Visiting a Cranberry Farm

Our county 4H extension arranged a tour of a local cranberry farm. The farm grows cranberries for Ocean Spray, and some of the fields have been growing continuously since 1921. The farm was harvesting the day we visited, and we were invited to dive in and help out.


Cranberries are harvested by flooding the field with water from a nearby creek. The ripe berries float to the surface and are scooped up by a conveyor and piled into a truck. Our job was to round up the floating berries and push them toward the farmer and conveyor. Luckily for us, it was a really warm day and although the water was cold, it wasn't bad. I found berries in my boots after!

The best part was the farmer let us have a small bag of the cranberries to take home. I made them into cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving, and maybe some jelly tarts. I found the cranberry recipe at the Ball canning site.

The Crop Report

My 4H garden has a really great start this year. Even though it was cold and rainy this May, there has been enough sun to make a difference. I finally saw some bees too! They've been arriving too late in the year to pollinate the fruit trees.
My strawberries are leading the charge with one berry ripe already. The blueberries are close behind, working on some pale white berries. The blackberries and raspberries are yet to bloom.

I bought fruit trees at a sale last fall, Honey Crisp and Liberty apples, Italian plums, and a Montmorency cherry. Thanks to the bees showing up in time, they all have small fruits starting. New this year is a black Mission fig tree I found at Sunday Market. It already had large green figs on it. I hope I can find a spot in the yard it will like.

The compost pile is again sprouting some wheat and oats from spilled goat chow. Those naughty things! Rather than waiting for the oats to produce grain and dry, I usually pick the long deep green leaves and feed them to the goats. I have some corn seeds, but haven't found the best spot for them. I should hurry, though as it's nearly July!

Planting Strawberries

Last year in my 4-h garden, I planted strawberries, blackberries, and tomatoes. The weather was cool and rainy all last summer, so the tomatoes didn't do very well, but the berries did great. I even won blue ribbons at the county fair for my blackberries and strawberries.
I've been having fun building boxes to display my soap, so I thought it would be fun to build planter boxes for my strawberries. I would have built planter boxes for the blackberries, but in Oregon you really can't tell blackberries what to do! I decided to make hanging planters to discourage bugs.

The planters were fast to make, using two 1x6 boards attached at a right angle with wood screws. The end is just a square with a hole drilled near the top to hang. I painted the ends like strawberries for a fun look.

Ideas Sprouting!

We had a great first meeting for this years 4H Young Entrepreneurs' club. I had to think of a new idea. Last year, I had do-it-yourself kits to make bubble gum, hand-milled soap, and artisan cheese. I like do-it-yourself kits, so I'm working on a d-i-y sprout kit and possibly sprouts already grown.

I found out that you can get as much nutrition in one ounce of sprouts as you would in three pounds of the full grown vegetable. I like that I would only have to eat an ounce of broccoli sprouts, instead of three pounds! I ordered some packages of seeds meant just for sprouting. I got alfalfa, and a salad mix of alfalfa, broccoli, and radish. My goats eat alfalfa because it's high in protein, and it helps them make tons of milk. Some sprouts like radish are spicy, and sprouts like broccoli have anti-cancer properties.


I followed some instructions on the internet of how to grow sprouts. They said to soak them in a jar overnight, drain out the water, and just wait. It mostly worked. After six days, my sprouts looked like their sprouts. but definitely not like the ones I see in the store. I found out from another site that they were overcrowded, and probably too cold.

I'm trying another batch now with just half the amount of seeds, and placing them where they will be warmer. I'm also looking for an edible fertilizer that I can add to the soaking water. Hopefully that would help the sprouts look tall and green! I will report back with my results!

Looking Forward to Fun in 4H in 2011

Even though it's just January, thing are starting to get going in 4H. It always seems like a lot of work to plan out a speech for Presentations, and new recipe for the Home Economics contest, and something new to sell for the Young Entrepreneurs table at Sunday Market.

I did try to do a bit of everything last year, which 4H seemed to like, and gave me an award for being an 'Outstanding First Year Member'. Wow! I got a medal for having fun! I like 4H!

Fun at the Winter Market!

It's been a while since I wrote a post! I had a really great time selling cheese making kits at the local farmers' market with my 4H club this summer. I also did pretty well with my entries at the County Fair.

I signed up for the local winter farmers' market, and have some fun new do-it-yourself kits. Besides the cheese kit, I have a bubble gum kit, and hand-milled soap kit. The bubble gum kit seems to be the most popular.

My mom and I have also started making goat milk soap and a pure olive castile soap. It's a lot of fun picking out different scents, and discovering what people will like. So far, orange blossom goat milk soap and peppermint castile are the favorites.

My Solar Cooker Experiment

One of my projects for 4-H this year was to build a solar cooker. I looked around on the internet and found a Heaven's Flame design. It looked easy to build, but I saw the shiny part was not pointed at the food. How would that work? I decided to give it a test.

Testable Question: Will the Heaven's Flame solar cooker produce a higher or lower temperature without the upper reflectors?

Materials: I used a 12x12x12 inch cardboard box. I bought four bags of potato chips with bags that were shiny inside. I had black spray paint and some tape, and an infra-red thermometer. The weather was 80 degrees Fahrenheit, and clear with very little wind.

