This time they mean it!

Jane and Paul's farm is a local institution.

Many of us have enjoyed their produce for more years than I can remember. And they pretty much always had the very best corn.

Six years ago they missed a step. I don't know the whole story but I know there were some promising negotiations going on to acquire the property with community funds. That didn't work out. But they came back the following year!

But ...now, this year...

1 September. They're done. Forever.

Much Sadness
They plan to continue farming. But they're closing the farm stand. The second year in a row it just hasn't been worth keeping open. Last year hundreds hundreds of bushels of apples remained unpicked.

And Paul told me this year they hadn't had a single busy day. Not a single one. And at least half the blueberry crop rotted on the ground.

31 August. My very last ear of Jane and Paul's corn.

Poor bunny!

I went over to cut some flowers in my garden yesterday. I have a condo and on the downside of that I don't have any place to plant a garden. But! The community farm in the town where I live leases garden plots! I don't know if that's common or not.

So I have a garden plot for the season that I can keep the lease for as long as I want. I've had all kinds of different lettuces, radishes, beets, turnips and my fennel is doing really well. And I planted all kinds of flowers. I've really enjoyed my garden. Mostly. For whatever reason my tomatoes aren't doing very well. I've never had much luck with tomatoes. I've learned some lessons for next year.

So. As I'm picking flowers yesterday a Red-tailed Hawk swooped down and snatched a bunny hardly 6 feet away!

Up close and personal!
Poor bunny. Of course I felt kind of bad about it but...well, Hawk has to eat!

Edited to add: At least it was quick. Very quick.

Corn 2018

Corn is a little late this year. The first of the local corn appeared at Jane and Paul's Farm in Norfolk Massachusetts (as usual). I learned last year to go in and look rather than wait for their corn sign. They have corn but their sign isn't out yet!

14 July. Delicious fresh corn!
As in years past, out of desperation, I had tried some corn several weeks ago. Usually our corn around the 4th of July is from New Jersey and..it's universally...awful. This year I got some corn from Virginia which...actually, wasn't bad.

Forever gone..

My previous barn. The property was sold a couple of years ago and we had to move on. Of course this was expected. Makes me sad anyway.

Then: Sometime in 2003

And now: 21 October 2017

I boarded there for over 20 years. It was such a thriving, vibrant place at one time. We'd had countless hours of fun. People complained their faces hurt from smiling so hard for so long. Animals everywhere all the time. Horses. Dogs. Cats. Deer. Rats. Mice. Raccoons. Woodchucks.

There was packing for shows at the crack of dawn. Getting back at the end of the day completely exhausted and getting pizzas or KFC.

There was freezing cold and howling wind. And our legendary hot humid summer afternoons. We even had a tornado come across the south side of the property in August 2004. I was out working L and I could see the weather coming from across the field. I didn't see any funnel - it was just all cloud and debris. We ran for the barn and no sooner had I run L into her stall the tornado passed about 125 yards south of the barn. We all stood in the doorway watching with "uh-oh" faces.

All nighters with sick horses. I can still remember waiting on a vet one February morning. 14 below 0 at 4:00 am. Oh how that sucked!

I buried two horses there.

It was a great property. Big barn with a quarter mile training track surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of acres of fields and woods. There were actually two barns there, one of which had been an equine rehab center at one time. It was a well known place. They had trained race horses there 50 years ago.

12 July 2009
It was spacious and comfortable. At least until the roof started to leak. Always full of light.

23 January 2011
I can't even make a guess at the hundreds and hundreds of hours there. Of course I miss it and it's so sad to finally see it's gone.

Edited to add:

I thought about it while doing stalls today. All the training time and riding time and just "horse care". 16 or 18 hours a week at the peek of show season to 6 or 8 hours in the dead of winter. I wouldn't be surprised at all if I had 7 or 8000 hours at that barn!

Corn! 2017

Of course I didn't forget corn this year.  I just *love* fresh corn.  I'll have an ear of corn at least 5 days a week during corn season.

My first ear this season:

16 July
Actually the first local corn this year was 14 July. A few days later than usual. Oh I was paying attention but the farm stand signs were late going up.

