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On learning to cheese

Lauren — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 18:12:59 +0000

(Yeah, “cheese” is a verb now; why do you ask?)

In late November, I made my first goat cheddar.

It looked awesome, but it had several mishaps. First, the dog got into it while it was sitting curing on the counter (in a place where I didn’t think he could reach it, obviously). I washed and trimmed it and then left it so the bits I had trimmed could continue to cure and get the crust called for in the recipe. Then it got a moldy bit, and so I trimmed that, and waited; then there was another moldy bit — repeat, etc. Eventually it had been over two weeks, and I took it down in preparation for waxing it, and faintly saw a vein of mold running just under the skin. Trying to trim it away would have meant losing most of the cheese. That, plus the prevalence of the mold in general, and the fact that by now it had been air-drying for too long, probably, and had lost too much internal moisture, meant that the whole cheese was pretty much not in great shape.

So we hucked that one, and started a new one!

I started this cheddar on Dec. 4. It also had some mold issues, so I ended up trimming it completely just before waxing. This may have been a huge mistake; we’ll find out in two months.

Turkeys at Broadway Farmers Market

Lauren — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 02:03:37 +0000

Just heard via the the Seattle Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance that although most farms have pre-sold turkeys, Palouse Pastured Poultry will have unclaimed organic turkey this week at the Broadway Market, Sunday 11am to 3pm, at Broadway and Pine in the Seattle Central Community College space. You will want to get there EARLY if you are still looking for a local organic turkey.

Little pigs are growing bigger!

Lauren — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 05:01:29 +0000

They are super happy on pasture, preferring that to the storebought organic grain — though more than that they like to eat the treats we bring them, which, since it’s canning/jamming/preserving season, includes a lot of tomato tops, bruised bits of peaches and too-squishy berries, wilted celery leaves, carrot and squash tops and ends, etc. They also really like to have the combined scrapings of everyone’s plates when we go out to dinner. They get pretty much everything as long as it’s not pork.

And they are GROWING! Currently you can mostly tell because they are larger in comparison to their ears.

Rollin’ in a Massey

Lauren — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 07:23:40 +0000

I know it’s an ad, but it’s pretty great.

Watch for the owl — the owl is the star.

Also I’m jealous of her wax coat.

Ruby says “HOW MUCH garlic do you have to peel tonight?”

Lauren — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 05:02:02 +0000

Ruby says "HOW MUCH garlic do you have to peel tonight?", originally uploaded by laurenipsum.

Half of a gallon crock, that’s how much.

I harvested the hardneck garlic, and there were a lot of heads that were too small, or that I accidentally stabbed, or that otherwise seemed like they wouldn’t keep very long, so I took them all apart so we could peel them then chop them up in the FoPro and freeze the resulting mush flat in a ziploc, to be used throughout the winter.

Lunch feast!

Lauren — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 02:10:05 +0000

Lunch feast!, originally uploaded by laurenipsum.

We went to the Chimacum Farmers’ Market and we made a delicious feast! French Breakfast radishes and carrots from Red Dog Farm. Tomato and apple from the farm whose name I can’t remember. Iced breves from the coffee truck. Croissants from Pane d’Amore. Golden Glen cheddar from Skagit and Spanish-style sausage made in Portland and soda made in Silverdale all from the awesome Chimacum Corner Farmstand.

One of this year’s successes!

Lauren — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 06:28:05 +0000

Today I learned about how to clean my luffa fruits. This the second year I grew luffas, and this time I tried them in the greenhouse, which was much more successful. They want a lot of heat for many days. I had two plants; one set fruit, then started to die; the other set fruit later but did not die, and is the one from which I harvested two gourds. I left them on the vine as long as possible, which in this case meant until after Snowpocalpyse 2010. I picked them off the vine the other day and they sat on the counter until I went on a cleaning rampage today, and took the opportunity to learn how to clean them.

They weren’t as mature as would be ideal — I think in the best case, you can leave it happily on the vine until it dries completely. In that case, you would soak it until you can peel the skin. In my case, the skin was still quite wet and fleshy, and it peeled off easily. Unfortunately the trade-off to that is that there are still bits of squashflesh sticking to the fibers, and I don’t know how to get them off.

I also got a ton of seeds to save. Not sure how many will be viable, again because the fruits weren’t fully mature, but they are $4.35 for like seven seeds from Territorial, so I’ll just plant a bunch and take what I can get.

I have no before pictures, unfortunately, because the new camera (yay!!) didn’t arrive until after I’d started taking them apart. See the Territorial link for to see what the fruits look like when whole.

Luffa, with hand for scale. They are 10″ and 7″ long, or so.

