Green Tomato Salsa Verde

My father in law always plants a few tomato plants every year in his yard and this year was no different.  But this year he has been plagued with blossom end rot and has only been able to harvest a few ripe tomatoes from them.  He has left the tomatoes to ripen on the vine, fall to the ground and rot.  When I was there yesterday I asked if it was ok if I harvested the remaining green tomatoes on the vines to use.  McKayla and I picked 12 3/4 pounds of green tomatoes off of those two plants!

So now I just need to use them up... the first thing I am making is a green tomato salsa verda.  Salsa verde is a traditional Mexican sauce made with tomatillos.  Tomatillos, although resembling green tomatoes are actually related to cape gooseberries.  My 2009 "Ball Blue Book guide to preserving" has a recipe for Tomatillo Salsa which along with the recipe for Green Tomato Salsa Verde at ModernComfortFood is how I came up with the following recipe:

Mild Green Tomato Salsa Verde:

4 pounds green tomatoes, cored and quartered
2 cups yellow onion, coarsely chopped
2 green jalapeño peppers, coarsely chopped
6 garlic cloves, peeled and coarsely chopped
2 teaspoons sea salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
2 tablespoons olive oil
6 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon fresh lime zest
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 teaspoon honey or sugar
2/3 cup loosely packed cilantro leaves, coarsely chopped

1. Combine the green tomatoes, onion, jalapeños, garlic, salt, cumin, olive oil, and water in a stock pot. Bring to a boil and cook covered on a medium-low heat burner for approximately 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until tomatoes and onions are soft.
2. Stir in and simmer for an additional five minutes the lime zest, lime juice, honey (or sugar), and cilantro. Taste the mixture and adjust the seasoning, if needed.
3. Blend the mixture in the pot with a stick blender or spoon into the container of a food processor or blender and pulse until the salsa reaches the consistency you prefer, either chunky or a smooth puree.  Makes approximately two quarts of salsa.
4. Ladle into sterilized jars and process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes.  Remove jars from the water and allow to cool on the counter.  Test tops for a good seal and refrigerate any that have not sealed properly and use within 2-3 weeks.

Other farm happenings today:
Our alpaca stud Novio bred our female Aberdeen this afternoon.  I will have to keep watch to see if she spits him off in the future.
Spotted a hummingbird in the marigolds in the greenhouse.

Earth Day

Today is Earth Day.  We already do many things everyday that others only think to do today.  For example, we recycle as much as we can, I always pre-cycle if possible (meaning I purchase items with the least amount of packaging involved or with an intended use for the package once it is empty), I shop with cloth or other reusable bags, I use "green" cleaning products, we use hand towels in the kitchen and cotton dishcloths to wash dishes, we grow or raise much of our own food here on the farm, and I buy organic when it is an option.  But when Earth Day comes around I like to get the kids excited and involved with conservation projects.  This year we did lots of fun things.

First the kids made birdhouses from kits they had received at Christmas.

It seemed like a perfect day to build and paint them.  This weekend I will have Neil help me hanging them up.

Then we made Bird Food Pinecones to feed the birds.

I gathered the few ingredients together and we headed out on the deck.  We tied string to four pinecones and set aside.  We then mixed 1 cup vegetable shortening, 2 cups corn meal, 1 cup sunflower seeds and a cup of oatmeal together.

The kids smushed the mixture into the pinecones.  You could roll them in bird seed at this point but we didn't have any on hand. 

Then Evan hung them in the trees out by the kid's playground for the birds to find. 

In the afternoon we packed up the kid's bikes and went over to a local park that has a walking/bike path.  The kid's love going here since we don't really have a good place to ride bikes on our property. 

We rode for a while then stopped to play on the small playground there.  Evan took it upon himself to start picking up litter around the park and ball field.  I was so proud of him!

Then this evening we created some Egghead critters by filling empty egg shells with potting soil and drawing faces on them.  Then we planted some clover seeds in them and watered well.  In a few days our little eggheads should have some crazy hair growing on them.

We did get a postcard in the mail today... from Wisconsin.  I am not sure how they knew that both Evan and I are fond of big red barns...

What's in the bag hunny?

Neil and his Dad were working on the garage today and I wandered down to say "hi" and see how everything was going. Neil says to me, "Hey, have a look in my tool bag hanging on the wall."

So I walk over and look inside and this is what I see...

Four little birds peaking up at me!

