Grapes are ready to juice or make jam. Picked a 5 gallon bucket last evening in about 10 minutes from the arbor by the house. The garden grapes are just as thick! The juicer will be steaming until there's about 12 quarts ready for juice or jelly. Last year a lot of grapes simply fell off one day and that was the end of the season.
Tomatoes are finally getting ripe but not in the abundance of last year. Seems like we just didn't have enough really hot, sunny days to give them the boost they need. But, there will be salsa and juice and plenty of spaghetti sauce. Carrots are the best in years. Friend, Paulette, and I canned about 40 pints of carrots and 50 pints of potatoes. It was a new venture for us and one we just had to try. The jars of orange and white look gorgeous! Such fun! Beets are just waiting to be pickled and canned. Too bad so much produce comes at one time.
Sauerkraut is on week 3. We did some regular kraut and then some with caraway, mustard seeds, and green apples. We are anxious to see how it turns out. One cabbage weighed 17 lbs. We sliced it in the food processor, and Tom stomped it with his homemade stomper. It's a lot of work but doesn't take long. It's another one of those processes we had to try a few years back and just can't quit!
Apples on the old tree are beginning to fall - nature's way of saying "get out here and pick me!" We have 4 bags of dried apples ready for the grandkids and 6 quarts of apple pie filling. We need to do lots more but that will have to wait until mid-October. There just aren't enough hours in the day!
Neighbor, Joe, is chopping corn so we know it will soon be time to pick the small field we have. Seems like it was just planted. Where did summer go?
Belle is growing - she's into the adolescent stage right now. We had forgotten what a puppy can find to chew. She loves ice cream pails and carries them by the handle in her mouth - looks like she's really on a mission. Learning not to jump on people is a really hard lesson. She knows what we say and will stay down but it is so hard when you are so very happy to see everyone! Casey is still ignoring her as best he can. That still makes Belle stand back and give him a look like, "what is your problem?"
We had a funeral on Saturday - Tom's cousin, Bob. Once again we have to stop and take a good long look around us. We know that things will never be the same again, the lesson we learn each time someone dies. And, once again, we are overwhelmed by how very fortunate we have been over our lives with family and friends. We will miss him.
Take care, all of you.

Let's go

Weekend of the 4th is over and back to business. Strawberries are winding down, this will be the last week we pick. Tom will mow them off in another week. It always looks so awful with the plants mowed but they soon come back with new growth for next year. Berries were so good this year, thanks to Mother Nature's cooperation and lots of hard work. The new patch of trial strawberries is coming along well. We're already anxious to see what they bring next summer.

Mike, Lisa, Kyle and Cody spent the holiday with us; the boys stayed and Lisa will be back to get them this week. She has to get her "berry picking fix!" Yesterday morning she picked 6 quarts of red raspberries to take back to Kansas. As usual, Lisa made jam - she loves to give it to her friends and the teachers as gifts.

The boys and I are planning to get dozens of little chores done that have been ignored the past 3 weeks. We saw "Ice Age 3" last night and enjoyed it immensely. Even they are fascinated by the fact all 4 of us can go to River Falls for a movie, popcorn and a soda for about $15. They love it!

Jane and the girls will be back on Thursday so we'll have a busy house for a few days. Such fun! Hopefully Mikes' family can join us somewhere in there. Kids, bikes, picnics and just being outside - isn't that what summer is all about! (and don't forget the berries!)

For those of you who don't know, that last picture is son-in-law, Mike Moose at the Kansas City Barbeque Contest with Guy Fieri from Food Network. Not sure how he does it but Mike meets some really neat people!

OOOOPS! Grandma's shortcakes need a fourth cup of sugar!

Grandma's Shortcakes
2 cups flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 stick butter
Mix dry ingredients until crumbly (can use fingers or food processor)
Gently stir in 3/4 cup milk or light cream, stirring until just blended.
Lightly roll out to 1/2 thick, cut circles and place half on oiled baking sheet.
Spread small amount of soft butter on each circle on baking sheet and top with the rest of th e circles. Bake about 10 minutes at 450 or until golden brown.

My grandmother made these shortcakes - they absolutely melt in your mouth. The two layers of cake with the butter in between make them easy to separate and beautiful to look at. Margarine can be used but the results are not the same. She always sliced the berries and sprinkled on very little sugar, just enough to make juice. Next to her chicken and biscuits, this was a favorite with my brothers and me. More on here chicken and biscuits later.

