Merry 4th of July

The weather is wonderful today. Just in time for the 4th of July weekend. Kinda makes me feel giddy. Maybe because it reminds me of the summers of childhood. Summer still feels like a much-needed vacation for me. And a holiday in the middle of summer must make it the best holiday of all. Everyone enjoy and be safe!




Farm Happenings
Berry and peach season are here, just in time for the 4th of July! The CSA shares will have one or the other, showing up in your boxes!

It’s been very dry on the farm, we all need some rain! Judy talked with a neighbor that lives less than a quarter mile from them and they have had rain every day for the past week, Doe Run Farm had none as of Sunday.

All the crops, despite a lack of rain are looking good. There is an abundance of summer squash, cucumbers, beets, tomatoes, onions and cabbage so far this summer. Bell peppers this year are gigantic and great for stuffing! The heat sure agrees with those peppers! The jalapenos have been extra hot this season! Doe Run is planting more tomatoes for a late crop this year so we can enjoy them for as long as possible.

The flowerbeds and the area surrounding the greenhouse finally got weeded, and things look a lot better around the farm. Weeds have a way of taking over an organic farm in a hurry.

The fig bushes are really growing. Judy was worried they wouldn’t make it through last winter, being newly planted and all, but they look wonderful. Barry mulched them heavily last winter after the first light freeze. Judy is most anxious to see some figs on them. There’s nothing like a fresh fig in her opinion. Last year when they had the chance to visit their son Michael that lives in Virginia, they took a side trip to Monticello. They had magnificent gardens there and a beautiful fruit orchard. Judy sampled a couple figs and fell in love with this fruit. She had to have some fig bushes of her own. After a few tries, and failures, these have done very well. The pear trees are looking good too, loaded with pears this summer.

John and Judy are planting some rhubarb crowns this week. Hopefully this time of year, planting will not be too detrimental to them. Judy loves rhubarb, especially strawberry-rhubarb jelly on hot toast or biscuits in the wintertime!

If you haven’t become a fan of the farm on Facebook yet, do it today!

P.S. On Monday afternoon, John and Judy’s prayers were answered. A wonderful storm rolled through late Monday, no damage, just much appreciated rain, at last. Beautiful lightshow as well. Judy understands that sky to ground lightening is wonderful for the soil; she’s just not sure how this works though.

Recipes
I am adding two recipes today. One is my all time summer favorite…Peach Cobbler, and the other is because I’ve had so many requests for cabbage recipes.

Easy Peach Cobbler
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar, divided
3 teaspoons baking powder
Pinch salt
1 cup milk
4 cups peeled, thinly sliced fresh peaches (5 to 6 medium peaches)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Several dashes cinnamon and nutmeg

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Melt butter in a 13 x 9 x 2 inch-baking dish.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, 1/2 cup sugar, the baking powder, and the salt. Mix well. Stir in the milk, mixing until just combined. Do not over mix. Pour this batter over the melted butter, but do not stir them together.

In a small saucepan, combine the peaches, lemon juice, and remaining 1/2 cup of sugar. Bring to boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Pour the peaches over the batter, but do not stir them together. Sprinkle with cinnamon and nutmeg.

Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 45 minutes, or until the top is golden brown. Serve warm or cold with vanilla ice cream.

Crunchy Cabbage Salad
1 large head of cabbage, thinly shredded
1/2 bunch green onions, chopped
2 packages Ramen noodles crushed into small pieces. Only use the noodles.
1 small package toasted slivered almonds
1 small package toasted sunflower seeds

Dressing
4 tablespoons sugar
6 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 cup salad oil

Prepare dressing ahead of time. Mix all ingredients in a jar and chill.

Mix cabbage and onions in a large bowl. Only when ready to serve, add the crunchy noodles, nuts, and seeds. Then add the mixed dressing, toss and serve immediately.

Nocturnal Surprise

Yesterday was pretty average insofar as most CSA delivery days go, at least until we got home last night after our last delivery. We got out of the truck, and started across the porch to the front door. John was a few steps in front of me and suddenly he turned around and said to me, don't go any further there's a snake up there. Well I thought it was just a small snake of some kind and when I looked closely, stretched clear across the porch floor, just under the step up right into the house was a five foot (at least) King snake. How's that for a welcome home! Thank goodness he wasn't the poisonous kind and I know they will keep those away, but it's not the kind of welcome you want after a long day's work!

Yesterday our CSA boxes were so beautiful and we were pleased to give everyone a dozen free range eggs straight off the egg farm. We had a nice visit with the farmer at his farm, that provided the eggs to us. They have a wonderful pasture for the hens to roam and scratch around on all day, every day. Turns out the farmer is from the next county over from where John and I grew up in Kentucky, talk about a small world!

Strawberry season has ended for us for the season, which makes me sad, but now we can look forward to the other berries and fruits of summer! I love all the wonderful food that our Creator provides for us in the summer months. It comes from our work in the soil, but God gives us the strength,the resources and the help of a CSA Community to bring it all to fruition! Next up, blueberries and blackberries. I have included a recipe for an easy home made Blueberry Ice Cream that I think you will enjoy! Till next time, don't forget to count your blessings!

