Easter Egg Radishes, Speckled Trouts Back & Oak leaf Lettuce

J&O harvested lettuce today - learning their names - Speckled Trouts Back, Devils Tongue, Bronze Arrowhead, Black Seeded Simpson. Butter leaf Cos, Red Ruffle, Amish Deer Tongue, Susan's Red Bib, Forellenschuss, Sanguine Ameliore, Red Oak Leaf, Lambs Quarter - the sweetness of words with their taste on their tongues.

Added chevre, oil and vinegar and lunch was fresh, crisp and sweet - it seemed exotic though I know by June it will seem... well...ordinary.


The asparagus has arrived and for the past 2 weeks we have been shlepping it off on friends. Mikes gout prevents him from consuming his favorite vegetable. So, rather then tempt him by preparing it for dinner, the kids and I gourge ourselves at breakfast and lunch then hand off pounds at a time to friends on the sly.


Ri's at 3 started his own vegetable plot. When asked what he wanted to grow - he replied "radishes". What else? "radishes". So he has radishes - lots of radishes. Here he is holding his first crop 3 weeks from date of planting. The Raphanus sativus, Easter Egg is a productive radish which produces flavorful multi-colored radishes. Radishes are red, pink, purple, violet, and white. The roots stay crisp even when quite large and is excellent in salads.

Radishes are an excellent choice for a children's garden. They sprout almost immediately, and give instant gratification to young gardeners. They need to be thinned and the kids seem to enjoy eating as they go.


The Austrolop chicks have grown and are nearly ready to be yarded. I noticed recently that The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy have moved them to their recovering list This means there are fewer then 3,000 breeding birds in the US and they remain globally endangered. 26 are in our yard now, clucking happily.

The Black Java's we began raising several years ago remain remain on the watch list. Phool will be pleased to know that at the ripe age of 8 he is no longer an endangered species thanks to his prolific breeding. These birds were originally favored by early pioneers because of their hardiness and versitility. As modern homesteader, we have been equally as happy with this breeds overall performance. It has excellent speckled brown egg production (even in winter) and has provided ample meat from pullets. I would also recommend these to anyone considering home egg production - their rich brown eggs a have reddish brown speckling that is especially attractive.

For more information on these or other breeds of endangered poultry please follow this link to the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy http://albc-usa.org/cpl/wtchlist.html#chickens.

Pets or Meat? A homesteading parents dilemna

This year J and O - (ages 3 and 5) have hand reared orphaned lambs since they were only a week old. These Lambs had names and they are not the usual meal related names such as Kabob, Curry, Gyros, or Braised with gremolata and a side of baked stuffed polanta.

These lambs have PET names - Sunshine, Moonbeam and Starlight. They come when called and perform tricks upon demand - bounding 3 feet straight up in the air for a raisin treat. They have rainbow colored collars in case they get loose and animal control happens to be around.

So the dilemna - which to serve for easter dinner... and how to break it to the kids. After some discussion about similar, past experiences with J - it was determined to tell them and let them say goodbye to their "animal friend". We explained that we had chosen a lamb to eat for Easter and when would they like to say goodbye to it. No options.

The kids were actually stoic about it - although their favorite was chosen. Sunshine - the runt - the lamb who enjoyed regular rides in the doll stroller and looked especially cute in toddler clothing. Sunshine was not growing and like most other runts we have had experience with was eating 1/2 of the food each day though only 1/2 the size of the other 2 lambs.

They only screamed "NO DAD DO NOT KILL MY LAMB" for about 10 minutes. When offered the option of becoming Vegetarians and not eating meat - they inquired "Can we eat Hotdogs and cheeseburgers if we are Vegetarians?". Then a long list of food they love - How about bacon, sausage, turkey... Once Mike informed them that Gyros is made from lamb, their attitude suddenly changed. The tears stopped. They LOVE GYROS and we never eat out. How Mike will make it, I have no idea - but it is his problem. My problem is figuuring out what to say when the kids decide to tell strangers in the check out at the grocer "My Dad killed my lamb". Letting them know it is OK to be sad, Sunshine was their friend but she is part of our food chain. Not try to make it better. Let them mourn for awhile.

Sunshine was a runt, the smallest of quadruplets, when she arrived at our home she could not walk through almost a week old. She was not even half the size of a normal sheep her age. At a commercial farm she would have been culled almost immediately - Our neighbor - a small family farmer dropper fed her colostrom the first several days of her life then brought her to us. We bottle fed her every 4 hours for 8 weeks. At 6 weeks she developed Pnemonia and I was sure she would die. I carried her in warm blankets and a sling, fed her probably more then I should have. Rejoiced when she recovered - worried about all of them when they moved out of the house and into the barn. Harvested their manure for the compost pile every week.

It probably would have been easier to go to the store and buy some nameless faceless piece of meat. But then, would I be as thankful as I am now - for the experience of knowing my meal.

