Sweet Pickled Beets Recipe

Posted on April 22, 2026 by Just another day on the farm

The Keys to Farmgal Pickled Beets is Roasting your beets (never boil them) and the brine..

Sweet Pickling Brine per 4 pints, double or triple or more at will..

  • 2 cups of Pickling Vinegar
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 3 tablespoons Pickling spices ( simmer in your brine for 5 in a spice bag, then remove)
  • This will make enough bring to cover around 4 pounds of prepared beets

In a non-reactive pot, add the above together, bring to a boil, bring down to a simmer or turn off and allow the spices to age in the brine, if you let it sit and i have been known to do so for upwards of 20 minutes, bring it back up to a boil after the spice bag is removed so you are filling your hot jars with hot brine before going into your water bath canner.

Now almost all recipes are going to tell you to boil your beets, even worse recipes will tell you to peel and slice your beets and then boil them.. Please don’t do this! Choose fresh beets, remove the greens, leaving the top and tail intact, place them in a 375 oven in a large roaster pan with around 2 to 3 inches of water and cook them till fork tender, small to med approx. 45 minutes, large beets up to a hour or more, the fork should not break the beet up, but it should go in easily. if needed, add a touch more boiling water if there a few layers of bigger beets, do not allow the roaster to run out of water.

This allows the natural sweetness and depth of flavor in the beets to develop, once out of the oven, carefully remove them from the pan into a bowl of ice water or a freshly washed sink with cold water, the skins will slip off or you can take a small paring knife an peel/skin them, if you have chickens, ducks, pigs or even cows or horse, they will love the beet peelings

Then for me, i cut them in half, and then into as equal cubes or if you are using small round beets or if you are using slicer beets, which have been breed to grow perfectly to give you small/med round as you cut them for slicer pickled beets, the key is trying to get them as even as you can reasonable so that they will pickle evenly if you are wanting to use them quickly, its less a issue if you let them age properly before use. Best after two weeks or longer.

Follow all standard Water Bath processes, Hot jars to hot brine into hot water bath for the time needed for your personal sea level, for me at quart size, it is 30 minute’s once it comes to a boil, remove and place them and wait 24 hours before checking them for seal, remove the ring and wash the jars, label and place in a cool, dark place for storage. Ideally use within a year but will hold in properly conditions for 3 or more years.

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Canning Pantry -Beets, Beef and Chicken Soup

Posted on April 21, 2026 by Just another day on the farm

The Canning pantry on the farm has been in steady use for the past two years with not much refill, between my own personal health issues, Hubby’s foot issue getting him a medical leave to work full time from home for 6 months and the insane drought of 2025, full jars come up and empty ones go down. The biggest items added last year was peach sauce.

2026 is a turn over year and a restock year, a turn over year in the fact that anything three years older or more is getting eating, or turned into fodder and those jars are getting cleared, washed and hopefully most of them refilled.

We are heading into spring of 2026 with no canned beans, i mean i normally carry at least a two year supply sometimes upwards of a three year on our most favorite canned farm raised veggie, diced beans and we are OUT, out of bean, out of corn, both of those were full failures last year in the gardens, the coons got the corn early and took out our hopes there, turns out that area can grow corn but its not a good area for wildlife eating your corn, the beans got planted late in the new big garden and got heat stunted and then killed..

beets were ok in the kitchen garden but we did a fresh eating and storage and they were gone, as was the drought potato’s, they grew perfectly, they were double hilled, flowered and they put out a lovely crop of babies and then the drought hit and they died back and we just had buckets of itty bitty baby ones to harvest and eat, good eating but no winter storage.

So when i got the chance to pick up a big old bag of Quebec grown beets, i took it and added a 25 pound bag to process into jars until we can get our first new crop of the year, i am very much looking forward to having pickled beets regular back on the table.

Canning Pantry Count to April 2026 Total Jars to date 35

  • 4 8oz jars of Black Current Jam
  • 5 quart jars of grass fed stewing beef
  • 9 pint jars of Chicken Barley Veg soup
  • 9 pint jars of diced beets
  • 7 quart jars of Sweet Pickled Beets
  • 1 pint jar of Coltsfoot syrup

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Mushroom Compost

Posted on April 19, 2026 by Just another day on the farm

We picked up 500 plus pounds of twice bloomed mushroom bags from down the way about ten minutes give or take, love supporting small local farms, we have been buying mushrooms from them for a couple years now, so when the chance came to buy them in bulk at a discounted price point, it was certainly taken up on.

