Farmer's Feet

The other night, my husband and granddaughter started dancing to this sweet song....it was one of those moments that I will never forget. Unplanned. Beautiful. Love. Feet. Beautiful farmer's feet. Beautiful Princess feet.




Have a Beautiful Weekend.

Our Farm's Egg Dilemma

It saddens me every time someone comes to our market with their egg carton to pick up a dozen of our farm's amazing eggs. . . and we have to say, "So sorry, we're out of eggs."

Here's a bit of understanding . .
1. Summer heat can be brutal on hens. We do everything we can to bring down heat on our girls - misters, feed shifts, fans, sprinklers, etc.  Sometimes it helps sometimes it just doesn't.  It's a lot of work for a little hen to lay an egg - it's stressful on their bodies and add to that - other conditions like heat - sometimes they just don't make it through.  In spite of taking measures to protect and aide our girls through the heat times - they succumb.  We lost about 20 hens this summer.

2. Molting is what is happening now to our girls and in talking to other hen owners - it's happening to them too. When a hen molts - they just don't lay an egg - or if they do - it's few and far between until they get through that season.

3.  When they get through the molting season - they've already aged. Older hens generally slow down on egg production. They don't lay the average of 1 egg every 26 hours.  Most hen owners - at this point - look at the time to start to raise more chicks so egg production can be maintained.

4. For us - we're evaluating the whole egg/hen/laying thing for our market.  In spite of $6 a dozen (I know some gasp and I understand Singh Farms has theirs for $7 a dozen) - it's NOT something you profit on.  Time/care/feed, etc - add up. None of us that sell our eggs make an income  - it's more of a service.

So . . . at this point we're seriously considering (because of the direction our farm is going) - not replacing our hens except for our own family consumption.  I know...I know...bummer - but farm life demands continual evaluation and re-evaluation.

5. Until then. . . we'll put out the smattering of eggs - they will be available only at our markets and not until 8:30 am. Thanks for understanding.

We so appreciate your love and support. We couldn't do what we do without you.

Salted Goat Milk Caramel (Sauce)

With all the excitement at the farm about the launch of our new Salted Goat Milk Caramels, we surely don't want to ignore the jars of goat milk caramel sauce - the sweet stuff that you dribble on ice cream, stuffed french toast, morning oatmeal, add to hot chocolate or an apple cider float or eat just plain from the jar.

Artisan - farm made with our own goat's milk.

French Cafe' and Market This Week = Amazing

Our buckets and baskets and vintage wooden boxes will be full Thursday and Saturday. 

Here's the scoop:

Kale

Chard

Beets

Romaine

Tatsoi

Butternut Squash

Spaghetti Squash

French Sorrel

Fresh Herbs of all kinds

Dried Pinto and Black Beans

Red Potatoes

Yukon Gold

Okra

Very limited amount of eggs

Tomatoes

Eggplant

The end of the summer squash

Mustard Greens

Arugula

Baby Spice Mix

and more.....

Grano de Vida Breads too

Fresh Coffee and Morning Glory Muffins

My Garden Notebook on Arugula

Arugula gone to seed.

Arugula has just about got to be one of God's greatest delights in a garden. I think it has a buttery taste with a kick and I love to top pizza with it, add it to Chicken Soup and use it in salad with pears, walnuts and goat cheese with drizzled evo and balsamic.


Looking for more creative ways to use arugula, I found La Table de Nana's Lindsays Arugula and Red Pepper Penne Dish . . .

. . . and her arugula mashed potatoes garnished with a parsley coin.

Does this NOT make you want to go grow arugula? Nana found this recipe here.

Salted Caramel Made With The Milk From Our Goat Girls. It's Ready.

It's holiday time and perfect to:
A. Support a Local Goat Farm - aka The Simple Farm
B. Think of your gift list
C. Buy that special person something very unique

Online sales are not quite ready yet and a new farm website - www.simplycaramel.com will be your online source for some of the most amazing goat milk caramels you'll ever experience.  Supplies will be limited. Purchase from our French-Vintage Market.

What To Do With Kale

Make a kale salad.

Kale Salad Recipe 
4 minced cloves of garlic,
fresh squeezed lemon juice,
finely chopped kale
finely grated Parmesan cheese
and EVOO.

Mix this all together. Add salt and pepper to taste. Since I didn't have ingredient amounts, I just did some guess work and you'll have to as well. It might need an extra bit of this or that, but I have confidence you'll do just fine. I like to serve this with a good - baguette. Enjoy!

Sweet Potatoes Rock...Sweet Potato Casserole Rules

I've NEVER liked sweet potatoes - until now and I LOVE this. You've got to try it. It's been a constant on our Thanksgiving Day table for the past seven years. And, we have Crooked Sky's organically grown sweet potatoes at our Farmer's Market. 

Ingredients:

5 medium size sweet potatoes. boil and mash - should be around 3 cups. Mix with the mashed sweet potatoes:

2 eggs beaten

1/2 c - 3/4 c sugar

1/2 stick of melted butter

1/2 t. nutmeg and cinnamon

1 c milk (we use whole/organic milk)

mix this together - well.

Place in a buttered 9x12 inch pan and bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees.

the topping:

3/4 crushed cornflakes

1/2 c. chopped pecans

1/2 c brown sugar and 1/2 stick of melted butter Mix this and spread over the top of the baked casserole. then bake for 8 - 10 minutes

What We're Growing For You This Week and Next Weeks Market (Thanksgiving)

Did you hear me holler by any chance?  Thursday morning, I was giddy seeing little baby broccoli heads finally pop out of the big leaves. By the way those leaves are delicious to eat and I think they're the best part - but anyway besides eating, they protect the new baby broccoli buds from anything that would destroy it before it's ready. . . to be birthed (in a sense).

French monster spinach showed it's loveliness at the market this week too. That stuff melts in your mouth. Each week, we hope to harvest more and more.

Roasting radishes RULE!  Don't you know how amazing radishes are when roasted? HELLO there...you're missing out if you don't give it a try. Just drizzle olive oil, sprinkle with a pinch of salt and voila - those radishes become sweeter. Add a few potatoes, and any other vegetable and you've got just about a complete dinner - serve up some slices of Grano de Vida breads or baguette with Crow's Dairy Chevre' and it's done!

I am seeing some happy little babies start to pop up on the sugar snap peas that line the beets. Both will soon be making a delightful appearance.

Each week, more and more of these beautiful vegetables will be picked and put in bags in my $3 basket.


SO, NEXT WEEK Then
Our FARM will be completely closed on THURSDAY - Thanksgiving Day.  I can hardly wait for my daughter from PDX and granddaughters along with my PHX daughter and all these grandchildren and husbands too - to grace my table of thanks.

The HSM will be opened all other days - EXCEPT Thursday. The farm is closed.

BUT - we'll be opened bright and early SATURDAY morning for our French Cafe' and French Vintage inspired Farmer's Market.

Thanks for supporting our little suburban farm!