Turkey vegetable soup with roasted garlic

Thanksgiving turkey's gone, but we still had some rich stock made from the bones languishing in the fridge. So we made a quick, flavorful soup for the last bit.

All it took was eight thumb-sized cloves of roasted garlic, some frozen peas, fresh carrots, spices, turkey stock and voila--a healthy, hearty soup.

Ready in less than 30 minutes, too. Make your own version and see what you can do with leftovers from the holidays!

First view of the new crop

Just took this picture of the new garlic crop for 2013. It's already sending up leaves, and the varieties planted several weeks ago are about three inches high. Not bad for a late start!

The Best Laid Plans of Garlic Farmers

The original 2013 garlic crop plan, with all its charts and spreadsheets, had us planting in October and finishing a few weeks before Thanksgiving. It was a good plan.

But that's not how it turned out. Life, health, weather and day jobs threw us a few curves. We started planting almost a month later than anticipated. As a result, we're still planting garlic. In December.

Peeling and preparing big cloves of Music garlic for planting. 

That definitely was not the plan.

If there's one thing farming teaches, it's that things don't always go according to plan.  Weather patterns change; suddenly the forecast turns from sunny to a week-long deluge. Unexpected pests or crop diseases decimate what had otherwise should have been a banner year. Ask some of the Midwestern garlic growers who got hit in 2012 with aster yellows disease.  They'll tell you: There's always something unexpected.

Last of the summer tomatoes

All those juicy heirloom tomatoes planted in late spring are just about done.  But we can still find some ripening on the vines, like these picked from a few days ago.

To my taste buds, there's nothing like an heirloom tomato. That earthy, slightly salty, juicy taste can't be duplicated by most modern hybrids. The yellow ones in the photo, appropriately called Yellow Pear, are a perfect example. Yellow Pear is a small heirloom cherry tomato that bursts in your mouth with a sweet, low-acid flavor. The same's true for the large red ones, called Omar's Lebanese. Omar's Lebanese runs with juice when you slice it, and, best of all from a grower's perspective, it's disease resistant.

(If only they could make tomatoes that are deer and duck resistant. That's a story for another day!)

We still have seeds left for both of these varieties and some other heirloom favorites we grew this year; I'll probably start seedlings around March. But it's a long time until next summer. So for now, we savoring each bite and slice of the last tomatoes of summer.

Home at last

It's been a whole week since the girls arrived at the farm. They're in their new paddock, and as you can see, they're adjusting nicely.

One of the ewe lambs. She's silver-white and needs a name. Any ideas?

Pandora. Love those white socks and the blaze on her face. 

Orly, a three-year-old mioget krunet Shetland. Those fancy Scottish words mean she's light chocolate with white facial markings.

The new black ewe also needs a name. Any ideas? 

The lovely Helena. Look closely and you can see her tiny horns.

Vita has soft, fine black fleece, and she adores being scratched and petted.

Sheep shearing with the girls

Saturday at Littledove was awesome. We got to watch sheep shearing and hang out with the girls for a few hours. If all goes as expected, the six ewes will be at the farm tomorrow afternoon.

Four of the girls. As you can see, they're not particularly thrilled once they've been sheared. 

A few lessons from today's visit:

• Shearing sheep is one hard job. It involves lots of bending and repetitive motion, plus new lambs tend to lose control of their little bladders when being sheared for the first time. Not fun.
• Sitting on the ground with sheep and meeting them at eye level is a great way to get to know them. I probably sat with the girls for a couple of hours. Vita, the lead sheep, let me love on her for quite some time. I think we're going to be good friends.
• Bundling fleece and picking through it for debris takes a good eye. We can only hope one day to be as skilled as Franny and her crew are.

Shearing, hoof trimming and giving meds all happen at the same time. Those sheep in the larger photos  are part of the girls coming to the farm.

Still haven't quite come up with a flock name yet. Perhaps "Masego Shetlands." Masego's a South African name that means "blessed."

Ready for the girls

Just got a call this evening. The girls should be sheared and ready for the farm this weekend! It's exciting news. And a little scary.

We think we're ready. We've done the reading, joined online forums that talk about all things Shetland sheep, and have a small home and paddock ready. We've chosen six ewes from an exceptional established flock, and we have an amazing mentor.

But there's still so much to learn and experience. So much. That's the scary part.

Yet anything worth doing can a little scary at first. Sheep are no different. We're not experts, but we're quick learners, and we're good problem solvers. We'll undoubtedly run into bumps as we travel this new road, but we can do this.

Yes. We're ready.