Search

Agrarian Harvest

Wholesome, Organic, Experience. Our small farm, food, and simple life.

Open Search
Author

Agrarian Harvest

We started in 1988 raising laying hens and broiler chickens in 4-H. We chose the name of Snake River Poultry at that time. After farming and diversifying in to pork, beef, produce and herbs we changed our name to Agrarian Harvest.

Farm Update

The ducks have grown up, they are probably full grown now. And are still beautiful. We love having them part of our farm life. They have been turned out and are free range ducks now.  Although, they are not taking advantage of the being free range and running the whole property like DSCN7408the chickens do. The ducks are staying in their safe zone we are calling it. They are keeping themselves contained to the back, out behind the yard and around beside the garden. At this point they are so well behaved, they are the favorite animal of the farm. They have access to a ditch and love playing in the water. And we love to hear them splashing around and quacking merrily. They are not laying eggs yet, but are keeping the grass and weeds ate down so I don’t have to do any mowing or weed-eating back there. That means less work for me, they aren’t destroying my yard or garden and they don’t scratch. That makes for a very happy farm wife!

 

DSCN7409
The ducks playing in the water of a shallow waste ditch.

The tomatoes are getting tied up and are full of blooms. We are hoping to have tomatoes by the end of the month. The peppers are blooming and setting. We may have ptying tomatoeseppers very soon. The eggplants are blooming their beautiful purple blooms too. The corn is growing taller and loving the heat we have had. The melons are really sprawling and growing too. We have even seen a few baby melons on a few of the plants. We are looking forward to lots of vegetables and melons.

And, of course, the weeds have gotten away from us and are growing out of control. That is probably how it is going to stay. Weeds have way more energy than we do.

0

Elderly Wisdom & Farming

This farming wife has had a hard time focusing on farming lately. We have been so touched by the elderly around us and their circumstances. I just want to take some time to focus on how to take in every word they say, apply it and cherish every moment with them. We are facing the fact that we may lose one of the dearest people that we have every had the privilege of having a part of our daily lives. Losing this person not to death but to distance. It saddens us greatly to not have this person a part of our daily lives. I know it is a fact of life that people either pass on or move on. But let’s take some time to take their words to heart and learn from them.

 

So we have been told by the elderly that, “The golden years aren’t so golden,” “Don’t wait to have fun until you are retire. Have fun while you are young and can still move,” “Getting old is terrible, don’t get old!” That leaves me wondering . . . . . .  how do we have fun and enjoy life while living this farming life or more like this market gardening dream? It is very labor intensive and requires us to be on the farm or marketing for the farm everyday of the week. We have been trying to take one day a week off to have fun, but that doesn’t allow us time to travel or get very far from the farm. The only answer I have to my own question is to learn to live on less, money isn’t what matters, just enjoy our time together, and don’t put fun activities off until tomorrow or wait for retirement. My vote is to do it now! And make time to visit your grandparents and all the elderly around you. Listen to their stories and advice and take it to heart. They know what they are talking about; they have lived through a lot and experienced more years of life than you have. That makes for a lot of knowledge they are carrying around. What if my generation applied that knowledge now, I think we could live a very enriched fulfilling life. There is a famous quote that I have heard many times, “Wisdom is knowledge applied.” So let’s seek out that knowledge, apply it, and savor the time with the ones around us. Then we can be wise.

0

Best Strawberry Rhubarb Pie & the Crust Failure

This is probably the best pie I have ever made.

strawberry rhubarb pie
Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

The farmer and our son love pies, any kind of pie. The farmer especially likes fruit pies. The problem here is that I stink at making pie crust. By the way, that is hard for me to admit. I’m a bit of a perfectionist, so I will work on something until I perfect it. And I have worked on making pie crust for the last 13 years, I haven’t had one that has turned out or been good. So I tend to stick to graham cracker crust and cream pies, I know it’s not a healthy option, but I can make them and they are good. The problem is that graham cracker crust and fruit pie filling don’t work too well together. And the farmer is a little picky about his pies; he doesn’t want a soggy crust! And he will let me know when things are too soggy, too salty, under cooked, too bland, too anything, the list can go on. However, the one thing he has never commented about is food being cooked too long or too crunchy. He likes food well-done with some crunch to it and I like everything under-cooked and rare.

