News and Blog

Escarole in the garden. It's gives spring green a new meaning, even in the heat of summer.

Escarole fresh from it's bath.

HAH! You might think the next picture would be one of a  prepared dish with escarole ready to bite into.
What a good idea. I'll work on that next.

I LOVE escarole!
It is a hearty, versatile green that you can have year 'round in your garden.
Have I told you all this already? Do I sound like I might have too much escarole in the garden?
I do in fact, have loads of it. It has ben growing happily since May, surprisingly has not bolted and the still maintains its'  sweet AND bitter self.
I have been eating the light and nearly white inside leaves as a standalone salad with bleu cheese dressing. The outer leaves I have been tossing in a bit of olive oil and garlic for a quick, hot stir and top with a sprinkle of pecorino.

Enough about escarole. (for now)

Also in the farmstand you will find:

Mixed up peas (sugar and snap). They got mixed up in the planting, so they are growing mixed, and I can't bare the separation anxiety of sorting them after harvest.
Yogurt
cheese

Available by request in a separate, locked and guarded fridge:
Fresh smoked sockeye salmon.
It is $17/pound and packaged in $5- $9 packages
Send me an email to order and I will send a guard out and put it in the fridge with your name.

I harvested my first cutting of basil, made pesto and about made myself sick eating it with a spoon. So I cooked up a pot of pasta, had the farm crew in for lunch to offer me a little consumptive assistance. Pesto is gone now, I'll go back to grazing raspberries.
If you want some pesto, let me know. It is not something I keep in the farmstand as it oxidizies and turns blackish on top. I refuse to add any other ingredient or process it any other way to prevent this. I just eat it as fast as I can make it, oh darn too bad.
I do put it in 8 ounce containers and freeze. It is available for $16/pound by request.  OH. MY. God. That is the most expensive pesto on the planet!  hmmm, perhaps I will have a pesto tasting this summer and we'll do a little blind tasting of the cheap stuff and the good stuff.  YOU can be the judge.
I hear baby goats crying for breakfast.
Gotta GO!

Have a summery day!

Karen

In the blink of an eye,  I looked up and what do I see? A clear blue sky, warm sunshine and all 11 goats and their babies  prancing out to the blackberries. The 6 young pigs went flying around their pasture chasing each other in a train of squealing delight, mud spraying all around them. Every creature on the farm was giddy with spring/summer fever. Is it summer or spring, I've lost track of what season we are in.
Now , in another blink I see the clouds floating in from the south.  It is all so very fleeting isn't it?
Now about the Senposai.

Senposai is a cross between a Japanese Mustard Spinach and a regular cabbage. I find it both sweet and a bit puckery at the back of my mouth. It is great in your braising mix and of course it all tastes delicious in garlic and olive oil!

I have lots of it in the farm stand along with kale and salad.
There are  eggs and yogurt.

A word about yogurt. The word is COST.
I  made it abundantly clear to myself that I am not making money at this farming business. It is equally clear to me I must grow food. Like a painter I know who must paint, I must grow food.
I notice I do get what I ask for. I got healthy baby goats, (14 in 10 days!),  the mamas delivered with no help from me.  I got loving new homes for family units of  goats so I have a more manageable herd for myself.
There is so much more to say on this ,  but I will stick to my subject of cost. I am losing money on milk products.  If I had any sense, I would get myself down to one milking doe, make yogurt for myself and call it a day. (Maybe even a shorter day with fewer goats to tend).   But I have no sense when it comes to food. I LOVE my yogurt and I want you to enjoy it also. To ease the sticker shock of a price increase, I will offer more pints as well as the quart size.

The cost of yogurt is now $8 per quart and $4 per pint.  I will make yogurt for as long as I have jars, so it is very helpful if you please return your yogurt jars to the farmstand.

The sky is darkening with nightfall and cloud cover;  I must go kiss the baby goats good night,  lock up chickens, ducks and Luke the Goose, grateful and hopeful with the few warm, sunny hours on this last day of May.
Thank you for reading and Thank you for your support of all your local farmers.
Karen

Home Cheese Making Weekend

Hands on Learning

K-JO Farm, Vashon Island, WA

August 7 and 8, 2010

(9am - 4pm each day)

Spend the weekend on a working goat farm

and CSA. The food will be local, the company

will be inspiring and the learning will be

rich. There will be time for visiting the goats

and touring the farm.

