Life on the farm…. 2022
Yes, we’re still here! How do people keep up with posting? It boggles my mind! Not in any particular order, and certainly not the only things that have been going on 16 miles NE of Willits, California……
During the cold spell just before Thanksgiving. Today, December 11, everything has been frozen, pounded with rain, and removed to the compost pile. Even the leaves on the trees by the barn and on the willow are no more.
Fall this year at Emandal was exceptionally colorful, with various maple trees taking turns showing off their wondrous leaves…. along with our crabapples, liquid ambers, and flowering pears. Now all that’s left are the bare branches, and layers upon layers of potential compost, ready to raked and hauled away. Yet, the maple by the pizza oven waited until the Monday after Thanksgiving to defoliate…. allowing its amazing colors to shine above our pizza extravaganza.
Such a treat to have Buff come out from Florida for a couple of days in October. He managed to accomplish numerous things…. the first of which took him all of 15 minutes or so, and yet had been plaguing me for well over a year. Just think what he might do if he were closer! Sigh…..
Everyone here pitched in for squash harvest…. But the apple pressing was another story. Some we took to Golden Rule, which has a MUCH LARGER grinder and press, and some we took to our local sheriff, who has a larger set-up as well. Some cider is still in the freezer, but most is on it’s way to being vinegar…. for dill pickles!
Under duress (she doesn’t like her picture being taken), Kashaya and Zarya and I “manned” the grill for another cowboy breakfast.
Although we did plant a number of vegetables this year, we were top-heavy with flowers. I wouldn’t mind doing more bouquets…. whether as a CSA, or farmer’s market, or….. You can see some of the large chrysanthemums blooming well into November. Plans in process for even MORE large, football style blooms. So incredible!
Over Memorial Day, one of our guests arranged flowers for each of the houses, and then some. Peonies, roses, lupine…. lilac, maybe? I can’t remember. Colorful and profuse! Plenty of red poppies…… and then later in June, some of the last of the sweet peas, along with larkspur and bishop’s flower. Always something!
“DUE TO HIGH DEMAND: Emandal Local Eggs ARE NOW LIMITED TO 1 DOZEN PER CUSTOMER”
Our eggs are extremely popular in our local organic food store….. We definitely could sell double, triple or even quadruple the number we glean each week. But since we don’t do much of a job with culling the older hens out of the mix, we have quite a number of chickens, not all of which lay many/any eggs, taking up space in the chicken house. The plan is to build at least one new mobile chicken house for 50-60 new hens. Instead of waiting for it to be done, we ordered new chicks at the end of September, and Kashaya asked Casey to help her take my brother’s old van and convert it to a temporary mobile chicken house. It sits in the middle of the chicken house field, and will work for awhile. We have plans drawn up using one of the old wagon frames… and when Casey comes back from Christmas, he’s got his work cut out! If she had her way, she’d use the two old vanagons in the lower field, too, and order 100 more chicks. That way, perhaps we could keep up with demand….
Our General Store is nearly bursting with jams, jellies, marmalades and chutneys…. or so it seems when we can’t find space on any shelf for a new variety. Of course, we’ve sold a lot this holiday season, and will start again with marmalades in January and February, when California citrus again becomes available. Our on-going list is on the side of the refrigerator. Just today we’re slowly cooking down some of the Big Clive Apples we picked this July into Apple Butter. So thick and tart and yummy!
Cowboy Candy was a big hit on some of our latest pizzas. Hot, sweet, delicious!
And of course, a few new varieties: Apricot Ginger, Apple Balsamic Onion, Apple Mint, Pear Plum.
Here’s a link to where you can order them: emandalgeneralstore.com
For the past two summers, folks have been cooking meals up in camp….. extremely delicious meals! This June a former camper/staffer came with her husband and two kids…. and in Clive’s memory, grilled Pepperwood Steak. Her husband’s a butcher, and an extremely good cook. Although Clive used much thicker bay branches, it was still fantastic!