Anyway, back to the pie. Last year, our son helped make a strawberry rhubarb lattice pie and it was delicious. By the way he made the crust himself last year and it was good. Yaaay, it’s a bit embarrassing, my 8 year old makes better pie crust than I do. So this year, I decided to try it with a graham cracker crust and a crunch topping. And it was amazing!!! Even the farmer loved it!

So here is the recipe:

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

12 graham crackers ( I always use the one without high fructose corn syrups or dyes)             1/4 C Butter                                                                                                                                                          3 1/2 C Rhubarb, chopped                                                                                                                              3 1/2 C Strawberries, hulled and halved if they are large                                                                     1/4 to 1/2 C Sugar, depending how sweet you want it. I always use the least amount so 1/4 C. 1/4 C Cornstarch                                                                                                                                                1 1/2 C Oatmeal                                                                                                                                                 1/4 C Brown Sugar                                                                                                                                             1/4 C Pecans, Walnuts, or nut of your choice

Melt the butter. Crumble the graham crackers and mix with melted butter. Press into a pie plate. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 8 to 10 minutes. I cooked mine until it was dark, overcooked to me, but just right for the farmer. Set aside and let cool.

In a pot, combine the rhubarb, half of the strawberries, sugar and cornstarch. Cook over medium heat until thickens, stirring often. Remove of stove top and stir in the rest of the strawberries. Pour into the prepared pie plate.

For the topping: in a food processor combine oatmeal, brown sugar and nuts. Blend until chopped up or the consistency that you like. Sprinkle on top of pie. Let pie cool and set up, then enjoy! I hope you enjoy this pie as much as we did!

 

 

0

Recipes . . . . Collard Greens

As a farmer’s wife, it is thrilling for me to be able cook meals with ingredients that come directly from our farm. And I love doing it on a daily basis, however, with farming life tends to get really busy when the produce is abundant. We get consumed by task that need to be done on the farm and don’t make time to cook meals from scratch some days. On busy days we come in the house late and everyone is really hungry and tired, we tend to fall back on eggs for our quick and easy go to supper. There are so many ways to cook eggs and it is quick, then we can fall into bed to get some rest.

 

I’m always willing to try new recipes or ways to prepare things and like to experiment with my cooking. The farmer teases me from time to time that our kitchen is more like a lab.  So when I have successful new recipes or favorites I want to share it with you. I may even let you know about some of my failures. I’m wanting to spread my joy of cooking farm fresh food. I’m hoping to share on a regular basis some of our recipes that we use for preparing our produce and meat. We always eat what is in-season and readily available on our farm.

 

So at this time my focus is going to be on collard greens. I’m actually new to growing and eating this leafy green. We have been told it is a southern food. So I turned to our aunt and uncle that lives in Alabama for advice on how to cook these greens.  Tcollard greens 2hey gave me some ways to cook collard greens and I came up with some of my own ideas after search the website for recipes. Then, of course, I didn’t follow any reci
pe exactly. I do my own thing, always do!

