Winter Farm Update by Captain Jack, Farm Dog Extraordinaire

Hello Everyone!  Even though we aren’t coming to your neighborhoods weekly, we haven’t forgotten about you.  We’ve been busy here on the farm getting ready for the 2012 growing season….which may be closer than we think!  Actually, winter is a very busy time of the year here at the farm.  Here’s a little insight into what we’ve been up to this winter.

Washing, trimming and packing the last of the purple top turnips

Most years we don’t have too much left in the cooler by the third week of January…but this year has been a little different.  Last fall we had one of the best carrot harvests we’ve had in some time.  What are we going to do with all these carrots???!!!  Fortunately, all of our storage crops are holding pretty well this year.  Last week we finally washed the last bins of beets and carrots and packed our last bag of soup mix until next October.  We still have sunchokes, burdock, black radishes, rutabagas and turnips….and the packing shed crew is thankful to have the winter work. 

Big pile of willow!

We haven’t had too much snow this winter, which has kind of bummed me out…..I’m definitely a snow dog.  Since we don’t have much snow and it’s been warmer than in some years, the pussywillows are starting to pop open!  Farmer Richard, Hector and I went out to the field to check them last Saturday.  Unfortunately, I accidently hit the automatic door lock on the truck door and locked the keys in the truck.  We all had to walk home to get the extra set.  Needless to say, I had to stay in the house after that episode.  But, I can tell you that the pussywillow is ready to cut from the hedgerows, so the guys will be busy doing that this week.  Last week they finished trimming the curly willow from the hedgerows, so the ladies have kept busy trimming and bunching that. 

Richard and Andrea finally got all our seeds ordered in the middle of January…and it wasn’t long before the boxes started to arrive!  I like seed delivery time because it means almost every afternoon a delivery guy comes up to the office for a signature…..and I get a little rub behind the ears.  I prefer seed companies to ship via FedEx….that driver carries dog biscuits with him!  Simon and Andrea finally have all of our seeds inventoried and put away.  Now we have to go through our inventory very carefully to figure out what seeds need to be sterilized and which ones need to be germ tested.  This seed thing is a big deal….if the seeds aren’t good, the crop won’t thrive. 

Gerardo and Hector in the nursery greenhouse

Now that the seeds are here…it’s greenhouse time!!  Hector, Simon, Jacinto, Felipe and Gerardo spent three days last week cleaning and sterilizing the nursery greenhouse.  It’s bright and beautiful and they’ll start planting onions this week!  We love the first hints of green we see poking out of the flats….and after that it’s full speed ahead!  Every night we have to check the greenhouses before we go to bed.  Andrea and I like to walk through the greenhouse to make sure all our little seeds are tucked in for the night and their house is at the right temperature.  Andrea checks the thermometers to make sure everything is set correctly.  I stand in front of the furnace and let the warm air blow down my  back—that’s how I make sure the furnace is working correctly. 

Tim working on the hot water system.

Lets see…..Tim, Brandon and David have been keeping busy in the shop.  Brandon and David have stayed busy repairing our cultivation equipment, trucks and now they are rebuilding a trailer for our irrigation equipment.  Tim has been busy organizing the shop, doing parts inventory and helping with repairs, ordering and setting up the water system for the greenhouse heat tables. 

Jack waiting for the mail

Terri & Kelly have been busy entering in CSA orders and getting everybody scheduled for the new season.  I go to the mailbox with Terri every day to pick up the new CSA sign-ups in the mail.  I’m not much help with carrying things, but I think Terri likes my company.  Richard and Andrea are heading to Chicago and Minneapolis for sales meetings over the next 2 weeks.  Some of the crew will spend several days at the big farming conference in La Crosse later this week. It is a great time to network with other farmers and learn more about organic farming. 

Our crewmembers that spend the winter in Mexico are enjoying time with their families.  José Antonio and José Manuel are busy running an internet café, Juan is keeping busy with his ice cream business and Nestor is spending time adoring his new little girl who was born last fall shortly after he got home!  I’m not sure what everyone else is doing, but I’m looking forward to having them back here in April.  We’re doing some repairs on their houses and getting all the paperwork taken care of.  Unfortunately, we have a bit of a situation with the house at our Hammel Lane property here in the valley.  The DNR has determined that the house is in the breach zone for the dam that is upstream.  Richard is busy negotiating what the best plan of action is to maintain a safe place for some of our guys to live.  We may have to raise the foundation of the house or even move it to higher ground on the property.  Hopefully, we’ll find some resolution to this situation soon.

