Visit the FRESH website to watch a trailer for the movie. Tickets are only $10 and there's a limited number available, so it is sure to sell out. There will also be a panel discussion after the film. Hope to see you there!
Jessica
Thursday, August 27, 2009
"FRESH: The Movie" Screening
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The Georgia Chapters of the Weston A. Price Foundation are screening the movie FRESH on Saturday, October 17th from 3-6pm at Five Seasons Brewing Westside. Above & Beyond Farm is excited to sponsor the event, which will serve as a fundraiser for bringing Sally Fallon to Atlanta next fall. Click on the flier below for more information, including how to buy tickets.
Visit the FRESH website to watch a trailer for the movie. Tickets are only $10 and there's a limited number available, so it is sure to sell out. There will also be a panel discussion after the film. Hope to see you there!
Jessica
Visit the FRESH website to watch a trailer for the movie. Tickets are only $10 and there's a limited number available, so it is sure to sell out. There will also be a panel discussion after the film. Hope to see you there!
Jessica
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Summer Season is Drawing to a Close
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(Posted Monday, August 10, 2009....not 8/1/09 as blogger says.)
Yes, lately we've had an abundance of heirlooms ripening on the vines and our glorious Sun Golds are trying to hold strong, but I can see the tomato plants are quickly giving in to the heat. We're also watching as our summer squash and cucumbers give us their last fruits. It's becoming more and more obvious that it's time to say goodbye to the season. Hard to believe that just weeks ago we had more zucchini and lemon cucumbers than we could sell at two Saturday markets combined, and now we view each piece we harvest as a precious victory that maybe our plants will hold out....just for one more week?
Which is also to say - this will be our last week at our regular Farmers' Markets. After Saturday (8/15/09), we'll be taking a hiatus for a yet-to-be-determined amount of time. Studioplex & F.A.R.M. : We'll miss you for a little while, but we'll be back! I really want to thank all of the volunteers over the past several weeks who responded to my ads for help with the harvests on Tuesday and Friday mornings, but especially Joann who came out to help every Tuesday morning before market. Not only couldn't we have attended the market without her, she was also great company in the field. And AMBER - You've been incredible. Thank you thank you thank you for everything you've helped with!
Fresh Onions & Leeks & Delicata
The Whole Spread (8/1/09)
Hot Peppers (Jalepenos, Cascabellas, Habaneros, Cayennes)
Sweet Peppers (Banana, Bell, & Cubanelle)
Heirlooms, before we had too many to contain in one basket!
We've started planting a few fall crops, but on a smaller scale than what we planted this past spring. Joaquin and I will be welcoming a baby (and future farmhand, of course!) into our family next month, and our attention may just be called away from the field for a while. But in addition to already having our winter squash sitting in the field and curing for fall, we should soon have sweet carrots, more sugar snap peas, another round of chard and basil, spinach, beets, broccoli, head lettuce, and a few other cooler weather vegetables.
This winter we'll be spending a good amount of our time planning for next spring & summer - hopefully ensuring that by this time next year we'll have even tastier, more bountiful heirlooms. With any luck, plants that will hold out for 6 or 7 weeks, instead of just 4! We have high hopes for next spring; certainly we can only improve from here on out. Joaquin's been working a lot with compost tea lately, brewing up a couple batches a week and using it as foliar spray as well as
drenching the soil near the plant roots with his concoctions. He's working hard to ensure a healthy eco-system between the bugs and the plants in the field. And it's been fun using the microscope I bought him for his birthday to see what exactly is going on inside that life-giving tea.
For our very first season farming our own land, I think we've seen an encouraging 4 months. We've brought in many beautiful harvests, grown a nice variety of crops, and most importantly, learned a good deal about farming in the south. There have been huge successes with a few failures thrown in to keep us on our toes. But to see so many repeat customers at the markets gives us the greatest sense of accomplishment. And it's not such a bad thing to have sold some of our harvest to a few great Atlanta restaurants either!
