2009 June | Seed Simple

winter greens, already?

June 25, 2009 By Lynea Newcomer Leave a Comment

Indeed. Apparently not enough neighbors want to help me eat all the chard bursting forth around here. In sucked the Food Saver, and then open went the chest freezer. Waste not, want not, right? Chard, like spinach, works well when defrosted during the non-productive months, and implemented in dishes calling for cooked greens. All those good vitamins stick around for the most part, and voila! No more kale from California to green up my middle of January omlettes (if the hens are laying, that is).

Michael and I splurged on a new contraption for vacuum-sealing; our old one entered a finicky state not unlike that of a donkey who refuses to move, but due to its age, the company no longer carried replacement parts. Herein lies the quandary – machines that out-date themselves, as well as add to the cost of homegrown food with the plastic packaging required for all storage. Not sure how I feel about this. We’ll bust out the Mason Jars come fruit juice canning time, etc., but I don’t yet have a sufficient root cellar. Time, money? Which is it folks?

And at right, a shot of some flax that sprouted from un-eaten flax seed left sprayed about by the chickens. Don’t think I’m up to weaving this into anything this fall yet, but I’ve heard that Landis Valley Museum displays the equipment historically used to do just that.

Filed Under Featured, Resources Tagged With chard, flax, food saver, food storage, Landis Valley Museum, Mason Jar, winter greens

up a Mulberry

June 25, 2009 By Lynea Newcomer 1 Comment

Sweetest end to a run with the dogs yesterday – happened upon a Mulberry tree ( a red Mulberry, I believe), of significant age. Standing at least 40 feet tall, my neck craned and arms stretched to reach into the tree’s delectable, dainty black fruits; they showered me gently, albeit leaving a red smudge or two, as I pulled the branches closer. Enjoyed only for the moment of picking and popping into mouth . . . of course I brainstormed bringing a tarp back next year in order to catch thoughtfully shaken boughs. But for now, I’ll behave like Sal and eat right on through.

Mulberries can be made into jams, pies, smoothies, etc. But you’ll need to do so within a day, maybe two. They are prone to go bad very quickly, and thus are not sold much commercially in their virgin fruit state. The wood of the tree is incredibly hard, some maintain it could be better than a locust post if used for fencing. What do I know? This is a fruit tree worth mapping in your head, and returning to during its proven fruit season – before the birds and squirrels!

Filed Under Cricket Chirps, Featured Tagged With foraging, fruit, mulberry, wild crafting

spice, crunch, snap

June 24, 2009 By Lynea Newcomer Leave a Comment

Neighbor Erlene served me more of her wild-crafting recently - day lily buds about to open. Saute in some butter, preferably alone, no salt, for your first delicate introduction to this flavor. Plus, photos from yesterday’s harvesting. First Zuke! of many??

love the purple snap peas growing above the nasturtium!

Filed Under Cricket Chirps, Featured Tagged With day lilly buds, June harvest, recipe

gone hoof dunking

June 24, 2009 By Lynea Newcomer Leave a Comment

Kneeling for daily clover prayer struck me as rather odd, but I still delayed several days before sweeping Chop #37 over into my lap to take a look at his hooves. Sure enough, the abundant rainy days and resultant wet field conditions have contributed to the development of some hoof rot; the two bacteria required to bring this about got plenty busy, now requiring me to step up my care level.

Admittedly a bit of a self diagnosis, my nightly reading of The Veterinary Book for Sheep Farmers, by David Henderson, helped confirm the diagnosis. As did a quick trip to a local vet, and with that money out of my pocket, I immediately checked the other lambs’ hooves and moved into control tactics. Unfortunately I don’t have the means to separate the two with hoof rot signs from the other two, but what I lack in logistics I can try to assuage with intense grooming.

Thus, daily foot baths! These guys will never appreciate the love and time this takes. Most larger sheep operations will group large amounts of sheep into a foot bath area in order to soak they tootsies and get at all that bacteria. Me, Michael and some Betadine cut in half with water can do the trick around here. Neighbor Steve further helped the cause, perhaps with visions of lambchops sitting atop his dinner plate, by demonstrating much better hoof trimming. My first attempts were apparently too cautious. Steve showed me how to see the ‘baby’ hoof and the mature hoof growing down to replace it, as well as interpret how to shape the whole thing so as to not encourage poor hoof growth patterns and odd balance stuff for the sheep.

After 5 days of this routine, and a break in the 9-day rain stint, I note a marked improvement – decreasing amounts of sore pad areas, and much less of the odd smell associated with this stuff.

