July Harvest and Preserving

Although I post to our Daily Harvest and Preserving pages almost daily, readers of this blog might not get a glimpse of what we grow and raise around here plus what we try to put away for later seasons. So my thought is to share from those links monthly in a separate post. Just looking back on what we had access to is sometimes quite surprising. Another reason to be thankful for the property we have and the ability to produce healthy foods for our family.

July's Produce

free-range eggs
twice-a-day goat milkings - ricotta, chevre, feta
snap and snow peas
strawberries
Russian and Nero kale
Swiss chard
endive
radicchio
radishes
green onions
Romaine lettuce
spinach
mache
arugula
snow and snap peas
winter mesclun mix
red onion thinnings
a tiny amount of basil prunings
fresh hardy herbs - chives, thyme, oregano

July's Preserving

7/1/10 - 14 oz. Romano goat cheese
7/2/10 - 14 oz. Parmesan goat cheese
7/8/10 - 10 oz. Italian seasoned ricotta salata
7/11/10 - 14 oz. Romano goat cheese
7/15/10 - 10 oz. plain ricotta salata
7/17/10 - 16 oz. Romano goat cheese (might not make it though)
7/19/10 - 18 oz. farmhouse goat cheddar
7/29/10 - 14 oz. Romano goat cheese

7/15/10 - 24 pounds blueberries u-picked from Redland Blueberries
(blueberry tart; 6 gallon bags frozen)
7/30/10 - 15 pounds blueberries u-picked from Redland Blueberries
(lost track of how many berries were frozen; lots though)

7/19/10 - 2 pint bags frozen Marionberries
7/23/10 - 2 pint bags frozen Marionberries
7/26/10 - 1 pint bag frozen Marionberries
7/29/10 - 2 pint bags frozen Marionberries
7/31/10 - 2 pint bags frozen Marionberries

7/28/10 - 12 oz. lime basil white wine vinegar
7/31/10 - 12 oz. thyme red wine vinegar

So as you can see this year has been a pretty productive gardening year for us. Plenty of material to work with and to be creative with in the kitchen.

Morning Chores

If you have pets at home, you have a few extra daily jobs to do. If you raise livestock, then you start calling that extra work chores. If your daughters raise the livestock, then you don't worry about the extra chores because your daughters take care of them.

HOWEVER...when those daughters are gone to camp or unavailable, those animals still need cared for. And guess who gets to step in? Yep, me.

So here's a taste of this morning's chores:

Scooped up daily allotment of food for both puppies; fed half this morning. Filled water dish.



Headed down to let out chickens.

Fed both horses and the donkey their hay.



Brought down one doe to get milked. After finishing her and while she was still on the milk stand, took hay to the buck pen. Returned Vega to the goat yard.  Let out Kari.



 Milked that doe. While she was still occupied with her grain, took grain out to the baby goat kid pen. Took Kari back to her yard. Let out Wroxy.



Milked her and took hay to the milking does and filled their waters while she was still on the stand.  Filled chicken water pans. Returned Wroxy.

Threw out a scoop of feed to the chickens. Set out pan of goat milk for them to eat/drink.



Maneuvered two pails of milk and a hay carrier stuffed with hay up to the backyard where hay was delivered to goat kid pen. Filled water buckets for goat kids.

And I was done.  Actually, it's not hard word. It's just that the efficiency expert in me tries to get it done in the least amount of time possible. I think I do a pretty good job actually.  The horse and buck pens waters will get filled by the 20yo when I have her clean the stalls later today. At least I got out of that job!

So by now you're either feeling a little jealous because you've always wanted a hobby farm type of life, or you're laughing because these aren't real livestock chores as those dedicated farmers we owe our food to go through every day, or you're perfectly content to just read about the foolishness others get to go through.




Either way if occasional chores get thrown my way, then there are no complaints. I relish the life we life out here, the quiet and peace, the outdoors all around us, and a little work just comes with the territory.

Do You Like Radishes?

Well, do you like radishes? Some people don't. They're spicy...too hot...tough...just don't care for them. Nice garnish, but nothing to really consider eating. I never was much of a store-bought radish person either. But home-grown radishes are really tasty. We have been growing Cherry Belle for the last few years, and then added Scarlet White Tip this year. These are good!

Radishes need to grow quickly enough to avoid being invaded by root maggots or becoming hot and tough, so they need plenty of cool, moist soil. They are a  perfect vegetable for growing in the spring or late fall. The fact that they mature in 30-something days makes for a rewarding effort in the garden when there isn't much of anything else growing. OrganicGardening gives some great tips on growing radishes too.

But what to do with these guys other than putting into a salad? Here's what I do. It's not much of a recipe; pretty much more of a procedure:

Toast a somewhat thick slice of peasant/rustic bread.
Butter it. (THIS is the key ingredient. Don't skip this step.)
Layer thinly sliced radishes over the entire slice.
Sprinkle with kosher salt. (Table salt would work but would not taste quite the same.)

Enjoy, and then find yourself making another helping.

It's the first part of June here, and the radishes are still growing strong. So I've kept up my succession planting. We've had an extremely damp, cool spring which has probably helped. I know that once our temperatures start climbing, the radishes will just be a memory until fall.

2010 Goat Kids

HM Kari's 2010 triplets

For other links about Kari, click here.

Weaning Goat Kids

The sun is out today, and there is promise of no rain for a few days, so it's goat kid weaning day. Our first six kids of the year to be born are a little overdue to be separated from their mothers. We usually wean right around three months of age. But since we have been having torrential downpours and experience tells us that the kids will stand outside and holler, waiting until the weather moderates is in their best interest. The two does whom we will begin to start milking ourselves are experienced mothers and don't seem the least bit worried that their kids are starting to holler just on the other side of the fence. They look just a little bit secretively relieved to be off mother duty at three kids a piece. The kids about now though are pretty convinced that day-camp is over, and it is time to go back to mom. I do believe it is going to be a pretty noisy night outside later on.