A few Recipes I have made from Good FARM foods

So I have learned a little bit of cooking skills while working at Quail Hollow Farm. I can now cook veggies in really yummy ways. I keep trying to tell various family members that real food is easy to make, so I decided to just blog some of the easy things I have made that are SUPER DELICIOUS! There are also some really good recipes that Laura Bledsoe has put onto http://quailhollowfarmcsa.com/ 
I'll start with Beets. 
Beet Soup (a very YUMMY Favorite...... and it's super EASY!)
I got this recipe from Sandy who got it I believe from Nourishing Traditions. I have made it a few times and every time have loved it. It is such a BEAUTIFUL soup too. Any pictures I put in are probably just from google images.
All it takes:

• 6 medium beets
• 4 tablespoons butter ]
• 1 quart filtered water
• sea salt and pepper
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped chives
• Sour cream 

This easy soup brings out the exquisite sweet flavor of beets. Peel beets, chop coarsely and sauté very gently in butter for 1/2 hour or until tender, you can saute`longer to infuse greater flavor. Add water, bring to a boil and skim. Simmer about 15 minutes. Purée soup with handheld blender (I have used a regular blender it just doesn't blend as fine, I like it a little chunkie though because of the texture.) Season to taste, ladle into bowls and serve with a dollop of sour cream or soft goats cheese works Great as well. Sprinkle with some chives to 1( add color contrast and 2(add more flavor. The chives are optional and so it the sour cream. However that is like saying walnuts are optional in brownies. Why would you take away from it's GREAT potential? 

I must though give a caution... since Beets are so full of color sometimes your bathroom breaks will also have similar coloring. 

Beet Greens (since I have had several family members ask what do they do with the greens I'm going to tell you here...)

Now don't waste the greens. The greens are FULL of nutrients. The best way to have these is to Wilt them down and drizzle with Balsamic Vinegar. "What does it mean to wilt?" you might be asking. To wilt a green means that you put it in a pan with a little bit of water and turn the burner on. The greens "wilt" down in size and become a dark shade of green. Easy as that.

One more yummy BEET recipe  

Simply heat the oven to 375 peel and chop coarsely, put in a baking dish (ie like what you would make brownies in.) drizzle with either olive oil and or balsamic vinegar salt to taste. Bake until tender and then enjoy. You can add potatoes or carrots or any other root crop (turnips) if you wanted to. It's Delicious. I however prefer the beet soup.

Roasted Butternut Squash and Potatoes 

I made this for the harvest day potluck. Brody said I had a talent with potatoes. 

You peel and chop as much butternut squash and potatoes as you desire too place in a baking dish, drizzle with olive oil. salt and pepper to taste. Add various herbs. I did basil. You could use thyme, oregano, rosemary, etc. Use your hands to stir it all around in the pan to make sure everything gets a good coating of the oil and spices. Top with any kind of cheese you have. Bake in a 375 oven for 30 -45 minutes or until things are tender. Enjoy.  

Disappearing Zucchini Orzo (this is from the book Animal Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. Sariah and I made it just this week for the Harvest day Potluck.) Instead of retypeing this whole recipe I went to http://animalvegetablemiracle.com/ and just clicked on her recipe link.

¾ LB PKG ORZO PASTA

(multicolored is fun)

Bring 6 cups water or chicken stock to a boil and add pasta. Cook 8 to 12 minutes

1 CHOPPED ONION

GARLIC TO TASTE

3 LARGE ZUCCHINI

OLIVE OIL FOR SAUTÉ

Use a cheese grater or mandoline to shred zucchini, sauté briefly with chopped onion and garlic until lightly golden.

THYME

OREGANO

¼ CUP GRATED PARMESAN OR ANY HARD

YELLOW CHEESE

Add spices to zucchini mixture, stir thoroughly, and then remove mixture from heat.

Combine with cheese and cooked orzo, salt to taste, serve cool or at room temperature.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake  (Because what could be better than chocolate zucchini cake?)

This is an amazing recipe I received from Katie Jickling (my  roommate on the farm fall 2010)

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 3/4 cups sugar
1/3 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 1/2 cups grated zucchini
1 cup chocolate chips
3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 325. Butter and flour a 13x9x2 pan.
Combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt into medium bowl.
Beat sugar, butter and oil in large bowl, until well-blended.
Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Beat in vanilla.
mix in four mixture, alternately with buttermilk in 3 additions each.
Mix in grated zucchini; pour batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle chips and nuts over, bake cake about 40-50 minutes.

