Categories
Crops & Gardening

Spring Salad: Radishes, Peas, Lettuce and Other Early Crops

Last year's peas

There’s no doubt that spring has arrived around here.  I finally managed to get into the garden and plant some early crops. Namely radish, lettuce, peas, chard and carrots. 

I never liked radish until I started growing my own about 10 years ago. Now I love them.

The store bought ones are like a store bought tomato – yucky. I have always grown Easter Egg, which is a blend of white, pink, red, purple and fuchsia varieties.

It is so beautiful and always made perfect bunches to sell at farmer’s market. I also always grow French Breakfast with their elongated red and white roots. Delicious!

But, this year, I planted a new-to-me variety.

It’s an heirloom called Chinese Red Meat – otherwise known as the watermelon radish.  It has red interior flesh with green skin. I’m told it’s very sweet and crisp in addition to being really attractive in the salad bowl.

I LOVE to grow different lettuce varieties. I think they look beautiful in the garden and I really enjoy sharing bags of lettuce with neighbors and friends.

I’m growing a wild lettuce blend from High Mowing Seeds this year in addition to my standard varieties of Lolla Rossa, Speckled Trout, Merlot, Deer’s Tongue and many others. My husband thinks I’m nuts planting so much lettuce, but it is so wonderful that I just can’t resist.

The peas I planted are standard sugar snaps and Oregon Sugar Pods plus a few shell peas tossed in for good measure. I can’t be without fresh garden peas in early summer.  I have so many fond/terrible childhood memories of sitting on the back patio with my mother shelling bowl after bowl of peas.

« More Dirt on Gardening »

Categories
News

Join Flooding Relief Efforts

Help horses affected by flooding.

Flooding can cause a multitude of problems, especially for the hobby farmer who may not have easy access to resources available in more urban areas.

The Red River flooding in Minnesota and North Dakota on Friday has prompted various organizations to start relief efforts in the area specifically for animal victims, reports the Equine Welfare Alliance.

Here are four ways you can help these efforts and ease the burden on farmers and their beloved pets.

  1. Special Horses, an organization for registered 501(c)3 nonprofits involved with equine rescue, rehabilitation and therapies, and the North Dakota State University Equine Department are organizing an evacuation for flood victims in their state. A fund for equine victims has been established in cooperation with the university. Donations can be made directly to:

    NDSU Development Foundation
    Flood Horse Victims
    1241 N. University Drive
    Fargo, ND 58102

    Visit the NDSU Foundation website for online donations. Tip for donations: Designate “other” on the drop list, and write “Flood Horse Victims” in the blank space provided.

    The university is also asking for donations of hay, trailering, supplies and temporary housing.

  2. The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) has also established emergency relief and is assisting with dogs and cats that may have been left behind during evacuations or separated from their owners. IFAWs Emergency Relief Manager, Dick Green and Fred O’Regan, estimate that there may be over 3,000 animals in need of temporary shelter, food, medical care and clean water.

    To send an emergency donation to assist with the rescue efforts, visit IFAW’s secure site for online donations.

  3. The Fargo-Moorhead (F-M) Humane Society has established an animal rescue area at the Red River Valley Fairgrounds in West Fargo. They need hay and grain and human food for their volunteers. They currently have enough volunteers, cat and dog food, water and bleach, but continue to check as that could change as the numbers of rescues increase.

    A group of volunteers are making a run to Fargo from Minot on Friday, April 3, 2009. There will be a stop in Bismarck to drop off donations for Triple H Miniature Horse Rescue. The supplies currently needed for Fargo are; cat litter, cat litter pans (litter boxes) cat litter scoops, cat food, dog food, jugs of water, horse feed and hay, horse salt block, newspapers, blankets and sheets, any size and color and monetary donations.

    To help with the F-M Humane Society’s efforts, call 701-281-1574.

    The staging area for the drop-offs is:

    Souris Valley Animal Shelter
    1935 20th Ave SE
    Minot, ND 58701

    Please notify the staff that donations are for Fargo Rescue.

  4. The Red River Zoo (Fargo Zoo) is taking exotics that have been displaced. Call 701-277-9240 for additional information.

Find other livestock rescue groups around the country.

Categories
Homesteading

April Fool!

April Fool! Animals play pranks all year round ...
Such an “innocent” bunny!

