What my typical week looks like at this time of the year

CSA days: Mondays and Thursdays

6:15        Wake up

6:30        Have coffee

6:45        Get pails and other things ready for milking

7:30        Milk Opal

8:00        Cool and store milk. Clean up milking pails. Eat breakfast.

8:30        Go outside to start harvesting / preparing vegetables for the CSA. I often work with one or both kids.

11:30     Cook for lunch, unless Sena does, in which case I just continue working outside.

12:00     Eat lunch as a family

12:30     Finish preparing vegetables for sale. Set up the sale/display area.

3:00       CSA begins. Help customers, keep display area restocked, keep everything running.

5-ish      Grab a quick bite (by this time I usually feel like I am ready to pass out from hunger).

5:30       Leave the CSA with Ed or the kids to go and put Olive in her pen for the night, give the cows water and treats (chard, kale, carrots, cucumbers or whatever other seconds we have around, plus some grain for Opal). Close the greenhouse. If Ed does this, then I stay at the CSA.

7:00      CSA ends. We close the sales area and start cleaning / putting away stuff.

8:15      Eat. Do tick check on Sena and Aiyana. Put them to bed.

9:00      Crash into bed and read if I have any energy left.

9:15      Done.

Non-CSA days: Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays

6:15        Wake up

6:30        Coffee

6:45        Get treats for Opal and supplies ready for milking

7:30        Milk Opal

8:00        Cool and store milk. Eat breakfast.

8:30        Clean kitchen. Talk to Sena and Aiyana about their plans for the day, and any chores they have.

9:00       Farm work. Computer work – crop data; CSA planning and emails; Once in a while I drive the kids to activities or playdates.

11:00     Cook

12:00     Eat Lunch

12:30     Farm work. Cook / food preservation. Some combination of the following: Talk about outstanding farm issues with Ed. Drive kids to activities or playdates.

5-ish       Dinner

5:30        Put Olive in her pen for the night, bring water and treats to the cows. Close the greenhouse. Sometimes if Ed is at karate with Sena and Aiayana, I take a little time to write in my blog, sit with the cows, or just sit on the porch and look at the field and the trees. Just to be alone, in silence.

6:00        Clean up after dinner.

7:00        Family tick check. Read or do something relaxing with the kids.

8:15        Put Sena and Aiyana to bed.

8:30        Read in bed

9:30        Out.

Sunday is our “family day”, which means that we try to just be together and do fun/relaxing things as a family. There’s still cooking, and some farm work, but we really try to keep that in check so that it does not take over the whole day.

This is a typical week for me at this time of the year. Ed, Sena or Aiyana’s week would not look the same, as we all have our individual, different  tasks. Also, things would look quite different at another time of year, like in the winter, when homeschooling becomes a big time commitment, and the CSA is not operating.

As you see, I don’t get out much. I spend less than one hour per week in the car, and I like it that way. I have plenty to entertain myself with right here. Ten years ago, my week looked very different. Ten years from now, who knows?

Peace

The work outside is slowing down, as it does every year at this time. There is still plenty to do, but the pace seems more workable. We are done with most of the fall planting, and in another month we’ll be getting into winter crops, mostly hardy greens.

We got over 3 inches of rain this week, which relieved us of many hours of waterin

The fall crops are looking great, except for some broccoli and cabbages which were invaded by flea beetles when still young. Tomatoes are still producing a lot right now, but the leaf mold fungus is advancing and we expect to have a shorter overall production season this year. I’m not happy about it, but neither am I as upset as I thought I would be. I think it’s because I feel like we’ve been taught a valuable lesson through this problem. We have some ideas as to how to try and avoid the fungus in future years, such as planting resistant varieties and increase night-time venting of the greenhouse.

The melons and fall cucurbits look amazing. This may be the best harvest we’ve ever had, assuming nothing goes wrong between now and then.

This month of August has been so cool, that we started fall spinach weeks earlier than usual. It’s coming along nicely, and hopefully we’ll have spinach for the CSA in early fall. Spinach is a very popular but temperature-fussy crop, so anything we can do to have it longer at the CSA is good.

