Proper farm attire at the Farm

Some things on the farm are a learning curve with me but it didn't take long to learn what proper farm attire would be out here. I am always scrambling for a hat or some shades as well as boots when we are down at the farm. Little Miss E took note and she always find her accessories before hand. Many times she goes for mom or dad's stuff even though she has plenty of her own hats and shades. Here are a few pics of the farm attire that she chooses.

Lets not forget the boots, bike helmet, and bathing suit that are now essential to the farm wardobe. At first glance this may seem silly but it actually works pretty well. Especially the days we have to fill the water jugs for the animals. Little Miss E loves to play in the water so the bathing suit makes for easy clean up when we are done. And the bike helmet helps when we are collecting eggs it keeps Ella's head from hitting the top of the nest box now.

Expecting...

After taking animal inventory today when we got back in town from a recent trip away I realized that we will quickly be expanding around here. And I realized that means we need to get busy building more fences... ah fences again!

We are expecting some new baby animals very soon. Our Dexter cow (Mona Lisa) is bred and due on my birthday in January of next year. Our Ossabaw Island pig (Momma) is expecting and due Christmas day. Our Boer nanny goat (Lucy Lue) is due. And one of our Cookoo Maran chickens is currently sitting on 8 eggs that we expect to hatch in one week. It's very excited anticipating all the new little animals that we will be getting. I just pray that we will be at the farm to see all the action when it's time! 

Summer 2012 CSA Baskets

 Here are some updated pictures of our Summer CSA baskets. This past week they were especially beautiful with all the different shades of green we harvested. Please email us if you are interested in joining our Fall CSA group that is scheduled to start soon.

These baskets included tomatoes, green peppers, free range pastured eggs, cucumbers, squash, zucchini, green beans, butter beans, jalapenos, okra, and corn.

Raw... and loving it!

Little Miss E is likes her veggies raw. By the time we have gone out to the garden and picked what we need for dinner she is nearly full from sampling everything before we come back in. Corn is her favorite. If you haven't ever tried corn raw you should give it a shot. It's actually quite good!

Miss Independent!

I had to share! 

Little Miss E took her first ride alone on the four-wheeler trailer yesterday. It was all her idea and she loved every minute of it. I got this picture in a text from Farmer D when he was keeper her for the afternoon. I quickly responded back with "hello that is not safe!" 

As I am sure all the other mom's would agree. But after going down to the farm and watching them in action I could tell she was having a blast and wouldn't dare soil the fun! 

Pretty brave for an 18 month old to want to ride in a trailer all by herself.

Branch Farm at the Woodyard

Branch Farm is located at our house and also around the corner from our house. Our home sits on 4 acres. This is where we grow the majority of our vegetables for ourselves and our CSA. We also have 46 acres that is not directly connected to our house but is within sight. (we are working on fixing that, meaning we are saving the money to purchase land so that everything we own touches each other). The land down from the house used to be called the "woodyard" this is where the railroad ran and stopped to load rail car and such. Since my husband has owned it he has always referred to it as the woodyard, this gets confusing for people who don't know what is once was. I am one for simplicity so I have always referred to it as the barn... Well since we have a barn there that's what I thought it should be called. However, since starting Branch farm in our hearts and minds we decided that a name must be agreed upon.... So Branch Farm at the Woodyard it is!  :)

Here are some recent pictures of the Farm and what we have been working on. What you see above is cleared areas for new fences to go. It took all last week to get the trees down and land graded out. Farmer D did a great job getting the land ready for some fall crops and new fences. After we plant some clover on this dirt then we are planning to add some sheep to our family. I am super excited about what going on around here. You need to come out for a visit to get the real feel of what's going on, it is Wonderful!

Some for everyone.

We the extra corn and vegetables this season we are having a wonderful time sharing the harvest with all the animals. Little Miss E is feeding Lucy Lue some fresh picked corn stalk for dinner tonight. All the animals get very excited when they see us pull up to the fence with a trailer loaded down from the garden. We have been blessed with a great harvest for all kinds of vegetables this year any leftovers not used by us or not quite up to Farmer D's standard to sell (which is as close to perfect as you can get) at the farm stand get passed along to the furry children at our farm. While some animals may have a hard time getting through the summer drought season out animals are standing at a buffet line each day. It is so nice to know what we are feeding to our animals and where it came from.

