If It's Tuesday This Must be...

the day AFTER the Farmers Market...a canning and field foraging day.....

At The Market

The Farmers Market was very slow again last night.  I didn't even charge the vendors.  They all  made some money, but I always try to not just figure the cost of goods, but the fuel it takes for them to get to the market.  I like to see everyone have a $100+ night...if they don't I won't charge or I'll only charge $5.00.  Next year the Market will shut down the end of October...running until the end of November is just too long.

Beautiful Produce From the Market

I have a box of tomatoes and a box of pears to can.  The tomato sauce is bubbling away in the roaster right now.  More sauce...maybe some catsup and a couple pints of tomato soup.  I cook the tomatoes down with celery, onions, bell peppers, ONE jalapeno and a bit of salt and pepper...then I run everything through my Squeezo and pour it all into my electric roaster until it cooks down at least half.  I then figure out how much for catsup, sauce and soup...each gets *doctored-up* with their special ingredients and then canned in pint jars...I enjoy canning tomatoes...so versatile and so goooooood!

Still Making Sauce

The pears are the Bosc variety and I plan on poaching and then canning the halves...it will be a first for me.
I was given fresh green beans, eggplant, corn and cherry tomatoes.  The green beans I'll save for the Thursday Family Fun Dinner, can the corn (looks like 4-5 pints) and dehydrate the cherry tomatoes.  I don't know what to do with the eggplant...I know Tessa likes them so I'll give her a few and then I may make a vegetarian lasagna out of the others (I heard it was good)...I've only eaten good eggplant once and that was in a restaurant...I've tried fixing it 3 times: YUCK!

I've been busy on EBAY the last couple of days.  I got the following books: Joel Salatin's Pastured Poultry Profits , Rodale's Organic Gardening Encyclopedia, Farming the Dust Bowl and one pound of worms from a fellow in Nevada.  I just wish I could slow my days down enough to enjoy a good read.  Now I take a couple books in the car with me when I pick up the kids from school...something to do when I'm in the parking lot waiting.  I'm reading Joel Salatin's You Can Farm (I love this guy) and Timothy Egan's The Worst Hard Time.  Both very good reads and blend well together.  The Worst Hard Time is the story of those that stayed and survived the Dust Bowl.  It's a very good book, very thought provoking.

Did my weekly after Market grocery shopping last night:  Two (2) gallons of milk...and the price has gone up again!  I was paying $2.39 a gallon and it's now up to $2.69...this is pretty inexpensive I know, it just surprises me how it can increase this much in one week.  I buy the milk advertised at our market for WIC (women infants and children program)...I obviously don't use the WIC program, but the milk is available for everyone.  I use this milk to make yogurt and cheese.  I keep thinking I should sit down and figure out the cost of buying the milk weekly and keeping 3-4 Nigerian goats.  I can get the hay for free, and most of the grain would be free...I would have to put in a couple small pastures, put up a portable electric fence...oh yes, I'll have to milk twice a day and the most appealing thing: I WON'T HAVE TO GO TO TOWN.

Drive By Squash Snatch and Run

Picked up Vincent and Leah from school and we took the long way home: did some foraging...elderberries from the side of the road, butternut squash and the last of the Armenian zucchini from grandpa's field, Cinderella pumpkins, seedless watermelon and cantaloupe from Sam's fields.  Then we headed over to Claire's shed and grabbed a garden cart and a twenty gallon covered food storage container...I was looking for a sprayer, but couldn't find it...I'll have to stop tomorrow at the hardware store and pick one up.

Watermelon 4 Sale by the Truckload

The kids' little produce stand is doing pretty good, they're bringing in a bit of money every day.  I keep restocking for them.  I put a plug on FaceBook and they picked up a few customers from that.  Bill had a fellow come out for a truckload of melons and that gave me an idea:  I posted an ad on CraigsList and I have 5 customers coming out daily for a pickup load...I'm averaging about $30 a load (.50 a piece).  Not bad for melons that were going to be disked under.  This is something I have wanted to do for years, but I was always working or too busy with babies.  Next year I'll be better prepared and really do it up right.  The kids have been lucky, too, my customers have purchased pumpkins and butternut squash from them...win-win.

