lb white turnips, trimmed of the greens and thinly sliced
1lb of white potatoes sliced (I picked fresh yukon gold)
1/4 cup veggie stock
1 tbsp dried or 2 tbsp fresh minced oregano
1/4 cup mozzarella cheese
S&P to taste
Place onion in a skillet with 1 tbsp olive oil and saute on medium heat until opaque but not browned.
Add the sliced potato and turnips, toss to coat and saute for another 3 minutes. Add S&P to taste and the veggie stock, saute to coat with stock and pour in an oven-proof cassorole dish or small roasting pan. Place in a 350 oven for 30 minutes. Almost all the stock should be eliminated, if it gets too dry, add a bit more. Sprinkle the minced oregano over the vegetables and sprinkle the mozzarella over the top for the last 10 minutes of roasting. Serve! Yummy!
It's so good, you'll make this a regular dish.
We served it with rib steaks marinated in olive oil and assorted dried peppers ground and rubbed in the meat, grilled, with sauted mushrooms. And for the greens, I cooked the turnip greens like spinach and sprinkled fresh grated parmesean cheese on top.
A fabulous meal after a tough weekend of weeding and mulching the garden with hay. I also had to dust my greens as the worms have been appearing. So, after dusting the entire garden with oganic dust, (took me about 1 1/2 hours) I was feeling satisfied until I wake up at 3AM to fierce wind and driving rain. So much for the dust! And why can't the weather team predict these storms? I sure wouldn't waste the time if they had predicted rain! So, this week I'll have to dust again! The only job that you can be wrong everyday and still get paid!

New addition to the Farm!!!

We have a new baby chick!

Our nesting hen has been taking good care of her eggs. She's been sitting on 5 of them and one hatched two days ago. Steve went into the coop to feed everyone and refresh their water and our black nesting hen was making noises. He lifted her chest to check her eggs and out popped a nice fluffy chick that must have hatched the night before. The chick was moving well and chirping nicely.

Last night, arrived home and hopped on the tractor. I drove around the farm while following Steve. He picked up all the branches that had fallen in the last storms we had a few nights ago. Bucket after bucket full. I love driving the tractor, it's a lot more fun than a golf cart!

Picked another cucumber, yellow wax beans and a lb. of snow peas. I grilled some shrimp, that was marinated in lime juice, cilantro, green onion, grated ginger, olive oil and minced garlic. Then I blanched the snow peas and tossed them with 1 TBSP of Thai Fish Sauce, 2 TBSP soy sauce and 2 teaspoons of toasted sesame oil and served them over a bed of rice noodles with the shrimp on top.

On the side I whipped up a cucumber salad : Sliced cucumbers, 1/4 cup of rice vinegar, 1 tsp sugar, 1 green onion, sliced; and 1/4 tsp Saracha chili sauce just for kick! Blend all ingredients in a shallow bowl, let stand for at least 30 minutes in the fridge, then serve.

Dinner: Cognac Carrots & Cream Fettucini

Dinner last night: I had a 1/2 pint of heavy cream to use which I bought to make for the cheese cake but didn't need the calorie overload. So what to make for dinner. I looked in the fridge and saw a half pound of baby carrots calling my name. Inspiration hit!
Take the half pound baby carrots and slice them thin in the processor. Doesn't matter what side they get sliced, just thin enough to cook faster.
Add them to a skillet with 1 tbsp of butter, saute for 3 minutes. Add 1 TBSP fresh Thyme and 1/4 cup Couvoisier Cognac. (Thank you Christine & Gislain) and saute another 5 minutes. Most of the cognac will be eliminated and don't hang your head over the skillet, it's strong! Then add the heavy cream and simmer at a low temperature, from 3 to 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, boil the pasta, 1 lb fettucini, until done. Try to complete the pasta boil at the same time as finish the sauce. Scoop out pasta right from the boling pot and add directly to the sauce skillet. Add all the pasta and toss slowly while it mixes the flavors for about 2 minutes. Serve with fresh grated parmesean and a green leafy salad with basic vinaigrette and a glass of Pinto Grigio.
Yummy!!!!