Double yokes...

Have you ever seen a double yoke egg?

After boiling a dozen eggs this weekend to make deviled eggs I ran across this double yoke one. It was quite interesting to see. I have never had this happen before. So of course when something new occurs around here that we don't know anything about can you guess what we do???

Google it!

Do any of you do this as well? Just curious we may be the only "google it" family around but I wanted ask and see.

Babydoll goes to the Farm!

I couldn't help but share these too cute pictures. Little Miss E and I were heading to the farm to check on all the animals when she insisted that the "baby" aka her naked baby doll must go with us. As soon as she was unbuckled from her seat and on the ground she heading straight for the billy goat. Saying "See, see, see" the whole way there to her "baby".  It was quite a funny moment for me but she was serious as she could be showing her baby doll around the farm.

Oh boy, do we have Watermelons!

Wednesday night of this last week we all decided to walk to the watermelon patch to see if we might come up with something. Much to our surprise ALL the melons appeared ready. As we started to cut some open we discovered that they were VERY ready. Meaning we were a few days late on picking some and they were over ripe. In a panic to save what we could we scrambled to pick and collect every watermelon and cantaloupe that we could find. It took some time but it was worth it. The melons have been so nice to have this week.
Little miss E sure enjoyed our evening. After just a few short minutes she was covered from head to toe in watermelon. All we heard out of her was the occasional  "mmm" when she would come up for air from eating the melons she picked out.

Even Farmer D took a few minutes to enjoy the harvest.

We have corn!

Fried, creamed, boiled, or grilled this is some of the sweetest corn you will ever get. And, oh boy do we have corn! It is beautiful and tasty! 

If you interested please email me katiebranch@att.net

Fresh picked corn is 4 for $1.00. We can shuck and cream for you upon

 request. This year has produced some of the best crop we have ever had. Be sure to get some for yourself.

Cutting Wheat

We were blessed to find and be able to bring home a combine to the farm this weekend. Farmer D has wanted one of these since he was a kid. His dad had one when he was growing up and he has some wonderful memories on it. He wanted to be sure to grant little miss E some of those same great memories for her childhood. For those of you like me, you may have no idea what a combine is. Well, this high tech tractor is used to cut wheat and many other things on a farm.

Definition from Wikipedia says...
The combine harvester, or simply combine, is a machine that harvests grain crops. The name derives from its combining three separate operations comprising harvesting—reaping, threshing, and winnowing—into a single process. Among the crops harvested with a combine are wheat, oats, rye, barley, corn (maize), soybeans and flax (linseed). The waste straw left behind on the field is the remaining dried stems and leaves of the crop with limited nutrients which is either chopped and spread on the field or baled for feed and bedding for livestock.

Seeing the excitement in Farmer D's eyes when he took little miss E for a ride was priceless.

Happy Rabbits

Thankfully we were able to move our Rex rabbits to the farm this past weekend. As you can see in a few post back these rabbits have been living in our laundry room sink since we got them. I am not sure who was happier about the move; the rabbits or myself. The pen we are now using for them was once before a chicken coop. We plan on building some much smaller runs for the rabbits to stay in but it was longer over due for these little guys to get out and get some grass so we used what we had on hand until then. We will move these rabbits around the pasture about every two days to new grass, we are feeding them some each day but intend for most of their diet to come from the grass and vegetable garden that we have. 

Branch Farm dinner

This may look like an ordinary dinner plate to you but to us here at Branch Farm this is something we have been hoping and praying for! Finally one of our Farm dreams came true. On Thursday night of last week I made dinner for us. You may ask what is so special about that or this plate? Well, everything on this plate came directly from Branch Farm. Starting with the chicken at the top to the squash and zucchini next to it, then the creamed corn, next the green beans, the white acre peas, and last the roasted tomatoes. It was such a wonderful feeling to know that we made everything we were eating that night. We are hoping to make this an every night thing! Part of the reason we started the farm was to fully self-sustain. I am happy to say it looks like we are on our way there.

Pickin Peaches and eating them too.

Yum!