Blueberry Hill

The blueberries are really coming in right now.  We have six blueberry bushes that are about six feet tall.  Even though we have had a very dry spring, the berries are plump and juicy and they are producing well.  I attribute that to two factors.  First, Russ pruned the blueberry bushes in early spring, taking off limbs that crossed other limbs or were dead.  This opened up the bushes to sunlight.  Then we used organic fertilizer around the base of the bushes when they began putting on new leaves.  

Each day we have to go out and pick.  Blueberries don't get ripe all at once.  That is a good thing because it stretches out the season and the ability to enjoy them.

We go out with quart-sized yogurt containers and pick the ripening ones.  Sometimes the sunlight fools you and you end up picking some that aren't perfectly ripe.  That's okay - but they are tart and aren't as sweet as the fully ripe ones.  We pick a few blackberries each day as well.

We put them in a colander in the vegetable sink and rinse them off.  We freeze a bunch of them on trays and then fill zip loc bags with them.  That keeps them loose and then you're able to scoop out the amount that you want since they aren't frozen together.

A friend of ours introduced us to a refreshing salad that makes use of blueberries.  It has cut up cucumbers, blueberries, feta cheese, mint, and basil.  Talk about good!

It is a nice accompaniment to your meal.  We have a lot of cucumbers coming in right now, and this is a great way to use them up.

Another friend gave Tricia the recipe for a tart.  Tricia tried it with blueberries and it was a hit at our home.  It uses a springform pan and has a sweet dough crust.

Just look at those berries bursting with deliciousness!

Once we remove it from the springform pan and garnish it with some fresh mint, you can almost hear the tart beckoning you...

Here's one more money shot:

Fortunately the blueberries will be coming in for about another month, so we'll have opportunities to make many more of the delicious blueberry tarts!

There's a New Kid In Town

I was surprised that she did it, but Tricia sold "Thunder."  Thunder is Jane's kid that was born on April 22nd.  Thunder had distinctive spots like a Dalmatian.  He also had lots of personality and would jump around and make my wife smile.  They buyer showed up at the house and Tricia wanted one last photo with him before he was loaded into the truck.

The buyer did not want his horns removed.  He wanted Thunder because of his spots.  Tricia carried him to the truck and prepared to load him up.

It was a somewhat sad farewell, but Tricia will be okay, I think.  With goats, if you don't watch it, before you know it they will over-populate your pasture and they'll eat grass that your cows could be eating.  Time to thin out the herd.

But Thunder wasn't the only animal leaving.  So was his mama.  Jane was loaded into the truck as well.  They are headed to Iota, a town east of here.  Jane wasn't sold.  She was traded.  Jane is a Nubian Goat.  Nubians are dairy goats that are well-suited to our hot climate.  Also, one more kid was sold.  Star, Annie's doeling was sold as well.

Well, what did we take in trade for Jane, the Nubian Goat?  We took in a doeling who is a La Mancha goat.  La Manchas are also dairy goats.  The La Mancha is the only breed of goats developed in the United States.  We promptly named her, "Oreo."  Can you tell why?

Here is another angle shot of Oreo, the new kid in town.  She cried and cried while she familiarized herself with her new surroundings.

La Manchas have Spanish origins.  They have a very distinguishing characteristic - their ears.  As opposed to Nubians, who have long, floppy ears, La Manchas have very short, tiny, almost elf-like ears.  This photo not only shows off her odd ears, but also shows how goats have strange, rectangular pupils.

Oreo has another distinguishing characteristic - wattles.  Wattles are fleshy, hair covered appendages that hang from her neck.  They are like skin tags on humans.  Some people remove them, but we leave them on.  Our first Nubian goat, Nellie, had wattles.

So of the four kids born on Our Maker's Acres Family Farm in the last four months, only one kid is left, George.  George was quite upset with his friend, Thunder and his sister, Star leaving the farm.  No more friends to play with!  George cried and cried.  Finally, he hushed after his mama, Annie, calmed him down.

Fewer animals on the pasture.  Also a new breed of dairy goat on the pasture.  The new kid in town will be old enough to breed this fall.  La Manchas are heavy producers of milk that is high in protein and butterfat.  They are tough goats and their milk production holds up even in adverse conditions.  Welcome Oreo, to our farm!

