Just another Day on the Farm

Seedy Saturday March 2nd

Posted on February 27, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

Ron Kolbus Lakeside Centre, Britannia Beach, 102 Greenview Av Saturday March 2, 2013 10-3

2013 will be our 20th anniversary.
Seed Exchange( bring your seeds ), seed sales, garden talks, good food and much more Seedy Saturday Workshops 10:30 “10 meter diet. Introduction to backyard Organic Food Production” with Tom Marcantonio 11:30 “Seed Saving” with Dan Brisebois 12:30 “Permaculture” with Permaculture Ottawa 13:30 “Worm Composting” with Gerry Baker

Hello Folks,

Seedy Saturday is coming up right fast, I do intend to get in and to this event, but none of the workshops interest me, I have done them before at this event and no offence meant, so far, they have been focused very much on the basic’s, and I have yet to see more advanced garden sessions offered, so I am putting it out there, I am game to come at the time the doors open and then shop and go for a nice early lunch if anyone wants to meet and have a farmer/garden/chat, otherwise, I will be doing a in, shop and out trip..

Let me know in comments if you are interested in getting together!

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged Seedy Satudays ottawa 2013 | Leave a comment

My favorite Rabbit Doe passed away..

Posted on February 27, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

Amid all the new and growing life on the farm, there is also death, ideally most of the time, its planned death with a purpose.. but sometimes critters pass before their time..

Such is the case of my pretty momma rabbit, she has been a good rabbit and compared to a tradional working rabbit girl she has had a easy life, I only bred at half the rate of what most rabbit breeders do, as I just don’t think breeding back to back to back can be healthy for the female, she needs a bit more time to recoup if you want her to live and produce longer then a year to a year an half.

In this case, this female has been with me for just over four years, a very long farm working rabbit life but a shorter one then I planned for and a much shorter one then most pet rabbits would have.. sigh..

I don’t know why she passed, she was healthy and eating and greeted me yesterday and got a cube of greens to munch on, and sadly today when I was out and she didn’t greet me, I thought, o, did she have her new buns? and opened the lid expecting to be honest to see a nest of fluff and a protective momma, and instead, she was gone..

Something, somewhere went wrong in that time and I feel bad, we can’t be with our critters 24/7 when they live outside, and I didn’t do the evening chores so i don’t know if she was off or not right at that time, but none the less, it was a very sad moment for me.

Because she passed away, I will not be able to use her in the normal way, she will be buried and composted, so she will at least feed the farm cycle in that way..

Rest in Peace, momma rabbit, you were always so sweet.

Posted in Critters | Tagged real life on a farm | 9 Comments

The broody Chicken- it starts..

Posted on February 27, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

Head out to collect eggs- take note of the hen in the one box,hmmm, hello, fancy seeing you here..

Hen, gives you the eye.. but hops out of the nest box when you stand in front of it, but hops right back after you are done, looking at the empty bedding, looks this way and that way..hmm

Next day, same hen, this time she gives you the stink eye and makes you reach under her while half way though, she crackles and comes out of the box, pissed right off, peeks your boot for good measure..

Next day, same hen, hunkers down on the nest, gives you the eye and says, try me, reach under for the eggs, peek, peek, peek, peek as you pull the warm eggs from under her, she never gets up or moves.. just glares at ya, you bad, bad, bad farmgal, give me back my eggs women!

LOL, I am in fact happy to see that I have not one but two hens starting to go broody but I don’t want chicks from the rooster I held over the winter, I have plans to get a new big bard rock boy at the farm sale in March, and use him for fresh gens to bring in, the girls will just have to wait it out for a few more weeks.

Are any of your hens going broody yet, its a sure sign they think spring is indeed coming!

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged broody hens | 1 Comment

Rabbit Pie Recipe

Posted on February 27, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

If you had leftovers from this dish, you can use them in this recipe, if you baked off the front legs, you can use the meat and the bottom and top of dates/onion for this dish and if you are buying rabbit and the cost is high and you just want to stretch it to serve more folks, this is a great way.

