My Annual Bittersweet Project

Every year around this time the bittersweet is ready to pick.   I just love bittersweet!  It grows wild around here, and is so colorful.   The birds love it, too, so I leave plenty for them.  But I pick enough to do something with.   Bittersweet makes wonderful fall decorations, really nice for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.    Thanksgiving is a forgotten holiday now - stores come out with Christmas stuff right after back-to-school sales.  I get very upset when I hear folks call Thanksgiving "turkey day".  Thanksgiving is not a day to glorify the turkey - it is a day to give thanks to God for all our blessings!  It seems like anymore Thanksgiving has become just a day to eat a big turkey meal, watch football, and shop for Christmas gifts on early black Friday sales.   Well, we don't eat turkey in this house - my husband doesn't like it, I don't eat it (I am a vegetarian), we hate football, and don't do all the crazy shopping.  For us, Thanksgiving is truly a day for visiting friends and family, and prayerfully reflecting on all the blessings of the year.   But I digress............

Usually I make some sort of wall decorations with bittersweet, but this year I decided to do table decor instead.   My first project was to do something special for our front porch, the enclosed entry to our house.   I always like that room to look good.  I had a few sprigs leftover and used them to make a harvest look basket for the living room table.   Here's what I did today:

Here is the pile of bittersweet I gathered from the wild.  It is hard to gather, as the vines wind around tree branches so much that it is hard to unwind!  Some of the bittersweet grew in deep ditches that I couldn't get to, and some vines were a little too high to reach.  Now, what to make with all of this!?!

My first project was to dress up the porch table.  I put sprigs in a large brown ceramic bowl, added a paper twist bow, and bound some of the smaller pieces into a sort of nosegay to set by a small pumpkin from the garden.   The white tablecloth sets things off nicely, don't you think?

I had a few small pieces left,so I tucked them into a basket of squash and pumpkins from the garden, added a checked paper twist bow, and added some dried corn cobs.   This makes a nice centerpiece for the living room!  To me, this says "fall" in a very natural way.

Decorating with things found in nature is so much fun!  Using what I had on hand, and a little imagination, makes for cozy country-look decor.   No need to go to the hobby store or spend big money!

Riding Along In The Sugar Beet Truck

Today I rode with husband Harold in the beet truck out in the fields.  The sugar beet harvest is a fascinating process and I always enjoy riding along for part of the day.  Harold has driven a beet truck during harvest time for about 15 years now, and always the same old Mack truck.  This is a very busy time now around here as farmers are harvesting beets, soybeans, and corn.   Everyone who is willing to drive a truck of any kind can find a job working in the fields.  And there is a real shortage of drivers, too.  Many of the drivers are older guys who are retired.  Some drivers are guys with regular jobs but take their vacation time to drive a beet truck.  Sad to say that younger guys have no desire to drive a truck in the fields, and even if they did, most of the trucks are clutch type trucks and younger folks only know how to drive automatics!  During harvest season the pay is very good (high hourly wage!) in an effort to attract drivers!  When Harold finishes the beets he is often asked to drive a truck for corn harvest, too.
      Here are photos I took today while riding along.  Most were taken from inside the truck, as there wasn't time for me to step out and get the 'proper angle'!  Harvesting beets is a dusty and often muddy job, so the windshield gets rather dirty.  The pictures here reflect that windshield full of field mud!  It is also a bumpy ride so some of the photos might be a little on the blurry side.
     I have written articles before regarding sugar beets.   There are more photos on the Oct 2015 post.

We start off in the field.  Harold drives the truck right alongside the beet lifter tractor, and we both follow the beet topper tractor.  The tops of the beets are cut off by the first tractor, then the second tractor pulls a lifter which digs and loads the beets via conveyor belt into Harold's truck. 

The loader tractor operator waves to us!

This is a very sizable beet field which took about 2 days of 24 hour shifts to finish.   We follow the topper about 50 feet behind.

Harold concentrates on keeping the truck alongside the lifter tractor and watching the two lights seen on the right hand side of the photo.  When the lifter guy wants Harold to slow down, he puts the red light on.  When he wants Harold to speed up a little more, he puts the green light on.   The truck and the tractor ride along less than 18 inches apart, and travel at about the same speed.   As one part of the truck bed gets filled with beets, Harold has to move slightly ahead or slow down to make a new space for beets to be loaded into.   Harold works the night shift from 2 a.m. to 2 p.m. so he has to concentrate on this even in the dark!