Tilth Producers conference, Day 1

Lauren — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 06:15:27 +0000

Today we were at Fort Worden State Park, which is the venue this year for the Tilth Producers Conference, a small/organic/sustainable farm conference we’ve been attending for 4 years now. The park is cool, with a bunch of historic military buildings. The people who are staying over for the conference are staying in (renovated) barracks and officers’ quarters houses, which look kind of awesome.

I have gotten lots of various facts and nuggets of things from conference sessions, including:

Bees like buckwheat
Buckwheat is toxic to someone’s livestock? They became photosensitive apparently
I really should be paying more attention to cover cropping
The idea that the word potash is derived from “pot ash,” because you make it in a pot out of ash, is not a folk etymology, but is in fact true according to the OED
I totally want to start growing grains
Apparently lots of farm people drink water from mason jars; it’s not just me
G. has a new thing for a couple different kinds of tiny little combines
Harvesting grain is hard
Where does good wheat go when it goes bad? [when it's not a good harvest, or they don't fully mature, or whatever] It goes to poultry feed, or to bourbon.

Purple soup

Lauren — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 05:34:42 +0000

We picked up some beautiful purple cauliflower this weekend at the Olympia Farmers’ Market. Puréed with some potatoes and onions from Betsey at Laughing Crow Farm, and garlic from our yard (plus Fresh Breeze cream and Tillamook cheddar), it became an awesome purple soup. We sautéed and tossed in some broccoli, too, after everything else was puréed, for some interesting texture.

The bread is homemade from the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day recipe, made from organic flour milled near Bellingham. The cream dinosaur was given to Garth, who has always wanted a cream cow AND who loves dinosaurs, by Anne.

Yet more chicken info

Lauren — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 23:43:28 +0000

I’ve been putting off posting because I wanted to write some other more interesting post first, so it’s not just “buy chickens!!” all the time … but it’s time to buy more chickens! And they are going fast, so I wanted to make sure everyone gets a chance to grab some.

You can place an order at this link: http://tinyurl.com/chickens2010-4.

On spam (not the tasty kind)

Lauren — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 16:30:34 +0000

Garth and I — cranky, internet-nerd introverts — are really, really opposed to spam. We both hate it when the act of purchasing something from someone automatically signs you up for their mailing list.

Unfortunately, I forgot to ask everyone who ordered chicken at the farmers’ market two weekends ago if they’d also like to sign up for our mailing list. I need to update the form to put a little “add me to the list” checkbox, I guess. But in the meantime, if you did not receive an email from me at about 9:45pm on August 9, you are NOT on our mailing list. If you would like to become so, please sign up here! And note that this is not the same thing as reserving a chicken! Please do that here for August 21-23 chickens.

Chickens, round 3 — Pickup August 21-23

Lauren — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 05:22:27 +0000

Email is out to our mailing list subscribers about the new batch of chickens! They will be ready starting August 21. Copy/pasting here in case you are not on the mailing list (if you are interested in chicken, you should sign up).

This batch is NOT antibiotic-free!! Scroll down for more info.

The order form is up for our next batch of chickens! Sign up here: http://tinyurl.com/chickens2010-3

These chickens will be ready on August 21. They are pastured at Day Road/Suyematsu Farm, home of Laughing Crow Farm, the Bainbridge Island Winery, and more. For now, we will take reservations for 65 birds out of a flock of approximately 75.

For your reference when ordering, we will have at least one more batch of 100 birds after this one, scheduled to be ready on about October 2. So you can expect to be able to order more in about a month, to pick up in ~7 weeks. The last batch of chickens averaged about 4.5 pounds, and we expect this batch to be about the same.

The cost will be $5 per pound total, with a $5 deposit per bird, to be paid when you reserve them, to offset initial feed costs. This deposit will be deducted from your total when you pick them up.

Most of the details are the same as last year:

We are raising a breed of chickens that is developed from French and Amish heritage breeds: “Freedom Rangers” from JM Hatchery.
The chickens are fed Certified Organic grains grown in Canada (BC and Alberta mostly), and the pasture is untreated.
The WSDA permit that applies to farms of our size requires that the end consumer (you) pick up the birds on farm within 48 hours of processing. If you can’t make it in person, you can have someone else pick them up for you.
Orders will be allocated first-come, first-served. We will take reservations for fewer chickens than we have in each batch, in case of flock loss. This batch consists of about 75 chickens, so we’ll take orders for 65 to start with, and keep a waiting list after that. Folks on the waiting list are likely to be able to get chickens.
In the unfortunate, and (we hope) unlikely case of significant flock loss, the last to sign up will be the first to have their deposits refunded and their orders canceled, and our sincere apologies — and priority ordering on the next batch.
We will also likely have “factory seconds” available for less — as a result of errors in processing, these may have broken wings or legs, or need to be skinned, or otherwise be cosmetically damaged but perfectly safe and delicious. Please let us know if you would like to be on the list for these! We may also have pet-food-only-grade chicken; let us know also if you are interested in these.

