April Showers bring May flowers, and muddy farmers and lots of great veggies and meat!

Sesame chicken with a side salad! Wow, it was great!

We feel pretty blessed around here with all the good food, fresh air, rain and good “farm-ily” members! Well there are more blessings, but I can’t count them all. There is too much of a good thing, I hope the rain slows down next week so we can get some garden beds prepared! We have exciting things going on the the cow barn! We got our first bulk tank to chill the milk faster! It’s a big expense that we have been saving for. It will help farmer Tommy be able to more efficiently bottle the milk. A big part of keeping raw milk fresh is to get it as cold as possible quickly, which this tank does for us! Small tanks are hard to come by since most dairies are huge operations and need tanks that are hundreds of gallons. We were able to find a company that makes small ones up north and we purchased a 60 gallon tank that is a perfect fit for our needs! Very exciting!

Speaking of exciting, the Summer CSA begins this Thursday! If you are a member you should have gotten a boring but necessary email last week about all the details of the changes concerning pick up during the current situation. Thank you for reading it so we may better serve you. We look forward to returning to normal, but are so happy to be able to serve you in the current times too. See you Thursday the 30th and Saturday the 2nd for our first meat pick up and (all other shares) of the new season! Both days 2-5 Pm, with curbside available at 5 PM (please schedule with us by Wednesday for that service). We are also extending our “extras” order until tomorrow (Wednesday) this week. If you need anything extra like broth then you may either shop the cabin or fill out an extra order form on the website under the products heading.

Now for the fun food we’ve been eating lately! I took a beef chuck roast frozen and put in the instant pot for 75 minutes with salt and 2 cups of water. We then shredded it and added chopped onions, about a cup of ketchup, 3 TBS molasses, some salt and garlic powder and had the BEST BBQ we’ve had in a while. We also used some carrots and cabbage to make a slaw and it too was so yummy. I love making extra so we can have it at a second meal with no work!

We also keep making this great instant pot sesame chicken recipe that Maddie found. Ask her about it at pick up, she’s sure to share the details. Over some rice with a nice side salad, is the perfect quick dinner that makes you feel like you’ve been out to eat! I’m looking forward to trying a members recipe for collards tonight. She says: ”Favorite collard recipe: creamed collards (like creamed spinach). I chop the stems and sautée in fat, then cut the leaves into ribbons and add. Grate in a small potato and season with salt, pepper. Once cooked lower heat and add cream and a little nutmeg. Let thicken and serve!”

We’ve had a lot of extra milk lately with the girls going back to pasture and off of hay. We’ve been making butter, cheese and LOTS of ice cream. I found a great way to make ice cream with milk instead of just cream. You make pudding first and then churn it. It’s creamier and just needs a little extra sweetener as the pudding is less sweet when it freezes. We still haven’t named the little Brown Swiss heifer, so we will have to decide soon! She did get de-horned over the weekend and was very brave! Well the vet did a nerve block, so she didn’t have to be brave, she couldn’t feel it. We don’t like de-horning the calves, but it’s the only way to have our children or ourselves around them in the milk barn when they are older! So we do it when they are young and it’s an easier procedure.

Well folks, we are headed into a big harvest day tomorrow so we better get some dinner and sleep! We look forward to seeing lots of you this week!

Blessings,

Your farmers

Last veggie pick up of the "winter csa"

It’s always exciting to find the first slithery garden friends of the year! We prefer the SMALL ones and the large ones can stay hidden!

We love growing year round, it is a comfort to know we will have food and we love providing it for our farm members! Next week is our “week off” from veggies to prepare for the next season. We will not be vacationing, we will be harvesting our first batch of chickens for the year! It will be great to have a quiet time to do that instead of fitting it into our busy days. Good planning or just coincidence, maybe!

We have a lovely smell coming out of the greenhouse right now…..our lemon trees are blooming! We have two small trees, but they make so many great smelling blooms! When it gets above a certain temperature a large fan kicks on to cool it off. I was walking past that end one day when the fan came on, I stood there and took a minute to “smell the lemons”! Just as I deeply inhaled and felt myself relaxing while enjoying the intense smell……the farmer was inside watering the baby plants waiting to go into the field. He is constantly playful……so he aimed the watering wand at the fan (from the inside and unbeknownst to me). At which point the fan sprayed water all over me!!!!!

We have been enjoying the greens a lot! Lots of people always talk about how important greens are and I believe this time of year (not to mention during the pandemic) it’s even more important to get those vital nutrients from our food. It’s funny how these vegetables thrive just at the time when we need them, in the spring! I’m sure God had that planned, it’s no accident.This weeks shares have beets with tops (I used them in a stir fry for lunch), also a baby greens salad mix, a braising mix (mustards, kale and beet greens-great also for stir fry), cabbage (plus full shares got some kimchi), white sweet potatoes, and turnips! Enjoy!

