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Scapes and Rhubarb

Some have asked how the rain has affected our farm this year. Rain is a good thing! It is essential for things to grow. The hard thing is that there were several weeks that the ground was really too wet to plant. So we will have some times with less items than we might have had in other years. But other things will do well, like fall planted items or perennials.

Which is what we have a really good supply of right now in the form of scapes and rhubarb. Scapes are like a vegetable garlic. They come from the stem and flower of a hard-necked garlic. They are only available fresh in June for 3-4 weeks. They taste good as a fresh vegetable, they blanch and freeze well, and they make a wonderful pesto that also freezes well. Here is a longer description and a simple recipe for the pesto. And here are some scape cutting directions and the pesto recipe again.

These are available at $3.00 / lb. They are also available for $6.00 / 3 lb bag.

Rhubarb is vegetable stalk that is used primarily with fruit. It is sour and tart. Some will eat it plain, but most of us prefer it with sugar. We have 2 cakes we like with it – a strawberry rhubarb coffeecake (I try to make this with Easter breakfast) and a rhubarb upside-down cake (part of the fresh rhubarb season). Rhubarb can be frozen really easily – just slice or dice it, put it in a bag, and put it in the freezer. Then pull it out and use it in the fall or winter when the time is right.

These are $3.00 / lb. or $2.75 / lb. for 3+ lb.

For both of these 1/2 lb is about 2 cups.

What do you like to make with the scapes or with rhubarb? Let me know in the comments below. And if you would like to order some scapes or rhubarb, you can email us and let me know. Looking forward to hearing from you!

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Chicks! From the Post Office?

Lots of things come from the Post Office: bills, refund checks, Amazon packages, catalogs, magazines. But did you know that we get baby chicks in the mail? That’s right!

Box chicks come in

We get day old chicks from a hatchery in Pennsylvania. They are hatched at the beginning of the week, shipped overnight or 2 day air, and we get them when they are a day or two old. We get a phone call from the Post Office that they have arrived and then we go pick them up. Here is a picture of a box with baby chicks. This box holds 100 chicks – 25 in each quarter. So yes, our baby chicks really do come from the Post Office.

About 25 chicks in 1 quarter of the box

How can the chicks survive the trip? They have each other to stay warm as they travel. As for food, my understanding is that part of the egg stays inside the chick and feeds the chick for the first week of its life. So the chick doesn’t need a lot of food and water right away, which allows hatcheries to ship birds.

Brooder – notice heat lamps above chicks

Once the chicks arrive here, we put them in a brooder in the barn. This is a protected area that keeps predators – weasels, rats, cats, hawks – out and keeps the chicks in. It also has heat lamps that the chicks can live under so they can stay warm until they have the necessary feathering to go outdoors. We dip their beaks in water so they can find the water in the future. Sometimes we also dip their beaks in the (non-gmo) feed, so that they can find that again as well. The birds will live in the brooder for 3-4 weeks depending on how they grow and feather out and depending on what the weather is like.

At 3-4 weeks we move them outdoors to a larger protected pen. They sleep in an old truck cap or in this moveable hut, eating grain, drinking water and eating grass and vegetation and insects. They are protected by fencing from our guard dog, Gaia, and she in turns protects them from other predators – weasels, rats, hawks, foxes and coyotes. We move them regularly to fresh grass.

Movable hut
Truck cap model with Gaia, the guard dog, in front

At 10-11 weeks we process them and sell them as fresh or frozen chicken. Our chickens will probably weigh between 3 and 6 lb.

So how can you get some chicken this year?

1. Join our meat CSA and get 1-2 chickens each month as part of the monthly share. Reply to this email to let us know you would like to be part of our monthly Meat CSA.
2. Pre-order chicken by putting $5.00 down on each chicken you would like. Any chickens that are pre-ordered will be $4.75 / lb. We can take the $5.00 in cash, in check or at our website by using a credit card or Paypal.
3. Purchase chicken as you want or need it for $5.50 / lb.

I hope you will purchase some chicken from us this year. Reply to this email if you have questions. And once you have done that I hope you can enjoy some fresh air and sunshine! We wish you strength and joy in your day!

One other note: Westcott Farmers Market is on Wednesdays from 2-6 p.m. If you would like regular emails about currently available items, subscribe here! See you soon!

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Can You See the Sunshine?

Have you ever seen the sunshine in the egg or in milk? We see it every spring and summer.

The animals move outdoors and start eating more grass, and their eggs and milk become more orange and yellow. You can also see it in the butter – the one on the left is from grass days and the one on the right is from hay days.

We enjoy seeing the sunshine come back into the eggs and milk.

Can you see the sunshine in the meat we sell? You will have to be the judge of that. My thinking is that if it is in the eggs and cream, it is also in the meat, whether or not I can see it.

How can you get these eggs, milk or meat with sunshine in them? You can email us and let us know what eggs or meat you would like. Eggs are $4.00 / dozen and are currently in good supply. Beef is $8 – 8.75 / lb, and chicken is $5.50 / lb. Unfortunately, we can’t sell (or give or lend) you milk as we don’t have a raw milk license.

How do you use eggs in your cooking? Are they part of a meal or part of baking? Do you store them for the off season, and if yes, how do you do that? You can reply below to let me know.

We are thankful for the sun in the egg!

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Hungarian Goulash

Here is a delicious, oven slow-cooked beef recipe. It comes from Jenny McGruther at Nourished Kitchen. She has written several books, including one by the same name – The Nourished Kitchen – available both at amazon and OCPL.

Here is her recipe with my notes:

Goulash

3 tablespoons lard, butter or oil
3 medium yellow onions, chopped fine (OR 3 cups of vegetable combination, like celery and mushrooms)
¼ cup sweet paprika
2 teaspoons whole caraway seeds
2 pounds beef chuck roast cubed (OR your choice of beef)
1 cup long-simmered beef bone broth, beef stock or water
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar (OR plain vinegar)

Heat the oven to 275 F.
Melt the lard or fat in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Cook the onion or vegetables for a short time to begin to soften. Turn heat to low and continue cooking until soft and tender.
Stir the paprika and caraway seeds into the onion or vegetables, and then stir in the cubed beef, stirring constantly to prevent the paprika from burning. Cook the beef in the onions and spices about 4 minutes, then stir in the beef bone broth and vinegar. Cover the pot and transfer it to the oven. Allow it to cook in the oven until the beef is tender, about 2½ to 3 hours.
Serve over noodles (OR some starch – rice, potatoes, bread).

Other notes: If possible, cook it on the top of the stove in the same pot as you will cook it in the oven. If not possible, you could transfer to a different dish to cook in the oven. Probably, you could also transfer it to a crockpot or slow cooker and cook it on high for 3-4 hours or on low for 5-6 hours. I haven’t tried that to see how that would work.

Enjoy!

Jenny’s original recipe