Ginger's Memoirs - The Stinky Hay

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One summer, Dad was out in the barn, cleaning out old hay from the upper level, tossing it into the wagon below to be carted off somewhere more useful.  He’d dig his pitchfork into the hay and toss it over his shoulder and out the doors to land neatly in the wagon with the waiting horse team.  It was calm and quiet.  Just the “shick...schick...schick...” of the hay being picked up with the pitchfork.  Suddenly, his pitchfork started to jump and shake in his hands of it’s own accord!  Dad yelled and threw the fork away from himself into the piles of hay in the barn.  As the fork went flying across the barn, a skunk fell out from between the tines!  Dad wasted no time and jumped out the door and into the wagon below, startling the team who decided they were leaving too.  After dad regained control of the horses, he turned back to look at the barn where he saw the skunk peering out the barn door watching the excitement he had caused.

Pastured Pork Cuts NOW AVAILABLE!

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Pork Chops

Loin Roasts

Shoulder Roasts

Spare Ribs

Country Style Ribs

Ground Pork

Old Fashioned Sausage

Good 'n' Sagey Sausage

Pork Fat

Leaf Lard

Soup Bones

All will be available at the Moscow Farmer's Market This Weekend!

8am-1pm Saturday

Main Street, Moscow, ID

Also available starting this week at the:

Tuesday Grower's Market

4-6:30pm 

Moscow Food Co-op Parking Lot

Pullman Farmer's Market

3:30-6pm Wednesday

Spot Shop Parking Lot

Get there early for the best selection!

Ginger's Memoirs - Ringing Hogs

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Every year, Mom, Dad and I would ring hogs before they went outside to the fields.  The hogs were run through the chute, rings put in their nose and castrated.  Needless to say, there was a lot of squealing in the barn on those days!  Mom’s job was to open the gate from the chute so the hog could run out the shed and into the fields outside.

            There was on instance where Dad and I both turned around when we heard Mom screaming.  A hog had run between Mom’s short legs and she was riding the animal!  The hog took her with on its mad dash down the chute and outside.  Louder even than the hogs, she screamed the whole way out!

            Dad and I nearly fell over we were laughing so hard.  Once she made her way back in to the gate at the head of the chute, she laughed just as much as we were.

            That is one sight I’ll never forget.  I’ll bet she didn’t either!

Ethiopian Cabbage Dish

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http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Ethiopian-Cabbage-Dish/Detail.aspx?evt19=1

Prep Time: 25 Minutes            Cook Time: 40 Minutes          Ready In: 1 Hour 5 Minutes

Servings: 5

Ingredients:

1/2 cup olive oil

4 carrots, thinly sliced

1 onion, thinly sliced

1 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric

1/2 head cabbage, shredded

5 potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes

Directions:

1.                  Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat.

2.                  Cook the carrots and onion in the hot oil about 5 minutes.

3.                  Stir in the salt, pepper, cumin, turmeric, and cabbage and cook another 15 to 20 minutes.

4.                  Add the potatoes; cover. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook until potatoes are soft, 20 to 30 minutes.

Ginger's Memoirs - The Jam

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My mother wanted to make jams and jellies for the winter.  So, she hooked up our Ford Ferguson tractor to her small wagon and took off for the fence line where she’d seen some wild grapes growing.  She loaded the wagon up and returned home to process the grapes.  Making several jars of jam, she proudly showed my dad her efforts.  Dad started to laugh.  As soon as he managed to calm down, he informed her that she had been picking poison ivy berries and had made poison ivy jam!

My mother was in bed for a week with the worst case of poison ivy the doctor had seen in a very long time.  Since that incident, she developed an allergy to poison ivy.

The jams were thrown away.

Cilantro-Lime Coleslaw

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We made this recipe on the 4th of July and it was FANTASTIC!  Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS:
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1 lime, zested
2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
1/2 teaspoon rice vinegar
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons sweet chili sauce
2 teaspoons white sugar
3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh
cilantro
1/4 red onion, finely diced, or more to
taste
4 cups shredded green cabbage, or more
to taste

DIRECTIONS:
1. Whisk mayonnaise, lime zest, lime juice, rice vinegar, garlic, sweet chili sauce, and sugar in a large bowl, stirring to dissolve sugar. Mix cilantro and red onion into dressing. Stir cabbage into dressing mixture, about 1 cup at a time, until all cabbage is coated.