Anyway I think that is all I shall type up today. It's a start though. I hope you find these recipes yummy and helpful. I now need to take a nap. I will try to post more of these in a little while.

 

A Day back In Paradise 1-21-2012

So on Friday I had the opportunity of going back down to the farm for a day. Needless to say I jumped at this opportunity.

There was a box of 50 or so chicks, 2 smallish pigs and 2 brand new baby goats.

It's crazy these baby goats mother was Heidi... one of the young teenager goats when I arrived on the farm for the very first time. All of my baby goats are now old enough to have there own babies. Laura and Monte named these two new kids Hansel and Gretel. These two look a lot like Nellie did when she was born, they have that grayish black faded swiss alpine look.

The little chicks are so cute and were constantly knocking on the walls of the card board box. As well as walking all over each other.

While I was down there I got to make 2 trays of soil blocks and seed the trays as well. Oh how absolutely delightful to work on the farm again for just one day. :D

I had a really nice visit with Laura and Monte. It felt like I had gone to one of my homes and had been able to recharge my battery for the months ahead.

I am so grateful for the time I lived at Quail Hollow Farm under the mentoring of the Bledsoes. And I am so grateful that I can go back and visit again and again. Life is good.

An "Eventful" Event

So on Friday October 21st I went back down to the farm to help with a farm to fork dinner event and this is what happened. There is a link to a video and I would recommend watching the other movies that also come up when you click on this link. Laura wrote this and it is much better than I could ever have put it.

What an evening we had this last Friday night! It had all the makings of a really great novel; drama, suspense, anticipation, crisis, heroic efforts, villains and victors, resolution and a happy ending.

The evening was everything I had dreamed and hoped it would be. The weather was perfect, the farm was filled with friends and guests roaming around talking about organic, sustainable farming practices. Our young interns were teaching and sharing their passion for farming and their role in it. (A high hope for our future!) The pig didn’t get loose. Our guests were excited to spend an evening together. The food was prepared exquisitely. The long dinner table, under the direction of dear friends, was absolutely stunningly beautiful. The music was superb. The stars were bright and life was really good. And then, …

for a few moments, it felt like the rug was pulled out from underneath us and my wonderful world came crashing down. As guests were mingling, finishing tours of the farm, and while the first course of the meal was being prepared and ready to be sent out, a Southern Nevada Health District employee came for an inspection. Because this was a gathering of people invited to our farm for dinner I had no idea that the Health Department would become involved. I received a phone call from them two days before the event informing me that because this was a “public event” (I would like to know what is the definition of “public” and private”) we would be required to apply for a “special use permit.” If we did not do so immediately we would be charged a ridiculous fine. Stunned, we immediately complied. We were in the middle of our harvest day for our CSA shares, a very busy time for us, but Monte immediately left to comply with the demand and filled out the required paper work and paid for the fee. (Did I mention that we live in Overton, nowhere near a Health Department office?) Paper work now in order he was informed that we would not actually be given the permit until an inspector came to check it all out. She came literally while our guests were arriving!

