Grain and Bean Share Update

We are still taking subscriptions for the 2011 shares. Click here to see the full brochure, get pricing information and even print off a handy sign up sheet that you can send in now with a deposit.

Darling 2011 Grain and Bean Share Customers,

Now that turkey butchering, delivering, and eating is safely behind us, it's now time to turn our focus to your heritage and ancient grains.

It was a season of success and failure (as any season will be). Our Prairie Farro was a great success while our Calais Flint Corn withered without rain. Along with the Prairie Farro, you will receive our Bronze Barley, Sonora Heritage Wheat, and Petite Crimson Lentils.

Currently we are waiting for two of our grains to be cleaned. They should be done sometime near the end of December. Our plan is to make deliveries the first half of January to the following cities: Great Falls, Helena, Bozeman, Missoula, and Whitefish. If you would be willing to host a delivery location in one of those cities, please let us know. 

In the meantime, just to get you excited, at the link below are a few great recipes from Ari Weinzweig, the author of Zingerman's Guide to Good Eating, writing in the Atlantic last year:

Fresh Recipes With an Ancient Grain: 4 Ways to Prepare Farro

And, in a recent post on NPR's food blog, Allison Aubrey includes Farro as part of her "Tips For Three-Course Meals On Less Than $5.00."

Go Farro, go!

Awesome Post and an Article

Here is a great post by my lovely wife about the story of Thanksgiving.

And here is a good article about farming and rural communities. And, it includes a photo of our turkeys.

Post-Thanksgiving Bliss

After traveling nearly 700 miles and delivering 1300 pounds of poultry, we here at Prairie Heritage Farm are thankful to be done, done, and done.


The awesome t-shirt designed by our friends Mandy and Cale.

And yes, it was one helluva mutha plucka.


Nate and Mandy doing their thing.

With the indispensable help of over a dozen intrepid friends, we spent the Saturday and Sunday before Thanksgiving butchering 98 turkeys and 9 geese. No surprise, the temperature went from the 30s and 40s the days before butchering to single digits above and below zero. It makes chilling the turkeys easy, but not wading elbow-deep in the chill tank to dig out a turkey for bagging. To those who helped, a hearty thank-you: Nate and Donna S., Nate M., Byron, Skander, Hannah, Caroline, Sam, Erin, Jill, Clyde, Julie, and Mandy. Skander captured some excellent photos and posted a great blog post about the weekend (warning - every step of the process is illustrated) here.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, the Prairie Heritage Farm family hit the road with the birds, stopping in 4 cities, setting up at friends' houses, and delivering pasture-raised, organic turkeys to grateful people. This was the first year we were able to meet many of our customers, since we did the delivering ourselves.

We got home late Wednesday and I don't think we've fully recovered yet. It'll be a few months before the next batch of birds arrive in the mail and after we've long forgotten what a November on Prairie Heritage Farm is like.

Here is a good article about the turkeys we raise.

Turkeys. And a Skunk!

The anticipation of this weekend's final major farm task - turkey butchering - is killing me (there's a joke in there somewhere). After the first real snow hit us this past week, my gut tells me to hunker down and get cerebral, but that's not going to happen until after all the birds have been processed, bagged, and delivered. I. Can't. Wait.

As an aside, on October 31st, we had some skunk problems by the house. Thankfully, we were able to distract it with a pretty flower.


Don't be fooled by the cute little skunk. She can have one stinky tail.


A fast skunk makes for a blurry photograph.


Oooh! A flower!


Hmmmmmm!

The Race Against Winter

This is also posted on Courtney's blog, Life, Cultivated

This weekend, we got our first snow. And then, we turned back the clocks.

Our race against winter has ended.

I'm not sure we lost, but it certainly doesn't feel like we won, either. I'm guessing it never does.

The last two months have been an impossible scramble to put up as much food as possible, glean as much as we can, harvest, market, disk, plow, pull and prep and then just the frost imps -- as my little Goddaughter calls them -- to do their work.

We harvested our last crops last week and then we *took off,* on a big trip to see Jacob's brother get hitched. As we drove away from the farm -- the first time since February we'd left it for more than a weekend -- the transition was palpable.

Because so much of what we do is determined by season, by sun and snow and frost and daylight we are forced to completely re-think our daily lives each time we turn from summer to fall, from fall to winter, winter to spring and spring to summer.

