Sunday, October 30, 2011
End of the apple season
Zestar!, Ginger Gold, Chestnut Crab, Cortland, Sweet Sixteen, Honeycrisp, Haralson, Honeygold, Regent, Keepsake. Ten varieties of apples on about 2600 trees, ripening in turn starting about August 20 and continuing through early October. The trees were planted in 2003 and are just starting to really produce. Farmer Bill and I are still learning how to manage the trees and manage the harvest.
2011 was a pretty good apple season. Straight River Farm had only a couple of very short hail events with only minior damage; a light frost during blossom and a cool, wet spring kept the Zestar! and other early apples down in number -- but not grievously so. We managed to keep most of the diseases and pests at bay and harvested a large crop of salable apples. It's October 30 and virtually all of the apples have been sold. Farmer Bill may take a load downtown one more Saturday, but that will be it. The large cooler will be emptied, cleaned, and turned off for the winter. The preparation-for-winter farm work has already begun and will continue for several weeks. Strawberries will be covered with straw, fields will be plowed, hoop houses emptied, machinery winterized, the orchard mowed. Enough work for Farmer Bill and a couple of men through November. Farmer Bill is looking forward to being able to stay at the farm every day & work on taking care of the place. The shorter days -- and no markets to get to -- mean being able to sleep until 7:00 a.m. most days. Pure luxury.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
How I became a librarian
I occasionally think I should write about my work as a librarian -- especially since that's the job that pays me a salary.
When I went back to college to finish my B.A. I wasn't sure what to study. I went to an alternative college where I could design my own program, and I spent a lot of time talking to my advisors. The first advisor talked with me a couple of times and then suggested that based on what he was hearing I should switch to someone else. The second advisor became someone as close to a mentor as I've ever had. She encouraged me to call my baccalaureate degree "Information Management." I focused on the liberal arts, and tossed in a handful of classes surrounding managing information. For one class, I organized a collection of documents pertaining to the early years of the school & created a searchable database using a software that is now surely as extinct as the dodo bird.
I was thinking all the time that I'd like to work in a library; in fact, I'd taken a part-time job shelving at our local library to get a feel for the work. I love the orderliness of libraries, I love books and reading, and it seemed like a good fit. So with my newly-acquired degree I started looking for work with a little more responsibility than shelving. I quickly discovered that most libraries require a Master's degree before you can work as a librarian. However, one local county library system did not -- and in the fall of 1994 they were hiring! The jobs were all half-time and the starting pay was not great (for librarian work), but they were jobs. I was able to qualify and got an interview. I interviewed -- badly, as I always feel I do -- and was hired by the best boss I've ever had, or ever expect to have. Her name is Ruth, and I've always been grateful that she saw something in me worth giving a chance in her library.
I worked at the Forest Lake Library for 5 years. Ruth retired and left after I'd been there about 4 years. The manager after Ruth was just biding time until she found a job out west -- she went to Montana -- where the sun shines more often -- and although she was frustrating, she wasn't there often enough or long enough to have a huge impact. The manager after her was the worst boss I've ever had and I hope the worst I ever do have! Shortly after she arrived I started actively looking for other work. I applied for several jobs and was hired by Ramsey County Library as a substitue librarian. I tendered my resignation to Washington County Library, took the cut in pay, and jumped ship immediately. Within months of starting with Ramsey County, I was called for an interview at Dakota County, after which I was offered a 3/4-time job, at a very good starting salary. At that time, Dakota County Library was the up-and-coming library system. There seemed to be a lot of creative juices flowing, librarians were encouraged to be innovative, and the pay scale was about the best in the Twin Cities. I took the job -- that was July 2000 -- and I've been with Dakota County Library ever since.
When I went back to college to finish my B.A. I wasn't sure what to study. I went to an alternative college where I could design my own program, and I spent a lot of time talking to my advisors. The first advisor talked with me a couple of times and then suggested that based on what he was hearing I should switch to someone else. The second advisor became someone as close to a mentor as I've ever had. She encouraged me to call my baccalaureate degree "Information Management." I focused on the liberal arts, and tossed in a handful of classes surrounding managing information. For one class, I organized a collection of documents pertaining to the early years of the school & created a searchable database using a software that is now surely as extinct as the dodo bird.
