U-Pick: Asparagus & Strawberries

Hi all! Yesterday (while it was pretty and sunny) my mom and I made it out to Wilmington, OH to visit a couple u-pick farms. We had a wonderful day picking asparagus and strawberries.

First off, in case some of you may not be familiar with u-pick farms, I will explain. A u-pick farm is a farm, generally frequented by the local area (but not limited to), in which the farmer grows crops to be picked by the farm's customers/visitors. The crop can be anything from beans, corn, berries, pumpkins, etc. The premise is that the buyer does the work, and enjoys the experience, fresh picked produce, and usually a discounted rate over the pre-picked produce also available. The farms may be closely monitored or run on the honor system. It varies place to place.

The two farms we visited were the Brausch Asparagus Farm and Bergefurd's Farm Market and Greenhouse. Here is their info:

Brausch Asparagus Farm
2514 Center Road,
Wilmington, OH 45177
937-382-2384

Bergefurd's Farm Market and Greenhouses
234 West State Route 350,
Wilmington, OH 45177
937-383-2133

Just a few tips on visiting u-pick farms:
*  Call the prospective farm before visiting to ensure that it is open, that there is produce available to pick, what is available, what the price is. This way you won't be shocked or disappointed when you arrive.

*  Bring a cooler with ice for delicate items like berries

*  Try to avoid overstuffing your containers so you don't end up with squashed produce

*  This can be a fun activity to do with your kids!

You can find a u-pick farm near you by following the link to Pick Your Own

Now check out some of my pictures!!

The asparagus was so pretty and tender. Quite a sight to behold.

We forgot to get pictures of the strawberry farm *gasp*. You will just have to take my word when I say it was HUGE and so very fragrant. Here are some pics of our food that packed up. 

Thanks for reading, and feel free to comment below about your own u-pick experiences!

A-Maize-ing

Photo Credit: e-How Follow the link to read more about growing Silver Queen corn

Hi all. My fiance Mitch dearly loves his tractor and all things tractor related. He has gotten on this big kick of trying to fix up his little old tractor. This has given him many ideas (mostly about buying implements or showing it in the Antique Machinery Show). Some of the ideas may be a little kooky, but he came up with a very nice one this weekend.

After deciding to disk up about half of an acre in the very back of our property, he brilliantly suggested we grow a bunch of corn. Well, if you're like me, your first reaction is "Whaaat??" Then, a little unwillingly, I heard him out. He wants to grow all that corn, and then (here's the cool part!! Eeek!!) make a corn maze. The more I think about it, the more fun it seems! I'm actually pretty excited about this.

We planted the corn today, so all we have to do now is wait. It's kind of a crazy idea, but who am I to crush a dream? I'm willing to give it a good try!

Thanks for reading!

Planted The BIG Garden

Hi all! Happy Memorial Day!! It's been a beautiful weekend here in Southern Ohio, and we have spent a lot of time outside enjoying it! I'm excited to report that we planted our big summer garden!

We got it out a little later than I wanted, but it's better late than never. We planted three tomato varieties, six different colored bell peppers, sweet banana peppers, celery, bush and pole beans, popcorn, two varieties of sweet corn, zucchini, two varieties of cucumber, three varieties of muskmelon, squash, pumpkin, and three varieties of watermelon.  WHEW!

We fenced it all in to keep our dogs, chickens, pig, and mostly our 2 year old out. They all tend to wreak havoc on cute little growing plants. I will be doing some updates once we start to see some little seedlings poking out!

Thanks for reading!

Pickle Cheeseball

Hi all! If you're like me and you love pickles and cheeseballs, this recipe is for you!

Pickle Cheeseball
3 8oz packages of cream cheese
1 c. chopped pickles
1 c. chopped Buddig Beef
salt
pepper
garlic powder
onion powder

1. Combine all ingredients, seasoning to taste. Form into a ball, cover and chill until ready to serve.

2. Enjoy with your favorite crackers!

This makes a pretty good sized cheeseball, so be prepared!

Lost A Chicken Today

Hi all. It's a bummed out day here on the farm. We lost one of our four Easter Egger hens to our new puppy. She was my fiance's favorite. He always called her Hawk since her feathersreally gave her this appearance. We never even got a chance to see what her eggs looked like.

As for the puppy, we are trying to find him a new chicken-free home. I feel bad, but we just can't have him eating them up. They're a very important  part of our self-sustaining lifestyle.

That's life I guess, a series of setbacks and triumphs. Today we were setback, so we're hoping for a triumph tomorrow.

Thanks for reading!

Hot Bacon

Hi all! I have a story too funny not to share! Lately, we've noticed how much our dear little pot belly piggy has grown. He is about the size of a beagle now and very plump and happy. He does many piggy things like rooting in the dirt and wallowing in mud. He just loves to eat and wags his little tail very happily as he does.

Something else we've noticed about our sweet little Bacon is that he sure does like to, well, hump! Hehe! He humps everything! I guess this is because he isn't fixed. He does not discriminate though. He likes dogs, water buckets, lawn sprayers, and bouncy balls! It is absolutely the funniest thing to see. He nudges the inanimate objects around before getting to business. He tries to bully the dogs a little, but they aren't as willing as the buckets and bouncy balls. The funniest thing I've seen yet is when he was *ahem* "loving" the big bouncy ball, it popped!! Oh, life on a farm. You just can't beat it!

