Small Farm Conference

This past weekend was the Small Farm Conference in Columbia, MO. This was the 18th year for the conference, sponsored and organized by Small Farm Today magazine. I've written for them off and on for years and the magazine covers a lot of farm subjects, everything from cattle grazing to potbelly pigs, llamas, poultry, gardening, herbs and home canning.

There were heritage breed turkeys on display, and for sale.

The Conference has 3 tracts of speakers each of the 3 days, with subjects ranging from organic gardening, building raised beds and choosing the right heirloom vegetable for your garden, to cattle breeding, pasture management and livestock subjects. Each year the conference features dog trials and judging, where farm work dogs show off their skills at herding various animals (sheep, cattle, in this instance, ducks). It's a lot of fun to watch how the dogs work to outsmart the critters they're herding.

The goal was to put the ducks in a cage by convincing them it was their idea.

I spoke on using Marketing Your Business Through Social Media. I showed examples of my blog page here, my FaceBook and Twitter pages, too, and made the point that Social Media is the way small businesses can compete with the big businesses. If Conan O'Brian can have over one million people following him on Twitter by simply saying stupid things, then a business can do well saying smart things.

There were lots of interesting vendor booths. This one was offering engraved rocks for your garden, either ones they have in stock, or you can special order words to your liking. Weed This Garden! anyone?

Soap, brooms, lots of interesting produce from the garden. One booth was simply elderberry syrups, jellies and juices.  Evidently the hot new berry to grow is elderberry with several newly released varieties. Some bloom all at once (determinate) while others are bred to flower and fruit over an extended time (indeterminate). I came home with elderberry jelly and syrup, with some stem cutting to root for my garden next year.

This was my Long Creek Herbs booth, between an agriculture products business and the Missouri Conservation booth, on the right. I met a lot of really interesting people at the conference and the continuing interest in organic, sustainable growing and local foods was prominent.

Over the years of going to this conference, I've met lots of interesting people. It's where I first met our friend, Gayl Bousman who has Evening Shade Farm and who makes wonderful goats milk soap. This was another not so good food trip. I've never had a particularly good meal in Columbia, Missouri. Possibly being a college town, it's just not known for good food, and this year was no exception. I always try to find interesting food there, but it's pretty slim pickings.

Lots of information is exchanged over the chicken coops.

I've been on the road a lot this fall season, speaking at a lot of conferences and events and as much as I enjoy it, I readily admit, I'm glad I don't have any more speaking gigs until next March in Michigan! I need to get back to working on my own garden cleanup and construction. And I have hot peppers to process and dry. Happy gardening!

Wattle Fence Workshop

Some of you may remember my posting last April when I visited the amazing Four Winds Waldorf School in Warrenville, IL, on the outskirts of Chicagoland. I'd visited then because I had an invitation to  give a wattle fence workshop, and wanted to check out the location. And I was curious why a private school wanted a wattle fence around a playground. After my tour and visit with Marianne Fieber, the school Administrator, I understood. It's not your ordinary school but one in which the students and children are as involved and engaged as the teachers are.

A wattle fence to surround the playground was Marianne's vision, something she's been working toward for a couple of years. She said she had seen a wattle fence at another Waldorf School and thought it would be perfect for the school in Warrenville. (To learn more about Waldorf Schools world-wide, visit their link, it's a very interesting concept). One of the aspects of the school that I admire is the teacher a child starts with in kindergarten or first grade, is the teacher for that class through all eight grades. There's also a connection for the students with nature, plants, gardening and the seasons also, and I really admire that, too.

So the workshop. We'd planned on having 15 or 20 people, for 2 workshops, one on Saturday and one on Sunday. Garden Writer of America members around Chicago were invited, as well as local media people, in hope of giving the school and the project some publicity. Possibly because the School had just had a harvest festival, or who knows why, the turnout was pretty disappointing. At 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, starting time, no one showed up. It was just Marianne and me, and a bit of misting rain. She made some calls, a couple of folks were on their way. By about 9:30, we had 4 more people, including 7 year old Ezra who was anxious to learn about the project. Then it began to rain.

