Ricky and Chrissy's Wedding 7/7/13

Busy Days at the Farm!

Hey Ya'll!

I'm crazy busy!!!

We are in the midst of summer growing season. Picking blueberries and strawberries, fighting bugs and ensuring all the vegs are keeping.

We are doing the Farmer's Market on Tuesdays, I'm selling yarn and bread, among other things. This week it was blueberries and kale.

Ricky is getting Married on Sunday

Ricky is getting his apartment ready in Knoxville for their move (they will be going to UT this fall!) Satch has been helping him move.

I borrowed a carder again and have been carding and blending fiber to make yarn.

I joined Tour de Fleece (a spinning activity that coincides with the Tour de France, while they ride we spin.) this year (my first) and I'm trying to spin every day. (I know, crazy with a wedding and everything else!) But, it is relaxing and very therapeutic during this busy time.

Ok, So, I've been using a friend's drum carder, making batts with my wool to sell or spin... trying to get ready for the Farmer's Market on Tuesdays (www.tuesdayfarmersmarket.com). I was hoping they would have put pics up from last week, but alas, they didn't. So this week I will have Mom take pics so we can post them here and on the FB page of the farmer's market and our booth.

In the mean time, here are some of the batts I've made and some dying I've been doing to get ready for Tour de Fleece!

Purple Batt (with firestar)

Alabama Sunrise Batt

Rainbow Batt

Gold alpaca roving

Rainbow fiber

Purple and blue in the dye pot

Alabama Sunset (has purple and blue suri)

So much to do!

So much more to do!

It has been a looong time since I posted... but I'm starting it back up again... primarily for the Tour de Fleece on Ravelry.com. I will be spinning yarn for my farmer's market booth to sell... so I need a lot of yarn and I'm going to challenge myself to get a lot done.

The sheep are sheared and the fleeces are getting washed. Next to dye them, card or comb them and prep them for spinning. I'll get some pics up soon!

See ya'll soon! :)

Rhiannon's Tarka Dahl

Hi Everyone,
I have been so busy this past year I haven't been able to keep up with the blog... but I wanted to put together a recipe book for all the awesome recipes that our interns have brought and made for us... so here is our first installment, Rhi's Tarka Dahl!

Tarka Dahl (curried lentils)

1 lb lentils

1 onion

6 cloves garlic

Ginger

1 chili pepper

3 T turmeric

3 T Garam Masala (recipe below)

4 oz tomato paste

Lentils and 2x more water, add turmeric and ½ of the garlic whole simmer until tender. In frying pan fry onion until soft and slightly golden add rest of garlic finely chopped, 1 inch ginger root grated, fry til brown (in oil). Add Garam masala to onion mix, cook 2 mins stirring constantly. Add tomato paste and cook for 2 mins. (add chicken, veggies and coconut milk to make curry) Add seasoning and paste mix to lentils and cook for 30 mins.

Serve with rice.

Garam Masala

4 tbsps coriander seeds

1 tbsp cumin seeds

1 tbsp black peppercorns

1 ½ tsps black cumin seeds (shahjeera)

1 ½ tsps dry ginger

¾ tsp black cardamom (3-4 large pods approx)

¾ tsp cloves

¾ tsp cinnamon (2 X 1” pieces)

¾ tsp crushed bay leaves

Preparation:
Heat a heavy skillet on a medium flame and gently roast all ingredients (leave cardamom in its pods till later) except the dry ginger, till they turn a few shades darker. Stir occasionally. Do not be tempted to speed up the process by turning up the heat as the spices will burn on the outside and remain raw on the inside.

When the spices are roasted turn off the heat and allow them to cool.

Once cooled, remove the cardamom seeds from their skins and mix them back with all the other roasted spices.

Grind them all together, to a fine powder in a clean, dry coffee grinder.

Store in an air-tight container in a cool, dark place.

Enjoy!

