Early Xmas Present

We were gifted with a beautiful rainbow a couple days before Christmas.

Ice Storm

We got an ice storm Saturday night/Sunday morning. We got off light compared to the midwest but everything did get a thick glaze of ice.


Julia came out to help me tend the animals, and had a lot of fun knocking the ice off the fences and gates.




All the animals weathered the storm fine. Luckily the pigs and sheep respect the electric netting since the thick glaze of ice would have prevented it from shocking them.


A large branch from a neighbors evergreen came down due to the ice landing on our fence. After cutting it free with the chainsaw, the fence rebounded, although I may need to add a t-post at the spot to take out the slight bow that is left.


The asparagus stalks were finished off by the ice. They were ready to be cut down anyway, but they do make quite a tangled mess.

High Tunnel Construction Part 2

Snapped a few pictures of the finished hoop house when I got home from work last evening.
Danielle purchased the 6 mil plastic in a roll 100 ft long and 40 ft wide. The plastic is held in place along the sides by simply burying it in a shallow trench. We cut 24 ft of the plastic so that we had 2 ft on each side to bury in the ground.
The ends are framed out with 2 x 4s with a 4 ft wide door on one end and a window at the other.
We need the window so that we can get cross ventilation on warm days so that we don't bake the plants. You can see some of the seedlings in the picture above.

T-posts are driven into the ground and attached to the end frames to add support. It is not really clear but we also strung all the hoops together with rope to tie the entire structure together. Probably the most difficult part was figuring out how to attach the plastic at the ends. We ended up just stapling it in place, which was easy enough, but I had wanted to avoid it so that we could more easily remove and reuse the plastic. Well we see how it holds up and we may end up leaving this in place all year since we are expanding our market garden, thanks to all the rooting the pigs are doing -- but that is another post. As far as holding up to the weather the hoop house so far has proven up to the task. It was something of a trial by fire, since the day after we finished it we had a nasty wind storm with 50 mph wind gusts followed by 5-6 inches of snow. Besides having to knock the accumulated snow off the top of the tunnel all was well.

I need to put a remote thermometer in the hoop house to get an idea of how well it is doing at insulating the plants. As you can see in the pictures from inside the tunnel it has already started to create its own weather system thanks to water vapor condensation.

High Tunnel Construction

Here are some photos from our high tunnel construction project. I am sure Danielle, will explain the rationale and such on her blog later, but since I am known as Manuel on the farm I will just give you an idea of the construction. It is a simple design, 4 ft long rebar driven into the ground with 1 ½ inch pvc conduit slipped over it to form the hoops. The hoops themselves are 20 ft long and 14 ft across at the ground which makes the tunnel just under 6 ft high in the middle. The overall length of the house is 34 feet.

One of the great things about this type of building is that you can vary the dimensions to fit your space/needs. We wanted to get the most plantable area so we went with a slightly wider footprint, 14 ft for the 20 ft long hoops, most designs suggested a 12 ft span. Adding the extra 2 ft in width dropped the middle some, but since Danielle and the kids will be doing most of the work inside it makes little difference.

We were only able to get the conduit locally in 10 ft lengths, but they did come with bell ends so we were able to glue them together without a separate coupler. The kids helped me do the conduit gluing, and measuring out and pounding in of the rebar. Emily and I bent the hoops into position and slipped them over the rebar.








I will post pictures of the framed out ends, as well as the finished product when I get a chance.

First Snow

Well we are having our first snow of the season, and it reckons to be a real one. We have at least an inch already and it isn't even noon yet. Overall they are calling for up to four to six inches. Went out deer hunting this morning but nothing seems to be moving with the snow falling. Maybe I will get lucky this afternoon if it lets up.

The pigs now have access to part of the market garden and seem to
be enjoying cleaning up the leftover corn stalks and other vegetable matter.

The Navajo-Churro sheep don't mind the snow at all with their nice thick wool coats.

This will likely be the only snow many of these geese see, as we need to butcher them soon for Xmas.