Recipe – One pie dough for top and bottom

Filling

2 large rabbit hind legs with thighs, baked and meat pulled and diced, or two rabbits front legs, or the whole front of the rabbit baked off and meat pulled,

one cup of baked mixed dates/white onions, plus juice

half a cup of any color peppers you would like

one cup of cooked diced potato’s can be added if you want a bit more filling pie..

half a cup of sheep milk basic white cheese, you can use paneer, or mozza or any other firmer white cheese.

Salt, pepper, Basil, or horseradish dried greens with a sprickle on top.

Posted in Food Production and Recipes | Tagged Rabbit Pie with dates and peppers, Rabbit Pie with sheep cheese, Rabbit Pot Pie | Leave a comment

Baked Rabbit on a bed of Dates and Onion..

Posted on February 26, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

Looking for a interesting way to use up a nice big old rabbit leg with thigh attached, this is a lovely way to do so, serve with a side of mashed, or green salad or mixed fresh veggies..

This is as easy as it gets, take a baking dish just as big as needed to fit your rabbit legs, put a layer of dried dates down, lay your thawed or fresh but aged rabbit legs over top of them, peel and slice big thick onion and layer it one top, add enough water to cover the dates, salt and pepper the dish, cover and bake till the meat is well done, take out and mash the dates/onion together, leaving the liquid in the baking dish, or about half of it anyway.. serve as the bed, and then put your rabbit leg on top, drizzle with the liquid on top and serve with your choosen side dish..

Not raising your own rabbits, just a touch to costly for you given the size of your family? No worries, I got you covered, how to take two legs and feed alot more folks coming up next!

Posted in Food Production and Recipes | Tagged Baked Rabbit Hind Legs on a bed of dates, rabbit recipes | 6 Comments

My first Bettles are hatching-Mealworms

Posted on February 26, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

Well, if I was a buyer that had these turning from worms into beetles in under a week, I might be unhappy but for me, I am so excited, in my Group 1, the nice big active ones, I have a number (I have counted five so far) that have hatched from worm to beetle, they are so new that they have not turned black yet but its coming!.

I was doing a routine check on if I needed to replace the carrot ends with some banana peel and was shocked to see this little guy, and then more of them.. but very pleased as well.. that means that within the next six weeks, I would have thousands of new eggs being laid for the coming crop, which should be ready at the same time as my planned chicks and wee tiny keets..

Posted in Critters | 3 Comments

Where o where is my Girls swirl??

Posted on February 26, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

http://matronofhusbandry.wordpress.com/2013/02/25/a-sure-sign-that-spring-is-just-around-the-corner/

Do you read Matron, she rocks and when it comes to cows, she is a amazing, and yes, you can bet that I have emailed her a comment asking about this very question but I read her post and while I know we are certainly still more into winter, i could not resist going out with Dh and trying to take photos of my own girl..sigh.. now I am very torn, as we appear to be eithe unable to find or she is lacking a very important swirl..

this is my personal favorite swirl of all, she has a huge one that takes up most of the front of her head, its adorable, she also has one just over the knot on the top of her head, its about half the size.

This is her back swirl and it looked better in real life then in this photo and yes, her coat needed to be brushed, she has bits of bedding in it..

I am pleased with her happy lines, its worth noting that she is half limousin, which has a very different coat then most dairy cows., see that dark spot, that’s about as close as she gets to her missing swirl?!

Pleased with her coat on the flank, well filled out, smooth and thick, she is not shedding yet but neither is anyone else, its winter still here, but if you bush her, she does have loose hairs to come out.

Now this one was almost impossable for me to get but I assure you when you are almost under your cow, in there, she has a very tight small swirl for the one in front of her bag..

and I don’t have one for the spot that is missing it, because there was nothing to take, we checked both sides, and even under, nothing with a swirl on it.. very odd.. if I get a answer back and make a change and it does appear after the shed out, I will let you know..

http://dairystar.com/m/Articles.aspx?ArticleID=7037

Now she is showing just a touch of discharge today, its the first day she has shown this but its still interesting to me..

hmmm.. looks like I will be adding a bit more kelp to her mix..

Here is the reply I got back on her site to my questions and by her answer, I do believe that she came over and looked at my photos.. Thanks as always for the impute! and I can’t tell you how much of a sigh of relief I got at this reply, not just that its that spot, so I can keep track of it, but to get a she looks good means alot to me! I know, I think she looks good, but its so nice to hear it from someone that I admire so much!

