Fleur-de-Scrambled

 

Scrambled. That’s how my life is now.

So much so that when my mother and great aunt were visiting over the weekend, it didn’t occur to me to hide the four trays of chitting (sprouting) seed potatoes – All Blue, Lehigh, Adirondack Red, and Purple Sun – laying on the living room floor (planting No. 3).

“What are those things?” asked the 80-something duo. “They look like cookies or something.”

The dining room table covered with semi-organized piles of paperwork, seed catalogs, and planting charts is invisible to me; to them, it was a glaring example of domestic disarray. In their homes, there’s not a paper or knickknack out of place. The pots of luffas crowded on the kitchen windowsill are as natural as the wall-to-wall tomato seedlings in the hoop house or the ladybugs in the bathroom.

“You must like this life,” said the woman who is planning her 90^th birthday around nine holes of golf and knows how to relax with a glass of “white water” (vodka with a splash).

It’s spring. Although there is never a month I’d earn the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval for my homemaking skills, this time of year is especially bad. Why, when I was carrying out a flat of Giant of Prague celeriac and assorted heirloom peppers to transplant and the tray flipped and spilled all over the front steps, I was more concerned with rescuing seedlings than sweeping up the mess.

Add demands of a part-time job, family obligations that cut weekends from each month, and rain that encourages mats and mounds of weeds … no wonder I feel like I’m always scrambling. So, if I’m not available when you visit, please understand. Bring change or write me a note and remind me what I owe you on your next visit. But most of all, stop in and enjoy our fresh eggs, fresh asparagus, fresh green garlic – and, if I’m around, fresh-cut arugula, sorrel, lettuce, chives and other lovely herbs.  No matter what life brings, I promise never to be hard-boiled. And one of these days, things will settle down and I’ll be sunny-side up, or at least, over-easy. Laurie Lynch

More Chick Names: All of the Easter Peeps came back safe and sound. The rest of the names are as fun as the first group: Pecky Anne, HENrietta, Queenie Black (a Crevecour with a crown of feathers), Chocolate Turtle, Arabeth, Aussie, Shelly, Flippy-Flip Chick, Blackie, and Blondie.

Sweet Potato Slips Soon: $10 for a dozen slips. Heirloom varieties include Georgia Jet, Beauregard, Vardaman, Yellow Jewel, Nancy Hall, and White Triumphs. New varieties: Carolina Ruby and Red Japanese. Please call or email to reserve. They should arrive in mid-May.

Llama Beans: We’ve got bags of llama beans (aka llama manure pellets) to cook your compost … and more on the way. Our llama beans can become your black gold … and they’re free!

Dandy Soup: Soon after I was raving about my garden-harvested dandelion meals, Valerie sent me an email that shows how she’s unscrambling her life. “Thinking of you today. I made a soup with beef bone broth, dried beef, your carrots, sheep sorrel, thistle roots, wild garlic, and oregano that grow in my yard. And mint tea, also from my yard. Why do we bother planting anything? Just learn weeds. My rule of thumb when making soup is; If it’s growing at the same time, then it all goes in the soup.”

Written on Slate: “If my heart were a garden, it would be in bloom with roses and wrinkly Indian poppies and wild flowers. There would be two unmarked tracts of scorched earth, and scattered headstones covered with weeds and ivy and moss, a functioning compost pile, great tangles of blackberry bushes, and some piles of trash I’ve meant to haul away for years.” – Anne Lamott

Sign Gone, We’re Not:  We are having a new Fleur-de-Lys Farm Market sign made. On occasion during the next month or so, we may be sign-less. But, we’re still open.

Fleur-de-CircleofLife

Last weekend was our second wave of potato planting.

The first was a few weeks ago when I started several pounds of fingerlings in large black plastic pots in the hoop house. It’s a painless way to grow potatoes – no digging trenches, just add a little compost when the leaves shoot up, and then, after the plants flower, you simply reach into the pot and pull out tender gems for dinner.

