Circle S Farms

“But when fall comes, kicking summer out on its treacherous ass as it always does one day sometime after the midpoint of September, it stays awhile like an old friend that you have missed. It settles in the way an old friend will settle into your favorite chair and take out his pipe and light it and then fill the afternoon with stories of places he has been and things he has done since last he saw you.”

― Stephen King, ‘Salem’s Lot

I can’t wait for fall.  This summer started early and lasted too long.  I’d like to walk outside and have the brisk air energize me.

Farm News:  We are calving right now.  We have 10 calves on the ground so far.  It’s our favorite time of year.  Curtis and I love watching the calves run and play, and the mothers fuss and frett over them.  it is our form of entertainment.

What’s in the bucket:  kohlrabi, mustard greens, turnip greens, beets, radishes, napa cabbage, arugula, braising greens.

What’s at market:  okra, summer squash, beets, radishes, kale, turnip greens, mustard greens, arugula, kohlrabi.  Circle S Beef:  ground beef, roasts, liver, sirloin steak.  EAT YOUR GREENs special:  buy one bunch of greens, get one free.

  My Dad said he has been eating radishes raw dipped in dijon mustard – double the kick!

Following, a recipe for roasted radishes – in case you run our of options.

Roasted Radishes and radish greens

INGREDIENTS

• 1 bunch radishes (halved if large) and their greens
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Separate radishes and their greens and arrange on 2 rimmed baking sheets. Drizzle each with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Toss to combine.
3. Bake, until radishes are tender and caramelized and greens are crisp, 15 to 20 minutes. Let cool.

A garden requires patient labor and attention. Plants do not grow merely to satisfy ambitions or to fulfill good intentions. They thrive because someone expended effort on them.

Liberty Hyde Bailey

This quote has been so true in my fall garden.  I planted a bit too early for the heat.  Usually we get a good cool down in September, even if it doesn’t last.  This fall garden has been about irrigation and managing bugs.  My broccoli has struggled and struggled – as have the cabbages.  I am hoping they won’t bolt – or taste like saurkraut for the heat.  I have a later planting, but it will be much later.

The squash, however, has been amazing.  The weather has been perfect for it, and we have an abundance.  If you still have some leftover from last week, think about making some refrigerator pickles with squash and some of your cucumbers.  There are some great recipes online for refrigerator pickles.

My parents have been here this weekend.  We have had a wonderful visit, and the weather has been beautiful.  What a special treat for labor day!!

What’s in the bucket?  SUMMER SQUASH (and lots of it)  Use the bigger ones to stuff or make zucchini bread – save the smaller ones for more delicate recipes or to eat raw in a salad! )  Arugula, mesclun, kohlrabi, beets, radishes, cucumber, kale or mustard greens.

At market:  summer squash, okra, beets, radishes, arugula, mesclun, basil.  Circle S Beef:  all cuts.  Circle S special:  Buy any pack of steaks, get a bag of arugula free.

A simple squash stir fry recipe for this week, an easy way to use up some squash!

Ingredients

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons butter

1/2 red bell pepper, chopped

2 small to medium yellow squash, sliced

Salt and pepper

2 tablespoons chopped parsley leaves

2 tablespoons chopped chives or 2 scallions, optional

Directions

Preheat skillet over medium high heat. Add oil, then butter. When butter melts, add red peppers and squash. Saute 12 to 14 minutes until squash is tender. Add salt, pepper and parsley. Add chives or scallions if you would like a layer of light onion flavor on the dish as well.

Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability.    Sam Keen

Well – Madge is settling in with her new life.  The other horses have been kind – thank goodness.  Horses can be like teenagers – rather hateful sometimes.  But Madge is easy going – and they all seem to like her.

Farm News:  I keep thinking fall will come.  Hoping for some cooler nights – maybe in the 60’s, but not so far.  Still summer.  My broccoli and fall plants really don’t know what to do.  I hope it turns off cooler soon so things won’t bolt.

What’s in the bucket?:  summer squash, cucumbers, arugula, mesclun mix, okra, basil, pie apples, a few peppers, cherry tomatoes.

What’s at market:  summer squash, arugula, mesclun mix, okra, basil, pie apples.  Labor day griller special:  small brisket $5#  ground beef:  2# for $10

Happy Eating and thanks for buying local food from Circle S.

Letty

There is no I in TEAM   _  unknown

Simple Definition of team

• : a group of people who compete in a sport, game, etc., against another group
  
• : a group of people who work together
  
• : a group of two or more animals used to pull a wagon, cart, etc.