Day 1 Home Cheese Making Making Cheese in your own kitchen is fun and easy. Discover how to create

soft, spreadable cream cheese, mozzarella (traditionally stretched) and paneer. Learn about fermented

milk products like yogurt, kefir and piima and how to transform them into delicious fresh cheese and

cultured butter.

Day 2 Cheese Making: Beyond the Basics Cheese we will finish and/or or start on the second day

include: Feta, Cheddar, Mold Ripened Goat and Gouda – Oh my! Discover the art of making these classic

aged favorites at home. Review cheese making basics and explore approaches to pressing and curing cheese.

We will also complete projects that were started on the first day for participants to take home, including

chevre cheese and yogurt.

Registration

Early fee for both days if paid by July 10th, 2010 $225.00

After July 10th, 2010 $275.00

Includes instruction, class supplies, cheese to take home, a culture to get you started, a gourmet lunch both days, handouts,

recipes and lots of inspiration.

Make Checks Payable to K-JO Farm 20602 111th Ave. SW,Vashon Island, WA 98070. For more information email

rosemarygoddess@moonwiseherbs.com To pay with a credit card see www.moonwiseherbs.com

Name:

Address:

Phone: email:

A list of Bed and Breakfast lodging will be made available upon registration.

Camping and breakfast will be available on the farm for a small fee.

To learn more about K-JO Farm see: www.kjofarm.com/

 

Welcome to my goat milk laboratory.
A little back story: 2 years ago Amy almost died from milk fever 3 days after delivering 3 very healthy babies. She had an almost complete and sudden depletion of calcium and she produced very little milk. She had a miraculous recovery thanks to a very dear vet friend.  I was told she is now high risk with another pregnancy, so we "retired" Amy to the pasture, a courageous survivor of the dog attack in 2006.  Confident  she was never with Noah, the buck who resided here for a month this winter, I was quite surprised to discover her very pregnant this spring. Could they have done it through the fence?  A week ago today she delivered 3 kids, one was still born and 2 little girls are delightfully healthy, although petite.  Because of her high risk of a repeat milk fever, I have been giving her calcium supplement shots twice a day along with an oral dose of calcium.  She has sooooo much milk her teats were almost dragging on the ground. The petite little girls just can't keep up with her milk production. Perhaps a little too much calcium?
I am not sure, but I did decide to relieve her pressure by milking her just a little. The other day I mixed her milk in with the other 3 girls milk and proceeded to make yogurt.
I got buttermilk!

Amy's milk is the only variable in the other wise EXACT same formula I have been using for yogurt these past 10 years.
As best as I can figure, there is some calcium/chemical magic mojo  that made buttermilk.

It tastes just as delicious as the yogurt, today I made soda bread with it and everyone at farm lunch Wednesday gobbled it all up with butter and strawberry jam. (the last of last years' jam).
I am putting buttermilk in the farm stand and I invite you to try it; make buttermilk waffles, soda bread, cornbread,  what else? Use your epicurious imagination!

There are also eggs, spinach, napa cabbage, bok choi, lettuce in the fridge.

Now I will go back to the kitchen and make up some ordinary, extraordinary yogurt.
Did you really want to know all that?
Maybe you just want to see the little darlins  and eat your yogurt/buttermilk.

Every September, when we can not keep up with the harvest, when there are baskets upon buckets, upon every available pot, colander and bowl of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, beans, lettuce, kale, broccoli, raspberries,  blackberries and plums, everything needing to be washed, sorted, bagged,  canned, frozen, dried, jammed, sauced, yes I know this is a run on, running sentence, just like the growing season,  Phew!!!  Every  September for the last 4 years, we have SAID we were going to Down Size. The first year we downsized, we added 60 broiler birds to the animal flock.  The next year we downsized we added 4 new raised beds.  The next year we added a new growing field for squash and pumpkins galore!  And built a very sweet farmstand. Last year we added a second 20 some foot greenhouse.  Why do I do this? I'm not sure. What else am I to do with this beautiful, rich, pliable soil that we have created from our compost, with the help of a few hours of bending, digging and raking? Even our middle pasture, currently flooded with water and very happy ducks, I look at it and wonder what can I grow there?
I simply can not help myself. I am surrounded by colorful, seductive seed catalogs. They are in every room of the house and shop. Mostly though, I LOVE  growing the food I eat and I LOVE that I can grow enough to feed some of my community. For those of you who may not know me as well as others, I LOVE to feed people. Think of the movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" . John Corbin walks into Mama's kitchen and she asks "Are you hungry?". He says "No Thank you". She says, "Good, I'll fix you a sandwhich".

