Part 2: Farm to Table. The rabbit is braised.

Flashback 17 years ago. "Mom, this doesn't look like chicken" I said. "It is. Just try it" my mom replied. I put a forkful of the BBQ'd mystery meat in my mouth and cautiously chewed. My sister and I looked at each other and knew that we were eating rabbit. The very same rabbit my parents were raising in cages on the top floor of our shed.

I have had rabbit only once since then. A few months ago my husband and I were eating at an Italian restaurant and I was feeling bold and ordered a rabbit and grappa stew over tagliatelle. The rabbit meat was shredded and was pretty tasty but I couldn't get the image of eating an actual rabbit out of my head.

Yesterday my loving husband took on the task of cooking up the rabbit I killed on Thursday. We found a recipe for red-wine braised rabbit with sage polenta on Epicurious's website. He cut the rabbit into six pieces and lightly dusted the pieces in flour. Instead of braising indoors for an hour and adding more heat to air-conditioning free house, Darien cooked everything outdoors on a propane stove. I sat watching him under an umbrella drinking a margarita while rehashing the whole rabbit processing on my blog.



Darien presented me with a leg on a bed of polenta surrounded with the sauce it was braised in. It looked great, now for the taste test. It tasted like chicken but tougher. It was good but I still wasn't able to fully enjoy the experience as much as I would have liked. Mean while, Darien was enjoying his leg with gusto. Something about eating rabbit still nags at my conscious. Guilt? No. Taste? Could have been braised a tad longer, but the flavor was nice. Psychological? Absolutely. For some unexplained reason I just haven't fully accepted that it is OK to eat rabbit. Part of me acknowledges how ridiculous this sounds because its just protein. The only thing I can do is keep trying. Maybe one day I can see past what it was, and enjoy what it is.

Part 1: Farm to Table. Krystal kills and cleans a rabbit.

As I pulled up to the farm at 7pm the pop song Beautiful Monster, by Ne-Yo, was blaring and I thought to myself how appropriate. I am about to kill an animal for the first time.

I always envisioned the first time would be a chicken but I was not overly bothered by it being a rabbit. Yes, rabbits are cute, but they have no personality unlike goats or pigs which I think I would have a much harder time with.

The rabbits were sitting quietly in two yellow crates as Mark and Brian sharpened their knives. The most humane way to kill a rabbit is to snap its neck which is accomplished by pulling the head with one hand and the legs with the other. This can be a bit tricky so to aid us with the neck snapping Mark has made this killing contraption, set up on a shelf, that is essentially two metal bars that form a V at a roughly 25 degree angle.

I removed the black and white rabbit from the crate by the ears and scruff and wedged his head between the two bars. Then I held the legs and yanked down to snap the neck. The first time I did it I was unsure if I had actually killed it because it kept moving and twitching. I kept asking Mark, is it dead? Are you sure? But that movement was merely the nerves firing for the last time. Then Brian held the rabbit by the legs over a bucket as I cut off the head close to the skull. The blood was bright red, I thought it would be maroon. An incision was made in each front paw and I then hooked the rabbit up so I could skin and gut it.


Using a sharp razor blade I cut just above the joint around each paw, then I made a V from the back paws to the below the anus and cut off the tail. At this point I should have been able to pull the rabbit skin off but I finagled with it a bit, cutting and pulling, cutting and pulling until I finally removed it by giving a good yank down. I cut off the paws, which we keep for luck I guess, in case any rabbits decide to get together and form a rebellion.

Next comes removing the entrails. I cut down the front of the rabbit paying attention not to cut the bladder, intestines, and poop sacs. The organs come spilling out as I cut, I am both fascinated and horrified. There is something about seeing poop trapped in the colon, like Hans Solo in Star Trek, that makes it creepy. Quickly I remove the unwanted bits and then I carefully remove the kidneys and liver. I carve out the bile duct and toss it in the gut bucket. Fish around and remove the lungs and then the heart. We keep the kidneys, liver and heart. Mark generously offered me some to take home, I am not an offal person so I hope that my husband will eat them.

I had the honors of killing the last rabbit and I as removed him from the cage a Boston song came on the radio. I yanked down on the rabbit and herd a crack and let go. The rabbit's legs were bouncing up and down and side to side for a good 30 seconds. It looked like it was dancing to the song. Our laughter at the situation was more of distraction for our mind then a display of our barbarity, an attempt to distance ourselves from an unpleasant situation.

Did I mind the killing, skinning and gutting? To be honest, it didn't really bother me. It's all part of the circle of life, eat or be eaten. Maybe we are beautiful monsters, deep down inside.

First week of harvest, oh the greenery!

For our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture)* members who showed up on a rainy Wednesday for their first pick-up, I hope they were pleasantly surprised when we handed them a box filled to the brim. It is not uncommon for the first few weeks of distribution to be a little on the lacking side, it is after all the first week of June, but our boxes were filled with three types of head lettuce, scapes, turnip greens, radishes, kale, spinach, parsley, rainbow swiss chard, and raab.

