Kitsap Farm to Fork

Title sounds like a title for a soap opera, don’t ya think?  I guess in the week following the West Sound Small Farms Expo, it feels a bit like a soap opera.  Still trying to find the plot to my life after planning such a large event, I do have a few projects that are demanding attention.  The projects are quite sexy. But first, to kick this Valentine story off, here’s a picture to make you drool:

Poulsbo's Washington Tractor brought TWO lusty green tractors to the Expo...and look at that no-till drill!

Wipe up the drool and let’s get back to the projects!

Community Supported Agriculture-  It is CSA time, what doesn’t turn you on about fresh veggies grown right here in Kitsap County?  There’s nothing greater than true love and a homegrown tomato.  We will be developing a one pager list of local CSA’s.

Farm to Table – Cascade Harvest Coalition, WSU Kitsap Small Farms, and the Kitsap Food Chain project are teaming up to bring a Farm to Table.  This is an event for our local farmers, chefs, schools, distributors, etc. to gather, gain some wisdom, share some food, and then speed date with one another in search of the perfect fit.  Romantic, eh?

Good Gut Health – Nothing sexy about guts, however a gut out of balance leads to disastrous results.  Two workshops in the series, these are the first food preservation workshops of the year to be held at the dearly- loved Haselwood YMCA.  March 3, 1-3 (Vegetable Ferments) and March 10, 1-3 (fermented drinks – non alcoholic).  Pre-Registering is required!

Kitsap’s Horses for Clean Water project – Collect, Cover, Compost – Manure Management- Looking out for number one, and taking care of number two… we have failed to nail down the perfect title, but basically it is a steamy story that aims to reach out to the owners of the 8,000 horses in Kitsap.  The Puget Sound is in trouble – take care of your poo!  Coming to a 4-H club near you!

Diane’s love life is shaping up, too.  She is all sorts of twitterpated over the No-Till Drill project she is in charge of.  Farmers reducing their carbon footprint is hot!  Of course every Thursday night she is out on the town teaching the ever popular, Cultivating Success – Ag Entrepreneurship class.  This session is pretty full – 40 attendees!  That’s more people learning how to bring us more LOCAL FOOD!

Okay, that is enough of the Farmer Love Story, the roosters are signaling chore time.  Want more?  Though our blog postings are erratic, you can get your daily dose of all things farm girl at our Facebook page, “WSU Kitsap Small Farms”.

Beef and Barley, Tomato-Pumpkin, Kale and Sausage…from amazing chefs crafted with local ingredients…Rolls and yummy desserts…AND a day filled with opportunities to learn about developing a value-added food product, growing flowers for profit, implementing conservation tillage on your farm, or improving marketing and production for your farm.

What more could you ask for?

Well, let me tell you…there is going to be farm machinery, mason bees, chicken pluckers, books, feed and seed….and the new Kitsap County Conservation Tillage Program no-till drill!

The vendors for this year’s West Sound Small Farm’s Expo include:

• Farmland Feed and Pet
• Washington Tractor
• Scratch and Peck Feed
• Kitsap Conservation District
• House of Bees
• Kitsap Poultry Growers Cooperative
• Poulsbo Junction Insurance
• Pheasant Field Farms
• Kitsap Food Chain
• Poulsbo Acupuncture and Wellness Clinic
• Washington Department of Agriculture
• US Department of Agriculture
• Kitsap Farmers Markets
• Mason Kitsap Farm Bureau
• Kiwi Fencing
• Cascade Harvest Coalition
• Liberty Bay Books
• Trillium Press

If you weed, feed, raise, sow, plow, grow, dig, till (or not!), compost, spread, plant, brew, ferment, harvest, preserve, bake, cook or EAT there is something for you at the West Sound Small Farms Expo.

Register online at http://county.wsu.edu/kitsap/

Early this summer I posted about the busy-ness of farm life in the summer.  Now that we are in late fall there is much less going on but there is still some activity.  Here is a sampling of what happened this week on the farm.

We got a new rooster the other day.  Until now we have only had roosters on a temporary basis.  When you raise chickens straight-run (from eggs instead of buying them at the feed store) at least half of the flock will be roosters.  But, on our farm – when they crow, they go – straight into the freezer!  However, a good rooster takes care of the hens in his flock.  He will call them to tasty tidbits, send out the alarm when predators come around and for natural flock behavior hens need a rooster.  So when Shannon ended up with an extra roo this year we offered to take him.  Foggy (a nod to Foghorn Leghorn!) is a handsome fellow with golden plumage and a dark brown tail.  Perhaps we will have some chicks in the spring if we get a broody hen!