When the idea of purchasing a TEAM for farmwork appeared to me, I never thought of it as being a TEAM.  I just thought of it as two horses.

When my friend Georgia and I went to pick Mack and Madge up, we went to a sale in Missouri. They were selling TEAMS of horses.  We went for equipment, but loved looking at all the teams for sale.  Mostly we were fascinated that these huge horses were kept two together at all times.  The teams of horses ate together, stayed in the same stall together, were lead together, turned out together – basically, they were never apart.

When I bought my team from a friend he said – keep them together.  Lead them together, work them together, don’t let them be apart.

It has been a journey working with Mack and Madge.  I have only had them two years, but I have learned so much.  Mainly that – even with them being so old and well trained – I had to be a member of the team too.  Working together to get the job done.  I had to spend time with them and learn their quirks.  Curtis helped me hook them up and he learned too.   We were all a TEAM.

Mack fell ill about a month ago.  One day he just quit eating.  After several vet visits and watching him waste away, Curtis and I decided it was time.  We put him to sleep today.  Throughout his illness, Madge never left his side.

A sad start to this fall season, but we will keep moving.

What’s in the bucket: summer squash, baby cucumbers, basil, sweet potato greens, peppers, beet greens, shelled soybeans, tart pie apples.

Following – some idea’s on sweet potato greens from Epicurious.com

A few weeks ago, Gourmet Live‘s Kemp Minifie mentioned that she had been seeing sweet potato greens at her farmers’ market. Intrigued, I went in search of them at mine and lo and behold, I found them for $3.50 a bunch. Taking a cue from Kemp who braised hers (leaves and stems) with some onion, I followed suit and then added it to my pasta. Like spinach, sweet potato greens cook down a lot, but unlike spinach, sweet potato greens lack the oxalic acid that often leaves a funny, unpleasant astringent feel and taste in my mouth. And although kale, chard, and collards can also be found at the market, they’re much tougher and possess a strong flavor; the sweet potato leaves, on the other hand, are tender and mild tasting.

NutritionData.com shows that sweet potato greens are extremely high in vitamin K and a good source of vitamin A. Abstracts available on PubMed.com indicate that sweet potato greens have been underutilized as a source of food with preventative qualities. But perhaps most interesting is that sweet potato greens have been readily consumed by different cultures primarily in Asia and Africa.

Here are a few traditional and not so traditional recipes I’ve found online:

– Kadirecipes.com’s Sauce Feuilles de Patate (Guinea)

– Heart and Hearth’s Sweet Potato Greens (Camote Tops) Salad (The Philippines)

– Ravimbomanga sy Patsa Mena (Sweet Potato Leaves with Dried Shrimp) Recipe (Madagascar)

– Cook Rock Farm’s Sweet and Savory Sweet Potato Leaves

– Permaculture College Australia’s Sweet Potato Tips in Coconut Cream

Happy eating and thanks for buying local produce from Circle S Farm

It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

I am headed to Knoxville with two of my best friends for a night on the town!  I am honored and humbled in having two such special people in my life.

This will be the last week for CSA.  Sign up for fall on our website, or I can e-mail the sign up to you.

What’s in the bucket this week:  green apples, winter squash, cherry tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes, roma tomatoes, okra, potatoes.

The apples are still very tart.  Great for a pie, or to bake.  Also good for applesauce or apple butter.

Following, a recipe for dressing.

 ‘Rejoice with your family in the beautiful land of life.’  —Albert Einstein 

Logan is coming to visit for a few weeks.  When he was little he would stay most of the summer.  Now he is almost 19, in college, has a job – and probably a girlfriend, so we don’t get to see him as much.  Rejoice is an appropriate word.  This picture was taken probably 4 years ago when he went fishing with our friend Steve Persinger.

We are approaching the end of the summer CSA (this is the last Wednesday – one more Monday).  If you are interested, I am having a fall CSA which starts labor day and runs into November.  Sign up info is on the website under CSA sign up – just click on the link twice.  We also have beef packages available.

What’s in the bucket (it will be a paper bag this week – REMEMBER TO LEAVE YOUR BUCKET OUT OR BRING TO MARKET:  Tomatoes Tomatoes Tomatoes – red ones, green ones, yellow ones, romas, cherry – you get the picture, melon, winter squash, okra and whatever else I can find!

At Main Street Farmer’s Market:  Tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, potatoes.  Circle S Beef.  Hamburger helper special:  Buy one package ground beef get one heirloom tomato FREE!!

Tomatoes are easy to freeze – just peel and freeze.  I’ve also heard of not peeling and freezing, but haven’t tried it.  Dip them in boiling water to peel, then just pull the skins off, cool and freeze in jars or freezer plastic bags.

