Just another Day on the Farm

Roast with winter Veggies.

Posted on January 17, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

I mean really is there anything easier then a lovely roast with winter veggies and some spices, the broth makes a o my goodness mouth watering gravy.

In this case it was a gifted Deer roast but Beef or lamb or Pork or even a whole chicken would do..

Thaw your meat out, you want it cold but not frozen at all..

Peel and then sliced your onions into thick rounds for the meat to sit on, same with a few garlic cloves, I covered the meat with montreal steak spice, and then I filled in the area around with purple cabbage, celery and carrots.. added in some water to the bottom and into a slow oven at 325 for around four hours..

After the veggies were fork tender, I took out the meat and veggies, and made a corn starch mix with a bit of water and thickened up the juices into a fine meat juice and veggie gravy..

If you wanted you could have served it with fluffy mashed potatos on the side.. but we just enjoyed the veggies as is..

Got my Pork weights back..

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

I am still waiting for the ham to come back so the pickup will not happen for another week or so

But I wanted to have a idea of the amount of meat, in pounds coming back and the cost that I needed to get together.. O my goodness..

I have 776 pounds of pork, coming back, burger, strew, chops, Bacon and ham coming home.. Almost eight hundred pounds of trimmed, boned cut wrapped and in some cases cured and smoked pork..

WOW.. just wow.. I really thought I would get less then that, I was expecting five to six hundred by the time, I did not ask for certain things that I normally do, I did not ask for the heads back , I could not stand the idea of seeing them.. I did not ask for the tail or the hocks, again because I would have known who was who. I even deboned different parts that I rarely do, to help me with my.. wigs.. I know I know.. I will get over it, but these things help with the fact that I am still having a hard time.

What this means in layman terms is that I will need to can at least a couple hundred pounds of burger and stew meat in pretty rapid order..

Given that I already needed to can around 200 or so jar of beef, adding in 200 to 300 jars of pork is going to be a goodly amount of work indeed.

I have two pressure canners, that can do 18 pints per, so 36 pints on double loads at a time.. I will be pushing it, I rarely have 500 or more jars open in the pantry, I have around 1100 to 1200 jars in the house.

On top of that, I am planning on butchering Rabbits this weekend and as I have NO room what so ever in my freezers, I will need to can them, it takes one quart jar per rabbit and so that will use another twenty plus quarts out of my stash.

So let me ask you.. do you have a extra 500 empty just waiting to be filled jars in your pantry if you need to suddenly can a whole deer, moose, beef or xxx

I am hopeful that I will have enough lids as well, but need to do a count on them..

Posted in food | Tagged Canning Meat, Canning pork, Canning Pork burger, Canning Pork stew meat, Canning rabbit, Canning when you run out of freezer space | 9 Comments

Food Boxes -Giving a helping hand.

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

https://www.facebook.com/groups/HelpingOurNorthernNeighbours/

I have been watching this group grow and as you know having lived up in the north for a number of years, I truly do understand the high costs of living there.

Normally, here in my local area, I am much more likely to give seeds, food plants and knowledge then I am to fund a local food bank.. each person finds their own balance.. I like to do things like Grow a row or donate to local community garden programs.

But the simple truth of the matter is.. none of that can done for someone way up in the high artic..

After talking it over with my hubby, we have asked and accepted a elder in a small hamlet in Nunavut.

I will be posting on it thought out the year now and again.. I will need to do a total switch in how I think in regards to shopping.. Thankfully I have a goodly number of years of ordering on the sealift under my belt to give me a helping hand on this.

Here is my general list at the moment (which will be updated once the box is ready)

Salt, Pepper, Montreal Steak Spice
Two bars of soap
One tub of hand lotion
Solid Chocolate bars
Mixed Nuts
Jerky and soft pouched meats
Dried soups, think Knorr
Instant flavoured Oatmeals
Whole Powdered Milk
A pound or two of lard
Baking Powder
Dried fruits
Tea Bags

That what I have so far for the first box, I will need more info before I can tailor it more.. I am uncomfortable giving her real name so lets call her E, and all I know right now is that she is a single elder widow.

I would like to consider stretching things in the future, like more personal items, including wool socks etc in the right size. Perhaps she has a hobby, likes to knit or do puzzles or play card etc..

The nice thing about the program is that you can ask for a one off, or you can ask to be a regular (which they consider four boxes per year) you can ask for families in need, single mothers with children, or Elders raising their grandbabies, or Elders etc.