All of this brings me to this years' Pay It Forward Farm Bucks Program. (PIFFB)

You can participate at the level that feels comfortable for you. Pay It Forward allows you to shop for what you want, when you want and as much or little as you want. Plus you do not have to worry about bringing money or your check book.  This time of year, your Pay It Forward Farm Bucks allows me to stock up on supplies and YES,  those glorious little seeds for this season.  For your support, I am enthusiastically grateful!

There is an incentive at every level.
$100 in PIFFB gets you  $110 in  K-Jo Farm product and my Hope springs eternal gratitude and one veggie start (your choice)
$200 in PIFFB gets you  $220 in  K-Jo Farm product and my Hope springs eternal gratitude and two veggie starts (your choice)
$300 in PIFFB gets you  $330 in K-Jo Farm product  and my Hope springs eternal gratitude and a K-Jo Farm canvas hat or shopping bag.
$400 in PIFFB gets you  $450 in K-Jo Farm product  PLUS one of my super rich, delicious goat cheese cheesecakes, PLUS 2 seats at the table for our first  annual  KJO  Pay It Forward Farm Bucks Dinner in July or August under thecherry tree.  The dinner will be a celebration of all that's fresh and bountiful on our farm.  Plus my Hope springs eternal gratitude.

I can accommodate 15 of you at the $400 level. That would be 30 of you under the cherry tree, or around the cherry tree, or maybe just near the cherry tree.

Your Farm Bucks are good for any and all of what we offer:  Veggie starts, vegetables, milk, yogurt, cheese, eggs, goat milk soap, pork,  roasting chickens, cheesecakes, pesto and whatever else I offer in the farmstand.

**** There is a deadline for this offer. My birthday is February 2 and I celebrate for a whole week!  Also, we have to get these supplies and seeds ordered soon.  So please make your choice and send in your check (or stop in) by  February 9.
You will  get a card in the farmstand with your  amount and you just do some basic math in your card when you buy stuff. You can re load your card anytime you want.

I will get to feed you, one way or another. You will eat well, and together we'll keep  this circle of life looping around and around, ever forward and delicious!

Cheers to Springing eternal hope!
Karen

K-Jo Farm
20602 111th Ave SW
Vashon Island, WA 98070

This little phrase seems to work any way you say it.  Perhaps that is the point of the phrase.
3 nights ago, as I walked into the house after closing up the goats, chickens, ducks and Luke the Goose, I heard the rumble of spring from our back pasture. Say what?  We have this winter creek that runs the perimeter of our property and every spring, early in the spring season, the frogs ribbet by the thousands. They start just as it turns dark. Not dusk, not twilight, black dark. It's like a switch, once it is completely black outside they start. First just a few,  then a few more, maybe the alto section starts warming up, then the baritones and basses and suddenly it's a whole  croaking symphony!  Every year I go out to the winter creek in search of the frogs. They'll be singing away, chattering about who knows what, me sneaking across my pasture, not wanting to disturb them, I get more than half way across and suddenly they stop. Just stop. Silence. All at once, all 500 of them.  It sounded like 500. 200 feet of winter creek, full of ribbeting frogs and in ten years I have NEVER seen one.  Not one.

It seems a little early for frogs. I just planted the last of my bulbs. It is still January, isn't it? Kinda hard to tell when it is grey, gray, cloudy and it might rain. MIGHT?
On the other hand, Jen and I went out to the greenhouse  on January 6 and planted seeds on heat under lights.  Pea shoots, mache, wrinkled crinkled cress, lettuce, They all came up. This will be our 11th year growing and it is still magic to see the first little sprig of growth poking out of the soil.
Like many of us, I am now surrounded by seed catalogs, being seduced by the photos, the descriptions and my imagination. My imagination does not sleep, does not get a sore back and has ample room for every single vegetable, fruit and flower I want to grow.