Enjoy a delicious Caprese salad with some of your home grown Circle S tomatoes.

Caprese Salad

INGREDIENTS

• 2 pounds vine-ripened tomatoes (about 4 large), sliced 1/4 inch thick
• 1 pound fresh mozzarella, sliced1/4 inch thick
• 1/4 cup packed fresh basil or arugula leaves, washed well and spun dry
• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano, crumbled, if using arugula instead of basil
• 3 to 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• fine sea salt to taste
• freshly ground black pepper to taste

PREPARATION

• On a large platter arrange tomato and mozzarella slices and basil leaves, alternating and overlapping them. Sprinkle salad with oregano and arugula and drizzle with oil. Season salad with salt and pepper.

Thanks for buying local food from Circle S Farm!!

Thorns may hurt you, men desert you, sunlight turn to fog;
but you’re never friendless ever, if you have a dog.
—Douglas Mallock

Temple

Curtis and I have three dogs.  They are my children.  I’m “oh she’s ‘one of thooooose people’ .  Yep, pretty much nutty about my dogs.

They misbehave, they are loud, they eat gross stuff, they roll in manure, they chase the horses, they dig holes (well, mainly Otis) did I say they were loud?

Their lives revolve around three things: 1. Going somewhere.    2. Waiting to go somewhere.  (Oh, and the little matters of eating and sleeping, but that wouldn’t get in the way of ) 3.  GOING SOMEWHERE.

Going somewhere involves:  the car, on foot, the tractor, the mower, the dirt bike, the mule wagon, a horse….you get the picture.

Over the past few years we have been to the vet for: eating rat poison, eating horse wormer,  impaling by a stick while running through the woods (twice), dog hitting truck, car hitting dog , sometimes I wonder if “rescue” is actually the right word for them.

Meet Temple (pictured above).  AKA Lumpy (our little lump of coal’s gonna be a diamond someday),  loudmouth, the Dali Lumpy, smiley, stinky.  She is named after Temple Grandin, famous for her work in low stress cattle management.  We had high hopes and big dreams of Temple dog becoming our cattle foreman.  Here she is pictured with a huge cow bone she found one day while we were fencing.  Years ago (before Circle S) there were cows on this place – and all kinds of bones and skulls are scattered the woods – a little creepy but the dogs love it.

But – to the point.  The dogs remind me of the simple things in life.  They remind me that moving is a good thing, an important thing.  Their enthusiasm is contagious.

For example….who else gets really excited about going to the dump?  Trash and recycle day at our house is a happy day.  As soon as I start emptying trash cans, the dogs start doing laps around the car.  They especially love it when the prisoners who help unload our trash ask “Do they bite?”.    They raise hell when the doors  are closed just to keep them wondering.    How can you take life too seriously on a day like trash day?

They also remind me that it’s ok to take a good nap every now and then – which seems more important as I get older.

So – since moving is a good thing, What’s in the bucket this week?

Summer or winter squash, sweet yellow and purple onions, potatoes, okra, TOMATOES, TOMATOES, TOMATOES, cherry tomatoes, maybe a stray cucumber, basil and parsley.  Unfortunately, my pepper crop is sick this year – can’t seem to get them going.

What’s at Main Street Farmer’s Market: (Not a lot this week) tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, potatoes, sweet onions.  Circle S beef – ground beef, roasts, steaks, small briskets.

If you still have fennel hanging around in your fridge, a shareholder sent me this wonderful recipe for Fennel Pesto.

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2014/08/roasted-fennel-almond-pesto-recipe.html

Also – good time to get rid of the cucumbers by making a fabulous batch of gazpacho.

This is my version of Gazpacho – if you want it to be more like a soup and less like a salsa, add 2 cups tomato juice.

2 tomatoes, chopped

1 cucumber chopped (if large pickling cucumber – remove seed portion)

1 sweet pepper, any kind, chopped

1 small red onion chopped

1/4 cup parsley chopped

1 t basil chopped

1 tsp tabasco

1 tsp worcestershire

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1/4 cup light olive oil

1/2 tsp sea salt or to taste

pepper to taste

Great to eat on a hot summer day, or dip a chip!!!

Thanks for buying local food from Circle S Farm!!

The beautiful thing about a hot dry summer is a bumper tomato crop.  I have my fingers crossed that I get to these beauties before the crows or the squirrels!!

