End of the Rainbow

This evening we had a small rain storm come through and when I looked out the kitchen window, I saw that the end of the rainbow was right in the middle of the pasture so I grabbed the camera. We've not found that pot of gold or any leper cons running around yet but that's OK-we got a cool picture instead.

Really though--did you know that the rainbow is a sign of the promise made by God Almighty to Noah and us that He will never destroy the whole earth again by water like he did with the flood in days of Noah? The rainbow a reminder to Him and us.

God to Noah after he got off the ark:
"And God said , "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow apprears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth." Genesis 9: 12-17

Stir Fried Kale

The kale we grow (and sell) is Red Russian Kale as it is one of the most tender kales out there plus it looks pretty interesting. It is now ready to be picked and enjoyed.


I have people ask me from time to time how I fix kale. It's not one of those widely used greens so I understand why some are 'afraid' of it. I have a, now very big, folder with recipes in it that I have found here or there that sound interesting that I would like to try some day. Well.... I finally tried one of those recipes tonight since we now have plenty of the star ingredient. It was pretty easy and turned out fairly good so I thought I would pass it on so you could have another way to add more greens to your diet....or finally add kale to your diet.

OH-- by the way-- kale (along with cabbage, broccoli, brussel sprouts) contain chemicals that block the production of thyroid hormone, know medically as goitrogens. Kale (also chard, spinach, collard, mustard and beet greens) contain oxalic acid. Oxalic acid blocks calcium and iron absorption and may irritate the mouth and intestinal tract. Cooking destroys or neutralizes both of these harmful substances as does fermenting as in cabbage to saurkraut. So make sure you cook your kale.

Feel free to adjust/add ingredients to your liking.

*********************************

Stir Fried Kale

1 bunch kale
1 sliced sweet onion
1 ½ TBL garlic, minced
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
salt & pepper

Shred kale leaves and chop the stems into small pieces.
Heat a large skillet, covering the bottom with water.
Combine the onion, garlic and oil and put into the heated pan.
Sauté until soft.
Add chopped kale stems and continue to stir-fry 2 minutes.
Add shredded kale leaves and stir-fry until almost done, adding a bit of water as needed.
Sprinkle with balsamic vinegar & salt and pepper to taste.
Cook until done.

NOTE: This recipe can also be made using swiss chard. I also added some garlic bread seasoning from Frontier.

just stuff

Sometime it's hard to think of a good title for a blog entry when nothing special is happen, so this time I just went with 'just stuff'...that took a lot of thought huh?!?!

Here are a few snapshots of things happening around here......


A momma robin thought it would be a good idea to make a nest in a crate we put up (but never took down) for the chickens when they started laying eggs. It's unusual that she would pick here as it is kind of open and close to the grown. I'm surprised the cats haven't found them yet. We hope the babies have flown away by the time we need the pen for the chickens that got a little while ago.

A close up--it looks like there are 2 babies.

The cows have gotten out of their paddock 3 times in the past few days. The high grass isn't helping keep the electric at full power either. They decided to run up and visit the hens so the guys needed to get out there right away and get them back before they destroyed everything.

The last of the blueberry blossoms. The blossoms actually have a very pleasant smell to them. For me, they probably rank 2nd after lilacs as far as best smelling. When I walk by, I make sure I take a few second to smell them before I move on. It's aromatherapy.

The front part of the garden is humming along pretty good. I have heard of people using old tires for potatoes so I decided to experiment this year. I cut quite a bit of it away and only left the shell. So far so good but we'll see what the potatoes look like when they are done and how many I actually get compared to the ones not in the tires.

Yesterday I planted quite a bit of the middle part of the garden and then found out after I was done that there was now a small chance of frost that night. Sooo..... I had to drag everything out to protect all my work and this is what it looked like when I was done. It ended up not frosting but if I hadn't covered it, it would of. The frosty night should now be over until October. Now on to planting the rest of it.

lj

Contact Info

We have had a few different people that have visited our farm blog and asked how to get a hold of us so they could get some of our products. Because of that, we thought it might be a good idea to put some contact info here just in case you wanted something too.

We hope to see you soon!

