Goat Camp

In my recent issue of Hobby Farms magazine, there was a very fun article about a place called Stony Knolls Farm in St. Albans, Maine. Every year they host two different weekend camps for people who want to learn all-things-goat. This includes everything from the very basics up to hoof maintenance and recipes for goat meat. Considering the fact that I want to be a goat farmer but know absolutely nothing about caring for them, I'm putting goat camp on my must-do list before we officially become country dwellers.

The above photos were from an apple orchard we visited recently. Carl, Gus and Louise loved watching them and were intrigued with the idea of feeding them from the gumball/goat food machine, but Gus got a little goat shy when the time came to hold out his hands with the food. Louise made my day when she said in her 2 1/2 year old voice, "I want to kiss a goat." That's my girl!

It's beginning to look a lot like... WINTER?

Look what we woke up to this morning! Saturday morning we had a little dusting, but this morning, it looks like December! How can this be? It isn't even mid-October.
Here are the swiss chard leaves I was hoping to harvest soon for a lovely soup recipe I found. Wonder what frozen chard tastes like? I brought in one plant that had summered outside on Friday night, but still had a few more that needed to come in for the winter. I think they're probably frozen compost-bound now.

It is quite beautiful, despite the shock of snow in October. My favorite part of the snow is the light it makes, the bright white glow that shines in the windows. Very comforting, cozy and makes me feel like baking. Cookies this afternoon? If you're local, stop by today. By dinner time we should be smelling good!

And you? What's the weather like there?

Roasted Tomato Sauce

I found an amazing recipe recently in an old copy of Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion, before they stopped publishing it. I was enjoying a huge harvest of vegetables from the farmer's market and realized that there was no way we were going to eat our way through that pile of veggies before they would be ready for the compost pile.

The recipe is from the guys at Stonewall Kitchen, makers of fancy food in beautiful glass jars with lovely labels. It appealed to me because of the ease of the process. Got a pile of tomatoes and things? Get cookin'!

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Roasted Tomato Sauce

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Toss with past, serve with chicken or fish, or use with any recipe that calls for tomato sauce. Can be refrigerated for up to five days or frozen up to 10 months.

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Makes about 10 cups of tomato sauce.

15 cloves of garlic

8 lbs of ripe tomatoes, any variety

10 medium onions, quartered

1 cup fresh herbs, chopped (rosemary, Italian flat parsley, basil, thume, oregano, and/or chives will all work)

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 tsp salt

Fresh ground black pepper

3 to 4 Tbsp sugar, optional

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1. Prehead oven to 450 degrees. Peel and chop 5 cloves of garlic. Leave the remaining cloves whole. In a large roasting pan, gently toss together the tomatoes, whole and chopped garlic, onions, herbs, oil, salt, and pepper.

2. Roast for 25 minutes. Gently stir. Roast for another 25 minutes. Stir again. Roast another 45 minutes or until tomatoes are softened and broken down into a sauce with a golden brown crust on top.

3. Remove from oven and taste for seasoning. If slightly bitter, add sugar and stir. Pour sauce into clean, sterile jars or freezer bags and refrigerate, can or freeze. If you prefer a smoother sauce, blend in a blender until smooth.

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I didn't really measure or weigh the ingredients, just an approximation of the recipe. I even added a few red and yellow peppers. Wow... was it fun, easy and tasty! I put it in quart bags in the freezer, ready for something yummy this winter.

Working on Cheddar

It's late at night and I've been working on my first batch of cheddar cheese for almost three hours. Ron is away for the evening and I thought it would be a great time to make this batch that has been years in the making. I'm so used to making mozzarella and having the instant gratification of eating it right away. The idea that I'm going to have to wait a minimum of four weeks to even taste it is painful! Some of the best cheeses in the world have been aged for years, right? I'll keep you posted.
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In the meantime, I'm snacking on some delicious cheese from Love Tree farm in Grantsburg, WI that I discovered at the Mill City Farmer's Market. It is the Trade Lake Cedar, I think. So earthy, silky and rich. I can only hope that my cheese will be half as good as this someday at Good Tree.

In addition to cheese making, I also did a little research. I'm tired of my photos being the same size on this blog. Despite my previous efforts at the library looking for the perfect blogging book that would show me how to change the size of my photos, I had never found the right thing. I discovered this blog that linked me to this blog and her tutorial. Lyndsay is a designer and seems to be able to wiggle around the HTML a bit. I love the size of these photos!

(Just to clarify... the above cheese is NOT mine. It is the cheese from Love Tree. Mine is still in the drying stages.)

Have you found any good tutorials out there lately?

Dinner Al Fresco

We had friends over recently and I shared a few prizes from my beet stash. The weather was warm, mostly bug-free and the kids were happy to allow us a bit more than usual of adult-only time on the back patio. Mmmm, savoring one of the last nights of summer in Minnesota with friends.