Sometimes trucks don't follow the lifters and toppers.  This farmer has purchased "lifter carts" that go around the field gathering beets behind the toppers.  Truck drivers then drive up alongside a full cart and get loaded with beets.  You can see one truck being loaded in this photo.  The farm that Harold drives for has more than 18,000 acres.  The carts help somewhat, but many drivers are required.   They have at least a dozen or so drivers.

This part of the state is quite flat and pretty much all farm land.  There are very few paved roads, most of the roads are gravel.  Here you can see a loaded beet truck going back to the piler station.  The roads are very dusty and by the end of the harvest season they are quite torn up by the heavily loaded trucks.

Before going to the piler, trucks go to the scale house to get weighed.

Here are two kinds of trucks at the piler.  On the right is a bottom conveyor truck unloading beets.  On the left is the typical truck that unloads by raising the bed high.   We are waiting in line for our turn to unload.  All beets go to the middle and are then heaped onto the beet pile via conveyor belt. that moves from left to right spreading beets.

The truck beds raise quite high to unload the beets.

A view of the middle of the piler with beets on the conveyor belt.

The pile of beets is getting quite high already.  Many farmers from the surrounding area bring their beets here.  There are 106 beet pilers in the Red River Valley area.  Beets are piled about 32 feet high and covered with tarps and aerators during the winter.  American Crystal Sugar Co uses these beets to make various sugar products.

After the beets are unloaded at the piler, the tare (weight of dirt left in the truck) is unloaded in the tare field.  Here a truck is raising the bed high to unload the tare.

All day long at the piler, beets get spilled all over the place and crushed.  These are some stray beets in the picture.   Sugar beets are about 7 inches long and 5 inches wide on average, with some beets being much larger. 

All day long Harold gets load after load of beets - usually about one load per hour or less.   In this photo you can see how close the truck and lifter are from each other.

No matter what field he is in, the scenery is about the same!  Almost all of North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota looks just like this!  But this part of the country supplies a great amount of wheat, corn, soy beans, edible beans, sugar beets, barley, potatoes and oats to feed the world.   Some folks in big cities will laugh, but North Dakota puts a lot of potatoes and bread on American tables. 

This pile of sugar beets is already about 32 feet high.  (By the way, don't you just love the little silver bulldog on the hood of Harold's Mack truck?)  This truck is 36 years old, has over 750,000 miles on it, and was formerly a truck up on the Iron Range area in north central Minnesota, working in the mines.  Harold has driven this truck for 23 of the 36 years, as this truck used to belong to another farmer that Harold drove for many years ago.   None of the other drivers like this truck, so Harold gets his old #7 Mack every year.  He says he truly feels at home driving this old gal.  There is one other guy (old and retired) who can drive this old touchy, somewhat quirky truck, and he takes the day time shift.

Besides drivers, there are people who operate the piler equipment and direct the drivers, handle load tickets,  and also clean up beet spills.  These are workers from American Crystal Sugar.  They wear warm clothes and hard hats and spend all day outside.  A tough job.   Rain, shine, cold wind - they are outside for a 12 hour shift.

Favorite Honey Wheat Bran Bread

I thought I would share one of my favorite bread recipes for those of you who bake bread at home.   This bread is my old stand-by and always tastes great, and makes good toast and sandwiches.   My husband recently bought me a sack of a very finely ground whole wheat flour that he bought at the Amish Store near here.   I must say that it made for a very nice loaf, and I will be buying more of their flour.

BASIC HONEY WHEAT BRAN BREAD

2 cups of warm liquid (I use half milk and half water)

1/4 cup honey

2 1/2 tsp salt

3 T butter 

1 cup wheat bran (like Miller's Bran)

1 or 2 cups of whole wheat flour (I usually use about a cup and a half)

unbleached bread flour (I usually use somewhere around 3 or 4 cups)

2 T. (or 2 pkgs) yeast 

1/2 cup warm water 

1/2 tsp sugar

In a large (microwaveable) bowl put the 2 c. warm liquid, honey, salt and butter.  Microwave for 3 minutes to scald the milk.  When the liquid is still hot, sprinkle in the bran and let it sit while you proof the yeast.   To proof the yeast:  sprinkle the yeast over the water in a small bowl, add the sugar, and cover the bowl with a cloth to proof until bubbly - takes about 5 minutes.  

     Then add the yeast mix to the milk mix, and start stirring in flour.  When it gets hard to mix in any more flour, turn out onto a floured board and knead in small amounts of additional flour until you have a springy, smooth dough.  I usually knead for about 8 minutes.   Try not to add any more flour than you have to.  Scrape the board often.  Then turn into a greased bowl, turn the dough over, and cover with wax paper and a cloth to rise until double.  When the dough has risen double, punch down and divide into two parts and form into loaves and place in two greased 9 x 5 pans.  Let rise again until almost double.   Bake for 38 minutes in a 400 degree oven, or until the loaves sound hollow when you thump them out of the pan. 