Silly Geese

Our Chinese Geese are growing well. We plan to harvest all but three (one gander and two female geese) the week before Christmas. While my wife will not miss them getting into the market garden -- they did a job on the radishes -- I will miss the funny way they flock about the pastures. They get all excited and have an almost deafening squawk when it is feeding time, but easily get spooked and run off flapping their wings. They are unable to fly more than a few feet but they make quite a spectacle of themselves trying.

Reducing Numbers on the Farm

Haven't posted much recently due to all the work around the farm. In the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving we reduced our poultry numbers significantly. First we took forty nine broilers and six of our Royal Palm turkeys in for processing on Monday November 12th. We recently purchased a second freezer in which to store said birds. The fifteen Narragansett turkeys we were selling were scheduled to go in Thursday night November 15th.

When I got home from work on Thursday and saw my daughter in the house she informed me that the turkeys were up by the barn. Since I knew Danielle had planned on having them loaded up into the dog kennels which we use to transport them I thought everything was set. After asking Julia if they were all loaded up she said "not exactly". It turns out that Danielle and the kids had been chasing our free range turkeys around our and our neighbors pastures for much of the day. She had only managed to catch two or three, but had localized a bunch with poultry netting up by the barn. Five had jumped the fences onto neighbors properties and were so skiddish from being chased all day that we were unable to get them back where they belonged. That night we were able to coax the rest of them into two of the stalls in our barn. Hopping to still get all of the turkeys to the processor for our 5:30 AM appointment Danielle and I woke up at 4AM on Friday to try to catch the wayward birds and get them loaded onto the pickup truck. We had no luck that morning with the five that had flown the coop so we decided to just take up the nine Narragansett and two Royal Palms we had been able to capture.

Over the weekend we were able to get all the birds back on our property, and confined in the barn stalls. Friends of ours who had arrived Friday night, got to see what a working farm is like, as Danielle and I plucked and processed four turkeys on Saturday. I remember their older son (~6 years old) asking me "is it dead" as I carried a recently deceased bird in from the barn to be plucked and eviscerated. Finally Tuesday night, two days before Thanksgiving I got around to butchering the last two turkeys, one of which was a rather large tom which would be our Thanksgiving bird.

All in all everything worked out fine. We were able to fill all our orders, have a couple birds in the freezer available for sale for Christmas, as well as a few smaller 8-10 pound birds for us to eat throughout the winter. The fabulous Thanksgiving dinner, along with the rave reviews of those that purchased the birds makes it all worthwhile.

Heritage Turkeys

We are getting ready to take our heritage Narragansett and Royal Palm turkeys to the processors next week in preparation for Thanksgiving. The New York Times has a short article on why it is important to keep these and other heritage breeds around.


The upper picture is our Narragansett Tom, the lower is our hen with her poults right after they hatched last May.

Load of Straw

With the dry summer hay and straw is scarce in these parts. Danielle has been calling around without much luck trying to find some straw for bedding once we move the animals back to the barn. Thursday she calls me at work to tell me that I am picking up 30 bales after work. She had talked to the farmer on the phone and got directions to his place. Therein lies the first problem. If you have ever received directions from someone who has lived their entire life in the same town you know that they do not necessarily give the best directions. I guess that is not completely fair. They do not give directions that an outsider can follow, since they tend to use landmarks and names for places and roads that are not the norm (i.e. not on Google Maps).

I am supposed to meet the farmer between 6:30 and 7:00 PM, which means in pitch black, due to the season and the fact that it is a new moon. I drive around for a half hour trying to find his place, turn out he does not actually live on the street he told my wife, and am unable to get him on the phone since it is busy. After going up and down a bunch of country roads I finally find his drive and pull into his place which has no outside lights on. The nice guy comes out and states matter-of-factly, "must of been hard finding this place in the dark".

He directs me to pull around to the back of his barn and we begin to load up the truck. I have a tough time keeping up stacking the bales as he tosses them in the back of my truck. He has no lights on the outside of his barn so I do my best to strap it all down in the little bit of light that is coming from inside the barn. Not happy with the security of my load, I drive a mile or so and pull into a McDonalds, park under a light pole in their parking lot and rearrange the load. Then it is a slow drive with blinkers on back to my place.