Filed Under Featured, Resources Tagged With foot baths, hoof rot, hoof trimming, sheep, veterinary book for sheep farmers

Steel yourself

June 16, 2009 By Lynea Newcomer 1 Comment

I can’t keep my eyes off a set of brawny arms tossing hot foodstuffs about at those sit-and-watch counters in restaurants. So sure a shake, rough clattering notwithstanding, and the pans turn out perfectly browned item after perfectly reduced sauce. I wanted the arms and the delectables. Fante’s Kitchen Wares Shop in the Philly Italian Market finally provided the pan.

Out with the silly non-stick junk and in with the de Buyer steel fry pan. I’ve used it almost exclusively since first hoisting it home. Granted, I chose one a bit big for my current arm strength; I’d recommend an eight-inch version instead of my 12-inch. Nonetheless, I’m hooked. Here are some tips for using such a pan. With no worries about toxic stuff rubbing off into my food and guaranteed great cooking chemistry, this is a kitchen mainstay.

Season your new steel pan first: The process of seasoning fills the porous cooking surface with carbonized oil. The seasoning forms a protective barrier against oxidation (which would otherwise cause pitting and/or rust), and it helps to keep food from sticking to the surface. Read more here for how to do this, as well as clean your pan. I tried the french fry method and have found it suitable. I always wipe out the hot pan following cooking with a towel following use. Being warm, it will dry quickly. I never ‘wash’ it in the traditional sense.

To cook in my steel pan, I heat it at a high heat until I see it smoking. Generally, a couple minutes over a high heat will get the pan to the ideal setting. Recent dishes have included omelettes, mango curry, sauteed beet greens, broiled steak, hot pepper reduction sauce, pancakes, scrapple, etc.

Filed Under Featured, Resources Tagged With de Buyer, Fante's Kitchen Wares Shop, pan seasoning, Philadelphia Italian Market, steel fry pan

Lamb lounge and grill

June 16, 2009 By Lynea Newcomer Leave a Comment

My it’s a wet summer so far! Rains let up enough last week for me to hoof it down the hill to the neighbors for some plant swapping. Spotted a bit of metal roofing awaiting recognition off the back side of a building, and promptly asked if I could have it; debris accumulation led me to such boldness – it looked unwanted. Erelene said sure, and back up the hill I went with rhubarb, bulbs and roofing.

The scavenging wasn’t a day to soon. Michael emerged from his bought with a flu, prompted I believe by the urgency of providing shelter for our lambs. And so was constructed the Lamb Lounge and Grill. Unfortunately I didn’t follow him into the shop for step-by-step photos, but in this photo you’ll note that all sorts of wood was used. Again, scavenging produced the miscellany from our random wood pile with which to build. It is four feet wide and five feet long, braced across the bottom, across the back, and also the front. The bottom consists of a square frame, and I am able to slide this to new pasture each time I rotate the sheep fencing.

Put together in a day, this lightweight shelter is sturdy enough to withstand the wind. My dream-mobile, of course, is a chicken tractor converted to shelter the sheep off one side . . . but I think I’ll focus on veggie growing for this year. Carpentry as winter project?

Filed Under Featured, Projects Tagged With building materials recycling, sheep shelter

ring around the paddock

June 8, 2009 By Lynea Newcomer Leave a Comment

“His ears are kinda droopy, and he stands away from the group, even sits down more often, . . . ” I recounted to Martha Pisano of Highland Farm last week. Being a newcomer to sheep shepherding, physical signs are somewhat mysterious. But knowing the woman who sold the lambies to me is an incredible card to hold in one’s back pocket, especially if she is as willing as Martha to coddle me through nervous uncertainty.

“Why don’t you just bring him back here so we can all take a look?” she assessed. My sigh of relief swept Lamb #26 directly into a fleece blanket (ha), onto Michael’s lap and back into our livestock transport vehicle of choice, the Prius. Once in Martha’s kitchen, Chop 26 set about dirtying her floor with various bowel movements. Husband Jerry gathered some up to swirl with distilled water before setting a drop underneath a microscope. We all zoomed in on what appeared to be worm eggs . . .

Parasites are likely to accompany livestock. And after a round of de-worming it becomes necessary to move the critters away from the area of their defecation, so as not to mire them in their own problems. I syringed them some de-wormer a day or so ago, and accounting for the 72 hours or so that such stuff takes to pass through the system, today I moved the electric fencing. In a relatively quick 20 minutes, the lamb chops were relocated to a new part of the field; next I’ll move them daily, pivoting around the solar charger and grounding rod. Moving just the fence takes me five minutes.

