Maple Bread

Which recipe to choose this week?  We’ve made so many delicious things this past week it is hard to pick just one.  As we are still in Maple Syrup time here in Western New York I will pay tribute to our local sugar shack friends and share a bread recipe from Edible Buffalo Winter 2009 issue.  I made the loaves on Saturday and on Monday evening they were GONE…yes there are just two of us in our household.  No the chickens didn’t sneak in for any samples.  And we were only kind enough to share 1 slice with a friend who stopped by to purchase some eggs.  The loaves are a very generous size too, so we have quite the full bellies right now!  If you aren’t much of a home bread maker this one is worth the time – lots of - do this, walk away for an hour or so, do that walk away.  Fits in very nicely between cleaning and errands I found.

Ingredients

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup oatmeal (plus extra for the topping)

2.5 cups water (I used warm, it activates the yeast better)

0.5 cups maple syrup

4 teaspoons yeast, divided

4 Cups bread flour

2 large eggs (or not so large in our case, compliments of the ladies)

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

2 teaspoons kosher salt

Combine the whole wheat flour, oatmeal, water, maple syrup and 2 teaspoons of the yeast in a bowl of an upright electric mixer.  Mix briefly, then cover with plastic wrap.  Allow this to ferment for 1-2 hours.  Then add the bread flour, eggs, melted butter, salt and remaining two teaspoons of yeast.  Using a dough hook, knead the dough for about 8 minutes, then transfer it to a clean, lightly oiled bowl and loosely cover it with plastic wrap.  Allow the dough to ferment for 1 hour at room temperature, or until doubled in size.  Turn the dough out onto a work surface and divide it and shape it into two loaves.  As you shape the loaves roll it in the extra oatmeal as a garnish.  Place the bread into two lightly oiled loaf pans and loosely cover with plastic wrap (I just use a clean dish towel at this point – the stickiness is gone).  Preheat an oven to 375 degrees (I place the dough in a position to benefit from any heat release during the preheat stage to help with the rising).  Bake the bread for about 30 minutes, or until it is light brown and they sound hollow when tapped upon.  Remove the loaves from their pans and transfer to cooling racks.  Allow to cool 20 minutes before slicing.  Yields 2 loaves.

Want some butter for your bread?  The latest issue of Mother Earth News (April/May 2011) featured a Maple Butter recipe.  I haven’t made it yet, but how can you go wrong with butter and maple syrup – really?  Try it out and tell me what you think: 

1 Cup Pure Maple Syrup

¾ Cup Butter, softened

Heat syrup in a heavy pan until it foams and reaches about 240 degrees Fahrenheit, about 10 minutes.  Stir in butter and pour mixture into a mixing bowl.  Beat until it’s thick and creamy, about 10 minutes.  Pour maple butter into a glass jar and refrigerate.  Serve on …anything!

Wegmans or Harris Teeter?

Having lived in North Carolina for 13 years I became a Harris Teeter fan.  It wasn't always that way.  I preferred Hannaford when I first moved to town.  But then Food Lion bought Hannaford and closed down all the Hannaford stores.  Sorry Food Lion, but Hannaford shoppers are not going to switch to Food Lion so I was "forced" to Harris Teeter.  In the end I fell in love - I knew where everything was located, aisles made sense, half price sub specials were a favorite and cajun crab dip was a special treat.  My favorite specialty grocer from the Carolinas is Fresh Market - ohh how I miss my artichoke crab dip from Fresh Market!

Anyway, while living in the Carolinas you are surrounded by NY transplants who all tout the glorious Wegmans.  After living in NY for a year and a half I'm still working on the transition.  I've conquoered Wegmans more out of necessity than desire, similar to my conversion to Harris Teeter.  I find the layout beyond perplexing, but if I stick to just the produce and organic section I'm limited to about 1/8 of the store and I can make it.  If I don't see what I need I ask the staff, they are more than kind and have even headed to the back to get me the last bunch of organic kale from the rinse sink!  Now that is service!

However, IF what I need is outside that realm my palms start to sweat and my heart begins to beat faster.  I've come to singing Gloria Gayner "I will Survive" as I exit this small comfort zone.  I have broken down more than once in the middle of Wegmans throwing an all out temper tantrum one time because I had looked at all 3 tea locations (yes there are 3 spots to find tea bags in Wegmans) and I couldn't find the tea I bought at the store last week.  Where did they move it to now?  Or was that at the Wegmans closer to our Church where I found it?  Note:  No two Wegmans near us are set up alike.  I often give the list over to Dann if we leave my comfort zone while I head to the cheese department.  I can handle circling the cheese department a few times to find the kind I'm looking for.