With the shutting down of local hunting due to herd sizes, with local hunting of sealife being allowed less and less, it makes them more and more in need, and the new food mail program is just NOT cutting it!

Posted in Life moves on daily | 4 Comments

Wordless Thusday! Photo

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

Posted in Life moves on daily | 9 Comments

Frost Bite in Roosters combs or wattles- Warning

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

Dang.. Double Dang.. I know that its better up here in the Canadian Winters to have smaller combs and wattles.. I know that in a unheated bird house that in the truly cold, they need to be encouraged to stay indoors..

But my birds like to come out for fresh air and the bright sunshine, which mocks us in its warmth but does a great job passive heating on my house to be fair to it.

None the less my big boy.. who I had moved to a larger area in the little barn as I had locked up the ducks, snuck out the cat door.. now I know that the birds can go out the cat door the hens, roos and the ducks have proven it, heck I even currently have one rabbit that is on the lame, and he drove me crazy because he had figured out how to let himself in and out of his grow out colony pen and so sometimes I would count and they would all be there and sometime he would be out.. sneaky sneaky bun!

But I was very unhappy to be out freezing my own bits and to see my rooster hunkered down by the van, trying to get out of the wind but sit in the sun, with very clear frostbite on his comb and wattles.. I have no idea how long he was out but given we had a frost bite warning for ten min that day, it did not have to be that long to have done this kind of damage.. Thankfully no damage to his toes or feet.

After picking him up and taking him back and locking his feathered self up, I have been keeping a close eye on him.. I do not think he will lose much at all on his wattles but his comb.. he is going to lose some of it.. I will post a followup and photos after he heals up.

1) I need to make sure he does not get a infection in the damaged areas

2) he needs a bit of extras in terms of feed and vit water to make sure he is getting the extras to heal.

3) I need to watch carefully that no other birds peck at him or get it open and bleeding, because trust me, those cute little fluffy butts will show their Rapter sides in a heartbeat if they get the chance. (I always laugh at the folks that right that chickens are sweet, haha.. they are itty bitty dinos)

Thankfully so far despite the cold temps, none of the other birds have any issues at this time and I hope that it stays this way.

Posted in Critters | 5 Comments

Homemade Dark Baked Beans

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

I have been craving a big old pot of baked beans, its just a thick hearty dish perfect for winter, I just can not learn to like the local maple flavoured beans, I want the deep rich bacon tomato based ones from my childhood

first I put the navy beans out to soak overnight (if you don’t want to soak, just boil them in fresh water, changing it twice and rinsing to cut down your time) but for a energy saver, soak the beans overnight, then bring them to a boil in a large pot and gentle simmer till just tender.

Then I took my cooked beans, drain them and put them in that cast iron pan full of hot bacon fat, and drippings, added one qts of homecanned crushed tomato’s, a pint of homemade Chili sauce, 1/4 a cup of molassies, some black pepper and some keens hot dried mustard powder to the mix, at this point the bacon was cool enough to handle and I cut it into small peices and stirred it in, covered and baked, I would guess that it would be about another hour or hour an half at a slow simmer in the oven till close to done, at which point, I uncovered it and gave it alittle extra brown time for another 15 min or so.. and then I eat two bowls piping hot from the oven.. it was fabulous.

Now lets try that for folks that don’t home can

6 cups of Navy Beans-Soaked and cooked, which will double to triple in size
One large can of V8 Tomato Juice
One can of Tomato Paste
One large onion diced fine
1/4 cup of fancy Molassies
1/4 cup of brown sugar or maple syrup
half a pd of the best bacon you can get-cook, diced in peices, keep the fat in the beans.
1/2 tsp of black pepper and 1/2 tsp of dried hot keens mustard powder

Follow the directions listed above in the order and how to put it together.. Add a bit more tomato juice if you want more sauce. Now if you are wondering about the difference, my homemade Chili has the onion, brown sugar, spices in it already.

Posted in Charcuterie, food, Food Production and Recipes, frugal | Tagged baked beans, Food Production and Recipes, Frugal | 4 Comments

They say do not count your chicks before they hatch but!

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

So those of you that have followed the blog for years now that I had goats at one time, really loved Mimi.

she was a cross between a saanen and a Nubian and I loved her and her milk, tried other kinds of breeds of goats and we did not like that milk much or in some cases at all. Given they lived together and eat the same feed, it was not taint, it was the goat.

