Month: April 2016

Heading out to the field to load up wrapped bales to haul back to the barn,  then these alfalfa windrows will be square baled.

I’ll be at the Charlotte Regional Farmers’ Market tomorrow with sweet potatoes, chard, 3 kinds of kale, beets, wheat berries, and tomato plants in these varieties: sungold, brandywine, giant belgium, cherokee purple,  container cherry, plus the last purple basil  and thyme plants. Whatever tomato plants don’t get sold this week, I’m putting them in the ground because I can’t keep them watered.

We have our grass fed Angus beef in these cuts: big beautiful briskets and whole ribeye loin and strip loin, ground beef, stew meat, cube steak, philly steak, filet mignon, oso bucco, soup bones, liver, sirloin tip roasts, eye of round and bone-in chuck roasts, hot dogs and andouille sausage made from 100% grass fed beef without any nitrates/nitrites.

We were supposed to have beef coming back from the processor for this weekend but it won’t be here until next weekend. We’ll be all stocked up on steaks and everything then.

Shane loading wrapped bales onto the trailer, this will be the cows’ feed this winter in addition to dry hay.

I drive the truck around the field to the groups of bales for him to load. He calls them marshmallows, haha!

Windrows to be square baled for horse hay. Pretty sky!

See you tomorrow 🙂

I’ll be at the Charlotte Regional Farmers’ Market tomorrow with chard, kale, some spicy mustard greens, beets, sweet potatoes, green onions, purple ruffles basil plants, thyme plants, sungold cherry tomato plants, wheat berries. I think maybe some other tomato plants too I can’t remember.

And 20% off bone-in chuck roasts! That almost never happens. We’ve been selling short ribs and oso bucco like mad, and not as many chucks this month but we need to make room for beef coming back from the processor this week. So this weekend they’re $6/lb!

We have our grass fed Angus beef in these cuts: big beautiful briskets and whole ribeye loin and strip loin, ground beef, stew meat, cube steak, philly steak, filet mignon, oso bucco, soup bones, liver, sirloin tip roasts, eye of round and bone-in chuck roasts, hot dogs and andouille sausage made from 100% grass fed beef without any nitrates/nitrites.

The first planting of sweet corn is up and looks good! I made the second planting this week, and got melons planted too, which is an accomplishment since I only seem to be able to get that done every other year.

Broccoli, cauliflower, cabbages and kales and hoophouse tomatoes are looking fantastic, and the popcorn stand looks ok. Next week it’s peanuts and get the ginger and turmeric, eggplant and outside cherry tomatoes and okra in the ground, and I have a to-do list for next week that’s 2 columns long in my notebook.

My first year of doing this I carried my notebook with me everywhere on the Gator: what I planted, how much, variety  and all those deets, my to-do lists,  stuff like that. Then one day it blew off the Gator straight into Moo’s pasture and he ATE IT.  I mean, in an instant. We both saw it blow over, and in that split-second, we looked into each other’s eyes and I knew what was about to go down. I said, Don’t you dare.  So he snatched it up and gobbled it down as he was running away from me, and giving me the googley-eye the whole time.  By the time I caught up to him, whatever was left was covered in green cud-slime. EW. So the next year, I decided to write everything on Post-Its, then transfer it to my notebook later in the safety of my home. But the Post-It notes deal got out of control, finding them in the yard and stuck to the bottom of my shoe, and when the dog went walking past with a Post-It note stuck to her tail, well it had just gone too far.

So then I started putting the notes in my iphone, but as you know, one of those got lost in the creek in an unfortunate flash flood incident, then a heinous criminal stole my new phone out of a shopping cart, and one got watered to death in the greenhouse…and NO my notes were not in the damn CLOUD.  So I gave up on all of that, and now I’ve resorted to just using my brain. Store everything right up in there. As long as I get it down on paper before any margaritas, it’s good.

See you tomorrow!

I’ll be at the Charlotte Regional Farmers’ Market tomorrow with swiss chard, kale, collards, leeks, radishes, beets, chives, mint, sweet potatoes, wheat berries and some potted plants – purple ruffles basil, compact dill, dwarf tomato plants, heirloom tomato plants.

Our grass fed Angus beef in these cuts: big beautiful briskets and whole ribeye loin and strip loin, ground beef, stew meat, cube steak, philly steak, filet mignon, oso bucco, soup bones, liver, sirloin tip roasts, eye of round and bone-in chuck roasts, hot dogs and andouille sausage made from 100% grass fed beef without any nitrates/nitrites.

purple ruffles basil

dwarf Red Robin cherry tomato – they only need an 8″ pot, but it’s hard to keep them watered. 10″ is better. These are determinates so they put on all their tomatoes at once then they’re done which is good for people like me who can’t keep a potted plant alive all summer. I’ll also have another larger container tomato variety, but it’s looking weird. All ferny and droopy. I’m gonna keep them awhile and see if they are supposed to look like that; I haven’t grown them before.