In what direction the future of our farm is headed has become the main topic of nightly discussions. It's been difficult for everyone commuting to the farm daily and it's definitely not sustainable to successfully manage a farm in this manner. Living on the land would be ideal and all four of us are continuing to brainstorm options to see how we can make that happen. Soon.
Livestock is another big part of the farm that we haven't fully tapped into yet. We have our pastured poultry but we'd really love to get our goat herd up and going this winter, in addition to some pigs. And on top of that, it's been suggested that we start cultivating mushrooms. We've taken a couple classes on growing mushrooms, and my mom even bought Joaquin an inoculated Shiitake log at one point, but that's about the extent of our mushroom growing knowledge. Still, I definitely think it's something we'll look into some more - so many untapped markets and opportunities out there just waiting for people who have the time!
I'll leave you with some pictures as well as a few administrative notes. First, we now have a live listing on Local Harvest. If any of you who have visited or shopped with us feel like taking a minute to write a quick review of our farm, it sure would be appreciated! Also, we've been lucky enough to have a good friend of ours offer to help start up a *real* website, rather than just this blog. He's given me a lot of "homework" to do in order to put the site together, but hopefully I'll be able to use some new-found downtime to tackle his outline and soon enough we'll have an official farm website. (Thank you, Byron.)
Until next time, Happy Eating!
Jessica
Our Egg Layers, just a few days old
The feather footed ones are my favorites
One of our Guinea Fowl Flock
(Posted Monday, August 10, 2009....not 8/1/09 as blogger says.)Yes, lately we've had an abundance of heirlooms ripening on the vines and our glorious Sun Golds are trying to hold strong, but I can see the tomato plants are quickly giving in to the heat. We're also watching as our summer squash and cucumbers give us their last fruits. It's becoming more and more obvious that it's time to say goodbye to the season. Hard to believe that just weeks ago we had more zucchini and lemon cucumbers than we could sell at two Saturday markets combined, and now we view each piece we harvest as a precious victory that maybe our plants will hold out....just for one more week?
Which is also to say - this will be our last week at our regular Farmers' Markets. After Saturday (8/15/09), we'll be taking a hiatus for a yet-to-be-determined amount of time. Studioplex & F.A.R.M. : We'll miss you for a little while, but we'll be back! I really want to thank all of the volunteers over the past several weeks who responded to my ads for help with the harvests on Tuesday and Friday mornings, but especially Joann who came out to help every Tuesday morning before market. Not only couldn't we have attended the market without her, she was also great company in the field. And AMBER - You've been incredible. Thank you thank you thank you for everything you've helped with!
Fresh Onions & Leeks & Delicata
The Whole Spread (8/1/09)
Hot Peppers (Jalepenos, Cascabellas, Habaneros, Cayennes)
Sweet Peppers (Banana, Bell, & Cubanelle)
Heirlooms, before we had too many to contain in one basket!
We've started planting a few fall crops, but on a smaller scale than what we planted this past spring. Joaquin and I will be welcoming a baby (and future farmhand, of course!) into our family next month, and our attention may just be called away from the field for a while. But in addition to already having our winter squash sitting in the field and curing for fall, we should soon have sweet carrots, more sugar snap peas, another round of chard and basil, spinach, beets, broccoli, head lettuce, and a few other cooler weather vegetables.
This winter we'll be spending a good amount of our time planning for next spring & summer - hopefully ensuring that by this time next year we'll have even tastier, more bountiful heirlooms. With any luck, plants that will hold out for 6 or 7 weeks, instead of just 4! We have high hopes for next spring; certainly we can only improve from here on out. Joaquin's been working a lot with compost tea lately, brewing up a couple batches a week and using it as foliar spray as well as
drenching the soil near the plant roots with his concoctions. He's working hard to ensure a healthy eco-system between the bugs and the plants in the field. And it's been fun using the microscope I bought him for his birthday to see what exactly is going on inside that life-giving tea.For our very first season farming our own land, I think we've seen an encouraging 4 months. We've brought in many beautiful harvests, grown a nice variety of crops, and most importantly, learned a good deal about farming in the south. There have been huge successes with a few failures thrown in to keep us on our toes. But to see so many repeat customers at the markets gives us the greatest sense of accomplishment. And it's not such a bad thing to have sold some of our harvest to a few great Atlanta restaurants either!
