Monday, June 28, 2010

Random Acts of Kindness

For the past 6 months I've listened to my farmer friend speak of a poor gentleman he had previously delivered food to prior to him falling ill. He spoke of this man's shack he lived in, describing with great detail the sight of his sleeping arrangements in the winter months beside the wood stove. I always felt bad for his situation but it really did not strike a cord until a little over a month ago. My farmer friend told me that the man walked over to his house. (no less than a 5 mile journey) Said he'd been "basically been living on rice."

There is so much hunger in this world, it is just wrong! One of our most basic needs. How can we as neighbors allow this to happen?

That day,that statement was the beginning of the end of his hunger.

Tomorrow will make our 5th weekly food delivery to his home. My farmer friend & I along with the help of some of our family & friends have been able to put together boxes filled with eggs, fresh garden vegetables, frozen and canned goods even clothing and household goods.
(We are ALWAYS looking for donations so any locals willing to contribute non-perishable items please contact me.)

Do you have an over abundance of eggs, lots of garden vegetables, leftovers? If so, I challenge you to help someone local! If it wasn't for my New Year's resolution to deliver a weekly meal to my farmer friend our relationship would have never flourished. Now I see him daily, 7 months later and I can't imagine my life without him! LOVE that old man & his wife! (and so does MM and the kids)

Monday, June 21, 2010

What's growing outside the Hoop House?

Our first head of broccoli

Lots of lettuce

Mint, can't kill that stuff! Curious as to how others use mint. We use ours in lemonade and that is about it. This is my 3rd year growing herbs. I think they are much easier to grow then veggies, thank god for Maine Man cause we'd be starving ;) but in good flavor.

MM put in an asparagus bed last year. He added to it this year. I cannot wait to harvest that goodness in the next a year or two.


This picture was taken over a week ago. It is amazing how much the garden has grown since. I will post an updated aerial photo (from the barn loft) picture in a couple weeks to compare.
We have herbs, corn, and potatoes in that garden.
This is the pumpkin/gourd garden.
Just behind that is a strawberry patch.
I neglected to take a picture of MM's other garden but here are a few pictures of the goods grown there.

Turnip
Lots of garlic, we've already harvested a few bulbs.




Kale grows faster then I can it cook up. Honestly I think I still have some in the freezer from last year.


...and more lettuce. We eat from the gardens daily and fortunately have enough to share with our friends & family. I have froze a couple bags of peas and canned some rhubarb. My plan is to can salsa, spaghetti sauce, pickles, zucchini relish, and green beans. I'd like to put up more but I also want to enjoy the summer with the kids. Just need to keep that balance.

Monday, June 14, 2010

The Piggy Named "Iggy"

These pigs belong to my old man farmer friend. We currently have one pig named Q, we raised her and her sister Barbie from piglets, they were born here on the farm. We raised Barbie for a friend but she has since left the farm to go to higher grounds;) Q is ready to head to higher grounds as well but Maine Man has been so busy with the gardens and he is concerned that is just too warm to process the meat, plus we also still have pork in the freezer.
A couple weeks ago Q broke out. I get a call from my neighbor when I was out of town with the old man getting his chemotherapy treatment. She says"a lady just stopped and said your pig is loose." Yikes, slight panic moment!!! I had visions of her strutting up the road where the average car goes approximately 50mph. Long story short she had to awaken MM, he was working a stretch of nights. Q was captured thanks to my neighbor "Biker Stacy" and MM. Q would no longer be with us if MM didn't have to work that night.

There will be future posts about "Biker Stacy". She is my super cool neighbor that I have lots to post about. We hang out often and have SO much fun! She calls me "farmer Kim" hence her nickname. So much more to say about her but she deserves a post or two for herself!

Regardless I am down to the old farmer's house on a daily basis and can't refrain from taking pictures of his happenings from time to time. BTW, the Guinea Hen above on my header is from his farm too.


The kids have come home with lots of school work as the school year is finishing up. This is one of Flower Girl's poems I came across while browsing through her papers. Love it! Is is interesting to look through their projects, farming always seems to be their main theme.
The Piggy Named "Iggy"
There once was a fat, blue piggy named Iggy
Iggy knew a lot of red, blue, yellow, tall, fat piggies named Iggy.
One day, Iggy ate a piggy.
Iggy was still hungry, so Iggy ate another piggy.
Now his tummy was full of piggies.
He went to cross the piggy highway because he wanted to visit grandma.
He got hit by a piggy truck
and that was the end of the piggy, Iggy
by Flower Girl


Sunday, June 13, 2010

Chicks

I think this is our third year of raising broilers. We buy them as day olds and raise them to 6-8 weeks old. They arrived the same day these RI Reds were hatching in County Boy's incubator.
Note the size difference. There is a reason why people do not raise layers for eating.


Now that their feathers are almost in they will go out to pasture within a few days.


We still had some chicken in the freezer from last fall so we only kept 22 and we sold the extras. We will raise another batch come fall. Traditionally we freeze them whole as roasters but this batch I plan to part out. Nothing like boneless chicken breast on the grill!
Thankful for the chicken plucker MM built that makes butchering much easier and cost effective.

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Scenes from the Hoop House

We've been eating peas for a week
This afternoon we ate our first zucchini

A baby cucumber

It is amazing how much this hoop house has increased our growing season









We will be eating yellow squash by the end of the week

Peppers are plentiful


Peas are too!


Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Happy Birthday!

Font size Where to start? There is just so much about this young man We LOVE!

~Country Boy I love that you.... are gentle with animals

~I love that you....get just as excited as your sister on her birthday
~I love that you ...are creative and imaginative without needing toys as a source of entertainment.

I love that you....love your sister unconditionally even though some days it is not always easy.

I love that you....have an OBSESSION with water balloons! (P.S you have until Friday to pick up the balloon remnants from the party, or else.......;)

I love that you... pitch & play first base. SO Proud! It was not long ago when you would not go to birthday parties for fear of the crowd and if you did I had to be within arms length of you. (remember that next time I go to kiss you at school;)


I love that you....are not scared to get your hands wet.

and your feet dirty, in every sense of the way.


We LOVE the WONDERFUL young man you've become!



Happy Birthday Bud!