Sweet Local Farm

The snow was exceptionally stunning this morning. Each branch, blade of grass, and surface was covered in snow.

The sky was a dreamy grey.

The pine’s always look their best covered in snow:

Weepy ornamental cherry tree:

Hydrangea covered in snow:

More snow photos.

Many families don’t have access to healthy food. They may live in urban neighborhoods infested with McDonald’s and corner stores with processed snack foods, or they may live in poor rural areas. They can’t get to the supermarkets that carry fresh fruits, vegetables, and grains. They can’t access the kind of food their “grandmother’s would recognize as food” as Michael Pollan would say. Michelle Obama is raising awareness of Food Deserts in America.

I hope she encourages urban and community gardens in the cities and the Victory Garden for those who have space to grow some of their own food!

These dormant Winter months provide a great time to regroup, make repairs, plan out garden plots, and if you’ve got some invasive species, clear out sleeping plants.

Ever since the vegetation subsided for the season, I began noticing a thorny red vine that was taking over certain areas. It appears on the ground level as a raspberry-like vine, but when you turn your head to the tree-tops, you’ll see how it has the ability to take over the entire canvas.

I desired to remove this vine because of the way it was literally strangling trees and any other growth around it. Before doing so, I did a little research to learn more about this invader and found a number of articles on it such as this one in the Eagle Tribune: Is that an exotic invasive species in your holiday decoration?
(by Don Lyman)

“As you drive along New England roadways this time of year you can frequently spot tangles of long vines adorned with bright yellowish-red berries. Many people don’t realize these plants, which are commonly used in Thanksgiving wreaths and decorations, are actually an exotic invasive species known as oriental bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus).”

There was the culprit…Oriental Bittersweet. To Karen’s credit, she knew this already.

This past weekend, Michael and I began the arduous task of removing a sizable area of the Bittersweet. Since there are many different facets of this plant: thick trunks at the root, long vines, etc; we armed ourselves with hatchets, saws, titanium tree branch clippers, a machete and garden shears.

Michael with hatchet

Where is he in this photo?

Some of the longer vines stretched up so high that they reached 30 ft up into the tree-tops. When pulling out these stranglers, they seemed to be aware of what we were doing because both Michael and I swear they were fighting back. I managed to get multiple thorn wounds to the face…good thing I had safety goggles on.

A pile of Bittersweet

We’ll be burning this brush in the next month to avoid it’s attempts to re-root. This batch had been growing uninhibited for the past 5 or so years. Hopefully we’ll be able to combat it much easier in the future through regular removal. Although, I have read that it can grow up to 12 feet in one year!

Contemplating the future of Bittersweet removal

This past weekend was the first annual Snow Moon Blogger’s Retreat hosted by Sweetlocal Farm! Tiffany from Heist Jewelry, Sarah from Mystic Valley Musings and I took a break from bloggin and enjoyed life on the farm. We made homemade pizza, gluten free to boot, sampled home brewed beer, got cozy in front of the fire and hit up the Tractor Supply Store for some new country duds.

Sarah, Tiffany, and Karen

Feeding the animals:

Chillin in the barn:

Tiffany having a moment:

We bought rubber boots, gardening gloves, and cowgirl shirts here:

We had a very peaceful weekend!

We got quite a bit of snow yesterday. Much more than the “epic blizzard that wasn’t” from last week. We got home late last night, around 8pm. It was still snowing at the time and as I walked into the house what struck me was how completely quiet the world was. The snow dampens all the everyday noises like traffic and people. We live on a long stretch of country road. There are a handful of small farms, some newer developments, but overall even the suburban style homes have at least an acre of land. Our street is very pretty in every season and all of the houses are unique and well kept. I’m grateful for my little slice of heaven.

The sun shone this morning and temperatures rose above freezing. We took the opportunity to get out doors and play with our animals. Here is Luke holding our rooster, Mr. Matt Damon

He pecked me good the other morning when I made the mistake of trying to bring him water before I brought the food.

