It's SPRING!!!!

How do I know it's spring?  Not from the 6'' of snow we received the last 2 days and the blistery winds.  Not because the eagles are all gone except one lone bald who stands sentry over the farm from his perch high in the tree.  Not by the stench of the skunk's spray defending his territory.  Not because the first robin of the season was spotted scouting out the perfect crook to build his nest.

No, I have my own unique way to tell it's spring.

STINK BUGS

or

Darkling Beetles

Every year when spring arrives I begin to find stink bugs.  Not outside (it's still to cold), but crawling across my floor in the little red house.  I know this may be a little disconcerting to some of you, but admit it we all harbor 6 or 8 legged creatures weather it be spiders, silverfish , scorpion, or roaches.  I actually have never seen a roach, I wonder of the stink bug eats them.  I usually see them as they make their way slowly accross the floor, but several times I have heard a crunch and then immediately smelt my mistake.   To dispose of them I have an old House for Sale sign that I scoop them up with.  It is slick so once the stink bug is on it the bug can't crawl up the sign and up my arm.  Then I sent the pour little smelly guy to a watery grave.

this guy was crawling up the bedroom curtain

A few interesting facts about stink bugs:

There are approx 20,000 different species of stink bugs over the world.  The variety that live at the farm (genus Eleodes) are large 1-2 inchs long,  hard-bodied and have long legs.  The long legs keep their bodies up off the ground so they can travel over hot sand and soil.  Their wings are welded to their bodies to help trap moisture.  Stink bugs do not need water.  They extract moisture from their food, they can even get moisture from ground flour.  When disturbed they assume a defensive position by standing on their heads and releasing chemicals from a scent gland in the rear that produces noxious ordors and will stain your skin brown if you come in contact with the chemicals.  "Carver quit catching those blasted stink bugs you smell awful"  I have been known to say more than once.  I also call my children affectionally, "You little Stinker Bug".

Mama stink bug lays 100's of tiny white, oval eggs, which later hatch into mealworms (larval stage)  it takes 4 to 9 days to hatch.  Each mealworm sheds it's exoskeleton many times as it grows.  It then enters the pupal stage (2-3 weeks to 9 months if it over winters).  The pupa transforms itself into an adult.  It is white when it emerges from the pupa----it soon turns black.   They feast on decaying material and will even cut plants off and munch on them.   Adults live for a few months.  The entire life cycle takes about a year.  This beetle is found in all regions of the world.  They usually live in dark, cool, moist places (like under my house) and under rocks and logs.

Why don't I bug bomb under my house?  Because I can tolerate the little fellers for a few days and besides STINK BUGS are my own personal RITE OF SPRING.

Blasted Cold

So, I headed south this past week.  The weather up here in Roosevelt had been beautiful, sunny and warm.  I got an itch to run down to the farm for a few days and get ready for the coming up market season.  Well it's not as warm down there (even though people up here think it's warmer) so of course when I pulled into the yard late Monday night I was hit with a gale force wind and blowing snow.  The next two days the daytime high made it to a balmy,  haha,  26 degrees and the wind was clocked at 80 miles and hour.  How much work do you think I got done?  NOTHING, NOTA , ZERO, ZIP.  The weather didn't seem to bother the new "crop" of lambs, however.

AWWWWWWWW!

I think I'll call her ANGEL

Jacob Sheep make such good moms.  In the 15 or more years I've raised them I have not had any problems.

Not being able to get much done outside, on  Thursday  I ran away to Bunkerville Nevada to see my younger sister and take her a few items.  She is an amazing photographer and refinishes and builds furniture.  She has a blog also   http://emmalsplace.blogspot.com/. 

 .

Friday dawned without a wind and was actually quite warm so I drove over and visited with the 4 Country Gals.  They are a hoot!  I will pay them a "Farm Visit" and tell you all about them in the future.  4 retired gals living their dream of running a small organic farm.

Had to head back up north  The boys were getting a little tired of dad's cooking.  I'll be down again over spring break, but this time the "work crew" will be with me.  Even if the wind is blowing, which I can assure you it will be, we have got a kazillion things to do.  I can hardly wait! 

