Garden season over, winter’s coming
As our 2012 garden season has come to a close, it’s now time to concentrate on getting ready for winter. Around here, winter can arrive in a heartbeat.
The hay is all in place, over $7000 for the the 7 blocks this year. At that price, we bit the bullet and invested in a professional hay tarp. We had the hay all put into one place this year, since we have the tractor to move bales. We’re also installing gates at each access road.
So far, we’ve pretty much dismantled the gardens, except for some parsnips, beets, turnips, cauliflower and cabbage. We had a hard freeze on the 5th, and that pretty much took care of the garden.
We’re adding a “storage container” to our little farm. That will allow us to properly store our garden and farm tools someplace other than in “Mom’s garage”. That has meant clearing a large area of loose sand and tumbleweed, and moving stuff (including an old truck) so the big truck has enough room to make the correct turns, and back into the spot for the container.
The horses are all gone. We put down the one gal that had eye cancer, and then gave the other two to our neighbor’s grandson. He’s great with horses. The day he came to load them, it only took about an hour to get them into the trailer. Not bad, considering Dusty (the gelding) had only been trailered once (and he didn’t have pleasant memories, having been gelded, vaccinated, and hooves trimmed), and Dakota had never been in a horse trailer.
This past weekend, we put the ram in with the ewes, and the buck in with the nanny goats. In about 5 months, we should have lambs and kids popping out all over the place.
A month or so ago, we took our “old cow” to the butcher. She was 4 years old (had 8 teeth), and didn’t breed last year. After the younger heifer presented us with a beautiful heifer calf, the old gal was “excess inventory”. She’s in the freezer now, and the steaks and burger are absolutely awesome. Except for her poor confirmation, her meat would grade out at prime or better. We got 452# of meat, nearly a freezer full.
We also hatched 11 chicks in September and they (along with their mothers) have moved to the “grow-out pen”. Soon we’ll put their mothers back into the big coop, leaving the youngsters to grow. First one that crows is a Sunday dinner. Any others that crow will seal their fate, too.
Over the winter, watch for “farm tales”, stories about the Four Country Gals living their dreams. They’ll be here on the blog, so will still be doing more “re-arranging”.
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Categories: Certified Organic Garden, Do it yourself time, Horses, Sheep, Uncategorized Tags: beef, certified organic garden, eggs, farm, goats, home-raised meat, lambs
Rain or shine, we’re at the Cedar City Farmer’s Market
That’s right… we’re really fair weather farmers. After all, we live on a desert, and the sun nearly always shines. Except for today… it’s raining on the Cedar City Farmer’s Market, but thanks to our canopy we will be there.
We’re bringing some new stuff… eggplant, potatoes, spearmint, leeks, rosemary.
Of course we’ll have Swiss Chard, turnips, beets, crookneck squash, onions (yellow, scallions, red), and great big bunches of Sweet Basil.
Are you ready to make some pesto? We’ve got you covered with extra large bunches of basil.
We’ll also have a limited supply of Mom’s Hen House Fresh Brown Eggs.
See you there!
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- fresh eggs cedar city
We’re between crops!
So sorry, we won’t be at the Cedar City Downtown Farmer’s Market this week.
We’re between crops. Our summer crops are pretty much finished, and our fall crops aren’t quite ready.
So, what’s in the fall crops?
We’ll have leeks, turnips, tomatillos, more beets, and more squash. Also, we may have some potatoes. They’re pretty popular with Mom, so will only bring what she doesn’t want. Oh, and our tomatoes are finally ripening.
Watch for new recipes, as we’ll also have plenty of green tomatoes.
With the high price of pork, we have the best deal going. Order your winter pork from us. We hand-raise your hog with high quality natural foods. Your hog is sheltered from rough weather and carefully fattened for your freezer.
Cost of your whole hog is $425 (plus about $110 for cut and wrap). That makes your finished pork cost an average of $4.25 per pound.
Compare that with bacon at $6.99 and chops running anywhere from $4.99 up.
If you’d prefer a 1/2 hog, your price is $225 (plus about $55 cut and wrap). Still an awesome deal.
To order, call us at 868-3024 and be sure to get on our “Custom Meat Program” Mailing list.
Fresh Organic Produce: What to do with it
Our produce is coming on fast now. This week we’ll be adding yellow crookneck squash to the inventory. That’s on top of turnip greens, beets/greens, zucchini and blossoms, radishes, chard, basil, flat-leaf parsley, green onions, fresh yellow sweet onions, shallots and garlic.
Each week I write new recipes for you, our Cedar City Farmer’s Market customer. After all, why would you buy something and not have an idea of how to prepare it?
I’ve found a resource that will help you even better than my simple recipes. You can never have too many cookbooks, but you can have a favorite… and I believe this one will make the cut.
It covers all kinds of exotic vegetables typically raised by organic produce farmers. While it would be great if we farmers raised only what you wanted to eat… but I think that would be pretty limiting.
For example, here at Four Country Gals, if we raised only what we like, we would be raising potatoes, corn, raspberries, green beans, strawberries, broccoli and brussels sprouts. Oh, and beef that provided steaks and hamburgers.
With all the goodies you find at the market, you’ll find this resource the perfect complement in your kitchen. This is a brand new book, having been published just this year. If you’d prefer to read it on your Kindle, no problem, just follow the links once you’ve clicked on the image to the left.
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Categories: Certified Organic Garden Tags: certified organic garden, Farmer's Market, organic vegetables, produce