Time for once a day milking!  Alexis has been dried up for about a month now, Ellie is on her way.  We went out of town for Thanksgiving after morning milking so Ellie is now down to once a day milking.  She is still giving almost two gallons a day, most of which is going to Frank.  He is the bucket calf we got last summer after I had a moment of insanity and bought a second cow!  Originally the plan was to just graft him on to Alexis and let her raise him so I only had to milk one cow.  After two weeks of tying up a homicidal and unwilling mother cow twice a day while he nursed to make sure she didn’t kill him outright, I decided that I would rather spend 5 minutes milking her than 20 minutes watching her.  Frank took to the bucket like a champ and is growing nicely.  He is scheduled to go into the freezer with the hogs in a couple of weeks.  Everyone is appalled that I am going to process a veal calf because there has been so much press around animal welfare issues on veal but  Frank is not locked-in-a-box-in-the-dark veal.  He is running-around-the-pasture-drinking-milk-being-a-nuisance veal.  We also need to have fewer animals in our pasture during the winter to keep down the mud and because both cows are going to calve in March, Frank has to go.  Besides, by Christmas there will be no more milk.

We enjoyed Thanksgiving with family.  My contribution was PIE.  I spent the last week making apple pie filling with Shannon.  I put 15 quarts in the canning pantry and I think she ended up with about 12 quarts.  I still need to do some apple sauce but that is it for canning for this year.  I called my sister-in-law all excited about the prospect of bringing an apple pie – only to have her say, “…and I will be making apple and pumpkin so how about you bring something else!”  So, I brought Pecan, lattice-topped Cherry, and Chocolate Silk Pies.  The chocolate silk pie was a last minute addition because I had extra pie crust and have been on a pudding binge lately.  When you have gallons of extra milk you get creative – and a batch of pudding uses 2 quarts of milk!  My recipe is adapted from one I found on Culinate for Creamy Chocolate Pudding.  I make a triple batch with whole Jersey milk and omit the butter (there is a limit to how much fat one needs!)  For pie filling I add a bit more corn starch than the recipe calls for and the resulting pudding is more like chocolate ganache than pudding.  It is dense, chocolatey, smooth and creamy.  Heaven!   I brought home leftovers of the pecan and cherry, but the chocolate was GONE!  Our turkey dinner will be either Sunday or Monday depending upon when my bird is defrosted.  Sooner would be better than later because it is taking up precious fridge space but I am willing to wait for turkey leftovers!

My mom’s firewood is finally done and in the woodshed.  After 40 years of heating with wood I keep thinking that she will give up and get a pellet stove.  After all, she will be 78 this year and doesn’t get around as well as she used to.  But, no!  Last year when her woodstove died she bought – you guessed it – another woodstove.  Because she has a small house she has a small stove – with a 14″ woodbox.  This means that we need to make sure that the wood is cut small enough and the pieces are well split.  Every year we put her wood up, and every year we wait until it starts raining.  This year was no exception.   But, the wood is in and she will be warm this winter.  My kids used to grumble about helping split and stack 3 cords of wood but now they are older and appreciate the chance to help their grandma.  It is gratifying to see my grown kids serving others and reaching out!

Our family is blessed by a bountiful life and at this time of year we are very conscious of our fortune.  We have a full pantry and freezer after a summer and fall of “putting up” from the farm and garden.  Our children are growing up to be generous and capable people.  We are part of a wonderful community of farm friends and others who enrich our life.  We have good health, a comfortable home and stable jobs in a time when many don’t have those blessings.

As we approach the holiday season, I try and keep in mind that the most important things in life aren’t really things at all.  We try and give experiences for gifts but if you are going to give this year, be farm-friendly.  Several local farms offer CSA’s or Farm Share programs and I can think of nothing better than the promise of fresh veggies during the depths of winter.  The local farmer’s markets have extended their season so you can still buy gifts from local vendors.  And for the kiddos on your list there are a couple books that are favorites around here and help children learn more about farm life.

• The Year at Maple Hill Farm
• Chicken Raising Tales: from the first three years of Bainbridge Island’s Tour de Coop
• Our Animal Friends at Maple Hill Farm (my favorite children’s book!)
• To Market to Market
• Blueberries for Sal (an oldie but a goodie!)
• Christmas Day in the Morning (a wonderful short story by Pearl S. Buck)

He was my buddy, my true companion, my watch dog, the best rat wrangler ever, chicken protector extraordinaire, child herder.

Parker was “MY” dog.  And I miss him.

