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Monday, November 21, 2011

Get Your Turkey!

        Thanksgiving is on Thursday! If you don't know where your turkey is coming from, we have the solution!

        We still have a limited quantity of birds left that have not been reserved for the big day. All of our birds are heritage breed, grass fed, organic Bourbon, Narragansett, and Palm turkeys. Turkeys were processed on Sunday (11/20) and are sold un-frozen. It's as fresh as they come! 


        $5.50/lb --- weights vary.


    If you're in need of a last minute turkey, e-mail Cair Paravel at
CPARAVEL@GMAIL.COM with "TURKEY" in the subject line.



Remember to buy local and support small businesses this holiday season! 

Friday, November 18, 2011

Broken Bones


A few weeks ago Maddie broke her ankle. She has since had surgery to repair the break and is on a quick path to recovery. Keep her in your thoughts and wish her well! I'm sure she's thrilled I posted this picture of her pre-surgery (and hyped up on pain meds) on the internet.



Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Pumpkin Carving!

Disclaimer: Yes. This post is late. Very late.

        Halloween fell on a Monday this year. That meant children across America were bummed having to trick-or-treat on a school night. For us up on the farm it meant hurray! More candy for us! Actually, seeing as we don't get trick-or-treaters, there was no need for us to get candy at all... but we did carve pumpkins!

        I'm horrible at carving pumpkins. I have really great ideas, however, executing them is very difficult for me. Yes, it would be rad to carve Moby Dick exploding out of the sea with a ship between his jaws, but I can't draw it on paper let alone carve it out of a pumpkin. So after beginning the most epic pumpkin carving on the planet, my pumpkin ended up looking like this:



        Whitt's pumpkin didn't turn out nearly as primitive as mine. Nor did he spend two hours of cursing only to cut a huge hole out of the center of the pumpkin.



    Maddie went for the abstract. I'm not sure if there was a face, or if I just took a picture of the wrong side of the pumpkin. Either way, I still really like the design!



        Now Mia: she is a professional. She took pumpkin carving to the next level -- a huge long-neck squash! Ever seen those big dragons used in parades and festivals? You know, the ones with forty people wearing the same dragon costume and dancing down the street? Well, that is what Mia turned her squash into. Check it out!

Mia hard at work!




 The finished product!!





 


 

Monday, November 14, 2011

Follow Us!


  Cair Paravel now has a twitter! Follow us @CairParavelFarm!

Consider it the addendum to the blog, the more day-to-day, the fun filled fact machine of the farm, the picture gateway, the...well, you get the idea. We'll also post news, available products and prices, as well as requests for help with certain projects. Become a bigger part of our farm with Twitter!

@CairParavelFarm

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Herding the Flock


Down at the barn Mikey hears me call, "Sheeeep, here sheeep." He is always the first to come thinking he is going to get a treat!


Flora, resting in the shrubs this warm day decides to join... but maybe not...but sees Noelle ambling up with Mikey.


Noelle and Mikey realize they are going to the green pasture. The area around the barn has been nibbled to nubs so they are going out to the stockpiled fescue, red clover, and landino clover pasture. There is also browse for them along the meadow edges.



Mikey, of course was the first to get into the knee deep grasses however....



.....the rest did not lag behind! Herding this trio is not difficult. Just show them food and they will follow.

See how the great grazing has help the sheep produce fantastic fleece!

This is Mikey's long-stapled white locks...


....and Noelle's creamy brown that deepens into dark chocolate.! I am looking forward to working with the wool this winter.

Chicken Processing

Coming up this Sunday, November 13, 2011 the last 2011 chicken processing (plus a few roosters and some geese. If you want to help/learn come and join us. Set up will start at 9:00 AM.

Friday, November 4, 2011

Fall Garden

The fall garden is producing big round heads of cabbage. Looking forward to stuffed cabbage rolls!
We have had roller coaster weather. Last week we were treated to 4" of heavy sloppy snow and now are basking in unseasonably warm weather. The artichokes survived under floating row covers....
....and the curly leafed kale as well. You can't really see from this shot but I planted parsnips between the kale and the picket fence. Hopefully we will enjoy them in February.

It was an adventure putting up the poly tunnels in advance of the snow. We used pvc pipe jammed into the raised beds. The force of the hoop against the board sides of the beds provides enough support to keep the hoops in place. Then it was draping the sheets of plastic over the hoops and securing it with rocks. Fortunately we have an abundance of rocks.

The parsley is loving the additional warmth.....

...as well as the Swiss Chard and arugula. Lettuce, beets, carrots, fava beans and some hearty peppers are still producing as well has numerous herbs leading to experiments with herbed ricotta and ravioli. I even have one tunnel with a late tomato trying to hang on!