Just another Day on the Farm

Overwintered Baby Carrots

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

Very Happy to see that despite our brutal winter, that I was successful at overwintering carrots, some will be used for seed saving, but most will be eaten as a sweet spring delight.

Just starting to show signs of life now, but how big are they, and are good shape and size

Not bad, and I have a full eight foot row of them, they need to come out of the ground quite soon.. I would like to tell you I followed the rules, late summer planting, well bedded down after die back but I would be fibbing, these are just tough carrots which is why I want some to produce seed for me. I did plan on overwintering them, but never got them bedded down as I was not home at the right time and with our truly brutal winter I did not expect them to make it.. they proved me wrong

Context on size.., clearly they need to be topped and tailed, given a scrub and used as is.. I am thinking honey glaze roasted for the bigger ones and carrot soup for the tiny ones.

Carrot Soup,

4 cup white broth- chicken, rabbit, or veggie
2 cups carrots- peeled, cut up or baby carrots, washed, topped and tailed
2 large potatos- white or sweet or 1 cup any orange fleshed squash
1 med size white onion, diced
1 clove garlic
to taste salt pepper and a pinch of allspice, or nutmeg
touch of oil in pan, cook garlic and onions till clear, then add broth and the rest, cook till fork tender an then either use a blender or blender stick till as smooth as you would like..
If you want cream of carrot, add up to half a cup of milk or cream in.
Excellent to serve with a pat of butter and herbed bread.. or a bit of sour cream with fresh dill chopped on top.
spice it up, add hot chili flakes to it if you want a bit of heat, but if doing so, consider also adding a tsp of honey to create a sweet-heat blend

Posted in gardens | Tagged Carrot Soup Recipe, overwintered carrots, overwintered carrots zone 5 canada, Spring carrots | 5 Comments

Romancing The Capital

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

The wonderful and Amazing Eve in the flesh! She is a Freakin Flower 🙂 I am not kidding when I say, I own ALL her books.. Ok, anyone who has been reading know, I love books and if you remember my bucket list for 2015 There were 50 awesome amazing writers, the book signing was crazy and fun, the speed date event was so fun but way to fast! Romancing the Capital 2015 was a smashing success! Some of the fun .. and yes, I am now the proud owner of a cleavage bunny lol This was my outfit for the Friday night dress up event, another great photo with a Fab Writer.. S. E. Smith I have a great photo with Ashlyn Chase that I will add, we took it on her phone and she is still traveling but will share when I get it. And we all still know how to boogie! These photos not mine, as I am up dancing in them.. can you spot me in them..

Posted in Goals, Life moves on daily | Tagged paranormal romance writers, Romance writers, Romancing the Capital, Writers | 12 Comments

Garden 2015- Radish

Posted on April 16, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

Ok, I need to get back into the swing of things on the blog, and I really! need to do a this and that post cause there are so many new little things happening.. however I also want to get back to writing about a single subject at times..

Today we are going to talk about radish.. O yes, it seems so lowly.. but its not.. its a plant that just keeps on giving and we are in major expanding mode on it to boot.. I think it will be easier to break it down into parts..

1) One of the earliest things to be planted in the gardens, right along side the first spring peas but will be certain to get a harvest sooner.. Planted though out the whole growing season, they will do well, can be used as a marker system for slow to sprout seeds, by the time the slower are up an needing the space, the radish are out.

2) Do not forget that there are short growing radishes (what we are use to in the store but that there are many long season radish that are more like a carrot or turnip in shape and that there is even winter keeping radish.. yes you read that right.. big, long slow growing keep radishs that can be held over in the root cellar for winter use

3) Greens, o boy the greens.. yummy tender greens for salads, bigger and spicy greens for mixing in anything you want, veggies, meat with greens, soups, or stews.. Or how about a yummy radish green mayo for a burger or Radish Green Pesto for a pasta dish.. So Good!

4) The seeds, If you have never collected seeds or if you are still paying though the nose for winter Sprouting seeds, you need to give Radish a try.. they grow out a nice clear pod that is easy to find, filled with lots and lots of tiny black seeds, those seeds will give you fab sprouts or micro greens at a tiny fraction of the price at the store sprouting prices.