This particular transition, from busy summer to busy fall to slow, cold winter can be excruciating.

It happens so gradually, and yet so suddenly.

The last deliveries are made, the last harvest is in, the last jar of tomatoes is on the pantry shelf and even the last of the frosty beets are dug.

The farm drifts to sleep, leaving us to wonder now what should we do?

Then, we spend then next two weeks trying to shake the feeling that we forgot something. Jacob paces around the house and I try to assuage his concerns, all the while know that we're both dealing with a constant ringing in our heads of: There must be something that needs to be done right *now.*

But there isn't.

I'm so glad we spent that first week of transition traveling. We had a lot of time to talk about the season -- what we did right and what we did wrong, and we had time to reconnect -- even *gasp* talk about topics other than the farm.

And, we also got our hearts totally warmed, twice, by two spectacular accolades this last week -- accolades that make us feel inspired, humbled and honored.

First was the Sustainable Agriculture Award from AERO - the Alternative Energy Resources Organization. It's hard to describe what AERO is sometimes. It's not hard to describe what the organization does.You see their work all over, whether you know it or not, from community-based weatherization projects to the Abundant Montana local food directory, to farm and energy tours to specialized training for farmers and ranchers. But, what AERO is is harder to describe.

Both Jacob and I have served on the board. I'm on the board now, as a matter of fact, and I joined purely because I wanted to have these people in my life and in my work. I wrote and recorded a commentary on just this subject for Montana Public Radio (read the piece here.)

It's an organization that flies under the radar a little bit, which I really like. It's not flashy and press-conferency (and I saw a lot of those in my days as a journalist) and it's not combative or negative. It's all about positivity and solutions and support for good work. And, because of that, it attracts a unique membership. The group is intimate and yet welcoming and made up of passionate, selfless, caring, creative and truly, some of the most courageous and innovative people in the state.

That's a long way of saying, we were so, incredibly honored to get that award, and presented by two of our best friends no less. We drove away from the annual meeting with our framed award and it took both of us at least 50 miles to stop talking about how we felt we didn't deserve it. But goodness, the fact that those people in that room, people we respect so much, thought we did deserve it, will keep us inspired and working for years.

Thank you.

Then, we were featured by Farm Aid, another great organization working on behalf of family farmers, as "Farmer Heros" -- along side some pretty amazing people (Will Allen, MacArthur genius). You can read the profile here.

Talk about putting a (turkey) feather in your hat.

Meanwhile, from the adventures of Willa the farm kid, here's a Public Service Announcement on being bear aware this fall.

The Days

Well, it's happened again. The blog got neglected while the farm work forged ahead. It's been well over a month, so here is another lame attempt at catching up our loyal followers:

The Prairie Farro (emmer) was harvested and delivered.



The Prairie Farro straw was baled.





The bales were picked and stacked with the help of our good friend Byron.





The insects did their work.



The tomatoes turned.



The heritage grain trials were harvested by hand.





The turkeys grazed.



The garlic was planted.



The chickpeas were swathed and harvested.



Oh yeah, and we rolled up the drip tape, dug all the potatoes and carrots, stored the onions, and generally slept well at night.

A Threshing Bee and a Successful Prairie Farro Harvest

Little Miss Crusty Nose chews on a piece of straw.

Willa and I traveled southwest to catch the annual Choteau Threshing Bee. Besides a homesteader shack, a one-room school house, a blacksmith shop, and cool old tractors and combines, they thresh shocked wheat with an old belt-driven stationary thresher. In a weird way it makes me nostalgic for a time I didn't even exist in.



Speaking of threshing, we successfully harvested the Prairie Farro (emmer) with only slightly more modern equipment. It's in the truck now, just waiting to get cleaned.


Prairie Farro being swathed.


Prairie Farro being picked up with the combine.

CSA Appreciation Day and Recipes!

Saturday brought the most perfect fall day for our CSA Appreciation dinner.

We ate and talked and squawked at the geese and enjoyed the bounty of a summer well-spent.

Thanks to all of you who came and thanks to all of you who put your faith in us to grow your food and all of you who put the community in community supported agriculture.

Set up was, as were most other things, a family affair. (Man, our parents are awesome.)

