Smiling Dog Farm

09/20/2025

Folks, I've had to make a decision for self-interest and called off our attendance at the market today. If you'd like to buy Asian Pears, I'll be arranging trips to Neosho over the next several days to deliver. Message if you'd like some. $2.50/lb.

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09/20/2025

Already had a request for the recipe for Asian Pear Tarts.

Upside Down Asian Pear Tarts (makes 6 tarts)

1 sheet frozen puff pastry dough
2 tbsp. honey or real maple syrup
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. brown sugar
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
pinch cardamom
pinch allspice
One large or two small Asian pears
One egg, beaten with 1 tsp milk, for egg wash

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Remove puff pastry sheet from package and set aside to thaw while you prepare other ingredients.

In tiny bowl, mix honey or syrup and vanilla and set aside. In another small bowl, mix brown sugar and spices and mix well. Cut butter into 6 teaspoon-sized pats.

Cut pear(s) into quarters, remove core, and slice into 1/4 inch slices.

Line baking sheet with baking parchment.

Unfold puff pastry and cut into six equal rectangles (two rows of three).

Drizzle 1 tsp. syrup or honey mixture onto parchment for each of six tarts, in a puddle. Top each with one pat of butter. Arrange pear slices in a row about as long as your rectangles of dough. Sprinkle about 1 tsp. of brown sugar mixture over pear slices. Lay a rectangle of dough on top of pear slices. Brush each rectangle with egg wash.

Bake until pastry is nicely browned, about 18 minutes. Allow to cool for a minute or two, but turn while tarts are still quite warm.

Using a thin spatula, turn each tart over, making sure to scrape up the glaze too, and place on a plate or rack to cool further. Serve warm or at room temperature.

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09/19/2025

Our last market of the season is tomorrow, September 20, featuring a LOT of our chemical free, homegrown Asian Pears. If you haven't had Asian Pears, they're a unique and delicious fruit, with a taste similar to a European Pear, but a crisp texture like an apple. We had Asian Pear Tarts for dessert tonight, and YUM!

Some see us tomorrow at Neosho Farmers Market, and get them while you can!

07/14/2025

Please help, friends. Infor or prayers welcome. She's very loved. UPDATE: WILLOW CAME HOME! Walked out on the porch at 9:20 a.m. on Tuesday, 7/15, and she was standing in the horsemint next to the porch. She's unharmed, a little thinner, very dirty, and very hungry....❤❤❤❤❤

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07/14/2025

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08/25/2024

Friends, for only the second time, I'm going to make a political statement on this page. I've been hearing a lot about a plan to stop "price gouging" on food and groceries. I'm going to list a few facts of which I have personal knowledge. You can decide for yourselves if increased prices on food are because of "price gouging."

In 2020, I paid $4.50 per bale for straw for garden mulch. This year, it was $5.50.

In 2020, I paid $120 per 50 # bag of fish meal for fertilizer. This year, it was $200--for a 40 # bag.

In 2020, I paid $12.50 per yard for mushroom compost. This year, it was $20 per yard.

In 2020, plastic flat trays for plant starts were 80 cents. This year, they were $1.20.

In 2020, gasoline to get my products to the farmers market, to run our tractor, mowers, and equipment, was $1.85 per gallon. This year, it's $2.85.

I've tried to keep prices stable, because I know my customers, and I like most of them. I'm not trying to get rich off my farm. Heck, I'm not even trying to make a living entirely off my farm. But I've raised my prices, or decreased the amount sold for the same price--just like my vendors, and their vendors have.

Price controls are a SUPREMELY STUPID idea. If someone tells me I can't sell my product for what it costs to produce it, plus enough extra to pay me reasonably for the time I put into it, guess what I'll have to do? STOP PRODUCING IT. This isn't unique to me. I don't know anyone who keeps going to work every day if they don't get paid. I don't know anyone who keeps running a business just to lose money.

This is such an elementary idea, and price controls have caused shortages and rationing so many times--every time it's been tried, in fact-- that I feel 100% confident in saying this:

Anyone who proposes government price controls of necessary products is TRYING to deprive the public of those products. In the case of food, that's kind of a big problem.

Govern yourselves accordingly.

08/19/2024

Smiling Dog Farm will not be at the Neosho Farmers Market this week, due to other family commitments.

But the okra hasn't stopped, and we've got about 10 lbs of our Red Burgundy okra needing a home ($4/quart), along with a couple of lovely ripe cantaloupes to go with them ($4 each) Delivery to Neosho or Goodman areas. Please message the page if you'd like to get some for yourself!

06/15/2024

Poll: Take your best guess, in comments below, when one would have to start tomato seed, and then when you'd have to plant them out, in order to have ripe slicing tomatoes on June 15. I'll post the answer, from my own experience, tonight.

06/13/2024

I apologize in advance, farm friends. I don't use this page for political/controversial stuff. But I am today, because if you're a friend of the farm, you care about small agriculture and access to healthy food.

A state government (Oregon) has begun a new, unprecedented, overreach that, if it spreads, will spell the death of small farms like Smiling Dog Farm. It's ridiculous, and it has to be stopped.

Oregon has told farms that they cannot use groundwater (wells) for irrigation without buying water rights. For those of you who haven't lived in the West, water rights are VERY expensive. So huge ag can afford them, but someone growing produce for a farmers market most certainly could not.

So this completely arbitrary action is nothing more than an attempt to put small farmers out of business. Unless you want to be utterly dependent on big ag and big retail, keep your eyes out, friends. The war on food has begun.

As Oregon more actively enforces state rules around water usage, some farmers have learned that they’ve been operating illegally for years.

04/19/2024

World class mama, Pinta, one of our few remaining Ameraucana hens, has brought in a spring brood yet again. She's such a good teacher and a fierce protector of her little ones, even though the little brown one is probably the only one that is actually hers.

03/31/2024

My youngest, Bear, who was a fixture at our first couple seasons' markets, is going out on her own, with a new burger and breakfast stand at the Neosho Farmers Market this season. Her big opener will be at Street Food Saturday by Neosho Farmers Market, next week! Stop by and see us and try the Philly Cheesesteak Burger--it's Deeeelicious!

A love of cooking and a love of local food have combined in our new food stand, Bear Grills. We will be a regular feature at the Neosho Farmers Market for the 2024 season, offering handmade burgers created from Thogmartin Cattle Co. beef, Hatfield's ham and bacon, Smiling Dog Farm eggs and veggies, and fresh, homemade buns by Bear.

03/17/2024

The good news and the bad news from picking up my inputs for the garden this year. Good: The price per bag for fish meal was identical to last year. Bad: The bag has been made 20% smaller.