Author: hillcreekfarmpa

First Asparagus Coming Up!

hillcreekfarmpa

Luke and I walked the asparagus field and this is what we found:

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It’s a Purple Passion Asparagus.  Although it will turn green when cooked, it’s purple when it grows in the field.  We grow this variety because it has 20% more sugars than the green asparagus varieties and less lignin, so it tastes sweeter and doesn’t get woody and tough.  We also grow Jersey Knight, one of the best-tasting of the green asparagus varities, but it hasn’t made an appearance yet.

Meanwhile, the rhubarb continues to grow.  We weeded it today and laid the foundation for a “pollinator patch” at the corner of our property where the rhubarb row ends and our neighhbor’s property begins.  It’s right by the road, so walkers, as well as pollinators, should be able to enjoy the perennial flowers we’ll plant there.

Tried to get a photo of Luke with the asparagus, but only got Luke.  Since I haven’t shared a photo of him lately, here he is:

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Enjoy this lovely Spring weather! If you’re interested in either the Purple Passion or Jersey Knight asparagus, do let me know.  We should have plenty, soon!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rhubarb is coming up!

hillcreekfarmpa

Still waiting on the asparagus, but today, for the first time, Luke and I found that about half of the rhubarb is sending up new shoots for Spring.

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We are growing MacDonald Rhubarb,  which grows very well in Southeastern Pennsylvania and has the deep red color that people prefer for pies and compote.

In another two weeks or so, this rhubarb should be ready for your favorite recipes.  Let me know if you’d like to reserve some for pies, compote or eating straight dipped in sugar!

 

 

 

Asparagus Field Cleared and Ready for Winter

hillcreekfarmpa

We’ve shredded all of the dried-down asparagus fronds.  They are now organic matter for the deep litter method of chicken coop keeping and mulch for the rhubarb.

There was far too much asparagus frond mulch to use a wheelbarrow, so Frank hooked up the cart to the BCS tractor and we transported it that way.  Here is a photo:

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We chose this particular cart because it’s very stable on slopes and Hill Creek Farm has hilly ground!
The asparagus field looks bare, but under the soil, the asparagus roots are dormant for Winter, waiting for Spring to inspire them to send up green and purple shoots to start the cycle all over again.

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Clearing the Asparagus Field

hillcreekfarmpa

Asparagus is a perennial — every year, in early Spring, the shoots rise out of the ground, then by summer have fronded out into tall, ferny stalks that shade the ground.
By winter, the nutrients in the stalks have been stored into the roots for next year and the stalk dry out and wither.
To prevent asparagus diseases from gaining a foothold in the crop, we remove the stalks, shred them, then use the resulting mulch for chicken bedding and/or organic matter amendments for the rhubarb, which can’t catch asparagus diseases.
Today, the asparagus stalks were dry enough and the weather was decent, so we went out to clear the field.
Mochachino, the barn cat, came with us.  With the stalks removed, she had a better view of the meadow voles’ holes in the field and spent her time ensuring that their occupants wouldn’t be munching on asparagus roots this winter.

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While all the stalks are cut, we only finished raking and shredding about a quarter acre of the half acre field.  If the weather holds this week, I’ll be raking and gathering the rest of the stalks into piles for shredding.

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Purple Top White Globe Turnip Photos

hillcreekfarmpa

Today, I finished my portion of the 2014 Seed Savers Exchange M-GEN turnip trial.  We’ve had some January-like weather in November, but all the turnips took the deep cold without damage.  If I was planning to keep them in the ground through the cold, I’d mulch heavily with straw, but so far, they have held up without the mulch so I could complete the trial.

Purple Top White Globe Turnips are easy to find both at the farmers’ market or on the web.  Most growers that grow turnips grow this variety; therefore, it was the “control” in this trial to compare the other turnips against.

In my opinion, this was a productive, but not as flavorful variety as the others in the trial.  It had the same sharpness as the Purple Top Strap Leaf turnip, but not that turnip’s sulfur flavor (which, if you are eating turnips on their own, could be a good thing).  Surprisingly, the combination of sharp and sulfur made the Purple Top Strap Leaf turnip both greens and roots a superior addition to recipes that featured turnips and other strong tastes (for instance, ham hocks and turnip greens and roots were amazing with the Purple Top Strap Leaf turnips which were so strong on their own, I initially hestiated to add them to other recipes. I’m glad I went ahead and did that)

Personally, my favorite in the trial was the Snowball turnip.  It was a pleasure to grow, the greens were tasty and the mild turnips were excellent alone or in recipes.

My least favorite was this control, the Purple Top White Globe.  It was easy to grow and easily was the largest of the turnips, but it hung out in the middle on flavor — too sharp to eat alone as mashed turnips, like the Snowball and not enough of the sharp/sulfur combo like the Purple Top Strap Leaf to really make turnip recipes pop.

Regardless, here are the photos.  First, the roots:

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Here are the greens — which filled my Dutch Oven, but cooked down to 1/3 of the space:

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And here are the greens and roots of the plants, straight out of the ground:

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If you’re new to turnips, Purple Top White Globe is worth getting your practice in on.  It’s a decent turnip that will produce well for you with little effort and can take some surprise freezes when winter comes early.  But once you’ve learned to grow turnips. I’d suggest you move on to the other heirlooms — they just taste better!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We Have Chickens!

hillcreekfarmpa

Our next fall task after the garlic was planted was to finish converting one of the horse stalls in the barn into a chicken coop for some laying hens.

