SD Local Foods on the ‘Net!

Exciting news for South Dakota local foodies–Dakota Rural Action has put their incredibly useful SD Local Foods Directory online.  It’s searchable, too!
Visit the online version of the South Dakota Local Food Directory here.
By the way, may I ask why YOU aren’t a member of Dakota Rural Action? Support their great work on behalf of small [...]

Is it Monday already?

Yep, I guess it is.
We spent the night out on the Missouri with friends–it was good to dust off my kayak after a few weeks of unstable weather not really conducive to being out on an island (unless you’re a more die-hard river rat than I am).  The boat had been sitting out in the [...]

Blood Suckers

Spent the late morning and early afternoon with M. at the Newton Hills Hoedown watching a couple bands perform, including one that his dad is in.  It was really a perfect day for a festival–mid-80s with a nice breeze to keep the heat from building up.
Didn’t get out to the farm until about four o’ [...]

Classic Brats and Cabbage

A locally-made feast!
One head of spring cabbage, one or two summer onions, a couple tablespoons of butter, a bottle of your choice of beer, a package of Dakota Harvest lamb brats or Bluebird Locker’s South Dakota brats (4-6 sausages).
Heat oven to 350 degrees (or make a nice bed of coals). Chop the cabbage and onions [...]

Early Summer Garden Notes

Well, it got hot yesterday, but not nearly as hot as projected.  The weather forcast was all over the place yesterday–from one hour to the next, the projected highs went from 98 to 84 then back into the lower nineties.
We had a very ominous cloud come through at about 10 a.m., but nothing came out [...]

No Denying it Now…

My house is officially orange.  A sort of an orange sherbet or creamsicle shade.  Blue and green trim is coming in the next few days.
Tomorrow is projected to be 98 degrees, with a heat index of 107 or so. I’d tell the guys they are welcome to take the day off, but they are hale [...]

Does that sound like a…?

Spent some quality time in the west garden late this morning and early afternoon pulling Canada thistle (again).  I’m keeping on top of them pretty well this year, and I hope to finally exhaust the roots and eliminate them completely by the end of this season.
I pulled about three seven-gallon buckets worth of mostly thistles [...]

Pastry and other disasters

So, I was up early getting the kitchen cleaned up and quiches made for a Fathers’ Day honoring brunch for H. Daughters K & S will be here with their families, and then we’ll head over to K’s this evening for a dinner.
The brunch was a sort of consensus yesterday evening over at K’s (while [...]

Scent of a Brassica–An Experiment in Succession Planting

I posted yesterday on the economics of that short row of cabbages in the north central garden.  Most of those cabbages are out now (there are three left–I took out the cabbage-looper mangled one this morning), and only their stumps remain.
Most people probably know that rotting (or even fermenting) brassicas of any type have a [...]

The Cost of a Well-Grown Cabbage

Out in the gardens this morning, harvesting for market, I started figuring (or figirin’, in the colloquial).  I was harvesting my beautiful Caraflex spring cabbages and thinking about how much I should charge per head.
The row of cabbage I was mostly cutting from is in the north central garden (I have another row in the [...]