Chicklettes down of the Farm

The chicks are getting big! They are not quite teens yet, but they are developing personalities, so I call them Chicklettes! The Cuckoo Marans are defintiely the most social and hop over as soon as you enter the brooder coop. The Creve Coeur's and the Polish are active but still skiddish. They are all so cute. This morning, a Cuckoo Maran hopped out to greet me and stood still below my feet. It was facinated with my brown toe nails, (I had flops on) and I put my hand down near the ground and it hopeed in my hand and curled up to snuggle! It was so cool.

I put a bowl of crumbles in front of me so I could take a puicture of it. Others hopped over to check out the action!

Greens: Mustard, Turnip and Spinach

7 lbs of greens, picked, blanched and frozen. That was my tasks for Sunday evening, while I was waiting for the cheese cake to cool; Steve's request for Father's Day! A raspberry cheese cake with chocolate crust and berries sauce on top. Fresh berries picked Saturday morning: blackberries, blueberries, raspberries and strawberries cokked for 5 minutes with 1/4 cup of sugar 1/4 cup of Triple Sec and a bit of corn startch to thicken. Yummy! The entree was rib steacks with ancho chile rub, steamed broccoli (picked in the am) with lemon vinaigrette, and fresh garden salad, including radishes, lettuce and cucumbers from our garden. How do you spell FIBER! :)

We took a short excursion on the motor cycle this weekend and discovered a very nice surprise. We always wondered why many of our neighbors had boats! Their ponds weren't big enough to hold them that's for sure. But on our short ride we discovered we live very close to Hillsdale Lake and State Park. Wow! It's beautiful! Full-service camping area, quite large marina and shelters for large crowd gatherings! Steve is very excited and now wants a new toy! A boat!

Steve worked very hard this weekend as well He installed our 250 gallon water tank to the north side of the barn, made a spicket, at the bottom, ready for a drip line hose and now when it rains, all the rain draining on the north side of the barns will fill the tank. The way it's been raining, one good rain should do it, but it will help the gardne a lot. Drip lines will run right out to the garden where my corn and pumpkins pathc is. This area is the hardest to reach by the other rain barrels.

Cultivate, Fertilize,Weed and Watch!!!

Planting is done! For now!

Now I have the tasks of cultivating all the rows, fertilizing with worm castings tea, weed, weed weed, and then watch everything grow until I can pick something.

I am, actually, picking Swiss Chard, broccoli, purple peppers, peas, (both snap and sugar) blueberries, strawberries, blackberries ...and we got our first cucumber! A beautiful 10 inch cucumber. I hid it in the back of the fridge. Steve can demolish an entire cuc in one sitting! It's his favorite snack! He has also requested a cheesecake, topped with mixed berries! Who can refuse such a request?

I am looking for additional recipes for Swiss Chard. I have a lot! I even gave some away at our book club meeting the other night as a door prize! Ha!

Baby chicks are doing great! They are healthy and hopping everywhere! That is everywhere in their brooder coop! Having a great time trying to climb on each other.

Our ducks have deminished by 2. We are down to six because of the fox family that has taken to squatting in our stable up in back. The male comes out every morning and at dusk looking for dinner for his family! We are not amused! Steve is on patrol to scare him away at both shifts each day!

We have another problem, our pear trees. Last year the yield on the two trees was so great, we couldn't can the pears fast enough. This year I keep checking and I have not one pear on the tree. Before the tornados blew through, my trees were loaded with blossoms. They looked so beautiful. Then the next week, my trees have no blossoms or pears! Nothing but leaves! I think the tornados blew off all the blossoms before they can flower into fruit. Does anyone have any other theories? I have never had fruit trees before, so I am learning as I go along. I have 2 apple trees also. I have 1 visible apple. Same thing, blossoms were beautiful, then nothing! How can I go through an entire year without my Ginger Pear pork chops? Impossible!

