Learning to like new food

When I was 8 or 9 years old my family moved to a “new” house.  It was actually older than the “old” house, but it was a new place to live.  I’m sure you all get my meaning.  At the back of our lot there was a rhubarb plant.  Bush?  Whatever you call it, it was big.  No one in our family liked rhubarb, so my mom spent about a decade trying to kill it off and finally she was successful.  I don’t know if I’d even tried it back then.  But apparently my parents didn’t like it, and especially my mom, since I don’t think she would have worked so hard at killing it if she’d liked it.  I did have a small bit of strawberry-rhubarb jam once as an adult and I wasn’t impressed.  Too tart for me.  So, for that reason, I’ve never bothered to plant it.

Fifteen years ago I had my fourth child.  Our third son, Noah.  Noah has turned out to be a very unique member of our family when it comes to food.  The reality is, is that there is almost nothing that he doesn’t like.  Really!  Every other child is picky about something, some of them about LOTS of things.  Even my husband has a general distrust of anything green, though he’ll eat almost anything I put in front of him, because it’s something he didn’t have to cook himself.  But not Noah.  He actually LIKES the food. It’s been rather fun the past several years when I want to experiment with new foods, because no longer am I the only one that likes things.  I can, at least, count on Noah liking it too.  So I have someone else to share my new love of broiled asparagus with olive oil and salt with.  Someone who also looks forward to ratatouille in mid-summer.  Someone who likes rhubarb.

“What do you mean, you like rhubarb?”  I asked him a few years ago.  “Can’t we grow it!?” he asked.  “No. I’m not growing rhubarb for one kid.  Maybe if I also liked it, but I don’t.  It takes years to get established to produce a decent crop and you’ll be grown up and moving out by then, so THEN what will I do with the stuff??  I’ll spend 10 years trying to kill it just like my mom did.”

A couple from our church, good friends of ours, has rhubarb in their backyard.  They’ve asked now and then if we’d like some in the spring and I’ve always turned it down.  “You just need more sugar,” they say.  I’ve answered that if I have to add that much sugar to make it palatable, it’s not worth the effort and can’t possibly be healthy.  So a couple of years ago Noah was old enough to start mowing the lawn, and about once a week he mows “their” yard.  Spring came, and apparently he tried some strawberry rhubarb something-or-other at their house.  He came home rather excited, telling me I need to make some of this stuff – and grow it!  No chance.

The following year they sent home with him 2 or 3 bags of the stuff, frozen, so I could make something for Noah.  A year later I think I tossed it out to the chickens or the compost pile.  I felt guilty about it, as I really had planned to make him some jam, but our strawberries didn’t produce anything that year and I kept forgetting about it, and finally it was freezer-burned and no good. 

I don’t think they gave us any last year, but today Noah mowed their lawn and came home with a medium-sized storage bowl full of chopped rhubarb.  “Can you make a pie tonight?”  *sigh*  I DID just buy some strawberries, though not many and Andrew really likes fresh strawberries, so I didn’t want to use them all in a rhubarb pie.  “Apple rhubarb!” he says.  “Apple?  Does rhubarb go with apple?”  “Pam says it goes with anything!”  (Visualize a 15-year-old giving you puppy dog eyes…)  After dinner he asked – again- if I’m going to make him a pie.  *sigh*  So I pulled out the 1986 Betty Crocker Cookbook to see what I’m supposed to do with this stuff and started to make an apple-rhubarb pie.  I used 2 cups of rhubarb.  Then I chopped a granny smith apple.  That left me just a little short of the 4 cups of fruit I needed.  So I cut up enough strawberries to get us to 4 cups.  One and a third cups sugar, a few flicks of cinnamon (about a teaspoon), 1/3 cup flour.  Mixed it all up.  It did look pretty – green, red and white – and sparkly from the sugar.  I made the pie crust, poured in the fruit, threw on plops of butter, then the top crust, and baked it for 45 minutes at 425 degrees.  In the meantime I put the rest of the chopped rhubarb in 2 freezer bags to save for when our strawberries are in and I can make a batch of strawberry-rhubarb preserves so the boy will be happy.

Then the pie was done.  It looked so pretty and smelled really good.  But I’ve been tricked by good smells before.  Like flavored coffee.  Smells good, but it’s nasty stuff.  We let it cool a little while, then Noah and I each took a piece.  A big one for him, little for me.  Oh.  My.  Gosh!  It’s actually yummy!  Not any more tart than an apple pie, and the strawberry in there….  yum!