Still struggling with the heat and flies with our cows.  This poor cow is totally blind.  It happened over night – she came down with pink eye.  We just got lucky to get her in the corral because she was bouncing off fences – it was so pitiful.  We have the fly mask on her now, and we are hoping she will regain some sight soon.  Water and feed nearby, so she can just stay here until her eyes get better.

Farm News:  The carrots and beets are going topless this week.  Curtis got a little greedy with the mower *not that there were any weeds in the row*.  We got a good shower after I wrote the blog last week – probably 2 inches of rain.  Very thankful for that, (possibly contributing to the weeds in the row).

What’s in the bucket:  Topless carrots and beets, kale or savoy cabbage, sweet onions,  summer squash or cucumbers, OKRA, cherry tomatoes, fennel.

What’s at Main Street Farmer’s Market:  red, white and blue potatoes, sweet onions, cherry tomatoes, savoy cabbage.  Circle S Beef: many cuts of beef for sale at market.  Sign up for beef packages or quarters.

Roasted Okra

18 fresh okra pods, sliced 1/3 inch thick
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons kosher salt, or to taste
2 teaspoons black pepper, or to taste

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and toss.

Arrange on a cookie sheet

Roast in a preheated 425 degree oven for 10 minutes.

Thanks for buying local food!!

“…if the grasses don’t run dry and the newborn calves they don’t die,  another year from Mary will have flown…”    –Lyle Lovett

Every time I hear this song it speaks to me of the hardships of farming.

This is what our pastures look like at Circle S.  At least they aren’t just dirt yet – which will happen eventually if we don’t get some rain.  I guess my greatest fear is to run out of feed for our animals.  We are responsible for their livelihood, and they are responsible for ours.  We can irrigate the garden, but it is impossible to irrigate our pastures.

We implemented a rotational grazing system on our new property for precisely this reason.  It is a definite advantage, we already know people who are selling off their cattle because they are out of grass. Farmers and horse owners are frantically searching for hay, because hot, dry weather is detrimental to most hay crops.

Our fruit crops were non-existent this year because of the drought.  My strawberries were eaten by the crows.  The blueberries dried up and fell off the bushes before they ever got ripe.  The grapes and apples are doing the same thing.

But – worry does nothing to help, so we will take it one day at a time.  As my friend at the feed store says, “farmer’s are nothing but gamblers”.

Sooooo – I guess we will gamble on another season.  I have my fall CSA sign up information posted on the website.   We are ramping up for an exciting year next year.  We should be moved into our cabin by September – the last (and hardest) animals to move will be our two cats Lucy and Biscuit.

We will be building a new flock of Circle S hens this fall, and will be back to selling eggs next spring.  We will also be back to selling quarters of beef and some smaller beef packages by late winter.

What’s in the bucket:  Fennel, carrots, cabbage, summer squash, cucumbers, potatoes, kohlrabi, okra or cherry tomatoes.

What’s at market:  fennel, cabbage, potatoes, summer squash, red, white and blue potatoes.  4th of July special:  buy one quart red white and blue potatoes get one free.

A fool with a plan can beat a genius with no plan   T. Boone Pickens 

and, my father!

My father speaks this saying often, so, I thought it being father’s day weekend….

I live it.  I am a planner. I love a plan, their are days when all I need is a plan.  As a  big picture person, I mostly like to plan weeks ahead, months ahead.  It drives Curtis crazy.  Curtis wakes up and then decides what he is going to do that day.

SO – I made a plan for today.  And I drug Curtis into it with me.  GARDEN WORK.  Oh yeah….I’ll make tacos tonight if you will help me in the garden today.

Well – as SOON as I got him started – I noticed one of our cows running to the back 40.  I thought – that’s odd, it’s hotter than hell and all the others are up here by the water tank.

So, I didn’t want to interrupt Curtis in the garden (ha) – so I trucked it on down to the back forty to check on her.  Found her with a new calf who was on the wrong side of the fence.  2 UH OH’s, first, she wasn’t supposed to have a calf until October, second, it was on the other side of the fence.

So I traveled back to get Curtis for help.  Long story longer – he grabbed onto the calf from the other side of the barbed wire fence.  It shredded his arms as the calf kicked and tried to get away.  We successfully got the calf on the right side of the fence, and then went to doctor his arms.

Moral of the story:  as a farmer, there is no way to plan a day.  Things happen. when your livelihood is based on weather and animals, you have to be flexible!

What’s in the bucket?:  summer squash, pickling cucumbers, green beans, red and blue potatoes, beets, turnips, kale, broccoli or cabbage.

What’s at market:  pickling cucumbers, green beans, red and blue potatoes, sweet onions, kale, cabbage.  Circle S ground beef.