Long over due post.

Well hello! It has been awhile and I am really sorry. Things have been a little crazy here. Trying to keep up with weeds, kids, rabbits, herbs and produce. There are a lot of new and exciting things happening.

As you all know we have been trying to up our rabbit stock. We recently got 2 different sets of new additions. The first was a group that had been together for awhile. They had already been bred a few different times. We got 8 does and 3 bucks in
that group.







The second group was a group of 3. 2 does and 1 buck. They had belonged to an older couple and they had cages that they moved along the ground. Which comes to my next statement of we have finally started grazing our rabbits. The cages that move along the ground are called "tractors." It is kind of the same scenario as a "chicken tractor." We have had numerous questions and comments as to what a chicken tractor is. We have had every response from "a rabbit riding a tractor" to "a cage painted the color of a John Deere." Yes they sound silly, but to a non-farmer, some statements such as "chicken tractor" tend to get the mind wandering. That is what I love about farming, is there always something more to learn and something new coming out everyday in technology, ideas and products.

So after introducing them all to our rabbit "herd," we needed to revamp, reorganize and relabel. We are starting to fill up the barn. It looks pretty nice. It is very exciting for us because it is getting us closer and closer to our goal. Which means it also gets us closer to having as much rabbit available a week as demanded by our customers.

Julianna chillin while we pick herbs.

Eric Jr helping daddy with water bottles for the rabbits.

Of course in the mean time we get great pictures and teach our children how to farm. We are starting them young, but Eric Jr is loving it. At 2 years old he knows how to steer the tractor wherever it needs to go. He drives daddy to the barn and to feed the cows. He is excited every morning to wake up and go do chores. Now we know this will not last long, but we are taking advantage of it. It is great to see the absorption of knowledge in a little man like him. So hyper and full of energy and life, it amazes me at how much he loves to do this! He is our dirt boy. He walks out to the house and is completely covered in dirt. Sometimes I wonder where it comes from. And of course his sister is following right in his footsteps. She gets just as dirty and into everything that she can get her little hands on. She loves to follow her brother around and he loves to entertain her.

She was making sure we did it right!

Next topic is herbs. We have been revamping our dried herb line throughout the years. We first started in putting our dried herbs in plastic bags. Then we discovered that they sold better in shaker bottles. So we tested that out for a season and now have tried to completely revamp everything into those shaker bottles and find new and exciting combinations and herbs to place in them. We just recently got an account with Cornell Orchards. Which if you have purchased fruit from us before you would know that we generally get 90% of our fruit from them. Including the absolutely loved donut peaches! So if you are in need of our dried herb shakers and cannot get to market or there isn't a market before you absolutely need it, you can go to Cornell Orchards to get it!

Eric Jr helping me put the Lime Basil in the box.

She loved the color, or was it the taste?

The herbal teas and salves that I have been talking about are being put on the back burner for now in order for us to catch up and produce the amount of herb shakers we need to fill our orders. Ideas are still running through my head as to what mixes to make and herbal teas would be good for soothing, cooling and overall well being. I am still continually researching and learning about the properties of every herb. The cautions and the reasons behind the salves, teas and mixtures.

The rest has been a little mumbo jumbo. The stand is now being filled with fruit, and produce. We have tons of tomatoes coming on! The heirlooms look gorgeous! And taste even better! Peaches have been in. We are getting peaches from Cornell Orchards. Our first batch was Starfire.

We also got apples last week from Cornell Orchards. I cannot believe it is apple season already. This summer has flown. I think it was because spring took forever to get here, or maybe because we have been so busy I haven't had time to figure out what day of the week it is.

Herbs

Herbs

And more herbs.

Mom and Dad pickin tomatoes.
She got the first tomato this year!  I will get it next year though!
Hehehe!!!!

  Well, I won't keep you any longer, I am hoping to get back in the routine and writing. But for now I hope you enjoy the photos and the update.

Busy, Busy, Busy

I am writing this post at 11:45 pm because this is about the only time that I have a clear mind with no children crying, no phones ringing, no commotion. It is just me, the fans and silence. Ahhhhh......

So on to the subject at hand.

Things are hopping on the farm. Rabbits are ready for butcher. We have 20 Rabbits ready to be bred this week. Which means we should have quite a few right behind this batch.

We are revamping the stand, clearing the plants and bringing in the produce! We currently have had plums, tomatoes, potatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, costata romanesca zucchini, Garlic (Italian red, Carpathian, and Music).

We have had more fruit and produce at Otsinigo market.

The fruit from Cornell has started coming in. We had the Shiro plums, now we have Shiro plums and Methley plums. When we talked to Cornell Orchards last week they said that we would probably have Donut peaches, and the beginning of the NY Peaches for the next Otsinigo Market.

By the way, Otsiningo Marketers remember that there is no Otsiningo Market this weekend because of Spiedie Fest. But we will return the weekend after that.