Warning:  In case you don’t know it already, today is April Fool’s Day, also known as All Fool’s Day.

Be careful – very careful, because as Wikipedia defines it, April Fool’s Day, celebrated in many countries, is a day of practical jokes and hoaxes inflicted on family, neighbors, friends, and enemies.

An April Fool’s Day prank, continues Wiki, can also involve sending someone on a fool’s errand to embarrass them.

Kids are expert at this sort of thing, of course.

For example, one year my daughter capped the shampoo and conditioner bottles with plastic beneath their real caps so nothing would come out, no matter how hard or long I shook them.  And thanks to my usual morning catatonic state, I shook them … um … quite awhile before I finally got a clue.  Ha!

Animals excel at pranks, too, but unfortunately, they don’t realize April Fool’s Day comes only once a year, so they’ll spring these on you all year round.

Here are just a few examples I pulled from my memory.

  • One of our Jacob ewes, a first time lamber, has her lamb and after we do the lamby clean-up thing, she gives every sign she’s finished.

    I watch and watch, assure my husband the ordeal is over, put away the lambing supply box, go back inside for coffee, head out later, and – surprise! – another lamb has magically appeared.

  • My co-keepers and I are trying to herd a stubborn moose cow from a holding pen back into the 500+ acre wildlife park free-ranging area.

    We yell and wave our arms, she puts her ears back and charges, we holler and run to climb the fence, look back to see her standing calmly, thinking (I’m positive):  “Ha!  I was just bluffing, you people are so stupid.”

    This scenario repeats itself three more times before she trots nonchalantly down the chute.

  • I’m rushing to leave for an appointment, and my house bunny Dusty refuses to go back into his cage, even for his expensive alfalfa crackers (he can’t stay out with the dogs). He hides beneath the futon, scampering out and back again, and I try to push him out with a broom.

    Ten minutes pass, and I still have my head stuck behind the futon, when I hear scuffling behind me.

    Dusty sits in his cage, looking like an angel bunny.  Mom, can I have my cracker now?

Care to share your own April Fool’s story?

~  Cherie

« More Country Discovery »

Categories
News

Hog Island, Leicester Longwool Sheep Being Preserved

Hog Island Sheep being conserved
Hog Island Sheep
Courtesy Walnut Hill Farm

Two rare breeds of colonial sheep maintained at  George Washington’s Mount Vernon home, and Colonial Williamsburg, Va., are being preserved, genetically, according to the Agricultural Research Service (ARS).

ARS scientists at the National Animal Germplasm Program (NAGP) in Fort Collins, Colo., are preserving the rare and unique genetic traits of the Hog Island and Leicester Longwool sheep.

Both Hog Island and Leicester Longwool sheep descended from breeds raised during the colonial era, before the advent of modern breeding techniques.

Today, fewer than 200 registered Hog Island sheep remain, 54 of which currently live at Mount Vernon, ARS reports.

Leicester Longwool also are categorized as critical (or having fewer than 200 annual registrations) by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy.

Hog Island and Leicester Longwool are smaller than modern breeds, with less meat and coarser wool, but they have characteristics that newer breeds lack, according to ARS.

Harvey Blackburn, a NAGP geneticist collected and froze 253 semen samples from 10 Hog Island sheep for the NAGP collection. Blackburn and his colleagues are working obtain germplasm from the Leicester Longwool flock in Colonial Williamsburg; they’ve already collected 92 blood samples from the flock.

According to ARS, these rare breeds have regional and historical value, but conserving them is particularly important because of their genetic uniqueness.

The sheep germplasm collection was initially set in motion by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, a nonprofit organization established in 1977 with the goal of protecting more than 150 historic breeds of livestock.

The Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association maintains the flocks at Washington’s estate and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation operates Colonial Williamsburg. NAGP facilities house germplasm for sheep, cattle, chickens, pigs, aquatic animals and other livestock. The animal collection contains more than 480,000 samples, many donated by livestock producers throughout the United States.

ARS is the principal intramural scientific research agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Categories
Crops & Gardening

Italian Recipes

Italian-grown arrugula and cheese

A plate of Arrugula from our garden, tomatoes from Sicily, chunks of Parmesan cheese, balsamic vinegar, and underneath, Bresaola, a thinly sliced preserved lunch meat from Piedmont, sort of like salami-lite. It was a yummy lunch!

