First Snow

   This morning we are having our first snowfall in South Royalton, Vermont. Only up to an inch is predicted, but it is our first honest to goodness snow of the season. Since the date is October 30, old timers would forecast 30 major snowstorms for this winter. I don't know if this "old wives tale" will come true, but that is a lot of snowstorms for the winter of 2013-2014. We only just had our first frost last week on Monday, so after a very mild October we are suddenly plunging head first into winter it seems. Yesterday's morning low was 19 degrees and today's was 24 degrees. Brrrrr.
   Last week we devoted to the delivery and stacking of seven cords of wood to heat our farmhouse for the winter. We are lucky to have a 20x24 1930s garage on our property that we store our firewood in every fall and winter, to keep it dry. Also lucky enough to have it only a few steps from the backdoor of our house, a blessing during frigid Vermont winters. The garage seems to accumulate a lot of gardening equipment and "where do we put this?" items in the summer, but come fall it is cleaned out for only the firewood and storage of our porch and garden furniture.
   We also brought our hay home and stacked it in the barn last weekend, and can now breathe a sigh of relief that all the heavy lifting of wood and hay is complete, we'll be warm this winter, and the sheep will be well fed.
   One of our ewes, Charlotte, will be leaving to go to another farm to be bred in the beginning of November. I know we will miss her, but she will soon be back and hopefully grace our farm with a beautiful lamb (maybe twins) next April. The sheep are being lazy laying outside on the sunny days and still foraging for apples. It seems the pace of all the animals has slowed down and with no gardening chores I finally have time to make Christmas presents. So far I have made 4 1/2 presents,  with a lot more to go. So since the weather is chilly and snowy, I am off to my craft room to create. Enjoy the snow!

Sunrise over the barn last Tuesday am

Millie checking out the first frost

First snow!

A poor "woolly-bear" caterpillar caught in the first snow

 

Warm Gingerbread

We have a bounty of eggs now that all of our chickens are laying. We sold several dozen eggs last week and have had requests for more. The new "Fresh Eggs" sign is almost completed, just waiting for my husband to letter it this week. I enjoyed painting the graphics of the chickens on the sign, but will not even attempt to do the lettering. Hopefully the sign will be up by the road this weekend.

Laying hen in nesting box

 

The sheep have one late apple tree, at the very back of the pasture, where they spend their lazy days  waiting for the last apples to drop. I think they will be quite sad when these apples are gone, since they have so loved eating apples the last two months. They still run out of the barn every morning and check the ancient, crooked apple tree they have been getting all their apple treats from, even though it has been barren the past ten days or so. At least they have this one more tree to satisfy their apple cravings. Most of the leaves have fallen from the trees on our property and within our view so these red apples on this tree are a little bit of color for us to see.

The chickens, duck, and sheep are in their barns by 6:30 now, so I find myself curled up with a book on the couch by 7:00. I like this time of year with no urgency to get things done in the evenings. I do enjoy baking, so I sometimes pop something in the oven for an evening snack. My latest baking endeavour is an October favorite- gingerbread. Once you make this from scratch gingerbread, you'll never use a mix from the grocery store again. Served with a dollop of whipped cream it is undeniably an autumn treat. 

 

Gingerbread

1 2/3 cups all purpose flour( plus extra for dusting pan)

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg ( or ground nutmeg)

1/4 teaspoon salt

6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for greasing

1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

2 large farm fresh eggs, at room temperature

1/2 cup molasses

1/2 cup warm water

1 cup light raisins

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease an 8" baking pan with butter and dust with flour.

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt until well blended. Set bowl aside. In another bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat together the butter and brown sugar until well blended and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, until just blended. Continue beating while slowly adding the molasses. Sprinkle the flour mixture over the egg mixture and stir just until incorporated.  Add the water and stir until blended. Gently fold in raisins. Spread evenly into prepared pan. Bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on rack. Serve warm with whipped cream.

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Preparing Gardens for Winter