If anyone has a little female they would wish to breed this or next year, I don't doubt Bacon could get the job done. Just saying. We could share some little Bacon bits...

Thanks for reading!!

Breakfast Banana Nut Bread

Hi all! Just thought I would share a recipe me and the little guy made this afternoon together. It came from a vintage cookbook made just for mommies. It was a gift from Toby's great-grandma. This book is awesome and fun! It has baby food recipes, snack foods, play-doh recipes, info on poison contol, and more! But, I digress, this is a slightly modified version of the recipe from the book.

Breakfast Banana Nut Bread
1/4 c. butter or margarine
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 c. uncooked bran, oatmeal, or flax
4-5 mashed ripe bananas
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 c. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 c. chopped nuts
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg

Cream brown sugar and butter in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add egg and mix well. Then add the oatmeal, bananas and vanilla. Stir. In a smaller bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Slowly add the dry mixture to the wet one, stirring just enough to get everything moistened. Pour bread mixture into a greased loaf pan and bake at 350º for about 45 minutes to an hour, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Just a couple of tips. You may or may not be aware that you can freeze very ripe bananas until you are ready to use them. (Seems kind of obvious, but until last year I did not know this. When I learned it was sort of a Duh and Aha moment at the same time!) Just peel and throw in a ziploc bag in the freezer. You can also slice them if you want. They may turn brown and look icky, but that won't affect anything in the final product! I just zip mine in the food processor, and voila! Bread-ready bananas. I did not have bran, flax, or plain oatmeal so I just used some banana flavored instant oatmeal pouches. Still turned out yummy!

Enjoy and thanks for reading!

Caring for Wounded Chickens

Hi all! I thought I would share some info on my own experiences with caring for wounded chickens. There are a couple of different things that can cause a chicken to become injured. My own experience is from dealing with pecked/picked birds and a chicken that was attacked by our puppy (read about it here).

Picked/Pecked Birds

You may or may not remember the free leghorn chicks we got around Easter time. We got them from TSC for free since they were wounded and bloody. Chickens have a tendency to pick and peck at one another, particularly when they are overcrowded or too hot. This can also occur when you are trying to integrate different flocks of chickens into one flock. And, sometimes some birds are just bullies. At any rate, there are some key steps to save these feathery victims.

1. The best and most impotant thing to do is to separate the wounded birds from the non-wounded ones. Once chickens see blood, they won't leave it alone.

2. If your birds are bloody and have open wounds, you can use an antiseptic like Blu-Kote to prevent infections. They might be stained for a while, but they won't be sick.

Attacked Birds
If you have chickens, sometime during your chicken keeping you are bound to experience an attack by dogs, foxes, coyotes, etc. If your bird is fortunate enough to survive there are a few things you can do to help them.

1. As before, separate them. I put my bird in a large dog crate inside the coop so she can be protected from picking and stomping, but she can still get to see everyone.

2. Use an antiseptic or antibiotic ointment for small or healing open wounds.

3. Bandage any larger wounds and try to apply a bit of pressure for a while to staunch blood flow.

4. Wrap or splint injured legs.

5. Be sure they are getting and consuming food and, more importantly, water.

6. Give them some TLC, be patient, give it time, and hope for the best!

Thanks for reading!

PS. You can learn more about this on my friend Mary's blog post How to care for an injured chicken.

New puppy, new problems

Hi all! During my lengthy blog absence we happened to acquire a new four-legged friend. Everybody, meet our new puppy, Chief.

He is about 12 or so weeks old. He is a trail mix puppy, there's a bit of many breeds in him. He was a gift for our son for his birthday. He is still a bit skittish and scared of us. I think this has a lot to do with who owned his poor mama. We are trying to teach him that we're the good guys, though it's slow going.

As with any new animal, there are of course new things to worry about. We don't really have to work with him on house training, as he seems to prefer to be outside. (Woohoo! I don't think I could handle potty training a scared little pup and my 2 year old at the same time! I'd probably have my son going outside and the pup on the Cars potty!) The pup tends to harass our cat, but luckily she is pretty feisty. The chickens on the other hand? Not so much. The "packing peanut" Red Star roosters chase him off, but he is a problem for our hens. He managed to corner one of our Silver Laced Wyandotte hens the other day and plucked out some feathers and injured her leg. There will be more about this in my next post on caring for injured chickens. We are just trying to gently coach him that this is not good puppy behavior here at the farm. I don't think he's being mean, I think he just plays too rough.  He is still very much a baby after all.

If anyone has tips on how to curb chicken chomping, please feel free to chime in! :)

Thanks for reading!

Quick May Update Photos

Hi all. Here are just a few pics of what we've been up to here at Edgington Farm while I've been away from the blog.

My Apologies Folks...

Hi all. I know it's been a long time since my last entry, and I apologize for that. I've been sick for about a month now with what I was told was laryngitis, but I'm not so sure anymore. I'm guessing I will have to head back to the doctor soon as I haven't had my voice in about 2 weeks. But enough about that.

I'm trying to get back on the wagon, and that includes writing my blog. As you may have guessed, even when you're sick, life still goes on down on the farm. I have a lot to report to you guys so stay tuned!

Here's a sneak peak at what you can expect very soon:

Chicken processing part 2
Planting the big garden
Early Spring Garden updates
Wounded Chicken Care
Integrating Chickens
A very twitterpated piggy
A Chance of a goat baby
and so much more!!!