So if you need a Wegmans survival guide, here it is (1) Go to the same store all the time, do not switch locations (2) Limit the type of food you buy - if you stick with produce & organic - they are RIGHT near each other and you can avoid 90% of the store. (3) Take a friend or spouse - that way you can go different directions to find where they moved the ______(fill in the blank) that you have to have for Sunday dinner.

Better yet - buy from a farmer - we get our meat from Duink's in Hamburg and early and late season tomatoes there too!  Farmers Markets are opening up soon and don't forget Lexington Coop, Farmer's and Artisans and the soon to be East Aurora Coop!

Quotes from The Dirty Life

I read a book recently - The Dirty Life by Kristin Kimball.  Sadly I missed the opportunity to hear Ms. Kimball do a reading from her book while we were at the NOFA-NY conference this year as I was still learning how to read the schedule of events and was overwhelmed with the options of things to do.  Anyway, I highly recommend the book.  For an extremely brief summary that does not do justice to the book here you go:  city girl meets farmer boy..they fall in love with each other..she falls in love with their farm.... 

Two quotes from the book really hit home to me and I wanted to share...

Quote 1:
In speaking of her then boyfriend, now husband:  "His love of food is what partially led him to farming.  The only way he'd be able to afford the quality food he craved, he said, was to become a banker or grow it himself, and he couldn't sit still long enough to be a banker."

I remember my dad saying to me once when I was younger that he couldn't see me as an account, he just couldn't picture me behind a desk all day.  Why hadn't I figured that part out long before now for myself?

Quote 2:
In speaking of her work on the farm:  "I was in love with the work, too, despite its over abundance.  The world had always seemed disturbingly chaotic to me, my choices to bewildering.  I was fundamentally happier, I found my focus on the ground.  For the first time, I could clearly see the connection between my actions and the consequences.  I knew why I was doing what I was doing and I believed in it.  I felt the gap between who I thought I was and how I behaved begin to close, growing slowly closer to authentic."

I just read this last quote over and over and am mesmerized by its honesty and reality and how much I want it to be true for myself.  I think back to my time as a volunteer at Poplar Ridge Farm (PRF).  That is where this passion I now have got it's kick start.  Thanks to Joe, JP, Kevin, Matt, Shawn and the rest of the crew at PRF I found my focus on the grown under the warm North Carolina sun.  Spending a day talking about nothing of importance (to the world I had come from), leaving educated on the mess that is the current US food system and feeling tired and fulfilled, knowing that for the first time in a long time I had actually done something that mattered.  Each week I volunteered 2 days, helping provide food to over 100 member shares for the week by cutting greens, picking blueberries, thinning carrots, weeding okra, tossing mellons, or whatever else was needed....  I did this for free.  I did this because I wanted to.  I did this because I needed to.

This last passage from the Dirty Life is my mission statement for this next phase of my life - I want to be authentic in what I do, I want to see the consequences of my actions, and I want them to be possitive for those around me.  Thank you Kristin Kimball for sharing with us!

Ponderings on Home Ownership

Real estate – is it really such a great investment?  This has been a question I’ve been pondering the last several months, perhaps because we have bought 3 different types of sump-pumps this winter after 2 separate flooding incidents in our basement, when in the end we wound up fixing the original (yes we now have 4 sump-pumps in our house – all providing different levels of support).  Or perhaps it was the fact that the property tax bill came, followed a few months later by the school tax bill that got me questioning our recent real estate “investment”.

For easy numbers (and not so personal) let’s say we bought our home for $100,000 a year ago.  Pretend we can expect a modest housing price increase of say 3% a year.  So after 1 year our home is worth $103,000.  But how much money have we “put into” our home in that same year?  Property and School taxes would most likely be around $2,500, plus all the sump pumps listed above.  In addition we painted and put in new carpet in our upstairs and built out our mudroom.  We also installed new windows.   I know – the salesperson and media want you to believe you’ll get your money back for the new windows, and we are in utility savings, but buyers expect windows – they aren’t going to pay anymore for white ones than the old wood ones.  So say we spent another $6,000 on general maintenance and improvements this first year.  So we’ve put in $8,500 between property taxes and maintenance/improvements that we can’t take with us, but wait – we earned $3,000 plus perhaps another $500 in utility savings. I still feel like I'm out $5,000 somehow.

