Friends, please join us for a Three Sisters gardening class at Four String Farm this Saturday, March 19, from 9:00am to 11:00am.
The Three Sisters is the ancient Native American technique for companion planting corn, beans, and squash (plus pumpkins, melons, cucumbers, nasturtiums, and herbs). This method is an easy and efficient way to grow a tremendous amount of food with minimal work or expense.
The Three Sisters method is possibly the best-kept gardening secret in America. But on Saturday, we will share the secrets of this ancient technique to help you grow a variety of vegetables, herbs, and flowers right in your own garden. Our farm will be featured in a Smithsonian exhibit demonstrating this method.
In this workshop, we will teach you everything you need to know to plant a small or large Three Sisters garden. Whether you want to fill a little planter in your front yard, or grow enough produce to feed your family, this workshop will give you with the skills to do it.
We will begin with bare dirt and plant several variations of the technique. We will even show you how Squanto taught the Pilgrims to bury fish as fertilizer!
This workshop will be held out-of-doors on our farm. Please wear long pants, close-toed shoes, and bring a hat. This will be a small class with personalized instruction, and we will answer all your gardening questions as we go.
As part of the cost of this class, you will receive a starter seed packet prepared by me and Kayla, as well as seed packets of heirloom corn, beans, and squash.
The cost of this workshop is $35 per person, and a portion of the proceeds will go to a local charity. You must pay in advance for this class. Directions to our farm with more detailed information will be e-mailed to you once you complete the payment.
We are so sorry, this class is full. To find out about upcoming classes, please subscribe to this blog to get updates about classes and other information. Thank you, have a wonderful day!
Thank you, we look forward to seeing you on Saturday!
Friends, you have seen a lot of information on this site about the Three Sisters, the ancient Native American technique for inter-planting corn, beans, and squash. We have explored the benefits of this method, its sustainability, and its rich history. Here is something about the future of the Three Sisters.
Beginning this month, we will appear in a Smithsonian Institute Traveling Exhibit called “H2O Today”. “H2O Today” explores the beauty, the diversity, and the great challenges of global water resources in the 21st Century.
I am thrilled to announce that Four String Farm will be featured in this exhibit. We appear in the section devoted to agriculture, in a case study about the irrigation techniques of the Zapotec Indians a thousand years ago. An image from Four String Farm is used to illustrate the components of the Three Sisters technique. Our modern thriving farm in Rockport is contrasted with the Zapotec civilaztion at Monte Albán, in Oaxaca, Mexico.
The Smithsonian featured our farm because it is a working example of sustainable agriculture using traditional methods. Visitors to the interactive exhibit can click on our website to find a wealth of information about the Three Sisters freely available to the public. These water-saving techniques point to the future of agriculture in a water-dwindling world.
What’s more, the “H2O Today” exhibit will travel to more than thirty cites across America from 2016 all the way to 2020. The educational opportunities of this exhibit will reach tens of thousands of people in every corner of this great nation. (I will post more about the exhibit once it is completed and on display.)
I have visited farms all over the world, in jungles, mountains, deserts, and rich fertile plains, but I have never seen the Three Sisters used anywhere in agriculture. I discovered this method in history books, and taught myself the technique through trial and error while building a pioneer farm out of a wilderness. And now our modest gardens will appear in the Smithsonian.
I have long said that the Three Sisters is the best-kept gardening secret in America. But now, with the power and scope of the Smithsonian, I don’t think the Three Sisters will be a secret for long.
A Special Note for Shannon at the Smithsonian:
Shannon, you made our day/month/year when you contacted us. I never imagined that in this career, I would one day sign a contract with the Smithsonian!
I know it took work for you to find us, to wade through all the information out there and drill down to this site, not to mention the thousands of sites and materials you covered in your research. Then, to take all that information and bring it to life, is just remarkable. The Smithsonian is the best institution of its kind in the world because of people like you.
Please know how thrilled our family has been to be part of this process. Thank you for finding us and making us a part of this living history you are presenting to the world.
(The image in the Smithsonian is reserved for their exclusive use–here are other images from our Three Sisters gardens!)
Purple Bean Flowers on a Corn Stalk Trellis
Three Sisters Garden
Hopi Indian Corn on Left, Melons and Squash, Sunflower Hedgerow in Back
Friends, we will offer a gardening class at Four String Farm on Saturday, January 30, from 10:00am to noon.
This will be a small class that includes a private tour of our gardens and animal paddocks. Space in the class is limited to allow the most personalized attention to the attendees. You must register and pay in advance to reserve your place–please see steps below.
