Category Archives: Farm Life

The Animals of Crazy Boy Farm and Open House

For years now we have been saying we want to do a calendar. But you know how it is and other projects keep pushing it to a back burner. But as we are loving this spring weather and all the animals on our farm (who are also loving the spring weather) I got an idea for a post–the Animals of Crazy Boy Farm.

But first I wanted to invite all you to our spring open house on May 31st, from 1-4:00. We will have tours, up close encounters with some of our animals, tasty food (we will provide the main dish, please bring a dish to share), great conversation and more. Hope to see you there. And don’t forget we still have some CSA shares available here.

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Avril and Buddy, the pony we were given last year. Avril is training him as part of her 4H horse project.

Avril practicing backing Buddy up.

Mavis would love a pony of her own but we are working on being content with what we have and what we do have is a mini donkey. Donkey (his name was Jack but since we already had a Jack he became Donkey but now Mavis has decided he needs a better name so she chose John) came to our farm 2 years ago. For a long time he was the biggest animal we had. He loves the attention but is still stubborn.

Mavis and Avril practicing “ground work.”

Berkshire hogs joined our farm last year. We are expecting babies in June. Here they are waiting for dinner.

In this post we talked about jersey calves joining our farm. Well here is what they look like now. It was a rough winter and we have learned alot along the way. Out of the 5 we have 2 left but they are going strong. As another farmer friend told us when farming with animals “the learning curve really stinks!” But we are very happy with these boys.

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It is now goat season. These 2 were born yesterday and we actually got to see it. All the children except for the baby were there to see at least the 2nd baby born. As Two said, “boy the miracle of life is messy!”

Then of course there is Jack, our constant companion. He is loving this warm weather and a quick role in the leaves.

Welcome Jerseys

I am sure anyone who has tried to start their own business understands the struggle to stay on top of changes in the market. But when you farm you also have to stay on top of changing weather! My the past couple of years have been weird–long, long winters, super wet springs, cool summers, etc. At least this year we didn’t have the number of severe storms we had last year. But anyway you get the picture. While we are adding a hoop house this fall for our vegetable production we decided that it was time to branch out into meat production. You have already see our pigs. Now it is time to meet the cows.

It has always been a dream of Proeun’s to have cattle. We always thought that we would go with a traditional beef breed but the price of cows is particularly high this year. We were lucky to stumble upon a local dairy that uses Jerseys (jerseys have always been my favorite), They sell their bull calves for meat production and we purchased five (not all of them are pictured). They are only a couple weeks old now and the children really love handling them. We are still bottle feeding them twice a day and we keep them in a stall at night but bring them out to their own pen during the day so the children are getting plenty of practice leading them.

While I love eating vegetables I have always found working with the animals more rewarding on a personal level. 2014 has been a difficult year for crops but at least some good has come out of it by pushing us to expand our business (and family life) into other ventures. All in all it has been very good.

Farm to Table

Last weekend we had a great weekend. The City Center Market in Cambridge hosted a Farm to Table meal at our farm! Have I mentioned I love food! and farming (or making friends with a farmer) is the best way to eat really well. So we went out to the field and harvested sorrel and mint for our Cambodian chicken salad (we had boiled and shredded one or our chickens the night before). We harvested strawberries for strawberry shortcake and I made a French chocolate mousse using our eggs. Here are some pictures from the day thanks to Channa from City Center Market.

Here is my version of Cambodian Chicken Salad

2 cups chopped cabbage
1/2 cup chopped sorrel
1/2 cup shredded carrot0
1 small bunch mint, leaves only
1 lb boiled and cooled rice noodles
1 chicken boiled and shredded

Sauce:

1/2 cup water
3 TBSP white vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
3 garlic cloves chopped and fried separately.

Assemble the salad first. Then make the sauce by boiling the water, then added the sugar until it is dissolved, Add the vinegar, turn off the heat and add the garlic. Let sit for about least 20 minutes.

Drizzle over the salad. Call also add chopped green onions.

