Remodeling, Bread, Goat's Milk Benefits and More

It wasn't on a whim that I decided to rip down the adorable French fabric that made such a nice wall separator in our market. Nope, not a whim. A necessity, I'd say.

With high hopes of a productive growing season of chard, kale, beets,  greens, broccoli, carrots and more more space was needed. Thus a change in our French inspired Market. So, as you come through the farm on your way to the market area for the Honor System Market si vous voulez bien nous (and if my French translation of "if you'll excuse us" isn't correct, someone please let me know).  More than likely you'll see the new area in about 14 different ways until I settle on it being "just perfect."

Delicious Bread
On another bright note, there's yummy bread at the market. Let's say delicious fall comfort food bread. It's in baskets now and in the freezer as well.  Let's say I'm eating a slice slathered with butter (thank you Julia Child for the thumbs up) and drinking an afternoon little cup of French press (is there another way to drink coffee?).

Goat's Milk
Goats milk...from Crow's Dairy. Let's talk about it. You all know I'm crazy about goat's milk. Michael and I drink close to a half a gallon a day - well, maybe not quite that much. All my rant and rave about it's benefits seems to be paying off.  I'm barely able to keep Crow's Dairy vat pasteurized goat milk on the shelves and to be honest we like it that way.  If you have kids - and they get a cold - typically you need to stop giving them milk to drink - it adds to the mucous. My understanding is 'not so' with goats milk because it does not cause phlegm like cow's milk does. Check out this read on the Dairy Goat Journal.  Goat milk has 13% more calciums, 25% more B6, 47% more vitamin A and 27% more selenium. It produces more silicon and fluorine than any other dairy animal. Silicon and fluorine can help prevent diabetes.

Market Info
We're leaning towards opening our Thursday market on the first Thursday of October. Exciting stuff. Of course we'll be starting to introduce the season with smaller baskets of everything popping up and ready to harvest. As the weeks roll by, more and more will be presented.  And of course, we'll be having our morning French Cafe offering Grano de Vida breakfast breads (wait till you try the new Fall Pumpkin Scone - to die for!) and 50 cent coffee.

The Saturday morning market date is still up in the air. . . we'll keep you posted on any decision to start that fun Saturday morning time!

Wednesday's Bread Van and We're Still Not Sure

Bread - Amazing Bread
Carol's made a new bread - it's an apple cinnamon bread with cooler fall days in mind. She's such an amazing bread maker - seeking that perfect bread - so much so she brought us three samples to try.  Carol wants it to be a great, fabulous bread - not just a good one.

So, since I am being emailed and Face Booked about different breads, I asked Carol to start up her oven and bake us some bread. She'll arrive this Wednesday with 20 loaves of Cinnamon bread, 5 Sprouted Wheat, 3 Apple breads and a few bags of Ciabatta.  I'm going to put the majority of the bread in the little black freezer and what doesn't fit in the baskets. Last week - all but one loaf of bread was gone within 2 hours. So, if you want bread, plan on coming sometime Wednesday. And, oh, there is a bit of a price increase - you know the drought, gas prices, etc.  It's everywhere.

Thursday Market
Our "regular Thursday market" - doesn't have an official start date - yet. We'd been sorta, kinda thinking about Thursday, October 4th - and I have sorta told some people....but, we just aren't sure. It depends on how well things are growing.

Black beauty eggplant.

Specialty scalloped squashes.

French Sorrel and Paris Carrots

But - I have been harvesting eggplant and just started harvesting chard, okra, peppers, scalloped squash,  bunching onions and it looks like some radishes are ready along with red mustard and French sorrel and our watermelon patch is full of surprises that Michael will pick soon.....and so....these items are at our Honor System Market.  So, it might not be a "regular Thursday market" but it is a market - the Honor System one.

Everything Long - Tonights Dinner . . .

 . . . is from the gardens here at the farm. As you know we had an abundance of eggplant. And the offering for 50 cents an eggplant and 3 for $1 for the little white ones is still good for another day or two.

