Celebrating the Season

October 26, 2008 - As the days get shorter, I find myself fighting my crazy schedule for time outdoors. Yes, I spend my weekends outside at the farmstand - but what I'm looking for is some quality, quiet, nature time. I feel a desperate urge to stock up on sunshine and fresh air before winter hits and I want to do nothing but sit by a fire and read.

On sunny days I often rush home and run over to a beautiful hike by the river, which happens to border the property where we now live. Lucky me. On one trip I carried my camera along with me and found I never wanted to turn it off. The leaves are changing now and it seems that no matter what the season, I am constantly blown away by what an incredibly beautiful place we live in. Here are some photos from my walk -

Halloween is coming up. One of the things that makes living a life centered on the land fun is celebrating the seasons. I've never been a big Halloween person, but this year, I'm just thinking of it as a seasonal celebration. It's about pumpkins, gourds, apples, cider, corn stalks, and crisp cool air. This week we went to a Haunted Hay Ride/Haunted House with Bianca and her husband Gustavo, who is celebrating his very first Halloween here in the U.S. Then last night, we had a pumpkin carving party, after which we had six awesome pumpkins AND loads of pumpkin seeds to snack on. Here are the pictures from the evening -

That's Joe's pumpkin. And yes, that's a haunted squirrel.

We're getting ready for the cooler part of fall at the stand too - we moved our workstation indoors this weekend so that Bianca and I won't freeze to death while we work. This left a little bit of open space outside, so I decided to let my decorating juices flow, and make an "Ode to Fall" display. Hoping of course, that this will inspire others to decorate THEIR homes, with OUR stuff. :)

And it worked on me. Joe and I now have a lovely fall display outside of our home. This way every time we come home, instead of thinking how miserably cold and dark it's getting, we'll think - "ah yes. Fall...."

Squirrel Stew for Supper

October 19, 2008 - I'll admit it. It wasn't easy for me to eat a dead squirrel. Obviously we don't currently live in a culture where this is a common choice of dinner meat - but according to my mother and my google search, it is something that people actually eat. Lucky for me, Joe gave me plenty of fair warning - I had a good two days to prepare for this meal and when the time arrived, I was mostly ready. I had determined that in Canada, squirrel eating is actually all the rage, and I had been reminded by my mother that I actually throughly enjoy eating eel - something that doesn't exactly sit well when you think too hard about it. I sat down, took a few gulps of wine to get in the mood, and took my first bite of squirrel. It wasn't too bad. Honestly, if I hadn't been told it was squirrel, I probably would have slurped it down readily. Because of my acute awareness of what I was eating, it was what I would call a lingering meal - but I ate it and I'm proud to say so.

For those who are intrigued rather than disgusted and would like to try some squirrel stew at home, it was apparently quite simple. You just shoot a squirrel (or two or three, since there's not much meat on one), and then skin and gut it. Then Joe just put the whole thing in the crockpot with some water and cooked it for a while til the meat would pull off easily. This is the point at which I entered the room, of course, and this is what I saw -
Then he pulled all the meat off, put it in the crockpot with onions, garlic, potatoes, barley, some beans, and kale. And there's dinner! Very inexpensive, I might add. :) Here's the finished product -
Squirrel isn't the only thing Joe's been hunting though. He also got a wild turkey the other day. He cut it up into pieces, rather than keeping it whole, and then he just cooked it with onions and potatoes. That was pretty darn tasty.
I believe there is also a rabbit in the freezer. I haven't had the pleasure of eating that yet, but I'm sure that on some cold winter night I'll come home to roasted rabbit or something similar.


Here's Joe in his hunting gear... wait - where'd he go? I can't see him...All in all, this whole wild game thing is definitely an adjustment for me. For one, I've all but become a vegetarian over the last year, what with all the vegetables we have on hand. So eating a lot of meat at all is something that I'll have to ease into. Plus there are those irrational, yet still real aversions that I have with eating certain animals. But I'm determined to get over that. Food is food, and local, free ranging food is something I believe in. So I will get over whatever issues I have with it and grow accustomed to eating the meats that are available to us in our natural surroundings. Add the meat to our vegetables and eggs and we're getting darn close to being able to provide ourselves with all of our food needs, which is pretty cool.