But last weekend, it was the more traditional way of planting potatoes, with a few Fleur-de-Lys twists. I still dig trenches, three of them, but instead of numbering them 1-2-3, they are Red, White, and Blue. That way, I plant all my red-fleshed or red-skinned potatoes in the red row; all the white-fleshed potatoes in the white row, and yes, the blue-skinned and fleshed potatoes in the blue row. I separate varieties in rows with stakes. Later in the season, when I want to harvest a few pounds of white and blue potatoes for a Penn State tailgate, I know which rows to go to. These mind games come in handy for us graying market gardeners.

Another trick of the trade is making sure the seed potatoes have a generous helping of composted manure. After I dig my trenches and place my potatoes, I start wheeling in loads of compost to start filling in the trenches, covering the seed potatoes. As I move along the row, I search for the fat, C-shaped white grubs in the black compost. I gently pick them out, collecting them in a bucket. Then, as I return the empty wheelbarrow to the composted manure pile for a refill, I take the writhing beetle grubs up to the chicken pasture. Bonbons for the hens.

It’s Easter Peep return week, so I’ve been busy collecting all of the names for the girls (more on that later), getting them reacquaintedwith their sisters, and gathering eggs from last year’s peeps. We’re also starting to pick asparagus, baby arugula, sorrel, chives, green garlic (scallions of the garlic variety), shiso, and, we have local Milk & Honey Farm honey. One interesting first for us was about a third of our Red Russian kale over-wintered and has sprouted new, tender, tasty leaves! I’m perplexed, but not complaining. Then, I got a call from Karen, a great gardener on the other side of Kutztown. Her broccoli raab did the same thing! All I can think is that we didn’t have a brutally cold winter, and we had more snow cover than usual, acting as a blanket for tough plants and perhaps helping them survive and now thrive. Here’s to thriving! Laurie Lynch

Name Game: Yes, we want our peep customers to name their chicks! The week before Easter we had former peep family who trudged the whole way up Hen Hill to call for last year’s peep: “Pancake, Pancake.” She came running … along with the rest of the flock! This year’s youngsters liked the letter C. We have Claire, Charlotte, and Candice. We also have two chicks named Chipmunk and two chicks named Chippy. (I have to stop describing the Aracauna chicks as looking like chipmunks. I’m afraid I’m skewing the data.) Other names are Goldie and Princess and Peepers, Sorrel and Shadow, Brownie and Blackberry, Tulip and Daffodil and Lilly, Bird and Buddha, and, simply, “Him” (we are hoping “Him” is really “Her”). We also got Pecky and Picky, as well as pictures of Pecky and Picky Perching on a Pot. But my special Easter treat this year came from a customer/photographer in the Philadelphia area. She brought me a trio of photographs of her precious babe in an Easter bonnet and special dress playing with her first Easter peep. Charming.

Tomato, Tomahto: Started transplanting tomato seedings this week. New heirloom varieties headed to our Fleur-de-Lys field: Violet Jasper, Carbon, Black Ruffles, Rowdy Red, and three vintage plum tomatoes: Assalito Family, Roughwood Garden and Pompeii.

Written on Slate: “I call everyone ‘Darling’ because I can’t remember their names.” – Zsa Zsa Gabor

Fleur-de-CrackedEggs

People think I’m kidding when I tell them the only eggs my family eats are the cracked ones. But it’s true.

Yes, egg production from the hens on the hill kicks in for the spring equinox, but still the dozens fly out of the shop. Just the other day Margaret emailed to reserve two dozen and sent along a beautiful photo (hanging in the shop) of last year’s eggs decorated for Easter with swirls and swoops of sepia.  How could I turn her down? There just never seem to be enough eggs … and yet, when our Easter chicks arrive, there’s a promise of more good eggs to come.