The Secrets of Heritage Gardening
Our gardening methods are a unique blend of techniques I learned from visiting farms all over the world. Most of our techniques I discovered in history books, and I have never seen them in practice until we planted them on our farm. You will not find these methods in a typical gardening book.
We will begin this class by sharing an overview of heritage gardening: creating healthy soil; where and when to plant; intensive beds; companion planting; natural pest control; mulching; fertilizer; and irrigation.
We will take a walking tour of our gardens and animal paddocks during the discussion to illustrate these principles by example from the garden. We will even plant a starter Three Sisters garden with your help! This class will demonstrate how we start with beach sand but go on to harvest such incredible yields of healthy, delicious, chemical-free produce.
Our goal is to help you translate these methods to your own garden. We want to empower you to grow your own produce, a lot of it, without chemicals and with minimal work and expense. This class will be guided by your questions, so come ready to find out everything you want to know about growing your own food.
Class by Reservation and Advance Pay Only
This will be a small class; space is limited. To attend, you must pre-register and pay in advance. The cost is $25 per person. Please click on the links below to register and pay.
I will send you an e-mail once we receive your payment to confirm your reservation. Once you are registered, we will send you all the details you need for the class, including our address, what to bring, and directions for parking.
Our friend Danya Heck has graciously agreed to bring Groovie Smoothies to the class! She will have some refreshing beverages for you before and after the class, and you can pay her directly for something tasty.
Expect a Rustic Environment!
We have a true “pioneer” farm, and you will know why we call it that once you get here. You must wear long pants and closed-toed shoes to take this class, preferable blue jeans and boots. Also, dress for the weather—we will hold the class rain or shine. Wear a hat and bring bug repellant.
You will have to walk about half a mile through tall grass, weeds, brush, and uneven terrain during the tour. The class will be something like a nature walk through woods without a trail. If you can’t safely make this walk through rough terrain, this class in not for you.
Step 1, Register for Class:
First, click here and complete the form to begin your registration:
We’re sorry this class is now full! You can sign up to follow this blog to get updates and to find out when our next classes are announced. Thank you!
After you complete the registration form, come back to this page and pay for the class. Please note, you are not registered for the class until you complete your payment.
Step 2, Pay for Class:
Next, click here and pay:
We’re sorry this class is now full! You can sign up to follow this blog to get updates and to find out when our next classes are announced. Thank you!
Please note: You are not registered until you complete the form and pay for the class.
Once we receive your payment, I will send you and e-mail with your confirmation, plus details, including our address and what to bring.
We look forward to having you! Get ready for a fun and exciting day!
Friends, take a look at the winter issue of THE BEND MAGAZINE.
Turn to page 91 for a wonderful story written by Kayla. These gorgeous pastries with recipes are the work of Claudia at Fillingood Bakery in Corpus Christi. Nice work Kayla and Rachel!
Our friend Mae Burke wanted pictures of Kayla and the girls at sunrise, without makeup, still a little sleepy. As part of her series, Mae Burke, Moments of Motherhood, Mae is capturing images of moms and their little ones in beautiful natural settings.
I asked Kayla how she felt about having pictures without makeup after just waking up. She pointed out that I posted pictures of her without makeup, in harsh hospital light, after not sleeping for 48 hours, and having just had a baby. She thought Mae would be a little more gentle with the camera.
I went out in the still-dark morning to do my chores and Mae was sitting quietly on the porch, kindly waiting for everyone to be up and moving before she knocked on the door. They all went out to the lake to wait for sunrise.
I feel like these pictures could have been taken last week, or a hundred years ago. There is something timeless about the light, the gardens, the lake, and the people in the photographs. To me, a really good picture makes you want to go there, to get into the picture.
My heart is in these pictures, rising with the sun, shining on these loves of mine, holding and beholding their faces at first light.
You can see more of Mae’s photography at Mae Burke.
This week, we knew that many of our Farm Share customers would be traveling and it would be difficult for them to eat all the fresh greens we have been harvesting lately. To accommodate the holiday travel schedule, we made some dishes that would also travel.
Nasturtium Leaves and Flowers with Country Terrine
My favorite dish this week was the nasturtium leaves and flowers with country terrine. Country terrine is a pate made from pork liver, pork roast, onion, garlic, spices, cream, and high-quality brandy. Every ingredient in this dish was grown or raised on our farm (except the brandy!).
The terrine is served in small dollops on the nasturtium leaves and topped with a nasturtium flower. These flavors are incredible together. The nasturtium leaf brings a bold fresh flavor and the flower tastes almost of fruit. The mixture of these flavors with the unique taste of the terrine is just exquisite.
