Connie's First Blog Post

Hello!
This is my first blog post EVER!  I felt inspired to learn how to blog because this morning I made the best butter pecan fudge I have ever made. Smooth and creamy. I needed a fourth flavor for our fudge sampler and the lucky winner was butter pecan.

Here's the large box fudge sampler: Chocolate, Butter Pecan, Chili Chocolate and Peanut Butter

As the family tries to re-adjust with Alan working full-time, I thought that I would start to take on the farm business.  It's a lot of work but with help from friends and family I think that I can do it.  Here's my plan:  First, I am learning the fudge making process and monitoring the Local Harvest store site.  Next, I will take on full animal care but this needs some infrastructure development.  More on that later. Third, I have signed up to sell fudge and crafts at the St. Andrew's Christmas Bazaar in Columbus on November 9.  Come and visit us on Saturday and you can see (and buy) some fudge, hand-dyed silk scarves and handmade ornaments.
If you have any ideas for new fudge flavors please let me know.  Someone already suggested butterscotch.
Thank you so much to everyone who keeps us moving forward!
Sincerely,
Connie and the rest of the Roost

Fudge for the fair

Putting the finishing touches on the boxes of fudge this morning.  We are donating 15 lbs of fudge for the auction this year.  Besides auctioning the animals the kids bring, every year the fair auctions off products that represent the animals that don't get sold, like dairy goats.  We are donating goat milk fudge for this years goat product auction.  We hope it sells for a lot so the kids make some money on their fair projects.  The total from the auction gets split among the kids who brought non-meat goat projects.

We made Chili Chocolate, Peanut Butter, Chocolate Espresso, and Butter Pecan.  You can get some for yourself from our Local Harvest Store. 

In the Shop - Two Weeks till we open

The new shop is coming together. We are starting to work on display space and signs. It will be fun to have things all set up and active again.

We went on a museum trip to Canton over the weekend. Saw lots of weaving, spinning, felting, and other cool craft things. CC and JJ are pretty fired up about it right now. (That means I need to get the looms moved and set up. ASAP!) They will be attending a felting workshop with the Spinners and Weavers Guild in a couple of weeks. Should add some other interesting products to their collection. As soon as they get ahead of local demand we will put up and ETSY store. Watch for it.

This spring we are fine tuning the fudge business a bit. We will be dropping the Apple Pie, Lavender Honey, and maybe the Chocolate, from our production line. We will add in two coffee fudges (chocolate espresso, and vanilla latte). The production list will be

Chili Chocolate
Lemon Chocolate
Chocolate Espresso
Peanut Butter
Vanilla Latte
Butter Pecan

We may add some more in as time goes on. We have some ideas for some seasonal fudges, and are also planning a new fudge flavor contest for mid summer. We will be offering our fudge for sale here at the farm and through Local Harvest.

We are also adding in some baked goods for sale here at the farm. I haven't set the schedule yet for what we will make when, but we have had enough local interest in our baking that we have decided to include it. Right now the plan it to just make extra of the things we bake for our selves. We'll see if it grows from there.

The list will include

Rye Bread
Baguettes
Muffins
Cinnamon Rolls
and probably some cookies.

For the baking part I am trying to keep it simple. Just more of what we do every day. If it doesn't sell we put it in the freezer and eat it later. Simple.

In the shop - three weeks till we open

Our plan is to re-open the farm shop the first of February. There is still a bit to do to get things ready. (A lot to do actually...!) We decided to change the location. We love the garden shed by the back door. It has all kinds of charm, but it doesn't work as a shop for several reasons.

First, people have to walk too far. Yes, it's paved (buried in snow right now...) and it is only about 100 feet from the parking area, but, it is definitely in our yard, past our gardens, and well protected by our rather large, not very fierce dog. The dog is one of the main issues. He is too friendly. It is also impossible to exclude him from the area.

Second, cleanliness. The charm of the garden shed comes from it's rustic nature. The old exposed framing and siding look lovely, but they let in all kinds of dust, spiders, and other undesirables. Not the kind of place you would want to go looking for fresh produce, fudge, bread, etc.

Third is climate control and lighting. The only way to effectively do either of these in the garden shed would be to finish the interior. Then we have lost the charm factor.

So we are closing in one half of the garage and making it into a shop/weaving room. It will be bright and clean, warm and dry, and easily accessible from the parking area. The garden shed will be more of an entertaining space, and maybe a showcase for my stained glass (if I ever find time to do more.) JJ envisions using it as a tea house. Could happen.