During Rent-a-Peep week, I need to keep life simple because after farm tours, chick care instructions, breed descriptions, and packing and organizing supplies, I have a hard time telling my Aracaunas and from my Australorps. Yesterday, I was solo. Marina’s in Belgium, Richard’s in Brasil, Aunt France was here for two days but had to go home to Philadelphia, and Paul went sailing. I could handle the customers and the chores, but what would I do about dinner – Good Friday dinner?

The KISS principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid) evolved as the day progressed. I started weeding early in the strawberry patch and noticed an abundance of robust, frilly rosettes of Maxatawny dandelions. I could just pull them up and feed them to the chickens, like all of the other weeds, or, I could try the Pennsylvania German spring tonic of Dandelion Greens and Hot Bacon Dressing. Ding-ding-ding, my Catholic upbringing started sending out signals: “Good Friday, no Meat. Good Friday, no meat.”

Well, OK. So, there has to be another way to prepare dandelion greens – minus the bacon. I thought about it while I picked and pulled, taking a break now and then to greet customers. As the day went on, I realized a bag of dandelion greens would not a dinner make. What to do? What to do?  There is always Chinese takeout … then I recalled a woman at February’s PASA conference talking about eating local and switching to a different attitude: Eat what you have, not what you “want”.

That’s where the cracked eggs come in. I had three of them in the frig. Ping the duck is laying again, so I could use one of her eggs to make a four-egg frittata. But how to jazz it up? I noticed the fresh spring growth on the herb garden chives. And sorrel, those leaves are the first to come up as the snow melts. Arugula – one of the chores on my mental to-do list was to thin the arugula. I’d toss in some arugula too! What cheese would be good with the herbs, yet not overpower them? My weeding brain was in overdrive. Then, it came to me. I had two partial containers of plain Stonyfield yogurt – well, actually only the dregs. I decided to pour the soupy leftovers through cheesecloth and a strainer to separate the whey from the solid. The whey is used to ferment veggies and the solid becomes a super creamy, mild yogurt cheese – perfect for my frittata.

After a day of meal-making in my mind, I must say the end result came together quickly in the kitchen. It was the fluffiest frittata I’ve every made and a healthy side of a “messa greens” reminded me of my years in Charleston, S. C. Fresh, local, oh so simple, and as good as I could want.

Sauteed Dandelion Greens

4-8 cups (approximately) of dandelion greens

1/3 cup olive oil

4-6 Picasso shallots, sliced

A couple shakes of dried hot red-pepper flakes and freshly cracked black pepper

Sea salt to taste

I had never picked dandelions to eat before. Everything I read said to do it BEFORE the flowers developed, which is now, because after blossoming the greens are too bitter. Of course, you want to pick dandelions that have not been treated with pesticides. Remove roots from dandelions and place greens in salad spinner. Rinse well. (I probably gave them a half-dozen rinses just to get all of the soil and straw off.)

Heat sauté pan and add olive oil, shallots and pepper. Stir and sauté until golden. Add dandelion greens. They will wilt and shrink in volume almost immediately. Keep stirring and sautéing for a minute or two. Sprinkle with sea salt and serve.

Fleur-de-Lys Cracked-Egg Frittata

(Serves 2)

2 tablespoons butter

4 fresh eggs

Handful of freshly snipped herbs (whatever you have in the garden)

1/3 cup “yogurt cheese” (see above)

Melt butter in frying pan. Whisk eggs, herbs and yogurt cheese, and pour into pan. Cook on medium heat, lifting edges with a spatula to cook the runny mixture. When eggs are almost done, except for the top, remove from heat and place in oven with broiler on. Toast the top until firm and golden.

Llama Beans: We still have a few bags left to heat up your compost pile. Stop by.

Honey of a Deal: We’ve got a batch of Milk and Honey Farm honey for sale in the shop. Local honey at its best. $5 a  pound.