BROCCOLI

  Over the years I have tried all kinds of broccoli and always go back to the good ole' stand-by Waltham 29.  There are several Hybrids that are fairly platable and prolific.  Packman and Green Comet.  Taste is my criteria for growing veges and Waltham is my favorite.  Calabrese is prolific and hardy but it tastes awful ( that's just my opinion).

"Mom, you spoiled us with your home-grown broccoli, I can"t gag that store bought stuff down,"  said my oldest daughter after she had left home for college.

We love broccoli at our house, that is all except my youngest son, but thats o.k. with his older brother it just means more for him.

To get a good crop of broccol start seeds indoors 8 weeks before your last frost date.  I like to use rolled newspaper cups.  Broccoli does not like it's roots disturbed and planting the newspaper cup directly into the ground gives the broccoli the ability to start growing without going into transplant shock.  Plant broccoli outside about 2-3 weeks before your last frost date.  If the frosts are hard cover the broccoli at night.  Keep evenly moist.  The flavor is compromised if you allow it to dry out.  I mulch  with old hay.  As soon as the weather turns hot the broccoli will become bitter.

To harvest broccoli cut the stem off at a 45 degree angle, this allows the water to run off the stem so it won't rot.  Harvest when the florets are small and tightly closed.  I have learned you must bag and refridgerate the heads immediately or it will yellow and the flowers will  open and it tastes , can I use the word awful again? Continue to harvest the small side shoots and the LEAVES.  The leaves are often over looked.  Use them sauted, steamed, or  in the green drink.  I have wondered about making them into chipps.......Humm, I'll try this and let you know.
For a fall crop of broccoli plant seeds directly into the ground mid July thru Sept depending on your first frost date.  To calculate the best planting date  check the variety package of how many days it takes to mature and count back that many days .  This should give you an exact date of when to plant.  Remember to keep well watered.  A fall crop is better because they don't turn bitter, a  light  frost makes them even a little sweeter.


I will publish some of our tried and favorite recipes with each vegetable I write about.  So I asked the kids what their favorite broccoli recipes were. 


-----"Broccoli?" and pulled a face of disgust..I guess I like it best in soup, I just don't eat broccoli, but you can ask me about other vegetables.


-----"Broccoli Casserole can we have that this week?"


----- ' I like your broccoli right out of the garden.  If  it's from the store I need dip".


My interest was piqued by my youngest's remark. "What is your favorite vegetable I asked my other son.  His responce  "Cucumbers".  That I can attest to, I have had to make a rule with him, that  he can only have 5 cucumbers a day.  He was a little objectional about that because he was eating close to 20 daily.  I thought 5 was a fair amount, besides I needed some left  to take to market.  He continued, " Cucumber is one of them, broccoli, lettuce, and tomatoes.  I must say however, my favorite vegetable is a PICKLE.  I love pickles."

 "What it your favorite vegetable?"  I asked my youngest.  "Cucumber or tomatoe or carrot or avocado, is that a vegetable?  I just don't like them cooked.  Olives, are they considered a vegetable?  Lettuce, I love lettuce."  He replied.


CREAM OF BROCCOLI SOUP

Cook 1 lb. of bacon cut into small pieces.  In a large pot boil 2c.  cut carrots, 3c. potato chunks and 1-2  lbs. of broccoli pieces.  In a saute pan melt 3 tbs. butter and add 1/4c. to 1/2c. flour.  Make a rue.  Add 1/2 gallon milk and heat until thickened, stirring constantlly.  In the bacon grease saute 3-5 cloves of minced garlic, 1c. chopped onion and 1c. chopped celery.   Pour water off vegetable and save.  Put milk , bacon,  sauted garlic, onion and celery into the pot.  Add 1-2c. grated cheese of choice.  Salt and pepper to taste.  If the soup needs more liquid pour in the reserved vegetable water.  Heat through.  I actually like this soup better  the next day.