NOTES:
We added in shredded carrots and didn't use sweet chili sauce because we didn't have any to hand.
1 whole large-ish head of our cabbage plus carrots and the rest all fit into our 6-quart KitchenAid mixer.

Cilantro-Lime Coleslaw from AllRecipes.com

Baby lambs!

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Surprise Surprise!  not one but TWO new little lambs on the 3rd and 4th of July!

Can you find them both?

YouTube video

Ginger's Memoirs - The Raspberry Thief

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Every year, Mom and I would make delicious red raspberry jams and preserves to enjoy all winter long.  We had grown two of the best thirty foot rows of raspberry bushes just for that purpose.  There was one particular year that was looking like a bumper crop.  The morning we went out to pick our berries, there wasn’t a single ripe berry on a single branch.  The whole patch was picked clean!  A few days later, as more berries began to ripen to perfection, we found the culprit!  Our collie-shepherd farm dog had discovered the perfect way to curl his lips and use his teeth to gently pick each ripe raspberry.  We never thought we would have to fence out the dog more than the birds from our berry patch.  Every summer after that we had the most forlorn looking dog sitting outside the new raspberry fence.

Ginger's Memoirs - The Geese

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My folks were new to farming but wanted to raise geese. So, they ordered them and Mom and I picked them up at the Eldridge Post Office in a three foot by three foot, five inch tall box. We took them home and put them in a pen in our summer kitchen. After a couple of weeks, Mom and I decided to let them swim in the two foot deep horse trough. They loved it! They paddled around, bobbing their heads. Everything was great! We decided to run into town (about 20 minutes away) and leave the goslings to play. What we didn’t realize is that goslings get their waterproofing from their mother. Since they did not have a mother goose, we returned to find 23 little heads and beaks just barely floating above the water and little feet going like crazy to keep themselves afloat! We spent the rest of the afternoon drying off and warming up drenched goslings under a heat lamp and keeping them moving. We were lucky and saved all twenty three goslings.

WE FOUND MORE PIGS!!!

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See? I told you we'd let you know.

We have discovered that one of our neighbors who is less than 5 miles from us is getting back in the hog business after several decades.

Their pigs are of various breed mixes so this'll be very exciting.

We have not yet finalized pricing on custom hogs yet but we anticipate having pricing finalized by the end of July at which point I will publish our Info Sheet for all to see!  You'll be able to find it here and at all the markets.

If you are interested, you can see what last year's pricing was HERE.  If you know you want to be at the top of the list to buy a whole or half hog, please email us at OmacheFarm@gmail.com.


Hooray!

Ginger's Memoirs

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For YEARS Jason’s family have been trying to get Ginger to write down all the different stories she tells us about her life growing up on a farm in Illinois in the 1940s and 50s. Sneaky little me has found a way and talked her into contributing to the newsletter each week! Lucky You! Presenting…

Ginger's Memoirs

In what you could call a series, we will share short stories from Ginger of her life growing up on her parents' farm.  You can tune in every week (most weeks) or you can search the blog posts for "Ginger's Memoirs".

If you would like to hear Ginger tell the story, come visit us at Markets, she is there most of the time.  Reading the stories are great but hearing Ginger tell it is even better!  (hmm... do I hear folks want videos of these stories? hmmm...)

Cabbage Coleslaw

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I used to hate coleslaw.  Despise it.  As it happens, what I really hate is the preservatives and oey-goey white… something that seems to be present in quantities more vast than the supposed star of the recipe: Cabbage.  And frankly, if you have a mandolin or cabbage board or accessory for your kitchenaid, it’s really easy.  It was one of the most favorite dishes I would make for my fraternity boys.  If it got their approval, I’m sure it’ll get yours!

Creamy Cole Slaw

Recipe courtesy Bobby Flay  http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/creamy-cole-slaw-recipe/index.html

Prep Time:10 min  Inactive Prep Time: -- Cook Time: --

Level:  Easy  Serves:  8 servings

Seasonality

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Just this morning, while trellising tomatoes and cucumbers in the hoophouse, Jason found the very first ripe cucumber!  It was so amazingly juicy and cucumber-y and amazing as it is, cool on the inside.  Just barely.  We have a tradition around here that I hope gets almost downright silly in future years.  Whenever someone finds the first ripe something that is best eaten fresh, like a tomato or cucumber, everyone gets to share a piece.  That includes the first cherry tomato… yeah, go ahead and imagine that.  Now imagine that with employees someday… are you laughing yet?  Yeah, me too.