I’ve had my first Asian pears this past week. The trees we planted last year are producing a little, and I am very impressed with the taste of the fruit. I was not too sure what to expect from Asian pears. I’ve had them from the store in the past and found them kind of bland, but ours taste much richer and sweeter. The trees won’t come to full production for another couple of years, but we’ll still have some fruit to enjoy before then.

The vet came to dehorn Olive this week. It went very well, as well as could be expected I guess, but still it was traumatic for Opal and Olive, who had to be separated, and poor Olive had her horns cauterized. It made me sad to look at her with two big burn marks where her horns were. I think we made the right decision to have her dehorned, given that she could hurt herself, the other cows or us with the horns if they grew, but I always wonder. Anyway, she seems back to normal now.

I’m almost done making pickles. I canned 14 quarts, which we’ll have for the winter. I still want to ferment some for eating right now. My first batch came out very well, and we already finished them. The dilly beans came out ok, not great. A little too vinegary for my taste. I might have opened them too early so I’ll give them a couple more weeks for the taste to develop.

Still have a lot of work ahead for putting up food for the winter: tomato sauce, sun-dried cherry tomatoes, apple chips, apple sauce, roasted red peppers, pickled jalapenos, and weekly cheese, still have to be made. It’s a lot but hopefully with decreasing work-load outside, I can devote more time to food preservation.

I’ve been thinking about homeschooling too. I want to devote more time before we start again this year to come up with a plan and with resource materials. I already asked Sena and Aiyana for their input as far as topics of study and they were eager to let me know. History was, as expected, top of the list, but grammar was also in there and languages were in strong demand too. I have my own plans, so I need to work on putting it all together into some sort of daily schedule and material list we can follow.

I'm loving these cool, fall-like days. I’m sorry for the tomatoes, eggplant and peppers, who would like more heat, but for myself, and the cows, this is just lovely.

Peace

Bo-staff Practice

Last Friday we officially bought the Willington property I wrote about a couple of weeks ago. After the closing, the four of us went there to celebrate in a small way. We stood in the middle of the 7 acre field that is most of the property and for a while watched and listened to a hawk calling from the top of a tall tree. I thought that it was a nice welcome to this new piece of land. I was also very happy to see that there are many lilacs forming a borderline between the house and the field. They must smell heavenly in the spring. There is also one big barn and several sheds on the property, all in need of repair.

On Saturday afternoon we spent some time practicing bo-staff as a family. Ed got hit in the head with a loud "donk". It wasn't bad but it gave us all a good laugh. I practiced too and amazingly did not injure myself. Mostly I sat down and ejoyed some cold milk and dark chocolate. Sena and Aiyana practiced their karate forms and spun their bo-staffs up in the air at scary speeds, with much more skill and grace than Ed or I.Here they are:

Peace

a massive tree in front of our house, a professional photographer in our CSA, and girls who love gymnastics - here's what you get:

Dilly Beans

We have a bumper crop of green beans this year, so I am starting to put some away for the winter. It's my first time making dilly beans - in the past I only blanched and froze them.

They look pretty good, but I won't know how they taste for a few weeks. I canned them and used a recipe from "Putting Food By". I'll post my version of it here after I taste them, if I like them.

Peace

News of this week

Some bummer news: our tomatoes have leaf mold. It’s not a good thing, but I don’t know how bad it is either. So far the harvest has been very good, and it continues to be so, but it is possible/likely that the leaf mold will take down the plants prematurely. Thus far we’re harvested about a quarter of the total expected production (based on past years’ data), so we could lose a lot, depending on how quickly the fungus advances, and to what extent. I’ve been reading up on it and it’s not clear what to expect. We’re doing all we can to minimize the conditions the fungus loves, such as high humidity and wet leaves, and after that we’ll have to see what happens. Tomatoes are by far our number one crop so whatever hits them hits us hard.

