Tag: Farm Life

Menu Planning Challenge

Last week, I described our focus on food, taking on the “foodie” label. Growing, preserving, eating and selling food drives much of what we do here at the Farm. With all this abundance, meal planning should be a breeze. There is no reason to plod from refrigerator to freezer, to the pantry and back again trying to decide what to eat. I always come up with something, finding that any one meal is easy to produce, but my desire is to have a full week of perfectly planned menus. In this fantasy, I see myself spending a couple of hours on Sunday afternoon prepping ingredients, writing out the week’s menu including snacks and posting it prominently in the kitchen.

Here’s what actually happens:

I stall and procrastinate until Sunday is over. All the good ideas for balanced meals that take advantage of preparing ingredients in advance drift away. Every evening finds me scurrying  around at the last minute while hunger gnaws, to throw something together just before mealtime.

Planning for lunch happens the same way; throw a few things in a lunch bag, hoping it will be tasty enough to ward off the temptation to go through a drive through. Clearly we have been surviving for a few decades this way and our meals are nutritious and frequently fresh; but this is not the way I really want to manage the kitchen.

It’s time to try an experiment.

I commit to establishing our weekly menu in advance for a month, prepping ingredients ahead when possible and including nutritious snacks. I’ll post updates on my efforts, so keep checking back on this blog.

Will you take the menu planning challenge with me? Would you be interested in seeing my weekly menu plan?

Five Feline Farm Foodies

We are foodies.

Our farm is all about food. Growing food, planning for food, selling food at the Farmer’s Market or our own Mercantile, preserving food, and yes, of course eating food.

During these dark, cold Winter days we continually look for ways to improve our food production. We plan for the growing season and the basement holds hundreds of tiny plants waiting for warmer weather. Tomatoes, peppers, asparagus, rosemary, basil, onions and even flowers for our pollinator friends are beginning their lives in the grow stations.

Our current food supply is sourced as much as possible from the freezer and pantry. Rows of gleaming jars full of home canned sauces, salsas, pickled peppers and broths line the pantry while baggies and containers of frozen fruits and sauces pack the freezer. All of these inspire a multitude of meals.

Once Spring and Summer finally arrive, we will have access to fresh vegetables mere steps from the front door. A short stroll out the back door lies the primary herb garden ready to add an abundance of flavor to any dish. Many of these fresh herbs and vegetables will make it to the Farmer’s Market this summer.

It’s a foodie’s paradise.

What is a Real Farm?

What is the definition of a real farm?

Is there a certain amount of acreage required? Maybe a minimum amount of produce raised? Perhaps keeping livestock meets the qualification?

We have asked ourselves these questions as we build this slice of the country we call Five Feline Farm. At first, we referred to it as just the “farm”; a tongue-in-cheek expression of our postage stamp sized property plopped in the middle of large fields of corn, soybeans and wheat. As we discover our mission to live a full life with a blend of old skills and modern conveniences, we also found the answer to being real.

Is there a minimum required acreage?

We have five and a half acres. From this fertile land, we can grow a lot of the produce, herbs, fruit and nuts we need to keep our pantry and freezers full. There is even enough excess to sell at the Farmer’s Market. It takes a lot of planning and hard work but it is a joy to bite into a warm tomato fresh from the garden or add home grown roasted peppers to a pot of chili in the depth of winter.

How about a minimum amount of production?

The line of products we offer in our Mercantile, whether on line or on site is limited only by our time and imagination. We sew cat toys from scraps of fabric and stuff them with catnip grown and dried on the farm. There are balms and soaps and jams and baked goods all created right here. We even offer farm roasted whole coffee beans.

Are livestock required?

Did you know honeybees are considered livestock? It’s true according to the Illinois Department of Agriculture. Beekeeping has changed our perspective on many things. We are better consumers and more aware of good practice in how we approach planting, fertilizing and particularly pest management. We use this practical mantra: “if it’s good for the bees, it’s good for us”. Plus, any excess honey harvested beyond what we personally use is sold. 

So our answer to the question….

Yes, Five Feline Farm is a real farm.

 

Five Feline Farm is growing beyond our wildest dreams. Follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook for daily updates.   

 

Longing for Summer

We escaped the clutches of the January 2019 Polar Vortex and were blessed within days to experience over 50º weather. No, we didn’t fly to a southern state, it all happened right here in the Midwest. Those couple of days of sunshine and warmth had me longing for fresh food. Perhaps something from the garden: freshly pulled carrots or a warm ripe tomato. Or maybe a few fresh morels gathered from just beyond the edge of the yard.

But it is still February in Central Illinois. Gathering any of those things fresh fom the earth is still a few months away. We do what we can in the meantime. There is a container of fresh alfalfa sprouts growing on the counter, ready to add to a sandwich or salad. That crisp, fresh crunch is a welcome blast of nutrients.

A basement grow station is providing fresh basil, rosemary and cilantro in addition to the starts of tomatoes, peppers and onions that will populate the garden in a few short months. On days when it warms up just enough, say to 30º or so, it’s ok to open the cold frame and pick a salad of baby lettuces and spinach.

The next best thing is to forage in the freezer or pantry for preserved items. The freezer is full of tomato sauce, carrots, peppers, onions, garlic bulbils, strawberries and peaches. We even have some Elderberries waiting to be processed into syrup. The pantry holds rows of home canned tomato juice, pickles, jellies, jams, pie fillings, hot pepper sauce, relishes and our special Bloody Mary Mix.

So until the sun warms the soil enough to garden, we will feast on these things and dream of summer to come.

What summer food do you miss most?