To keep the flowers fresh, I dug up the roots of the plant and stored them with the soil in a zip lock bag. You can moisten the soil and put the flowers in the refrigerator and they will stay fresh for days. The blooms will open again when they come into the light. We also included edible radish flowers for a slightly different flavor.
Organic Fuji Apple Tart
We delivered the organic Fuji apple tart to be finished at home. Kayla prepares the raw dough for each of the tarts, then wraps the dough in butcher paper. She pours the apple filling into mason jars. Each customer is given directions on how to roll out the dough, form the tart, and bake it. That way, our customers can enjoy their tarts hot and fresh out of the oven.
The filling for this tart is a pure taste of freshly-picked apples. It is tempting to want to add a lot of brown sugar and cinnamon, but Kayla lets the flavor the apples shine through. The sweetness of the filling balances perfectly with the sweetness of the crust.
Challah
Challah
Challah is a wonderful bread often served at Jewish holidays. Kayla braids the dough into a beautiful loaf and bakes it to golden brown perfection. We thought challah would be nice toasted and topped with country terrine, if any is left when the nasturtium leaves run out.
The King of Pork Chops
We gave each customer a package of our thick-cut pastured pork chops. I can’t decide whether I love these chops better on the grill, or in one of Kayla’s crock pot masterpieces. These chops were particularly large; some of the packages would go for nearly $50 if we sold them retail.
But these chops are worth it. The nasturtium leaves with terrine are a wonderful taste, but they are more of an hors d’oeuvre. These pork chops are the main course, and then some.
Really Good (and Healthy) Breakfast Sausage
We had an idea that a nice brunch would be fitting at some point over the Christmas weekend. We put a pound of ground pork into the Farm Share, along with a recipe for Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage. We took the recipe straight from the Jimmy Dean website, but we eliminated the massive amount of MSG’s they put into their sausage.
This breakfast sausage is not a guilty pleasure, but part of a healthy breakfast. The sausage, along with pastured eggs and toasted challah, is exactly how we started our Christmas morning at the farm.
Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies
Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies
I should call these birthday cookies, because Kayla makes them for my birthday, at my request, instead of cake. I don’t know how she makes these cookies so good. I tell the children that she dips the tip of her little finger into the batter to make them so sweet, and that they all must learn how to do this.
Produce
Additionally, we had a good selection of produce in the farm share this week. Our customers had a choice of some or all of the following: broccoli; kolh rabi; Siberian or curly leaf kale; green leaf mizuna; Prima Rosa chard; Chinese or All Season or Early Dutch cabbage; broccoli greens; pak choi; yams; sweet onions; garlic; Laurentian rutabegas; Shogoin or Purple-Top turnips; and heirloom radishes. We even had a small amount of zucchini and eggplant to add to some of the boxes.
We included some recipe ideas for a soup or crockpot, to help make the most of the produce and protein in the share. There should be plenty for one or many delicious and hearty holiday meals.
Why We Love our Customers
We are so blessed to partner with such wonderful people. Our Farm Share friends are faithful, loyal customers. They have been there for us during flood, drought, heat, cold, good harvests, and bad. They take care of us in big ways, like paying for their share up front each month; and in little ways, like returning mason jars and egg cartons for us to recycle. Our customers keep us going.
Farm Share friends, we want you to have a good Christmas because you have made it possible for us to have a good Christmas. We have plenty of presents under the tree for the little ones, and YOU made that possible. We have had some lean years building our farm, but this is a really great year, and we are so glad to share it with you.
Thank you so much, friends. We wish you a blessed holiday, good eating, and a very Merry Christmas!
Friends, we invite you to join our Farm Share program. We have limited openings available now and would love for you to become a part of our farm family!
The farm share is a weekly delivery of produce, protein, and baked or prepared goods from our farm. Your farm share will be waiting for you each week at Coastal Bend Health Foods in Rockport.
Your weekly delivery includes all the wonderful products you would hope to find at a really good farmers’ market. With the farm share, we bring the farmers’ market to you.
We raise our food ourselves, right here in Rockport, without the use of chemicals, using very old-fashioned methods. With the farm share, you will eat just the same as our family, straight from the farm, for a fair price. (See below list of items.)
By signing up for a Farm Share, you are simply shifting some of the dollars you currently spend at the grocery store to your local farm. Most of our products are more expensive than the grocery store, and some cost less; but overall, with the discounted value of the share, we are pretty competitive.
However, there is no comparison whatsoever in the taste, health, quality, freshness, and pure goodness of our food with anything you will find at the supermarket.
How Does the Farm Share Work?