I’ve been helping Hector take care of the animals this winter.  The cows seem to be happy and healthy living in the barn we fixed up for them.  The chickens are doing really well too.  We have 24 hens and 3 roosters.  Hector has been getting 8-11 eggs a day!  The goats are hanging out and looking forward to spring.  I think we’ll have some new babies coming, but it’s a little soon to tell.  As for me, I mostly just chase stray cats, possums and raccoons that might get the chickens.  I bark very loudly to let the coyotes know I am watching for them.  They have been barking a lot at night lately.  The turkeys have been making quite a bit of noise in the pine forest too.  I don’t chase them though because they don’t really cause any problems and they fly pretty high.

Well, I guess that about does it for updates.  We hope you are enjoying the winter and looking forward to spring as much as we are!  It won’t be long before we will be cutting that thick, sweet overwintered spinach and searching for ramps in the woods.  If you haven’t signed up for the 2012 CSA season yet, it isn’t too late to do so!  We look forward to growing vegetables for you and your family again this year!

Shiny New Tractor

We took delivery of a new tractor the other day.  It's so bright and clean and shiny!  The seat is still wrapped in plastic, all the parts are bright green, with hardly any dirt on the tires.

Here is young Tim, in between the tractors, for scale.  These are the same model, but the one on the right has the loader attachment.

Notice the leaping deer logo - apparently it has been changed recently.  Back in the day the deer was tilted down, getting ready to land.  Now, he's taking a leap.  I never noticed!

Happy Thanksgiving!

What would you think if you got this monster sweet potato in your CSA box? (The coffee mug is for scale)

It weighed in at just under 7 pounds. 

Happy Thanksgiving, eat well and be well!

First Snow!

It's hard to take a picture of a snowstorm, but it was actively snowing during salad harvest today!  Yesterday was actually the first snow, you can see it in the rows between beds.  It snowed more on the ridge and actually stuck, but it's been a little warmer here in the valley.  Warm enough to make a muddy sloppy mess.

Our crew is dwindling, as the guys go home for the winter.  We'll have another bunch leaving after next week's work and only a small crew through the CSA deliveries in December.  Then things really slow down, enough for a very small crew to handle things until spring.  I'm already thinking spring!

Persimmon Bread

Still have some persimmons hanging around? Or did you like them so much, you bought more?

Here is a recipe I made last week, adapted from (James) "Beard on Bread".
It is super moist and delicious! Great for with coffee or chia for breakfast or as a late night snack!


2 c APF
1/2 t salt
1 t baking soda
1/4 t nutmeg
1/2 t cinnamon
1 c brown sugar
4 oz butter, melted and cooled
2 eggs
1/4 c brandy
1 c persimmon bread (about 4 blended)
1 persimmon, diced
1 /2 c pecans, walnuts or hickory nuts toasted and chopped
1/4 c coconut shavings

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Sift together: flour, salt, soda, spices and sugar.
Combine: butter, eggs, brandy and puree.
Stir wet ingredients into the dry and thoroughly combine.
Fold in diced persimmon, nuts and raisins.
Pour into a greased loaf pan and top with coconut.

Bake for 50-60 minutes. Lay a piece of aluminum foil over the top to prevent the coconut from over browning. Test center of bread with a skewer. Bread is done when the skewer comes out clean.

Los Hermanos Morales Peralta

Rafa with Iceberg

The H2A is a special agricultural visa that allows Mexican farmers to journey to our farm for the growing season and return home for the winter.  We are fortunate to have many referrals of friends and family from our longtime seasonal H2A workers and this is how we met the Morales Peralta family.  We are fortunate to have such a smart, energetic and friendly family working with us!

Rafael

Manuel

Jenny, Ramon, Vicente, Manuel

We first met Manuel Morales Peralta in the spring of 2009, when he arrived to work at our farm with his first H2A visa.  The third child in a family of 4 boys and 4 girls, Manuel kicked ass his first year!  He came to us with tractor skills, a twinkle in his eye, and a beautiful singing voice.  We trained him in on irrigation and he helped Vicente keep all the fields well watered.  Since then, he’s become an integral part of the harvest crew and our primary salad planter.  You have him to thank for the contents of your bagged mixed greens!  Just by watching and assisting our previous salad planter, he has learned quickly how to operate the machine at the proper pace and settings, and the plantings improved once he took over.  Because of his experience on the harvest crew, planting accuracy has increased.  For instance, from his years bunching cilantro, he knows that we plant it in five rows and that is how he does it.  If you plant it in 15 rows, your plants can’t thrive and you get a poor stand, meaning no cilantro!  He is rightly & justifiably proud of the most recent salad plantings – the fields are brightly colored, vibrant and with extremely straight rows!

Manuel’s little brother Rafael is so pretty.  Andrea and I wish we had his skin and sculpted eyebrows.  Last year he was going for the Mexican Amish look, but this year he’s gone 1985 preppy!  He can pull off either look, let me tell you.  His first season with us (2010), his housemates convinced him to be their cook every night of the week – that is how good he is!  Chef Katie worked side by side with him at last year’s farm parties, learning his techniques for salsas (sauces) and goat/pig preparation.  Along with Angel, he built our new underground oven for pig & goat roasts.