And, Willa was a big help herself, looking all hillbilly and whatnot. This is what we call her Willabilly look.

And now, the recipes (click the name for each recipe):

Bronze barley with cucumber dill dressing (By Mark Bittman)
Prairie Farro (our brand of Emmer) salad with basil and tomatoes and zucchini (This was a slight variation on the Bluebird Grain Farm recipe the link goes to.)
Black chickpea salsa (Substituting black chickpeas for the black beans, of course and in the party dish, I used half tomatillos and half tomatoes.)
Lentil hummus (only I added about a 1/2 Tablespoon of cumin)
Cabbage crunch
And, the heritage turkey

Today! 2nd Annual CSA Appreciation Day!

We are so excited to see you this Saturday for our 2^nd annual CSA Appreciation Day.

When: Saturday, September 10, 4:00 p.m.

What: Farm tour, music, delicious all-local food. Picnic-style dinner served shortly 4 p.m. Bring picnic chairs and/or blankets and a hearty appetite.

Where:  (click here for the map) 165 Sunrise Lane: (From Conrad): Turn west on 4^th Ave (at the only stoplight in Conrad), travel about 1.5 miles, then turn RIGHT onto HILLSIDE Lane. Travel another 1.5-or-so miles, past a dead end sign, and you'll see the greenhouse and the hoop house on the left. Turn LEFT onto SUNRISE Lane and look for us.

The menu will include:

Prairie Farro (Emmer) salad with tomatoes, basil and zucchini

Bronze Barley with cucumber dill dressing

Lentil hummus

Roasted heritage turkey

Black chickpea salsa

Jacob's whole wheat sourdough farmer bread

Hope to see you there!

Your Farmers,

Jacob, Courtney and Willa Cowgill

Frost? Really?

Squash got squashed.

Yes indeed, we had our first frost. Two nights ago it frosted slightly and just got the tips of some leaves. Last night, when they were calling for warmer nighttime temperatures than the previous night, it frosted again and took out our squash and tomatillos and outside tomatoes.

Grasshoppers and Barley

I think the grasshoppers really like my barley trials. I have about a dozen different heritage barley varieties that I'm trialing and a couple of the varieties are either knocked over or the heads are completely missing. As I walk by them, a zillion grasshoppers take to the sky which is what gave me a clue. Grrrr.


Bent barley.


Eaten Barley.


The remains of a head of barley.

One variety was close enough to harvest, so I did so with scissors. The other variety getting annihilated is still really green so there is not much I can do.


Harvested heritage barley.

Mid-August

A mid-August truck farm.

Whitefish Farmers' Market

The Farm headed west for our first Whitefish Farmers' Market. We're experimenting this summer with setting up at farmers' market and peddling our organic heritage and ancient grains.

It was a good trip. We met a lot of curious people and a few even bought some of our grain. There is such a buzz around both local grains, and heritage and ancient varieties, I think it'll just take bit of time before people get to know us and get to know what we have to offer. We'll head back over the divide in two weeks - August 23rd.

Beauty

We can't forget about the beauty in what we do.

Summer Squash:


Cabbage:


Carrots:


And a happy child with her chard:


Check out more vegetable portraiture at our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/prairieheritagefarm.

Newsletter

An apology to our Great Falls shareholders. We were in such a mad rush last Thursday that we didn't get a chance to get you your weekly newsletter. So here it is:



Dear Shareholders,

Lookey here! The winter squash is flowering in a trumpet-like fashion, as if it say: Bum bum bum bum! We're here! You WILL have butternut after all!

And, just to warn you, the zucchini – the green, the 8-ball, the Magda and the yellow, they're coming. And they're coming in large quantities.

In time, dear garden watchers, in time.

For now though, our favorite way to get rid of a lot of that kale in your bag:

Kale Chips

1 head kale, washed and thoroughly dried
2 tablespoons olive oil
Sea salt, for sprinkling
Preheat the oven to 275 degrees F.
Remove the ribs from the kale and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces. Lay on a baking sheet and toss with the olive oil and salt. Bake until crisp, turning the leaves halfway through, about 20 minutes. Serve as finger food.
Enjoy!
Your Farmers,
Jacob, Courtney and Willa Cowgill

P.S. Don't forget...
Saturday, August 13: Volunteer day

Saturday, September 10: 2nd Annual CSA Appreciation day

P.PS. Don't forget to follow along on our blog at www.prairieheritagefarm.com and follow us on Facebook by liking our page: www.facebook.com/prairieheritagefarm

Another Loss

You win some, you lose some, and sometimes you move something from the win column to the lose column (don't count your chickens before they hatch).

