Morels

by sophiemoeckel

After a rain, when the redbud and dogwood trees are in bloom, that’s when we look for the mushrooms. We look in the woods, in secret spots, on north-facing slopes, under poplar trees. But usually the morels surprise us and we almost step on them, because they weren’t where they were “supposed” to be!  Yes, they look like brains on stems, but they taste delicious- like earth and butter.  William and Ola love to pick them, and eat them.

Usually we just fry them in butter, but I also put some in to the Arcadia Farm wild Bibimbop. I got the idea from Fat of the Land and thought that it would be perfect since a Korean Restaurant is one of the closest yummy restaurants from our house and Ola and William love to talk about Bibimbop and Bulgogi. Our Bibimbop was Arcadia Farm venison marinated in a typical Bulgogi marinade, Arcadia Farm asparagus, nettles, morels and green onions, and stir fried carrots on top of rice with a fried duck egg in the middle. 

The animals grazed the lawn today. I almost bumped into a sheep while swinging and July got up on the picnic table to have snack with us.

Happy May!

!

April 30th

by sophiemoeckel

April has been wonderfully full of friends, family, animals and fresh food at Arcadia Farm.

My 15th birthday was last week! A tea party on the cabin porch, samosas, ice cream cake, and my very own kayak!

The last baby goat of the spring was born the day before my birthday. Primavera’s proud mama is Spring.

I think that this year’s kids are the prettiest we’ve had yet in our 8 years of goat keeping.  The final count was 6 doelings and 6 bucklings.The kids names are:  Bronson and Alcott, Maury and Goshen, Aurora and Borealis, Marta and Gretl, (Liesl’s kids), Penelope, Primavera, and two still to name.  Even though I always want to keep everybody, many of the babies are for sale.  Except for Primavera who is a Nubian/Mini Lamancha cross, they are all purebred Nubians, registrable and from good milking lines. Please leave a comment or call (540) 254-3247 if you are interested in kids or year old bucks.

Yeah for milk and cheese! Here is yesterday’s Halloumi and kefir bread and apprentice cheesemaker, William (who really likes cheese curds!)

There are also 5 lambs out the pasture and many more to come!

Snow in April

by sophiemoeckel

Do April snows bring May flowers? I hope so because it snowed yesterday! The fresh green grass, the blossoms on the fruit trees, the daffodils, hyacinth and forcithia, the pea, radish, turnip, lettuce, and beet seeds sprouting in the garden- everything was covered in a blanket of white. We had some unexpected snowballs, sledding, and skiing.We welcomed Penelope to the goat herd two days ago. Our first doeling of the spring.The little boys are growing fast and bouncing all over the place. I haven’t found the perfect names yet, so the two bucklings remain un-named.The Egyptian Walking Onions are at their perfect tenderness in the garden right now and are for sale at Farm To You in Lexington.Happy April!

Twins on Easter

by sophiemoeckel

My wish for Easter kids was granted by Geraldine who gave us two beautiful bucklings Easter morning – an all brown one, and a white-legged, black one with some brown mixed in. Ola and William were wonderful birth assistants!Between brand new goat babies to play with…Eggs…Roasted duck…

Flat, but yummy gluten free hot cross buns…

Friends…

And Easter beauty…

.It was a lovely day.

 

 

Welcome Spring!

by arcadiafarm

Whitegrass

by arcadiafarm

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We spent last weekend high in the mountains of West Virginia, skiing. We rented a very cute cabin in Canaan Valley State Park, 10 minutes away from  Whitegrass where we spent our days. Whitegrass has 50 km of great cross country and telemark trails, some of them groomed, that wind  through beautiful wilderness up and over the mountain looking down into Canaan Valley. There were shelters along the trails with warm  fires going, ammo boxes of snacks and bird seed that chickadees ate out of my hand!   The people there were wonderful…funky, funny, welcoming, and friendly. They make you feel like you are one of the family.  The lodge was so great, especially for Ola and William. There is one main room full of snow gear with wood stoves to  warm up around, old time  music blasting, and a natural food deli with DELICIOUS food. It was so nice to come in from  skiing and grab a bowl of hot soup, a drink, and a cookie from the deli. We ate dinner there one night which was so much fun; there was even live music!

The skiing was AMAZING! It snowed the entire time we were there, putting 12 inches of light, perfect powder on top of the two feet already there!  It couldn’t have been better! We skied A LOT, mostly cross country, but I also took a Telemark lesson and had fun attempting  to carve turns on the big hills. The twins did not approve of the neat pull-behind zip up sleds; they wanted to ski too!  So we got them miniature skis and they had a blast skiing around and going down the hill between our legs! I didn’t know that they made skis that tiny, but they do!

There was also great skiing in the state park out the door of our cabin, and we ate burritos at Hellbenders, in the nearby town of Davis, WV.

We highlighted everywhere we skied on the map and there is a picture of the map in the slideshow.We explored most of the trails at Whitegrass and I’m so excited to ski the rest next time we go.  It was a fabulous trip and a great ending to winter.

~Sophie

Mother’s Day pictures and goat cheese souffles. By Sophie

by arcadiafarm

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We had a nice day of gardening and visitors. I decided to make a special Mother’s Day dinner for a very special mother. We had lamb chops, sweet potato fries, salad and goat cheese soufflés. Here is the recipe from Martha Stewart Living:

Goat Cheese Souffles
3 Tbs. Butter, plus more for the dishes
3 Tbs. Flour, plus more for dusting
1/2 c. Warm milk
4 oz. Firm aged goat cheese, grated or coarsely chopped ( about 1 1/2 c.) soft goat cheese can be substituted for aged; be sure to reduce the amount of salt to 3/4 tsp. 1/4 tsp. Ground nutmeg
1 tsp. Salt
1/4 tsp. Pepper
4 large eggs, separated

1. Preheat the oven to 375 F. Butter four 1 c. Souffle dishes. Dust with flour, and tap out excess.
2. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Sprinkle flour over top, and cook, whisking, for 11/2 minutes. Add milk, cheese, nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Cook, whisking, until thickened, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat. Whisk in yolks.
3. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Gently fold cheese mixture into whites. Divide among souffle dishes, filling to 1 inch from the top. Place on baking sheet, and bake until puffed and golden, 12-15 minutes. Serve immediately.

Kids, lambs and strawberries. By Sophie

by arcadiafarm

One of our dorset sheep Maud, delivered twins the other day! I went looking for her and found her in the woods with a ram lamb and a ewe lamb dry and nursing. Yeah Maud!

Nellie, the queen of the goat herd, also had twins this week! Two beautiful brown doelings! She’s had 13 kids here now.

Ola and William enjoyed watching them be born; both at the same time!

I went strawberry picking with a friend at Scotts in Moneta. We each picked 7 gallons. Then we had lunch in one of the many strawberry fields. We finished off with homemade ice cream. Guess what flavor?!
We froze some, dried some, made strawberry syrup, strawberry rhubarb pie, strawberry rhubarb parfait, and soon we will make jam.

Strawberries everywhere!

Another day, another lamb

by arcadiafarm

This season’s fourth lamb was born this evening. So far this year we have had all ram lambs. A thunderstorm was coming in from Bedford/Peaks of Otter during labor, but everyone is tucked away for the night and still the rain isn’t here yet. I’m hoping for a soaking, because all kinds of herbs – lemon verbena, marjorams, cilantro, cutting celery, bay, lavender, lion’s mane, lemon thyme, calendula – went in to the ground today. Finally.
Tonight in the sheep pasture Sophie saw a firefly. I’m glad there is something out there besides cicadas. One of our khaki Campbell ducks eats cicadas – I saw her in the front yard eating them off of the fennel and echinacea, and then she hopped in the baby pool that I’d forgotten to empty. No pictures of that, but here is the new lamb, and a tiny glimpse of Molly the puppy, too. Good night.

Sophie monitoring labor, with moon and storm over Bedford County.

First nursing.

First-time mama.

Thunder.

Sophie putting Molly to bed at the barn.

Wendell Berry is still my hero

by arcadiafarm

Wendell Berry’s recent award and lecture was brought to my attention tonight. After a few weeks of dealing with strep in children and the domestic/farm catch-up game that follows, I’ve been feeling tired and crabby. This speech reminds me of why we do what we do and makes me feel hopeful. If you get a chance, give it a read. Affectionately,
Kirsten

P.S. Here are some old photos that seemed to fit the “gratitude” mood – I have chosen not to document the leak in the bathroom ceiling or the mouse droppings on the window sill.

http://www.neh.gov/about/awards/jefferson-lecture/wendell-e-berry-lecture

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