The menu:

• Spinach salad with beets, pecans, goat cheese, red onions and Cafe Brenda's maple mustard vinagarette.
• A fresh baked boule from Artisan Bread in Five
• Herb-Rubbed Flank Steak with Peperonata from Bon Appetit (Aug. 2007) (Try it! Here's what they say-- Why you'll make it: Because it's special enough for company but easy enough to pull off any night of the week.)
• Mashed Yukon gold and sweet potatoes
• Flan
  
  

Beet Love

At the Minneapolis Mill City Farmer's Market I found love. Beet love. Actually, carrot love too. There was a man selling a mixed bouquet of five different colors of beets. At the stall next door there was a young girl with mixed bouquets of beets, orange carrots and purple carrots. With bunches of beautiful vegetables like that, who needs flowers? I indulged my inner beet lover and bought both.

My kids aren't into beets and my husband is only a reluctant "if you insist on putting that on my salad" beet fan, so I was able to enjoy nearly every sweet, crimson globe of perfection myself.

Any other beet fans out there?

Hey there old friend

Oh my, oh my. I looked back on my notes and it had been nearly a year since I last made cheese. For someone who wants to be a cheese maker, I'm not doing so well. Ron gave me a cheese press for my birthday last year in December. Guess how many times I've used it? Yes... zero. It is still in the box on the floor of my closet. Ugh.

A week ago Gus asked me as we were driving in the car, "Mom, why haven't you used the cheese press that Daddy gave you? Don't you like it?"

Wow. The real answer is that I think that I don't have time. Can't find time. Can't find the right time. Hmmm. Indeed it is a bit more complicated to do with the exact temperatures and hot liquids with little ones underfoot, but no time? I think I must place cheese making up in the category of luxurious things that I shouldn't be doing when there are other tasks to be done. Is the house clean? Is the laundry done? Did I organize the bathroom cupboard? Nope, nope and nope. And since these tasks are generally never-ending, the cheese making never happens.

Until yesterday. Mmm. Boy am I glad I did. Welcome back old friend. I made 30-minute mozzarella and ate more than I care to admit. It was delicate, smooth and warm. As the afternoon sun shone in the kitchen window and our dog reclined in its rays, I leaned against the kitchen counter savoring every last lingering morsel of the cherry tomato-sized mozzarella balls I had made for the kids. Mmmm, so good.

Later I brought a few warm slices (from the large balls I also made) down to the boys who were happily keeping themselves occupied with Legos while I made cheese. "Did you make this Mom? I love, love you! I love, love your cheese!"

Dinner last night was simple and wonderful. Mozzarella with tomatoes from a friend's garden and basil from ours. A white boule made the day before from flour ground in nearby North Dakota. Corn chowder made from potatoes from our garden and corn from our freezer, frozen in time from our trip to Uncle Lon's farm. It doesn't come much more local than that meal. I'm including the recipe for corn chowder from one of my all time favorite cook books: Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special.

And you? Have you eaten anything lately that made you swoon? I'd love to hear about it!

Corn Chowder (serves 4-6) (yields 8 cups)

"A creamy, sunny-hued classic that you can make any time of the year, Corn Chowder is a friendly, comforting soup especially popular with young folks and sweet corn lovers of any age."

1 c. chopped onions
1 Tbsp. canola or other vegetable oil (I use olive oil)
2 1/2 cups diced potatoes
1/2 c. diced celery
scant 1/2 tsp. dried dill
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1 bay leaf
3 c. water or vegetable stock (I used chicken stock)
1 c. diced red and/or yellow peppers
4 c. fresh, frozen or canned corn kernels (see Note)
1 Tbsp. chopped fresh basil (optional)
2 cups milk (or half and half to taste, depending on how rich you like it)
salt and pepper to taste

In a soup pot on medium heat, saute the onions in the oil for about 10 minutes, until translucent, stirring often. Add the potatoes, celery, dill, thyme, bay leaf and water or stock. Cover and simmer gently for about 5 minutes, until the potatoes begin to soften. Add the bell pepper and corn and cook for 5 minutes. Stir in the basil, if using. Remove and discard the bay leaf.

Ladle 2 cups of the soup into a blender and add the milk. Whirl until smooth and return the pureed mixture to the soup pot. Add salt and pepper to taste. Gently reheat.

Serve with a few fresh dill or parsley sprigs or decorate with some fresh basil leaves.

Note: If you're using fresh corn, use the cobs to make this lovely stock: Place the corn cobs, 1 chopped potato, 1 chopped celery stalk, 3 peeled whole garlic cloves, a pinch of salt, and 10 cups of water in a large soup opot. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat, cover and simmer gently for an hour. Strain through a colander. Yields about 6 cups of stock.

Fairies, Gnomes and Elves

We went to Moms and Kids camp again this summer at my parents' cabin. My mom has been organizing a trip to their cabin for several years as a getaway for me, my sister and our kids. Last year the theme was Smokey the Bear camp and we learned all about fire safety and Smokey's cool story. This year the theme was Fairies, Gnomes and Elves.

About a week before we left, a birchbark scroll arrived at our front door-- an invitation from the fairies to join them at the cabin for a week of fun. The font was fairy-like and included a few foot prints from the fairies and other gnome friends. My kids were so intrigued!