Jane and the girls were here over the weeked. Those little smiling faces were constantly smeared with strawberry juice. Not sure which of them could eat the most! Between running from the patch to the house and riding bicycles back and forth, they were exhausted at bedtime. Meg ate two huge bowls of strawberry shortcake! Jane made 4 batches of freezer jam - one large container is gone already!

Berries, berries and more berries! Yesterday was day 8 of picking and the strawberries haven't even begun to slow down! We started the day with an inch of rain in about an hour - then came the sun and the heat. Surprisingly, it quickly dried off and the berries were wonderful. It's to be another hot day today and lots of "U-Pic" folks have called to say they will be here. Tom needs to invent a strawberry picker that can go down a row, single out the ripest berries and put them in a basket. That's the only way all the berries will ever get picked.
Raspberries are coming in about 2 weeks. The briars are loaded with green berries. We are guessing that they will be huge since the weather has been perfect for them. They are the only berry on the place that turkeys don't bother!
The blueberries are growing daily. The bushes suffered some from the winter but there will still be lots of them if the turkeys stay away. We are going to try some mylar ribbons to see if that will scare them away - not counting on it!
The rest of the garden simply jumped this past week. I think everything out there doubled or tripled in size. We laugh when we say it but we think we can hear the corn grow and are sure if you stood there and watched, you could see it grow!
Jane and the girls are coming today. It's rodeo weekend and a pancake breakfast for June Dairy Days in the morning. It will be busy but lots of fun. The drive way has several puddles; Alex is now riding her bike without training wheels so........ And it won't be just Alex! Katie is going to have a lemonade stand. Megan will probably be in the barn with the cats or on Grampa's heels. Jane is certainly a busy mom!
Well, it's out to the berry patch. Hope to see you there!

Berries are incredibly good! Had some more rain, solid gold it is, and the patch is just bursting with those lucious berries. Decided today I would freeze them in 4 cup mashed portions for freezer jam and worry about making the jam later. Just not enough hours in the day. The humidity and heat today were not the usual Wisconsin type of weather - hope it is not a taste of more to come!

What a difference a good rain makes! This is day 3 and picking is going well, getting better each day. We were sold out of picked berries each day by noon. That's good but we hate to disappoint folks who call later in the day. Not many "U-Pic" folks yet, probably because yesterday and today were so hot and muggy. We started right at 7 am this morning and the patch was really dew soaked. However, that didn't slow anyone down.
The photos of the Lindquist girls, Jenny, Ellen and Gina (from left to right) were taken about 8 am. (I am still working on writing in blog style so bear with me and the confusing caption on the photos). They arrived bright and early for their first strawberry picking venture. Their parents, Dave and Linda, have purchased an orchard and have planted an orchard on their farm. We are anxious for their apples to ripen! It's certainly another great addition to the Glen Hills area.
Lots of conversation this morning about the amount of sugar in jams and jellies. Ball makes a freezer jam pectin that takes only 1 1/2 cups sugar to 4 cups crushed berries. Our family thinks it is excellent. It has to be since they are great jam eaters and very choosy about it! The regular Surejell recipe calls for 5 cups sugar and another calls for 3 cups. Undoubtedly, the lower sugar has to be better for all of us!
Tom is off to cut hay for friend, Bob, who took a dive off his hay rack and fractured some vertebrae in his back. He's a lucky man to be able to tell the story!
It's chicken on the grill tonight with some strawberry shortcake for dessert. Just might have dessert first!
I am off to finish mowing. That is the only drawback to rain - gotta mow more!

Strawberry picking begins Thursday. The Annapolis berries are ready. These berries are medium sized, sweet and juicy, good for freezing, jam or just enjoying! The Honeoye are slower and not as large as we would like -they need a good rain! - but they are still good and will be ready early next week. It's a good idea to give us a call or an email before driving too far.
Happy Picking!

Looks like there will be ripe strawberries about the middle of next week (if we can keep Tom out of there). Be sure and call or email us to know for sure. Bring your own bucket and save a dollar! Or pick in one of ours and put them into your containers. We will have quart containers at no charge. See you soon!