BROCCOLI SOUFFLE'

1c. chopped steamed broccoli
3 tbsp. butter
3 tbsp. flour
1c. milk
1/2C.. grated Parmesan cheese
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
5 egg yolks
6 egg whites, whipped until stiff
1&1/2 qt. souffle baking dish

Sprinkle 1/4 c. of cheese in bottom of dish.  Melt butter in a saucepan.  Add flour and cook until golden.  Add milk cooking until thick.  Stir.  Remove from heat and add salt and pepper, worcestershire sauce, egg yolks one at a time.  Stir in cooked broccoli.  Gently fold in whipped egg whites.  Pour into souffle' dish and sprinkle with remaining cheese.  Bake 350   30-35 mins.

NOTE;  I HAVE  USED FINELY CHOPPED FRESH SPINACH FOR THIS SOUFFLE' INSTEAD OF THE BROCCOLI.ALSO TRY INDIVIDUAL SERVINGS IN SMALL RAMIKINS.  yummmmmmmm.

Time to Transplant the Tomatoe Seedlings

The tomatoes are up and it's time to transplant.  If you have started your own seeds here are a few words of advice. 

Generally seedlings are pretty tough, however they still can be bent or broken and if that happens they will not produce. 

Gently remove seedlings from container and shake them apart.  You do not need to keep any soil on the roots. 

Carefully bury the start  up to the leaves, this allows roots to grow along the stem.

  One word of caution. 

Do not use organic potting soil alone for this step.  I have found that it doesn"t have enough nutrients to support the rapid growth of the plant.  I use a 3 to 1 ration of farm dirt to organic potting soil.

There are alot of containers you can transplant into just be sure you have good drainage .  I use styrofaom cups. I write the tomato variety on the cup with permanent marker.  I re-use these cups year after year.  Keep under lights until you can transplant them out into your garden.

One Tough Gal!

We visited the Dinosaur National Momument this past weekend.  It is located in the small town of Jensen Utah, just before the Colorado border. As you travel through the park and to the furtherest end you will come to the homestead of Josephine Bassett Morris.  This spunky little lady lived here until she was 90 years old.  She died in 1964 from complications  after falling on the frozen ice while feeding her horses.

Jossie as she was called by all the locals was a self-sufficient, strong- willed,  independent woman.  She lived alone for 50 years providing for her needs by raising cattle, hogs, and butchering and canning enough vegetables to get her through the long winters. 

She drank from a spring that ran year round.  The water allowed her to raise a large garden and provide for the animals she raised.

water cress in the natural fed spring

remains of the old chicken coop

corner posts of the cabin wall

Door leading out of the main room

Jossie's only modern convience, a metal fireplace insert and bricks

Front windows that overlooked her beautiful pastures and surrounding mountains

       There  are several book written about this extraordinary woman  I can't wait to read them.

You say potato, I say tater

Yesterday I had to go buy potatoes at the grocery store.  The last time we were at the farm we didn't have room in the car to bring a sack of potatoes back to Roosevelt with us.  As I emptied the brown plastic sack of small, under-nurished, over  processed, chemical ridden, etc,etc,  potatoes into the  "tater cupboard", it set my mind to thinking about potatoes. I am a potato snob.  Only the best for me.

Glen digging potato rows


As a kid my younger  sister and I had the job of watering the potatoes at the farm.  Back in the "olden" days before sprinklers the water was pumped out of the well into a very large ditch.  We then siphioned the water over the ditch bank with a curved  5 foot long, 1 inch around  pipe, directing the water into each individual potato row.  Between 50 to 100 pipes were used to carry the water load.  They had to be changed every couple of hours as the 1/2 mile rows finished watering.  Day after day we lived at the farm changing the potato rows.  At night we would set the wind-up alarm clock, crawl out of our sleeping bags and walk in the dark to where the water was.  We would change the water using exact timing so the water would not flow over the ditch bank and cause a distarous break out of the 5 ft. high bank.  We would stumble around in the dark completing our task , watching and waiting for a half hour to make certain things were done correctly, then  we would head back to the camp trailer.  We would get about an hours sleep before the alarm rang again and we started the process all over again...all night....all day.....all summer. 
   We drank out of the ditch to cool our thirst.  It was the coldest water,  sometimes we would just jump  in.  We would get ravenous hungry working in the hot sun all day.