Thursday morning I wandered out into the milk thistle to see if the ground was dry after the flood irrigation session the week before. About 15 students from the University of Montana's PEAS Farm program were coming for a visit and Farmer Josh had promised his students would put in a couple hours of work. I was dreaming of them swarming the milk thistle and weeding it clean. Turns out all the plants were dead.



Never ever ever flood irrigate milk thistle. They do not like standing water. Their roots will rot and they will die. I walked the entire 960 foot length of the field saying, "no no no no no no". I would have cried if I'd allowed myself to. Instead I lay face down in the grass at the end of the field and just mourned. It ate at me for days after and it wasn't until Sunday late in the day that I finally accepted it.




I was looking for the win in the situation and couldn't find it. So then I looked for the silver lining and all I could come up with was I won't have to harvest the seed which is labor intensive. So I won't have to worry about that anymore.

Today on my way to the milk thistle, I stopped by the spot I'd planted milk thistle two years ago where some volunteer plants had come up this spring. I weeded around them since they are my best hope for any seed and they actually look great. There are not a lot of plants, but some. Then, in this year's crop, I found that many of the plants that I thought were dead, may not be. They are very much set back and may not actually produce any seed. Their bottom leaves are brown, but there are some green leaves on top and some with a seed head (though probably from before the irrigation disaster).





Back to the students - we did not go out into the milk thistle. I didn't even tell them about it. Instead I set them on the onions which desperately needed weeding. After they'd clear out the beds in a matter of hours (what would have taken me days), the poor onions looked so sad and tiny and droopy, if they were there at all. Too little, too late. Another loss.



I have to admit I'm ready for winter. I was pretty optimistic this spring, especially after quitting my job and dedicating myself to my family and the farm. Now, I'm far less optimistic and I just want to start over. But one can't do that in farming. You have to fight it out until then end, like walking up a fast moving river.

There will be wins this year, and even some that I don't see right now. At least that's what I'm telling myself.

You Win Some, You Lose Some

My motto this year and mantra on the tough days is, you win some, you lose some.

For example, I've been struggling to understand why my flint corn is so sad looking.


That's mid-summer corn?

I was so excited when I planted it with the 4-row corn planter. I cultivated it with the tractor thinking I'd just saved myself a bunch of hand weeding. Not so. A duckfoot plow is very different from an actual row crop set-up. I couldn't get too near the plants otherwise I'd tear them out or bury them (which I did on some). Row crop cultivators have shields around them to protect the plants. And you can get really close to the crop. So, I still had a ton of hand weeding to do (and still do) and of course, got to it late (and am still getting to it), and couldn't find any help (and still can't).

So for a long time I thought the weed pressure was causing my corn to suffer. But, the milk thistle next door, also row-cropped, didn't seem to be too bothered by the weeds. Then I thought it was the fact that despite the wet spring, there just wasn't enough water in the soil for the plants. But that didn't explain the decent looking corn on the north end of the field.


Nice plants.

Finally I dug up a stressed plant and discovered the roots running laterally across the block of soil rather than down. That probably means they couldn't get through a hard pan of soil, so instead traveled across those first couple inches looking for water where there was none. So the plants on the north end were able to push through the soil down into where the moisture is. As for why there is a hard pan to begin with, I'm not entirely sure. It certainly has something to do with our clay-clay loam soils, and it might have something to do with timing of plowing or method of plowing (I used something called a rod weeder at one point).


Corn roots looking for water.

All of this to say that I'm not sure I'll win with the corn this year. But I will with the milk thistle.


Flower head forming.

And the garlic.


A gorgeous garlic scape.

And the black chickpeas (hopefully).



And the buckwheat (also hopefully - both were planted late).



Whenever I get down on myself for some disaster, I stop to remind myself of what is going well. I also remind myself that though there is work for 4 or more people, we're pulling it off with 1 1/4 people. You win some, you lose some.