For Ithaca Marketers, we are starting to have a steady flow of rabbits. We also are waiting for the tomatoes to turn red, they are so close. As soon as they start turning red they are flowing towards market!

Our herb bunches are starting. Last weekend we took Basil, Lemon Basil and Sage to Otsiningo Market. And we took Basil and Purple Basil to Ithaca market. This week we should have all of that at Ithaca market and possibly a few more. Tarragon is looking nice so we will possibly be having some bunches of those this weekend.

I just got done hanging 64 bunches of herbs (Basil, purple basil, tarragon, mint, sage, lemon basil and  lime basil). I de-stemmed the marjoram that was already dry and put it in it's storage containers. I will be grinding some tarragon and stevia hopefully tomorrow. Then I will start putting in containers and getting them packaged to sell.

I have been making some teas and making the family taste test them so I can figure out what we should make.

I made a Lemongrass and Stevia tea which Mom K, Eric and my mom liked. They all said it could use more stevia though.

I made a Lemongrass, Rosemary and Thyme tea which was very strong. I liked it. Mom K. said the rosemary was too strong, Dad said the rosemary was too weak. Eric was indifferent on it and my mom really didn't like it at all.

Dad also tried the lemonbalm tea bag that I made up and the Calendula tea bag. He said that the Lemonbalm was not strong enough and that the Calendula was not strong enough. He is a strong tea drinker. He uses 2 tea bags when someone would normally use 1. So I knew he would say they were weak.

For me the Calendula I thought tasted great. It was weak and I said that I needed to make sure that I put more in there. The lemonbalm was just right for me. The Lemongrass/Stevia was very strong for me. The Lemongrass/Rosemary/Thyme tea was delicious. I did think that the Rosemary or the Thyme was too strong and I needed to do a little less because you couldn't really taste the lemongrass in it. So I am going to play with those a little more.

I had planned on taking some Iced tea to market last weekend but my concotions did not turn out the way I had hoped. Hopefully by the next market we will be able to have something.

Obviously field maintenance is a must right now. Eric is planning on getting into the field to get between the rows tomorrow. We are also moving rabbit cages down by the barn for the rabbits we still have outside.

There is a lot to do herb wise and I am not sure where to start at this moment. I am going Wednesday to buy some muslin so that I can start making the herbal pillows. I am very excited to start doing those. Any input would be greatly appreciated on those.

I am trying to get the dried herbs packaged and ready to go because Iron Kettle Farm and Stoughton's Farm have both agreed to carry our herbs. And their busy season is coming right up. I want to make sure we have them there before they start to get busy.  Marlo from Garden Gate is also going to be taking our dried herbs as soon as I have them ready.

So tomorrow I will be spending the day, grinding, packaging, printing labels and labeling. Hopefully to get some stock piled for sale. The herbs are coming in great so hopefully I can keep up.

There are probably many other things to write about, but it is 12:10 pm and I am going to go to bed. Lots to do tomorrow....need my beauty sleep : )

Herbs galore!

I need to get some more batteries for my camera, but I went walking through the herb field last night and was astonished at how well the herbs look. They are nice and bushy big and green! Except for the purple basil :) that is dark purple! They look amazing.

We will be bringing herb bunches to market this weekend. Otsiningo and Ithaca Market.

We got our tea bags in the mail yesterday so today I will be working on putting our first sets of tea bags together. Is there any specific types of teas you would like to see?

We also purchased our Iced tea dispenser as well hoping it arrives before market Saturday at Otsiningo. Today I am mixing some Lemongrass, Rosemary and Thyme tea together to make sure that that is the tea we want to serve! We had a customer one of our first years down at Downtown Binghamton Farmer's Market buy a Lemongrass plant from us. When she came back the next week she informed us that she made Lemongrass Thyme tea and that it was delicious. I was searching for a good recipe online yesterday and found one for Lemongrass, Rosemary, Thyme tea. I am very excited to try it. If it comes out well we will be bringing it to Otsiningo Farmer's Market this weekend!

We will also have more fruit this weekend. We will definitely have Methley plums from Cornell University Orchards.

Methley Plums

Also, Otsiningo Farmer's Market extended their pruchasing distances and now have included PA. So we are hoping to get PA peaches, watermelon, cantaloupe and some other goodies. It is not definite yet, but hopefully the variety is expanding.

I had this whole post thought out and ready to type last night. Then this morning I woke up with a blank slate and couldn't remember what I was going to post!

Market this week was great! We sold out of Sweet Corn again. It lasted us a little bit longer than last saturday. We managed to get enough of the other stuff so that we didn't sell out until market ended.

This week word is we will possibly have PA peaches, cantaloupe, watermelon, tomatoes, and Methley plums. As well as all the stuff we had last week! 