Rafa really likes learning new skills and is not afraid to ask for new, different and more work.  Like his brothers, he is mechanically inclined and quite clever.  After a frustrating season of crop losses due to bugs, pests and uncontrolled disease, Rafa took over our spraying program.  We use organically approved products to protect plants from disease and attempt to control flea beetles during vulnerable parts of the season, and Richard has been able to rely on Rafa to defend the fields with the sprayer.  Rafa maintains the equipment, fixes it as needed and figures out the formulas for mixing the sprayer solutions.  Again, because of his experience on the harvest crew, he has an intimate knowledge of the plants and fields.  While he is out in the field, he does “scouting” for Richard, looking for worms and bugs and fields that need his attention.  Then Richard can hand him a map with the acreage of that crop and Rafa can figure out how many gallons of solution to make for that job.  Just like his brothers, he takes pride in finishing the job, doing it well and then moving on to the next task.  There is very little wasted time with these guys!

Manuel, aka Caleman

Alvaro is the latest addition to our family, from theirs.  One year older than Rafa &  several  younger than Manuel, he had worked previously in Mexico and the U.S.  with horses and other animals.  He is a skilled horse trainer and wise guy.  Even though this is only his first year here at our farm, because of his excellent English language skills, great attitude and mechanical aptitude, Richard has been able to train Alvaro in on a number of new jobs and make him crew leader.

 

The three brothers work well together and have done a great job taking over the FMC harvest duties.  The FMC is a root harvesting machine that takes 3 skilled operators: Two tractor drivers that have to stay in sync, driving alongside the harvest bin on a trailer, keeping it under the harvest elevator, operated by the third man.   Besides watching the steering cylinder and making other adjustments, you have to watch your speed and turn the elevator on and off appropriately.  Richard has seen people struggle to learn all the techniques and learn the subtleties of this machine, but Rafa learned fast.  With confidence, he can grease and maintain the machine and fix it in the field if it breaks down.  With finesse and skill, he can get those first 4-5 feet of harvest rather than driving over it as he gets properly lined up.

Rafael, selecting discs

As with our other H2A employees, these guys have a desire to do things right and to please us, their employers.  They want to learn everything about working at the farm and they say they want to work here the rest of their lives.  Besides a great work ethic, they have proven to be consistent and more than willing and able to do hard physical work.  Once when the FMC was broken down, the harvest crew challenged themselves to do the job faster than a machine would – and they did! 

Alvaro

The Morales brothers are family men.  We had expected to see Alvaro in 2010, but he decided to stay home and help his family from Mexico while one of their sisters was seriously ill.  They each have a wife at home, raising the children and keeping the home fires burning, until Papa gets back home from work – in 6-7 months! It takes a lot of motivation to leave your family for half the year, but they do it to build better lives for themselves and their extended families.  But they have certainly enriched our lives while they are here in the U.S., and we all certainly would not be eating as well without their efforts in the fields.

Feeling Peachy

I like to make a big mess when I'm canning. Hopefully you can keep your canning space tidier than mine!

We had a couple of cases of beautifully ripe peaches hanging out so, we decided to put them up!
I canned 16 quarts of peach quarters and 8 pints and 5 jam jars of peach jam!

To can peaches you must first peel the skin off. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, score the bottoms of the peaches and toss them in the water for 30-60 seconds. If your peaches are a little firm, let them stay in the water for 60 or more seconds to soften them up. Then let them cool in a bowl of ice water. The skins should come off very easily. From here you can make the canned peaches and jam!

Peach Quarters
6 c water
2 c honey
     quartered peaches

Bring water and honey to a simmer. Stir to dissolve honey and remove from heat.
Fill the jars with the peaches then fill with the simple syrup.
Process in boiling water for 10 minutes.

Peach Jam

This recipe calls for a special type of pectin that is low in methoxyl. This pectin reacts with calcium to thicken rather than sugar. This allows you to make jams and jellies that are full of rich fruit flavor, undiluted by large amounts of sugar. I used Pomona's Universal Pectin which comes directions for making all sorts of jams and a Jamline in case you have questions! I used the basic recipe in the package and then added cinnamon, allspice and crystallized ginger!

4 c peaches
1/4 c lemon juice
1 T 1 t calcium water

1/2-1 c honey
1 T pectin powder

Bring peaches and lemon juice to a boil. If you are using other spices or flavoring agents, now is the time to add them!
Add the calcium water.
Mix pectin with honey and add to fruit. Stir vigorously for 1-2 minutes to thoroughly dissolve and distribute pectin. I used a potato masher to mash up large chunks of fruit.
Bring to a boil and remove from heat.
Fill your sterilized jars to 1/4 inch from the top, lid and process in boiling water for 5 minutes.