Italian recipes are different from American recipes.

American recipes might typically describe how one can make a delicious casserole from ground beef and a can of soup.

Authentic Italian recipes will always describe how to make a dish in the same way that it was commonly made a few hundred tears ago, and still is today.

American culinary icons in many cases could be described as the staples such as Tater Tots and ground beef and cans of mushroom soup.

Italian culinary icons are the heritage home-made staples, such as how to make a nice dish of pasta with gnocchi made from the local potato variety, basil from Pra, and not some other place, and Parmesan cheese, which is never sold grated, but always in big chunks carved from the huge wheels one sees in the cheese stores.

Pesto Debates
In Liguria, there is actually a heated debate between advocates of two different pesto recipes.

Everybody agrees that the basil should certainly come from Pra, or at least be grown from plants that were first sold as seedlings from Pra, and most everybody agrees that pine nuts from the north are preferred to those mass-produced in the south of Italy.

Don’t even mention Spanish pine nuts, which are less expensive, but still hard to find in the Italian markets, because nobody wants them.

The taste difference isn’t noticeable to an average American, to whom Spanish and Italian pine nuts are indistinguishable.

The heat of the pesto recipe debate concerns whether one should use of Parmesan (Parmigiano) cheese, or Sardinian sheep cheese (Pecorino Sardo), again not even considering Tuscan sheep cheese, which is less expensive and indistinguishable.

The advocates of the Sardinian sheep cheese point out that pesto was first made with Sardinian sheep cheese, because the Ligurians traded actively with the Sardinian island residents back in the Dark Ages, but the Ligurians had little to do with the inland Italians who were making proto-Parmigiano.

The advocates of using Parmesan cheese mention the fact that Ligurians have been using Parmesan cheese for about five hundred years now, so using Parmesan in making pesto is not exactly a recent change in the recipe.

I’m not really trying to be funny here, merely describing as accurately as I can an issue that some Italians in my neighborhood take extremely seriously.

« More La Dolce Vita »

Categories
Farm Management

Virtual Farmers’ Markets

By Jamie Henneman

Before starting your own online farmers market be sure of what you want to achieveAs the power of the Internet continues to grow, it’s become a networking and sales tool for agronomists of all sizes.

Today, if you want your farm business to get noticed, you can hit the streets as a vendor at a local farmers’ market, or you can hit the web with a virtual farmers’ market of your own.

Here are some basics to consider when breaking into the online market:

  • Decide what you want from your farmers’ market website. Check out some of the better-known sites to get a feel for some user-friendly formats.
  • Determine your start-up costs. Website creation, updates and hosting can easily cost a couple thousand dollars, unless you’re lucky enough to have your own computer skills or an interested farmer who can do the work in exchange for being part of your website.
  • Secure consistent vendors. Network with the regular vendors at your local farmers’ market, and see what items they may like to sell online as well. Because local farmers’ markets are usually seasonal, virtual farmers’ markets allow vendors to have an expanded season and possibly pursue the production of off-season crops (like greenhouse lettuces and greens) or items that store through the winter (such as potatoes, carrots, squash or frozen meat items). Having a varied selection that is regularly updated can keep people coming back to your website.
  • Pin down your logistics. It’s important to determine from the outset how the website will be self-supporting or bring in a profit. Most virtual farmers’ markets operate under the same rules as an in-person market; the vendor pays a commission fee to the market, usually based on gross sales. For an online system, this could be a monthly fee to simplify things.

Finally …

Also, a product pick-up spot needs to be determined for regular customer pickups.

Organically minded restaurants or natural-food stores may be willing to do this, as it helps bring in more business for them, as well.

Most of all, a virtual market needs to have that same “connectedness” that people experience at a live market.

Prompt responses to e-mails, regular product updates and efficiency in the pick-up process are all key to letting the consumer know this is just like the live market, maybe better.

Categories
Crops & Gardening

Heirloom Tomato Choices

green zebra tomato
Emily/Flickr

For down-home taste, nothing beats fruits that have been enjoying a renaissance more than 200 years.

Most are durable, firm and thick, possess smooth skins free of ‘crack’ (seams radiating out from the stem on the shoulder of the fruit) and burst (splitting at the blossom end).