Our cucurbits are looking great, but I heard reports from other growers that mildew is starting to hit. I don't see anything on ours yet, but I think it's just a matter of time. Hopefully the winter squashes will size up before that.

Other than that, it is a very bountiful time right now, with big harvests of beans, cucumbers, summer squashes and zucchini, tomatoes, and all the summer crops.

Other news:

We stopped homeschooling over the summer. It got to the point where it was just too much with all the work we have outside, plus Sena and Aiyana were asking to have a vacation from it like their friends who go to school do at this time of year. Now that we don’t formally homeschool, they have more time to read and do other activities. They’re both big readers, and we never seem to have enough books from the library to make it through the week. Sena’s main draw at this time is historical fiction, while Aiyana loves animal books.

They’ve also been taking daily swimming lessons at Coventry Lake for four weeks this summer. Sena is a strong swimmer now, and Aiyana is intermediate. Both made good progress at the lake, and with more lessons next summer, I think Aiyana will be a strong swimmer as well.

Karate lessons continue. Sena’s personality is particularly well suited to martial arts. She’s disciplined and focused, and works hard to have good form. Both she and Aiayana are physically very strong, which comes from years of practicing gymnastics, so they excel in karate. Lately they’ve been practicing weapons, like nunchaku and bo-staff. It’s pretty impressive to watch.

I’ve been inspired by their strength and grace and by my recent back troubles, so I’ve been taking some exercise classes myself. I found a good teacher at the community center near our house, and I go to her one hour class twice a week. I think it’s making a difference - I feel stronger, and my back is fine.

Some exciting news: Ed and I are about to buy another property. It’s 7 acres of beautiful land, with an old house, and it’s in Willington, Ct, about 13 miles from where we are now. We are not moving, but will continue to live and farm here in Mansfield. The plan is that my parents can renovate the house on the new property and stay there for part of the year, and the land we can use for pasture or crops later if it makes sense. We had some savings from our engineering days, and we both agreed that supporting the banking system and stock market is not what we wanted to do with our money, so we’ve been looking for land for some time. This piece seems right, and we’re supposed to close on it this Friday.

Yesterday I went to the sweat lodge at my friends’ house. It feels good to have a formal ceremony in which I can give thanks. I do feel very grateful for my life and everything that’s in it right now, not just the easy things, but the difficult things too, and the sweat lodge is the one place where I can formally acknowledge my gratitude.

Our cows continue to be a great source of joy. I’m really enjoying the cheese I make with their milk. It's extra good with the tomatoes we’re harvesting right now and the fresh bread my sister bakes for us.This week I hope to can dill pickles for the winter, and I’m going to try canning dilly beans too.

That’s about it for news.

Peace

Lactofermented pickles I made last week

They're easy to make, and very tasty. My recipe is adapted from Sandor Katz' "Wild Fermentation":

• Cucumbers (picklers or slicers), enough to fill a 1 gallon jar as in the picture above
• 3-4 garlic cloves
• 4-5 fresh grapevine leaves (their purpose is to keep the pickles crisp. I pick mine in the woods near my house)
• 3-4 sprigs of dill (I use leaf and flowers, but you can use seeds as well). 
• For the brine: 1/2 gallon of water with 6 Tbs salt added in (I use quality Kosher or Sea Salt).

Warm up the brine until the salt is completely dissolved (no need to boil it).
In the meantime, pack the dill, garlic, cucumbers and grape leaves in the jar. Keep two leaves for the top.
When the salt is dissolved, let the brine cool for 10-15 minutes, then pour it in the jar. There should be enough brine to cover everything.
Place the last two grape leaves on top in such a way that they keep everything submerged. It is important that the brine covers everything, otherwise whatever is exposed to the air will not ferment properly and will spoil. I use two wooden sticks, cut to barely fit in the jar and crossed over each other, jammed in the mouth of the jar to keep everything in place.
Put the jar on the counter and leave it there for three days to ferment. Cover with a clean towel to keep out dust. The fermentation time is highly dependent on ambient temperature. At this time of year, I find it takes about three days for the pickles to start souring, but later, in the fall, it can take up to one week. The important thing is to taste your pickles every couple of days, and when they taste like they're starting to get sour, put them in the fridge to slow down the fermentation process. They will continue to get sour in the fridge, but at a slower rate than on the counter.

