The Female Farmer

The winter weather sets bone deep

Peggy — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 21:09:13 +0000

True, winter time is the time of year I tend to hibernate…well early winter that is for in the next few weeks I will be up to my neck in seedlings all waiting for the weather to break and find a new sunny home out into the field. I put up my farmers boots for house slippers and spend my time…well, bored and lazy. Well now that it is January the ticking of spring starts sounding in my ears and seeds, pots, trays and grow lights begins to shine all of which turn the farmhouse into a greenhouse. I can’t say I don’t like it though because I do…life giving baby seedlings who wouldn’t love that? This is also the time of year when we start opening our CSA program up for sign ups and plan what sort of spring and summer we are looking at. We limit our CSA program to 35-40 people each season keeping this number we have been able to weather seasons that have taken many of our fellow CSA farms out for the season. The key is to running a CSA program is having enough experience to not get greedy. That is the number 1 killer for newbie CSA farms. They just get too greedy a lot of them and never really have grown more then a few tomatoes in their lives think too big too fast and end up not being able to deliver to their shareholders. I always stress to the new farmers that want to start a farm CSA program 1. start by growing a few years and selling at a farmers market consistently.This is separates the real farmers quick. 2. When starting a CSA program start very small. You can always sell your extra produce at the farmers market on even a parking lot for that matter. The main thing is learning how to grow and how to grow well. When shareholders sign up for a CSA program they are making a big investment in your experience as a farmer. And no, wearing rubber boots and a floppy hat and some overhauls doesn’t make you a farmer…hands in the dirt is the only way to gain that knowledge and it takes more then a couple seasons to really get a hang of growing anything. A couple of years ago we had a really hard dry season that was brutally hot on top of it. We were barely hanging on ourselves with several years of organic farming under our belt. At least once a week we got calls from other farmers needing to either move their shareholders to another CSA or wanting to buy any extra produce we had to give their shareholders something. It was a year that truly took some tough farming and some committed shareholders. Keeping your shareholders to a limited number really helps and it is always great when you have great bountiful years and can load them up with lots of great locally grown, organic vegetables. My advice is to plan for the best…but prepare for the worst. This way you have some room to make a few mistakes, take some risks and if the rains don’t fall and the heat goes sky-high you are still skilled enough and smart enough to work through it and keep your CSA shareholders happy they found their farmer.

The season to count my blessings

Peggy — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 15:13:41 +0000

During the hustling seasons of Spring through Fall here on the farm it is hard to slow down long enough to catch your breath let alone count your blessings…but now that the field is sleeping and the days are shorten by hours I find myself doing just that. Being thankful for the little things that come with living and working here on the farm….the people and the lifestyle that happens here. Granted I am not a holiday ho..ho..ho person by any means..I do enjoy the spirit of it all,just not the shopping. I do not enjoy the whole shopping thing…

I am starting the first batch of seeds this week going into their planting trays for early spring crops. These will be the first plantings in Febuary. The CSA will open for signups mid January so keep an eye out for that. I guess I will get back to wrapping up these gifts for Christmas is just around the corner. Mark and I wish you all a Merry Christman and our best wishes for the New year.

Preserving The Harvest

Peggy — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 12:42:01 +0000

Granted we are at the end of our growing season here on the farm and most of the crops have come to the end of their life cycle. But we still have some crops that need to be put up for the winter in our farmhouse pantry. Cabbage, carrots and waxy greens are very much a part of what,s is still hanging on the field and it just so happens to be the main ingredients for Kimchi. There are several folks that may have never heard of Kimchi…and up until last year Kimchi wasn’t something I myself wasn’t familiar with. Our farm friends bought out a batch they had made for me to try and I loved it! Last winter I made my first batch and even though I toned it down and really decided to make it to my own taste it was wonderful. Kimchi is a traditional fermented Korean dish that is made much like kraut but adds a twist by also using other vegetables and spices that hold up during the fermenting process. Growing up on a farm I remember my mother and grandmother making kraut for the root cellar as well as other fermented vegetables such as pickled corn and even green beans. Handed down for generation to generation preserving methods that after the age of the refrigerator came along some how tended to get lost. But for many the art and health benefits of fermenting vegetables are too important to be forgotten. Not to mention they are delicious!