On Tuesday or Friday of each week (you choose your pick-up day), stop by Coastal Bend Health Foods in Rockport to pick up your share. Your produce, protein, baked, and prepared goods will be neatly packaged and ready for you to take home.
With each share, we send a note with details about how the food is grown, plus recipe ideas from Kayla. We love our customers and want to help you get the most from your food.
Bring your own bag (or two or three, there will be a lot) to carry your food home. Your share will be ready for you at 2:00pm on your pick-up day.
You will pay for your monthly share on your first pick-up day of the month. The cost for the December Farm Share is $76 per week, or $380 for this five-week month. Your share will take care of much of your grocery shopping for the week.
As a current farm share member, you also have first right to sign up for the next month. We rarely have openings because most members re-up each month. We have openings now because we increased the number of shares.
Kayla with Siberian Kale (photo courtesy racheldurrent.com)
What is IN the Farm Share?
Each week, your share will include a percentage (or share) of the produce, protein, and baked goods raised or produced on our farm or from our local partners. Thanks to our partnership with CC Aquaponics and Coastal Bend Health Foods, we are now able offer a wider variety of wonderful, delicious, locally raised products.
Over time, we try arrange our shares, from a cost perspective, to be about 40% protein, 40% produce, and 20% baked and prepared goods. This formula is a balance between what we are able to grow, what our customers have asked us to provide, what is profitable enough to keep us in business, and what offers the greatest taste, health, and variety to our customers.
Our produce includes everything the season allows us to grow. We use livestock to prepare our gardens, so pork, beef, chicken, and eggs are part of what we sell. We added baked and prepared goods as a short-term measure to make up for a temporary gap in produce, but we continue to supply these products due to customer demand.
Produce
Each week, the produce in your box will reflect the harvest of our farm. Here is a sampling of what we and CC Aquaponics have planted in our winter gardens: several varieties lettuce, carrots, various kale, broccoli, mustard, purple and green mizuna, beets, pak and bok choi, daikon, shogoin turnips, rutabagas, beans, black-eyed peas, chard, cabbage, dill, cilantro, and much more. Many of these veggies will be ready in December.
In addition, we will supplement our share with produce from the Corpus Christi farmers’ markets and from Kimmi’s store, such as organic onions, garlic, sweet potatoes, fruit, and other good things that you will never find organic from our local supermarket. On top of that, Kayla and I will pick fruit from the trees of our friends in South Texas. We go to great lengths to find you wonderful fresh produce!
Protein
The protein each week will include cuts of grass-fed beef, pastured pork, chicken, and eggs. Your cuts each week may include one or more of the following:
Fresh chicken, bacon, beef roast, hamburger, thin-cut pork chops, thick-cut pork chops, t-bone, rib-eye, NY strip, link sausage, pan sausage, ground pork, spare ribs, country ribs, beef short ribs, soup bones, brisket, fajitas, eggs, and many other cuts.
Our animals are raised on pasture or gardens and grown completely without steroids, hormones, or antibiotics.
Baked Goods
Each week, your baked goods may include one or more the following: freshly baked baguette bread, ciabatta, sourdough, farl, challah, focaccia, crusty cob, whole wheat, dried fruit and nut bread, corn bread, banana bread, or zucchini bread. You may get blueberry, pear, or carrot muffins, cookies, or one of Kayla’s many other wonderful baked goods.
Prepared Items
Our prepared items may include: homemade butter, homemade cheese, lard, fresh fruit jelly, jam, marinara sauce, salsa, hummus, sweet red onion marmalade, butternut squash soup, and ect. The offering depends on what we harvest or can find locally or organic from Kimmi’s store.
You may also get freshly baked pies, tarts, or cobbler. Or, even better, we may offer our own frozen pie crust with the filling preserved in a mason jar, with specific directions on how to finish the pie at home. Our customers have loved this option because it is easy to make, saves you money, saves us time, and allows your family to enjoy a pie, tart, or cobbler cooked to its perfection in your own kitchen.
Cost of the Farm Share
The cost for the December Farm Share is $76 per week or $380 for this five-week month. You will pay Kimmi for your share on your first pick-up day in December. To sign up, e-mail me at justinallenbutts@gmail.com. Please order soon, the spaces will fill quickly.
As a farm share member, you will also receive discounts on our upcoming gardening and cooking classes at our farm. You will also receive discounts and offers from Kimmi for some of the wonderful items in her store.
Thank you for becoming a farm share member. We look forward to taking great care of you!
Friends, please join us for a farm to table dinner at GLOW in Rockport this Thursday at 7:00pm!
This Giving Thanks Farm Dinner is a celebration of our local harvest. Karey will feature our fresh Thanksgiving turkeys and also our grass-fed beef served in a wonderful and unique presentation. We will harvest our produce the evening of the dinner to keep the vegetables crisp and delicious.
