Just another Day on the Farm

They are early! New Pullets First Eggs..

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

Remember this little tikes from late last fall, a nice mix of slower growing laying hens for my coming flock for 2012? Well they were to start laying in March.. but look what was in the nest box’s. Our first two little pullet eggs, can you say, homemade pasta time!

One of my extra large brown eggs is equal to both pullet eggs, but given them time and they will be laying nice large and extra eggs for me as well. Think I will give them a big handful of fresh worms and a tray of fresh sprouted wheat as their chicken reward.

Now just to let the other 13 of those young hens to start and I will so be looking forward to getting another dozen in each day into the house, I am tired of the winter rationing of eggs around here, I’m ready for the spring flood of eggs, big eggs, little eggs, green eggs, blue eggs, big brown ones and my egg baskets will overflow!

Posted in Critters | Tagged Chickens, Farm Fresh Eggs | 3 Comments

Real Food, what is that? -A piggy tale

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

Angelo is settling in and learning his routine, he has gotten much better about being touched, and for the first time ever, last night he flopped on his side and let me give him a full body rub/pat, still won’t let me touch his head yet, or his ears.

Still he has come along way in regards to trusting us when we touch him now, he is in full training about pen manner’s, the big one being, NEVER put your teeth on us, even if we are standing still or not.. he has a thing about trying to nip my boots, which gets him a quick but firm..NO and a boot that moves a few inches into his space.

Yesterday was the first day that when he was checking me out, and he openned his mouth, and I did the firm “NO” on its own and he backed up about six inches, closed his mouth and looked in my general way, he won’t make proper eye contact with me yet, always looks my way but no eye contact, unlike my Miss Piggy who will.

He is eating his feed really well, and drinking his water etc, but I have hit on something that just makes me a little sad, he does not think real food is food yet.. I still have a store of huge winter squash that is for piggy use, they get so many fresh foods along side some house scraps that don’t go to the laying chickens.

I give Miss P her’s whole, and she will rip into it and loves her fresh food, but Angelo does not think its food, he was clearly wanting supper, he asked me for supper, he kept checking his dish but the scrapes and the cut up squash/seeds were passed over time an again.

As I stood in his pen, trying to get him to try a tiny bite of fresh apple, that I saved from the cows apple and even that was given a look like.. its not food.. It must be what its like trying to serve homemade liver an onions with roasted root veggies with a cabbage salad to a child that thinks coke, mc nuggets and fries are food.

I am hoping to trick Angelo by mixing the chopped real food in with his ration, which means it got chopped flavoured and so he happily eat that.. This morning when i took him some goodies, I sprinckled them with a heaping tbsp of Marty’s powdered milk, and that got him all excited to eat them..

He does not seem to understand what hay is either, Miss Piggy gets a small amount of lovely fresh rich green hay daily to feed on, and loves it, but Angelo seems to think that instead of nibbling on it, it should just be hauled over and added to the big straw bed in the corner.. Silly Silly Boy..

I wonder how long it will take him to learn to like real food? He had better have this figured out before the gardens really get going, because there are times in the summer, where I feed nothing but whole meals of fresh food garden/processing leftovers.

I keep having a little huh on this, I mean if its this hard to get a PIG to try real food when raised on processed food, it gives me a whole new view on how hard it must be for all those mom’s out there, with children that don’t want to change their eating habits to whole foods..

How are you all doing in that area? if you have children or grandchildren? or heck, even mates?

Posted in food | 12 Comments

Homemade Fish Stock, plus a Light Seafood Soup Recipe.

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

As some of you know, I am working on a Feb $10 fresh per week food challange which means that I am digging around in my freezers a bit more then I have been, which is a very good thing! Needless to say I found a package of big old shimp, about 12 of them in shell.. hmmm, I just knew that I had a fish head in there somewhere, after moving things around and putting “go though the different freezer box’s” on the never ending list of things to do, I finally found my bags of fish heads and snagged a good size one..

I had already removed the gills before I frozen it, had a good pile of cleaned fish skin in the bag, and I put put the shimp into the hot water, till they just turned pink, pulled them out, into cold and peeled them, cut them into bite size peices and into the fridge they went for later use in my soup..

Into the stock pot went, the fish head, the skin, all the jumbo shimp shells with tails on, half a onion, about a cup of dry white wine plus water, some fresh parsely (curly) an a bay leaf, Skim often and simmer for a good 30-40 min, at which point, I strained it all and back into my pot for making a interesting fish soup..