Asian Cabbage

December 2nd. we are hosting a free workshop on making Kimchi here at the farm. I am excited about showing you my method of how I make my recipe for this wonderful side-dish as well as discuss all the variations and ways in which you can make Kimchi your very own. There is no limit to the creative process of persevering the harvest. I hope you can join us next Saturday morning…learn something new and something useful that can be handed down generation to generation. I think it is so important to keep these skills alive and renewed….you never know when you may need them again.

Preserving The Harvest Workshop~ Kimchi

Saturday December 2nd. 10:30 am

The Farmhouse Kitchen ~Madison Creek Farms

Fun, Free and always Unconventional!

Last days of fall

Peggy — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 18:53:01 +0000

Here we are in the early part of November and a couple of good frosts and 1 freeze under our belt and we still have some beds of greens that keep hanging on. That I love. Of course my son Lucca is pretty sick of seeing greens every night for dinner. I have been freezing bags of turnips, mustard greens and spinach for the past few days. This is so simple to do and come the dark, cold days of winter it is nice to pull out a bag of greens from the garden from the freezer. You just need to wash your fresh greens and put them into boiling water for a couple of minutes or until they turn bright green…this may in some case take less then 2 minutes. Once they have turned color remove them from the boiling water and put them into a bowl of ice water to stop them from cooking. Once they have cooled squeeze the water out of them and place them into a plastic freezer bag. That’s it! So easy and you will be happy you took a few minutes of your day to do this while the greens are in season and readily available.

CSA shareholders both fall and summer you are more then welcome to come and cut all the greens you want.

Lavendar plants

Free Workshop Saturday, Nov. 12th. 10:30am The healing world of Essential Oils by Mark Arnold.

Learn how these natural oils go beyond just aroma therapy and into healing sickness and pain.

Breaking out the frost covers & Cranking up the farmhouse kitchen’s oven!

Peggy — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 01:28:31 +0000

Well…well I do declare it feels like fall after all. This morning my son climbed out of bed and proclaimed “that’s it..it is too cold to go to school this morning..think I will be sleep in”. Yea right young man..you haven’t felt cold yet.

Mark, Viki and myself spent much of the day yesterday harvesting the warm season stuff that can’t take the least little bit of frost on their leaves. Peppers and eggplant, snap beans plus a few okra. I do intend on covering these plants with frost blankets but that may only help a bit..if it dips too cold we will have seen the end of these vegetables for the season. It is always so hard for me to let go of the season. I just keep wanting to play in the dirt. We have had a wonderful fall this year and a great CSA season as well…and by no means is our CSA season over…y’all still have a couple more pickups to go. I just mean over in terms of looking out my farmhouse kitchen window and seeing a field of flowers, a field of greens and a porch full of unruly chickens poopin’ all over…oops…drifting to the dark side there…sorry. Anyway.

I could help but take a break from all the harvesting and snap a few pictures to share with y’all. The cool weather as really brought out the colors in these red Celoisa..they are just beautiful.

The sunflowers are giving us one last big smiley face before old man winter comes knockin’ …and yes that is on of our honey bees feasting..and making that flower field honey we all love.

This weekend for our market and CSA we have some wonderful, sweet romaine lettuces. Along with some great tasting Napa Cabbage.

Romaine Lettuce

Napa Cabbage

CSA News & Updates

Pickup this Saturday here at the farm…for both the fall CSA and any of our Summer shareholders who would like to pickup some of these wonderful fall greens and vegetables.

The market will be open as well and this is what we have fresh from the farmhouse kitchen.

Pumpkin Butter…(on my this is so yummy)

Spiced plum Jam

Jalapeno Pepper Jam

Pumpkin bread & Chocolate Chi bread

Free range farm eggs

Flower Field Honey

Perfect Pesto

Fresh Batch of our famous Farmhouse Dill Pickles (last of the season…get em’ now for the holidays)

and of course its only Weds…so who knows what else I will come up with by Saturday. Come on and say hello…9-2pm.

A Fine Fall Indeed!

Peggy — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 03:19:51 +0000

With all this lovely fall weather and beautiful sunny days the farm is buzzing with life. Walking around today reminded me of what a great season fall can be when it comes to how much food we can grow during this time of year. The bugs have bugged off for the most part and the greens are just gorgeous. Everything is looking great…all but what the rabbits have feasted on. I have taken some stinky stuff to them this evening in hopes to discourage them from coming near the beds. We will see…sometimes it works..and sometimes it doesn’t. With this great weather some of our crops are super charged and with all this rich compost they are growing in they seem to have gong crazy. Check out this radish Viki pulled from the radish patch this week. Hello mother of all blue ribbon winners!

