Sunday, sunday

While Craig and Willa were away from the farm for the afternoon last Sunday Olivia, Gabe, and I took a walk in the woods to see what's up. Having picked ramps for a number of years now, hearing the chef from L'Etoile in Madison earlier in the week on WPR raving about the ramps now available in southwest WI prompted a check to see if we might be able to harvest some of these wild leeks (or wild garlic as they are also called). They are up and growing but the edible bulbs are pretty puny yet. We just let them be for now.

We were delighted to find an abundance of spring flowers in bloom. Above is spring beauty, also known as "fairy spuds" because of their starchy, edible roots. (As an aside on this: if you are interested in a guide to identifying, harvesting, and preparing edible wild plants we would like to suggest Samuel Thayer's The Forager's Harvest. Sam lives in Wisconsin and offers foraging workshops.) The eight petaled white flower is bloodroot, so named for the red orange juice in the stems and roots used by many cultures as a dye and insect repellent. Below is the yellow trout lily. "Trout" because of the mottled leaves resembling the coloring of the brown trout. Missing is the photo of the common dandelion. Those who chronicle such things have remarked that the dandelions made an uncommonly early appearance this year: in the southern parts of the state some 7 weeks earlier than is usual. While not quite that precocious here in central Wisconsin, wild flowers and birds are ahead of schedule here as well.




And...up in our garden and seen below: the garlic. Our garlic beds took a beating when a couple cows decided to break through the garden fence and take a stroll through the garden. Aggravating, but not irreparable.



Other new faces at Ninepatch this week: Broiler chicks who will spend the first couple weeks of their lives under the warmth of the brooder. These birds are the first in a succession of 9 batches that will arrive every two weeks over the spring and early summer and will be incredibly fresh when seen at the farmer's market on June 12th.

So where were Craig and Willa? At Lapp's in Reeseville, WI. They returned home late in the afternoon on this sunny Sunday with bees. While we had been successful in overwintering a large percent of our bees, we needed to supplement our colonies. Here you see Craig installing bees into one of 14 hives he keeps. The next day a check revealed bees with pollen on their legs in the hives. They had gone right to work!

Included in the week's activities here in the town of Hamburg was a visit from our son, Dylan and his wife, Joanna. Always ready to go to work, they put their energy into Joanna's idea of ferreting out some of the scrap metal laying about the farm, loading it onto the pick-up truck and trailer and seeing if, in the process of beautifying the farm, they might also make a profit. They did both!

Spring Break

Over 30 years of parenting we have sometimes heard the complaint that while others spent "spring break" in Mexico or Florida, we always stayed at home and worked. It's true. So spring break 2010 arrives and what do our oldest children decide to do? Come home and volunteer to work! Painting our egg-mobile was an excuse to spent an unusually warm late March afternoon in the sunshine. Essentially a camper on wheels for our emancipated travelers ( our Rhode Island red hens and their men), the egg-mobile provides a place to roost overnight protected from predators as well as straw lined nest boxes on both sides to lay eggs in. These boxes are accessible from the outside for easy egg collection. Soon, new refurbished, it will be moved out to pasture as our hens range free for spring, summer, and fall. Seen here are 1 of 9 and 2 of 9: Seth and Emmy. Both married and parents themselves.

Another daughter, Camille(3 of 9), came home from college and made a couple batches of milk-based soap. A book brought home from the library about 10 years ago about soap-making started a younger daughter, Hannah (5 of 9), on this enterprise. She marketed her soaps under the label Middle Sister Soaps...being the middle sister in our 9 children. Hannah is also in college now, but Camille continues to put together these soaps. The soap in the mold above is mint.

These bars of lavender soap are on the curing rack for 6 weeks. They'll be ready in time to grace our table at the farmer's market in May...those bars that are not snatched for the personal use of family members at home and away.

Even the little ones had some project they wanted to do while at the farm. Before breakfast one morning (notice Pip's pj's) Grandpapa and Piper planted some Chocolate Mint cuttings from mama Emmy's home garden in Stoughton. Eventually, dried leaves from these plants will make a delicious tea.

Speaking of breakfast...at Ninepatch this frequently means eggs. We are very happy to note the return of the bright orange yolks and the more intense flavor in our eggs since they are free-ranging on the grass in the sunshine once again.

Another small, but significant milestone passed the week of spring break: the return of the rain gauge to its place in the herb garden (albeit very weedy herb garden). Farming has taught us the reason that folks discuss rainfall so passionately. Our grass-based farm depends on rain, and good snow cover in the winter. And it is dry, very dry this spring. We were glad to have a couple of showers in recent days. This frosty morning followed those too-good-to-be-true temperatures we experienced on spring break.

And, of course, taking time to hold a grandbaby on each knee is top priority. Calder on the left, Sylvee on the right.

Hints of spring

While we've been busy perusing seed catalogs, watching the auction bills, attending grazing conferences, and doing a bit of home remodeling spring has gently blown in with a spate of sunny and warm days. Witness! the first pussy willow bouquet!

This may not look like much to you, but it is looking to us like rhubarb mousse in weeks to come. Those small curls of rosy red and pale green are the rhubarb just beginning to unfold from beneath its bed of composted manure. This sighting was made on Sunday, March 14th. Garlic and asparagus have not yet shown themselves. The next morning, the 15th, a small flock of Canada geese flew over our farm. As is usual, they were heard first, then sighted. They must be the scouts for larger flocks to come.

Here's the spring view of the cattle yard. It's muddy to say the least, but here the Galloways must stay until the pasture is ready for them. To put them out now would do tremendous damage to our carefully managed pastures until the frost is out and the grass has reached a height of 6 or more inches. You can see what just moving the tractor and hay wagon over the grass does in the foreground.

Of course, like everyone else, we look for reasons to be out in the sunshine...even raking. The snow melt revealed wood chips from loading fire wood into the basement wood room all fall and winter as well as ALOT of gravel from the drive that was pushed into the lawn along with the snow by the snowplow.

Time to move the cold frame into place on the south side of the house. Here seedlings will be nursed along until it is safe to transplant them into the garden. This one was made from scrap wood and recycled windows. So far what's up are onions and leeks.

And, last but not least, we did not wish to waste a breezy and sunny day by not putting a load or two of clothes on the lines. The solar clothes dryer: dry, great smelling clothes for free!!

winter work on the farm

Is it lunch? Or breakfast? It might be a mid-afternoon snack. Meet one of the hardy souls that overwinter here at Ninepatch. This young fellow is one of the bull calves born in 2009 right here on the farm. Our purebred Galloway cattle, a heritage breed originally from Scotland, are wonderful animals to "out-winter" because they grow a long, shaggy coat much like a buffalo.

For those of you who enjoy a Ninepatch burger or steak, those scrumptious meals are more than two years in the making. That means each steer spends two winters here at Ninepatch. Of course, green grass is a scarcity from first frost till sometime in May, so these 100% grass fed animals enjoy grass harvested in peak summer months, baled, and fed overwinter. Here you see the yeoman cutting the wrap off a large round bale readying it to be dropped into the feeder.

And into place the bales fall as everyone moves up to the lunch counter. Notice the color variation in the cattle. Galloways can be red, black or dun in color. The first bull we ever owned was a red bull and we still enjoy seeing his genetics appear in calves several generations later.