Another party PLUS the annual apple harvest

 We headed to the farm Saturday morning and Kippy got to celebrate her 12th birthday one more time!  This time with family and extended family from out of town (Aunt Joan, Aunt Judy, cousins Julie & Maria).

 By special request, Grandma Rose made a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting, plus a few extra chocolate mustaches to go with.

 

 It wasn't all about the party at the farm.  There was some work to be done. While Uncle Randy, cousin Brett, & cousin Kaleb were busy bringing in the corn harvest, the rest of the clan worked to get the apple harvest completed.  Although, much of the low hanging fruit had already been feasted on, there was still work to be done.

 The apple trees were loaded with apples, but many of them had become food for the birds who also realized how juicy and delicious those honey crisp apples were. 

 Steve got his traditional job of loading up in dad's Cherry Picker and harvesting all the apples too high to reach by step ladder.

 Dad was in position to catch the apples that Steve threw down and Kippy sorted the apples into the appropriate bucket.  The sorting isn't an exact science, but there is a method to the madness.

If there was nothing salvageable with the apple, it would go into the crap-apple bucket.  These apples got fed to the chickens.  Bluck!  This is all bird damage.  Dirty birds!!

Completely perfect, unblemished apples were put in the "teacher" apple bucket.  These apples were shined up by Kippy and personally handed out to each of the teachers at Our Lady of Victory.

The rest of the apples were sorted out for apple sauce, apple pie or just plain old eating.

 Of course, there was always a kitten or two around to get a little extra attention from Kippy.

 Abby practiced some of her newly acquired driving skills by taking a load of crap-apples to the chickens.

We also didn't miss an opportunity to get some photos of Kippy next to her now 12 year old Red Canadian Cherry tree.  And Meg didn't miss a chance to get some extra love from Kippy too.

An Egg-citing Easter

 It had been a L O N G five months since we had been back to the farm.  Mostly because we celebrated the Thanksgiving and Christmas Holidays at alternate locations AND since my folks had been frolicking down south for the past 3 months. It was so nice to get back to my familiar childhood home, but mostly to see mom & dad again!

I brought along a few projects for the cousins to work on together.  One project was "Fun-in-the-middle" cupcakes.  It was a multi-step process to mix up the batter, partially fill the cupcakes, squeeze in some fun chocolate into the center, cover with more batter, bake, frost & decorate, but the kids did a great job.  Nixin was the most excited because he was in charge of adding the sprinkles to the cupcakes.  He was so careful about it.  Of course, everyone LOVED eating them the most.  Nixin was adamant that if you didn't eat a "Fun-in-the-middle" cupcake, then you would NEVER have any fun AGAIN! I didn't want to miss out on fun so I ate TWO!  hahaha 

  It wouldn't be Easter without dyeing the eggs.  Some of the eggs used were brown eggs from Kaleb's faithful hens, which made for some interesting color combinations.  The kids were pretty creative and the  fairy dust glitter not only made the eggs sparkly, but pretty much everyone's faces too. Nothing like a little glitter to make your nose itch, right?

 One of my favorite reoccurring conversations of the weekend was with my seven year old nephew, Nixin.  He was constantly surprising me with his unique talents.  When I complimented him on how great he was with puzzles, he told me he was a "Puzzle Master".  Then when he mixed up the cupcake batter, he became a cupcake Master.  Soon, I realized there was nothing this kid couldn't do.  He really is a MASTER & I love him to pieces!

Lest you think the weekend was all baking & crafting... I want to assure you that there was some good old fashioned redneck recreation.  This included speed target shooting with Steve, Russ, Kaleb & me giving it a go.  Nothing beats the smell of gun powder! Russ was the champion, hitting 5 targets in 3.3 seconds.