5) the pods, fresh baby pods can be added to stirfries, or pickled, Pickled Radish pods are delightful indeed. I must do a post on just that with a recipe or two on how to use them..

6) Trap crops.. Radish even if you are buying the seed are cheap to buy, active and easy to grow and they make excellent trap crops in the garden.. O yes, please think of your cabbage, carrots and other things that the bugs tend to love and throw some radish around them as a trap crop. Those radish that were trap cropped, where also allowed to go to flower and then seed.. acting as a triple threat and reward, only in one place did I pull the plants, burn them, they were covered in eggs and replant it right back out in radish..

7) Green cover crops, Radish is a excellent green cover crop, basic wide scatter on a cleaned bed now in april, let it grow about two or three inches high keeping the weeds down, chop and turn under and replant the bed in a warm weather crop.

8) Do not limit yourself to eating radish fresh, it is excellent roasted, its lovely in soups and stews and it cans up into a delightful crisp winter treat as a side dish..

9) Fodder, Radish greens and are excellent for pretty much any critter you want to feed them to.. be it your chickens, rabbits, pigs or sheep, even my horses get in on the action, its adorable watching them eating up that radish greens and then the look as they get to the radish itself, but they never turn it down.. even the super hot ones are eaten with gusto

10) They are FAST, I mean really, what other plant do you know that can go from seed to table in 30 days and in ideal conditions.. 28 days.. Rock on Radish.. Rock on!

Now, What do you say. I saw, run to the store and pick up five or six more packages of basic radish for green crops, for seed use or for trapping rows in your garden, but also hit the Asian area of the seeds and be brave, pick up a winter radish as well! Give it a try, they can very different flavours, some are more mild, some are so funky in color.. how about a lovely green and white radish, or a white skin with a pink middle or a lovely purple radish in color or pure white..

How do you love to eat your radish! How do you like to use your Radish in the garden..

Posted in Food Production and Recipes, gardens | Tagged Growing Radish, radish, Radish as a green cover, Radish as a trap crop in gardens, Radish growing for seed sprouting, Radish pods for pickling | 3 Comments

The First of the Wild Greens

Posted on April 15, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

I will tell the truth that I had hoped to find enough Dandelion leaves to do a pesto for the pizza, but alas, there is just not enough ready, after careful looking and picking just three to five leaves on a number of plants and finding some lovely purple tipped itty bitty nettles, I had enough cleaned and chopped to add one cup pre-wilt to the mi, once cooked, it was just green bits but they still added lots of healthy goodness.

I had made a lovely sheep milk bread with a lovely spring farm egg to it.. I cooked up spiced 0 mile pork with onion and then added the greens to it, a tomato base, the meat-greens mix with some mozza cheese.

This got high praise indeed from the hubby.. while I was full-full on my one piece, he eat half of it, and let me tell you, it was not a small pizza, I am looking forward to my leftover being my lunch, plus I have a good amount of the meat-onion-greens mix.

I hope in another week we will see lots more growth in the wild parts of the yard, and in some of my early greens.. what about you, have you started foraging in your neck of the woods, or are you on of those that finds nice bundles of Dandelion greens in the store.

Did you know..

Dandelion herb health benefits

Fresh dandelion greens, flower tops, and roots contain valuable constituents that are known to have anti-oxidant, disease preventing, and health promoting properties.
Fresh leaves are very low in calories; providing just 45 calories per 100 g. It is also good source of dietary fiber (provide about 9% of RDA per 100 g). In addition, its latex is a good laxative. These active principles in the herb help reduce weight and control cholesterol levels in the blood.
Fresh dandelion herb provides 10161 IU of vitamin-A per 100 g, about 338% of daily-recommended intake, one of the highest source of vitamin-A among culinary herbs. Vitamin A is an important fat-soluble vitamin and anti-oxidant, required for maintaining healthy mucus membranes and skin and vision.
Its leaves are packed with numerous health benefiting flavonoids such as carotene-β, carotene-α, lutein, crypto-xanthin and zea-xanthn. Consumption of natural foods rich in vitamin-A and flavonoids (carotenes) helps body protect from lung and oral cavity cancers. Zeaxanthin has photo-filtering functions and protects retina from UV rays.
The herb is good source of minerals like potassium, calcium, manganese, iron, and magnesium. Potassium is an important component of cell and body fluids, which helps regulate heart rate and blood pressure. Iron is essential for red blood cell production. Manganese is used by the body as a co-factor for the antioxidant enzyme, superoxide dismutase.
It is also rich in many vital vitamins including folic acid, riboflavin, pyridoxine, niacin, vitamin -E and vitamin-C that are essential for optimum health. Vitamin-C is a powerful natural antioxidant. Dandelion greens provide 58% of daily-recommended levels of vitamin-C.
Dandelion is probably the richest herbal sources of vitamin K; provides about 650% of DRI. Vitamin-K has potential role in bone mass building by promoting osteotrophic activity in the bones. It also has established role in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease patients by limiting neuronal damage in the brain.

