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Hi Everyone,
August has finally arrived, and fall is fast on its heels. I headed to the garden Saturday afternoon and came in with the first crop of pumpkins. I absolutely love growing pumpkins and sweet potatoes. They say that your favorite time of the year is usually the season that you were born in, and I cannot deny it—I LOVE FALL! I enjoy apples, fall leaves, grass that is the perfect length without having to be mowed and that doesn’t soak your dress and leave you speckled with black grass seeds. It is always a delight to be working in the garden when the first flock of birds fly by on their way south, and to walk outside one morning to set up for milking and to realize that the Phoebe bird has returned. Fall is when the thick and tall summer weeds get tamed, mums begin to bloom, and you tuck a bunch of flower seeds into the dirt in hopes that they will sprout and turn your garden into a rainbow of color come spring. Best of all, fall is when you harvest sweet potatoes and pumpkins. This year I grew three types of pumpkins: Seminole (a Florida native pumpkin grown by the Florida Seminole Indians), Rouge Vif D’Etampes (a French pumpkin that is also known as a Cinderella Pumpkin), and Connecticut Field (the typical Jack-o-lantern pumpkin that you buy from the store or pumpkin patch every year). The Seminole and Cinderella pumpkins have done very well—though to my dismay the largest Cinderella pumpkin, of which my arms did not fit around, was already starting to rot by the time I found it. I am sure that the chickens didn’t mind one bit. The Seminole pumpkins are almost ready to harvest—and they are actually the sturdiest of the three. My prize pumpkin though is the Connecticut Field pumpkin—not because it is the biggest, or the prettiest, but because there was only one of them, and I was so happy to actually be able to grow a real pumpkin here in Florida. Not too sure what we shall do with it just yet—I honestly haven’t carved a pumpkin in ages. Years ago I saw a fall floral arrangement made in a pumpkin. I have no idea how long it will last since it ripened in August instead of October. I am definitely going to save some seeds to plant next year, and I want to roast some seeds—I haven’t had those in ages either.
While a few weeks ago it got way too hot in the garden, last Monday was perfect gardening weather. We got the milking done and then we headed to the garden—well, Steve and I did, Mom had two cows to take to the auction. We now only have one milk cow that has the A1 milk gene, all the rest have the A2 milk gene. We will sell the last cow in October when we dry her off—then all our milk cows will be A2. In the garden Steve and I worked to remove all the weeds from the herb section of the garden. We got one 10 by 10 done by the time Mom called us in for lunch. After lunch we were just going to weed for one hour—because we had curds and whey to hang, and we didn’t want anyone overheating. We have a map of the garden, and we are coloring in the beds as we get them weeded—visual motivation! A good portion had already been colored in, and we decided to quickly weed a few beds that only had a couple handfuls of weeds—so that we could color in their beds. Next we tackled one of the rose beds—a 6 by 8 foot bed that houses four Sweet Drift roses that bloom pink and resemble the old cottage roses. The weedy vines had taken over the roses. While we had to show some tough love in pulling those vines off of the roses, we wished that those roses would have loved us tenderly in return. Instead, our arms looked like we got in a fight with a rose bush, and our groans and yowls proved that the roses were winning. In the end though—the roses were weed free and their flowers were ready to show off their beauty. Our hour was not up yet, so we headed back to the herb beds where the fennel was becoming overgrown, and was shading out Mom’s lavender that was trying its best to survive. Steve found a bed full of giant summer weeds and began to man handle them—and then the timer began to beep. It was 3:00 and time to quit—yet, no one wanted to stop. There was a nice breeze and the temperature was not bad. Everyone voted to continue on—though I was concerned that we would not get the curds and whey done. At 3:30 our respected beds were done, and we cleaned up and headed to the milk house to drain the whey and hang the curds. We had four containers of curds and whey to pour into a tea towel, and hand on a stick in the cooler to drip over a pan. The whey that was already separated we bottled, and then we had to wash up all the equipment. At 4:30 Mom and I left Steve rinsing out the sink while we scrambled into the van to make it to the bank before they closed. Then we ran a bunch of errands and got home close to 7:00. We cooked dinner and then we crashed for the night.