What is that I see?

I was surprised this morning to see Emmie, one of our Anatolian livestock guardian dogs, barking at our alpaca stud, Novio, as she chased him along the fence line. This is not a behavior she usually does. I stood at the window for a second watching before I noticed a smallish sized animal with very long legs also running along the fence line after Emmie. My first thought was one of the alpacas must have given birth early this morning as I have 3 that I am expecting to birth any day now. But, something wasn't right... the neck of this long legged creature was too short to be an alpaca. I squinted my eyes up with disbelief... this was a fawn! A very tiny fawn... inside the woven wire fencing of our pasture.

I slipped on the barn boots and headed out to the pasture to confirm what I had seen. All the alpacas in the pasture were standing off to one side watching this little foreign creature in their pasture. Emmie and Berk, our LGDs, were following close behind what was most defiantly a newborn deer fawn. How it got into the pasture is beyond me and I wasn't quite sure what I should do about it. I tried at first to catch it but it just continued to run from me and slam itself into the fencing so I quickly gave up the chase.

Back at the house I called the local animal control office but had to leave a message since they weren't open yet. I waited 10-15 minutes but really felt I needed to do something, anything, to help this fawn. It didn't take long to do a search on the internet to find a name of a wildlife rehabilitator here in North Carolina. I called and spoke with the rehab person and was told to catch the fawn and put it into the woods and was assured that the mother would find it.

So, out to the pasture I go. I don't see the fawn running around anymore. But Emmie is laying quietly in the grass so I go over to see her. As I get closer I can see the fawn in the grass at Emmie's feet safe and sound. As I get even closer Emmie starts in with a low growl and shows her teeth. She has decided that this fawn is her charge and is protecting it... even from me.

With no hope of reaching in to get the fawn without Emmie removing part of my arm I headed back to the barn. I hadn't fed the dogs yet this morning and I hoped that food would tempt Emmie away from the fawn. It worked, but not easily, she did not want to leave the fawn alone in the field but her empty stomach won in the end. Emmie came down to the barn and I locked her up in the stall with her brother to eat like I do every morning.

Back out at the fawn I went and very slowly as I was afraid it would pop up and run without Emmie there. But no it lay still as I reached down to pick it up. I tucked its little legs in tight to make it feel safe while I carried it. I stood not 20 feet from the wood but our 6 foot high woven wire was between it and me and no gate. We had to walk away from the wood toward the barn, go through the gate there and then walk all the way around the pasture to get to the other side of the fence by the wood. I went about 50 feet into the wood and found an open space in the trees that still had some cover. I put the fawn down and because I could feel it want to bolt away I held it firm to the ground until it relaxed. I stepped back and the fawn stayed still for a moment and then slowly raised up and made its way into the brush.

I truly hope the doe finds her fawn once all is quiet and our scent is cold. But I never will know for sure...

Well, look what the cat dragged in...

These two boys, Fringe and Jet, are the two cats that we adopted from the Animal Shelter last October. After our last farm cat, Sweet Pea, went missing last summer we needed to get some farm cats to keep our rodent population in check. If you have any size farm that has livestock you are going to have livestock feed. Livestock feed gets spilled and attracts rodents. Cats are the answer.

These two spoiled "barn cats" can come and go from the house at will through a kitty door off the back of the house. This works well... most of the time. I like that they come into the house to eat (it keeps me from feeding the stray cats around), sleep (usually in my bed) and I like being able to see them everyday to make sure they are ok. What is not so great is the trophies that they bring back after a hunt.

I have removed dead mice, voles, squirrels, alive and dead birds, live wild rabbit kits, and recently, numerous lizards. So, it was no shock to me this afternoon when the kids yelled from the bedroom that there was yet another lizard in the house. I yelled back, "is it dead?" and I got a resounding "No!" from the kids. By the time I made it to the bedroom McKayla was holding the lizard and both her and Evan wanted to know if we could keep it as a pet.

My first reaction was to let it loose outside but after enduring the pleading of the kids I relented to keep it for "awhile" before letting it loose again. It just so happens that we have an unoccupied reptile cage setup complete with heat rock so that became its new temporary home.

Meet Izzie:
Izzie is about 7 inches long from nose to tip of tail. A quick search on the Internet told us that Izzie was an Eastern Fence Lizard. Their main diet is spiders (I like this lizard already) and other insects. So, Izzie is going to hang out with us for a bit so the kids can observe its behavior. We will then return it to the woods where hopefully it will avoid the cats in future!