I've been diligently watering the transplants with the worm casting compost tea and they look pretty good.  I brew a 5 gallon batch every other day.  I'm going to pick up 2 more aquarium bubblers and do 15 gallons at a time.  Tessa has the Rubbermaid storage containers for me to build a worm bin of my own and I found a worm farmer that sells castings that still contain baby worms and worm eggs...I will be getting my *seed* from him.  I had to completely re-do the screen covers over the raspberries, strawberries and inter planted Brussels Sprouts and broccoli...I don't know if it's the chickens or the kids, but they keep getting knocked down and then the baby chickens eat all of the leaves and scratch out the roots...I had hoped the plants were big enough that the abuse wouldn't hurt them too much: I was wrong...they really have wrecked havoc.  So most of the watermelon money is going to fencing and housing for the chickens...I need to have more control over their come and goings.  I had thought a chicken tractor would work...but the run area is just too small.  So I will fence in the walnut orchard and let the free range in the late afternoon for about 2-3 hours while I'm working in the garden.  I'm also going to be purchasing a good pasture seed mix and put in three separate nice small pasture areas...one on the east side of the property...one on the west side and then another along the very back of the walnut orchard. 

I have solved my hay storage problem.  I found that all of our barns here at the home place are used to store equipment...when the kids were in 4-H and FFA we had 1/2 of the big barn for our animals...pigs, goats, chickens, 2 horses and over a hundred rabbits...it's a BIG barn...well that barn is now chuck-a-bucka full of harvesters and pallets of seed.  I priced new small livestock barns: YEEKS!  Well, the other day I went over to my mother-in-law's home to look for some canning jars in the shed and remembered there was a small barn behind the foreman's house across the field...sure enough plenty of room for hay and any animals I would want to keep there...good set-up.  The only problem is it's a mile from my house.  Well, I'm what they called a "big gal" and I could use a bit more exercise...so I'm going to pull out my bike get the tires fixed and start riding over there 2 times a day, build up my stamina BEFORE I invest in the goats and steer...I can go ahead and call for the hay and start setting up the barn.

We're OPEN!

Well the Farm Stand is now stocked with Organic Pumpkins, Cantaloupe, Butternut Squash and Watermelon and the kids quickly made $20.00!  I will run to Colusa tomorrow and get them a big white board for writing down prices...they'd been writing them on the outside of the melons!

Tried like crazy to get a good picture of the *man* chicken/rooster...but he's still a bit cagey...and he's NOT a meat bird...he really looks like a *fighting* cock: YEEKS!  He doesn't have those huge ugly leg claws, I think they've been cut off.  He's still young so I'll have to keep an eye on him.  He knows where the food's coming from and he knows I'm in charge...he stands back when all the hens come running to visit with me on the deck or out in the garden.  I think he's pretty...hope I can get a good picture in the next day or so.

The Man Chicken is hiding behind the tree...camera shy

I've been bringing a bag of popcorn old maids from the Market every Monday as a treat for the chickens.  They all love the unpopped kernels but don't like the popped stuff...funny to watch them scratch around:  "Dinner and a Movie", anyone?

RAIN!

Well, I woke up to a wet deck!  We got a bit of rain early this a.m.  Bill and the Boys are trying to get their crops in and this rain won't help.  I doubt if our harvest is even half over, I'm sure they still have another month.  The rice is still green and the Organics are not ready either.

My Farmers Market was really slow this Monday.  I think next year we will finish the end of October and not run until the end of November.  Since the planting season started so late due to cool weather in the Spring, I felt it was only helpful to add a couple months for the vendors...but it's getting cold and people just aren't coming out to the Market.  Live and Learn.

My kitchen is a total disaster at the moment, I should not be on this computer! I bought my last lug of green beans from my favorite veggie vendor and ordered one last lug of processing tomatoes.  I'm almost finished canning the green beans, still have 1/2 a box of apples and about a gallon of tomatoes from my garden.  We ran out of bread and I had to quickly bake a loaf and that mess is still in the sink.  I need to throw some short ribs in the crock pot with a bit of BBQ sauce for tonight's dinner.  I have a meeting at Noon, pick up Lynda from school, pick up chicken feed, odds and ends for my worm bins, 2X4's for my new shed, pick up Leah and Vincent from their school and I need to get 128 cinder block for 2 more garden beds...oh and a bit more pvc pipe for making hoops for the skinny beds to keep the little chickens out.  The kids and I also need to pick some Organic Watermelon, cantaloupe, butternut squash and Cinderella pumpkins for the produce stand in front of the house....I need a clone!

