"some tasty sauerkraut in the making"

Sister Mary Anne made the farm land here available to Dave 12 years ago. She is still active in the farm workings and is an activist for healthy foods. Above is the spread of books she had out for the recent volunteers. All great books worth reading.

For a week we had 4 girls visiting to learn about farming while they stayed with the Sisters. The Sisters are the sweetest old ladies and cooked three meals a day for the volunteers. Which left them feeling a bit over whelmed so I offered to cook one of the nights. Soon after the whole farm crew got invited and I was cooking for more then 12 people. Turned out to be a good meal with plenty to go around. The bread was made with my Mom's sourdough starter.



"Its not about the cook its about the food"

"Space Basil"
You my have tried lemon basil, normal basil or even cinnamon basil but have you tried space basil? Here at Sisters Hill Farm we have basil which orbited the planet. Wanna see how zero G's tastes? Come visit!

The Sister who is most involved in the farm taught environmental science. One of her students went on to the space program and sent her these special seeds.

This should take you to the latest Sisters Hill Farm news letter.



clickhere

"Treasure at the fork in the road"

Finally a week with so much free time I don't know what to do with myself. So I posted some pictures to flickr. I might even watch a movie tonight...



Click the picture it will take you to my updated flickr account. A bundle of new sets!

Images of what is to come soon. Will they stay free of the late blight?


Friday is harvest day. Cucumbers, yellow squash and Zucchini, colorful lettuce, green beans, cabbage, peppers, eggplant, onions, garlic and the other ingredients I forgot. Free! but not free enough to make it to the Grey Fox bluegrass festival... Win some, lose some.

Rye oh rye, are you so hard to till in? Rye survives the winter months and hold unused soil in place while providing soil fertility/organic matter. But boy is it a pain to work into the soil before planting crops. This Rye pictured has gone to seed and is well past its prime days as a cover crop.

In other news I wrote an article for the Sisters Hill Farm newsletter. Past articles can be viewed at:
https://sistershillfarm.org/Newsletters.html

I'll post this weeks newsletter after it gets put together.

Stop and smell the beneficials. To much living and to little blogging. I've decided to make a change. Now that wedding season is over and wedding pictures I've cleaned up my beard. Knocked it back to the dark ages with the old #1 trimmer. Took some pictures... for the first time in 2 months. This one is some flowers we let grow to provide habitat to insects. With any luck the beneficial kinds. Another added bonus is that during the drought period last week these plants helped keep hungry bugs away from our juicy irrigated crops by giving them something else to feed on. In theory.

Spent the weekend down home. Luke's big day is coming up so Brian my dear friend and local newspaper beer critic took us to Abilene for a Texas breakfast. Visited Granny in Corning and helped the folks weed the garden.

Luke's wedding site:
http://www.lisaandlucas.com/

Brian's beer column:
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20100223/LIVING0101/2230305

Some of the plants are ready for harvesting. Bok choy, spinach, broccoli rabe and lettuce.

Building an addition to the barn for washing and packing vegetables. The deep trenches are for footers to be below the frost line.

Feeling well again after a never ending sinus infection. The plants have grown to incredible sizes. All our greens are big enough for harvest and we still have a week until the first CSA food distribution. To get ramped up for further fermentation experiments I made my first batch of yogurt. Who knew it was easier than making bread! Why didn't I try that years ago.

In other news put some miles on the road bike this weekend. The rolling hills of the Hudson Valley are a bikers dream.


Please feel free to send comments about spelling errors. Some day I might learn to proof read but that day has yet to come.

Sick as dog today. Seems to be a chest cold. Which normally isn't good news but that would rule out Lyme disease.

Added links to my old blogs. Now from 2006-2010 four years of blogging and some 900 posts in total. Links are permanently on the bottom of this page.

Erin and I went on Ramp hunt this weekend. If your willing the woods are full of edible treasures. Ramps are a native North American plant that tastes like garlic and onions. Lucky for us we found an area with an over abundance. Which enabled us to pick a few pounds without denting the plant population for next years hunters.

In the evening we dinned on Ramp & potato soup with a homemade vegetable broth. As well as Ramp pesto made with almonds and olive oil. Two new farmer friends joined us to feast in celebration of spring.