Friday, May 27, 2016

The Corn Crib, Do we save it or not

      On our farm is what we've been told is an old corn crib. It's leaning badly and some of the wood has decayed. It has two lean-tos and a small room in the middle with a door. There is no floor. There are  lots of old scrap wood, tools, and some old wooden boxes filled with nails in the building. We even found an old ax head. We don't know when this building was built or if it is original to the farm, we don't believe that it is. We don't know what it was used for in the past, but we had thought about making it a turkey house. This building is very close to our driveway, so we thought we could turn it into a farm stand. There is an odd box nailed to the outer wall that is about six inches deep, eighteen to two feet wide and about six feet off the ground. We have no idea what this is. Grand thinks it could have been a nest box for Guineas. But then we were thinking don't guineas nest on the ground? The building is leaning so severely we think a strong breeze might blow it over. One man that we talked to about repairing it thinks we should use a tractor to pull the building up straight and then put in new supports  Other people think it could be jacked up with house jacks.  We have asked quite a few of people how we should fix it and many of them just shrug their shoulders and say tear it down. We hate to just tear it down, once it is gone it is gone forever. We hate to see so many old farm building being lost, there are so many just in our neck of the woods that are falling apart. We go back and fore about what to do with this building it is not going to be an easy fix, many of the supports have rotted away There is no telling what it will cost to repair. We do feel that it adds some charm to the farm, mostly because we love these old buildings. A number of people have stopped by the farm to tell us that they would love to buy the old wood if we tear it down. One day on our way to the farmers market we saw some old barn boards for sale. We would hate for this to happen to this old building. Please if you have ever repaired a building like this let us know. Does anyone else think it is worth saving?  Or has its time come and we should tear it down and make way for new and better things at Sweet Summer Farm. If you know any way we could save the corn crib comment below with your suggestions.










Monday, May 16, 2016

Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients

Topping

  1. 4 tablespoons of melted butter.
  2. 1/3  cup of packed brown sugar
  3. 1/4  cup of uncooked oats.
  4. 4 tablespoons of flour.
  5. 1/4  cup of chopped nuts 

Muffin Mixture

  1. 2 cups of all-purpose flour plus 1 tablespoon [ use 1 T of flour to mix with the blueberries]
  2. 1/2 cup of granulated sugar
  3. 2 teaspoons baking powder
  4. 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  5. 1/2 teaspoon salt
  6.  1/2 teaspoon of lemon flavoring or the zest of one lemon  
  7. 3/4 cup of   buttermilk
  8. 1/3 cup of melted butter. 
  9. 1 egg
  10. 1  cup of fresh or frozen blueberries.

Directions

  1. Mix the brown sugar, 2 tablespoons of flour, oats, and butter until well blended. Stir in the chopped nuts and then set aside. This is your topping. 
  2.  Combine "Muffin Mixture" ingredients 1-5 in a large bowl and mix well.
  3. Wisk the buttermilk, the oil, and the egg in a separate bowl . Then add them to the flour mix. Stir just until mixed, do not over mix.
  4. Toss the blueberries in the remaining 1 tablespoon of flour and the fold them into the batter.
  5. Spoon the batter into a greased muffin tin and sprinkle some topping onto each muffin. Pat lightly into each muffin. 
  6. Bake at 400 for 20 to 25 minutes and then transfer the muffins to a wire rack for cooling.