Speaking of eggs, I took this picture of our collected eggs the other day -
The chickens are starting to slow down a bit due to fewer hours of sunlight. We have to make a decision about whether or not we will supplement their light in order to keep production at a certain level. They say that if you let them naturally slow down during the winter months, then they will have more years of production. We'll probably come up with some sort of middle ground.

We've also been presented with an opportunity to bring a goat into our family. My sister used to have goats and one of hers that she gave away is now pregnant and looking for a home - meaning once she has her baby we would have a milking goat. VERY tempting. We have decided to think on it and do some research over the next few days, and then make a decision.

Of course it doesn't help that we just spent the weekend at the Sheep & Wool Festival, which reaffirmed all our desires for a homestead - complete with sheep, goats, cows, chickens, gardens, etc. It was a great festival. John has a stand there where we sell apples, cider, and donuts. Here's John and I working-

And here's Joe sporting his new wool scarf, his cup of hot cider, and his vendor bracelet that he's very proud of acquiring. The last thing I have to report is that I think tonight is the last night of our summer garden. We had a frost last night and I think we're going to have an even harder freeze tonight. Two days ago I went over to the garden and harvested a whole bunch of stuff. I cut celery and basil, picked beans and tomatoes, and gathered up the last of the ground cherries. We celebrated the end of the summer garden with a summer meal of pasta with fresh tomatoes, basil, garlic, and mozzarella. Here's me preparing it, with our bouquet of basil and bowl of tomatoes in the background - We are certainly sad to have picked our last tomatoes and basil, but it's okay because we are well stocked for the winter with sauces and pesto. And I know that whether we like it or not, next summer will be here before we know it, and the joy of eating our first tomato of the next season will be worth the wait.

October Living

October 16, 2008 - Time flies. It's been two weeks since my last post and I have TONS of pictures to post, because boy have we been busy. Who knew October was one of the busiest months of the year?

First, the gardens. We've had a couple nights where frost was predicted. Not quite ready to give in to the winter, Joe and I rushed over to mom's before dusk to cover our precious plants with sheets. So at the moment, nothing has been officially declared dead, but the summer plants are definitely just limping along on their last leg. We're getting a few final tomatoes, but we also picked off many of the green ones to try the ripening inside trick.

I did make a nice pan of roasted vegetables from the garden one night - with carrots, turnips (from a CSA), and celeriac. This is the first time I've ever eaten celeriac and it was fun to work with. Here's me after I pulled it out of the garden - it's pretty wild stuff.

And here are the beautiful carrots still in the ground. They grew tons since the last time I picked any and I ended up being very pleased with how they turned out.

I think we have picked most of our last peppers. We also got a ton of peppers from the stand that had bad spots on them. We had peppers and onions with steak, and I froze a bunch of red peppers for winter, and now we are all peppered out. Things are going great at the stand. My friend Bianca has just come home from Peru, where she was in the Peace Corp for 3 years. Lucky for me, she didn't have much going on for the fall and agreed to work at the stand on Fridays and some random weekends. With her waste-not attitude, she went ahead and made peach and plum jams with the leftover, over-ripe fruit. Here she is -

Two weeks ago was the Craft Fair at the Rhinebeck Fair Grounds, and John has a booth there were he sells apples, tomatoes, peppers, squash, pumpkins, and gourds - and.... CIDER!! You gotta love cider season. Here's me getting ready to bottle a whole bunch of it for the craft fair.

Overall, the stand continues to get better each week, with more and more customers. Now that we have all the fall stuff in stock, it really is beautiful -

We've even opened up some small space inside for a beautiful hutch to showcase our cider donuts, my mom's baked breads, Bianca's jams, and some local honey.

The stand is now open Friday thru Monday, so it's keeping me pretty busy. This coming weekend is another festival at the fair - the Sheep and Wool Festival, so that's where I'll be. But I'm sure you're wondering what Joe's been up to...