In order to overcome any trouble with the Health Department of cooking on the premises most of the food was prepared in a certified kitchen in Las Vegas and to further remove any doubt we rented a certified kitchen trailer to be here on the farm for the preparation of the meals. The inspector, Mary Oaks, clearly not the one in charge of the inspection as she was constantly on the phone with her superior Susan somebody who was calling all the shots from who knows where. Susan deemed our food unfit for consumption and demanded that we call off the event because: 1. Some of the prepared food packages did not have labels on them. (The code actually allows for this if it is to be consumed within 72 hours.) 2. Some of the meat was not USDA certified. (Did I mention that this was a farm to fork meal?) 3. Some of the food that was prepared in advance was not up to temperature at the time of inspection. (It was being prepared to be brought to proper temperature for serving when the inspection occurred.) 4. Even the vegetables prepared in advance had to be thrown out because they were cut and were then considered a “bio-hazard”. At this time Monte, trying to reason with Susan to find a possible solution for the problem, suggested turning this event from a “public” event to a “private” event by allowing the guests to become part of our farm club, thus eliminating any jurisdiction or responsibility on their part. This idea infuriated Susan and threatened that if we did not comply the police would be called and personally escort our guests off the property. This is not the vision of the evening we had in mind! So regretfully, again we complied. The only way to keep our guests on the property was to destroy the food. I can’t tell you how sick to my stomach I was watching that first dish of Mint Lamb Meatballs hit the bottom of the unsanitized trash can. Here we were with guests who had paid in advance and had come from long distances away anticipating a wonderful dining experience, waiting for dinner while we were behind the kitchen curtain throwing it away! I know of the hours and labor that went into the preparation of that food. We asked the inspector if we could save the food for a private family event that we were having the next day. (A personal family choice to use our own food.) We were denied and was insulted that we would even consider endangering our families health. I assured her that I had complete faith and trust in Giovanni our chef and the food that was prepared, (obviously, or I wouldn’t be wanting to serve it to our guests). I then asked if we couldn’t feed the food to our “public guests” or even to our private family, then at least let us feed it to our pigs. (I think it should be a criminal action to waste any resource of the land. Being dedicated to our organic farm, we are forever looking for good inputs into our compost and soil and good food that can be fed to our animals. The animals and compost pile always get our left over garden surplus and food. We truly are trying to be as sustainable as possible.) Again, a call to Susan and another negative response. Okay, so let me get this right. So the food that was raised here on our farm and selected and gathered from familiar local sources, cooked and prepared with skill and love was even unfit to feed to my pigs!? ! Who gave them the right to tell me what I feed my animals? Not only were we denied the use of the food for any purpose, to ensure that it truly was unfit for feed of any kind we were again threatened with police action if we did not only throw the food in the trash, but then to add insult to injury, we were ordered to pour bleach on it. Now the food is also unfit for compost as I would be negligent to allow any little critters to nibble on it while it was composting and ingest that bleach resulting in a horrible death. Literally hundreds of pounds of food was good for nothing but adding to our ever increasing land fill!

At some point in all of this turmoil Monte reminded me that I had the emergency phone number for the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund (FTCLDF)on our refrigerator. I put it there never really believing that I would ever have to use it. We became members of the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund several years ago as a protection for us, but mostly to add support to other farmers battling against the oppressive legal actions taken against the small farmers trying to produce good wholesome food without government intrusion. The local, sustainable food battle is being waged all across America! May I mention that not one battle has been brought on because of any illness to the patrons of these farms! The battles are started by government officials swooping down on farms and farmers like SWAT teams confiscating not only the wholesome food items produced but even their farm equipment! Some of them actually wearing HAZMAT suits as if they were walking into a nuclear meltdown! I have personally listened to some of their heart wrenching stories and have continued to follow them through the FTCLDF’s updates. Well, I made the call, told my story and within a short period of time received a phone call back from the FTCLDF’s leading council Gary Cox. When told the story he simply suggested that we apply our fundamental constitutional right to be protected against “unlawful search and seizure.” I simply had to ask Mary two questions. Do you have a search warrant? Do you have an arrest warrant? With the answers being no I politely and very simply asked her to leave our property. As simple as that! She had no alternative, no higher power, no choice whatsoever but to now comply to my desire. She left in a huff making a scene shouting that she was calling the police. She left no paperwork, no Cease and Desist order, no record of any kind that implicated us for one thing, (we had complied to all their orders) only empty threats and a couple of trash cans full of defiled food. I will get back to “the inspector” and her threats shortly. Let’s get to where it really gets good.

While I am on the verge of a literal break down. Monte and Gio get creative. All right, we have just thrown all of this food away, we can’t do this, we can’t do that, what CAN we do? Well, we have a vegetable farm and we do have fresh vegetables. (By the way, we were denied even using our fresh vegetables until I informed our inspector that I do have a Producers Certificate from the Nevada Department of Agriculture allowing us to sell our vegetables and other farm products at the Farmers Market. Much of our produce has gone to some of the very finest restaurants in Las Vegas and St. George.) The wind taken out of the inspectors sails Gio and his crew got cookin’. It just so happened that we had a cooled trailer full of vegetables ready to be taken to market the following day. Monte hooked on to the trailer and backed it up right next to the kitchen. Our interns who were there to greet and serve now got to work with lamp oil and began harvesting anew. Knives were chopping, pots of pasta and rice from our food storage were steaming, our bonfire was now turned into a grill and literal miracles were happening before our eyes!

