Tomato Varieties for 2014

2014 Tomato Varieties

We're very excited for tomatoes this year for the CSA. We're bringing back a few that we liked from last year and adding some new ones that look delicious! This year we'll be growing tomatoes outside in the field and also inside our new greenhouse. This year we will have 11 different varieties of tomatoes this year, we're hoping to have more variety less bulk quantity. We'll have extra available for those of you that like to preserve tomatoes by canning, freezing, and dehydrating. If you want bulk quantities for preserving purposes, we will them available on pick up days! 

Slicers:

Black Krim- This heirloom beefsteak hails from the Black Sea area of Russia. Heat tolerant Black Krim has a violet-brown and purple-red, they will turn almost black with enough sunlight and heat. A big favorite at taste tests with a flavor described as tangy, rich, and sweet. 

Kellogg's Breakfast- This variety ended up being our favorite last year, with the beefsteak fruit weighing in 1-2 pounds. It comes from a West Virginia heirloom obtained by a Michigan man, Darrell Kellogg, of Redford, Michigan. Delicious rich flavor with a good acid/sugar balance that is very fleshy and not overly juicy.  

Brandywine (Sudduth's Strain)- This variety was collected from Dorris Sudduth Hill who family grew it for over 100 years. Large pink beefsteak fruits up to 2 pounds with incredibly rich, delightfully intense tomato flavor. Considered to be the most delicious strain available, a must have that we're excited to have in the garden with year! 

Pink Beauty- A tried and true hybrid variety that produces flavorful, flattened tomatoes. Medium sized, 6-8 oz slicers that are firm and blemish free. We heard about this variety from The Chicken Thistle Farm CoopCast who said it is their favorite tomato. 

Paste: 

Amish Paste-Reputed to have originated in one of the oldest Amish communities in Medford, Wisconsin, this popular variety produces 6-12 oz fruits, from oxheart to plum shape and often coreless for easy canning! Delicious flesh is juicy and meaty, excellent for sauce or fresh eating. It is somewhat seedier and sweeter than normal paste varieties. One of Slow Food's USA's Ark of Taste varieties!

Juliet-Juliet produces small meaty fruits perfect for eating raw, delicious for salads, salsa, and fresh pasta sauce. Somewhere between roma and grape tomatoes, these delectable saladette-type tomatoes won top honors from the All-American Selections in 1999 and have been a favorite ever since. 

Snacking:

Black Cherry- The only truely black cherry tomato. These vigorous tomato plants yield abundant crops in huge clusters of 1", round, deep purple, mahogany-brown cherry tomatoes. Fruits are irresistibly delicious with sweet, rich, complex, full tomato flavors that burst in your mouth, characteristic of the best flavorful black tomatoes. 

Wapsipinicon Peach- AKA Yellow Peach, White Peach. Originated in 1890 under the name White Peach. This strain came from Dennis Schlicht and is named after the Wapsipinicon River in northeast Iowa. Heavy producer of 2" round fuzzy yellow fruits. Sweet, juicy, well-balanced flavor. Winner of SSE’s 2006 Heirloom Tomato Tasting

Riesentraube Tomato-An old German Heirloom from 1800's Pennsylvannia. The name is German for "Giant Bunch of Grapes." Carolyn Male says in her book 100 Heirloom Tomatoes for American Gardens..."Riesentraube evokes a broad spectrum of flavor components that you just don't expect in a cherry tomato.  The taste is very full, like that of a beefsteak.  Amazingly intense tomato taste, not sweet, just superb!"

Red Velvet-We still have some seeds from last year's snacking varieties, so we'll be growing a few of these as well to compare the flavor with our new varieties! This heirloom comes from Elmwood, new Jersey and is known for the striking silvery gray dusty miller-type foliage of the tomato plants. As well of the excellent, sweet flavor of its cherry tomatoes.









Yellow Pear-We're bringing back the Yellow Pear again with its deliciously tangy pear-shaped fruit. These produce 1 oz, 1 1/2 inch sized bright yellow, pear-shaped cherry tomatoes that will produce until frost.

New Crops for 2014!

