"Lazy" Days of August...

The lazy days of August are here at Old School Farm, but they are far from lazy for Dave and WWOOF farming volunteer, Hayley Otterness.  Lots of vegetable harvesting and preserving is going on along with the continued building of the bread/pizza oven.  The bees are also busy, and as their numbers multiply, so does their need for space.  Dave is seen here replacing the hive cover after adding another level of forms on which the bees will build more combs for honey.

WWOOF Volunteer Hayley Otterness

Hayley came to the farm back in July to help Dave in Al's absence, and decided to stay on a couple of extra weeks.   Here are some photos of Hayley helping out at the farm along with a few of her own words about the experience...

Hey!

So, my name is Hayley and since I'm spending some time here at Old School Farm, I guess I could tell you a little about myself.

 I was born and raised a city girl, but have always loved the country.  I am so happy to have this opportunity with OSF to explore farming, get some fresh air, and eat really great food. 

 Wwoofing attracted me because it connects people all over the world with a common interest: organic farming.  Trading work for food is all I really need at this moment in my life, so this was a cool way to spend my summer.

Hayley harvesting cucumbers

 I will take many things away from this experience, many things.  Honestly, there are just too many to list them all.  For instance, the night the turkeys decided they wanted to roost outside in a peach tree instead of kindly going in to their home.  We had to pluck them off the tree, one by one, and put them safely into their coop.  Trust me, it is much more difficult to wrangle up some turkeys then it sounds.  Turkeys don’t exactly love being picked up.  They tend to squawk and flail and it takes a lot of arm muscle to not let one go, which I did a couple times.  All the excitement did eventually end with all fifteen turkeys safely in their coop. 

But, don't think the turkeys are the only exciting part!  Everyday I get to feed my destructive and heroic sides simultaneously by ridding the garden of weeds to save the vegetables! 

 My favorite task in the garden is harvesting potatos.  I mean, seeing as I am an experienced pirate (only in my imagination), I can say it is very close to digging for treasure.  Aaarrgh.

 Well, that is about all I have to share today.  But stay tuned for I go potato hunting regularly...

The farm wall stone base for wood fired oven - roof bump out added above 

Other activities at the farm continue in earnest in preparation for the fall season.  Dave is currently working on finishing the wood fired bread oven and has just finished the stone base.  Next come the fire bricks for the base of the cooking surface and then the tricky part - the earthen dome, made primarily of clay.  The dimensions have to be just right or the heat won't disperse evenly, causing burning on top or bottom of bread or pizza.

Portable, solar powered fencing with mineral feeder in foreground

We continue to move our sheep and portable shelter to fresh grass around the 12 acre pasture and are currently planning a temporary containment area in one corner of the barn.  This will house our two mature ewes, Elska and Freya along with our young ram (as of yet not named) for the fall and winter months for the purposes of breeding.  The three young ewes are not yet old enough to breed and will remain in the shelter in the pasture.  Icelandic sheep are incredibly hardy and only require a wind break and shelter from rain and sun.  Cold temperatures alone will not adversely effect them, as they have two coats of wool - a soft inner layer and a coarse outer coat.

Purple Broccoli (turns green when cooked)

The garden is churning out loads of produce.  Some is being sold locally at markets, but much is being frozen or canned (in the case of pickles) for winter use.

Beds are re-planted with fall crops - spinach, rutabagas, etc

We are also re-planting areas with fall and early winter crops.  We obtained a grant for high tunnels from the USDA and these hoop houses with raisable lower flaps will be used for season extension in our garden.

Some serious roof garden carrots and an old snowmobile
a kindly neighbor gave Dave for easy winter access to
upper pastures

Our young Ram -his horns will soon completely curl around

Snow White cherry tomatoes - amazing flavor

Blanching Broccoli for the freezer

Until next time, enjoy the rest of your summer and please feel free to pass on a link to our blog to others if you are enjoying it...

Beet Sorbet, Ideas from Maine, and Bread Oven update

Wild low bush blueberries are easily "raked" along the coast of Maine. 

Late July marks the start of blueberry season in Downeast Maine, and the Benner family is fortunate enough to be able to spend some time in this glorious part of the world each summer.

