Just In Case You Wondered....

WE'RE ALIVE!!!!!

I know it has been far too long since we've done a blog post! But I do have good reasons, if you'd like to hear some excuses:

#1. A market-garden leaves pinched time for blogging
#2. Blogger has been acting up--I had a post all set with pictures and everything, but it posted it funny and I had to take it off. It wouldn't work no matter what! :P
#3. Nasty little voles are eating our potatoes
#4. It's been rather hot--very counter-productive to inspiration. :D

So that's my sorry little apology. Let's be friends now, okay? ;) Wow! So I realized that it's been a long time since we've posted about ourselves. So you all must be wondering, "What on earth have they been up to? Rachel never even posted the second part of her farm blog posts, and no hair tutorials have come up." Or else you've ceased wondering about us and have taken us off your sidebar. Please put us back. We're sorry. ;)
*ANY*way. I first off wanted to share the very exciting news with you that we have launched the website for Taste and See Family Farm! It all feels so official and tidy now! Thanks Matthew and Uncle David! :) Go check it out! It's really cool! :) *Exciting!*
I won't go into details right now, but as far as our day-to-day life goes, we've been rather "Nose to the grindstone" on account of the garden popping and having deadlines for co-ops and farmers markets and everything else! :) Extremely busy--I'd appreciate your prayers for Mama, because as tired as we are at the end of the day, she's ten times more so since she's eight months pregnant! We are trying to spare her the heaviest work, but she's still working harder than most women at this point in their pregnancies! Baby will have a good work ethic from the start, I guess! :D I talked about our schedule a little bit in the Large Family Logistics post awhile back...

But enough about the garden. At nearly 10 p.m. we've all payed our dues for the day! Benji and I were harvesting a huge laundry basket full of potatoes for the market today and were dismayed to find we had to throw out 30 of the hugest ones because voles had gotten to them. I think it's time for an outside cat--what say you? :P

On a lighter note, Gracie said something really funny the other day:
I was in the other room and heard her calling me.

*Grace*: "Raaachel!"
*Me*: "Yeah?"
*Grace*: "Guess who I'm gonna marry--him!" *points to a picture of Michael W. Smith on a flier*
*Me*: "Why would you want to marry him?"
*Grace, with a charming smile*: "Because he's handsome and he doesn't smell like tuna-fish."

Randomness is hilarious. Especially when it comes from a 4 year-old. :D
Also, my graduation is set for July 16th and I am informed I have to give a speech.
Me....and a speech...
Me...in front of 200+ people.....
*dies of embarassment* So could ya'll pray for peace of mind for me? I think I'll faint. I'm planning on it. And Abigail promises she'll drag me over the the rain barrel and dunk me in to revive me, and then I can go on and read my speech anyway. What a good friend. ;)
So.....hope this caught you guys up on everything going on! Have a great night! :) <3 ~Rachel

P.S. Blogger is still acting up and won't let me upload pictures! Or let me off of italic after I've pushed it... >:[ Anybody have any advice on this? :/

Anti-Complacency- Living Life To the Hilt

"The complacency of fools destroys them." Prov. 1:32

A few weeks ago I was stuck a bit in a rut of complacency. I had stopped trying to grow in hard areas because I was "better than most". I had become comfortable in where I was, and complacent in the way I was living. I was doing fabulous things compared to the world's standards, but I knew it was not my personal best. Then I read Alex and Brett Harris' Do Hard Things and the Lord convicted me of my complacency. Actually, His hand was in it from the very beginning, because I won that book in a blog giveaway. Never believe "luck" has anything to do with anything. :) Here is a particular passage of the book that struck home hard:

"Complacency is a blight that saps energy, dulls attitudes, and causes a drain on the brain. The first symptom is satisfaction with things as they are. The second is rejection of things as they might be. "Good enough" becomes today's watchword and tomorrow's standard.
Complacency makes people fear the unknown, mistrust the untried, and abhor the new. Like water, complacent people follow the easiest course--downhill. They draw false strength from looking back. "

I don't mind telling you that I was drawing false strength from looking back. And it *was* effecting my life. I found my attitude going on a downhill course when it was time to "do hard things". I stopped trying for my best, and fell into the next consequence of complacency: Self-pity.
I glued my eyes to the other side of the fence and feasted on the sight of the green grass over there, while neglecting to see all the blessings the Lord has given me.
Over these past few weeks the Lord has been helping me, guiding me, and giving me strength to keep my attitude in check, and do the hard things that need doing. This does include running Taste and See Family Farm--a daunting task at times.
It's amazing how the hard things become more attractive when we are no longer viewing them through complacency-fogged lenses.
Below is my newest "Anti-Complacency Manifesto", as I call it. :)

"Wherever you are, be all there. Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God."
-Jim Eliot

It's not always easy going, but I am determined, with God's help, to live to the hilt every situation He puts in front of me. It's the only way to do it. :) And here comes the funny part of this rambling post....(yes, I have been keeping track of the polls and finding "humorous posts" has the lead ;)

Living life to the hilt is a picture of sword-fighting, is it not? I thought so.

