Just another Day on the Farm

How much Sugar did we use in a year on the farm!

Posted on August 5, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

This post is mainly from How much sugar did we use in 2011 with a five year update..

As I dipped into a small dish of yugurt and strawberries as a afternoon snack, I made a note in the farm book, see if I can reduce the sugar in the canned strawberries for half of them, I can with a much heavier sugar base then many of the “new light” canning books say you can as I want my canning to be able to be just as good at the two year mark as at the three month mark.. but still I think I will try a very small batch of four and see if I can bring it down just a tad without loss of texture and taste.. The reason for wanting at least two years, is you just never know what the next garden season will bring.

The answer is NO, you can lower sugar on a number of fruits, but strawberries is not one. I believe because it is so low to the ground and soil that it has a natural “mold” count that you are battling when canning and that means if you want to keep them in that ruby redness of perfection.. you need to use the sugar!

The remark on sugar made me realize that I could now measure out what was left in my big bucket and finish the numbers on what we used for the year here on the farm.. Now according to Dr. Oz “The average person consumes 150 pounds of sugar per year”

Now its worth noting, that I use and tracked three kinds of sugars on the farm.. White Sugar, Molassies and Raw Local Honey. Do I even need to say that there is NO corn syrup on the farm (well to be honest there is a bottle but its been there since the move down from the artic, I used to use it make puff wheat sqaures), I do have some leftover icing sugar from my last sealift order 9 years ago, that is also in storage, if I want brown sugar, I make my own.

So I buy one ten pd bucket of raw local honey once a year, my local bee hive owner down the way has offered to put in another hive this year so that I can buy a bit more, and I am still looking at considering getting my own, for a number of reason’s.

I was surprised to see that I in fact used just over 9 pds of molassies for use in the house..

Now comes the white sugar.. I bought and used 122 pds for the year of 2011, now I can’t say that we consumed 122 pds because approx 88 pds of that went into canning use, and I still have over a thousand of my jars in the cellar, so I canned just around 1300 jars or so.. of them about 70 percent went into either syrup or brine or sauce, all of which used sugar. Which is right around 900 jars, we have used 300 jars already in this past year, plus I figure another 200 jars from last year, for a total of 500 jars.. so if my math is right, around 48 pds of sugar in those 500 eaten jars for the year 2011.

So waiting in the cellar is at least another 78 pds of sugar and food products for this coming year to be use.. that means we used for baking, cooking and in the canned goods for the year a total of 62pds of white sugar.

So a total of White Sugar 62 pds, Honey 10 pds, and molassies 9 pds, but there are two of us in the house.. so we each used 31pds of sugar, 5 pds of honey and 4.5 pds of Molassies each..

So for in house use, we used 119 pds less then the average person in N.A. -Not bad, Not bad at all.. but then comes the bad part.. how do we figure out how much sugar is eaten on the eating out meals, we don’t eat out often but we both do eat out on trips off the farm, and we do have date nights etc.. so we are going to go with a pd of sugar per month, because this is something we didn’t track, and I can’t even begin to try and figure out..

So that brings up to 43 pds of sugar per year.. now a 107 pds less then average person in N.A. What do you think? Not bad, or still way! to much.. I don’t know, we can certainly cut down our odd meals out, make better choices, track it closer for the coming year to figure out a more closer account..

I can’t and won’t stop using the required amount of sugar for proper preserving, so that stays, I already use fruit or veggie butters for alot of baking, cooking, and use natural dried fruits for adding sweetness to things..

So how much sugar are you using per person per year in your neck of the woods? Got any tips to share to help me reduce the amount?

So its 2016 this year, and its been five years since this post, for sure time for a update.. I still buy and use about ten pounds of Molasses , but I use a few of them for the critters, I need to buy a bucket of critter grade so I can keep the good stuff in the house for us.

I have changed honey suppliers, my local beekeeper just down the road is no longer, so I get it from a little farther away, still get around ten pounds yearly..

And sugar.. well, I have brought that down, I average about 90 pounds of white sugar use per year for all my canning, baking and COFFEE needs (lets face it, I can not imagine coffee without sugar) so while just like above its a bit tricky to figure out, we break down to about 35 pounds of sugar per year per person in the house!

