Category Archives: culture

Mar2

G-Hock and ADUB= REGULATORS…the Bros. Jones too!

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My hands hurt.  This morning I was determined to revamp the ol’ herb bed.  It had been neglected and the crab grass, real name escaping me from sun/ wind whipped brain.  Anywho, the grass, grew great, and was choking out my herbs, so Grace and I used  compost forks and dug the whole thing up and weeded it.  We removed all of the plants and replaced them when we were done.  I split her away from the other work that was being done in the hoop and beyond by the brothers Jones.  I told her, “This will only take us an hour or so.” No one should listen to a word I say…ever.  It took forever.  And the bed isn’t even that large, twenty feet or less.  While we were keeping it real up front, the bros. were in the back planting carrots and kale and laying drip tape.  Busy day, I felt so accomplished and to top it off (by midday), Paul made cilantro pesto for lunch!  He took it to another level folks by blending it with avocado and adding lime…HEAVEN IN THE MOUTH!!!!  Scroll down and get the recipe!  I posted it a few days ago.  The photo of Grace and I in all our glory is currently being held hostage on her cell phone, but here’s a pic of the bros. working their magic.

You’re welcome!

Feb27

Is there such a thing as too much cilantro?

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Around here, we just pulled out what was left of our winter cilantro crop from the smaller hoop house.  I had a grocery sack full of it in the fridge, and i stood gazing at it yesterday just before dinner.  I want to ask you dear reader, what would you have done with it?  The old me, say a few months ago, that me, would have thrown it away.  At that time, I only ate it fresh in soups, salads, and other foods like salsa and burritos etc.  The new and transformed me, made cilantro pesto with it.  Have you ever heard of that?  Have you ever tried it?  OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!  I’m going out on a limb here and saying that I like it more than basil pesto.  Yup, it’s that good, and so easy to make.  If you have a food processor, get to it!

Cilantro Pesto

1 bunch cilantro, fresh (or more if you’re hooked)

5 cloves garlic minced

1/2 cup olive oil

1/2 cup walnuts

1/4 cup parmesan cheese

salt to taste

Put it all in your food processor and whiz it up.  Taste it.  If it doesn’t taste how you want it to, add more salt, or more walnuts, or more cheese, or even more oil.  It’s something you have to work with and design how you like it.  Cook up some of your favorite kind of pasta and add the pesto to the pasta and stir it up.  Serve and enjoy.  It’s totally yum, it would even turn a cilantro hater, like my son into a cilantro lover.

Feb25

Big D has left the building

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Our first WWOOF’er of the season, Mr. Damian Garza, drove off today.  It was hard on everyone.  We were all so tired of each other that fresh meat did us some good around here.  Grace summed it up perfectly, even though she spelled his name wrong, so click here to read about it.  We miss you already D, safe travels.

Feb24

A little here a little there, and all of the in between

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Lots has been going on lately.  So much so in fact, that I’ve been distracted, but fear not dear reader, here’s your update!

Everyone, meet Carolina Proudfoot, yes that’s her real name.  She’s a student at the University of Arkansas, who is doing a chicken project on the farm to earn a minor in sustainability.  The sustainability minor is a new thing on campus.  Our farm is on a list serve for volunteer opportunities for students, and I think that’s how Carolina came our way.  She’s a wealth of chicken knowledge and we’re looking forward to gleaning lots from her.  In this picture, she’s standing next to one of two mobile chicken coops she and her friend are building.

This is Carolina’s friend.  Sorry dude, I never caught your name.  You look pretty tough though, wielding that power tool.

WOOF-pack  planted peas.

The crew also helped Carolina and her chicken coop mission.

This one makes me laugh.  John’s face is so intense.

In other news, Paul has brewed a batch of beer, after talking about it for years.  Here is his inspiration for starting his first batch, Roy Emerson.  He’s about to syphon the beer out of the fermenter and into the keg.  Fun times, and great beer!  It was one of those why didn’t we do this earlier moments.

There was a peanut gallery waiting for the spoils.