Heirlooms set fruit near the bottom of each plant; less fruit develops later, higher up on the plant. Here are 14 inspiring heirloom tomatoes:

  1. Cherokee Purple, grown by the Cherokee Indians during the 1800s, blooms 80 days after planting and boasts a sweet smoky taste with a tomato ‘tang.’ Each 12 oz purplish-red fruit endures heat conditions.
  2. Green Zebra: A low-acid, 2-inch round fruit is the sweet-tasting Green Zebra, a tomato stippled with dark green strips that ripen to a yellow-gold with dark green zebra-like stripes. The fruit is great for salads.
  3. Mexico midget is one of several varieties said to have been brought over on The Mayflower in 1620. The round sweet red ½” fruits are great for salads and are a prolific producer.
  4. Known as a “true Siberian slicing tomato,” Black Prince is rated in the top ten best tasting tomato varieties according to a national taste test. The garnet-colored fruit matures in cold climates 70 days after planting seeds. The plant is perfect for patio gardens.
  5. Sugar Lump is a sweet-tasting cherry tomato of German origin, producing heavy clusters of 6 – 12 deep-red-fruits that hang like grapes, until frost. Each fruit is about ¾ – 1 inch in diameter, perfect for salads or snacking.
  6. The Golden Dwarf Champion, produced in 1898, is a 4-5oz fruit used in breeding. The upright plant is excellent for container planting.
  7. Introduced in 1923, the Abraham Lincoln is a red sweet tomato that produces clusters of round 1 – 3 lb. fruits 80 days after planting. Abe’s favorite is used for making ketchup, tomato juice and slicing.
  8. Box Car Willie, named for the King of the Hoboes, offers a smooth red color with bright orange undertones. Each 10-16 oz. fruit makes a great slicing tomato. The plant produces a heavy crop in 80 days with old fashioned flavor.
  9. Arkansas Traveler is a sweet mild-tasting fruit that matures 90 days after planting. Introduced at the University of Arkansas in 1960, the late season producer offers abundant 6-8 oz. rose-pink tomatoes.
  10. Long Season Peach produces 8 -oz yellow-pink hearty fruits that keep from 1 – 3 months in storage after ripening 95 days after planting.
  11. Yellow River is a thin-skinned old British sweet fruit, producing 1-1/2” yellow plum-shaped fruit used primarily for canning or sauces.
  12. New Big Dwarf is a 1919 cross of ‘Ponderosa’ with ‘Dwarf Champion’ and produces large 1# deep pink on 2” bushy plants, great patio plant.
  13. German Queen is a rate large-leaf plant, producing sweet, pink 2-lb. meaty beefsteak fruits for slicing.
  14. Amana Orange is a large fruit named for the Amana colonies in Iowa. It is a sweet, tropical-like fruit flavor beefsteak that grows to two lbs with a 5” diameter.
Categories
Homesteading

Dreaming of Dandelions

Dandelions can be used for more than you expect
Gathering dandelions for … fritters?

Where art thou, Dandelions?

I suspect some suburban-dwellers reading this will think I’ve totally lost it, considering that many folks spend a good deal of time trying to rid their neat lawns of this cheerful scourge. 

But I can’t help it: Reading several stories featuring my favorite “weed” in the May/June 2009 issue of Hobby Farm Home has left me pining for dandelions, yearning for dandelions, dreaming of dandelions. 

It’s just the first, rainy day of spring, and I want them to come springing out, manes aglow, but it’s still too early. 

Can you tell I love dandelions?

I’ve never understood why such a pretty, perky flower – one that’s edible and nutritious, too – is so reviled, while those high-maintenance, green (not in the environmental sense) swaths of inedible (by us) lawn are worshipped by so many. 

Just off the top of my head, I can think of seven uses for dandelions:

  1. Create dandelion chains, necklaces, and crowns with your kids.
    Cherie gives 7 easy ways to make use of the under-appreciated Dandelion
  2. Offer a bouquet to your bunnies, goats, sheep, or horses.
  3. Peel stem into long, vertical strips from the bottom, toss dandelion in water, watch strips curl.  Very cool for kids.
  4. Hold flower close to chin, see chin turn yellow (also cool for kids).
  5. Toss young leaves into salads, or stir-fry in olive oil and garlic with other greens.
  6. Make delicious dandelion flower fritters (Yum!  See page 15 of May/June 2009 Hobby Farm Home for a recipe).
  7. Gather lots of flower fluff to make dandelion jelly or wine.

