Cows love pumpkins…

This is where the left over pumpkins go after halloween…

Not many people know that this is why pumpkins exist, not just for carving jack-o-lanterns, but for feeding animals through the winter. The girls certainly enjoy their seasonal treat.

Most beautiful eggs…

 

Not the dozen that would win first prize at the fair, my hen’s eggs are anything but uniform. Jumbo’s balance out banty eggs. Colors range from deep brown, light brown, speckled, white, olive, green, and blue. The pullets I hatched from the egg in May began to lay about 2 weeks ago. Their eggs are still small, but each hen lays her own unique shade of blue-green. Though I have raised chickens for many years, this is the first time I have ever hatched my own crosses – it has been incredibly rewarding. I culled the young roosters and some old hens in September. 19 old and new hens are now integrated with their new rooster “Mr.” in their new, warm, dry, light-filled coop that my brother Rhys and I built this summer. I have saved a few old hen’s that have good chances of going broody in the spring so that I can hatch all my chicks the natural way instead of in the incubator. We shall see …           Sorrel

"Mr."

 

Chicks are hatching!

Put 41 eggs in the incubator 21 days ago. Now I have 7 out of the shell and counting. They are absolutely adorable. An early bloomer popped out yesterday night and I’ve been glued to the incubator glass ever since. I had intended to keep track of which chick came out of which egg, but came downstairs this morning (after a scant 4 hours of sleep) to find 5 chicks bumping around inside with no certainty about their origins. One thing’s for certain – they came out healthy after all. I have spent a month struggling with small success to keep the temperature steady on an old-style no-frills Hova-bator. I had just about reconciled myself to the fact that I was going to suffer some casualties, but the morning breathes of new hope!

Chick in incubator, just hatched

The proud father, Randy, an Aruacana Rooster

Whole Wheat Dark Chocolate Almond Biscotti

By far one of my favorite recipe creations, a uniquely delicious and healthy biscotti. Unusual in being low fat, with no oil or butter. Unsweetened chocolate chunks allow you to enjoy the deep chocolate flavor in it’s purest and simplest form. Whole wheat flour and almonds add crunch and heartiness, more nourishing than you ever expected a sweet to be. Enjoy!

Recipe: Whole Wheat Dark Chocolate Almond Biscotti

-Sorrel

The beginning of the chicken story

Tilly and I

In September, as the last of the summer’s grain crops were being winnowed and we began to take stock of what the season had yielded, my father and I placed an order for 100 mixed heavy breed cockerel chicks. As one project always begets another, growing grain begets keeping chickens. When the grain comes out of the field it must be run through a seed cleaner to remove chaff, bugs, weed seeds, and undersized grains. Waste not want not, the best utilizers of such a resource are chickens. So 100 chicks arrived. Rhys built us a portable chicken house out of what was a wagon that was built out of what was a manure spreader that once spread manure on the farm of my great Uncles Lyman.

Little Gray grooming

The cockerels led a life of liberty for three months. Perhaps too much liberty, as the foxes and hawks got their share before we slaughtered them in December. In those three months I became re-acquainted with the chicken personality. The Araucanas were easiest to distinguish from one another due to their diversity of colorings. They got names such as Rocky, Road, Big Gray, Little Gray, Tilly, Eagle, Vulture, Theodore, and Black Beard.  Four lucky birds were spared the axe. The two finest Araucana cockerels, Big Gray and Theodore, for breeding, and two cockerels that were not cockerels at all but hens, Little Gray and Tilly. Thanks to hatchery error I am enjoying an egg a day from one of my Araucana hens, Tilly. Little Gray, always the runt of the flock, has yet to lay her first egg – every day I go out to the coop I hope to find small blue egg waiting for me. I acquired a few more old hens by happenstance and now I have a flock of 20 producing about a dozen a day. Big Gray has gone to a friend’s farm and become rooster to his own flock. Theodore remains with me, though he has been dubbed “Randy”, more fitting with his grown-up personality. In the spring we will see what sort of chicks he fathers from my best layers. – Sorrel

Leghorn Egg

Araucana Egg

Black Star Egg

Fresh Bagels!

Whole Wheat Bagels with Flax Seeds

I’ve discovered the joy of boiling bagels. So simple, delicious, and fast. I’ve taken my basic bread recipe and modified it so that my regular 3 loaf batch of bread instead makes 16 bagels. I can make the dough side by side with the bread of the day and then boil and bake them while the bread is rising. All the kinds I’ve made use whole grain flour from our farm – though a lower percentage than the bread as a very strong dough is necessary to withstand the boiling process. So far I’ve developed recipes for Sesame, Flax, Sunflower, Three Seed, Honey Oat, Pumpernickel, Garlic Sage, and Cinnamon Raisin. The bagel making is a little more labor intensive, but less time is spent waiting for results. I can knead, form, boil, and bake – with no additional rising in between. It’s very satisfying to watch how much they expand in 60 seconds in the boiling water and 25 minutes in the oven. They are selling well in the farm store – I think people appreciate the snackable size as opposed to a whole loaf of bread. I have decided to sell them at $0.75 each, though this may be too low, what do you think?

