Part of the herd grazing Fall grasses and clover
Fall is definitely in the air and in the leaves. The dogwoods have been turning for the past couple of weeks and we can now easily discern the gums and poplars, as well. We have wakened to low 40 temperatures all week. It is such a relief after the brutal hot and dry summer we had and such a delight to take a look at the herd in the morning as they rip through the Fall forage.
I spread a ton of Fertrell organic fertilizer a couple of weeks ago to replace some of the nutrients that go into the beef that leaves the farm. We do soil testing every year and are seeing continual, steady improvement. We could give the land a big blast of chemical fertilizer, but the effects are not long-lasting and only serve to degrade the life of the soil, as well as the watercourses downstream. Combined with our continual rotational grazing plan, we feel that we are moving in the right direction, if ever so slowly. Patience is the name of the game.
We shipped our first two steers to Farmhand Foods last month and will deliver another two next week. We will complete this year's commitment to them with five more in November. We are impressed with their efforts to aggregate small- to medium-sized beef and pork producers with Triangle region restaurants and consumers. They have lined up an impressive array of suppliers and are continuing to expand their lineup of end-users. We are quite proud to be part of this group. If you go to their website and click on Our Farmers - Beef you will see a nice write-up on Windy Meadows and just about my favorite photo of granddaughters Avery and Lily.
Fall is my favorite time of year. I made the first fire of the year in my study woodstove this morning. It is a pure delight to sit at my desk with a hot cup of tea and the fire crackling. Fall is also a time for a change of line-up on the dinner table. We had beans-and-greens with some of the spicy braising mix that Laura sent out to the CSA members earlier this week. Kristine picked all the remaining fruit on the Nikita's Gift persimmon. In a few days they will ripen to deep, translucent red. They are a good bit larger than the wild persimmons and have very few seeds with a very sweet, tropical taste.
Nikita's Gift Persimmon
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