Missing Willow Farm

Fog rolls off the pond on these cool mornings.  We’re up and out pretty early to water in the greenhouse, feed the critters, let the chickens out in their yard to enjoy the day and play fetch with Jack.  He races us to the pasture when watering is done.  He wins every time.

We’ve had our first frost this year, which means frozen water hoses aren’t far behind.  Time to fill the rain barrels in the greenhouse and call our propane guy to top off the tank.  And locate our heated animal waterers.

We took down the fishing line fence around our garden like we do every year once we’ve harvested everything and frost is here.  Once we harvest potatoes, we let the weeds take over in our potato patch (because what’s the use of weeding an empty bed??).  With the fence down, we’re find the weeds trampled and deer-sized indentations in there.  Those weeds will be plowed under in the next few days but, for now, it’s a soft place to sleep.

We finally decided to get rid of the giant cherry tomato plant that was taking over the entire back wall of our greenhouse.  It had stopped producing, and was too dense to reach to hand pollinate any new flowers.  I swear this thing is over 20 feet long.  We won’t miss it because we have other plants that are producing in there.  Besides, it had to go in order to turn on the heater!

We have a gorgeous morning, with the sun highlighting the tops of the trees.  With leaves turning, it makes for quite the scene out our front door.

With more Sycamore leaves off the tree than on these days,  Jack frequently ‘fetches’ more than just his favorite toy.

The tomato plants in the greenhouse are still producing.  We’ve been hand pollinating the tomato flowers since our efforts to keep the squirrels out are also keeping the insects out.

We’ve got ginger growing in the greenhouse.  It’s a culinary experiment that will hopefully turn out well.  I figure if citrus grows in there, ginger should also.  I’m making Asian chicken tacos with a peanut satay sauce for dinner.  This will help.

Our sheep are getting fluffy again, just in time for the cold weather.  We’ll shear again in March, so they’ll be toasty over the winter. Augusta and Beatrice are my two most favorite ladies.  They know their names and  come when I call them…  sometimes.  Gus came to us with the ear damage.  She used to have ear tags.  I guess she doesn’t like wearing jewelry.

We didn’t prepare this dish, chef Bruno of The Landing restaurant did (and holy hell was it delicious)!  We did, however, grow the microgreens on top.  Garlic chives, bull’s blood beets and micro cilantro.  They pair quite well with amazingly prepared shrimp and pork belly I must say.  😀