So the reason for this reduction, I would like to tell you that we did cut it out for this and that.. but the truth is.. we had already done most of the leaning five years ago. I already cut sugar in recipes in half (unless I am really treating hubby) I use apples sauce, I use prunes, and so forth in baking.

Nope, the savings came from me doing a few things.. drying more food and pressure canning more food as well as added in more fermenting.. yup.. my data shows that the dryer and the pressure canner save me 8 pounds of sugar per person per year. plus we stopped eating out as often, we had gotten into a habit of eating out at least once on each payday and once or twice a month for a nice sunday breakfast out.. we have cut that down to one meal? a month, sometimes not even that.

So how are you doing in regards to sugar use in your household? Well, it turns out that despite looking that it appears that there is no new study, that they say we are still consuming the same amount of sugar yearly..

Its worth noting that I had a full medical workup in 2015, including a ton of bloodwork testing for blood sugars and my numbers were excellent..as in shocked the medical staff, and baffled them a bit..

But I was happy with the results!

Posted in Canning, Food Production and Recipes, Food Storage | Tagged Canning, eating less sugar, Food Production and Recipes, Health, How much sugar do you use in a year on the farm, Sugar, sugar and its effects on blood, Tracking your sugar useage, Using sugar in canning, ways to preserve food that does not use sugar, ways to preserve that uses little sugar, Weight Loss | 1 Comment

Summer Sausage

Posted on August 4, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

When folks think sausage, they tend to think small but it does not need to be that way, with the heat, sometimes have cold cooked meat for sandwiches or cold plates is awesome. however that means cooking roasts and slicing them thin..

or does it? i highly recommend keeping a bag or two of these handy big sausage bags in the house, they need to be pre-soaked before use. then you can stuff them, the great thing is these ones you can do by hand.

Ground meat is still the cheapest to buy, can be all one kind, can be mixed, add your spices and stuff them full! you can use a cake pan or any roast but in my case, i was gifted a fish roasting pan, it rarely sees fish but it fits two rolls perfectly, and i put the water to steam in the bottom under the tray that holds the rolls

And into a low oven they go till cooked though, afterwards if i had wanted i could have put some smoke on them or you could put them in a hot smoker

Now, i have one pork and one beef pre-cooked and seasoned roll in the fridge, can be sliced and fried at breakfast, sliced cold for cold plates, can be grabbed with a pickle for a snack or can be sliced for sandwiches or to go on homemade pizza

i will need to pick up extra supplies soon for my fall butchering!

Posted in Life moves on daily | 8 Comments

The overwintering critter overview

Posted on August 3, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

Well, there is a part of me that is struggling mentally with what needs to happen, but happen it must.. I sat down with pen and paper and started planning my next years breeding plans, my fall butcher plans and my over winter plans..

At the moment, this is what I am looking at..

Geese- Butcher the Guard Geese, with the new plan to dry lot the ewes in the spring to help the pasture, they are not really having a plan anymore but they sure eat enough in winter and they require a extra pen and setup.

Geese Keep- the new breeding purebred trio..

Savings.. none.. overwintering three geese instead of two.

Quail- No overwintering.. Butchering out.. closing of the breeding program.

Guinea Fowl – Butcher out, closing of the breeding program.. I only have one female and she did not sit a nest last year or this year.. Not carrying her over the winter.

Ducks-All Hens are being kept, One Drake, if the Drake Dies, replace in the spring bird sale.. All other drakes butchered out.

Turkey’s-Breeding pair.. Hen is sitting now, raising out the pullets and overwinter Hen-Tom and if I can tell, one more hen out of the 2016 hatch.

Chickens- the 4 best laying hens from current flock, My two best Roosters

The whole flock of nine little USA imported faverolles, I have four hens and five roosters, I will grow them out and will work to increase the flock of them next year in 2017.

I will keep back the good speckled sussex rooster and I plan to bring in new white Speckled Sussex hens early in 2017 to raise up, I know that the white speckled nick to the faverolles males in a outstanding way.. I am hoping that the same will be said on the other side as well..