Seward Co-op Cooking Class

This weekend we had an amazing opportunity–teaching a cooking class at the Seward Co-op. It was such an amazing experience. I love surrounding myself with people who love good food, sharing ideas and recipes and just chatting. Here are some pictures from the event.

Proeun really loves sharing traditional dishes. But one of the things about traditional dishes is teaching people how to eat them. Here I describe how to make an envelope out of the lettuce leaves for the Lok Lac.

Lok Lac (Hot Beef Salad) and Stir-fry pork with collards.

The question came up “how do you get kids to eat vegetables?” Honestly I am not really sure, I guess just have it available and model good eating habits. We are not perfect and sometimes the children reject meals I have made but these are some of their favorite, probably because they are also Proeun and my favorites and we eat them regularly. They cleaned up after the class!

So it was a pretty great day. The co-op was beautiful, especially the kitchen! The people were fun and interesting and it was a pretty great way to spend the morning.

Here are the recipes I wrote for the class. If you are looking for ways to eat greens this summer try these out. They are fun and easy. The stir-fry one can be made using whatever protein and greens you have on hand. These type of recipes are great for seasonal eating.

Lok Lac (beef salad)

1 pound beef thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves crushed
½ tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1-2 TBSP Oyster sauce
1 onion thinly sliced

For salad:

1 head lettuce
1 tomato in thin wedges
1 cucumber peeled and cut into 2 inch sections then halved and finally thinly sliced
1 green onion prepared as the cucumber

For dipping sauce

4 TBSP lemon juice (about 2 whole lemons)
1 tsp fish sauce
½ -1 tsp ground black pepper fresh is best
salt to taste

Begin by making the meat. Brown the meat in a pan with the oils and a bit of oil to get it started. Add garlic and other seasoning and continue stir-frying until the meat is done. Set aside.

Take the lettuces and separate the leaves. Arrange in a circular pattern on a plate or in a bowl. Layer tomatoes then cucumbers and finally green onions in center of bowl or plate. Pour the hot beef mixture over the top of the salad in a little mound.

For the dipping sauce combine all ingredients.

To eat take a leaf of lettuce. Layer tomato, cucumber, green onion and beef in the middle of the leaf and fold up to make and envelope. Dip in the sauce and enjoy. Eat with rice.

Basic Stir Fry

1 pound thinly sliced meat (pork, beef, chicken, etc.)
2 garlic cloves crushed
1 TBSP Soy Sauce
2 TBSP oyster sauce
1 TBSP corn starch

4 cups chopped greens (water spinach, kale, mustard, etc.) can also mix them.

Begin with the meat, brown the meat with a bit of oil, when well browned add the seasoning. When almost done add the greens. Some will take very little cooking time so watch them or they will turn to mush. Stir and cook until wilted to desired texture. You can add one more TBSP of oyster sauce or soy sauce to taste if not the desired taste.

Eat over rice or add some cooked noodles and a bit more sauce for Lo mein.

A 4H type of summer

This is our third year in 4H and we are finally starting to get the hang of it. The children and I have planned out their fair projects early and many of them are already completed. While Two is old enough to bring an animal to the fair we decided to wait till next year when Avril will be ready as well. So this year Two is working on dog training with his lab Jack. It is going quite well and Jack loves Two so much you can see how eager he is to please.

But during the dog training what to do with the other children. Luckily the training is held at a park. Not a fancy dancy park with the newest equipment but and exploring type of park. It has been great watching the children explore and learn.

Normally I am a homebody and hate to leave but there is something to be said at the quietness of an evening at the park with nothing pressing on your schedule and just being. I wouldn’t have thought that 4H would give that to me but it has. So thankful to be part of it. You can find out more about joining here.

Happy Memorial Day–Enjoy summer

When we first moved to the country I never wanted to leave the property and that was fine for awhile. But even farmer’s need to take a break and step back and reset. I find for me the best way to do that is the wilderness. I am blessed to have a family property I can retreat to, but even with having a place available I hadn’t been there since we moved. Finally this weekend I was able to get away and it was like heaven. I have to say being out there away from life’s pressures, enjoying nature, I just feel more myself and more able to enjoy life and family.

