May 2010 Newsletter  Volume 5, Issue 5
Dunlooken Farm Extra
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This newsletter is a bit late because I wanted to include the open house in my comments.  It was loud and wet and windy!  Rain started at exactly 10am just as our first visitors arrived.  We spent almost all of the time in the aisle in the haymow of the goat barn.  But we had a pretty good time anyway!  Got to eat, milk goats, feed calves, and visit all the animals.  I didn’t get to talk with everyone and I’m sorry if I missed you.  I’ll hope to see you all, and many more, throughout the summer.

CSA and Gardens
The most important question this time of year is, “How’s the garden doing?”    The best answer I can give you is that it’s coming along.

There is still a good deal of planting to do.  We got all the pepper and most of the herbs transplanted yesterday along with a few other things and the first planting of beans is done.  But I’m going to have to admit to a poor judgment call earlier this year.  When we first had planting weather I put in very few seeds.  I was sure that I needed to wait a bit to have things ready for the CSA season or I’d have plants well past their prime.  Unfortunately I should have planted.  That first little row of peas has just started to bloom and the lettuce would be just perfect for the first of June if I’d just planted enough.  That cold, rainy, cloudy week or two set everything back.  I’m afraid that the first week’s boxes are going to be a bit light.  Mea culpa!

I’ve been doing some reading lately and here is something interesting I’ve found about weeds.  
A Minnesota study found that a square foot of soil, 6" deep, contained from 98 to 3,068 viable weed seeds. Many seeds remain viable for decades; Jimsonweed has a 90% germination rate after 40 years in the soil and field bindweed seeds are viable for more than 50 years. All those seeds are just sitting there, in what is known as the "weed seed bank," waiting for favorable conditions that will allow them to germinate.

It’s nice to know that my account in at least one bank is sound.

Another article I’ve read talked about how to grow a better tasting tomato.  They mentioned two different things.  The first was to grow the tomatoes without additional water after the first bloom set.  I’m assuming that they are still going to allow nature to continue to water at it’s discretion.   We already do that as a general rule.  

The other thing mentioned was growing tomatoes with the addition of salt.  One experiment used a special preparation derived from sea deposits.  The other used a bucket of Atlantic sea water.  Best results seemed to come from the bucket of sea water.  If anyone is near the Atlantic Ocean and wants to bring me back a bucket full I’ll try the experiment.

The Animals
Kidding season is finally over with the last baby being born on the 21st of May.  Now it’s time to sell a few milkers and make chore time a bit easier.  A planned sale to a lady from Maryland fell through so I’m milking more animals than I care to!  (Notice Mom does not count the # that she is milking as she would rather not know.  I’d guess she is milking close to 30, twice a day, by hand.)

My lesson horses are getting used a bit more this summer.  I was just contacted by Big Brother/Big Sisters about perhaps having children and their mentors come out for some horsey instruction.  We’ll see how that works.

We have a few hens that are sitting on eggs.  I had hoped that the turkey hen would nest but she doesn’t seem interested.  The Muscovy duck hen has tried to nest but we had to move her when we cleaned the goat pens and she didn’t approve.  

We again have some additions to the farm.  One of the wild barn cats has a nest of 4 or 5 kittens hidden under a walkway in the barn.  I hope she’ll not move them so that we can tame them down and find them homes.  The other addition is 6 Coturnix quail. These birds have been domesticated since the age of the Pharaohs of Egypt and are the sweetest birds I’ve ever raised.  If you’ve ever eaten tiny eggs at a fancy restaurant you’ve eaten eggs from this bird.  Our birds are about 7 or 8 weeks old and should have started laying by now.  Coturnix quail grow up quickly.  However I have yet to see an egg.  

Another addition are the new Jersey calves.  We got 3 this year, and had trouble getting them when we wanted and had to go to the local auction for them.  The other calves were very expensive that night, so we ended up with the Jerseys.  This is a little hard as Jerseys are very sweet and adorable.  We butcher the calves at 6 months old, since they are fed mostly on goat milk they are too expensive to keep over the winter.  At this age you have a product called baby beef.  It’s a very tender meat and delicious.  We may have a ¼ still available, and another friend with goats that does the same thing.  Let us know if you would be interested.

Veggie of the Month: Goosefoot
The major veggie to be found in your boxes the next couple of weeks will be goosefoot.
Goosefoot is a relative of spinach and can be used in any way that spinach can.  Goosefoot is one of the most nutritious of plants containing  281% of your daily requirement of vit A, 111% of vit. C and 1112% of vit. K.  Goosefoot is also a good plant source of Omega-3 fatty acids.
Goosefoot has many names: wild spinach, lambsquarter, and fat hen are but a few.  A search for lambsquarter recipes returned lots of hits but I thought this one to be unique!

Lambsquarter or Goosefoot Cocktail

After you’ve boiled up a batch of goosefoot to add to a quiche or scrambled eggs take
½ cup of the cooking liquid (pot liker)
1 cup tomato juice
1 Tbsp vinegar or lemon juice
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
Dash Tabasco sauce
Pinch of salt and pepper
Mix it all together and add a bit of alcohol of your choice, if you’d like.  Serve hot or cold.

The best thing about Goosefoot is that you can add it to just about everything, it has a very short cooking time, so I throw it into scrambled eggs (I don’t boil it first), soup, even grilled cheese, (add some chive too, mmmm)