I’m still not sure if I’m going to plant any of it, but I won’t be turning down any free gifts of it anymore, either

The goats venture outside

There is such a major contrast between last year’s spring and this year’s.  Last year by this time, temperatures in the 70′s or even 80′s were not uncommon.  The problem was that it would still dip back to normal – or below – in between.  The result was that almost no one around here got any fruit from trees because they all budded and started to set fruit with the warm temps – and then we had 3 or 4 frosts and freezes, which killed off the fruit.  So, no apples, pears, peaches or plums.  It was very sad.

This year?  Well.  Those of us who use FaceBook have probably seen at least on joking picture of Punxsatawny Phil with a sign saying, “I lied,” or laying on the ground with a pistol laying on him because he committed suicide because he was wrong.  More than 6 weeks has passed, and last night IL (and other states) got MORE snow.  Some places were supposed to get 6″ or more!  We happen to live in the northern section of this particular storm, and we probably got 1″ – maybe 2″.  But still.  At the beginning of March it was creeping into the 30′s and 40′s.  Last week the lows were in the teens!  Seriously?  When we finally got into the 30′s at night 2 weeks ago, I moved my buck back to his own pen.  And now we’re dealing with freezing water.  Again.  This has turned into a VERY long winter.

But, despite the very low temps at night, the daytime temps were warm enough that on a couple of days our goats actually all came outside to catch some rays!  It helps that this particular side of the barn faces south, and the white walls reflect the sun and makes it warmer.  But it was very nice to see them all outside and to see the new kids venturing out farther than they’ve ever been in their short lives.  And then there’s the peacocks.  Their tails are about as filled out as they’re going to be this year (two of them are still young).  And they are getting spring fever and trying to impress everyone with their tails to attract a mate.  So, here are some pictures taken one morning last week, during chore time.  Sorry for the lack of green plants, but they aren’t emerging just yet.

The young peacocks show off to an unimpressed audience.

Young peacocks

Caesar on the water trailer. He’s our oldest peacock. We raised him from a chick.

Peafowl and chickens, and a guinea, waiting for breakfast.

After over a year of having our farm website up, we’ve finally gotten the online store up and running!  I still need to add some products, but all the soap is there, as well as the Herbal Salve.  We are able to take payment through Pay Pal with either your paypal account or a credit card.

We’re still working on the details of how this actually works.  Like HOW do we know an order has been placed???  And we’re not sure if the site keeps track of how many items are still available – it’s set with the inventory of each item, but I don’t know if it keeps track and won’t let someone buy something if it’s all been ordered by someone else, or if I need to do the counting and remove it from the list.  I guess we’ll find out.

We’ve discovered that even the “for dummies” book on how to do this stuff isn’t dumbed down quite enough for those of us who haven’t a clue how building a website works.  It assumes basic knowledge we just don’t have.  Yet.  We’re learning!  All that to say, please be patient with us as we embark on this journey.  It might be a little bumpy.  But you can always send an email or message through our facebook page if you haven any questions

Yarn Bethany made from wool and llama fiber

My first time using a drop spindle

I have been wanting to spin our llama wool for a while (we had llamas a few years ago) so when I got a drop spindle I was really excited to learn how to spin! At first we had to fix my spindle a little, it needed a little sanding down and it needed a hook. We didn’t know how well our llama’s wool would work so we went to our friend’s house and got some sheep wool that was ready to spin.  This is called roving. Then I went and looked at our processed llama wool to see if it was kind of like roving and it is. Then the real fun began – spinning the wool! First I did the sheep wool, then the llama wool. The good thing about spinning wool on a drop spindle is that it’s fun, it makes yarn that my sister can use to knit with, and it was really easy!  ~Bethany

Additional info…

This is Bethany’s first blog post ever!  Since she did the spinning, I thought she should write about her experience personally.  I’m just going to add a few notes to add some more specific information.  The drop spindle she bought came from the gift shop at The Little House on Rocky Ridge.  That’s not the official name of the place, but it is the house where Laura and Almanzo Wilder lived with their daughter Rose in Mansfield, Missouri.  We visited it last July.  The instructions that came with the spindle were confusing to us, so Bethany went to YouTube and searched for a video to see how using a drop spindle was done.  What we found is that the one we bought – as is – wasn’t going to work with any instructions we saw.  The video we liked the best was by Megan LaCore.  This is the link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gXTWgMeMgI  We noticed there was a little hook at the end of her spindle, so Bethany asked Dad to sand off the pointed end of hers and screw in a small cup hook.  It now works great!  The yarn with the llama fiber is a little thick, so we’ll have to see what, exactly, we can do with it.  It seems way too fat to knit with.  Maybe someone needs to learn to crochet?  We’ll see.  But for now she’s at least learning the basics of spinning.  From now on it’s fine tuning.