We enjoy the constant change on the farm, though at times it’s hard to keep track of it all. We just bred our cow Ducklegs and hope that she will take and will have another January calf next year! We are doing our planning about when we want babies to arrive so our milk supply is constant. It’s an ongoing process and we enjoy the challenge it is to keep it on schedule! Not to mention Thanksgiving turkeys, they have been ordered for several months now and we look forward to meeting those cute babies in July!

Be well and stay tuned for details concerning our new pick up systems for the Summer CSA and complying with health and safety standards. Remember it begins April 30th and May 2nd 2-5 PM.

Blessings,

The Bakers

Little House on the prairie....

Remember to take time to smell the flowers!

Well folks, in everyone’s own way we are all living like Laura Ingalls. They were very secluded and relied on their family for fellowship and companionship most of the time. Let’s all be glad we are headed into summer and not a long winter! Sunshine and reading the Bible for us is the perfect remedy for feeling blue. We hope you are adjusting to that and enjoying your solitude. We are busy with the spring crazy, but are trying to have some quiet family time as well.

I was so proud of my dad this week. At age 71, he is reaching back to his roots of wanting to be a “DIY” person. He used to make his own bread and fun things like that. So this week he got some milk from us and used his Instant pot to make yogurt! They loved it! So if you’ve been wanting to try, now’s the time! You can also easily make ricotta with your extra milk by adding some vinegar or lemon juice and heating it. There are lots of fun recipes online.

Well, April fool’s was on me last week! And inadvertently on you! If you were searching your bags for carrots, it was because I was wrong about what went into the bags! It was winter radishes instead of carrots! This week is carrots, potatoes, onion greens, chard, collards, sweet and spicy lettuce mix, and pea shoots. The full shares also get some lettuce and new beets with beet greens. I didn’t help pack last week so I wasn’t correct about the details! But this week I got to help pack and I sure enjoyed it! Last week I was busy packing your meat shares. We sure use team work to make the dream work around here! We love growing your food for you.

The newest baby cow has made her way to the paddock so be sure to stop and say hello to her. The girls are still choosing her name, but right now Lovey (short for the herb Lovage) is the favorite! We will probably have baby goats by next month. We have a few baby rabbits left for adoption. All the onions and most of the potatoes are planted and we are clearing out the greenhouse and replanting each day. I can’t wait for tomatoes!

We hope your family has a wonderful Easter! We will be enjoying some potatoes with butter and chopped green onions. The pea shoots are great in salad, we had some tonight. the chard will be great in an Easter quiche. The possibilities are endless! Let me know your favorite collard recipe, we plan to braise them with some bacon.

Blessings,

Your farmers

April is here!

The curious farmer…..

Until I can figure out how to post a video to my blog, head over to fb at the link below to see the cute video of the little farmer inspecting his new calf!

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100010689811909

This weeks veggies: Napa cabbage, lettuce, kale, carrots, radishes, and beets! So my mom took boiled beets and shredded them in her tuna salad and it was this amazing pink! Your kids will love that! I also love to slice them thin and lightly oil and salt them and bake so they taste like potato chips! The napa cabbage is great used as lettuce or cooked. Last week I posted a great recipe on facebook for a slaw type meal with it. We peeled and cut our carrots last night and put them in the instant pot with some honey and butter and cooked for 8 minutes. Then I sauteed them until the liquid was reduced. They tasted like candy! Enjoy!

We are enjoying this sunshine and we are busy planting potatoes, and onions and more greens! The first crop of squash, tomatoes and peppers is in the greenhouse and our first outdoor planting is almost ready to go outside! Spring is very busy around here! We got some new piglets yesterday and they don’t like us yet! Several of them escaped from our “training pen”. We have to teach them to stay in the electric fence so we can eventually graze them. Wow these guys were not quick learners, they just kept zapping themselves on the wire. Finally they calmed down when we offered them some straw to make into a bed. We have been sharing some milk with them so hopefully they will soon be friendly! And can go into their piggery and then onto pasture.

We decided to name Sapphire’s calf Opal, thanks for all the suggestions! She did go to a new farm the other day and will one day be their milk cow! But Rosemary’s calf still needs a name and the judges can’t decide, there are a lot of good ones! She will be down by the cabin in a few more days for visiting. In the mean time, she’s getting lots of snuggles from us. We will be keeping her so let’s find a great name, in the herb or spice family preferably!