First of all - the chickens have moved in with us! It was getting a bit tiresome having to run over to mom's every morning and evening to take care of them, so Joe decided to build a new coop here at our apartment and now they're all here. And his coop is, well, awesome. It is built up onto our deck, so we have them very close at hand in case of emergency. There is a walkway up to their nesting boxes and sleeping area, which gets shut closed at night so that they are suspended in the air where nothing can get to them. Safe and sound and cozy.

And the nesting boxes are laying right on our deck, so we can just stroll out and collect our eggs.

While there is a small caged in area attached to the coop, he also build a little chicken tractor so that they can have access to the whole yard, piece by piece.

And Joe's been chopping firewood like crazy. Here's his accomplishment so far -

While we had a cold spell a few weeks ago, this past week has been a little Indian Summer with temps in the 70's, so we haven't been burning anymore wood yet. I think that's going to be coming to an end today though... it was nice while it lasted.

Time's running short, so I have to get going. But stay tuned, because in my next post I'll tell you about all the interesting things we've been eating now that it's hunting season... :)

Back at Hardeman's

September 29, 2008 - When I was 16 years old I got my first real job - at Hardeman Orchards. John Hardeman has an apple orchard and a little farm market where I first learned to be a cashier, stock vegetables, sort apples, cut and arrange flowers, and dig in the dirt. I spent several years on and off working at this place and becoming good friends with John and his family. You could say it was like a second home for me. Of course I moved on from Hardeman's and went off into the world to find myself. But interestingly, as I find myself back in Red Hook, I find myself back at Hardeman Orchards. John and I started talking in August and he told me that he needed somebody to manage his stand for the fall. Hmmmm.......

My plate certainly felt full at the time, but the more I thought about it, the more I knew it would be impossible for me to refuse. The stand needed some love after a couple seasons of neglect. It has immeasurable potential with it's location and it's beauty, and I couldn't resist the challenge. Plus Joe and I would be needing a market for our vegetables - and more than likely some land to grow our vegetables.

So the first weekend in September I started my second job. Every Saturday and Sunday (and sometimes Friday) you can now find me at the stand, selling apples, peaches, plums, peppers, tomatoes, mums, bread, donuts, jams, eggs, and whatever else we can get our hands on to sell.
You'll see Joe there quite a bit too - he's done a lot of clean up work and some painting, and he has quite an eye for the strategic placement of mums in order to encourage patronage at our stand. :)

So far it's been a lot of work, but incredibly satisfying. Every weekend the stand gets a little bit better and sales get a little bit higher. It's awesome to be interacting with people and getting a better sense of the market for local food in the area. It's also great to be able to put some of my food knowledge together with some of my business knowledge to try to create a successful business for a good friend.

Needless to say, this job together with my bookkeeping work ends up filling up my week, leaving me with little time for our garden. We didn't get around to planting many fall crops, but do still have the goal of planting garlic, spinach, and lots of greens to keep in cold frames over the winter. We'll do the best we can and what we don't do this year, we'll just put on the list for next year.

The summer garden is definitely starting to wind down. We still have tomatoes, but we've sort of abandoned the cherry tomatoes. Joe started letting the chickens into the tomato garden to let them eat all the rotten ones on the ground and start cleaning it up. They sure do a good job of it- I managed to get a bunch of sweet corn from the farm stand right at the end of the season. I took several dozen ears to put up for the winter -

I think I'm about out of vegetables to preserve - which is good, because I am also out of steam for the whole process. It's a lot of fun but it does tend to make you look at the garden as a chore rather than a blessing for a little while.

All in all, we're both just starting to get settled in for the winter. Joe's been spending a lot of time chopping wood to keep us warm. The days are getting shorter and we're spending more time at home in the evenings, reading and catching up on things that have been neglected for the busy summer. We'll start to make our winter travel plans as well as our plans to attend the winter organic gardening conference. I can honestly say that I have never in my life looked forward to winter as much as I am this year - it will definitely be a well earned rest. But don't exect the blog to end! I'm sure there will always be something to write about... it's the nature of our lives.

A Year Ago Today...

September 17, 2007 -

Eating Our First Chicken

September 10, 2008 - Round two for today. Our move isn't the only thing going on these days. There's quite a bit of other stuff for me to share with you today too.