Walking down the potato rows we'd dig under the potato plants and find the new potatoes.  Wiping them off on our pants, we'd pull a little salt shaker from our pocket and eat the potatoes to tide us over until mom came with our lunch.  I still enjoy eating raw potatoes!!! We raised Russets then, they are a good baking potato ( I don't bake my potatoes in foil I love the hard, crunchy skins eaten with a hunk of real butter), but I prefer the delicate taste  differences the other varieties provide.
Last year I didn't have as good as a variety of potatoes that I usually have.   I have smart gophers at the farm. They have discovered if  they tunnel in a straight line they can find a stash of potatoes about every 12 inches.  They harvest the potatoes, taking them to their large under-ground cavern and store them for winter eating.  Carver once discovered a burrow containing over 100 potatoes. 

Here are a few of my favorites:


PURPLE VIKING; large,  thin -skinned purple and pink.  I enjoy this potato as hashbrowns  or made into potato chips.  It is also good baked or mashed.

MOUNTAIN ROSE; a medium sized potato.  Dark red on the outside, rose collored inside.  It tastes as good as it's name.  I use it for potato salad or oven fries.  It can also be baked.

BLUE;   blue all the way through.  Use for  oven fries with olive oil and herbed itialian seasoning.  I think blue mashed potatoes are the greatest.
  I had a lady at market (nobody I knew) cuss me  out about the $ 3.00 a pound price on my speciality potatoes.  I thought to myself with a smirk, well you can just go to the big grocery store down the street and pay 5.99 a pound plus tax.
  You don't have to buy my beautiful, yummy blue potatoes. I"ll just take them home and eat them myself!

YUKON GOLD;  another one of my favorites.  Use for creamy mashed potatoes, baby potatoes roasted with olive oil and seasoning.  I also use this potato in bread and spud-nuts.

YELLOW FINN; a potato I use mostly for hashbrowns.

FINGERLINGS;  all color.  Boil  or roasted.



NOTES ABOUT POTATOES

Why do fresh, just dug potatoes taste so good?  The potate has natural sugars in them and when they are eaten just after being harvested those sugars are still intact.  As the potatoes are stored the sugars turn to starch and affects the taste, I also recomend never peeling a potato..

Glen still digging potato rows

 Thanks honey, 1 patch down, now only 6 more to go.

Farm Fresh Eggs

There have been many studies preformed on the value of farm eggs verses "factory" eggs.  There is an interesting article written in Mother Earth News about the proven  extra  nutritional benifets of farm eggs.  Yes I'm all about eating the most nutritious eggs you can, but my criteria is TASTE.  As many of you have stopped by my booth at market and questioned why my eggs cost more than the other guys (or sister's) , the answer is,  they simply TASTE better. 

(Shelly, I know you are my sister and all and I do love you dearly, but my eggs ARE better than yours:) 

I know you are wondering how my farm eggs can taste better than other farm eggs well the answer is simple. 

Sprouted organic wheat berries, raw goats milk, greens from the green-house and protein in the form of slugs and bugs-yum!   

I raised my kids on farm-fresh eggs.  Sometimes in January the egg production would not quite feed our family so I would buy eggs from the store. 

I called them "fake eggs" .  One day my oldest daughter who was twelve was making a cake.  She  at the time thought they really were fake because they weren't at all like the ones we gathered from our hens.  Picking an egg up she examined it very closly and asked "Where do the make these, in a factory or something.?"  

This year I am raising more hens and should have plenty of eggs available at market.  Get there early because they sell fast.  Egg shares are available at a reduced price with a CSA vegetable share.

The Green Drink

early planting

 of  broccoli and greens in the greenhouse

I began drinking the "green drink" about 35 years ago as a college student.  My roomates thought me a bit strange.  Not only did I eat and drink odd vege concoptions but I would rather stay home and read my John James Audabon books than go to the movies.