JADONTF, that’s what I hoped that readers would look at their cows I think that dark spot on her neck is where the Thymic swirl is, she looks good! It may be that it won’t be as clear until shed gets her summer coat. My beef cows are have such long hair it’s hard to tell their swirls and whorls very clearly until they start really slicking off. Herefords are a curly lot If you read Gearld Fry, the adrenal swirl needs to be in front of the shoulders for really high butterfat (translates to good marbling also) or closer to the shoulders. Also on the udder the back quarters on a high butterfat cow will have butter whorls, in addition to very fine hair on her udder.looked at my photos 🙂

Posted in Critters | Leave a comment

Frugal PorkChops Bone Soup Recipe

Posted on February 26, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

So if you are buying your porkchops all trimmed out and in the quick fry area of the supermarket, this recipes is not going to be help you at all but if you are buying porkchops with bone in at your local butcher or you are buy half or a whole pig, then this little recipe is going to be awesome.. This is made of three things, plus spices.. Self trimmed Pork Chops at home, Quick Noodles, and something fresh, be it greens, sprouts, brocolli, or pea, or green onions.

Its not super fast but its not long to make either.. So after you trim off the main part of your chop to use for a different meal, you should be left with something much like these as the uncooked version.. now as you can see these are lovely meaty bones, but they also have a good amount of fat and some fairly good amount of bone in there, put a little bit of water in the pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper and bake at 350 till well done

this is what the cooked version will look like..See all that yum brown bits on the bottom of the pan, that is what is going to make our flavour and our color base on the soup, without it, it will be very bland, so while you can make this faster by frying the bones, you will not get the true depth of flavour without roasting them, consider doing them at the same time as the oven is one for baking bread, or baking beans or something else to make it more economal in that way.

Then we are going to pull the meat off the bones, and in a pot with about 4 cups of simmering water, you are going to pour two of those cups into the baking dish and use a whisk to bring up all that lovely color and bits and fat into your broth.. and then pour it all back into the pot, if needed repeat once again with a bit more of the hot broth out of your pot to get all the bits up.

Those bones gave me just right around a full cup of cut up bites of pork, think about the meat lost if that was just throw out and not used over the whole of all those chops, this is part of why you should always ask for your meat with bone in and then debone it yourself at home, so that you can get the most bang for your buck.

Now add in some noodles, fine soup noodles are good, or egg noodles or whatever kind you want as long as they are small, and when they are half way done, add in half a cup of greens, or pea’s or brocolli, or green onion diced etc, at the same time add back the cooked, diced meat and allow to simmer just till the noodles are done and the veggies and pork are hot, you want those three textures, soft noodle, crunchy veg,and chewy meat bits..

Check your broth for salt or pepper to be added, if you want to add a kick to it, a tiny bit of keens mustard will do the trick there..

Here is the finished soup, and yes that is the amazing color of that o so healthy for you pork bone broth..

Posted in Food Production and Recipes | Tagged Cooking with Meaty Bones-Pork, Pork Bone Broth, Pork bone soap | 6 Comments

The newest Lambs..

Posted on February 26, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

They range in color, sex and size, and temperment.. some are outgoing, some are shy and some are spooky still.. but all know their momma..

Posted in Critters | 8 Comments

Farmgal version of Sour Mizithra Cheese..

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

This is a sheep milk cheese made with whole milk, cream included, salted, dried and aged at least 60 days(for the store bought 1 and half pound sizes) as I made mine smaller, they dried faster and I just had to try it.. I also herbed mine, so when grated it was a herbed mizithra dried grated cheese.

I would like to make more of these, and see just how well they would keep as a dry hanging cheese once dried and cured and salt rubbed.

Now this is a listed as a very full bodied cheese, its lovely and reminds me very much of parm but of course was much faster to make.. Took a good while to grate it out, but I think it turned out lovely! Has anyone tried this cheese from the stores?

Almost temped to see if farmboy carries it and to buy just a little bit and try the version coming out of italy and compare it to mine 🙂