Goatlies

This past Sunday we brought home four baby goats. In my mind this was going to be a grand glorious event full of goat love and fields of flowers and endless pictures of sweet babies to share. 

Reality is never so convenient. Turns out baby goats are rather objectionable to being caught, picked up, and put in the back of a truck. To the extent a certain sassy pants goat thrashed around until she slammed a horn into Brandon's hand and BROKE HER HORN. Thankfully the great and powerful Google quickly informed us this was fairly common and not at all the emergency we were certain it was in the first few minutes. We goat the goats to the main farm and Brandon's grandmother and great uncle helped cut off the rest of the horn cleanly while I ran to town for antiseptic and an aerosol bandage spray. Great stuff BTW. And finally we all made it home. 

We left the babies in the barn for a while to let them get used to us and the new place. Once they decided we were not in fact evil overlords and began to trust us, we let them out to play.

OK, so they were sticking their heads through the bars of the stall begging to come play. To-mato to-ma-to. 

Fawn. She hasn't quite made up her mind about us.

Boot and Fawn

Lemony Snickett, named for her series of unfortunate events. She is the goat Brandon picked out for himself, and the one who broke her horn on his hand.
A few days before that she had a unfortunate meeting with the electric fence at her previous home. We thought this baby would hate us for sure, but she is one of the most trusting (and is healing nicely.)

Boot. Boot is a placeholder name until Mama gets home from vacation and names her properly. Boot is also the most ornery of the goat babies.

Daisy Girl
Daisy is my little one. Sweetest personality and face, and maybe just a bit too curious for her own good :p

Checking out the field for the first time

On a related note, if you ever need to corral all your chickens to one end of the pen, let loose four creatures they have never seen before next to the pen. The chickens normally have a neutral opinion of me; today they could not get close enough.

Simple Summer Squash Recipe

We grew some zephyr squash for the first time this summer, and they are yummy! Probably our new favorite squash - sorry zucchini.  They have a meatier taste than other summer squash, and much less in the way of seeds and water. Here is the super simple way I prepare these delicious beauties.

Clean and pat dry the squash. Thinly slice into rounds, discarding the ends of the squash.

Heat about 1 Tbsp of butter or olive oil in a skillet over medium high heat. When hot, add the squash. Allow to start browning, turning occasionally.

While cooking, add in whatever spices you desire; a little red pepper flake gives it a nice kick.

I also enjoy garlic powder (or garlic pepper), minced onion, Italian seasoning, and seasoned salt in these. Add whatever spices you're in the mood for - it's hard to go wrong!

Allow squash to continue cooking, stirring and turning occasionally, for about five minutes or until browned and fairly tender. You want only a little crisp left in them. 

Enjoy! 

First Harvest and First Market Day of 2015

So...only a week late on this; but as we were getting ready for tomorrow's Farmer's Market I realized I had not posted anything from last week! So here is our first major harvest from the garden, and our very first time setting up at the Downtown Richmond Farmers Market.

 Early sweet corn missed the memo - not supposed to tossel and start having ears when you're only waist high! (Waist high to me, and I'm 5'1".)

 Turnips

 Mustard greens

 Beets

 Bok choi

Normal corn

 Broccoli

Almost new potato time!

Sugar Snap Peas. Mmmmm. If we had known what a hit these would turn out to be we would have planted a whole field of them!

Our booth at the market and a delicious lunch courtesy The Epic Cure.