At the farm shop we will be selling fudge, baked goods (on a limited basis), eggs (if the chickens ever start laying again...), produce, and what ever crafts are currently being produced. We are going to push a bit harder on advertising/marketing, and on keeping a variety of things in stock. Should be a lot of fun for everyone.

The only hang-up is the fact that it is still only framed in, not finished. Tomorrow I will get the drywall, and start hanging it. Hopefully by the end of this week the basic space will be finished. Then I can start working on the details. Still need some display cases, some storage cabinets, and something to sell.

Three weeks, No Problem (unless life gets in the way...)

Local Harvest - A great resource

One of the things that is very difficult for small farm and for people looking for real, locally grown food is getting connected. Most small farms don't have the time or the money to advertise so if you don't know them, or happen to drive buy you might never find what is available in your community. You might make a connection at the farmers market, but many producers don't go to the market.

There is a great resource that can help both producers and consumers.



It's called Local Harvest. It is a site where small farms can list information about their farm. You can look up what farms are listed in your area. It also lists farmers markets, CSAs, restaurants, and co-ops.

They also have an online store where small farms list things they have for sale. Some of the things you can only get at the farm, but some things, like our Fudge, can be shipped.

We have been listed on Local Harvest for a while now. We get lots of visits and questions about our farm. Our Fudge is available through the online store. We also use it to find things that are not produced in our area or to find other producers near us that we didn't know of before.

As you are preparing your holiday meals and gifts you should check out Local Harvest. You will be amazed at the things you can get that are grown close to home.

Goat Milk Fudge

People keep asking me about fudge. Are we still making it? What kinds do you have? How can I get some?

So, here's the latest word on fudge.

We make Goat Milk Fudge almost every day.

We always have

Chocolate
Peanut Butter
Chili Chocolate
Lemon Chocolate
Vanilla Latte
Chocolate Espresso
Butter Pecan

available in Full (aprox. 1 lb) or Half (aprox. 1/2 lb) boxes.

We have it in stock in our farm store if you want to come visit.

We sell on line through our PayPal Store located in the side bar to the right.

We also sell through Local Harvest.

For the holiday season we are also offering gift packs. These are 1/4 lb mixed boxes. They are available at the farm store, or we will ship them if you want at least 4 (any less and the shipping is too expensive to make it worth it.) If you want to order the gift boxes please email me at roberts.ecofarm@gmail.com and we can work out the details.

The Potager pays off

There is an art to fudge. I suppose there is an art to everything, but fudge is in my world now so that is the art I see. If you under cook it it doesn't set. If you over cook it it hardens and cracks ... not fudge. The humidity, the air pressure, the attention, the stirring - 0r lack of stirring plays a part. it's not even recognised as a real candy by the great candy makers of the world, but... it is still an art.



Today it eluded me. At least three times. On the fourth try I think I nailed it. Tomorrow will tell.

For respite the potager, a glass of wine, and a book...

Wine and fresh picked beans

Nasturtiums

Jade beans

Of course there are steaks on the grill that have to be attended to and corn on the cob and freshly picked beans to steam... Life doesn't stop just because the fudge didn't turn out.

The Day After

Market Day is exhausting. I know there are people who thrive on the energy and interaction with people, but for me it is the opposite. I'm not a people person. I'm pretty good one-on-one, but crowds do me in. Today, the day after, I was looking forward to rest, quiet, and a bit of good food and fun. No such luck. We had canning to do, fudge to make, church, chores, and prep for the coming week. No rest for the wicked today. We sold out of fudge yesterday. Orders keep coming in so we have to make more of everything. That's at least 8 hours of fudge making plus cleanup, prep, etc. That needs to be woven into a couple hours of basic chores, church, family meals (which all have to be prepared - interrupting the fudge making) and canning. I'd have skipped the canning today, but everything was ready and my help starts back at her real job tomorrow.

Sweet Pickle Relish

Time to "get-er-done". So we did. We didn't get all the fudge done. That will take me a couple more days. But we did do everything else. We put up sweet pickle relish and pickled beets. We made zucchini bread to freeze for later. We did all the chores, went to church, ate, and managed to have fun in the process.

Tomorrow is "back-at-it-day". Full on getting things done. Nice to have had a restful weekend to gear up for the week ahead.

Voting Day at the Market

We had a great response to our Fudge Flavors Contest. Forty new flavor suggestions were sent in. I wanted to try them all, but the saner member of our team talked me into cutting the list down to a more manageable size. She suggested five, I wanted twelve. We ended up making nine. That was a lot of new flavors to make in a week. Last night we cut and prepped for the market and eliminated two because they didn't set properly (more on that later). So we went to market with our standard 6 flavors for sale and 7 new flavors for people to vote on.