Procedure: I first cut the corner seams of the box so the sides would angle out, and the bottom 'oven' would be 12x12x6 inches. I sprayed the inside of the box black. I set it out in the driveway, tilted toward the sun so there was no shade in the bottom. I took some temperatures. The driveway surface was 137 degrees in the sun, but in the shade it was 76. Within 10 minutes the bottom of the box was at 186 degrees! I measured every 5 minutes for about a half hour, and the temperature stayed between 175 and 186. I next taped the potato chip bags on the sides of the box, shiny side out. I took temperatures again. Surprise! The temperature was 200 degrees, ranging 190 to 200 for the next half hour.

Results: While the the temperature inside the cardboard box with just black spray paint was hotter than it's surroundings, once the reflectors were added, the temperature increased by about 15 degrees.

Conclusion: The Heaven's Flame solar cooker produces a lower temperature without the upper reflectors.

Additionally, we then used the cooker to make some oatmeal raisin cookies:

Solar Cooker Oatmeal Cookies
1 cup oats
1 cup flour
1 pinch salt
1/3 cup oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup sugar (white or brown)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup chocolate chips and/or raisins
1/2 cup water

Mix all ingredients in a medium bowl, then drop by tablespoonfuls on a black non-stick pan. Our cooker's temperature ranged from 190 to 200 degrees, and it took about 2 hours in the middle of the day to become firm with crispy edges. Rotate the cooker every 10 or so minutes for optimum temperatures. Results no doubt will vary!

Some amusing extraneous data: On the hottest day so far this year (a record breaking 98 and heat index 102), the surface of our black goat Mimzy stupidly sitting in the sun was 107. The surface of our light brown goat Jezebel wisely sitting in the shade was 94. Some water collected in a black flowerpot was 162, which then was pasteurized. Good to know!

Last Sunday was the first day our 4-H club was at the big Sunday Market. I was very excited! The day before I was very busy putting together my products and painting my sign.

I had cheesemaking kits, recipe booklets, and cheese wax. My cheesemaking kits have freeze-dried cheese culture, a vegetable rennet tablet, and detailed instructions. I have five different recipe booklets. Each booklet has stories about one of our goats and recipes for either milk, yogurt, chevre, cheddar, or gouda. We have little tubs of beeswax for use on cheese too.




I also met lots of nice people who wanted to buy goat milk to drink or make soap. I really like talking to new people and selling fun things, so I had an awesome time! I can't wait for next week!

Zombie Tomatoes!

We had warm weather in March we thought would last. We bought 36 little tomato plants. They mostly interesting heirloom kinds like Purple Cherokee and Hillbilly.



We planted them upside down, which I don't think they liked. We had some extra black tubing for drip irrigation and we hung that over the top of the pots because tomatoes like lots of water. Well, they got lots of water, but not from our drip tubing.

As soon as we got everything set up, we got several hail storms! Then it was cool and rainy for a month. the last straw came with hail in May! They aren't exactly dead, but I don't think they will make tomatoes either. Maybe they are zombies and will eat us instead of us eating them. Ahhh!!

Milk and Honey Cake

This is my new favorite cake to make. It's easy to make and I can use the milk from my goats. I even made this for my mom on Mothers' Day!

1 1/2 cups flour

1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup fresh goat milk
6 tbsp light olive oil
1 tbsp vinegar

4 tbsp honey

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. prepare a small bundt pan with cooking spray and flour. Combine flour, sugar, and baking soda in a medium bowl. Separately, combine milk, oil, vinegar, and honey, then add to the flour mixture, stirring to mix well. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until center is firm. Cool well before removing from pan. Serves 8-10.

I put a lemon glaze over the top:

1 cup powdwered sugar

1 teaspoon lemon extract

3 teaspoons water

Place powdered sugar in a small bowl and add the lemon extract. Add the water one teaspoon at a time, stirring in between spoonfuls, until the mixture is smooth and forms a thick but pourable glaze to pour over the warm cake.

I also made this cake for a cooking competition in 4-H. We were to make a recipe using foods from the Northwest. My goat milk is of course produced in the Northwest, and I used some local honey. I won a blue ribbon! Here's a picture of me talking to the judge.

4-H Biz Kidz At The Sunday Market

I joined the Young Entrepreneurs 4-H Club in our county. The club has a deal with the Sunday Market, a big farmers' market that goes all summer downtown. The kids in our club have to think up a product to sell at the market.

I can sell goat milk at home, but not at the market. I had to come up with a product that might use my goat milk and was easy to package and sell. I came up with three! I thought of powdered cheese cultures, recipe books, and a class on how to milk a goat.

It's been a lot of work to put together the packages, recipes, and brochures, but I think they will do well. Our club was invited to show our products at a meeting with the professional vendors from the market. Here is a picture of me talking about my product at the meeting.

I Joined 4-H This Year

This year I was finally old enough to join 4-H. Last year I was still able to show some things at the county fair in open class foods. I got first place ribbons for Flopsy's chevre and dulce de leche, and second place for a photo of her beautifulness.

This year I went to an over-night at the extension office, learned canning and cupcake decorating at Super Saturday, and am learning about different animals at monthly meetings. I gave a presentation on how to make vinegar cheese and won a Reserve Champion ribbon!

Summer will be busy. I signed up to sell cheese kits at Sunday Market, and hope to show some vegetables, and maybe some of Flopsy's cheese!