Category: Life on the Farm

A Look Back at 2017

It’s that time again. The break in the calendar that prompts a natural desire to look at the past year and make plans for the next.

We do the same at Five Feline Farm. 2017 was a great year for us. If you follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, in person at the 18th Street Farmer’s Market or even here on the blog, you know we expanded our business in several ways during the past year.

Perhaps our biggest achievement was opening our on-farm store—the Farm Fresh Mercantile. Finishing the store was a huge task. We reclaimed as much material as possible and did almost all of the labor ourselves. The grand opening was in October and we are now open the first Saturday of each month. Keep an eye on our social media for any last minute specials or announcements.

We expanded our presence at the 18th Street Farmer’s Market with a double size booth last summer. This extra space allowed us to enhance our displays into a more customer friendly presentation plus we added a grower. Martha B. produced additional vegetables, most notably potatoes. Her fingerling and specialty potato varieties were a huge hit.

A highlight for us was the inagural publication of Five Feline Farm Press. Simply Delicious is a compilation of recipes and stories that debuted on October 24. This book answers the many questions posed to us about what we cook and eat on a regular basis.

We also found ourselves in demand as speakers. In 2017, we presented at two events: Spring Into Gardening and Web@ through EIU. In addition we hosted a farm tour for Lincoln Log Cabin and the Academy of Lifelong Learning. Each of these events showcased a different section of our farm; from honeybees to nearly organic gardening practice.

How do we top all of that? What is coming in 2018?

As you might expect from us by now we are dreaming big. We will be expanding and refining the garden plots again, adding some special features to the landscape to add to our destination experience and continue to improve our product offering. We can’t really tell you too much right now, but keep following our news feed on all the social media channels.

Kitchen Experiments

Do you ever find yourself in a cooking rut, making the same boring meals over and over?

When that happens, we do kitchen experiments here at Five Feline Farm. No, not the mad scientist kind where you blend chemicals while cackling wildly.

The mystery food ingredient kind of experiment. No, not the “wonder what this fuzzy stuff in the back of the fridge is?” kind either.

We do the kind of experiment where random ingredients are combined to make a meal. Like the TV show “Chopped” but without the time limit and pressure. And, sadly without the possibility of a cash prize.

One recent round had the following ingredient list:

Canned Pumpkin

Cheddar Cheese Soup

Quick Cooking Barley

A Blood Orange

Sprig of Fresh Rosemary

Yes, that is the actual randomly selected list of ingredients awaiting me (Julia) when I arrived home from work. This was going to take a few minutes of brain time to come up with something for supper. But this is how I learn to be creative with cooking.

The rules are simple: use each of the mystery ingredients at least once in the meal. Any other items from freezer, refrigerator or pantry can be used.

Here’s the menu I devised:

Green salad with blood orange sections, a chunk of blue cheese and an oil and vinegar dressing

Pumpkin ravioli with a mushroom rosemary cream sauce

Cheddar barley focaccia

How did it turn out?

I was mostly concerned about the cheese soup and how to make that palatable. I’m not even sure how a can of cheddar cheese soup ended up in the pantry. It worked out fairly well, adding texture, moisture and flavor to the focaccia. The ravioli filling needed something to mellow out the intensity of the pumpkin and the focaccia was best hot from the oven. The mushroom rosemary cream sauce was really good.

This will not make it into the grand repertoire of meals. But it does inspire me to make more flavored homemade pastas. It also helped use up a few random ingredients and step away from another boring weeknight meal.

If you want to learn more about how I cook and meals designed to use up leftovers, pick up a copy of my book Simply Delicious, available in digital and print formats in our Mercantile or on Amazon.

As a special bonus, email your receipt to simplydelicious@fivefelinefarm.com and get a free photo ebook download.

Don’t forget to follow all the happenings here at the Farm on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Tribe Conference

This past weekend, we attended Tribe Conference. It’s a conference for writers, artists, creatives and entrepreneurs. The weekend was packed with speakers and information along with a few challenges. As a result, you’ll be seeing some changes in our website, blog posts and communication with our community over the next few months. Our goal is to provide you, our fans and followers, with the best value for the time and money you spend with us.  

  • We identified things we need to implement as Five Feline Farm moves forward.
  • We connected with others who are ahead of us in this process and a few who are behind us. 
  • We learned to invest in ourselves so there is enough available to invest in others. 
  • We made decisions about the business and next steps. 
  • We might break the rules.
  • We will show up every day and do the work.

Stay with us as we put what we have learned into practice and share what we know. It’s going to be exciting. 

One last thing, we learned to identify and address our dork goblins. More about that in a future post. 

If you would like to know more about Tribe Conference or TribeWriters, head to goinswriter.com. You’ll get a ton of information. 

A New Feline Joins the Farm

It was a story to tug the heart strings. Eighty plus cats rescued from a hoarder home in Southern Illinois. Nearing that fateful day when otherwise healthy cats would be euthanized for want of a home. We had just lost our Sassy after 15 years of love to the wasting of kidney disease. She was a special soul and is missed profoundly. In the midst of this grief, we heard the story of the hoarded cats. It was too soon, but the need for homes compelled us to act.

The cats were removed from poor conditions, relinquished by an owner overwhelmed with the responsibilities of a situation that spiraled out of control. We do not blame or judge that person. We are thankful for the opportunity to raise and love the one destined for us. 

I was scared. I had four babies I could barely feed as I was starving myself. First the cage, then a carrier. I did the best I could for my babies, but I could not care for them all. The nice people at my first shelter helped me with them. The dogs barking scared me. Some days the most I could do was cower and shake. I had no idea what would happen to me next. I heard the words, but didn’t understand the meaning.

We really weren’t sure what we wanted other than to provide a home and convinced we would know the right one for us. We held several. Snuggled them, checked their age, gender. Looking for the one who made that special bond.

Tiger Lily was huddled in the back of her cage, passed over by those who wanted a more active or younger or different color. As soon as she came into our arms, she snuggled in, buried her head in the crook of my elbow and purred. Yes, it was a nervous purr, but a purr nonetheless.

The one in the black shirt pulled me out of my cage. She was gentle and held me close. The one in the pink shirt stroked my head and talked softly to me. I liked them instantly but was afraid they would not want me. Maybe I’m not pretty enough. Maybe I’m too old. I tried to purr to let them know I liked them but it came out as a tremble. 

They didn’t put me back! They didn’t put me down. They kept me in their arms, first one then the other. After all the paperwork was signed, we went to the car together for a long ride home. They talked to me and told me I was going to be loved forever. I could hardly believe it. 

On the way home, we had to discuss a new name. We talked to her about the home she was headed to and what she would find there. As we talked and drove, we settled on a name. Tiger Rooney. She gave us a paws up.

It was a long exhausting ride. I was so scared, I pooped in my carrier. I didn’t mean to but it just happened. In my experience, humans don’t deal very well with that. I knew it would be my first test. Black shirt said it smelled bad. Pink shirt said oh the poor baby. They pulled over. Pink shirt picked up the poop in a napkin and threw it out the window. Black shirt petted my head and told me it was ok and it happens sometimes. That was all. Then they drove on to my new home. 

Once home, Abby and Thumper sniffed the carrier to acknowledge the newest member of the household. Unimpressed, they went about their usual activities. For them this means is to curl up in a chair on the porch and take a nap. After a couple of hours snuggling and sitting together, Rooney was settled into a bedroom to become acclimated to her new home. 

 I’m so tired and it is all so scary but I think I could like this home. 

For more stories about Rooney and all the happenings at Five Feline Farm, follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and here on the blog.