Just another Day on the Farm

Supporting the local food movement

Posted on February 28, 2014 by Just another day on the farm

“We’re all putting our green thumbs to work this season, growing a few extra trees for our city.

This online space is an opportunity to share pictures, successes, challenges, and questions along the way. We all have a little knowledge to share, and together we have wisdom!

Why are we growing trees? Ottawa needs more genetically diverse, locally-sourced trees that will feed people and mend our planet. Successful trees will be shared, you keep 1/3 and the remainder goes back …to HHO for community plantings.

Hidden Harvest will provide free seed stock and pot if needed, but otherwise it will be a community-supported project: an online community of sapling sprouters will share knowledge and questions.”

http://ottawa.hiddenharvest.ca/

http://ottawa.hiddenharvest.ca/featured/seeking-tree-lovers-to-raise-saplings/

I have applied and been approved as a seedling starter, I will be getting cherry, plum, nut trees, I am super excited to get to be active in this program, I look at it as a blessing in terms of learning and working skills, Sharing in the bounty as I am allowed to keep up to 1/3rd of the seedlings, (the nut tree’s will all be given back), but I am interested in the cherries and Canadian plums.

There is a facebook group and we will share knowledge and skills, we can also swap tree’s, among our 1/3rds, so if I am successful on the nut tree’s and someone wants them, we can barter between the seedling growers.

So far there are around 15 of us that have signed up and we will working to grow 350 new fruit or nut bearing tree’s, but if you are local to Ottawa and interested in this program, do send them a note, we are only half way there at the moment.

Come on out and support a great cause, and work to create future food for generation to come in our local food shed..

Posted in food | Leave a comment

My Newest Lamb Hide..

Posted on February 28, 2014 by Just another day on the farm

Sure a pretty hide, Always so sad when a lamb does not make it but at least this way, we get something to remember them by.

Posted in tanning hides | Tagged lamb hide | 1 Comment

Simple Beef and Barley Soup Recipe.

Posted on February 28, 2014 by Just another day on the farm

Ok, I will admit that most of my soups have lots of this and that, lots of different herbs or spices or dried greens added..

But somedays, simple is just amazing, a wonderful French onion soup is a great example, or a lovely bowl of egg drop soup, just broth, whipped eggs and green onions, so good..

That is the case with this soup, Beef, Barley, Onion, Garlic, and Broth.. Salt and Pepper, and that’s it..

One pound of beef burger
One large onion, peeled and dice
3 cloves of Garlic, peeled and finely diced
1 cup of pearl barley
Salt, and pepper to taste
2 quarts of beef broth- can be canned beef broth or powdered broth with water.

Brown your meat. onion and garlic in the pan till cooked, ideally allowing the bottom to brown up, (not burn) but lots of little sticky dark brown bits, add a couple cups of your broth, and stir up all the good bits into the broth, add the rest of your broth and your barley and bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer for 40 to 60 minutes.. Salt and pepper to taste if needed.

Serve hot, once cold, it will thicken up and will need more broth added when reheated up

Posted in Food Production and Recipes | Tagged Simple Beef and Barley Soap | 2 Comments

12 months- 12 soaps.. Rebatching leftover bits into new soap

Posted on February 28, 2014 by Just another day on the farm

Well its Feb 27th and I have been waiting and waiting for a order of a few things to come in, I need some organic things to arrive before I make the baby soap and I want to be able to do a herbal infusion on the oils themselves before making the hair shampoo bar, I have looked at making a salt bar for this month but wanted to get to a store where I could get some black salt, I have this image of a soap made and then splitting it in to and making half a batch with white salt and half with black salt and then topping it with rock pink salts..

If I can get it to work, it will be stunning but looks like I will either need to order black salt online or get to the only store that carries it in downtown Ottawa to make it happen, its on the hit list for sure..

But that left me wide eyed and blinking trying to come up with something for Feb, and I did promise that I would do something a bit different and challenging to me each time, so while I could have made a pretty soap.. I wanted more..

So today, I cracked out one of my number of soaping books and flipped.. AH ha!!! Milled soap, rebatching soap. perfect.. I had a brown paper bag filled with trimming from three different soaps, I had a lovely creamy sheep soap that could be finely grated as a base and I could make a rebatch of soap..

