No spear to spare

One might not think a few shoots of asparagus emerging from the ground would create much cause for conversation, but in my case recently it has.

About a week ago my friend Sue came over to knit. As we chatted, she said her asparagus was coming up. We had a similar conversation last year, and I had been overcome with asparagus envy. We ordered a few two-year-old roots and planted them in the hopes of having a few homegrown spears this spring.

I had completely forgotten about the asparagus and made a mental note to check on their progress the next day. I have a hard time keeping up with my mental notes so a few more days passed before I saw a Twitter post about asparagus from BlondeChicken. Her post set me in motion.

I went outside and up the hill to see, if by chance, we might have fresh asparagus for dinner. There they were, three or four beautiful asparagus spears. Not even a handful - not a spear to spare - but very exciting considering they had emerged through considerable overgrowth.

My parents once had a nice little crop of asparagus, so I called to see if Mom could answer a few questions. She said she had an article about raising asparagus that she'd share with me. The next day, she handed me a yellowed article she had clipped from the local newspaper in 1996.

I began to chuckle as soon as I glanced at it. The woman, A.-C., who wrote the article has been a colleague of mine for the past two years. When she came to visit a few days later, I showed her the article that my mother had saved for more than a decade. What I didn't show her were the actual asparagus plants. You see, A.-C.'s article addresses the challenges of growing asparagus, including the need to "control the inevitable weeds" (See picture)

Maybe we would have had a bumper crop if we'd been better at weeding, but these few spears had survived among tall thick weeds, which I had attempted to eliminate last year before declaring the weeds could have at it. They were inspiring. If asparagus can survive this, I decided, we should order more.

I Googled "two-year-old asparagus plants" to see if I could find more plants to buy. I found them at Asparagus Gardener in Cookeville, Tenn. Their Web site indicates that the farm also raises angora rabbits.

When I called to place the order, I spoke with a woman whose name I believe is Rose. I mentioned that I also have angora rabbits. The conversation quickly turned from asparagus to rabbits and llamas and sheep and spinning and knitting. When I finished placing my order nearly an hour later, I felt like I had a new friend in Tennessee.

Tomorrow we'll be planting 25 more asparagus plants. Maybe....maybe...I'll even pull a few weeds. Certainly, I'll be having more asparagus conversations with Sue and A.-C. and maybe even Rose and BlondeChicken next spring.

Egg-stra, Egg-stra...

Yesterday I ordered a "Farm Fresh Eggs For Sale" sign to go at the end of our driveway.

At the moment there are eight dozen eggs in my refrigerator. And, I've already taken a tray of deviled eggs to a pot-luck dinner this week.

Let me put this in perspective. I dream of actually paying the mortgage with income from this farm before I actually reach retirement age, but currently this place is still a small hobby farm.

Mark and I used to watch Martha Stewart with her hen house and talk about how we'd have a few chickens to produce fresh eggs for us if we were ever able to move home to the family farm. Setting up the hen house was one of the first things we did when we made that move. Initially we filled our hen house with hand-me-down hens. Those are hens that a local kid in 4-H wanted to pass off so she could get new chicks.

Last spring, I packed up eggs and took them to a new farmer's market on several Saturdays. Business didn't really cover the cost of my gas into town. I bagged up llama poop and sold it and then took honey too. Eventually, other obligations began to make more sense than carting my eggs off to the farmer's market when the profit margin was low to non-existent.

This was about the same time that we decided to order some new chicks. And these are the girls that are filling my fridge up with eggs right now. I'm fairly certain that as I type, they are in the coop competing to see who can lay the most eggs today. I'm starting to think about the farmer's market again.

This is where I start to sound like the shrimp guy from Forest Gump. We've eaten boiled eggs, scrambled eggs, fritatta, omelets and a host of other egg dishes. If I need to take a dish somewhere, you can bet I'm taking deviled eggs or a pound cake (they require about five eggs).

I recently read an article in Hobby Farm Home magazine about how to freeze eggs to use in baked goods later. I've done that once and suspect I'll be freezing some today.

I've noticed someone down the road is taking orders for fresh sausage. I'm going to place an order today and see if I can exchange some eggs for sausage - or at least a discount. The barter system worked out pretty well with another local farmer.

I've even shared a few eggs with Dave and Laura at Kitchen Roselli. (Much to my surprise, Mark just called to say they'd added a link on their site about yesterday's blog and commented on the very eggs I'm writing about.) I think Dave and the boys have a bit of a competition going over who can make the best omelet in the family.

So Egg-stra, Egg-stra. If you're in the area and want to buy or barter for some farm fresh eggs, just let us know. According to the North Carolina Extension Office, we can sell up to 30 dozen a week without getting official with grading and such. If we get to that point, you'll see a blog about chicken pie, chicken and dumplings, fried chicken....And, please post your egg recipes here.

Bees are buzzing

We went to the Yadkin County Beekeepers meeting this week. All the local bee folks are a buzz with how many new hives they're setting up this year, what's blooming and how busy the bees already are.

Our honey customers have been getting concerned about dwindling supplies from last season, so that contributes to our excitement.

Angie Hauser made a nice presentation with materials from N.C. State University that will help local beekeepers respond to "killer bee" questions that fortunately do not arise quite as often among beekeepers as spitting questions do for llama owners. (Yes, we have llamas on this farm too, as well as angora rabbits, chickens, two dogs and a crazy cat.) Put your minds at ease for the moment, there's no official record of killer bees in North Carolina.

I grew up watching my father and grandfather work bees from the safety of our house. After Pa died, Dad quit working with them. A few years ago, he came to the barn at feeding time and said he was thinking about setting up a hive of bees again.

My husband, Mark, and I told him we had some interest in bees too, and a plan was put into action. That was on a Tuesday. When I got home from work the next day, I noticed something that appeared to be a disease on my Japanese maple. A closer look revealed it was a swarm of bees. (Whew! I couldn't believe I had not noticed some kind of plant funk that could have become that large.)

I ran through the yard, as best as a woman can in heels, waving my arms at my husband who was mowing. He finally stopped to see what I was going nuts about this time. Yep, that's not a scene that's all that unusual to him (maybe we'll share more on this later). He came and admired the swarm hanging from the lower limb of this small tree.

I picked up speed again as I ran into the house to call Pop. He didn't have a hive ready, but called a neighbor who did and was willing to sell him one. Mark, Mom and I kept our eyes on the swarm as Pop went to get the hive.

It had been years since I saw someone handle bees. Dad (aka Pop) put a scrap of carpet on the ground under the swarm. Then, he put the hive on it. Using a soft bee brush, he gently brushed the swam downward near the entrance to the hive. Dad identified the queen in short order and told us if she went into the hive, we'd be good to go. In just a few minutes, the bees began to fly into the hive - following that queen. It was pretty amazing to witness.

A couple of hours later, when all the bees were cozy inside their new home, Mark and Dad transported the hive from our front yard to their new location. Dad was very pleased. He did a little jig in the front yard. It was one of those magical, unforgettable farm day memories.

First attempt at blogging. Patience please ;)