In what direction the future of our farm is headed has become the main topic of nightly discussions. It's been difficult for everyone commuting to the farm daily and it's definitely not sustainable to successfully manage a farm in this manner. Living on the land would be ideal and all four of us are continuing to brainstorm options to see how we can make that happen. Soon.
Livestock is another big part of the farm that we haven't fully tapped into yet. We have our pastured poultry but we'd really love to get our goat herd up and going this winter, in addition to some pigs. And on top of that, it's been suggested that we start cultivating mushrooms. We've taken a couple classes on growing mushrooms, and my mom even bought Joaquin an inoculated Shiitake log at one point, but that's about the extent of our mushroom growing knowledge. Still, I definitely think it's something we'll look into some more - so many untapped markets and opportunities out there just waiting for people who have the time!
I'll leave you with some pictures as well as a few administrative notes. First, we now have a live listing on Local Harvest. If any of you who have visited or shopped with us feel like taking a minute to write a quick review of our farm, it sure would be appreciated! Also, we've been lucky enough to have a good friend of ours offer to help start up a *real* website, rather than just this blog. He's given me a lot of "homework" to do in order to put the site together, but hopefully I'll be able to use some new-found downtime to tackle his outline and soon enough we'll have an official farm website. (Thank you, Byron.)
Until next time, Happy Eating!
Jessica
Our Egg Layers, just a few days old
The feather footed ones are my favorites
What a beautiful rooster!
They won't be little much longer (8/2/09)
One of our Guinea Fowl Flock
Big Tom day dreaming about lusher pastures
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Studioplex Market
Read more!
The Piedmont Green Market was closed this past weekend for Independence Day, but since our plants didn't know to take the week off, we still had a harvest and needed a place to bring it. Luckily, Joaquin heard about the Studioplex Green Market conveniently located right in our own neighborhood. For those of you who live in or around the Old Fourth Ward, this convenient, quaint little market offers produce, herbs, crafts, and coffee Saturday mornings from 8am until 1pm. It's a great low-key alternative to the hustle and bustle of bigger markets, not to mention there's plenty of parking. We're glad we found the market and we're crossing our fingers that it will keep growing with vendors and visitors. Right now we're trying to find a way to sell at both Piedmont and Studioplex, so this coming weekend we're splitting up our produce and man-power and sending Joaquin off on his own to run his very first solo market at Studioplex. Depending on this weekend's turnout, we may be attending both markets in the future.
Our Sun Gold cherry tomatoes are on! We sold our first pints of this crop on the 4th of July as our small birthday present to this country. For those of you who have never ventured beyond the flavorless red cherry tomatoes from your local supermarket, or thought those little yellow pear tomatoes were adventurous, you really need to pick up a pint from our stand early one morning before they sell out! These are undoubtedly the best cherry tomatoes you'll ever taste. I won't even waste precious planting space on our farm with any other variety of cherry tomato. (Take my advice: save some seeds and plant them in your own garden next summer.)
Jalepenos, Turnips, Tomatillos, Musk Melons, and Walla Walla Onions also made their first appearances last week, and were quickly snatched up. And once again we offered Okra, Eggplant, Green & Purple Basil, Green Tomatoes, Rainbow Chard, Red Russian Kale, Green Onions, Delicata, Lemon Cumbers, Green Cukes, Yellow & Green Zucchini, Patty Pans, and Yellow Crookneck Summer Squash. This coming weekend we'll be bringing our first carrots...and perhaps even a few watermelons and pie pumpkins. Our heirloom tomato plants are still right on the verge of ripening, but I expect we'll be eating our weight in tomatoes within the next two weeks.