Tuesday we hit the ground running—and I spent just about the whole day in a kitchen (either the milk house kitchen or the house kitchen. We milked the cows first thing, and then Steve and I bottled the milk, bottled the kefir, bottled the whey, and packaged the quark. After that, we dumped a new bag of oatmeal into two five gallon buckets that we keep in the freezer. All the oatmeal doesn’t fit in the buckets—but that is okay, because it always gives me a good excuse to make granola. Then it was time for lunch. Before I headed back to the milk house, I had yogurt to make, dishes to do, and granola to start soaking. In the past Mom could not eat oatmeal, so we used coconut oil in our granola. Mom can now eat oatmeal, and I wanted her to be able to eat the granola—but she is allergic to coconut oil. So I researched to see if I could use olive oil instead. I was delighted to find out that I could. Here is my recipe that I use:
Crunchy Granola
· 8 cups rolled oats
· 3/4 cup melted olive oil
· 1/2 cup melted butter
· 1 1/2 cups kefir
· 2 cups water
· 1/2 cup raw honey
· 3/4 cup maple syrup
· 1 tsp sea salt
· 4 tsp cinnamon
· 1 cup dried shredded coconut
· 1 cup raisins
· 1/2 cup chopped pumpkin seeds
· 1 cup chopped soaked and roasted pecans or almonds
· 1 cup dried apples, chopped
Directions:
Mix oats with the melted butter and oil, kefir and water in a large bowl. Cover with a cloth and/or plate and allow to sit at room temperature for 24 hours. After the soaking time, preheat the oven to 150° F.
Place honey, maple syrup, cinnamon and vanilla in a glass measuring cup in a small pot of warm water on the stove. Bring water to a gentle simmer, stirring honey mixture, until honey becomes thin.
Combine honey and oat mixtures, mixing to incorporate.
Spread mixture out over two parchment paper-lined cookie sheets. Bake for 12 hours. Remove from oven, crumble mixture, and return to oven. Continue to cook until granola is dry and crisp. Remove from oven and allow to cool. It will get crunchier as it cools.
Place in an airtight container and mix in coconut, raisins, seeds, fruit and nuts, as desired. Serve with chilled raw milk.
Once I had the granola soaking, I headed over to the milk house to help Steve and Mom package eggs. We finished the eggs around 5:00 and I headed to the garden to harvest okra. When I came inside I cooked dinner and then I put together the orders for the Jacksonville delivery on Wednesday.
Shortly after 6:00 Wednesday morning the phone rang—and it was the Post Office letting us know that the turkeys had safely arrived. Yippee! I love raising turkeys as much as I love growing sweet potatoes and pumpkins. Since the week before they had been stuck in route for an extra 24 hours and we lost them all, the hatchery replaced the 35 dead turkeys with 46 more turkey chicks—that all arrived alive and healthy. We have not lost one yet—and turkeys look for excuses to die! So, once we ate breakfast and did a little house work, Mom headed to town to get the turkeys while I set up to milk. The neighbor girls were here to help for half of the day—and Carry was delighted to get to see and hold baby turkeys. When Mom got home we got the milking done and the Jacksonville orders packed. Once the receipts were done, my piano students were ready for their lessons. In the afternoon I mixed the sweeteners into the soaked granola and placed it in the oven. Later I took some time to update the website with some new pictures and I updated the event page. We are planning to have an Herbal Remedy Workshop in September; a Meet and Greet the Farm Animals in October; and a Pumpkin Canning Workshop in November.
Then it was August 1st and we stepped into the fast lane. Just when I thought that we were plenty busy, and that I had another month to get ready to plant the fall garden—I realized that the chickens needed to be moved into the fall tunnel garden so that they could do the weeding for us. Before they could be moved, I needed to order a shade cloth for the tunnel. Then once the chickens are moved into the tunnel, then the Poultry barn needs cleaned out so that we can move the 100 new egg layer chicks into there so that they can finish growing up before they take over one of the egg mobiles. I also realized that I wanted to grow some more cucumbers, squash, and noodle beans. When I checked the calendar to see when would be a good planting day for above ground crops—I was totally shocked to see that the best days were August 6 and 7. That means that we only have one day to prepare—clean up the trellises and remove a bunch of weeds. My mind is spinning so fast with things that need to be done that I keep a notepad very close by—or else I will forget.