Written on Slate: Maybe a person’s time would be as well spent raising food as raising money to buy food. – Frank A. Clark

Happy early spring eating! And, as they say in Belgium and Brasil: “Kisses”.

Laurie Lynch

Fleur-de-HanselandGretel

Among market gardeners and locavores there has been much talk of season extension. Over the years at Fleur-de-Lys, we’ve seen the fall season last longer, thanks to row covers, experimenting with new crops, and just thinking a little differently. And, we’ve seen the spring start earlier, thanks to row covers, experimenting with new crops, and just thinking a little differently. But the winter of 2009-10 was a milestone. We didn’t just extend the seasons; we bridged them.

In December we were selling garlic, shallots, and potatoes. In January, we were harvesting Belgian endive in the cellar. In February, we were eating pickled Jerusalem artichokes and Poona Kheera cucumbers, and tunneling through the snow to collect our chicken eggs. And in this second week of March – ah, I’m getting ahead of myself.

As I trudged through the snows of January and February, I followed a well-worn path with what you might call tunnel vision. The tail of the Y started at the house and veered right to the barn, where I’d feed and water Griffey and the llamas, double back, and take the left branch of the Y up the hill to the chickens. We’re all creatures of habit, but during the first snowstorm, this path was my survival. With Mr. Magoo in tow, we cut through the first six inches, two big feet and four big paws stomping the fallen snow. Each time we came out that day, we retraced our path, each time just barely visible under the piles of white.

Now, you’ve all heard about the rainbow with a pot of gold at the end. Well, at Fleur-de-Lys Farm we have a new story to tell, about the Y of gold and the rainbow treasure.

During one of the storms, I was snowed-in at my Mother’s house in State College. Paul and Magoo knew the routine, although there was a slight twist to the challenge. We were running out of the feed we store at the coop. From here, the details get a little sketchy. Paul got the kids’ toboggan and began pulling a 50-pound bag of feed up the hill with Magoo. Now Magoo is in his prepubescent-doggie stage with a Bouvier herding instinct and a strong macho dislike for vacuum cleaners, wheelbarrows, and, apparently, a toboggan carrying a bag of feed. When I returned from the weekend, my Y path was traced in golden nuggets of feed. Paul shook his head and said, “Yeah, it reminds me of that fairy tale with the bread crumbs.”

Well, the snow continued to fall on Berks County, but the golden trail re-appeared with each boot and paw print. And then came this second week in March. Slowly the snow melted, but as it melted, the golden path seemed to glow even brighter on the flattened, weather-bleached ground.

Back in August, I planted a patch of Purple Haze, Yellowstone, and orange Royal Chantenay carrots. In December, I covered the carrot patch with a quilt of straw, two inches thick or so, another trick of season extenders. So this week, as the snow pulled its white comforter off the straw quilt, I remembered my bed of carrots, just a few feet from the path of gold. I got my garden fork and carefully inched into the thawing soil, gently prying out my first over-wintered harvest of rainbow carrots.

At Fleur-de-Lys Farm this week: We have a limited supply of snow-kissed rainbow carrots and, if you’re lucky, eggs. It’s been a long winter for the girls, but production is picking up.

Easter Peeps: We’re taking reservations for our rent-a-peeps. Please call (610) 683-6418 or email. This year from March 31 to April 3 at Fleur-de-Lys Farm we are renting pairs of newly hatched heirloom-breed chicks for $40. We provide the box, feed, bedding, and water bottle. You provide a desk lamp for heat and lots of love. The chicks are returned to the farm two weeks later where they are raised as egg-layers.

Sweet Potato Slips: We’re also taking reservations for sweet potato slips, for pickup here at the farm in mid-May. We’re selling 12 slips for $10 and we have orange-flesh sweets: Georgia Jets, Carolina Ruby, Yellow Jewel, and heirloom Centennial. And, we’ll have white-flesh sweets (drier, tasting like roasted chestnuts): Red (the skin) Japanese, and heirlooms Nancy Hall, and White Triumphs. 