In the mean time, Monte and I had to break the news to our guests. Rather than go into the details here, you can see the video footage on Mark Bowers and Kiki Kalor’s (our friends and guests) website at: http://www.reallyvegasphoto.com /Events/CSA-Farm-Government-Inspection, password Rth-2034. We explained the situation, offered anyone interested a full refund, and told them that if they chose to stay their dinner was now literally being prepared fresh, as just now being harvested. The reaction of our guests was the most sobering and inspirational experience of the evening. In an instant we were bonded together. They were of course out-raged at the lack of choice they were given in their meal. Out-raged at the arrogance of coming to a farm dinner and being required to use only USDA (government inspected)meats. Outraged at the heavy handedness of the Health Department into their lives. Then there was the most tremendous outpouring of love and support. One of our guests, Marty Keach, informed us that he was an attorney and as appalled as everyone else offered his support and council if need be, even if it be to the Supreme Court. He was a great comfort in a tense time.

With their approval Giovanni and crew got cooking and the evening then truly began. The atmosphere turned from tense and angry to loving and supportive. As soon as I heard my brother Steve sit down and begin strumming his guitar I knew something special was happening. Paid guests volunteered their services. Chef Shawn Wallace, a guest, joined Gio and his team his knife flying through the eggplant and squash. Wendy and Thierry Pressyler and so many that I am not even aware of, were helping to grill and transport dishes. Jason and Chrissy Doolen offered to run quick errands. Jeanne Frost, a server for the Wynn hotel, didn’t take a seat and began serving her fellow guests. Before long we were seated at the beautiful table and the most incredible dishes began coming forth. It was literally “loaves and fishes” appearing before our very eyes! We broke bread together, we laughed, we talked, we shared stories, we came together in the most marvelous way. Now this is what I had dreamed, only more marvelous than I could have ever imagined! The sky being bright with glittering stars, we had the telescopes out and invited any guests who desired to look into our starry heaven. While we were looking into the heavens, heaven was looking down upon us! I can’t tell you the times I have felt the hand of providence helping us in the work of this farm. As hard and demanding as this work is I KNOW that this is what we are meant to do. I KNOW that it is imperative that we stand up for our food choices. I KNOW that local, organic, sustainable food produced by ourselves or by small family, local farms is indispensible to the health and well being of our families and our communities now and in the future! If this work were not so vitally important, the “evil forces” would not be working so hard to pull it down. We were victorious, we will be victorious, we must be! Our grandchildren’s future is at stake!

Back to the inspector. She did call the police. You must remember that we live in a small town. We know these officers. They responded to the call dutifully but were desperately trying to figure out why they had been called. Never in all of their experience had they ever received a call like this. Mary, the inspector demanded that they give us a citation. The officer in charge said that she was to give us the citation, she responded that no, they were to give us the citation, which they then asked her for what violation. Even with the help of her superior on the phone she could not give them a reason. They asked her to leave which she did. The police were very kind and apologetic for the intrusion. All of this was done without fanfare and out of sight of our guests. The police officers are commended for their professionalism!

Now that we have come to the last chapter of our novel, I realize that it ends with a cliff-hanger. As happy as the ending was, it isn’t “happily ever after” yet. This will remain to be seen in the ensuing days, weeks and even years ahead. Tom Collins, our County Commissioner, furious by the events that took place, having formerly been a board member for the Southern Nevada Health District is putting together a meeting with himself, the current board members and ourselves to make sense of all this mess. As so many of you have related verbally and through emails your desire to help and be involved, we will keep you informed as events take place. I feel that we have been compelled to truly become active participants in the ongoing battle over our food choices. This is just one small incident that brings to our awareness how fragile our freedoms are. We are now ready to join the fight!

We would encourage all of you who can to contribute and to become a member of the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund. They are not only fighting for the farmers, they are fighting for the consumers to have the right to choose. You can find them at ftcldf.org.

As I close, I am reminded of the passage written so forcefully by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence: “He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.” The same battle continues. I pray the result of the battle will be the same, that we have been “endowed by our Creator with … life and liberty” .

We love you all, and thank you with all our souls for your continued love and support! We will stay in touch.

With warmest wishes for you and your families,

Monte and Laura Bledsoe

Written from Quail Hollow Farm

October 24, 2011

One More Post... More Pictures!

I just got some of the pictures uploaded and had to do one more post dedicated just to pictures. There are some more pictures of the farm on my facebook.