The goal to work to produce pure favorolles and to produce a good dual meat-egg producer cross between the sussex and the favorolles.

Sheep Flock- 6 ewes, 2 yearlings, one ram

this is where I am making my biggest cuts, all lambs, and currently yearlings are being butchered, half of my ewes are being culled out of the herd..

Goat Herd- 1 Nanny Goat, One Billy Goat..

Horse Herd -Brandy and Caleb.. Caleb! my awesome big guy.. and Brandy, we will continue to work with her health issues and see what the future brings.

Bullwinkle- One big sweet Steer calf!

My current pigs are going to be butchered out and will not be carried over the winter.. No plans to get a new piglet or two until 2017

We will be heading into the winter of 2016-2017 with a greatly downsized farm in terms of critters and breeding groups..

So are you expanding or are you closing some programs and expanding others, or are you tightening down on your keep backs this winter as well.

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged overwinter critter plans | 4 Comments

Canning with dried veggies

Posted on August 2, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

Its strange sometimes needing to change your ways, on a farm, in some ways you are always changing, always reacting to what is happening and many times it out of your control, the wind pushes the corn over a the wrong time, the storm drops that tree, the rains keep coming or they pass you by

But some things you do them by routine, using fresh veggies for my soups and stews are pretty much the norm, as is making the jar so that its a single serve..

However that does not mean that is the only way it needs to be.. so this time, I used mixed dried veggies and made a fully loaded jar, in a way I made it like the store bought ones that need equal amount of water added, but in my case, ideally you will use broth instead of water, or you will make a gravy and put some mashed over top and Voila.. Shepards Pie!

Each pint got 1 heaping tbsp. of pot barley and 2 tsp of mixed dried veggies, I had dried 2kg of mixed veggies for a presentation done on preservation and needed to use them up.

I cooked up three pounds of beef with onions and garlic and put 1/3rd cup in each jar, then topped it will beef broth and processed for amount of time needed for beef soup in pints at ten pounds pressure.

Now the perk of this that each jar is fully loaded and while be heated up with a full pint jar of beef broth, think of it as a quart of soup for each pint put up.

I also canned up 14 pounds of just pork meat for other dishes in the future! I need to start clearing the freezer of the older meat and canning it up so that I can make way for the fall’s meat.

A far amount is going to be cured, most will be canned and the best cuts will be put in the freezer for future use..

Posted in beef an veggie pie, Life moves on daily | Tagged Canning, presuure canning, using dried veggies in canning | Leave a comment

Gooseberry Vanilla Jelly

Posted on August 1, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

O what a great year for the gooseberries.. my best harvests yet, despite the fact that they need pruning and I really need to clean up and feed around them, the comfrey leaf feeding from last fall showed this year.

Last year, I did a straight cut and drop of large comfrey leaves around the gooseberry bushes.. wow, even with the drought year, they were fab! I will do the same this year, if you have never put cut comfrey around them, give it a try..

P1080108 Well, because the berries were ripening at different rates, we picked and froze until we did the final picking.. which is why some of the fruit appears frosted and some fresh.. After about 70 percent was ripe, we picked the bushes clean.

I wanted the pectin from a percent of the under ripe gooseberries and after a pick though into the juicer steamer them went, o the joy of not topping or tailing them!

At this point, I was left with skins, tops and tails and amazing juice, I measured out the amount of juice and made it very simple one to one in measurements.

however, as I wanted to add vanilla, I split open one vanilla bean and scraped out the middle an added it to the juice and sugar, I stirred till sugar was fully melted an then gently boiled till it passed the jelly sheet test on a cold plate from the fridge and into properly prepared 8 oz and pint jars it went and into water bath for ten min to finish off the process

So far I am the only taste tester but yum!

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged Gooseberry, gooseberry jam | 2 Comments

Raspberry Crumble

Posted on July 31, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

Its been a odd year for rasberries in 2016..

The very early season ones that where planted out last year, all 75 canes, all but 8 winter killed.. sigh.. I will slowly work my patch back from those eight but it will certainly take a good number of years to do so.

The early season canes got hit by the drought, they curled up, whimpered and did nothing..

but the Mid-Season, o they were covered in blooms and I watched and waited and the rains came at just the right time.. and we have been picking, and picking and picking.. huge bowls of them came in every two days, fresh eating, some gifting and sharing, and many many medium cup bags went into the freezer.. each bag has enough for a full batch of jam in it..

We have often talked about the fact that I will freeze berries or fruit or tomato’s etc and process them at a later point..in this case, I will also be using some to make a mixed fruit blend for a few things and am waiting for apple season to get here as well. there are at least 2 plus dozen bags put away at this point..

So when we picked yesterday, and realized that we are in the final push for the mid-season and I have no idea yet what the late season rasberries will do, it seemed like a good idea to make a huge Rasberry Crumble.

In my biggest cake pan

16 cups of fresh Rasberries
1 cup of sugar
1/3rd cup of flour
1 tsp of ginger powdered sprinkled on top

Topping

3/4th cup of butter, 1 cup of sugar (brown or white your choice) 3 cups of flour, and 1 tsp of salt.. cut in into flour and them rub it thought till its finely crumbled in..

Bake in 350 oven for approx. 55 min till bubbly and golden brown.. serve hot with ice cream or cold as is or with a bit of cream on top..

I will only be having a little of it but my dear hubby will take care of the rest quick enough!

While I hope that my late season rasberries will come on line, I am very pleased that my staggered and planning has made sure that despite the drought that we were still able to bring in a good crop on one of the types.

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged bare root rasberry canes, Fall Rasberries, Rasberries, Rasberries crumble recipe | Leave a comment

Blue got stepped on

Posted on July 30, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

Wee Blue Kitten got cheeky and while he normally has a healthy respect for the horse’s and they are quite good with the smaller critters.. he jumped in and went after a fly on the back of one of Caleb’s feathers on his front left leg while we were waiting for the farrier to arrive.

Caleb lifted his foot up and the kitten slid down and under and he put the foot down.. thankfully, he did not put his full weight down.. but my heart was in my throat and I was like O NO

(Yes, his third eyelid is up but that is not uncommon when they are feeling unwell)

So far we have had two trips to the vets, meds and lots of careful care. as grace would have it.. he is very badly bruised, no broken bones, but in effect blunt force trauma, now that we are past the first few days, the odds of him being ok, are looking better all the time.

I am grateful for the help from friends both close and far over the past couple days. Only one single person (who is not a close friend) said, well, its a farm kitten, this happens..

Now, I am not saying that I have not lost farm kittens, I have had a kitten get taken =by a fox, I have had a kitten get hit on the road, these things do happen.. but that does not mean that its just a farm kitten.

My farm cats are indoor-outdoor cats.. some are barn-outdoor, some are outbuilding-outdoor and some are house-outdoor, but what NONE of them are is a feral outside cat. (sometimes I have a feral show up, but that is a stray)

I think most farm cats while different then a indoor house cat are held in good stead, they get worming meds, they get their vaccines, many get altered (many of mine are) they get cat food daily and heated water bowls in winter or its set up to allow them to safely drink from the heated large livestock tanks.

They get bales stacked just so, to create warm kitty sleeping spots for the hard part of winter, or they winter box’s made for them, layered in with warm dry straw stuffed.

They get cat doors or this or that cracked open so they can freely enter and leave as need, and lets own it, even when we have a litter of kitten, most of the time if not like me, that raises them in the house, they seem to get put in a stall with a bed, a heat lamp and they get fresh warm raw milk, kitten food.. scrambled farm eggs and such..

They are not just a farm cat or a kitten..

Not on my farm! they are part of my purrpot pride.. and I truly hope that blue will be with me for many years to come..

He needs to watch what he is doing.. because he only has eight of the nine lives left!

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged farm cats | 1 Comment

Golden Needles Harvesting

Posted on July 29, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

or in common terms, picking and drying lots and lots! of unopenned Day Lily flowers. Ah, the common, humble daylily that most of us call, tigerlily’s or Ditch Lily’s are so wonderful to have in the kitchen, the little root bulbs are good eating, with a taste like a mix between a regular an sweet potato, the greens are useable (but I don’t find them worth it unless very early spring eating) the open flowers can be added to salads for color or stuffed for little nibbles.

“Wild Parsnip is slowly but surely pushing into my wild forage patch that I tend to do my huge harvesting on, this means that I will be prepping a area in gardens in this fall of 2016 and I will need to dig out dozens of clumps from the wild patch, and then fill the holes back in with compost and move them to the farm.”

But the darling for me of this plant is the unopened flowers, the big ones are awesome for fresh eating, my favorite way is to just quick stirfry them with a little butter and lemon, or to cut them up and put them into a fresh veggie side dish.

A dozen large unopened tiger lily flowers cut into three bites, 6 large mushrooms, Garlic greens and 3 cups of fresh baby green pea’s, lightly stirfried together.

For fresh eating, I recommending picking the flower that is do to open tomorrow, and for drying, I pick both the flower to open tomorrow and the next biggest at about 2 to 3 inches in length, if you pick carefully, you are only taking the flower bud and not hurting the rest of the coming flowers or the plant itself.

We had a great picking session and both filled our big bowls within 20 min or so of picking.. now on to the drying trays. They will dry to a light brown color and will be used in different stirfries in winter, a couple more good pickings and I will have lots put away, with tons left over for freshing eating thoughout the summer. Happy Harvesting.

Do you havest daylily’s for fresh use, do you dry them for later use? Have you ever bought them at the chinese market in fresh or dried form? Do you order them in your favorite dish? I love the sweet crunchy pop the fresh ones add to a dish.

Posted in frugal, gardens, wild foods | Tagged 100 mile food challange, Food Production and Recipes, Frugal, Garden, Wild Foods | 4 Comments

Ladies Only Camping Trip..

Posted on July 25, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

This trip was a ladies only camping trip for myself and a few girlfriends..

We enough tents, camping box’s and amazing homemade food, that at least in my mind, we moved from camping to glamping.. something I have never really done before..

It was fun and relaxed, there was one thing to be said for all the ladies that came on this trip, the goal was to relax, chill.. in two cases this was the first time that they had ever left their toddlers with dad home alone for the whole weekend, since their babes have been born..

This was our swimming spot..

We went out to a good ways, at least half way to the island, and we got to watch the eagles fly overhead..

It was nice to have others on this trip that love to swim as much as I do..

The fire ban was in effect and so we were only allowed to have a fire from 6pm to 11pm.. we were glad to have it but would have liked to have it for much longer

We did some very baby hiking, as one of our party had to be very careful on her foot, due to injury!

and then we took a boat cruise..

It was a couple hours on the water, the castle island was totally the highlight, the rest was nice but you need to like looking at other people’s houses on waterfront 🙂

Hope you are all finding time to get out and enjoy this fine weather, with friends and nature! So far I am really liking my “camping” summer of 2016..

A big thank you goes out to my Dear Hubby, for holding down the farm, but for above and beyond that.. for working hard for days, the gardens, the picking, the prep work and putting things in the freezers, for coming home to a tidy house, and clean dishes in the sink, for coming home to kiss’s and a hot meal.

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged camping trips | Leave a comment

Just work’in away

Posted on July 21, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

So many rasberries need picking every day or two.. perfect

still piking the last of the peas, they are almost finished and the beans are in bloom now!

the red current are almost finished but the black and white are still giving some and clove currents are still turning color yet

The steamer does a outstanding job of anything that needs to be juiced.. and the red current jelly and pancake syrups are so sweet-tart

our blueberry season came and went in about ten days 🙂 the jam is outstanding, yes, I know I need to wash them and take the rings off before putting them away

Sour Cherry season is on us,, jam and pie filling is done for the year..

The spring beets are coming n and being processed

and we are starting t plant now for the fall crops as we are taking out spring crops.. the farm kittens follow us everywhere now, they come out with us to do chores and come back in the house to nap and spend the night..

Blue has settled in and is considered part of the kitten pack now