Friday, April 20

Tail End of the Week: Get Your Friday Farm Fix #6

Welcome to the Friday Farm Fix, a new series on Farmgirl Fare where I share a random sampling of what's been happening around the farm during the past week. Just joining us? You'll find all the Friday Farm Fix posts here.

4-20-12 Friday Farm Fix 1 - FarmgirlFare.com

It's been a pretty rough week, but there were some definite bright spots, like getting about an inch of much needed rain, seeing a bald eagle on the way to the dentist yesterday, finding out that the ache in my mouth I've been ignoring for months isn't my first ever cavity (though the dentist had no idea what actually is causing all the pain), baking some really good scones, working our way through the entire first season of Bones, laughing at little lambs, watching the garden grow.

Lots more photos below. . .

4-20-12 Friday Farm Fix 2 - FarmgirlFare.com The weirdest thing that happened was that much of the landscape changed from bright green back to brown, after last week's hard frost killed a lot of the new leaves on the trees. It looks so strange. We're down in a little valley, and in this photo you can see how the leaves didn't freeze 'up top.' More photos of Donkeyland here.

4-20-12 Friday Farm Fix 3 - FarmgirlFare.com Savory Sharp Cheddar and Chive Scones: Follow this recipe, but replace the feta and scallions with 2 cups (4 ounces) finely shredded sharp cheddar cheese and 1/2 cup chopped fresh chives. Pat dough into two 1-inch thick circles, cut each circle into 6 scones. Bake at 400° for about 20 minutes.

4-20-12 Friday Farm Fix 4 - FarmgirlFare.com

4-20-12 Friday Farm Fix 5 - FarmgirlFare.com

4-20-12 Friday Farm Fix 6 - FarmgirlFare.comWe currently have three mama hens and 14 chicks living in three different portable mini pens.

4-20-12 Friday Farm Fix 7 - FarmgirlFare.com

4-20-12 Friday Farm Fix 8 - FarmgirlFare.com

4-20-12 Friday Farm Fix 9 - FarmgirlFare.comThey're being kept very safe by stock dog Lucky Buddy Bear (who loves babies).

4-20-12 Friday Farm Fix 10 - FarmgirlFare.com And they're always hungry. More baby chick pics here.

4-20-12 Friday Farm Fix 11 - FarmgirlFare.com

4-20-12 Friday Farm Fix 12 - FarmgirlFare.com

4-20-12 Friday Farm Fix 13 - FarmgirlFare.com

4-20-12 Friday Farm Fix 14 - FarmgirlFare.com

4-20-12 Friday Farm Fix 15- FarmgirlFare.com

4-20-12 Friday Farm Fix 16 - FarmgirlFare.comBeagle Bert, junior livestock guard dog.

4-20-12 Friday Farm Fix 17 - FarmgirlFare.comWe double planted the onions so we could harvest every other one for nice spring scallions. It's almost time to start thinking about What To Do with 125 Green Onions.

4-20-12 Friday Farm Fix 18 - FarmgirlFare.com Most of the leaves on the young potato plants froze last week (despite being covered) but are recovering nicely. This is the first year I followed local tradition and planted my seed potatoes in mid-March. Next year I'll go back to waiting until April or May.

4-20-12 Friday Farm Fix 19 - FarmgirlFare.comTomorrow I'll start filling our salad bowls with thinnings from this 4'x8' raised bed of direct seeded Rocky Top lettuce mix from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. Learn how to grow your own gourmet lettuce from seed here. It's easier than you think!

4-20-12 Friday Farm Fix 20 - FarmgirlFare.com Dwarf Siberian kale and one big Tuscan kale plant direct seeded last fall on the left, new Swiss chard seedlings on the right. Learn how easy it is to grow Swiss chard from seed here (post includes links to my favorite Swiss chard recipes).

I told you Swiss chard is easy to grow (that's lemon balm on the left). It's also a 'cut and come again' vegetable. These plants are all volunteers from last year. I cut them back nearly to the ground in early December, ignored them all winter, and am now being rewarded with several more pounds of effortless, nutritious, delicious bounty.

Friendly and her rapidly growing triplets.

Have a great weekend!

Want a bigger farm fix?

17 comments:

  1. I've been unable to access your site for about 2 weeks. The computer would freeze up over and over. Today my son showed me how to access you using Firefox instead of Internet Explorer. It worked great! It's not convenient to change browsers midstream, but I really missed you!! And if you ever need a new home for Bert...

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    1. Hi Dot,
      I'm so glad you're back with us! There have been some weird things going on with both Farmgirl Fare and In My Kitchen Garden lately, and I'm still trying to get to the bottom of it.

