Sugar Creek Farm

Remedy

2010-02-04T21:21:00.003-06:00

tub toys

Winter is beginning to wear on me. Still, I'm not ready for the busyness of spring & summer yet.

I'm thinking maybe the remedy is a new craft project?

1 year ago:

Music to my ears

Iowa Food Coop, February

2010-02-02T22:36:00.002-06:00

Snowy lane

The shopping cart is open at the Iowa Food Coop for February! It will be open until February 13, with delivery on Thursday, February 18.

This thing just keeps growing, and we're so excited to be a part of it!

Getting promoted

2010-02-01T20:47:00.003-06:00

Rafe turns 8 next month, and in anticipation has entered into negotiations for a raise in his allowance. After explaining that a raise would have to be precipitated by a corresponding raise in responsibilities, he hand-washed the dishes, pots & pans that wouldn't fit in the dishwasher after supper. Prior to this his duties have included loading & unloading the dishwasher, so I guess this is a promotion of sorts. His sisters are certainly glad to see him moving up the ranks.

This was the scene when I came in the kitchen later.

I guess it's good that he's also learning to make work fun.

And to his future wife...you're welcome! A husband that does the dishes is a good catch indeed :)

Win some, lose some

2010-01-31T22:19:00.002-06:00

I made a discovery the past couple of weeks. Forget fall cleaning, or spring cleaning (which I always forget anyway in lieu of gardening.) Winter cleaning is where it's at! I now declare January the annual Deep Clean as a Family Month. All 5 of us have been scrubbing from ceiling to floor and everything in between, and with minimal grumbling even.

Something about a squeaky clean kitchen makes me want to cook up a storm, which is what I did this weekend. Some things were a whopping success, others (unfortunately) were epic fails. Here's the rundown.

Friday night was my standby pizza. I browned up some "little sizzlers" pork sausage (a new product we'll have for sale in the spring!) for one pizza topping. A success, but that's a recipe I can do in my sleep so it doesn't really count as a whopping success.

On to Saturday. First I baked up the rye bread I'd started the night before.

Whopping success #1! It was really good with some mayo & turkey. It was really good with some provolone cheese. It was really good with butter & sprinkled with some kosher salt.

Can you tell I ate a lot of rye bread Saturday?

Next up was Pioneer Woman's Baked Beans. I've had some beans from our garden sitting in the freezer, so they went on the Cooking from the Deep list.

Unfortunately they became epic fail #1. Not sure what went wrong. I baked and baked and baked them - 8 hours on Saturday in a 250 degree oven, and maybe 6 more hours in the crockpot on Sunday. They ended up sort of cooked, but still slightly crunchy. Fortunately Matt likes them well enough & says he'll eat them for lunch this week.

Next up was movie night on Saturday night, so I made hot chocolate and Orangette's Caramel Corn.

I made mine with cashews instead of peanuts. Matt declared it a new Saturday night tradition. It really was that amazing. Whopping success #2!

Today my family came over to celebrate January & February birthdays. I made Aunt Sandy's Oven Crispy Chicken. It was crispy all right, and dry. Not at all the way it had turned out the first time. Again, not sure what happened this time around. Epic fail #2.

For the birthday cake I made Pioneer Woman's Tres Leches Cake. Matt had requested a not-chocolate cake with not-chocolate frosting. This seemed like it would fit the bill, and I loved it! Matt loved it, too. So whopping success #3! (Even though my mother liked the Ice Cream Pie with Caramel Sauce I made for Bunco earlier in the week better.)

So all-in-all, not bad for the weekend overall. I always tell my kids that that's the way you learn. Just give it your best shot. You'll win some, and you'll lose some.

1 year ago:

Attend the INCA conference!

Hankering

2010-01-29T19:13:00.004-06:00

I've got me a hankering to make bread. It's been a while since I've done anything other than my simple go-to French bread. I've got some rye dough proofing in the refrigerator, and plans to put together a rye sourdough starter yet tonight. (Can you tell I found 2 bags of rye flour in the deep dark recesses of my freezer?) Stay tuned...

1 year ago:

Sporadic

Jan 22

2010-01-24T20:18:00.003-06:00

Rafe's first win...

It was one of those times when third place feels just like first.