And um....when you've stabbed something to the hilt of your sword, generally that means you have run it through, bled it's life's blood....in effect killed it....right?

Mmhmm.

I went out to the garden today in the most content frame of mind with that wonderful quote ringing through my thoughts like a beam of golden hope for my day. All the tilling I did on Friday in the garden had crusted over. It would have to be done again. A whole afternoon virtually wasted last week. But I had no such thoughts. I was determined that I would serve my family and my God by having a servant's heart and living this situation to the hilt.

I started the tiller. I tilled a looooonnnggg, wide row. And half of another.

I lived it to the hilt all right. Killed it dead. Ahem.

I guess I should 'fess up. Unbeknowst to me, the entire row had been planted Saturday while I was gone.

I sure did a thorough job of it. Ruined all that work, (which we have no seeds to replant) while trying to live life to the hilt. *sigh* Just as I thought I was learning something. ;)

-Rachel

More Complicated Than You'd Think....

We have been doing a lot of work in the garden recently, due to the fact that between the Walkers and ourselves, we've started a market-gardening venture on our land. We'll post more fully about that at some point! :) Anyway, today we spent all day out in the garden, and my job was to finish twining the peas on the trellis and to spray all the peas, the onions, the radishes, and the turnips with this:

Okay....so maybe not literally. More like this:

Fish Emulsion smells just like a fishing tackle box with rotting fish inside. :) But it's amazing for the garden, so I devoted myself to spraying all the plants with it. I ended up drenched and smelling like chum myself. :P So after my job was done I ran inside, scrubbed myself in the shower and, still smelling like a fish, (though a clean fish) I am writing this blog post. :)

The main point of this post was to show you something I have learned this year in the garden. Pay close attention...

This is earth

This is soil

This is dirt.

Got it? If you didn't, go back and read that part over again.

Now, you may be wondering why I posted three of the same photos. Let me explain. If you are Mary Lennox of The Secret Garden,  or perhaps another British person, that handful of sediment is earth. 

"Might I have a bit of earth?" :)

Take the same handful of sediment and if you are an educated person filling trays to do something like this...

Chances are....it's soil.

And if that self-same sediment falls on the floor and you have to sweep it up... in the space of three seconds you have suddenly become acquainted with the last persona of the sediment: 

Dirt.

Now do you have it? :) You'll know you're a real gardener when you can simply take stock of your surroundings and be able to tell just which that handful of sediment is. ;) ~Rachel

Organic Gardening- The Dark Side

We try to keep an Organic garden. I love the organic idea...no weird chemicals on your food and, if you're going heirloom as well, no MonSanto peeking over your shoulder looking at you. I kind of always figured that when you had an organic garden, you would be able to eat the produce without evening washing it. A naive idea, I can tell you. Well, okay, you could forgo the washing of the vegetables but you may have second thoughts after remembering what you put on those plants instead of chemicals....think scary names like Bloodmeal, Fish emulsion, powdered bacteria, fertilizer-made-from-sewage. NASTY!!! :P And then there are the creatures that inhabit the plants. Anyone out there ever see the tomato hornworm? If you haven't, here's a picture:

Four inches of disgusting, meaty, caterpillar. Benjamin's job as an Organic Gardener? Pull those unwilling beasties off the plants, double them over, and squish them! :P *shiver* Because in an Organic garden, there are precious few sprays and things you can eradicate the pests with. This summer several people were kept employed pulling potato bugs, squash-bugs, and hornworms off of the plants and drowning them in soapy water. I have learned from experience that a drowned grasshopper turns Pepto-bismal pink, and looks like a little colonial gentleman in breeches. And that fish-emulsion stuff I was talking about? It's really all the stuff from inside a fish. And it gets all over you. Witness the conversation I had with Gracie yesterday while I made dinner: Me: "I need a shower! I smell like fish-guts!"