I was thinking all the time that I'd like to work in a library; in fact, I'd taken a part-time job shelving at our local library to get a feel for the work. I love the orderliness of libraries, I love books and reading, and it seemed like a good fit. So with my newly-acquired degree I started looking for work with a little more responsibility than shelving. I quickly discovered that most libraries require a Master's degree before you can work as a librarian. However, one local county library system did not -- and in the fall of 1994 they were hiring! The jobs were all half-time and the starting pay was not great (for librarian work), but they were jobs. I was able to qualify and got an interview. I interviewed -- badly, as I always feel I do -- and was hired by the best boss I've ever had, or ever expect to have. Her name is Ruth, and I've always been grateful that she saw something in me worth giving a chance in her library.
I worked at the Forest Lake Library for 5 years. Ruth retired and left after I'd been there about 4 years. The manager after Ruth was just biding time until she found a job out west -- she went to Montana -- where the sun shines more often -- and although she was frustrating, she wasn't there often enough or long enough to have a huge impact. The manager after her was the worst boss I've ever had and I hope the worst I ever do have! Shortly after she arrived I started actively looking for other work. I applied for several jobs and was hired by Ramsey County Library as a substitue librarian. I tendered my resignation to Washington County Library, took the cut in pay, and jumped ship immediately. Within months of starting with Ramsey County, I was called for an interview at Dakota County, after which I was offered a 3/4-time job, at a very good starting salary. At that time, Dakota County Library was the up-and-coming library system. There seemed to be a lot of creative juices flowing, librarians were encouraged to be innovative, and the pay scale was about the best in the Twin Cities. I took the job -- that was July 2000 -- and I've been with Dakota County Library ever since.
Friday, October 7, 2011
Agritainment and wedding anniversaries
Yesterday was our 29th wedding anniversary. We pretty much decided to stick it out for another year. And we sort of took the day off. It was a rotation day for me; I work every other Saturday, so on those weeks I get Thursday off. Farmer Bill will often go to help for the first half of the Thursday market, but didn't this week. I spent the morning catching up on some bookkeeping. The chimney sweep came about 9:30 and swept the chimney, so we're ready to go for this winter. Farmer Bill organized a load for the Thursday market & sent Ryan off by himself -- the traffic is slowing down at markets so 1 person can handle it pretty well. Then Farmer Bill & I went out for lunch (!) and drove to Spring Valley, WI to visit an orchard and talk to the owner about using his equipment to press apple cider. It is a long drive, but a pretty one in the fall. We talked about farming, about being married for 29 years & all the things we've experienced together.
The kitchen this orchardist built was compact and tidy. They bake some pies on Fridays and Saturdays. On Sundays they make apple crisp. New this year they started making doughnuts, which have proved very popular. They bottle honey from their own hives, make some jams and jellies out of their own fruit (pears, plums, apples, and grapes), and sell maple syrup tapped from their own trees. The orchard includes about 30 acres of trees and is set up for people to come in and pick their own. I could see the wheels turning in Bill's mind (& that usually makes me nervous). We've toyed for a couple of years about having a store on SRF to sell our apples. But we really don't want to go the agritainment route. No jumping pillows, no corn mazes, no petting zoo. And our orchard is definitely not set up for pick-your-own. The rows are too close together; each row is a different variety that ripens at a different time. Keeping pickers -- especially young ones -- on the right rows would be impossible. And making SRF a destination is difficult when there's nothing to do but buy a bag of apples or a jar of jam. It's hard to see why people would come to our place when they can go a dozen other places & be entertained.
This winter we'll have more conversations about what to do & how to do it. Stay tuned.
The kitchen this orchardist built was compact and tidy. They bake some pies on Fridays and Saturdays. On Sundays they make apple crisp. New this year they started making doughnuts, which have proved very popular. They bottle honey from their own hives, make some jams and jellies out of their own fruit (pears, plums, apples, and grapes), and sell maple syrup tapped from their own trees. The orchard includes about 30 acres of trees and is set up for people to come in and pick their own. I could see the wheels turning in Bill's mind (& that usually makes me nervous). We've toyed for a couple of years about having a store on SRF to sell our apples. But we really don't want to go the agritainment route. No jumping pillows, no corn mazes, no petting zoo. And our orchard is definitely not set up for pick-your-own. The rows are too close together; each row is a different variety that ripens at a different time. Keeping pickers -- especially young ones -- on the right rows would be impossible. And making SRF a destination is difficult when there's nothing to do but buy a bag of apples or a jar of jam. It's hard to see why people would come to our place when they can go a dozen other places & be entertained.