In the rain, everyone struggled to cut saplings from the school grounds. That's Bruce Cooper, the 7th grade teacher and Rich Hill, one of the parents, working with soggy wet saplings.

The ground was hard packed, so pounding the 36 inch posts in the ground was a challenge. We cut the posts from the woods and sharpened the ends, but it took an iron bar pounded into the ground with a sledge hammer to make a hole before we could then drive the sapling posts into the ground. (The building method is to put posts in the ground about every 38 - 48 inches, then weave saplings through them like a basket weave).

Beginning to weave the saplings between the posts. It takes a lot of saplings to do this project - which is why we were hoping for a large group. We were only able to do about one fourth of the fence Marianne envisioned, but we made a good start.

This was the only time that Ezra sat down. Most of the time he was pruning the limbs off saplings as his father and the 7th grade teacher, Bruce, brought them in from the woods. Ezra kept us all cheerful even though we were soaking wet.

We were determined to make progress, even though we were a small group and in spite of the rains. As the fence shaped up, we decided it needed an arch, a "magical" entrance to the part of the playground where the yougest children play.

Lynn Hill, Ezra's mother, cutting saplings to size.

Marianne Fieber, school Administrator, worked tirelessly to see the fence take shape.

One of the goals of the wattle fence was to make a barrier to keep the youngest children from darting into the parking lot. The lot doesn't have traffic, but the teachers wanted a way to keep the little ones closer to the sand pile and playground equipment. We chose this pass-through, not quite a gate, not quite a wall, but a visual barrier. You'll notice the parking lot and my pickup in the background, where I'd unloaded the tools for the project.

 

Corona Tools donated a pair of loppers and a pair of pruners to be given away at the workshop. This is the Hill family, Lynn, Rich and Ezra, who worked really hard all day and were pleased to take home the great Corona lopper. Pat Clancy, who was the recipient of the Corona pruners, had just left to go home and find dry clothes but we got the pruners to her afterward.

Ezra mastered the use of the tools and was already making plans with his mother for what kind of bentwood fence he would build in their home garden. Corona Tools provided a set of loppers and pruners for the workshop.

And here's a section of the completed fence. The goal was to build a barrier, one that could be seen through, walked around, but a visual barrier for the smaller children. We accomplished that in spite of the obstacles.

 

Tired, wet to the skin, we cleaned up, everyone pleased with what we had accomplished for the school. Thank you, Marianne for your vision, and to the workers for their help. This is a very unique school and it was a joy to be a small part of it. And a big thanks to Corona Tools for their generous donation!

Halloween, it's about Pumpkins!

I've been saving these photos from my trip 2 weeks ago to the Kansas City Renaissance Festival (aka, KC Ren-Fest). I've never been at Ren-Fest on Halloween, it must be even more fun than other times, but here are some pics from the weekend, which seem fitting for the Halloween weekend. (You can always click on the photos to enlarge them if you want to see more detail).

Real pumpkins, carved into very creative jack-o-lanterns.

KC Ren-Fest is all about costumes and fun. My friend, T'ger (who you may recall gave me a kidney 5 years ago and saved my life) is a costumer by trade. He makes and sells coats, tights, hats, kilts and all sorts of costumery in his shop, T'Ger Toggs.

That's T'ger in the middle, being silly as usual.

That's T'ger Toggs, below. Even though KC Ren-Fest is huge, like a small city, everyone knows T'ger. His shop is like a community gathering place and many of the staff characters use T'ger's costumes.

Notice the clothes hanging on the line overhead. And the bubbles coming out of the upper corner from the bubble machine.

The princess and the archer in hot debate.

Everyone dresses up for Ren-Fest. This 85 year old princess hasn't outgrown her love of being a princess.

That's Scott, a fireman from Kansas City, who always comes to Ren-Fest and works as a cabbie (Cabroioet), pulling people around the grounds for $5 a ride. He says it's a great workout.

One of the fire dancers entertains the crowd.

The Grand Parade.