Last summer we served breakfast in the Dining Room…. a well-received offering. We’ll do so again this coming season.
Below, beginnings and results. We planted ranunculus in 2 raised beds in front of the Dining Room last fall…. see results in colorful photo below. They died back, we pulled them up, stored them all summer long, then at the beginning or October, we divided the corms, tucked them into potting soil, and once sprouted, planted them into the garden. We had about 30 flats, each with about 35 corms…… and for some reason I was worried that I wouldn’t have enough for one row. I needn’t have worried in the slightest….. We had enough plants for THREE rows, with about 6 flats leftover, to give away! This spring, they should be spectacular! Hooray for RANUNCULUS! If they expand the way they did, we should have enough to plant 6-7 rows next year…… or just the three and give all the others away!
COWBOY POETRY happened again this year, after a 2 year hiatus. Wonderful, to say the least, yet quite warm. I wanted it in July this year, fearing smoke and fires in the fall. We couldn’t have been more wrong! Fall was spectacular (barring the week of hell, when temperatures rose to 115 degrees for more days than we had hoped….) But the smoke and fires weren’t a factor. Not to say we’ll always be so lucky!
Kristyn Harris and her band were here from Texas, entertaining us magnificently! Hours of western music…. and that wasn’t even the after-hours sing-along late into the night….
One of our sponsors really stepped up to the plate, and brought food and drink for all her guests, including apple pie! We have high hopes of re-introducing our Pie Throw-down this year. Stay tuned!
And the auction was a total success thanks to Rachel and her uncanny auctioneering skills.
Projects abound…. always! Below you can see dead trees being pushed over below Ashanti and Ohana, with an excavator; tomatoes being fertilized with liquid fish emulsion; burgers being cooked (by Michelle, visiting from Vermont) for the band and friends after Cowboy Poetry; dishes happily being washed up in camp, after impressive dinners; compost being spread by some family campers waiting for pizza; gatepost being placed for the road to the Strawbale; and the ice cream paddle being “cleaned up” after a grueling hour of churning.
Lucky we are to have folks that want to come back to see the place, and to relive moments from their past. Below, Tillie Hollar and her grown children, along with Margo Cooper and two of her siblings and two of her grand nieces. Margo and Tillie worked here in the early 50s, with my mother-in-law, Jessie Adams, through high school and college. Fond memories of lazy afternoon swims, painting at the river…. and yes, doing dishes with Mr. A.
Both in their nineties, getting to the river again was only ONE of many adventures they managed to accomplish with ease!
We’re offering soup and bread to locals each week this fall and winter…. or at least until the end of the year. A normal week sees us making 70 quarts of soup and 40 loaves of bread or equivalent bags of rolls. This week we’re offering Turkey Noodle (yes, homemade noodles), Chili Verde with Pork, Vegetarian Chile Verde with Heirloom Beans, Squash and Corn. For Bread, Whole Wheat Molasses loaves, and Browned Butter Walnut Sage Buns.
People don’t always make it to the river each time they come up. Jim and Joan, siblings, have been coming to Emandal since before me. Joans daughter wanted napkins for her wedding….. “like the ones that we use at Emandal.” I’ve made the napkins…. I have the Serger. They were coming up anyway, so they brought their fabric.
The best laid plans….. I was threading the machine, when things got screwed up. HOWEVER, because Jim’s brother-in-law Steve was here, along with Jim, it only took four hours of intense rehabilitation, proper wire probing, oil treatment and tremendous tenacity, to get the machine running relatively smoothly. Another 8 hours of consistent sewing (it got pretty hot!) and bananagramming, and nearly all the napkins were done! They left me a few to finish up, which I did under much less restrictive parameters…… and Laura got her napkins for her wedding! Hooray!
Kashaya continues to bring in new and interesting animals. In addition to three yaks and one belted Galloway, along came Sassy, the Scottish Highland cow, who loves both apples and persimmons.
How cute can one cow be?!