We had bought a Wine Cap kit from them last spring and it was producing its first flushes last fall, and i look forward to expanding on those but the fact that these 100 bags have all the different types they produce still active in them means that as we spread them, there is a very good chance that we can create new spots on hedgerows, in shady spots, in spots i know get water moves threw or edges in the rains to help create flushes of the different types.

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Its Coltsfoot bloom time!

Posted on April 18, 2026 by Just another day on the farm

Its that time of year that the coltsfoot blooms are up and out on the sunny days, they come out before the leaves and while its a very good idea to dig out the creeping roots in your spring garden clean up, its also time to pick and redo the cough syrup.

I don’t make much as it not something that is used often if at all. I make a pint jar of the flowers steam juiced for future cough candy making and one 8 oz jar of the syrup itself, this gets made and swapped out on a rotation base in the herbal cupboard.

I know, you are thinking why do that if it almost never gets used? Its local, its here on the farm, it is effect for most people, and for very short term use, its more safe then many other things. I would rather have it on hand if it was needed, then be wishing i had put some up.

I have tried to dry the flowers because then i would not need to use a jar lid but at least on my tries, instead of them drying down into yellow flowers, the heat pushed them into fluffy seed heads, you should have seen my surprise as i opened the dryer to check on them, not having turned the flow off, after all why would i need to and whoosh, out they flew LOL

I expect i could try again by taking them in the bud stage and drying them but for now, i am happy with my system. With no idea really what will be effect supply chain wise, this year my full restock the herbal pantry from top to bottom, all season long, everything that can be refreshed will be, extras jars will be put up and I will be putting my new to me vacuum jar sealer to use and we will see if it helps keep things fresher, I am quite hopeful.

This will allow me to reuse canning lids in a safe way and save on costs to put these jars up. Do you have coltsfoot in the garden or by forage? Do you buy it at the local pharmacy or order it online? Do you keep it in cough drop form, or syrup or tincture? Or for you, do you keep it out of your herbal pantry altogether?

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Current Propagation -Pinning

Posted on April 17, 2026 by Just another day on the farm

Red, White, Black, Gooseberry, Jostaberry are all part of the current family, and they all can be very successfully cloned by pinning.

What are some good reason you would want to pin your favorites? or ask your friend to do so on a type or bush you admire.

  1. Free Plants, why buy more, when you can easily working with your mother plants create more.
  2. Clone your Favorites
  3. Can share your old faithful or your new WOW favorite with Friends, Family and FARMGATE SALES
  4. You can create a whole new starter hedgerow this year to be planted out next year!
  5. Micro zone: you know this plant works in your soil, your climate and you know the parents health status!

What do you need?

  1. Mother plant of your choice
  2. A way to pin the stem to the ground, this can be ground staple, this can be as frugal as a rock if need be, or a small wedge of wood. I recommend using a steel staple for best results but i am going to own that i have been known to lower a branch, pop a rock on it to hold it in place with the rest up in the air.. the rock is big enough to keep that spot down, small enough to not effect the rest of the plant and the next year just remove it, cut on the mother plant side, lift the rock, take up the rooted and the front branch, i will trim the branch to match the root ball, and replant or pot up. The reason we ideally buy and use the metal pins, they can clean them, we can see where they are, and no one is going to think that its a rock in a odd place and move it (trust me its happened lol) but if you pin, i recommend covering that area with a bit of good soil
  3. Time, don’t be in a rush, give them a year to root and grow, cut and remove them in the spring before they fully wake up.

Currents are easy to grow in most climates, as a northern gardener, the fact that they are zone 3 to zone 8 with a few even doing well enough in zone 2 with a bit of help makes them a fundamental in homestead gardens.

We are always looking for ways on the homestead to have things to offer at the farmgate or the farmers market stall, a few well grown potting up current bushes are a very welcome item to add, as is the Juice, Jelly, Jams, crushed and dried fruits are amazing to add to tea blends or in baking or think outside the box for meat glazes, salad dressings or more.

Here are a few favorites i have shared over the years! What are some of your personal favorite ways to use currents, do you like one type over another?

Indulgent Red Current Chocolate Cake Recipe

Black Current Bundt Cake Recipe | Just another Day on the Farm

Orange Black Current Cookie Recipe | Just another Day on the Farm

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Chicken Barley Veggie Canned Soup Recipe

Posted on April 16, 2026 by Just another day on the farm

Pint jars at two cups each are perfect sizes for Dear Hubby to take as a lunch soup or for here on the farm as a reheat and go! Our pressure canner does 18 pints jars per load.