A couple of times a day, all of the paid characters of Ren-Fest parade through the entire complex. There are acrobats on stilts, fire eaters, a King and Queen, princes, princesses, gypsies, jugglers, etc.

Lots of dancing gypsies.

People bring their dogs. I don't know why. You probably can't see it, but riding on the dog's back is a dragon in knight's gear. If you click on the photo it will enlarge and you can see.

Plenty of pirates, too.

And long-eared elves, too.

And bad-behaving princes (he ate a bad hotdog).

Lots of children, too. This knight and princess are waiting expectantly for T'ger to fill up the bubble machine. (The bubbles are special, they're filled with "smoke" and so when they're burst, it's even more magical than swatting regular bubbles!)

Yes, there are gardens at KC Ren-Fest, and good ones, too. But they have a hard time competing with thousands of costumed people cavorting through the woodlands at KC Ren-Fest.

Caged Jack-o-lantern.

I didn't grow any pumpkins this year. The drought hit just as the plants were beginning to bloom and no amount of watering could make up for the hot days that prevented the blossoms from setting.

Do something fun for Halloween. Maybe the costumery of Ren-Fest will give you some ideas.

Happy haunting!

Homemade Crackers Using Herbs

Pardon me while I get excited. Actually, humbled is more like it - I always feel honored that you folks follow my garden adventures blog. You're like a community for me; I don't know many people locally who are interested in plants, or even food from plants, so it's always fun for me to see who's following me here. And lots of people read the blog who aren't listed as followers (I can tell from the visit counter, on the lower right of the blog page). Follower, or hidden in the shadows, I'm still pleased you stop by.

This past Friday was our Friday night dinner group's annual applesauce making. We get together, combine our apples and efforts and cook up and process apples into applesauce. Everyone divides up the sauce to take home and freeze. Sorry, but things were so hectic, there are no photos of the sauce-making process. Combined with the applesauce making was a potluck dinner for 14 or 15 people. Seth Buller, our WWOOFer, had arrived from Memphis by bicycle a few days back (yes, that's about 7 days of riding!). And he brought along Randy, who is on his first bike ride across America (starting in Minnesota) and wanted some tips on the process so they rode together from Memphis. (That's Randy, below, chopping wood in exchange for his room and board for 4 days; Randy's not a WWOOFer, nor a gardener, but is on his own journey of discovery across the country). He headed on to Tulsa from here.

Seth, who's from Virginia, has been on the road with his bike since March, with a stopover in Knoxville, where his expensive bike, along with all of his camping and survival equipment was stolen. So instead of arriving here at Long Creek Herb Farm in May or June as he'd hoped, he spent the summer working a job in order to earn about $5,000 to replace the lost in equipment before he could continue his WWOOFing journey. He wanted to learn more about herb uses while he was here, so I asked him to take my Easy Homemade Crackers book and pick a cracker to make for the applesauce party. He chose the Rustic Herb Seed Crackers. Here's the process and the recipe.

Rustic Herbal Cracker

(From my book, Easy Homemade Crackers Using Herbs)

These are an easy to make, simple and homemade-looking cracker that's great with cheese, fruit, snacks or dips.

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 cup water

Seed mixture:
2 Tablespoons raw sesame seed
1 Tablespoon poppy seed
1 Tablespoon rosemary leaves (fresh or dry)
1 Tablespoon millet seed
1 Tablespoon dried basil leaves
1 Tablespoon dried dill weed (not seed)
1 Tablespoon dried *Texas tarragon
2 teaspoons dried thyme leaves (not ground thyme)
2 teaspoons dried marjoram
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 Tablespoon coarse sea salt.

In a mixing bowl, combine the flours, cornmeal and water and mix well. Set aside for 5 minutes, then scrape the dough onto a well floured surface. Knead the dough several times, adding more flour if necessary.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Divide the dough into 8 approximately equal pieces, and roll into a ball between your palms, setting aside.

Mix together the seeds, herbs, pepper and salt. On a floured surface, scatter 1 Tablespoon of the herb-seed mixture and spread it slightly. Roll out one of the 8 dough balls until as thin as possible, less than 1/8 inch thick on the herb-seed floured surface.