Here we are hunting for carrots and weeding in the process.  It’s fun to work inside the new high tunnel….WINK* (ahem, potential WOOF’ers).  The roof of the structure totally changes the mood, like you’re in a room outside, I don’t know, but you can help any time you want.

We were trying to accrue 60 pounds of carrots for some farm to school meal thing.  For two days we were pulling out babies, the tiniest of tiny.  We definitely met our quota of weeds.  After the first day of picking we had only ended up with 7 or 8 pounds.  It didn’t look like we were going to make the goal, but we kept at it…for the kids.

This awkward photo of me bending over, is meant to accompany the good news that we eventually did pick 60 pounds of carrots.  Paul led the team to a different bed entirely where they were able to pick carrot after carrot, with Damian picking the monster of all monsters that weighed a half a pound.

 

Feb1

Up and Over Rover

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Today it was 60 degrees.  Now, some of you might be thankful because in general people are winter shy.  Me however, am mourning the lack of winter, and have nothing but complaints over the beautiful, gorgeous, epic day today.  One thing I can’t complain about however is the lack of wind.  Why?  Well, because we’ve had this hoop house going up, and have been waiting all month, or longer possibly to get the plastic up and over the top of this behemuth…it’s been a long wait, but TODAY was the day.

In other news, a side note that helps propel this story forward, we received a new WWOOF’er yesterday, around evening time.  His name is Damian.  He comes to us from the great state of Texas, Dallas area (represent).  Now that you all have been introduced to him, the pictures that he’s in won’t seem so unfamiliar.  Moving on…

Why don’t I just cut to the chase and start feeding you pictures with captions.

Everybody, this is Damian.  Damian, this is everybody.  I’m assuming by this picture, I didn’t take it, that he has a sense of humor.

Whilst I was at school, the crew was working on finishing the south end wall construction.  Patrick, I like that you’re wearing the sweat band I crocheted.

I like this shot a lot, I titled it in my folder “Intimate Hands”.  I feel like we’re peeking in on this intimate moment of teamwork.

Whoa, the pull back reveals that it’s the brothers…that would make for an interesting plot.  I say this in jest men, thank you so much for the help.

Here is the finished end wall.

This is my artsy end wall shot from the other side.  This right here, is exciting!  Not the shot, although I think it’s neat, but the end wall.  It’s almost finished!

Forgive me, I was premature, I should have put this picture in the mix a little earlier.  This is the finishing touches to the end wall.

I like this little series here of Paul cutting the door out after the construction was complete.  I must admit, this has been a long road, putting up this hoop.  Even though the top is not on at the moment, this cutting of the door plastic, felt like a ribbon cutting of sorts.  Enjoy.

Suspense building…

HERE WE GO.  This means that the top is near.  A quorum of farmies came together to pull the plastic.  A lot of the faces were the same faces that helped us last year when we pulled the plastic on our first hoop.  Last year it was soooooo windy.  Not as windy as it has been lately, but windy none the less.  It seemed really frantic and critical to get it done and get it done quick.  This year, today, it was so calm and work at your own pace-like, totally a different mojo.  It made this process a whole lot easier.

Here’s Patrick.  Patrick is laying out wiggle wire.  The wiggle wire fits into a c-channel, which attaches the plastic to the structure.

The posse assembling, getting a tentative set of instructions.

Laying out the plastic.

I think this picture is neat.  I couldn’t decide between this one and one that turned out a little warmer. But, I like the coolness of this one.  Since it is February, we should all get the illusion that it’s cold outside…unless you’re standing underneath that plastic.

Photo credit: Mark Landry.  Awesome shot!  Richard Orr, prepare to become a star my man.

They are attatching the plastic here.  Working on the wiggle wire.  Most people are holding up the plastic.  For a time they were working in a bubble.  A few of us bystanders helped hold up more of the plastic so those guys could breathe.