So we started milking the sheep and got a calf that we raised up for a milk cow.. which in some ways was good, we liked the milk and in other ways very bad, we had way to much milk and the birthing stressed a unknown problem with Girls heart that is the reason we believe she had such a personality change after her calf. It was both a shock and kind of a relief to find out about it from the butcher.

I got a new really milky sheep for the flock called Polar Ice, aka Ice

But the big news is that I am on a waiting list for a new milking doe, she will be half saanen, one fourth boar and one fourth Nubian.. I very much like her mother and what will be two half sisters from the same mother but all three having different fathers.

I will not need to carry a buck, my girlfriend and I have reach a understanding in terms of giving a hand with breeding my girl when the time comes.

Only time will tell me if this was the right choice or not.. but that is the news! My chosen momma is huge and due any day, so I will keep you posted on if there is a doe in there for me this year.

Regardless of the outcome, we will only have sheep. milk on the farm for the year of 2015

I for one am greatly looking forward to it!

Posted in raw milk | Tagged Milking animals on the farm | 4 Comments

Strawberries

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

I love my strawberries but I also find them to be little trouble makers, they love to put out babies instead of making nice big fat berries, they are weak in the sense that they require babying, they need to be weeded more then other things do, they need bedding down, they need more fuss in regards to watering to get a great crop and the slugs.. O the slug, some times, I think they put up a big old sign that says… slug party here in neon lights LOL

But despite that, we are always in flux in terms of how many plants we have and we eat them fresh and then put them up in a number of different ways..

Yup, we are heading into 2015 with long row ready to strongly produce this year, one smaller row of babies from 2014 that are transplanted and we will have one more row that will be babies that overwintered in place but will be moved in early spring as soon as possible to a new strawberry growing spot.

Having said that, we are planning on buying and adding in a new kind of strawberry plant, some of our plants are june bearing but a good number are ever berry..

We are gong to be bringing in a lot of a new to us june bearer, the plan is simple, june bearing is a better choice for us.. its after the big planting push but its still very early in the harvest season, that means that we have time to get a big crop of them picked and processed.

This is another one of the garden group buys, by buying in bulk we are able to get one year old bareroot strawberry plants for a hundred per 12 dollars plus your share of shipping.

I am thinking of getting a goodly amount for the farm and also a extra hundred to donate to a local food producing group that supports low income families grow their own food. I also plan to talk to our big local food forest group and see if they want 50 to 100 for their own planting as well.

Posted in gardens | Tagged buying strawberries in bulk, Growing Strawberries, Strawberrys | 1 Comment

Homestead Books – Jan Reading.

Posted on January 12, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

Someone sent me a comment on facebook it made me chuckle, I had made a comment on a friends post that was doing the read a hundred books challenge for the year of 2015, I am a somewhat but honest remark that I average 250 to 300 books per year per my kindle shows and my homestead soft and hard cover collection.

So I was asked to share what I am currently reading and give a little review.. so be it..

http://www.amazon.ca/Hatching-Brooding-Your-Own-Chicks/dp/1612120148

I am just getting into this book, I have read some chapters and not others but its gail and I own a number of her books, she rocks and I have no doubt that I will continue to work my way though it.. good idea, and some will find their way to the blog in hand one workings

http://www.amazon.ca/Complete-Photo-Guide-Felting/dp/158923698X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1421001394&sr=1-1&keywords=felting+books

This book is going to be very handy indeed, so far I have been just felting soaps, but I want to expand this into other areas.

http://www.amazon.ca/Garden-Dye-Plants-Natural-Fabrics/dp/0985562285/ref=sr_1_fkmr2_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1421001694&sr=1-3-fkmr2&keywords=plants+for+coloring+fibers

This is a small book and I have already read it front to back and I am so pleased to see many crossover information to other books I have but also to see it expanded at the same time.. lots of new info to try out from this book.

Last but by no means least on my new Homestead type books, I got this gem for Herbs..

http://www.amazon.ca/Jekkas-Herb-Cookbook-Jekka-McVicar/dp/1770850058

I have started reading it and decided that its a very heavy book to read, I find I get though two or three at a time before I am ready to put it down, it says cookbook but each herb is given a history, all kinds of info on it, and then it comes down into a X amount of very interesting recipes for each one. I have

and the rest, the none homestead book, well most are romance with the odd anything goes thrown in there

Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged homestead books | Leave a comment

Warm Knitted Cowls are So IN

Posted on January 12, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

This cowl is supersized, extra thick.. its to be used on the coldest of winter days, it will be worn while out riding, it is so thick it acts as a blinder, I can only see what is in front of me