Just another Day on the Farm

The Squash Bed.. Part one

Posted on June 2, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

So times you need to be creative and see what can be, not just what is.. So to the one side you have a food hedge row with five layers of different things aka a guild system, and then on the other side, you have the start of the same, I still need to add in a few more things but its a got the three spruce, the middle trees’ the little fruiting bushes and the herbs, soft fruits and canes in the area, in the middle of that however is a good long stretch that its just wild meadow, its a edge area, it produces natural a ton of wild strawberries, wild violets, milkweed and other naturalized greens but it also gets full sun but its pretty wild blocked at the same time.. We rolled one of those bad bales, back and forth to make it three layers deep and to create a straw mulch bed, then built dirt mounds every so many feet( yes I made them more level once planted) and planted them out into squash hills..

in total there are fifteen hills, the cucumbers, summer and winter squash and pumpkins will grow up and out of the hills, over the straw and into the hedge rows themselves, once they clear the food hedge row, they will hit the bank on the other side and again have full sun all day long for their leaves etc. It may not look like much now but this should produce like a house of fire in terms of returns!

Posted in gardens | Tagged Food Forest, Food forest systems, open strawbale growing system, Squash hills, squash plants | 13 Comments

Two wheel cart for the Draft Animals

Posted on June 1, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

As you know, I have the buggy but its much to fine for farm work, so I was thrilled to get my hands on this wonderful two wheel cart. it can be used as a hauler, a stone boat. and or I am going to see if there is a way to attach a old school bus seat to it (but would need to come off and on) and a hitch so I can pull things behind it. I am going to consider painting it as well.

Posted in draft horse | Tagged two wheel draft farm cart | 5 Comments

Garden Report May 26th to 31st

Posted on May 31, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

Costs in the garden outputs this week- 0

Total Garden Outputs (including seeds/plants) for 2013- 468.15 dollars

Total Garden imputes in terms of harvest for 2013-983.84

Currently = In the good by 515.69

Total Garden impute in terms of free, gifted or foraged plants for 2013-797.88

Planted this week-,Friday to Thursday

Ground Cherries
Greens-Salad
jerusalem artichoke
Rose bush
Wheat
Barley

* The weather has been holding us back, heavy, heavy rains and nasty high winds, there is no point in planting only to lose things.. so its once again been a far to slow week.

Plus Greenhouse seeding plantings.. but I am not going to go over those, they will be talked about when they make it out to the main gardens.

Currently prepping and working on different garden beds and everything that is coming back from next year..

Harvest this week..

Nettles-40 cups (will make these equal to basil herb) -40 **
horseradish Greens- 6 bunches- 3.99 at the Chinese market-24
Garlic greens/bulbs- 2 bunch (count them as green onions) 1 .98
Fresh Mints- 20 cups – I weighted this out and its 2.29 per cup -45
Mirco greens- equal to one box-5.99
Rhubarb 44 pds- at 2.50 per pd ***-110
Beet Greens-1 bunch-3.99
Raddish- 1 bunch-1.99
Fresh Dill- 1 bunch-1.99
Rasberry leaves- 100 grams -1.99

Total this week –236.93

** 46 cups fresh used, and the rest are dried, I finally got to the health store and got a current price on the dried stinging nettle pills, and will using it to help me figure out what my dried nettles are worth.. (did a big list of things I am growing an drying and wow, so glad that I am doing it on the farm, and not buying them!)

*** yes I am aware that is a insane price on rhubarb but that is what the average price is at all three local markets that I checked this week on it..

Went to my mountain herb and other online herb sites for prices on these..

Extra’s..

Pig plow update: Cleared 128 square feet this week

total Plow this spring so far 1344 square feet..

compost used from the farm – Six wheelbarrels- equal to 24 large bags at the store.. 2.99 per bag- Savings on compost this week-71.76

Savings on compost for 2013 -183.64 (including tax)

Gifted to us this week- Two bags of Jersuim Artachokes roots- 30

Gifted Seeds this year-

Beans
Ockra
Luffa
Blue Dent Corn

Gifted from us Total to date : 279

300 pds of well composted farm compost–45
six rhubarb root in a pot- 60
8 apple mints-48
2 -Beebalm Red 20
1 Beebalm Pink- 10
Peppermint (little)- 4
4 Wild Violets ( big pots worth) -40
4 Nettles- (normally can only order seeds so will use that)-12
2 virgina creepers- 20
4 Creeping Charlie- 20

Posted in gardens | Tagged eating well, Frugal, garden report, Garden report 2013, gardens, the high price at the farmers markets | 8 Comments

Pasta with cream, fresh farmer cheese and garden fixings..

Posted on May 31, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

I made a batch of fresh farmers cheese, it was crumbled and mixed with cream, green onions, radishs and greens, chives, fresh dill and salt and black pepper, mix in with a big dollop of homemade garlic herbed salted butter and mixed into freshly cooked pasta, it was a delight!