Hi.  I was there too.  I pretended to be a tough girl and helped hold the plastic.  I almost dropped my camera trying to get a shot of me being tough, but this is what I snapped.  It’s tough to maneuver a camera with one hand.  But now you know that I was there too, and did some.  Thanks y’all who did most of the work, ahem*, Patrick, Jake, Paul Z, Barry, Pauly…and for those of you I’ve forgotten…I’m getting the flashing light, I’ve got to go…I love you all!

Patrick sacrificed and climbed up on the wall to cut the plastic to lay flat, so as not to interfere with the top plastic.  Hardcore Patrick…really hardcore.  Someone agree with me.

Here it is.  It’s happening.

Holy moly.  I can’t tell you how happy this makes us.  This was a feat.  Like the building of the pyramids, just not on such a grand scale.  High fives all around!  That’s Jo-nathan Bame down there.  He’s the CSA manager for Northwest Arkansas Local Harvest.  He’s giving a thumbs up, which you can’t see, but now you know.

There.  It’s up now.  This is EPIC.  A humble thank you to everyone who was present today, as well as throughout the entire process.

Jan29

Christmas into the NOW

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I know I said that I got a banjo for Christmas, and if you didn’t know that, now you do.  That’s what I’ve been up too, no pictures though to share, I’m shy.  However, I DO have other pictures to share with you, you know, to keep you all further kept up on the happenings in this endeavor.

Christmas day chess match.

Santa lettuce beard.

Carrots out of the Missouri Angels’ garden.  If images like this don’t tickle some sort of feelings within you, then I don’t know what will.  These are BEAUTIFUL!

We grew a lot of leeks this year, and are very proud of them.

#LEEKS!

I think I’m going to create a website of pctures of Isaac holding produce.

Carrot harvest.

Does this make you want to plant a seed?

Pickin’ and grinnin’.

I’m not so sure what caught his fancy.

This one always has a smile.

Seeing this makes my mouth water.  Wouldn’t it be great if fast food restaurants served this through the drive-thru window?

Ok, ok, here it is…the BANJO!

You want to know what else is going on that some of you have been waiting so patiently to see?

The new hoop.

Make it happen!

There you go dear reader, this is pretty current.  If any one in the regional area feels like helping to pull the plastic up over the top of this rig, let me know.

Jan29

What you’ve all be waiting for

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I’m about to take you all on a visual journey.  All of these pictrures were on the camera when it and my creativity died.  So, we’ll take a look at some of the highlights from the summer-ish.  I think I’ll spread it out a bit to keep you hungry for more.  So, lets get on with it.

Your guess is as good as mine.  August?  We put them to work young around here.

This one is smart, he documents the work.

If any of the people in this picture (ahem, Patrick and Jake) have any idea what you’re planting, please pipe up.

This is Karen and Kyle, remember them?

Baby chicken, which are now big chickens and almost ready to lay some eggs.

My second run of zinnias this summer.  This is the “Giant Rose Cactus” variety I ordered from Baker Creek.

They grew so much better the second go round as the summer was closing…remember that gem I just gave you, put it somewhere for later.

Tree climbing fun.

This is a picture of snake putting boquets together for the summer CSA season.  The leeks did not go into the arrangements, silly.

These were some eggs laid on the inside glass of the greenhouse.  They were all over the place, but I don’t know what kind of eggs they were.

THIS is the last picture taken by Isaac, before the camera took a dump.  You’re welcome.