Be aware and beware NaturalNews

 

1.Tomatoes: What? Tomatoes? Yes, that's right. It's probably the No. 1 symbol of a GMO food, having been on the market since about 1994. Still, some think modifying them genetically is okay, including those who traditionally shun GMO foods, which is perplexing. The most recent converts are hailing a new technique developed by researchers for extending the shelf life of tomatoes and other crops from the traditional 15 days or so to a full month. This is accomplished by suppressing two enzymes (A-Man, B-hex) which accumulate during the ripening process. Backers say this modification can decrease waste and increase efficiency, but again, it's a process thatgenetically altersthe product, and there have been reports that some animals have died shortly after consuming GMO tomatoes.

2.Cotton: Considered a food item because its oil can be consumed, cotton - in particular, genetically modified Bt cotton, common to India and China - has damaging consequences. According to recent Chinese research, while Bt cotton is capable of killing bollworms without the use of insecticides, its decreased use has increased the presence of other crop-harming pests. Also, Bt cotton production has been linked to drastic depletion of soil nutrients and lower crop yields, as well as much higher water requirements.

3.Canola: This is probably one of the most misunderstood, misguided "healthy" food choices out there right now, but there is little about canola - and similar oils - that is good for you. Extracted from rapeseed, canola oil and others must be chemically removed from the seeds, then deodorized and altered, in order to be utilized in foods. They are among the most chemically altered foods in our diets.

4.Aspartame: An artificial sweetener found in a number of products, aspartame - discovered by accident in 1965 by a chemist testing an anti-ulcer drug - accounts for as many as 75 percent of adverse reactions to food additives reported to theFood and Drug Administration(FDA), according to some reports. Some seizures and even some deaths have been blamed on aspartame.

5.Dairy: A disturbingly high number - as many as one-fifth - of dairy cows in the U.S. today are given growth hormones to increase milk production, a figure that has been rising since the FDA approved a genetically engineered recombinant bovine growth hormone known as rbGH or rbST for use in dairy cows in 1993. While said to boost production by 5-15 percent, scientists have expressed concern that the increased levels of IGF-1 (insulin growth factors-1) from hormone-treated cows may boost the risks of colon and breast cancer. Since 2008, Hiland Dairy has stopped using milk from dairy farmers who inject their cows with growth hormone.

6.Corn: Modified now to create its own insecticide, as many as half of all U.S. farms growing corn for Monsanto are using genetically modified corn, with tons of it now being introduced for human consumption, according to the FDA. Doctors atSherbrooke University Hospitalin Quebec recently found Bt toxin from modified corn in the blood of pregnant women and their babies, as well as in non-pregnant women.

7.Papayas: Genetically modified papayas have been grown in Hawaii commercially since 1999, designed to combat the Papaya Ringspot Virus. Approved for sale and consumption in the U.S. and Canada, GM papayas cannot be imported or sold in the European Union.

8.Potatoes: That favorite of American starches, potatoes, especially those that have been genetically modified with Bacillus thuringiensis var. Kurstaki Cry 1, have been fed to mice and those mice have been found to have toxins in their systems. Also, according to Dr. Nina V. Fedoroff Willaman Professor of Life Sciences and Evan Pugh Professor atPennsylvania State University, "rats fed the transgenic potatoes had significantly lower organ weights [...]".

9.Soy: Like other foods, soy, too, has been genetically modified to resist herbicides. Soy is included in soy flour, tofu, soy beverages, soybean oil and scores of other products, especially baked goods and pastries. According to one report, "[a]fter feeding hamsters for two years over three generations, those on the GM diet, and especially the group on the maximum GM soy diet, showed devastating results. By the third generation, most GM soy-fed hamsters lost the ability to have babies. They also suffered slower growth, and a high mortality rate among the pups."

10.Rice: One of the most prevalent starches in the Asian and U.S. diets, rice has been modified to contain a high amount of vitamin A. But despite the goal of boosting rice production in countries with high demand, it's not being universally accepted. China, for instance, suspended distribution of genetically modified rice within its commercial food supplies over growing concern about its safety.


See the NaturalNews infographic at:

http://www.naturalnews.com/Infographic-Top-10-GMO-Foods-to-Avoid-Eating.html 

Learn more:http://www.naturalnews.com/036063_GMOs_foods_infographics.html#ixzz1x0zIQcI9

New pics from the farm!

sunset

Shemayim's new baby

31 and Big Boy

Shemayim and her new calf

It's a girl!