Author: ebeth

We have used several methods to hard-boil eggs over the years. Ron likes to steam boil them. Joe likes to put them in a pan of water and boil them for 15 minutes.

I have my own method, based on Ruffage: a practical guide to vegetables by Abra Berens. I tap the eggs, giving them a slight crack on the bottom, bring them to a boil for 1 minute, let them sit in hot water for 11 minutes, and cool them in 1 change of cold water.

After they have cooled, I crack them on all sides. Then I pull the shell off, rinsing the egg in water as needed. The pic on the left shows the cracked shells with one egg on the right still to have the shell pulled off. The pic on the left shows shelled eggs.

Hard-boiled eggs can be used a lot of ways:

• Eaten straight up with/without salt
• Chopped up and added to salad
• Chopped up, mixed with mayo, mustard, cottage cheese, other seasonings and served on bread for egg salad sandwiches or mixed with cooked potatoes or elbow noodles for potato or pasta salad
• Used for deviled eggs
• Sliced and used for an edible garnish

(Continued from here) In the fall of 2000 we moved to our current 75 acre property. We want to give our six kids space to run and we wanted to learn how to be more self-sufficient. (20 years later we would say we want to be more resilient…we all need community.) Our resources were my childhood experiences (and therefore my family’s knowledge) and a love of learning. It also helped that I worked as a 10 month employee in a K-12 school environment. This gave me plenty of time in the summer to play farmer.

Over time we added chickens, a garden, goats, and pigs. But it only used a small portion of our land. Getting cows helped change that. Larger animals need much more pasture.

We tried lots of things and failed at many of them. U-Pick. Farming full time. Berries. Organic certification (well, we succeeded with certification but voluntarily dropped out of the program for a number of reasons). Farm memberships with pre-order discounts.

Of course, some ideas worked out. The asparagus still comes up. Grants for fencing and a pasture water system were a huge help. We’ve made good friends through our NOFA contacts. Farmers Markets. And of course, our children had lots of access to fresh air and sunshine while learning to work and be responsible.

Then in 2019 a change came in employment. As the planting season started, I began working in a traditional 12-month full-time position. This combined with normal aging significantly affected how much I could assist on the farm.

As things have unfolded, some of our children have decided to go into a joint venture with us. Until now, the farm has been mine, operating under the DBA of Treasures of Joy. Soon it will be an LLC and newly branded as Southwick Family Farm.

This is fitting. Seeing my children join us with with their age-associated energy and ideas is itself a treasure of joy. – The Farmer (RAS)

This winter we added two bred ewes to our farm. Last month they gave birth to 3 lambs between them. They are Dorper and Katahdin-Dorper cross, varieties of hair sheep. Like most outdoor mammals, hair sheep grow the extra coat that they will need to be warm in the winter. But instead of it being wool that needs to be sheared, it is self-shedding. We can brush it to help it come off, but it will also come off on its own.

The white sheep looks scruffier than the black and white one. She is still shedding. On the black and white one you can still see a tuft on the tail and shoulder, which should soon come off. The lambs have their full coats for this season and won’t be shedding.

Southwick Family Farm produces beef, pork, chicken, goat, eggs, and vegetables on 75 acres in Nedrow.

• Visit our What’s Available page to see what products are available
• Then email, call or text 315.200.2341 or use our order form

• We provide on-farm sales year round; appointments preferred
• Or find us weekly June-October at:
  • Westcott Farmers Market – Wednesday 2-6 p.m.
• And monthly 2nd Wednesday of the month November-May
  • Delivery to your home – $5
  • Meat-up at Barry Park 3-3:30 p.m. to pick up your preorders

We have EGGS, EGGS, and MORE EGGS! We purchased layers in hopes of having a good supply of eggs at the markets this summer. Well, they have started laying and the refrigerator is full! So we are selling eggs – $4.00/dozen or 2 dozen for $7.00. You can pick up from the farm. Email us or call or text – 315.492.8560 – to let us know how many you want and when you are coming.

by RAS aka The Farmer

I grew up on 120 acres in the country. My father rented most of the land as hay fields but we cut our own firewood, raised some livestock, and had a garden. It was a decent (and good) childhood experience.

Work brought Wife and me to Syracuse after we were married. When we bought our first house, I did eventually put in a small vegetable garden. When our growing family necessitated a size upgrade, the new house had a beautiful woodlot but hardly any yard. There was one spot with enough sun that one year I was able to grow some cucumber plants vertically (like the pic only cucumber plants, not beans.)

I am tech-oriented (my current off-farm job is providing help desk support). So in the late 1990s I was drawn into the Y2K debate. I learned about just-in-time delivery, about where our food comes from, and about cities’ reliance upon interdependent systems. This caused me to re-envision society as a thin veneer of civility that could easily be cracked or chipped.

Although it was becoming clearer that companies were working hard enough to prevent major catastrophes at the millennial change, we began making lifestyle changes, like storing some food and water, using less-processed ingredients (e.g. grinding our own flour), and generally thinking about being more resilient. I really wanted to garden, and we talked about finding a small plot to rent for this. But it didn’t make sense for what we wanted to do.

The combination of our Y2K changes, my romantic view of my childhood, and the fact that our kids had hardly any space to play outside all combined to spur us into moving yet again. The place we landed (our current farm) was great, but bigger than what was needed for a homestead. So we got busy with chickens, goats, and a garden and paid a local farmer to mow the edge of the unused fields to keep the scrub trees from invading them.

Thus with no real plan in place except to be more self-sufficient and to give our kids space to run and play (and work), we began our country life. (To be continued)

Over the past month we added piglets, lambs, kids, and more piglets to our farm. Sows, ewes, and the doe are all doing well, tending their young.

In late 2000 when we moved to the farm in Nedrow, we had 6 children. I promptly found out that I was pregnant and 4 months later found out that I was having twins. (And over the course of the rest of the 2000’s 3 additional children joined us.)

The 4 older children were allowed to choose which animal/s they wanted to raise. One chose bees and goats, one pigs, one goats and rabbits, and one cats. The Farmer gardened and pastured a milk cow. I cared for the household and tried to make sure the children did their chores.

Soon we added meat birds and layers. And we quickly found we had more food than we needed. It was healthy food, and tasty, raised well. So we were selling pork, chicken, and rabbits. It made sense to become a farm proper. In 2004 The Farmer set up a DBA in Onondaga County for Treasures of Joy. And for close to 18 years we have sold beef, pork, chicken, turkeys, eggs, and veggies under that DBA.

We moved here in late 2000 with 6 children. Fast forward 22 years…Now my oldest 5 are married and I am back to having 6 children at home again. The youngest is in 7^th grade.

The twins are 20 and working full-time for a tree cutting and snow plowing company. They grew up on the farm and enjoy the work of farming. They have 3 cows, 2 sows and 1 boar. They sell piglets and pork. They manage the turkey operation and a firewood business. They purchase, maintain and repair the equipment. They have become men.

The Farmer and his wife are not getting younger! What one could do in 2000 without thinking now takes more energy and time. And so it is time for a transition again…Tune in next month for more details!

Osso Buco is a slow-cooked beef dish, made with meaty shank soupbones, or at least with a fatty meaty cut of beef. Recently I wondered how would it taste to make the same dish with a meaty, fatty cut of pork. I found some pork chops with a nice rim of fat and used them in place of the beef in the Osso Buco recipe. The dish turned out really well. Here is the recipe with pork: