This Week at Ramsey Farms

Vermiculture Update

The worms are all still doing well in their small home under my kitchen sink. They enjoy a nice warm bed of damp brown leaves, shredded paper (yes recycling!), and have been fed a delightful meal of crumbled egg shells, finely chopped vegetable leaves, shredded kohlrabi peel, & bread crumbs! Chris brought some more untreated wood to build the large worm box that will stay outdoors. (p.s. He keeps referring to it as a "rabbit box" so I'm concerned he's getting worms and rabbits confused...or we're really going to get rabbits and he just hasn't informed me yet. Either way, it's funny!)

Saturday we did some cleaning in the garden and Justice collected several new, fat worms to add to our worm farm! The weather was terrific Saturday - got to 71/72 degrees here in my backyard!

Cauliflower Update

I'm still cauliflower-crazy: checking each and every plant daily, unwrapping each and every plant's leaves to inspect and yes, sometimes measure the beautiful cauliflower heads. It's a game of chicken...or cauliflower now. Allowing the edible head to get as large as it can before it flowers.

I'm inspecting for signs of worms (green cabbage worm poo - delightful), any sun damage, pest damage, and most of all...curd separation. And since this is my first attempt at cauliflower production...I am researching it ad nauseum, googling for images of cauliflower at harvest, and just trying to get a gut feeling for the whole thing.

I finally found a fabric measuring tape (it's really flexible, like a ribbon of fabric) to more easily gauge the growth and maturity of some of the cauliflower plants.  This warm, sunny weather will create a beautiful growth spurt in the vegetable garden just in time for Christmas dinner!

This week has provided several days of 60 and 70 degree temps with forecasts of highs in the 70s through Sunday! (This is December!) In two days some of the cauliflower heads have grown by a 1/2 inch! All the cauliflower are close to 4", most are 4.5", and now 2 or 3 are topping 5" in diameter. Ideally they should be 6 to 8 inches across, being so late in the year I'm just watching the flower and the weather as to decide when to harvest!  I foresee a nice cauliflower salad on my Christmas table next week!

On Saturday, I removed two cauliflower plants - one was ultra small and would never amount to much plus had some soft spots. The other was a mid-sized cauliflower but when I opened the leaves to check it out, the rotten stench was horrible! Blech! I'm watching a few others to further signs of rot - to cut and use the parts we can of it before it goes all the way bad.  We did harvest one 3.5" plant with about 40% softening, so we were able to eat some delicious, crunchy, raw cauliflower (once I cut away the softening pieces). Also, I wilted the leaves in a pan with oil, salt, pepper, curry, and a pinch of sugar. OMG - so delish! The best parts were where the leaves got crunchy in the hot oil.

Broccoli heads are all at least 2-3 inches in diameter.  Those should also get to be about 6" across...will watch and see. I'd love to make a broccoli-cauliflower salad next week for our Christmas day meal but not sure they'll grow that fast even with the 70 degree weather this weekend. And the red cabbage heads are firming up, but small. Stay tuned on this.

I get excited over the fact that we mere mortals can actually make our very own food! Right in the back yard! And it's fresh and clean and didn't travel any miles to get to my table and into my family's bellies.

Warm Tents

This week I did a little experiment (what am I talking about, my whole life is an experiment! lol) If the temperatures are forecasted to drop to 30 or below I cover my precious cauliflowers (my backyard is actually typically 3 degrees colder than the weather channel says it is in my zip code and cauliflower can take it until about 27). I put the thermometer under the tent this morning and found that it was a full 8-10 degrees warmer inside my sheet tent than the air outside the tent! YAY science and yay for warmer plants.
Now I want to build a personal weather station in the back yard! :)

The forecast is for highs in the 70s all weekend then by Tuesday it'll drop to 21-24! I'll need to harvest any cauliflower I want to use for Christmas day before the big freeze and protect all the plantings as best as possible for this deep freeze in their sheet-tents, extra leaf mulch, and possibly some plastic bottles of sun-warmed water.

Easy Dinner

I love healthy dinners especially that are cheap, fast, and easy! I threw this together tonight.

Black Beans, Rice, and Meatballs

• 1 can black beans, rinsed & drained
• 1/3 cup salsa
• 1/8 tsp soy sauce
• hot sauce
• pickled jalapenos
• pickled banana pepper rings
• 1 glove garlic, minced
• Dried, crushed herbs: basil, hot & spicy oregano, black pepper
• 1 golden cayenne pepper, stem removeed
• 6-8 large meatballs (premade)
• 6-8 servings rice
• Cheese, shredded
• Sour Cream

Prepare rice according to package directions. Bake meatballs at 350 for 15 minutes. Turn; bake additional 5 minutes.

Mix beans, salsa, soy sauce, hot sauce, jalapenos, banana peppers, garlic, and seasonings. Add cayenne pepper, keep whole (remove before serving) in glass baking/casserole dish. Add cooked meatballs to bean mixture, cover, bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.

Serve over rice. Top with cheese and sour cream.

Holiday Festivities

It's getting Christmasy around here! Lots of Christmas activities and school programs and gift making and house decorating and holiday meal planning! We did a lot of Christmas baking (and eating) this week, finished up the shopping, and started getting crafty and in the holiday spirit!

Hot Chocolate Mix for Christmas

This week my daughter and I whipped up our first batch of homemade hot cocoa mix. I've just always bought the Swiss Miss boxed stuff at the store. Added the finished mix to mason jars, topped with marshmallows, and a custom lid label and red bow. Cute gift idea to pair with a cute Christmas mug or alone!

• 5 1/2 cups nonfat dry milk powder
• 1 cup + 4 Tablespoons sugar
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Mix all ingredients. Store in airtight container.
• To use add 1/4 to 1/3 cup (more or less to your taste) to 6 oz. hot water. Stir. Top with marshmallows or whip cream as desired! YUM!

I added a pinch of finely ground chocolate mint or cinnamon or vanilla to my mug. Delish!

Merry Christmas!