2014 CSA New Crops and Varieties

In between shoveling snow, getting extra straw to keep the animals warm, and chopping down some of the dead trees in our own woods to keep ourselves warm, we've also been picking out new seeds and crops for the coming CSA season! With the seeds ordered and on their way, we thought we'd brighten everyone's cold day with the hope of a fruitful season to come.

Cold Season Vegetables

For cool season crops we'll be seeing a return of carrots, beets, lettuce, spinach, arugula, cut lettuce mix, kohlrabi, kale, radishes, swiss chard and turnips. Our cold season crops didn't do that well last year because the ground they were planted in wasn't tilled enough, resulting in a hard pan that the roots had difficulty penetrating. This year we're planning on seeing much more of these crops, and those that we struggled with last year--broccoli, cabbage, leeks, onions, snap peas, and potatoes as well. New cold season crops we're adding this year are celery, cauliflower, parsnips, and shallots! We are planning a summer planting of our favorite cool season crops in the partially shady spot by a hedgerow, so that hopefully we can extend the season and have fresh salad and greens for longer into the  season!

Albion Parsnips

Parsnips-Parsnips are a root vegetable related to the carrot, it's long tuberous root has cream-colored skin and often becomes sweeter in flavor after winter frosts. It was used as a sweetener before the arrival in Europe of cane sugar and beets. The parsnip is usually cooked but can be eaten raw, it is high in vitamins and minerals, especially potassium, and also contains antioxidants and dietary fiber. 

Saffron Shallots

Shallots-Shallots are part of the allium family with onions, leeks, and garlic. Shallots have a brown skin covering faded purple crunchy layers inside. They taste less bitter than onions, and when cooked take on a sweet edge. They ca be used raw in salad dressings, and are delicious with asparagus, mushrooms, swiss chard and peas. Also pairs well with chicken and pork! 

Ruby Queen Corn

Warm Season Vegetables

For warm season crops we'll be seeing a return of some of our favorites, as well as some new varieties for everyone to try. We'll be seeing green beans, corn, cucumbers, eggplant, okra, peppers (bell, sweet snacking, cayenne, habanero, jalapeno, ancho, and anaheim) pumpkins, summer squash, tomatoes, and winter squash again. We'll also be growing some tomatoes, eggplant, cucumbers and peppers in the greenhouse, so we will see them even earlier in our shares this year!

Ruby Queen Corn-We picked up a small packet of this in a store, purely on chance last year. Come corn-picking time, it was quickly selected as our favorite out of all the corn varieties we'd grown. Beautiful red kernels, but the flavor! Extra sweet and juicy, last year Farmer Don and Farmer Figgins consumed the entire patch, what little survived the storm that took out most of our corn, out in the fields, fresh off the stalk. But this year we're planning it to be our primary corn variety, just wait till you try it!


Excelsior Cucumbers-As well as doing slicing and lemon cucumbers, we're also adding pickling cucumbers to the field and greenhouse this year! We've bought a special variety, Excelsior, that does especially well trellised in greenhouses, for early cucumbers and pickles!

Excelsior pickling cucumbers

Purple Tomatillo-AKA husk tomato, jamberry, husk cherry, or Mexican tomato. Tomatillos are in the same family as tomatoes and peppers and cape gooseberries, they bear a tiny green or purple fruit inside a paper-like husk. The fruit has a tart flavor is often eaten boiled, fried, or steamed, and are the central ingredient in green sauces and chiles. The purple varieties, like the one we will be trying this year, often have a slight sweetness, so are somewhat more suitable for fruit-like uses like jams and preserves!

Purple Tomtatillos 

Delicata Squash- A unique squash with distinctive dark green stripes on a yellow background, with orange-yellow flesh inside. Also known as peanut squash, Bohemian squash, or sweet potato squash. It belongs to the same species as summer squash but is considered a winter squash. The flesh can be baked, microwaved, sauteed or steamed, or stuffed with meat or vegetable mixtures!

Delicata Squash

Costata Romanesco-A distinctive zucchini known for its gray-green color and prominent ribs and most of all its delicious nutty flavor. Costata Romanesco typically have better texture and are less seedy than other zucchini types! Perfect for small squash for sauteing and larger ones for zucchini bread. 

Costata Romanesco Zucchini

Lunchbox Peppers-Red, Yellow, and Orange, these mini sized peppers are purported to be remarkably sweet and flavorful. Best eaten sauteed, as an addition to salads, or as a healthy  raw snack. Can't wait to try them!

