Just another Day on the Farm

Cream of Celery

Posted on March 10, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

Celery Soup

1 Onion – Peeled and Diced -Cook in a tiny bit of olive oil till clear
1 Clove of Garlic -Peeled an Diced-Cook with the onion
2Large Potato-Peeled an Diced
4 Large ribs of Celery-Washed, and Diced
8 cups of veggie or chicken stock
1 cup of milk or half a cup of sour cream
Salt, Pepper, 1 Tsp of minced Horseradish
1 tsp of oil or fat, your choice.

Dice your onion, garlic and celery together and cook it till onion is clear, add your stock, salt, pepper, horseradish, potato and cook at a nice simmer for about 30 min till potato and celery are very tender.

Take off heat, using a stick blender.. blend till smooth, then add in your milk or soup cream, whisk it in and just heat back up till steaming (do not boil) I put a touch of green and hot pepper flakes for color.

Kindle Cracker Review

Posted on March 9, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

I had seen the Kindle Cracker on facebook and it certainly caught my eye but at the time it was not available in Canada.. It kept popping up and I thought.. that is interesting.

So I kept my eye on it and put it on a watch list and when it became available in Canada and equally important, that it came with free shipping, I decided that it was a good time to take it from the wish list to the bring it home and put it though its paces.

You set the log on the blade and give it a solid thump..

I was pleased with how sturdy it was (its one solid piece of Cast Iron) and I put a log or to though its paces and then I hauled it over to a friend’s house.. there it got the awesome workout I knew it would..

It will wedge in and now will hold the log in place for you

So this review is in fact a multi person review as it was tested by kids, teens, 20 somethings, older ladies and gents.

Pro’s

It does the job its built to do, it nicely splits the wood.. dry wood is really sweet.. green wood will split but not nearly as cleanly with the kindle cracker as it will with a Ax.
Its crazy well-built, this was a total 5 out of 5..
It’s safe to use, everyone loved that it didn’t send the wood flying out, that it was perfect to use for just learning kids, or for those who have bad aim, or for anyone more elderly that might be a touch more shaky etc.

Con’s

Everyone wanted a bigger size to fit bigger logs (which is coming, they are making it now in the company)
The way a Ax fits on its handle, the handle helps take some of the pressure off the arms and shoulders of the person using it, and as they had picked a nice log to use as their hammer, there was comments made by a number of folks that they felt that it was harder on the push back. (I personally used a cut to fit 2 by 4 and felt that it worked great)
You had to do one more step.. as per the active fit and ax loving 20 something, I had to take the kindle out as it split, where it would just fall to the ground on its own the normal way.. he had a valid point.. but again for anyone that had a back issue.. the fact that it stays there at the height you set it at, means less bending.. (so 50-50 on this, could be a pro-could be a con?)

Overall review solid 4 out of 5..

This was my what happened next on my full swing and hit.. a very sweet pretty crack and split..

The reason it got a half point off for not being big enough, I heard this over and over again.. and it got the other half point off for the push back on arms when you hit a knot in the wood.

Now the second reason I got the Kindle Cracker is to match it with my Ecozoom Stove.. I often have small tree’s that grow on the farm and they are to small for fence posts, to big for the hugelbeds and yet they are not big enough really for heating purpose for the wood stove, but they are great for regular fire pit use. They are to big for the Ecozoom Stove..

The Kindle Cracker helps me take a single 12 to 16 inch log 4 to 6 inch in size and turning it into 8 pieces of kindling that are perfect for the ecozoom stove. That is enough wood to easily cook a full meal on the stove.. and that is just awesome!

Farmer T’s Top Tip: When stacking wood, would pull out the right size logs for the kindle cracker and make its own much smaller stack to go with it screwed into a nice higher log for some extra height to the hitting height. That way, you can easily go out once a week and crack a weeks worth of kindle in no time flat.

Its worth noting.. I did not get anything from either company, I did not get a free product.. I paid for both, I have used both, my review is my own..

Posted in Product Review | Tagged Ecozoom Stove, Kindle Cracker, Kindle Cracker Review, Kindle firewood, Making Kindle wood | 6 Comments

Its International Women’s Day

Posted on March 8, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

To all my fellow women, cheers!

Its International women’s day, may you be blessed to have been raised with strong women, maybe you live your life as a strong women, may you be blessed to have a sister-friends, and may you help raise strong girls.