Our garden is not very large, just over an acre, so the way we handle our distribution is to spread it out over a week. We break up the 55 member CSA into three groups, Monday, Wednesday and Friday group. In the morning of each distribution day we pick only for that specific group so the plant has a chance to grow and produce again for the next distribution day.




Because our gardens are located on two spots on the farm, only two people can go in the golf cart to harvest in one of the fields, the other two stay at the CSA shed and pick whatever is in the fields there and start washing in the large rubber maid tub. We rinse all the vegetables once to get a decent chunk of the dirt off and dry them for a few minutes before packing them in the individual boxes.


At 3pm members start rolling in and picking up there shares. Pick-up is from 3pm to 6pm for the next 20 weeks. When people are pleased with their share its a nice reward but I still think harvesting is the best part because to me it feels like I have come full circle. All those days of digging, weeding, planting and hoeing pay off in one beautiful bunch of curly kale or rainbow chard. I immediately start thinking, what will I make for supper?


* CSA model is where people pay for a share of the harvest to the farmer upfront and in return receive vegetables weekly for a certain period of time. A great way to support farming, access fresh local food, and to connect with the seasons. Plus, its kinda like Iron Chef, you have to think of the different ways you can prepare kale before becoming utterly bored of it.

CRAFT visit to Sprout Creek Farm. Yum Cheese!

All four Glynwood interns, the gardener and one volunteer crammed themselves into Nicole's (fellow intern) station wagon for a road trip to Sprout Creek Farm. I had been eagerly awaiting this visit since I first got the CRAFT schedule. First, they have a cheese booth at my local farmers market, second, I have limited experience with dairy operations, and third, I knew I would sampling lots of cheese.

Ladies waiting to be milked

All the farmers in training were ushered into the milking/barn area and the cows were led in one by one to their milking spots and secured. Sprout Creeks dairy herd consists of a variety of breeds, Jerseys, Normand, Holstein, and Shorthorns. Mike, who was leading us on the tour, mentioned that they don't really like Holsteins because they are lazy and don't like to walk, but she given to them by a Greek man who owned a restaurant not too far away who was raising her on the restaurants leftover salad bar. She calfed and they named the girl Princess Feta in tribute to him.

Once all the ladies are positioned and secured they are fed out their ration of food. Currently the pastures are not green enough to fully supply the cows with all their nutritional needs but eventually they will able to reduce how much additional feed they give them in the summer. The fields are sowed with clover, timothy, sorghum, and teff among other grasses. Once they are busy eating the workers go around to each cow and they start pre-milk process where they squeeze and squirt out some milk from each tit to stimulate the milk to start flowing. At the same time, the milk is collected in a black container and the workers can check for any discoloration. If the the milk is discolored that cows milk will not enter in with the rest of the batch. Then each tit is dipped in an iodine solution for 30 seconds before it is wiped off to disinfect the tit before the milking attachment go on. After that the machine does all the hard work and the white liquid flows through a tube into where it goes off into another room into a collection tank.

The cows are on a strict milking schedule, 6:30 am and 3:30pm and produce around 50lbs of milk a day. To give you an idea of how much cheese that would make, it takes two cows daily production to make 10lbs of cheese.


Sprout Creek also milks a small herd of goats, a mixture of Nubians, Toggenberg and Oberhasli. Unlike cows, goats have a limited milking season that basically lasts from Spring to Fall and they cannot lactate year round. The dairy goat kids are absolutely adorable. When the workers asked if any of us wanted to go in the kid pen the Glynwood crew instantly jumped at the opportunity to play and cuddle with them.

After our farm tour we met with head cheese maker Colin, a CIA grad, who was very enthusiastic about cheese making. They make 15 different varieties and get all their enzymes and cultures from a place in Wisconsin (who turn get it from France.) Apparently Wisconsin is the gateway to all things cheese. Colin likes experimenting with size of molds, depth of molds, and duration of aging to tease out new flavors and textures. Fortunately for us, we got to try several varieties. There were the soft cheeses, one from goats milk one from cows, the semi-hard cheeses, and the hard cheeses made from raw milk like Ouray, Toussant, Eden. All were delicious.

The interesting thing about Sprout Creek farm is that they are big into education. They run day and overnight camps all summer long for kids and teens. Not only are they learning how to care for animals but they are also learning about where there food comes from. They have a small vegetable garden, laying hens, ducks and guinea fowl. Mike mentioned that they plan to process the layer chickens with the teenagers at some point so they can really make the connection to their food.

I loved the whole concept. Part of me wished I could be a kid just to go to camp there, the other part of me wished I could just get a couple of dairy goats and start my own operation. But, of course I would get my goats in the habit of being milking around 9:30 am...none of this waking up at 5 stuff.

