July: Too Hot to Lay Eggs

July has been hotter than hot: steamy, sweltering, scorching, suffocating and searing heat.  Plants, animals and humans on the farm are wilting.  90 degree plus days were remedied with a dunk in the stream or swim at Pine Lake.  At night, the air cools to a not-great-for-sleeping 80 degrees.  We had to forage in the far corners of the attic to find fans.  Thank goodness we don't throw anything out because the stores were sold out of fans. I heard that people were traveling over two hours to Albany and Binghamton to purchase fans.  Am I complaining of the heat?  Give me heat over 40 below zero days any day.  Fans are whirring, animals are panting and the only cool spot is in the car with the air conditioning on full blast. 

The hens stopped laying eggs. How do they stop like that?  If you have ever slaughtered laying hens then you know that the oviduct contains a line up of eggs - newest to oldest.  So are they walking around with an egg stuck mid lay? Is this egg constipation? Does this mean that when the weather is cooler the hens will drop more than one egg a day to lighten their load?

The laying cabin was moved downstream to the willow tree. The hens are roosting in the trees instead of the cabin. Perhaps they are laying eggs in the treetops.  How do the animals stay cool? The rabbits were so hot, we put frozen water bottles in their cages. The dogs are digging craters in my herb garden and camping among the valerian and wormwood. The pigs are wallowing in the swamp areas and taking long mudbaths. The ducks are waterbound and are rock hopping up and down the stream. The cows found a giant apple tree which was occupied by the dairy goats. The goats left in a huff found a bigger, shadier tree. The cows think they secured the prime spot on the farm and the goats are laughing at them underneath their Ritz Carlton shade spot.

The Rabbit Fleet

Tom and Susannah finshed building large rabbit cages that can be moved on pasture daily. The fleet was assembled and launched on pasture seas this week.  Each day, the rabbits get a new patch of grass on which to graze and bounce around.  The rabbits are much happier, more active and eat more in the pasture cages.  The prototype cage was built in May and the rabbits housed in that cage grew faster than the rabbits in the standard cages.

The Danes

WWOOFers Laurs and Manja from Copenhagen were with us for a couple of weeks. They worked sun up to sun down. Their contribution to our farm during the two weeks was huge; they weeded the gardens, picked peas and raspberries, took care of the chickens, slaughtered chickens. We took them fishing on La Fever Lake the other night and Manja caught her first fish.

Tribute to Rosie

Rosie, our tenacious, tough and cranky Australian Cattle dog “Blue Heeler”, died last week. A truck driver rescued her as a stray but could not handle her strong, stubborn personality so he gave her to us. She was the least liked dog on the farm but everyone admired her independence. We don’t know how old she was but she suffered from cluster seizures which had paralyzed her back leg. During her seizures she often went on walkabouts seeking water. We often searched for her for hours and would find her in the streams, water ditches and swampy areas. With a paralyzed back leg, the journeys were tough. Each time, we scooped her up and brought her home and finally convinced her to hang out under the oak tree. She died one morning while I was stroking her head.  I miss her nipping at my heels and biting me when I stepped on her.  She had an annoying habit of lying inches from where I was working, even if I was moving fast from counter to counter in the kitchen. So when I accidentally stepped on her, she bit my ankle to let me know to watch my step.  I love this picture of Rosie. She dove into the offal pile while we were slaughtering turkeys and carried of her prize turkey foot.

Birth to Bones Workshops
How does a chicken, turkey, rabbit, lamb or pig get from the pasture to the plate? We put together a series of summer and fall workshops to provide a hands-on learning experience on raising, butchering and preparing livestock for cooking.

July 14 - Pullet to Pot
Broilers are raised from day-old chicks that arrive via post to eight-week old chickens or broilers grown on pasture. See the different phases of raising chickens from critter proof chick pens to free range on pasture. The full-day experience includes intensive hands-on learning about raising chickens on pasture, slaughtering chickens en plein air and preparing and a whole chicken for roasting or the crock pot or breaking down the chicken for sautéing, grilling or baking.

August 18- Rabbit to Roaster
Rabbits are caged raised during kindling and transferred to pasture cages at weaning. Observe the rabbitry and pastured rabbit cages or rabbit fleet. Learn how to raise rabbits on pasture. The full-day experience teaches you how to raise, slaughter and prepare rabbits for stewing, braising, sautéing and grilling.

September 15 - Lamb to Plate
Lambs are born on pasture in May and are ready for slaughter in three to six months. Learn how to raise lambs on pasture, including lambing, pasture rotation, butchering and preparing lamb. The full-day experience includes intensive hands-on learning about raising lambs on pasture and getting lamb from the pasture to the plate.