Upon our arrival at the cabin, we found orange t-shirts for all of us with a Fairies, Gnomes and Elves logo my mom had created. After donning the t-shirts, the kids remembered that they had been invited to find the homes belonging to each family of critters. Off they ran to search for their soon to be friends. Here's who we found:

The Treetrunk Elves live here. The door has a leather hinge that opens to a hole in the tree, about 6 feet up. Their ladder is made of leather and it looks like the elves spent a lot of time drilling little holes in the dowels that make up the rungs on their long ladder.

The Lake Side Fairies built this sweet home on a set of stilts so it hovers at the water's edge, hidden from view by the tall grasses. It includes little shells, glass beads and rocks. I think I'd like to live here.

The Stump Gnome lives here. I think he's into ladders too, just like the Tree Top elves, but this one is made from little twigs. There's a little door way that opens to reveal an inner world where the Gnome lives and plays. My boys say that there is a tunnel that connects this one to the Tree Top Elf house. One of the other boys at the cabin was going to jam a stick into the "tunnel" until his Dad said, "That would be like poking a giant telephone pole into our living room window. Do you think we would like that?" "Oh, maybe not, Dad."

The Woodpile Tomptes live in this little abode. The kids were quite impressed by their advanced roofing techniques employing pine cone petals for the roofing materials. Gus added the bark ramp for easy entrance and exiting. It was tough to find this one as it blended in so well with the wood pile.

Those little creatures were very busy creating our their homes and piquing the interest of our children. Their imaginations went wild creating their own fairy houses later, dotting the landscape around the cabin area with teeny houses at the bases of many trees.

Dig it.

This spring I took a few old Yukon Gold potatoes that had gotten a bit sprout-happy in my tuber basket and chopped them in pieces. I had a bit of leftover mold inhibitor powder from last year when I actually purchased seed potatoes, so I gave them a little dusty-dusty, then stuck them in the ground. You're supposed to mound the potatoes, generously providing more room for them to expand and grow. There wasn't much room to mound, so I gave them each a little, well, bump of dirt. They didn't seem too angry at me because they surprised me with this lovely little bounty. I left a few plants in the garden to see if they'll continue to grow for another month or so, or until we become a little frosty here.

Some day, I'm going to have a HUGE row of potatoes at the farm where I'll be able to truly heed their every wish. They'll have mounds so big they won't know what to do with them. Until then, we're happy with the buttery goodness these little balls offered us for dinner tonight.

And by the way, have you ever seen a kid looking in the dirt for potatoes? It's better than hitting the jackpot. They think they've discovered gold. In our case, Yukon GOLD.

First Day of School

Ron walked an apprehensive Carl to school on Tuesday for his first day of 1st grade. There had been a few mix ups in terms of his teacher, so he was worried about which friends from last year would still be in his class. They started uniforms this year, or standard clothes. The choices are navy or khaki bottoms and a red, navy or white shirt. Very simple. Nice and easy for me. (Too bad I couldn't find his own sweatshirt that morning... don't tell him that it was too small!)

With the first few days under his belt, he's a much happier guy.

Feliz primer dia del primer grado, Carl.

Te quiero mucho.

xoxo Mama

To Uncle Lon's Farm

Ron's aunt Ruthie and uncle Lon have a giant garden on their hobby farm about 45 minutes from Minneapolis. Last year I posted about our trip there, though we've been visiting during the harvest season for many years. The trip to Uncle Lon's farm is always a highlight of our summer... up there on the list of favorites with the MN State Fair and trips to our local frozen custard joint.
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Yesterday we spent the afternoon in kid and mom heaven-- picking corn, beans, cucumbers and a few tomatoes. Ron let me just pick while he took photos and herded the kids. The weather was perfect, low 70s and sunny. We munched on fresh picked corn while the milky goodness dripped down our chins. Our dog Molly is finally well enough to go on adventures post-ACL surgery six weeks ago, so she enjoyed roaming through the corn rows too.

Every year the boys are more and more able to participate on the annual tractor ride. This year Carl got to "drive" it on Lon's lap. He's ready for us to buy one for our farm so he can drive around. Some day... perhaps. This beauty of a John Deere is a vintage one, lovingly coaxed into service by Lon's mechanical skills. I think it was built the year Lon was built, er born. A true classic. I'm spending the morning "putting up" the fruits of our labor: shucking, blanching, and cutting the corn from the cobs to freeze. I'm also working on figuring out the best use for some wild plums we picked there. I'm considering this one. I'll tell you how it goes.

The Pig Roast:: Part Two

This entry should be subtitled FOOD! You'll see the journey from the hog box on the trailer to the end of the delicious afternoon and everything in between. A huge thank you to my brother and all those who stood around the pig, pretending to know what they were doing.



Corn, fresh from the Minneapolis Farmer's Market that morning. Shucked by family and friends gathered around, a multi-generational task.
Doesn't every pig need some sort of garnish? Ours had two. And no, my brother did not share his with the pig.

Covered up with the burlap corn bag, the pig takes a breather.

Here is the end of the day, dividing up the many, many leftovers. Our friend Matt who teaches anatomy was very helpful in knowing where and what to cut. He taught the bystanders a bit about pig anatomy. As a result, we have two lovely racks of ribs in the freezer, waiting to be slathered with BBQ sauce.