Picking in the snow...

Tonight when I get home we are going to spend an hour or two picking for market on Saturday. We have Leeks and Parsnips to pull... Problem is, NOT ONLY is it cold, but there is 3 inches of snow left... But if we wait until tomorrow that total may be up to a foot! I may go out then and bank some of the leeks in tight snow, assuming they are OK!

It got pretty cold Tuesday night... it was 17 degrees when I woke up! Thankfully there was snow which acts a protective barrier against extreme cold. My very considerate husband bought me a set of insulated, rubber surfaced gloves... Hopefully next year we will be picking in the snow more often!

Holiday Market - One

Just home from market. It was a pretty good day, although we did not sell nearly as many onions or leeks as we expected. That being said, we sold A TON of parsnips. We didn't have honey, which was our savior last year at the fall market, there was very little honey this year, a testament to the problem with bees.

Maybe next week people will be more likely to buy squash and onions for storage, and people want butternut squashes for the holidays. This week it was kind of dreary and rainy which might of have kept some people away. Hopefully those people will come next week.

We only sold a bushel of onions, we brought 4... But we'll see, I still have hopes next week will see us selling bushels of onions.

We only had 20 bunches of carrots, they sold out (except for 1 bunch) within the first 40 minutes - that last bunch sat on the table until 11ish... One of anything always looks sad... I am sorry we did not plant a couple hundred more feet this fall, but it is on our list for next year.

All and all an OK day at market in sales, and it is always fun to be at market and talk with people... I am looking forward to next week, hopefully it will be even MORE successful, and who knows I may even find time to make honey caramels.

Holiday Farmers Market

Next weekend (WOW is it next weekend already!?!) we will be participiting in the first Holiday Market of the year, held by the countryside conservancy at the Happy Days Vistors Center in Peninsula.

See details here.

Map here.

We will have honey carmels, kale, onions, leeks, butternut squash, and a few other treats all of which will keep for weeks!

We plan on also being at the market on November 22nd.

We hope to see you there!

Leek and poatoe soup...

This is the best fall comfort food! I almost always double the recipe, it is so good.

3 T butter

• melted in a 4 quart sauce pan (larger if doubling recipie)
• add

2 large leeks (the white area cut into thin slices - about 2 cups)

• cook slowly until transparent, stirring often
• add

1 large garlic clove, crushed

• cook for an additional 5 minutes on low stirring offten, not allowing onions to brown
• in the mean time peel

1 pound potatoes

• cut into 3/4" cubes
• add to leeks with

2 - 13 oz cans of chicken broth

• bring to boil and add

1/4 t salt
1/8 t pepper
pinch of celery seeds

• cook until potatoes are soft (about 15 minutes)
  
  Either serve as is
  
  OR
  
  Use a stick blender to puree until smooth (this is how I serve it)

Enjoy.

Missing Pollan...

I am sorry to say that last night I missed Micheal Pollan. How sad.

It has just been one of those weeks. Hubby is back today after being gone for a few days. There was some reason I needed to be home, something I had to do, so I told the friend I was going to go with to give my seat in the car away, I had to bow out.

Then yesterday, my mom's phone stopped accepting incoming calls. Of course she had no idea, so after work I had to run over (after going home to take care of the dog and chickens) to be sure they could call out (which they could). I then spent an hour and a half on the phone with Vonage before they figured out that it was an OHIO WIDE problem... Nice, I first noticed it at 3:30, it is not 6:30 and you are just realizing that no people in Ohio can get incoming telephone calls? (We may be switching phone service soon.) So after trying a couple temporary numbers which did not work they said the problem was "red flagged" and they would fix it in the next couple hours.

So I got home around 7:00, made dinner, straightened up, and sat there relaxing, glad I had not decided to drive to Oberlin. Then around 8:30 I had a sudden thought... THE LEEKS!

That was why I had bowed out. I had promised a local chef I would bring him some of our leeks to try out, I said I would drop them off on my way home from work on Wednesday! That was the "something" I had been supposed to do!

I decided I better get out there now, because it would be just as dark in the morning, colder, potentially snowier, and much earlier! Way to early to pick leeks at 5:30, there is a reason I will never do dairy! So out I treked into the cold, by then it had started the freezing rain... NICE!

So I picked a dozen leeks in the dark and freezing rain, holding a flashlight in between my teeth as I pitchforked them up and tryed to shake some of the mud off them. Then in the cold I washed them with the garden hose and trimmed them. It was 9:10 when I was done, which surprised me because I thought the process took longer then that, I sure felt colder then that...

At least I did not have to do it after getting back from Oberlin at who knows what time. So while I am sad I missed his talk when he was so close (and free!) I am glad I did not go because it was one more thing I did not need...

That thing came when I was falling to sleep at 11:00 and my phone rang an "unavailable" number (I always pick up in case it is something about my ill mom, and in the middle of the night what else could it be.) So my heart was beating as I picked it up, it was Vonage telling me that the problem was still not solved, but they expected to in the next 24 hours... Thanks for waking up me and the dog to tell me that...

I mention my Rottweiler only because if he is disturbed in the middle of the night when hubby is not home he goes on hyper alert and proceeds to bark and growl at any noise ALL NIGHT LONG!!!!

yawn...

More leeks and the first hotdogs...

All I can say is WOW, are there a lot of leeks in a case! A case is 32 bunches, and a bunch is supposed to have 60 leeks, however, many have many more, even after I thinned out all the really thin ones!

Last night hubby repaired my car (my oil sender went bad - whatever that is!) and I was late getting home. So it was about 6:30 before we were ready to go to the field.

It looked like the sky would open up at any moment and it was occasionally spitting as hubby laid under my car in the driveway. (Hoophouse pieces are taking up our garage!)
The sky was so dark and the wind was picking up.

But as we went into the field it cleared and we got 8 more bunches of leeks in (which were not all our leeks, but all those that had been thinned.) So I sat down by the field and started thinning more leek bunches when hubby went up to the house to get some water and something for us to eat.

I got 4 more bunches done before he got back, bearing hot dogs... I wanted to laugh, hot dogs seem to be our standard "can't stop now!" and "gotta get more done" meal for dinner time in the field. For lunch it is fruit and a wrap with hummus and lettuce... But this was the first time last year for hot dogs in the field, but defiantly not the last!

He said it was after 8, we marveled at the beautiful evening, ate our dinner and then put in the 4 bunches I'd sorted... We were inside by 8:40 or so...

And we are not done with our leeks yet! we still have 6 more bunches if you can believe it!

Let me say that it does make it seem like a pretty long day when you work 9.5 hours and then come home and don't stop until almost bedtime, but it is so worth it and honestly, does not feel like "work." If you did not love farming and enjoy being outside there is no way you could do it!

(This photo is not ours, I just wanted to show everyone what a leek start looks like! Thinning them before not only gets rid of the small ones, but lets you pull the roots apart and separate the plants when you are not bent over in the field!)