Just another Day on the Farm

Rhubarb Nettle Iced Tea Recipe

Posted on May 3, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

A spring, its time for so many yummy things, off a bit later to do a walk and check the fiddleheads.. but its going to be a very busy day indeed and I feel the need to put a nice drink the fridge for use later in the day..

We have just enough Rhubarb up.. and I do mean just, but I will also be sneaking a cup of it to make a wonderful fresh rhubarb loaf.

4 cups of coarsely chopped Rhubarb stalks
1 cup of cleaned coarsely chopped Nettles Leaves
1 cup of sugar, or half a cup of Honey, or sweeten to your taste
Tiny pinch of Salt

Place above into a steel pot and add six cups of water, simmer gently till the rhubarb is cooked though, pour though a cheese cloth, straining it out, if you want a pure sweet color, do not squeeze the bag at all, or if you are like me and it matters not at all that is cloudy and might have bits in the bottom of the jar, get every last bit of goodness out of it.

Put in a clean jar or jug and chill till cold, work up a sweat in the garden or yard and enjoy it as a refreshing drink.. or mix in a little vodka and relax after a hard days work. It is the most lovely pink color, almost like the fake pink lemonade from the store but so much more healthy for you!

If you are lacking rhubarb, as its so early in the season yet, feel free to move it to two cups early spring rhubarb and 2 cups of nettles, it will give a slightly different flavour but not much.

While I will agree that the sugar or honey is not healthy, the burst of vit, mineral from the rhubarb and nettles are outstanding!

Posted in gardens, local food | Tagged 0 mile Iced Teas, Nettles, rhubarb, Rhubarb Nettle Iced Tea Recipe, Rhubarb Nettle Tea | 8 Comments

The Chicks of 2015- Off-Farm Bought

Posted on May 2, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

I already have my first momma hen sitting on nest of eggs at the moment, and I am hoping for many more, there will be farm raised chicks

But it was also a buying year..

4- bought, 3 are with me Iceland Race Chicks, there are two roosters and one hen.. the bigger stronger roo is hard on the other roo.. at some point, I will need to sell him or cull him for the stew pot.. for the safety of all.

6- Meat Chicks- These are heavy duty meat cross birds and the girls will stay and boys, well the best boy might stay but the rest. for my best sunday dinner.

10- Mixed dual purpose, leaning heavier to the egg layer side, mix run.. the roosters are for the freezer and the hens are for my laying flock..

1- One polish rooster, growing him out and if he turns out very cute, I have a friend that loves that breed, and he might be gifted or might stay here or he might freezer camp.. his future is wide! open

1- Dual purpose rooster with the start of a split beak, he was gifted to me, because new that I would never keep, breed or gift him away, he is for the freezer camp, but he will have a great life before then.

1- Speckled Sussex (should be female) chick for my layer flock

My own chicks to be, well they are a mix run of mutts lol.. but they are proven productive suited to my farm mutts and they are pretty..

8 Up in the air I have a order for one more pure bred, but I do not know if the hatchery is selling or not at this time.. but there could be 8 more coming, if so, best rooster and second best stay, the others sell and all hens are staying.

I am tracking growout costs and will give detailed reports back but my numbers all sideways due to the fact that I am bringing things to the girls, as they are not allowed out to free range due to the bird flu warnings..

I love my birds and I have no issue sprouting for them, even daily harvest of greens but I will not risk them by letting them free ranging about at this time.. safety first!

Posted in Chickens | Tagged chicks 2015, Farmagal laying hen chicks 2015 | 2 Comments

Horse Trough Garden 2015

Posted on May 1, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

This garden is considered a nursery garden in the spring, an extender in the fall and producer in the summer.. last year, we did three different plantings in this big metal raised bed.. it was looking kinda sorry this spring..

It started out as a manure hotbed, and over the past three years has composted its way down over two feet!, so it needed to be cleaned out, weeded, turned, a light sprinkle of hard wood ash added and a full wheel barrel plus load of two year old well turned and composted Pig-cow poo.. So far, its just planted out into green onions and radish at the moment, but this weekend I will add more 🙂

I have one more that does not hold water, that I need to turn into a grow out bed, I was thinking maybe carrots, or try and see just how big fodder beets will grow if they have three feet of clear grow room..

I am unsure how many feet are in the wheel barrel but it filled it by a solid foot when I was done.. This is not the mix, this was soil and it was full, as in heaped, you will see the color difference to the pig-cow compost..

Spring has hit the farm full force, the camera is with me and I have been busy off the farm as well, my head hits the pillow and I am out..

Posted in gardening, gardens | Tagged Making do, Metal raise beds, reuse and reduce, wheel barrel | 1 Comment

Working on the Front Garden Beds

Posted on April 27, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

Got the front forest beds all prepped, layers added, dirt-compost added, and we got the new Circle Bean Bed started along with another short row, first 800 plus pounds of straw deployed, a wheelbarrol of weeds and roots to the pigs, and only took three wheelbarrels of dirt-compost for the two finished beds, no point adding to the others yet as they are may planting beds..

The Circle Bean Bed, is got a 12 foot space across inside and will have sidewalk blocks laid down and then the bricks to edge as required, will have two comfy chairs and a small table.. I am going to plant Scarlet runners for the climbers and then Margolds and other flowers for the outer ring in front, it should be stunning and a great little hideaway..

Its part of my.. I will add whimsy to the garden this year plan, while still growing food and herbs. I am really liking my new wheelbarrol

Posted in gardens | Tagged front garden beds | Leave a comment

Jerusalem artichokes.. a Early season delight

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

Spring food is hard to come by, sunchokes aka Jerusalem artichokes can help fill that early spring gap..

Clearly I need to add in new kinds that produce more, this kind that I got in a free plant swap, produce fingerlings, I will be getting new kinds from aster lane edibles this year, they produce much larger tubers

because they are so small, I just top and tail them, rub off any hairy roots and give them a good scrub before cooking them up

Such a easy side dish, fried, with some seasoning salt, they taste like a cross between a sweet and regular potato to me.. yummy

Posted in food, Food Forest, Garden harvest | Tagged early spring harvests, Jerusalem artichokes, spring eating, sunchokes | 4 Comments

Dandelion Omelette

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

A comment on my facebook went along the lines of “I know you eat dandelion leaves but how” The simple answer in spring for the small fresh baby leave is. If you would or could use spinach in a dish, you can use fresh small young tender dandelion leaves.

Collect from a unsprayed area, currently, I am harvesting from my garden, handy because I do not want them in my garden and I do want them in my kitchen, which is why I m digging my plants out, but you can harvest leaves from a number of plants if you want them to keep producing.

Do make sure you give it a good washing as the small tighter packed heart leaves can hide grit and you do not want that in your dishes.. then for this recipe dice them up..

One plant cleaned and chopped, two spring eggs, and some seasoning, cooked with a touch of mozza cheese..

Simple, Easy and a fine way to blend the two, if you want you can load up the eggs with stronger flavor, like adding some salsa, or bacon.

Posted in 100 mile diet, wild foods | Tagged Dandelion Omelette | 7 Comments

Cream of Corn an Nettle Soup

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

Sometimes you just need to make something that is delightfully tasty and so easy to make that you can come in from mucking and five min later have a hot bowl of goodness to tuck into.

Farmgal Cream of Corn and Nettle Soup

1 pint of cream corn
1 cup of fresh nettle tips, washed and diced
1 cup of fresh sheep milk
Montreal Steak Spice, about half a tsp or so

Now lets move that over to a town folk recipe 🙂

Cream of Corn and Nettle Soup

One can of creamed corn (make the best you can find)
1 cup of fresh nettle tips, washed and diced
1 cup of whole milk
Montreal Steak Spice about half a tsp or so

Place in steel pot with a good heavy bottom, heat your corn and nettles and spices till steaming hot, slowly add in your milk, heat though but not boiling. Serve and enjoy

This makes a nice two person portion or one very hearty bowl for a hunger person

Posted in Soups and Stews | Tagged Cream of Corn and Nettle Soup, Cream of corn and Nettle Soup recipe, Quick and easy soups, Ways to use fresh spring nettles | Leave a comment

Ice had a lamb after all

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

Yesterday Ice had a lovely strong active and very pretty ram lamb.. he is doing well, drinking his milk from both sides and while this is Ice’s first time as a mom, she followed in the footsteps of her mother and full sisters.. Easy lambing, excellent natural mothering skills..

