Trading One Insanity For Another...

Now that tourist season is (un)officially over, I have traded the insane work schedule of that for the insane work schedule of Fall Harvest! Ack! This past weekend, I harvested our 2nd potato bed, bringing in another 30+ pounds of potatoes (mainly Kennebec, with a little Beauty of Hebron thrown in for kicks!). Kennebec potatoes are my main crop - they are incredibly high-yielding, and they have above-average disease and pest resistance around here. Plus, they make a nice "all purpose" culinary potato. I have one final large potato bed to harvest, and then a small one. Overall, I expect to bring in nearly 100 lbs of heirloom potatoes this year! YAY for ME! I also harvested another ~40 lbs of heirloom tomatoes (currently waiting to be processed into sauce and canned) and the remainder of the flour corn (which I spread out in the Boutique for final drying before I grind it into cornmeal).

The winter squash aren't quite ready to bring in yet, and the bean patch is still producing like crazy!

There are still quite a few tomatoes out there needing to be picked, as well as Litchi "tomatoes" and raspberries...Oh, and I haven't finished harvesting the dry bean crop yet. So much to do!!

Not to mention all of the herb and veggie seed harvesting/cleaning/drying/processing/storing.

So, for those folks who think I'm just a stay-at-home house wife who likes to spend money on silly clothes and hats, I have news for you: I earn my keep (and my hats!). Do you know how many pounds of tomatoes alone it takes to feed two people through the winter? 140 lbs will be just enough to get us through til next year!!! That doesn't include the beans, apples, peaches, peppers, etc., or the turkeys we raise and slaughter/process ourselves every year...I guess what I am trying to say is that you don't have to work outside of the home to be valuable, and you don't have to be a tom boy just because you're a dirty farmer. :)

Backlogged...

This is what I refer to as a bit of a harvest backlog...As you can see, when tourist season takes off, the canning/processing to-do list gets further and further behind. Right now I have close to 40 lbs of tomatoes that need to have their seeds removed (and saved!) and cooked down into sauce for canning (which I can't do until I finish cooking down the 20+ lbs of apples I have simmering on the stove for apple butter & apple leather!). You can also see from the picture below that I am behind in shelling my Scarlet Runner Bean pods, and there is flour corn that needs to be ground, and purslane (in the bucket) that needs to be dried and have its seeds collected. SO much to do, and not enough hours in the days between B&B bookings with which to do it! *sigh*

None of the above "projects" take into account the enormous pasture of bush beans I need to harvest, flash boil, and can. Nor the dozens of ripe tomatoes hanging on the vines and needing to be picked...or the 7 different garden areas that need to be watered! Good grief, I tire myself out just even thinking about it!

Speaking of tomatoes and seed-saving, here is a comparison between two different varieties of heirloom bi-colored tomatoes that I grow (and yes, they are different!):

Joya de Oaxaca


Applegate Valley Heirloom Tomato

And somewhere in there I still need to make another batch of soap...we had a group of guests stay with us in August, and they enjoyed the soap samples we gave them so much that they bought out our entire supply of homemade soap bars!

Anywho, for those who think that a farm wife/entrepreneur doesn't earn her keep around here, I beg to differ...

September is "In" With a Near-Frost

Where did summer go?

I woke up this morning to a cold house (left the windows open) and a thermometer reading 37 degrees outside! Since yesterday's morning low was 54, you can imagine my shock. Hello, September.

I am so not ready for this.

Our 2nd (late season) bush bean patch has finally begun producing like mad! Roughly 2 rows of bean plants will fill a 5 quart bucket (which is what I generally use to hold beans), and there are more rows than I care to count (the entire patch measures about 40'x40'). I have been picking buckets of beans every day and still am not harvesting them all!! Beans out of the early 1st patch I flash-froze, but I have been pressure canning these late season beans. We'll see if they keep better texture-wise with canning.

Also been processing still more apples (I swear my pantry is composed of 50% apple butter and 50% peach preserves at this point!)...cooked down another 20 lbs, and have 20 lbs more still waiting for me. This time, I seasoned the batch as though I was making apple butter, but I will be spreading it out on cookie sheets and drying it in the oven to make fruit leather! So I will have my own homemade fruit rollups to snack on! I need to get this first batch in the oven early today, since you cook it on very low heat anywhere from 5-8 hours...I also need to get started on the 20+ lbs of tomatoes staring at me from the work room...so much to do during harvest season, and never enough hours in the day! And it feels like the weather is trying to give us an early Fall! Yikes!