But how did I want to do the rebatch, I could grind it all down so that it would “melt even” and give me a pure looking bar, or I could grate half of it, so that it would melt faster and then cut the chunks into the right size’s and leave a real texture to the soap when it was cut.. This is what I decided to do..

The base was a creamy off-white soap, the three soaps bits ranged from a red wine brown, a white/red and brown/orange, all well within a comfortable color pallet range.. perfect.. The scents of the two soap’s done would work well together, and the other two soaps are unscented, so no issue there..

Now the big perk of doing this is once its set up, and sliced, while drying is needed because you are adding water in the process and you need that to cure out, the soap itself is ready, as all the soap used in making it was already cured, so in that way, its like a melt and pour.

You add it with just a bit of water, you need enough water that it will melt out, but just.. you want a low heat (lots of folks do this in a crock pot), here it is at the wet stage..

Now I got it where I want it, the grated has melted down, its thick and feels like its at trace but the bigger pieces are all still there, warmer for sure, the small bites melted in but the bigger still holding shapes and colors

Now I poured it into my mold, and it was full, its a full two plus pound loaf of soap and it had air bubbles, I banged it up and down and up and down, carefully of course and in small motions but still.. whack, whack, and still the bubbles rose, not sure I got them all but it is what it is now!

Into a small box and into my cold storage room to set up. As I expected, some air bubbles and its a wild looking soap, I think I should have made some of the bigger pieces a little finer an I think I would lay a sheet of parchment and put a weight on top next time, to help meld it all together, but none the less it sliced well and is now drying..

It does not need cure time before use, but it will still need the drying time to make it a hard bar of soap, right now its soft, and would just melt out if used..

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged 12 months 12 soaps | 6 Comments

March Challange.. It the beginning..2014

Posted on February 27, 2014 by Just another day on the farm

Well, it looks like I have one for sure, maybe two folks that are going to join me in March Challenge so far..

I have two freezers full of meat, I have fresh eggs and milk coming in on the farm at this time, I have my storage and pantry, still good in my winter storage from the garden/farm, I have butternut squash, pumpkin, acorn and spaghetti squash, and potatotos.

From the store I have, onions, cabbage, carrots and beets, and that’s pretty much it, I have beans for sprouting, I have pots of herbs started, I have spinach already growing in the window ledge, and I have started pea’s and pumpkins in pots, not because I have any hopes for pea’s or pumpkins but because I want to be able to eat the fresh greens.

I intend to plant a few other things but will save that info as its being done during the challenge itself.

I am going to be in trouble at least a few times this month, first I have a birthday that is falling in it, and I don’t know how that is going be dealt with, second, I have a dear friend that wants to get together and have lunch, I will talk to her and see if she might be open to me either bringing a lunch for both of us or if she is comfortable with her eating and me not.. will figure it out..

I am missing Doomer on this challenge, I would love to see how she would do this year on the farm, she has been a part of this for the past couple years, her challenges in the apartment in a city was interesting, now on her first winter on the homestead, I would be interested in hearing what changed, what was different now that she had the critters, now that she was so far from the store, but also now that she is coming into march, its a hard month indeed when you are living on the land..

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged March Challange 2014 | 4 Comments

Maple and Birch Syrup..

Posted on February 27, 2014 by Just another day on the farm

I am thrilled to announce that a dear friend who owns land quite close to my farm (within walking distance has been so kind as to offer me a couple acres to be allowed to tap both the maples and the birch, hunt for mushrooms, be able to harvest for fresh mushroom logs for on the farm and in general poke around in that area.

I had thought that I would only be able to tap a few maples but it looks like what will be needed is a good tromp though the woods and tree’s picked, measured and taps figured out, I guess I am doing a bigger run then I had planned earlier.

It is only fitting that I need to do at least some to give back as a warm thank you for allowing me to do this, It also means that I will need to plan on getting a few more taps then I had planned for the year.

Its been so cold and the area is so deep in snow at this time, I don’t have a good feel for this area at all yet. I am looking forward to when it warms up enough that we can get out and learn more about it.

I am looking forward to playing in a number of ways in that area, I have some fun little things I want to try out in that area, but I will keep respect first and formost in mind, as this is not my land.

God Bless Friends!

Posted in Life moves on daily | 1 Comment

Cured Meat Challange 2014- Beef Bacon :)

Posted on February 27, 2014 by Just another day on the farm

I know, I know Folks have this idea that if its Bacon, it must be pork, but out in western Canada and the upper northern states in the USA Beef Bacon is considered the cats meow

http://beefbacon.net/ The above picture is from the net, and not! my own home raised or made Beef Bacon, its just giving you the idea.

Now I did both a dry cure and a wet cure on some beef bacon, I went super easy on the cure, Curing Salt, Sugar, and spice.. that’s all that is needed folks..

I did one cure with curing salt, sugar, seasoning salt, montreal steak spice, and a touch of keens mustard, I did the other cure, curing salt, Brown sugar and maple syrup, Cracked black pepper and brown mustard seeds with a tiny touch of fennel in the mix.

now into a very cool but not freezing place for curing times, this was after three days, another couple days yet needed before it will be ready and then it need to dry a bit before being sliced and cooked..

Its already changing color, texture has firmed up and its lost weight

I also did a salt/sugar/spice cure but without the curing salts, this means that it will be beef colored when sliced, it was slow roasted off and I will be planning a number of very yummy dishes with it.

The one above didn’t do much for me.. but the properly cured batch turned out really well..

Sliced up and ready to rumble into some recipes coming to this blog soon..

We just had to cook up some, and it was chewy, it was bacon flavoured, it was good.. yup, yup! Got this one figured out right now..

Posted in Food Production and Recipes | Tagged Beef Bacon, Homemade Beef Bacon, Making Beef Bacon for fresh eating without salt cure, Making Beef Bacon with salt cure, Making Beef Bacon with wet cure | Leave a comment

Sometimes it pays to stop and lean..

Posted on February 26, 2014 by Just another day on the farm

and other times what you learn can shake you up a little..

So lets see, a number of things going on that should and will get their own posts on it.. but going to touch on them here and now and then expand into their own full posts

First up, healing a sheeps foot, after the whole toenail got pulled off, what a mess and its a ongoing issue, She appears to have damaged it during the attack that took one of her lambs, I am assuming by striking it trying to defend her wee one.. it stayed on damaged for a couple days and then pull totally off..

What a mess, I have never had a whole nail pull off before, I am going to do a whole series of photos and care advice on it after I do it all.. but the goal right now is to keep it clean, stop any infections on it and keep her and her lamb, calm, well fed and bedded in their own jug.. We are doing healing foot soaks, meds and so forth, they say I can heal it, and it will grow back, but it will require a long slow recovery..

Its been a rough one in the lambing season, we had a ewe give birth to a huge stillborn, she is being turned into my milking sheep for this season, more on a post on turning a wild momma raised ewe into a calm willing milking partner, and let me tell ya right now, its a lot more work then taking a bottle baby and turning her into a milking sheep, plus the downside on this is that I have no lamb to put on her, which means back to twice a day milking despite the very cold temps indeed.

Last night another ewe had her lamb, much to my surprise another big single but it has a swollen front knee and a turn on the joint before its hoof, so far its not having a issue with it, its standing, nursing and overall being a good baby, but its very unimpressed that I am heading down every so many hours and doing stretches and movements on it, I am unsure just how much I can fix and how much is just going to be the way it is, but you have to try..

Miss Piggy is getting wider and she is starting to show in a mothering way.. Now I love my big pigs and I will admit that I do find them very smart indeed but I still like to eat my pork and bacon, so I know that by raising them myself, I have control from start to finish, and that can indeed be a very good thing.

But what I saw today, made me both shake my head and at the same time, made me feel even worse for those millions of pigs and piglets that never see daylight, feel real ground under their feet, never get to dig in the mud and wallow in the pond..

We had gotten in 1600 to 1700 hundreds pounds of straw in yesterday and we had hauled extra down for the pigs and they were fluffing and remaking their sleeping hollows and Miss Piggy had put herself back to bed, she was covered up to her sides and her head and most of her neck was covered but her back was wide open and she was softly grunting..