This is the only full wool lamb born on the farm this year, and I am very excited, I have not decided if I will shear him or if I will turn the pelt into a wool hide. I was so excited and said to hubby.. please, please be a girl.. nope its a boy and he does not just have horn buds, he has horns showing at birth.. I am very much looking forward to making horn buttons late in the winter this year.. I have a fancy new little tool set that will allow me to polish and drill holes in them etc

I was very pleased to see that Whiskey did throw his mottled black and white with Ice, I am hopeful that this will mean that she will do this each coming year as well..

The second great news is that Ice was got as my milking sheep and with her having a single only, I will be able to start milking her right away, I will give baby three to five days of just mom and then I will start share milking.

Posted in raw milk, sheep | Tagged sheep | 7 Comments

First in person visit with juno

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

I needed to head off the farm for a bit as not one but two girlfriends where holding chicks for me, at the one farm, I was also picking up a silver duck hen and a lovely hatched last year pure huge maran what a great bird she is! Chicks and breeds and crosses in another post

I have known star at my friends for a couple years now, she is a nice big goat, throw twins or triple kids every year, nice udder, lots of milk and as sweet and steady as they come, she is juno*s momma.

its spring on the farm, I like that she is showing of her dirty knees, she active that’s for sure, half pure Saanen on dads side, mom is a mixed girl of meat and dairy. while it does cost more to feed the bigger goats I like the blend, she is a soft cream and white in color

Nice long body, soft and steady even as a kid.. I like it. She will stay with her mom till the end of may, first week of june or so to get the best start in life on momma milk and she will find it easier to come over once the pasture is up and going

Posted in Goats | Tagged juno the goat kid | Leave a comment

Egg Shells for the garden use

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

Now I know that I could put together a big list of uses for egg shells, and I might do a top ten list someday but this post is about the shells and garden use.. if you own a small backyard flock, spring is the first flush of eggs and with the egg glut, also come lots of egg shells for your garden use

The First use is dead easy, wash, crack and throw them in the compost pile in a scattered way and cover them in the next layer and let them do their thing, I love that when you turn it, you will often find earthworms cuddled up in a half egg shell..

So tip number one, after your first really hot compost and you want to draw more worms, egg shells really seem to help on this

But if you want to use them for the next two way, they need to be dried.. you can air dry, I like to bake them at the lowest setting possible

Wet Shell crushing, it looks good to the layman but no.. this is not going to get the job done

Dry shell , now we are getting the right way.. the wet shell had a few sharp edges but over it collapsed into itself, where now we have hard and sharp but it also will have crush into bits easily, now this, this is perfect to be scatter around tender starts or any plant that needs slug or cutworm (really any soft bodied warmish), the edges cut them and after it will feed the soil when turned in at a later point

but we are not done yet, nope I took my bits and hit them with the garden coffee grinder and voila.. 0 mile organic calcium rich soil amendment, I love this to use in the soil for each tomato plant, each large shell should make you around one scant tsp, I like to use about a tbsp. per tomato plant hole in the garden ( this ground shell is also excellent to be sprinkled back onto your hens feed)

*The main ingredient in eggshells is calcium carbonate (the same brittle white stuff that chalk, limestone, cave stalactites, sea shells, coral, and pearls are made of). The shell itself is about 95% CaCO₃ (which is also the main ingredient in sea shells). The remaining 5% includes calcium phosphate and magnesium carbonate and soluble and insoluble proteins.