Happy Birthday, Farm Dog!

Anybody who doesn't love scrambled eggs, cheese, and bacon for their birthday breakfast probably can't be friends with the newly4 year old Farm Dog.

Happy Frost 2008

Happy Frost Day, fellow farmers and friends of farmers! Luckily, this farmer pulled all the tomato plants this weekend, which may be the first time in which me being a step ahead of Mother Nature worked in my favor. Pictures of the Last Harvest soon...

In the meantime, you'll probably enjoy this. And if you don't, I have no idea how you survived reading this blog so long.

Farmer Almost Froze Her Fingers Off

Had to pick some tomatoes today. WOW was it cold on the Farm after rain all day! Here's a look. Something about yellow tree leaves falling on the rows and tomato plants just doesn't sit right...


I'll be harvesting all those green tomatoes this weekend and pulling the tomato plants. Winter is on its way to Minnesota, and the squirrels are eating anything they can get their grubby paws on in an attempt to look like they've swallowed a baseball. With a little help from my tomatoes, it's working...

Farming Should Probably Stay on the Farm

FYI: farming exuberance does not fit during dramatic play in a preschool classroom.

4-year old kid: "come on horsey"
me: "am i the horse?"
kid: "yep. i have to put this rope on your arm."
me: "um, why?"
kid: "because i need to take you to the farm"
me (excitedly): "the farm?!"
kid: "yeah. because the farmer grew some food for you to eat."
me: "oh great. i do feel like a very hungry horse."
kid: "yeah, you are. eat the farmer's food 'cause we have to take a long trip."
me (while presented with a basket of fake food including zucchini and cukes): "yum! i grew these in my garden this summer!"
kid (with a really confused look): "what?"
me: "oh, horses don't grow vegetables, do they?"
kid: "no. we're playing horse. got it?"
me: "yep. got it. neighhhhh"

Fall Days, Sunshine

Rosa: "Hey--watch this."

I'm just going to walk up, quietly...

Give her a little smooch...

...and then pounce!

...and pounce!

and get in her face. :)

Oh yeah. The tomatoes just barely survived the threat of frost (note the low...).

Farm Vitals
Yesterday's high: 63F
Yesterday's low: 32F
Warnings: This is looking like the last week for growing...
Mood of the farm: Frigid.
Reason to consider a new career: farmer has to have something to do in the winter besides wait for spring...

Fall Has Arrived

Man down! The sunflower was sawed off at the base, just when all the little nubs were about to bloom.

[H suspects squirrel involvement]

Well it's fall around here. The squirrels are starting to get pudgy (which Maisy translates as "more delicious"), the leaves are turning, and this Farmer wakes up freezing and wondering about frost. Sadly, I'm only wondering, not Worrying and Scurrying to the Farm to check on the state of things. Whether that's because fall has a different pace or because I'm swamped with work, I couldn't say. But I only go to the Farm at most once a day now, and even then only for a few minutes; I've even been known to skip a day. Shocking, I know.

In the meantime, look at this delicious thing I made. It turns out that since the farm is still producing tomatoes to harvest, a person needs to find fall-ish things to make with them. Farm box onions and garlic, sauteed with the tomatoes and gift-mushrooms from H&N turned out to be just the thing. AND! At the very end, I added a bit of the basil-and-olive-oil paste I made and froze a few weeks ago to see how I might be able to use it. Delicious! (Sorry about the messy bowl--I didn't know it was going to be so delicious I'd have to photograph it immediately)