Dinner from the grill and the garden

After a grueling tennis match (no, I didn't win but had a great time, Thanks Maria!) I was craving protein. Rib steaks on the grill marinated with 2tbsp balsamic vinegar, 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce, 1 tbsp brown sugar and 1 clove of garlic minced. Mix marinade, add to a zip lock bag and marinate steaks for at least 30 minutes. Grill 5 minutes per side, we like them mowing in the middle!

Served with red small new potatoes, sliced not quite through, rubbed with chipotle seasonings and olive oil, wrapped in foil. Place on grill with indirect heat for 45 minutes.

I had 1 lb. of radish tops left and picked 1 lb. of swiss chard. Washed and drained. I cut the chard into 1 inch srtips. Aded the radish tops and chard in a saute pan, added 2 tbsp olive oil, 2 tbsp lemon juice, 1 tsp kosher salt and 1/2 tsp sugar. Saute on medium heat for 10 minutes or until the chard stems are tender.

Wow! What a meal. Everyone should grow radishes! They are so easy, harvest in a month and always make a great crunchy snack and don't forget those greens! Yummy!

Houdini Ducks and green peas!

So, we have houdini ducks who can find their way out of the best fences!!!!
I come home every night and watch across the state road as my ducks sleep under my neighbors huge trees! I am not sure why they constantly treck out of the 3 acres they live in (with a 1/3 of an acre pond) to our neighbors farm across the road! If anyone can lend some advice (besides roast duck) please send us some.
The garden is doing great! I picked the last of the radishes and will replant some this weekend. Potatoes are bulging and I had to pile the soil on the plants. No peaking spuds! With the 98 degree heat my corn has really shot up! As well as the cucumbers. The plants look nice and lush.
We have peas! I picked my first peas last night and yes, it is late. I hope the heat doesn't stunt the yeild. The strawberries love the sun and I pick more each day. I put 4 lbs in the freezer on Sunday. Next large batch is for jam.

The baby chicks are doing fine. A couple little rascals keep hopping out of the brooder and wondering how they did it! They just sit and stare at the other side and can't figure out how to get back! Small brains of course!
Our last black giant chicken has been nesting on 5 eggs for two weeks. She refuses to give them up so we are letting her hatch them. She's taking very good care of them and in one more week we may have a few baby chicks to add to our batch.
If anyone is out driving around on a Sunday afternoon and wants to come buy to visit, you may just go home with some swiss chard. We have a lot! I am now taking orders at $3.99 a pound.
Swiss chard can be used like spinach, but my favorite is in soups and stews. Bacon or ham bits, checken broth, white beans and swiss chard makes a soup to die for! Sprinkle a bit of parmesean on top, slice some crusty bread and pour yourself a nice glass of chardonnay and you are in heaven!

New Arrivals Good & Bad

What a weekend!

Friday started with spitting rain, cloudy skies and too much mud to garden. So, I hit the kitchen and made my first home-made angel food cake, filled with strawberries and topped with strawberry glaze and whipped cream. 6 hours later and a dozen eggs whites peaked to perfection, I decided it was delightfully tasty but too much work. A nice store-bought angel food cake with fresh stawberries is good enough for me!

Lots of chores were done. I worked from 10 in the morning on Saturday to about 6:30PM. Weeding and fertilizing with worm-castings tea. Weeding has to be my most unfavorite activity in the garden. Saturday night we had molasses BBQ ribs, american macaroni salad with diced fresh radishes served with baked beans. Finger licking good!

Monday, midday, Willie and Lexie were coming out to say goodbye before driving back to STL and I called for them both to stop! A 6ft black snake was making his way toward the barn, right across the kids path. He looked nasty! And while they eat their fair share of farm rodents, they also eat checiken and duck eggs! Well, after his initial shock, Willie grabbed the shovel and tried to chop him in two! The shovel blade bounced off his firm body and boy, did he get mad! Coiling in rage he reared up to strike! No worries, he pinned his head against the shed wall with the lawn rake while Willie swung the ax. His aim could have been better but on his thrid swing he chopped his head off. His prior swing cut his body in two p[ieces and out popped a near dead frog he had for lunch! That sucker kept moving for 15 solid minutes after be decapitated! That's what I call perseverence!