October 13 - Piglet to Platter
Heritage breeds of pig – Berkshire and Tamworth - are raised on the farm on pasture and woodlands year round. Experience pork on pasture and learn about farrowing, pasturing, butchering and preparing pork for the spit, crock pot or grill. The full-day experience includes intensive hands-on learning about raising pork on pasture and getting pork from the pasture to the platter.
Workshops are held on Wednesdays once a month. 8 am to 8 pm. $125 per person*. Includes lunch and dinner at Fable, the farm’s restaurant. Participants will work together to prepare dinner using all parts of the animal. Lunch and dinner will be accompanied by the seasonal dairy and produce raised and harvested on the farm. *A minimum of ten persons is required for us to conduct a class.  Overnight accommodations are available at Stone & Thistle Farm Stay and B&B or Harmony Hill Retreat Center’s tree house yurts and chalet (a stone’s throw away). www.stoneandthistlefarm.com/bed&breakfast.html or http://www.harmonyhillretreat.com/  Contact Denise Warren at Stone & Thistle Farm – Kortright Creek Creamery – Fable 1211 Kelso Road East Meredith, NY 13757 607-278-5800 http://www.stoneandthistlefarm.com/

The Border Collies
The puppy (almost a year old) Ty is doing great. He is obssessed with rabbits and ducks and is at my side when I do chores. I can't let him out of my sight because he would love to eat rabbits and poultry. The other day, all the bunnies escaped from the pasture box and he wanted to eat them so badly. I told him to lie down and he was so humilated as the bunnies hopped on his head and back.  I did not have the camera with the bunnie episode but this is a photo of Ty watching a snake in the grass. Border collies will herd anything. Cade has been working hard with sheep as well as cattle. He just jumped in the stream and decided to admire his cattle herding task.  Marly is headed for retirement.  I came back from feeding the goats and Marly was playing basketball all by himself.  Border collies even herd basketballs.

Lois the Bummer Lamb
Lois lost her mom at two days of age. She was bottlefed with the replacement dairy kids for 12 weeks. Lois thinks she is a goat except she is not as smart as a goat. She bleats and baahs and screams when the goats wander off exploring. She is so intent on grazing that she does not see the goats leaving. To quiet her down, we have to lead her to where the goats are grazing.

Fable
The ducks are hard to process but we celebrated the first harvest with duck confit and duck breast with raspberry sauce.  The next couple of weeks will feature goat and rabbit.  We will begin serving lamb dishes in early August. Chicken and beef is boring. We hope that more customers will broaden their palate and enjoy different meats and parts of the animals such as feet, hearts, livers and tongues.  We picked zucchini from the garden this week.  Zucchini is almost three weeks earlier this year. I made zucchini quiche, zucchini muffins and zucchini bread. I am always looking for great ideas for the amuse and starters at Fable. Please email us with your favorites.   We are selling rabbit and pork rillette, cajeta and sausages in our farm store and at the farmers market. The products are produced under the name Fable's Kitchen. I can't wait to make bacon marmalade which is "all the rage" in the urban gourmet stores.
We hope you will join us at Fable soon.

July 17, 2010
Amuse: spicy egg shooters
Starter:  roasted summer squash soup with parsley mint pesto
Main:  roasted goat kebabs on herb pilaf
Dessert:  summer berries in mulled cabernet sauvignon with rosemary sorbet and lemon verbena biscotti

Summer-Squash Soup with Parsley Mint Pistou
8 servings
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 medium onion, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced crosswise
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 lb yellow summer squash, halved and thinly sliced
2 carrots, thinly sliced
1 yellow-fleshed potato (1/2 lb), peeled, halved,
4 cups chicken stock or reduced-sodium chicken broth
for pistou
3/4 cup loosely packed fresh mint leaves
1/2 cup loosely packed fresh flat-leaf parsley sprigs
1 large scallion, chopped (1/2 cup)
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons water
1/4 teaspoon salt
Melt butter in a 6- to 8-quart wide heavy pot over moderate heat, then cook onion with salt, stirring, until softened, about 8 minutes. Add squash, carrots, potato, and stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, then simmer, partially covered, until vegetables are very tender, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat and cool soup, uncovered, 10 minutes.
Working in batches, purée; soup in a blender until smooth (use caution when blending hot liquids) and transfer to a bowl. Return puré to cleaned pot and thin with water if desired; simmer 3 minutes. Season with salt.
Make pistou while vegetables simmer:
Pulse mint, parsley, and scallion in a food processor until finely chopped. With motor running, add oil in a stream, then add water and salt, blending until incorporated.
Swirl 1 tablespoon pistou into each bowl of soup.

July 24, 2010

Amuse: blue cheese and basil honey toasts
Starter: smoky bacon and garlic soup
Main:  braised rabbit smothered with onions and grilled red beets
Dessert: blackberry soufflé

Blackberry Soufflé

Serves 6

Butter to coat ramekins

1 ¼ cups sugar divided

24 ounces fresh blackberries

¾ cup butter (1 ½ sticks)

1/3 cup flour

5 egg yolks

2 tablespoons Chambord or cranberry juice

5 egg whites

reheat oven to 400F. Thoroughly butter six, 8 oz ramekins or 2 quart soufflé dish and sprinkle with ¼ cup sugar.   Place berries in food processor or blender. Pulse until pureed. Place in a sieve and press gently to extract juice. Add enough water to yield two cups. Combine the juice and ½ cup sugar in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium high heat. Remove from the heat.

Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add flour and whisk well. Gradually pour hot juice mixture and whisk vigorously. Cook 1 minute. Remove from heat and whisk in yolks. Whisk in Chambord.

Beat egg whites in clean dry bowl with a mixture until frothy. Gradually add the remaining ½ cup sugar, beating until soft peaks form, Stir in one cup egg white mixture into blackberry mixture. Fold remaining egg white mixture into black berry mixture.

Spoon into ramekins or soufflé dish and bake 20-25 minutes (ramekins) or 30-35 minutes (soufflé dish) until soufflé rises. Serve immediately.

June - Summer Beginnings

Scrubbing Names off Cups

Our intern from last year was so wonderful that we decided to hire two interns this season.  We are fortunate that Susannah returned this year to help us. The search for a second intern began in January. We received 30 applicants and narrowed it down to five to interview. From the interviews, Tom selected an enthusiastic, smart, adventuresome, twenty-something female who agreed to start in May. In preparation for her arrival, we scrubbed down the camper and washed towels, sheets and the dishes that were stored in the camper for the winter. We picked flowers and placed them in vase in the camper’s kitchen table. We assigned her a green, plastic cup for water and wrote her name on it. She stayed less than 12 hours; I scrubbed her name off the plastic cup. I scrambled to find a replacement. The interns we turned down had already found positions so I reposted on the agriculture websites. Within 48 hours I hired a new intern over the phone. He arrived this week. We again readied the camper, picked flowers for his table and wrote his name on the scrubbed over green, plastic cup. He stayed 18 hours. I scrubbed his name off of the cup. So your immediate reaction is that something is wrong with us that we can’t keep interns. Or why after several years of hiring interns, we are lame at weeding out the emotionally unstable, physically unfit applicants with extra baggage. We are beginning to lose faith in ourselves. So while we need an intern as quickly as possible, we are taking a different tactic and hiring an intern via a friend or acquaintance. So when the intern turns out to be a loser, we can blame our friend’s ability to pick a loser, not us. In the meantime, I know someone out there wants to join our family this summer and learn lots of fun ways to farm, market and create new products. With the economy in the tank, private housing, meals and a $100 week stipend, it’s not a bad deal. Heck, I’d take a job on another farm for the summer if the food was great and the work was fun. Let us know if you have any thoughts on candidates and we promise not to hold you responsible for your recommendation. Promise.

Many Huey Duey and Lueys

Last year Tom bought me three ducks at the poultry auction and named them Huey Duey and Luey. They lived with the turkeys and did a superb job of alerting us to any dangers or informing us of when they were hungry. The plan was to slaughter them when we harvested the turkeys for Thanksgiving. The ducks were too skinny and did not have enough meat on their bones to make it worthwhile. We gave them to a friend who gave them to a friend and they are happily swimming in someone’s pond wondering where all the turkeys have gone. The family named one of the ducks Trisket because he is a little “quacker”. Tom became so enamoured of ducks that he ordered 50 Peking ducks to raise for meat. I never knew ducks were so yellow, fuzzy, friendly and so darn cute. The first batch graduated from the brooding pens and are happily quacking in their marsh spa canopied by wild irises. We scoot them into their hut at night to keep them safe from owls, coyotes, skunks and other predators.

The Chicken Vault

We are raising hundreds of chickens for meat and laying hens for eggs. The poultry is in constant danger of assault during the day by hawks and foxes and at night by owls. During the day, the maremmas, the livestock guardian dogs, are used to bark away predators but they are on lamb duty during the night to protect the livestock from coyotes and neighbors’ dogs. Our combat weapon is a chicken vault. At dusk, we shoo the chickens into the vault and latch the gates. In the morning, when the dogs are back on poultry watch, we open that gates and let the chickens out. They spend the day happily foraging and stream hopping.

The Portable Rabbit Pen

Susannah built a portable rabbit hutch from scraps of wood, wire fencing and wire mesh. It is moved every day onto fresh grass. The feeder rabbits love it; they have a lot more space and 24 access to fresh grass. We are trying to train them to move into the box at the end of the pen when we move it. There are some design problems that will be corrected with the next pen. We need to have six more so by the time we build the last pen, we should have the design perfected. Firstly, it is too heavy for me to move. Even Tom strains when he picks it up. The tractor needs to be lighter and we need it to easily slip onto a hand truck. A lot of the designs we looked at have wheels but it makes more sense to use the hand truck for each one. Secondly, the only entrance into the pen is at the box end. So when I need to grab a rabbit for harvesting, I have to crawl inside the pen to get it or get Tom to tip the pen so the rabbit scurry to the box. Thirdly, when it rains, the feeder full of pellets gets wet and the rabbits won’t eat wet pellets. The feeder needs to be protected by an overhang or ideally a box needs to be built around the feeder. I think the feeder is attracting wild rabbits because there is rabbit poop outside of the pen near the feeder every morning. I can imagine a chow line a mile long of wild rabbits.