My Cucumber Mint Lemonade was such a success at the Studioplex Market that you can be certain you'll find it at all of our future stands. Our Tulsi Sun Tea may just lose its place as our signature farm drink, but for now we'll let them share the title. This doctored-up lemonade is a delightfully refreshing summer drink that's very simple to make and has such a great texture from the pureed cucumbers. And, if you're not pregnant, I recommend trying it with a splash or two of vodka, rum, or tequila!
On a note of gratitude: we have been overwhelmed with our customers kind words about how wonderful and fresh our produce looked (we promise it tastes even better!). I can't thank all of you enough who have come out to support local farmers at markets that reward such hard work. We're glad you're enjoying our harvests.
Happy Eating!
Jessica
The Piedmont Green Market was closed this past weekend for Independence Day, but since our plants didn't know to take the week off, we still had a harvest and needed a place to bring it. Luckily, Joaquin heard about the Studioplex Green Market conveniently located right in our own neighborhood. For those of you who live in or around the Old Fourth Ward, this convenient, quaint little market offers produce, herbs, crafts, and coffee Saturday mornings from 8am until 1pm. It's a great low-key alternative to the hustle and bustle of bigger markets, not to mention there's plenty of parking. We're glad we found the market and we're crossing our fingers that it will keep growing with vendors and visitors. Right now we're trying to find a way to sell at both Piedmont and Studioplex, so this coming weekend we're splitting up our produce and man-power and sending Joaquin off on his own to run his very first solo market at Studioplex. Depending on this weekend's turnout, we may be attending both markets in the future.
Our Sun Gold cherry tomatoes are on! We sold our first pints of this crop on the 4th of July as our small birthday present to this country. For those of you who have never ventured beyond the flavorless red cherry tomatoes from your local supermarket, or thought those little yellow pear tomatoes were adventurous, you really need to pick up a pint from our stand early one morning before they sell out! These are undoubtedly the best cherry tomatoes you'll ever taste. I won't even waste precious planting space on our farm with any other variety of cherry tomato. (Take my advice: save some seeds and plant them in your own garden next summer.)
Jalepenos, Turnips, Tomatillos, Musk Melons, and Walla Walla Onions also made their first appearances last week, and were quickly snatched up. And once again we offered Okra, Eggplant, Green & Purple Basil, Green Tomatoes, Rainbow Chard, Red Russian Kale, Green Onions, Delicata, Lemon Cumbers, Green Cukes, Yellow & Green Zucchini, Patty Pans, and Yellow Crookneck Summer Squash. This coming weekend we'll be bringing our first carrots...and perhaps even a few watermelons and pie pumpkins. Our heirloom tomato plants are still right on the verge of ripening, but I expect we'll be eating our weight in tomatoes within the next two weeks.
My Cucumber Mint Lemonade was such a success at the Studioplex Market that you can be certain you'll find it at all of our future stands. Our Tulsi Sun Tea may just lose its place as our signature farm drink, but for now we'll let them share the title. This doctored-up lemonade is a delightfully refreshing summer drink that's very simple to make and has such a great texture from the pureed cucumbers. And, if you're not pregnant, I recommend trying it with a splash or two of vodka, rum, or tequila!
On a note of gratitude: we have been overwhelmed with our customers kind words about how wonderful and fresh our produce looked (we promise it tastes even better!). I can't thank all of you enough who have come out to support local farmers at markets that reward such hard work. We're glad you're enjoying our harvests.
Happy Eating!
Jessica
Recipe Blog
Read more!
Here's a link to my recipe blog, for all of you who I've met at the Farmers' Markets and have promised recipes for various items. I'll keep adding new recipes as the season progresses. Be sure to go through the archives to look for specific recipes.
Grilled Patty Pans
Stuffed Patty Pan Squash
Summer Vegetable Ratatouille
Zucchini Bread
Broccoli Leaves
Kale - 7 recipes from around the world
Squash Blossom Soup
Fried Green Tomatoes
Stuffed Squash Blossoms
Also, I've posted these articles as resources on:
Benefits of Tulsi Tea
How to Best Store Your Produce
I hope this new blog serves as a helpful companion to your farmers' market ventures. And please, if you have any tried and true recipes for anything we're growing on the farm, email them to me. I'd love to post them.