Transfer the rolled dough onto a lightly greased baking sheet and bake for about 5 minutes or until lightly browned. Flip the cracker over and continue baking another 3-4 minutes. (The thinner the dough, the quicker it will bake and the crispier the cracker will be).

Continue rolling out the dough, using a Tablespoon or more of the herb-seed mixture for each ball of dough, along with a dusting of flour so the dough doesn’t stick. You can probably place 2 of the rolled dough pieces on a cookie sheet for baking.

After cooling completely, store in an airtight container or simply wrapped in cloth until ready to serve. Break crackers into random pieces before serving, or let guests break them apart themselves. I put these out at a party recently and guests simply broke off pieces of the cracker as they chose cheese sticks and fresh grapes from the appetizer tray.


*Texas tarragon (Tagetes lucida), also known as Mexican mint marigold, is an easily grown tarragon-flavored herb. You can substitute French tarragon if you wish, but if you grow your own Texas tarragon, use that as the flavor is a bit more robust and tasty.

If you'd like to check on Seth's great bike adventure across America, check his very interesting blog here. He's been a pleasure to get to know and fun to have at the farm all week. I'm sure our paths will cross again and I plan to check his blog often to see who and what he's encountering on his wonderful journey. He's heading north from the Ozarks, to Kansas City, on to Nebraska to visit grandparents, then over to Denver to spend the winter with friends. And yes, all on the back of a bicycle. I admire that stamina and sense of adventure!

40 Thousand Pumpkins

My little pumpkin patch here at Long Creek Herb Farm didn't produce anything this year. Between the squash bugs and the 6 weeks of drought, the vines just gave up. But look what you can do if you have 40,000 pumpkins to play with. This is what I saw being constructed when I was at the Dallas Botanic Garden a few weeks ago.
Jimmy Turner, our kind host for the Botanic Garden at the Garden Writers of America conference, sent these photos along (and some pix are mine, as well).

This is the entry way into an impressive pumpkin village, which includes a pumpkin gazebo, a pumpkin house, kids games and more pumpkins than you could ever imagine.

The pumpkin hut, below, was still covered with planters filled with vines that had covered the entire walls on all sides when I last visited. (Vertical gardening is big this year, possibly a response to people who have a small place to garden; going up, on walls, takes the place of traditional horizontal planting). Here it is before, followed by how it looks now. Notice the planters covering the walls with the vines growing out of each one.

 Same building, different view, after being taken over by the pumpkins.

Here, going just for design, the various colors are arranged to surprise the eyes. And it is truly an amazing surprise, seeing all of those punkin's there in one place.

But the biggest and best structure is the pumpkin gazebo, in my opinion.

I couldn't help but wonder, who gets the pumpkins after the exhibit? Do they go to a homeless shelter for pies? Hog ranch for hog feed? Maybe they have a big compost pile at the Botanic Garden. I'll ask. Or if you're curious where all the pumpkins go after they're done with them, ask Jimmy Turner, I'm sure he has the answer.

While posting this, I had cookies baking in the oven. This is a favorite recipe a friend gave me decades ago. I'm guessing it may have originated in the old Moosewood cookbook, but I'm not certain. These are substantial relatively healthy cookies, simple, not too sweet and pretty much no-fail.

Clean out the Pantry Cookies

2 cups flour
2 cups rolled oats (quick or regular)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup butter, melted
2 eggs

Mix ingredients in the order they're listed. Then add any of the following, up to 1/2 cup of each:
Grape-Nuts, raisins, sunflower seeds, cornflakes, Raisin-Bran, coconut, peanut butter, chocolate chips.
If, after adding from the above, the mixture is too dry, add another egg and mix again

Drop by teaspoonful onto an oiled cookie sheet and bake in a 350 degree F. oven for 10-12 minutes. I like my cookies larger, so I use about 1/4 cup per cookie and bake them about 14 minutes. Today I also added Craisins, pecans, coconut and sesame seed.Wonder how some pumpkin in the cookies would be?