My fondest dandelion dream goes like this: I gather my untamed beauties in bunches and sit on the deck in the sunshine, plucking fluffy petals to the tune of humming bumble bees and trilling song sparrows. 

I cook up a batch of delicately-scented dandelion jelly and pour it into jars, where it shines like morning sun-rays.  Then I bake up some scones, spread the sweet golden jelly on top, and savor every bite of spring.

Any other dandelion lovers out there? 

Happy spring!
~ Cherie

Categories
News

Spring Tractor Maintenance Checklist Offered

Tractor maintenance checklist offeredWhether your small tractor has been in the shed for the winter or out tackling the toughest of winter chores, it’s time for a thorough “spring cleaning” inside and out to get ready for that long list of upcoming spring and summer projects on your acreage or small farm. 

Learn more about getting a tractor for your farm and basic spring cleaning.

Here’s some advice from tractor manufacturer Massey Ferguson on how to get your farm equipment moving again now that it’s spring.

First:

  • Do your best to keep your tractor fully serviced and maintained by committing to a regular program of service and preventive maintenance. This can prevent breakdowns and helps maintain resale value
  • Develop a relationship with your dealer to assist with regular maintenence issues. Massey Ferguson, for example, is “working hard to give customers the help and advice they need so they can enjoy every minute using their tractor – not spending their valuable time inconvenienced by repairs and down time,” says Chris Box, marketing specialist, Compact & Commercial Equipment for Massey Ferguson.
  • Become familiar with your tractor’s owners manual for regular service and maintenance information specific to the model you own.

Next–Begin with a thorough inspection:

  • See if there is anything loose, damaged or in need of repair. Look for loose or missing nuts, bolts and screws, then tighten or replace them. Loose fasteners cause insidious damage to thread parts, linkages and bushings; can loosen tolerances on tight-fitting mechanisms; and will waste your time on repairs that could have been prevented.
  • Make sure the loader or other attachments are connected properly and all pins and bolts are in place.
  • Look at all electrical connections and check them to see if they’re still wired tightly.
  • Check for fluid leaks and worn or cracked belts. Add engine coolant and replace belts as needed.
  • Check the condition of your tractor’s battery. A voltage meter reading below nine volts indicates you need a new battery. Make sure the battery connections are tight and free of corrosion.
  • Check the tires for proper air pressure and wear. Replace the tires if needed.
  • Tighten wheel lugs according to the owner’s manual. Typically this is done after the first 10 hours of use and again at 50-hour intervals.

Finally–Make the needed changes:

  • Change the engine oil and filter.
  • Change the fuel filter, and if the tractor has not been used for several months, drain out old fuel to prevent dirt or water that has accumulated during the winter from damaging the engine.
  • Install new spark plug(s) and points.
  • Replace engine and air conditioning air filters, removing any debris from these areas.
  • For OEM replacement parts, contact your local dealer; OEM replacement parts are designed and manufactured to the exact specifications of your tractor. Many OEM come with a 12-month warranty, and all are backed by the manufacturer.
  • Lubricate. An un-lubricated tractor eventually experiences wear damage that will cause unnecessary and sometimes costly repairs.
  • Check your owner’s manual for grease zirk locations (so you don’t miss any) and direction on the type of grease or lubricant to use. Check the loader and other attachments as well for grease fittings.
  • You also can apply a drop of lubricating oil to each nut, bolt and joint on the tractor to prevent rust and keep them from seizing up.
  • Wash and polish. A clean tractor runs more efficiently and looks sharp while at work. Winter mud, grime and de-icing products should be removed to keep metal parts from corroding and rusting.
  • Use a mild soap and hose or power washer to clean away mud and debris. Automotive degreaser is an effective way to remove greasy build-up on the engine and chassis. Don’t forget the radiator screens and the underside of your tractor.
  • Vacuum and wipe dust from inside the cab and wash cab windows to ensure the best view of your work.
  • Give the tractor an occasional wax or polish to enhance the paint finish and add to the tractor’s resale value.

For more information about getting the most from your compact tractor contact your local tractor dealer. For more about Massey Ferguson, visit www.masseyferguson.com.