The Magical Deep Red Vegetable Called A Beet

Growing up I always liked the tangy taste of Grandma Farmer's Pickled Beets she had in canning jars. She'd serve them in a pretty glass serving dish on Sundays. They'd sit there in their deep red, almost purple juice and beg me to have more. I'd carefully slip one onto the spoon and try to get it to my plate without it dripping on the white tablecloth. Usually there'd be a nice bright red spot left behind. But that amazing bite and tingly sensation on my tongue after eating one was so worth it! MMMMM!!!
Well, this year I wanted to grow some of these magical deep red beauties and try to make some of my own pickled beets. My oldest daughter and I would keep picking every now and then to see if they were big enough. I had no idea how tall to let them get before diving in. We had a lot of false starts, but when we got back from vacation in July, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that they were ready!
Check out the size of that beet! It's like a baseball! We didn't just have one like that, we had several giant beauties!
Pulling beets is so exciting! We were taking turns harvesting. It was so much fun and so satisfying! It was like getting a present every time you pulled them from hiding in the dirt!
I wish I had weighed them because it wasn't a light load! I have no idea how many pounds it was.
Here they are after trimming all the gorgeous leaves away. Next time we'll save some of the leaves to eat too, but now all the real work begins!
Washing and scrubbing beets is quite the task! Loads of dirt to get off! My sink didn't stay that clear! It was pretty pink and murky by the time we were through scrubbing!
After scrubbing, we boiled them and then dunked them in ice water to get the skins off. Then I slipped their skins off and cut them up. This was really fun and messy!
This is the amazing sauce that makes them all pickled! I used Apple Cider Vinegar instead of regular vinegar. I think it'll be real nice tasting!
After all that, we ended up with 4 pints of pickled beets! While that doesn't seem like a lot, it'll last a while! I might have to plant some more for the fall harvest! I love pickled beets!

April

Veggie Markers

I wanted to include the kids with the garden as much as possible this year and I had a fantastic project in mind. I thought it would be fun to paint our own vegetable markers for the garden. My son helped paint the solid colors on the pieces of wood and my youngest daughter hung in there for quite a while painting veggies and then playing and then coming back for more painting.

My oldest daughter lasted the longest. She loves being creative. She even painted pictures on the newspaper when we were through with the signs. It was a lot of fun and great to see their representations of different vegetables. I know I had fun painting too!

April

Garlic Scapes

It's garlic scape time in the finger lakes, which means the first real produce of summer is not far behind! It has been raining all week, which is always good for the plants, but despite all the green growth, it's been a little glum. But things like fresh spring kale and the garlic scapes keep our spirits high and looking forward to the upcoming harvests. I can see the blackberries around the corner, and the strawberries are out in full force. I got a big ol' bunch of scapes from one of our sister CSA farms, and I made a really nice pesto out of them. My ol buddy Matt back in Brooklyn gave me that idea last summer when he had surplus scapes from the farm stand he works for. For those of you who don't know where scapes come from or what they are, they are the little shoots that come out of garlic plants when the plants are almost at maturity. The shoots grow out from the middle of the plant into a curly green, tasty treat. When you harvest these little delicasies, it sends more energy into the roots to plump up those garlic cloves, so it's good for your garlic harvest too! You can cook them up with some kale or collards, or eat them raw in a salad or pesto. Here's the rough recipe for my pesto:

- A double handful of scapes (a big ol' bunch)
- 3/4 - 1 cup olive oil
- 1/2 - 3/4 cup parmesean cheese (or asiago, or any other dry stinky, salty cheese)
- 1 cup nuts (pine nuts, almonds, walnuts, cashews, or whatever nuts you have around. Probably not peanuts though)
- And a little salt to your taste

Mine turned out to be really tangy and spicy, but I bet it'll be good on a pizza, or in pasta.
Adam

Punkin' Patch

This morning we saw the sunshine right away and it was obvious we were in for a grand day of working in the garden! My son went to work with daddy today and so my youngest was following me around telling me how dreadfully bored she was. I promptly seized the moment and told her it was going to be pumpkin planting day and she could help! This immediately stopped her in her tracks and she went in search of the seeds.

She declared that she wanted to hold all the seeds we were planting in her pink Hello Kitty purse and be in charge of them. We were planting pumpkins, sun flowers and marigolds, so she had a fist full! No problem! But first, we must dig a trench! Her head hung with frustration and I told her not to worry, we'll work together and get 'r done!

I beckoned my 10 year old to come help me dig and we had our first true lesson on how to handle a shovel. She thought it was great fun for the first couple, then it became a chore 'cause...well it was one! You see, we were digging a trench right along our chain-link fence in the grass (gasp!). It was actually quite fun! We would dig, flip and chop. This was to turn over the grass and weeds and then to work the soil for planting purposes!