The kids ckome out of the house and are all excited to see the truck all loaded up and want to be on top of the straw mountain.





Then Danielle and the kids help me unload it all into our loft.



All and all it worked out fine, we now have straw for the winter, and I learned not to pickup straw from an unknown farm at night.

Fillet du Chevon

Or for those of us who don't speak French, Goat Tenderloin.

This past weekend I butchered a ~2 year old Nigerian Dwarf goat wether. We had kept him around the farm to provide company for our doe, but since she now has her own kid he was not needed anymore. I had never butchered a large animal. I have processed my fair share of chickens, turkeys, ducks and even the random rabbit, but a goat, even a dwarf goat seemed a big step. But with the help of the book of Country Wisdom & Know-How and some net searches I figured I would give it a go.

The weather on Saturday cooperated, being slightly cool. Julia and Sam were interested in seeing the process so they climbed up into the hay loft, watched and took some photos, while I dispatched the goat with a .22 behind his ear. The hardest part of the process was getting the goat hung at a level to work on. I wasn't prepared for how heavy he was and I didn't have a block and tackle handy.


After getting the goat hung up the skinning and gutting process went fairly smoothly, although slowly. When I was mostly done I took him out to the clothes line so that I could finish in the sun.


I then washed and quartered the carcass and put it in our garage fridge to age. I went to Seattle on business Monday-Wednesday. I stayed home from work on Thursday to catch up with my family and started the process of butchering up the carcass. I got three bags of cubed stew meat and some soup bones from hind section. I carved out tenderloins, or back straps, from the ribs/chops. The bellies were saved for the dogs.


I still have a lot more to butcher but was interested in trying out the meat, so I decided to grill up some of the tenderloins. Danielle took this opportunity to pull together a zero mile meal for the Dark Days Eat Local Challenge.


Danielle describes the meal in detail, all I will say is that the goat tenderloin was great. Not quite as tender as good beef tenderloin, but the flavor was excellent. There was a slight undertone of goat but there was not a strong gamey taste. We were somewhat concerned since this goat was considerably older than the age at which they are conventionally butchered, usually around eight months. I am happy to say though that there was not any taint to the meat, although I was careful to closely trim all the fat, which is where the strong flavor supposedly is concentrated.

Another Birthday

This past weekend it was my turn to celebrate getting another year older. I had a most enjoyable weekend, highlighted by some fabulous food. You may notice that regardless of the occasion we celebrate with food. I had at least two birthday dinners, one Sunday and one yesterday on my actual birthday. On Sunday Danielle made homemade sundried tomato fettuccini topped with alfredo sauce. I put together and fried up some crabcakes which she served over a bed of sauted greens. All this with some homemade chiabata bread and a glass (or two or ...) of red wine made for a wonderful gastronomical experience.


Last night we made a much more "normal" meal. Rotisserie (farm raised) chicken with grilled olive tomatoes over the remaining sundried tomato fettuccini, sauted string beans and foccacia bread. As Danielle pointed out in a recent post, this is why we farm, and also why we gain weight in the winter.


We had a lot of great food but the highlight of my birthday celebration has to be the birthday video-card that my kids sent me.

Happy Brithday

This past weekend was Danielle's birthday. No I am not going to tell you how old she is, you do not get to be married for 12 years without learning some things. Much if not all of our celebrations (birthdays, holidays, etc.) are organized around food and this one is no different. Eggs Benedict is Danielle's favorite breakfast. In fact she would probably be happy to eat it for any meal of the day. This time it was special since we were able to make the entire meal from our own farm produce. The bacon was from our first round of pigs, the eggs were fresh from the hens and the potatoes were grown this spring. Even the herbs and berries were grown on the farm. The only things not produced locally was the English muffins, the butter in the sauce and the salt and pepper.


The weather was gorgeous and we enjoyed Danielle's birthday brunch out on the patio, although the mimosas destroyed my productivity for the rest of the day.


