Baby Chicks on the Move!

As I drive around our community I see all the baby cows curled up in the tall grass. A sign that spring is here. 65 degrees yesterday, made a perfect day to move the baby chicks out to the big chicken coop. Steve built a great area for them, separate from the mature ladies, and they are having a blast testing their wings and trying to stay balanced on their roosting pole. The photo at left was their brooder (much too small now). Our mature hens love their new nesting boxes and additional roosting pole that they have all started laying eggs again. We are thrilled. Spring is indeed just around the corner.

Our one lonely female mallard (who moved next door with the males) comes back each morning and quacks up a storm in case any old friends show up.

Steve has begun to plow up the garden. In a week or two I will mix up our first organic fertilizer to add to the soil and begin forming our rows. The fall-planted garlic has already peaked beyond the winter mulch. I can't wait to plant.

Cheese making is coming along, but I need more practice. I can't seem to keep the temps consistent so my curds are not as strong as they need to be. I'll keep trying, becuase Ricotta and mozzarella are good at any time!

In the nice weather on Saturday, we walked up to our back stables to check on our newest addition to the farm, a black and white calico ferrel cat who sneeks down to our deck at night to check for water and food. We noticed the fox den was clean and well used. Time to blow the family out. They fed on our birds for too long last year. Time for a bit of extermination! I just have to find out what to do!

Never a dull moment and always something going on. It's heaven!

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!