Alas 'tis Time to say Goodbye

I have now left Quail Hollow Farm CSA. I am moving on to have new adventures. I have stayed for a little over a year and have had AMAZING life changing experiences. Quail Hollow is really a second home to me and the people I got to work with really feel like a second family. Some of the things I have learned there that aren't related to growing plants and farm animals are...

• hard work
• diligence
• facing and conquering fears
• gaining confidence
• being decisive
• responsibility
• discouragement
• joy
• myself, and my personal mission on this earth
• life and death
• being calm
• patient
• accomplishment
• and so much more.

I have also been learning Western Tang Soo Do Martial Arts. Doing this I have been taught about balance, putting all of yourself into everything you do to get the needed power to achieve the goal, doing your very best, and not showing weakness, doing hard and painful things that stretch you to your limit and allow you to improve.

Laura put in the Share Basket newsletter this week a whole paragraph on how much I have changed since coming a year ago. I don't have the newsletter with me right now as I write this so I will have to paraphrase a little bit. She mentioned my first day and how she didn't think I would actually last the month... then how I showed her what kind of stuff I was made of and that when I was determined I would never give up. She mentioned how steady and consistent I am. She said some other really nice and touching things. I began to tear up as I read it.

There were times I was tempted to just quit and leave. The work was too hard and it was too hot. I also felt so slow and like I wasn't any help at all. I felt like a failure. How ever these times when I felt like this helped me to have this AMAZING life changing experience. I left feeling like a success and a leader. The farm was filled every day with exhausting hard work. And with all the challenges, discouragement, fears, etc..... I wouldn't trade this experience for a trillion bucks. I have become more of who the Lord created me to be. And the joys, accomplishments, confidence, and all other things have canceled out the bad. This was one of the best years of my life so far. I hope I never forget what I have learned at the farm. There is so much you can learn and discover by reconnecting to the earth and helping life to flourish.

I am so grateful for the time I have had to grow and learn and become at Quail Hollow Farm.

Thank you to all of you who read this, and helped motivate me to keep doing posts.

Thank you Laura and Monte Bledsoe for this experience!

This is the last post I shall do on this blog for a while. When I have my own farm in the future I may continue with this blog. I fare thee well.

High off of Tomato Fumes

Two new interns came... Shannon Hess came 3weeks ago, and my cousin Sariah Mitchell came two weeks ago. Both of them are awesome to room with and work with. :D Before Sariah came the main event to tell about was The Annual Tomato Tasting Event. 4 days before the event all our 18 rows of tomatoes were still green. (which is annoying because now we have ripe tomatoes completely filling the living room. There is barely any room to walk or sit.) We were also having it a whole week later then the one we had last year. So we were picking all that looked like a good sized beautiful tomato or any that had even the slightest coloring. We put them in brown paper sacks with green-ish banana's to speed up the process. By Saturday we had a few to put out. We have I think over 40 varieties and we were able to put out a tasting of half of them. We even put out a conventional boring store bought variety to see if people noticed the difference in taste. It was very noticeable, in color, slicing, and especially in taste. The winner of the year was Amana Orange, Amish Gold, and another yellow one that I can't remember the name of.

However some that I think would have won if they had only been ripe are Green Zebra, Cost...? Genovese, and Cherokee Purple. These are also some of the prettiest tomatoes in my opinion.

When one harvests tomatoes you become green tinted and itchy. And it can take hours and hours. While harvesting you often find ones that chickens have pecked, ones that have a little split or bug bites, or sun scalds. All of these go in to the Sauce bin. After that you need to sauce them a.s.a.p. otherwise they start to spoil very quickly. The saucing process goes like this.....

1. you quarter the tomatoes and cut out any really nasty spots. (this is actually the worst part of the processing because you have to stick your hand in the sauce bin that has rotting tomatoes and juices. It also smells nasty... like dirty dish rags or smelly socks.)

2. you put them in the saucer machine which removes the skins and seeds and leaves nothing but a nice tomato puree or pulp.

3. you pour into large pots and boil for a long time and the full pots will reduce until only half of the pot is full, however after it has boiled and decreased in amount it is such a beautiful dark red color.