Here's what went;

• Vanilla Latte from Daphne
• Bacon Chocolate from Sara
• Apple Pie from CC
• Black and Tan from Alan
• Chocolate Espresso from Marie
• Thai Chili Peanut from Alan
• Chocolate Mint from Jenny

There were others we wanted to make but didn't because of time, cost, or inability to concoct a recipe that worked. Several would not set including two we planned to take, an Orange and a Chai. I think the extra acid made them react differently. I'll have to work on that for the future.

We had a great response at market today. One hundred and fifty people voted (that might not seem like a lot, but it is huge for our little farmers market.) We sold out of fudge. It was great!

Now the results...

1. Apple Pie 39 votes
2. Chocolate Espresso 34 votes
3. Vanilla Latte 31 votes
4. Bacon Chocolate 16 votes
5. Thai Chili Peanut 16 votes
6. Mint Chocolate 3 votes

So the winning flavor is Apple Pie!!!!!!!!!! We will be making this one from now on. However we will also be making Chocolate Espresso, Vanilla Latte, Bacon Chocolate, and Thai Chili Peanut (the last two in smaller quantities). We will be sending out fudge to Daphne, Marie, and Sara (CC and Alan both work here so their entries don't count for the free fudge.)

Congratulations and Thanks to all who participated. It will take about a week to get the new fudge up on the online store. So, be patient, it will be available soon.

Life in the test kitchen

WOW! I never realized how hard it is to create a product that captures the flavor you want. We have had some successes, but I'm feeling a bit like Edison in the failure department. I know lots of ways to not make certain kinds of fudge. Most of them are just a matter of getting the right intensity of flavor and dealing with the way the flavoring affects the setting process. It changes the cooking temp but I'm never sure how. (Guess cooking school would be a useful thing at some point.) There are a few that are just giving me fits. Today it was apple pie fudge. If I use real apples, or apple products like cider or sauce there is so much pectin in it that it really does weird things. I won't make it with artificial apple flavor (what's the point), and getting it to have enough apple to be noticed and still set like fudge has been impossible so far. The other one that has me completely baffled is the bacon chocolate. It is an intriguing idea, but I can't quite get my brain around making it into fudge. It probably won't happen before Saturday (the day of tasting and voting and the Coshocton Farmers Market.)

Everything else is going well. The kids did brilliantly in their goat skillathon (a test of goat knowledge that is part of their 4H project). Now we can refocus on Archery for the State Fair next week. JJ won the county 4H Archery project and is going on to the State Fair. We are all quite excited.

Now it is time to sleep, dream of fudge, and hopefully find some answers...

Fudge Flavors

I have at least twelve new flavors I am going to have at the judging next Saturday. There are a couple I'd like to include but I'm having trouble coming up with a flavor mix to create the fudge. Fudge is basically sugar,milk, and butter. Flavoring is what makes it fudge rather than fondant. The two that are giving me fits are bacon chocolate and butter rum. Anyone have ideas on creating these flavors? I need some help ASAP.

Looks like the judging should be fun. Hope to have quite a selection.

A few good things

Yesterday Kim (The Inadvertent Farmer, who's blog is one of my favorites), one of the writers on Not Dabbling in Normal, channeled Martha Stewart and posted about the "good things" in her world. It was inspiring. So, here is my addition to the idea...

Hibiscus Flowers

Zinnias

Rose Buds

Baby Beans

Waiting in line for belly rubs (I'm in line too... soon as pictures are done ...)

Life is good here at Roberts Roost.

We have had great response to our to our fudge flavor contest. Tomorrow we will start in the test kitchen with the selected flavors. The judging will be on Saturday, August 1st at the Coshocton Farmers Market from 8:30 am until Noon. You are all invited. If anyone has other ideas for flavors I'd love to here them soon.

The Day After Slam-dancing With A Bull

OK, he isn't really a bull, but he has all the attitude, size, and hard headed stupidity of one.

I spent the day limping around. My thigh is quite bruised and my hip hurts a lot. Chuck was pretty oblivious, still wanting to play. But he did settle right down when I flicked the end of the lead at his nose. I must have connected at some point yesterday.

It seems that Jack was right about the squash. Vine Borer. The small squash is dead. The large healthy squash is wilting and will be dead by Sunday. Should have planted more last week. There is still time so we will plant tomorrow after market, and then again in a week or so. I've tried everything in the past, injecting bt, slitting the vine and picking out grubs, and all kinds of deterrents. Nothing has worked. (I know there are products that would "solve" the problem, but I wouldn't want to eat the squash such a plant produced.)

