Art Show

It is time once again for the Labor Day Art Show.  Lissa hosts 20 artists that bring their finest art to display in her beautiful gardens.  There will be everything from jewelry, to pottery, even birch bark canoes will be sold.  We will have tons of organic veggies for sale; you can buy them to prepare an awesome dinner after a long day of shopping.  We will also be selling healthy sandwiches from The Green Scene and Common Grounds. If you are looking for something sweet, we have that too; caramel corn, and caramel apples, and delicious pie by the slice.

Come check out all the gardens here.

Here is a list of the artists you can expect to see here...
Christy Hohman - Fiber arts
Joan Wilson - White Rock Studios (Fine art and Sculpture)
April Keilen - Hand Thrown Pottery
Bob Carls - Ripple River Wood Turning
Russ Moran - Cedar in Style (Cedar Furniture)
Dawnette Davis- Wearable Art (Unique Hats/Dyed Silks)
Deb and Tom Page - Teoga Gloves (Paintings and Leather Work)
Grant Goltz- GM Guitars and Squeedunk Birch bark Canoes
Christy and Joan - Various Mediums
Lily Winter LLC - Jewelry
Marsha Wolff - Wolff Works (Mosaic, Pottery, Jewelry)
Mark and Justin Carlson- Watermark Designs (Iron Art)
Mary Downham Pottery
Mary Therese Peterson - Fern Lake Studios (Fabric Painting)
Maureen O'Brien - Evergreen Farm Studio (Acrylic Painting and Prints)
Melissa Burness- Melbe Creations (Maleidoscope Photography)
Sandy Fynboh - Blue Sky beads studio and gallery  (Blown Glass Beads and Jewelry)
Shy Sommers - The Sommers Place (Crochet Hats, Gloves, Scarves)
Tamie Fairbanks - Little Hawk Photography

The Art Crawl has 12 other stops along Highway 84 from Pine River to Longville.  It starts everywhere at 9am and goes til 5pm, rain or shine. For more information check the website http://www.artsoff84.com/index.html

Making Pesto

I forgot to put my garlic bulb in the picture

Pesto is just one more thing I am going to make and freeze for the winter.  It will surely add a fresh summery flavor to any of my winter meals, it will remind me that summer comes again and that some day I will once again be able to smell fresh cut basil.  I will make other batches later but I wanted to experiment with the lemon and lime basil that we planted first.  Lime is my favorite citrus and basil is my favorite herb; I can only imagine how good they will taste together in pesto.
Pesto is one of the easiest things to make and can be used in so many ways that it is nice to have some lying around.
Try making some and using it on sandwiches or pasta; you can add a spoonful to some hummus or cream cheese and serve as a dip.  Mix with a little extra oil and drizzle over salads, rub on chicken or pork and bake (even better if you add a little extra Parmesan to it so the outside gets a little crispy), or add a little to your eggs to get your day started right.  Get creative and use it on everything.

First things first, I had to pick all the leaves from the stalks. 

I chose to use walnuts because they are cheaper than pine nuts and I really like the flavor it adds to basil pesto; you can also try using pistachios for an even more buttery flavor.

Then add the oil and garlic and give it a quick pulse

When I make pesto, I rarely use a recipe, it is more of a texture thing...keep adding nuts and basil to make it thicker and more oil to make it thinner.  I am planning on freezing this entire batch so I will make it a little thicker and will add oil when I use it this winter.  I have read that if you plan on freezing your pesto that you should first blanch your basil leaves so the green color stays nice and bright but I have never really had a problem with it turning. Make sure you are using fresh basil and it will be fine.

Add the basil

Add the cheese

And VOILA...basil pesto

Just put it in an airtight container and enjoy fresh basil all winter long!  You can add a lot of different things to this basic recipe like parsley or sun-dried tomatoes...like I said, get creative the possibilities are endless.

Another weekend away...

After the last few weeks of picking and weeding, we all needed a little weekend getaway.  John Prine is a favorite musician around here and we have been waiting for this weekend all summer long. Johnny  played two nights in Bayfield, WI at Big Top Chautauqua.  This has become one of my favorite venues do to the size and the loose security...didn't have to buy one overpriced beer, got all of mine from the car.  The show was awesome and I had so much fun hanging out with everyone away from the farm.  Pieta Brown opened and she has such an intoxicating voice so it was a real treat to see her.

