Some businesses save the first dollar bill they make. I like going into mom-and-pop shops and seeing these trophies framed on the wall by the cash register. Well, this week I’ve received my first letter of appreciation from a CSA member, and to me that feels like the first profit for our little farm business. So I’m posting it here in an act of gratefulness and real exhilaration. continued »
At our little farm this week, our minds are on fall as we plant plot after plot of the prickly winter squash plants we started in cold frames late May. But this week’s harvest is all about the last tastes of spring. Sweet shell peas and crisp scallions. Baby beets and skinny carrots. Here’s what we packed for the CSA boxes delivered today. continued »
The temperature on my car today read 97. But weather.com says we’re only at 87 with a heat index of 92. However you look at it, it’s hot. Miserably hot. Luckily, super-sweet chocolate mint is in full swing in the herb garden, and the weather is perfect for delicious Cuban Mojitos. Give these a try on some sweltering summer afternoon. continued »
Bauble has done it. Climbed, or tumbled, really, out of the storage-shelf nest where her mother carried all five kittens a few weeks ago. Now she follows mama Globule, whom she looks almost exactly like, around the garage fighting wool bunnies and scary shadows and the legs on chairs all day long. continued »
Yesterday morning I headed out to the pig pen to check on my little Hero, and found a great big boar piglet dead in the middle of the grass. Not squished and no injuries that I could see. Just dead. continued »
Hero has returned to his herd. Or litter, more correctly. (Baby pigs are a litter, grown pigs are a herd.) He’s still limping and could certainly develop an infection at any time, but he’s so strong and mighty, I didn’t feel it made sense to keep him inside any longer. Piggy Lou gave him a good sniffing, licked his little pink bum a few times, checked out my messy stitching job, and proceeded to gather him into her mud hole with the rest. continued »
We’ve got a house pig. I found little Hero this afternoon limping around between his mama’s protective legs. Piggy Lou was keeping a close eye on him because something was odd with his left front hoof and he wouldn’t put pressure on the leg. I internally debated whether or not to intervene and suddenly things went very wrong… continued »
Piggy Lou is anxiously presiding over a squirming pile of greedily nursing piglets tonight, after a very long day of delivering babies in her back garden shelter. She started sometime late morning, and didn’t stop until there were nine lined up along her amply endowed tummy of teats. The last showed up after 5 pm. continued »
Tomorrow, June 14, is Piggy Lou’s earliest possible due date. Which means three months, three weeks and three days from the afternoon her boar-friend Kong moved into the back garden Love Shack. That’s the average gestation for a sow. Of course, she could really be due anytime in the next month, since we have no definitive way of knowing when she actually got pregnant. We just know she is. Very, very pregnant, poor darlin’. We hope for her sake those piglets come soon. continued »
This is another terrific recommendation from Brad Farris, a Chicago small business consultant and adventurous cook. It calls for collards, but since ours were eaten down by the chickens (they must have been good -more to come in summer), we’re recommending you try them with turnip, beet or spinach greens. continued »
