Summer's End Harvest, Early September

I haven't been diligent or scientific in my tracking of our farm and garden's productivity this year, but some preliminary numbers for food harvested and put by so far are-

Apple Cider - 3+ gallons
Hooker's Sweet Corn - 1 bushel (so far)
Poppy seeds - 1/2 cup :\
Cucumbers - About 4 gallons (pickled - does not include what we've eaten fresh or fed to the bun-buns)
Carrots, tomatoes, radishes, beets, peppers, beans and peas - no idea! ;\
Sugar Baby Watermelons - 2 (so far)
Pumpkins - 4 (so far)

The garden was somewhat feral this year. With everything going on in our lives, it was really a miracle that we even had a chance to plant anything at all. This is the very first year ever that we didn't have any summer squash at all. The ducks that live in our garden ate our squash and sunflower starts multiple times. We ended up with ONE sunflower! For all their cuteness, ducks can also be selfish little jerks...

This week or next I hope to get out and forage for apples, pears and hawthorn berries. I haven't made hawthorn jelly in a few years and I think that it's about time to remedy that. ;) I'd also like to start putting up some food for the critters, in the form of dehydrating some corn, seeds (pumpkin, mostly) greens (beet tops, bolted collards, kale, etc.) and herbs to dole out sparingly over the dark months. I'm no longer working full-time plus, and am absolutely relishing the reprisal of my full-time farm-wife role.

Tentatively slated for early October - harvesting our Muscovy ducks. Based on the horror stories I've heard about cleaning and plucking ducks, I'm pretty nervous about the process. Oy...

Puttin' it Up

My boo had the day off from work. The plan was for him to go salmon fishing in the Sound, just down the road a piece. Well, some bozo's boat had come untethered in the night and blown ashore at the boat launch, preventing Bill from putting in until the tide came back in, allowing the bozo in question to move his errant boat back where it belonged. And so, the day meant to be spent slaying fish was out. Instead, he came home and helped me do some serious catching up and putting up re: our garden landslide.

Socked away/made today -

Chelle -

Processed (washed, cut and froze)
*5 gallon bags of carrots
*6 gallon bags of summer squash

Picked and thrown in the dehydrator
*1/4 cup +/- bread poppy seeds
*1 cup German chamomile
*1 cup calendula blossoms

Bill -

Made
*1 pound goats milk mozzarella
*1 pizza dough
*1 beautiful Apple Pie (with our apples, of course)
*1 gallon apple cider (fermenting now)
*1 loaf white sandwich bread

Bill's homemade apple pie, bread and pizza (with his mozzarella)

Tomorrow I need to make a decision about what I want to do with our 10(ish) pounds of rapidly-ripening pears. Maybe jam, cider, pear sauce or ???

The pumpkins and tomatillos cometh SOON so I need to get ready for a wallop.

Today's Take & Booze News - 9/23/12

Today's take isn't really much to speak of, except to mention that Sidney's milk production seems to finally have begun its decline. We "only" got about a quart and a half from her for the past few days, instead of the usual half gallon. Drying off time is approaching.

Drying the girls off to give their little bodies a break, and, to prepare them for breeding back, is a bit of a mixed blessing. On the one hand, the milk will definitely be missed for the 6+ months that we won't have it. On the other hand, milking during a cold, wet, dark Washington Winter is zero percent fun for the farmer and the goat both, so it makes sense to take a break then.

The hens have been laying a bit less too, not on account of the weather, as we have a pleasant Indian Summer going - for now. Most likely, it is because some of the gals have begun their molt. Molting is the yearly bad-haircut-grow-out phase of chicken adulthood. In years past, the gals have left it 'til much later in the season, counter-intuitively commencing their feather loss just when the temperatures take their great initial dips. This year, it seems that the hennies & roos are slightly ahead of the game.

The real news for today is the booze. ;) Bill and I did our first racking of this year's ciders. My batch is about 2 gallons of blackberry apple cider, made from the juice of 30 pounds of apples and 6 pounds of wild blackberries, and using a packet of Lalvin V-1116 Montpellier cider yeast. Bill's is  nearer to 3 gallons of all-apple cider, made from 70 pounds worth of homegrown apples, and a packet of Nottingham ale yeast. Both tasted very promising, with mine having a very full body, sort of the cider-y answer to a Merlot, and Bill's being very light and crisp, reminding me a bit of champagne on my tongue.

I can't wait to see how these babies finish out!

*Eggs - 4
*Goats Milk- 1 1/2 quarts

Apples & Pears

Today's and yesterday's combined take from our tiny "orchard" -

*Apples - 141 1/2 pounds! (Our previous record was 50 pounds.)

*Windfall Apples for critters - 13 pounds

*Pears - 20 pounds, 6 ounces (Our previous best was exactly one pear.)

Cider Futures :)

We also got -

*Eggs - 10

*Blackberries - 10 ounces

Happy, happy, joy, joy!

Today's Take - 9/6/12

The Fruitapalooza continues. Which means that the juicing/cider-making palooza is up next. Hooboy!

*Eggs - 11

*Blackberries - 14 ounces

*Apples - 3 pounds

Today's Take - 8/31/12

*Eggs - 6

*Apples - 4 pounds for us, 3 pounds of windfalls for the critters

*Blackberries - 1 pound

Today's Take - 8/29/12

Froo-its! We have all manner of pie and jam fixin's busting out all over just now. :)

This is just the tip of the apple iceberg, and the blackberries don't show any signs of abating soon either. Yay for free fruit!

