Farming in the shade

Yesterday's weather, on the opening day of Kerstmarkt, was brisk. The wind kept us on the edge of uncomfortable. And it was a LONG day, from 10 a.m. - 8 p.m. But today was simply wonderful weather! We couldn't have asked for anything nicer... The sun shone for much of the day, and people lingered. Perfect shopping weather. Despite the decent weather, our big seller was mittens. We had a lovely day, visiting with old friends and new. Hoping for continued good weather (though the forecasts don't give me much reason to hope)...

Last week we hired a neighboring farmer to harvest our soybeans. Hooray! Despite a breakdown and some residual mud, the soybeans are done! The reason we hired our harvesting done this year is because of the mud left from the endless torrential rains in October. We have a perfectly good combine, but it is not 4WD and it does not have tracks. It works well in normal years, but this year was not normal. Early this week, another farmer came with his combine (with tracks) to start the corn. This is a photo of a corn head on a combine. The "heads" are removable. You need a different head to combine small grains and soybeans. This is a six-row combine head. Can you see it? These are what make combining possible this year. The wonderful tracks... You thought I was kidding about the mud, didn't you? The corn is loaded into wagons out in the field. The wagons are brought home and emptied into our dryer. This is a natural gas grain dryer. Here in Michigan, we seldom are able to get ...

"You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." --Jeremiah 29:13

Scroll down for new posts--I'm leaving this one at the top this week. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Boy, there's nothing like trying to post notices about craft shows to take the wind out of my bloggy sails. I've struggled far too long with these graphics, and I'm gonna cry "uncle" and leave it as good enough. Next week starts our craft show season. The first one is a unique holiday home tour in Byron Center, Michigan. Each home has for sale the work of several artisans and craftsmen. The $5 (for the whole tour) admission fee, and part of our sales goes to charity. Held Friday and Saturday, November 20-21, it's a perfect way to get some holiday shopping, quality "friend" time and ideas for decorating all in one. We will not actually be in attendance at this show, but our goodies can be found at home #1. Click here for more details. Then the following Friday, November 27 starts our outdoor Kerstmarkt in downtown Holland. This open-a...

American Farm Bureau's 24th annual informal price survey of classic items found on the Thanksgiving Day dinner table indicates the average cost of this year’s feast for 10 is $42.91, a $1.70 price decrease from last year’s average of $44.61. More info here.

The average calf weighs 55 to 100 lbs. at birth, depending on the breed. An intact male bovine is called a bull. Once he is castrated, he is called a steer. "Cow" is a generally accepted name for bovine, regardless of gender. However, a cow is technically a female bovine that has given birth. Until that time, she's called a heifer. "Have a cow" is not a polite thing to say.

Wow. Go pour yourself a cup of coffee or tea, turn off the radio, and clear your schedule for 15 minutes. You're gonna want to read this without interruption. This farmer's wife blogger is part poet and says the things I would like to but can't even begin to. If you've ever wondered about the motivation and the thinking that drives a farmer, you need to read this. There's even a bit part about how the farmers have never set their own prices, which reminds me that I haven't addressed Mulchandmore's question about dairy prices. Ready? Click here .

Combines have begun working all around us, now that things are drying up from the recent monsoon season. We do not have tracks to put on our combine, so we wait for further drying, or for a neighbor to finish with his fields so that we can hire him (and his tracks) to do the job. It's a difficult time, knowing the snow (which will make harvesting impossible) will come soon, yet having to wait. There is plenty to do, but the thought is always there--will we get it off? Last year an entire field of corn had to be left in the fields, and was winter fodder for the deer. Nothing was left, come spring. The weatherman predicts dry and warm. Perfect weather. Here's hoping...

I recently posted on the fact that most US farms are family farms here . Pam left a comment: Wow! I had no idea. This is actually very happy news. Giving a shout out to small family farms! I shopped at our local farmers market last Saturday for the last time this year and I was sad that it was the last time til summer. (and what is it...the media? marketing? that makes us city folk think most farms are big corporations now?) Well, our farm is a corporation. We farm 160 acres, small by most standards. We have one employee (The Farmer). But if you want the statistics to lean in a certain direction, you could say we are a corporate farm. I suppose the same is true of the statistics that I posted in the Friday Farm Fun Facts linked above. A family corporation could farm thousands of acres and involve 8-10 people spanning 3 generations. It could be a huge operation. But it's still a family farm. So lesson #1 is always take statistics with a grain of salt. Lesson #2 might be that while f...

Disclaimer: I am not the greatest cook, and it's not something I enjoy very much. I tend to make the favorite 7 or 8 meals over and over again. But occasionally I step out of my comfort zone and try something new (because I like being married, KWIM?). I am a by-the-book cook, and find it scary to tweak recipes. But this tweaked recipe worked well, so I'll share it here. Herb Lamb Stew in the Slow Cooker 2 lbs. lamb stew meat 1 large onion, cut in chunks 6-10 small red potatoes 4-5 carrots, cut in chunks 1-2 ribs celery, cut in chunks 2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce 1/4 cup red wine (I used a cheap merlot) 3 Tbsp. brown sugar 1 tsp. salt 1/2 tsp. pepper 1/8 tsp. allspice 1/4 tsp. thyme 2 bay leaves 6 Tbsp. Minute Tapioca 12-16 oz. of canned tomatoes* Layer all in the slow cooker in order. Cover and cook on high for 6 hours. *I used 12 oz. of a chunky salsa from last year that we didn't like--I'm trying to use it up by cooking with it. We tend to not like quite to much liqui...

As a seller on etsy, I sometimes curate treasuries. A treasury is a collection of cool stuff from different sellers that looks nice togther. It's good advertising (and free!) to have your items chosen for a treasury. Abacusbeadcreations curated a lovely treasury which included one of my items, and etsy featured it on the front page of the website, which is a real honor! Unfortunately, it happened at about 3:30 a.m. local time, so I was sleeping... But you get to enjoy the lovely collection here on my blog. Thanks, abacusbeadcreations, for the honor. And to think, a humble set of dishcloths... :-) While you're at it, check out abacusbeadcreation's lovely jewelry here .

This past week, we were interviewed for a local knitting/fiber podcast. If you don't know what a podcast is, you can read about them here. If you'd like to listen to the podcast, click here and on the pink page, click where it says "You can listen here". The whole podcast is about an hour long, but the first 15 minutes or so is non-Shady Side Farm related. Happy Monday!