Fishing with Cousin J and Aunt J.....

Or up a pond with one paddle? I am a terrible outdoors woman. This includes being put in charge of gathering fishing gear. Worms? Send the 5 year old out to the garden. Hooks? Surely this random tackle box in the Morton building has some in it? Trolling motor? Whaaaaa? Oh yeah, we have one of those, I remember once we are out to the middle of the pond fighting algae and wind with only one usable paddle. 

You see, I cook what they catch. I don't even clean what the catch. I prop my feet up and read a book while everyone else fishes. So why did I think I could co-ordinate a fishing expedition with Aunt J? Because I was nervous and trying to impress her I guess. Which, I did not do. I can only hope that the kids had fun!

Tootalini A La Aunt J.'s Grandma Bartoletti

Sometimes taking a long time to do something complicated is the way to simplify.

This week I met my sister in law. She's been married to my brother for six years, I think. I am not close to my brother and don't know him or his family well, but last month he deployed to serve in Afghanistan with the Iowa National Guard. Being a soldier was his dream from as far back as I remember him playing GI Joe in the sandbox. We lost touch in adulthood, seeing each other at funerals or running into each other at the local coffee house. But I am so proud of the duty he doing for our country and for the sacrifice he has made to his family. His wife and little girl are hanging on, worried about him, and over a year left to go.

I had become familiar and comfortable with not knowing them, and suddenly my heart hurt. I may never see my little brother again. What if I never get to know his family? What could I possibly do for him or them during this incredibly enormously difficult time in their lives. They are living something I can not even begin to imagine. My husband comes home every night, they go weeks without contact. There is nothing I can do to make any of that better.

Then my brother called me. He's not ever done that, not even when we were growing up. He's never called me, not even to return a call. Ever. And then he did. His request was simple. Just be there for them. Get to know them. Tell them stories about us growing up, the nice ones.

So I reached out. And J. and Miss J. came to stay at our farm for a "weekend".  She brought with her a recipe for "Tootalini" that was her grandmother's, and that she made growing up for family holidays.

It was a full day long project to make the broth from beef neck bones, make and knead the pasta, roll it out, make the filling, and stuff and shape the noodles. In doing so, we got to talk, to get to know each other, share family histories, and talk about our children. She is a lovely lady and a very caring mother and my brother is one lucky guy.  Making and eating food together is an incredibly old and ancient bonding.

And my family was blessed by her visit.

Here, with her permission, is her grandmother Bartoletti's recipe:

Pasta:
8 Cups of Flour
6 farm fresh eggs
1 cup (2 sticks) of salted butter
approx 2 cups of water - until dough is doughy.....

Filling:
3 lbs of ground sirloin
3 farm fresh eggs
parsley flakes
allspice (add to taste)
1/2 cup of butter
salt
grated Asiago cheese

Broth: (grass fed) beef neck bones, celery, onion, carrot, tomato (her recipe says tomato paste), and salt to taste. Boil then simmer for 8+ hours. Strain solids off for a clear delicious broth.

Then:

Roll out pieces of dough, thin.

Let babies play with bits and in the flour!

Cover main chunk of dough so it does not dry out.

Then take little bits of the filling and roll into balls. Place along the edge.

Roll up and over and pinch/press around each little lump.

Cut into squares.

Fold bottom under and top "flaps" over to look like little ladies with hoods/bonnets. You can make them sing and dance to entertain the littles too.

Place on tray and then freeze.

Later, pull them off the tray frozen and store in bags or place in boiling broth for a meal that is hearty, filling, and simple all at the same time. I sent home food with Aunt J, and filled a shelf of my freezer too. The broth is really versatile and I've made a mushroom and beef based rice noodle soup with it, cooked up ground beef with it, and just heated a cup for a snack. Good to have on hand.

Both my girls and little cousin J. flitted to and from the table, sometimes helping, sometimes playing. The recipe took a lot of the day, but at the end our tummies and hearts were full of joy. Sometimes life is simple when you actually take the time to do something as complicated as make Tootalini from scratch or get to know someone, you know?

Farm Crawl 2010!

Farm Crawl 2010. It is still incredible to me that our farm booth was ON the crawl this year. In 2007 I was newly pregnant with Blueberry Girl, Lil'Bug was two, almost three years old, and we lived cityside, still dreaming of living on a farm. At that time being on a farm seemed like a very far away dream.

In 2008, we attended Farm Crawl with the intent to meet our new neighbors. We had a closing date on our farm and moving and planning and farming was just a few months away.

In 2009, we had too much farm work to do and actually loaded our first harvest of four pigs onto a trailer to haul to the butcher in Milo- so we missed the Crawl!

That brings us to now.....2010 Farm Crawl. We were invited to set up at the dairy where we get the whey for our pigs. It made sense. We have a wonderful relationship with Lois (I might be her biggest cheese fan EVER). The girls, while I was still doing "bucket runs,"  adored playing with her goats and cats and chickens.We wanted to show off our farm products well, so we practiced the table display a few times, bought cards and a banner (the logo was designed by a friend of mine), and hoped for good weather.

Farm Crawl for us began much earlier in the day. We were greeted by some of our hostesses at the far end of the field! Last Spring these ladies were just kids (baby goats) and Lil'bug would play with them while Lois and I loaded whey buckets. It wasn't long after that just Lois was loading the buckets and I was relegated to stacking empty buckets!

Lil'bug helped set up the table display. Here she was explaining how much she has grown this year.....or that she's a really tall robot. :) Mostly she helped keep Blueberry Girl from eating the crayons.

We got the display and our banner affixed to the table.....just in time to start greeting customers.

We had other plans for the girls that didn't work out, so they played with us and each other all day at the Farm Crawl. Mostly. They also played with all the other kids, entertained anyone who'd pay attention, gave mini tours of the chicken area and hay bales, fetched and served water to anyone who would take it (they LOVED the Sponge Bob cups that were being used).

 They also talked to people about our farm and then caught frogs, toads, and.....

....a lovely Iowa milk snake. We've never caught a wild one. Neat that it was actually AT a dairy! Lil'Bug plans to add this to her documentation project for Iowa Herp Net.

The girls shared a snack while there was a very small lull in traffic.

Then Blueberry Girl pretended to be a chicken and took a dust bath. They had so much fun that we never had need to stop working and take them out for a break.

It was a very good day for a Farm Crawl. We were thrilled and grateful to be included. Thank you so much to all the friends that came out to see us and support our efforts. Thank you to all the hard working farmers that organize and put this event on every year. Thank you to our current and future customers who are making our dream of running a small family farm come true!

Farm Crawl!

We'll be at the Farm Crawl in southern Iowa tomorrow - hope to see you there!