Pieta Brown

John Prine

Before our night at the Big Top we spent our morning on Lake Superior.  There was a very narrow window that the winds were right for us to be able to get out to the sea caves...we all got up at 4:30am so we could get out there.  They are seriously incredible to see up close, the pictures do not do it justice. 

Sunrise at the beach

sea cave

 Then we all hung out on the beach...

 It was such a great weekend and now that I am well rested I am ready to go back to the farm and start weeding again. 

Getting ready for the winter...

I don't even want to say it...fall is coming.  Things are still very busy here, in fact it will inevitably get much busier before it calms down but the nights are cooler and the days are shorter and it is time to prepare for the winter.  I took the last of the peas and blanched 'em, bagged 'em, and froze 'em.  Then we pulled all the plants and through them in the compost pile. In previous blog posts I wrote about the importance of crop rotation to organic farming.  It is one of the easiest ways to prevent pests and ensure a healthy crop.  Peas are an excellent source of nitrogen, they have a a symbiotic relationship with a bacteria that forms nodules on the root system.  The nodules suck nitrogen out of the air and store it in the soil.  Knowing this, we did not actually pull the plants we cut the tops of them off and left the roots in for a few days before we tilled up the empty rows.  

You can see that the peas are on their last legs

These are the nodules that attach to the root system

Peas headed to the compost pile

Now we wait for a few days to till

The picture above also shows that we left a lot of the weeds; the seed pods on these weeds are well developed this late in the season so we will not add them to the compost pile.

After freezing the peas, I moved onto tomatoes.  We have an unbelievable amount of tomatoes and literally can't get rid of them fast enough.  Lissa has been cooking down and freezing batches of tomatoes for the last week and I thought maybe I could help so I did my first batch last night.  We pick out any of the over ripe or funny looking ones, cut them up and throw them in a pot.  Let them stew and cook some of the water out of the tomatoes and then bag and freeze.

Now that fall is coming there are a few things to look forward to...

the trees are full of apples

Willie Nelson

I had to start the day out right...so I made bacon wrapped eggs.  I of course made extras and shared...

Ingredients:
Bacon
Eggs
Cheese (I used a provolone/mozzarella mix, you can try using Goat cheese or Cheddar)
Herbs (Chives, Thyme, Basil - whatever you have or like)

Directions;
Grease a cupcake pan and preheat the oven to 400*. Cook up your bacon until it is browned, but not crispy. Break some of your bacon into small strips and line the bottom of each cupcake hole with a strip, then curl a whole strip of bacon and set along the inside edge of the cupcake hole.
Pour 1 egg into each hole, then sprinkle cheese on top. Cook until set and extract gently (using a knife it if sticks). Sprinkle your fresh herbs and salt and pepper to taste. Eat and enjoy.

As you can see, they are super easy to make and they are soooo good.

Willie Nelson was great, I had an awesome time in Duluth.  Every time I go there I fall in love with the city a little more.

I got to hang out with an awesome group of people and it is always nice to get away from the farm...so I can be reminded how much I miss being on the farm.
On Sunday morning I woke up early to finish my playlist and drive down to Grand rapids to be on the radio.  I was so nervous, but I was so excited.  I want to be on the radio like 1,000 more times, it was so much fun and I can't wait to get back. 

Farm Chores

It is not so bad waking up on the farm, I walked into John and Lissa's house and this is what was sitting on the table.  To large ripe tomatoes and small bouquet of lilies; we will be using those tomatoes on BLT's for lunch today to celebrate the kick off of BACON MONTH!  I am not sure I have had the chance to express how much I love bacon, its salty and bad for you and I will have seconds!!!

Before lunch there is weeding to be done; each garden needs a little work here and there but between the three of us we are surprisingly keeping on top of the weeds.  There is a wedding here this weekend so this past week has been a lot of cleaning, weeding, dead-heading the flower gardens, mowing, etc.
The pea rows in the outdoor garden are starting to really slow down, when they start to yellow. We will  pick a few more times, the peas we pick will be blanched, bagged and frozen for the winter.  I will be pulling these pea plants out at the beginning of next week.