 

Here is how we have prepared and ate collard greens so far:

  • Saute in a frying pan with bacon grease, salt, pepper, and chopped green onions and green garlic. Cook them this way on a grill and they will taste even better!
  • Throw them in a soup!  I made my version of Italian Wedding Soup, which involves just cooking sausage (not making meatballs . . . .  that takes too much time) and throwing everything in the pot to simmer. So I used collard green in the soup instead of kale. It was delicious!
  • I  boiled a ham hock with water and chicken broth. Then added sauteed onion, green garlic, salt and pepper. The ham hock simmered for several hours, then about 45 minutes before we wanted to eat I put the collard greens in the pot to simmer. This turned out like a soup, I had lots of broth in the pot. It was very good, the kids even loved it!
  • Cook the collard greens  in a pot with a little chicken broth and onions, season with paprika, salt and pepper; then drop in cornmeal dumplings on top. Put the lid on and steam the dumplings until done. This one is a favorite of our aunt and uncle from Alabama. I have yet to make this but plan to be cooking it up this week, except I plan to add chopped fried bacon to the greens. Yummm!  I will most likely post on our facebook page how it turns out.
  • Substitute them in any recipe you would use kale or cabbage.  They can be tough when ate raw, but I think they make an excellent Cole Slaw salad.

 

I am loving collard greens now! They are so versatile and don’t cook to mush, unless, of course you cook them waaaayyyy too long. Then they can turn to mush.

0

Random Farm Life Thoughts

It has just been so busy with trying to finish up the planting, weeding, watering and harvest that there is just is not enough hours in a day for me to sit and write too. So this week I have some random thoughts that have been floating around my head to share. Yep, apparently, there is lots of empty space in my head for thoughts to float around.

 

  • When chickens are in the yard, scratching in the flower beds, why do they always scratch the wood chips out of bed into the grass and not the opposite direction . . . . further into the bed? Or when they come back to the same spot to scratch again, why not scratch the chips back into the bed? Clean up after yourselves chickens!
  • Why are ducks faster growing than broiler chickens? The don’t loose their downy fluff at any time in the growing process while growing feathers either.  And ducks are cute throughout the whole growing process!!
  • It’s amazing that the huge sows have several tiny piglets, are able to communicate to them with grunting sounds, flop down very ungracefully and not smash all the piglets.
  • Why do dogs lay right in front of the door to sleep and then not get up to follow you when someone walks outs? Our great Pyrenees dog lays in front of the door and doesn’t move when you are trying to walk in or out.He so large that I can’t step over him, no, I have to leap over him. He just opens one eye partially, barely lifting his head like he is asking, “Why are you disturbing my sleep?” And I want to ask him, “ Why are you laying in front of the most used door? There are so many other places you could lay on this farm.”

 

There may be answers to these thoughts and questions, but I have not taken the time to find answers. I just wanted to voice my thoughts and ask: Is anyone else thinking the same things?

 

I’ll leave you with one last thought:

Everyday is a day of learning and growing. Make the most of it.

0

Harmful or Helpful?

At planting time last year, we were amazed at all the earthworms and had to do a little research on them. We still a lot of earthworms; large, medium, and many babies. This Spring we have been seeing Armadillidida or commonly known as roly polys or pill bugs everywhere on our farm and lots of them. These “bugs” (they really aren’t bugs; keep reading and I’ll go further in-depth on that) have always been fun to find for the kids. They love seeing roly polys roll up when touched, which is a defense mechanism, then wait for them to unroll so they can touch them again and sometimes roll them around the palm of their hand.

 

We are seeing a whole lot more roly polys than we have in the past. So, of course, this lead to a little research project. Part because we love learning and part because we were wondering if they were beneficial or are they going to be pest. We were quite happy to learn that they are beneficial and help with the decomposing process. They eat decaying plant and animal material. We provided the organic matter and now they have moved in to help with the breaking down of the organic matter, to increase our soil fertility. Hurrah! We read that they could feed on seedlings and plant roots, but tend to eat decaying material when it is available. We have a lot of decaying plant material available and have not had any problems with them feeding on plant roots or seedlings. There are thousands in the cold frame where we have greens growing and started all of our seedlings. They haven’t kill any seedlings.

 

It was also quite interesting to learn that they are actually not a bug, they are a land crustacean and are related to shrimp. They like dark moist places and have gill-like structures used to breath, but can’t live underwater. They don’t urinate, but instead release an ammonia gas through their exoskeleton. And they shed their exoskeleton as they grow. The back half sheds first, then the front half. The females carry their eggs and newly hatched babies in a special pouch before they start crawling out to walk on their own. Huh. . . . the things we learn through hand-on activities and work with curious minds questioning everything! This little organic piece of Earth we live on just amazes us! 