And..my last ear this season:

17 October
Last season's corn was a little better. I'd had a few ears last year so fresh and sweet I didn't even bother cooking them.
Jane and Paul's Farm in Norfolk, MA had the first corn of the season. It was reliably good. Tangerini's Farm in Millis was a reliable source of excellent corn. And Wenger's Farm in Bellingham might have had the very best this year.

And the surprise of the season?

Saturn peach
I'd seen Saturn peaches at the supermarket on occasion for some years now but they're always hard as rocks. This year Jane and Paul's Farm had their own Saturn peaches so I tried one. I was instantly hooked! They were actually a little sweet for my liking, sweeter than a peach. But there's some other kind of flavor thing going on there I can't quite pin down. And I like their size. I don't have the appetite I used to!

A turnip?

I am so very excited. I love radishes. So this year I planted some radishes. Some of the more exotic radishes you don't find in the supermarkets.

Delicious radishes!
I like radishes with butter. Radishes and salt. Radishes roasted and pickled.

Ok, what does this have to do with a turnip? Well...I love turnips too. And a couple of years ago I got a packet of turnip seeds. As it turned out at the time I didn't have any space left for turnips by the time I was done so I put them away and forgot about them. When I was looking for radish seeds I came across my turnip seeds. So I planted turnips with my radishes and look!

My very first turnip!
I never grew a turnip before.

What's even funnier is I planted them next door in a field that isn't planted this year. And not two days later the farmer came by and plowed the field! I didn't know what to expect of it. Well. A week later my radishes were coming but rather than nice straight lines it was just a patch of radishes scattered all over. And turnips! So thick they crowded out all the weeds.

Corn 2015!

The first local corn of the season is in!

18 July 2015
That's from Cooks Farm in Wrentham, MA. You can see that's fresh local corn. Look at the tassel!

It's definitely the early corn.

Bicolor Corn
It's a well developed ear with plump enough kernels but it's still not too flavorful. I like to microwave my corn 1 minute for each ear...but my microwave is broken! I can't be bothered to fix it because, frankly, I hardly ever use it. So I steam my corn in an inch of water for ...oh, a minute and a half to two minutes. That's it.

I was very surprised this year. I got desperate and bought an ear of corn from the supermarket. I'm not sure but I think it was New Jersey corn. And while just a *tiny* bit starchy it was actually quite good. I understand there's hybridized corn today whose sugar converts to starch very slowly.

I've had all kinds of time to blog but..well, I just haven't had anything interesting to say. Of course I always log the first and last of the season's corn. Nothing says "summer" to me more than corn and watermelon.

There are some notable other signs of summer around.

Tomato Plate
The field ripened tomatoes aren't in yet but the greenhouse tomatoes from the farm stands have been just delicious! I like slices or wedges on a plate, with chopped fresh basil and onions. I usually like red onions with this. Sometimes I use yellow. With the *tiniest* splash of red wine vinegar it's just, well, that's summer on a plate! Sometimes I sprinkle just a little bit of Parmesan cheese over that. And sometimes I use balsamic vinegar. And sometimes I just use a nice olive oil. You get the idea.

And of course it's bath season!

This is my G and she *desperately* needed a bath!

Contrast

Our first snow this year was 2 November.

This didn't amount to much
But this did! We had some real snow the day before Thanksgiving..

26 November
And of course, the dazzling colors we had this fall are gone. I find the contrast is very striking.

7 December
It's all so...plain and...well, brown.

This time of year, with all the foliage gone, it's easy to see why the barn is such a madhouse of furious activity all summer long. Nests!

A Robin's nest
Not just a few. There are nests *everywhere* in the brush. Really. Hundreds of them! We have tons of Robins...Blue Jays..Goldfinches. Orioles. In the spring I leave piles of horse hair outside for the birds. They use the hair in their nests. The most fascinating one of all is the Baltimore Oriole. We have lots of Baltimore Orioles. They make bag shaped nests that hang from branches very high in the tree tops. The nests always blow down sooner or later and it's quite amazing the way they use the different kinds of hair. Most of the nest is made from tail hair. It hangs using tail hair. The net like outer tail hair is lined with body hair. And the very softest hair lines the bottom of the nest. They're almost always 100% horse hair!

Of course there are also Crows. And hawks. And owls. And Killdeer. Tons of Killdeer.

Even Carolina Wrens.

