how we got here.....

picket fences, revised

life is what happens to you when you're busy making other plans.... john lennon

 i thought i had it all mapped out. the white picket fence. the craftsman style cottage in the middle of the city.  then it was the historical victorian handyman's project on the idyllic street of that perfect small town. and a few dreams later, there was that little art deco place in another small town. i'd picked out the new tile.  the wallpaper.  designed the landscaping,  preapproved.  ready for signing.  then BAM. curveball.  it falls through.  crushed. hopes dashed. again. my partner is out of patience and ready to throw in the towel.  sign another lease.  try again in a year, maybe.  i said i was ready to give in, too. 

but clearly, i wasn't.  because late, late at night, when i said i wasn't really looking.  i was looking.  and i found a place that was just about the farthest thing from what i had planned.  what i had dreamed.  what i had always been sure i wanted. it was none of that.  it was a farm.

or that's what i saw, anyway.  because it wasn't a farm.  it was just a spot of land with a fixer-upper in the middle of nowhere.  the only reason i even looked twice was the location.  only a few miles from our very favorite state park, it was situated in the beautiful hill country. and the price was right.  less than we'd planned, in fact.  i bookmarked the ad.  (who finds their home on craigslist?!) and hit the hay.  i'd been up for hours and i was exhausted.  ready for sleep.

except sleep did not come.  the wheels were turning. speeding along.  and in the early morning hours, a farm was born. 


being a certified 'foodie', i had always been interested in growing our own food.  living a more self-sufficient lifestyle.  reducing our carbon footprint.  i mean i composted, forevermore. i had all those vintage homekeeping books.  i was up to this.  i would start sewing again.  i'd can our foods, like the jam i'd put away, oh, say, 15 years prior. i'd bake bread. we'd have some animals of some sort. if the walton's could do it, i could do it. all of this developed before 5am.  and before i saw the property.  and before i mentioned it to my partner.  i'm kinda like that.

and the rest is history....

the partner, well he thought maybe we should take a look.  and we did.  the place didn't quite look like all of the dreams i'd had that night.  and it was a little more difficult to imagine the storybook farm life of which i had been dreaming.  it looked like a lot of work.  and it looked like, well, it really looked like the country.  not the walton's country, either.  more like green acres. i even began to affect a hungarian accent in the new thoughts i was having.  i was all eva gabor playing lisa douglas.  i wondered if i'd begin taking a bath in the town's water tank.  have to climb up a pole to make a phone call? were we going to have a pig named arnold? horrors!
but it was too late.  oliver, i mean the partner, well he had already sipped of my walton's koolaid.  he thought it was a great idea.  and i was in tears so did i, of course.  by golly, we were farmers.

........to be continued

image courtesy of tvland..org.

 

wordless wednesdays

an afternoon in the french quarter, part deux

thank you, big easy, for a lovely afternoon.

meatless mondays

eggs!

good morning. we hope you've enjoyed a glorious weekend.  i'm thinking we've got a lot of hard boiled eggs on our hands out there. here, well there are always lots of eggs from maggie's farm.  we sell them and we eat a lot of them and find they make it so easy to make meatless meals delicious and satisfying. they cover a multitude of culinary 'sins', not the least of which is the ability to camoflauge the healthy, but not exactly adored (like say, mustard greens,or tofu, for some).  i didn't realize just how much i loved eggs until i started raising chickens. our's are free range hens whose diets include grasses, grains, bugs and worms, fresh veggie scraps, (and the occasional tomato plant) which produces a rich and full-flavored egg that satisfies so well that a poached egg and a piece of home baked toasted bread is the most glorious breakfast of all.  imagine how thrilled we were to hear that undeservedly,  eggs had actually been given a bit of a bad nutritional rap, afterall. 

  

right about now, your gardens and your produce departments should be teeming with greens.  greens of every kind!  spinach, cabbages, chard, collards, mustard greens, turnip greens, kale, sorrel, watercress, lettuces, it's green all over!  so packed with nutrients that every diet should include at least one serving every day.  eggs and greens are great companions, and add the yummy goodness of potatoes and a little cheese and you're on your way to a nutritious, delicious, hunger-busting, seasonal meal that takes advantage of the bounty of the season. 

spring bounty gratin with egg, potato, and greens

ingredients

for sauce

3T all purpose flour

2 and 1/2 c 2% milk, divided

1 and 1/2 c of your favorite cheese (grated swiss or goat cheese are our favorites)

2t dry mustard

cayenne pepper (optional) and salt, to taste

for casserole

6 hardboiled eggs, chopped

8 c greens of your choice, rinsed and trimmed

2 c boiled fingerling potatoes, chunked

1/2 c finely chopped sweet onion (or more, if you're an onion lover)

1/2-1 c additional cheese, for topping

vegan adjustments: you can substitute coconut milk for cow's milk, firm tofu for boiled eggs, silken tofu with nutritional yeast for the cheeses in the sauce, and either a 'chreezy substitute' for, nutritional yeast alone, or omit the cheese topping.

preparing sauce

whisk flour with 1/2 cup milk in a small bowl until smooth. heat the remaining milk in a small saucepan over medium-low heat until steaming. add the flour mixture and cook, whisking constantly, until the sauce bubbles and thickens, about 4 minutes. remove from the heat; stir in cheese, dry mustard, cayenne (if using) and salt. (for more hints for making a perfect cheese sauce, visit this article on allrecipes.com)

preparing casserole

combine eggs, greens, and potatoes in casserole dish. gently blend in cheese sauce.  correct seasonings.  top with remaining cheese. cover with foil.

bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes, or until bubbly.  remove foil and allow cheese to lightly brown.  remove from oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes.  serve warm.  serves 6.

you might take advantage of the freshest of lettuces this season by serving this casserole alongside a salad of lettuce, scallions, herbs, and sweet peas, with a buttermilk dressing.  now that makes for a fresh and fabulous, seasonal meal.

from maggie's farm free range, organically-raised eggs

4./dozen

the keeper of the flock

,

thank you for dropping by today!

New Paths

"we keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths." --walt disney

i love spring, love how the new shoots from seedlings break through the earth with such hope and promise. love that the grass turns from brown to green and the appearance of a wildflower can brighten your entire day. how the chickens make themselves over with a new batch of shiny, healthy feathers. how the sun stays late so we can enjoy our dinners al fresco and jars of sun tea decorate the porch rails. the goats' milk is sweet and available as soon as the kids are ready to make it on their own, and fragrant, fresh herbs have come alive, perfect for the first batches of cheese. baby chicks, baby goats, baby bunnies, baby greens. life is beautiful.

up here, from maggie's farm, we are happy to share many new paths with you, the first of which is a new blog habit and home. the blog which you are reading right now is our temporary spot while we freshen up our "new digs", a brand-spankin' new website complete with it's own blog, and an online shop which will feature many new products this season. we also have new programs and plans to share with you, but let me not get ahead of myself here. all in due time. here's what you can expect from our blog, at the outset of this new path
+meatless mondays
in support of the popular culinary trend, we'll share recipes that will help fill your tummy, without meat, but not without flavor and substance.
+wordless wednesdays
beauty is all around us and we'll share both images around the farm, as well as around our world.
+freestyle fridays
we creative types are not always the best at 'coloring in the lines', so fridays are those days to share with you that which we find to be timely, interesting, pithy, helpful, or downright funny, (and let me just say that there is a lot of funny...) from maggie's farm.

why, hello there, sweet pea.
and, hey! join us on facebook, http://www.facebook.com/frommaggiesfarm, where we'll also share additional things we think you'll enjoy, as we discover them. have a happy monday, friends....