Next email form me will be about this years'  Pay It Foward Farm Bucks Program (PIFFBP).  I am very happy to be offering a few delicious incentives for you to ponder as you begin imagining your garden and your spring/summer meals.

For now in the farm stand there is yogurt and cheese and some twig arrangements that remind me that  spring does hope eternal. The pussy willows are out and I gathered them with some red, yellow dogwoods and some curly willow. They look very happy and should hold up waiting for the daffodils to join them in a few more weeks.

Warm, wet winter wishes,
Karen

Sounds so depressing, eh?

It's just so sad to go into our farmstand and see only fresh made cheese, yogurt and garlic. Rarely a few half dozen eggs show up.  All the farm baskets on the shelves are lonely for the abundance of spring and summer to fill them to overflowing.
On the other hand, I get to enjoy the sweet structure of the farmstand we built from pallets and other found, scavenged and gifted materials. Kind of like enjoying the "bones" of the winter landscape.

So what can one do with garlic and cheese? hmmmm.... well, you could take a whole head or two of garlic, drizzle just a teensy bit of olive oil over it, roast the garlic head until it's nice and squishy at 350'. Take it out of the oven and wait until it's cool enough to handle, then squeeze all that garlicky goodness into a bowl.  Add some fresh goat cheese and mash it all together and spread on just about anything. Baked potato, mashed potatoes, bread, crackers, celery, a dollop on salad with roasted beets and toasted hazelnuts. Oh, I can barely wait until we pull beets again!

I have been planning the garden with Jen Coe and believe it or not, we're going to start seeding some very early greens this week in our green house. On heat, with lights, oh my!  We'll see how the experiment goes. If it goes well, you will be the beneficiaries of tasty green surprises!

All of this is to say there IS fresh yogurt  and cheese in the farmstand now.  There is also garlic in baskets on the wall.

Slogging and mucking into the new year,
Karen

Just in case you are not certain, we will NOT be bagging sand, walking 15 paces, bending over, lighting candles.

I have checked all the solstice calendars and the light returns to us beginning Monday, Decmeber 21!!!!

PLEASE dance, sing and do whatever it takes to facilitate a DRY solstice candle walk. Just incase you forgot, we got snowed out last year. Seems to be an every other year tradition, so we are due.

I will inventory what we gathered for last years' celebration and let you all know what we are in need of.
I know we need sand and we may need a few more candles. (The more candles, the farther we go.........)

Assuming we have a dry day/evening, we will start bagging sand about 9:00 AM.

If you have a utility trailer you can donate for the day, that would be truly awesome! We'd like here at the farm on the 20th (Sunday).

Please  forward to anyone you believe will want to participate in one of the year's most magical evenings!
It is my lifetime achievement goal to get to the Talequah Y from the corner of 204 and the highway (at Sound Food).  It will take many more hundreds of candles, bags and sand AND YOUR help!  Would it not  be just an amazing sight to see that many candles lit ?


Stay tuned for further updates.
And please feel free to send a check for supplies to K-Jo Farm, 20602 111th Ave SW, 98070.

If you go to our website: www.kjofarm.com, you will find a beautiful photo of the candles on Wax Orchard from 2007. (Thank you Lotus!).

With a heart full of light,
Karen

And then the seed catalogues start arriving!!!!! Yippeeeeeeeeee.

Whatever you are doing for Thanksgiving, do it with gusto and good cheer; even if you are choosing to be sloth like and do nothing!

We are tearing up the old, nasty, ugly, pukey, carpet in our house. We have lived here 10 (TEN) years and we are just now turning our attention and energy to fixing up the house a bit.  It is indeed with great cheer and gusto that I heave heaps of carpet, padding and 1960s linoleum tiles into the back of our truck.

I put out 5 1/2 pounds of fresh cheese just 15 just a little bit ago. Before O could come in and send this off to you, 2 pounds has flown out of the farmstand,
IF I had more goats, more hands, more time and a milking machine, I would love to make more cheese more often. Yogurt too.

I wish I had more eggs for you all, I just can't seem to cajole the girls into laying right now. There are three lazy hens who I believe never left their sleeping perch today, that is how dormant they are until the light comes back into their eyes.

I am grateful to all of you who support K-Jo Farm, me, us and all the farmers on the island!

Now pass the stuffing please,
Karen