A Fresh Garden Lunch

I'm picking a 2 gallon bucket of tomatoes every afternoon, trying really hard to stay ahead of the miserable stink bugs.  I wish Noah would have stomped on the two stink bugs when they boarded the ark.  When I bring them inside, I place them on platters on the island and let them finish ripening.  When they hit perfection, we eat them.  I'll show some of the other ways we use the tomatoes later this week.  We grow numerous varieties of heirloom tomatoes, so there is a wide assortment of shapes, sizes, and colors.

On Saturday Tricia decided to make BLT's for lunch.  She checked with me to see if it would be okay since for some strange reason, I cannot make myself enjoy eating raw tomatoes.   Each year I try.  She sliced big slabs of tomatoes that resembled steaks and got everything ready.

BLT - Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomatoes

I put a lot of Creole mustard on the bottom slice of bread and began assembling the ingredients to build the perfect sandwich.  A little yellow mustard on the top slice of bread and some salt and pepper to top it off.

I still don't like raw tomatoes by themselves, BUT this sandwich was just doggone good!  So simple and yet so delicious.  We'll eat more of these before the tomato crop comes to an end.

Cuddling With Cows

I ran across THIS ARTICLE this week and got a good laugh out of it.  People are paying $300 to go cuddle with your cows for 90 minutes.  It is a new wellness trend and it is taking off in upstate New York.

People are outta their minds....

According to the article, there is some science behind it.  The author states:

“Cows have a body temperature that is slightly higher than humans and their heart rate is lower than ours,” the retreat explains on their website. “Cuddling up with a cow, feeling that lower heart rate and higher body temperature, is very relaxing.”

Apparently, it is relaxing and will lower your heart rate.  Rosie's face shows clearly what she thinks about someone coming to cuddle with her.

Not gonna happen

However, I'm not going to discourage anyone.  If someone would like to come cuddle with our cows for 90 minutes and pay us $300 to lower their heart rate and relax, I'm okay with that.  I'll even throw in a dozen eggs for free.

The View From the Fender of a 4020

I've always been of average height - not too short, but definitely not tall.  When in crowds or at parades I always have to stand on tip-toes to see anything.  I do remember, when just a kid, when my perspective was a little different.  I had the perfect vantage point to see the whole world from a bird's eye view.  It happened to be when sitting on the fender of a John Deere 4020 tractor.

The old 4020 was a workhorse on the farm.  It was old, but dependable.  The paint was a little faded, but it didn't matter.  I remember the yellow seat on it was comfortable and it had lots of spring in it with armrests and a back support.  It had screens on either side that were held in place with springs.  The screens would fill up with Vaseygrass seeds, so you'd have to run your fingers down the screen to remove the seeds to allow air flow.  It was easy to work on, unlike the new computer driven tractors with circuitry and fuses.  Although I remember driving it, I mostly remember sitting on the fender riding on farm roads.

Although this is not our 4020, I found this photo on the Internet of one that looked kinda like it

When riding on the 4020 with my Dad, I sat on the fender.  My legs would dangle off the front and my rubber boots would hit against the rubber grips on the tire that passed underfoot.  The fender was wide, smooth, and comfortable to sit on - unless it was summer.  Then it was as hot as a blast furnace.  There was no air condition on the 4020.  I take that back.  You could control the speed of the "air condition" by how fast you drove.  Believe it or not, the old 4020 could move pretty doggone fast!  There was a rubber-lined hand-hold on the fender, like you see in the photo below, and that is what you'd hold onto while riding on the fender, with your hair blowing in the breeze.  Sometimes my cap would even fly off!

Sometimes after harvesting rice, we'd burn the field's stubble with a forestry drip torch.  It had diesel mixed with gas.  While the driver drove, the fender sitter held the torch and dripped burning fuel down into the rice stubble all around the perimeter of the field and along the levees.  You could see rabbits and rats running and the smoke rising high into the sky.  As the day turned to evening, you could see pillars of fire coming from fence posts that had caught fire.  If the fire got out of hand, the 4020 had a ditching blade on it that you could drop and make a ditch to break the path of the fire and put it out.