When Sunday morning rolled around, I sadly discovered that we had forgotten the garment bag with our Easter Finery hanging back in Fergus Falls.  This left three of us with nothing fabulous to wear... Abby smartly packed her clothes in her suitcase, so she was the only one with her intended outfit. A quick SOS call to my niece, who happens to live across the street, and I had a dress.  I borrowed heels from my mom and I was good to go.  Kippy had to be a little more strategic, but the pj's she just gotten from Grandma Rose doubled as a dress.  Abby lent her a cardigan and presto - a cute Easter outfit. Steve recycled the button down shirt he wore on Friday and went with jeans.  Not a very coordinated family, but we made due and that is all that matters!

 While we were at church, Russ & Kristy the Easter Bunny was busy hiding 165 eggs filled with candy throughout the farm.  I know there has never been such creative hiding in the history of Triple R Farms.  The crazy bunny even hid 3 real eggs that were stolen from under the hens!  There was a least an hour of running around hunting up eggs with Nixin being the clear winner.  Remember, he is a MASTER at finding eggs.

Mom prepared a wonderful feast and Uncle Bob & Aunt Judy were able to join in.  Lots of laughter and many wonderful memories = an Egg-citing Easter.

Adventures at da Farm

We knew it was going to be a challenge to get to the farm for Easter this year due to excess water, but I just had no idea the true extent of the damage until we got to see it up close. Our minivan was completely unable to traverse the difficult terrain, so on Friday afternoon we had to rendezvous with my dad 3 miles from the farm on Hwy 11. We transferred our stuff into the back of his Honda Ridgeliner. Unfortunately, it was raining like crazy making an already mucky, muddy gravel road even more treacherous. Three different times the Ridgeliner went sideways and I grabbed the "oh sh!t" bar for dear life while praying like crazy. Thankfully, we arrived at da farm, safe and sound {thanks dad!}.
It wasn't until Saturday when Steve and I went out together on the quad-runner to survey the roads that we really appreciated the destruction. Normally we have 2 western routes, 1 south-east route and 1 northern route to get to the farm. Unfortunately, only one of those routes was an option on Friday and only if you had a four-wheel drive vehicle. Water, water everywhere with large washouts, collapsed culverts, and areas where muskrat tunneling had destroyed the road. To say it looks bad, is an understatement.
So we did the only thing useful we could do and worked on thinning the excessive muskrat population. Believe it or not, even tho' I grew up on the farm with two brothers who are hunting enthusiasts and married another gun-toting addict, I have never in my life shot an animal. Steve helped me learn how to handle his 22 pistol and the next thing I knew, I was huntin' 'skrats. I ended my first real hunting adventure feeling like a true redneck with a score of Renae 2: Muskrats 1. Not bad for my first try and I felt like I was contributing in a very small way to the reduction of one of the causes of the road destruction. Ultimately, Steve is hoping that I will be more supportive of his gun collecting addiction {jury is still out on that}.

Apple Harvest 2010

A bonus of going to the farm last weekend to celebrate Kippy's 10th birthday (September 25 & 26) was being able to help with the Apple harvest. There are two HoneyCrisp apple trees at the farm, which were planted when my neice, Makenzie (1993), and nephew, Kaleb (1996), were born. The tricky thing is that some years there are loads of apples and some years there have been no apples at all. It all depends on the weather when the trees are in bloom. Rain and high winds greatly affect pollination as well as temperature, like a late Spring frost. This year was a little less than average, yeilding 9 five-gallon buckets full of apples, plus a couple of pails full of bruised and banged up apples are used for apple sauce. In a banner year, we can get almost 30 five gallon buckets.

This year the apples were HUGE even tho the yield wasn't great, maybe because of the smaller number of apples on the trees. We had 4 adults and 4 kids helping with harvest. Kaleb got the job of picking from up high in the cherry picker, while Kippy & Logan climbed right up up in the trees to pick. Abby used a ladder, while I helped out with transferring and rating the apples. Grandma Rose was busy cutting up the apples for apple sauce and shared slices with all of the workers. Steve and Grandpa Rod were in charge of moving the ladders and the cherry picker into position. It was a very good time and we have been eating delicious, juicy, crisp, sweet apples every day since then. I love them cut up in salads and in morning oatmeal.

