Missing Willow Farm

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We grow pickling cucumbers every year and I never plant enough of them.  One of these years I’ll learn.  I pick them between 2 and 4 inches long and make dill pickles out of them.  Some of the vines are co-planted with tomatoes and this ginormous one was hiding.   Those are quart jars.  I so very wanted it to fit into a jar to make one giant pickle but it wouldn’t even go into a wide mouth one.  Instead, I sliced it and made dill sandwich slices.  The slices are big enough to cover an entire hamburger patty.

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Our shiitake logs started fruiting again.  We’ve got them in a sling that Brian designed hanging under a bradford pear tree.  They like the shade and being kept off of the ground.  I tried to get a little bit of time lapse photography by taking a photo a day.  They grow pretty fast.  I sold some at the farmer’s market and we also grilled a few with asparagus and garlic scapes last night.  Olive oil, salt and pepper.  To die for!

We’ve been away for a few days helping our daughter Tracy celebrate her birthday.  It’s been a while since we got away from our daily chores. My wonderful parents watched the farm while we were gone, which included milking our goats (so sweet of them!)  While we were gone, more tomatoes started ripening.  It’s going to be a delicious summer!

Of course, we’re so remote we don’t have a cable TV option…  Our weather finally allowed us to move the turkeys from the barn into a poultry tractor in the pasture.  They have since provided hours of entertainment for our cow, Jessica.

We have… er had blueberries.  There’s been a chipmunk hanging around the back deck and we found a half eaten tomato the other day.  He’s an elusive little bugger.

Cabbages, our first tomatoes and Snow’s Fancy cucumbers.  I’ve already started making pickles.  I’ve got two quarts put up so far which is good because we just opened the last quart of 2011 at dinner last night.

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We’ve been harvesting cabbage and can only eat so much coleslaw so I decided to try something new.  Sauerkraut in a jar.  I did a lot of research and ended up deciding on a recipe that uses shredded cabbage, mustard seeds, juniper berries, pickling salt, honey and brine in a sterile jar.  It’s stored in a dark spot (our pantry) and should be ready in about 6 weeks.  I’ll keep you posted…

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We harvested one of hopefully two batches of honey from our two hives this week.  It was a record haul (for us).  A couple of the frames had brood, so a few bees were born in our kitchen during the process.  It was a sweet, sticky, long day.

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It’s pea season around here and I put some in the freezer this week.  You shell them, boil them for 2 minutes, dunk in ice water then drain and freeze them in serving sizes.  These are destined for creamy lemon pasta with peas next winter.  I like to plan ahead!

Our asparagus patch is still giving us spears, we pick some every day.  We grill it with olive oil, salt and pepper, steam it or broil it wrapped in bacon.  Leftovers go into a cheesy risotto.  We’re in our third month of asparagus harvest.  Once they’re gone, it will be a good six months before I miss it enough to pay grocery store prices to have them again.