Food System Inspiration from Chef Jamie Oliver: My chef-nephew Wille introduced me to Jamie with the gift of a cookbook a few years ago. Others are recognizing Chef Jamie’s talents and his desire to encourage good, nutritional eating. Check this out:

http://www.tedprize.org/tedprize-updates/watch-jamies-talk-now/

Good Egg: Barbara sent me this link, saying she just took a pledge to “Eat good. Do good everyday.” on goodeggproject.org. For every pledge, America’s egg farmers will donate one egg to feed the country’s hungry, up to one million eggs! I followed suit, and hope you will too. Eat good and do good, every day. Laurie Lynch

Fleur-de-Forecast

The weather forecasters are predicting a blustery blizzard. I’m ready. I’m nesting. Griffy’s spare blanket is laundered if the one he’s wearing gets soaked. Fleurry and Libby are comfy in their Andean coats. The chickens and Ping the duck have three full water barrels and three cans of feed to wait out the storm. Magoo is cuddled on the couch with Aunt France’s latest toys – a hedgehog and an elephant. The cats, Nick and Dot, can’t decide whether to snooze in front of the pellet stove or on my wrists as I tap the computer keyboard.

The kitchen smells of chicken broth that’s been simmering all day long. I have a fresh batch of homemade Four Seasons Honey-Cinnamon Granola for my oatmeal or yogurt.  I’m fermenting a jar of kimchi in the cellar. The Easter Peeps are ordered. So are the potatoes and strawberries. Our vegetable seeds have arrived. Spring is … just around the corner.

So I thought I might share Fleur-de-Lys’ growing season forecast to help you get through these last few weeks of winter. For those who enjoy trying our “new” heirloom vegetables, 2010 will be quite the year. Our friends Robyn Jasko and Paul David run the website dineindie.com (featuring independent eateries and food purveyors) and this site has spawned grow indie, with tips on how to grow and prepare vegetables at home, and travel indie, which can take you to such places as The Pinball Museum in Asbury Park, N.J. Robyn got in touch with some of her favorite seed catalogs and offered to trial (with reports, photographs, and tastings) several of their seed varieties. And, she asked Fleur-de-Lys Farm Market to help her. So, we will be trialing the following seeds from Bakers Creek Heirloom Seeds, Happy Cat Farm, Renee’s Garden, and Seed Savers Exchange:

Tomatoes: Roughwood Golden Plum, Tim’s Black Ruffles, Pompeii Roma, Carbon, and Violet Jasper.

Peppers: Tobago Seasoning, Wisconsin Lakes and Tolli’s Sweet Italian.

Beans: Little Brown Cat, Red Lima, Golden Roc d’ Or, and Pencil Pod Wax.

Cucumbers: Persian and sweet Armenian.

Lettuces: Sanguine Ameliore, Rouge Grenobloise and Merveille de Quatre Saisons.

Squash: Verte et Blanc and Thelma Sander’s Sweet Potato Squash.

And, of course, I’ve selected a few new seeds of my own to try, such as Giant Prague celeriac, Ali Baba watermelon, banana melon, green apple cucumbers, and a peck of Peruvian peppers from my sister Patty. Try saying that three times!

I have not placed my sweet potato order yet – the slips can’t be planted until Memorial Day. We will be ordering slips of the orange-fleshed sweet potatoes -- Carolina Ruby, Georgia Jet, Beauregard and Vardeman – as well as the white-fleshed Red Japanese. If you would like to order some (12 slips for $10), let me know.