The sheep’s wool we used came from our friend and neighbor, Deborah Boehle of Antiquity Oaks Farm.  www.antiquityoaks.com.  She’s had a flock of Shetland sheep for years and was nice enough to let Bethany have a little roving to practice on because we weren’t sure how well the llama fiber would spin with a drop spindle.   Thanks, Deborah

Yesterday was a great day with family.  Talking, laughing, eating.  The leftovers are in the fridge and ready for lunch time.  And now most of us are preparing for Christmas.  Some have already started and are, as I write this, scouring the malls and stores looking for great deals.  Some, like me, would rather find my deals online where I can sit down and not wait in line   So, for those who would prefer that, we announce our annual clearance sale

All items are 10% – 20% off, except the herbal salve which is still available at the same very reasonably price.  I’ve seen similar products for $20 or more. Quantities of all items are limited.  I won’t be making more soap until spring.  I have a pretty good supply of lotion ready to go and some unscented lotion left that can be custom mixed, but not in all sizes because I don’t have a good variety of bottles.  I have a few sugar scrubs ready and eleven 8-oz jars available for custom mixing.  Ready-made lip balm is only available in root beer and black cherry, but I can make a small batch or two of another flavor, if there is enough demand for it.  A small batch makes about 23 tubes.  For the details, go to the Bath and Body Products page.  If you want anything not listed, email me and ask.
Unfortunately, we still haven’t gotten an online store up and running.  To place an order, you can email us at farmerinodell@gmail.com or “like” us on Facebook and send a private message.  You can pay through Paypal or send a personal check or USPS money order.  When sending a check, we’ll send your order after the check clears our bank, so if you want it quickly, send a USPS money or use paypal.  Then it will be shipped within 2 days of receipt of payment.  Our goal for 2013 is to get that store going for your convenience.

Have a great time shopping!

The four of us who participated this year definitely plan to do another crawl next year – and we have another participant waiting in the wings.  So, next year there will be 5 farms for you all to visit!  The winner of the drawing has been chosen and her gifts has been delivered.

We still have to all meet together to discuss any improvements that need to be made for the next one.  Suggestions are welcome.  For us, the one thing we want to be different is for our gardens to actually be in good condition, though the weather will need to cooperate a little better.

I’m sorry we don’t have more pictures to share.  We took a few of the tables before people started arriving and after that we were so busy, we didn’t think about it.  Next year I’ll have to have one of our children snapping pictures throughout the day.

We’re glad so many came and we look forward to a great Crawl in 2013!

Brand-new pea chicks you'll be able to see!

Attend a FARM CRAWL on Saturday, August 18! What’s a Farm Crawl? It’s a chance for you to spend a day in the country visiting a variety of small, family farms on a single day. All of the farms are in the vicinity of Dwight, Blackstone, Odell and Cornell. You’ll be able to see a variety of livestock and buy locally grown products directly from the farmers who grow them! Visitors to various farms will be able to see alpacas, peafowl, chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, sheep, goats, cows, pigs, rabbits and even Patagonian maras! And of course, there will be friendly barn cats and livestock guardian dogs of various breeds!

Available for sale: Fresh, natural produce, including heirlooms, eggs, honey, alpaca fiber and roving, llama fiber, wool roving and raw wool, yarn, goat milk soap, lambskins, bath and body products, herbal products, clothing made with wool or alpaca, alpaca beans (manure plant fertilizer), potted plants and handmade crafts.

Pick up a “passport” from the first farm you visit, have it “punched” by all four farms, and drop it off at your last farm visit to be entered into a raffle. The winner will receive a gift valued at $50 consisting of products from all four farms. Lunch will also be available for purchase at Eden’s Harvest Farm from Noon to 3p.m. The Starlights 4-H Club will be selling food and drinks as a fund raiser for their club.

Important!! There is no charge for your visit. Please be aware that these are real working farms, and there are risks involved in any visit. By participating in a farm visit you accept those risks and agree not to hold the farms responsible for any injuries that may occur during your visit. The farms are not petting zoos or parks, so children must be supervised at all times. And as excited as the farmers are about meeting you and your family, you are asked to leave pets at home. The farms reserve the right to ask you to leave if the safety of guests or animals are at risk. Visit the farms from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, August 18, 2012.