A light Seafood Soup

1 tsp of duck fat
4 oz of tiny diced peices of smoked bacon (homemade, but with rind removed)
1 large onion-finely diced
1 clove garlic-finely diced
6 cups or so of fish/shimp stock
1 large carrot-finely diced
2 large potatos-finely diced
2 stalks of Celery -finely diced
1/2 cup of finely diced turnip
1 cup of pre-cooked diced shimp
6 oz of haddock, winter cod or any other firm white fish, diced into bite sized peices
Pinch of salt, fresh cracked pepper, pinch of cayenne pepper.

Start with your oil, bacon, onion, garlic, simmer till clear, then add your fish stock, and the rest of the veggies plus your fish, simmer till done, season, and add your shimp at the last min, you can also finely chop up any fresh greens you have, parsley, spinach, horseradish or chives to top dress the bowl with..

It would be very easy to turn this into a chowder if you perferred, but I wanted a light soup and a little less calories.. If used as a chowder a baking powder bisquit would be perfect, as a lighter soup choice, I am comfortable serving it as is..

Posted in Food Production and Recipes | Tagged Food Production and Recipes, Frugal, Veggies | 9 Comments

Working on my new bushes list for 2012

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

Well, its not final yet, but I think I have narrowed down my list of fruiting and or health/herb bushes to add to the farm this year.. Here is what I have to date..

Smoky Saskatoon
Shadblow Serviceberry
Allegnery Serviceberry
Common Witch Hazel
Sea Buckthorn (Another female to go with my current females and male)
Bayberry
Nanking Cherry
Alexander Mackenzie Rose
Golden Elderberry
Buffalo Berry
Nanny Berry
High Bush Cranberry
Hinnnmeakio Gooseberry
Jostaberry
Red Jackels-Currents
White Pearl -Currents
Black Chokeberry

A few of these can be gotten in the wild and moved to the farm but most of them are going to be bought from a local nursery up the road about 40 min, they don’t sell though the mail or any other carrier, if you want their stock, you have to pick it up.. still their choices are excellent, the prices a very good compared to the order catalogs.

Its hard to believe with the soft christmas snow falling that spring is just around the corner, but it so is! We have the farm and garden seminars coming in Feb, our big local Seedy Saturday is coming in march, as is the huge green expo, plus I have found my first farm sale in march.. o my, there are some very interesting things that I would love to have join me on the farm, so many things that have clearly sat for years covered in dust in the photos but I would put them into use again here on the farm.

It would be wondeful to get another wind break row of different fruiting, flowering bushes, draft fruit tree’s planted out this year, got to love hiding food in plain site.. most folks see a rose bush, I see a local 0 mile source of vit C. They see winter bird fruit, I see Saskatoons, High Bush Cranberry, Black Choke Berry and Elderberry..

Are you either planting or replacing many of your “just for looks” things in the yard with bushes that not only look good but also produce fresh food for you and your family?

What hiding in plain site food producing bush are you adding to your yard this year??

Posted in food, gardens | Tagged 100 mile food challange, Frugal, Fruit Trees, Garden, Soft Fruits | 6 Comments

Happy Valentines Day! -Our Fancy Dinner Out..

Posted on February 14, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

When I first meet DH 13 years ago on Feb 11th and I asked him what he was doing for Valentines Day, he informed me that any gal of his, would know she was loved daily and would not need Valentines Day to show her this.. Have to say that he has done a very good job of this.. We had our fancy lunch out on sunday, heading to a local farm that offered a sunday menu that changes with the season’s, they raise fowl, and pork along with a number of garden and greens.. The menu changes each sunday (the only day its open) and by season, you have a choice of three starters, three mains or three desserts, plus tea, coffee, with all the fresh baked bread you could want.

Farmgal had these choices for her 3 course meal..

That lovely starter is farm raised made on the site foie gras, The main course was a stunning slow roasted over a wood fire on site farm raised Guinea Fowl with roasted root veggies/ mashed and pickled purple cabbage.. The skin on this peice of bird was sheer perfection, and Guinea has a taste like no other bird, it is simple its own flavour..

Dessert was a stunningly rich fresh goat cheese mouse with mixed berry sauce, with homemade maple (from their tree’s of course) topping.. Yum!!!!

Dear Hubbies, Starter was Salad, it was a mix of different salad greens, Apple, mapled nuts, old aged sheep cheese, with a pickled egg sliced on top, with a vinager based dressing, It would have been better with a creamy/sweet dressing but that’s just us showing our Western roots 🙂

His main course was a pulled pork sandwhich, it was on fire baked rye bread, with their farm pasture hertiage raised pork, cabbage salad, baked beans and a slash of soft fresh goat cheese.. For dessert, he choose the fresh fruit bun, it has dried cranberries, Cherries, walnuts, with a pat of butter in the middle and smothered in brown sugar sauce, he declared it a 6 out of 5..

So, what did you and your loved ones have at your special meal?? Be it homemade or dining out matters not to me.. Dish on what was on your plate :)!