I got the following recipe from Bon Appetit’s restaurant recipes column. I’m sure I will never stay at the Beverly Hills Four Seasons, but I can breakfast on their Honey-Cinnamon Granola anytime:

4 cups toasted whole grain cereal (such as Mueslix)

3 cups old-fashioned oats

1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

1 cup sliced almonds

¾ cup coarsely chopped hazelnuts

½ cup honey

¼ cup vegetable oil

½ cup dried blueberries

½ cup dried sweetened cranberries

½ cup golden raisins

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 275°. Mix cereal, oats, and assorted nuts in large bowl. Bring honey and oil just to boil in small saucepan; drizzle over cereal mixture and toss to coat evenly. Spread mixture onto large rimmed baking sheet. Bake until golden brown and dry, stirring every 15 minutes, about 1 hour and 30 minutes. Scatter dried fruit over. Sprinkle with cinnamon and toss. Cool granola completely in pan on rack, stirring occasionally to prevent clumping. Store airtight at room temperature. (I found dried blueberries and hazelnuts at Echo Hill, near Fleetwood.)

Stay well and warm. Laurie Lynch

Fleur-de-Chigloo

Dear FarmTek,

Back in 2007 we purchased one of your Chick Inn tents for our pastured poultry. We needed fast and inexpensive shelter. Chick Inn fit the bill. Over the years my husband made a few modifications to the Chick Inn with recycled pallets, plastic sheeting, and straw bales to help our hens withstand Pennsylvania winters. Here it is 2010, and it is still going strong.

During our second Mid-Atlantic blizzard in less than a week, I went up to what we now call the Chicken Igloo four times to brush the snow off the roof with our barn broom. The chickens and Ping the duck were safe and sound. If the foot-plus snowstorm wasn’t enough of a test of the quality of the Chick Inn, listen to this story. Our 80-pound Bouvier de Flandres, Mr. Magoo, loves the snow. He got so excited over the mini-avalanches I was pulling down the slope of the roof that he leapt from a pile of snow onto the “rip-stop polyethylene fabric” roof!  My heart stopped. Would the roof stop a bounding Bouvier?  Magoo just bounced off and fell back into the drifts. Life is always interesting at Fleur-de-Lys Farm.

Sincerely, Laurie Lynch

 Food, Inc.:  Agribusiness, Food, and Health in America: Join Kutztown University for a free film and panel discussion this Saturday, Feb. 20^th, from 9 a.m. to noon in Academic Forum 201for a public showing of 2009’s groundbreaking documentary Food, Inc., followed by a panel discussion and question/answer session with local experts.  In the film, director Robert Kenner examines the state of the modern American industrial food system, including investigation of its impacts on our environment and our health. The film will be followed with a panel of local experts: 

·   Tim Stark (farmer, Eckerton Hill Farm, Hamburg)

·    Barb and Mike Dietrich (farmers, Oley Valley Organics, Pike Township)

·    Rep. David Kessler (130th Legislative District Representative, Oley)

·    Dr. Martine Scannavino, DHSc, RD, LDN, Associate Director of the Allen Center for Nutrition at Cedar Crest College.

·     Mena Hautau, MS, CCA, Senior Extension Educator, Agriculture/Agronomy, PSU Extension Berks County; Board member, PA Association for Sustainable Agriculture 

Percolating With PASA Conference Ideas: Oh boy, PASA’s conference took me to new realms of lacto-fermentation, root cellaring, gardening like the forest, and Earthship Biotechture. More on all of this in upcoming newsletters. In the meantime, I’m deep into Sally Fallon’s “Nourishing Traditions”.

Easter Peeps: Once again, we are renting pairs of peeps the week before Easter, March 31 to April 3. For $40 you and your family can have a special farming experience at your home. We provide the box, feed, bedding, water bottle, and two precious chicks. You provide a desk lamp for heat and lots of love. After two weeks, you return the chicks to our farm where they are raised as egg layers. Please email or call to reserve a pair of peeps. 

Fleur-de-Groundhog

Q. Why did the chicken cross the road?

A. To show the groundhog how it’s done.

Happy Groundhog Day! If you're in the Fleur-de-Lys Farm neighborhood today, stop by for a Groundhog Cookie!

Laurie Lynch