We have been working on our schedule around here and hope our ideas can help you find a new normal in your altered routine. Animals, children and even adults thrive on schedules! The seasons dictate some of ours, but we find we really thrive when we know what is coming next. It helps when something like illness or the arrival of a new calf are not easy to predict. We have scheduled meal times so all the farmers can know when they are going to be fed again! Including snack time. We all have different things to do, but I try to make them align so we all eat each meal together. Then the homeschooling happens in the morning after all the animals are fed. We also schedule our family Bible time. We each have household chores that also happen at the same time each day. It really helps us to have structure and know when it’s work time and when it’s play time! I hope your days are filled with good food, learning new things and joy!

We had a different experience packing meat shares for people this week instead of enjoying watching you all choose your items. Although we did take time to pray for you while packing your shares, and thinking about your families and how you may be learning new things during this time. So different isn’t always bad, just different. Though we look forward to having you pack your own shares again, we were happy to pack for you with your meat share forms. If we are still having to do them next month, I’ll send a reminder, but we will need them the Tuesday before pick up in order to fill them. Meat pick up for May is actually going to be April 30th and May 2nd. We will also probably make some kind of veggie selection form once May comes if we still have restrictions. Let’s all take it a day at a time, though!

Blessings and be well,

The Bakers

Cute babies and New farm procedures

Well, the new calf (picture on FB) isn’t the only cute thing happening around here! We have so many cute bunnies, hoping to hop home with you soon! These Holland Lop babies are ready to go anytime or can be held until Easter. They will mature at about 4 pounds and make great pets. Sapphire’s baby girl is doing well and is almost named, so if you have any more suggestions please go to facebook to make an entry. We are still waiting for Rosemary to have her baby, like I said it’s usually a bull and a week late!

The veggies this week are: Kale, Lettuce, Napa Cabbage (great recipe posted on facebook), cabbage, white sweet potatoes and carrots. We love cooking our white sweet potatoes as mashed potatoes or baking them. I find they take a little longer to bake, but become so sweet and yummy! Enjoy! Anyway, now that you are smiling, let’s cover some details.

FARM SHARE MEMBERS:

MEAT PICK UP

We have a few changes to CSA this coming pick up. Meat pick ups will be, as usual, the first Thursday and Saturday of the month, April 2nd and 4th. Due to the current situation and keeping everyone safe, we have made a meat order form for you to fill out so we can have your custom meat share packed and ready for you. This eliminates folks touching all the packages, but still gives you your first choice in cuts. The sheets will have to be filled out by no later than MARCH 31st to allow us time to pack them for you. We appreciate your patience as we learn how to best serve you during this, and we look forward to resuming our normal systems!

FARM STORE PICK UP

We would like to ask that at this time you enter the farm store, one family at a time, to be courteous to others. We are doing our best to keep the cabin sanitized, but giving other’s their space would be appreciated. Please continue to visit the calves, rabbits, horses and pet chickens nearby the cabin. They love to be visited and it’s great for your spirits and your children’s! This is a busy time for us, so for your safety please note these are the areas you are permitted to visit on your own. We enjoy sharing these areas with you and appreciate you respecting our space as well. The gardens and greenhouses will be open for touring at some point(though the spring Farm Tour will probably be cancelled), but please do not enter these areas otherwise.

EGG CARTONS

Egg cartons are hard to come by right now. So please (if yous are clean) return them to us. We can only use our cartons, not ones from the store. We are doing a quarantine on the cartons before we reuse them to make sure they are safe. But the more we have to rotate the better. We appreciate your help!

Thank you for allowing us to help feed your family!

Blessings,

The Bakers

Blessed and Honored, Happy Spring!

Happy farmer boys feeding hay to animals and sipping elderberry shrub!

Friends we are blessed and honored to be your farmers! Thank you for your trust. We are trying to handle the influx of folks wanting a safe source of food so please bare with us as we process emails and prepare invoices. We want to serve as many of you as we can. This is just our biggest planting time so we aren’t as able to keep up with admin! If we have responded to your csa sign up then you will have a spot, we just might not get your invoice done for a week. Thanks for your patience.

We have made a few changes to the system to keep up with safety. We have discontinued the swap bin for trading veggies out in the cabin to eliminate folks from touching each others vegetables. I’ll be sending recipes so you don’t have to be scared of your beets (you know who you are :)! We are so glad to see folks visiting the animals still and enjoy the fresh air and sunshine when they are picking up at the farm! Please continue to do so.

