The Larder Line Up...

Aside from the heatwave of the last few days, things feel different here in the mitten state.  The air is different, the light is different.  The breeze is crisp, and the flowers are sending forth their last hurrah.  The barn swallows have left early, and the sandhill cranes are starting to gather in small groups, then larger groups...eventually flying away for the winter by the hundreds.  Things beg to be picked, and eaten, and preserved.  We are on the cusp of fall folks!

Here at the farm that means hard core canning, freezing, and preserving season.  So here is your yearly update on how well we've stocked the larder so far.  (And this is not an invitation to come running our way to eat jam should the zombie apocalypse hit) (Kelly!!).

The cherry haul was impressive, thanks to our new friends in town, and we put many pounds of sweet and tart pitted cherries in the freezer.  This blueberry season was just "ok," due to long stretches of cool weather mid summer.  Also due to the fact that when we should have been picking, we were wedding prepping.  But we still have a decent haul in the freezer, and put up quite a bit of Blueberry-Cherry Jam...which is delicious!  We also picked/saved raspberries, strawberries, and rhubarb...so we made a decent amount of Raspberry Jam and Strawberry Rhubarb Jam.

Despite a tomato blight (again, weird weather year here in michigan), we still hauled in bushel after bushel.  We canned the beautiful heirlooms, and stewed them down into marinara sauce for the freezer.  We made red salsa, and Joe's famous hot tomatillo salsa! We also have four sheet pans roasting in the oven right now with heirlooms, basil, garlic, olive oil, sea salt and crushed pepper.  Not sure if we'll freeze or can these yet, but god they smell good!!  And, we kicked ass at pickles this year...crispy and delicious!

We had so much chard in the garden (and still do), that we picked a few bushels, sautéed it in a little olive oil, and froze it in muffin tins.  I popped them out and put them in freezer bags, so mid winter we can pull them out for soups, stews, pasta, etc!

Ok, on to fall fruits.  We picked peaches, but we ate so many, and made so many damn peach crisps, that none made it in the freezer ;).  We had a great pear pick at the home of our cherry friends, and a bushel from our friends at Family Circle Centennial Farm, so we just finished the second batch of canned pear sauce.  

The first of the apples are ready at Uncle Scotty's orchard, so we pressed cider last week and put five gallons in the freezer ( and drank a bunch ;).  The rest of his orchard is close behind, and so is our trusty apple tree out back, so from this point on there will always be a roaster going on the counter roasting apple sauce or apple butter.  This is a bumper apple crop year, so let's put up some apple goodness!!

Our new set of chickens, the "teenagers," are in laying overdrive.  When I have a few extra dozen, I either make ice cream or pie crust for the freezer!  My "Never fail" amish pie crust seriously never fails ;).

And speaking of eggs, we have an incubator going in the basement with turkey and peahen eggs baking away!  My bourbon red turkeys have been a delight to raise, but I don't want to eat them until I get a new round of chicks going.  Fingers crossed that we have some hatchlings by the end of the month!

Come on eggies...I want little peacocks with their tails up to pop out!!

(but that's probably not how it works ;)

The best part about all of this is spending sweet time with my handsome husband and beautiful daughter...lovely mornings in orchards, hot afternoons in the kitchen - it's all about being together.  It also draws in friends, new and old, who want to eat beautiful local food.  

Yay Michigan!  Yay local food!

Oh Virginia!

In an attempt to fill my empty womb, I've been surrounding myself with animals (that sounds dramatic, but it's kind of true).  We had a very special delivery this weekend (and by delivery, I mean my dear friends caught them in their pen, bagged them up, and brought them to me...dressed in party clothes. Cuz that's how they roll)....Meet Montgomery, Virginia, and Opal.  And I love them.  They are giant, and beautiful, and always appear that they are dressed in their finery, waiting for me to bring them a cocktail.  

I'm certainly no expert (yet), but I believe we have India Blue peafowl.  The plan was to keep them in the barn for a while, so they knew that they were "home."  Then, as they did at their previous home, we would let them free range.  Ready for a good story?   Sit back, here we go.

A few days ago, Joe was taking some leafy greens out to the barn for the fowl.  As the barn door was open, Mr. Monty flew right over Joe's head, past the big barn, across the corn field, and into the woods across the street.  Like a little robin, he flew like nobody's business.  I was sitting on the couch, and saw a huge bird land....and then I saw Joe running after him with two hands full of leafy greens.  Damn it!

I was in the car in a second, and Joe and I drove over...thinking we would find a giant blue bird in a completely brown woods in like two second.  Wrong.  He completely disappeared.  We hiked the woods for hours.  My lips froze.  I was in crocs with no socks.  And I was furious.  

I cried.  I made a flyer.  We talked to all of the neighbors, who are amazing, and who invited us in to share a cocktail over our lost peacock fate.  All eyes were peeled for the missing Cesarz peacock!

Fast forward 24 hours.  Joe was making dinner when neighbor Al called.  "There is a peacock in my yard, you kids should come see it!" "That's our peacock Al!!!!  We'll be right there!" Joe yelled excitedly.

When Monty saw us, he flew into the swamp.  Neighbor CJ heard the commotion and wanted in on the action.  He brought Joe his waders and a fishing net, and perched himself as the lookout to direct Joe in the swamp.  You would not believe how a huge blue bird can disappear and blend in in a swamp! 

*pause*  In the middle of the peacock hunt, I saw a huge crazy face opossum walking through the sunshine towards my barn.  What in the hell?  F$#@er!  I screamed for Joe, ran and got the gun, and he and CJ cornered and shot the little bugger.  Then went back to catch a peacock!

There was chasing and diving.  And about a 1/2  an hour later, Joe came walking up the drive with an angry (and in trouble!) peacock.  Monty is sooo grounded.

We put a net over the top of the outdoor pen so they can sun themselves for awhile before they get another chance at "free ranging"!

Have a Beautiful Day..And a very Happy 7th Birthday to my little Coco Rose!!

xoxo, e.