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Moose Manor Hives Inspection

7/16/2013

This year we embarked on our first bee adventure. We bought 2 complete hives and one package of Carniolan bees from our good friends at AzureB in Marbury, MD. The single leg on these homemade hive-stands makes it easier to keep out hive pests like ants and beetles by giving them only one route which we can guard by wrapping it with tape (sticky side out) and liberally applying cinnamon at the base. They're also tall enough to make it comfortable to manage the bees with out a lot of bending and, most importantly, to keep skunks from scratching and eating bees at night.

We also ordered a nuc of Russian Bee's from Pristine Valley Farms in Harford County, MD in order to try out two different races of bee's and see which overwinters better. Eventually, I suspect we'll end up with just one race and we understand that there's a possibility that it will be a hybrid of the two. All I really care about is making sure I have strong, healthy bees that are sustainable without chemicals and thrive in my specific ecosystem.

Here's the photojournal of our recent hive inspection to see how all the ladies have been doing so far:

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My 5th Annual Low-Country Boil

10/9/2012

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Every year in September (or occasionally October) we host a Low-Country Boil at the farm to gather friends, family, and our extended farm family together for a merry MooseMeet before the weather officially cools off for the year. It's a fine time to take a short break to assess the change of seasons, kick up our heels momentarily, then dive head first into autumn!

I'd like to kick this post off by thanking my good friends Alisa Harkins and Bonnie Aills for their dynamite photography skills, as I had my hands full during the event and was forced to relinquish my camera. Thank you, ladies - a fine portrayal!

While we're officially high of the Low-Country here in Southern Maryland, we Mooseherders continue to refer to this as Frogmore Stew - you may say Beaufort Boil in your neck of the woods - either way I'm sure we can agree to call this one-pot-wonder delicious fun! The bigger the crowd the bigger the pot... and this here is a 2-potter.

This is usually my largest MooseMeet of the year with about 50 folks... and certainly the one with the best atmosphere...I surely do love those twinkly lights! And I love autumn, there's just something about the crispy little breezes that blow through in late September that let you know fall is coming. I always thought it was the faint scent of pencil shavings but I'm officially too old to lay out such a claim - LOL!

Instead, I present for your appraisal, the comforting aroma of Frogmore Stew with that luxurious yet down-home fragrance of shrimp and crawdaddies cooking up with tasty Cajun sausages and veggies. I serve this up with a nice big plate of specially prepared cornbread - moist, sweet, and full of chunky bits of corn kernels.... mmmmm!

Between arriving and eating, while you visit with your neighbors, enjoy the fine southern music, and inhale the intoxicating piquancy of boiling low-country spices and seafood, you can imbibe on the homemade sangria to kindle your appetite. We call 'em 'Boat Drinks' but, I warn you, there are no tiny umbrellas to protect you when you're up a beer river without a paddle...

D & B fearlessly brace against the steam and hot cascades of water to deliver the main dish

Then, before you know it, the main dish is served: Boiling crawdads, shrimp and veggies are poured out of a couple of heavy pots we've had heating on the fire! Stand back while the hot water cascades over the sides... there's lots of good grub for everyone to dig into,

Ahhhh... this right here is the fun part, folks!

B weaves his cajun magic over the Frogmore Stew

Right before the hungry crowd descends, we add more of that red magic seasoning to top off the boil.... sorry but the incantations remain a closely guarded secret.

These larger affairs usually require two separate firepits so everyone can get the opportunity to wield a sharp poking device and stand/sit close enough to enjoy an interesting conversation and the warmth of the fire. We've strategically placed the 'mobile fire' around the main dining area so that folks can wander from one entertaining group to another, there's never a dearth of diverse dialogue irreverently dancing about... there are some fun story-tellers in this group!

For those few of my wonderfully effervescent friends who missed the event this year - we missed you too! Hurry back next fall. For all those treasured friends who were able to help us eat all this food, entertain all these guests, and drink all the beer, thank you! I hope we have a standing date for next September.

Delicious Frogmore Stew!

MooseHerder for the Day

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Sharpsburg Poultry Swap & Farmers Market, Fall Edition

9/20/2012

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Sharpsburg, Maryland is a picturesque landscape of rolling hills and farmland with a very charming and nostalgic downtown that looks like it was lifted directly from a snapshot of the 1800's. The town is near the West Virginia and Pennsylvania borders, tucked in beside the Antietam Battlefield and Historic Harper’s Ferry; it's a rather beautiful and bucolic 2 1/2 hour drive from my tiny farm in Southern Maryland.

Speaking of charming, this swap is hosted at Green Hill Farm by Erin Moshier, a delightfully sunny gal with an infectious smile. Twice each year (summer and fall) she hosts a fun poultry swap at her family farm just minutes from the center of downtown Sharpsburg. But once you turn down that gravel road leading to the poultry barn and the horse stables where curious pony's whinny hello's over the fence, you feel miles and miles from anything but the countryside.