Now you would think a radish this big would be woody and totally uneatable…I thought so until I cut it up for a salad I made with dinner tonight..or I should say I used half of it..if that..anyway..it was delicious. We will be eating on this monster for a week.

I am been busy making some new jams for the market over the last couple of weeks. One is this Carrot Cake Jam that may sound a little funny but I tell you it turned out to be great. You have to try it when you come to the the farm. The other one is a Apple Cinnamon Basil jam that is also wonderful..both of the jams are really different and both I am happy to say really good tasting.

CSA News & Updates

Shareholder’s pickup this Saturday…reminder to bring your baskets with you.

Turnip Greens & Chick, Chick, Chick

Peggy — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 13:04:29 +0000

Fall Bed Of Turnip Greens

Aren’t y’all just loving this fall weather? Here in Middle Tennessee it has been WONDERFUL! Let me tell you the whole farm has perked up and feeling all frisky and lively, it sure beats that August weather hands down. The rain and cooler…much cooler temps has brought the field back to life and the fall crops are looking great thus far. It’s going to be a fabulous fall CSA this year! One of the crops that is ready for a haircut are the Turnip Greens…Lord I hope y’all listened to me when I told the shareholders to get those salad spinners:) This will be the first cut this season so they are still on the smaller-side so sweet and tender. Radishes are ready for this weekends shareholder baskets as well as eggplant..and peppers. I will be harvesting the rest of okra this morning and gleaming the rest of the field for more of the good stuff. We planted out more cabbage, lettuce and onions this week and Viki and Mark worked all day clearing beds in the kitchen garden getting ready to put them to rest for the winter. It has been an active early fall in the chicken coop as well..Baby chicks were hatched last week and that has caused a hen pecking up-roar amongst the the rest of the chickens that are all trying to stay out of the protective mother bitties’s way. Even little Joe our new puppy learned a very valuable lesson about momma’s and their babies…I heard him crying like crazy the other morning across the yard running as fast as he could with 2 of the momma hens flogging the heck out of him…He still wants to chase the chickens which is a no-no…but he will stay clear of those chicks..like several…several feet away:)

baby chicks

Hen with her chick

Chicks

CSA News & Updates:

We have a shareholder pickup this Saturday 9-2pm. Please remember to bring those baskets back to the farm we are running low. If anyone can not make the pickup this weekend by 2pm. Just let me know and I will put your basket in the cooler for later in the day pickup…or email me about another day to pickup. We will need to cut greens for you so I will need to know what day you can pickup.

I know there is a lot of local events and such going on this weekend so it is no big deal if you need a different day to pickup.

*Here is a little recipe for Turnip Greens…But you will need to adjust cooking time and the amount of broth..this is for mature turnip greens…you have baby green this week.

The Fall to-do-list

Peggy — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 10:46:19 +0000

So now that the season is finally starting to feel like fall and is not just some far off wishful thought, It is time to start checking off some of our extensive to-do-list of projects here on the farm. We grow so intensively with three seasons of crops in one planting bed we have to really amend our raised beds well before we put them to rest for the winter. Each of these planting beds will require different amendments depending on the kinds crops that were grown in them throughout the long growing season. Also we are going to be repairing and building new planting beds this fall as well. This is a study of dirt time…I mean getting down there in it… smelling…looking at it…feeling of it through your fingers and then testing the dirt…the dirt will tell you what it needs and believe me it will need plenty of fresh compost and other minerals as well. I think of it like I do when I create a new food recipe…it takes trial and error to get the mixture right and some experience in the kitchen helps a great deal. We have a lot of fall varieties of vegetables coming up now with the cooler air and rain bring new life to the farm. So happy to see some of my favorites back out there growing. Kale, Lettuces and radishes are coming on and looking wonderful. We also have some beets, and carrots that should show up in the CSA baskets late October. Mustard greens and Arugula are really pretty right now coming up through the ground. I can’t wait to start harvesting those. Now…I need to get back to the to-do-list..I think I have spent enough time putting it off this morning:)

Cooking Workshop

Sept. 17th 10:30 am

The Farmhouse Kitchen (free)

Cooking with Herbs

Timing is everything

Peggy — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 18:02:53 +0000

I come from a musical background and so does Mark…that is how we met 15 years ago. Both of us were staff songwriters at Song/Tree publishing in Nashville. We also were neighbors living on the same street in East Nashville..but that takes me off my direction of thought… what I was thinking…is everything is about timing. We musicians live and breath timing. And I have found so does nature. You plant a seed into the ground..and it will sit there until nature tells it..it’s safe to come up now. Sometimes nature also like to play a few dirty tricks and just when you least expect it change from warm to cold or cold to hot. I was working out in the field today weeding and thinning radishes and I noticed beds that we planted 3 weeks ago just now coming up with seedlings. Also there are beds out there that have taken off during this cool wet spell (love it).

