A busy week on the farm

Marco and I have had a full, rich week. We had our two farmer's market days. We prepared for the markets by baking bread, bunt cakes, lemon bars, coconut bars and mini-apple pies (we're already able to use our wind-blown apples!). We also picked vegetables from our gardens. We created a "salsa kit" that we offer at the markets. The kit includes a batch of tomatillos, a variety of chilies and a clove of garlic. This is the base for creating the most deliciously fresh salsa ever! We offer samples of the salsa for people to try before buying the kit. Salsa is simple to make.

1. First you wash the tomatillos and chilies. You cut the tomatillos in half and put them on a cookie sheet with the chilies and garlic. This batch we also added onions.

2. You put the sheet under the broiler for 6 minutes until the tomatillos and chilies are darkened and all their juices are released.

3. The final step is to put all the ingredients into the blender, with a little salt, and blend until smooth. Voila! Fresh, healthy, tasty salsa! This would be considered Salsa Verde (green salsa) since it doesn't have red tomatoes in it.

Our pepper garden is in full swing - the tomatillo plants are bursting with fruit. Our pepper plants look great and are beginning to produce chilies. It's exciting to see our plants doing so well, since they've been a labor of love since the end of February.

It's been a slow summer for tomatoes. We have a lot of tomatoes growing, but they refuse to turn red. We learned from other farmers at the market that they are dealing with the same issue. It's been a cool summer, which slows the ripening of tomatoes.

On Friday we hitched a trailor up to our 1954 Ford Jubilee tractor and gave our neighbor kids a ride through our woods. Friday morning surprised us with a drenching of rain that lasted into the afternoon. Minnesota has been dry for the past few years. This summer hadn't had a good, soaking rain at all...just little sprinkles here and there. It rained all morning Friday and then rained throughout the night into Saturday morning. Such a blessing! Some people said they could hear the corn growing after the rain.

All week Marco and I were preparing for the upcoming local parades. We signed up to be in three parades and our first one was on Saturday. Over the summer I worked on painting our farmer's market trailor. It had our name on it and some of the goods Cedar Hills provides. I finished painting the trailor Saturday morning. The parade began at 12:30 pm. We wanted to showcase our goats in the parade but knew they wouldn't willingly walk among crowds of people. Marco took our dog kennel (which is see-through) and fixed it up on top of the trailer. We put Lothan in the kennel, hooked the trailer up to our tractor and puttered our way to the parade.

The parade went through the main street of Darwin, Minnesota. Darwin boasts the largest ball of Twine made by one man. Therefore, Darwin celebrates with the Darwin Twine Ball Day every summer.

During the parade, Marco drove the tractor. I walked along the tractor handing out complimentary massage certificates to parade-goers. We saw many farmer's market friends, our family and local Darwin-ites. It was a successful day, lots of fun and we had a GOAT on our FLOAT! Nothing could be better.

The Darwin parade was a good start. We'll be in the Cokato Corn Carnival Parade this evening; it's a mile long!

Marco and I continue to harvest wood. We cut down a huge tree which has given us 7 big loads of wood. The main truck of the tree will probably split into six or seven segments perfect for our woodstove.