Red Bellied Woodpecker

I was doing dishes this afternoon and noticed a flash of red on the tree out by my garden. It was a beautiful woodpecker. I pointed it out right away to McKayla who was in the kitchen with me. She too spotted it with no problem (which isn't always the case with a four year old).

We watched for a few seconds as it plucked insects from the bark of the tree before I thought to get my camera. He stuck around long enough for me to get a few pictures. Thank goodness for zoom!


Our bird field guide says that it is a Red Bellied Woodpecker. I have not seen one here before... I hope he comes to visit again.

Fun day at the NC Zooilogical Park

We got an early start today and drove the 2 hours to Asheboro, NC to spend the day at the NC Zoo with good friends that drove up from SC. What a fun day viewing amazing animals and watching the kids play together. There were several memorable moments but I think that top of the list would have to be the end of our visit watching the polar bear. He jumped into the water while we were at the underwater viewing area. He totally played up the crowd. We stayed and watched for over twenty minutes before the kids were ready to move on... but the adults would have stayed until the polar bear was done.

Baby Bunnies

First thing I checked on this morning before doing all my chores was the baby bunnies born sometime yesterday afternoon. I moved the layer of rabbit fur from the box and found them still wiggling about. I gently moved a few around to try to get a better count and discovered at least 7 kits in the box. There maybe more as I didn't dig down in the pile. I guess as they get older I will know more.



I am still a little worried about Purslane nursing them enough as this is her first kindling and, at least when I am around, she is not in the box that often. Only once today did I see her get the box and rearrange the nesting material but I didn't see her settle down to nurse.

At evening chores I again peeked into the box, this time using a flashlight, and I still saw the kits moving around so hopefully my fears are unwarranted.

Oh, Emmie, our LGD got sprayed by a skunk last night so the whole barn smells skunky today. A 125 lb livestock gaurd dog is not the kind of dog you can bath so I will just have to wait for the smell to fade away by itself.

The hens gave 14 eggs today.

An unexpected visitor....

On May 1st I was outside myself late in the afternoon at the farm. I was driving the tractor in front of the barn and I saw something move in the grass. I quickly realized it was a snake. Not a big snake, maybe only 18 inches long and little bigger then a pencil around. I stopped the tractor and ran inside to get my camera... hoping that the snake would stay put until I get back.

Well, he did and I got a few good shots before it began to move along. I moved over to the big tree between the kid's playground and the woods. I was a little surprised to see him go right up the tree. I snapped a few more photos and then left him alone and went back to work.

Meanwhile, we have been so busy that I had forgotten about the little snake until today when Neil called out to me when I was in the barn. He and Evan were watching a snake in the same place I saw one last week. It looked just the same but this one was only about 12 inches long. Evan and I watched it move along toward the chicken coop end of the barn.

Here is one of the photos from last week...


I figured I should find out what kind of snake it was for sure... even though I thought I knew what it was. So, I went to the "Snakes of North Carolina" web site. I was glad to discover it was what I thought it was: a juvenile Black Rat Snake. Here is a photo from the web site and the description:

Description: Black Rat Snakes (Elaphe obsoleta obsoleta) range between 3.3 ft. and 6.6 ft. (1.02-2.03 m) in length. As the common name infers, the dorsal coloration of the Black Rat snake is black. Some specimens are solid black, some have faint blotches on the their dorsum, and others' dorsums are patterned with light fleckingbetween the scales. Juveniles have dark dorsal patterns on light gray backgrounds. The ventralside of these snakes is white or gray and frequently it is mottled with gray.

Range/Habitat: Black Rat Snakes are common in the mountains and Piedmont. They interbreed with Yellow Rat Snakes in the northeastern Coastal Plain. Yellow Rat snakes are common throughout the eastern Coastal Plain. Both subspecies inhabit wooded areas and nearby habitat.

Reproduction: Rat Snakes in the Carolinas breed from April to June and during the fall. The female lays between 5 and 40 elongated eggs between June and August.

Prey: Rat snakes are excellent climbers and they are frequently found in trees. Their arboreal nature enables them to feed on birds and their eggs. They also eat small mammals and lizards.

Behavior: Rat Snakes may crawl away when they are confronted but often they remain motionless and sometimes kink their body. If escape is not possible they may vibrate their tails and strike.