Farmers in the Winter

We are done for the year. Well, kinda. There are still trucks and tractors to be worked on, potatoes to move (which means sell), and a few other odds and ends. Also, some small home-improvement projects (yay!). 

I get asked a lot what a farmer does in the winter. We don't have any livestock, so we have more freedom than, say, a dairy farmer. Mike has a bit of extra free time. We usually do a family trip or two. We also ski. A lot. Mike went up 3 times last week. Three, people. I don't mind (most of the time), and it's so great for him because in the summers, he is so busy. Mike and I also went on our first big trip since our honeymoon, 7 years ago. It was so nice for both of us to get away from work and kids for a bit. Here are some pictures of our off season, so far. 

 Some pictures from Cabo San Lucas

 Some of the Huskinson family, plus Mike's good friend, Tim

 The Huskinsons are grateful for skiing. 

See?

It has been a good off season so far. And fingers crossed it only gets better!

Favorite Recipes: Volume 1

I'm enjoying spud harvest being over. Mike is currently doing field/tractor work. He's using a ripper on the grain fields. It breaks up the soil deep under the surface so it can irrigate better.

We eat potatoes often. I mean we do kind of have an unlimited supply of them, so, I always have them on hand. A lot of people ask my favorite recipes. I'll share a few of them today.

Baked Potatoes
We love baked potatoes. We will eat them as a side with just butter, or do Cowboy Potatoes and serve chili over them with cheese and sour cream.

Mashed Potatoes
I'm pretty sure everyone has a mashed potato recipe that they like, but to make mine special for holidays or sometimes Sunday dinner, I add a few things. Instead of just boiling them in water, I'll add in some chicken broth and a good amount of salt. Cook them until they are nice and tender and then drain them. I'll add a lot of butter, and some milk for regular ones, but sometimes, I'll add a dollop of sour cream or cream cheese. And instead of milk, I use whole milk or heavy cream. Seriously, just a few little changes can make a big difference in the potatoes. Mash away! I like mine to still have a few little lumps in them. Okay, my mouth is watering. I need to move on before I go make some at 9 PM.

Potato Soup
I use the Pioneer Woman's recipe. And it is perfect. It makes enough for us to have it for dinner 2 nights. And maybe a lunch, too. Go here to find the recipe. We had it Saturday, then again tonight. It reheats perfectly.

Spud Harvest

Spud harvest has been so busy! We started last Thursday and I was all excited, but then it rained all day on Friday, and we can't dig when it is raining because the trucks will get stuck, and if the ground is too wet, like it still was on Saturday, we wait. I finally have a few minutes to catch up a bit. Here is a little peek at how we do spud harvest.

• Mike heads out about 8 AM. There are some days on occasion that they will start at 4 or 5 AM, but that is only if we know bad weather is coming and they need to get as much done as possible. He gets a few things done in the shop, but usually heads up to the field and gets the tractor and the digger ready to go.
• The truck drivers head up to the field between 8:30 and 9
• I take care of kids and get them dressed, off to school. The past week has been harvest break. Yes, the kids get a week off of school, and neighboring districts take off two weeks. 
• I will take lunch up to Mike about 12 or 1. 
•  About 3 or 4, I take treats (soda and candy bars, sometimes donuts) out to the pit crew and the truck drivers grab a treat when they come down to unload. 
• I get dinner up to Mike about 6 or so, and we will usually go for a ride in the tractor or truck. 
• The crew finishes up about 10 every night, unless they are almost done, then sometimes they'll go well past midnight.

This is a picture from the tractor showing the potatoes being put in a truck by the digger. The truck drivers stay pretty close to the digger and watch the driver of the tractor to know what to do. The tractor doesn't change speeds, so the truck needs to speed up or down so the potatoes can be loaded in the truck. The driver of the tractor lets them know what to do. That arm on the digger can move up or down, as well. Mike and Derrick (who is our hired man) drive the tractors and literally get no breaks at all. Some other farmers here run a crossover, which is basically a digger, but low to the ground and digs the potatoes and lays them in between two rows, then a digger will come a long and pick up those, as well as the potatoes he is digging and put them in a truck. We don't have a big enough operation to warrant using a crossover. 