Tom just ate the first ripe strawberry! Keep watching for picking day!

On the average there are 400 tiny seeds in a strawberry!

Rain! Finally! When everyone around was getting some of that precious rain, we were green with envy. We means us and not our garden! After a couple of weeks of watering we had an inch of rain over the weekend. What a difference it makes.
Asparagus is coming to an end. I pickled 7 quarts yesterday, probably my last. This week will definitely be the end of the cutting. There's lots of asparagus soup in the freezer so keep that in mind next winter. The end of the asparagus season is always sad but it means strawberries are just around the corner. We are still predicting picking to begin around the 20th.
Strawberry season is such fun. We see our "seasonal friends" and enjoy their yearly visit. There's a picnic table available under the maple trees. We've a cooler with water and soda; if it's a cool morning, we might even find a coffee pot! This year we are having a coloring contest for kids 8 and younger. Our artist friend, Paulette, will be the judge! There's a prize for the winner! We have an abundance of kittens this year for anyone who's looking for a pet. (No, that is not the prize!) Be sure to sign our guest book at the farm. We want everyone to get a newsletter and had many undeliverable ones this last time. Berries will be available by the quart for folks who really can't use a full bucket. We have some great new recipes and would love to have any recipe folks want to share with us.
We'll be seeing you soon!

Some new pictures of life on farm. And, I need to learn how to delete doubles! The greenhouse has been so much fun this spring. Don't come if you don't want a tour because I am very proud of everything that's in there. Cilantro has always been hard for us to grow but it has just exploded in the greenhouse. We're enjoying the Mesclun mix lettuce and need to plant another container. The green onions are peeking so it's time to get another container of them going. We are not sure if the tomato plants can wait until another week to get into the ground. Tom's rule is never plant a tomato until after Memorial Day and definitely not a pepper until after the 5th of June. Must be a good rule 'cause it sure works!
The violets outside the kitchen window are simply gorgeous. I think they are one of my very favorite flowers and definitely one of the loveliest signs of spring. The lilies of the valley are just beginning to bloom and the aroma there is heavenly.
Mike and Jenny seem to think that cat belongs where you see him. Not being a cat lover, he is really challenging my patience. We have had bluebirds, indigo buntings, rose-breasted grosbeaks, gold finches, orioles and some other birds I can't name at the bird feeder. Tom moved it last fall during the construction so it's still on a temporary post. However, I don't think any of that has to do with the fact that cat is there and doesn't belong there. If he isn't harrassing the birds, the crows are. We will see what happens this week!
Frost missed us last night. From the comments of others today, we were very fortunate. The potatoes are up, the fruit trees are blooming and the magnolia tree and flowering crab are in full bloom. Last year so many fruit trees lost their blossoms to frost. Hopefully this will be the last time it gets that cold!

Last camera class tonight - learned so much - now to find time to practice and use it! Instructor was very good, patient and very knowledgeable - makes learning fun. Sad part of this class is that the Olympus we bought 6 or 7 years ago is probably obsolete. We may need to get a new camera to show off our new-learned talents. We are definitely downloading Picasa for photo management. And, we will be looking at Epson and Kodak for photo printing. Class may have cost us $4 each but that is the "tip of the iceberg," so to speak.
Asparagus sales are going well. We turned over more than 70 pounds during the first week (last week) with more going to Jane and Mike and what I used for soup. If the temp stays above 65 this week, we should do more and still have 5 or 6 weeks to go. We will never get rich on asparagus but we certainly enjoy the harvest. Our radio ad brought in 6 orders in the first week. Not bad for beginners!
Mother's Day was wonderful. We enjoyed a superb brunch at Bungalow Inn with Mike's and Jane's. Phone calls from Kansas and Seattle topped off the day. I could get really sentimental and sloppy about how great our kids are but will leave that to another night and a good bottle of wine!
Seems like we live wishing our lives away. We looked forward to the Mother's Day Brunch. Now we are looking forward to the end of the month when Patrick and Jaime come for a few days. Life would be horrible if we didn't have special times to look forward to but I worry a little about wishing it away. We may be lucky enough to have Kyle and Cody here the last week of the month. Now that is a good time to make time stand still. Then we will look forward to Labor Day and the Fesler family get-together.
May is a big month for birthdays. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JANE, KYLE, WAYNE, AND MIKE F.