**Note, none of the numbers presented are actual to protect the innocent.

We've been told for so long that houses are a good investment, that owning a home is part of the "American Dream".  I feel like I’ve been sold a line…again.  Now, if we had children the investment may be worth it, after all our school tax dollars would go towards their education.  We would have a place for them to grow up and have memories.  But couldn’t we do the same by renting?  Is the cost worth it?  Yes you are at the whim of a landlord if you rent, but are they really such whimsical people?  It may not make sense when raising a family or for someone that requires a great deal of stability.  But Dann called me a vagabond earlier this year, so obviously housing stability is not a requirement for me.

When I jokingly mention to others that our next place will be an apartment of some kind, they say – “Oh, you want a condo!”  no, No, NO!  Why would I want a condo – that adds on a whole other list of fees that I will not even go into right now.  I mean a rental, where when the sump pump breaks we call the land lord and he/she fixes it and Dann & I aren’t taking shifts through the night to watch in case of flooding.  We are well versed now in proper shelving heights for use in basement storage.

Let's do some math for fun, yes I'm a nerd.  What if we took that same $100,000 and invested it like Dave Ramsey recommends in a good growth stock mutual fund earning 12% (read this article to understand where the 12% comes from).  So, on 100,000 we earn 12,000 a year.  That means we could rent somewhere for around $1,000/month and “live” for free essentially, never touching the principal.  If we were frugal, which I thought I was before this all popped in to my head a few months ago, we would rent a garage apartment or some such location preferably with some land for our ladies and an area for a small garden, for far less than $1,000/month so we could cover utilities and food with the earnings as well.  Don't think this is possible?  We have friends that rent the first floor of a house in a nearby town for a good bit less than $1,000/month.  It’s a great home, great floor plan and a great location.

Am I crazy?  Why do we need things – especially such a big expensive thing like a house?  Why do we need the latest and greatest gadget?  Why do we need to keep up with the Jones?  As Jesus said in Matthew 6:21 (NIV), “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Treasures in my mind should be time spent with God and memories we build by spending time with loved ones.  Do I care what you wear, where you live or what you drive?  No.  I care about who you are and how you are.  Are Dann & I moving to an apartment, maybe not.  But it is something we will spend more time evaluating. 

Apparently I’m not alone in my thoughts, I read an article yesterday by James Altucher entitled "Why I am never going to own a home again".  It appears Mr. Altucher has felt this way for some time now.  I don’t know his back story at all, but I definitely found a common ground in what he had to say on this topic.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this topic!

Baked Oatmeal

Happy Wednesday!  The weekend is almost here!  This week's recipe is one of our favorite breakfast dishes.  It also provides a good afternoon snack.  I substituted maple syrup, in honor of the season, for the brown sugar and took the flavor up a notch.  It is perfect for a snowy morning like the one we are having here in WNY.  Hope you enjoy!

Baked Oatmeal - from Cooking Light magazine
2 Cups uncooked oatmeal
1/2 Cup packed brown sugar (or maple syrup)
1/3 Cup raisins
1 Tbsp chopped walnuts
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 Cups fat free milk
1/2 cup applesauce
2 Tbsp butter
1 egg

Preheat oven to 375.  Coat an 8x8 dish with cooking spray.
Combine first 5 ingredients in a medium bowl.  Combine milk, apple sauce, butter and egg in a separate bowl.  Add milk mixture to oat mixture and stir well.  Spread mixture into the prepared 8x8 dish and bake at 375 for 20 minutes.

This dish is good warm or cold.

A day about the Garden

Sunday was a beautiful day.  We had church in the morning where Dann & I are wrapping up teaching Dave Ramsey's Generation Change program to the middle and high school kids, followed by a fundraiser for the East Aurora Cooperative Market featuring local author and gardener extraordinaire Sally Cunningham.  Dann bought me Sally's book Great Gardening Companions for Christmas - it is a great book on how to use plant combinations to confuse unwanted insects and have a chemical free vegetable garden.  It is critical in our planting plans for this coming growing season!

After Sally's presentation we came home and let the laddies out.  I went and worked the compost some while Dann kept watch on the ladies with an eye to the sky for any unwanted guests.  Fortunately we did not notice any hawks this time out. 