Happy Eating!
Jessica
Recipes are currently up for:
Grilled Patty Pans
Stuffed Patty Pan Squash
Summer Vegetable Ratatouille
Zucchini Bread
Broccoli Leaves
Kale - 7 recipes from around the world
Squash Blossom Soup
Fried Green Tomatoes
Stuffed Squash Blossoms
Also, I've posted these articles as resources on:
Benefits of Tulsi Tea
How to Best Store Your Produce
I hope this new blog serves as a helpful companion to your farmers' market ventures. And please, if you have any tried and true recipes for anything we're growing on the farm, email them to me. I'd love to post them.
Happy Eating!
Jessica
Monday, June 29, 2009
Our First Farmers' Market
Read more!
Well, we did it. And I think we did it pretty well. Over the weekend we sold our harvests at Piedmont Park's Green Market. Our stand and our produce looked beautiful, and we were impressed with the number of people who came out to buy fresh veggies and support local farmers.
We had a nice variety of produce for our first market. The Okra, Sugar Snap Peas, Eggplant, Squash Blossoms, and Broccoli sold out quickly - of course, the smaller quantities of these particular items helped in that regard. The Patty Pan Squash, Yellow Zucchini, and Lemon Cucumbers were also a big hit. Rainbow Chard & Red Russian Kale sold better than I'd expected; oddly I think we might have been the only farmers at the market offering bunched greens. Green Zucchini, Cucumbers, Tomatoes, & Delicata were steady, if slower, sellers throughout the day. The only items that didn't seem to garner much interest were the Yellow Crooknecks and Purple Basil. And, although we nearly sold out of them, I was surprised to leave the market with one bunch of green onions unsold. I thought those would be easy crowd pleasers, but Joaquin and I were happy to take that last bunch home for ourselves! My mom and I also made some delicious & refreshing iced Tulsi Sun-Tea that people really enjoyed. Next time we'll bring an agave sweetened version as well; this is the south after all!
All in all we had a very good experience and we're excited for the markets to come. Next Saturday is the 4th of July so we won't be at Market again until July 11th, but by then we expect to have cherry tomatoes, more onion varieties, and probably carrots as well. It's even possible we'll have a few melons and peppers by then. I have to say it's the most purely enjoyable feeling to walk out to the field on any given morning and see new plants fruiting.
My personal market favorite this week were easily the Sugar Snap Peas - they really were the embodiment of perfection! I'm glad people enjoyed them as much as I did, because they were our first and last harvest of snap peas off those particular plants, which were planted too late and quickly done in by the summer heat. We'll definitely be planting more this fall.
Our most enthusiastic customers.
Remi, eyeing the lemon cukes. I think he knows a good thing when he sees it! (Next week we're putting out a water bowl for you.)
Green & Yellow Zucchini, Patty Pans, Yellow Crookneck Squash, Green & Lemon Cukes
Green Onions, Delicata, & Sugar Snap Peas
****************
Back in the field things are growing like crazy. I couldn't tell you what's winning, the crops or the weeds. We have a few rows of tomatoes where the grass must be a foot high in parts. And there's little hope left for weeding the squash & melons, which were planted too close together and have themselves completely taken over the beets & turnips. We're trying to keep on top of things, one thing at a time, each of us holding down "paying" jobs too. It's a continuous learning experience in balance.