East Meets West Meets East Meredith

The peas I planted in mid-May are tall enough to need a pea fence. The pea fence is a very large roll of wire mesh. I rolled it up and carefully stowed it in the garage at the end of the growing season. The pea fence is missing. I looked in the garage, all of the barns and even in places that a pea fence would never be, which in my experience after many years on the farm, is usually where it ends up. The pea fence has disappeared. As it turns out, the pea fence was used for the portable rabbit pen. Instead of buying another fence, I decided to make do with what we have. I asked Tom to cut down the sumac near the garden. I cut the sumac into 3 foot lengths and pounded them into the ground. I lashed the sumac branches together will baling twine. The fence is sturdy and has a throw together, rustic look. When Shane saw the fence I created in the garden he said that it looked like a something you would see in Vietnam. I was so inspired by my pea fence that I used more sumac branches to make bean teepees. Shane said it has an American Indian look. Now east meets west in my garden on the southeast side of the house.

The World of Welwyn

Katey is graduating from Delaware Academy High School in a couple of weeks. Her last day of school is Friday. She got a scholarship for a jumping clinic at Cooperstown’s Farmer Museum 4th Annual Horse Clinic this weekend. On Tuesday, she and her horses, Monty, her 17 year old thoroughbred and Peter, her 8 year old off the track thoroughbred, head to Welwyn Stable in Rhinebeck, New York. Katey will be a working student for the year and is excited about getting the opportunity to learn, show and work at the stable. My heart is light when I think about all expenses we won’t have such as horse board, hay, feed, farrier, vet, show helmets, boots, tack and horse show entries and the time spent hauling her horses to lessons, horse shows and clinics. Katey worked to pay for many of these expenses. As a horse mom, it has been an amazing experience watching Katey grow and excel in the equestrian world and my heart is heavy when I think about not having her in our everyday life and no longer being a 4H horse mom and a Pony Club mom. Then my heart is lightened again when I think that the non-stop bickering between she and Shane, the endless laundry, the unpassable back stairs, the collection of dirty dishes in her bedroom, the wait for the shower, the wait for the computer, the obsession with facebook and the cell phone. And then I grow sad again realizing that her new adventure is the first step out the door of which she will never return as our child but will return as our child adult as a visitor, but always as a joy in our lives. If you see Katey, please wish her the best of luck and happiness in her new adventure.

April Farm and Fable Musings

First Sign of Spring on the Farm

The serviceberry tree, also know as juneberry or shadbush or shadblow, is the first sign of spring on the farm.  The tree grows along the stonewall adjacent to the horse barn.  It is called the serviceberry because the tree blooms when the ground is soft enough for persons who died during the winter to be buried and is a showy canopy of blossoms during burial services.  It is also called shadbush or shadlow because the tree flowers when the shad is running in the rivers.  The berries taste like honey and can be used for jams, jellies and pies but I rarely pick the berries before the birds get them.  Bird enthusiasts often plant the serviceberry tree to attract birds to their property.

A Lamb in Another Lamb's Clothing

Lambing season has begun.  Ten to twenty lambs are born everyday on the West Kortright Church Road pasture.  When look in on the flock every morning and evening, we have to match ewes with lambs and tag the lambs with the ewes' tag number - yellow tags for females and green tags for males.  Sometimes lambs are lying in a jumble basking in the sun so we have to stir up the pile and observe which lambs seek out which ewes.  When we arrived at the WKC pasture a few days ago, a lamb was outside of the electric fence (god knows how it got through the fence) trying to get back to her mom.  We put her back over the fence and she ran to her mom. She must have been separated from her mom for a long time because her mom refused to take her back. The ewe stomped and snorted and nosed the lamb away.  We scooped up the lamb and continued to search the pasture for more lambs.  In the road end near the pond, was a ewe with a dead lamb next to her.  The lamb never made it out of the amniotic sac.   By the end of the morning, we had ten lambs, a ewe without a lamb and an orphan lamb.  An orphan lamb is called a bummer lamb.  I am not sure where the term originates but it is a real bummer to bottle feed a lamb three times a day for 12 weeks.  Sometimes a ewe will accept a lamb that is not hers under the right conditions. The trick is to make the lamb smell like the ewe who lost her lamb.  We made a coat for the bummer lamb.  We skinned the dead lamb and made a hole for the tail and plastered it to the bummer lamb and put the lamb in with the ewe.  She smelled the lamb with the lamb coat for a long time. We waited anxiously to see if it would nurse.  Success!  Once the lamb nurses, its poop smells like the ewe and she will accept it.  Two days later, the coat is off the lamb and the lamb is happily with her adopted mom. 

Broiler versus Layer Chick

Chickens for eating are called broilers and chickens for eggs are called laying hens or layers. Both sets of chicks are five weeks old. The broilers are ready to harvest at eight weeks and the layers will be ready to lay eggs at 20 weeks.   A layer chick is called a poulet until she starts to lay eggs.