Chicken Barley Veggie Soup Recipe

Per Pint Jar Add

  1. 1/2 cup of diced fine white breast meat, or if you are being more frugal, thigh meat OR as in the case for these, i had thawed out two whole chickens, parted them out into breast meat, legs/thigh and wings, and then i roasted the rest, and afterwards pulled all the extra off and chopped it up for these soups.
  2. 1/2 cup of mirepoix, a equal blend of Onion, Carrot and celery, in my case i also had red pepper in there this time.
  3. 1 tbsp of pearl barley
  4. 1 tsp of italian herb blend, 1 tsp herb blend (use what your family likes for your own blends for chicken soup) and 1/4th tsp of black pepper
  5. Chicken broth, you can add in 1 tsp of dry broth, or you can use homemade broth, in this case, per hubbies request.
  6. Half cup of homemade tomato sauce plain and the water required to fill to one inch head space

Remember to wipe your rims with clean water or vinegar, lids finger tight and as they are pints 75 min at 10 pounds pressure at my sea level, please check your pressure canner to figure out if YOU need to adjust due to your sea level

Once they are out and sat for 24 hours, they will have their rings removed, be given a wash and sent down to the cellar for storage and used over the next year or sooner.

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Heart Burger Recipe

Posted on April 15, 2026 by Just another day on the farm

You bought a whole animal be it beef, lamb, goat or pork, or you are raising small stock, rabbit, or fowl and you find yourself with a heart or hearts. i have a number of heart recipes in the recipe section of the blog.

Today however we are going to talk about the best way to get your family to eat them if they don’t “like” seeing it in its heart form and that is grind it and mix it with burger/minx of your choice and make burgers for the freezer, future dinners and fast BBQ’s

First though lets talk about why you should be adding it to your menu

Beef hearts are loaded with nutrients to keep your body healthy, including iron, protein, selenium, and zinc. It is pretty low in fat compared to other cuts of beef, with approximately 4 grams of fat per 3-ounce serving. 

This organ meat also contains a substantial amount of complex B vitamins, like folate, riboflavin, and Vitamin B-12, that protect against heart disease and naturally improve energy levels.

Those who live with anemia may want to consume beef hearts to aid their Vitamin B-12 deficiency, this one really matters to me as one of Hubby’s med’s can make him low on this much needed B-12!

Cut up your ideally Grass Fed local Beef heart and then grind it to match the grind on the burger meat you are using.

Now, that is long yearling grass fed ground beef, its coming on over a year in the freezer but its excellent condition and look at the difference between it and the ground heart from the same animal, if you are following the rules on these things, its a straight 80/20. I don’t know why, i just know that book after book after book tells me that you should use 20 ground heart to 80 percent ground meat to get a mix that NO ONE can tell they are eating heart in there, while still getting some of the health add in on the final product.

However, that a book and i like the way heart tastes, i am not trying to hide it, i am just trying to turn its looks different, from that above to the below!

Now to be fair, if i was going to only use the heart, i would have run it though the grinder one more time on a finer setting but knowing i was doing the blend, i didn’t mind at all that this was a bit course.

I added one large onion, 4 peeled and prepped garlic cloves to each batch, but its not needed, if you have health or other reasons to not be eating those.

I made two batches, each one made 12 burger in different flavors, one batch was Montreal steak spice and the other was more herb based, its a blend i get from out west, called Veggie seasoning LOL Its like a Mrs. Dash but with salt and turmeric in it

If you wanted to make these go further and get more volume on the most frugal side, you could grind in a half to a full cup of oatmeal to each batch, or spend a bit more and add bread crumbs. Once you have the grind and blend together, you can follow your families preferred seasoning and way of making your burgers

Layer between their wax paper round into stacks of four each, they have been frozen flat, stacked and into freezer bags or tubs, I am still reducing my use of plastic by using my freezer mates over and over and over and over again, and hopefully for MANY more years to come, so far i have not lost a single one to cracking to date.

The burgers can be snapped off the stack to have a single one but most often i will just grab a pack of four and put in the fridge for future meal use

So if you find a good deal on heart in the store, if you need more B12, if you got a whole animal and wonder how to use those hearts in a way that everyone will eat it, this is the a good thing!

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Bird Sale Results

Posted on April 14, 2026 by Just another day on the farm

My favorite Bird and small animal sale was a huge event indeed, it was triple deep standing room only, i came home with Quail Hatching Eggs

We will see how they do, as they go into lockdown this coming weekend, i also am on a waiting list for some babies that will come once they can be sexed.

New to the farm is a mated pair of guinea fowl, they where a late hatch from last june, truly lovely birds, i look forward to teaching them to go into a custom made mobile movable pen.

There is one more set of birds that came home but they will get their own new post, they are the very first of their kind that i have added to the farm, but their wild cousins have been here and there for many years.