Posted in Life moves on daily | 8 Comments

Garden Monday- Independance Days

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

I decided to combine the wonderful Independence Day Challange with the once a month garden update for my monday’s main posts. Going to also add links to blog I read that are doing this challange, if anyone else who read’s me is going to join, please let me know in the comments and I will link you in as well! Thisoldnewhouse I will do my best to direct link to the weekly posts if possable.

Plant something: Celery end for regrowth, Trays of wheat for sprouts

Harvest something: Everything counts – Eggs, Sheep Milk, Small Critter butcher day

Preserve something: Canned Lamb, Rabbit, Chicken, Duck, Also canned Dried Beans, Dried Potatos and orange peels

Waste not: Composting from the house, the barns, Composting the feathers for future garden use, recycle the butcher extras

Want Not: Good week for this, really have not shopped other then to have gotten a new large black boar

Eat the Food: See Food Storage Fridays Reports

Build community food systems: connected with the large black breeder in our local 100 mile area, also meet a fellow farmer about 20 min away, they raise pasture pork, ducks along with greens.

Skill up: Working Hides, Knitting, Building a manure hot box for early spring planting, learning more skills in regards to reading pig body lang, and body stucture on a litter of 3 day old piglets

Posted in Life moves on daily | 1 Comment

Paying for the lapse.. I know better!

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

Saturday was a bit of a road trip day for us, the trip to get Angelo was right around two hours each way, worth it if to get fresh new genetics but still a long enough trip out and off the farm for about six hours or so and I should have packed a lunch but we thought it would be nice to have a treat out on the road, I expected to be able to find a subway to honest but our choices turned out to be A&W or McDonalds.. I should have gone to the grocery store and gotten something fresh from them but we choose A&W, I went with chicken, which came with pop, fries and gravy, Hubby went with burger, fries, gravy and pop..

Dh is not feeling any effects for this lapse, perhaps because he still gets this and that in the crap food catagory at work, often having a donut at least one or twice a week and going out for lunch now and again etc, but I have been SO careful over the past month and my body is totally making me pay for the sudden jolt of sugar/fats and god know’s how many other unpronouceable things I eat..

Yesterday was our big dinner out -More on that later, including photos..

But today, I am having a only liquid rest day for my body, by this I don’t mean that I am only going to drink water and that’s it, i mean that I am going to have a broth day, no fiber, nothing that my body needs to work hard on, breakfast is simmered fresh ginger with a touch of my home canned peach juice in a quart of water, strained so its only the flavoured water, lunch is going to be onion/celery/greens and supper is going to be bone broth, night will be elderberry or grape most likely..

Do you ever just give your body a rest for a day and not make it digest meals? Have you ever been really good about eating only healthy meals, home grown and home made food, only to eat out and realize that not only does it not taste good but that your body reacts to all those chemicals?

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged Health | 1 Comment

Mr. Piggy Name- Thoughts wanted?

Posted on February 12, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

So I have gotten three private comments about the name choice in my young male boar..

In a random order.. I have gotten

Mom- Need to call him Kermit to go with Miss Piggy…

Girlfriends little one: informed me that he needs to be called Kermit if he is Miss Piggy’s boyfriend..

And the top one was a email from SIL C who informed me that I should consider calling him Kermit the Hog!

Now how this name did’nt come to me I’m not sure, prehaps because I don’t have children?

Needless to say, its a very cute idea, but I only have one tiny issue with it..

My memory of Kermit the Frog is that he was hyper, had mood swings, and was always trying to get away from Miss Piggy, and that Kermit didn’t bring out good points in Miss Piggy’s temperment either, they were clearly a couple in need of counciling ;P

On the other hand, the Image that comes with the name Angelo, is of a mobster kind of guy, tough, cool under pressure, easy going until he needs to ge the job done and then nothing stops him..

Typically good with the ladies, all dark and swarthy, “Want to come back to my pig pen for a visit sweetheart, I’ve got a seating at eight for the best chop in the place!”” Snort , Snort!

So I will open it up to my readers, give me your vote,and feel free to “tongue in cheek” give your reason for your choice..

A) Kermit the Hog

B) Angelo

Posted in Critters | 5 Comments

Give a warm welcome to Angelo..

Posted on February 11, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

I have planned to call this young gentleman Mr. P aka Mr. Piggy, we arrived at the pig farm, and I got to see a new litter of 3 day old piglets, (o My GOD cute), some expecting females, and some of the rest of the pigs. Finally I was directed to the trailer and told he was in the back and he was mad..

