Missing Willow Farm

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We’ve got our clay pots and tomato cages moved off of the back deck, although they haven’t been scrubbed clean yet… We’ve stockpiled some compost for next Spring and are getting ready to shut the greenhouse down for the winter.   The fleece by the door is actually what’s called skirting.  It’s the poopy part that gets removed after shearing because fiber artists don’t like to have to deal with it.  I collect it on shearing day and stockpile it for the garden.  I’ve used it as both mulch and to line the bottom of clay pots.  Think about it… it’s all natural and full of fertilizer and is compostable.  It makes our gardening containers lighter than if they are filled completely with soil and nurtures our plants at the same time.  I should bag and sell it at the farmers market!  Sheep Sheet.  Skirt Dirt.  Dung Fluff.   BM (Baa Manure)…  The possibilities are endless.

They’re ornamental Bradford Pears which means no fruit, but pretty Fall foliage.   They sit at the end of our 1/2 mile driveway which hopefully will be paved before we have any snow.  We’re on the list.  The last we heard was it’s supposed to be done by December 1st.  Or was that started by December 1st?  At any rate, December 1st is Wednesday so we’ll see.  Small town living can be a struggle some times to get work done.  Or to get someone to show up for an appointment.  Or to hope what work you do eventually get done is quality  Last year our driveway was so bad there were a few days we couldn’t get off the farm.  That’s why we traded our smaller pickup for a big 4WD one in January.  Here’s hoping for an easy winter!

It’s located in the greenhouse.  We decided to try some non-heated greenhouse gardening over the winter so my husband built a 3′ by 8′ by 1′  bed lined with weed barrier fabric and filled with topsoil and compost.  We relocated a few things from the garden, like beets that were being chewed on by bunnies and potato plants that came up after we plowed our potato bed under, then seeded the remaining space with cool season crops.  We’ve got spinach, broccoli raab, buttercrunch lettuce and carrots coming up.  We’ll see how this experiment turns out.   It hopefully will give us some fresh farm veggies in the dead of winter.   That’s the plan at least.  In the foreground are some resting mushroom logs and a potted horseradish plant.

She’s one of our oldest chickens.  We got her from the sherrif, who retired to raise poultry.  She’s a red sexlink.  Isn’t that a stupid name for a chicken breed?  Evidently it stands for awesome layer because she gives us a large brown egg every day of the year.  Our other chickens stopped laying about a month ago and will start back up late winter.  I talked to a few other farmers at the market last Friday who have layers (lots of them) and they have all taken a break.  Honey is very inquisitive and likes to eat treats from my hand.  She squats down for me to pet her when I go into the chicken yard.  She’s like a dog… who gives us omelets.

We raise two breeds of sheep; Kathadin and Texel.  That’s Kat Von Sheep on the left (we named her 2010 lamb Miss Kitty), she’s a Kathadin or hair sheep.  Beatrice, a Texel is on the right.  Both are meat breeds and we’re keeping these two as breeding stock.  Kat is getting a winter coat right now, she’ll shed it over the summer.  Kind of like a dog.  Lots of sheep farms like the Kathadins because you don’t have to worry about shearing in the Spring.   We take our Texels to a neighbor’s farm on shearing day.  Local fiber artists come to help out and we have lamb chili for lunch.  It’s a long, hard and fun day.

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Well… the kind of turkey day that ends up with yummy liver and kidney treats for our dogs.  We processed our tom this morning, it took a little over an hour and came in at 22 pounds.  Jenna snuck up behind us and stole a tail feather to chew on.   It was crunchy.  Since the dogs got our giblets, I’ll have to just make pan gravy on Thursday.

Since we moved to the boonies, I’ve had to learn to make my own pizza.  We used to pick up take-out pizza at least once a week and I miss the convenience.   A trip to the big city usually means I bring something home for dinner that evening.  Yesterday’s trip included a stop at Fresh Market.  They just happened to have caviar in the seafood department, they get it in for the holidays.  We love caviar and haven’t bought it in like 5 years.  The little container was calling my name…  When I got it home, I was surprised to learn that the guy behind the seafood counter doesn’t know the difference between caviar and salmon roe because he charged me just $9 and market it salmon roe.  Oh darn.  Here’s what we had for dinner last night.  Buttercrunch lettuce & spinach salads from the greenhouse with avocado, toast points with smoked salmon, creme fraiche, boiled egg, lobster (in the bowl on the right), Humbolt Fog goat cheese, capers and caviar.  We shared a toffee crunch cupcake (in the back) for dessert.  Who says farmers don’t enjoy fancy food?!

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Today was the final regularly-scheduled market of 2010.  We had a total of seven vendors and everyone did really well with the holidays fast approaching.  I took soap, sweet potatoes and sourwood honey and brought home cabbage and a ghost pepper which I plan to dry for pepper flakes.  It’s the hottest pepper on  earth with a million scoville units.  We have a ghost pepper plant in the greenhouse but it got a very late start and just now has blossoms.  We’ll overwinter it and hope for our own ghost peppers next year.   I plan to return to the market next April with asparagus and whatever else we decide to grow for the Spring.  The market is a lovely weekly social event.  If anyone is interested in purchasing soap, just leave a comment with your contact information and I’ll be in touch.

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If you know who Bryan Voltaggio is, you either watched the Emmy winning season of Top Chef last year or recognize him from your Williams-Sonoma catalog.  He was first runner up for Top Chef 2009, he lost to his brother Michael.  Bryan was also a 2010 James Beard award nominee.  Our good friend Craig called us at 4PM today to ask if we’d like to attend a 6PM dinner 90 minutes away where Bryan was going to be guest chef for the evening at a small restaurant.   That meant we had 30 minutes to get dressed, feed our animals and take the pot roast off the stove that had been simmering for the past 3 hours.  Of course we said yes and walked out the door at 4:30 (a record).  I even remembered to grab my camera on the way out the door.  Since I decided it would be quite dorky to be seen photographing  my food, I didn’t use flash but recorded all 5 courses.  They’re a little dark.  This was our third time meeting Bryan and second time tasting his food.  It was worth the drive just to taste his beef cheek lasagna.  I’m not sure what arctic char is but my husband sure would like to stock our pond with it.  🙂   We live in a very remote part of the country, but sometimes we get really special opportunities.  This was one of them.

Are they as bad at your house this time of year as they are at ours?  Here’s a trick to get rid of them without using anything harsh.  Put a piece of fruit in a glass or jar and stretch a piece of Saran wrap over the top.  Secure it with a rubber band.  Take a toothpick and punch 8 or 9 tiny holes in the top.  Place the jar near where you’re having a fruit fly problem and just wait.   As the fruit decays, it releases an odor that attracts the flies.  They crawl through the tiny holes to get to the fruit, but can’t find their way out.   Works like a charm!