Just another Day on the Farm

Apple and Ella Update-Overview

Posted on January 5, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

Well I finally found local breeder to me, within 15 min on country roads that has reliable litters of weaner piglets for sale all year round, he has been doing this for 20 plus years and I hope that means that he will not turn out to be a one trick pony and will instead become a steady source. His setup is well done, most important, his piglets are healthy, clean bright eyed and bushy.. Ella came from this Gentleman and I have a friend that has piglets from him as well and they are all thriving.

Neither Apple nor Ella are staying on the farm longer term, they have a few jobs to help with the on the farm (which they will love because it fits right in with giving them a great life) and then they are off to freezer camp, not as BIG pigs but as the typical size of commercial butcher pigs, ok well maybe a little bit bigger, I am going to send them around 300 pounds or so, I do not like to see the pigs go at much smaller then that.

They will be offered as Farmgate Pork sales, they will be available in front quarters, rear quarters, half a pig or a whole pig.

They will be sent after the spring garden season, and I reserve the right to keep them a extra week or two to be my piggy plows (but I figure anyone buying from me, knows that all those yummy fresh greens, bugs an worms are just going to create some amazing porkchops on your plates).

Due to the rising costs of.. well everything.. I am going to be asking 5 dollars a pound, that is for the finished cut and wrapped pork, if you want bacon or ham, you will need to pay the smoking costs above and beyond..

So lets get down to what the girls will be doing, what they will be eating, and why they will have the most amazing firm and flavoured meat you can imagine!

These girls have jobs!.. Right now their jobs are very simple, grow, , snuggle in straw, play with their toys and eat the house scraps.. what can I say.. winter jobs are pretty light LOL

But as soon as it starts to warm up they are going to be moved to the big barn, they are small enough that we have moved them to the small barn that is closer to the house for the winter, and they will get busy! turning that deep packed sheep pen bedding, allowing me to rake out that composted and turned goodness for my gardens..

Then as soon as possible, they will be trained to the electric fence and we are set up to have them out in the compost pack and pile.. they will be hunting for fresh roots and grubs, and hopefully not to many frogs or toads, cause I want them to stick around!

and then one day we will turn the corner and voila, it will be early spring and they will become garden pigs.. I love my piggy plows.. they will root up and turn the soil and turn the compost into the soil and so much more for me.. They will come down each day to spend the day in the sun, fresh air and garden and go back to their pen in the evenings to have a well deserved rest in a sweet pile of straw.

Now as to what they will be eating, for grains, its a mix of locally grown, harvest, dried and ground on the same farm of oats, wheat and barley.

I will be adding in, household scraps, leftover whole milk at times, red wiggler worms, extra eggs in the spring glut and I will be feeding sprouted fodder, normally barley but the reason for the sprouting is to increase their feed protein counts.

If there is enough interest in my way of raising pigs and pork, I will with a waiting list, get two more female weaner piglets in the spring, will be used to help dig a new pond area, feed all extra garden scrapes and will be finished on fall apples

At least monthly photos of the girls will be added to the blog so you can watch them growup and see what they are doing etc.

So if you are interested, let me know in the comments or at farmgal1800@yahoo.ca

Posted in 100 mile diet | Tagged Raising Weaner Piglets | Leave a comment

o those wild tomatoes

Posted on January 5, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

Well, the plans for this coming year of 2015 in regards to tomato are pretty simple..

Four Cherry tomato plants for fresh eating

Two tomato plants for fresh slicing or tomato sandwichs

The big Patch will be oxheart paste tomatos,

of which I am planning 48 to 60 plants

these will be my tomato*s for all sauces and canning purpose. These are a heritage tomato, they grow well within the days allowed in our zone.

Posted in 100 mile diet, Canning, gardening | Tagged growing tomato for sauce, oxhert tomato | 5 Comments

Freezing rain..

Posted on January 4, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

On a lighter note for the day..

Its was a bad hair day..

O yes it was…

Ps.. you see that big building behind you, its called a barn. use the barn.. its there for a reason guys!