Fanny the hen says hello from the farm!

But the warm season plants that have been producing the last few weeks are closing up shop and giving up. I totally understand. It truly is all about timing. We have our Fall CSA shareholder’s picking up basket this Saturday and although we had a really good 1st pickup a couple of weeks ago this one…not so much. But again..its all in the timing and believe me as the weeks move on the fall truly kicks in so does the field..and you will have a great season. Well..I know I haven’t been to active these past couple of weeks with the farm updates…I will get better. But it is planting season and Lucca out of school for the past few days..Mom time in the rain:) too much fun.

See ya Saturday Shareholders.

Seed Saving Workshops 10:30am Saturday Sept 10th. (free)

Something Old, Something New

Peggy — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 11:07:21 +0000

The season is changing whether it feels like it or not. The plants and the farm animals are accurately aware of it and seem to be settling in for the fall season. The weather though is still very hot and dry which makes for a tough growing environment for the cool season seedlings that are coming up in the planting beds. The watering for the last few weeks have taken much of our time around the farm spending 4 hours a day just to keep the plants that are producing alive and the seedlings that have decided to peek out of the soil from burning up. We have several hens that are sitting on their eggs hoping for chicks before the cold weather moves into the valley. The goats and donkeys are spending early mornings running and jumping throughout the barnyard before their winter coats come in and add another layer to their bulk. I am beginning to see the first of the fall mildew on the zinnia flowers out in the field. It happens every late summer when the dew of the evening settles on the leaves staying put until the sun rises and evaporation eraser’s any hope of this water falling toward their root where they need it the most. We have our new crops of flowers though reaching for the sun and budding up with something new…and saying our goodbye to something old.

With the farm’s market being closed right now to the public due to the lack of rain and this heatwave it has made it easier around here to harvest the produce that is producing..and believe me there is plenty out there in the field that is still giving its all. The last couple of weekends we have had our fall CSA shareholders pickups and that has been great…for I can only put up so much. We had a few shareholders out of town or unable to pickup last weekend and this is what was left over after the pickups were over. I did take a couple of bags full over to my neighbors…and my sister Patsy went home with a bag of vegetables…although she calls me later and asked …now what is this green leafy stuff and what do I do with such & such? I try my best not to slap that girl…I have sent home bags of all this stuff with her before…I bet she tossed it and went for a hamburger instead.

Until this weather pattern breaks and the rains return we will have to continue to keep the market closed…which I know is disappointing but this is a farm that survives on the trust and support of it shareholders that sign up for the CSA program and that is what we have to focus on for now. We are going to host several workshops though that are open to the public as well as our CSA shareholder this coming month. And it wouldn’t hurt our feelings if you wanted to take home some farm goods with you after the workshops. Flowers, jams and pickles ect…

Workshop Schedule for September:

Saturday Sept. 10th.

10:30am @ Madison Creek Farms

Heirloom Seed Saving (free workshop)

This is a hands on workshop on how we save our seed from year to year. This is one of the most important skills to learn to protect your seed source. With big corporations now controlling 90% of our food seeds in which they alter and modified only allowing their patented version to come to market if at all. This is a way they control the food we grow..the price ….and the amount we grow…which controls the world. Your only freedom is in seeds from your open pollinated-heirlooms seeds that you collect and save.

Saturday Sept. 17th.

10:30 am. @The FarmHouse Kitchen (free workshop)

Cooking with Herbs (the amazing flavors of basil)

One of my favorite cooking workshops. Cooking with herbs we will be sampling recipes that highlight the use of fresh herbs. This workshop we are working with basil. Sweet basil, lemon basil and Cinnamon basil. Yes we are making pesto…but that’s not all..join us.

CSA News & Updates

September pickup schedule for Fall CSA shareholders.

Sept. 10th.

Sept. 24th.

Shareholders. Please make sure you have signed up and are receiving our newsletter post. This is the only way in which we can communicate with our entire shareholder list. If you have any questions please feel free to email me anytime.

Up to date farm & CSA information always on our facebook page. Look for Madison Creek Farms on facebook.