Who says toys are just for boys

A Bob Cat, dump truck and a tractor may not be a girls, or even a guys, definition of fun. But when my boss asks who wants to use them I have to use all my self-control not to jump and down and yell, I do! I do! For the past three days I have been playing around with them. And let me tell you, it feels like going Disney Land. Then again anything that involves machinery and a break from weeding and hoeing seems like a vacation right now. We recently had a compost pad built (a flat, level, and graded square pad, pictured on the left) that can and handle a whole lotta crap. Before we even started dumping manure on the compost pad we put down a bed of wood chips. The logic behind the wood chips is that it provides a bit of a buffer between the compost and gravel so when we turn the pile we are not scooping up gravel. Also, wood chips help aerate the compost which helps it breakdown faster and it means we don't have to turn the pile as often.

On Tuesday I spent five hours using the Bob Cat and dump truck. My mission was to move as much goat and cow manure to the compost pad before the storm hit us. Which it did right around lunch time. It was not easy. First, the terrain where the manure pile was located was either hard and bumpy or soft and muddy, making parking the dump truck a bit of challenge. I had to choose between getting stuck in the mud with the truck or not being able to access all three sides of the truck to dump my bucket loads with the Bob Cat. I needed to get at all three sides to evenly distribute the load. After a bit of maneuvering I found the perfect spot for the truck. In the Bob Cat I used the controls to prod and scoop up bucket loads of crap, the smell left much to be desired. Once I successfully filled the bucket, I would rotate 360 degrees and drive over to the dump truck and simultaneously lift and tilt the bucket down. There is a careful balance here that must be met. Tilt the bucket up too much and you end up with a face full of crap. Tilt the bucket down too much and you lose your load.

When the back of the dump truck was filled I would climb onto the seat and blast the tunes, for some reason the station was playing nothing but dance tunes, as I drove towards the compost pad. Then I would reverse the truck over the wood chip pile and lift the bed of the truck until a wall of manure came rushing to the ground. The not so fun part was putting up the tail gate up afterward which was covered in manure.

Today, I got to try out a 70's relic, a bright orange electric tractor. This thing has 6 batteries that cost about $100 a piece! Electric tractors were made during the brief oil crisis in the 70's and quickly fell out of favor as oil prices settled again. I find it interesting that there hasn't been a large resurgence in demand for them now. Although one downside is that they are a bit of heavy so rotatilling can be tricky, on one hand you loosen the soil on the other you may end up compacting it. But it can also be used for cutting the grass which is precisely what I did with it. My one complaint is the speed is seriously lacking. It goes like 5 miles an hour. But its green, and green is good! And it was my first official tractor driving experience. I still need to learn how to use the Landini, Kubota and zero turn mower. My co-worker Lise thinks its hilarious that I love using machinery but I can't help it, I wanna play with the boys toys.

Having fun with funghi

What an exciting day today! Drills, hammers, blow torches, and hot wax, the first thing that comes to mind is probably not mushrooms. But that is what we spent the better part of our morning working on, inoculating oak logs with two types of mushrooms, Shiitake and Oyster.

I'll give you the inside scoop on growing mushrooms. First, we soaked the logs in water for 24hrs, then we drilled holes in the log using a drill with a 5/16 inch drill bit. The pattern followed was like the five on a dice with the holes 6 inches apart from each other. Do this pattern on all sides of the log.

Next take the fungus plugs (dowels) and hammer them into the holes. Next, melt some cheese wax (don't know the real term for it off hand) in a pot using a propane torch and spoon the melted wax over the plugs, completely covering the holes. This helps seal off the wound and prevent other fungus or microbial life from getting in there and competing with your spores.

Lise putting wax over the plugs

The logs are then stacked in tepee form in the woods and can be harvested the following year. Your patience will be rewarded with some awesome locally foraged fresh mushrooms!

Garden update: Tomatoes, eggplants, peppers are officially in the ground

A truck filled to the brim with tomato varieties such as Rose de Berne, Green Zebra, Purple Cherokee, Garden Peach, Sun Gold, etc.

Tomatoes, check. Eggplants, check. Peppers, check. Finally our sun loving greenhouse hogging plants are in the ground. It seems like they have been in the greenhouse forever. Not that I mind walking into a cultivated jungle in the morning, but the tomatoes were getting so large they started to flower and fruit. Alas, the weather was not cooperative until last Friday and early this week. We dug trenches to plop our plants in the ground. Marigolds were planted every ten tomato plant to help with pest control. It was very exciting but sad at the same time, not much remained to be put in the ground except for melons and a few succession plantings.


The hot weather was helping the plants big time. Over night things have been doubling in size. When I looked at the garden last week I was skeptical that we would have anything to give our CSA members in two weeks, but just yesterday we snacked on a small radish.

Other than planting we have been trying to keep up with the weeds. We yank and hoe regularly trying to keep them at bay. In aisles between the peas we put down grass clippings to keep the weeds in check. It is one of the farming ironies, half your time is spent trying to grow things, the other half is spent trying to prevent growth.