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It’s been a busy spring and summer here on the farm!  The new farm hand has arrived and we have been busy training him! It’s a good thing that so far he loves the farm and helping out.

Although we were able to relax a bit this summer, there’s always a list of projects to complete! One of the first big projects Dan completed was pasture rejuvenation through the use of a no-till drill seeder.

We have been working to add to the diversity of grass the cows graze on.  Pasture diversity helps ensure that the cows are enjoying a healthy balanced diet and that they are getting all of their nutrients.

Dan rented the no-till drill from the Rockingham County Conservation District.  He filled the back with organic clover, hairy vetch, timothy, alfalfa, legumes, festaloium and more.  I honestly had no idea there were so many different types of grasses.  It has been excited to watch the grass grow over the summer, adding to the density and diversity of the food for the cows.

We had fun gardening this summer.  We just grow a garden for ourselves.  This year I reaped the first harvest from my strawberry patch.  Everyday during the spring, I would head out to the strawberry patch to check the progress. I loved watching the flowers turn to green fruit.

And the green fruit turn into beautiful red strawberries!

Throughout June we had strawberries on everything – waffles, yogurt, and ice cream from Benedikt Dairy.  (Shameless plug – if you’ve yet to try any of the delicious, organic, grass-fed dairy products from Benedikt Dairy on Shirley Hill Road in Goffstown, you’re missing out!)

I am still a novice gardener and this summer we focused our gardening efforts at the top of the hill. It was a fun season of gardening for all!

As soon as June comes Dan starts watching the weather forecast daily hoping for three days of sunshine in a row. As soon the weather report predicts that the sun will be shining for at least three days, we hay!  This year we were grateful for almost a week of sun!

Lots of people ask me what it is like to hay, so here is a brief overview of what happens on each of the three days.  If it rains on any of these days, the hay is ruined.  So we are always thankful when haying is done and it’s in the barn!

1. On the first day, after the dew dries, Dan cuts all the fields.  The hay sits in the field for the rest of the day drying out.  It’s important the hay dries and isn’t green when it is baled on the third day.  Green hay can get moldy, or worse, can make the hay spontaneously combust.
2. On the second day, after the dew dries, Dan fluffs the hay with the tedder, a large rake that attaches to the tractor.  The tedder turns the hay over to help continue to dry out the hay.
3. On the third day, we bale the hay.  This is usually the most intense day and we are thankful for the long hours of daylight at the end of June.  In the morning, after the dew dries, Dan rakes the hay into windrows (long rows of hay) so that the baler (the machine that puts the hay into square bales) can collect the hay and tie it up with baling twine.  After the windrows are raked, we start to bale.  It works best if one person drives the tractor, one person stacks the hay, and one person throws the bale of hay from the baler to the trailer.

I wish I had pictures of the process, but it ended up being a such whirlwind of days that I forgot to take photos! Below are some photos that Dan’s sister Abby took of the process.  We were so grateful that she was home from Chicago and was able to help us out!

A chain on the baler broke.  Dan and his friends are working on fixing it.

It’s a lot of work to hay, but views like this make it easier.  On this day, we weren’t able to finish baling all the hay because the baler had broken earlier in the day.  We were so thankful that it wasn’t going to rain the next day!

Once we finish baling the hay is stacked into the hay barn and ready for winter!

There are many other ways that people hay but this is our process.  It keeps us busy in June, and then we start it up again the end of August and into September.  We got a couple hundred bales so far, so we shouldn’t need more hay to help get us through the winter.

Now that hay season is over we are in full swing with many other projects on the farm.  And when I say “we” I really mean Dan.  I’m on vacation right now in Swanzey, NH with my family!

I hope you are all having a good summer!