This winter we'll have more conversations about what to do & how to do it. Stay tuned.
Saturday, September 24, 2011
What are you doing this weekend?
I see the last post was on August 25, a full month ago. Since then Farmer Bill has worked non-stop, averaging 16 hour days, seven days a week. The apple harvest is different than strawberry season. For one thing it lasts much, much longer. Strawberry season averages 18 days; apple harvest averages 6 weeks -- for the picking -- 10 or more weeks to sell the crop.
Last year Farmer Bill managed to find a farmers' market on Mondays, which used to be his day off marketing. So he now markets 7 days a week. Good news is that he found a great employee, Ryan C., who goes to markets for him several days per week. Of course, Farmer Bill just found other markets to go to on those days. But I suppose the more markets he goes to, the more apples he sells & the sooner his crop is sold. But it can be pretty exhausting.
Because Bill is such a people person, and is so conscientious about his farming, he has begun to develop relationships with agritainment orchards. An orchard in Delano has purchased large quantities of our Honeygold apples for 3 years now. Honeygold ripen about October 1; they are a green/yellow apple with a firm texture & a mild sweet flavor. They eat and cook well, but sell very slowly, and SRF always has more Honeygold than we can sell at farmers' markets. So the relationship with Apple Jack has been a great boon. This year Bill found an orchard that needed Zestar! and was able to sell 50 bushel at a good price (before they softened -- and before the Honeycrisp came in). That same orchard is now interested in some of our Honeycrisp, which means they were pleased with the quality of the Zestar! they got. These are small orders in the scheme of things, but huge for our operation. A third venue that may work well for Farmer Bill is a produce auction in northern Iowa. Bill took apples there 2 years ago, but last year's crop was so small that he didn't need additional outlets (except for Honeygold!). This week he sent a load of apples down and it sold -- very well at very good prices. Additional apples will be going to the auction next week. All of these sales are down to Farmer Bill. He seeks out possible venues. He develops relationships. He treats people fairly, respectfully, and evenly, always.
Okay, I got a Saturday off from marketing today -- a total fluke -- so now I have to quit messing about on the computer and go make good use of this 'free' time. Applesauce to make, apple rings to dry, and the usual laundry to work on and bathrooms to clean, although very little housework gets done this time of year beyond keeping the kitchen clean and trying to keep us in clean underwear. By the beginning or middle of November I should be able to start doing a thorough cleanup...
Last year Farmer Bill managed to find a farmers' market on Mondays, which used to be his day off marketing. So he now markets 7 days a week. Good news is that he found a great employee, Ryan C., who goes to markets for him several days per week. Of course, Farmer Bill just found other markets to go to on those days. But I suppose the more markets he goes to, the more apples he sells & the sooner his crop is sold. But it can be pretty exhausting.
Because Bill is such a people person, and is so conscientious about his farming, he has begun to develop relationships with agritainment orchards. An orchard in Delano has purchased large quantities of our Honeygold apples for 3 years now. Honeygold ripen about October 1; they are a green/yellow apple with a firm texture & a mild sweet flavor. They eat and cook well, but sell very slowly, and SRF always has more Honeygold than we can sell at farmers' markets. So the relationship with Apple Jack has been a great boon. This year Bill found an orchard that needed Zestar! and was able to sell 50 bushel at a good price (before they softened -- and before the Honeycrisp came in). That same orchard is now interested in some of our Honeycrisp, which means they were pleased with the quality of the Zestar! they got. These are small orders in the scheme of things, but huge for our operation. A third venue that may work well for Farmer Bill is a produce auction in northern Iowa. Bill took apples there 2 years ago, but last year's crop was so small that he didn't need additional outlets (except for Honeygold!). This week he sent a load of apples down and it sold -- very well at very good prices. Additional apples will be going to the auction next week. All of these sales are down to Farmer Bill. He seeks out possible venues. He develops relationships. He treats people fairly, respectfully, and evenly, always.
Okay, I got a Saturday off from marketing today -- a total fluke -- so now I have to quit messing about on the computer and go make good use of this 'free' time. Applesauce to make, apple rings to dry, and the usual laundry to work on and bathrooms to clean, although very little housework gets done this time of year beyond keeping the kitchen clean and trying to keep us in clean underwear. By the beginning or middle of November I should be able to start doing a thorough cleanup...