This is what Sariah and I (Shannon had a family reunion so has actually been gone the last two weeks.) were doing all afternoon on Saturday after spending 3 hours harvesting the Roma tomatoes. We sauced for 4 hours straight. I was literally going insane. Sariah and I thought part of it might be from all the tomatoes we were smelling. We needed to smell a bunch of them because even though they looked pretty good on the out side they smelled like dirty socks when you cut them open. Eventually I couldn't smell anything different, I sat and smelled one tomato for probably 5 minutes, Sariah had to be my official smell-er for a while because they all began to smell. We went through about 8 3/4 bushel bins of sauce. It was really gross. I was so tired of tomatoes I was going crazy.

Now for some news not tomato related.

Some funny stories that say I've been on a farm too long.....or in the heat to long....

I am like the dogs in the Pixar movie Up... however instead of squirrels making me turn my head, it is tractor's and goats.

I have been getting ready to leave the farm soon, and so I wanted a picture of each of the milking goats... cause I want to do a scrapbook of my adventures, and I thought it would be fun to do a profile picture of each of them and then a funny story to go along with each. Well Shannon was willing to take the pictures for me (because she has a digital camera and I don't plus she was doing the milking that week and I was doing the other chores.) Well as I thought about this plan for the goat profile page and their stories I realized that some of them wouldn't be us understandable if you didn't know what their udders looked like. So Shannon took a picture of those for me as well. :D

We were washing eggs and randomly we noticed that one made a thumping noise as it was shaken by ones ear. Don't ask why we were shaking it by our ears. We don't know why. In case you are wondering why it made the noise it apparently had a large air bubble. But we showed it to Laura and Monte and they said they have never been tempted to shake an egg by their ear.

This is a funny story that doesn't have to do with farming.

Because Jenn, Amelia, Bronze, and Brodi knew I was getting ready to leave they surprised me and bought me a going away cake. They informed me that I needed to smell the frosting because they had paid a little extra to get scented frosting. I said "I didn't know they made scented frosting." Jen takes a slice of cake that is on a small plate and smells and her expression said "wow this smells amazing." So then she hands me the plate so that I can smell. I being the slightly gullible trusting person that I am bring the plate up to my nose to smell and Jenn pushes it in to my face. It was the most unexpected thing... mainly because it was Jenn who did it. If Bronze or Brodi had offered the slice of cake to me I hope that I would have been a little hesitant and doubtful, but it was Jenn. And Bronze caught the whole thing on video. ARRGGG!!! Then Amelia informed me that they had been planning this for weeks and Jenn thought I wouldn't fall for the scented frosting. Amelia said... "Jenn, this is Lark we're talking about. We could tell her that it looked like there were little allien looking shapes in the frosting and Lark would have put her face into the cake to get a closer look." The saddest part about this story is earlier in the afternoon Jenn and Amelia had told me not to trust anything that I was told that day. They had sort of warned me.

Bronze also made me this chocolate structure as a going away gift that was intimidating to look at. There was so much unwrapped chocolate. I'm going to miss my farmily.

Sad news.....

We no longer have one of our restaurant share holders so keep the farm and Bledsoes in your prayers as well as the owner of the restaurant and his family.

We have lost a couple of chickens and Rabbits because of the heat. It's almost like these animals are saying "just so you don't miss us too bad we will let you get as many opportunities as possible to pick up our dead before you leave for good."

Exciting news.....

On Monday (exactly one week ago) July the 4th we got a new baby goat!!!!!! We didn't even know that any of our goats were pregnant. Since she was born on Independence Day we had to give her a patriotic name. So we named her Abigail Adams. She is super cute and all white with ears that stick up. Every time you feed her she starts drinking then she pulls away and pees for a while as if saying she needs to make more room for all the milk she is going to drink. Then she comes back and finishes her meal. She also licks her lips a lot and makes a loud smacking noise when she eats.

Sariah had been in charge of milking that week and I was off feeding the chickens in the far pasture. So she was the one who discovered Abigail. But I get to experience one more baby goat before I go. :D

We also got 2 more pigs.... Our others have been sent to the butcher. Our new pigs are named Peter and Sophie. Well I guess those are technically their nick-names. Their real names are super long and are in Italian and are names of a really fancy ham and salami.

I think that is all for this post. ttfn

"You Know You Work on a Farm When...."