On the topic of balance, I'm happy to report the bugs seem to be keeping themselves in check so we must be doing something right! Our once horribly riddled eggplants that I feared would not
make it have proved their determination to grow into strong plants and are now producing beautiful fruits. The squash bugs (that still concern me every now and then) don't seem to be taking over our plants. No aphids anywhere thus far; just ladybugs everywhere we turn! We're learning as we observe, rather than reaching for the chemicals, and I feel blessed that it's paying off. I'm sure at some point we'll lose crops to bugs, if not this season then in the seasons to come - but I hope we'll welcome it as a challenge to restore our ecosystem. And, I'm more than happy to share a little :)
The Pepper Plants are Fruiting
Okra Blossoms
Sea of Green - the Squash, Melons, & Cucumbers
Sugar Baby Watermelon
Honeydew
Casaba Melon, our one and only plant
Butternut Squash
Patty Pans
Yellow (Sebring) Zuchinni
Pie Pumpkin
Carrots
Broccoli
Tomato Jungle
Artichoke
Onions & Leeks
Sugar Snap Peas
We've lost a few turkeys and guineas over the past couple weeks. First to a predator (we're not exactly sure what though, perhaps a weasel?), and then two more to the heat. We keep them as shaded and as hydrated as possible, and now there's a box fan blowing on them as well. But hot southern summers are notoriously hard on poultry. Still, our remaining turkeys are plumping up, and the guineas are really finding their voices. Plus the baby chicks arrived in the mail today, so keep your eyes out for cute pictures of peeps in my next post!
Well, we did it. And I think we did it pretty well. Over the weekend we sold our harvests at Piedmont Park's Green Market. Our stand and our produce looked beautiful, and we were impressed with the number of people who came out to buy fresh veggies and support local farmers.
We had a nice variety of produce for our first market. The Okra, Sugar Snap Peas, Eggplant, Squash Blossoms, and Broccoli sold out quickly - of course, the smaller quantities of these particular items helped in that regard. The Patty Pan Squash, Yellow Zucchini, and Lemon Cucumbers were also a big hit. Rainbow Chard & Red Russian Kale sold better than I'd expected; oddly I think we might have been the only farmers at the market offering bunched greens. Green Zucchini, Cucumbers, Tomatoes, & Delicata were steady, if slower, sellers throughout the day. The only items that didn't seem to garner much interest were the Yellow Crooknecks and Purple Basil. And, although we nearly sold out of them, I was surprised to leave the market with one bunch of green onions unsold. I thought those would be easy crowd pleasers, but Joaquin and I were happy to take that last bunch home for ourselves! My mom and I also made some delicious & refreshing iced Tulsi Sun-Tea that people really enjoyed. Next time we'll bring an agave sweetened version as well; this is the south after all!
All in all we had a very good experience and we're excited for the markets to come. Next Saturday is the 4th of July so we won't be at Market again until July 11th, but by then we expect to have cherry tomatoes, more onion varieties, and probably carrots as well. It's even possible we'll have a few melons and peppers by then. I have to say it's the most purely enjoyable feeling to walk out to the field on any given morning and see new plants fruiting.
My personal market favorite this week were easily the Sugar Snap Peas - they really were the embodiment of perfection! I'm glad people enjoyed them as much as I did, because they were our first and last harvest of snap peas off those particular plants, which were planted too late and quickly done in by the summer heat. We'll definitely be planting more this fall.
Our most enthusiastic customers.
Remi, eyeing the lemon cukes. I think he knows a good thing when he sees it! (Next week we're putting out a water bowl for you.)