Recently Al Benner paid a visit to an off-grid hostel/farm on Deer Isle, where virtually all the structures, food, and energy are produced right on site by the proprietors.  This experience touched a nerve with Al as he found the simple, yet elegant structures and grounds to be very much in line with the vision he and Dave Campeau share for Old School Farm.

Deer Isle Hostel - Hand built from stone and wood on site

Thanks to Anneli and Dennis for the wonderful tour and all the information they shared about their experience to date.  To find out more about the hostel, visit: www.DeerIsleHostel.com     

The new "hut" made of cedar and oak

Hand carving tools on bed and view to the outside world

Here are some  photos and brief descriptions that show the progress since Dennis began clearing the land just a few years ago.  It's amazing what some patience, craftsmanship, and vision can produce...

Hand sculpted oak beams and medieval joinery

Anneli's garden - seaweed is a key ingredient

Reclaimed hardwood shipping skids - idea for compost bins

The modest home is completely off grid

A wood fired cedar hot tub for those cold Maine winters!Here are some

Chickens get lots of vegetable scraps and clippings

Dennis shows his simplistic log mover with min-mill and locust logs behind

Hot showers using a sprinkling can and pulley

Hand pumped Maine spring water

A Useful Wild Plant

Colt's Foot is a common low growing ground cover -type plant that has been used by Native peoples for centuries to help with Asthma.  Our son Owen experiences pre-asthmatic conditions and has bad allergies, so we will be trying this plant in lieu of inhalers.  Simply dry the leaves and then crush to make a tea.  Look for leaves with the black spots - the plant's oil that is medicinal is more prevalent in these leaves with the fungus present.

Colt's Foot Leaf - A native plant useful as a tea for treating asthma 

Beet Sorbet Donation

Old School Farm recently donated several pounds of beets to a local PASA food tasting even at the Silk Mill near Hawley, PA.  The sorbet was prepared the well known Settler's Inn also in Hawley. The feedback from many was that this was a very delicious and refreshing dessert.  Beets can also be used to make beet ice cream.

Farm Updates

In Al's absence, Dave has been hard at work with several projects that will ensure the long term success of the farm.  These include:  Starting to construct the wood fired bread and pizza oven, completing the solar powered drip system for the garden, and getting our six Icelandic sheep moved over into our twelve acre pasture.  

For the sheep to thrive and be healthy and to minimize parasited load, we need to constantly rotate their pasture area ever couple of weeks.  We will be doing this by using portable electric netting that keeps them contained and prevents predators like coyotes from coming in.  When we are ready to move to "greener pastures", we simply hook the towable hemlock shelter with a tow strap to our '66 Ford  pickup "Hoss" and easily move the structure to the new location.  The fence and sheep are then maneuvered to the new location.

The water line from the pump house to the spring fed stream

Getting the water flowing properly was a bit more challenging.  The soaker hose that we had been graciously donated by a neighbor had a few clogs and not knowing this at first created some confusion as to why water wasn't flowing properly, but in the end, we are now able to easily water several rows of our garden simultaneously by mid to late morning when the sun is shining.  If the power goes down for some reason, our crops still get water.  Best of all, pumping it costs us nothing.

The Pump House with solar panel, pump, pressure tank, control panel and water feed line

Soaker hoses extend over newly planted rows of rutabegas, carrots and parsnips

The wood fired bread and pizza oven is starting to take shape.  Dave is collecting stone from our old fieldstone farm walls in areas where they have fallen down, and we are using these w/ mortar between and behind for our base for the oven.  This stone base will finish at waste height.  We are planning on having friday pizza nights at the farm beginning this fall, with a large screen movie to follow in the barn.

We'll be in touch again soon with more news from the farm, but until then, enjoy some more photos...

Water is flowing...thanks to the sun!

Pump House

As temperatures continue to hover close to ninety in Northeastern, PA, we are thankful that we were finally able to get our solar powered pumping system operational for our thirsty one acre organic vegetable patch.

Our start up time was delayed several days thanks most likely to rough handling by UPS (not our driver he's a top notch guy).  Our first solar panel arrived shattered, and then our first pump wouldn't run properly.