Lunchbox sweet snacking peppers

We'll dedicate a whole other post for tomato varieties, but sneak-peak, we'll be seeing the return of some of last years varieties as well as quite a few new varieties to try!

Fruits

Last year we offered apples, watermelon and melons for fruit in our shares. This year we'll be bringing back our favorite varieties, like Moon and Stars Watermelon and Charentais melons as well as trying some new watermelon and cantaloupe varieties this year. Farmer Figgins has been doing some prunning of the orchard trees--which look like they haven't seen a barber in years. So hopefully we'll get apples and pears out of the orchard this year! 

One of our apple trees last year, full of fruit and overgrown

We're very excited to be trying out some new annual fruits this year! Annual fruits? you say. Meet the ground cherry and garden huckleberry!

Ground Cherries

Ground Cherry-Ground Cherries are in the same family as tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and tomatillos. Like tomatillos, ground cherries bear their fruit in papery lantern-like husks that turn brown when the fruits ripen. These plants are native to eastern and central North America and the fruit can be used for preserves, pie, raw over ice cream or in fresh fruit salads. They are stored best inside their husks for up to 3-4 weeks. The fruit is similar to a a firm tomato in texture, and like strawberries or pineapple in flavor with a mild acidity. 

Garden Huckleberries

Garden Huckleberry-AKA Wonderberry, Sunberry. Not a true huckleberry, this annual shrub is also in the Solanaceae family along with the ground cherry and tomato. It produces small metallic purple-black fruit in clusters. Tasteless when raw and unsweetened, but it can be made into a delicious mock blueberry pies and preserves! Great for freezing and canning. 

Herbs

Last year we saw a lot of basil, lemon basil, onion chives, cilantro, parsley and sage in our shares. We'll be growing these herbs again this year and adding quite a few new ones! We're adding more perennial herbs this year, including lavender, oregano, garlic chives, rosemary, thyme and two fun ones: Stevia and Catnip!

Stevia

Stevia-AKA sweetleaf and sugarleaf. This herb is widely grown for its sweet leaves. We bought a few plants from a fellow farmer at the Ada Farmer's Market last year, but the dog and cat kept eating it's sweet leaves! As a sweetener and sugar substitute, stevia's taste has a slower onset and longer duration than that of sugar. It's being used by low-carb, low-sugar sweeteners commercially today in our grocery stores. It originated in the Americas, the leaves of the stevia plant have 30-45 times the sweetness of ordinary table sugar. The leaves can be eaten fresh, or put in teas and foods. Medicinally it has traditionally been used as a cardiac stimulant and as a treatment for obesity, diabetes, hypertension and heartburn.

Catnip

Catnip- AKA catswort or catmint. Catnip looks much like regular mint plants, but with brown-green foliage. In humans, the herb is commonly used in herbal tea blends for sleep, stress reduction and relaxation. It is also used as a culinary herb in many dishes. Catnip is best known for its behavioral effects on the cat family--not only on domestic cats but also other species of cats, like tigers, leopards, and lynxes! Catnip contains a feline attractant nepetalactone--when its leaves or stems are bruised cats smell this compound and start rubbing on the plant, rolling on the ground, pawing at it, licking it, chewing it. If they consume the plant their behavior turns to drooling, sleeping, anxiety, purring and leaping about, the response usually lasts for 5-15 minutes. Not all cats are affected by catnip, roughly 1/2-2/3 are affected by the plant, it seems to be a hereditary trait. So even if your cat is not affected by the plant, at least its human masters can use it as a culinary herb or for tea! 

So we hope you enjoyed your sneak peak for the 2014 CSA Season! We still have shares available, check out Our CSA page to learn more and sign up! 

Biscuits and Sausage Gravy Recipe

Biscuits and Sausage Gravy Recipe

We've been having a hard, cold and snowy winter here in Michigan, with freezing rain, heavy snows, and the bitter cold of the Polar Vortex. We've been staying warm with our new wood stove and enjoying frozen vegetables from the farm, canned applesauce and salsa and the best pork we've ever had.  This recipe has been one of our favorites this winter and become our favorite way to use the bulk seasoned sausage from our hogs. The gravy has a bit of a kick, so you prefer it a little mellower, reduce the cayenne pepper and black pepper. We do still have sausage and other pork cuts available, so check out our Pasture Raised Pork page. You can order sausage and other cuts through our Pork Cut Sheet or email us at shirefarmmi@gmail.com. 

