Eleven Years

This Friday marks the eleventh anniversary of our move to the farm. In 1999, we went to the bank on the last Friday in July and signed the mortgage. We borrowed our banker’s pickup truck and trailer and began pulling load after load of stuff from the house friends had generously shared with us on the opposite side of the county. It was hot – and not just a little bit hot, but record-setting hot and humid, the sort of weather that leaves you soaked with sweat the moment you step out of doors. The sort of weather when, if you grab hold of a loose edge of wallpaper and start to pull, the wallpaper just peels off. Which we did in the abandoned 150-year-old farmhouse we moved into, where the “decorative” wallpaper strip in the kitchen – depicting cartoon character farm animals – covered wall, doors, and refrigerator.

My in-laws came with their weedwhip and opened up a path to the front door of the house, then took the kids to Nordic Fest while we painted the kitchen, pulled up the green shag carpeting in the bedroom to reveal gorgeous hardwood floors, and swept up the mouse leavings. We continued to make trips back and forth to our friends’ house, loading the truck and trailer up high, packing the minivan full, then pulling into one door of the drive-through barn, offloading everything, and pulling out the other side.

One corner of the house was held up by a scissors jack, like you would use to change the tire on your car. Most of the windows had been broken. The cow shed was so unstable that we wouldn’t let the kids play in it. The granary was chock full of junk. The barn hadn’t been cleaned out in I don’t know how long. The two chicken houses lacked roofs, and a tree grew out of one of them. And everything that wasn’t planted to corn was, more or less, covered in thistles.

We bought a Farmall 504 tractor that was older than we were, a blade for clearing snow from our long driveway, and a rototiller to go on the tractor. We bought a new furnace (the old one was missing), a new water heater (the old one was broken), a new refrigerator (the old one was broken), and a new cookstove (the old one was missing). It took a couple of years before we got around to replacing the scissors jack, which, after all, seemed to be doing a perfectly adequate job.

But, we made due, especially with some help from our friends and neighbors.

Eric, who still does the occasional bit of field work and baling for us, agreed to take his corn crop off of one field early, so we were able to build two greenhouses that first fall. He also baled up some of the bromegrass from two expired CRP fields, providing bedding for the laying hens and mulch for the garlic. I’m not quite certain if he knew what to make of us then.

Keith, who rented the farm next door to ours, repaired the pasture fence so his sheep stopped coming to visit.

Jim, who went to school with Keith in the old one-room schoolhouse that used to be on the property, and is now retired, filled us in on the history, gave me my first lesson in tractor repair, lent us a drill press for modifying our new greenhouses, and brought his tractor down to mow some of the thistles.

Our farm management group provided feedback on seeding the upper fields to pasture, and helped us build one of the greenhouses. When they left, two of the women left in tears, because of how much work we had ahead of us, and how little chance they thought we had of succeeding. (I only found this out a couple of years ago. If I had known at the time, maybe I would have been too scared to try!)

Friends from Decorah cheerfully helped us cover the greenhouses, even though the second one got covered as a snow storm blew in the day after Thanksgiving. Nobody complained. A contractor friend got us a good deal on some new windows, and helped us put them in for free. We installed a new woodstove, and our banker brought us a pickup-truck load of firewood. For free. Another friend asked what we needed to really get this whole Rock-Spring-Farm thing off the ground, and when we said we needed a logo and not to have to send somebody to work in town, he and his wife bought seven years of CSA shares for their employees and came to us with the Circle R logo we still use today.

Our neighbor, Jim, told me recently that everybody’s really proud of what we’ve accomplished here, turning this abandoned farm into something full of life and energy, and I told him that we couldn’t have done it without the help of people like him, and everybody else who pitched in to make it all work.

Goings on on the Farm

It just keeps raining. We had an inch of rain on Friday night, and again on Tuesday night. We seem to get about six good hours of tractor weather between each rainfall, and continue to try to make the most of it with cultivating to kill the weeds, and keeping up on the seeding. I’ve been trying to get a couple of nasty patches of purslane under control, but the fleshy weeds just keep re-rooting in the frequent rains. Our greenhouse is backing up a little with transplants right now, unfortunately, but I think we’ll be able to get those out soon.