1 year ago:

There's nothing like hoarfrost

Bringing hay home

2010-01-21T20:10:00.003-06:00

I mentioned that last weekend I helped Matt get some hay home that he'd purchased.

First he had me pull the empty rack to the bales while he drove his tractor out there. Pulling an empty rack is not really a big deal. The only part that made me nervous was that I had to pull it through the middle of town. I was watching my mirrors closely so I didn't swipe any parked cars!

Matt pumping up the tires for me

I waited in the truck while he loaded up the rack with bales, then I slid over to the passenger seat and let him pull the loaded rack home. I didn't want to have all the fun myself...

Jan 20

2010-01-20T20:17:00.003-06:00

Lately all I want to do is hibernate.

Girls gone wild...the porcine edition

2010-01-19T18:23:00.002-06:00

This is what happens when you forget to chain a gate. And when I say "you", I mean "Matt". Because I think we all know I wasn't the one out there doing the pig chores.

So we sent the nearest hired hand out to take care of it. But Ollie-the-boar doesn't look very intimidated by Ollie-the-girl.

(And believe me, I'm going to hear it for calling her Ollie. Only Tim A. is allowed to call her Ollie.)

Sow 3 comes over to see what Ollie & Ollie are up to.

She doesn't look very intimdated, either.

This might be the pig version of flipping her the bird.

At this point I had to leave to pick up daughter #1. But despite how these pictures make it look, Olivia actually had all 3 sows back in the pen by the time Matt finished filling the water softener with salt and came out to help. I was quite impressed!

1 year ago:

How to Cook : Ham & Cabbage Soup

Cooking from the deep

2010-01-18T22:46:00.002-06:00

Cooking from the deep dark recesses of my cupboards, that is. Every so often I go through my cupboards & freezers and make a list (you know I love my lists!) of the mishmash of foods languishing there. Then I try to figure out things to make with them.

These are one of the items on that list:

These are Korean glass noodles. We brought 2 packages of these back from Texas with us when we were there for Christmas last year. Last year! Good thing they're shelf stable. My sister-in-law made these really yummy wontons with them, and I had every intention of doing the same when we got home.

You can see how that worked out.

So I turned to my favorite recipe finder...Google. And it came up with a recipe from the Steamy Kitchen website for something called Jap Chae.

I have no idea how to pronounce that.

These noodles are also called starch noodles because they're made from sweet potato starch. So they're great if you're looking for gluten free ingredients! They're called glass noodles because once you cook them they look like this:

Just bring a pot of water to a boil, then add the noodles and boil for 5 minutes. (This was a 12-oz. package.) Drain, rinse with cold water, and drain again. Get out your scissors and cut the noodles into pieces 6 to 8 inches long. I assigned this job to Madeline, and she reports that it's quite fun! Then toss with 1-1/2 tsp. sesame oil (the noodles, not the daughter) and set them aside.

You'll need the following veggies prepped before you begin stir frying:

3 carrots, peeled & cut into matchsticks
1 cup thin sliced yellow onion
5 green onions trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 package shiitake mushrooms, chopped (I think this was a 5 or 6 oz. package
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2# - 3/4# spinach, washed and drained

Also mix together 1 T. sugar and 3 T. soy sauce.

Heat 1-1/2 T. cooking oil in a wok. Add carrots and yellow onion, and fry 1 minute.

Add the green onions, mushrooms and garlic and fry 30 seconds.

Add spinach and fry until spinach is cooked down.

Add noodles and fry 3 to 4 minutes or until heated through, incorporating veggies throughout noodles. A large fork works well for this. Finally add 1-1/2 t. sesame oil and 1-1/2 T. sesame seeds and toss through.

They aren't the kind of thing I'd usually make for a weeknight dinner because of the prep time, but I had bought the shiitake mushrooms for this and didn't want them to go bad before I got it made.

The verdict? Everyone but the youngest, pickiest eater loved them! I also made Pioneer Woman's steak bites and they paired up fabulously!

I promise to use the other bag of noodles before 2011.

Reminder

2010-01-15T22:01:00.002-06:00

Today we attended a Niman Ranch producers meeting...

Today I pulled a hay wagon for Matt from our farm to a field where we've purchased some round bales...