The compost has a ways to go but I find it therapeutic to turn it and see the progress that is being made.  Random patches of what appear to be dirt amongst completely non-decayed patches of leaves and grass. A good turning and recovering with black plastic will hopefully help re-energize the heat and get it cooking again after the cold winter.

The ladies have been so happy as of late - enjoying many evening outings where they have assisted with turning our planting beds for us.  Stick those 12 little legs in a planting bed and they will have it degrubbed and the soil turned over in no time! 

Wimpy did go broody on us again this past week.  This is the 3rd time since January.  I feel so bad - we do not have any fertilized eggs and in all honesty are not in a position to add to our flock either, but she just wants to be a mamma.  A co-worker suggested we rename her Big Mamma, not a bad idea actually!  She looks so harried - missing some tail feathers and appearing generally unkept.

Maple Steam Facials

This has been the week of Maple Syrup for Dann and I.  On Tuesday evening we went over to our friend's house and helped collect sap and boil syrup.  I feel like we did so little when you consider all that goes in to syrup - collecting the sap and then boiling down around 40 gallons of sap to get 1 gallon of syrup, but what fun to play the little part that we did.  Hopefully next year we will be much more involved with helping them!

Our friends get maple syrup "the old timey" way we learned - over an open fire in the back yard.  Personally I think this is a relaxing way - visiting with friends around a campfire smelling sap boiling into syrup - what a sweet smell.  I kept tipping my face over the steam in an attempt to get a facial.  I do thing spas are missing out on tapping this glorious steam!  Yum.... 

On Saturday we visited several Sugar Shacks in our area to see the process in action on different scales.  The above picture is from Kirsch's Sugar Shack.  The Kirsch family farm has four generations involved and uses a much more modern process.  The photo above was capturing a look at the "sheeting" process.  When the sap begins to fall off the spoon in elongated drips - ie a sheet, it is syrup.  Below is a photo of the syrup being removed from the system. 

Some of the little known "facts" we learned on our tours (mind you I have not validated any of these facts):

• Approximately 40 gallons of yields 1 gallon of syrup
• Wyoming County NY is the 2nd largest Maple Syrup production in NY state, 2nd to Lewiston County (Adirondak area)
• Much of the syrup sold as "Vermont" maple syrup actually comes from NY
• If a producer waters down their syrup and tries to sell it as "pure" maple syrup, the home crafting producers will show up and "do mischief" to the perpetrating farm.

Our haul for the week includes a quart of syrup from our friends, maple syrup mustard from Kirsch's Sugar Shack, maple sugar from the George family - oh my the baking that will happen...., and from Fly Away Farm we bought maple sugar candy to take to our friend Kasey's 3rd birthday party.  We gave the kids the candy around 7pm  just as the cake was wearing off and before they headed home and to bed.  The parents were so pleased with us!

Maple Weekend continues today and next weekend.  If you haven't gone, please do!  These producers are so welcoming and generous with their time and knowledge during this incredibly busy time for them.

Carne Asada Taco with Avocado Pico de Gallo

It has been a crazy week, but I keep remembering back to our Saturday dinner and all the craziness becomes a blur.  Dann & I made this dish on Saturday and kept going back for more.  It was phenomenal - better than any restaurant!  Of course it will be taken up a notch when tomatoes and cilantro are home grown - not too much longer, we can see the grass again...for now....

Carne Asada Taco with Avocado Pico de Gallo (Cooking Light Magazine - November 2009)
1/4 cup fresh lime juice (about 2 medium)
1 pound skirt steak, trimmed (we got our's from Duink Farms - Buy Local!)
1 teaspoon ground cumin (we don't measure spices...)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper
cooking spray
1 cup diced seeded plum tomato (will be better when in season)
1/4 diced onion
3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon diced seeded jalapeno (from our freezer)
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 garlic clove, minced
3/4 cup diced avocado
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
8 tortillas
Lime wedges (optional)

Steak -
"sprinkle" cumin, salt and red pepper over both sides of the skirt steak - this is the part I think we did right - I held the skirt steak out (it was about 30 inches in length) and Dann just did dashes of seasoning all down one side and I flipped the steak over and he repeated the dashes.  No measuring, WAY more than the recommended amounts - but oh, the flavor!
Place seasoned steak in 1/4 cup lime juice - marinate for 3 - 8 hours
Heat Grill Pan over high heat, coat with cooking spray.  Add steak - cook for 3 minutes per side depending on thickness - you want the meat medium rare.  Let the meat stand, covered, for 10 minutes.