May you find the balance between being a wife and mother if you choose to do so and being a driving force in moving forward in regards to women the world over having basic rights.

Stand up for what you believe in, vote because you can, speak from your head and heart because we can! Put your time and if you can money into projects that impower!

Never doubt for a moment that each action you take does not have a effect..

To all the amazing Strong Women in my life.. Thank you! From my Grandmother and mom..

To my aunties and cousins, to my girlfriends, Some of you have been with me for coming or more then twenty years now.. others only meet me since I moved to the farm.. All of you mean more tome then you will ever know.

I lift my glass to you ladies! Rock ON!!! Plant On!! Farm On!! Mother On!! You are amazing and I am honored to call you my friend.

Posted in Family | 1 Comment

Seed Starting -Baggy Method -Step by Step -The Set up.

Posted on March 7, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

Now you can use this Seed Starting Method for two things..

A) you can test your seed germination rate for a small sampling of home saved seeds or bought seeds or older seeds or gifted seeds.. its always a good idea to do a seed germination test before you plant out rows and then give it the eye as nothing comes up for weeks and you wonder why!? Even if you do as little as five seeds.. if you are counting on those plants for food.. do the seed test.

B) Its the perfect way to control starting your seeds and then moving the started seeds into their little seedling pots of dirt and then depending on timing into bigger pots.

I will continue to take photos and share as we do take these seeds though the process.

You will need paper towel (not tissue or bathroom, they are to fine and will rip far to easy for this process, but tissue is just fine for homemade seed tape.. we will get to that one. A plastic baggy and seeds. In this case we are starting Brussel sprouts..

Now I put a goodly amount of seed on the paper, you can do it in more tidy lines if you want, or you can do as I did, the key is that it must be on one side so that you can fold the paper over it

Fold it in half and then using water off your fingers or a spray bottle, wet the top sheet till its nicely damp but not to wet or dripping.. the paper should be wet enough that after about 60 second or so, you can see all the seeds clearly though the top layer but the very outer edges are still soaking up the water.. hope you can see what I mean in the above photo.

Fold it gently in half and slide it into the plastic baggy and then open it back up.. it should take up most of the space on the bottom of the bag. if you want to do larger amounts of seeds you can scale up to the point of a full sheet of paper towel and the largest baggy.

Then seal the bag most of the way and then blow in some air into the bag so it puff’s up some and then mostly seal it closed. Place your baggy in a warm spot, dark is fine.. top of fridge or spot by the heater (not on the heater) and watch them go..

Posted in frugal, Garden, seed saving | Tagged Frugal seed starting methods, seed germination tests, Seed starting, Seed Starting baggy method, using the baggy method for seed germination test | 1 Comment

Bean Salad -Dried Pantry

Posted on March 6, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

I often talk about the canning or the cold storage or even regular house storage but I don’t often talk about the dry Pantry, and I don’t know why, I mean I dry a good amount of my own food, its great to have in storage, it takes a lot less space. I use a lot of dried greens, herbs and more. I dry meat and I dry veggies and so forth.

Today though we are going to talk about beans, I mean I grow a goodly amount of beans on the farm, and while a the biggest portion is eaten fresh or canned be it pickled or straight canned, I also take a number of kinds into dried shelling beans.

This mix is a blend of a number of the beans I grew on the farm in 2016, I have already pulled out the beans I want for planting and some of the kinds have their own jars but in the end I had less then a full jar of a few kinds and so I blended them together and made a mixed blend..

As these beans are not for planting, and they are for longer term storage, they were placed at the lowest temp for six hours in the dryer and then allowed to cool before being placed in the jars.

Like store beans, its a good idea to give them a overnight soak before cooking them..

I love bean salad’s done a number of ways, but this is one of the o so easy ones.. take your bean mix and that is the key number one.. you need a bean mix, each kind has its own flavour, meaty-ness, and texture of bite.. you want a blend.

The second is fresh bits of crunch, it can be as simple as onion only or like today, onion, celery and carrot, my favorite dressing is creamy Italian, but you can make it as simple or as zippy as you want.

Do you like bean Salad? Do you eat it in winter as well as in summer? Do you grow drying beans in your garden? What is your favorite dried bean?

