Update: October 2012

Things are winding down on the farm. James the oldest grandson in the family got his first lesson in tilling the fields today! He did a great job!!! It was such a beautiful fall day too, sunny, blue sky, fall colors, and a view of the mountains! Under the row cover we have some broccoli and cauliflower still growing.

We even got a smile out of him in this one! Who doesn't love riding on the tractor right???

In house one we pulled all the cucumbers except a few experimental ones that we started way too late but decided to leave them in and see what happens. The peppers are still hanging in there and actually have blossoms forming and peppers still growing! 

These may be the only cucumbers we get from these plants, the growth has slowed way down and although they have new blossoms they are growing VERY slow!

We also have some greens growing in this house. They are loving the cool temps!!! It seems like every time you walk in here they have gotten bigger! 

House two is another story... these tomatoes have finally succcumbed to the late blight that is so rampant this year. The greenhouse protected them for quite a while but in this photo you will notice towards the top the browning and dead leaves. On closer inspection it's a mess in here!!!

We still have some good reds here and there and lots of greens too. Maybe some green tomato mincemeat is in order???

Our New {Old} Farm Stand

The skies were darkening and the wind was blowing hard so we made the decision to take down our tent/farm stand. We collapsed the tent and put away all the veggies and other goods preparing for the storm. What seems like only minutes later... the skies were clear??? That's fall in NH for you! 

Setting the tent up again seemed futile since the forecast was very iffy. Sooooooo...... even though the milk house (see this post) was not quite ready yet... we moved in anyway!

It was a great move! It is now much easier to open up and close down and we do not have to worry about crazy fall weather blowing our tent down. 

Here are some shots of the inside. It needs a fresh coat of paint in there but at the same time feels like a rustic farm building. Very quaint!

Still a great assortment of veggies left! Although this is the last of the tomatoes and eggplant, get them while they last!

Our new honey shelf! Check out the ribbons from the Sandwich Fair, Best in Show for the frame of honey comb and  a blue ribbon on the jar!!!

 Also had room in the corner for some Lizzie-Tish Designs bags and other items! We have some great re-usuable snack bags and mesh produce bags for sale!

 Come check out our new {old} set up! :-)

Jackson Farmers Market Photo's

 This was our second week at the Jackson Farmers Market. We were blessed with a beautiful day! Great for taking pictures too! Here are a few of our set up.

Our sign. Small but to the point.

Besides the veggies, honey and maple syrup, we also have bags made by Liz and muffins made by Sarah! Yum!!

Some of our yummy veggies.

A close-up of Lizzie-Tish Designs Bags.

Lot's of HUGE zucchini this week!

Thanks to Pat for fixing our shelf so that we had a nice display for our honey and maple syrup! 

 Please come and visit us on Saturdays from 9 to 1 at the Jackson Farmers Market! It is located next to the Snowflake Inn. We are also planning on trying out the new Ctr. Conway Farmers Market on Fridays from 12 to 5pm at the Country Hearth and Home Store located between the Post Office and the Rec.Center. 

Our stand is also open each day on Tasker Hill if you miss us at the Markets. 

Growing Update

The growing has begun in the high tunnels! We have cukes and tomatoes already planted and will be adding peppers and eggplant soon. You can see our soon to be farm stand off in the background, it needs quite a makeover but will be so cute when finished!

 We had some very frosty nights as you can see from this photo of Mt. Washington bright white and covered with snow. It was such a contrast from the greenery and blooming flowers down here in the valley.

Joanies Refrigerator Pickles

We really enjoyed these pickles over the summer and even still have some in the fridge! 

Joanies Refrigerator Pickles

5 cups sugar

4 cups vinegar

1/3 cup salt

1 1/2 tsp. mustard seed

1/2 tsp. celery salt

1 tsp. tumeric

cucumbers

onions***

Directions:

Fill a 1 gallon jar 3/4 with thinly sliced cucumbers and 1/4 with thinly sliced onion alternating each and packing them in tightly. We have also used 4 quart jars instead and it worked just fine. In a large pot combine the rest of the ingredients and warm slightly until the sugar is dissolved. Fill each jar with the liquid mixture, cover and place in the fridge. They will be ready in 1 week but will last a LONG time if you have room to store them in your fridge.

***Note: We have also made this recipe without onions for those picky eaters.

Harvest and Canning Update

We are thrilled to be harvesting lots of veggies! Our cucumber plants are producing lots of delicious cukes for eating and pickling. We have made LOTS of jars of pickles so far as our goal is to provide all we will need for the whole year. It's looking like we even have more than we need and hope to have a stand out for selling soon.

Here are some dills almost ready to be sealed. Most of the recipes have been passed down through Joan's family. We can't wait to open one of these up and give them a try!

Beans have also been coming in by the basket full! We canned 18 jars the other night!!

We had some tomatoes with blossom end rot that we decided to pick off while still green and let the good ones continue to grow. Since it was hard for us to throw all those tomatoes away we turned them into Green Tomato Mincemeat!

Stay tuned for our recipes which we will be posting soon!

Tunnel #1 Update 7/16/11

We are all so thrilled to see our veggies GROWING bigger and bigger each day! Check out these green tomatoes! We can't wait to sink our teeth into these!!

The cherry tomatoes are doing really well also. There are even some starting to turn orange.

We just started to pick cucumbers. If we are not diligent about snipping off runners it is like a real jungle in there!

The leaves are huge!!

This is the very first vine to reach the top bar! We will now train it to come back down over the bar and let one of the runners go so it will now have two vines.

Outside tunnel #1 is looking really great with the addition of these doors that let the sun shine through in the morning!