Farewell from the farm {the lake}!

xoxo, Britta

Spring is here and we have been busy. It is fun to watch the cows and sheep transition from hay to grass. I think they look happier out wandering the pasture. I have started planting in the garden and have lettuce, kale, beets and peas started. I tried something new this year and have  put my herb garden against the stonewall that connects the house to the barn. It was the sight of an old  shed that had to come down several years ago and before that according to the history of Goffstown was the site of the county poor farm. This is how the town supported the homeless. We had many interesting artifacts but most has been lost to age and weather. I wonder as I unearth old nails and sometimes utensils and move rocks what stories they could tell.

The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
You know how it is with an April day
When the sun is out and the wind is still,
You’re one month on in the middle of May.
But if you so much as dare to speak,
A cloud comes over the sunlit arch,
A wind comes off a frozen peak,
And you’re two months back in the middle of March.

Robert Frost, Two Tramps in Mud Time

I’ve never felt like a poem more accurately describes April than Robert Frost’s Two Tramps in Mud Time.   I love season’s but it has been wonderful to watch the snow melt, ice thaw and grass turn green.

In the past, I haven’t paid close attention to how quickly the grass jumps out of the ground in the spring. This year, with Dan counting the dwindling number of hay bales left in the barn, I notice daily the seemingly exponential growth of the grass over the past couple of days.

When I took this photo on Sunday, I looked out of my window and the fields were covered in dead brown grass. I had to dig to find the green shoots of grass hiding in the ground.  Today when I look out my window, the fields are covered in green – a sign of spring and new life!

Another sign of new life on the farm is baby lambs!

We had two lambs this spring and they are both strong healthy little girls!  It’s been fun to watch them grow. The lambs are awfully cute when they are young.  Soon, Dan and I will need to sheer the sheep – time for them to get rid of their winter coats and get ready for summer!

April vacation is coming up and Dan and I have a list of projects we are hoping to accomplish.  We’ll see how our list goes, hopefully we’ll get at least a few of the projects done!

Don’t forget to go out for a walk and enjoy this beautiful spring day!

Farewell from the farm!

xoxo, Britta

I can’t believe February is over! The highlight of our vacation was getting away for a few days with some of our good friends.  It was wonderful and a much needed get-a-way.  We talked by the fire, ate good food, went cross-country skiing, and just relaxed!

March is coming in like a roaring lion, and I am anxiously awaiting the warmer weather that is just around the corner!  I have a case of cabin fever and as a result I am starting to think about our garden for the summer.  In the winter, thumbing through the colorful, ripe fruits and vegetables in the seed catalogs,  I never fail to think that this year, I am going to be an incredible gardner.  I learned my lesson last year though.  I am not planning on having a large garden this summer. I have a lot to learn and I want to have time to learn from and work with other farmers in the area.

Dan and I are taking every opportunity we can to learn from and connect with other farmers.  We have already attended the NOFA-NH Winter Conference, Granite State Grazier’s Conference, and more.  We have a few more conferences and workshops coming up that I am excited about.

Here are the upcoming workshops I am looking forward to:

• March 7th and 8th: New England Meat Conference
• March 8th: NOFA-NH: Planning and Managing Your Farm for Profit
• March 15th and 16th: Old House and Barn Expo
• March 22nd: UNH Extension: Blueberry and Tree Fruit Pruning Demo
• March 28th: NOFA-NH Farmer Mixer at Smuttynose Brewery
• April 12th: NOFA-NH: Bringing Back an Orchard

I am not sure how many of these we will be able to attend and there are many more that I wish we had time to attend.  If you are interested in finding other workshops in New Hampshire check out NOFA-NH events or UNH Extension events.

If there are any other good workshops out there that we are missing out on, please let us know!

Farewell from the farm!

xoxo, Britta

p.s. – I’m loving the pallets from Valentine’s Day!  Dan and I have been out stacking wood and we’re hoping to move the pallets around with the tractor.

Cows lead a fairly simple life and I’m pretty sure they are happiest when they are eating.  In the winter, every day, twice a day, we head into the hay barn to give them some hay.In November, that hay trailer was full of hay!  Now we are down to the bales stored along the sides.  We are ready for spring to come!