My MooseHerders and I arrived early in the morning with a modest selection of ducks, chickens and geese and quickly put up our canopy, table and portable poultry pen. The feathered flock was soon nibbling on Erin's pasture and getting rehydrated after a long car ride. Folks were milling about prior to the 8am "selling start time" and were very curious about what poultry or farm related product each vendor was preparing to sell out of that day.

I had 2 extra Holderread Penciled Indian Runner boys from my spring order I was preparing to sell. Those birds were as nervous as ever and abjectly refused to stand at ease; they chose instead to peer nervously at their growing audience and sort of dance from foot to foot like a 5 year old who needs to use the potty. The young Sebstapol goose was taking everything in stride (I could have sold him 10 times over!), and my affable juvenile Welsh Harlequin was attempting to charm the chickens into being his pals for the day (since he was raised by a chicken mama and didn't know he was a duck) and those Marans cockerels were not having any of it. All in all it was shaping up to be an interesting day at my booth.

Browsers stopped by to ask over and over again what the heck kind of birds those Penciled Indian Runners were ("are those some kind of goose?") and before too long a somber and truly gentlemanly young man hailing from West-By-God-Virginia quietly asked me if I'd be willing to sell him those lovely Runner ducks (he said it just like that). I was more than happy to negotiate a price for that gracious, young aspiring farmer and help him carry his new waterfowl to his car. Such a peach, I wish him well.

Tons of folks stopped by to chat with me at length, get advice about waterfowl, and tell me about their own flock. I gave out many business cards and collected a few as well. What a great place to network! There was so much to see and hear at the swap: Craftsman selling poultry housing and nesting equipment, crafty-crafter ladies peddling so many wonderful handhewn wares, local feed stores, chicken farmers, duck farmers, guinea keets, peacocks, muscovy, turkeys, pheasants, chukar, bunnies, goats, and pigs (ADORABLE)... I even saw guinea pigs!

And - holy moly - Someone had the nerve to bring some gorgeous German Shorthair puppies... O My GOODNESS! Those hounds were absolutely snugglicious! I barely contained myself at that booth. I reminded my hard farmrgirl heart that hunting dogs and ducks were not the best bedfellows. *sigh*

We had such a good time at the swap! There was live music and great giveaways. I bought a few things, sold a few things and met a bunch of interesting and fun folks. You just never know who you might make a good friend out of until you go to one of these events! For the upcoming spring/summer swap I'll be loaded up with hatching eggs, eating eggs, baby ducks, geese and chickens to sell in the early summer at Erin's next poultry swap... this event is too good to pass up! I hope you'll join us all next year - especially at the early market when all those spring hatches will be ready.

For more information or to be added to her mailing list, Erin's blog can be found here: http://mdpoultryswap.blogspot.com/.

Don't forget: When you're in the area be sure to have lunch in one of the local establishments. We did (twice - once in Boonsboro) and were NOT disappointed mmmmm... good!

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When You Can't Eat it All you Can

10/26/2011

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Yeah, I march to the beat of my own drum. {shrug} meh… it makes me interesting (or weird depending on your perspective).

As odd as it sounds to folks who buy all their veggies at the supermarket, there was a time in my life when I did a lot of canning. I had more time in my time then… I actually did a lot of sewing and crafting and other dorkey stuff, like square dancing. Hmmmmm… where did all my “free” time get off to? I guess the ducks ate it.

Most folks do their canning in the oppressive heat of August because that's when the biggest portion of the fruit is ripe. It’s a cruel trick of timing to be trapped in an already steamy kitchen with 10 boiling pots on the stove and a pressure canner hissing loudly for hours on end. This is why I would like to build a “summer kitchen” outside where I can do the everyday grilling as well as the canning. No sense in heating up the house that you pay good money to cool, right?

So, the reason I wasn’t canning with the rest of the country is that, while I had a million blossoms in the garden, I was terribly short on pollinators this year. That's why there's no tomato sauce or pickled peppers or salsa or green beans put up at my house for winter {sigh}. I had just about enough to cover some of my own meals but not all the extra I had planned and planted for. There's always next year... guess I may need to look into raising my own bees since Monsanto is doing a bang-up job of killing all the others.

Farmer Jackie, Mooseherder

However, I do have other things that need to be put up for the winter. My friend, George gave me a large grocery bag full of apples from his tree, which were preserved this weekend. And next month I plan to put as many chickens into Mason jars as possible so that making dinner doesn't require 24 hours of thawing a whole bird. Some days I just can’t spare the brain bandwidth to plan more than 5 minutes in advance. I would like an order of convienent chicken triple grande, organic half-skinny, no-foam, low salt, without the preservatives please.

To that end, this weekend Farmer Jackie and I dusted off the old canning equipment and pulled out my boxes of jars, lids, and rings. It was a good test run before the serious work began. She also made 3 big pots of soups for us to freeze so that we could have healthy, hearty (and thrifty) lunches for the next couple of weeks. MMMMMMM… made from scratch lentil, split pea, and yellow pea soups. Yummo!

So once the dried legumes were re-hydraded, the various soups were set on the stove to do their thing...