Gracie: "Let me `mell you? (smells my arm) Nope! You smell like Rachie!"

Me: "Smell my skirt!"

Gracie: "Yup! You `mell like fish-guts!" :D

So I'm not lying! Organic gardening has a dark side. But I'm sure the positive things outweigh the bad. We're not all going to keel over covered in strange lumps later in life from chemicals, we are growing our own food, and it gives us something to blog about! -Rachel

The Scare of The Century, As Told By Rachel

I have been comissioned by Abigail Taylor to relate to you the story of the way Matthew gave Sarah the scare of the century. So settle back, and enjoy a simple tale of a little wit, a tad of quick-thinking, and a dash...funniness! :) Meet the Villain of the story:

Well, three of him. Could you ask for a better creep? Long claws, buggy eyes, whirring wings... *shiver* It all began yesterday evening. Like the good girls we are, after chores, Sarah, Leah, Anna, and I all went out on the porch in the cool of the dusk to shell these:

Only it was not so glamorous and pretty-looking. Our version is more like piles of this:

We quietly shelled the lima beans, singing as we went. That is when the Villain first came onstage. With a whirr of wings, he hit a shutter of the house, then fell to the ground. I screeched, I confess, and tucked my skirt tightly around my ankles. I do not get an overly loving feeling over praying mantises! :) We stood up to do something, and as I prepared to sit down, I saw little Manty, clinging to the back of my rocking chair. This would not do. So we girls took turns shying shoes and baseball mitts at all three of the creepy insects. (there were 3 at this point in time) My goal was to knock them off the house and chair. Anna's goal was to clock them. She hit the biggest guy, (twice the size of the picture of there) and he fell to the porch with one menacing wing sticking out funny. I ran off the porch, thoroughly disgusted. The third one persisted in staying on the house. I took the baseball mitt, and chucked it at him, hitting him off the siding, and causing him to fly through the air, chasing me the whole length of our front porch! :P That excitement being over, we returned to shelling Limas, thinking that the Villains had been vanquished for sure and certain.

Enter Matthew Walker. Good cousin, he. But mischevious lad at times. He sits on the porch, talking to us, and watching his good, house-keeping cousins shell the beans. He declines the offer of helping, and prefers to watch our deft fingers do it. Scrapes a pile of beans off his lap that Leah put there, and continues to chat about many things. He laughs over our praying mantis story. We girls continue to sing.

♫ "Some bright morning when this life is o'er

I'll fly away

To a home on God's celestial shore,

I'll fly away...." ♫

Sarah utters a little squeal, and ducks her head, for one Villain, the poor injured one who had meanwhile climbed up the front door, hits a porch post near her vicinity, and falls into the flower bed. While she is shuddering over the thought of that nasty creature coming anywhere close, Matthew the Brilliant, Matthew the Quick, Matthew the Witty, takes a lima bean shell, aims, and quietly throws it, hitting her chest perfectly on time. Her eyes take on an expression like this:

And she utters the loudest scream I think I've ever heard coming from her mouth! "AGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!" She falls back into her chair, and continues writhing about, looking as if she is in the depths of an apoplectic fit while we all collapse in laughter. The joke is explained. She is relieved. They repair to a movie inside, while I brave the Villains, and sweep up all the shells. And that, dear readers, is the tale I have to tell! :) -Rachel

A Tribute To Okra

Written For Sarah:

"A Tribute To Okra"

"The horridest plant in the garden I think,

Must be the Okra- it truly doth stink!

It smells like as squashbug who's wearing perfume

That comes from the air of a long sealed-up tomb.

The plant is prolific, I cannot deny,

The main little problem just seems to be "Why?!?"

When stewed, Okra looks like the muck in our ditch!

(Besides the wee fact that the fuzz makes you itch!)

The furriness seems to delight peoples' tongues,

(As long as it doesn't go straight to their lungs!)

It grows at the rate of ten miles a day,

At a stand by the road, I doubt anyone'd pay.

Besides- at our house, we're ready to choke-ra,

So please, orphans, please, let us donate our Okra!"

Sarah passionately despises okra, but our thrifty Mama will not see it wasted. Thus the "donated okra" line, which may seem irrelevant otherwise! :D -Rachel

What is that drippy foreign stuff called? :P

I have a smile on my face because...

IT RAINED!!!