Today I took pictures of our feeder pigs (the most wonderful feeder pigs we've had for a while, but more on that later)...

Today I read a really nice comment from a blog reader (and there was another one here the other day in case you missed it)...

Today I was reminded that I really do love farming.

It's been awhile.

1 year ago:

Same story, different day

Therapy

Gifts

2010-01-13T20:51:00.003-06:00

Sale barn disclaimer

There are gifts in change... the opportunity to re-imagine the possibilities, to create a new vision for the future, to engage your creativity... to hope.

1 year ago:

Heart

2010-01-12T23:28:00.002-06:00

Pickup trucks & trailers line up at the salebarn to unload cattle for the next day's sale.

1 year ago:

Olive bread

Downsized

2010-01-11T20:56:00.002-06:00

We loaded up 2 fat cattle that hadn't sold, and 2 of our bred mama cows and took them to the sale barn tonight.

"Downsizing", "rightsizing", "reengineering"...call it what you will. It's just hard to let go.

1 year ago:

Glare

Jan 10

2010-01-10T22:15:00.003-06:00

Pigs in snow

Church, nursing home, shopping with the girls. Why do I let myself stay up and watch a scary movie right before bedtime?

Making lemonade

2010-01-07T21:52:00.002-06:00

So it's winter. Snow, bitter cold, yada yada yada. But little boys seem to be pretty good at making lemonade out of lemons...

tunnels out of snow drifts...

fortress walls out of snow blocks...

camouflage out of Christmas tree branches...

1 year ago:

How to Cook : Pork and Vegetable Soup (and Bread : Round 1)

Winter

2010-01-06T22:22:00.002-06:00

"There's a point where you can give up on winter--when temptation can enter your soul, prying its way in like cold air through the cracks in your cabin--around January sixteenth or so, and this can make you realize that February's coming, and beyond February, March.

See, I don't yet realize that March will be the hardest month. Early February's the coldest, and often the snowiest, but March, strange, silent March, will be the hardest.

The danger in yielding to thoughts of spring--green grass, hikes, bare feet, lakes, fly-fishing, rivers, and sun, hot sun--is that once these thoughts enter your mind, you cant get them out.

Love the winter. Don't betray it. Be loyal.

When the spring gets here, love it too--and then the summer.

But be loyal to the winter, all the way through--all the way, and with sincerity--or you'll find yourself high and dry, longing for a spring that's a long way off, and winter will have abandoned you, and in her place you'll have cabin fever, the worst.

The colder it gets, the more you've got to love it."

Rick Bass, "Winter - Notes from Montana"

1 year ago:

Cookbook Review : Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day

Iowa Food Coop, January

2010-01-05T20:52:00.002-06:00

Yummm, pork chops!

The January order cycle has opened for the Iowa Food Coop! You can place orders until 11 p.m. January 16th, and delivery will be on Thursday January 21st.

Our most popular offerings at the Coop seem to be our Stock Pot Bundle and our chickens. I'd also recommend our Roaster Bundle - it's similar to the Stock Pot Bundle but includes pork & chicken in addition to beef! We have these bundles plus several others available locally as well. Contact us for pricing and availability.

We've also set our dates for this month's deliveries to Charles City and Mason City - they're coming up next Monday & Tuesday. If you aren't on our email list, go to our Google group page. Over on the right click "Join this group". Once you're a member you'll see the details on this month's deliveries under "Discussions" and the cuts & bundles pricing & availability under "Pages".

To contact us just shoot an email to sugarcreekfarm (at) osage (dot) net.

I think that's all the bidness for tonight. Hope everyone is staying warm! Sounds like we're in for more snow tomorrow...

1 year ago:

Ice, ice baby

Change

2010-01-04T22:42:00.003-06:00

The view to our west has changed lately. It now sports a brand new wind turbine.

The turbine belongs to Osage Municial Utilities, which Matt works for as a lineman. His part in this was to hook the turbine into their system, and he & the rest of the crew put in a lot of hours to get it online. I know it involved a lot of digging, and cabling, and that's about all I know about it.

With the cold weather setting in, they had to put up a tent and run a space heater to warm up the cable enough to work with. That tent stood up to some pretty rough winter weather. What I want to know is, why don't they make tents like that for farmers market?!?