I have had a post in me for quite some time, but it has been a rough couple of months around here.  The clincher was losing my beloved, Parker.  His poor old body withered away over the summer and finally he looked at me and I knew.  He was dying.  Never far from my side, Parker’s best days were spent working right alongside me in the garden, barn, or fields.  Perhaps his favorite chore was “mowing” the pasture.  Parker would anxiously await fleeing varmints, never missing a beat.  When we first came to the farm in 2006, he was overcome by chicken lust. A quick lesson in farm dog ettiquette and he never harmed another chicken, in fact, he assumed the role as chicken protector and all-around best farm dog ever.

Our farm is just not the same without him.

MEMORIES

“Not the least hard thing to bear when
they go from us, these quiet friends,
is that they carry away with them so
many years of our lives. Yet, if they
find warmth therein, who would
begrudge them those years that they
have so guarded?
And whatever they take,
be sure they have deserved.”

— John Galsworthy —

If you were to ask one of our children to recite our family motto quick as a bunny they would rattle off: “Get back to work!”

(A close second would be “No one was killed” but that is an entirely different post!)

Yesterday while friends of mine were taking their kids to a corn maze, my children were using the loppers to cut down a chunk of the corn patch and feed it to the cows.  The girls were more than happy to be part of the farm waste stream and stood at the fence bawling encouragement to the loppers.  As my kids were doing this they are letting me know that they are not enjoying this family work activity in that way the kids have.  Mostly they were saying things like: ” Why can’t we just visit a corn maze…like normal people?”  “You know Mom, there are actually people that buy milk instead of making it.”  (For the full effect, please read the quotes aloud and roll your eyes on the italicized bits!)

As they were doing this I began thinking about the difference between our household and those of many more mainstream folks.  In our household, because we grow our own food, produce our own dairy products and preserve and can excess produce to eat during the winter we differ significantly from the cultural mainstream.  Most households are consumptive in nature and ours is productive.  Having this type of household requires a shift in thinking – seasonal thinking – what do we need to plant now to eat in July thinking! 

Raising children in this type of environment also requires a shift.  It means we have conversations with band directors about fundraising (“My kids have jobs…can they just contribute their own money rather than selling wrapping paper?”) and youth group leaders (“My kids know how to do hard physical labor, so if you are going to plan an activity for them, perhaps it should involve meaningful work, rather than just making them sweat!”) It also means that my kids have skills and are responsible in ways that their peers may not be.  They do know how to work hard, and the work they do matters to our family.  If you need three cords of firewood for winter and you help split and stack it, your work keeps us warm.  Picking 50# of green beans or digging 100# of potatoes means we have veggies for the entire winter.  You see the fruits of your labors on the dinner plate. 

Now, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.  I keep telling them that they are better off living in a family that cuts corn for the cows and harvests pumpkins to “put up” for winter!  When you visit a corn maze you  PAY for the privilege!  Here you get to do it for free AND it feeds us!  How cool is that?!

Now, THAT’s a catchy title.  Well, I think this weekend I canned the last batch of dill pickles for the year!  I came pretty close to my goal this year.  I am estimating (because I am too pooped to get off of the couch) when I say I have 54 quarts of pickles stored and another 3 gallons of sour pickles in the fermentor.  Not too bad, considering the growing conditions this year!  We love pickles around here, and they are always a welcome gift.  I am not a gift-giver, so this makes my life a little easier.

There’s plenty of time left to preserve and so much more to harvest.  More to pickle, just not cukes.   If you don’t know where to start on food preservation, here’s a great place...

Preserving the Harvest Classes -  CLASSES START NEXT WEEKEND!!!  

Start getting your “nut” count for the year together so we can compare.  For encouragement, feast your eyes on this:

Delectable Dill Pickles

There is a lull in the kitchen.  Heaven help us all!  What will we eat this winter!?  

The lull mostly has to do with me, I am pooped!  Canning and preserving has been monopolizing the majority of any spare moments I may have.  I’m beginning to feel like a squirrel!

"HIDE YER NUTS!"

The past couple of days, I have been down with the “crud” that plagues us all when we send our kids into the petri dish to school.  Aside from the torrential down pour the other day that reminds us that we do live “on the dark side”, the weather has been extremely gorgeous.  Those crisp fall mornings with the beautiful sunrises are another one of the delights that I enjoy about this region, even if it signals in monsoons. Even being sick, taking a nap yesterday afternoon seemed wrong!

The truth is, there is an abundance out “there” waiting to be picked.  Beans, squash, more apples, greens, etc.  Andrea kept running through the living room yesterday with the tomato parade.

