Gobs of cob.

One of my current aspirations in life is to build a cob home. Cob is a method of building that consists of mixing together straw and clay. Walls are approximately 1-2' thick, keeping the home cool in the summer and warm in the winter, requiring minimal heating. Cob can be beautiful and is more organic in form than standard building; walls do not have to be straight, but can be shaped and molded in a natural way. Windows can be all different shapes and sizes and nooks can be carved out.

Cob building is cheap and can accommodate modern plumbing and electrical wiring (preferably done by a professional, of course). I'd love to get my hands dirty at some point and give it a try. Here are a couple examples of beautiful, beautiful cob homes.

This cob home is located in South Africa, built by an artist. I am especially in love with the bedroom, with its window-speckled wall and the metal stars suspended from the high, fabric-covered ceiling. Magic!!





The New York Times featured this cob home in Texas. Scroll through the slideshow. It is inspiring that something this beautiful can be built by an ordinary person with no construction training, and at such a low cost.

A taste of things to come:

At last!

Whew! It has been a month of craziness. Heat wave of 95+ weather that, given humidity levels, felt like 100+ and caused intense feelings of suffering and despair. We've finally arrived at that fall nip in the air and I could not be more thankful.

For me, this month has been one of figuring out what to do next, farm-wise and life-wise. My time with Farmer Stacy is over halfway done; I'll be working with him until the first week of November, which is when his CSA ends.

I've gone from considering buying my own place, to renting somewhere with a big yard to grow, to thinking of using a friend's land to farm. My "plans" changed pretty much weekly, and drastically.

But now a REAL plan is as good as set in stone: I am moving to Green Market Farm in Gallatin, Tennessee, a town about 40 minutes northeast of Nashville. Hooray!

I will be interning/apprenticing: helping grow organic veggies and fruits with Brandon Tavalin, a young farmer who partners with his grandparents and other interns bring good food from the earth. The focus is on wholesale and restaurant sales, as well as several farmers markets (East, West and Woodbine) and supplementing other farms' CSAs.



Maggie and I are moving into the old farm house on the main piece of land (10 acres out of the 30 Brandon cultivates). Our part of the house, two bedrooms and a sitting room was an addition built in the 1930s and has high ceilings, hardwood floors, and fireplaces in both bedrooms. The house kitchen is MAGIC and there is a nice big dining room table -- dinner parties, for sure!

Here's an article about the farm and Brandon's mission. There's no farm website and a rather sparse facebook page, but pictures and details are soon to come on here! And as soon as we get settled in, hopefully in a week or two, I'd LOVE to have visitors out - it's a lovely place.

Harses

Bristol!

Meet the equine residents of Paradise Produce!
These two sweethearts have gotten me over my fear of losing fingers to 4" horse teeth.

Kate!

What in the world am I doing?

My first year’s goal is to begin a Winter CSA (community supported agriculture) share. Customers will pay at the beginning of the season and will pick up a share of approximately 25 lbs of produce every other week, January through April. This will equal eight pickups per share, weighing in at 200+ pounds. What is included in the share is split into four parts:

Storage produce: Potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, beets, cabbage, turnips, radishes, winter squash, pumpkins

Fresh produce: Kale, Belgian endive, Swiss chard

Canned goods: Spaghetti sauce, salsa, fruit preserves and jams, pickles

Frozen goods: Tomatoes, summer squash, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower

These are projected crops for the initial year. I plan to expand upon this, learning more about growing fresh veggies over winter and adding more frozen produce as I am able to purchase freezer equipment. For the first year, however, I want to keep things simple and work mainly with plants I have some experience with and storage methods requiring little start-up cost. Some experimentation will happen, if time and resources permit. I am definitely excited about learning more with each passing year.

I will be using organic, sustainable methods to grow these yummies: no chemicals, farm-produced compost/fertilizer, minimal machinery usage, cover crops, and much more. I may incorporate some biodynamic elements, such as planting by the lunar signs to give plants a bit of a natural boost.

If things go as planned, I will make my first planting in October – garlic, which grows over winter to be harvested in June. The rest will be started in March and April of 2011. Growing will continue through November, with Round One of CSA shares beginning the first week of January 2012. It seems a long way off, but will happen quickly!

I would like to spend the summer and fall at Nashville farmers markets, selling any excess produce as time and resources allow. I hope to produce enough to sell at least 15 shares for Round One.

More to come, but these are the (possibly too detailed) basics. What do y’all think? Input is more than welcome, encouragement and suggestions would be fabulous!

Stuffed Patty Pan Squash

Patty pan is a cute lil squash. Probably my favorite shape. I found a few recipes online for stuffing it, but none that suited my taste just right. I came up with this version that is basically cheese calzone filling inside a squash. That makes it healthy, right?

This recipe is just for one squash, but of course you can easily double, triple, quadruple, etc. It took about 10 minutes of actual prep work to make this -- super simple!


You need:

One medium patty pan squash (approx 6-8" diameter)
1/2 C ricotta cheese
1/4 C mozzarella cheese
2 garlic cloves, minced
herbs - oregano, basil, etc. - fresh is always best!

First you need to boil the patty pan until it's about 3/4 of the way done. This should take about 12-15 minutes. While that's going, pre-heat the oven to 350 and mix up the cheese, garlic and herbs. When the squash feels slightly tender when poked by a fork, yet still pretty firm, take it out, let it sit for a bit til it cools down. Then slice the top off -- top being the part where the stem was, the narrower end. Scoop out the insides, leaving at least half an inch of the lining. Be careful when you're scraping out the bottom - don't bust it! Fill 'er up with cheesy goodness, wrap in aluminum foil, and bake for 25-35 minutes, until the cheese is nice and melty. Eat that sucka up!


Another awesome way I like to eat patty pans is sliced thinly, about 1/4" thick, sauteed with garlic and olive oil, patted dry, then put on a sandwich or in a quesadilla. Yummmm.

Farmers market, hey-o!

I am now officially working for West Wind Farms as a farmers market booth operator (I think that's a good job title, yeah?) at the West Nashville Farmers Market, every other Saturday 9-12. Today was day 1 on my own and went by without a hitch. Out of the 30ish organic grass-fed free-range meat products I had, the most popular were eggs, boneless skinless chicken breast, chicken thigh meat, 80/20 ground beef, ground turkey, beef snack sticks and low sodium beef jerky.

Cah-ching!