The chicks will be moved out of their heat box and onto pasture this week.  Metal portable shelters (they look like small Quonset huts) are used to keep them dry, out of the sun and safe from hawks. However, the big move to pasture presents risks.  If it is too cold or too wet, the chicks pile in the shelters and die. Hawks are their biggest threat - they often swoop into the huts and pick off chicks one by one. The dogs provide some protection from predator hawks. The broilers will be harvested on the farm in a few weeks and they will be available fresh at the May farmers markets.  Fresh chickens will be at the markets and in our farm store every week until mid October.   The profit from broilers, even at $4.50 lb, is very slim due to large piling and predator losses and the labor that goes into raising chickens.

Bunnies in a Box

Each of the breeding does has a litter. The youngest litter is two weeks old.  A first-time doe had 11 babies but the kindling box was too small so she threw out five of them. Unfortunately, she did it in the middle of the night so they did not survive.  The oldest bunnies are four weeks old. They are active in their cages, hopping in and out the kindling box and eating pellets and grass. 

Goats on Pasture

After a long winter of hay and baleage, the goats travel to the back pasture for the first of the season's grass.  They graze non-stop for the first few hours and then collapse with drowsiness from the weight of the grass digesting in their rumens and the feel of the sun on their backs. They wait at the fence at the end of day and are ready to go back to the dairy barn for milking. Electric netting powered by solar batteries is moved from pasture to pasture with the goats and sheep. 

Two years ago we decided not to disbud (remove the horns) from the dairy goats.  We changed our minds after a few mishaps with horns and milk stands, fencing and our faces.  These sisters use their horns advantageously and butt all the other goats away from the choice spots of grazing and the water tank.

Farm Dogs

The new Maremma puppies Louis and Clark have lost their puppy look but not their puppiness.  Louis is guarding the dairy barn and Clark is giving Ty the new border collie an approving sniff.  Ty's training started a month ago with simple commands of lie down and there (stay). He is keen on sheep and goats and he does a simple job every day such as moving the goats to the pasture which enables him to feel comfortable with the goats and sheep and build confidence as a working dog.  He is smart and willing dog; he has already learned how to keep a good distance behind the goats and lie down on command. If the dogs get too close to the goats they turn on them and butt them. If this happens too early or too frequently in their training, it could make a border collie forever apprehensive of working with goats.  Ty has a crouch rather than a full lie down which is fine for his work.  Ty begins his formal training with Elizabeth Phillips very soon.  Ty is not a high strung border collie. He is intense when he is working but knows how to relax. 

"That'll do Ty"

Farm Store

The movie Food Inc has been making the rounds and recently aired on HBO.  As a result, the store has been a buzz of activity from people buying our grass fed meats and organic goat milk. The farm store is stocked with pork, lamb, beef and rabbits. The eggs are plentiful and the goats are producing tons of creamy milk.  The raw milk takes on the color and taste of what the goats are eating.  Dandelions and spring grass are the mainstay of the goats' diets so the milk is sweet with a delicate, grassy, tangy taste and colored a soft, buttery yellow.

Fable

The last winter supper is May 8th at 5 pm.  The three-course menu is wilted dandelion salad with fresh eggs and smoked bacon, spring chicken and vegetable pot pie with cheddar chive crust and for dessert - farmer’s pound cake with season’s first maple syrup. The cost is $28.  Fable's Saturday dining and Sunday brunch begins Memorial Day weekend.  The farm stay/bed and breakfast also opens the same weekend so we are working diligently to get the the renovations completed.  I was at a tourism meeting the other day and one of the participants suggested we call the farm stay/bed and breakfast "Stable".  What do you think? We are squeezing in the renovations between regular chores and planting the gardens. 

Gardens

I am hand spading the kitchen garden because the rototiller does not dredge up the big rocks. I am convinced that in the process of turning over the soil, I am loosening the dirt so the rocks can spring forth.  We have been gardening in the same plot for twenty years so why am I pulling out three-foot rocks with a crowbar?  Where are all those rocks coming from?  The garlic is up from last year and all of the perennial herbs survived.  The biggest survival surprise was the tarragon. It never makes it through a Catskill winter.  The bees in the cedar tree in the front yard also survived the winter although they are using a different entrance to the 150 year old tree.  The tree has housed bees since we moved here 25 years ago. While it is not the same hive, there must be a very big honeycomb in the heart of the tree.

Farmers Markets

We hope you survived the winter with minor complaints.  We would love to see you soon at the farmers markets or at the farm. The Callicoon Farmers market begins Sunday May 2.  The Pakatakan Farmers market begins Saturday May 15th and the opening of the Oneonta  Farmers Market is Saturday May 22nd.  Support family farms, eat healthier food and shop at farmers markets this season!

Tom, Denise, Katey, Shane and Susannah (she's back!)

Boot Sucking Mud Season

Boot Sucking Mud Season



Patches of snow still dot the north slopes and woods. Several sixty and seventy degree days melted most of the snow and left us with mine fields of dog crap. Spring = mud and crap.