Ryan and I met up on his lunch break yesterday for a brief date at the antique mall by his work. I found the most lovely 1940s dress there, and (unintentionally, I might add!) gave him the puppy dog eyes (which he claims he can never resist), so we bought it. It fits like a dream, and is made of a toasty beige knit rayon material with a belt and beautiful sheer lace bodice! VERY delicate and lovely, and definitely something I am going to need to find an appropriate slip for! (Pictures of that later)

I have a hat arriving today! YAY! A pretty 1940's number with a little birdie on the brim. I think I am going to name the bird "Isabel" after the milliner. We are so busy with B&B bookings this month that I will be unable to attend my beloved city-wide Jacksonville yard sale the weekend of the 10th. Since I can't spend the money I was saving for that, I decided to blow it on hats! I figure it's a win-win situation! ;P

Jacopo, Fall Harvest, Etc.

Jacopo is doing VERY well! She still needs to fatten up on her mom's milk, but she is a bouncy little terror with personality to spare! I love Zatarra (our other 2009 miniature donkey foal), but Zatarra doesn't have anywhere near the personality that "Jaca-poco" (her farm nickname) has! Jacopo has taken a liking to me, and comes running up to me whenever I go into the stall. Yesterday she even tried to follow me out when I was leaving! I love her!! As soon as she gets a little bit bigger, we are moving her in with Cappuchino & Zatarra, and combining two pastures into one large pasture (so that they all have room to play).



I can't believe it's almost September, which means Mabon - The Harvest Celebration! Interesting how you come to understand & celebrate the old pagan holidays when you are so attuned to the seasons as a farmer...I actually really enjoy this fact. My entire family (okay, all four of us) has been helping me to bring the beginnings of the harvest in! My enclosed patio has turned into a hodge podge of seed drying trays...I keep blatantly hinting at Ryan that he needs to get my new harvest/herb room built! He is going to build me tall shelves with pull-out trays for storing and drying seeds, and I am going to ask him to build me a book shelf along one wall and an apothecary-type of cupboard along another (hey, the Apothecary Inn gets an apothecary cupboard! Har de har har...). Our garden harvest (in regards to produce) wasn't as large as I had hoped, but I have come to see this year as more of a focus on saving seeds for next year's (bigger and better!) garden. We have already finished bringing in and drying the quinoa. Now we are separating the tiny grains from the rest of the plant, which is tedious work. Then, we will need to wash the grains repeatedly to get the coating of saponin off of them. My calendula finally went to seed (Calendula is FREAKY the way it goes to seed!), and is drying on dishes.

We finished harvesting all of the dill seeds, and I am on my second seed harvest of epazote...so much epazote...the basil seeds are drying, and I also have shallot seeds! Ryan and I are taking all of the black beans we picked this year and using them as seed beans for next year. Like I said, we are saving enormous numbers of herb and vegetable seed! My watermelons and squash are almost ripe, and I will be harvesting my oca and yacon in another 2 months or so. Next month, Ryan and I are planting 24 bulbs of saffron (roughly a year's supply of saffron for 1 household - though I doubt we'll use it all ourselves!), and I am also trying out some Salsify (the root is supposed to taste like oysters). We planted our fall crops of arugula, fennel, and kohlrabi - to name a few - at the beginning of the month. I am also busy drying medicinal herbs for storage through the winter, and kicking myself for not having my calendula/comfrey salve ready after my latest kitchen knife accident! Ah well...Ryan and I have decided to start selling our excess seeds under our Apothecary Farm name. I keep telling him I want to get a nursery license someday and start selling plants and such on a larger scale. I'm practically there anyway, and at the rate we are going it may be a necessity soon! :P

And of course harvest season means canning season! (As well as beer-making/liqueur-making

season!) I am going to pick another couple of gallons of blackberries tomorrow, and I need to pick a few more flats of peaches for canning/preserves before the season ends. My peach-rosemary jam, and my blackberry-basil-cinnamon jam have been in high demand at the B&B. It's been selling like crazy, and I can barely keep it in stock!