Immediate Gratification Blueberry Ice Cream (from the Grist)
2 pints Blueberries,
1 and 1/2 C. Sugar
2 T. fresh Lime Juice
1/4 tsp. Salt
3 and 1/2 C. heavy Cream
3/4 C. Buttermilk
Fresh Mint leaves for garnish if you like (I like)
Puree the Blueberries with the sugar in your food processor or blender until "chunky", reserving a few for garnish. Mix in the rest of the ingredients and churn according to your ice cream maker manufacturer's instructions. Garnish with the fresh mint leaves to serve. Enjoy!

Memorial Day Weekend

It is the un-official summer kick-off weekend. School is out and neighborhood pools are opening. Time to clean off that grill and get together with friends and family. Lots of good food available at this time of year for a wonderful holiday meal.

Farm
John is wiring the Pavilion so that Doe Run can have electricity for any function on the farm. John and Judy are planning on having a workshop or starting farm tours from the Pavilion this fall. Judy will be driving the tractor to lift John up (in the platform on the tractor) so that he can reach his work areas. John was an Electrical Engineer before becoming Farmer John—he will do this job very well!

Today John and Judy picked up more work tables for the packing shed as they were running out of counter space for packing all our CSA boxes for delivery. The finishing touches have been put on the two new walk in coolers in the packing shed. They are great!

This week John and Judy will be cleaning out two of the high tunnels and planting crops in there that will tolerate summer's heat. John will be installing the new sand filter for the pump. That should allow the water they irrigate with to flow more freely and give them one less problem to contend with. It was an expensive fix (filter) but, should be worth it in the long run.

Doe Run has some gorgeous Savoy cabbage that will be showing up in CSA boxes soon, and Judy thinks it is the prettiest she’s ever seen! The summer squash and zucchini are looking wonderful. The chard, lettuce and broccoli are all doing very well too. All those yummy vegetables will be showing up in CSA boxes over the next few weeks, and before you know it, those luscious tomatoes will be here. I can't wait.

Unfortunately, it seems this may be a short season for strawberries. Doe Run has had some of the best strawberries this season, but with this heat, they’re not sure how much longer they will be around. After talking with other farmers in the area, the consensus is that they will be short lived. Judy says not to worry though, blackberries and blueberries are coming and we can look forward to eating them! When you eat what's in season, there's always something delicious just around the bend………

Recipe

Creamy Sweet Slaw
1 large cabbage, shredded
4 celery ribs, chopped
1 small green bell pepper, finely chopped
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup white vinegar
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1 t salt
1/2 t black pepper

Combine vegetables in a large bowl. Stir together sugar and next 5 ingredients; spoon over cabbage mixture, tossing to coat.

Farm Happenings

It's been awhile since I have made a contribution to the blog, so I will try to catch you up on things going on here at the farm!

We have been busily planting more of just about everything, so far so good for our plantings, though we are a bit behind schedule, not much behind so far anyway. That can change though as plans often do around here. On any given day, what you have planned may have to be put aside for something more pressing.

I have just gotten off the tractor a few minutes ago. I drove while Barry and Susan, one of our helpers this summer, planted tomatoes and cucumbers. Boy is it hot out there today. We tried to do the planting fairly early, but it got hot pretty fast today! I had several run-ins with sweat bee's and wasps which is all you need while trying to drive down the raised beds in a straight line.

It looks as if we may have a pop up shower which really we could use, but not until we have a couple hundred heads of lettuce and that many bunches of turnips harvested and put in the chiller.

Overall things in the fields look pretty good right now, though we are fighting to stay ahead of our nemesis,the weeds. They are always a challenge on an Organic farm, we can't just go out and buy something to spray on them to kill them off. Some we can pull, hoe or weedeat, some we have to just live with.

John has been busy trying to stay ahead of the cabbage moths, that lay their eggs on cabbage, choi, broccoli and the like, and which in turn become cabbage worms. They flit around in the field like they own the place:) You have to spray them with BT often to keep them in check. If it rains after you've sprayed you have to come back and do it again, they are really persistent!

We have been having a time with our irrigation pump filter that cleanses the water from our irrigation pond. The filter keeps clogging up on us which has caused us problems. John informed me this morning that he has found a solution by purchasing a sand filter for the pump which should take care of the problem. Unfortunately that filter costs about $1500. Since it is heavy, I most likely will have to drive to Ky. to pick it up from the Supplier. What a way to start off a new week.

Our CSA Shares for this season are sold out and we are getting into the new routine with our new delivery locations. Please continue to check out our website often as we try to keep it pretty well up to date. We are adding new Recipes to our Recipe Archive most every week now for your use and enjoyment.

Time to run to the Greenhouse and give the plants in there a drink of water!

With Memorial Day upon us this week, we wish all of you a wonderful holiday weekend and we wish you safe travels if you are going to be away from home this weekend! Judy