I made something new this week – Saag Paneer.  if you don’t know what saag paneer is, then I can’t help you.  All I know is paneer is delicious cheese.  So to go with the saag paneer I made this Beef Curry with Sweet Potato and Peas. Ground beef, sweet potatoes, ginger, garlic, spices, coconut milk.

Paneer is delicious, BUT THEN you fry it in a pan and it gets toasty and golden! and takes just a few minutes to make from scratch. Milk and lemon juice. So easy! Turns out I’ve made it many times but just called it farmer cheese, and I added salt and sometimes herbs. You could make it with your fresh milk from the market if you don’t mind committing a criminal act.  Then, saute some ginger, garlic, onion, chard (instead of spinach) and so on. Jamie Oliver’s recipe for Saag Paneer.

See you tomorrow 🙂

planting corn

I got 3 kinds of corn planted: sweet corn (not that wretched heirloom stuff from the 1800s again), white dent corn for cornmeal which we call “Papaw’s Corn,” and the strawberry popcorn I grew 2 years ago.

I’ll be at the Charlotte Regional Farmers’ Market tomorrow with  swiss chard, a little kale and collards, lettuce, green onions, baby leeks, golden beets and chiogga beets, easter egg radishes, sweet potatoes, wheat,  cut herbs : basil, thyme, chives, mint, and some beautiful potted basil plants. Thai basil has a wonderful hint of cinnamon;  lettuce leaf basil has huge leaves, you could use 1 or 2 leaves on a whole sandwich and then genovese, my favorite. The most heavenly flavor and aroma. You have to come by to at least smell it. I did have a lot of plants…but I ate some so numbers are reduced 🙂  I had baked sweet potato fries with herby dip 3 nights this week, like so:

basil, oregano, thyme with garlic, olive oil, lemon & salt

Our Animal Welfare Approved, grass fed Angus beef in these cuts: big beautiful briskets and whole ribeye loin and strip loin, ground beef, stew meat, cube steak, philly steak, filet mignon, osso buco, soup bones, liver, sirloin tip roasts, eye of round and bone-in chuck roasts, hot dogs and andouille sausage made from 100% grass fed beef without any nitrates/nitrites.

taking the tractor back to the barn

basil plants

I love my new yellow pots 🙂 Thai basil starts flowering not long after it’s born so don’t be like, that basil isn’t any good. It just flowers it’s whole life.

baled but not yet wrapped

Shane has already mowed hay for baleage. He had alfalfa planted but the ryegrass overtook it so he couldn’t really make alfalfa horse hay, so he made baleage for our cows for this winter. Baleage is similar to silage, it’s baled while it’s still wet and wrapped in plastic. It ferments and is super high in nutrients. The cows love it and will always chose baleage over regular dry hay; it keeps momma cows fat and healthy, producing plenty of milk for their calves that are born in the fall.

So he has to  rake, then bale, then wrap. He already mowed it a day or 2 before. He starts in the morning getting it raked into windrows, then goes back with the baler, then back after that with the wrapper. The whole process takes around 12-14 hours depending on the size of the field. Can you imagine riding a tractor for 14 hours? He came home after midnight both nights. Nothing like making supper at 12:31 a.m.

Woohoo!

Putting in water lines to the hoop houses and veggie fields, and getting rid of all those infernal hoses. Yay!

goodbye winter coats!

About 4 more of these sessions and we’ll be good. Solomon is such an interesting horse! I got him from a “trader” –  horse traders usually have a bad reputation for what kind of horse they’ll sell you. I’ve had some interesting interactions for sure! But I’ve bought several horses from traders because you can get them cheap, and it’s worth it if you’re experienced enough to see what you’re getting and be able to work through the problems. Solomon is really old now, the vet’s professional estimation is “old as hell.” He eats a lot of soup.

my farrier Ryan

See you tomorrow!

PS – In coming weeks I will have more potted plants for the market: dill, thyme, purple basil, super dwarf  tomato, container tomato, heirloom tomato and sungold cherry tomato.

I won’t be at the market tomorrow but I’ll be back next week with these beautiful golden beets, Easter egg radishes, lettuce, green onions, basil plants and just all SORTS of wonderful things.

Have a great weekend!