Carolina Wren's nest
We've had a year round population of Goldfinches for many years now. As long as I can remember. This year they've all gone and I see...replaced..by..Purple Finches! I saw them yesterday while riding L. Dozens and dozens of Purple Finches. I don't know what that's all about. They're very pretty birds and much more timid than the Goldfinches.

Brilliant Folage

This year the fall foliage has been positively brilliant. Stunning barely begins to describe it. We've had a dry summer this year and apparently that's stressed the trees. Here, I was on my way to get some corn when I passed this yard and I just had to stop.

Millis Massachusetts, 19 October
Everywhere you look this season. The trees just glowed.

I took a day off last week.

The view from my living room window 17 October
Every time I think of moving I look out my window and decide no, no, don't think so. I've been here 24 years now and the view never gets tired.

I walked my neighborhood...

This is just to the left of my driveway

Just a roofline

And a side street

The oil company down the end of the block
This went on for a couple of weeks. One of my neighbors said the trees looked like they were on fire. I really just can't ever remember colors this vibrant.

Of course there are other reflections of the season.

Gathering broccoli and cauliflower

A really big buck has been roaming the barn property
He's looking for girls. It's mating season.

---

I have a really funny L story.

Here, this field by our barn.

There's a woodchuck out there. We're *very* careful to watch for chuck holes. I know where they are and we stay way clear. So one afternoon this woodchuck comes crawling up the tree line. Now L has no problem with animals. She sees the chuck and thinks nothing of it. But the chuck sees her and races to his hole and disappears. Well. L has *never* seen anyone disappear right before her eyes! She snapped her head and did a double take. She stopped and looked at me over her shoulder and I swear she was thinking "WHOA! Did you see *that*?!". And if that wasn't funny enough as we moved along she kept nervously looking at the spot where the woodchuck disappeared. It was quite hilarious. She really is tons of fun.

Quintessential Summer Afternoon

I was out running early in the evening the other day. I ran past this field. They were out bailing the 2nd cut hay.

Putting up hay. 20 August
It was a warm, dry, breezy day. The hay smelled so good. The light was perfect. I had to go back and get my camera. Just the most perfect summer day.

Time flies...

This year seems to have gone by very quickly. I was shopping for some holiday beer. I really felt as though I was doing the same thing just the other day and I realized - no, that was last year! Last year I got some Goose Island Christmas Ale and while I wasn't crazy about it I thought it was pretty good. I felt it was a little expensive for what it was.

What I was actually looking for was Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale. I look forward to Celebration Ale every year. I think it's excellent beer. In all my life I've only tasted a couple of beers I didn't like. Mostly I just like some more than others. As an adult I discovered I like ales and I tend to favor pale ales although this time of year I like lagers now and then. They didn't have any Celebration Ale!

So I got:

And I like it a lot. I'm becoming increasingly fond of canned beer. There's all kinds of really good beer in cans out there and I really had no idea.

I should do a year in review. Highlights. Lowlights. New things. I have so much on my mind these days I hardly know where to begin.

---

Between the solar power plant a half mile away...

And this business with the neighbors...

One sign isn't enough? And I still wonder what's up with this?

The world seems like it's changed more this year than it has in years past.

New Kitty!

People think farms are great places for cats. So now and then we get "drop offs". People abandon their cat in the driveway. I'm sure with the hope expectation he or she will find a good home on the farm.

While there's a certain logic to that there are plenty of cats already in the barn and we just hand them off to the local shelter or we try to find good homes for them ourselves.

Somebody dropped this guy off a week or so ago.

He's very very sweet. And he's smart. My house needs a cat. I brought him home.

...and he made himself right at home
He's a jumper. He jumped up on the counter while I was fixing dinner and sent a bowl of olives flying. Before I could gather them up he was chowing down on them fast as he could find them. Purring to beat the band. So I named him Oliver.

It's been a long time since I've had a kitten around the house. I'm gonna guess this guy is maybe 10 months old. We'll visit the vet this week.

Edit, 10 November, followup: It's really interesting I think the vet says it's quite common for tuxedo cats to have that very sweet temperament. I never knew that.

Lucky for me he tires easily!

---

I don't normally eat breakfast. A few years ago I started eating breakfast on Sunday mornings. Just to make Sunday morning special. And sometimes it's extra special.