As you rode on the backroads around the farm sitting on the fender, the diesel from the exhaust would blow back and envelope you, but I learned to love that smell.  It seemed that you could see everything from that fender.  You could spot the cow that had just calved and had her baby hidden in the tall grass.  You could see down into the gully and watch the striped head turtles jump off of logs or nutria swimming with their noses sticking up above the water or bullfrogs in the cat tails in the irrigation canal.  You could see the steam rising from puddles on the asphalt road after a thunderstorm blew through and then the sun came back out.  You could watch red-tailed hawks circling in the sky above, then swooping down to snatch a rat from the fence row.

Today's tractors are nice (and expensive) and big.  They dwarf old tractors like the 4020.  In today's monstrous tractors, you ride in comfort in a hermetically-sealed environment in air-conditioned comfort, listening to country music in ergonomic chairs.  Computers and GPS control everything.  We unfortunately sold the old 4020.  I haven't forgotten the magic, though, of riding on its fender, seeing the world from the eyes of a ten-year old with my hat on backwards so it wouldn't blow off, while singing Conway Twitty, Crystal Gayle, and Don Williams songs to the top of my lungs while holding on to the rubber handle on the fender for dear life.

Chickens Coming Home To Roost

I like the cool of the evening.  Things seem quieter.  People are heading home.  Supper is in the oven and life is good.  In the late afternoon when the sun starts sinking below the horizon, the hens are on a mission.  They all go back to the very same spot to roost every single night.  Like people in church pews, they have 'their spot' and no one's gonna take it from them.  Come to think of it, people have 'their spot' in bed, too.  I don't know if I've ever slept on the right-hand side of our bed.

Many of the chickens roost on the roosting bars in the henhouse.  It is a safe spot away from predators.  It is, however, cramped and the air smells strongly of chicken poop.  It is this chicken poop, however, that falls to the ground while they sleep, that is used to fertilized the garden once it has composted for a year.

We have an Aracauna or two that enjoy roosting in the rafters of the barn.  We don't like chickens inside the barn and have tried with limited success to keep them out of the barn.  Others roost on the woodpile.   My favorite two are these Barred Rocks that hop up on the woodpile and then awkwardly flap their wings until they've positioned themselves on a low-lying limb of a pecan tree.

From where they perch, they have the pecan limb worn as smooth as a river stone.  And it is here that they will sit, and sleep, and poop until the roosters begin crowing in the morning.  Then they'll hop down, eat some breakfast, lay some eggs, and spend a day of adventure doing chicken things until it is time to roost again.

Lagniappe Seeds

"The best things in life are free.  The second best things are very, very expensive." -Coco Chanel

Lagniappe.  That means, "a little something extra or a bonus."  Who doesn't like getting free stuff?  I know I do.  Except the other day I got an email from Tractor Supply Company telling me that I could go by the store and get a free suet cake for Mother's Day.  I didn't go get my free suet cake to give to my mom or wife.  I think that is something for the birds.  It was a nice thought, but it didn't really pull me into the store.  I would have been there with the quickness if they had free feed.

In past years we would purchase our baby chicks from Murray McMurray Hatchery.  They would throw in a free "mystery breed" chick.  You wouldn't know what it was until it grew up.  It was always fun to try to figure out what it was.  We purchase many of our heirloom seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company.  With an order, they typically will throw in a packet or two of free seeds.  It is a great opportunity to try growing something that you would have never, ever grown before.  More on that in a minute...

Each afternoon I've been going out to pick fresh tomatoes.  We have been picking so many and have been eating a bunch.  Today Tricia put up 10 pints of stewed tomatoes.  We'll be doing that a lot.  I have noticed an increasing amount of stink bugs, however.  We'll see how the tomatoes fare against this formidable foe.

Back to the free seeds.  Last year I got a free packet of tomato seeds.  The label said "Black Vernissage Tomato."  Vernissage is a French word that originally meant 'varnishing,' but became known as a preview of an art exhibition or a private showing before it is opened to the general public.

So here is our "private showing" of just seven of the MANY Black Vernissage tomatoes we've been picking:

The Black Vernissage tomato is about the size of a golf ball.  Although the photo above that I took in the fluorescent light betrays its true color, it is a dark tomato with deep green stripes.  It is an indeterminate tomato and is a prolific producer.  It seems to thrive in the hot, humid weather and is not as susceptible to blossom end rot as my Amish Paste tomatoes are.  They are meaty and supposedly very good in sauces. 

For a free seed, this has turned out to be a very good deal.  This is an open-pollinated variety, so I'll be saving some of the seed for next year.  Maybe next year, I'll get a new free seed to try.