Posted in dry pantry | Tagged beans, dried beans, dried beans on the farm, Garden, garden beans, o mile beans | 8 Comments

Elderberry Shrub Recipe

Posted on March 5, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

The first of a number of Shrubs for the Food in Jar Challenge..

Elderberry Shrub

8 0z of Elderberry Syrup (made with cooked elderberry juice and sugar at 1 to 1 ratio)

2 oz of Apple Cider Vinager

2 oz of plain water (but I would like to try different fruit flavoured left over canned juice)

Measure, mix, pour, chill and serve.. it was delightful and I do not know why I have not made it before. it truly surprised me at how rich and depth of flavour this mix gave me, it was like a good wine in regards to top and bottom notes.

I have grown and harvested Elderberries on the farm for 12 years, most year, I harvest at least 30 to 50 plus pounds of them, I made juice, jelly, syrup and Cold-Honey blends.

We use it as a hot fruit tea, we blend it and homemade jello with it.. Its one of favorite wild fruits of the farm.. I even have a little video that shows my way of quickly destemming them

So if you put up some elderberry juice or elderberry syrup, consider making a pint into this awesome drink, and if not.. and you want to try it, there are many places that sell dried elderberries to be made into syrups.

Posted in Food in jars, frugal, Garden | Tagged Elderberry, Elderberry juice, Elderberry Shrub Drink Recipe, Elderberry Syrup, elderberry's, Food in jar challange march shrub drinks, Food in jars challange 2017 | 10 Comments

March is coming in a like a lion..

Posted on March 4, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

But it’s not stopping the lambing 🙂

It’s just ugly out there.. it hit minus 32 overnight and the average thankfully is only just over minus 20 but when you add the wind chill, we have warnings out that it will be between -27 to -37 ‘s and with that we have a frost bite warning out of our area. That means that you had better be bundled up from head to toe because any exposed skin can and will freeze within minutes. So you can imagine that even while we can take all the wind chill factor out of the barn (the birthing area’s have good ventilation but they are draft free for the wee babies. It’s still cold.. So o yes.. March is coming in with a Roaw!

This sweet little ram lamb is a spunky brown and white Pinto is part of the second set of twins born and they picked a nice balmy day to do it in..

His sister is the pretty long-bodied and long-legged white female of the set.. and here they are snug as bugs on their mom’s rump, the older set of twins where up sleeping on their mom’s back who had placed herself on an inside wall and where cheeky as always..

When mom stood up, they were awake and up in a flash, under her and on their front knees and nursed with strength, head bops and flashing tails.. they drank fast and hard and deeply with lovely white bits around their lips, truly milk mouths.

I tried to get a photo of the newest lamb, the lamb that picked this bitter cold to come into.. Its mom is Bubble Sheep, an older ewe, and I had hopes that it would be a ewe to replace her but no such luck, another ram lamb.. and another little brown and white pinto.

He is doing well, we gave him a full check over being born on such a cold day, we moved him and his mom to a different jug and we did a number of checks, in truth nothing more than say hi, and watching to make sure that he was up and nursing, that he was nursing both teats and that his tummy filled out. All is looking mightily fine at the 24 hour mark despite the deep cold..

Still I am making sure everyone is getting a touch extra hay, warm drinking water today, a bit of extra grain and another bale of straw just cuz I can.. and we will all hunker down and grunt at this cold.. and wait for it to end.. I know it will.. it is after March!

Posted in sheep | Tagged lambing in winter, lambs, March, New Lambs, sheep | 3 Comments

Balsamic Vinegar Jelly ~ with onion seed

Posted on March 4, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

I wanted to share this lovely post and awesome looking recipe with you, boy someone is keen on this months challenge 🙂 Balsamic Vinegar Jelly looks wonderful indeed..

It is now March, and thus the third monthly challenge of a yearly one set by Marisa at also at Facebook months are sure whizzing by quickly! if you want to follow the challenge go to the Facebook p…

Source: Balsamic Vinegar Jelly ~ with onion seed

Posted in Life moves on daily | 1 Comment

ArteFACTS: About the Meat Juice Press

Posted on March 3, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

By Melissa Cole, Curator In the Oshawa Museum’s collection, we have a unique artifact that I am sure many culinary historians would like to try out if they haven’t already: a Meat Juice Press. Bac…

Source: ArteFACTS: About the Meat Juice Press