During this amazingly long process of dig, flip, chop, we were discovering all sorts of great things. I found a sleepy moth that I held on my finger for a while and the girls tried to hold it as well, but alas it broke free and flew away. My youngest was finding worms and having a wonderful time playing with them. She was also concerned that we may be killing the worms with our shovel during the "chop" part.

After we were not quite half way through, my little punkin' had waited long enough and was ready to release the seeds from her Hello Kitty purse. I showed her how to place them in the soil, to pat it down and to space them a little ways apart. We were going to alternate between pumpkins, sunflowers and marigolds. She watched ever so carefully and declared that she was ready to do this task.

I continued to dig the trench and she happily planted away in a wonderful fashion of "freestyle" planting. She said it was kinda crazy, but it'll work. Indeed! I have no idea where the pumpkins start or stop and if there will be a menagerie of sunflowers and marigolds bunched up together in one corner or if there will be 20 pumpkin vines fighting for space in a 3 foot section. Needless to say, we will have fun when they pop out of the ground!

She planted with fervor till about half way along the fence and then announced that she was done now. She told me that I was in charge of the rest of the seeds (not much was left!) and she picked up her pink Hello Kitty purse and skipped off into the front yard.

I had to laugh at the cuteness factor. The goal was to plant pumpkins along my oh so beautiful, yet sturdy chain-link fence and have the pumpkins trellis and look lovely with a splash of sunflowers towering over and keeping guard and some marigolds holding the line secure. What we ended up with is a treasure for always, a PUNKIN' PATCH that is as delightful as my 6 year old.

April

THE SCOURGE OF THE FINGER LAKES

It's been a week, and we haven't caught that little bugger. We mowed the grass, and that helped, but not for very long. Then, about 7 little chickens somehow found themselves caught in the fence and either died from the shock of the electric fence, or before they could struggle free had their heads popped off and their blood sucked. So, to sum it up, 7 more dead baby chickens and ONE serial killer weasel at large. Then, today as I was chisel plowing on a field a good 300 feet from the chicken house, I came across a pile of austerlorp feathers lying on the bare ground, which means there's an accomplice! Enter Mr. (or Mrs.) Hawk.
This is at least the third bird that the hawk has swiped and feasted upon. It's a little harder to tell when a hawk nabs a bird, as there is no decapitated body lying around after the deed is done. If you're lucky you'll find a pile of feathers or a half gutted corpse. It really sounds like a horror movie when I describe to people what's happening to our flock. We set some weasel traps today with some bloody meat as the bait, and I began a search for a guard dog, so we can at least feel like we have some power over this situation. Maybe Underdog will show up to save the day or my ol' pal Foghorn Leghorn. I heard that donkeys make excellent livestock guards.

Adam

BEWARE of the Weasel

It is only AFTER you get chickens, that you find out you've been living with a weasel! We've lost almost 10 teenage Austerlorp chickens on the farm to a weasel in the last few days. We've never seen it, nor do we really know what we're looking for. Now, when I first thought about a weasel interacting with chickens, I was thinking of a little ferret type animal with innocent little eyes and a pleasant demeanor.
But then I remembered that Looney Tunes cartoon with Foghorn Leghorn and the weasel, and I realized that weasels are maybe a little more aggressive than you might think. But aggressive enough to take 10 chickens in a few days?
It still wasn't adding up in my head, because weasels are so small. I'm fairly certain they are of equal if not a slightly smaller size than our little chickens. The curious detail about our dead chickens was that they were murdered at night AND during the day, and weasels are supposed to be nocturnal. The other curious detail was that the bodies were not being dragged away and devoured, but left out in the open... without their heads. So they must be vicious, snarling little beasts!
Then a gnarly old concrete dude, that was working on our new barn floor, told us that weasels love fresh blood. In fact, they love it so much that they pop the chickens heads off and suck the chickens dry. So... these are not just cute little aggressive beasts, but blood sucking, vampires!
This was a truly disgusting image to have of our cute little austerlorps, between the jaws of that beady eyed blood sucker. While all of this weasel education was coming about, we were trying to figure out how to stop the madness and move on in all of our chicken endeavors. Do we get a dog? Do we mow the grass and wait in a rocking chair with a 22 rifle? Do we put the chickens in the barn and wait until the roosters are big enough to fight the weasel off? Well, we decided to mow the grass, set traps, AND wait with a 22. We shall see how long this evil will remain. Until then, keep your children inside, lock the doors, and get a good nights rest.... if you can...

Adam

Michael Pollan - In Defense of Food

Michael Pollan speaks about food in Minnesota based on his book, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto. I found this very interesting and think it may be my next read!

It's about an hour long, but highly interesting! This will take you to MPR (Minnesota Public Radio).

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

Enjoy!

April