Here are a few trucks waiting to back into the cellar.  They come down to from the field and weigh the truck on a scale we have right across the street (it is blocked by a truck in this picture). They record how many pounds, then come over to the pit to unload. 

Here is the piler. We have high school kids usually working in the pit. The trucks back into the cellar and up to the piler. When the truck is unloading, the kids working the piler help to sort the potatoes. They grab dirt clods, rocks, vines, and any broken potatoes. There are some steps on the side of the piler that kids will stand on, as well, to make sure there isn't anything in there that shouldn't be. We have a guy that runs the piler with a remote basically and he makes sure the potatoes get piled efficiently.  If you can see that green line on the wall of the cellar, the spuds go a bit higher than that. You can see a mat right under the truck and the piler, and that is where a lot of dirt and potatoes that are too small fall. After 3 or 4 trucks, the mat is full of dirt and potatoes, and it gets hooked up to a truck and pulled out of the cellar. 

 My life doesn't change too much, I just need to make sure I get treats and meals out to people, and that can take a while sometimes. I'll be honest, harvest for us used to take about 3 weeks, and I am so glad that right now, it is only a week. We are a little more than halfway done. Once we are done with harvest, we do field work to get the ground ready for winter.

That is a little bit about spud harvest. Any questions? Please ask! Is there anything you want to know about operations or why we do things the way we do? Ask!

KW Huskinson and Sons

Farming is a way of life that I never thought I'd live. It is very hard, but so rewarding. Most of you know that I grew up in Portland and Seattle, in the suburbs, but I loved going downtown and feeling the energy the city had. I hated traffic, but I loved having so much at my fingertips: museums, zoos, shopping, entertainment, and restaurants (don't even get me started...). I went to college here in Rexburg and while I enjoyed my time, I was happy thinking that my future would be in a bigger city. Then I met Mike, and while I loved that he grew up in Idaho on a farm, I was happy that we were living just north of Seattle. After a few years, we started to talk about moving east, to Idaho or Utah, but it was just talk. He had a really great job, but he quickly grew tired of all his commuting. The opportunity came up for us to go back to Rexburg and farm and we decided to take it. It has been quite the ride, and I'll get to in a different post.

I get asked a lot of questions about farming and while I am no expert, I can share some of my experiences. So, here are my answers to my most frequently asked questions.

Did your husband just decide he wanted to be a farmer? 
No. He is the 5th generation farmer to farm this ground we have. We live in the house he grew up in and he grew up working on the farm. It wasn't just something he decided to do on a whim and we are guessing as we go along, he actually knows what he is doing and learning a lot along the way. We are in the process of taking over the farm so his dad can retire.
What do you grow?
We grow potatoes and barley. Every once in a blue moon we will do wheat, but only when we've used a chemical that does not agree with the barley.
How much land do you farm?
About 800 acres. Central Park in NYC is 843 acres. Some people think we only have like 1 or 2, and people from Seattle would tell me that having a little plot of land to grow all our own food would be so nice. We are the small guys out here, too.
Do you grow organic produce?
No. For so many reasons. We need to use fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides to control our crops. When you are dealing with the volume we grow, it gets pretty hard to control pests and disease. Have you heard of the Potato Famine? The potatoes got a disease called Late Blight. It can transfer from the plant to the tuber and cause rot. If you store your crop with the disease, it can take out a whole potato cellar. I've never seen it (or smelled it for that matter), but it is awful. It would take a serious toll on us. There are chemicals you can put out to prevent the disease and if your crop has it to help prevent the spread of it. We've had a couple of close calls and thank goodness we have been able to control it. That is just one of many reasons we use chemicals on our crops. I could get into a lot more about why non-organic farming is actually much safer than most people think, but I'll save that for another post.
Do you sell your potatoes at a farmer's market?
No. People in the city that I encountered often have a romanticized view of what farming is, and I've learned that farming is much harder and bigger, compared to what I used to think.
Where do you sell your crops to?
We sell our barley to Anheuser-Busch and our potatoes go to Rigby Produce and ours often go to the east coast to restaurants.
Are Idaho potatoes actually better?
Yes. I would have doubted that before having some. But compared to the potatoes that grow in Eastern Washington, Idaho potatoes are much better. Washington potatoes are watery. Idaho potatoes aren't. They have a better texture and hold up much better when cooking.