I copied this from Yankee Magazine and have it posted in our mudroom.

Season of Patience

Muddy March creates despair.
with messy footprints everywhere,
But April showers make life wetter
Long before the mud gets better.


Honor Conor
Our 17 year old nephew Conor Warren Reynolds was breaking up a fight at a birthday party in Springfield, Massachusetts on March 13th and was stabbed to death. The vigil, wake and funeral was attended by over 1,000 people. Conor’s parents, Liam and Kate, have been incredibly forgiving, gracious and generous with their hearts and time and opened up their home and personal life to the community, family, friends and the media. During an overwhelmingly sad and horrific time in their lives, they showed us how peace overcomes violence and how our love for Conor is now imbedded in our everyday tasks. I saw Conor’s crooked smile and bright blue eyes in my mind this morning as I was about to tear into my daughter for leaving wet clothes in the dryer and as I was going to harangue my son for never being ready for the bus and as the kid goats swamped me for their bottles and as my husband left, yet again, his crusty bowl of uneaten granola on the counter for me to clean up. Our lives will never be the same without Conor. We will hold Conor in our hearts. Honor Conor.




Little Mice Rabbits
Have you ever seen new born rabbits? They look like little mice: pink and furless. Their moms plucked a lot of hair from their breasts to make their nests and I made sure that they had nesting boxes and lots of straw and shavings. One doe each week for the next several weeks will be kindling. We will have lots of rabbits for the farmers markets. We are going to raise geese and ducks this year too. We had so much fun with the ducks last year that we decided to raise more. Last year’s ducks became such farm favorites that instead of slaughtering them at Thanksgiving they went to live at a friend’s farm. Sometimes even livestock farmers have weak moments and brush pragmatism aside.


I took this rabbit from the nest to take the photo. It is about three inches long. Mom rabbit is checking the nest box to make sure that I put it back.




Fort Hen Knox
There may be a rooster or two in the bunch but we moved the chicks into the pasture box. It is heavily layered with barbed wire around the base and wire panels on top. The barbed wire keeps out the diggers (skunks, rats, voles, etc) and the nets keep out hawks and owls. But we can’t keep the chicks safe from themselves. Within one hour of putting them into the pasture box, they piled in a corner and we lost a dozen. These are heat loving chicks – they like the rays and when they are cold they dive into a fatal mosh pit. We put up more heat lamps this morning and put in a deep layer of wood chips. Unfortunately the box is so heavy that we have to move it with the tractor.

Kid with Kids
The bottle fed kid goats are out in the kid yard on sunny days. Shane likes playing with them. They jump on his back and chew his hair and ears and race behind him up and down hills.

Supper at Fable
The Second Saturday Supper at Fable is April 10th. The menu is focused on using the last of the root vegetables and dried beans and whatever is fresh on the farm. Supper is 5 p.m. for $28 and reservations are required. Join us


Starter
Rain shower salad (baby spinach, roasted beets, bacon, chevre and sherry vinegar dressing)

Main
Puddle jumper cassoulet (pork, rabbit, sausage and bean stew)
Horse radish potato mash


Dessert
Spring fling goat cheese cake with caramel

A Week of Kid Goats, Chicks and Snow

Spring Zing

The first day over 30 degrees brought a little joy to my morning chores. For the first time in months, the yearling dairy goats’ water buckets were not frozen and the rabbit bottles were not solid ice. There was an extra wiggle and waggle to the lambs and goats’ steps this morning. I was feeling optimistic about spring coming early until I picked the mail up at the post office. The gang, which includes several octogenarians who hang out in the post office every morning, informed me with assured authority that the snow will turn to freezing rain tonight and tomorrow would be a wet, cold, icy day. Joy squashed.

The seed displays are up in the grocery stores and hardware stores. Over the years I have noted that if you don’t buy Burpbee’s organic Lincoln peas or pole beans by mid March, then you have to order by catalog. The stores never restock. When it’s gone, it’s gone. The same is true with canning jars in August. I have developed a habit of overbuying and hoarding.

Little Monsters

My 12 year old son Shane can be very dramatic. During President’s Week school break he was fully integrated into farm life. He woke up early and helped me with chores. He hacked the snow from the wood pile and hauled logs in every day to feed the wood stove and fireplace. He carried water buckets from the only working hydrants across the foot deep snow field to the horse barn. He hauled buckets of raw milk to the kitchen to be pasteurized for feeding the kid goats. He helped me fill the bottles and bottle feed the kid goats with their bottle rack. We needed 28oz bottles quickly so I purchased a couple cases of Mountain Dew. Instead of dumping the vile soda down the drain, I let Shane and Katey drink some of it. Besides getting an energy jolt from the caffeine, they were ecstatic about drinking soda. The kid goats are three weeks old and have lost their cute status. We call them the suckling monsters because they attack us bumping our legs and trying to spill the bottle buckets over and pull down the bottle racks. We just disbudded them so they have coin sized burn marks on their heads which make them look even more like little monsters.