After probably at least three weeks since the last shower the whole earth around here was wilting. We were hoeing the garden, and raising enough clouds of dust to make someone think we were hosting a horse race! :) Really, it was pathetic. Then, along came some clouds, and behind the clouds the rain, and we all stood in the garden getting drenched by the liquid gold! :) It felt so good to stand for at least half an hour, and feel shower after shower sweep over us as we worked! What a blessing rain is! And we needed it sorely! It wasn't a real long stretch of rain, but enough to dampen everything round about and lighten the humidity in the air! Thank you God! :) -Rachel

A Comedic Tragedy, In One Part

In any life, however dull it may seem, you can find bits of humor. And in our life, and our family, and our....experiences..(hem) we seem to have more than our share! :) Take today. I almost thought I was watching an episode of "I Love Lucy". It all started out normally. I shall write it out as a screenplay, and then you can see just what I mean:

The evening before, Aunt Christy, Mama, and everyone else harvested a comically shocking load of cucumbers. They somehow stuffed them into the collective refridgerators, and waited till the next day when they could pickle them. (Camera pans around the sleeping gardeners, and new scene begins in the morning) Mama comes into the older girls' room and wakes them up. She asks, "Are you awake?" One big groan from Rachel. A muffled, and slightly-less-awake groan from Sarah. The morning progresses. Rachel lugs a huge black pot out to turkey-frier-burner thing on the back deck. Dad has rigged it up so that the burner is connected to the gas line for the grill which is connected to the gas line for the house. Rachel fills the huge pot with water, and waits for it to boil, naively assuming it will take 1 hour. She is confident in her pickling abilities. After all, she hadn't pickled 120 quarts last summer for nothing. But Rachel forgets that time erases such little irritations such as how long it really takes for a huge pot of water to boil. Meanwhile everyone hacks through the enormous pile of cucumbers. (Two and a half hours later) Rachel informs Mama that the pot is boiling. They head outside on the deck, and with Aunt Christy's help, Rachel fills the jars with slices of cucumber, packing them tightly, and dolloping the garlic and dill seed liberally. She adds the brine. They screw the lids on. They lower them into the steaming pot that has stopped boiling due to the absence of its lid. They hear a few little pops. Rachel goes inside. She is hot. She is sticky. She sets the buzzer for 15 minutes. She goes outside at the end of the time. (Dramatic camera close-up on Rachel's face) Upon lifting the jars out with the tongs, 2 of them are busted open, and the contents slide merrily into the pot! Rachel wails dismally, and quickly fetches the remaining jars out. Not wishing to waste time boiling new water, Rachel skims out the cucumbers, dill-seeds, and garlic, hoping that a bit of vinegar and salt won't hurt the processing of the other jars. Rachel returns inside. She and Aunt Christy and Mama decide the jars were probably too cold. She fills more jars with hot water. When it is time for this batch, she dumps out the water, repeating the process of filling. She dubiously lowers the jars into the water. It is not quite boiling, but that shouldn't matter. Rachel claps the lid onto the pot, and sets the timer to 20 minutes.....(Twenty minutes later) Rachel steps out onto the back deck. She lifts the jars out and to her great chagrin, another jar is busted! Obviously it was not a problem of the jars being hot enough. Rachel groans, and reports inside to the fellow pickle-makers who are still slicing cucumbers. She eats lunch while google-searching why her jars are busting. She finds an answer. She decides to give this one more try. (Camera pans to the burner outside.) Rachel walks up. She lifts the lid. The water is not close to boiling, and the lid has been on for at least a half-hour! What is wrong? Rachel peers closely at the burner. There is no flame! She turns off the gas at the grill, and enters the house. "Mama, is there a reason why the flame would have burned out?"
Mama peers at her over the pots on the stove, which are simultaneously being used to blanch green beans. "That's not good." she answers levelly. Rachel trys to use logic. She comes around to the front of the stove. "Well, the burner is tapped into the house gas-line, and these stove burners are....NOT ON!!!!!" (Dramatic music!) Everyone realizes that pickle-making is obviously not the golden task it seems. The one day of the year the family most needs the gas-line, and they have used up both their gas tanks. Rachel melancholily (?) cleans up the pickle making things and loads them up in the van to take to Aunt Christy's house. She tries to be cheerful. "We are one 12th of the way through what we made last year!" she says. Aunt Christy looks at her blankly. "That means we are 1 24th of the way through what we need to make this year." (Credit roll begins, and the Comic/Tragedy ends)

*Thank you! Thank you* I know it is brilliant! ;) Yep. That was my day. Foiled in the desperate attempt at putting away the comical amount of pickling cucumbers. Wow. I got exhausted replaying all that in my mind! It was second only to Meg March's jam misshap! :) Well, hope it amused you at least! :) -Rachel

