The Housman Farm Team Finishes Out the Season

It was a glorious moment when the last turkey was thrown into the cooling tank! "We're done!" "We did it!" It was time for cheers and "high-fives"!

When I woke up Saturday morning (the day after our last market) to a snowstorm I said, "Thank God we're done! We finished just in time!" :)

"Thank you" to all our wonderful customers! We appreciate you all so much and enjoyed seeing you at our markets. We look forward to serving you again in the spring, Lord willing. :)

Enjoy those turkeys.....we will be thinking of you on Thanksgiving Day! :)

Happy Birthday Ben!!!

Ben turned 11 at the end of October! We spent an entire Saturday celebrating his birthday. The highlights were breakfast in bed, (He wanted corn flakes of all things! :) Of course I found some that were Non-GMO and organic.), shopping at the flea market, going to a go-cart track, having lunch at an apple orchard followed by a wagon ride, playing tag at a park, shopping at Runnings with gift cards, and watching a movie while enjoying pizza, root beer, and cake. :)

Happy Birthday, Ben!

Poor Tent!

Last spring we set up a tent that we had bought for hay storage back before we built our barn. We used it all summer for our Farmer's Market. For the most part it worked great. It was a little loud on windy days, but at least it kept most of the wind out. Fortunately it survived all the storms that passed through this summer. Many times we thought the high winds would destroy it, but it held steady.

Unfortunately is was not strong enough to withstand our last storm. With sustained winds of 30-40 miles per hour for TWO DAYS, our poor tent lost the battle. :( It is pretty much unrepairable. Thankfully the season is almost over. We held our market last Friday in our garage.

So when you come for turkey pick up and wonder where we went, just come to the garage. Looking forward to seeing and serving you for two more weeks! :)

Thanksgivin' Turkeys! by Emily

The turkeys are sure growing big and fat for your thanksgiving dinner! All summer they have been eating lots of lush grass and bugs.... one customer told his wife as they drove past the turkey pasture "now THAT'S the way turkeys should be raised!" :)

Mindy writes:

We butchered our first group of turkeys last Friday. It sure was cold out, but we managed just fine. We did have some trouble with our equipment due to the cold, and the process took longer than we would have liked, but all's well that ends well!

Free Time

In my free time (yes, I do have some :) ) one of the things I enjoy doing is quilting. I have never really learned to quilt properly. Some day I would like to take a class. Many years ago, when Brandon was just a little tike, I made him a quilt for his bed. I just kind of guessed at how to do it and it turned out OK. Since then I have made many quilts, mostly small table runners or wall hangings. I like to experiment and be creative.

Here is a picture of a quilt I recently made as a birthday gift for a good friend. I cut the felted wool leaves and acorns in the center out and sewed them on by hand. I had so much fun making it......but probably more fun giving it to her! :)

Kale

This time of year my kale is growing beautifully in the garden. We planted Red Russian Kale this year, actually we've been planting and replanting it all summer. Greens are something we always try to have on hand for our customers, so it seems as though we plant them all summer long. :)

Kale is very rich in antioxidants, which are, as I tell my children, the good guys that fight all the bad guys in our body. Kale also has more beta-carotene than any other vegetable. Not only does it help regulate estrogen levels in the body, but it also fights colon cancer! Another one of God's perfect (and natural) remedies for our bodies. :)

The Red Russian Kale that we planted grows well in the summer months, but it can also tolerate extreme cold, which makes it a great choice for a cold frame. And that is exactly where we have our kale growing now. Last year we picked our last garden salad from our cold frame in the first week of December. I am hoping to beat that date this year! :)

(This is our cold frame made from glass patio doors. The greens that look like oak leaves are kale.)


There are many ways to eat kale. You can simply add it to a salad, which we have done, or you can dry it and then add it to everything. I dry my kale in a dehydrator at 125 degrees. It only takes my dehydrator a few hour to dry the kale. Once it is dry I just crush it an put it in a glass jar. Kale is wonderful in soups or hot dishes. I even added it to the egg bake I made for breakfast this morning, which everyone loved.

(Dried Kale. This picture is not very good...the kale is much greener than it looks here.)


If you attended either one of my herb classes, you have the recipe for "Herb Chips", this would be another great way to eat kale. For those that didn't/couldn't attend, the recipe is simple:

Coat the kale leaves with coconut oil, sprinkle them with garlic salt, and bake for 10 min. in a 350 degree oven. They are soooo good! In the class we used parsley and basil leaves, and they are almost as good as potato chips, in my opinion......well, not Emily's homemade potato chips! :)

If you are interested in ordering some kale for your garden next year, we got ours from Seeds Of Change. The kale actually comes in a mixed greens pack called Mesclun Salad Mix.

http://http//www.seedsofchange.com/garden_center/product_details.aspx?item_no=S11117

Go Greens! :)

Happy Birthday, Jonny!

On Saturday we celebrated Jonny's birthday. Birthdays in our house always start out with breakfast in bed, with the recipients choice of food. When breakfast was over we went to the flea market, a fun place for boys! Jonny found a toy gun that shoots plastic BBs and a holster that he liked, so that was his gift from Dad. After the flea market we all went to a coffee shop and had a treat. Then we headed home to make a picnic lunch and go on a hike. The place we hiked was gorgeous! We ate our lunch on a high hill overlooking the countryside that was blazing with color. Then we hiked the trails, which looked like paths of gold. Jonny had fun shooting his gun at everything. :) After hiking we headed to the bowling alley, which provided lots of fun and laughter. We finished off the evening with a campfire. Roasted hot dogs, chips, root beer, and cake were Jonny's choices for dinner. Yum!! It was a great day celebrating our youngest son's birthday.