Note:  Sometimes I add about 1/2 cup of potato flakes (packaged, like in a bag) to the warm milk mix.  This makes for a great toasting bread, and the dough rises really high, so I make three 8 x 4 loaves then, instead of two 9 x 5's. 

Nothing better than fresh honey wheat bread!

Popcorn Shelling Day

Today we used our new corn sheller and new tub (an old fashioned no.3 wash tub, yes they still make those!) and shelled out all the popcorn.  The new corn sheller worked great!  We bought the sheller from Pleasant Hill Grains in Nebraska and it is just like the vintage ones, works the same, but is new and shiny.  For about 10 days we have had the popcorn ears in a large box with a grate on the bottom (same one we used for hops drying), with a fan blowing underneath.  Today we felt the popcorn was dry enough to shell.  Now we have to put the shelled popcorn into trays to dry further, and then test pop from time to time to see if we have the right moisture content for popping.   When we do, then the popcorn goes into storage jars.  We will have plenty of popcorn for Christmas gifts, and to sell at our market booth.   Everyone seems to love our homegrown popcorn!   This year we got about 2/3 of last year's yield.  It was a dry summer, followed by a very wet end of summer.  Next year we plan on planting about twice as much or more.
     Here are some photos of the process today.   We have a few kinks to iron out yet........like a way to prevent the corn from being slung all over the place. and perhaps a motorized crank for next year.   The whole process took us only about 3 hours. 

Some of the popcorn ears ready to shell.  They are dry enough to put through the corn sheller.

We set up in the dining area to do this.  I have just finished shelling an ear, and I'll throw it in the scrap bucket next to me.

We had a problem with the corn flying all over the place during the shelling process, so we thought maybe a plastic bag would help to direct the corn flow.   It didn't help at all.

What finally helped a lot was a "deflector" Harold made and screwed onto the support board.   We also put a tablecloth on the floor to catch a lot of the pieces that seemed to fly out.   The ears of corn are inserted into the top, the handle is turned, the teeth of the sheller strip the popcorn from the ear, and the empty ear is returned through the green part.  Harold built a nice frame to set the tub and sheller on, making it a very stable base for shelling.

Here is about 95 lbs of popcorn!  A little less than last year, but we're happy!

Too Early For Snow!

The weather in Florida is bad today, but so is our weather!  We are getting our second snowstorm of the season today.  Supposedly we're poised to get 4 to 6 inches of heavy wet snow by the time this storm ends on Thursday afternoon.  This snow has delayed the farmers getting their crops harvested, and has delayed us, too, in our attempts to finish yard and garden chores before "real" winter sets in!  Many farmers still have to finish getting in the soybeans, corn, edible beans and sugar beets.    It's just way too early to be looking out the window at accumulating snow.   For the past week or so temperatures have not gotten above 45 degrees, and tomorrow night we are to get down to 22.   It's a good day to stay inside and catch up on indoor chores I guess.   And a good day to warm up the house with a nice oven meal.   For our lunch today we had boneless pork ribs and kraut (trying this year's batch of homemade kraut - it was yummy!), and roasted veggies from the garden, mini acorn squash (called Honey Bear squash) and for dessert large red holiday grapes and Rice Crispy Bars.   We always eat our main meal at 1:00 and have almost nothing for supper, maybe just some cheese and crackers and raw veggies. 
     Here are some views of our snowstorm today:

The snow began in earnest around 10:00 a.m.  Good thing we got the popcorn harvested last week before all this snow came!

A couple days ago Harold tried to use the Lo-Boy tractor to mow the garden before plowing under, but the rains made everything too muddy, and now the snow is here.

The driveway is starting to get very slushy.

Last night Harold managed to bring in another load of wood for winter.

The snow is starting to pile up pretty good!  We already have a couple inches on the ground.  Hopefully we won't get the 6 inches predicted.  The leaves are already off the trees - just a few left on oaks.  Our colorful fall season is over.

An Early Fall Day on the Farm

It's been a while since I posted anything here.   We've been very busy with house guests and chores, and Harold has been working with the sugar beet harvest, helping with the pre-lift.  The regular beet harvest season starts on October 1st and he will be putting in 12 hour shifts out in the beet fields then, driving a truck between the field and the piler.   I took some photos today of things around here.  The trees are starting to get very pretty now.  I am finishing up canning today with a batch of applesauce.  The other day I canned up 20 lbs of tomatoes.  Next week I plan to work on taking the gardens apart and cleaning things up and planting garlic in the greenhouse.   Winter will be here sooner than we like!
     Last week my son Kelly came out with a couple of his sons to get the hops harvest.  This is our second year growing hops and we had a pretty good amount for a harvest.  Kelly does artisan/craft beer making for a hobby, and asked if we would grow some organic hops for him.