0

The Anticipated Season is Upon Us

It feels like all we do this time of year is plant, plant, plant . . . . .  and there is still more to plant. We are nowhere near done planting. This week has thrown other events into our schedule and has interrupted our planting rhythm. We are entering into our market season. So our weekly schedule and rhythm will be changing from a spring planting routine to our summer plant, weed, harvest, market routine. It may sound like a lot and, honestly, some days it feels like a lot. And then other days there is not enough to do, but that has not been the case this week. 

 

It has been a very busy week or at least it feels busy compared to our spring planting routine. We had our organic inspection, which started a day before it was scheduled and lasted into the next day. That was a ridiculously long and drawn out process for the small acres and production that we do. In the middle of our inspection, we had our broiler chicks and ducklings arrive a day early. And now we are getting ready for the first Twin Falls Farmers’ market on Saturday, and then there is more planting. Please nobody call and tell us the market is going to be on Friday instead of Saturday. Everything has been happening a day early this week and it feels a bit like a nightmare. As long as today is actually Friday and not Saturday, then we are pretty excited about this first farmers’ market. We planned better this year and have more produce ready for the market. We will have a lot of kale, lettuce, spinach, arugula, along with rhubarb, green garlic, green onions, radishes, herbs, eggs, salad dressings,  handmade soap, and laundry detergent.

20160505_161817

In the previous paragraph, I mentioned ducklings. Yes, we now have ducklings! Ducks are our experiment for this year. We are going to try to raise khaki cambell ducks, they are suppose to be good layers. We are all very happy and excited, especially me. Beside the fact that they are the cutest little poultry critters ever! They don’t scratch like chickens (yes!!!) and are excellent foragers. I think the ducks are going to go over very well with the family and become a permanent part of our farm. I will keep you updated on the ducks throughout the summer.  I’m confident this duck project will be much more successful than our garlic and sweet potato projects were last year.  

0

Low Tunnels

We are getting the low tunnels up and cool weather produce transplanted in the field. We decided to use low tunnels this year to extend our growing season, being able to plant earlier and then to allow our produce to grow later into the fall. Although, this spring has been warmer than usual and so far have not needed the low tunnels covered. We only have one row covered, thinking we would not need to cover them this spring since the temperature has been warm and staying about normal. Then last night it freezes. But so far all the plants have tolerated the frost and are doing fine.

The low tunnel technique seems to work well and we are very excited to be using them. This will allow us to be way more productive, which makes life a whole lot less stressful and allows us to laugh more often. We have started thousands of cool weather tolerant plants like broccoli, cabbage and kale in the cold frame several months ago and are now able to plant them outside. This frees up space in the cold frame for thousands of more seeds to be started of our later season plants like tomatoes and peppers. This has allowed us to start thousands of more seeds than in previous years. We are getting them planted in a timely manner and in stages. This makes us feel so much more efficient. We are so excited about this growing season.

DSCN7319

0

Spring Greens

The salad greens are thriving in the cold frame. We are very excited to be eating salad on a regular basis again! (Pictured is a mix of spring mix lettuce, arugula, and spinach.)

DSCN7355

The curly kale overwintered in the field and is growing. I love putting this kale in our smoothies. The kids even drink the smoothies. These green smoothies are becoming our go-to afternoon snack once again. We absolutely love this time of year when everything is greening up and starting to grow! We’ve even been going out into the yard and harvesting dandelion leaves to eat and for tea. It is simply that time of year when all greens are appealing!

DSCN7351

We sell all greens individual,  request a mix or buy a CSA share or half share and you won’t miss out on any of our produce.

Produce                                                                       Produce CSA

 

0

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑

%d bloggers like this: