Thin Air

      
     Have you ever eaten farm fresh eggs?  I mean really fresh eggs- less than 24 hour old? 
    The yolk is firm – not runny like the ones you buy in the store, which typically are at least a week or two old by the time you get them.  Fresh yolks are a bright orange.   Fresh eggs [...]

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Stocking Up For Winter

      Tuesday my wife was putting laundry away and came across a pair of underwear- (I won’t tell you whose they were)   filled with small seeds.   “It’s a mouse“  I said- “Looks like you’ve found his   stash.”      The little bugger had been running back and forth from the kitchen counter to the laundry room carrying seeds.  [...]

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Free Range Pork in Eastern Iowa

       Picture of me holding our first free range piglet in May of 2008. 
      Imagine a pig raised on apples, mulberries, clover, shelled corn and pasture, without a bunch of chemicals…. That would make  a tasty pig
        Pigs are foragers by nature.  They love to  turn up the soil with their snouts   digging for roots,  and grubs.  It’s called  [...]

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A Step Back In Time….

      Here’s a picture of me all decked out in my new green lederhosen  visiting Oma and Opa on the farm. 
        I remember riding in the  wooden  corn wagon, hanging on  for dear life .
        Here’s a clip off  utube that will give you a little idea:

      Aunt Annie  came for a visit from Germany.  She  wanted  a picture of  Doggie  (me)  [...]

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We were vendors at the Farmer’s Market

 
“I had rather be on my farm than be emperor of the world”  
                                                                                       George Washington
        Today was a good day. 
      5:45 this morning, while it was still dark I was outside loading  wooden crates of Ginger Gold and Royal Court  apples to sell @ the  farmers market.  
     I woke up the rooster.  Normally he doesn’t start crowing until about [...]

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We’re Headed for the Farmer’s Market

       Apple trivia:  Did you know that an apple will ripen 10 times faster at room temperature than in a frigerator?
      We have a bumper crop of apples this season.  Last night my son and I picked two cortland trees, each yielding about 7 crates of apples :

     Tonight I noticed the Suncrisp apples were [...]

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Grace Comes to our Orchard

Grace: 
 An unexpected and undeserved
 act of kindness. 

Picture of our 2009 Honeycrisp crop

Picture of our 2009 Gingergold crop.
      We planted our first 40 apple trees in 2002.  In 2003 we planted 60 more.  Depending on the age and variety of the tree, typically it takes from 5 to 7 years for the trees to begin to [...]

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The Tale of Two Apple Trees and other garden notes

 
“The most important  ingredient in the welfare of an orchard is the sound of the orchardists footsteps.“ 
                      Quote on the front of my Orchard Journal
     Here are some things I observed this morning as I was prowling around the property:

    this is a photo of (2) Cortland apple trees I’m experimenting  with this year.  I [...]

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The Simple Life

 
 
“We all have hometown appetites. Every other person is a bundle of longing for the simplicities of good taste once enjoyed on the farm or in the hometown [he or she] left behind.”
                                                                        Clementine Paddleford
 
       July has been a whirlwind of activity, hospitality and the  making  of memories. 
      My wife’s  6 siblings had a family [...]

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Range Fed piglets Update

         Early June my  construction crew was building a  lean to on a hog farm that farrows 5000 head a year.  At break time, I mentioned to the farmer I was considering having Winston   our 400 pound family pet  artificially inseminated.  
      We have an acre of pasture that would be perfect for raising  range fed pigs.  [...]

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