The Story of My Life This Week

Here is the story of our life this week in very short installments. Ahem:

Weed

Hoe

Weed

Hoe

Iced-tea

weed

Hoe

Thankful for a/c

weed

hoe

weed

hoe

turnips

peel

blanch

freeze

grate

weed

hoe

weed

hoe

paint picture of

weeding

hoeing

sisters

weed

hoe

lemonade/ popcorn

weed

hoe

iced tea

Read Proverbs 10 and decide I'd better watch it

weed

hoe

weed

hoe

get sprayed by hose by Aunt Christy

weed

hoe

iced tea/popcorn

Banana smoothies

blog! :) -Rachel

Proverbs 10:4-5, 26

"He who has a slack hand becomes poor,

But the hand of the diligent makes rich.

He who gathers in summer is a wise son,

He who sleeps in harvest is a son who causes shame...

As vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes,

So is the lazy man to those who send him." :D

This Little Lassie....

This little lassie went to market (that's me!)

This little lassie stayed home (that's Sarah)

This little lassie had roast beef (to sell- that's Morgan Wilson)

This little lassie had none. (that could be Leah)

And this little lassie went wee-wee-wee all the way home.

Okay. So that last line was a bit scary, and didn't make any sense. Anywho! Today I'll be going to the Wilson's farm pick-up day to sell our crazy surplus of produce all by my lonesome. *yikes!*
The rest of our family is going to help the Tate family (in one way or another) to prepare for Grace T.'s graduation next Sat. Sarah is going over there to watch the little boys. (Thus the rhyme for her. But I guess that means she isn't staying home. Whatever!) Well, see you guys later! (Some of you on Mon.! :)

The Tale Of The Turnip (that sounds scary)

I was sent on a mission today: figure out how to make something with turnips. Something that actually tastes good. Something that we can type out on recipe cards and hand to customers who buy them at the Wilson's on Saturday. They have very generously allowed us to sell our loose-leaf lettuce, turnips, and spinach at their farm pick-up day on Sat. So what is a girl to do who only has a vague idea of what a turnip is used for? I recollected (somewhere in the files of my brain) that you cooked the leafy tops and ate them like regular greens. So far so good. But everyone knows that. The only other inkling I had was that in some AmericanGirl book, the heroine refused to eat her "orange mashed turnips". I am wondering why her's were orange: ours are purple on the outside and white inside! :) So I did a Google search, and I came up with some interesting facts: you can use turnips in any recipe in which potatoes are called for, you can use it instead of cabbage in coleslaw, and it has cancer-fighting nutriets! Yay for that strange vegetable! So I set out to make two recipes, for better or for worse....."Turnip Oven-Fries", and "Mashed Turnips". Sound good? Here's what I did:

Washed, peeled, and cut up the turnips: some I chunked, (to boil) the others I sliced thinly like potatoes. I tossed the thin ones in olive oil, and laid them out on a tray. The others went into a pot of boiling water. Here's a picture of the chunked ones:

The oven-turnips baked at 425 F. for 20 minutes or so, and the stove ones just got the dickens boiled out of them. I like to boil my potatoes to mash until they are nearly falling apart, so I did the turnips the same way.
Back to the oven-turnips: When they were done, I salted them, and had everyone try the finished product: it tasted sort of like sweet potato fry, if you have ever had those. Sort of sweet and mild at the same time. Here is a picture!

Here they are. Aunt Christy added the spinach to the side in lieu of curly kale. :)

Then for the mashed turnips---I strained the water away from them, smushed them up with a pastry-cutter, (I did NOT feel like taking out our whole Bosch thing and doing it the right way! :) and added salt, pepper, butter, and our goat-milk. Yum! They tasted pretty good, if not exactly like real mashed potatoes. I found that they were a bit more wet than potatoes, and a tad bit stringy-ish and lumpy. But that could have been because I didn't use a mixer! Here are a couple pictures of those! :)

Here is a far-away-ish picture. I am dealing once again with our addle-pated camera, so bear with me. We'll call the darkness of the picture "Art" and leave it at that!

And once again, my hand stars in the post. I believe that is all ya'll have seen of me! :) hee-hee. Well, hope this turnip-y post is not too dull! If I were anything like Winnie-the-Pooh, I would have made up a "hum" by now, because "turnip' is a promising sort of word that deserves a rhyme or something! ;) -Rachel