Going back to last Thursday—the phone rang again at 6:00 in the morning. This time we had a batch of meat chicks at the Post Office. So, once again we ate breakfast and Mom headed to the Post Office to pick up the little chicks while I set up to milk. Once again the neighbor girls were here to help until noon. After we got set up for milking, I let Leslie walk Yasha around the yard on the leash, and Carry and I crumbled the granola so that it could continue cooking as granola instead of one big cookie. We milked the cows, bottled the milk, and got the Poultry kitchen set up to process chickens that afternoon. After lunch, Mom, Papa, and I began to process 49 chickens. It was well after 6:00 by the time we had all the chickens packed in ice, the parts packaged and in the freezer and everything washed and cleaned up. We were soaked from the sprayers, and ready for our own showers. When we came inside to run for the showers I was greatly concerned—my granola was still cooking in the oven. I feared that it had burned—but thankfully it was just done. After our showers, we fixed dinner and relaxed for the evening.
Friday we spent our morning in the milk house bottling milk and kefir. Then we ate lunch and made yogurt. After that Mom and I headed to the Poultry Kitchen to package the chickens. We did 29 whole chickens, and we cut up 20 chickens into legs, thighs, breasts, wings and backs. Usually Mom does all the cutting, and I do all the packaging. This time we worked as a team in a different way. We both cut up and we both packaged. It took a little longer than we had anticipated because the vacuum machine kept having some noise problems. We stopped and added more oil—but we must remember to check into it before we need it again in two weeks.
Papa spent a lot of his time this week in the tractor seat going round and round in the pastures. First he had to mow down the grasses that the cows and sheep had not eaten all the way down, and then he hooked up the seeder and planted iron clay peas and millet so that the cows will hopefully have something to eat when the grasses start to wane in the fall. Yet, if it can go wrong it has gone wrong and he has had many delays—like two busted water pipes and other problems. Come Saturday he wanted Mom and I to make the delivery to Gainesville so that he could mow and plant. We got the milking done, and then while Mom bottled the milk I packed the order. Mom wanted to get a little shopping done, so she headed to town, and I headed to the garden to harvest okra. I checked on the pumpkins and found that all the Cinderella pumpkins were ready for harvest, and so was the jack-o-lantern pumpkin. I picked them out of the patch, and it was all I could do to set them down over the fence—they weighed from 15 to 20 pounds each. Then I carried my basket of okra up to the house and asked Papa to go back with me in the Gravely to pick up all the pumpkins. I think that there were 6 of the Cinderella pumpkins. When we got back I finished the receipts for the Gainesville order. Mom got home just in time for Papa to pack the order and to grab a bite to eat. Shortly after 1:00, we headed south to Alachua and Gainesville to deliver some food from our farm to our loyal customers. Back on the farm Papa was running into troubles. First he had to separate all the steers out of the Murray Grey herd. Some of them are a few years old and are nursing on the mama’s who have newborn babies. While he was moving the cows, they were not being cooperative. They ended up in three different fields. It took Papa until 3:00 to get the cows half way put where they belonged. Then we had company show up for an hour, and then it was time to do the evening chores—gather the eggs, feed the dogs, and take Penelope to feed her nurse calves. So needless to say, he didn’t get any mowing or planting done. Mom and I got home around 5:00 and I started a pot of chicken noodle soup. Then I had to walk and feed our new puppy, Yasha.
That was that for last week, and starting tomorrow life will get crazy. I think that we could seriously keep a crew of 50 busy all week. Hopefully the neighbor girls can help this week—it will be their last week before they start back to school on the 12th. So for all you Floridians—I hope you enjoy your last week of summer vacation.
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare