Just another Day on the Farm

Sheep Weights – Figuring them out with measurements

Posted on October 26, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

Measure the circumference of the animal, as shown in distance C in the illustration. Make sure to measure girth in relation to the location of the animal’s heart. On a sheep, ensure an accurate measurement by compressing the sheep’s wool so that the circumference reflects that of the body and does not include that of the body plus the wool.
Measure the length of the animal’s body, as shown in distance A-B in the illustration.
Using the measurements from steps 1 and 2, calculate body weight using the formula HEART GIRTH x HEART GIRTH x BODY LENGTH / 300 = ANIMAL WEIGHT IN POUNDS. For example, if a sheep has a heart girth equal to 35 inches and a body length equal to 30 inches, the calculation would be (35 x 35 x 30) / 300 = 122 lbs.

It was that time of the year, Time to do a full sheep checkup, they had a full body check, feet trimmed, they were measured and weights figured out, wormed and for the main flock given their vaccine boosters.

Mom was in charge of the book this year, she took the measurements given, figured out the math with the cheat sheet that hubby made for her(she was having trouble moving from kilograms to pounds) and made up the wormer shot and the vaccine needle for me.

Thanks for the help mom, (even if she did say she was freezing)

Here is just a bit of the information that went into the farm book for doing them. yes, I now that bigger farmers would be writing in numbers but my flock is small enough that I know each one by name, each ewe has her own color, marking etc that I can tell them apart. The hair sheep are a much smaller breed then the wool sheep are, yet even between them, I have a bigger line and a smaller line.

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged Fall Sheep Chores, Homesteading with sheep, Keeping a farm book, Keeping sheep farm homestead records, sheep, Sheep health care, Sheep Measurements for weight, Trimming Sheep feet | 8 Comments

Cranberry Cabbage Salad Recipe

Posted on October 25, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

This post is a little ahead of itself LOL, I did not get photos of the canned cranberry jam, but I have two more batches to do yet, so it will be coming. However this recipe does use half a cup of my homemade chunky cranberry Jam. So once I make it again, I will link back and you will have the full recipe (but I warn, its so basic but O SO good.. like 5 star good per all my friends that have tried it)

Four to six cups of diced cabbage, a grated med carrot, a bit of diced purple cabbage if you have it, can also use a bit of grated turnip, one diced apple, quarter cup of walnuts, the dressing is half a cup of my cranberry jam, with a quarter cup of dressing (if you like it wetter, add more dressing as required) a touch of salt (pinch).

Mix together and ideally chill for 30 to 60 blend flavours and then serve, its a awesome pink color that can be used at valentines or any table that needs a pop of color, its crunchy, sweet with tart.. While this photo does not do it justice, Green turned out to not be the right color choice, everyone went back for seconds, and someone (who will not be named, even took bread to the bowl to get that last bit out of it LOL)

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged cabbage, cranberry, Cranberry Canbbage salad recipe, Cranberry jam, Cranberry salad dressing, Pink colored salads, recipes, Sweet and Tart salads | Leave a comment

Beef an Veggie pie recipe

Posted on October 25, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

The Raw fixins are shown above.

Beef Pot Pie Recipe

1 pound stewing beef (in this case, grass-fed, homestead raised)
2 large clove of garlic (local of course, if at all possible, available china produced garlic, its been bleached)
1 med size onion
3 large stalks of celery
2 med carrots
Half a regular size turnip (if you do not like turnip, you can use potato) but it will effect the overall flavour palate on the dish, as the turnip add a hit of sweet in the stew, that potato will not.
1 quart of dark broth, if in a pinch, dark mushroom will work lovely.
Enough fresh pie dough to make a top crust, tradionally you would do both but I love just doing the top.
Salt, pepper, and spices to taste.

Bake the meat, onions and garlic in the broth at 350 for an hour, then add your veggies for another 45 min, then top with the pie crust and bake another 55 to 60 min till golden brown.. serve hot..

I thought I had made enough for two full meals, but everyone went for seconds and there was barely enough for hubbies lunch the next day 🙂

Posted in beef an veggie pie, grass fed beef, homestead, meat pie, pie dough, Recipes from the Root Cellar | Tagged Baking from scratch, Beef Pot Pie, Beef pot pie recipe, carrots, Fall Beef pie, Garlic, Homesteading, Pie dough, recipes, Turnips | 1 Comment

Beef Barley veggie soup.. Canning

Posted on October 24, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

Mom never used a pressure canner, in truth I still prefer waterbath canning myself but when it comes to safely making soups that hubby takes a pint to work and heats up barely, the pressure canner is the only safe way to go

She had never seen me do a batch of 18 pints, first thing did was add a tsp of pearl barley to each jar, then I made blend of carrot, onion and celery, half a cup per jar, in a heavy steel pot, I cooked our home raised beef with a couple cloves of diced garlic till brown, 1/4th cup on top, jar filled to 1 inch below rim with hot beef broth, rim checked, lids on and into the pressure canner for 75 min at ten pounds (per my sea level)

So hot still they are floating and jar boiling, it lowers as it cooled, where they will be washed and have the rings removed but hubby will put a ring on while traveling to work.

The cost on these are worth talking about, some things are only reasonable because I had thing, grew things and got on sale. The jars are eight years old, so .10 cents per for this year, the lids were got on a huge sale and I bought a case of them, so .20 per jar, .66 cents for the meat, veggie, barley and broth per jar. So not including power, it was 99 cents per jar.

high end soup in our local store will run you 2.19 per can and its not anywhere as healthy as what I can make

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged Beef Barley soup, Canning, Cost effective, Frugal, homemade canned soup, pressure canning, Saving money | 31 Comments

Scarelet Runner Bean with Winter Melon Soup Recipe

Posted on October 23, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

This is to be considered a lighter soup as its a broth based, it also only got four things in it, not including broth and spices. Which are Winter Melon, Scarlet Runner Green beans (nice young ones) Garlic and Potato. Its a white meat based broth with seasonings.

I had to sit on my mom as she wanted to add an add to the soup.. she agreed it tastes good but she likes thick loaded soups that are more like stews

This soup made four bowls worth. Peel garlic and finely dice it, Peel and cube the potatoes, peel, seed and dice the wintermelon, wash, tip and tail the green beans and slice them into small pieces.

Add everything into a pot with 8 cups of premade white meat or veggie broth, with salt, pepper, basil or nettle greens, a bay leaf (remove before serving), cook until the potato is done, the rest will be so. The beans will be tender but still holding firm, the winter melon will be melt in your mouth tender, the garlic will add a bit of a tiny bite now and again…

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged potatoes, recipes, scarlet runner bean soup, Scarlet runner beans, soup, Soups and Stews, white broth, winter melon | 3 Comments

using up the not quite ready beans

Posted on October 22, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

Well, the hard killing frosts have arrived and so the last of the young beans, both eating and shelling were pulled in, the dry ones were shelled, and are curing for winter, the fresh were either processed or eaten.. but what about the beans in the middle

The beans were to big to use as snap, but to young to properly cure an dry, so they needed to be cooked and eaten, the bowl above shows a colorful mix, there are scarlet runner, black hopi, an wild goose in the mix.

The scarlets are very much like lima beans in texture but with a softer skin, the wild goose is like a white bean but with more flavour.

this was a fast soup, easy to make, hot an filling on a busy fall day

Simmer your fresh beans in water for twenty min, strain and ready to add to the soup.

Soup base was onion, tomato, and veggie bits I had leftover in he fridge, I added the beans, salt, pepper and a small amount of broken noodles. No need to add meat when it was filled with rich meaty beans

if you were truly in a waste not mood, you could also make a stock from the green shells of these beans, sometimes to wonderful to just use up bits of things

Posted in Life moves on daily | 2 Comments

Pumpkin Cranberry Compote Recipe

Posted on October 21, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

Pumpkin Compote

5 cups of cubed (1/2 inch by 1/2 inch) pumpkin
1 whole peeled, cored cubed pinnapple or 1 large can of pinnapple tidbits
2 cups of whole dried cranberries
1 cup of diced dried apricots
5 cups sugar
1/2 cup of lemon juice
2 cinnamon sticks
1 tsp of pumpkin pie spice

Put the sugar over the pumpkin cubes and let it sit for an hour or two to draw out water, then add the rest and Cook them all together in a large steel pot, bring to a boil then simmer till everything soften’s, stirring now and again, remove the cinnamon sticks, pack the hot pumpkin mixture into pint jars, then top with the hot juice, Hot water Process for 25 min.