The participating farms are M2A Farm/Dwight, Eden’s Harvest Farm/Blackstone, Farmer in Odell/Odell and Antiquity Oaks/Cornell. See complete details, pictures and map at www.farmcrawl.blogspot.com.

For the past few months since we decided to do this, we’ve been plodding along, talking and planning.  Now it’s almost here – crunch time!  I don’t know what the other farms have managed to accomplish in the past few weeks since our last meeting, but we haven’t been able to do much of anything.  I’d just gotten back from a trip to Texas to take my sister and her kids to see our dad.  Then came our county 4-H fair.  My daughter was showing 2 of our goats which required twice-a-day care, plus doing a cake decorating demo/show AND the talent show.  That all took up the better part of 4 days.  Then I had one week to take care of things here and other errands, but outside farm work didn’t manage to wiggle in there.  Then we left for Florida to visit my husband’s parents and we just got back yesterday.  Phew!

So, here we are with just over 2 weeks to accomplish all we want to in order to make this place a little more presentable to our guests.  The garden is 4′-5′ deep in weeds.  I’m not even sure what’s alive in there.  We’ve had only about a half-inch of rain over the past month or so and haven’t watered much.  After the weeds are gone I’m going to plant some fall crops: green beans, beets, turnips, maybe try some pumpkins.  Again.  None of the winter squash or beets we planted in the spring came up.  I want to make at least 4 more kind of soap so you’ll have a good variety of Christmas soap to choose from (not to mention all the others.)  We’ll do what we can.  But, at the same time, I want you all to get the real story of what it’s like to try to run a teeny-tiny farm in the midst of modern 21st-century life.  This isn’t Little House on the Prairie – or at least our idealized version of what that was.  Those people worked HARD – morning to night.  We have modern conveniences like tillers, washing machines, dishwashers, refrigerators, etc.  But we also have a lot of outside activities that take us away from home – plus the full-time (or more) job Keith has to pay for us to have a home, electricity, etc.  Not to mention a much larger home then that cabin on the prairie and many more clothes and other items.  So though we don’t have the hard, physical labor day in and day out – we do have a lot of things taking up our time.  Plus a lot of other distractions we have to learn to manage better.

So, for the next two weeks we’ll be getting ready for your visit.  The place won’t be picture perfect.  But, after all, it’s the people that count the most.  We can’t wait to see you all on August 18!

Where the tree was. The remaining trunk is in that little clump of weeds just to the right of center.

Last night before going to bed I saw that there were severe thunderstorm warnings for our area, and even a tornado watch until midnight.  I went back out to the barn to close and secure the double doors to make sure our hay stayed dry.  At that time there was a lot of lightening to our west and north.  Not too far away – we could hear the thunder – but we got no rain.  That was a good thing because our oldest son had ridden his motorcycle to work and would be on his way home.  He works south of here and to the south the sky was almost clear.  He said the lightening had freaked him out a little as he drove home, but he arrived safely.  The storm continued to go away from us and at 10 we (well, Keith and I) went to bed.

After sleeping for a while, some new, closer thunder woke us up.  Then the wind picked up.  I went downstairs to make sure the windows were closed.  They were and I said goodnight to the oldest son who had been closing the windows before he went to bed.  I climbed in bed  and then decided to go back down and check the weather report on the computer.  I didn’t know what time it was, so I didn’t know if it was before or after the tornado watch was scheduled to end.  And even if it was after midnight, that didn’t mean that there wasn’t a new one.  I wanted to know if we should start gathering children and head for the basement.  As it turns out it was after 1:00, and there were no tornado watches or warnings in effect – just very high wind.  Up to 60 mph.  And possibly hail.  We looked at the radar picture and saw that the worst would be over in about 10 minutes and the big storm behind it was likely going to pass north of us, which it did.  And we never heard hail.  I commented that I was glad that I had NOT planted my tomatoes yet.  Keith commented that we’ll never find our garbage cans because our middle son hadn’t brought them back from the street yet.  I was thankful that I don’t have children that are woken up by storms and tried to get comfortable.  We mostly slept the rest of the night (no worse than any other night).

