Working On: Plans for the Future

We've had our farm in the country for over four years now, but we don't feel any closer to moving there than we did when we first bought it. Thankfully we have wonderful people who rent from us and take great care of it, but it is difficult to spend much time there when we have little or no access to the house while it is occupied.

.

Instead of visiting, we dream. One of my largest dreams for the farm is that someday we'll have an outdoor wood-fired bread and pizza oven, built near the barn and the outdoor piazza we hope to have. I've read many tales of the lovely breads that are baked in these outdoor beauties, heard stories of the pizza farms that have cropped up near the Twin Cities, watched YouTube tutorials and pored over the listings at the North House Folk School in northern Minnesota for the class I long to take to figure out how to build our own.

.

This weekend there was an inspiring article in the Star Tribune about a minister who builit his own wood fired brick oven and decided that it was a great means of building community with his parishioners. Make sure to check out the photos... the one where they are pulling the hot bread out of the oven on a cold, winter day and the steam is rising... it is amazing.

.

I noticed that the class at North House is full for the summer. Cheers to all the future back-yard pizza bakers. May our crust be crisp and our families' bellies be full!

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.
.
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.

The Pig Roast:: Part One

Last week we hosted our first BIG event out at the farm. I need to stop calling it "The Farm" because we have a name for it now. Martha's farm has a name, right? We needed a name. We call it GoodTree Farm, a rough translation of our last name in German as a friend once told us. We've since learned that the translation of Welbaum is indeed not Good Tree, though Baum is tree, just not good tree. Oh well, as a language teacher and language lover, I can really appreciate mixups in translations. The translation was not lost, it was saved and made our name. So there. From here on out, I'll refer to our farm as GoodTree. Now, if any of you talented artists out there would like to help us make our logo for GoodTree, perhaps a woodcut print of a large, branchy, funky tree? I'd love it!
.

Our event at GoodTree was a pig roast. The idea stemmed from my brother suggesting that someday we should roast a pig out at GoodTree. A plan for "some day" turned into, "when are you available to tend the pig in the roaster?" From there I did a bit more research and discovered that renting a roaster is most definitely expensive and perhaps cost prohibitive. It takes 10-12 hours to cook the hog (my new word, previously my city self used PIG.) If we had done it ourselves, in order for it to be ready to serve at noon, we would have had to pull an all nighter by the roaster. As someone who doesn't get enough sleep to begin with, my answer was no. Instead, we contacted the local meat market in Dennison, MN and inquired about their roasting costs. Spendy, yes. Worth it? Definitely. Dori from Dennison Meat Locker informed me that they can cook the HOG at 180 degrees in their smoke house and it takes 20 hours, ready to be picked up in a hog box. Sold.
.

I sent out an evite for the party and fell in love with this simple, fun logo that was available on their choice list. Shhh... we used the logo throughout the event as a central theme. If you don't own any of these kind of used-car lot banners, you really owe it to yourself and your neighbors to buy some. They make any entry way welcoming. I bought them last year for our block party and have found many reasons to use them. If you're local and promise to take good care of them, you can borrow them.

We set up the potluck buffet on the cement slab that was once going to be the former owner's new garage. It made for a perfect flat surface for the food. You can take a sneak peek of the hog at the end of the table. More photos of that in Part Two. Be patient.

I don't like to use plastic silverware, if I can help it. Instead of buying 100+ forks that would just be thrown away, I sent my Dad out on a hunt for inexpensive forks. He was able to procure forks from a few thrift stores but truly hit the jackpot with a catering supply house offering used (but clean) forks for $1.65 a dozen. He snatched up 13 dozen and called it a day. We'll be set for the rest of our lives for large events and never have to buy another silly plastic fork again. Next to the garbage cans we set up bins for dirty forks and then just did a big fork wash after the party was over. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

Working at the Farm

We've been hanging out at the farm a lot lately. Lots of fun, but also lots of catching up on yardwork and maintenance issues that were not taken care of by the previous tenant. The front of the house was the WORST. I think the first few people potential renters who looked at the house were probably scared. Overgrown trees, burdock weeds and flower boxes that were filled with weeds or dumped on the ground.