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Are the apples ready?
Have I mentioned that Farmer Bill is a stickler for waiting until his apples are perfectly ripe before he picks them?
Here's what we use to help us make that decision -- along with taste tests of course!
What is that bottle...? It looks like...?!? Yes, it's iodine, the kind you might use on cuts or scrapes, or take along camping to purify water. Now think back to your chemistry classes in school & reaction experiments. Iodine reacts with starch and turns black. It reacts with sugar and loses its color. The apples in the center of the picture show white in the center and black outside that. The bottom apple is a Zestar!, the middle apple is a Chestnut Crab, and the top apple (almost all black) is a Ginger Gold. As apples ripen the white center grows. At just slightly more white than is pictured, the apples are perfect for picking. Apples in normal storage will ripen and sweeten. Apples picked too ripe & put into storage will not keep as long. Apples picked too green will ripen & sweeten some, but may not gain the full flavor the grower and consumer would like. Just a few more days now & we'll be in the apple business for this season.
The apparatus in the top left corner is a refractometer. It measures the Brix. Brix is a measurement of the sucrose in a liquid solution (look it up in Wikipedia if you want a more thorough explanation). Because the apples also have fructose and other stuff in the liquid we squeeze from them, the refractometer only gives us an approximate sugar level & really doesn't tell us when the apples are ready. But it's pretty fun to use -- and we got to spend a bunch of money on it -- and it has a cool name.
Of course, the best way to tell when the apples are ready is to taste them. We have been tasting for a couple of weeks now -- and the 'green' taste is almost gone from the 3 earliest varieties. Coming soon to a farmers' market near you: Straight River Farm apples.
Here's what we use to help us make that decision -- along with taste tests of course!
What is that bottle...? It looks like...?!? Yes, it's iodine, the kind you might use on cuts or scrapes, or take along camping to purify water. Now think back to your chemistry classes in school & reaction experiments. Iodine reacts with starch and turns black. It reacts with sugar and loses its color. The apples in the center of the picture show white in the center and black outside that. The bottom apple is a Zestar!, the middle apple is a Chestnut Crab, and the top apple (almost all black) is a Ginger Gold. As apples ripen the white center grows. At just slightly more white than is pictured, the apples are perfect for picking. Apples in normal storage will ripen and sweeten. Apples picked too ripe & put into storage will not keep as long. Apples picked too green will ripen & sweeten some, but may not gain the full flavor the grower and consumer would like. Just a few more days now & we'll be in the apple business for this season.
The apparatus in the top left corner is a refractometer. It measures the Brix. Brix is a measurement of the sucrose in a liquid solution (look it up in Wikipedia if you want a more thorough explanation). Because the apples also have fructose and other stuff in the liquid we squeeze from them, the refractometer only gives us an approximate sugar level & really doesn't tell us when the apples are ready. But it's pretty fun to use -- and we got to spend a bunch of money on it -- and it has a cool name.
Of course, the best way to tell when the apples are ready is to taste them. We have been tasting for a couple of weeks now -- and the 'green' taste is almost gone from the 3 earliest varieties. Coming soon to a farmers' market near you: Straight River Farm apples.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Apples
The apple season is nearly upon us. When Will & Aimee were here on Sunday we went into the orchard to look things over. The Zestar! have gained a lot of size and are starting to turn red. The Honeycrisp were not thinned enough -- so there will be a lot of them. But it remains to be seen what that lack of thinning does to the size and flavor of the apples. It's time to turn the apple sorter on and make sure all the parts are working.
It looks like we'll have about as many apples this year as we did 2 years ago -- when we sold apples well into November. Having enough Honeycrisp to sell at markets through the month of October is very important because it is our most popular apple & draws people in. If they want to make pies, freeze, or can we can sell them apples for that at the same time, but Honeycrisp is the apple of choice for fresh eating. We'll be short on the Sweet Sixteen, which didn't set well at all, and short on the Ginger Gold, which is our 2nd best early apple and very popular with people who have tried it. We'll only have enough of our newest apple, SweeTango, to make a tasting for us and a few lucky friends, family, and customers. But considering that the trees were planted only last year (2010), it's pretty incredible to have any at all.