Another option if you have apples that are less than perfect is to make crockpot applesauce.
I don't follow a formal recipe, but this is what I do. I core and quarter enough apples to fill the crockpot 3/4 full. Add 1/2 cup a liquid, I love using orange juice, but think that cranberry juice or apple cider would be good. ...I have used water too. It all works. I sprinkle liberally with cinnamon, add a dash of nutmeg and salt. I also add a couple tablespoons of lemon juice. Cook on high for 3 hours or low for about 6 hours. I simply mash with a potatoe masher because we like it chunky, but if ran through a mill it would be perfectly smooth. The Honeycrisp apples are naturally sweet, so no sugar necessary. Of course, we love it warm with a dollup of ice cream. Tastes like PIE & makes the house smell wonderful! Yum!
How do you like your apples?

Canadian Red Cherry Harvest

The tree planted at the farm when Angelique was born is a Canadian Red Cherry. We always refer to it as Kippy's tree and this past weekend it was harvest time.
Her tree was loaded with very sour cherries which are clustered together like little mini-grapes.
In the past, my mom has been the one to harvest and make either jelly or syrup, which has always been labeled officially as "Kippy Jelly" or "Kippy Syrup" on the jars. {I love that "Kippy" is a brand name for our family.}
Even though we know how sour the cherries are, we couldn't resist just trying one. They have major pucker factor and required LOTS.OF.SUGAR to make them taste good.
Abby, my mom, Steve & I were able to quickly pick nearly two gallons of cherries.

And we didn't even resort to using a ladder! {So no injuries to report} I was a bit reluctant to try my hand at creating something edible from the harvest. I did some searching on-line to find some recipes to follow. Everything I found said to use a 1:2 juice to sugar ratio. That is a lot of sugar when you've extracted 11 cups of juice from the cherries! I ended up going with a 1:1 juice to sugar ratio and was happy with the results.
Kippy took over stirring duties after I extracted the juice. So far, we have made 6 jars of jelly and 1 1/2 quarts of syrup. Have to run back to the store and get more sugar or else let the last 4 cups of juice slowly go down the drain. Next time, we should only pick one gallon of cherries.

Wordless Wednesday

You can take this girl from the farm, but not the farm from this girl.






Photos taken on Saturday, July 24, 2010

Making fun at the farm

Growing up on the farm, we were used to making our own fun. Our kids get to experience that a little bit when they are back at the Sell farm. Fun can take many forms... in this case, it was a tree swing.
An old tire, some rope and a tree branch are all that is required. Steve got the job of hanging it up.
Kippy was determined to steady the ladder for him because she remembers her dad's previous ladder issues. Plus, when you are at the farm, the ER is 15 miles away.

Kaleb was in charge of using the 4-wheeler to hold the tire up while the knots were being tied.

Let the fun begin!

READY.... SET....

GO!!

Fun on the farm

We spent a couple days at the farm this past weekend. Russ & Kristy's boys were there as well as Randy & Anna's kids, which means all 7 grand-kids were hanging out. So what do you do for fun when you are at the farm? One idea is to have a contest to see who can find the most unique treasures. The results were pretty interesting. I ended up being the reluctant judge of their bucket finds.
Or you can ride your bike... Nixin was champion of that even though there aren't any paved roads. He is a biking machine!
How about building a fort out of tomato cages? Noah, Kippy and Logan created windows, doors, and separate rooms. They even pulled long grass and laid it down for the floor. So creative plus they entertained themselves for hours.
After having the kids work for an hour gathering branches and fallen trees, you can have a huge bonfire and roast some marshmallows. No pictures, but it was very impressive... and fun.

Clowning around with your cousins is a must. And notice the traditional bright red Kool-Aid lips.
Exploring in the barn and discovering a new batch of kittens was one of the highlights of the weekend for Noah, Kippy and Logan. They quickly named the 5 kitties (Ella, Alice, Mario, Marie & Patches). Noah desperately wanted to bring one home.
Or just spending time hanging out on the porch, telling stories and laughing. My favorite thing of all to do!
I had to grab Abby's traditional picture beside her birthday tree. Both Abby and her crab-apple tree are 12 years old.