Not two hours later Steve drives by me on the tractor, after burying the black snake and he stops at the edge of the pond. He's looking intently at the edge. I follow his sightline and there I see a 4 foot northern water snake with a giant bull frog in his mouth. Well, I now know what to do, I run for the ax, still unclean from the last kill. Steve takes one swing and off with his head! Steve picked him up with a shovel and placed him in the front loader of the tractor. He also moved around for 10 minutes after he didn't have a head! No wonder the ducks have been swimming so close to shore in the pond! They had company in there.

That was enough excitement for me for a year! I hate snakes!

What a day! I was exhausted! Tomorrow we get ready for nice new arrivals!

They've arrived! 27 baby chicks, so tiny they can barely stand up but boy are they noisy! Our new ladies are a mix of black Creve Coeurs, Golden Polish Cresteds and Cuckoo Marans! They have a nice warm brooder to stay in and in 6 months, I'll be able to keep up with my growing egg customer base. Photos above, left to right,Golden Polish Crested, Cuckoo Maran and the Creve Coeur.

Rain, rain go away at least for a day!

The first harvest from our organic garden. Even though it's so muddy, my boots get stuck occassionally, there is much to pick. Champion radishes, leafy green lettuce, rainbow swiss chard and stawrberries! How do you spell yummy!!!!

Much to weed out there, grass is starting to pop up and the ground is so wet it makes it difficult. But, I need to get out there and keep cultivating so it doesn't take over.

I made small trellises with my pruned grape vines. The bendable branches make very good tomato cages too. I am going to try to manufacture a bean pole for my kentucky wonder pole beans with it too.

Steve keeps all the bird feeders full, so the birds are happy to stay away from the early corn shoots. He fashioned scoops and funnels out of powerade plastic bottles to refill the feeders. Use what you have!

Dinner, we made a salad with the leafy green lettuce, thinly sliced vidalia onion, feta cheese and chopped tomato with fig vinaigrette. Wow, it was fantastic. Fig vinaigrette is made with 2 TBLS red wine vinegar, 3TBLS olive oil, 1 TBLS fig preserves, fresh black peper to taste. That make enough for two servings. For a larger salad just multiply. We served the salad with baked salmon steaks with a sweet chili glaze. We also ate fresh radishes with ranch dip. Great snack while waiting for dinner. By the way, we always cook our radish tops. A bit of garlic & olive oil and saute for a few minutes until wilted, yummy!

May 20-21, 2011 Tornados and Toil

What a weekend! Tornado warnings & watches all through our county on Saturday night. Crazy looking sky with evening entertainment of watching the storm cells on the radar, waiting until we could safely go to sleep. While we were watching the radar and meterologists on TV, I made a batch of pickled eggs. Very easy, and should be ready to much by Monday. I picked an ample batch of Swiss Chard and thinned the radish patches.

Thai menu for dinner, so I sauted the swiss chard and the mini radishes (whole) added 2 Tbls Fish Sauce, 2 TBLS lime juice and 1 cup lite-coconut milk. I also added 1 crushed dried hunan chile. Wow! Good as candy! I could have eaten pounds of it!

Sunday we were up early. Our first project was to construct a 24" high chicken wire fence along our farm fence to keep in the ducks, who were determined to get across the street yet again. 5 hours later we finished (the fence was about 200 feet long). Later we discovered one 20 foot span along our neighbors yard that is fenced just with two lines of barbed wire and the ducks easily followed the chickens under the wire and out once again! UGH! Fencing in that area is next! I also planted two trays of beets, one tray of cauliflower and one tray of napa cabbage.
Around 5PM we watched as wall clouds passed us to the south. Those clouds did not look good! You could see rotation and shifting! Luckily we were at least 25 miles away for the core of the storm.