But first we have to get through August -- which means sweet corn and cantaloupe -- grown to fill the gap between strawberry season and apple season. And, of course, tomatoes. Farmer Bill loves tomatoes, but is still working out the logistics of growing them. If he ever nails it, they'll be another good interim crop because Minnesotans crave tomatoes all winter and go crazy for the first on the markets. He found a very good tasting variety this year -- we really like the flavor. But the extreme heat caused growth problems for them in the hoop house, and the extreme amounts of rain caused problems in the field. While we can't adjust the weather, we can adjust how we react to it, and next year Farmer Bill will have a little more knowledge to help him out.
It looks like we'll have about as many apples this year as we did 2 years ago -- when we sold apples well into November. Having enough Honeycrisp to sell at markets through the month of October is very important because it is our most popular apple & draws people in. If they want to make pies, freeze, or can we can sell them apples for that at the same time, but Honeycrisp is the apple of choice for fresh eating. We'll be short on the Sweet Sixteen, which didn't set well at all, and short on the Ginger Gold, which is our 2nd best early apple and very popular with people who have tried it. We'll only have enough of our newest apple, SweeTango, to make a tasting for us and a few lucky friends, family, and customers. But considering that the trees were planted only last year (2010), it's pretty incredible to have any at all.
But first we have to get through August -- which means sweet corn and cantaloupe -- grown to fill the gap between strawberry season and apple season. And, of course, tomatoes. Farmer Bill loves tomatoes, but is still working out the logistics of growing them. If he ever nails it, they'll be another good interim crop because Minnesotans crave tomatoes all winter and go crazy for the first on the markets. He found a very good tasting variety this year -- we really like the flavor. But the extreme heat caused growth problems for them in the hoop house, and the extreme amounts of rain caused problems in the field. While we can't adjust the weather, we can adjust how we react to it, and next year Farmer Bill will have a little more knowledge to help him out.
Monday, August 8, 2011
Jam
Jam is possibly the easiest thing to preserve. I've made enough jam now that I can do it almost without thinking about it. So it was fun to invite my daughter-in-law over to participate in making a batch of blueberry jam on Sunday afternoon. She had asked about learning to can this summer, we both turned up free on the same day, and I had some blueberries that needed to be put up, so it worked out perfectly.
I'm working this summer with a new pectin product that allows one to make jams using lots less sugar than traditional pectin, and to double or triple recipes. So we made 11 cups of blueberry jam using only 2 1/4 cups of sugar. A traditional low sugar pectin would have needed 5-6 cups of sugar for the same batch of jam. I'm excited to try using this pectin on the peaches that are coming in next week. Last year I made peach jam that was very good but very sweet even though I used a low sugar recipe. This year I'm hoping to be able to make a peach jam that lets the peach flavor really shine through.
What does a family of two do with all of this jam you ask? Homemade jam is a gift to many neighbors, friends, and family over the course of the year. I love to give it away, but always make sure to keep enough for Farmer Bill (and me) to eat, especially our personal favorite, raspberry. If there is ever a little farm stand on the farm I will consider making extra jam to sell. Homemade jams at farmers' markets bring pretty good prices, and I expect we could get a good price at a farm store, too. And if I can double or triple my recipes -- and use much less sugar -- my costs are lower in both time and materials.
Huh, I just looked out the window to see that there is a gorgeous sunset happening. I think I'll go watch it...
I'm working this summer with a new pectin product that allows one to make jams using lots less sugar than traditional pectin, and to double or triple recipes. So we made 11 cups of blueberry jam using only 2 1/4 cups of sugar. A traditional low sugar pectin would have needed 5-6 cups of sugar for the same batch of jam. I'm excited to try using this pectin on the peaches that are coming in next week. Last year I made peach jam that was very good but very sweet even though I used a low sugar recipe. This year I'm hoping to be able to make a peach jam that lets the peach flavor really shine through.
What does a family of two do with all of this jam you ask? Homemade jam is a gift to many neighbors, friends, and family over the course of the year. I love to give it away, but always make sure to keep enough for Farmer Bill (and me) to eat, especially our personal favorite, raspberry. If there is ever a little farm stand on the farm I will consider making extra jam to sell. Homemade jams at farmers' markets bring pretty good prices, and I expect we could get a good price at a farm store, too. And if I can double or triple my recipes -- and use much less sugar -- my costs are lower in both time and materials.
Huh, I just looked out the window to see that there is a gorgeous sunset happening. I think I'll go watch it...
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