Also for this coming month’s meat pick up we have made an online order form so we can pack your boxes with just what you want. If you want to come pick up during normal hours so we can all say hello and get some fresh air and sunshine together we are still welcoming that! We just want to minimize folks handling each others packages. You may also choose to have us deliver the package to you in your car (during those hours or by appointment). We all have different levels of comfort during this uncertain time, so we are here to serve you in whatever capacity works for you. Pick up dates are: April 2nd and 4th

We continue to maintain our normal safety practices while handling your precious food in addition to extra measures in cleaning the cabin frequently.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE:

We are really on baby watch over here with two cows about to give birth. We are going to be posting pictures as soon as it happens. We will also have a naming contest so get your kids thinking of names! One mom is named Rosemary and we usually name her babies herb names too, and one is named Sapphire and this is her first calf with us. Get your thinking caps on! Study some herbs and maybe gemstones with your children today for ideas! Let’s see who goes first! When I was due with our last 3 babies we also had a cow due around the same time. All three times the cow won and I was pregnant longer! Maybe this time I’ll be first (hint: yes the farm Mamma is due in August)!

Have a peaceful day enjoying something different than you expected, but it is a blessing to find joy in things.

Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 | KJV 

Blessings,

Your Farm Family

Last years babies are still worth smiling about!

Couple of facts

Remember soon, everything will be lush and green again :)

Hello Friends,

First we want to start with, we are praying for you all and our country. We will continue to use strict standards in our harvesting and packing procedures to ensure safe, clean food for you and your families. We are so thankful for local, organic food! We are cleaning the cabin door and handles frequently for everyone’s safety. Please let us know if you will not be picking up your share so we can donate it to someone who can use it while it’s still fresh. We will continue to operate as usual unless things change. Thank you for your trust and support.

FEW SPACES REMAIN IN THE SUMMER CSA! Please sign up asap for the few remaining spaces for CSA. Details on the website. We only grow a certain amount each year and will not have empty shelves! We will provide good food for you our members! But planting time is NOW and we need to know how many of you to plant for. We have farm pick up, and purcellville and broadlands delivery sites. Inquire for details.

We have been making really nourishing meals here to keep everyone healthy and cutting out all sugar (except honey and maple syrup of course)! Try this soup: 1 quart broth, 2 cups water, 1 large sweet potato (peeled and chopped small), 2 carrots sliced, 1 bag young kale (chopped) and 2 pounds day spring sausage browned. Even on the stove it took me 30 mins to have it ready and it felt so good to eat! Good food keeps your spirits up and your body running well!

Herbal shares for March were Elderberry gummies, Elderberry syrup (the last of it for now) and herbal tea. The herbal calcium is perfect for hormone health and as a daily vitamin! The gummies can be frozen (indefinitely) or fresh for about a week, but in these times….eat them up! Either one a day or the whole tub, your choice! The syrup should be refrigerated and taken a spoonful a day.

We are on baby watch still with two calves expected soon and the baby chicks in the brooder. We can’t wait to share pics! With kids at home from school feel free to let them say hello to the calf “Mercy”, the horses and the rabbits when you come for your shares. And grab some free sunshine while your here!

So please remember to slow down, smile, soak up some sunshine and remain calm. Whatever will come will not be a surprise for our Heavenly Father.

Psalm 9:10 ‘and they that know they name will put their trust in thee: for though, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.’ KJV

Blessings,

Your Farmers

Soak up the sunshine

Since the plants are happy, we are happy! The sunshine and nice weather makes us all want to sing and play out side! It’s also time to start getting into the dirt! We replant all during the year in the greenhouse but we have started planning when to get growing the in the field again! Something to be thankful for! So join us in getting our Vit. D and soak up some sun from your porch or better yet the swing set! Now we are just praying we don’t have a hard freeze since fruit trees are already budding out. We have at least a month until we are clear for that so remember to pray for your local fruit trees!

This week are are focusing on our greens! I am trying to make two meals a day that have greens. It doesn’t have to be tons, but each child is getting some greens twice a day. Especially some kraut for good immune function and digesting all these great foods. We are feasting on Sweet potatoes, carrots, beets, baby kale, mustard greens, and spinach. So eat up! Planning ahead this time of year is essential for me since we are entering the busy season on the farm. We try and think two days in advance for our meat so we can thaw it ahead of time. Cooking is so easy when you think ahead.

We are on baby watch again with two mama cows! The three in the barn are doing all they can to make sure you all get milk. So if you notice your jars are a tiny bit less full than usual, it’s because we share the wealth and share the lean times too! We have been able to fill everyone still, but just slightly under the normal fill line. Thanks for understanding we are not the grocery store! However when these two mamas give birth and have fed their calves for a week, they will then begin to produce more than their calves can drink so there will be plenty for the humans once again! Plus two new sweet babies to visit!

Speaking of visiting….Last week when we were off the farm picking up our pork from the butcher and some soil amendments we got a call from a farm member that our calf was loose. So she put her in the front yard for us until we got home. Well she must like getting out on Thursdays because this morning she met us at the door and when the girls opened it for her she ventured in for a tour!

It’s never dull here folks!

Please have a restful and healthy weekend!

Blessings,

The Bakers