Category: Food

The St. Paul Rodeo

Well it’s that time of year again.  People from all over, put on their dusty (or brand new) boots and head out to St. Paul, Oregon for a show that they will never forget.  The St. Paul Rodeo is celebrating 81 strong years.  img_1486In a town of only 322 it’s incredible that we can find the room to welcome over 60,000 folks on this weekend every year.  But it’s a family tradition that lasts generations for many, it’s a way of life for others, but for many of us it’s a weekend of reuniting with old friends, cheering on those brave enough for an 8 second ride, and celebrating our freedom and all that comes with the good ‘ol 4th of July.

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It’s flags flying and the pride you feel as Mary Ann Zielinski belts out the National Anthem more beautifully than you have ever heard.

It’s cold beer on a warm night.  It’s dusty and dirty, with BBQ sauce and elephant ears.  It’s carnival rides and parish chicken dinners.  It’s freedom and fun, maybe in the end it’s just a small taste of all that I love about America.

It’s also a testament to the hard work that this community is no stranger to.  From the ticket takers and beer pourers, to the firemen and EMTs, it’s all one big volunteer effort to keep everyone well fed, well hydrated, safe and having a great time!100_27971

Happy 4th of July everyone! Come on our and see us June 30th-July 4th!  You won’t regret it!

Pea Harvest 2016

Peas are always our first crop that gets harvested.  Usually around the middle of June, large pea harvesters pull into the field and start to pick up and de-pod the peas. If you can believe it, these huge harvesters actually operate gentle enough to take the peas right out of the pod while out in the field.final-101

Then they haul the peas in trucks to the cannery where they are washed, blanched, frozen and put into bags, ultimately landing in soups, pre-made food, and in grocery store freezers for you to buy!  Our field alone will produce about 160,000 lbs of peas!!final-105final-104
The harvesters showed up very early in the morning.  So as we drove into the farm Hoot just about lost his mind seeing those big machines working already!  It didn’t take long before he had his papa by the hand and was telling him it was time to head out to the field.  Once there he ate his body weight in peas, and had a ball watching harvest! final-103

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Here’s a video that I took so you can see the sheer mass of these harvesters.

The headers are picking up the vines along with the peas, cracking open the pods, removing the peas and then the pod and vine material comes back out the back of the machine.  Once the harvester has gone through an area all that is left is a row of “trash”.  final-107

And how does the saying go….one man’s trash is another man’s treasure or something right?  So after harvest is over we have one of our neighbors come in and bale the vines and pods off the field.  He then uses it for feed for his cows.

So what is next for this field?  Since harvest for peas is so early, this year we are going to attempt to double crop this land.  After removing the vines and pods, we headed into the field and started to work the ground again.  We plan to plant a late planting of green beans.

If you want to see some more photos of our farm and more specifically of pea harvest last year please check out ItsMomSense. Farming in Focus – May.  Happy Friday!

 

Photo Friday…Dinners All Around!

For photo Friday this week I thought I’d share one of those, “How do you do it all?” moments that me and some of my other farmer gal friends had this past week.  It is no secret that while running a house and a farm, life can get crazy, hectic, downright overwhelming to be honest.  So a few of us decided to try to ease the pain on one of the sticking points in life…dinner.

Dinner in our house during the summer months of harvest is tough when your family is out in the field until all hours of the night, sometimes even overnight.  We also feed our harvest crew every evening that they are working, so every casserole, every slow cook meal, it all adds up to a much easier and yummy-er time for all.  It takes a lot more than just a harvester and a truck to get our crop to market, sometimes…it takes dinner!

So we found a “chief” to be in charge (Kathy because she has done this before and her kitchen is beautiful!) and we all showed up to be the “Indians” for the afternoon.  

And for a few-ish hours we chopped, sliced, diced, browned, measured and labeled to our hearts (or more than or heart’s) content.  

We all walked away with a cooler filled with 5 delicious meals all ready to bake or slow cook. 

Carrying out such a huge pack of food was one thing, but catching up with friends, teaching our kids tricks of cooking, and just plain drinking a glass of wine together made the night well worth it!

Davor was particularly impressed by our efficiency…or maybe not by the look on his face!

 

So happy Friday! And I’m hoping to include some photos and recipes as I use up my home cooked meals, so stay tuned!!