I spent some of the morning up on the ladder finishing up some painting. Only half the house left to do. Hope my leg stops hurting soon so I can finish.

We have had lots of good responses to our fudge flavor contest (see the side bar for the link). One more link before the voting. My favorite so far is Thai Chili Peanut Butter. Also had a request for a Guinness Black and Tan fudge and a Bacon Chocolate fudge. I'm trying to work out how to create those. I've pretty much got the Black and Tan figured out, but the Bacon has me baffled. It should be quite a show at the market next week. Hope we come home with some winners.

Fudge Contest

I finally got everything done for our online store listing on Local Harvest. We are now selling 6 different kinds of goat milk fudge on line in 1/2 lb and 1 lb packages. We are also selling every week at the Coshocton Farmers Market, and daily at our farm shop. Sales are doing well. It is nice to have a farm product that is really taking off. Right now we are selling 6 different flavors - chocolate, chili chocolate, lemon chocolate, peanut butter, lavender honey, and butter pecan. We would like to add a couple of new flavors. We will be accepting suggestions for new flavors from now until the end of July. We will make them and have a panel of judges (a group of friends who love our fudge and give us really useful, honest feedback) select the best new flavors for our market. Then we will take them to market the second week in August and let the customers decide. The two that get the top customer votes will be added to our line of flavors and the person who sent in the flavor will receive their choice of a pound of the fudge they suggested or a sample pack containing a taste of each of our fudge flavors. You may enter as many flavors as you want. You may add them to the comments here or send them in an email to alan@roberts-roost.com

Oh Fudge

Fudge, particularly smooth, creamy, rich goat milk fudge is now a daily fact of life at our farm. We made some last year and it was quite popular with family, friends, and at the farmers market. This year, when the goats ate the garden and crashed the farmers market production schedule, we started making fudge again. It was that or make sausage out of the goats (which almost happened.) The fudge has been a great hit at the market. People line up for our peanut butter fudge and some of the other types have die hard fans too. We have been selling about 30 lbs of fudge at the market within a couple hours of opening. People do ask if we are going to ever have anything green again, then they buy some fudge and say they'll see us next week. We will have greens again, but it wont be until fall. We are having fun with the fudge right now. It uses up some of our extra goat milk in a way we can actually sell. That makes me happier about having as many goats as we do. We are also selling fudge in our farm store, and offer it year round. I'm waiting on final approval for my online store. When that is done we will be offering fudge for sale on line to be shipped anywhere.

Right now we are making the following types;


Chili Chocolate - Hand made in small batches from our goat milk and flavored with the best chocolate and locally grown chilies, this fudge will get your attention and leave you craving another bite. For those who love chocolate and spicy foods, this fudge is perfect.

Chocolate Lovers - "Wow! That's chocolatey!" is the most common comment from folks at the farmers market when they taste this fudge. Rich, creamy chocolate that melts in your mouth.

Lavender Honey - This is a creamy vanilla fudge mixed with sweet lavender blossoms. The smooth creaminess of the fudge is the perfect background to the freshness of the lavender. The scent intrigues, while the flavor lingers. Surprisingly smile producing.

Peanut Butter - This fudge delivers old fashion, creamy, peanut buttery, goodness. People stand in line for our best selling fudge at the farmers market. Folks come back again and again for this creamy peanut butter fudge.
Butter Pecan - The name says it all. Rich buttery fudge loaded with pecans. Better than pecan pie.

Lemon Chocolate - Our rich chocolate fudge with a sweet lemon background. Subtle, complex, and satisfyingly creamy.

We are always looking for new flavor ideas so if there is something you always wanted to try, let us know.

We're Back

Life has been pretty crazy here lately. Things seemed to be falling apart at an alarming rate. I posted a bit about what's been happening yesterday in a post on Not Dabbling in Normal. I'm getting back in the swing of blogging and will be bringing our adventures up to date over the next few days.

The Farm Shop is finished

The Potager is filling in nicely

and Fudge has become a major part of our life.

Pumpkin Fudge

Pumpkin Fudge

Joan sent us a pound of Pumpkin fudge for Christmas. I was a bit hesitant to try it (I'm a bit of a fudge snob and pumpkin just didn't sound like a flavor I'd like.) Wow! Spicy pumpkin with some pecan crunch mixed in. Perfect for a frigid winter morning with a cup of coffee on the side. Now I have to talk her out of the recipe. It will probably be a seasonal offering, but it should go nicely with our chocolate, peanut butter, and butter pecan fudge. I'm also considering a chili chocolate fudge. Can't wait till we have goat milk again so I can get back to making fudge.