Jan24

Southern SAWG

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This past weekend, Paul, Jonathon and I attended the Southern SAWG conference in Little Rock.  I believe, without looking it up, that SAWG stands for Sustainable Agriculture Working Group.  The conference lasted Friday and Saturday with Wednesday and Thursday being pre-conference field trip days.  Our local food CO-OP Ozark Natural Foods provided us with a scholarship to attend the conference.  In exchange, we helped at their table at the trade show, marketing organic chicken and goat feed that they now sell.  The conference was very informative, offering many sessions of classes.  One in particular that I enjoyed was a class on flowers, taught by Mimo Davis.  She was born and raised in New York City, and moved to St. Joseph Missouri and started growing flowers.  She had no prior experience in growing anything before.  I love stories like hers, because she’s so pumped up to let everyone know that they can do it too.  It’s somewhat a leap of faith that few take.  Just think about it dear reader.  There was a strong Northwest Arkansas farming presence at the conference which was nice to see.  Everyone was so excited to see each other, because when you farm, you’re always on your farm FARMING…you rarely get out, and you like it that way.  There was also a large youth population at this conference, which was very encouraging.  Last year, when Paul and I went to the Arkansas/Oklahoma Horticulture conference, it was all old people.  Really old.  So to see young twenty-somethings, in their puffy vests and dark rimmed glasses, hipster chic was great.  These young farm folk identified with the 99%, they said so in a note that they left in an upstairs lounge.  Farm advocates, who put up a petition to “FREE THE DUCKS!” at the Peabody hotel where the conference was held.  It was eventually taken down…those rascals!  There was one woman who was there, her name was Severine, and she was promoting a documentary film she had made called The Greenhorns.  She had organized a “mixer” for young farmers in the hotel across the street.  When the hotel realized that more than 40 young farmers were going to attend, they cut off the line.  So a mass of young’uns came back to the hotel where the conference was and reassembled, and to tell you the truth, their party was probably  a lot more fun…but maybe Severine could tell me otherwise.  We also had the chance to meet Alice, from BROOKLYN, who was representing Certified Naturally Grown.  She organized a meeting of local farmers in our area who are Certified Naturally Grown, to get together for potlucks throughout the season to see each others farms and see what each other are up too.  It was a very informal and quick gathering, but everyone who sat down was more than happy to open up their space.  For those who lived far out in the sticks, those closer to Fayetteville were opening up their homes (to strangers more or less…does knowing someone’s name for 10 minutes count as acquaintances?)  Alice was very surprised, that kind of hospitality was being offered.  I just told her “Welcome to Arkansas” and a few people replied “Yep”.

Oct30

Small world

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Today we had some volunteers come out from the great state of Missouri.  Jeff, Rachel and Jessica are their names and the adventures of growing food and life in general is their game.  Funny thing about this group, Rachel works at the food co-op in Ava Missouri…yeah, I’ve never heard of it either.  Ava, is where Patrick and Jake are from.  In fact, they went to highschool with Rachel and Jessica and just happened to go into the food co-op in Ava the last time they left to go and see their folks.  They talked about the farm and one thing led to another and about a month later these peeps are eating breakfast this morning in my kitchen.  Jeff, who is the husband of Rachel among other things found my blog some how through the interactions between Missouri brethren and read the whole thing.  He said he started from the beginning…and read the WHOLE THING!  Thank you Jeff, I’m humbled by your tenacity to read my blog, in its entirety…that’s 289 posts people!  Good on you Jeff.  Thanks for your participation today.  It was really nice to meet you. Orion also came today.  He’s a student at the University of Arkansas and found us through their volunteer list serve.  So if you’re reading this right now, University of Arkansas student, and you need volunteer time…we’re here, for you.

Oct25

It’s here take #2

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Today!  Today, today, TODAY!!!!  Today is the final day of our first CSA season.  It is quite exciting around here, and yet doesn’t seem real.  It feels like only yesterday that we delivered for the first time and said, “Twenty-three more weeks to go.”  At that time, the end was not in sight.  As the countdown drew closer to the finish line, the sentiment was more like “Pump the brakes.”  Now, here we are, at the end.  This isn’t the end however.  We have committed to ten more weeks, for those who want to sign up for a fall/winter share.  The bulk of the work for the season is coming to a close though.  A thank you is in order for all of our customers this first go round.  Just know that there was a lot of work and effort from both farmers involved, to bring you the best local food experience.  Thank you for believing in the value of having fresh, local vegetables delivered.  Thank you for understanding the working relationship with your local farmer and how important that is.  And lastly, thank you for giving it a shot!  We hope to see many of your faces again next year!  To Mother Earth, let’s have a more mild summer next year, I missed having copious amounts of tomatoes.