Backyard Farmgals

Sunday morning breakfast should be divine every now and then, don't you think?  I stumbled across this fantastic recipe a few weeks ago at DigginFood (an essential organic gardening website with some great simple recipes).  I have the same problem as Willi at DigginFood , I have too many eggs this time of year, so I am always on the lookout for recipes that use up as many as possible.  This one is a winner in my book, because it calls for five eggs and because it is tasty and simply delightful! This is one of those easy and fun to cook recipes.  The kids love to watch it cook, it puffs up to this enormous pancake creeping it's way up the sides of the pan.  It's kind of like a science experiment but with tasty benefits!  My hubby loves it with maple syrup whipped cream, I think it's divine just sprinkled with cinnamon and powdered sugar.  I am sure that you will find your own favorite way to prepare it, but however you do it, you will surely en...

I am asked almost every single day why I do this.  "Why do you work so hard?",  "Why would you want to do something so dirty?",  "Why don't you just be a nurse, that's a nice job?" are all phrases that I hear every day of my life.  So, WHY?  Why do I choose to do this hard, dirty, sometimes not-so-nice job of being a slightly crazy organic farmer?   I have this funny daydream that I am Scarlet O'Hara, standing in the middle of my crops, grabbing a handful of dirt and shouting to the heavens, "As God is my witness, I will never be hungry again"!  All with a fantastic Southern accent, of course, could you imagine it any other way?  I call Melanie a ninny, then, I make dresses out of curtains and it all goes a little wild from there... There are days when I think that I have the determination of Scarlet to succeed at conquering the earth.  Could the answer be so simple, I just want to conquer, to stand on top of it ...

This last week has been one that I have looked forward to for months, the arrival of our bees.  You may recall that our bees were wiped out in the horrific 103 mile-per-hour winds that we had last December.  I have missed seeing my little honey colored friends buzzing around the yard.  They seem to complete the farm, it feels just a bit empty without them, like we are missing one piece of the puzzle.  It's true that they make a difference.  Their buzzing from flower to flower really does increase our yields significantly, especially with the curcubits (squashes), sunflowers, and tomatoes (even self-pollinating plants like a little bee help). Twenty-six hives in the back of a suburban... funny how they are focused on one little bee on a glove when they have thousands in the back of the car! Saturday morning we drove out to Grantsville to pick up the bees.  It is so much fun to go to get them, people come from everywhere to load up their new frien...

  You all know that Spring is the time for pruning fruit trees.  We have 17 apple trees on the microfarm, plus an apricot and cherry.  We also have a pear and another apple at the house.  All of these trees means far too many things to prune and take to the green waste at the dump.  I could take 5 or 6 trailer loads of just tree prunings to the the green waste each Spring.  That's a lot of time, energy, and money in gas and entrance fees to the dump.  We devised a way to reduce our waste that really benefits us on the farm. As the trees are pruned, we sort through the piles of branches.  (We had someone really terrible prune our trees and we are now paying for it with overgrowth on the trees, so when I say piles of branches, I mean PILES.  Lesson to be learned: take a class or two and learn to do it yourself, it isn't very hard.)  The watershoots are the vertical straight growth from the previous year that doesn't produce fru...

Spring is crazy for us.  Planting, cleaning, starting up our bodies and minds for the challenges that lay just moments ahead, Easter, birthdays... the list goes on and on.  I took some time this last weekend to make an incredible birthday cake for a special boy that loves chocolate.  My Ian turned four in the midst of all the craziness.  His favorite things to eat are chocolate, strawberries, and more chocolate!  This boy could be encapsulated in chocolate and enjoy every minute eating his way out.  It seems like a very grown up cake for a four year old, but he is a sophisticated little man, so he has had no problem devouring every morsel remaining of this cake! The best thing about this cake is the three layers of chocolate.  You start with a chocolate wafer base, build onto it with a creamy and thick layer of cheesecake, then top it all of with a smooth layer of ganache.  Deadly, but just right for special occasions!  Serve it with ...

Ahhh...the smell of compost is a smell that I cannot describe.  Earthy, dense, full of life...compost is amazing stuff and if you have the capacity to do it, I highly recommend it.  It is immensely satisfying to be able to turn waste and junk into something that is completely life giving.  I have to admit that I have a slight advantage over the every day gardener when it comes to compost, I have a horse, goat, rabbits and chickens that all produce waste that makes amazing compost.  However, it is easy and very possible to achieve compost without the help of barnyard friends. Composting is a valuable part of gardening.  It puts beneficial microorganisms back into the ground.  Microorganisms are beneficial to creating a balance of good bacteria in the ground to help plants grow and fend off diseases.  Composting is also a great organic way to sustain the soil.  Often as we grow food and plants, our nutritional demands for the plants we grow ou...