Phlog?

This week's post is a photo blog.... Or phlog?

Signs of spring

My mom recently asked me to be on the lookout for signs of spring to share with my nephew. Here are a few that Neal and I have seen. What have you noticed in your area besides April showers, showers, showers?

April 5: orange yolk now that the chickens are back to foraging
April 6: sap basically done flowing. Mullein growing
April 7:mullein rosettes
April 8: first dandelion leaves and yarrow fronds. Spring peepers or chorus frogs heard for the first time.
April 12: grass is green in some spots again instead of just yellow and brown
April 16: chickweed growing... Yum!
April 19: two pheasants next to the lodge... See below for a picture

We are just finishing up the last of our maple syruping project. We expect a total of around 58 cups or about 3.5 gallons of syrup. It helped us that when the sap froze, we were able to throw out the ice that was mostly water. We kept the unfrozen sap that was left with an even higher sugar content. Let us know if you want to do breakfast with sourdough pancakes and homemade syrup.

We finally got around to cleaning out the chicken coop bedding... Back breaking work that I'm hoping will help us both build up our muscles... Who needs a gym membership when you have work like this? It did motivate us to start planning out a portable chicken coop that will get the hens out to different parts of the property so we have less bedding to scoop out. We are looking into getting 8 more hens for the flock now that the birds are foraging again. Our hope is to cut back on feed once we know they have a nice diet of greens, bugs, food scraps, etc.

Below are a few pictures from dinner tonight: grass fed beef, sweet potatoes, carrots, and greens on homemade corn tortillas... Thanks to Neal for making and for using the tortilla maker I got in Costa Rica. This meal is on our list of favorites now along with shepherd's pie.

The happiest sugaring mistake

Well who would have thought that we would get tired of making maple syrup? On Sunday we were close to finishing up a batch of then gallons of sap, and we decided pack for the return trip to Milwaukee while it finished boiling down. We forgot about the project for a half hour and found the maple boiling over the pot and waaaaaay past the thickness we needed of maple syrup. What we found was a delicious Carmel/ molasses/ candy like substance. I geeked out and overdosed on the sugar. Here are some pictures of our fun times.

April farm recaps and goals

Hello all! I thought I would take some time to recap some of our farm adventures since November and fill you in on some of our goals for the spring. A few people have expressed interest in helping at the farm occasionally. Contact me with info on what specifically you would like to tackle and we will pick a time together.

So far:
Added polyurethane to the lodge floor
Jacked up the lodge floor
Created an automated chicken feeder.
Harvested over 100 gallons of sap and made over a gallon of syrup
Attended the Midwest Catholic Worker Farm Gathering
Redid the plastic on the potting shed
Started seeds, including leeks, onions, kale, cabbage, Chinese cabbage, and collards
Harvested 11 chickens then 13 more later in the winter


Later this spring:
Buy some young chickens
Develop a system for pastured chicken foraging
Get bees
Boil down more of the sap into syrup
Attend the Sustain Jefferson gardening workshops
Make some no-till annual garden beds
Plan and continue planting the perennial food forest
Harvest and preserve spring herbals such as violets, dandelions, and cedar.

After our semi-hibernation this winter we are excited to get back into the growing season.

Evaporators and Apprenticeships

For this year's maple sugaring, we have mostly been using a propane cook stove. Neal made a small "rocket stove" like fire with bricks surrounding the area to trap the heat. It worked better than our evaporator up north for sure. This year Neal and a neighbor will work on building a real maple syrup evaporator rocket stove. The idea is that rocket stoves are designed to be ultra efficient and use a tiny amount of fuel. Woo hoo!

~One example of a maple syrup evaporator: http://www.threestonefarm.com/2012/02/rocket-stove-evaporator-2-0/

Yesterday I collected ten gallons of maple sap at the farm. Today is nice and sunny so I think it will be another good day once the temperature gets above freezing. I'm guessing we have 36 gallons of sap in the 55 gallon drum so we are just thrilled.

I can't remember if I have mentioned this on the blog yet (and am too lazy to double check right now), but I am participating in an herbal apprenticeship with Linda Conroy of Moonwise Herbs. So far I'm loving learning about the plants as the seasons change. I'm reading "full moon feast" by Jessica Prentice and am loving the ties she makes to the lunar cycles. We are currently in what is considered the sap moon in this region.... How fun to have our yearly maple project tied to the lunar cycle. Last months as considered the Hunger Moon in many cultures because its the last moon before signs of spring (and fresh food) return. We will be discussing some of ideas from the Hunger Moon chapter with the folks from Casa Maria in a couple weeks.

~Moonwise herbs link: http://www.moonwiseherbs.com/
~Full moon feast: http://www.amazon.com/Full-Moon-Feast-Hunger-Connection/dp/1933392002

I apologize for fewer pics and no captions this week. I can't figure out how to deal with them on the blogger iPad app. If anyone knows the work around... Let me know. Oh also can't figure out how to do nice clean links here with the app so we are back to having the whole clunky address visible.

Tapping 2013

We put in 15 taps at Catherine's farm this year. The sap was flowing so well one weekend that we had to check on a couple of trees multiple times each day. That's about how many taps we have up north at the Styka cabin every year, but we are hoping for a larger yield here at the farm. We figure that being able to check on the trees more often and rearrange them as needed will help us out.

I hope you can tell in the pictures how foggy it was here. Everything is thawing out and the pond is the fullest Neal and I have ever seen it. The chickens are still little babies about going out in the yard because of the snow. I'm hoping once it is all melted they will go search for worms and such again. We may get some younger chickens this summer when they can forage for a greater percentage of their own food. We want to snag some chickens on free cycle or Craigslist from the type of folks that are moving, decide they don't want chickens anymore, etc. hehe.

Black Walnuts

Black Walnut Sap

Collected in milk jugs that our friends at Casa saved for us

The brew kettle gets a new use in storing sap

This sweet find allowed us to store about 30 gallons of maple sap

Neal worked heroically through the weekend of rain and fog to fix the potting shed.
Joanie and Kevin were nice enough to help with the finishing touches.

Huge maple tree by the chicken yard in the fog

Same tree, different view

You can barely see the trees through the fog... so cool!

Spring projects

Things are speeding up at the farm these days. The restful days of winter are over as we get things ready for the 2013 growing season.

Neal is working on an automated chicken feeder. He is getting closer to a functioning machine, but there are still a few kinks (like it won't work when you put a full days worth of feed in it). If you have ideas on chicken feeders, let us know. Neal has been crowd-sourcing suggestions from his family, but we would always take more ideas.

We just got some clear plastic in the mail that we can use to cover Catherine's potting shed. Neal already started onions and leeks in the shed, but we need warmer temperatures in there to start things in the nightshade family like tomatoes and peppers.

We are crossing our fingers for good weather for making maple syrup (below freezing at night and 40's-50's during the day). It looks like we might be in luck this weekend at the farm. Neal has tapped a couple maple trees already and based on a suggestion from Ellen from  Sustain Jefferson, we may try black walnut syrup as well this year. Neal's dad will help us out this week by collecting sap at the cabin up north and we will go up there to boil it down in a couple weeks.

More pictures of our projects to come with next week's post.