Two weeks ago and this afternoon I went to pick mulberries. A point of correction if any of you have heard the song "Here we go round the Mulberry bush..." mulberries grow on trees not bushes. If they grew on bushes in might be easier to fill your bucket quicker because you wouldn't have to leave the ones that are in the ridiculously high branches.
When I did it two weeks ago I did it with Jen and Amelia DeMille (They are the Moapa Girls from last summer) to keep with tradition we did mulberry warpaint on our faces... like we had done the year before. Except this time my warpaint looked more like a baby had taken it's food and smeared it all over my face. If any of you go mulberry picking and want to become mulberry Indians don't ask Jen to paint your face. Laura did take a picture, but I will have to post it at another date.
Today Bronze and Brodi helped half way through. I didn't feel like doing warpaint with them. It just doesn't feel the same if Jen and Amelia aren't there.

On Wednesday evening Jen, Amelia, and I all went to the singles branch activity, since it was kind of late for farmers when we left (8:30) they decided to spend the night, instead of driving the 1/2 hour home. On Thursday morning when we woke up we noticed that there was a scorpion in my room. This makes a total of 3 scorpions that have entered my bedroom in the last year. WHY MY ROOM??!!????!? This one was medium size compare to the first two that have been discovered in my domain. Well Amelia took an empty wide mouthed water bottle that was sitting on my dresser and trapped it underneath, and put her scriptures on top to keep the bottle weighted down. We than went up to inform Monte that there was another scorpion that I wanted him to kill for me. Monte was bottling honey. When I told him the issue he got this grin (that only Monte can do) and asked me why I didn't kill it myself? I explained that I can kill bugs and things that are the size of a nickel, and this scorpion was larger than that so I needed him to dispose of it for me. Well Jen, Amelia, and Monte all started to tease me a bit. Jen and Amelia's teasing was more on the side of "Why don't you catch it and let free in the desert?" And you've already heard Monte's thoughts. Well here I was in distress cause I am afraid to even approach it. (Some of you reader's might remember how I once stood on a chair with shoe in hand building up the courage to kill a spider that was on the ceiling, how I stood there for two hours just starring at it and finally squashing it only to be told that that spider had been in that same place for 3 months and that it had been dead for some time now.) Well after a lot was said by all of us, Jen went down, slid a clipboard underneath the water bottle and took the scorpion out to be released in the desert.

We have started harvesting tomatoes, summer squash and cucumbers. We also had our first baby eggplant tonight. :D

Jen, Amelia, and I have this game that we play everyday. We say this phrase and then add on to it.
"You know you work on a farm when...."
"Someone says something negative about a vegetable you harvested and you take it as a personal insult."

"You know you work on a farm when...."
"your most annoying stalker is a fly."

"You know you work on a farm when...."
"Evolution seems to go backwards." (It gets harder to stand up straight as the day goes by.)

"You know you work on a farm when...."
"You can turn most songs into a farm song. example: "The Farm is alive with the sound of clucking...." (Sound of Music) or "Cabbages Cabbages barely even lettuce.." (song from Disney's Pocahontas) or "On the fifth day of farming my true love gave to me 5 baby goats, 4 swiss chard, 3 bunny rabbits, 2 golden beets, and a red Lark in a palm tree." (I didn't come up with this song Bronze, Brodi, and Kim did this one and for some reason they thought it hilarious to have the last line.)

"You know you work on a farm when...."
"All hoes, shovels, pitch forks, and other often used tools have names." (Amelia's favorite fork is Sebastien, Bronze's favorite shovel is Sarah, then there is Henry and Cedric the hoes. Except Bronze broke my favorite hoe Cedric. :( The Wheelbarrow is Rasputin. My pocket knife is Zraiza and Amelia's is Percy aka The Scarlet Pimpernel.)

"You know you work on a farm when...."
"You come up with names for weeds and descriptions for them like in the dragon book that is in the movie How to Train your Dragon. example: The Sprawler, deep roots, may cause you to weep, pull/kill on sight. The Infuriating, usually grows large and is prickly all over, use caution, pull on sight. etc..."

"You know you work on a farm when...."
"the back of your legs are tanner than the front.

"You know you work on a farm when...."
"you stop working to examine a interesting looking plant or bug.

"You know you work on a farm when...."
"you come up with these kind of phrases."

"You know you work on a farm when...."
"You are afraid to wipe your hands on your clothes cause they might get more dirty."

"You know you work on a farm when...."
"Your new favorite insult to call someone else is Aphid gut."

Well I could continue but I can't remember them all. Let it suffice that we each usually come up with a few every day. I hope some of them made you chuckle to yourself. If not and you just think we are crazy you may be right. We have been out working in the sun all day doing the same thing for several hours.

This is all for now. ttfn.