These are not the kind of pickles you store overwinter. They do store in the fridge for a month or even two, but as the fermentation process continues, the taste will continue to change until they get funky at some point. In any case, they're so good, I never have a problem with storing them because we eat them right away.
 
Peace

Clear

You know how some days everything seems so clear? Today is like that for me. I feel light and joyful. My body feels strong and energetic. I look around the field and feel good about everything; even the things that are not doing so well, they seem ok too. The animals are content. I am finally making pickles, and everything is simple and right.

A while ago I read something from Joko Beck that stuck with me. She said that we all look for something we hope will make our lives OK: a relationship, a job, the next vacation, whatever. She said that the only thing we can trust in is life being as it is.

I do not take that to mean that we have no control. But I do feel like we spend too much time talking about, thinking about, planning or scheming for the future, in fear or anticipation. Farming has taught me that past and future are indeed important. You need to plan if you want to have a crop at the end of the season, and you’d better learn from the past, from your mistakes and successes if you want to keep farming. But, once this is done, you need to move on, and just do it. Just farm. Realizing that there will be unpredictable factors, like weather, insects and so on. Realizing that you will need to adjust your plan as you go, that some things will work out, and others will not. Realizing that there is no way of knowing where things will go.That life will just be as it is. Just do it, without fear and also, without much hope. Just do it because you enjoy doing it, and because this is your life, the only thing you really have, and the greatest adventure you will ever have.

So this is something I’d like to teach my kids: that whatever it is that you want to do, you must go about it intelligently: plan for it, use what you learned from your past, and don’t spend all your time ruminating on those aspects. Spend most of your time doing what it is you want to do. Life will be your teacher, as you start and at every step, and things will go from there.

Peace

busiest time

this is the busiest month of the year. i usually panic and get that feeling of just not being able to catch up no matter how much i work, but this year we have enough data from previous years, showing a spike in workhours at this time, so i know that it's temporary, and that two to three weeks from now things will come down a lot. i love data, it can be so useful. by now we have a good amount of it, collected since 2009, so we can actually see some meaningful trends, and make some pretty good predictions for crop yields, crop timing, labor hour demands, and so on.

most crops are doing well, although there are some significant problems too. the basil got fungus really early this year, and we only harvested a couple of times before it was done. fortunately we were able to warn our CSA members that it was not going to last long, so whoever wanted it, especially for pesto, had the chance to get it.
the first planting of kale, which had flea beetles in the spring, never recovered. it's good enough to feed to the cows, and they do love it, but we're not harvesting it for sale. fortunately the second planting is doing outstanding and we're selling lots of it. the tomatoes are looking good and already producing lots. cucurbits are doing well, peppers too. eggplants are lagging again this year due to flea beetles. next year we're trying a new row cover to protect them, which i ordered this year but it arrived too late to use it on this planting. we'll have some eggplant, but i'm just not happy about how the plants are doing, and i know they won't produce much. potatoes and sweet potatoes are doing very well. raspberries are in, and peaches are close behind. there are plenty of apples on the tall spindle apple trees.

as far as food preservation, we've put away quite a bit already: strawberries enough to last all winter, peas and pesto; i'm also stocking up on cheddar cheese, which i'm making with Opal's milk and aging in our root cellar. soon it will be time for tomato canning, pickle making, putting away peppers, beans, and probably others i can't remember. busy time.

the cows are doing very well. no sign of heat since the insemination so maybe they're pregnant.
milking Opal in the morning is now one of my favorite things to do. I just love everything about her: the way she smells, the way she feels when i lean into her as i milk her, her beautiful eyes and long lashes... Olive the calf is getting big and her horns are growing. the vet is coming out in early august to dehorn her. i'm not looking forward to that. it's supposed to be bloody, and painful after the operation. i can't stand knowing that anything is bothering or hurting the cows.