Biscuits:

-2  1/2 cups of Bisquick mix
-1/2 teaspoon of onion powder or garlic granules (depending on your preference)
-Sprinkle of salt
-2/3 cup of half & half


1. Preheat oven to 450 F 

2. Mix together ingredients in a medium sized bowl.



2. Drop by spoonfuls onto parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Flatten the top slightly with fingers greased with olive oil.  



4. Bake at 450'F for 8-10 minutes.

Sausage Gravy:  

-1 lb bulk sausage
-1 tablespoon water
-1 cup half and half, scalded
-3 tablespoons flour
-3 tablespoons butter
-1 teaspoon black pepper 
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
-1/2 teaspoon onion powder
-2 Tablespoons of reserved sausage cooking liquid
-1/2-1 cup warmed milk to thin out gravy or black coffee for "red eye gravy"

1. Fry up 1lb bulk sausage of your choice. Cook in frying pay with 1 tablespoon of water in the pan to help disburse the fat and cook more evenly. Break into crumble size pieces as cooking, drain.

2. Reserve 2 Tablespoons of water/grease liquid for the gravy.

3. Using a small or medium sized double boiler, bring the water in the bottom to boil. If you don't have the right size, you can always improvise!

4. In a small saucepan, heat up 1 cup half and half, scalding it.

5. Melt 3 tablespoons of butter in the double boiler.

6. Whisk 3 tablespoons of flour into melted butter.

7. Add in scalded half and half, slowly adding while whisking constantly. Cook over simmering hot water, whisking constantly, until thick and smooth.

8.  Add the spices and combine.

Gravy after spices have been added

9. Add the 1 lb cooked sausage and 2 tablespoons cooking liquid and combine. Sausage gravy will be quite thick by now.

10. Add 1/2 cup to 1 cup warm milk to the sausage gravy, or black coffee for "red eye gravy" to thin the sauce to desired consistency. 

11. Top on biscuits and enjoy!

The Shire Farm's First Calf!

A Calf is Born! 

We've been eagerly watching and waiting on our dairy cow Rosie to give birth this winter. She was impregnated last spring before we got her from her old family.  So all we knew is she would be due some time between Christmas and Valentines Day.  Since Christmas her udder has been filling up, so that every week Farmer Don would bet that she'd calf that week. Friday evening we finally saw all the signs come together, her bag (udder) was full and looked ready to burst, she seemed uncomfortable in her stall, wasn't eating, and had some mucus discharge from her vagina.  






So cow watch began at about 6:30pm when she started having contractions and on our 3rd visit at about 10:00pm Farmer Figgins found a curly haired black male calf had appeared in the stall being vigorously licked by Rosie. We decided we would call the boy calf Pippin.    

Pippin awkwardly learning to walk, he's going to be
 a big steer, judging by how tall he is already.

Rosie is only 3 years old and this is her second calving, but handled her calf like a seasoned pro. She licked the little guy mostly clean to help warm him up on the very cold snowy night, about 5 degrees F.  To make sure he was warm enough, we helped the process by rubbing him down with some clean towels. Within an hour the calf was standing up and wobbling around the stall turning Rosie in circles as she continued to lick him dry.  



We then had to make sure that the calf began nursing so he would get a good dose of the natural antibodies present in the colostrum rich milk that is produced only for the first day or two following birth.   To aid this process, which likely would have happened naturally, we offered the calf a thumb which he readily latched on to, and guided him to a teat.   We then pulled a quick switcheroo and slipped a teat in where our thumb was.  We called it a night around midnight, comfortable that the calf and mother were happy and healthy.  

The next morning came our long anticipated first milking!  Unfortunately for the first few milkings it is not milk like we traditionally think of, but a yellow mixture called colostrum.   As mentioned above this is packed with antibodies which help the calf's immune system and encourage healthy development.  Some make colostrum butter and colostrum pie, but it has a slightly egg-like odor and so instead it went to a very happy pig.   

