Two different forks.

You know movies like The Princess Dairies or Cinderella, where a young girl gets plucked from her modest upbringing and into the life of a princess?

Another Apricot Lane Farms Story…

Big news friends!

We birthed our first calf.  A little girl named Flora, bright and early on Easter morning.  She’s beautiful.

Absolutely… however, it wasn’t easy.  Flora’s momma is named Firefly, and her temperament is exactly how it appears in the picture below – a bit Firey.

Is Rachael Ray Wrong?

Rachael Ray inspired me to attend culinary school.  She joined The Food Network at the same time I discovered cooking shows.  Man, I loved her, still do!  Through her eyes, cooking became possible.  She used fresh ingredients, mostly from scratch.  And, I thought, “I can do that…” In my opinion, Rachael Ray and many other TV chefs are really important for America.  They remind us that cooking is within each of us.  They teach us how to nourish ourselves and our families.  It is a very important job.

Even better.

I’m guessing you could fill in the gaps from here, but I’m gonna tell the story anyway.

On the farm, we have what are called WWOOFers.  They come from all over the world to trade hard work for knowledge of organic farming.  Luckily, because these typically early 20′s folks are passionate about something as conscious as organics, they tend to be a really nice crop of people.  Recently, we had our first international WWOOFer, from Germany.  Imagine the courage it takes to hop on a plane to spend 6 weeks with a farming family you know not a minute more than a Skype call… in a different country… that speaks a different language.  Alina was quiet for the first few weeks, but not shy.  Her thoughtful confidence and attention to detail slowly established her place as a very trusted part of the team.  She’s below…

Growing the perfect bite…

We’re planting trees over here at Apricot Lane Farms! For reals… 2,010 little deciduous (meaning – goes dormant in the winter) arrived last week.  The project is a 20-acre block that we nicknamed “The Fruit Basket”, before we learned that there is some sort of sexual connotation to that term.  Doh… but, too late.  It had stuck.  The citrus trees aren’t arriving until end of March, but here’s the list of our future ingredients.

Building fertility.

Apricot Lane Farms officially has two new compost piles, almost three – one day we’ll have as many as 6.  Aren’t we big.  The picture above shows one of these piles in front of the trees it will one day nourish – my heart’s a flutter.  No puny piles here, but 100 – 200 foot rows designed to create compost for our many thousands of hungry fruit trees.  Merging the detailed approach Biodynamic farming and 130-acres of production is not easy, but holy cow, does it feel good.  From a cook’s perspective, every effort is for one singular goal – great food.

Brilliant orange yolks.

The first little egg from our small beginner batch of Barred Plymouth Rock hens is finally here!  Only took 22 torturous weeks of waiting.  Weeks spent holding our breathe with each peek into the nest; rocked with disappointment, until – WE GOT AN EGG!  A bigger thrill than any stupid roller-coaster I’ve ever endured.

Cows? Yup.

On Tuesday, our barnyard family is going to gain some girth, in the form of three Highland Cattle.  Actually, three & 1/2.  One heifer named Firefly is pregnant.  Her ultra-cute name makes me like her already.  The 21st century part of it is – I actually watched John bid on and win these cattle from my computer at the farm.  He almost lost the second heifer, when a (semi-illegal) bid snuck in last minute, but they re-opened the bidding, allowing John to win the little lady.

Who am I kidding, she’s not little at all!  These cows are huge.  Huge.  And we’re going to have three of them.  Today, my eyes are staring at my screen just a little wider than usual.

Food Magic

Like the effects of a bad high-school rumor, coconut oil came out of the 80′s with a horrendous reputation.  Demonized for its saturated fat content, you’d have thought that every heart attack began with tub of coconut oil and a spoon.  The clarification that I believe went unnoticed was the difference between organic, unrefined coconut oil and the highly refined hydrogenated version.  The media is beginning to scrub the graffiti from poor coconut oil’s locker, touting the possible connection between unrefined coconut and heart health, but there’s another beautiful story about the positive effects of coconut oil that has thus far, gone largely unnoticed.  And folks, it could be huge.  Here’s why…

The Duck ICU

Two weeks ago, a shipment of 100 teeny tiny baby ducks arrived at the Post Office for Apricot Lane.  Perfect timing in preparation for the on-slot of snails in the spring, these Khaki Campbell ducks will be replacing many hours of labor spent spreading organic snail bait.

And I thought baby chickens were cute…