Pico -
Combine tomato and next 5 ingredients through garlic in a bowl.  Gently add avocado and salt.  We recommend making extra of this - it is SO good.

Taco
Heat tortillas over gas flame, add steak, pico - I don't do anything without cheese so of course we included cheese in with our tacos.

This recipe made about 9 small tacos.  You may want to double, triple, quadruple the recipe...YUM!  and I do not recommend measuring spices unless you are baking, even then you can never have too much cinnamon

Three Cheers for Sedgwick, Maine!

This post comes thanks to my brother Darin (check out Darin's thoughts at Reboot Congress) .  Darin forwarded me an article of a recent law passed by the citizens of Sedgwick Maine - Sedgwick has become the first town to pass a food sovereignty law.

Here are a few snip-it's from author Ethan A. Huff's article summarizing the new law:
"Local residents recently voted unanimously at a town hall meeting to pass an ordinance that reinforces its citizens' God-given rights to "produce, process, sell, purchase, and consume local foods of their choosing," which includes even state- and federally-restricted foods like raw milk." 

The article also highlights the town's stance towards the opinions of state and federal authorities that disagree..."In addition to simply declaring food sovereignty, the ordinance also declares it a crime for state and federal authorities to violate ordinance provisions in any way. The law specifically states that "[i]t shall be unlawful for any law or regulation adopted by the state or federal government to interfere with the rights recognized by this Ordinance." This includes, of course, any attempt to enforce the unconstitutional provisions of the S 510 the HR 2751 food tyranny bills that were recently passed (http://www.naturalnews.com/030789_Food_Safety_small_farmers.html)."

Check out the full article at:  Sedgwick, Maine

Hmm...think I just found another stop on my dream farm tour of Maine - first a visit with Barbara Damrosch and  Eliot Coleman at Four Seasons Farm to learn more about season extension and now Sedgwick to eat food the way God intended, our great grandparents feasted and our bodies could embrace.

Check out this Six Pack

You don't have to hold Plank Position for 10 minutes or do 100 sit-ups a day to get this perfect six pack.  All you need are 6 lovely ladies like we have.  Each egg is as unique as their individual personalities - yes they all have personalities.  Over the course of this blog you will get to know the ladies better, but below is a brief introduction to them.

Punk, Mrs. Patch and Uno are from our first hatch, the same hatch as Patches (the namesake for this blog).  Sweet Tweet, Wimpy and Cinderella are from our second hatch.


Punkster (aka Punk) was the very first chick we named.  She looked like such a rooster at birth we knew she had to be a hen.  She is Queen of the ladies.  We also believe Punk is French and refer to her as our Franch Chickan as her crown has a little flop in it like a beret.

Mrs. Patch is next in line in the pecking order.  We had to name a hen after Patches as we knew Patches wouldn't be able to stay with us.  I figured I could divert my sadness of Patches' departure by having a namesake hanging around.  He is never far from our memory with Mrs. Patch by our side.  We are pretty certain Mrs. Patch was the first to lay an egg as she was proudly stalking the nesting box where the first egg was discovered.

Uno (aka Unz) is next in line.  Yes it should be Una as she is in every way a lady, but you can't change a name after it's been given we've learned, I tried and it just wouldn't take.  Uno loves Dann and the feeling is mutual.  She is our only pure bred bird - Mottled Java, sporting a beautiful black and white coat.  Uno and Mrs Patch can usually be found side by side.

Sweet Tweet, her name says it all, she is sweet and she tweets...A LOT.  She is the talker of the bunch, always having something to say.  She uses way more than the average 10,000 words a day that women supposedly use.  She was the runt of our second hatch and as such got tons of special treatment from me as I kept an eye out to make sure she was getting enough to eat and drink and not being picked on too much by the others.  Ever since she was little she enjoys having her back petted and perches on my arm for walks here and there.  She also has been known to fly on top of my head to avoid the snowy ground.  Fortunately I have had a hat on each time she's done this - you would think I would have learned the first time.