1 year ago:

Icing on the ~~cake~~ bale

Ritual

2010-01-03T19:41:00.003-06:00

Hot chocolate on the stove has become a daily ritual over Christmas break. I think it needs to continue. Preferably with salty, buttery popcorn right before bedtime.

2010-01-02T22:47:00.002-06:00

Apparently I lack some sort of tidiness gene.

But the pizzas were really good.

Happy 2010!

2010-01-01T22:25:00.002-06:00

Happy New Year! I'm glad you all made it safely into 2010 :)

Rafe and I joined my grandma for the nursing home New Year's Eve party yesterday afternoon. With the Meitner Brothers band providing the music, Rafe took his great-grandma for a wheelchair spin around the dance floor. She loved it and was pumping her hands in the air like a teenager at a Hannah Montanna concert.

And then I was forced to do the chicken dance with the nurses.

No matter how you celebrated yesterday, I hope there was much laughter and fun and hope for the new year.

And chicken dancing.

1 year ago:

Happy 2009!

2009-12-28T20:34:00.002-06:00

Roast chicken in wine & broth

I'd forgotten how I'd drooled over my sister-in-law's Le Creuset roasting pan when we visited last Christmas...until I opened their gift to me this Christmas morning.

Somehow, cooking it in a beautiful, fancypants pan makes even plain roast chicken highbrow. (Thank you, Rick & Sandy!)

Thank you

2009-12-27T17:07:00.002-06:00

scooping out from the Christmas storm

So here we are, in that in-between time. Still ruminating in the blessings of Christmas, and looking forward to flipping the calendar to a new January.

It seems an appropriate time to say Thank You to our farm customers. Some of you are new to us this year, others of you have been with us, loyally, since about 2003. And while we do appreciate your purchases, what we especially value is your friendship, your advice, your words of support and encouragement. So...thank you.

As it always is, this in-between time is a time of planning, of trying to predict the future and make decisions about it. We will run numbers, make our best guesses, and come up with a plan for the farm in 2010. Though I won't say it out loud, I think I already know what that plan is going to be. But I'll keep an open mind and run the numbers anyway. And when we think we've got it figured out, you'll be the first to know.

Blessings and good fortune to you all in 2010.

How to Cook : Pizza

2009-12-16T22:45:00.004-06:00

I really can't believe, out of all the recipe posts I've done, that I've never done pizza! It's an almost-weekly meal at our house during the fall, winter & spring months. (And I'm working on mastering pizza on the grill in the summer.)

When the girls were littler and had fewer activities, every week we had "Friday Night Pizza Night". It was the one night of the week we let the kids drink pop for supper and eat in the living room. These days I just try to make it on any night of the week that we're all home together, and we still drink pop and eat in the living room :)

Assembled pizza's, ready to go in the oven

First, the crust! This is a nice, soft, slightly chewy crust. You can make it in a bread machine, stand mixer, or by hand. Prebake for 5 to 10 minutes, then top with your favorite pizza sauce.

Next, the toppings. We have lots of good things to choose from at the farm. Italian sausage comes already seasoned, just brown it before topping your pizza. And our Italian sausage is MSG-free! Ground pork can be seasoned to your own taste (but here are some ideas to get you started!). Our cottage bacon has a Candian bacon taste, wonderful for pizza! Or how about bacon cheeseburger pizza with regular bacon and ground beef?

Finish it all off with cheese of your choice and bake for 13 to 18 minutes, or until cheese is melted and crust is baked through.

The finished product!

Homemade Pizza
1 cup warm water
2 T. oil
1 T. yeast
1 T. sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 t. garlic powder
1 t. salt
2 t. parmesan cheese
1/2 t. Italian seasoning

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Mix water, oil, yeast and sugar together. Mix in flour & seasonings. Knead dough until smooth & elastic. If dough is too wet, knead in a little extra flour. If it's too dry, add water 1 teaspoon at a time.

Place dough on baking stone and let rest 10 minutes. Roll out and let rest another 10 minutes (or more, for a thicker crust.) Bake 5 to 10 minutes. Remove from oven, add toppings, and return to oven. Bake an additional 13 to 18 minutes, or until cheese is melted and crust is baked through.