Harold set up a sort of blower system to air dry the hops.  He made a frame around an old Peterbilt truck grill, and we put a fan underneath.   It worked very well to dry the hops. 

A closer view of the hops harvest.   This is about 3 lbs  of hops.  I kept some to try making a hops sleep pillow, which is supposed to help with sleep problems. 

The hops grow on vines about 20 ft high supported on special fiber ropes. 

A close up of the hops

Harold has been cutting wood for winter.   He has a couple cords so far, but we need about 8 more cords!

Harold unloads another truck load before lunch.

Harold is working hard to get the winter wood in.  As you can see, the side of the house is finished with siding now, too. 

A few weeks ago, the side of the house was not finished, and Harold and brother in law Tom worked to finish that.

The guys used Harold's tractor loader as scaffolding to finish the siding on the house.  Harold built a safety rail for good measure.   We will paint the house next spring.  Even the dirt work is almost complete.

I found a nice bunch of green beans in the garden to fix for lunch!  Yes, we still have a few things growing in the garden - lima beans, green beans, peppers and greenhouse tomatoes.

The rest of the garden is a complete weedy mess!  We will take out the tomato rebar stakes, and just mow everything down with the brush hog attachment on the Lo-Boy tractor.   You can see the popcorn crop is still drying at the far end of the garden.

I like to decorate for fall.  Here are a couple of fall decorations I put up.

Two of my favorite fall wreaths that I made.  The one on the left is made from corn husks and bittersweet last year.  The one on the right is a 40 yr old wreath that I keep re-doing from time to time with fresh things.   These wreaths are on my front porch wall.

Before Harold mowed down the cornstalks of the sweet corn, I made this yard decoration.  Unfortunately my farm cats love to climb this so I wonder how long it will look pretty!

Speaking of farm cats, here's a couple pictures of a few of them:

These are the spring kittens all grown now.  Can you tell it was just about feeding time???

I told my kitty Thunder to "smile" - this is his version of smiling!

This year I tried to grow a flower called statice.  It is used a lot for dry floral arrangements.  I just fell in love with this plant!  It is easy to grow and makes lovely vases of dried flowers with lasting color.   Next year I want to plant a LOT of it, and make wreaths and decorative bouquets and dried floral swags for my farmer's market booth.  The seeds are hard to get started because they are almost microscopic in size, but once the plant gets growing it is easy to maintain and is a cut-and-come-again type of flower.

A bunch of statice drying on my back porch.

I put a nice sized bunch of it in a decorative pitcher and bowl in my bathroom.  I think it looks so cute, don't you think?

We may not do exciting things here on Honey B Farm, but we certainly enjoy the simple life and all the things that we do.   It is very satisfying to grow our own food and decorations, and cut our own wood (free heat for the house this winter!).  Next on our agenda is the popcorn harvest!  We bought a brand new corn sheller for that purpose.  Stay tuned for a blog article on that one!

Picking The Rest Of The Apples

Today was a nice sunny day and we decided we had better pick the rest of the apples off the tree.   The birds were eating into the apples right off the tree, and the wasps were  digging into some of them, too.  I don't mind feeding wildlife, but I draw the line on them eating MY apples! (Especially when I sell them at my farm market booth! Now we are talking money!)  I think most folks in the country pick apples in late September or October, but up here in northern Minnesota, "fall" is just about now.  And so is the apple picking season.  In about 3 weeks the fall colors on the trees will be at peak color or beyond, and by October 1st we are looking at bare trees again for six months.  So it made good sense to get the rest of the apples today.   Oh, what a crop we had this year!  When our two other apple trees put out this many apples, we will have to have a U-Pick operation I think!

Most of the remaining apples were up high, so between a ladder, the pickup truck and our apple picking pole we had our work cut out for us this morning!

Harold uses the apple picker he made on a long pole to get some of the good ones from the top of the tree.

Harold made this apple picker years ago from 1/8 inch rods that he welded and bent, and we put this on an old paintstick pole that extends.   It does a great job reaching those high up apples with little or no effort.

Here are 3 more tubs of apples!  Our Prairie Magic apple tree is 9 years old and gave us hundreds of apples this year.  We also have for future growing a Zestar tree and a Cortland tree.