   Another busy week on the farm getting ready for the winter to come. This morning, since the weather is so nice out, I finished pulling out all the remnants of our four-square colonial kitchen garden. This year one square was devoted to green beans, another beets and carrots, the third onions, and finally the last square is where we grew our tomatoes. All have been harvested, eaten, frozen, canned, or stored in the root cellar. The ground has been hoed and raked and ready for next spring's plantings. I will be planting one quadrant with garlic in the next couple of weeks, but the rest of the spaces will sit barren until next spring. I only wish all the gardens were all cleaned out and ready for winter,  there is still a lot of work to do before winter sets in. I haven't even cut back any of the perennials in the border in front of the house yet. A long border! This is my least favorite job in the fall. It always seems like such a good idea to fill your property with beds of flowers until you have to maintain them, but that is the price to pay for beautiful flowers.
   Yesterday, while the ground was still wet from the rain we received, I pulled out all the stalks from the spent sunflowers and put some of the flower heads in the bird feeders for the wild birds and gave some to the chickens. What a treat they thought that was. I was amazed at how massive the clump of roots had become and how deep they went, a very hard job to pull out especially when you have seventy sunflower stalks to pull.
   The weather is supposed to hold out for the next few days, so I hope to finish all the outdoor gardening chores for this year. I do plan to make and can applesauce over the weekend as well, so it's back to gardening today. Have a great week and enjoy these beautiful sunny days.

Ready for next Spring

Sunflower Treats

 

Sheep and Wool Festival

It is hard to believe it has been a week since the Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival and I haven't even written about it yet. It was really fabulous in every aspect, the weather was perfect, the sheep and sheep dogs were all on good behavior (as were their owners) and the vendors had the most amazing selections of yarn, roving, and raw wool. I couldn't believe all the types of yarn, and the selections of colors were nothing short of incredible. I was so overwhelmed at the various choices I didn't know what to knit out of which yarn. I wanted to buy a sampling of every color and every weight of yarn. Next year I plan to pick out a few patterns for knitting beforehand and come prepared with a list of the weight, color and amount of yarn for each project. The thing that was most impressive was that everyone seemed to be genuinely having a great time, evident from all the smiles I saw. Of course I forgot my camera to capture all the happy attendees and all the beautiful sheep, goats and alpacas.
Next it was on to my highly anticipated three hour spinning class. Here was my chance to learn to take my sheep's wool and spin it into yarn for making hats, mittens and even sweaters. It is every shepherdess' dream to wear a sweater she knit from her own flock's wool. Not so fast! I have decided I will probably keep buying my yarn, or else send out my wool to a mill to be processed into yarn. Yes, that is my new dream. A sweater knit from the wool of my sheep processed at a mill. I found the whole spinning process discouraging and boring. It didn't help that my loaner spinning wheel kept malfunctioning and had to be repaired by the instructor several times.The class was filled so I was stuck, no more extra wheels. I have to admit spinning is not for me, no matter if I had a perfectly working wheel. I now have such respect and awe for people who spin their own yarn. What patience to sit for hours! I just don't have it. So now I am off to put my sheep and chickens in for the night, because I have been sitting too long blogging. Good night.

 

Apple Picking

We finally got out to the apple orchard Saturday afternoon. It was a picture perfect late September day, complete with a deep blue sky and gorgeous colorful foliage. The problem was I never know which apples to pick for eating and which apples to pick for baking. I know the names of the ones I want from previous experience, but I never recognize them on the tree. Which is a wealthy? Which is a cortland? Which is a spartan? I have no idea. The orchard closest to our farm, that we visit every fall, doesn't label which apples are on which trees-and there lies the dilemma. I never can figure out what apple I am picking. I even bought a reference guide this summer with pictures of apples and their names and uses. It didn't help me one bit. So, we ended up driving down the road to the orchard's farm stand, in the barn behind their house, where we "picked" labeled bags of apples. Spartan, crisp and sweet for eating out of hand, and red cortland for baking. It couldn't be easier. No guessing and no disappointments. This morning by 8am I already had a red cortland apple pie in the oven. Just the smell of it baking was intoxicating. No candle company has been able to perfectly capture that aroma in any candle yet in my opinion.
Here is the recipe for a 9"apple pie, I hope you will try it and enjoy a little bit of apple season.

I hated to take the apples out of the bowl for baking!

9" Apple Pie

Pastry for 9-inch two-crust pie
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
dash salt
8 thinly sliced large tart apples (peeled and cored)
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter

Heat oven to 425 degrees
Prepare pastry.
Stir together sugar, flour, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt; mix with apples.
Turn into pastry-lined pie pan; dot with butter.
Cover with top crust, seal and flute edge, cut slits in top crust for ventilation.
At this point I prepare an egg wash, to brush on the top crust before baking, of one egg and 1 Tbl. spoon of half and half ( you can use milk). Wisk together egg and half and half and brush onto crust with pastry brush. Then sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. ( This step is optional, but it makes a golden brown crusty pastry.)
Cover edge of crust with 2 inch strip of aluminum foil to prevent excessive browning. Remove foil last 15 minutes of baking.
Bake 40 to 50 minutes or until crust is golden brown and juice begins to bubble through slits in crust.

 

8 cortland apples unbaked in bottom crust produces a generous filling.

 

Cooling apple pie

 

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