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| All 3 tractors just barely fit in the barn |
Farm Happenings:
Talk to me for long enough to get past my foodie chatter and you will discover that I am a grease monkey down there under the dirt. It is, however, a love/hate relationship that I have with mechanics.
Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my tractors, big and small. I love their perfect design- each one built so specifically to fulfill a purpose mandated by a thousand desperate farmers who just wanted it to do one thing perfectly. The problem is, that one thing perfectly done is totally open to the interpretation of a thousand taciturn farmers that all have their own idea of what perfectly done looks like. Sort of like a lot of things in life, most definitely. I think it must be why most farmers that I know, they sort of obsessively collect tractors.
For me, I think it comes down to the fact that mechanics, engineering, etc.- I'm just not naturally good at it. I have to work to understand how it works, even though I get the concept and can see the pieces. It is a puzzle of moving parts, pieces, metal, bits and often, no matter how carefully I record, categorize and then put back together,I can't fix it. It doesn't work. It doesn't do that one thing perfectly the exact way that I want it. And I lose all my calm collectivity and patience. And start throwing wrenches.
My current project is a 1949 Farmall Cub. It's a work of art. It really is- the most beautiful thing about it is its sheer rawness. You can see exactly how it works, how any combustion engine works, actually, and because you can see it- you can understand it. That sort of basic knowledge (since for most of my young life I believed that machinery was basically magic) is a wonderment in this day and age of computers driving our phones, cars, lives. This is just an engine that when it works, it turns the wheels and raises and lowers shafts under and behind and I stick various parts onto it in order to make it move through the soil and destroy weeds. Not that it doesn't have its quirks, it's an old horse after all. Been rode hard and put away wet. It came to me, bedraggled and neglected, but I'm not interested in pretty. The engine was rough, but you could hear that it just needed a little love. The electrical system had been converted to a 12volt system from its original 6 volt (with a positive ground...imagine thinking in reverse of all you've ever learned about electricity!) but in a haphazard sort of way with lots of extra wire hanging around. So we gave it an overhaul- new plugs, new oil filter, new fuel filter- drained it dry and filled it up again. Repacked and greased up all its joints and axles. A little electrical hiccup sent us scurrying around looking for a new external resistor (just like the kind you used to find in the glove compartment of every old beater car). But when all was said and done- it purred like a kitten and massacres weeds like nothing else. And before anyone thinks for one second that I did all that work and puzzled it all out on my own- thank you to Jesse, Eli, Leslie, Charley, Dermot and anyone else who looked at, consulted or helped me get this little Cub back in working order.
Goat News:
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| Nutella in browse |
I love getting questions about our furry farm residents. The most current question, now that it is relevant again, is what do we do about goats and the rain? The answer: goats stay out in the rain most of the time. I make exceptions for new babies (and by new I mean less than two weeks) combined with cold (under 50 degrees) and/or wind. The rain is actually good for them- it cleans their fur and skin of loose dirt, hair and dandruff, allowing sun to get in and free up natural oils and healthy skin cells. They need the Vitamin D as much as the rest of us do. This doesn't mean that they love to be out in the rain, but they tolerate it just fine. Goat, like all ruminants (cattle, sheep, etc), have four stomachs so that they can digest the cellulose in plants. The first stomach, called the rumen, takes up a HUGE amount of space inside their bodies and acts like a giant heater because it is tumbling around a whole lot of plant material (which the animal then burps back up as "cud" rechews and then swallows again) with enzymes. Lots of activity equals lots of heat.
New babies are less tolerant because they both haven't started "ruminating" and they don't have a nice thick layer of baby fat yet so it is harder for their temperatures to regulate quickly. They can get chilled if they are both wet and cold for a significant length of time. If babies are born in winter, we often put coats or fleece jammies on them and put heat lamps in their stalls to keep them warm. After a few weeks, they are both fatter and have started nibbling on grasses and know better to snuggle up with their Mommas and each other for extra warmth.
All the goats did just fine out in Sunday's torrential rains- goat kids snuggled up in the rocks and Mommas stood over them to provide a little extra shelter- but they didn't get chilled. (Chilled also looks different than "shivering"- it's hard to describe, but shivering doesn't always mean too cold. Shivering means that the body is working as it should to regulate body temperature.)
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| Black Swallowtail Caterpillar in the Carrots |
This week's Share may contain:
Radishes
Salad Turnips
Baby Bok Choi
Lettuce mix
Kohlrabi
Butterhead lettuce
Baby kales
Snow Peas are ready in the Pick Your Own!!!
Recipe of the Week:
So. We still have an abundance of beautiful radishes (you may even still have some left in your fridge!) in the field, and I brought home a couple of bunches on Friday myself. My partner took one look and said, "We need to pickle these!"
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| Radish Relish |
And so we hunted through our many books and found a delicious recipe for Radish Relish in "Put Em Up" by Sherri Brooks Vinton. It is really yummy- lots of spices that go well will Indian food or potato salad. It is also a bright and vibrant pink that looks awesome on the plate. You can either make and refrigerate for up to 3 weeks or can it in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes using sterilized jars and new lids. This was really fast and fun to make!
Radish Relish
2 cups distilled white vinegar
1 1/2 cups sugar*
1 Tbsp kosher salt
1 Tbsp whole coriander*
1 Tbsp cumin seed*
1 Tbsp yellow mustard seed*
2 pounds radishes, shredded
1 cup diced onion
1 2 inch knob of ginger, peeled and grated
1 garlic clove, minced
Directions:
Combine vinegar, sugar, salt, and dried spices in a non reactive saucepan and bring to a boil. Add the radishes, onion, ginger and garlic and return to a boil, stirring to ensure that all ingredients are heated through. Remove from heat and ladle in bowls or clean jars. Serve cool.
*we used a few Tbsps of pickling spice and vanilla sugar which added some additional cinnamon and cardamom flavors that all worked really really well- though you need to strain out the barks and whole allspice before adding the radishes.
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