Wimpy is next in line and really needs a better name.  Wimpy was our first hen to go broody.  Having no rooster to fertilize the eggs, having mean caretakers that stole the eggs she was nesting on, and being so young (under 6 months old) we were very shocked by it all.  Not only did she go broody once now, but twice.  While we would love to have more chickens and could easily get fertilized eggs for her from friends we just aren't sure yet if we want more chickens at this time. The name came because she cowers from the others and from Dann and I.

Cinderella (aka Cindy).  Last in the pecking order and last to be named.  Sadly her name was "no name" for a long time and finally given the way her siblings treat her we determined she should be named Cinderella.  We think Cindy looks the most like a hen of all of our ladies, she just has a beautiful presence about her.

And now you have been introduced to our six pack.  They keep us busy and we couldn't imagine life without them.  I hope you enjoy hearing tales of them in the posts to come.

Spicy Tuna Melts

Tonight was a crazy night and I don't mean because I feel like Dorthy at the start of the Wizard of Oz with all the wind and rain going on around me - gusts up to 50 mph.  Dann and I teach Financial Peace University (Dave Ramsey) class on Wednesday nights at a local church so getting home from work and eating is usually a chore enough itself.  Tonight we had the added pleasure of Dann fixing the sump pump because of the crazy melt going on. Trying to get a healthy dinner prepared was a slightly distracted process.  In the end though we had a delicious dinner and we have a fixed sump pump, though I may still run down to check every now and then out of habit.

So to the point of this entry - the recipe of the week.  We started something new this year - we go through magazines and pull out pages and pages of recipes and then once a week we look through to see what we might be in the mood to make the coming week.  I focus on healthy, common ingredients (to spread our $$ further)  and prep times, Dann's focus is usually on the picture.  Tonight I made Spicy Tuna Melts from the March 2011 issue of Clean Eating Magazine (my favorite magazine...).  It was a big hit, though short on the spicy side for our tastes - next time I'll kick up the spice quantities more and maybe even add a jalapeno (we still have some frozen from our summer harvest!)

Ingredients:
8oz tuna, drained (pouch or can - low sodium)
1/3 cup nonfat plain Greek-style yogurt
1 rib celery, diced
2 green onions, thinly sliced
1 tbsp fresh lime juice
1/2 tsp each chili powder and ground cumin
pinch cayenne pepper
sea salt and ground black pepper to taste
4 slices whole grain bread, lightly toasted
1 cup shredded low fat mozzarella-cheddar cheese blend

Preheat oven to 400F
In a medium bowl combine tuna through black pepper
Place toast on a lined baking sheet and spread the tuna salad evenly
Top with 1/4 cup cheese.
Bake until cheese is melted and bubbling and tuna is warm.

and last, but not least...Dann's favorite line...Serve IMMEDIATELY!

A note on the Clean Eating Magazine website - It's changed recently and I haven't played around with it much yet, but it looks like they have added a lot of new content and I can't wait to dive in!

Under the Lights

Last weekend (February 27, 2011) I started several trays of seeds.  Dann had installed adjustable lighting for me in our basement and I used old egg cartons, filling them with an organic seedling compound.  I also bought a heat mat to help warm the soil as we do live in Western New York and basements tend to be cold this time of year. 

The whole process started because I wanted to try growing celery from seed and my celery seed research indicated that celery seed needs to be started 10-12 weeks before being transplanted outside.  Well, if I'm going to have celery under lights I might as well add a few other items - various greens, herbs and flowers were started as well.

Yesterday morning Dann & I were sitting eating breakfast and we heard a crash sound in our basement.  I turned to Dann and said "The seeds must be breaking through the top soil!"  and we ran down the stairs for different reasons - Dann to check the sump pump, me to check my seeds.  The sump pump was fine, but little green orbs were showing through the soil.  6 days after planting we finally spied the first seedlings showing through.  By day 7 (today) it is amazing all the little green and burgundy sprouts penetrating the soil.

Welcome to Patches' Acre

Friends and family have encouraged me to write more about what Dann & I are doing.  So here we go.  Welcome to Patches' Acre - our little acre in the world, named for our rooster Patches who is now living out his days on a nearby farm with some lady friends.  We are unable to keep a rooster at our place, but are proud owners of 6 hens, known fondly as "The Ladies".

This blog will allow you to keep up with some of what we are doing, following us on a journey of growing our own vegetables, herbs and eggs with a little fruit mixed in.  Hope you enjoy.

We welcome any and all advice from those who have gone before us on this journey....