- Sorrel

P.S. If you can’t make it by the farm, try making them at home! Recipe: Upinngil Whole Wheat Bagels

Are you lactose intolerant?

If you are I suggest you get your hands on some good raw milk and try it.

Over the last few years I have heard countless stories from my customers about how wonderful it was to be able to drink milk again. They had been unable to eat dairy products for years until they discovered our milk. In every case, people who had experienced indigestion from processed dairy products found they could enjoy our milk without any side effects.

Why is this? There are many factors.

Firstly, raw milk is not pasteurized. There is a lactase enzyme present in the milk when it comes out of the cow that breaks down lactose. This enzyme is destroyed during pasteurization. Milk out of the cow also contains probiotic bacteria, such as those in yogurt and cheese, that aid in digestion. These are also destroyed during pasteurization.

Second, raw milk is not homogenized. Homogenization breaks open the fat molecules in the milk and allows them to become hydrogenated. This makes it much harder for our bodies to digest.

Third, raw milk (from a dairy licensed to sell raw milk) is produced in a more cleanly fashion than most pasteurized milk. In Massachusetts, raw milk producers, along with every other dairy in the state, are subject to inspection and sample testing every month. Unlike every other dairy, raw milk dairies must meet standards for coliform, raw, and somatic cell counts that are many times lower than conventional dairies, and that are the equivalent of conventional milk after pasteurization. In other words, the milk has to be clean to begin with, not dirty made “clean” by pasteurizing.

And fourth, raw milk farms are more likely to be pasturing their cattle. A cow that gets fresh grass and a diversity of plant species in her diet produces more nutritious milk than a cow that is confined and fed single species feeds such as corn silage. Fresh pasture also means cleaner udders and fewer potentially hazardous bacteria. In filthy conditions, the bacteria most harmful to human health thrive. These sort of bacteria are also less likely to be killed by pasteurization than the probiotic species. This is why milk you buy in the supermarket often spoils by the “sell by” date and becomes inedible, while our raw milk remains fresh for two weeks. Even once it begins to sour, it is still an appetizing and healthful food to use in baking, etc.

I have come to believe that lactose intolerance in most people is a complete misdiagnosis. The milk processing companies that control 99% of all milk consumed in this country, are in fact responsible for the poisoning of the 10% of the population that considered themselves lactose intolerant. Instead addressing the problem at it’s source – the consumer is being told that their is something wrong with their bodies if they vomit or have diarrhea when they drink it!

My thoughts for the day, Sorrel

 

Just in time… pumpkin pie.

I am making one tomorrow, with a  sweet pie pumpkin… .  See Little Red Hen’s new Recipes Page.

Little Red Hen

I’m always busy in the kitchen here at the farm. Rolling out the bread is my first task every morning. Starting this week I will begin baking on a schedule, every day of the week being a different loaf, here’s the plan:

Tuesday: Whole Wheat with Sunflower Seeds

Wednesday: Whole Wheat with Flax Seeds

Thursday: Whole Wheat Three Seed

Friday: Whole Wheat Honey Oat

Saturday: Whole Wheat Cinnamon Raisin

Note: I won’t be baking on Sunday or Monday, but frozen loaves are always available in the freezer as back-up.

The challenges of the market garden

As always the weeds are threatening to get out of control, but I am determined not to let them this year. We mulched heavily with rye straw between the rows but already weeds are pushing through. Problem rows need to be weeded and re-mulched. Meanwhile there are still many things to get in the ground.

6/22 Started seeds in 96 plug trays: 1- cassius cauliflower, 1- amazing cauliflower, 1- Beedy’s Camden Kale, 1- Impala Cabbage, 1 2/3- Red Express Cabbage, 1 1/3- Fiesta Broccoli, 1- Adriana butterhead lettuce, 1- Magenta red summer crisp lettuce, 1- Barbados green summer crisp lettuce, 1- Black-seeded Simpson loosehead lettuce.

Will plant lettuce in garden in beds heads in grid 3 x 16, 1 ft. apart. Two staggered transplantings. May planting is about ready to harvest. Black seeded simpson will be ready first, Magenta is magnificent looking. Not crazy about appearance of Natacha Escarole but will have to wait and see.

Cole crops will go into field on Boyle Road. Should be enough seedlings for four 300ft. rows to be harvested around September when frost sensitive crops are winding down and the farmstand needs filling up.

Growing a market garden is the ultimate multi-tasker’s job. Every time I set foot in my garden I feel the pull of a hundred different tasks that need doing — trellis the peas, fertilize the asparagus, mulch the summer squash, weed the carrots, thin the beets, cage the tomatoes, row-cover the eggplant, mow the border, hoe the lettuce….. oh, and do what I came out here to do – harvest the radishes!

Getting back to it, Sorrel