But the above mix of fresh farmers cheese and cream with onions, chives and black pepper with a tiny sprinkle of sugar is a dish from my grandmother, it can be eaten as a side dish, it can be served over fresh hot spring baby potato’s, you can add a tiny bit of vinager and it becomes a lovely salad dressing.

Posted in Food Production and Recipes | Tagged Cheese an cream salad dressing, cheese with cream pasta sauce, Grandma's cottage cheese salad | 3 Comments

Sky an Land

Posted on May 31, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

Posted in Life moves on daily | Leave a comment

Blast from the past in a non-healthy way LOL

Posted on May 30, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

Ok, when I was child on the farm and we had our milk cow Jessie, I remember the cream getting so thick you needed to dig it out with a spoon, not at all sure how my mother was making this happen as I assure you can’t do that with girl cream.. I have a feeling it has to do with the fact that I am skimming my cream and mom had a cream/milk splitting machine.

I used to mix this ultra thick cream with rice crispies, just enough to wet them, then push it down into a hard mass, thick cream rice crispy squares, when done right it would come out in a single piece when you cut it apart..

Now this would be a favorite remembered breakfast but its also one of the first thing I remember as a child that my dad hated, he would rarely be home from camp jobs or working at breakfast time, so this was rarely a issue but on the days he was, he hated this cream/rice puff trick to the point that I would have to hide my bowl behind the box to eat it..

The strange thing is he is the one who reminded me of this in the past week and asked if I had eaten it yet, I laughed and said, no, I don’t keep anything like rice crispies in the house, but then I stopped and thought about it.. and the next time we were at the store, I bought the smallest box I could find..

So here is one of baby farmgirl’s Breakfast treats!

Ok, It was still good but it was certainly not as good as I remember by any means, I think that this is one of those things that you loved the memory of more then the current reality 🙂

For you dad! Love you!

Posted in Family | Leave a comment

Share Milking

Posted on May 30, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

Well, I had not planned on doing this till next Monday when Glenda was two weeks old but I could not catch her last night, so she was allowed to spend the night loose in the big barn, where she bedded down on stall next to her momma’s, and so I was able to milk girl for the first time since she settled in to the regular milking routine, she gave me 2.5 gallons of milk from three quarters and I left the other one to make sure Glenda had a really good breakfast.. so that means she is right around five to six gallons of milk per day..

It also means that Glenda is a piggy! and drinking way! more milk then the books say she needs at her age..

It also means that we are officially moving over to a proper calf-share milking routine, which means that I will be milking in the mornings after Glenda has been away from her momma for the night to get a full proper milking, at least right now the plan is to always leave her a quarter for a good morning feeding, at one month, I will re-consider that plan, and she will have 12 hours with her mother to drink as often and as much as she wants..

Time will tell me if this means that a evening milking is still needed, she has been still giving me a gallon to a gallon an half at the evening milking after Glenda has her daily fill, and so I expect that I will need to continue evening milkings for a while yet.

Ideally at some point in the near future, Glenda will be a big enough girl that she will be drinking enough that I will only need to do the morning milking after the time apart and will not need to do the evening milking at all till weaning time.

This is a great meet in the middle ground, it allows us to have max flexability if an when its needed, that way if I need to leave and Dh needs to milk, he can have Glenda to help him in this.. that is a very good thing..

Posted in Famiy Mik Cow | Tagged Calf Milk sharing, Family Milk Cow, Raw Milk | Leave a comment

Vanilla Milk.. with recipe..

Posted on May 30, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

The plain milk is awesome, I love it, DH not so much of a milk drinker but make the milk flavoured and suddenly he can drink it by the liter, he has always adored his chocolate milk, me not so much, as I can read the side of that box

But I can make a much more healthy homemade chocolate syrup to make his chocolate milk but I decided to make a second kind that I would enjoy just as much.. Vanilla Milk

Its so simple, I am honestly not sure it should be called a recipe, Dh likes his drinks sweetened but I am trying to keep it as lightly sweet as possible, you can figure that out to your own taste buds..

16 cups of whole milk
1 cup of sugar
3 egg yolks
2 tbsp. of vanilla

That’s it folks, put your milk in a double boiler if you can or heavy bottom steel pot, add your sugar, your well beaten egg yolks and stir it all together, heat to a simmer, DO NOT boil, just a barely there simmer to cook the eggs and heat the milk, hold at the simmer for a min or two at max, add your vanilla, whisk in and chill..

Yummy rich vanilla milk, drink as is for a very healthy breakfast, throw in some fruit and it into a blender and o my, fruit smoothies..

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged homemade vinalla milk | 1 Comment

Fresh Cheese, made into stuffed pasta with sauce.

Posted on May 29, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

Ok this cheese is just way, way to easy to make.. I took half a gallon of 3 day old girls raw milk, heated it and then took 1 tsp of citric acid mixed with half a cup of cool water till it was well mixed in, and then poured it into the milk.. and voila, quick and fast fresh curds, let sit for ten min, scoop, and drain..