Address: 22735 Pitts Rd---Wellington OH 44090
Phone: 440-647-2485
Email: agrassfedfarm(at)yahoo.com

Chick Day

Our 1st batch of peeps arrived the other day. They were suppose to come last week but the hatchery had a conveyor belt problem which pushed us back. I'm thinking one belt stopped while the other keep moving --I think you know what happened from there. This creates a bit of a problem for us now as Nathan wanted these guys out of the brooder before the next batch came...now WE have a back up.





Nathan bringing the chicks into the brooder

This is how they come. There's 140 in this batch.

Nathan taking the chicks out of the boxes and putting them into their new home for the next few weeks. They will be in the heat controlled enviroment until they are strong enough to withstand being outside all the time. It is very important to keep them here as it needs to be warm as they don't have feathers right now to keep themselves warm enough and they are the perfect sized meal for a preditor. They don't have a momma hen looking out for them.

WATCH YOUR STEP NATHAN!!! This picture give you a good idea of how small they are compared to us....but they do grow fast.

But they, though, don't care where they step!! He's standing in the water.

It dawned on me that I can take videos with this camera so I took a short one to give you the sight and sounds of the brooder. This does a better job than a what a picture could do. Turn on the sound and you'll hear the peeps talking. They do talk to you if you listen. For just being handled like they were, they are telling us that they are content for the most part.

I can hear you now---"OH-- they are sooo cute!". Let me say this--they are only cute for a couple weeks!

If you are intersted in getting some fresh, pastured, grass-fed chicken, let us know as we are taking orders now for the 2009 season.

lj

Grass-Finished Lamb

The next product on our list to tell you about is our grass-finished lamb. The lamb is produced in virtually the same manner as our beef. The lambs are raised on pasture all the way until market. Sheep, like cattle, are ruminants. This means that they are capable of surviving on a diet consisting entirely of grass and don't need any grain.This not only makes the lamb much more nutritious, it imparts excellent flavor to the meat. Also, by pasturing lambs to finish, the potential for illness caused by bacteria is much lower, like with cattle.

Sheep and cattle can also form a unique symbiotic relationship if raised together. Pastures will grow a diverse mix of plants. However, cattle won't always eat all of these plants and neither will sheep, but, when paired together, they utilize all of the plants growing in the pasture. This is because sheep and cattle each prefer different kinds of plants than the other. This is the same type of relationship that is seen among different species in the wild, which lends to the vast amount of diversity in nature.

Spring '09

It has been a while since our last post so I thought we should put something here so you know we are still in operatation. I have come to the conclusion that blogs are for those that like to write a lot...and have lots of time to do so! None of us here ever liked English class very much, let alone all the writing assignments that went with it, so keeping up with a blog can be work for us.

I am going to keep this one short on words but give you a little picture 'tour' of what spring looks like around here. It was a beautiful day today and too nice to be sitting inside so I went around and snapped a few pictures.


The snow peas are now up and growing.


The green onions, spinach, lettuce and kale are all up too. It won't be long now until we get our first light harvest of garden produce. The swiss chard ended up being a bit spotty in it's sprouting so I replanted some of it.




All the animals are now back on pasture. The trip from the barn back to the pasture went well. That is good news as we were a bit nerves on how things would go in moving the younger more 'wild' cattle back out after being penned up for the winter. They got distracted by all the grass though so not much goofing around happened.



'King' chicken--with his harem. He likes to look down at the ground, make a cackle or two and then do a little dance with his feet and then the ladies come running to see what he has found. It is usually nothing and I'm not sure why they fall for that 'small old song & dance' every time but they do. And I'm not sure why he does it either but I'm thinking he likes the attention & power.

This, I think, is the calf you meet in an earlier post. John gave her the name Isabell. She likes being out of the barn and able to run wild when she so pleases. She has a male playmate now that looks very similar to her. They like to have foot races across the pasture and through the herd.

The hens like to mingle with the cattle when they are close enough....and sometimes the cattle like to play with them by chasing them around.

Looks like it might be lunch time.

A few flowers that are blooming.

The view out by the road. Which, by the way, we have lots of eggs!! Spring is the time we get the most eggs per day so please stop by soon and pick some up.

Hope you enjoyed your day as well.

lj