Usually we give them a few bales at each feeding.  In the mist of this never ending polar vortex the cows love munching on the hay on a cold winter day.

Sometimes it seems like a chore, but then a cow looks at me with one of those big beady eyes and I can’t help but laugh to myself.  They are truly gentle giants and such interesting animals to spend time with, as this hilariously accurate super bowl commercial depictes perfectly.

I have to be honest and say Dan is the one that faithfully feeds the cows every day.  He comes from a family of farmers and he has the ability to wake up and jump out of bed in the wee hours of the morning.  I once thought myself a morning person, but after marrying Dan I realized there are morning people, and there are farmers.  We don’t have a long list of morning chores to get done, but Dan doesn’t seem able to sleep beyond whatever time the sun rises at.  (He also isn’t able to stay awake much longer after the sun sets.)  Needless to say, even if I wanted to feed the cows in the morning, Dan always seems to get out of bed before me and get it done.  I am grateful for the few extra minutes he gives me each morning to wake up.

I’m off to enjoy our last day of February vacation!  Hope you are all staying warm as the polar vortex returns!

Farewell from the farm!

xoxo Britta

Happy Valentine’s Day from the farm!  These are some my favorite Swedish cookies.  They take a little bit of time make, but these delicious spice cookies are worth it!

Swedish Pepparkakor Cookies

Ingredients

• 1/2 lb of butter
• 1 1/2 c. sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 Tbsp. molasses
• 4 Tbsp. orange juice
• 1 grated orange rind
• 3 1/4 c. flour
• 2 scant tsp. baking soda
• 3 tsp. ground ginger
• 3 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 1/2 tsp. cloves

Directions: Cream together butter and sugar.  Mix in egg, molasses, orange juice and rind.  Add flour, soda, and spices.  Mix well. Refrigerate dough overnight.  Roll dough out to about 1/8 in thick.  Cut out shapes and bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes.

Farm Dates

Living on the farm, my valentine’s idea of a romantic date is to dig the dump truck out of a foot of snow, drive to a warehouse in Manchester, and pick up some wood pallets. We were supposed to make dinner for Dan’s grandmother, but Dan found a good deal on Craigslist and decided he was on a mission to get these pallets!  When we had to explain to Grammy why the sudden change of plans, she laughed and laughed and told us a story of when Grampy took her out on an anniversary date in the cattle trailer.  I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree!  I am excited about these pallets though, so I can’t give Dan too hard a time about it.

This morning we went out snowshoeing and tapped trees for maple sugaring.  It was a beautiful morning! We are planning on going on another snow shoe adventure this afternoon after we fuel up on tomato soup and grilled cheese for lunch.  It’s lightly snowing out which always makes it feel magical outside.  I hope you are getting out and enjoying the beautiful winter!

Farewell from the farm,

xoxo Britta

I thought I was going to have more time in the winter.  Some how it’s been flying by and it’s almost time to start maple sugaring!  Before we move into that season though, I thought I should do a quick recap of winter on the farm.

We had lots of time spent with family eating delicious meals.  Dan’s brother, Tim, decided he wanted to start a new tradition where he makes us all a delicious dinner the day before Thanksgiving.  This year he made us some ribs, a roast beef, butternut squash risotto, polenta, and a delicious salad with pomegranates and sugared almonds.

I forgot to take a picture before we started eating, but this is a snap shot part way through the delicious meal! It was really good for us all to work on expanding our stomachs before our Thanksgiving feast!

I think my favorite part about Christmas is the Christmas tree.  I love the warm glow it brings into the house at winter, when the days are the shortest.  We cut one down from the small plot of Christmas trees near our house.  Jim planted those trees, so looking at the tree reminded me of him.  I loved getting out all our Christmas decorations and decorating the tree.  These are some of my favorite ones from this year.