Fresh duck eggs! Fresh squeezed orange juice. The egg in the cup had a double yolk!
Kindly provided by my friends next door. These guys.

They're very funny
If you don't know your way around a duck egg start with scrambled duck eggs. The yolks may be a little richer than chicken eggs but the biggest difference is the white. Duck egg whites are *very* much thicker than chicken egg whites and frying them is a little tricky. You're likely to overcook the yolk while the white will still be a little runny.

Taking my inspiration from McDonald's I decided I'd have a breakfast burrito.

Scrambled duck egg breakfast burrito with roasted peppers and mushrooms

Not in my backyard?

We have green neighbors where I board. I'm mostly all for it. I've been there a long time and I've enjoyed good relations with the neighbors. Then last year, right about this time of year as a matter of fact, POSTED signs went up all over the property. Complete with fine print noting "all previous permissions to be on the property are withdrawn". And we haven't exchanged a word since. In fact, I haven't seen anyone to have word with. Rumor has it "the management changed".

Which is something of shame. L and I have enjoyed countless hours on that very idyllic property. It's a large property and the signs number in the hundreds.

Now about this green thing. There. See the windmill? That's a $650k wind powered generator they run the property with. We'll never run out of wind! And all in all it's ...pretty harmless. An eyesore, sure, but no more than say, all the utility poles we've grown accustomed to seeing all the time. There, see them there on the left? They're ugly and we don't even see them anymore. And yes, it does make a "whoosh whoosh" sound you can hear almost a mile away when the wind is right. But it's really hard to argue against it being a good thing and it's much to their credit they're powering their property with it.

In the foreground to the right is a lovely 34 acre pasture. It's been used for hay and vegetables over time and it's another one of those country life things I enjoy so much. I run out here sometimes and I just love those hot summer days with crickets in the grass. The fields and orchards go for miles.

And here, looking from the other side. Yes, there's an excavator out there. Thankfully no, they're not building 100 houses out there!

5 May 2013 What they are building however...is a solar power station.

31 May 2013
A $15M solar power station. Of course it really is none of my business. But solar power plants aren't any prettier than any other kind of power plants.

4 July 2013

34 acres of these
There is good news! Remember, we haven't been talking much with the neighbors lately. So we didn't know exactly where this power plant was going to be built. There were rumors and vague descriptions which...

Described this field perfectly
Which is adjacent to our barn. See that red roof at the end of the treeline? Thankfully they did *not* put it there! I had been a little anxious about that.

Like as in, for good?!

I had occasion to take a short cut across a neighboring town this week. Driving by one of the bigger farm stands in the area I looked over the fields and saw they were...overgrown and ...unprepared?!

I thought I was seeing things.

Then this.

Closed? In May?!
And this...

Oh say it ain't so!
Jane and Paul's farm is a local institution of sorts. I always thought they were a little expensive but you could always count on finding high quality produce and prepared products. Pickles and pies and stuff like that.

They always had the very *best* in pick your own strawberries. Jane and Paul's was a destination for many in greater Boston. People would drive here from miles and miles away and the place was mobbed during strawberry season.

Pick your own strawberries
We've been coming here picking strawberries for longer than I can remember. And as soon as strawberry season is over it's ... blueberry season!

Pick your own blueberries
Then of course it's corn season. Last year the very first of the real local (rather than say..from 80 miles away) corn came from Jane and Paul's farm. It wasn't the best but it was very very good and it was dependable.

Before you knew it came harvest season.

October 2012

You could eat these like squash
It's shocking because Jane and Paul's was one of the more prominent and successful basic farm stand operations. Some places around here have resorted to starting petting zoos and running kiddie trains through their orchards to stay alive.

More than anything else though I just *hate* seeing elements of country life disappear.

Jane and Paul's Farm, June 2011
The property is priced such that no farmer would ever make a living from it. I'm sure within a year there will be 50 houses there. This is prime luxury McMansion country out here.

I'm very lucky. I still have a farm stand within walking distance of my home. A family operation that's renewed their commitment to their business just this season as a matter of fact. They have all new signs and they've opened earlier than ever before selling flowers and seedlings. Oh and this year they're going to have fresh duck eggs for sale!