Our watchful dog

I think I enjoy Patty as much as the alpacas. She's beautiful, she's sweet, and she's the best behaved dog I have ever had.

This is Patty, checking out the stranger taking pictures in the field. "Hey, you, stay away from my alpacas!"

Attack of the Mulberries

A few years ago, we discovered a mulberry tree growing in the fence line across the field. The mulberries were sweet, and delicious to eat right off the tree. So, the next spring, my husband took a cutting of the tree to plant in our yard. He lovingly tended it and watered it for a while. Then, one day, it fell victim to the lawn mower (ouch). We were crushed.

A few weeks later, we made a startling discovery: there were mulberry trees already in the yard. (I told you, we're city kids). One of the trees was at least 12 feet tall, and loaded down with fruit. There was another tree growing next to it, and one next to our old stone building, and behind the house. Now that I know what they look like, I see them everywhere! They're almost as bad as the purple coneflowers...


Here's my very own recipe for Berry Lemon Cobbler. The first time I made it, my husband wrinkled his nose...until he tried it. The tartness of the lemon plays perfectly off the sweetness of the mulberries.

Ingredients:
1 whole lemon
3 tbsp white sugar
2 1/2 - 3 cups berries
3/4 cup brown sugar (if using a tarter berry like blueberries, increase to 1 cup)
1 3/4 cup biscuit mix
3/4 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup white sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Zest lemon into small bowl. Add 3 tbsp white sugar, stir to combine, and set aside.
Pour berries into 8 x 8 pan. (Berries should cover bottom of pan completely)
Sprinkle brown sugar evenly over berries
Squeeze remainder of lemon evenly over berry / sugar mix
Stir together biscuit mix, milk, vanilla, and 1/4 cup white sugar. Batter will be stiff.
Drop batter by the spoonful (a spring loaded ice cream scoop is perfect) over the berry / sugar mix in pan. You should have 10 - 12 spoonfuls.
Sprinkle lemon zest / sugar mix over the top of the batter.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, or until golden brown.

Delicious served warm with whipped cream.

This New Barn

Pictures of the new barn. Enjoy!

Raspberries

It's raspberry season! The crop is a little small this year, but the berries we have are very nice. They freeze well too. $2 / pint pre-picked, $1 / pint if you do the work.

offbeatacres@gmail.com

Our little herd

I couldn't resist - here's one more picture with all of the alpacas, and Patty too.

To Spray or Not To Spray

I'm a gardener. Well, first and foremost, I LOVE to eat....and cook. It's so much fun to go out in the garden every day and see what's ripe and is ready for picking / canning / freezing / jam. Last week, we were eating mulberries and radishes. This week, it's raspberries and tomatoes.

People always ask if we're "going organic". I truthfully don't know how to answer that. My growing philosophy is simple: I don't plant anything that needs to be coddled. I plant it, water it, and say "good luck to you". I do occasionally weed, but that's about it.

I think we ingest enough nasty stuff already, through the air and water, so I don't put chemicals on my food. We've had decent luck with our fruit with that philosophy. Yes, our peaches were a little buggy last year, but we still had a plentiful yield. We also had significant hail damage with our apples this year, but no spray in the world will help that. The raspberries don't seem to mind at all.



However, our bottom line is derived from a much simpler place: my boys. They go out in the yard, pick something off the vine / tree / bush, and in the mouth it goes. They love to eat vegetables (even broccoli and asparagus) because they watch it grow (and probably helped along the way). I never want to lose that freedom.

The Alpacas Are Here!

Yes, it's true. All of our hard work over the past few months has paid off, and we have now (finally) taken delivery of the alpacas.

For now, the two boys and two girls will be sharing a pasture, but eventually, we will separate them. A few observations:

-If you have alpacas peeking out of a livestock trailer, people WILL inevitably ask about them. "Are those llamas"? No, they're alpacas. "Cool! I love Waupacas". Umm...okay....


-Alpacas are very curious, like cats. I think they like to watch us as much as we watch them. But, don't try to pet them, unless it was THEIR idea.

-Boys stick together (and so do girls). For a while today, I was having flashbacks to a junior high school dance. The boys were on one side of the pasture, the girls were on the other, and there was a whole lotta space separating them.

-Alpacas DO have a communal dung pile. Well, in our case, there are two communal piles. You guessed it: one for the boys, the other for the girls. I'd like to say there was a fancy ritual for picking the spot, but it seemed like it was the first place someone squatted. (Sorry. We're alpaca people now. Dung will now occupy a significant portion of our conscious thought.)


I know: all the posts have been about the critters lately. It is raspberry season, and the peaches are not far behind, so check back for updates on the fruitier end of our operation.

Ahhh....

My job can be pretty intense sometimes.   Today was easily one of the crummiest days I've had in well over a year.    One of the things I'm really enjoying about the farm is the physical labor.  I sit at a desk (or in meetings) most of the time at the day job.   Oh goodie - today I made some more spreadsheets.   Where's the joy in that?

So, I was fried when I got home today.  It was the perfect mindset for weeding.   I needed some way to vent my frustration / rage, and feel like I make a difference in the world.    Ripping out that *&#!(@* crab grass just felt good.    My watermelons, peppers, beets, and other veggies are now beautiful again.     I also made baked fish, wilted beet greens, and potatoes with fresh dill and scallions for supper.  Mmmm - maybe this day wasn't a complete loss....

Talk about intense jobs - my husband is a stay-home dad.    I wouldn't want to trade with him....

Little Farm Boys

Here are some pictures of my real boys.   Why do little boys like tractors so much?

Vintage Tobacco Poles for sale!

Hey everyone,

Our big old barn was once used as a tobacco drying shed.   So, we have (literally) hundreds of really long wood poles.  Most are at least 16 feet long, and 4 inches wide.   They are solid pieces of wood, and look like tree trunks with the branches trimmed off.    We've been using them for fence posts, and they work great.   However, we need room for hay.

Act now - we're having an inventory reduction sale.   $4 / pole - take as many as you want.  Or, make an offer: offbeatacres@gmail.com.

Don't Fence Me In

We are celebrating our 4th of July this weekend by putting up a fence.    So far, all of the corner posts are in.  My husband rented a post hole digger a few weeks ago, but that didn't cut the mustard.   We're now the proud owners of a post hole digger that attaches to our old tractor.   That's an impressive machine, and cuts through rocks, compacted soil, etc, like butter.

This is actually very exciting for us.   The fence is the last thing we need to finish before we can go get our alpacas.   We've "owned" them for about 3 months now, but it still doesn't seem very real.  If all goes well, we'll pick them up next Friday.  Wish us luck!

Btw....our barn is done, and it looks terrific.  We'll post pictures of the finished product soon.

Alpacas "R" Us?

We're actually getting 4 alpacas.    You've already met Bam Bam and Titanium (see the post on "The Boys"); we're also getting 2 girls, named Hula and Sabetha.   They have fancy registered names too, but la la.   You won't find me out in the pasture saying "Come here, KAOA Rum BamBoozle" - Bam Bam is much easier.    You get the idea.

Hula is a female, born last June.  She's not quite full grown yet, and will be bred next summer (2009), and have her first cria in 2010.   See how we got suckered in to buying alpacas?   She looks like a teddy bear.

 People always ask us where you buy alpacas.    Well, I haven't found an Alpacas "R" Us store, yet.   We've had really good luck with the alpacanation website, which is where we found our breeders, Apple Orchard Alpacas.   The Kandiko's have been great - they've been in the business for a long time, and are really good advocates for the industry.   Be sure to buy from a reputable breeder, it makes your life a lot easier.