It’s a little hard to see, but I hope the “cow bell” makes you all smile a little.  It’s a jingle bell that painted like a cow!

On our recent snow day I felt like making a little special treat so I made a Tomato Tart.  I used America’s Test Kitchen recipe and it came out delicious!  I am definitely going to have to make it again when tomatoes are in season.

Other than spending time with family, we’ve been working on planning out our garden for the summer.  Right now Dan and I are trying not to get too excited about all the beautiful pictures in the seed catalogs and keep our garden simple. We don’t want to put too much on our plates this summer so we have time to spend learning from other farmers in the area.

Every day we recognize how much we have to learn about farming.   It’s tempting right now to dive in head first into farming, buy in more cows, new sheep breeds, buy fruit trees and berry bushes, get some pigs, a beehive (the list could go on), but we always have to remember to think about our quality of life.  Doing more isn’t always better!

It was a good weekend for getting projects done around the farm.  The warm sunny weather made the daytime feel like summer and the cool nights were perfect for eating stew and soup!  Dan and I made a delicious stew tonight using beef shanks.  I will post the recipe and some photos later this week!

We have a few old apple trees growing down by the pond.  Dan and I picked some this afternoon and we’re hoping to try to make applesauce with them later this week.  I would love to learn how to prune the trees so next summer we have bigger apples instead of lots of little ones.

The sheep (and the cows) enjoy eating the apples that have fallen on the ground.  It is a special treat for them this time of year.  It’s funny to watch them munch away on all the apples.

We haven’t gotten any eggs from our chickens yet, but we’ve started checking every day!  During the summer we had a problem where our chickens got attacked by a fox.  Since then we’re had to keep a close eye on the chickens, but it was great watching them run around this weekend.  

It’s amazing how much they’ve grown since the spring!
It’s going to be a busy week here at Clarkridge Farm.  On Tuesday, we are taking some cows and sheep off to be butchered.  It’s always an adventure trying to get the cows into the cattle trailer.  Hopefully they’ll all just walk right on! Then this weekend we’re going to be in Chicago for a wedding of one of my closest friends.  I’m excited to go back to the city and see so many good friends there!

 This spring we barely managed to get a few vegtables planted.  We experimented with some different crops to see what kind of results we would get.  Our corn grew higher than we thought!  Dan loved to go outside and measure it.

Although it looks tasty, the corn didn’t end up tasting that good.  We planted an heirloom variety that tasted like the frozen corn on the cob you get in a college cafeteria.   The chickens have enjoyed pecking at the corn though!

We had a bumper crop of basil!  I love basil and pesto, so I was happy to enjoy all the basil we had.  This weekend I’m hoping to make some pesto and freeze before its all ruined by frost next week.

Unlike the corn, our heirloom tomatoes were delicious!  I didn’t take many good photos of our tomatoes, but here is one below.  Most of our tomatoes weren’t round like this one though.  They were bumpy and lumpy but still delicious!My favorite thing to do with the fresh summer produce is throw it on a pizza with some fresh mozzarella cheese. This pizza has some summer squash, and eggplant on it from our friends garden and homemade pesto on the bottom.

I hope you have enjoyed the harvest from your garden this year.

One of things I’ll miss the most about the summer is all of the fresh fruit available during the summer.  My favorite summer fruit is fresh peaches, but blueberries are definitely a close second!

This Blueberry Buckle from allrecipes.com was delicious!  (I know there are lots of fancy cooking blogs out there, but allrecipes.com is my go to – quick, easy, and usually pretty basic.) It was a great way to use up a bounty of blueberries from berry picking.  As the summer is winding down and I’m lamenting the loss of our fresh summer produce, I’ve been reading Eliot Coleman’s Four Season Harvest.  If you haven’t read any of his books, I would highly recommend it.  Especially if you’re farming in New England.  He’s from Maine and harvests fresh produce all four seasons!  Dan and I are hoping to implement some of his practices into our garden this fall.   We’ll let you know if how it’s working in January!
A lot is happening on the farm right now.  We’ve been getting back into the routine of the fall and I’ve definitely been missing the free time of the summer.  Projects take twice as long to get down now.