The crew has been a bunch of real troopers with all of the handweeding that has resulted from not being able to get into the field with a tractor.

Dad trimmed the garlic and moved it from the drying setup in the greenhouse to the dry cooler in the packing house. We run two coolers, one with high humidity for most of our crops, and one at low humidity for onions, shallots, garlic, and seeds.

In This Week's Box

When you get this box home, store the garlic in a cool dry place. Tomatoes go out on the counter, and everything else (including the fresh red onions) goes in the refrigerator with some sort of plastic around it, preferably in the crisper drawer.

Garlic – I am really happy to have the big, beautiful, and fully-cured garlic in your box this week. This easy-to-peel variety will store for a long time in a cool, dry place. A terra cotta flower pot in a cupboard works quite nicely. I especially enjoy the porcelain-type garlic for its large bulbs, making life easier for all of you garlic enthusiasts out there.

Fresh Red Onions – Use these just like regular onions, although you’ll want to store them in your refrigerator. In general, red onions have a milder flavor than their yellow siblings; the fresh onions, with higher moisture content, will have an even milder flavor. Enjoy on hamburgers and sandwiches, or use in cooking just as you would a regular onion.

Carrots – We finished harvesting our first crop of carrots this week, and I am just loving the tender crispness of these beauties.

Beets – We took the tops off this week, and present you with what we call “bulk beets.”

Sungold Cherry Tomatoes

Round Red Tomatoes – You know what to do with these, but I think it’s worth reminding you that we try to send tomatoes with a range of ripeness, so that you can still have tomatoes early next week. You can ripen them faster in the sunshine, or by putting them in a paper bag to capture their own ethylene gas; or keep them in a shady spot on the counter for a longer shelf life.

Golden Zucchini

Broccoli

Conehead Cabbage – I don’t know why it’s shaped that way, but I like its thin leaves and it looks pretty neat. Use as you would any green cabbage, but I especially like it done up in a natural sauerkraut.

Spearmint – Mojitos. Need I say more? You might also try it steeped with black or green iced tea, added to lemonade, or as part of a pesto for lamb. Also great as an addition to fruit salads or fruit cups.

Recipes You Can Use

Roasted Tomatoes with Parmesan

several tomatoes
olive oil
salt
freshly grated parmesan

Preheat oven to 400. Cut medium tomatoes into quarters, or large tomatoes into eighths. Arrange on a rimmed baking sheet (do not use glass) with cut sides up. Drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt. Roast tomatoes for 40 minutes to an hour until cooked through. Remove from oven and sprinkle with cheese immediately. Serve with any pan juices.

Light and Lively Slaw

The Dressing

2 Tablespoons rice wine Vinegar
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
2 tablespoons minced spearmint
salt to taste

The Slaw

3 cups thinly sliced cabbage
1/4 cup thinly sliced fresh onion
1 small raw beet, grated
1 large carrot, grated

In a bowl combine all the dressing ingredients. Set aside. Combine the cabbage, onion, carrot, and beet in a medium bowl. Toss the dressing with the slaw ingredients. Wait 10 minutes for flavors to blend and serve.

Carrot Salad

This is made easier if you have a Mandoline. but coarsely shredding in a food processor or on a box grater will work as well.

1lb. carrots julienne, or grated
1 clove garlic
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1 tablespoon lemon juice
dash of cayenne
1/4 cup of olive oil
2 Tablespoons minced fresh chives

Chop the garlic with the salt to a very fine paste like consistency. In a large bowl, combine the garlic paste, lemon juice, cayenne and olive oil. Wisk to combine. Add carrots and toss to coat. Add chive and lightly mix. Serve.

Beets with Onions and Capers

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound red onions, very thinly sliced
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 pound cooked beets, julieened
Salt & pepper
4 tablespoons drained capers

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Sweat the onions until they're very soft but not browning, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in the vinegar and the beets and combine until coated. Season with salt and pepper, scatter with the capers and serve.