Here is Rosie, or Rosemary, eating last year’s kale from the garden:

Birch always like to eat, especially if he sees his sister eating.

Luke always handles Birch because he is much bigger and stronger than Rosemary. I handle her on walks. Luke and Birch off in the distance:

Every day is Valentine’s Day when you have a pink front door!

I found this wreath in the barn when we moved in.

My dear husband gave me a box of chocolates from Rose City Chocolates. They specialize in gourmet vegan chocolates. They are so tasty!

I had forgotten how beautiful the flower gardens that were here when we moved in are. I was looking through photos from last Spring and Summer and came across these. Please enjoy:

I here by dub this past Sunday…The manliest day of the year.

Why? The combination of two great past times: The Super Bowl and more importantly, Beer Brewing.

I’ve always wanted to brew my own beer. I enjoy a finely crafted beer and have always been curious about what goes into it. My friend and colleague, Adam, has spent a good deal of time brewing his own concoctions. For my first brewing adventure, I figured it would be extremely beneficial to have him show me the ropes. Ben, being a man of many crafts, joined us for the experience.

So, 3 weeks ago, Adam and I had brewed up a batch of what he referred to as a ‘Stoppy’, which I believe is a combination of a Stout and a beer that is ‘hoppy.’ He can correct me in the comments below if I’m off.

Mix in the malt.

Mix in the barley.

Mix in the hops.

It’s a bit more complicated than that. There’s timing, certain temperatures, and an order to everything. Below are the ingredients and the spacing of the different hops. I’ll leave the exact directions to the imagination because I don’t want to spoil any of Adam’s brewing secrets.

Stoppy IPA (American IPA)

Ingredients
5.00 gal Water
8.00 lb Amber Dry Extract
0.75 lb Roasted Barley
2.00 oz Amarillo Gold (60 min) Hops
1.00 oz Cascade (10 min) Hops
1 Pkg Safale Yeast-Ale

To cool off the mixture quickly, we created a closed system that involved pumping cold water through a copper coil placed into the mixture. The water that ran out of the coil was directed back into the water bin it was being pumped from. We used nature’s resources to continually cool the water, hence the mini snowman inside of the water bin.

Straining the mixture into the fermenting container

A few more statistics for the Stoppy IPA (American IPA):

Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.070 SG
Measured Original Gravity: 1.070 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.020 SG
Measured Final Gravity: 1.020 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.58 %
Actual Alcohol by Vol: 6.53 %
Bitterness: 61.7 IBU
Calories: 320 cal/pint
Est Color: 26.1 SRM

So this brings us back to Super Bowl Sunday. It was time to bottle. With the two of us working hard, we cleansed and filled just under 50 bottles in 30 minutes.

Sterilizing the bottles

Filling them up

Capping

The finished batch…just two more weeks of bottle fermenting and we’ll be ready to taste.

Simultaneously, we brewed another batch to keep the cycle going. Here are the ingredients and statistics for the second batch we brewed.

Maibock Ale

Ingredients
7.00 lb Extra Light Dry Extract
2.50 lb Pale Malt, Maris Otter Grain
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt Grain
1.00 oz Pearle (60 min) Hops
0.50 oz Pearle (30 min) Hops
0.50 oz Saaz (5 min) Hops
0.50 oz Pearle (5 min) Hops
0.50 oz Saaz (0 min) Hops
1 Pkgs SafAle English Yeast-Ale
5.00 gal Water

Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.081 SG
Measured Original Gravity: 1.072 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.021 SG
Measured Final Gravity: 1.018 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 7.85 %
Actual Alcohol by Vol: 7.06 %
Bitterness: 29.3 IBU
Calories: 328 cal/pint
Est Color: 9.0 SRM

Oddly enough, we spent so much time brewing and bottling that we caught only the 4th quarter of the Super Bowl. Oh well. If you ask either of us, the time was better spent.

Tofu, come out of the closet!