Mounds of asparagus! This week we have cut about 40 pounds and the peak is yet to come. Warm days make such a difference with asparagus. If it's cool for a few days, it will quit growing. Then all of it needs to be cut or it will turn woody and curl over. There are 6 rows over 100 feet long so it will be interesting at the end of the season to add up what they produce. So far it's looking like a good year.

Great pictures from our basket weaving adventure with the Cub Scouts. The boys were really very good (not sure how the one girl got in there) but the dads were another story. Focus, focus, focus! We spent about an hour and a half weaving. It was really a pretty successful effort considering these boys had been at school all day and it was time for them to just be boys. I'm not sure where that enters into today's parenting techniques.
I was so pleased with the respect they showed toward the baskets I've woven. I planned to let them pick them up and look at them - which they did - and it was a good move. Everyone of them seemed to appreciate what the basket was. I was also amazed at what they knew about how baskets were such an important part of early cultures.
On the way out of the school, we noticed a poster that said "46% of the students believe abuse is emotional" and the power words are "you are great." Times have changed so much over the years. I think we had the easy days in raising children and truly admire the parents of today. Fathers are so much more into parenting in the present generation; that must have a tremendous impact on the future.
Lots of asparagus went out today. The rain we had this evening will really make it grow so the next week will mean lots time spent cutting and packaging. We had quite a mixture of rain and hail!
Had our first camera/computer class tonight. One of the real perks of being a senior citizen is the $4 tuition fee at WITC. Imagine 9 hours credit for $4!!!!!!! Wow! Times have really changed. Makes the years over 65 a lot nicer to handle!

Big day at the farm! We aired on the radio this morning - LIVE!!!! - and the website is now available. We had to add "Knox" to it but it's a good thing. Tom is helping bottle maple syrup at school and will plant the field corn when he gets home. (Just a small patch since Joe plants the rest of it.) Sweet corn goes in tomorrow. We've had several nice days so I am headed to the greenhouse to water plants and then to the asparagus patch to see how many pounds I can pick. This evening we are teaching a basket class to Mike's scout troop - 18 boys around Kal and Kade's ages. Might be a challenge but it will be fun. The JD 730 decided to take a vacation so we had to borrow Bob Keil's for the day. As old as the 730 is, it may take a while to restore it. Good friends and neighbors are hard to beat! Tuesday and Thursday evenings we have computer classes for camera and photos. This is a busy week. Retirement is so good. Have a super day!

Kade may have found his calling. He's been the kid who loves dinosaurs and pirates and the world of make believe. He was totally into planting potatoes and helping Grampa. When it was time to go home, he wanted to stay and work some more!

Sunrise comes earlier every morning. It's getting harder and harder to sleep much past 7 am when we are getting 14+ hours of daylight. I wonder if it confuses the roosters? However, it's a beautiful day. Tom has gone to get bottles for maple syrup. I need to get to the greenhouse to water all the plants that Paulette, Lisa, Kyle and I planted. We have way too many plants for what we need and hopefully will resist the temptation to put every single one in the ground. After all our talk about cutting back, we will undoubtedly have way more vegies than could possiibly be consumed! Tom, son Mike and his sons, Kal and Kade, planted 6 rows of red and Yukon Gold potatoes the week after Easter. Kade was so into farming - you can see his pictures on the website (www.greenhillfarm.com) that should be up and running on Monday. We asked Curtis Doornink, a high school junior, to design and build our website. His mom and Jane went to school together - still good friends. We think he did a great job. Tom's collecting eggs to hatch in the incubator. The lambs are out of the maternity pens and into the north lot jumping and running - too much energy! Daffodils are in full bloom. The bluebirds are back. Jenny Wren is fighting with the yellow tomcat. Grass will need mowing in about a week. Magnolia tree is overloaded with buds. Once again Mother Nature has proven she knows what she's doing!

Today is the first day of a new world of blogging to us. Curtis was here this afternoon and showed me how to access the blog and what our website would look like. Hopefully, it will be up on Monday so I can send the address to all our family and friends. It was a warm and good feeling day - lots done and lots accomplished. Oh, for more days like that. Asparagus is up and the season has begun. "all's right with the world." (our world, anyway). Judy

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