We are doing our milking the old fashioned way, by hand into a pail. Rosie was hand milked by her previous family, and stands very well for it, making soft moos of relief as the pressure of her udders is lessened. Occasionally she'll get antsy and shuffle a foot, and if you're not paying attention and quick some milk can get lost and has.  But as the saying goes, there's no crying over spilled milk.   We're getting the hang of it, and what with chopping wood and kindling for the wood stove and now the milking, we're going to be looking like Popeye by spring.  

Right now we're sharing the milk with the calf, so we're only getting about 1-1 1/2 gallons a day. In a few more days we'll separate Pippin and Rosie at nights and then let him in with her after morning milkings, letting him get a share of the milk, a practice called Share Milking. Rather than separating the calf and bottle feeding it, then later putting it on a grain and hay diet, we let the calf drink.







From there we'll transition to Once a Day milking--milking only in the morning, and letting the calf have the rest of the days milk production. Milking OAD does, naturally, result in a decrease in milk volume, but not necessarily half the milk. Most have found that production drops by 15-20%, but the decline in volume is offset by a rise in milk solids and protein, and a huge decrease in feed costs for the calf. There is also less labor, a stronger cow-calf bond, and a much less stressed cow at milking times.

Shire Farm's Pasture Farrowing "E-Hut"

The Pigloo

As winter was approaching this fall we knew we had to make a weatherproof, mobile shelter for the hog we selected to be our sow this spring.  As we began our search, we looked for a Port-a-Hut style steel Quonset hut structure.  This turned out to be hard to find and expensive.  We then had a neighbor who was selling plastic tanks cut in half which would have worked very well, but again was cost prohibitive.  We decided to go with a more cost effective DIY home for our hog.   Farmer Don found sketches and pictures of an "E-Hut" on an Iowa State University website.  The total cost of the hut was under $200.00 for the lumber and the most expensive aspect were the exterior plywood panels.  

We've had a hard, cold and snowy winter thus far. The hut, or pigloo as we've taken to calling it, has proven itself and we are willing to recommend this hut as a winter house for a single hog.  The last two weeks have been absolutely frigid here in Michigan, like much of the country.  It reached it's peak on Monday last week when we hit -40 degrees F with the windchill and had got about 12+" of snow.  All the while Arya (our sow to be) was snug as a pig in a blanket.  We've also shoveled snow up against the outside of the pigloo, an old trapper trick, to help further insulate the hut.  

From the E-Hut at ISU: http://www.pfi.iastate.edu/E-HUT%20Farrowing%20Pix.htm

Here are pictures of the frame before adding the panels.  I prefer to use untreated lumber.  Yes I know it is going to rot, but treated lumber is not really safe around the animals or garden soil that this will at some point be sitting on.  Really it's not safe for humans either if you were going to rub all over it and sleep against it.

Here, the hut is in the field, off the side of last year's vegetable garden. We stuff a few straw bales in there, especially when it is cold and Arya keeps herself very warm in a nest of straw.  There is also a slight gap at the top to allow warm, damp air to vent out of the hut helping to keep her dry.  

  

As you can see the back overlaps itself, letting water drain down off the back rather than into the hut.  The middle panel can be lifted off both for ventilation, and for nabbing piglets from a protective mother for castration. 

Our sow at this point was likely about 350 lbs+ as a size comparison.  If you have any questions about our hut's construction, feel free to check out the rest of the plans on the Iowa state website, or contact me about how I constructed mine!  

We'll be doing artificial insemination on our sow in February, for piglets in May. Then we will be moving the hut closer to farrowing time to their pasture for next year. We'll report back with an update on how the Pigloo works for farrowing piglets in! 

2013 Photo Review of Shares

There and Back Again: 2013 A Year in Review

Curious what a Shire farm large share  gets you?  This was what our first year ever on the farm produced for our shareholders!

CSA Share 1

CSA Share 2

CSA Share 3

CSA Share 4

CSA Share 5

CSA Share 6

CSA Share 7

CSA Share 8

CSA Share 9

CSA Share 10

CSA Share 11

CSA Share 12

CSA Share 13

CSA Share 14

CSA Share 15

CSA Share 16

CSA Share 17