So I got my first look at my new boy and he looks back at me with a glint in the eye and snort of the head, now Miss Piggy has not been raised with other pigs and in truth I don’t remember this with her mother, or the other two female’s with her dad but many of the pigs had their ears bite (I can’t help but wonder if more space is needed at the feeding trays) but needless to say, he had been raised in a little boy pack herd of intact up an coming males, and he looked like a toughy from the street compared to my little lady Miss Piggy.. So there went the name of Mr. P and in came a tough boy name of Angelo, aka Angie when he is good boy and Angelo when he is a smuck..

Now the loading was eye popping at the work done to get him in, I could not see, but there was thumping, squealing and finally he was loaded and just sat down as the door was closed.. Quick, Quick shut the door was the order so we did..

Offer we headed home, and he was a perfect gentleman, a soft snort now and again, he took a little snack, and when we got home, we unloaded him from the truck and put him on the sled and hauled him down the path to the barn with one pulling and one keeping the crate steady, he just watched the world go by, at the barn door, we picked up the crate and carried him to his pen door, no issues, openned the pen, opened the door, he walked in, and walked over to water area, looked around and stuck his head into his fresh straw bedding and started rooting around..

So far, so good, he might look like an Angelo but he has been an angel since we got him home 🙂 He is just coming six months of age and will need to grow a little before I will consider introducing him to Miss Piggy, right now he is in his own pen for a few weeks to make sure that he is healthy and to give him time to settle in and get use to our routine.

He will need to learn to like treats, and I think it will take some time for me to get him used to being touched and given some back rubs, but he will have to look to me or Dh for the next while if he wanted contact so that will help he come round nice and fast. Miss Piggy watched with interest and they are keeping up a talking contest back and forth across the barn alley.

Posted in Critters | 6 Comments

Food Storage Friday -Feb $10 a week Challange -Week 1

Posted on February 10, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

So here is my first weeks $10 worth of grocery’s. I got two packages of mushrooms, one very large pinnaple, a big celery bunch -which’s end I have planted in a pot of good rich potting soil and I can already see tiny signs of regrowth starting, so I will so have fresh Celery greens to use sparely. One Avacodo, 1 bag of 3 pds of onions and 1 bag of 3 pd apples. I was just a few cents under my ten dollar limit for this buy out, thankfully they don’t tax you for fresh food like this, as I often say to hubby, I can tell by the tax I paid, on how well I bought in regards to fresh and or bulk food.

I also picked up 20 pds of four different dried beans in 2 pd bags for long term food storage on the same trip, they were on sale for an amazing price, they have been put into storage, I don’t consider them part of the eating challange per say, I will not use or eat any of them during this month but I was not going to pass on such a good sale for the longer term storage.

Heading into this week, for fresh stuff, I currently have 9 apples left, one 3 pd bag of regular yellow onions, 1 head of cabbage 1 small box an 2 locally produced mushrooms an 1/2 of a large turnip, half a head of celery.

We have had 2 spending day out of 10 days so far, It was a low/no spend month and I didn’t do so well on that, I did buy a few things that were not “required” but they were on sale and I felt they were worth it. I got a 60% percent off on a x-large in floor water proof dog heating bed, which works wonderful as a seed heating bed and costs a fraction of the ones in the seed catalogs, I was also able to pick up packs of gas stablizer on sale for 40% off, and a large animal measure weight tape for 55% off.

My second spend day was to take advantage of a coupon on ordering more plants for the garden, I was able to buy over 150 dollars worth of high quality soft fruits/bush’s for the garden for $59 dollars including shipping and tax. I had a credit with this company from last year, as one of the plant orders came, was planted, was babied and every single one of them was dead! I call and explained that none of them came up, and I got a full refund credit on my account, I was suprised at how good they were to work with. So between the coupon, and the credit, I got a very good deal.

Black Current -Titania -I have lots of red currents but would like to add black currents, only need one bush as its so easy to cane off and create new bushes from the orginal one.
Haskap -Borealis (2) and Indigo Treat (2) plus a male pollinator, these can also be honeyberries, they are hardier then high bush blueberries, and have a very early being ready in mid-june, can be eaten fresh or used like a blueberry in any other way.
Nova -Raspberry’s – 3, I have mid season berry and late season berry, but I wanted to add in the earliest season producing berry’s that I could find, so I can extend the season.
Jersey Giant Asparagus roots (12) – Would like to expand my beds and also try a different kind then the one that I grew from seeds.

I don’t know if I will consider buying the fruits for the garden a bad thing now, as if I had waited for March, I would not have been able to use the half off coupon for the order, and therefor would have not saved near as much on the order, plus its things for future producing food which is always a good investment in my book. Its not a eat it and gone, its a investment in the future of growing my own food.

So how was your week? Tell me about it! How did I do? Do you think it was a good idea to pick the things up on sale or was I just giving myself slack for failing that part of the challange?