Michael stresses the point that the most humane was to kill a lamb is a hollowtipped 22 to the brain and then, cut their throat with a clean blade as soon as they hit the ground. They skin up just like a really large rabbit. Do not do this where your children or neighbors will see you. It does not matter how much they like Gyros - it is a bloody mess.

See the links for my favorite Lamb recipe.

Heirloom Tomatoes

Spring has barely sprung. There is still a late snow on the ground from last night - now nearly melted. Lettuce, Spinach, potatoes, leeks, snowpea's all planted. The beds for early crops have all been sheet mulched and new beds laid out and worked - thanks to the uncommonly warm spring.

The Windows Sills are overflowing with Tomato's. I have cut back on my addiction and have only 120 transplants this year. Potato leaf, fir leaf, determinate, indeterminate, all open pollinated heirloom seeds I have hoarded since last summer, along with others passed along by friends and even some strangers who know me as the "Tomato Lady" and send me anything odd. The huddle under the grow light's 12 to a flat - their leaves arching. They have seemed to especially thrive this year with the addition of Worm Castings to the seed starting mix. With only a few exceptions (and since they were hybrids I do not think they count) I have never met a tomato I did not like. I have been practicing smiling and nodding gently when people say "Early Girl" so as not to offend.

All winter I dream of fresh tomatoes fresh off the vine. Though we can, freeze and dry hundreds of quarts of tomatoes in various forms (diced, whole, sauce, chutney, jelly, crushed, salsa) usually, no matter how many we have "put up", we are out by Mid-March. Luckily this is when the Seed Catalogs arrive.

All of those packets people have passed on to me with only names scrawled across the top now have descriptions - some even have photos - some of the mystery is lifted as I read in Seed Savers that the strange Juanne Flamme seed passed to me by a friend is actually an apricot shaped French Heirloom known for retaining its color and flavor when dried. The Tomato fest website comments on the Red Zebras "HUGE" amounts of 2inch red and Yellow striped fruits. Double Rich has as twice as much vitamin C as an orange.

Turns out that odd envelope made of an old girly magazine and marked "Deep Sea Diver" given to me by a Harley Rider last fall is most likely "Black Sea Man" . Offered by Seed Savers Exchange this small determinate Russian Heirloom is a Mahogany colored with olive green shoulders. The 12 - 16 oz tomatos are said to turn oddly skeletal when blanched. When offered an envelope marked "persimmon" last year I was thought it contained seeds for a tree - when opened however it obviously contained tomato seeds. A short jog on the internet reveals that Persimmon is one of the most flavorful orange tomatoes with fruits up to 2#'s.

Also on the window sills: Sweetgold, sungold, sweetness - 4 varieties of romas, Silver Fir, Amish Paste, Green Zebra, Marvel Stripe, Black Krim, Grandma Olivers Green, Cherokee Purple, Suddeths Brandwine, Arkansas Traveler, Hillbilly, Box Car Willie.

Lovingly tending to 30 plants (to share with others) from seed which I found in an envelope taped to the front door several years ago. The envelope was marked in a shakey victorianesque script from before the days of ball and stick writing.

"My grandfathers girlfriend "Consuletta" an Italian Heirloom. - grown by my family since the begining of time. my great grandfather smuggled in his shoe into the states. Deep red and lobed - great for stuffing and freezing whole. Unbeatable for flavor in canned or fresh sauces. Mom said they called her his girlfriend because he spent so much time in the garden. Enjoy and Share."

Somehow it seems the varieties with stories taste sweeter.

Goats in the barn, Sheep and Chicks in the kitchen.

Michael is becoming very concerned over his goats pregnancy status. "Do you think they are pregnant" he inquires several times a day. It is making me batty. He has tested there nipple elasticity, felt their uterus height and done everything short of chasing them around with an EPT test trying to catch them in the act of urinating. (FYI over the counter pregnancy tests humans are not accurate indicators of pregnancy in ruminant's.) He is still has no idea if they are carrying or not. I would think that that the # of "date's" that he took them on, at a neighboring goat farm, in the fall would have insured us of kids this spring - yet he is somehow convinced that "they did not take". The ladies (Nettles and Lassie) are very patient with his attentions - but now run to me whenever he approaches them. Personally I think they are pregnant - they have that mothering aura about them and their hips are spreading.

The baby lambs we received from our neighbor Larry are now 8 weeks old and in the barn - having outgrown their accommodation's in the house. Their bottle feedings every 4 hours - over and done with - Moonbeam (aka Fatso - aka Easter) is approaching eating weight. Their spot in the kitchen has been filled by 25 chicks - all female - for Johnna's endangered chicken egg business. her motto - "save an endangered species by putting them on the plate where they belong". Her price $5.00 for 18 - why - not because they are organic free range endangered species but because " they are rainbow (colored) and I'm cute". I am begining to regret telling her she could have a horse if she bought one herself.