Lusty Blushing Tomatoes

Tempting me with ‘maters the size of softballs, she drug me off of the couch to snap this:

Tomato Love

She was on her way to the Bremerton Farmer’s Market.  Now, Andrea is a proud farmer.  She carefully harvests her vege the way she sows it, with precision and passion.  That’s because, when the frost has kissed every living thing in the garden, she retreats to her humble abode…sipping tea and studying seed catalogs.  Not casually glancing through them, being wooed by glossy portraits, but actually reading through the description, checking the seeds origination. If the seed originated from a northern climate, it gets a second glance of her baby blues.  So let’s talk about this here tomato parade.  What she brought in is known as Goldman’s Italian Paste.  She harvested one that weighed in at 1.5 succulent pounds and of course she gave it to her laird (that’s me).  I cut a big ol’ fatty slice and devoured it on my tuna sammich the other day.  Delish!  The meatiness piqued my interest, and so she directed me here:

Amy Goldman's Book

Suitable for northern climates, the Baker Creek Seed Company describes this tomato as, “Unique, beautiful and large tomatoes that have a squat, pear
shape, being ribbed and pleated. These have a bloody, intense red color when ripe. Thick, red flesh is perfect for delicious sauces and preserves. Found at a Roadside stand in Italy, by Amy Goldman and named after her father’s grocery store in Brooklyn.  This variety has good flavor, fresh or canned.”  They had me at canned!  Though I have already put up about one hundred pounds of tomatoes this year…what’s another, say, 50?

Join me on Sunday, October 9th, for “Sassy Salsa Sunday” my three hour hands-on work shop at the new Haselwood YMCA in Silverdale.  For more information, visit:  WSU Extension Website , scroll down to Preserving the Harvest (ignore the Oct. 2nd date). The information link will take you to my brochure where you can find more information.  To register (come on, you know you want to), click the link that takes you to the YMCA.

PUT ‘EM UP!

I love this picture!

Look how excited Diane is!  Yesterday was a very long day, and this was one of the final moments before we retreated to our real jobs farms for the evening. Most of the next week will entail days comparable. Every year, WSU Extension mans the “Farmer for a Day” exhibit at the Kitsap County Fair and Stampede, this year the Small Farms Team stepped up to the plate and called it our own. It only makes sense that a couple of farm chicks would take over this area of the fair, and of course we have made some changes.

The exhibit is an area for over-stimulated families to take a break from the excitement and sugar rush. Filled with tactile and hands-on exhibits for youngsters and plenty of shade and rest for tired parents, this area is the best kept secret of the Kitsap County Fair. It is tucked away behind the fair offices and in between the smaller kiddie rides and the larger carnival rides.  In the past, activities have included clothes lines for hanging “clothes”, an apple tree to pick apples, a true farm kitchen complete with an ironing board, and the ever-popular potato dig.

This year, wanting to modernize it a bit, we have added a pint-sized farmer’s market booth for children to “buy” their very own market products and a picture celebration of Kitsap farmers of the present and past.  The 4H Clothing and Textiles Advisors will return with a sewing project, there will be coloring pages, and plenty of chairs to take a load off and relax in the shade.

The fun starts tomorrow…I better run get busy!

A few months ago, being hit by the “brew” bug, the hubs and I and a good friend took a tour of the Slippery Pig Brewery in Poulsbo.

One of the four newest breweries in Poulsbo, Slippery Pig boasts offerings from locally grown food and you can’t get more local than your own farm, which is exactly what Brewmaster Dave Lambert does.  Dave and his wife, Shawna, also own and operate Red Rooster Farm and vend their products at Central Market and the Poulsbo Farmer’s Market.  Being different is what Slippery Pig is famous for, using less common ingredients in their brews.   During the early spring and winter, when fresh produce wasn’t available, Dave incorporated Pine and Cedar into his brews.  One of the first offerings from the garden, Rhubarb, made it into batches of The Pig’s Rhubarb IPA.  Not to wish away the little summer that we have, but I can’t wait to taste the Pumpkin Beer!

This THURSDAY (yep, in TWO days), you should join us from 6-9 pm for a presentation and tour of the Slippery Pig.  We will discuss the passion behind the beer and the process from a weekend hobby to a business endeavor.  Please register online, noticing that the time online is wrong and our webmaster is on vacation!

My favorite part of the whole process...when Dave fires up the ol' Farmall tractor to grind the grains!

The time is 6-9 pm.

The place is 795 NW Finn Hill Road Poulsbo

The cost is $35

Register online