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged Canning, cranberry, dried fruits, Fall foods, pumpkin, Pumpkin cranberry compote recipe, recipes, side dishes | 1 Comment

Musquee De Provence Pumpkin Pie Recipe

Posted on October 20, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

While I was doing the research on this lovely old French Squash, I read over and over again, Fine eating for pie.. Ok then.. you know I had to try it.

I am going to do the farmgal (or any other Homestead Farmers) first, then I am going to do a more Modern Recipe

Farmgal Recipe*

3 Cups of mashed Baked Squash
1 extra large Duck egg, 2 large chicken eggs or 6 quail eggs
1 cup whole sheep or goat milk
1 and half tsp of pumpkin pie spice
sugar or honey to taste (start with half a cup and try the batter, you and only you know how sweet the squash started)

One bottom of a pie dough , I baked it in a cast iron fry pan at 350 for 65 min but I started checking it at 55 min.

Farmgal recipes are based on a few things, they assume you understand basic cooking information, they assume you have access to garden produce, in season food, and the extras that come with having a farm or homestead of any size..

Now for a Modern Version

Musquee De Provence Squash Pie

3 cups of baked squash, peeled, seeded and mashed
2 large eggs
1 cup of condensed milk
3/4th cup of sugar
1 tsp of pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp of cinnamon

Mix the above in a bowl till well mixed, Place into one raw bottom of a pie shell, fill with the filling, preheat your oven to 350, bake for 60 min approx., knife should come out clean, allow to cool before slicing, Serve as is or with a dollop of whipped cream

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged baking a pie in a cast iron pan, Fall Pie, Farmgal recipes, homemade pie, homemade pie crust, Musquee De Provence Squash Pie, Pie with coffee, Squash Pie, Using a winter squash | 9 Comments

Musquee De Provence Squash

Posted on October 20, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

This big squash came in on the scales at 22 pounds, it was one of my unknown, sort off, it came from a friend who started a few different heritage and she knew what she had started for me, and only the Musquee De Provence Squash fits the bill on what I got, size, shape and flesh color and texture.

The seeds came from out west, the plant breeder has a good rep, so even thought its a little off in size, the average for this type is 12 to 15 pounds. The flesh is fine, rich and so good. the rind is crazy hard.. I can see why these are good winter keepers with that skin.

I boiled some, so good.. taste tested by a few ladies everyone liked it. I love it, I am going to order in seeds on it from a few sources, and do a minor landrace grow out on it next year, I have saved seeds but am unsure if it crossed or not. I also dried out a few seeds and baked and salted them.. very nice.. good size to them but not to fat compared to some pumpkin seeds

I canned some, roasted some. Made Pie with a portion of it.. Recipe coming very soon, as in the next blog post 😛

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged Baking squash into pie, Big Winter Keeper Squash, Canning Squash, Heritage sqaush, Landrace Planting, Musquee De Provence Squash, Rare Squash in Canada, Seed Saving | Leave a comment

Juno needs a boyfriend..

Posted on October 19, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

Miss Juno is huge for a wee girl yet, she is not expecting, which is excellent, I had a minor worry that she got bred before coming home but she has had her first fall heat. I am glad that she got to put all her energy into growing and grow, she did.. She is as big if not bigger then all my hair sheep already.

Certainly she will need special feed and care after being breed, but she also needs a boyfriend.. he will be joining the farm next week for a visit, we will have him for her next breeding cycle, and keep him till she either comes back into heat for the next round or goes out of heat and is proven expecting.

He is a very sweet, calm, polled boy who is mostly the same mix as her, dairy with meat mixed in..

Their offspring will good for a milking doe and even better if she gives me bucks to fixed young and fine eating when butchered out. Looking forward to working with goat hides again as well.

But of course the real goal is lots of fresh milk for the house. I will be busy with a milking goat and a milking sheep for 2016.