Hopefully, I can keep this up. I'll try to post lots about our life farming and information that I have learned. Also, I know you all want my potato recipes, so I'll also share some of my favorites.

Now, I need to go mentally prepare myself for spud harvest. We will start Thursday or Friday and those are long days for everyone.

St. George 2014

I think we have officially decided that every year after Spud Harvest, we will be taking a family trip to St. George. The weather is decent for us. There is lots to do. And getting away after so much craziness, is much needed. We have a few favorite things we like to do when we are down there. Snow Canyon is right up the road from the house we stay in.

 Lenox was such a trooper the whole trip. The girls and Mike loved climbing around on these petrified sand dunes. Lenox and I walked around and enjoyed the views, he took a nap and I soaked up some much needed vitamin D.

Also, in Snow Canyon is some red sand that my girls thing is the coolest stuff. We build towers, burry our feet  and get red sand everywhere.

 This is Lenox, he can fall asleep almost anywhere. We had just hiked under a small waterfall.

 Mike is seriously the best dad. I know, everyone says that, but he just takes the most mundane things and makes it special for our kids. They were looking at a squirrel or something and he made it so exciting. He also go the girls to hike almost 3 miles that day without much whining.

Leah and I took a walk one afternoon while Mike, Addie and Lenox snoozed. This is taken across the street from the house we stayed in. She loved saying hi to all of the cacti and pointing out the ones that reminded her of Mickey Mouse. We picked these cute little yellow flowers and had some great one on one time.

 

 

We also enjoyed going to the St. George Temple and Visitors Center, eating at some yummy new places, swimming, shopping, seeing some ancient petroglyphs carved in rock, and catching up with some friends and family. I am looking so forward to our trip again this year. Relaxing with my family. What more could we want? 

Christmas, A Wedding, and Life.

Things have been so busy. And life just keeps speeding up, it seems. I mean  2014 was a blur. 2015 has a lot of things in store for us.
-I am going on a trip with my sisters!
-Lenox will turn one!! This one blows my mind. How has it possibly been a year since he was born?
-We start our 3rd year farming
-Summer vacations!
-Addie will start piano lessons soon!
-Just a lot will be going on, but those are some things that I am looking forward to the most.

Heres's a recap of what has been going on.

CHRISTMAS 2014

We went to Vancouver, Washington and surprised my parents on Christmas Eve. We had such a great Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. So relaxing and it was fun to be with my family. On the 26th, we were able to go to the temple with my new sister-in-law, Melissa, to be with her as she received her endowments. A few days later, we headed up to Seattle to see friends and enjoy some seafood. We made sure we stopped at Dick's Hamburgers, Arnie's Seafood, and rode a ferry. It was a perfect little getaway during a really busy week.

MITCHEL'S WEDDING

My brother got married on January 2nd in the Portland Temple. My grandpa officiated the ceremony. He did a wonderful job as always. Melissa looked so beautiful. Mitch was so great. Melissa has a little girl, named Aurora, and my girls are so excited to have a cousin their age. The reception was really well done and at a really cool venue at Fort Vancouver. I think they are headed to Rexburg in the spring so Mitch can finish school and we are looking forward to having them close by and getting to know Melissa and Aurora better.

LIFE

We have been busy with school, church, being sick, friends and, of course, skiing. The actual winter has been horrible weather wise here. We've had much warmer than usual weather and no snow. But despite the weather, we have been trying to hit the ski hill as much as we can. Addie can ski so well! It is actually fun to ski with her. She can go anywhere she wants on the kid hill and she tears it up. Leah is on the leashes and if you keep her fed and that blood sugar up, she's a pretty happy camper and enjoys skiing through the trees with dad. Lenox is just the cutest baby boy I've ever held. He's crawling everywhere, pushing things and walking behind them, he's got 6 teeth. He hits the 10 month mark this month and I can't believe it. My kids are awesome little people and they crack me up all the time. I'm proud of who they are and that they can be kind to people and make good choices. Addie reminds us to pray before we leave the house for school. Leah loves to say family prayers at  bedtime. They love listening to me read Book of Mormon Stories, the book with the pictures in it. It's fun to see Addie explore what faith is.
Mike and I are surviving being outnumbered, but we really do enjoy most of it.

 And a picture of  Lenox because, well, just look at him.