I finally fixed some sugar syrup for the bees and fed them.  I gave them a protein patty and the sugar syrup with Bee Pro in it...a holistic approach to bee health.  I won't be extracting the top super of honey, I'll leave that for them to eat this winter.  I will split the 4 deep supers in the Spring into 4 new hives.  Hopefully I'll have the whole winter to build/get more hives.  Next year I'd like to have each *set-up* contain a bottom deep super and then the shallow supers on the top...3 to 4 each...lots of work for me this winter to ensure lots of honey next summer!

Hey Baby...It's Cold Outside!

I had to put on a flannel shirt this a.m.  It's cold outside!  Over-cast and looks like rain.  I pulled together my weekly *to do list* last night and did not allow for rain...I thought the weatherman said I had 10 more days of warm weather! So, I have to readjust for the weather. My Monday's are always crazy because that's when my forever housekeeper comes, I have to send out two sets of Chamber of Commerce E-Blasts, pick up the kids from school and get to Colusa to manage the Farmers Market.  Tuesday I should go to town and pick up some sale fabric for the Renaissance Faire Skirts I'm making, chicken feed, lumber for the new chicken shed and fencing.  Wednesday in the a.m. I have a Chamber meeting and I have to pick up the kids early.  Thursday I should finish canning the apples and whatever I get from the Market.  Friday I should head up to the cabin to finish all of the Renaissance Skirts and shut the water off and drain the pipes for the winter.  Really not getting much IMPORTANT stuff done...like cleaning up the garden and making sure I have planted things for the winter garden...plus setting up my hoop houses.
My Rooster is back!  Last night I saw some activity on the deck and there he was trying to fly up in the wisteria covering the pergola...what a squawking ruckus he made...all of the hens came running: you could tell they were pretty excited there's a MAN in the house!  Then at 6:30 a.m. the cock-a-doodle-doing started...I just loved it...you really know you're on a farm when you hear that...

I have eggs for the Market and was planning on taking Organic Pumpkins...but I got a call from the Colusa Sr. Class room mother asking to sell pumpkins at the market for a fundraiser...so I'll hold off until next Monday for mine.  I will set some out in the front of the house for the kids to sell along with their melons and butternut squash.

I'm making worm casting compost tea for the garden.  I bought worm castings at the Market a couple of weeks ago and side-dressed the new transplants last week.  I did some reading and found the tea is fantastic.  I took a 5 gallon bucket, put in a 3 pound coffee can full of castings in added water and a bubblier from an old aquarium...it's been bubbling away for 2 days...I'll use it in the garden tomorrow and then make another batch for the roses and flowerbeds in the yard.  Tomorrow afternoon I plan on building a couple worm beds out of a Rubbermaid containers and another out of a wooden locker box.  I found a gal from the Bay Area that sells worms...you get them overnight. I want each of my seven (7) raised beds to have their own worm bed.

There's Still Work To Do

I  picked up Little Lynda from school and we headed over to Butte City to meet Paula and pick apples.  We got a nice box full.  I brought Paula some butternut squash, her's didn't germinate. I had to include a picture of Paula...she's training for the Nike marathon and took a nose-dive a couple days ago and ended up taking a ride in the ambulance...but except for the 2 black eyes, she's looking pretty good and till running! Lynda and I took the long way back home and stopped and picked more figs and noted where there are some prickly pears and persimmons...we'll be back.  I'm going to take a drive tomorrow and get a bucket of black walnuts and a couple quarts of rose hips.

I went out and picked lots of peppers, squash, chard and tomatoes from my garden...the jalapenos are roasting in the oven and I'm making a jam out of 6 pluots, a pear, an apple and a handful of figs...hope it turns out.  I will can apple pie filling and make more applesauce later today.  I froze 5 packages of the chard.

I've been having problems with a ballsy raccoon and I believe he made off with one of my chickens: a Bahama and I'm really pissed....so I went on CraigsList and found a rooster...hoping he'd protect the hens and keep them rounded up...I know he couldn't fight off a raccoon, but he could make a bunch of racket and then I'd have the opportunity to shoot him...any way the rooster was pretty good looking...really wild and flighty and he lasted less than 15 minutes in my fenced off garden: he flew the coop and last time I saw him he was heading South....now what?  He didn't even have a chance to meet the *girls*.

Thursday Family Dinner Night

We switched our Wednesday Family Dinner Night to Thursday.  I've made chicken enchiladas, green salad, refried beans, Spanish rice, apple crisp, chocolate pudding and vanilla ice cream.  Except for the ice cream everything was homemade from scratch...and most raised by me!  I had everything I needed to make the ice cream except TIME.  My days are just not long enough...