Been Farming?

CATTLE DRIVE! One of many we've had in bringing them to different fields on the farm to graze.

Yup! And visiting here with dear family, tooting off to Ohio for a needed four-day getaway to meet some friends from New Hampshire (and to pause, refresh, revisit), and generally de-stressing from a busy few months and the loss of our dear Aunt Cynthia on June 16th, who lived with us all of our married lives (and our 15th wedding anniversary was also celebrated in late June).

COUSINS! All but our daughter (who is back in Vermont) are pictured,
including one son behind the wheel of the JCB. They haven't seen each other since 2007.

CALVES! Charlotte, left, and Wilbur were bottle-fed after their mothers died this spring.
They still hang together even though they are now with the rest of the calves.

I have more to write and post, of course, but I just wanted to check in. If you want to see where I've been posting more of late, check out a new blog on local produce in nearby Casey County: GROW Casey County. And come on down for some excellent local cantaloupes and other fine produce!

CLOTHESLINE! A belated birthday gift erected at the cottage this spring.

You come back when you're ready!

Catherine

Oh those Chickens!

We have a gooseberry bush next to the doublewide. I thank Miss Lillian every June for planting it about ten years ago. She also planted a peach tree (that's another story) and many lovely plantings around the place. I don't do them justice (that's also another story). As we have been in transition over to the cottage at the farm, let's just say that the doublewide acreage has gotten a bit lush and jungle-like in the past year––there are even snakes in the grass!

The other day I remembered the gooseberry bush. We've had a busy month and the loss of a dear relative and there has been haying and what-have-you. I saw the green orbs forming in early June and said, "ah yes, gooseberries." Then, a week or so ago I saw them turning a lovely rosé color and vowed to pick them. On the very day I was going to do just that, I got out of the car and what should I find? A chicken in the bush and several more on the ground! They were having a regular old gooseberry feast! No, they were not content with green ones, which are perfectly fine for picking. They knew that they had to be ripe to enjoy them.

I just laughed and let them all have-at-it! After all, there is always another June and more gooseberries for the picking next year. Besides, I'll bet I still have a quart or two in the freezer.

You come back when you're ready!

Catherine
For more gooseberry fun and lore, read these blog posts at In the Pantry:

• Gooseberries [written on June 29, 2009]
• Real Simple Suppers [w/Gooseberry Crumble]

Fine Herbe: Chervil

A bouquet of chervil fit for a gnome––like frondy, fairy ferns.

"According to Elisabeth Lambert Ortiz in The Encyclopedia of Herbs, chervil is 'essential in French cooking, often supplanting parsley which it does resemble although the leaves are more feathery, and the flavor is reminiscent of anise.' Think of chervil like a delicate and refreshing parsley alternative. Use it in pesto, as a garnish, in salads, with asparagus and starchy vegetables like beets and potatoes, eggs, or seafood—especially oysters. It withstands neither prolonged heat nor drying. Use fresh and add at the last minute. Buying dried chervil lacks flavor and aroma."

~ Rebecca Wood,  The New Whole Foods Encyclopedia 

You can read on chervil from The Herb Companion here.

You come back when you're ready!

Catherine

From the "Icky Ooey" Department

I find a strange beauty in these dreaded hornworms but also a savage delight in watching their green guts––from chomping on my tomato plants and filling their bellies––spill all over the patio.

Munch, munch, munch––the little buggers!

Imagine my surprise to find most of one tomato plant defoliated the other morning. First of all, surprise because only the night before the plants were fine and secondly, because I'm growing all of my tomatoes (and most of our garden) in large pots this year. How did those little buggers even find them? Or better yet, climb up the clay pots to their own personal salad bars?

The best organic preventative seems to be handpicking the little buggers off the vines and dumping them in soapy water or snipping them in half (that is, if you don't want to squish 'em first). But they blend in beautifully on your plants and come in all sizes: from one inch to four. Here's some more information on the dreaded hornworm caterpillar:

https://survivalfarm.wordpress.com/tag/tomato-horn-worm/
http://organicgardening.about.com/od/pestcontrol/p/tomatohornworm.htm

Apparently, the tomato hornworm is easily confused with the tobacco hornworm, which has a red antenna. Either way, they eat the same plants. And this country certainly had its share of tobacco crops at one time––some still farm it. So maybe my gang has crawled up from some dormant tobacco shed on the ridge.

Well, I know they turn into magnificent moths upon maturity but no moth is worth some gorgeous, vine-ripened summer tomatoes from our garden!

Squish, squish!

You come back when you're ready!

Catherine

You Might Be a Farmer's Wife...

Image source: Eyewitness to History (with accompanying oral history)

I found this list of farmwife attributes yesterday by a random search on old farmwife photos. I don't know who the author is but its website is credit enough.

Here are some of my favorites from the list:

You might be a farmer's wife...

• If your name is taped to the side of a cake pan
• If the vet’s number is on the speed dial of your phone
• If you’re in the habit of buying foodstuffs in bulk

• If the word "auction" makes you tingle

• If you’ve ever washed your kids or the dishes with a pressure washer

• If "a little bit of lunch" involves 6 courses and a dessert made from scratch

• If the "fresh ingredients" your recipe calls for reminds you to do the chores

• If that pail with a hole in it is a flowerpot in the making

• If taking lunch to the field is as close as you get to a picnic
• If your rock garden was hand-picked
• If you’re on the lookout for new uses for "Jell-O"
• If your tan lines are somewhere below your shoulder and above your elbow

• If you buy antiques because they match the rest of your furniture

• If your driveway is longer than a stone’s throw

• If your kids’ wading pool has ever doubled as a stock tank, or vice versa

• If you have a yard, but not a lawn
• If you have lots of machinery and each piece is worth more than your house
• If the neighbor’s house is best viewed with binoculars
• If the directions to your house include the words, "miles," "silos," "last," or "gravel road"
• If your storage shed is a barn
• If your farm equipment has the latest global positioning technology and you still can’t find your husband
• If Eva Gabor is on your list of "Most Admired Persons"

• If you consider "hot dish" a food group

• If grass stains are the least of your laundry problems

• If your refrigerator contains medicine, livestock medicine
• If your car’s color is two-toned and one color is gravel road brown

• If you’ve ever said, "Oh, it’s only a little mud."
• If you’ve ever used a broom to shoo a critter

• If family "pets" include deer, coons, squirrels, foxes or birds

Stay tune for more photos this summer––I have a significant "back blog" of things to share with you.

You come back when you're ready!

Catherine