I was hoping to get a lovely looking rabbit but i needed to leave before they came up for sale, but i got the owners name and contact information so i will be in touch with them as some point sooner then later

I figured if i was going to run the incubator, i might as well fill it, the quail eggs will go into my small one for their hatching lockdown and the mixed laying flock with layers, dual purpose, as i do not have them in breeding groups, the egg colors from the coming hens could be cream, blue, green hued, pink rose and all shades of brown.

In keeping with fowl updates, our first sitting duck hen is firmly on her nest, and i have a chicken hen that is starting to go broody which i will allow her to sit if she desires to do so.

I was a lovely time out with Miss R and meet up with some local ladies and get a visit in, never have i come home with so few birds but i am so happy to be adding to our farm this spring, four new duck hens with new breeding lines, two new breeding pairs, hatching eggs and soon enough quail.

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Elderberry Cuttings

Posted on April 13, 2026 by Just another day on the farm

These Elderberry Cuttings are a investment into the future, here at the farm we are expanding our named elderberry offerings, at the moment we had “Farmgal Elderberry” bird gifted and found 22 years ago and propagated here on the farm ever since. It lives on in at least a hundred farms/gardens across ottawa valley at this point. We also grow BOB GORDON ELDERBERRY, which to be honest has struggled in its placement, and took two years to get settled in, they were tiny but finally took of in year three and are doing well.

This year we are adding five new types and we will do the same or even more next year, i am excited to be in the process of building a extra farmgate offering for sales local for cuttings and started pots and for cutting sales across canada.

Its a longer term project three to five years but i have never minded putting years into things to make them work and work well. The market locally for elderberry flowers and Elderflower syrup is strong, The elderberry juice, jelly, wine market is already got vendors selling but there is room to grow there.

They are all out in their nursery bed and while “they say that you should expect 50% success, i will expect higher but time will tell.. they will be in this bed for the next 8 to 10 weeks and then they will potted up and or placed into their more permeant placements and then this bed will get planted into carrots and the same season extender they are getting will go up last fall, the soil in this bed is so beautiful!

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Starting Rhubarb from Seed Spring Update

Posted on April 12, 2026 by Just another day on the farm

It was finely time to move the 50 plus rhubarb babies out of the indoor winter plant setups to their outdoor cold frame!

Last year i tried to take the easy way and ordered in a bulk buy on rhubarb starts, and boy did i get a poor mailing, in their tiny 3 inch pots they were fragile and poorly, i babied them along and planted them into what was to be my new BIG rhubarb row for farmgate sales..

This spring after the drought, five remain alive, i didn’t even think we would have that many to be honest left so that was nice to find, i was not going to waste my money on ordering in more this year and so i ordered in Canada Ruby Red Rhubarb seeds as my own seed could be a mix of upward of four to six types i have here on the farm an i wanted to be able to sell both Farmgal mix genes rhubarb but also when the time comes i want a popular named type to offer up and despite there being better rhubarbs, here the number one seller is still Canadian Ruby Red Rhubarb.

Another new red rhubarb introduced from Canada. The stalks are intensely red as the name implies—even the inside of the stalk is red. Rhubarb sauce made from Ruby is as red as strawberry sauce. The skin is so tender it cam be cooked with the stalk. Source : The 1944 book of selected planting stock – Fruit trees, berry bushes, ornamentals, Andrews Nursery Company, Faribault, Minnesota, 1944

Fat Cat, Pitter Pat and with our other farm cats are always happy to help, they are great support indeed LOL Miss Fancy is also always there, at a full grown up young farm dog, she came in at a big old whopping 12.5 pounds at last vet check which makes her smaller then all the male farm cats but bigger then the females.

I had gotten ‘tree seedling pots” that at 3 by 4 by 8 inches, and this proved to be a wonderful thing, so much bigger root system and while they were very much ready to be potted up to the next size, i am very pleased with how this worked for them

They came out in a beautiful solid cube to be transplanted into the nursery cold frame bed, i will do a count on what is needed in the Farmgate Park Garden and the rest will be potted up and put up for sale

As i know that its very possible a few of these will end up for sale, i made sure that they were placed into brand new potting up soil in the strawbale Cold frame, which as you can see in its microclimate is a great place for the purrpots to bake in the early spring sun.

The rest of the space in this cold frame is filled with 1 gallon pots with a number of different seeds to start for both eating and transplanting in the future

By choosing to start my own rhubarb, i will be able to compare all the different plants for type, taste, brix sugar content and will be able to both fill the bed and keep my current mature plants production available to me this year and beyond.

Splitting of plants is awesome but it does set them back and i will need all the rhubarb i can harvest this year as a way to add filler to the smaller fruits, its a canning stock up year. How many rhubarb plants do you have?

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