Shane has saved one male kid for the petting area of the farm stay. He named him Camaro. Tom is fond of the kid goat too.
Shane helps me defrost the rabbit bottles, feed the rabbits pellets and hay and rerack the water bottles. He helped me breed three doe rabbits this week. The border collies, if not kenneled when they are not working would spend all day under the rabbit hutches.The rabbitry is very crowded so we are slaughtering rabbits as fast as they are big enough. There are rabbit cages hanging from the walls as well as hutches on the ground. We are building pastured rabbit cages this year. We are using ideas from pastured rabbit cage plans from a French agricultural organization. 

Get Out While We Still Have Time

Shane’s big adventure was a trip to the auction barn with male kid goats and a trip to Cornell Cooperative Extension to do his 4H presentation. On Sunday, before his return to school he suffered a complete meltdown. He railed about the unfairness of our lives. He told me that his classmates were going to Florida for the week (I doubt that) and going skiing, shopping in the Albany and Binghamton malls and spending the day watching TV. He ranted that farm life is too hard and we should, “Get out now while we still have time.” He preached that we should give up farming so we could enjoy the “sweet life.” His drama can be very entertaining but he asked me to consider his ranting with seriousness. I asked him to describe the “sweet life”. He rattled off a list of activities such as sleeping late in the mornings, going to fast food restaurants, mall shopping, watching TV, playing air hockey, listening to IPods, spending the day on YouTube. When I pointed out that he had slept to 7:30 am most mornings, had an IPod. IPod and occasionally was allowed to go on YouTube and was welcome to ride with me at the stable during the week, he still felt cheated. Cheated out of what I thought? To be fair, it is tough to never go on vacation because we run a farm, to work outside in sub zero temperatures and to be responsible for livestock every day. However, I have no regrets about keeping television out of the house, banning fast food and never frequenting malls or Walmart. So we compromised. We went to Walmart (I know. I know but it was late and the sports store was closed)and bought a basketball. He has been dribbling the ball for hours. As I write, my head is filled with the persistent thump thump of the ball. I am waiting for the sound of a crash to interrupt the dribbling. Perhaps tomorrow we will go cross country skiing or snowshoeing. In the meantime, there is work to do We have to help Tom unload expired or bad batches of Icelandic yogurt from the back of the truck and feed the pigs. When we deliver our milk for bottling at the creamery, we often bring back at truck load of expired dairy products including milk, creme fraiche, yogurt, cream and kefir. 

The laying chicks arrived last week. Tony, the postmaster rings us as soon as the post office opens to beg us to get the noisy, smelly chicks. An entire batch of Rhode Island Red chicks survived the mailing but did not survive the first 24 hours. We take the chicks out of the boxes, dip their beaks in water, give them food and put them under heat lamps. Because the barns are too cold and it is too dangerous to have heat lamps on in the old barns, Tom hauled a huge water tank into the new office, a part of the house that is under construction. 200 chicks are peeping and scurrying and chirping . The chicks are below Katey’s room and after four days the smell of chicks and chick poop has permeated her bedroom. She moved into the guest room until it is warm enough to move the chicks to the barn.

A major snow storm is underway. The roads are closed and it looks like a couple of feet of snow. The sheep and the livestock guardian dogs are asleep under a thick blanket of snow – unconcerned with the snow piling up around their snow den. They stand and stretch now and then to get out from under heavy blanket.

Fable - Next Second Saturday Supper is March 13th at 5 pm

I had to change the menu for the March 13th Saturday Supper because the butchering gods are working against me.  The first course was a warm spinach salad with beets and bacon.  We sent in pigs for butchering but the bacon won't be smoked in time for the supper.  The main course was steak and kidney pie made with local ale but the butcher forgot to save the kidneys from the cow he butchered and he did not save the cheeks!  So the rabbits are almost plump enough for slaughtering so we will slaughter on March 12 and I will make rabbit pie.  The new menu for March 13th is:

Starter

winter greens with blue cheese and poached pear vinaigrette

Main
rabbit meat pie
horseradish potato mash

Dessert
baked custard with cajeta

The cajeta is the most fun of this supper. It is goat milk and sugar cooked for three days on the stove until it is distilled to a thick, creamy tangy caramel.  Great for custard but even better over goat milk ice cream. 
 

