Double J Farm

We hope everyone had a Happy Halloween! Please reach out to us when you’re ready for your pumpkins, gourds, straw/hay bales, and corn stalks to go. I’ll be picking them up throughout each week for the next several months. We can use carved, painted, and whole pumpkins/gourds. And even if the straw/hay is older and can’t be fed, we can compost it. You’re welcome to comment or message the farm page whenever you’re ready. And please spread the word. Thank you!!

It’s the perfect cool morning to dump all your saved bones and veggie scraps into a pot and make broth! I save everything in the freezer until the weather cools off, and then I make and can broth so it helps to warm the house, it smells amazing, and we have extra on the shelves for the colder days to come. Lots of soups in the near future!

It’s starting to look like fall out there! Keep us in mind again this year as you’re out pumpkin shopping and carving. The sheep are looking forward to them when you’re done! 😊

I don’t think we’ll have Christmas lamb, but we’ll certainly have Easter lamb. These 2 are the first we’ve kept to grow out and I’m pleased with how they’ve progressed, 5 months old tomorrow. More spring lambs in the making, starting soon.

What a beautiful sight! Our neighbor delivered 4 roll bales this morning in preparation for the winter. I’ll cover and fence these off, and allow the sheep to eat them one at a time. It’s much nicer to be prepared now, rather than fight the weather and sloppy ground later.

I’m not sure why it took me this long, but I finally installed a solar-powered, solar-sensing chicken coop door. No more raccoon worries when I forget to close the door (fingers crossed)!

3 weeks to the day I pulled it, and the garlic told me it was done curing/drying. We’ve had lots of hot, dry, windy days and I wanted to get it clean and in the house before the weather changed (fingers crossed). Plus it’s my favorite chore on the farm and I just couldn’t wait any longer 😊.

I think I’m a bit behind schedule, but I pulled our garlic tonight. It’ll hang in the barn for about a month to cure for longer storage. I damaged one large bulb and so it’ll go into the house to be used over the next week or two. Garlic is my favorite thing to grow- you plant it in the late fall when the garden is mostly dormant and you get to watch the green shoots pop up before almost anything else. Typically it’s harvested in June/July, just in time to make room for a second planting of green beans or squash, or anything really. It doesn’t need much space, and a small amount planted yields plenty to use, share with friends, ward off vampires, and to save some to replant again in the fall.

The donated pumpkins from last fall are the gifts that keep on giving!

Speaking of eggs, we are overloaded right now! So we’re going to do BOGO dozens for the rest of the month. Buy one dozen for $3.50, get another dozen for free. And unlike most store-bought eggs, ours are only about a week old so they’ll last for quite a while in your fridge or even on the counter. Message if you’d like some! Thanks!!

There’s still asparagus coming in, but I think we’re worn out on the asparagus. Time to switch to plums! This is actually the first time since we planted them 7 years ago that we’ve gotten plums. A late frost or the youth of the trees always prohibited it before. They’re so good! But there’s still not enough right now to justify canning. So I’m thinking a small jar each of fridge plum jam and plums in rum for later this fall. There’s still lots of green ones left so maybe I can can a few jars for the shelves too once they ripen.

The asparagus is still coming in, and now we’re getting garlic scapes too! These are technically the flower stalk of the garlic plant, and since we want the energy to go into the garlic instead of a flower/seed head, we snip them off. They’re very tender at this stage and can be used in stir frys, or grilled, or pickled. We chop, dehydrate, and grind them into a powder too. They lend a nice garlicky spring flavor to lots of dishes no matter how you prepare them. Let us know if you’d like to try some!

We’ve still got lots of eggs coming in, so we’re going to continue our 2/$5 sale for a while longer. Let us know if you’d like some! Happy chickens make better eggs 😊

The skies were amazing last night in Kentucky. There’s another chance to see the aurora tonight, hoping for clear skies again for everyone!

We have an abundance of asparagus right now $5/pound. It’s $4.50/lb at the local groceries, but ours is only hours or maybe a day or three old, and has never been sprayed with anything, and it’s local. I can meet for pickup or drop off in Richmond or you can come here to the farm. Try asparagus that’s actually delicious! It’s seasonal, so we’ll only have it for a few more weeks. I’m also happy to trade for it!

We ate asparagus a lot when I was growing up, but we never grew it. I remember my mom telling me to always buy the smallest stalks at the store because those were the most tender. Which is true, because the store-bought asparagus has traveled a long distance and been stored for a while before you take it home. And since asparagus is technically a flower, the stalks start to become woody and dry shortly after picking it. Now that we grow our own, I am always thrilled when I see stalks the diameter of my thumb (or bigger) start to emerge. Those are the sweetest, best ones when you grow them at home and eat them fresh. These two purple stalks are as long as my forearm and as wide as my thumb, perfect! If there is a food that tastes most different between store-bought and home-grown, it’s asparagus- even more so than tomatoes in my opinion.

When you plant asparagus roots, you have to wait 2-4 years before harvesting anything to allow them to really mature. The first two years after that, we could only harvest about 10-30% of the stalks and we ate all of those raw because they were so good. Now that we’re harvesting about 1/2 lb each day, we cook it in batches for the week. By mid-May we’re tired of asparagus, but know that it won’t be around much longer and we always look forward to our few short weeks of asparagus season (because we never buy it from the store). Let us know if you want to try some!

Happy earth day! I hope you’re outside at some point today to enjoy the beautiful weather and maybe take part in tending your environment in one way or another. Just a reminder that we have plenty of eggs right now and they’re still 2/$5. That’s cheaper than most of the grocery store brands, and I’ll even drop them off at your door if you’re in Richmond!

Two more ram lambs joined the flock yesterday. I love that pink little nose!

We brought home some sheep today to add to the farm! These are hair sheep (as opposed to wool sheep), so their coats don’t contain the lanolin that makes wool sheep smell strongly and taste unpleasant. We plan to grow out the lambs they produce for up to a year (when they technically go from ‘lamb’ to ‘mutton’), and may have live or packaged lamb to offer. If you’ve ever had lamb and thought the taste was too strong, I encourage you to find a hair-sheep source to try.

These guys will definitely be enjoying all the leftover pumpkins from this season too!

Make sure to keep us in mind and spread the word- we’ll come pick up your pumpkins, gourds, corn stalks, and straw/hay bales if you’re in the Richmond area once the season is over. Just send us a message with your address when you’re ready to have them picked up. We really appreciate it!