Even though the rain is helping all the vegetables grow it is also helping the weeds grow.  We have not used the small green house for a few months and when I went in there yesterday, it was totally taken over with weeds.  We will not need this greenhouse for the rest of the season so we will wait to clean it all out until this fall.

Only two of the pumpkin seeds I planted germinated.  These pumpkins are a small variety, so there will be plenty of the little guys in October.  

We have an unbelievable amount of summer squash.  Summer squash is an awesome vegetable and it is very versatile.  With a pretty mild flavor it can take on any flavor you put with it.  Similar to tofu it can be meaty enough to replace meat and creamy enough to use for a dip.  Since we have so much, I have been toying with some creative ways to cook and/or use the squash.  It has an interesting texture and I think I can come up with some fun dips/spreads. I am thinking roasted garlic, sun-dried tomato, chipotle, and maybe even a squash pesto.  Christy and I will be doing some experimenting so check the blog to see what we come up with.

The dill is starting to head, this means we can start pickling.  We are a little too busy to start right now but seeing all this dill has got me anxious to get started.

It is not stopping anytime soon...

There is so much going on here; I have been keeping very busy, so busy that it is hard to pay any attention to the blog. I first wanted to talk a little about our compost; it is one of the most important parts of this farm.  Our compost is doing so well and next year we will have lots of really nutritious soil to spread around the farm...sure to make lots of vegetables happy.

120 degrees

It is down to 120 degrees today, but just the other day I saw it at 140 degrees.  We will be adding grass clippings at the end of the week and that is the compost piles favorite food, we will surely be pushing 160 degrees by Sunday.

Last years compost, very fertile soil

You can tell the soil is fertile because it is completely overgrown.  Most of what you see here is gourd plants but there are also a bunch of tomato plants and then there are of course some weeds.  We are just going to let them go, and see what we can get out of it.  When it comes time to use the soil we will yank everything out and stir it using the bobcat which will kill any of the remaining weeds.

We are growing three different kinds of onions, red, yellow, and super sweet.  They sure are growing fast, but we wont be harvesting these for at least another month.  The picture below shows how tall the stalks are getting and below that you can see some of them starting to poke out of the ground.  I love onions and am looking forward to eating some of these.

Check out the onions

Onion flower, they are pretty cool looking.

I have never grown potatoes before and learning about them has been pretty great.  I didn't realize how long it takes to grow potatoes, these were the first thing we put in the outdoor garden and it will still be another month before we dig them out.  They grew from tiny sprouted potatoes, flowered, and are now starting to yellow; these potato plants will continue to die back but the potatoes will continue to grow.  at the end of the month we will start to dig hills and John says I will be shocked to see how many potatoes come out of there...can't wait. 

We dug a couple hills of potatoes to sell as new potatoes, these are fingerlings and red potatoes.  They are looking good.

Cucumbers are also making some serious headway.  I remember being excited when they looked like this...

 Now they look like this and are producing lots of delicious cucumbers.  We are growing at least 4 different kinds of cucumbers this year including white and lemon cucumbers.  I had the pleasure of trying my very first lemon cucumber yesterday, it was good.  It doesn't taste like lemon it just kind of looks like one. 

I spend a lot of time poking cucumbers out of the netting.

This is a white cucumber

I have taken some beautiful pictures of vegetables and flowers around the farm and thought I would share them with you.

Green bell pepper

Raspberries are in full swing, we are picking every other day

Purple and yellow beans

Dragons tongue beans

Fresh picked turnips

Cleaned and cut turnips, ready for CSA buckets

Cosmic Purple and Scarlet Nantes carrots

Colorful tomatoes

Sunflowers are starting to bloom

Sunflower

Gladiolas in the hoop house

This is my favorite gladiola

I have been working just as hard as the farm and I think I deserve a break...I am heading to Duluth this weekend to see Willie Nelson.  I am super excited and will make sure to let you know how much fun I have.  A while ago I did a post about guest hosting on KAXE (a local radio station).  I have completed the class and have done a few demos, so on Sunday from 1pm to 4pm I will be hosting my very own radio show.  I can't wait for the masses to hear my excellent taste in music. You can hear it at 91.7fm if you are living in northern Minnesota or stream it live at KAXE.org.