My children took the weekend’s opportunity to enjoy trying out the camera. Two and Mavis especially enjoyed this with Two saying he wanted to be a photographer. Here is a portrait he took of Effie.

Mommy t-rexxy by Mavis.

Pray Grant by Two.

I love just going for walks with the children.

One thing I really want to learn is how to identify the things of nature–plants, trees, birds, bird calls, etc. Here is a plant I discovered on this camping trip. I believe it is a marsh marigold.

It wasn’t all fun and games. The gentlemen worked to put up an outhouse.

Finished outhouse by Mavis.

So work, play, relax, love, enjoy and reset that was the name of the game this weekend. Honestly it was so needed. I hope you are taking time regularly to recharge and reset. What things do you like to do?

Spring Fun + violet jam

Finally it feels like spring around here. As I was transferring my blog to the new host I was going through some old posts and found that 2 years ago when we first moved here our crab apple tree flowered in late March. However it has yet to flower this year. Just last week Avril asked, “are the snow days over?” and I realized like her I had been kinda holding my breathe. But when I assured her that they were she was so relieved that it was fun to see.

Last weekend Proeun finally got a chance to get into the fields with Bessie.

Chores have been so much more fun now that it has warmed up. Speaking candidly it is not all fun and games on the farm but I try to focus on the good as much as possible and one of the things I have really enjoyed is getting to know this land throughout the seasons. I have been interested in herbs and foraging for a long time now but there is something extremely special about finding where these plants grow on your own property and being able to come back year after year. Plantain is an easy one and last year I found yarrow. We have a white oak tree and there are more herbs that I want to identify.

But while checking facebook recently a friend of mine was talking about violets and I realized that this year we have an overabundance (as well as and abundance of dandelions, ahem). I remembered a violet jam from one of my favorite blogs Soule Mama. Now I actually had the goods to make my own.

I ended up doing most of the harvesting while the children played but it was fun and they would come over every once in awhile to check on progress. During the cooking process they helped more, that’s where the fun is anyway though it probably too less then five minutes to whip up a batch. Now I have a new spring time tradition and it is so fun to make things grown right on our own land.

But on a humorous note all you moms out there know that once the seasons change it is often times hard to find the clothing items from last year, especially shoes and in this season shoes rapidly disappear. Here is Effie’s solution.

Sure sign of spring–bird nests

It is always interesting how nature intersects with our human constructions. I remember seeing pigeon nests as a child tucked away in I beams in the skyway in downtown St. Paul. More recently hawk’s nests on electrical poles along the highway. But this year we have our own story.

The children have been anxiously waiting for the snow to melt, then there were the cars and tractors in the way, finally this weekend the hoop was clear but we noticed something interesting.

We had noticed a bird flying back and forth. I knew what it was but honestly had never seen a nest before. We are trying very hard to hold back our curiosity and not disturb them too much but we had to take just a quick peek. The children we completely amazed and I was too. I have never seen a bird nest up close and personal and in use. So we have all agreed that there will be no basketball until those little babies move all and we are anxiously watching (from a distance most of the time) the progress they make. So many lessons,

How do birds make nests? We recognize much of the building material.

How long for baby birds to hatch and Mature? Still working on that

Also learning how to observe but not disturb and how to be considerate of even the smallest creatures. On a side note with all this rain we are learning a lot about worm saving. Yes bird saving and worm saving don’t really go together but that can be a lesson for another day.

A Tractor named Bessie

Anyone who knows me would have to agree I am a bit weird; or as Proeun would say, “crazy in a good way.” But when I found out that this little beauty was going to arrive on our farm today the thought came to me, “her name is Bessie.” I informed the family and while they already know I am a bit crazy they also know the name fits. But let me back up a bit.

This winter I took a Farm Financial Analysis class. I learned all sorts of great things, one thing the course talked about was, “new paint syndrome.” This is a syndrome Proeun and I do not have. We in the past have been all about doing things low-tech, often by hand and we also wanted to be able to pay cash for items used on the farm so we wouldn’t fall into a trap of debt.

