Bulls, bulls, bulls and a couple of heifers

The 2013 calving season has finally ended!  The last calf was born July 27, a bull, and is doing very well. We started calving March 10 when my little crossbred cow Blackberry Bramble calved a black heifer by the Angus bull I call Bobby.  Half a dozen or more calves were born in March including a set of twin heifers.

We skipped April and went right to May. Buttercup calved a heifer  in June, and finally the last two cows calved in July. GMEG Jealousy calved a nice black bull by Thor on July 1 and the Angus cow # 132 calved a black bull, probably by Thor (though it could be Bobby's) on July 27th.   Much of the lag time was the result of failed AI's. Regardless, they are a super bunch of calves. BTAP Thor did a great job! Bobby didn't do so bad either.

A really nice March 2013 Limousin/Angus cross bull calf. He weighs a good 600 pounds.

BTAP Thor was designated as the main herd bull while Bobby was sequestered with a few heifers. Thor was born January 2011 and Bobby the same year in March so they were young to be servicing cows.

Two of the purebred Angus and one of the purebred Limousin were successfully AI'd (artificially inseminated).  That left 11 cows for Thor and Bobby to service.  The result is 14 calves on the ground, eight of which are bulls and six are heifers (girls).


Some of the heifers,  in the center is Buttercup's daughter and on the right is a Shorthorn/Limousin cross heifer.

Here's Bobby, still on the job but looking pretty fat and healthy. BTAP Thor was sold this spring so Bobby has taken over as herd bull. He's moderate framed and calving ease so hopefully it will be an uneventful spring.

Best Tomato This Year



 

For the first time in as long as I can remember, I purchased and planted a variety of tomato plants this past May.  Most years I grow my own tomato plants from seed, but this year events overtook my seed starting plans and I opted to purchase plants from Evers Greenhouse in Genntown.

Evers always offers a large variety of tomato and other vegetable plants. My purchases included yellow, red and purple or chocolate sweet bell pepper plants and more than six different varieties of tomatoes.

German Johnson Tomato

I planted the tomatoes fairly close together in raised beds and staked them, and added some well rotted cow manure to the bed for richness.  Then the rains came. The plants grew very well but soon the rain and the heavy growth overcame the stakes and the plants collapsed on themselves, so now I have half staked tomatoes running riot over the bed.

The cool weather and rain has made all kinds of fruits  slow to ripen and the tomatoes are no exception.  I picked and ate the little grape tomatoes named St. Nick in early July. By mid July I was getting a tomato here and there, mostly Burpee Better Boys.                                                                        

Cherokee Purple tomatoes on the top right.

Now here in early August a variety of the plants are ripening fruit.  The picture to the left shows Cherokee purple, German Johnson, Carolina Gold, St. Nick, and a blocky ribbed tomato whose name I forget.


So far my clear favorite for flavor is German Johnson - large fruit,  dark pink/red colored flesh and very sweet and flavorful.  The Cherokee Purple is a close second but still not beating out German Johnson.  The Burpee Better Boy and the St. Nick are more acidic and taste more like standard tomatoes. 



Baby Kale - Red Russian variety, So Delicious

Red Russian Kale

It seems every magazine I read is touting the benefits of eating kale.  Last fall I grew a standard garden kale, harvested some of it and tried cooking it like spinach or adding it to vegetable soup.  It was strong and rather bitter and I ended up giving it to the cows. They loved it.  I'm still seeing the same old recipes for kale. Kale chips, kale and potato soup, kale with kielbasa, none of which inspire me very much.

But last January when I was mooning over the seed catalogs I was inspired by the Shumway catalog to order their Red Russian Kale.

The description read: "A tender, colorful variety, also used for baby kale. Purple stems with purple-veined gray-green leaves are non-curled with a tooth edge. Medium tall plants. 25 days to baby kale."

And that is the key - baby kale!  Last night I picked a handful of the young leaves and sauteed it with a little bacon and red onion and a splash of Balsamic vinegar and it was one of the best greens I've ever eaten! 



Close up of young tender kale leaves.

This is such an easy plant to grow. I planted this kale the first week of July. It was sprouted and growing within two days.  I planted spinach at the same time and it has done nothing! So far, no pests are bothering the kale.

I plan to plant more this week and maybe again the first of September with the hope that I can harvest enough to freeze for the winter. 

The leaves were very good, the stems tiny and edible, but I think next time I will chop the stems up separate from the leaves.