we had a little bit of a rodeo again earlier this week, when we moved the cows from one pasture to another. Aiyana really wanted to lead Olive, and after much whining and crying we finally said ok. Sena was leading Jasmine and ed had Opal. jasmine and opal were very well behaved, but as soon as we were on the move from one pasture to the next, olive bolted and Aiyana ran frantically behind her, trying to hold on to the lead rope. i was running behind Aiyana trying help. eventually as olive gained speed, Aiyana's steps got longer and longer, and she took some great leaps through the air bravely holding on to the rope, until she finally fell flat on her belly and let go. she was not hurt. olive, now free, continued her run into the orchard and then back towards us right through the eggplants and peppers. ed was amazingly able to catch her as she ran full speed passed him, and that's where the circus ended. i don't think Aiyana will pester us about leading the cows for a while. it was a good way to teach her a lesson about why we said no in the first place.

i'm reading 'everyday zen' by joko beck before i fall asleep at night. i like it a lot, and try to practice what she says in my daily life. such a small book, so much great insight. check it out!
peace

Somebody should be pregnant, I think. The AI guy came but he was not sure either as to who was in heat, so we inseminated both Opal and Jasmine. Hopefuly at least one of them is pregnant. We'll have to watch for the next heat cycle in 21 days, and I guess after that there's a test we can do.
Glad to be done with that for a while....

An eventful day

This morning we were milking Opal and everything was going well, when, towards the end, Jasmine came into the milking area and started mounting Olive. Olive was nursing at the time, Opal was in the stanchion, and Ed and I were milking Opal per our usual routine. When Jasmine mounted Olive, she knocked her right over, and knocked Ed over on his butt, and the milk bucket went flying. This upset Opal who was in the stanchion, unable to move around much, and it was quite a commotion. Fortunately we did not lose much milk, since most of what we had by that time was in a different bucket, out of harm's way. Jasmine tried mounting Olive again until I got bossy and kept her out of the milking area.

Although this was kind of disruptive to our milking, we were happy to see some sign of heat. We've been waiting for weeks to see something, and this seemed like an unmistakable sign. From what was going on, we figured that Opal is in heat. We told Sena to stand out there after we were done milking to watch the cows and take notes on what was happening. Being new at this sort of thing, we needed all the info we could get. Heat detection is not always easy, and the window for inseminating is quite tight, so we wanted to make sure that what we were seeing was really heat.

In the meantime, I called the Artificial Insemination (AI) guy to tell him to get ready to come. After that, I got in the car and drove a couple of hours to Massachusetts, to get a tank with Mr. Right's sperm in it, from one of our friends who has the bull we want. Got that, and turned around and headed right back home with this tank of most interesting contents strapped in the passenger seat besides me.

We kept watching the cows on and off throughout the day for more mounting or other signs of heat, but nothing significant happened since this morning. This evening I decided that maybe Jasmine is in heat, not Opal, because she's acting weird and high strung whereas Opal is her normal self. In any case, the AI guy is coming tomorrow morning, and hopefully he'll be able to shed some light on all this. Hopefully we'll get at lest one of them pregnant.

While Sena was out there this morning with her clipboard, watching the cows and recording their activities, here's what she wrote:

Jasmine butted calf.
Jasmine mounted Opal.
Jasmine licked Opal's butt.
Opal licked Jasmine's butt.
Jasmine butted Olive.
Opal almost butted Jasmine.
Opal pawed the ground while pooping.
Jasmine mounted both at the same time.
Head fight Opal and Jasmine.
Opal pushed passed calf.
Calf smelled Jasmine's pipi (private area).
Jasmine butted calf.
Jasmine pawed the ground.
Opal butted Jasmine.
Opal did some repeated butts.
Jasmine mounted opal.
Opal ran and butted.

All of this in less than half hour. 

Farmy pictures

The hay wagon

 First heirloom of the season: 1.9lbs

Peace