Blueberries and Red Raspberries - Winding Down

Blueberries

$7 per pint or 2 pint for $12

Red Raspberries. The last variety is now ripe. Only 100 pints coming in this week.

$7.5 per pint

Blackberries

Wow, these were good last week. I can't believe the size and sweetness of these little gems.

Sold by the pint basket. $5.75 per pint

Peaches - Cling

Sold in 2# bags, $4.50

Plums - Methley

Sold by the quart basket

Lodi Apples

This is the first apple of the season. It's an old fashioned variety prized for it's use in applesauce and baked goods. Don't expect to pack it for a lunch snack and be thrilled. This one is best used in the kitchen.

3# bag - $4.25

This is a combination of two of my favorites. The bold color and flavor of blueberry paired with the tender gooey goodness of our peach pie filling.

Served in our signature crust of house rendered lard, organic whole wheat flour, and local butter for a flakey and tasty double crust pie.

Zucchini Bread - Healthy and Delicious

A summer classic, our zucchini bread features organic flour, organic sugar, and homemade applesauce for a natural sweetness and moist texture. Great toasted and slathered in butter.

In 90 Degrees, a Cow can drink 20 gallons of water per day.

Getting water to beef is sometimes a challenge. Depending on the field, it may have a stream or might have a tank we have to move there. This can be a lot of work.

Heat stress is a major factor in poor performance of beef. Research shows that a mature cow (momma) will drink 2 gallons of water per hundred lbs of body weight. So a 1,000 to 1,200 lb cow will easily drink 20 gallons.

Most of my "stockers" - steers and heifers - are smaller, but it's still a lot of water. When we moved back to pasture, the average weight was 768#. So if I take that for an average, that means a small herd of 20 beef on a 90 degree day needs access to about 300 gallons of water.

Where the water is matters

I took some classes over the winter, and one of the most shocking things I learned was the importance of proximity to water.

It's common sense when you think of it. It's the natural instincts of cattle:

• if they can't see the water, they go as a herd for protection
• if they have to go greater than 800 feet, they congregate at the water source, not on pasture at the food source
• if they aren't where the food is, they aren't eating and not gaining

So by having the water far away and out of sight, you have to have a bigger waterer to accommodate the surge in demand. If water is nearby and always available, the water source can be much smaller as one head at a time will drink.

Close and Visible Yields Gains

The most amazing thing I learned was about the economics of water. Cattle that could see the water and walked less than 800 feet gained 0.5# more per day than those that didn't. That's significant and can pay for some improvements fast!

So I built a new experiment

I was short on land this year for cattle so I rented 20 acres of hayfields at a nearby farm. It had no fence or water access, so I had a blank canvas to design the layout how I liked. And the 5 mile drive was just far enough away to make chores a pain, so I wanted it to be easy.

I divided the fields up into two - one at 12 and the other about 8 acres. I drew up how I would subdivide it with temporary poly wire. From there, I placed permanent, frost-free waterers always within sight and within 800 feet of the cattle.

This is one of the new waterers. There is now a "heavy use pad" of limestone around the waterer to control mud. This water setup is quite simple and utilizes geo-thermal heat to keep the water supply from freezing.

Hoofing It: Beef Sampler Bundle

The colloquial farming analogies rarely had meaning growing up. A long walk might be "hoofing it." I get it now.

In a cheesy tie in to this week's education piece, here is a small bundle to celebrate bovine thirst.

Hoofing It Bundle - $24

all100% grassfed beef

1 # ground beef

1# stew beef

1 package steak burgers

The New Potato is the tender, first potatoes

The term new potato refers to the first potatoes of the season. They are those from the potato plant that is still "green." I'll explain below a little more about dying off and curing, but what you really need to know is:

1) The skins of new potatoes are very, very tender. In fact, it's normal for them to rub right off when washing.

2) A new potato can spoil quickly. Without the curing step, these potatoes are more perishable and should be enjoyed soon.

Planting Potatoes

Potatoes are tubers with "eyes." Each eye is the start to a new plant. Think of the eye as the sprout that pops out of potatoes in storage too long.

In the spring, seed potatoes are selected based on their purity - those that are disease resistant and the best yielding crops.

Seed potatoes are purchased based on sizing and "grade." The smaller the size, the more desirable because they require less labor. They can be planted as is. Larger potatoes must be cut to separate the eyes.

Potatoes are then put into the potato planter where they drop down through a funnel into a tray. Essentially a fork grabs a piece at a time and pushes it between two plates that drop it into a furrow in the ground. The disc in front of the planter mound up loose soil into a hill, the potato is dropped in, and two more discs close up the furrow.

Cultivate and Hill Again

Once the potatoes germinate, it is important to keep the weeds down. Generally, the farmer goes thru several times with a set of discs or tines to "hoe" the weeds. In this process, he generally turns the discs outwards to push dirt up and over the potato hills.

This "hilling up" ensures that the potatoes aren't exposed to the sun. The sun turns them green.

The hilling up is done about twice until the foliage is too large. At this point, when the potatoes flower, they are getting close.

Killing off, Digging, and Curing

Potato plants will naturally die back in the fall. Other ways to kill of the plant is to mow them or use chemicals (yuck).

Once the plant dies off, the potato goes into protection mode, stabilizing the starches and setting a thicker skin for protection. These store better. This is generally how later harvest (storage) potatoes are harvested.

The potatoes are allowed to cure in the ground some, then dug with a potato digger. This either inverts the hill, exposing the spuds, or brings them up a conveyer to lay them on top of the ground. Either way, you pick them up by hand on a small operation.

Lastly, the potatoes are left in the shade on a wagon to cure. Any bad spuds will show themselves; the others will set thicker skins and store longer.

This week's "new potatoes" haven't gone thru any of these steps. They were dug green and immediately washed and packaged with very tender skins that practically rub off.

Like the weather, subject to change.