You know by my title that we ate one of our chickens. No, we did not just decided we wanted to taste our little feathery friends. Two days ago one of our chickens was found lying in the yard with a hole in its side - clearly injured. At the time, we didn't know what had gotten to it, but since it was suffering, Joe killed it. A few hours later, a fox was seen wandering through our yard. Pretty strange for the town of Red Hook and there was suspicion that it could possibly have been rabid.

Needless to say, we couldn't let a good chicken go to waste. The fox hadn't eaten any of it - it seemed to have been scared away by something. So Joe plucked the chicken, gutted it, and last night we ate it for dinner (after confirming that it's okay to eat a chicken that was bitten by a possibly rabid fox). I am SO mad that I didn't think to take pictures before this stage because Joe did an excellent job cleaning it - but here he is diggin in to one of our little babies -

This was my first time eating something that I have raised from a baby and it's an interesting thing. On one hand, it was the most satisfying thing in the world. On the other hand, you do tend to picture the living, breathing, clucking thing as you're chewing it, which can be slightly awkward. As for the taste - it tasted like chicken alright, but there were some differences. The legs were extremely chewy - these birds run around A LOT compared to your typical broiler from the grocery store. So she had some serious muscle going on in the legs. But the breast was delicious - juicy, tender, really good. Here's a picture of the bird - a little late, since we had already sliced a bunch off her, but just to give you an idea.

The other thing that was cool about it is that since this was a laying hen, she had a bunch of unformed eggs inside of her. I had seen these before at the farmers market where they sell them in bags. But I never imagined how many there would be. There were big ones, but then there were tons of tiny little ones. They just look like little egg yolks. And yeah, they're tasty too.

Anyhow, the other big thing keeping me from regular blog posting is food preservation. Tomatoes never quit apparently. We've got them coming out our ears and I'm totally sick of them. It wouldn't be so bad if it were all big tomatoes, but it's the cherry tomatoes that we're really loaded down with. I can't do much with them, so all I've come up with is to wash them, cut them in half, squash them down with a masher, and boil them down a bit. Then freeze. I did try this out as a sauce one night and it was pretty tasty, even with the seeds. I have about 10 of these in the freezer at this point. By the end of the season we should never have to buy tomato sauce again.

Because I've also been canning the big ones. With these I do the real deal - peal, seed, dice, boil, and can. Here's a couple jars boiling in the water. And since I'm on the kick I've been going a bit crazy with peaches too. The first time I did peaches I made honey spiced peaches - delicious for a winter dessert. The second time around I just canned them plain, although I used a honey/sugar combo for the syrup. I just tend to think that honey is a little healthier for us. Here are the spiced peaches -I just got finished with another food preservation day today. First, since we had the chicken the other night, I boiled the carcass to produce about 17 cups of chicken stock, which is now in the freezer in various sized containers. Then I blanched and froze 6 cups of sweet corn. And finally, I made 3 batches of pesto from our very own basil. The freezer is already starting to fill up, and I'm just getting good at this stuff! I feel like a squirrel, stocking up for winter and I love it!

Fortunately for me, since I'm running out of hours in the day, some things will keep all on their own. Here is our squash harvest curing in the sun, which should now keep for months if we put it down in the cellar -

We harvested our first eggplant the other day as well. There are only two more out there now - it wasn't a great eggplant year for us apparently. It may not have been hot enough. Or the soil wasn't good. Who knows. I'll be spending the winter figuring out what went wrong this year, why it went wrong, and what to do differently next year. But here's what we DID get and it was super delicious -
The zucchini plants got some sort of disease and/or pest and so we sort of decided to abandon them. We picked everything and then Joe let the chickens in there to have at whatever was in there and dig up the soil. Here's them doing their thing -

Turns out they did a pretty nice job cleaning things up. We're even starting to get some new little zucchini forming!

All in all, we're still eating a lot from our garden. We still have tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, broccoli, cabbage, basil, swiss chard, collard greens, beets, ground cherries, carrots, green beans, and lettuce. We need to plant more lettuce so that we can put cold frames up around it and eat it all winter. The gardening never ends!!!