January 11, 2010 - Water Buffalo, 2010 Garden, Where's the Beef?

We should have filmed last night's farm meeting. Aside from the discussion about what to plant in the vegetable garden, we discussed (partly seriously) the idea of purchasing a few American Water Buffalo. You can read more about this enormous spectacle of nature HERE.

The American Water Buffalo
Lindsay, apparently the American water buffalo specialist of our little group (thank you Glenna Richards!), knew more about these creatures than any of us could ever imagine. The hilarious thing (and this really should have been video-taped) is that we were all very interested in the possibility of acquiring some of these beasts. Can you say "niche market"? Truthfully, no one else in VA has a herd of water buffalo so we would certainly own the market. I'm sure the trendy upscale restaurants in C'ville and Northern VA would be interested in putting the novelty meat on their menu. We added "Water Buffalo" research to our homework for the week and moved on to more pressing matters (although, truth be told, I still like the idea... and I dreamed about these very huggable, very large bovines all night)...

2010 Garden - There's vegetables in them thar' gardens.
After much discussion about the pros/cons of heirlooms, non-hybrids and specialty varieties we finally nailed down a list of what veggies we will be planting (and hopefully harvesting) in 2010. We decided to keep some of our heirloom varieties from last year (the one's the worked!) and stay organic with turnips, tomatoes, and peppers. We also added Sweet Potatoes to the list (thank you Tina Boy) as we're tinkering with the idea of starting a line of organic, non-processed baby food. Here's our planting list:

Bush Bean
Sweet Cucumbers
Onions - TX super Sweets
Early Garden Peas
Green Peppers
Red Peppers
Sweet Potatoes (Cenntenial)
Organic Purple Top White Globe Turnips
Zucchini (Burpee)
Jersey Giant Asparagus
Medium Top Detroit Dark Red Beets
Summer Squash early golden crookneck
Butter Boy Winter Butternut Squash
German Red Tomatoes

We're all especially excited about the Tomatoes. Our close friend, Robert Turner, worked with these last year and they are seriously some of the best tomatoes we've ever encountered. Can't wait to try our hand and growing them.

Where's The Beef?
We currently have two cows at the butcher shop. The meat should be ready for pick up next week. So far we have more than one cow sold! We'll be distributing a price list as soon as we finalize our pricing and cut sheet. We're going to do a little taste-testing as soon possible - can't wait to share our results with everyone. In the meantime, please consider putting some of this high-quality, non-antibiotic, non-steroid, grass fed, grain finished beef in your freezer (oh yeah, steaks make a nice gift, especially for valentines day!)

Thanks!

PS - Come grow with us on Facebook. Click HERE to become a fan. And, if you like reading about our antics on the farm, make sure to invite your friends too! Thanks again.