We had just finished layering sand, shredded leaves and tiny wood chips in the bottom of the stall (the “deep litter” method of chicken keeping), when a friend who runs a farm animal rescue received an emergency call from Philadelphia.

Chickens are illegal in Philadelphia and these four 8-month old pullets had been “dimed out” to the authorities.  The owners were heartbroken — they had cared for the chickens since they were chicks and wanted them to have a good home.  So, they drove from Philadelphia to Barto and reluctantly gave them up.

At one time, anyone could keep chickens.  People like my PA Dutch grandfather kept chickens on the Iowa farm where he grew up and in the town of Mount Pleasant, PA that he moved to after he married my grandmother.

Unfortunately, he told me, “a wave of so-called ‘civic pride’ swept the towns and they took pride in that they ‘weren’t rural.’  And the biggest way they could prove they ‘weren’t rural’ was to ban chickens in the town.”

Supposedly, the Mt. Pleasant Town Fathers made a personal visit to my grandfather to let him know (supposedly with great glee) that his chickens would soon be banned and he would have to get rid of them.  “It was the stupidest law ever,” my grandfather said.

The Town Fathers may have gotten rid of my grandfather’s chickens, but to their great consternation, he refused to take down his chicken coop.  As a child, when we were working in his garden, he’d point to the chicken coop and say “One of these days, people are going to realize how good it is to have chickens around.  And they will let chickens in town again.  And on that very day, I will fill my coop with chickens.”

Unfortunately, that day never came for him — when he died the mid-1970s, his chicken coop was still standing, waiting for the chickens the Town Fathers wouldn’t let him have.  I’ve always loved the urban chicken movement on his behalf.

But I did take his words to heart. Whenever we looked at properties for our future farm, we never made an offer until I looked up the zoning codes for the municipality on PA Ecode and made sure I would be allowed to have chickens.  (We let several properties go, one as large as 4 acres, because chickens were not allowed.)

After a week in quarantine, our friend brought the chickens here. The best of the four is this Barred Rock who is friendly and easy to handle:

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We also have a white Leghorn, who will probably always be flighty.

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We also have two Rhode Island Reds, which are in the back left (smaller one) and front right (larger one)

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Here’s the best I could get with all four of them together.  They had only been here an hour or so — it will be easier to take photos once they are used to their new coop.

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Luke, our English Shepherd, seems very excited about the chickens.  He likes going to their stall and watching them peck and coo.  Once they are used to their coop, he’ll start learning to herd them so that we can use them around the farm to eat insects and weed seeds in season.

I’m excited too — and hopefully, my grandfather is happy that I finally have chickens, like any gardener or farmer should

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stay Warm!

hillcreekfarmpa

The polar air has us finding excuses to work indoors.  Vir (top) and Galen (bottom) decided that snoozing in a warm spot until the weather changes is the best course of action!

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Vir’s full name is Vir Catto, after Vir Cotto, a character in the Babylon-5 fictional universe.   His mother was a Philadelphia stray taken in by a friend. When the kittens came, we had an opening for another cat, so added Vir to the family.  His mother was a tiny thing, but due to the wonders of pre-natal nutrition, both Vir and his brother are very large cats!

Galen is named after the Greek physician and after a Technomage in the Babylon-5 universe.  He helped heal our hearts after our elder kitty, Lindsey Valen, died at 17 years old.   He was found in Bechtelsville, PA at about 4 weeks old with an upper respiratory infection and nursed back to health by the rescue society, Cat NAPS of Pottstown.  If you live in the area and are looking for a kitty companion or two, we highly recommend Cat NAPS.

Meanwhile, stay warm and be sure to snuggle with someone you love!

 

Snowball Turnip Photos

hillcreekfarmpa

Today, I took the measurements on the Snowball turnips for the Seed Savers Exchange M-GEN turnip trial.

I have grown Snowball turnips before and liked them.  For the trial, I noticed that they have very high quality greens, besides having a sweet, round root.  Several heirloom seed companies offer the seed so if you want to try the variety, it’s not difficult to find.

I cooked the greens and will be freezing them to make this dip for Christmas.  It’s a family tradition to try out new recipes at Christmas — my brother used to save recipes from The Food Network and then make them all for Christmas when he had time to cook.  He would make anything that struck his fancy — I tend to cook based on what I’ve grown in the past year.

Here are the famous white roots of Snowball turnips:

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Here are the greens before I cooked them:

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Here are the whole turnips out of the ground:

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If you want to grow turnips, I recommend this variety!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Black Walnut Cookies and Recipe

hillcreekfarmpa

The whole reason we’re experimenting with black walnuts this year is that Tina had the following hand-written recipe for “Grandmother’s Ice Box Cookies” that she always wanted to try, but every time she looked at a bag of black walnut pieces in the store, she got sticker shock and didn’t make the cookies.
Here is the front of the recipe card.  We aren’t sure who “Grandmother” is as this card is old (probably from the 1950s with the mention of Crisco) and the recipes have been handed back and forth between Tina’s family for many years, but the family has felt the recipes were worth making and saving, even though they aren’t sure who developed them.

black%20walnut%20cookie%20recipe%20page%201[1].jpgHere is the back of the card:

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And here are the finished cookies!  Tina says they are worth all the work to process the black walnuts, but we’ll see next Tuesday when we take another “crack” at it!

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