*Eggs- 5

*Apples - 10 1/2 pounds

*Blackberries - 1 pound, 10 ounces

Today's Take - 8/23/12

More of the same - it's high blackberry season, which will soon give way to apple-mania.

*Eggs - 4 (What's up with that, laydies?)
*Wild Blackberries - 1 pound, 1 ounce
*Windfall apples - 8 or 9 (unweighed) that went straight to the goaties, who appreciated their under-ripe yet bruised texture very much. ;)

I've been a busy little Farm Girl

Earning my housewifey stripes today, I -

*Knitted a dishcloth and started a set of bike helmet earmuffs
*Turned 15 pounds of "junk" pears into 1/2 gallon of pear cider - which will likely eventually be wine. :)
*Juiced 10 pounds of apples
*Made 4 quarts of chicken broth (thanks, Thunder!)
*Washed 4 dozen eggs
*Am making two loaves of bread/a dozen+ eggs worth of French toast for freezing.
*Wrote two posts

Not too shabbeh! ;)

A Banner Day in the Bog

We had two harsh realities bearing down upon us this week that spurred us into frenetic activity.

Number one was the unexpectedly early arrival of our chicks. The babies that we were expecting tomorrow instead started hatching Friday at around dinnertime. So far 12 have hatched, 11 of whom survived. We have at least one more trying to hatch, and can hear the little peeper in his shell but see no pip marks at all yet.

So, we had less time than we'd expected to get their brooder set up, and to clear a house/run in the coop for their eventual lodging. Making room for the babies in the coop of course meant that the rooster that we'd been putting of harvesting, Mr. Meanie, had now officially seen his last sunrise.

Bill & Liv made fairly quick work of Meanie, and gave their thanks for his sacrifice and a small prayer for his soul when they buried his head up under the big Alder tree. The rest of him is simmering in a stock pot this minute.

In addition to pressing chicken issues, the number two item on our list was another which could not be delayed or ignored, the onset of frost. Ye Olde Farmer's Almanac says that our first frost is due this coming Friday. So to hedge our bets in the event that Mr. Frosty showed up early, I picked just about every last little thing in the garden today. Tomatoes, pumpkins, squash, coriander, celery and carrots all came out, ready or not. 99% of the tomatoes are green, so they'll be sitting in the front window for a spell until they're ready for saucing. If only we'd had another 2 weeks or a month Indian summer, my 'maters would have gone bananas. :(

Liv & Carly started the apple picking today, but didn't get terribly far. I think I'll have to finish that up later this week.

So we butchered a roo, harvested the garden and finally sold Leap, our last bunny from the litter born in February, all in a day. Now if only I'd been able to finish picking the apples and could've shimmied a cheese making in there somewhere, my chore list would be all wrapped up, farmy-wise.

Who am I kidding? My chore list is never finished. I'm exhausted, my fingernails are still caked with dirt from digging carrots, my back is wigging out and I still have to ledger and put away today's eggs, make the kids' lunches and do a load of dishes before bed. Some days this farm gig is rough. :P

Today's Take-
Goats Milk, 60 ounces
Eggs, 15
Chicken, 4 pounds (after plucking & gutting)
Tomatoes, 15 pounds
Pumpkins, Sugar Pie - 4 pounds 4 ounces, Cinderella - 9 pounds 6 ounces
Carrots, 6 pounds
Apples (haven't weighed them yet)
Odds & Ends - baby zucchinis, baby straightneck squash, Amish pie squash, peas & coriander.

Today's Take 9/19/11

Our first squash! Or pumpkin, according to some. I've seen this listed as both am Amish Pie Pumpkin and Amish Pie Squash. It looks like a pumpkin, and in a few days, I hope to find out if it tastes like one too. I'm looking forward to making some raviolis with this lovely. :)



Our apples are looking quite ready all of a sudden too. I think that if we can find the time, we'll pick them this coming weekend.

Goats Milk, 64 ounces
Eggs, 12 (For hatching/decorating only - not edible)
Amish Pie Squash, 2 pounds 6 ounces (1 squash)
Tomatoes, 6 ounces

Today's Take 9/5/11

Well, the whole separating the baby does from the Mama does thing has worked out well, as was expected. We set a new record for the most amount of milk in a day - 1/2 gallon! At this rate, we could be socking away a two-pound cheddar every four days. :)))

*Goats Milk, 64 ounces
*Eggs, 5
*Blueberries, (picked for jam from the farm down the way) 4lbs, 12 oz
*Windfall Apples, (for critter food) 2 wheelbarrows full

Apples & Cider - A Family Affair

First, we picked our apples - 50 pounds worth!







The girls were in charge of the sorting, washing and drying.



Bill and I pared and cored the lot. God bless the inventor of the Yankee Apple Peeler!





Chillaxin' while the steam juicer works its magic



Finally, Bill adding the sugar and pitching the yeast to get this cider brewing.




It's hard to believe that it took 50 pounds of apples (cored, but not peeled) and a day's worth of labor to make roughly 2 1/2 gallons of juice. We all enjoyed some of the fresh cider before handing the remainder off to our brew master, Bill, for "hardening". ;)

He added some sugar and half a packet of yeast, and into the man cave/basement it went to ferment a while. Our fingers are crossed that this will be fermented, bottled and carbonated by the holidays. See you in three months!