We’re working on putting together the order forms for the grass-fed beef packages for the fall! Hopefully they will be up and working the beginning of next week.

There is something to be said for familiarity. I love small local coffee shops, but sometimes Starbucks makes me feel at home. The familiarity of it reminds me of Chicago, of a different life.  Don’t get me wrong, I love my life right now.  I love the farm – the cows, sheep, woods, and outdoors.  I love being closer to family.

 

One of the perks of being a teacher is vacation.  It’s even better that Dan and I are both teachers so we are able to enjoy breaks together!  There are two downsides: 1) everyone else has the same vacation so everything is crowded (I went to the mall yesterday and felt like I was walking through a middle school) and 2) it’s very difficult to take time off any other time of the year.  Aside from summer vacation, this is Dan and I’s first vacation off together since we’ve been married!  In Chicago, I worked for a private school and Dan worked for Chicago Public Schools so we had different breaks.  We are  enjoying our time off to get projects done around the house!  There is a long list – let’s see how much gets done!

On Sunday we enjoyed the snow and went skiing again!  

This picture makes it look cold and snowy, but it was pretty warm and a great day!  The only downside was that at the end of the day Dan headed back to our car and realized that we lost the keys!  My sister and I sat in the ski lodge for 2 hours while Dan drove home with our friend Riley to get the spare key.  

We enjoyed our time in the ski lodge sitting by the window, watching the snow fall, drinking hot cider, and chatting.  The 2 hours flew by!  

This morning Dan and I went to town to run some errands.  We stopped at the library and I picked up a copy of the DIY book Young House Love by some of my favorite bloggers.

While Dan was at the hardware store I sat across the street at my favorite coffee shop, the Apotheca.  I got a chai tea latte and I poured over the pages of Young House Love, and now I’m inspired to get some projects down around our house over break.  

This is my new favorite book!  If you are working on house projects I highly recommend it.  There is tons of inspiration and lots of useful tips for any DIY-er.

My to do list:

• Finish recovering the bench cushions and make the pillows
• Paint our desk
• Paint our little chest of drawers
• Hang up our picture gallery going up the stairs
• Finish bathroom mirror storage (what is the mirror above a sink called anyways?)

Dan’s to do list:

• Build the chicken coop
• Cut more wood and fell some trees
• Clear out the brush to plant some more Christmas trees

Together we hope to:

• take lots of walks through the woods 
• make a roast
• enjoy our first school vacation together!

Sometimes I’m over ambitious and don’t get everything done on my to-do list.  Let’s see if I can change that!  Here I go!

Farewell from the Farm!

xoxo, Britta

We lucked out last weekend!  Back in November, Dan and I planned a trip with some of my friends from high school friends for a ski weekend at Okemo.   Skiing in New England is always a gamble, but this time, we won the jackpot! 

On the last run of the weekend Dan found some awesome glades.  I was worn out so I didn’t go down them with him, but I wish I had.  Skiing in the trees (when there’s enough snow) is a great experience.  Your skiing in your own world.We were lucky enough to be able to ski out our front door and onto the slopes!  When it’s blizzard weekend, there’s nothing better.

This past weekend we started boiling our sap into maple syrup.  It’s been fun to be a part of that process.  Tomorrow I’ll try to do a more extensive update on farm life.  Lisa, my sister, is here for the night (or weekend, depending on the snow storm)  I’m so glad she’s here.  She’s always fun to hang out with.  Tomorrow we’re going to go to the Apotheca, my favorite coffee shop in Goffstown, and blog our morning away.

Well, happy February vacation!

Farewell from the Farm,

xoxo Britta