We are using a solar powered pump, pressure tank, and drip irrigation.  For you solar energy geeks out there, the specs are as follow:  Dankoff Solar Slowpump 2507 that moves 4 gallons per minute.  Currently, it pumps when the pressure goes below 5 psi and builds the pressure back up to 15 psi before the pump shuts off again.  It has a 1 1/2" diameter PVC intake line, a pressure tank with a 6 gallon drawdown capacity.  The exit piping is 1 1/4"  diam. poly tubing which is set up to attach to a garden hose/soaker hose.

Soaker Hose in Broccoli bed

Movable sheep shelter

Other happenings include the construction of a second sheep shelter that is towable so we can move it around the twelve acres of river bottom pasture on the other side of the road.  The idea is to move the shelter and electric fence netting around so as to keep the animals on fresh pasture.   This will minimize or eliminate the need for de-worming for parasites as they have a two week start up life cycle once the sheep begin defecating on their browse area.  A two week rotation will greatly reduce parasite load and keep us from having to use harsh medications.  We need to be medication free for milking to make cheese for the pizzas we hope to soon be producing in our wood fired bread and pizza oven Dave will be building.

We are also pro-actively using powdered garlic and diematacious earth mixed with their minerals and/or grain to help keep our sheep from getting parasites.




"Massaged" Kale Salad...

Beginning last fall we started making "massaged" kale salads - sounds strange right?    Well the culinary experience is a delight for the palate.  Even our burly hunter friend, Jerry was having thirds last fall and soon after buying kale at his local supermarket.  Kale has one of the highest vitamin contents of any vegetable, but up until we discovered this easy way to make kale tastier by massaging it with olive oil from our neighbor, Pat Sanders, kale was not high on the list for the dinner menu.

Here is Dave's recipe that all our fellow PASA members were raving about at this month's potluck meeting:

LARGE bunch of kale (16-20 leaves minimum of at least 12 inches long)

1 tsp. salt

1/3 cup slice almonds

1/4 cup diced red onion

1/3 cup currents

3/4-1 cup diced apples

1/4 cup olive oil

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup feta cheese

Remove stems from kale and cut chiffonade

Spit or pat kale dry

Sprinkle salt on kale and massage 2 minutes

Put kale in different dish and discard any extra liquid

Add apples, almonds, currents and stir.

Add olive oil, vinegar and toss

Sprinkle feta cheese on top.

Turkey woes...

Heritage breed turkeys enjoy bugs & grass in orchard

We lost several turkeys a few weeks back when we couldn't get the young birds into the coop one night.  All that we found were some feathers a few days later - we suspect a raccoon.  We have since kept the grain in the coop during the day while the birds free range in the orchard.  This appears to be working as they are drawn back to the grain in the evening.

The smallest runt however still seems confused by this process and walks in circles around coop, making the work day even longer this time of year.

Wild Food update...

Wild Elderberry Flowers - amazing in pancakes!

Wild Elderberry Pancakes...   Since we like to share our edible wild food experiences, we needed to pass on a very delicious addition to any pancake recipe - elderberry flowers.  Not only are the berries good for wine, but the flowers are marvelous when mixed into any batter.

Some R & R ...

Farm Manager, Dave Campeau's parents were recently up for a visit and Dave took some much needed time to relax and pick blueberries at a nearby property and do some fishing with his dad at a neighbor's pond.  He also visited what was once a private airstrip - just down the road a few miles.   You never know what you'll find tucked away in the hills of Pennsylvania.

The trout pond has really cleared up nicely and the new upper pond is holding water as well.  We hope to get a couple of Highland cattle next year to beging stripping invasive shrub honeysuckle and autumn olive from our upper pasture.

More projects and photos....

Clearing the old road bed to upper pasture

Fireworks by the fire pit...

Our compost piles are teaming with red worms - we feed some to our trout.

Spotted Efts abound near the falls - an indicator of a very healthy eco-system

Turkey feathers - nature can be cruel

Antique figurine shard found in garden near Dyberry trout stream  (note fish)

Raspberries staked with scrap hemlock from barn construction

garlic scapes, blueberries, beets/beet greens, snow peas

One of our bees gathering asparagus pollen

Keeping watermelons cold by floating them in our springhouse

A big reason to stay the course with a small farm...

Until next time.... stay cool and support your local farmers whenever you can - we all may become a lot more dependent on smaller, local producers in the years ahead as the costs of fossil fuels continue to rise and our clean water supplies continue to be threatened.