I got creative with tonights dinner. . . Everything long.

Chopped it all up and tossed it in some olive oil and garlic and decided to call it good!  

One another thing . . . I am so fortunate to have a husband who doesn't mind

 at all eating roasted vegetables for dinner. 

Cinnamon Bread and Addictive Behaviors

For some reason, Carol's Grano de Vida Cinnamon Bread is addictive.  Just the thought of that yummy bread toasted with a nice pad of butter puts a smile on my face. . . and many others too.

I know this, because I regularly get asked if there is any extra loaves of the Cinnamon Bread stashed in the freezer.

I know this, because it's the bread most ordered.

I know this, because it sells out first at our market.

I know this, because your face also smiles as you describe how amazing it is.

So, I have asked our farm's beautiful bread maker, Carol, to bake 10 fresh loaves of Cinnamon Bread. She said, "Sure thing." She is also baking 1 dozen of Ciabatta and 4 loaves of her incredibly awesome Sprouted Wheat bread.

All these yummy breads will be in bread baskets on Wednesday afternoon.  First come. First serve. Actually, for you addicts, if you want one - email me at lylahledner@gmail.com and I'll put your name on it.

If You Haven't Been Around Lately . . .

. . . my amazing husband has added raised beds to increase production for our French market and we're considering the possibility of starting a few harvest baskets. That's where you pay for 12 weeks in advance and are entitled to a weekly harvest basket share of our farm's produce.  This is only in the thinking stage, however.

Here's what's been happening . . .

Swiss Chard

Raised beds in the new Market Garden (just north of the vintage fence).

Nice sized raised beds on the Vintage Field. The right one has landscape cloth in it to
ward off weeds and bermuda. Does it work?
Not really.  Weeds and bermuda are just part of life. Ugh.

We're also cleaning out - spring cleaning - in the dead of summer heat - if you will. As we are growing and expanding - we've visited our farm "systems and set ups."  We rented one of those big HUGE orange dumpsters to DUMP things that would not work for our recycle needs.  Now we're working on round two of cleaning and purging - inside and outside.

Previous market prep area cleaned out for the expanded market room.

Changes are being made in EVERY storage area - the market area included.  So, if you see piles of "stuff" in lots of places - those are piles that our wonderful City of Scottsdale is being so kind to bring a dump truck this week and take ALL our piles. Awesome city! Awesome Waste Management Manager.

It's been a summer of good hard work - in anticipation of an amazing fall season of roots and shoots.  We still have not landed on a date to reopen the regular market - it definitely will be the very end of September if not the first week of October. But if you don't subscribe to the blog - you'll want to - so you'll know when that will be.

Family Help at The Farm

We grew up with some pretty strong work ethics and we believe in modeling those ethics to our children and grandchildren.  We always look for any opportunity to bring the children along with farm chores we're doing - milking the goats, planting seeds, fertilizing, making pies, doing dishes, feeding the chickens, etc.

If you are patient you can capture a child's heart when they're little - and bring them along side to work/play with you.

Here's two little video clips of this evenings helping hands.

Ground Wheat Bread and Milk

In spite of there being "no market" there still is a "market" of sorts at the farm.  Those every day staples like eggs, milk (goat), some produce like eggplant, squash, Armenian cucumbers and herbs, honey and caramel.

Tomorrow bread will be back at the farm.  

Cinnamon Raisin

Pita

Sprouted Wheat

A lovely selection of Baguettes

I asked Carol to freeze this fresh batch - so it will stay nice and fresh for you in the farm market freezer.

Milk - Goat's Milk - I can't help but smile every time someone walks in and tells the story that their doctor told them to start drinking goats milk rather than cow. We appreciate the partnership we have with Wendell and Rhonda Crow of Crow's Dairy - carrying their farmstead artisan cheeses and goats milk.

Stop by Monday - Saturday and shop our farm from 7 am until 7 pm. It's the Honor System Market.