On Friday my brother, sister and brother-in-law joined me for a kid-free work day. Armed with shovels, cutters and clippers of all sizes, we conquered this:
Here are the after shots:

4th of July

For Independence day this year we headed to the farm. A few years ago we went into Northfield to check out the in-town festivities, but this year we decided to stay put and just enjoy the sun and watermelon fun. We had friends join us, including Ron's sister and family and his parents. The mosquitoes joined too... thus the mosquito net on Carl's face. You can imagine the silly games they played with the nets on their faces! In the evening we had Minnesota (ahem... Wisconsin) fireworks over the pond.
Watermelon was the hit of the day!
It rained a bit on Saturday, but the adults stayed happy inside eating in the kitchen while the six kids played hide-and-seek in the bedrooms. It is amazing how a little change of scenery can produce so much creativity in kids and so much satisfaction for adults. Who knew that by only having 8 plates, 8 bowls, 8 glasses and so on... I could feel so satisfied in the kitchen? Living simply with less at the farm makes me question everything in my cupboard at home. Until I get home and grab the salad spinner and the .... Ah, the simplicity of life at the farm.

I'm BACK!

Sorry for the extended vacation from CityFarmGirl. I've been haunted by viruses and trojans and other creepy things that overtook our new computer. Let me please say this: make sure your security is updated on your computer. Now. Run a scan. Don't fall prey to the scams. It. Is. Important. I haven't been able to check my favorite blogs for weeks. When I went to friends' houses to check email a few times, I was so overwhelmed by where to start to catch up on my Internet stuff, I barely accomplished anything. I mean, check important emails? Delete the junky stuff? Check my favorite blogs? Read the news about Michael Jackson? Where to start? Also, we've been at the farm. Yesterday we drove down around 5 pm, made dinner, put the kids to bed, went to bed, then got up at 7:30 to get ready to come home again to get Ron to work and the kids and I off to MplsNatureKids. Was it worth it? Absolutely.I have tons of photos, tons of fun coming up. Make sure to check back regularly after the 4th of July weekend for updates. I've missed your comments and reading your blogs. So glad to be back.

Picnic Dinner at the Farm

The renters at our farm moved out recently, allowing us some time to be out there and actually go in the house, instead of hovering behind trees to use the bathroom. They were great renters, took care of all sorts of farm-related stuff that we are still learning how to do, but I really missed not being able to feel like it was "our" place. Oh well, that's the small price to pay to keep it occupied until we're ready to head to the country permanently. We're planning on using the farm in June and July as a cabin of sorts. When everyone else in Minnesota is off to their lake place in Northern Wisconsin, we'll be on Interstate 35W heading south to our pond place. No lake, just a very algae saturated pond and a slow moving creek, or crick if you prefer.Wednesday night Ron left work early so we could take a picnic supper to the farm. The boys were excited beyond belief and Louise just followed their intoxicating mood. I'm sure she has no idea what the farm means in terms of her future, but she was stomping in the puddles there with the best of them, grinning the whole time. Carl and Gus pleaded with us, "Can't we move here now? I can start 1st grade here... right?" Instead of bursting their bubble with the reality that we're not ready financially to go there, we just focused on how many times we'll be able to visit and sleep over there this summer. And how many times they'd be able to climb the dirt mound. And how many times they'd be able to look for bugs... and on and on and on. They were more than satisfied.And for me? I'm looking forward to bringing the camera along and documenting their wonder and discoveries of nature, farm life and our family. I'm also looking forward to my graph paper pad (list paper of champions!) and starting my lists of all the many millions of projects I can see happening there some day.

And you? What kinds of things will you be photographing this summer? What kinds of lists will you be making? (And what's your favorite kind of paper to write them on?!?)