Long term plans include building (finding?) a chicken tractor to follow the lambs. Putting the chickens on the land portion dis-occupied by the lambs give the birds a chance to eat all the bugs, thus reducing the parasite load on the field. A much better option in my mind than ‘killing’ the field with chemicals.

Filed Under Featured, Resources Tagged With chicken tractor, de-worming, electric fence, Highland Farm, lambs, parasites, rotational grazing

invisible adversaries

June 8, 2009 By Lynea Newcomer 8 Comments

Plant identification of unfavorable specimens is not a strong suit for me. Show me your perennials, your vegetables, even your trees, and I’ll call forth the appropriate herald. But apparently I can’t see poison ivy when standing in the midst of it. After a month of battling the most atrocious leg and arm-wracking itches, I appear to be on the mend. However, a spider had its way with my right arm last night. A good chomper that one. Raised welts the size of quarters now dot my poor appendage. (Old standby Calamine lotion significantly helped reduce itching, after bathing the spots with soap and drying. That and an impressive amount of self-control.)

I’ll admit to more than just poor attention skills whilst in the field; eager for sun rays to kiss my skin, I’d entered into field and wood these last weeks with nothing but tanktop and shorts. This is a not acceptable, and thank you, yes, I appreciate the lesson. Can it end now?

More photos here of what’s happening. I’ve stacked the now dry hay in a barn stall, with a pallet underneath to provide some air down there. I plan to return in a month’s time (perhaps less?) and flip it over on itself. Snow peas are dropping rapidly from their little blossoms, and strawberries reddening. Last weeks’ rain made for not-so-sweet picks at local nurseries with more progressed berries than mine.

Filed Under Cricket Chirps, Featured Tagged With hay stack, making hay, poison ivy, strawberries, sweet peas

Not your New York slice

June 4, 2009 By Lynea Newcomer 1 Comment

What’s quick and easy for tonight’s dinner? The question on many a mind come five o’clock. Good eating from quality ingredients around the house can happen quickly once you get well-stocked and practice a couple of times. Barbara Kingolver’s family of four turns to pizza for their ready-to-go meal once a week; reading her Animal, Vegetable, Miracle gave me the inspiration to master several such fast home-made dishes myself. If someone with kids can manage pizza from scratch, I suppose I don’t have any excuses.

A couple of tips for pizza – canned goodies from your last-year garden are the basic elements for making this work year-round. Tomatoes, pesto, veggies, etc. Keep cheese on hand (or read Kingsolver’s mozzarella making adventures for tips on making your own), and grab oddities from your cabinets of purchased things to add flair – anchovies, soppresotta, capers, fruit???

Here is a recipe for Deep Dish Pizza, found whilst my sister and I dug through our deceased mother’s recipe files. A bit out of practice with menu planning, sister Anne and I totally got in the mood due to the nostalgic memories of childhood flooding our mouths at the sight of recipes that defined out youth together. This reminds me of the freshest focaccia, with more goodies on top.

You’ll need : 1 cup warm water, 2 tsp yeast, 2 Tbs sugar (I used honey), 1 Tbs oil, 1 tsp salt, 2 cups whole wheat flour, tomato sauce, veggies (such as mushrooms, peppers, chopped chard, you name it), chopped onion, 2 cups grated mozzarella, 1/2 cup other grated cheese, cooked meat if desired.

Dissolve yeast in water, add sugar, salt and oil. Work in flour, Let rest five minutes. Grease a round cake pan, spread dough in pan with your fingers. Build it up the sides of the pan as best you can. Spread sauce and veggies over dough. Top with onions, cheeses and meat. Bake at 300 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 to 45 minutes, or until crust is done. Serve with a spring salad!

Filed Under Featured, Seasonal Recipes Tagged With Animal Vegetable Miracle, chard, deep dish pizza, quick dinner, recipe

Eatin’ leaves

June 1, 2009 By Lynea Newcomer Leave a Comment

Hello June! I’m munching nightly like my lambs on delicious salads. Planting new batches of greens varieties every week, about a 2 ft. by 2 ft. area, keeps the two of us in good contact with crisp leafy nutrients. Check out this Vegetarian Kitchen web page for all the data on greens benefits.

I love a crunchy butter variety, with some sprigs of spicy arugula, and some colorful romaine, all topped with shredded radish, carrot and beet. Toasted pumpkin seeds add a finishing touch. For dressing, I’m all about apple cider vinegar, olive oil, a spoonful of spicy mustard, salt and pepper. Shake it and eat up!

Filed Under Featured, Seasonal Recipes Tagged With arugula, salad, salad dressing, vegetarian