Wheat & Whatnot

Fun happenings at the Farlow Farm. Our neighbor grew a small field of winter wheat and we've been trying our hand at threshing and winnowing it. Our chickens must have smelled the goodness as they were first to bolt to the trailer and hideout underneath while they munched on wheat berries

We're learning the terms as we go, so here goes. Threshing is what MB is doing against the sheet on our tobacco trailer. By beating the stalks of wheat, the stalk and husk will release the wheat berries.

 Now we were left with a large bowl of wheat berries with plenty of wheat husk and a pile of stalks (or a comfy dog bed as Ellie discovered)

How do we get from a bowl of debris filled wheat to clean berries we can process into flour? Lot of hands and several fans in a process called winnowing. EC gets most of the credit for this fun job. She found it quite fun to pick up handful after handful and as she'd drop it back into the same bowl slowly, the debris would blow out and the berries dropped down.

We now have a new appreciation for the work that goes into wheat processing. That one trailer load of wheat condensed down into one bowl of clean workable wheat! Coming soon, the flour and bread.


Interesting description of the parts of wheat and the difference between white and wheat flour:
http://www.conejobread.com/wheat_kernel.htm

And after all that hard work, there's nothing like a fresh pulled carrot to snack on..........

Apples and Peaches and Plums, Oh My!

 About 3 years ago we planted our first fruit trees: apple, peach, plum, cherry, and persimmon. For the benefit of the tree, we painfully pulled every fruit off each tree for the first 2 years. Now that the trees are well rooted and substantially larger, this is the first year we've allowed them to produce fruit! This is the second time Russell has pulled peaches off of our largest peach tree shown here.  We were afraid limbs would start breaking if we let all the fruit ripen. Needless to say, not much is wasted here on our little farm as an entertaining game of peach baseball and peach golf quickly ensued. Both kiddos tried several times to hit homeruns but ended up making peach salsa instead!  Ellie, the Great Dane, enjoyed some edible peach chew toys as well!

Digging for purple gold

If you live within 20 miles of us you could probably hear my squeals of excitement as we took a peak and ended up digging several hills of these purple beauties:

They are an early season variety of potato with purple skin and purple flesh called Adirondack Blue! As these are a new variety to us, we've yet to taste them, but they are supposed to be excellent cooked in any way you can imagine! What will we have for dinner tonight, hmmmm?

Long awaited arrival of the sweet potato slips

What's so exciting about this box of green leafy plants that look nothing like sweet potatoes as printed on the box? These are the 1,000 (yes, that's 3 zero's) sweet potato slips (plants) that we've been waiting weeks for. Why 1,000? Because when Papa Farmer sees that there is a $10 difference between 500 slips and 1,000 slips, then there is no question that sweet potatoes will soon be a staple in our house (and yours too!)  Mmmm, I can just taste the sweet potato burger recipe I found last week!

The Farlow Farm CSA

It's official, we've sent out our first newsletter about our CSA, Community Supported Agriculture. We've been working for about the last month getting our fields planned, prepped, and planted. Now the fun part begins! It's amazing how much growth can happen in just a day or two. There is so much we all learn in the whole process of growing (and eating)! Want to join out mailing list, just send us an email at farlowcsa@aol.com

The company car

Using an Earthway seeder to plant

Blackberries in early May

Trial spring raised bed of lettuce, onions, carrots, and cabbage

First harvested carrot

Checking on the bees

Levering Orchard in Ararat, VA

How have I never heard of this incredible place until today? It will now be a family tradition with my crew for as long as there are cherries to be picked. Incredible views, acres and acres of cherries of 40+ varieties, endless Kodak moments, the list is endless!

Just a wee bit sour!

Oh yeah! That was a good one!

Ever so delicate with each handful.

Just a little bit further.......

Organic pest control

I'm pretty sure on the list of practices approved for organic pest control for potatoes, you will not find anything more effective than the use of a 3 and 6 year old for mashing Colorado potato beetles.

What mom would not be proud to be awaken at 6:30 in the morning to their 3 year old daughter begging to go outside and hunt for "tayda bugs"?

No spray required here, these plants are checked a minimum of 3 times a day!