      The problems seem to be with slower Internet connections, as the sites open in less than 1 second for some people.

      I'm so glad your son hooked you up with Firefox! Internet Explorer is notoriously slow and clunky, and Firefox (which is free, safe, and easy to install) works so much better.

      I'm trying to get the word out to everybody who is trying to access my blogs with Internet Explorer that Firefox really is the way to go, so I really appreciate your feedback.

      P.S. Thanks for the smile about Bert. :)

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    2. Google Chrome also works well, and is also free, safe, and easy to install. :)

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  2. Thank you again for sharing these wonderful pictures! It's hard to have a favorite photo 'cuz I love them all. (I do love how the dogs are everywhere!!!)

    Have a wonderful weekend - hope things are just getting better for you,

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    1. Hi Barb,
      I don't really notice just how much the dogs are a part of everything until I start putting together the Friday Farm Fix. It sure would be lonely without them! :)

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  3. Are you under a lot of stress lately? I've had what I thought was a bad tooth twice - SO much pain! But when I went to the dentist he said I was clenching my jaw at night which was wearing my teeth down and causing the pain. He suggested buying a night guard and seeing how I felt. I thought he was nuts - the pain was horrendous!! But after a couple of nights with the night guard, the pain went away. You can buy a night guard at any Wal-mart/Walgreens type store for about $10. Worth the try.

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    1. Hi Elizabeth,
      You just might be a lifesaver. I actually had a mouth guard made at the dentist several years ago for a different issue, and I'd totally forgotten about it. It's in my mouth now and my fingers are crossed that it helps. Thanks so much! :)

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  4. Does Bert ever lay down?

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  5. Great pictures and I really LOVE the cloud picture! Swiss Chard is such a great thing to grow, it just keeps going, and going, and going...

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  6. What do you do with the lemon balm? I've never seen it used in a recipe, and you seem to have quite a bit of it, so I'd be curious to know. Thanks!

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    1. Hi Lisa,
      I probably don't actually need that much lemon balm (it's starting to take over the greenhouse), but I'm always hesitant to discourage something that actually wants to grow in my garden. :)

      Lemon balm is wonderful, versatile stuff that is really easy to grow. I didn't even plant that lemon balm in the greenhouse - it just showed up there one day, even though the closest plant was like 25 feet away. So yeah, some people consider it invasive. ;)

      You can read more about lemon balm in this post on In My Kitchen Garden - Lemon Balm: Growing It, Drying It, Using It.

      It makes delicious tea, and lately I've been stuffing a bunch of fresh leaves into a half gallon canning jar, filling it with water, and setting it outside to make some really refreshing sun tea.

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    2. Thanks for the lemon balm tips. I just transplanted a cluster from my mother-in-law's yard into our herb garden and hadn't yet looked up what to do with it when I stumbled upon Lisa's handy question here.

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  7. I was just sitting here, wondering what to do with my lovely crop of Swiss Chard and - bingo! - here's Susan with some recipes. I'm going to try the pseudo slaw because it works with my low carb fare. My son just commented last night that we seem to be eating meat and cheese a lot, how 'bout some vegetables. Thanks for the rerun.

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  8. Wonderful-love this weekly series so much! Agree re comments re mouthgard-worth a try, although often accompanied by unexplained splitting headaches. One other possibility-and this isn't fun-is that you need a root canal and the fracture is hairline and hard to detect. I had one of these, unbelievable twangs and periodic aches, and finally, after two years my dentist decided to open up the tooth and there it was.

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    1. Ah ha, so the tooth/jaw thing could also be causing this terrible headache that won't go away. I've been assuming it's sinus/allergy related because the pollen has been terrible this spring.

      Thanks so much for the helpful advice - let's hope this mouth guard works. That root canal thing doesn't sound fun at all. Glad to hear you're enjoying the Friday Farm Fix! :)

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December 2015 update: Hi! For some reason I can't figure out, Blogger hasn't been letting me leave comments on my own blog (!) for the last several months, so I've been unable to respond to your comments and questions. My apologies for any inconvenience! You're always welcome to email me: farmgirlfare AT gmail DOT com.

Hi! Thanks for visiting Farmgirl Fare and taking the time to write. While I'm not always able to reply to every comment, I receive and enjoy reading them all.

Your feedback is greatly appreciated, and I especially love hearing about your experiences with my recipes. Comments on older posts are always welcome!

Please note that I moderate comments, so if I'm away from the computer it may be a while before yours appears.

I try my best to answer all questions, though sometimes it takes me a few days. And sometimes, I'm sorry to say, they fall through the cracks, and for that I sincerely apologize.

I look forward to hearing from you and hope you enjoy your e-visits to our farm!