Happy Birthday Honey!

Labor Day Farm Feast

What do you get when you put together farm raised baby back ribs


with corn and beans right out of the garden?


A delicious Labor Day meal.


The whole family enjoyed the feast,


although the kids were disappointed that the nice large watermelon we picked was still not ripe.


Maybe the watermelons will be ready by October!

Another Varmint Down

In a previous post I mentioned that one of my jobs around the farm is de-predation. Last night I was picking corn from the market garden, some for our dinner and some for the CSA members. Walking back to the house I noticed a groundhog munching on some grass, just on the other side of one of our fences. I quickly hustled into the house and grabbed my .22 rifle. The dogs were out in the barnyard, separated from the groundhog by the field fence and obviously unaware of his presence. After telling the dogs to sit and stay, so as not to spook the groundhog, I started creeping over to see if he was still out. At first I didn't see him since he was on the other side of a burn pile and by the time I located him, he spotted me and made a quick retreat to the hedgerow. Determined not to give up, and knowing that groundhogs are curious and often come back out to see whats going on I setup at the fence line to wait. After ten minutes or so I was about to give up, when I realized he was sitting just at the edge of the hedgerow in some tall grass. I slowly took aim and squeezed the trigger. After walking up and around the fence line I found the groundhog dead having made it only half way back into his hole.

Early in the season we had a problem with a groundhog tunneling into our kitchen garden. I shot "at" one but did not recover the body. The tunneling into our garden stopped so I assumed I had gotten him but he had managed to get back to his burrow. This groundhog was shot in the same spot, but whether it is the same one or another that took over the empty burrow I have no way of knowing. What I do know for sure though is that he will not be digging holes in our garden or eating any of our vegetables.

CSA Deliveries

As part of our CSA, on Wednesdays I deliver some shares to members at work. Normally I bring in two shares, but today due to some surplus and other arrangements there were four. Danielle, who does the vast majority of all CSA related work -- I am in charge of corn and potatoes -- picks the shares Wednesday morning before I go to work so that everything is as fresh as possible. This morning when my alarm goes off at 5:45 AM I look out the bedroom window to see a headlamp in the garden. The shortening days mean that Danielle is often out in the dark picking produce so that I can beat the traffic. The fact that there were four shares to pick and the drizzling rain did not make this endeavor any easier on her. The produce looked so good all laid out on the kitchen table right before she packed it into the coolers.



Danielle puts a tremendous amount of work into the CSA and our farm in general, all so that we can eat the healthiest most sustainable food possible. I try to make sure that I acknowledge all her hard work and thank her for all the great food we get to eat, but since I am sure I don't do it enough I thought I would say it again here.

I love you honey!

Market Garden -- Update #3

Here is what the market garden looked like last night. We were lucky enough to get over an inch of rain last Thursday on top of the half inch or so we received over the last two weeks. Thanks to the rain things are finally starting to green up a little. We are still in drought conditions but at least the plants are growing some and the pastures are starting to recover. The rain also has the weeds growing again, so we need to get on top of them before they start to take over.

The first two plantings of corn had good yields, however the corn worm pressure is increasing so we will have to try to stave them off to save the last couple of plantings. We are leaving the stalks in place until they dry out, then we will harvest them and put them up in the barn for winter feed. I have hand dug most of the Yukon Gold potatoes and while they still taste great their yield has been abysmal. I need to get the tractor in with the potato plow to get the rest this weekend.



For comparison here are the photos from July 21^st



July 3^rd



and June 19^th

Gone Fishin

Bored kids and a hot summer day are the perfect ingredients for a fishing trip. We drove down to the Conococheague Creek which is less than a mile from our farm and fished for a while.


The kids eventually got tired of fishing so we went to the Potomac River so that the kids could cool off a little.


To get to the river we pass through the C&O Canal National Historical Park in Williamsport, so we took a little side trip along the canal path.


While walking back to the car we spotted these damselflies mating.


All and all an enjoyable afternoon adventure.