She’s A’growing…the Farm That Is
And so it begins.
The sun is (was) shining, the grass is green. All is coming along nicely at Cedar Shake Farm. The winter vacation is officially over and we have things to do.
Farmer Clint with his pet project… giant pumpkins. Last year's offspring were well over 100 lbs.
Planting allllll the things. Playing in the dirt. What else does a girl need?
We're finishing up planting, keeping the already planted plants alive, you know, those kinds of things.
Sarabeth is still on hold.. she'll be finished eventually. Wind and rain and drill weekends don't help. Imagine that.
Mmmm…soooo good!!!!
Buuuut…. We have TWO new raised beds!!! Yay!!! Wild applause. Those suckers were filled approximately two seconds after completion. Almost 8 tons of dirt was delivered and ⅔ of that went into filling the raised beds (we're planning on about seven more) . Whew, that was some intense lifting, let me tell you. We definitely needed the extra bed space with the low spots in the backyard. Now we water, and wait for those gorgeous blooms to pop open (anyone else terrible at waiting?). I appreciate instant gratification sometimes, not going to lie.
Iris, allium, and snowball hydrangea oh my!
The flower CSAs have officially started as well. I love me a good bouquet of seasonal flowers. Because I'm self-taught (going off my know-how.. what little there is.. and gut feeling) they tend to look more… shall we say wild.. than your average florist-y put together goodness.
This is from last year, because sunflowers in May are silly…or are they?
For those of you who are new to this farming thing, CSA stands for community supported agriculture. What it boils down to, we offer packages (not literal) for periods of time throughout the growing season of veggies/fruit/flowers. You are able to choose a certain package (say a weekly flower csa for spring/summer).
You pay a set price at the beginning of the season, and enjoy a bouquet every other (or every) week for a certain amount of weeks (in this scenario, it would be 11). It helps us purchase seed/dirt/fertilizer or whatever else is needed for the year. You receive awesome goodness because of it. Win win.
The veggie CSA is super fun too. Radishes, turnips, peppers, tomatoes galore, depending on the timing (other veggies too). Last year, around the fourth of July (my birthday… yep, America celebrates it, fun fact) I made mini apple pies for the CSAs. This year will be more of the same...because apple pie is delicious. And pie rhymes with July, so you’re basically obligated to have pie (oh darn).
Every year, we continue to grow just a little. It'll be fun to see where Cedar Shake Farm is at in five years. Now enough of the darn farm talk. It's recipe time! Whoop whoop! Get it get it!
Timeout. Update on sewing things: I'm thiiiis close to being done with my apron. I seem to be having bobbin threading issues. So my sewing machine and I aren’t currently speaking. We might later. I’ll keep you guys updated.
Half the pocket is sewn on… and the top is sewn together.
Now back to the regularly scheduled programming. Spicy cashew butter stir fry from The Mindful Hapa on Insta. I added thinly sliced asparagus (stilllll working on parents' asparagus) and carrots. Yuum. Instead of cashew butter, I threw in peanut butter (that's what we had). I was feeling udon noodles instead of rice noodles, so plop, into the pot they went. I doubled the sauce because we're a saucy household (like most sauce).
Unfortunately… I didn't take any pictures of the finished product. It was that good and we were that hungry. It was delicious.
I also forgot to take pictures of the leftovers the next day (those were hoovered down too). Bookmarked. The recipe isn't up on her website yet…buuut you can find it under @themindfulhapa on Instagram. Or try Pinterest for a semi similar recipe. The extra work is worth it.
Sheet pan veggie dinner with broccoli, sweet potato, tofu, chickpeas, and a maple-miso dressing from Vegan Richa. Holy moly, easy and oh so versatile. You want to add other veggies, do it. You want to take away a veggie (or tofu because you forgot to thaw it, no problem). Personslly, I added carrots, sugar snap peas, more asparagus, and mushrooms. I did cut the carrots and asparagus into thinner slices because the cook time is a bit shorter.
Definitely NOT the same miso as miso soup..
Truth time: I've never used miso before… I've eaten miso soup but didn't expect it to be black (Clint immediately went to 'that's what she said'. This is why we can't have nice things. Inappropriate humor). Apparently, there are multiple types of miso and the color depends on how it's made and the aging process. What? There's a little lesson for y'all. I bought hatcho miso, which is made from soybeans and has a longer aging process (hence the dark color).
https://www.veganricha.com/sheet-pan-veggie-dinner-miso-maple-dressing/
Deeeeeliciooous. Definitely a keeper.
Everybody loves cake, cake has layers. I don't care what everybody likes. Name that movie and go. But seriously, cake is delicious. And this vanilla cake from Bianca Zapatka is on point. Vanilla buttercream, vanilla cake. Yeeessssssss.
I may have added a strawberry compote for kicks too (worth it). Follow the recipe, it's awesome (a little time consuming, but all good things are). Do not over mix the buttercream. It knows when you've added too much lemon juice or powdered sugar to it too. It hits that point and goes...ummm nope.
The strawberry compote from Tomato Blues is super easy. The first time I made it, I used frozen strawberries, and it was fine. Use what you have.
Clint had drill this weekend (he's been in the Army National Guard since he turned 17) and happened to be in Des Moines.. so guess what we had for supper… WHOLE FOODS VEGAN TACO PIZZZAAA! Because what's a week without pizza? It's basically not even a week at all. Honestly, Whole Foods has a good vegan spread if you don't feel like making anything (and they have yummy vegan chocolate chip cookies.. have to think about my sweet tooth too).
See y'all next week. Kelli out (mic drop).