However running 40 acres without a reliable tractor is a bit difficult to say the least. You must either hire out some of the labor like tilling or seeding for cover crops, (which is expensive and you are working with someone else’s schedule which is often not the best) or use time consuming hand tools that just don’t hold up that well under all the pressure.

As we prepare for organic certification we discovered other issues, like tractors that have been used in conventional fields must be thoroughly washed before they are used in organic fields. This may be difficult for anyone we would hire to work our fields.

So we talked about it and discussed ALOT and really did a lot of soul searching whether a big purchase like this would be good for the overall farm and we decided that it would. It would allow us to mechanize more of our farm, and therefore free up time for things like crop and soil improvement as well as just quality of life stuff. We are totally an outdoor family, but during the summer have little time to enjoy it. We live just miles from Proeun’s all time favorite fishing spot and we have been there 3 times since moving in. So we are really excited about Bessie. She means a lot to us, she is more then just a tractor.

We have a special thanks to Agstar for believing in us and making it possible for us to get Bessie. Our loan officer normally works with much bigger loans, like in the $12M range (talk about new paint) but told us he much prefers to do loans like ours, “because they make a huge difference to family’s and really change their life.” Thank-you for changing our life. And thank-you to all our CSA members past present and future who support our farm. We still have some shares available this year.

Sustainability on the Farm

I had a different post planned for today. I was going to talk about how wonderful the sun feels and how all of us are just soaking it up. I was going to describe playing outside as a family and the anticipation of spring. I was going to tell you how the children have been singing about spring and summer for 3 days now and how glad I am that it looks like this winter will be different from the last (when we had significant snow fall on May 2!).

But I opened my inbox and was floored. Before I begin I have to say that this is not a political blog. I strive to stay in the positive, but sometimes I must speak. I belong to several yahoo groups that are devoted to local, nutrient dense foods. On one of them I read this

“I will also say that when it comes to our community supporting the Local Raw Milk Producers I think it would behoove as many of us here to throw some financial support to the Cindy & Gary H____ family, the Maiden Rock goat dairy. . . They have been clobbered with a back-breaking loss of their nanny goats due to being unable to feed and support them as well as they needed to be nourished. Nor could they afford medical care for their goats when they started dying of illness. By offering milk, yogurt and cheese to our community at a price below sustainability (all of it with 100% good-intentioned effort, of course) they are broke, and broken-hearted. There is no way they can continue their wonderful dairy unless something happens to intervene. They have supported “our community” with amazingly wholesome and delicious milk and cheeses for many years, and they have worked day and night to produce nutrient-dense food for us, now it would be a Godsend if our community could return the favor. I am donating my professional time and medicines to help, and help is in place now, but they still need money to rebuild their herd back up. In the past few weeks, they have lost 22 of their 30 milking nanny goats. This is the kind of farm family we so desperately need. Please help. Perhaps you would be able to buy them a female goat! emphasis mine.

Last fall I heard about another farmer that had worked for years to bring a specialty meat product to the market. It was amazing, but he could not sell it for a sustainable price and he had to sell off his herd and lost his farm to foreclosure. He is now living in an apartment.

Before you think I am so good at spending locally I have to admit that recently I purchased a bunch of cloth diapers on line. Someone had recommended a particular brand to me and the price was well below what I had been seeing. So I purchased enough for a good rotation. (I did purchase from a family owned boutique) but when I got the diapers I saw that they were made in China. While I feel good about supporting the family boutique I would have preferred a product that was more local but honestly I opted for price.

So I get it, times are tough, but it is so so discouraging to hear stories like the 2 above. They are not unique. My sister is also self employed and we were talking about how different it is from employment. One of the really negative things is you often feel like a beggar. But the fact of the matter is that our dollars all support something, and we need to think about what we want to support.

I was watching the film Bitter Seeds about how farmers in India are losing the ability to chose what seeds they grow and I was so thankful for the many choices we have in this country. But I am reminded without the support of the community buying all those seeds those companies would not stay in business. Yes if we want to have choices we need to support the companies and families that bring us those options. Please support local agriculture and businesses.

Home School Farm

Learning to be Holistically Sustainable