Farming in the shade

Last week was bitterly cold, with snow. I was just getting used to the new normal, and even blogged about winter's return just yesterday. I've taken a photo of our thermometer showing today's indoor and outdoor temperatures for your enjoyment. We have a saying in Michigan: "If you don't like the weather right now, just wait 15 minutes." I know that often those who don't live in rural areas think they'd like to. These next two pictures are for those of you who long for rural living.  There are pros and cons to living anywhere. One of the "cons" of living out in the country is the messiness that comes when it rains at the same time that a bunch of snow is melting.  One year (when our large roadside ditch was overdue for a cleaning) we had a normal, cold winter and a sudden warm-up like this. It melted inches of snow, and rained at the same time. The ground was still frozen solid, and water will take the path of least ...

Winter has finally arrived at Shady Side Farm. Last winter was unusually warm and dry, and this one started out similarly. We were starting to worry--if we wanted warm and dry, we'd farm in Arizona. The snowblower has been taken out of storage. It has gone through the normal cycle of use, break, repair, use (repeat). Even so, we are grateful for it, as it saves us shoveling all the driveways. Brinkley loves to ride along--she just wants to be with The Farmer all the time. All the better if she can look out and see what's going on. There are some technical difficulties when a rabbit is sighted, as she seems to lose all her senses and tries to leap through the glass doors in pursuit. That girl is focused when it comes to bunnies. She needs a little help getting in and out of the cab. It's pretty high, and the steps are not built for dogs. We are glad for a little relief from the grey. Our area of the world gets very little winter sun. It's mostly ...

As an etsy shop owner, we get a lot of requests for custom items. A 5 x 7 foot rug. Black socks in size 9 with pink toes. A needle-felted nativity scene. Many etsy shop owners are happy to work on custom orders, but we find it difficult to get our regular work done, much less taking on special orders. The farming must always come first. So most of the time we decline custom orders, kindly. It is better to say no up front than to disappoint. But this weekend, a mom from California found our etsy shop, likely searching for Suffolk wool. Her daughter wanted to do a science project on factors that affect pilling in wool. She wanted to knit swatches of different breed wool yarn, and then abrade them to see which wool held up better. She wanted to include Suffolk, but was having trouble finding single-ply 100% yarn. Who can resist the story of a 10-year old knitter who wants to feature wool in her science project? That's like three of my seven favorite things in the whole world, a...

The Farmer has been looking for a cultivator that will really, really do the job. There are as many different styles of cultivators as there are flavors of Hudsonville ice cream. And they're all a bit different. Which one would work the best for us? Today The Farmer called our soil consultant, who is a seasoned farmer with roots in organic farming. Joe was able to tell The Farmer exactly what kind of cultivator we should be looking for. Gave him four names to look for, and pros and cons for each. And then proceeded to tell him how best to use each kind, down to how fast to drive through the field and what should be happening as he's cultivating. While The Farmer was telling me all this at suppertime, I just sat there thinking. Finally I said, "Who will know enough about cultivating to teach others once people like Joe are gone?" I just read a headline today that "50 is the new 70" in the workforce. In other words, 50-year-olds, don't let the door hit...

And I am not a foodie blogger. I'm not even all that great of a cook. I can keep people from starving, but I tend to fall back to the old favorites instead of being creative. However, in the interest of getting more people to eat beans, I will give you a peek at what I did yesterday. We can pretend that I am a foodie blogger, just for once. I was hungry for chili, and so got out some Jacob's Cattle, Jacob's Cattle Gold, and Black Valentine beans. Three-Bean Chili sounded good. I decided to cook the Jacob's Cattle and Jacob's Cattle Gold in the traditional way--bring to a boil, reduce heat, simmer until fork tender. But I'd been talking with a customer who pressure cooks all her beans. And I thought I'd try it myself with some of the beans. So I started with 2 cups of Black Valentine beans and 4 cups of water.  My trusty Mirro Pressure Canning book suggested adding a Tbsp. of vegetable oil to prevent foaming. I am not a big fan of f...

Mike’s Black Bean Soup 2 cups dry Black Turtle Beans 1 lb. ground beef, browned with 1 chopped medium onion 1 pint (16 oz.) salsa (choose your heat) 1 pint (16 oz.) tomato juice 1-2 cups water 2 Tbsp. concentrated lemon juice 2 cups frozen corn 1 bell pepper, chopped 3 bay leaves 5 cloves garlic, minced 1 Tbsp. red pepper flakes (adjust to taste) 1 tsp. ground cumin 2 tsp. salt 1 cup sour cream   Soak and cook black beans until fork tender; drain. Combine beans and browned, drained ground beef with other ingredients and simmer for 30-60 additional minutes. This soup has a healthy kick to it, so adjust to taste. 

Somewhere in the blur of Christmas parties and Farmer's Markets, we had some of our sheep shorn. We always shear our ewes before lambing, and these 20 Suffolk ewes are due to lamb starting in early February. Timothy has taken over for Nick, who had the audacity to shear for us just long enough to work his way through college and get a good job far away. We had a TV crew here briefly, filming a spot to advertise our shearing day open house (March 2--mark your calendars!). I can hardly believe the things we get ourselves into--TV crews and big annual events at the farm. Why do we do it? It's important for us to show the process of farming. Many people will tell you things about farming that "ain't necessarily so." Unless you can see farming practices yourself, and meet the farmers who care for the land and the animals, you are at the mercy of the latest blog post, newspaper article, or YouTube video. Farming is a messy, heartbreaking lifes...

Two Bean Sausage Rice Soup 1 cup Jacob’s Cattle beans 1 cup Jacob’s Cattle Gold beans 1 lb. pork sausage 8 cups water 6 chicken bouillon cubes 1/2 cup rice 2 bay leaves 1 onion, chopped 4 cloves garlic, minced salt to taste   Soak and cook beans in water until fork tender. Brown sausage while beans are cooking. Drain and rinse beans. Combine all ingredients and cook for 30-45 minutes longer.

One fairly warm day near Christmas, we took the opportunity to clean out the rams' housing. They are currently in with the ewes, and it's a good time to remove the manure pack. This is where skid steers (or bobcats) really come in handy. Also boys who are good at driving skid steers.   The downside of being a boy who is good at driving is that you still have to take direction from The Farmer on best practices. (See the white glove? Goodness, he's fussy.) And of course the whole operation was supervised by Brinkley. The rams' housing will likely become the horses winter quarters soon. We've used all our rams for a couple of years now--time to rotate in new blood. Anyone want to buy a ram or two? We've got two nice Targhee rams, and a good Suffolk ram. Still have lots of mileage left, but it's time for some new pasture for them.