Afraid to eat?

When you hear about food recalls, remember us...

...We're producing foods you're not afraid to eat! :)

Foods that are not genetically modified, not sprayed with chemicals, and foods that are organically grown!  We care about the foods our family eats, therefore when you buy our foods, you can be assured that we are doing everything possible to give our family and your family the highest quality foods available. 

If our children get sick, we treat them naturally without drugs that could harm their bodies.  In the same way, if an animal gets sick, we don't give them chemicals or drugs because we don't want to eat food full of that stuff! 
Even our baked goods are made is made out of the best ingredients.  A lot of times I think people buy our foods because they taste good (unprocessed foods always taste better).  They don't realize, with my bread for example, that it's made with freshly ground organic wheat berries.  And maybe they don't realize that I use the best organic extra virgin olive oil, raw honey, and natural salt.  When I make my Orange Cinnamon Raisin bread, I use ground orange peel from the peels of organic oranges that I bought last winter, dried in front of the fireplace, and ground into powder. 
It's OK if people buy our products just because they taste good. :)  At least I can sell my products with a clear conscience, knowing that they are the BEST!  But it is for those of you who are looking for products like ours that I write this post! :)

Farmwife's Journal - August 10th

As usual it has been busy around the farm.  We have been picking cucumbers and making pickles about every other day.  Today we canned some dill relish, a family favorite.

We picked garlic about two weeks ago.  That will now be available at our Farmer's Market.  I have also been making some garlic braids to sell.


garlic drying

 

garlic braid




some garlic drying in the market building

 The guys have been remodeling the barn.  They made the main pen bigger and put a loft above all the animal stalls for more hay storage.  It feels much more roomy in there and looks neater too.  I am sure the animals are happier. ;)



workin' away




handsome and handy just like his daddy! :)

 Once the guys got the loft done, they spent a couple days getting loads of hay and stacking them in the barn.



almost finished

 We picked our first tomatoes yesterday...cherry tomatoes.  They lasted about 2 minuets.  We lost half of our larger variety of tomatoes to drowning and the rest are not looking so hot either.  It's been too soggy and the leaves are getting spotty. :(  It has been a tough year for gardening...lots of storms with strong winds and tons of rain, plus a spell of extremely hot weather.  But has finally cooled off a bit.  We even enjoyed a campfire last night.


coffee and cookies by the campfire



Internet again!

It's Friday night, I am tired from a long hot day outside serving customers and doing tours, but we have INTERNET, so I had to do a quick post!  Last Monday morning we had a bad storm go through and we lost our internet service for the week!  We have all been going through withdrawl! :(   It's kinda sad how much we depend on it.  But the farm keeps up plenty busy, so I tried to enjoy the break from it and resisted the temptation to go to the coffee shop and write a post. :)

More tomorrow......

Farmwife's Journal - July 25th

Today we did a lot of picking...cucumbers, carrots, beets, broccoli, raspberries, and blueberries.  By the time we were done it was pretty hot out, so we decided to go for a four wheeler ride to cool off. 

It's funny, when Em and I go for a ride, we just cruise along enjoying the countryside and the breeze.  Not so with boys!  They have to do fishtails, create dust, ride in the ditch, stop to look at things, put their four wheeler in neutral and try running along side of it while going down hill, and anything else out of the ordinary! What should have been a peaceful drive felt like chaos!

As we were driving back home, I was thinking about telling them that next time I am going to leave them home and go alone with Emily.  I figured that would motivate them to just drive along nicely, like us girls.  But as I continued to mull this over in my mind, a smile came to my face.  "They are boys, Mindy!", I said to myself.  How could I squish their "boyness"?  I would be disgusted if they acted like girls, so shouldn't I celebrate the fact that they are acting like boys? :)  They weren't being naughty...just being boys! :)

I love boys!  Yes, they are peculiar creatures, but they are so much fun, and not at all boring! :)  So when we got home, I said nothing.  Just went on with life as usual. :)  Boys will be boys! :)

We had an awesome lunch today....even my kids thought so!  A fresh garden salad, carrot sticks (picked fresh), farm fresh hard boiled eggs, sliced cucumbers, and homemade strawberry ice cream for dessert! :)  There is nothing better than eating the food you grow! :)

Friday on the Farm - July 22

 We hit the ground running on Friday morning!!:) 

Mike woke everyone up at 5:30am, with the exception of Jonny.  He set his alarm and got up on his own! :) 



Ben having breakfast



Everyone quickly grabbed breakfast and gulped down some coffee as the sun was rising over the garden. 

By 6:00am, Mike and the boys were getting the chickens crated up, and we were ready to butcher by 6:30am when my sister arrived. We had 100 chickens to butcher!



Nadine considering gutting




Still thinking about it? :)



The inspectors :)



Jonny holding the runt



Nadine's last butchering day at Housman Farms :(





the butchering area



Everyone worked hard!  We were done butchering by 10:30, but the day was just beginning!  We had to quickly change out of our soggy, smelly butchering clothes, get cleaned up, and start setting up for our Farmer's Market which opened at noon.  And it was very hot and humid!!

Mike and the boys cleaned up all the butchering equipment while us girls started picking produce and getting all the food ready. 



Mike power washing the equipment



Emily packing up her raspberry lemon tarts ;) YUM!!



We were barely ready by noon.  As the customers came, we bagged up chickens, gave tours, picked more produce, and spent the afternoon talking with people (which is the best part).  :)



tours



Our last customer was gone by 5pm, and we were cleaned up by 5:30pm.  WOW!  What a day!  We were all exhausted, but it was a good day!  :)

Flooding

We never imagined when we planted our garden this year that we would have to be concerned about the garden flooding.  In the spring, yes, it can flood, but in the nine years that we have lived here we have never had flooding in the summer!

In the picture above, you can see the corner of the garden is flooded.  We lost about 6 tomato plants, bean plants, and some corn.  The cucumbers seem to be enjoying the soggy soil.  Our raspberry plants, on the other side of our property, have just about quit producing.  We were puzzled at first because they looked so beautiful a couple weeks ago and we were expecting tons of fruit, but we just realized that they too are drowning in soggy soil. :(

Here you can see all our squash and zucchini under water.

The flooded area beyond the vines is our soccer field.  Soccer is one of our favorite summer activities.  We usually play Mike and me against the kids, and any time we have company we love to play against other families.  But this year the soccer field has been flooded since the snow melted!  Guess we will have to take up water polo or something. :)

Bunnies For Sale!

Hi Everyone, Emily here!  :)  Just wanted to let you all know that I have three adorrrrrrable little dwarf bunnies for sale!  Visit my blog here and email me if you are interested!  Thanks!