Ver Adest

It has been a long time since I last blogged. Since then six calves have been born; Zoe, Zanzibar, Penelope, Zeus, and Zachary, and another male calf that was a stillborn.

Zanzibar

In March we had a couple days of 80 F (27 C) weather. All of the flowers started popping up; a few days later we had snow! Speaking of snow...that's what's covering the ground right now! It has been a surprisingly dry spring, we have had very little rain and the ground is quite dry.

This is what Gabriel looks like now

Yesterday we seeded out some peas out in the garden. Most of our seedlings have been doing quite well, and as soon as the weather stabilizes we hope to transplant some of them.

Zoe

Zachary

Spring is just around the corner

View out of the front window

With spring just around the bend, we have started seeding. All of the onions have been seeded. Bok choy and lettuce, along with other greens, have been seeded to plant out in April.

Isabelle (the sow) is back from her hiatus with the cows, and is once again residing with Frisco in the pig barn.

Gabriel has grown a considerable amount. He spends most of his time with Tony, the blind calf.
A couple of the cows are expected to calve soon.

It is registration time for the CSA.

All you gardeners out there make a note that this year we will be inviting you to bag up aged manure for your garden. We will keep you posted on this.

Swiss chard, kale and broccoli

Welcome, Gabriel!

Gabriel

We are almost at midwinter.
Most of our seeds have been ordered.
Rachel had her calf on January 16.
I picked three possible names for him; Santiago, Gabriel, or Michael. We chose Gabriel.

The weather has been quite strange; snow, rain, freezing rain, temperature fluctuations.

The winter CSA is almost at it's close. The summer CSA brochures are ready.

We have been busy cutting firewood. Along with trying out some new recipes in the kitchen. For some delicious recipes, check out my other blog: http://inthekitchenwithfrancesca.blogspot.com

Isabelle, our pig, has been spending the winter in the company of the cows.
And, a very exciting fact, the days are getting longer!

Happy New Year!

Looking ahead to another year of farming and unpredictable weather.

This what the farm looked like December 23, 2011

The weather has been crazy; snow, pouring rain, warm and cold.
We covered the strawberries with straw.
The gardens are officially closed down for a little while.
We are mid-way through the Fall/Winter CSA.
We have started planning the CSA for the summer (our brochure will be ready soon) .

Our Jersey/Red Angus cross cow, Rachel, is in a calving pen. She will have her Jersey calf any day now.
We are going through all the seed catalogs, purchasing the seeds we will need for the season.

Beef Products:
ground beef
stew beef
steaks
roasts
beef ribs
beef liver

(from left to right) Chief, Buddy and Roscoe

Deck the Halls!

I have been very bad about blog posts the last month; my apologies.
We had our first snow storm of the season a few weeks ago. I stumbled through snow drifts continuously repeating under my breath "Ew, ew, ew." . Yes, I was a little turned off about the weather. But now the situation has changed! Texas has snow, and we have 60 F weather.
We are still harvesting carrots and leeks out of the garden. And the deer are eating the cabbage, and the leek tops (something I never thought they would do).
The Fall/Winter CSA has started, and is so far going well.
Fall/Winter CSA list:
carrots
apples
turnips
beets
garlic
onions
eggs
meat
squash
greens (HKSB, kale, etc.)
leeks
dried herbs
pesto
granola
honey
cider
potatoes
dried hot peppers

All the animals are doing well. The calves have been weaned from their mothers.

Our Wreath 

The Windsor Farmers' Market is still going. We have two more markets left; December 10, and December 17.  Also, with the holiday season we have been attending a few Christmas markets too.

  

But The Cold Still Remains...

This weekend we got a small storm, escorted by wind, rain, hail and biting cold. I hope all you kids are wearing long johns under your Hallowe'en costume!
The CSA is over, last week was the final week. It was a wonderful experience, and we plan to do it again next year.
We planted our garlic a couple weeks ago. And the only thing really still growing in the gardens is greens; lettuce, mustard greens, kale, swiss chard and Health Kick Salad Blend. And cabbage and carrots for storage still need to be harvested.

Garlic for planting

All the animals are doing well, and are getting a taste of the end of season pasture. The chicks are nearly large enough to be moved into the chicken coop with the other chickens.  Also, in spirit of the holiday, we slaughtered 9 of our ducks, and we have one cow hanging in the slaughter house.
Happy Hallowe'en!

Winter Squash

Red Hot Chile Peppers

It has been a busy two weeks on the farm since I last blogged. Last week the rain fell, wind blew and hail pounded down on all the crops. We were left with flaccid beans, lettuce with wind burn, and flattened spinach. I'm laughing as I write this, but it wasn't all that funny.
Most of our winter squash has been harvested, and is now curing in the greenhouse. And on the weekend we pulled most of our onions. The bean pole tipis have been dismantled, along with most of the tomato trellis.  
I have started stringing up our hot peppers in the drying room; hence "Red hot Hot Chile Peppers".
The Saturday markets are going well; come down this Saturday morning!
On Thanksgiving I did a demonstration on how to make Kale Chips and Kale Smoothies at the Maritime Fall Fair; check out http://inthekitchenwithfrancesca.blogspot.com for those recipes.

CSA week 18 (!)/Market
lettuce heads
potatoes
peppers, sweet
peppers, hot
eggplant
kale
carrots
cabbage
garlic
onions
winter squash
broccoli
cauliflower
tomatoes