Dandelion herb contains notable nutrients and is a great source of nutrition during winter
This humble backyard herb provides (%of RDA/100g)-
9% of dietary fiber,
19% of vitamin B-6 (pyridoxine),
20% of Riboflavin,
58% of vitamin C,
338% of vitamin A,
649% of vitamin K,
39% of iron and
19% of calcium.
(Note: RDA-Recommended daily allowance)

http://www.nutrition-and-you.com/dandelion-herb.html

Posted in Food Production and Recipes | Tagged Dandelion, Dandelion greens, Dandelions greens, eating Stinging Nettles, Fresh Spring greens, homemade pizza | 2 Comments

Starting your Horse Again the Spring..

Posted on April 14, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

Its that time of year again.. o yes, riding season has started, finally its warmed up enough and the ice as melted.. its pretty muddy, and there are areas that are still sopping wet but nothing that the horse can not handle 🙂

A friend said to me.. when was the last time you rode and I went huh! The last time was in Sept before I left for my moms, that means that Caleb had been unridden for around eight months, not that does not mean that he was not ground worked or even worked in tack because he was.. but ridden.. nope that he was rusty on..

Hubby did the first ride, while I was working from the ground.. I had to laugh, my hubby has come along way.. other then needing to do some circles and changing tempo, he was looking mighty fine up there.. he says to me.. he forgot how to walk in a straight line.. made me laugh, its a quirk we are working on… I like to point them in the direction, give them their head and go.. its a throw back to line riding the fence from alberta..

Sunday was my day to get up and ride, it went very nice indeed, we did neck flexs in saddle, we did a number of shifting, forward, back, gee or haw. We rode working on neck reining and I had him turning on leg cues only.. still working on the whoa leg cue stops but he is starting to remember that is my cue..

Our trust in each other is better, I felt him tense up, I could hear the reason, fast moving water coming though the culvert, so I just relaxed more and we played games over it, loved to see him breath it out and lick his lips.

We had one start, one second we are over here, and the next.. poof.. we are over there, it was a flock of small birds coming up, dang can he move when he want to, I am telling ya, somewhere on that paint side is a bit of cutting horse line.

last spring I would have been worried about my seat, worried that he would not come down, but I am not the rider I was last spring, and I have faith in my big guy.. so we played games, and did this and that, and when we came back and the birds flew up, he did not blink, he flicked a ear back to see if I had anything to say.. so we played touch it with a tractor part left in the field.

This year will bring new toys in the field, it will bring many rides, and ideally it strengthen our bond and our teamwork.. Happy One Year (this post should have come out Monday) with you Caleb, so proud to know you.

Posted in draft horse | Tagged Caleb, horse, Horsebacking riding | 1 Comment

Lets talk about Sheep.. and how simple things can have effects

Posted on April 13, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

I know, I know, I am working on those last posts for the March Challenge, slow but steady is my motto, and I am in the mood to write about sheep today.. so sheep is what we get..

Three years a go, we had the great dry year here on the farm, it was a early start to spring, no rains, dry, dry and more dry, the sheep eat my pasture down to nothing despite me feeding hay, I should have dry lot them but there was little to do about the pasture.

* the good news about it was that lack of pasture and the very HIGH price of hay was part of the reason I was able to buy Brandy Girl for a reasonable price.