I ordered our first set of tea bags. I am excited to start putting the teas together. We are thinking of bringing our very own herbal Iced tea to market.

The herbs are starting to come on pretty strong. We are planning on having herb bunches at market this weekend! I have been preparing the dried herbs to get ready to go in the shaker containers when they arrive.

We might be getting some much needed rain today! Thank goodness! The field is soooo dry and we use our well and mom and dad's well to water the field. It is definitely starting to take it's toll trying to pump out all that water! Hopefully things start to cool down a little and we get some rain!

YELLOW PLUMS!



This is  what they look like just as they are getting to
the point where they are ripe and ready to eat!



Today is the day we normally make all of our calls to the people we normally buy stuff from. We were going to call Cornell University Orchards to see if the plums were ready yet. But they beat us to it.

As of right now we will be getting the first of many fruits of the season from Cornell Orchards. The Early Yellow Japanese Plum. For those of you that have not had these before, they are amazing. They are sweet and juicy.

The very first year we got them, I was pregnant with Eric Jr. I started eating them and continued to eat them throughout the entire market. They were sooooo good!

The plum is actually called a Shiro plum.

Tasty Tuesday- Chicken Paprikash

This is what it looks like, just served over noodles.
We like to use spiral noodles with it.

Bela, my father-in-law is Hungarian. He makes this dish (Chicken Paprikash.) This is not the recipe he uses. He does not have a specific recipe he just makes it but I think this recipe that I found is pretty close except for he does it on the stove in a pressure cooker. This recipe (from CD Kitchen online) calls for a slow cooker. Either way, it's one of those things where I know that I will never be able to make it the same as he does, but I can tell you it is amazingly delicious. I get very excited and jittery like a child on christmas morning when he makes it!

Either way, this is a varied recipe of a great dish. It is very inexpensive. And I chose this for this week because our next set of meat birds are going to the butcher on Thursday. Which means you could plan to have this this weekend and come buy one of our chickens to make it! : )

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Chicken Paprikash

Ingredients:

1 onion, chopped

1 garlic clove, minced
1 tsp paprika (I recommend the actual Hungarian paprika, it has more flavor to it then your generic paprika.)
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 cup canned chicken broth
1 lb of chicken, cut into thighs, legs, breast)
1 tbsp flour
1/2 cup sour cream
Sprial noodles

In a nonstick skillet, saute onion and garlic for 5 minutes. Stir in paprika, salt and pepper, cook 30 seconds more. Spoon mixture into a slow cooker; add broth.

Add chicken pieces to slow cooker. Cover and let simmer for 5-6 hours.

Stir together flour and sour cream in a cup, stir into chicken mixture. Cover and cook on low until the mixture is thick and hot, about 10 minutes more.

Serve over cooked spiral noodles.

Serves about 4.

Sweet Corn And Raccoons

After I posted in the last post about us not having sweet corn soon. Friday we went to pick up our cherries from Iron Kettle Farm (we store stuff in their coolers), when we got there we saw they were selling sweet corn! We went to talk to Jen and she told us that she would find out if we could get some for Saturday's market. They told us it was early corn yet so it was still a little small but it was good. They said they could get 35 dozen for us. We jumped on the offer.

We took it to market on Saturday and sold out within the first 1 1/2 hours. We were supposed to set aside some for us to eat for dinner and for mom and dad to eat as well. After we were out we realized that we did not set any aside for ourselves or mom and dad. oops! Things were so hectic and crazy saturday.

To those of you loyal customers that came after 11, we are going to try to have more stuff so that you can get some. Sorry that we ran out so early.

For those of you that were around to know that Eric Jr got sick at market, he is doing well. Not sure if it was a virus or just heat exhaustion. He is fine now back to his normal self.



This is not our picture but aren't they cute!



We have a lovely family of raccoons that have made their home right outside of our egg layers chicken coop! The other night the dogs started barking and going crazy and I couldn't see anything out there but I heard these little cries. I thought it might have been a kitten or something outside. Eric went out and looked with the flashlight but found nothing.  Then last night as he was locking the chicken coop up, he saw 3 little baby raccoons (which were adorably cute) in the tree next to the coop. We had seen an adult across the street where our meat birds are, but we haven't seen that one since. But something has been getting into feeders and even in the greenhouse feed bins. They are going for the sunflower seeds.

We set up the live trap tonight to hopefully see if we could catch them and get them out of here. There is lots of State land surrounding us so hopefully if we can catch them we can release them somewhere where they won't come back!

We are nervous with them being around because our very first set of meat birds that we had, 2 raccoons claimed quite a few of our birds. We have the next set of meat birds that are still only 2-3 weeks old, we hope they do not find them and try to get to them. They have walked past them going into the greenhouse if they go in the front entrance. Luckily there are no signs of them trying to get to the little ones but we will not be safe until they are gone!