Fall back on small cheeses and other comforts
Farm News: Setting the clocks back by one small hour this past weekend has had a profound effect on the psyche of humans and goats alike at Prairie Fruits Farm & Creamery. We humans and goats find it ever so slightly more difficult to make our way to the barn in the evening to start the chores. The wood stove is calling me and the desire to make soup with lots of noodles is very strong. The goat girls are slightly more reluctant to venture out of their cozy pens to come on to the milk stand, and their udders are starting to look slightly deflated. It could be the suddenly shortened day length or it could be the realization they are "settled" (livestock terminology for pregnant)--they show no signs of morning sickness, just strong feelings for bedding down and eating lots and lots of hay.
By 4:30 in the afternoon, the chickens are starting their dusk-driven ritual of settling on top the pen railings for the evening roosting. Their egg production has dropped off as well; or it could be that they are laying their eggs deeply nestled into the bottoms of the hay feeders (beyond the reach of my short arms anyway). Chino, the cat, takes his time rousing himself off our bed in the morning and, once outside, he realizes he'd rather be back inside the house (and back on the bed). Speaking of beds, little by little, our garden is being put "to bed" too-Rachel harvested the beets and the carrots this week (in between gusts of wind and bursts of rain showers); the carrots have that frost-kissed sweetness that is irresistible. These beds will now get a nice thick cover of waste hay mulch to tuck them in for the winter. The tomato vines are finally senescing and my desire to harvest one more batch of tomatoes is quiet now.
Farmers' Market Happenings: It's indoors for us this Saturday, November 12th--both Urbana's Holiday Market and Chicago's Green City Markets have moved inside. Both start at the more civilized hour of 8AM and end at 1PM. We've got some kick-butt, creamy cheeses for sale this weekend:
- Plenty of fresh chevre--plain, herbs de Provence and cracked black peppercorn--not too early to buy extras to freeze for the winter
- The last of the FRESH GOAT MILK RICOTTA OF THE SEASON--Nat and Alison, our cheese makers, say this is the best batch ever. Nat recommends blending the ricotta with some fresh herbs (think thyme, sage, rosemary perhaps) and pine nuts and stuffing it inside some home-made raviolis. If that's not enough, he says to buy a nice winter squash like butternut or red kuri, roast it in the oven (with some olive oil), puree the cooked squash, add some chevre and cream to make a scrumptious squash-chevre-cream sauce and serve it over those ricotta-stuffed raviolis. You WILL impress your friends and family if you make this quintessential fall dish.
- Angel Food Brie
- Little Bloom on the Prairie
- Moonglo
- maybe--Roxanne (if not this week, then next week for sure)
Speaking of small but delicious cheese, I have to brag a little bit. A few weekends ago, someone emailed us to say "hey, did you know you're in the Wall Street Journal??" Well, much to our surprise (and glee), our farm and our cheeses were mentioned in an article in their weekend edition about great cheeses in small packages. I am including a link to the pdf version of this article for your enjoyment: http://sfc.smallfarmcentral.com/dynamic_content/uploadfiles/167/Prairie%20Fruits%20Farms.wallstreet.journal.pdf
Lastly, we thought we had sold all of our CSG t-shirts last year, but as I was rummaging through piles of paper this week (in my attempt to clean up some of the clutter held over from the spring) I found a whole box full of Large, organic cotton T-shirts with the ever-so-chic montage of goat girl heads on the back. They're only $15, and they are unique (soon to be a collector's item--can't say when though). We will have them for sale through the holiday season until they're gone--so if you don't have one yet, now is your chance--GREAT gift idea!!