Well, I expected that I would be able to work on fixing the pasture and I did a good job on it two years ago and saw good improvement, I was seeding, feeding, and it was a good year but last year.. o my.. I was out of the work, as I said before.. hubby kept everything feed, watered and safe, he did bedding, feed, hay, and water but otherwise, they were pretty much on their own.

It shows this year, no flushing of the ewe is why we have almost all singles this year.. he did not worm them and by the time my broken bones, time off the farm to help my mom deal with the passing of my step-father and then me getting so sick healed up enough for me to lift up and go.. Worming really needed to be done. I did it and got the sheep healed up.

But then they were coming into their pregnancies thinner then I would like, they put their energy into their winter coats, then their babies, and now into their milk-babies.. throw in a long hard, brutal cold winter and I am checking, checking, and checking again on their weights.

I have for the first time ever needed to grain them, and I do not mean a little bit of grain at lambing for extra calories for mommas with twins and fresh green grass.. I mean the momma are currently eating the full allotment of 4 pounds of per head, plus all the hay they can stuff into their faces.

Thankfully its locally grown, harvested grains at a very reasonable price for me, but its still yet another increase monthly with the sheep flock but the girls need the extra calories, and so that is that as they say.

The lambs, o my the lambs, I have never seen such big strong, fast growing lambs, combo of coming out big, then having momma sheep with milk for two and they are drinking it all as a single.. add in that they have figured out a nibble of grain is fab as well..

Which brings me to this year.. hmmm

Things I need to fix..

Pasture needs to be reseeded and value and production increased
Ewes need to be brought back to a full ideal weight.
Lambs need to be kept track of, so many factors at play this year.

So how to get all three of them to work at the same time..

My Answers..

more cross fencings so I can move the flock around..
The sheep flock are being moved to the back corner with access to the barn, but going to be kept off the small and big pasture for three to five weeks while we work and seed and start the pastures.
For the first time ever, I am going to wean lambs at 60 days or 45 pounds and dry up the mommas, once they are dried up, then I will let everyone back together.
Weaning the moms will allow me to milk a number for putting up cheese in a bulk way and then only keeping one or two as milking sheep, will drying up the rest.
Grain feeding for the ewes to continue to get weight to where I want it, and so that they will come into fall perfect condition for breeding and winter.

The good news is that I have already got almost everything I need to make the above happen.. its just a matter of timing, work and more work LOL

Posted in Life moves on daily | 2 Comments

First of the very early gardening started.. April 11th

Posted on April 13, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

We did get work done in the garden on sunday but we only planted on Saturday..

Our garden is a mix of places and some areas are dry and warming up and can be turned upwards of a four inch tines but other areas are still under snow..

We planted out Peas, Raddish, Kolarabi, Beets, Kale, Mustard Greens.. Zone 5 and if you look, you will see that behind him is snow that has not melted out yet. This week is all about working the soil and adding in compost, a bit of ash. mixed in.

Posted in gardens | Tagged garden 2015 | 2 Comments

Busy, Busy but o so much getting done..

Posted on April 11, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

Ok, I will get a post up on what we did in the garden, as I want to talk about cold weather early spring planting, you know those seeds you can get into the ground when the ground is just workable.. things raddish, kale, beets, peas and those from the cabbage family..

But first we need to find things for the really important stuff, like spending time together, husband, Horse, Hound, Fresh Air, and moving those feet.. What a great off farm date it was 🙂

Then we need to check to see what nature has growing in the food forest..

such a pretty plant Mullin is.. useful as well..

But the Pussy Willows are out.. Stunning..

We did work.. honest!!!

Posted in Life moves on daily | 2 Comments

March Photo Challenge -31th

Posted on April 9, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

So missing greens, can not wait to start wild foraging again! Tired of needing to buy my greens at the moment.

Hmmm, hubby brought home Jasmine rice, its nice but its not as good as my red rice, love that stuff.. and its USA grown, which means that it has a lot more controls then Asian Rice

The basic to this is of course that broccoli Slaw from the store but I added in dried Cranberries, raw pumpkin seed and a lovely diced sweet but tart apple with some sweet creamy dill dressing., so good!