Apple tree trunk in the middle of weeds

At 7 I got up.  I realized that the peacock hadn’t been crowing on and off all night like usual.  That was a nice change.  Keith was already at work.  I went to the front door to let the dog out and saw that our trampoline was missing from it’s usual location.  I looked to the east and saw that it’s in the farmer’s field.  Not too far away, but far enough to be really annoying.  The hard part will be bringing it back without destroying his field, which I’m pretty sure he planted last week.  It’s going to be rather wet.  We’ll have to try hard to walk between rows, if we can tell where they are.  One trash can, at least, is in the field across the street.  Not bad.  I didn’t see the other one, but haven’t left the front door yet.  I’m sure it’s not too far, either.  Three of the youngest children were up.  Ben, the 6-year-old, went to the dining room window and exclaimed, “There’s a bush next to dad’s truck!”  A bush?  We have no bushes in that area that could be uprooted.  Just fruit trees.  With a minor sense of foreboding, I put on my shoes and went back to assess the damage in that section of the yard.  Just as I thought.  The “bush” is my largest, most productive apple tree.  The wind snapped the trunk about 6″ above the ground.  Quite cleanly, actually.  The empty space in the photo above where you can clearly see the barn…  Yesterday from that angle, you’d only see the barn roof.  I have one other equally mature tree, that’s a moderate producer when things work well.  I have two other new trees in the front yard, but they’re a few years from producing any fruit.  *sigh*  Oh, well, it could have been worse.  No tornado, no other damage except small branches down here and there.  But I am sad about losing that tree.  Oh, and the peacock?  He didn’t blow away.  He’s still in his tree and just now crowed.  I’m guesing the storms freaked him out a little bit too.

I grew up never having had true, homemade oatmeal.  We ate the instant stuff.  My favorite was always cinnamon and spice, though it’s almost impossible to find in a box all by itself.  Second favorites are maple & brown sugar and apples and cinnamon.  The first time I had “real” oatmeal was in a hospital after one of my children were born.  I wouldn’t recommend that.  They cook it just in water.  Blah.  Even with the pat of butter and the packet of sugar they give you, plus a little bit of milk, there’s really no flavor.  So when I bought plain rolled oats to make myself I at LEAST cooked it with half water/half milk.  With some brown sugar and cinnamon it was good enough.  But still not as good as the cinnamon & spice.  But, it was cheaper so I made it from scratch now and then.

Over the past 15 years or so, I’ve been doing more and more research on healthy eating.  More recently I’ve become more aware of how important protein is in our diet.  I tried a semi-vegetarian thing about 10 years ago and I was thin – but weak.  I had sold our goats and drank little milk and ate less meat.  I liked how I looked.  Well, I did until I went back to drinking raw milk and eating meat and saw a photo of myself from that time.  Yikes!  Much too thin and sickly!  Now I know why my mom and a couple of friends had been concerned.

Back to the oatmeal.  After learning about how important good protein (and fat) sources are for us, I started working on ways to sneak it into more foods that are normally just grain-based.  My children (and I) really like our grains, but just grains aren’t the best choice all the time.  So about 2 years ago I decided to go up a notch or two with our oatmeal.  I still use half milk and half water.  But then I add a little bit of butter.  Cook on medium heat and stir to prevent sticking and burning.  After it’s cooked I beat up an egg or two, depending on how much I’m making, in a separate bowl, then pour some of the hot oatmeal into the eggs while mixing it up.  When it’s combined well, I pour that back into the pot and cook for another minute.  Then I added a splash of vanilla extract.  From there it goes into everyone’s bowls.  The basic additions are brown sugar and pure maple syrup.  Most are good with that.  Then some add some cinnamon.  Maybe nutmeg, too, and cloves.  Some like to add chopped apple or banana.  Oh my!  This is SO much better than the instant stuff

Here’s my basic recipe.  It makes about 4 cups of oatmeal, which feeds me and 5 or 6 children.  But they don’t eat much, so adjust according to your family’s appetite.  The basic instructions are above.  I’m assuming a little bit of prior knowledge here.  Quick oats can cook in less than 5 minutes.  Regular rolled oats take about twice as long.  If you need more help, ask

You are certainly not limited by this list of additions.  You could use almond extract and blueberries or raspberries.  There are lots of other sweeteners – honey, sugar, agave nectar, stevia.  Any fruit or berry.  If you have a garden and grow your own fruit, use what’s in season.  Or just put in some apple butter or jelly or marmalade.  Other extracts are lemon, orange, pecan.   Use your imagination, be creative.

Have fun and healthy eating!