Posted in Life moves on daily | 3 Comments

Miss Piggy and Kermit have left the farm..

Posted on January 4, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

Happy digging playing pigs.. Swimming pigs

Happy Sweet Pigs

Such a good pig friend..

Such a good momma pig!

ust

Healthy babies, o how I wish you would have just had more wee ones so I could have kept you..

You did not make it easy.. you walked up from the barn with trust and sweetness, Miss Pig gave me her lean, cuddle, give me a rub, I adore you just before she walked on the trailor, in a way it was as nice of a goodbye as possible but it just made me cry even harder

Its different when you know you are raising them for meat, but the parent, the ones that have been with you for years.. you bond.. you know their good day and their bad, you know what they loves as a treat, or where that special spot is to make them sigh with happiness. You help birth and raise their babies, you know how they like their beds, you see things that show their love and care for each other.. you know they think and feel..

Being a farmer is always a challenge but somedays well somedays, are harder then others..

Posted in Life moves on daily | 5 Comments

Removing skin tags with apple cider vinager

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

ok, I will admit it, I saw this a few times on facebook, even flipped though once and read it, soak a cooton ball hold and then put a bandied on it.. right.. yup

but I had one skin tag that was driving me crazy and it was a pain in the rear and I got the bad habit of playing with it, then it got sore and I wanted it gone.. now you can get a freeze off thing at the store for a lot of money and a hefty warning list..

or you can say. grab the apple cider vinager, if nothing else we can reduce the redness and possible and so we soaked it, and put the bandied on, it stung for a bit and then it hurt a lot less then it had been, what I was not expecting was that hubby noticed a difference in 12 hours, I noticed a huge reduction in pain, so did it again putting the vinager one twice a day.. and this morning, it just fell off, the head was dryish and intact but the root is flat and healing.

I have a few more that I am going to work on in the same way.. and see if I get as good off results.. huh.. who would have thought it.. but it work and worked well!

Posted in Health | Tagged removing skin tags with apple cider vinager | 7 Comments

Carrot-Butternut Winter Soup

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

I made a bigger batch as I wanted to freeze some and also because I am craving orange fleshed items, carrots, turnips, squash etc

A butternut Sqaush, lets face it, after trying and successfully growing at least 12 different kinds of winter squash, you are hands down my personal favorite.

Now, this soup used leftover cut up squash, the rest having been made into a lovely fresh mashed side dish..

So yum.. so where was I.. o yes. the recipe.. make its in a big pot, your big soup pot so it will leave a good amount of room for the stick blending.

One med onion, one clove garlic and if you have it, a half inch piece of fresh ginger.. peel all three, finely dice the onion and garlic but grate the ginger, add to two or three tablespoons of good oil at a med heat, in my case it was olive oil.. cook till onions are clear, then add your stock, it needs to be white stock, you can go, veggie, chicken or rabbit.. I went chicken, I added in two quarts.. to that you need three to four large carrots peeled and diced.. Two to three potatoes peeled and diced, and two cups at a min of your butternut cubes, you can also move it around and add less of any of the above and add in up to a cup of small diced winter (not summer) turnip. you should have a very full pot but your broth should cover them

Cook until fork tender, around 25 to 30 min could take upwards of 40 min, if you did not cut the turnip or carrots into finely chopped and did bigger.. no harm. no foul, just changes cooking time.

Once fork tender, take off heat, and after it stops boiling, add 1-4th cup of butter if you want it rich, or not.. its good either way but will have better mouthfeel with some added fat to it.. Salt, start with one tsp, white pepper start with half a tsp, and 1-4th tsp of clove or all spice.. blend well

Can be served colorful and plain, can have a tiny pat of butter and cruitons on top, can be served with a dollop of sour cream with sprinkle of dill for color..

This soup will make a hearty lunch or supper meal.. its not the starter, its the main meal 🙂

Posted in Soups and Stews | Tagged Carrot butternut winter soup recipe, Healthy thick soups, hearty winter soups | 4 Comments

Seglinde Potatoes The 2015 year spud..

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

Yup, we grew this for the first time in 2014 and its a huge winner..

Here is hubbies written report..

FRONT GARDEN ROW: “SIEGLINDE” – White w/ yellow skin

This row was planted in soil, and harvesting began in June to obtain small eating potatoes. Two plants had been left in the ground to see how they matured, and yielded 13 lbs. Potatoes are mostly medium to large with good shapes, and since this row was planted in soil, they were found at the top of the soil. Little damage was noted. One quirk was that this variety did not produce in a single location but rather tended to produce clusters in multiple places around the centre of the hill, making additional digging necessary.

Given that fourteen were originally planted, it can be extrapolated that a full harvest might’ve been on the order of 80 to 90 lbs if left to grow. One online reference indicated they had a yield of 20x. If we planted 5 lbs, then our hypothetical yield would’ve been 16 to 18x, which is very good. As it is, we’re not sure how much we actually ate from the early hills.

We loved this spud, we enjoyed as baby spuds, fresh eating, salads, mashed, and baked or fried, it has stored well to date and is listed as a great storage potato..

It is THE potato of 2015, we will be trying a few in straw but the rest will be going in the ground, we are planning on putting in a min of 15 pounds of seed, which if the same as last year give us.. 250 to 300 pounds of potatoes.. I need plant an extra ten pounds as extras for early eating-summer harvest.

We really need to do a better job hilling them this year.. lots of updates on this spud to follow.

We need to grow and put up 250 to 300 pounds for storage, and we need to plan for planting another 60 to 80 for fresh harvesting and eating in season.

Posted in gardens | Tagged growing Seglinde for storage, growing Seglinde in canada, growing Seglinde zone 4, SIEGLINDE potato | 6 Comments

Plans for 2015

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

1- Go Camping! I want to go camping in a tent at least once this year, ideally after riding in on the horses, but I will take hiking in with a trail pack horse second and going by van third.. its been far to long since we have been out on the land

2- Go to Romance the Capital Writers Con- Do it to the fullest, this includes both cos-play events, the dance and all the different courses, including all things that help or relate to either my blog writing or hubbies in terms of promotion etc

3-Grow potatoes from seed for the first time in my life..

4- Be a test gardener for heritage rare plants to help save them for future Canadian gardeners

5- Go on day trips to the local parks at least once this season, at least two of the three, the hills, the river or voyageur park

6.Attend a four day Rother Clinic with Caleb

7-Go to the Biggest water Park in N.A.. Calypso

8-Cavalia is coming back to monteal, I have been watching and waiting for three years for them to come back..

9-Garden art.. I know that is a different one but I work hard in the gardens but I have not fun, silly or pretty garden art and I want to change that this year

10- Horse agility, add more things to my own home courses..

Ten seems like a good cut off point..

Posted in Life moves on daily | 15 Comments

Happy New Year 2015

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

May your fire burn bright! May the flames burn away what is not needed and leave you with a tempered will of sweet iron that will allow you to fulfill your dreams

Posted in Life moves on daily | 3 Comments

New Years Eve 2014

Posted on December 31, 2014 by Just another day on the farm

I normally write about following your dreams, staying true to your path, and that is very true but as this year of 2014 has taught me, good health can be taken for granted and when you lose it, o my.. o MY, can it shake the very ground you have built your world on.

the effects of my health will be carried over to the new year but I have hopes, plans and dreams of a much better year. None the less I believe that the challenges will be reflected on the blog in a number of ways, how can it not when the blog is a reflection of my life and world..

Hopes for the year,

New Milking Sheep- Polar Ice
Shearing, working with wool, felting and hand dye with natural coloring
Soap Making
Garden, increase in size, growing out rare beans, growing out a tester for new strains of plants for a girlfriend, continue filling in food forest
Bird breeding program for the year
Recipies, food related
Horse training, riding and 4 day Rother horse training clinic in fall 2015
My first writer Con
Many other things I am just forgetting at this time