                                                                    Cabbage

I am glad to see the green drink gaining in popularity. 

  It is an extreamly healthy drink filled with vitamins and minerals.

Those of you who frequent my market booth in Ansestor Square will notice I have a green drink bouquet every week.  Each week the variety of ingredients vary depending upon the availablity of greens.  Generally the bouquet will include cabbage leaf, broccoli leaf  , chard, kale, aragula, spinach, herbs to give it a little zing, and maybe even the wild greens (dandilion, lambs quarter etc.)  Any combination works, just experiment until you find something you like.  I always use a juice base but some people prefer a water base. 

GREEN DRINK

In a blender pour in 1 to 2  cups  liquid of choice-(I prefer pineapple juice)

add greens of choice and blend until smooth.  If you are adding  herbs add them last and taste as you go.

Someone needs to write a sonnet about cabbage.

Isn't this beautiful!

Planting Tomato Seeds

Using organic potting soil I fill containers with moistened soil.  If planting a large volume of seeds I have found it easier to pour water into the bag of soil and add water until it is throughly moistened.

 Collect containers of choice. I have used empty yogurt cups, milk cartons and even cups made from newspapers. 

                           Tear seeds from paper towel and place in container, cover lightly with soil.

Label containers with variety of plant, and the date planted.

Cover to retain moisture.  You can cover with plastic wrap or I have placed my containers in an airtight clear plastic container.  This simulates a greenhouse effect allowing the seeds to remain moist  for better germination.  Try placing your seeds on top of the fridge.  I have found the extra bottom heat a great help in the germination process.

In 10 to 14 days your seeds should sprout.

My Awesome Delivery Truck

My Roosevelt customers get their vegetables delivered in style!  This is my 1953 FORD flatbed pick-up truck.

I listen to  Patsy Cline, Etta James, Willie Nelson while making my deliveries.  My favorite tunes however are  BRAD and the Sun Dogs and Stilhouse Road!  They play live for the Farmer's market several times during the summer.

                 Over-head speakers are great until you hit a bump in the road and whack your head!

Just hoping nothing goes wrong with the electrical system.  I don't think my husband (who can fix anything) could even figure out this mess.

They just don't make-em like this anymore!

Not only does this truck have flames, it is also a 50th Anniversary Edition.

I am actually posting this sitting in my truck parked at the town library.  My husband and I are out on the town.  We crused in style to the thrift store, grabbed an ice cream sundae, and I am  now posting this post outside the library, Glen is  sound asleep  I couldn't ask for a more perfect date.

Saving Heirloom Seeds

I have saved my tomatoes this way  for years and then read an article a few years back that went into a-lot of detail about harvesting the seeds, soaking them in water for days, fermenting them and then pouring off the smelly, moldy water and finally drying them thoroughly before storing them.  I'm glad I didn't know the correct process all these years  I may have decided it was just to much trouble  and never saved my seeds!

Below are tomato seeds  saved from an heirloom variety.  Harvest the first fruit to mature as long as it is of superior quality so you will be progressively bettering the variety.  I like to write the date on the paper towel so I know when it matured.







This is the way I save my Heirloom tomato seeds.

Woops I didn't write the date or kind on these.

I will just have to wait and see what kind they are!

  Get a paper towel , smoosh the seeds in a thin layer over the towel.  Now this is the most important part.  Grab a pen and write what kind of seed and the variety on the towel before you forget!  When the seeds are completely dry I store them in baggies according to vegetable variety and keep in the fridge.  Seeds from eggplant and peppers can be harvested this way also.

To plant, tear of a section of the paper towel, plant the towel and seeds under 1/4 inch of soil.  The paper towel will dissolve.  Transplant tomato seedlings into individual containers or pots when they are about 1-2 inches tall.

I harvest winter squash in the same manner.


When I harvest seeds from lettuce, spinach, arugula, or other greens I allow the plants that are the slowest to bolt to go to seed and harvest them.  This helps establish plants that will preform for longer periods of time.

Arugula Seeds

gather seeds from lettuce when the tops of the blossoms are dry and fluffy