Winter Work at Stone & Thistle Farm

Farm and Fable Musings – February 6, 2010

FARM

Splash of Color at Kortright Creek Creamery
The first freshening of the season occurred this week. Triplets were born, then four sets of twins in 24 hours with only 50 more to go. The herd sire this year is a sungau alpine buck from Linda and Morgan of Sherman Hill. So far, there are splashes of black and brown on a couple of does – the rest are white. The kids are in totes in the mud hall for a couple of days to acclimate to being alive before they are sent to the kid barn. The small barn across from the house was historically used as a pig barn and stored a lot of the harnesses and horse equipment from the carriage barn. Since we have farmed here, the small barn has been a kid nursery, a rabbitry and a farrowing barn. Every trip to the dairy barn yields another kid or two. We only keep the females from the good milkers. The mediocre milkers, first-time fresheners and all the males are sent to the auction barn every Wednesday where they fetch around $10 each. We are often asked why we don’t raise the males for meat. It is simple math. A kid is bottle fed 2 cups of organic goat milk three times a day for 12 weeks. The cost of the organic goat milk is $5.40 (or what we can sell it for) per kid each day. We spend $453.60 in milk to feed a kid from birth to 12 weeks. If we add our labor – the kid would be worth $800. A 12 week male kid sells for about $50. So that is a loss of $750 per kid if we raise the kids for meat.

The Pink Vinyl Bra
We are renovating the center living room and the old dining room. We hoped to be finished before kidding began but the kids came two weeks earlier than expected. The old dining room will be our new office. Tom patched the wood floors, remade wainscoting, and built a closet. In the 1940’s the Haynes family closed off the front porch and expanded the living room area and in the 1950’s added a fireplace and dropped the ceilings 18 inches. We ripped down the dropped ceiling which consisted of sheet rock and fiberglass ceiling tiles. The plaster ceiling of the old porch was painted swimming pool blue.

I did a little research to find out why porch ceilings were painted blue. The most obvious explanation is that blue resembles the sky and the porch sitter had the impression of sitting “en plein air”. Explanations included the color blue prevents flies from landing and wasps from building nests or keeps away evil spirits. The original paint color of the outside of the house was a faint sherbet green. The house, built in 1863, was originally heated with pot belly stoves; a stove pipe ran from the basement to the top floor. One of the upstairs bedrooms (Shane’s room) has a 10 inch hole cut in the floor for the stove pipe. We never patched it – the children loved to hide things down the hole. So when we removed the ceiling under the hole, we were bombarded with balls, Barbie doll shoes, American girl doll accessories, match box toys, keys, coins, Legos and to our surprise, a pink bra. The large pink bra fluttered to the floor. Tom picked it up and said, “Where did this vinyl bra come from? “ When Shane came home from school, we showed him all of the treasures that rained from the ceiling, including the bra. He blushed and explained that during a sleepover, his friend dared him to steal Katey’s bra from her underwear drawer. When they heard someone coming, they stuffed the bra down the hole. When Katey came home from school she identified it as her bra but explained carefully to her aghast father that the fabric is lycra not vinyl. She admonished her brother (I will withheld what she said to him) and threw the bra in the wash. When we removed the fireplace, we hoped to find something interesting like old newspapers or an old coin or two but certainly not a “vinyl” bra.

The liner from the fireplace we ripped out is in good shape and free for the taking. It is next to the road.

In search of another Perfect Intern
Susannah, the farm’s amazing intern and supreme skunk catcher left the day before Thanksgiving and returned home to the Chicago area. Many of you met Susannah at the farmers markets in Callicoon or Oneonta or during turkey slaughter and sales. She is returning this spring for another farm adventure. We are delighted to have her back. Susannah is helping us find another perfect intern. We received over 20 applications and chose six that we will interview next week. I am amazed at the diversity of people who applied for the internship. Applicants included a 30 something mother of toddlers who had not thought through who would watch her toddlers while she was working, a late twenties derivatives trader who listed food allergies, spine injuries and heart problems as “minor” issues for us to work around and the young man who, in his cover letter, described himself as hard working, responsible and innovative. He sounded wonderful until we got to the baggage he was bringing with him – a girlfriend, two German shepherds and three cats. The applicant who wins the “not” prize was the young woman who had been recently diagnosed with agoraphobia and suffers from such intense anxiety attacks that she has work and live without human contact. We are interviewing this week so if you know of anyone we should add to the resume pile, please have them contact us. Susannah is going to help build the cabins for the interns. Tumbleweed Tiny House Company makes great plans for tiny houses on wheels – a sophisticated version of the laying wagon we have for the hens. It will be fun to design and build the cabins.

FABLE

Hitting Bottom with Bottom Round
How many different ways can you prepare chuck roast or bottom round? We have a lot of bottom round roasts that have been in the freezer for over a year. While they are perfectly good, we cannot sell them to the public. So we have been eating a lot of bottom round and chuck roast this winter. We have about 40 pounds left and I have hit bottom with ideas of how to cook and serve it. Bottom round has to be slow cooked in a Dutch oven or crock pot so my creative cooking juices may be hampered by the limited cooking method. This week I am putting 5 lbs in the crock pot and cooking it until it falls apart, shredding it and smothering it with BBQ sauce and serving with coleslaw and homemade crispy turnip chips. Recipe ideas for bottom round are welcomed.

The next Second Saturday Supper is February 13th. The cost is $28 per person and reservations are required. The menu is:

Starter
winter greens salad with blue cheese and poached pear vinaigrette

Main
sirloin loaf
garlic mashed potatoes with mushroom rosemary gravy

Dessert
winter fruit crisp with spiced calvados cream.