But, yesterday I was remined of one of the down-sides to having chickens. They can be pretty destructive when left to free-range. I’d set some plants outside the back door before taking them to the cold-frame. When I returned the chickens had completely destroyed them. All the leaves were gone from the broccoli, and most of the cabbage was eaten too. Needless to say I was PISSED! It was my own fault for leaving them there, but I didn’t even think about the chickens getting into them. So, the stems of these plants are now in the cold frame, and on a bed of manure for warmth. Maybe there will be a grand resurection, or maybe we’ll be buying some broccoli plants from the local greenhouse.

(Here they were a couple of weeks ago, they were about 3x this size before the chicken attack yesterday)

This is part seven of a seven part series.  Its all about supply and demand in the organic food market.  If you like this one you should read the first six.

This is less of a link to an article then it is to a resource.  This is TreeHugger.com’s local food project. Its a great resource to find out information about local foods and local food initiatives.  Its pretty cool but so is TreeHugger.com which is a Discovery Channel product.

Along those same lines as the TreeHugger.com resource Minnesota has put together a great site Minnesota Grown.  You can find all sort of great information about local produce in Minnesota.

This site is all about reusing stuff in fun/creative ways.  I haven’t tried any of their ideas out yet myself but I’ve got a couple bookmarked for later use.  Check out superuse.org here.

This one is all about a mad shout-out.  This is Northland and this is beer. Check out this Northland-centric brewing project. Who knows maybe we can talk these fellas into a post or two here some time too?

Yesterday our part of the country got hit with quite a bit of snow. So, while watching it fall, I dove into the huge pile of seed catalogs we’ve gotten in the past couple of months. I love planning the garden, everything is so hopeful at this time of year. And the garden I picture has no weeds, powdery mildew or deer munching away at our plants. The hardest part is narrowing down all the choices….I really shouldn’t try to grow all 10 kinds of pumpkins that look so great in all the catalog pictures.

Most of our seed order is going to come from three companies: Harris Seeds, Johnny’s, and Pinetree. We’ve had a lot of success with thier seeds in the past, great customer service and a fair number of seeds for the price. I’m in charge of the greens, squashes and flowers. John will take care of tomatoes, beans and cucumbers. We usually buy seed potatoes, onion sets locally. Plus, we have some seeds saved from previous gardens.

At this point I’m really excited about some new lettuce mixes, kale and collards, and the pumpkins. We had awful luck with the pumpkins last year, but this year I’m determined to prevail!

For now, we’re trying to stay warm, and dreaming of the upcoming spring.

-Jeffrey

(this is cooked jam, which tastes closer to what you can buy at the store, strawberries can also be made into freezer jam which is also delicious, and easier to make)

 Wash the berries,
 then cut off tops and slice. This recipe calls for 2 quarts of strawberries.

 Then, mash the sliced berries. There should still be some chunks of fruit as well as juice.

 Making jam can be done all by one person, but it’s easier and more fun with two people working  on it. One person can be measuring and prepping all the stuff, while the other slices, mashed and boils the jam. This is the 7 cups(!) of sugar waiting to go in with the berries.

 Wash and rinse jelly jars, this recipe makes just over 9 jars worth of jam.

 Then place in the oven, set pretty low, this dries the jars and gets them hot enough.

 Also put lids and water into a small pan and bring to a boil (this sterilizes them).

 After the berries have been mashed, transfer them to a large pot and add fruit pectin (“Sure-Jel” is a popular brand, but we use whatever is cheapest) Bring the fruit and pectin to a rolling boil, then add the sugar. Return to a rolling boil, and boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Then get the jars out of the oven and get a ladle and funnel ready. (This is where it really helps to have another person)

    Ladle the hot jam into jars…

 wipe the rims with a damp cloth…

 place lids and rings on the jars, and make sure the rings are tight.

 Then flip the jars upside down for about 5 minutes. This puts all the hot liquid around the rim, so it has a better chance of sealing. Flip the jars back over and then listen for them to seal. They make a very satisfying “pop”! After that it doesn’t take very long for the jam to set, then it’s ready to be shared with friends! Yum!

Sometimes he likes to smell the flowers…..

Somtimes he likes to hang out in the shade of his tree….

And sometimes he just misses Becky….

After some of the crowns sprouted and came up a bit, the bed needs to be filled in more. We also set some posts and then put boards around the bed so it’s a more defined area and we could make it pretty deep. Here’s John digging one of the post-holes.   

Eventually when the bed is filled in, the asparagus has to be left alone. It turns into wispy fern-like stuff. We’ll leave it alone besides some weeding throughout the summer. In the fall the ferns will get cleared out, and the bed should be covered with leaves as we wait patiently for the spring. Next spring we’ll cut just a little bit, because the plants are still getting established and can’t handle a heavy harvest. But, by the third year we can take as much as we want. I know it will be worth the wait for fresh asparagus every day. Yum-Yum!

Locust is the best tree for this because it doesn’t rot, ever. (Well, it does, but it takes decades, and our farm has lots of locust trees, and the guys enjoy searching all over for them) The next step is to cut the tree into 6ft lengths for the posts. I can cut up the tops of the trees to use as firewood this winter.

Some lenghts are small enough that they can be used as posts on thier own. Others are thicker and need to be split, by hand, which is a job for John. I’ve tried to swing the maul and axe, but it’s pretty worthless. So the first step is to use the maul to start to split one end.

After the initial split in the log, wedges are used to continue to split the log. Each one is pounded into the log using a sledge hammer. And the wedges are “leap-frogged” to the end of the long or until it splits in half. In these pictures John was using two plastic wedges, they aren’t as good as metal ones, but tend to be safer.

These two halves can also be split, but don’t need the wedges. They split pretty easily with the maul, and some help with an axe. I didn’t get pictures of this step. Here’s Farmer John with a finished post.

Did I mention he was splitting these in the rain and mud? Which, in my opinion, makes him a bad-ass farmer.