Kermit surprised me, and I tried to snap photos of it for you. not the best photos to be sure but they still show what he did, he would take huge mouthfuls of bedding and then carefully lay them down over her back, he and her were softly talking back and forth, and he covered her up to help her be warm..

Part of me was in awe of this care shown between mates, and part of me, cringed just a little inside, sometimes, just a bit, I wonder about eating pigs.. I never have these moments in fowl or rabbit or sheep or cows.. but every now and again, pigs.. well pigs give me pause..

Posted in Life moves on daily | 3 Comments

Critter Overview 2014

Posted on February 25, 2014 by Just another day on the farm

Got to thinking that I have not done a critter overview of the year yet.. We are heading into 2014 with…

Two horses- Brandy-Clyde Mare, Sam- Belgian Gelding

Both are broke to ride and drive, currently both have full sets of riding tack, but only Brandy has a full set of driving harness, I have a number of different draft powered farm/garden related tools.

Cows- Glenda – 10 month old beef calf

Sheep- Ten ewe’s, One ewe lamb, and One yearling Ram, currently six lambs, with six more momma’s due yet.

Pigs- Miss Piggy- a Purebred Large Black Female, and Kermit- a Mixed Heritage Male, Piglet are planned for the year.

Geese- Currently six geese, Ganders, Honk (mixed breed) Lou (purebred) and four females, Hiss (mixed breed) and Pom (purebred) and the other two are planned to be butchered.

Rabbits, – Blue- Breeding Buck, Red- Backup Breeding buck, Does -Tippy Toes, Adele, and Cher, backup does.. Little Girl and Big Girl..

Guinea Fowl- Breeding birds- Two females and the pearl male, Total of eight unnamed offspring of the best from last year, fate unknown, some stew point, some breeding?

Chickens- Roosters, Total 3, Laying Hens- 16 in total, all different breeds

Ducks- Regular- Two drakes, two hens (matched in breeds)

One pet duck, its a half-bred male, I would stew pot him but Dh loves this duck.. so I am stuck with him till he dies of natural causes.. sigh..

Ducks- Meat- One drake, four hens

So that is what we are starting our year with in terms of critters, I will try and do a mid summer report and a late fall report this year as well..

While the hounds and purrpots and the little piggies, sweek and puddin are part of the farm, I don’t consider them “farm critters”

If you can’t eat it, it’s not on the list, and while I know that in parts of the world, all three of what I consider pets can and are eaten, I was born and raised in Canada, and to me, they are pets, not livestock..

Posted in Life moves on daily | 4 Comments

Proof in the pudding, or in this case, proof in nest box.

Posted on February 24, 2014 by Just another day on the farm

So last year, I brought a high quality faverolles rooster at the spring bird sale, I paid a pretty penny for him and I named him Wash, he is a very good rooster, he is great with us, he is protective of the hens, he is stunningly pretty.

I bred him with a red sex link hen, and while I was sad that she only hatched me out four live chicks, they thrived and grew..

I loved the coloring on these chicks but it did surprise me a touch on the tuffs on the cheeks, of the chicks, three are hens and one is a young rooster.

Now the momma hen lays large dark brown eggs, and the roosters breed lays soft light brown to almost off white creamy eggs..

So imagine my surprise when his daughters started laying me light green eggs..

Hmmmm.. green eggs

Somewhere we got a little Americana in the mix.. Which means that the high price I paid for him as a purebred was certainly overpriced to say the least.

If he was listed at the sale as a crossbred, sold as a rooster only, he would have been worth five to ten dollars, listed as a purebred and being the very nice young rooster he was, he went for a solid 50, I had no issue paying that, I would have paid that for any good quality pure rooster, (of course I would like to pay less) but I am not cheap when I want the right genes.

But I was a little bit miffed that I overpaid to that degree for a crossbred roo..

Still, I like him, I like his coloring, I like the size, shape and temperament of his daughters, I am very hopeful that they will prove to be good layers and good broody momma’s

So have you ever gone to a sale, bought what you thought was X on the paperwork but turned out to be X/Y or Z when you bred them out?