Dinner on Sunday was grilled chicken marinated in lemon, onions, olive oil, spices (paprika, cumin, ginger and white pepper), old fashioned corn pudding and a BLT salad. The salad was outstanding! Fresh picked lettuce, fresh sliced radishes. chopped tomato, halved pickled egg, and sprinkled with bacon bits. Zesty dressing made with sour cream, gargonzola cheese, worcestershire sauce, buttermilk and fresh chives. Yummy!!!!

By the 10 oclock news we began to hear of the devastation in Joplin MO. Our prayers were for our friends there at the Millennium Club, hoping they were well away for the ruin. Half the town center area was completely wiped out by the club and it's employees are all okay! This spring has been an unusually violent one.

Friday, May 20th, 2011

The ducks are in Time-Out!!

With all the rain we have had in the last two days, our ducks have decided to check out all the new puddles or mini-ponds in the neighborhood. Last night, 6PM we get a call from our neighbor across the road that the ducks are in his front yard! Now, we live on a state road, rural, but fairly consistent traffic during the rush hours. Huge farm trucks barrel down the road at 70 miles an hour even though the speed limit is 55. And there goes Steve, right out of the shower, with a white t-shirt and his red flannel, Snoopy pants, running across the front yard to chase the ducks back acroos the road. Of course this means stopping traffic and yes, the first car to stop was full of tennage girls who took a liking to his Snoopy pants. You could hear the french expletives from 100 yards away!

Steve herded them into the barn, early bed-time with no dinner!

Spring 2011- May Journal

This is my first of many journal postings to archive our progress at creating Epitherrien Farms, a 5 acre, mini-farm, 20 miles south of kansas City MO. We have built a chicken coop, which currently houses 7 hens and 1 silkie rooster and will expand with 25 more chicks scheduled to arrive at the end of this month. Steve has transformed our horse corral to a 80' by 80' organic garden. The asparagus and strawberry bed is a permanent bed in the otherwise tilled area. The bed measures 70" by 6' and asparagus should be ready to eat next year (the third year). We created a duck stall in the barn, which is divided with a brooding area and an adult nesting area. Our picturesque farm has a pond and is guarded by two farm cats, Stubby, who is blind and was born on the farm. And Blackie, who is a young fiesty, female who loves to dig, roll and play in the dirt and must give a helping hand at all times. Blackie and Stubby have a hate, hate relationship! They give us hours of entertainment and annoyance! But what a scene it is to see Stubby running across the field after Blackie, who doesn't know Stubby is blind, a quick cut in the opposite direction would relieve her of Stubby's chase!

It is mid-May and our spring has been more like a Canadian spring, rather than a Zone 5, sunny and warm spring. Too bad I am not growing English roses! Planting has been slow, with the cold weather. Radishes, potatoes, onions, carrots, peas, hearbs and several types of greens, (collards, chards, spinach vine etc.) have been doing well. One lonely artichoke plant and several lettuce plants that didn't die over the snowy winter are looking very healthy. We had our first salad from the lettuce on Tuesday night. Green leafy with a bit of dijon mustard, white wine vinegar, olive oil and very thinly sliced red oinion was all that was required! Fresh indeed!

Last night I planted 14 tomatoe plants, 6 peppers and 4 eggplant, all of different varieties. I will record the best producers this year. Tonights task is to build a scarecrow, as the blackbirds have already found the tomato plants. One was nibbled down to a twig already this morning. (No we don't own a gun and will not use them for target practice).
Next in the ground will be the 4 trays of beet seedlings (I just adore beets) and the 3 sisters planted in the beautiful raised planter boxes that Steve built for me. They are 6 foot square with little seats in each corner for easy reaching. These will all go in this weekend. By Memorial Weekend I hope to have everything planted and fabric added over the ripening strawberries.

That's it for now, I'll update soon and I ask for advice on one problem, I have a worm farm that has been producing castings and tea by the boat loads but I have a fly infestation. How do I keep the flies out? If anyone knows please help!