We are so pleased to celebrate our partnership with Corpus Christi Aquaponics. Casey and Lawrence will bring their freshly-picked produce and tell us about the farming techiniques of the future.
We will also explore the past, the First Thanksgiving, where seafood was the main course. Karey will prepare a Rockport seafood stew that honors the harvest of the Gulf—you will not want to miss this.
Friends, please order your Thanksgiving turkey now. We will reserve each turkey in order of responses received. These turkeys will sell out quickly, please order soon to reserve your bird.
These turkeys were raised in the fields and forests of our farm on a diet of weeds, bugs, and our own garden produce.
Even better, we fattened these turkeys on an unlimited diet of fresh pumpkins. Turkeys love pumpkin and they will devour the entire pumpkin, seeds, flesh, rind, and all. I am very excited to find out how this amazing diet of fresh pumpkin, so rich in vitamins, minerals, and anti-oxidants, influences the flavor of these turkeys.
Raising the Perfect Thanksgiving Turkey
We raised these turkeys in brooders in our living room for the first month of their lives. We received them as day-old chicks in August, when it was much too hot to leave them outside.
For that month in our house, I am guessing the turkeys listened to at least five Beethoven symphonies, all his middle string quartets, Bach’s preludes, Rhapsody in Blue a few times, and so on—and they listened to a LOT of news. These are some cultured turkeys. Our family has adapted to having a house full of turkeys every August, to allow your family to have a wonderful bird for Thanksgiving.
Our dog Bando has worn himself ragged protecting these birds from coyotes and hawks in the forest. We have not lost a single bird (knock on wood) to predators this year. However, one evening I saw an osprey fly into the flock, attack a turkey, and pick it up to fly away with it. Bando ran barking at the osprey and the osprey dropped the turkey in the grass. The turkey was unbelievably not injured, not a scratch, and if you get that bird, I hope your family gets some of its luck also.
I checked each of the turkeys regularly (at night, in the dark, when they let me close) to pull all the stickers off of each bird. This is time-consuming delicate work. Stickers can cause cuts on the skin, and we want perfect birds. Still, these turkeys were raised in the forest and fields and will naturally get cuts and scrapes as part of living a happy pastured life.
What is the Price?
These turkeys sell for $7.99 per pound, and the birds will weigh around 12 to 15 pounds. Our birds should cost around $100 or so. To give you an idea of the value of our turkeys, I researched prices of pastured and conventional turkeys on-line.
If you order a quality turkey on-line, you will pay $8.14 per lb up to $9.94 per lb and higher. Many of these birds cost nearly $200. Further, you have to pay shipping, an additional $25, and you will get a frozen bird in the mail.
Our locally-raised birds will be delivered fresh for Thanksgiving, never frozen. You can judge for yourself the taste, freshness, tenderness, and quality of our turkeys compared to anything else on the market.
When to Pick Up?
You can pick up your turkey from Coastal Bend Health Foods on the Tuesday or Wed before Thanksgiving. Please pick up your turkey with enough time to brine it overnight before cooking it for Thanksgiving.
We will share some excellent recipes for your pastured bird. Your turkey will be full of flavor and tenderness when you pick up, which makes your job as a home chef easier and more fun.
For our colonial pumpkin pie recipe, we used lovely Galeux D’Eysines heirloom pumpkins, but these are rare and hard to find. For your pie, use any small to medium-sized pumpkin, or a large acorn, buttercup, or red turban squash from the farmers’ market.
This recipe first appeared in the THE BEND MAGAZINE. Please check out this beautiful magazine for other recipes and more.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine spices and brown sugar in a small bowl. Place pumpkin on a rimmed, aluminum foil-lined cookie sheet. Place half of the apples in the bottom of the pumpkin and top with 1/2 cup raisins, 1/2 cup pecans, and half of the butter. Top fruit and nut mixture with half of the sugar-spice mixture.
Using the remaining ingredients, repeat the process forming a second layer inside the pumpkin. Cover pumpkin with aluminum foil and transfer to the preheated oven. Bake for three hours, or until pumpkin flesh is fork tender and filling is bubbling. Serve with Vanilla Bean Sauce.
Vanilla Bean Sauce:
In a medium saucepan, combine cream, sugar, salt, (optional liquor), and butter over medium-low heat. Using a paring knife, cut down the length of the vanilla bean and scrape its contents into the cream mixture. Whisk sauce until bubbling and a creamy consistency is reached. Serve warm by spooning sauce over each serving of pumpkin pie.