Important note! This flock received a six-day course of an antibiotic, sulfamethazine, for a suspected coccidiosis infection, with medication ending 40+ days before processing. The instructions say not to consume the critter within 10 days of medicating, so I think we are safely beyond that.
However, if you are worried or strongly opposed to antibiotics in your food, probably best to wait for the next batch in early October.

More info about our chickens and the ordering process is available here: http://www.dropstonefarms.com/about-us-faq/about-our-colored-range-chickens/

Your order will not be considered finalized until we receive a deposit from you! You can send a check for $5 per bird to:

Dropstone Farms
5454 Rose Ave NE
Bainbridge Island, WA 98110

If you prefer to pay with cash, or in person, or via trade, or some other alternative arrangement, let us know and we can work it out.

Reserve your chickens here: http://tinyurl.com/chickens2010-3

Please feel free to forward this to interested friends & family. And as always, please contact us with any questions, comments, concerns, or ideas, or just to say hi — we love to hear from you!

Lauren & Garth
Email: farmers@dropstonefarms.com
Phone: 206-855-5493

Moving the sheep

Lauren — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 18:36:54 +0000

Moving the sheep, originally uploaded by laurenipsum.

We moved the sheep & goats from our yard to the neighbor’s pasture. The sheep don’t much like walking on a lead and the shy little Soay REALLY do not like it — to the extent that it’s easier just to carry them.

This is probably not how antique stores are supposed to work.

garth — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 02:12:56 +0000

Our shiny new cultivator!

We took a day “off” this weekend (Visited farmer’s markets and farms around Chimacum. And shopped for hay.) and headed up to Port Townsend. We perused an antique store and found a perfectly functional corn planter and a brightly painted Planet Junior-type wheel hoe. We’d been eyeing these tools for years but could never justify the price for a new one. However, our valuable antique cultivator was priced at about a third the cost of a new one. A bargain!

The antique dealer, however, seemed a mite confused that we were evaluating his antique with an eye toward using it in our garden. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that his antique was, in point of fact, a thrifty and useful tool.

It wasn’t as awkward as the time Lauren had the following conversation about an antique egg scale:

“So how can it accurately weigh eggs with this sticker missing?”

“Well, you are just going to use it for decoration.”

“No, I need it to grade eggs for sale.”

“…”

Email to Lauren

garth — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 20:15:49 +0000

PEEEEEEEEEP!

This is what a baby robin looks like.

Note the more-than-superficial resemblance to a baby chicken, like one of the three that used to be able to get out of the coop.

Now, imagine that Oscar (Note to readers: Oscar is my dog) finds such a baby bird, partially feathered out, behind the coop. Imagine how concerned both you and Oscar might be that such a critter has escaped both its housing and my notice. Terrifying.

And I had no idea what species the poor bird was. Turkey? Chicken? How old? Which of the seven flocks does this critter belong to? Very stressful.

Until, of course, after much chasing through blackberries, I manage to pick up the critter. At that point, the mouth gaping behavior presented a clue that this might not be a domesticated bird. The second, and more definitive, clue was when at least two robins began tripping their shit and dive-bombing me while emitting emergency bird distress calls.

I took their point and set the chick down and wished them all the best.

Broody chicken fulfills her broody destiny

Lauren — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 17:27:42 +0000

Broody chicken fulfills her broody destiny, originally uploaded by laurenipsum.

She was determined to set but we don’t have a rooster, so we bought her some fertile eggs to sit on. They are hatching! She is so happy!

Official mailing list!

Lauren — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 04:27:02 +0000

We now have an official mailing list. Hooray!

Please sign up on the list for general farm notifications. For now, this will just be notices when we open signups for chicken (5-6 batches of 50 over the course of the summer) and turkeys (30-50 available fresh for Thanksgiving).

Feel free to forward the signup form to anyone who might be interested. You can also find it here: http://www.dropstonefarms.com/about-us-faq/subscribe-to-poultry-notificiation-list/.

[This is good]

garth — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 02:19:22 +0000

A struggling mall in Cleveland converts their food court to a giant greenhouse.

Happy Thanksgiving, and you’re welcome, Ms. Gregoire.

garth — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 22:24:33 +0000

Fortunately, she doesn't specify successful or competent farmers so we qualify.

Seasons: A Reference

garth — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 16:33:24 +0000

Fall is the season in which you can’t find a jar to put your lunch in because they are all full of canned food. Spring is the season where the empty jars overflow their drawer and spill out over the counter because you’ve eaten all of your preserves.