Green & Yellow Zucchini, Patty Pans, Yellow Crookneck Squash, Green & Lemon Cukes
Green Onions, Delicata, & Sugar Snap Peas
****************
Back in the field things are growing like crazy. I couldn't tell you what's winning, the crops or the weeds. We have a few rows of tomatoes where the grass must be a foot high in parts. And there's little hope left for weeding the squash & melons, which were planted too close together and have themselves completely taken over the beets & turnips. We're trying to keep on top of things, one thing at a time, each of us holding down "paying" jobs too. It's a continuous learning experience in balance.On the topic of balance, I'm happy to report the bugs seem to be keeping themselves in check so we must be doing something right! Our once horribly riddled eggplants that I feared would not
make it have proved their determination to grow into strong plants and are now producing beautiful fruits. The squash bugs (that still concern me every now and then) don't seem to be taking over our plants. No aphids anywhere thus far; just ladybugs everywhere we turn! We're learning as we observe, rather than reaching for the chemicals, and I feel blessed that it's paying off. I'm sure at some point we'll lose crops to bugs, if not this season then in the seasons to come - but I hope we'll welcome it as a challenge to restore our ecosystem. And, I'm more than happy to share a little :)
The Pepper Plants are Fruiting
Okra Blossoms
Sea of Green - the Squash, Melons, & Cucumbers
Sugar Baby Watermelon
Honeydew
Casaba Melon, our one and only plant
Butternut Squash
Patty Pans
Yellow (Sebring) Zuchinni
Pie Pumpkin
Carrots
Broccoli
Tomato Jungle
Artichoke
Onions & Leeks
Sugar Snap Peas***********************
On the Pastured Poultry Front:
We've lost a few turkeys and guineas over the past couple weeks. First to a predator (we're not exactly sure what though, perhaps a weasel?), and then two more to the heat. We keep them as shaded and as hydrated as possible, and now there's a box fan blowing on them as well. But hot southern summers are notoriously hard on poultry. Still, our remaining turkeys are plumping up, and the guineas are really finding their voices. Plus the baby chicks arrived in the mail today, so keep your eyes out for cute pictures of peeps in my next post!
**********************
As for our backyard goat babies, they're doing very well and have already doubled in size. They are so playful and fun to watch. Last week we took them to be disbudded, which I'm sure was a very painful experience for them as well as extremely disheartening for me. Joaquin and I debated back and forth - neither of us wanted to put them through the experience - but our main concern that ended up winning out was the potential for the goats to accidentally injure someone, especially a child, with their horns. Goats love to playfully "head butt," so it's a risk we just couldn't take right now. I guess I took it harder than the babies though, who seemed mostly unphased by it. They were back to bouncing around the backyard (looking less like themselves than little 4-eyed alien goats) only hours later.
Joaquin is trying out his novice carpentry skills as we speak, building a milking stand for MaryBell. Soon we'll start separating the babies from her for half days in order that we can all enjoy fresh milk. The goat babies have quickly become adventurous little eaters - trying out everything they see their mama eating as well as gnawing on the occasional stack of bricks and other inedibles. But, our dream of fresh raw milk from our own backyard is finally coming to fruition after 3 years of keeping "pet" goats. And it also means we're one (small) step closer to our goat milk dairy on the farm in Canton.
Finally, I intend to incorporate recipes into the blog and/or main website soon, so that you can use it as a resource on how to prepare vegetables that perhaps aren't all too familiar to you. There are some great ways to eat those Patty Pan Squash, twice baked and stuffed with cheese! Not to mention southern favorites like Okra and Green Tomatoes. Kale and Chard can be pretty tasty too, if you give them a chance (and Joaquin wants to remind you not to forget the potatoes!). *UPDATE: Here's the new recipe blog.
We sure hope you'll stop by and see us at the market this summer.
Happy Eating!
Jessica
Joaquin is trying out his novice carpentry skills as we speak, building a milking stand for MaryBell. Soon we'll start separating the babies from her for half days in order that we can all enjoy fresh milk. The goat babies have quickly become adventurous little eaters - trying out everything they see their mama eating as well as gnawing on the occasional stack of bricks and other inedibles. But, our dream of fresh raw milk from our own backyard is finally coming to fruition after 3 years of keeping "pet" goats. And it also means we're one (small) step closer to our goat milk dairy on the farm in Canton.
**************
Finally, I intend to incorporate recipes into the blog and/or main website soon, so that you can use it as a resource on how to prepare vegetables that perhaps aren't all too familiar to you. There are some great ways to eat those Patty Pan Squash, twice baked and stuffed with cheese! Not to mention southern favorites like Okra and Green Tomatoes. Kale and Chard can be pretty tasty too, if you give them a chance (and Joaquin wants to remind you not to forget the potatoes!). *UPDATE: Here's the new recipe blog.
We sure hope you'll stop by and see us at the market this summer.
Happy Eating!
Jessica
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