Just another Day on the Farm

Orange ShortBread Cookies-New rolling pin #1

Posted on January 9, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

A fellow blogger was posting about making Marmalade. and as I said, I got some of the coolest rolling pins for christmas! This one is small, just the three rows of patterns, and works for cookies, and also I figure for very cute tart top patterns or maybe even for a pie top. I wanted to give it a try and shortbread cookies seemed perfect to give it a try, but decided to add in a couple heaping tbsp of orange Marmalade to the recipe.

What kind of rolling pins do you have in your collection?? I had been collecting old hand carved ones but got to give mom and the rest of the family credit, they came up with a host of the most amazing pins for different purposes, and of course all of them fit my “no power required” just a little elbow grease 🙂

Posted in food | Tagged Food Production and Recipes, Hobbies | 3 Comments

Dark Day Meal 5- Lamb Chops with winter sides dishes

Posted on January 8, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

Well, there was no chance or hope to do my dark day meals while I was out in alberta, I had some amazing meals, has some lovely bison at my Dad’s, the most bland Free range turkey ever, it certainly did not taste like my free range birds, but the wow treats were at Big Brothers, with a wonderful Deer Roast and the most amazing Elk steaks!! I went back for seconds on the first meal and snagged one cold to have for breakfast the next day.. SO full of flavour, I had forgotten just how amazing elk is for a meat!

Now that I am home, would it really be a suprise that I am using lamb as my main meat for this dinner meal, its going to be simple but tasty.. I have put five lamb chops into the crock pot this morning with half a pint jar of homemade grape jelly, made from my wine grapes, the juice made from those two vines has an amazing acid base with just wonderful earthy undertones that will go so well with the lamb.

To this I am planning on using up what needs to be done, so I will be roasting up a butternut squash, with a touch of duck fat/dried stinging nettles/dried basil, along with side cabbage/apple salad, made with homemade mayo.

So off-farm items but within my 100 miles is Cabbage, Apples, Spices, Oil for the mayo, Butter.

On farm made or raised-Lamb, Eggs, Duck Fat, Dried Herbs, Butternut Sqaush, Grape Jelly.

Posted in Winter Eating Challange | Tagged 100 mile food challange, Greens, Herbs, Lamb Recipes | 1 Comment

Aging Meats-Corned Duck Breast…

Posted on January 8, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

I like to age my meats after butcher, it is much better for taste and texture to do so, be it beef, lamb or any of the smaller critters, before I left on my trip, I was doing a number of different kinds of the birds, and I was also making different products with them, including brined duck breast, but it seems that I forgot one breast in the spiced brine tucked into the top shelf kinda hidden, and so yesterday as I was looking at what to use up.. there it was.. about four weeks past its offical pull out date…hmmmm

Pulled it out and smelled the brine, and it looks fine, Checked the breast, it was fresh smelling, but very firm and well reduced in size, first test passed.. Washed and put it to a slow roast with broth, and waited, if it was bad, I would smell it when the heat hit it, passed Test 2, smelled wonderful cooking.. Cooled it overnight, to slice this morning..

Stunning Color, salty but with a amazing depth of flavour, I have written before about how the Muscovy breasts can be used just like a really good qaulity beef steak in many! recipes and that folks would never know they are eating duck instead of beef.

This is clearly another one that would be able to do so, I could serve this Corned meat in a sandwhich or in a hash, and I truly believe anyone would be hard pressed to not think it tradional and very yummy corned beef!

This is a mistake that I will repeat in the future, just not for quite as long in the brine but for sure Corned Duck Breast is going into my personal cookbook. Like with most things duck, until I do so and can prove that its the same, I would not recommend using regular “duck” breasts for this recipe.

Posted in Charcuterie | Tagged Charcuterie, Ducks, Food Production and Recipes | 2 Comments

Socks and Mittens- our first set of twin lambs of the season.

Posted on January 7, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

The first set of twin lambs arrived while I was gone, their momma is woolie, and she is a good one, she has a sturdy boy and a slightly smaller little girl, Niece #2 and #3 named them Socks(boy) and Mittens(girl). They look really good and are ready to come out of the jug and join the flock but I will hold off till after the freezing rain/sleeting snow stops.

Marty has grown by leaps and bounds, and he is so chunky and solid, he looks like a boy even at this young age, where Girl still seems so ladylike to me, granted I was greeted by her big old head just begging me for a good chin scratch.. I was so pleased to see that Dh had done a wonderful job with the cows while I was gone.. They look great.. always hard to take a good photo in the barn with a flash on, which instead of red eye, gave blue eye.. its really a nice chocolate brown.

The girls are all starting to waddle, and when I did the check this afternoon, it looks like I have at least three girls that are starting to bag up, so this evening we will put them into the birthing stalls to be on the safe side, but Spot-Spot looks to be the one who will be having her little ones next..

Posted in Critters | Tagged Barn life, lambs, photography, sheep | 9 Comments

The Joy of Backups!

Posted on January 7, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

So my stove gave up the bucket while I was gone, and I came home and went ok. Now my first thought was, well they have good sales on right now and I might be able to find a great sale on a new energy star stove, so we will look into that.. my second thought was, farm sales start up in a few months, and they always have newer good qaulity second hand stoves for sale at rock bottom prices, the third thought was one that maybe its time to consider seeing if I can put in propane and make my old but workhorse of a propane stove as the main stove in the kitchen instead of the summer kitchen stove?

All of the above need some thinking and looking into, but I still need to be able to cook and work in my kitchen now.. which brings me to the joy of backuips, and backups of the backups, in fact I think even I was surprised at just how many cooking backups I own, I use them at different times of the year, for different things.

Toaster Oven- (normally used for baking of smaller items and in summer to help not heat up the house)
Toaster
2 Large Crock Pots-Often used thought the year as regular crock pots but also used alot during canning season to make fruit butters etc.
Kettle- Typically use the one on the stove but I have a good quality one from Dh’s brother that sits in the cupboard
Big Deep Frypan-Normally used to work my chocolates(it does one of the best jobs at holding a just melting temp) and it gets a thumbs down at being coated but it does a good job in cooking many things.
Microwave- I really! don’t use this, its a Dh hubby thing, I don’t like it and I still won’t choose to use it but it is there if truly needed.
Shuttle Chef-for Finishing and cooking of items
Blender that will cook soup(from mom, it not only blends but will heat up and make soup for you)
Waffle Maker

Now I have outside cooking sources but the list above is indoor and in kitchen cooking tools, so while it might take a tiny bit of adjusting to say, I want to make this and then figure out which one of the backups is the best choice for doing so, as you can see from above, I am so not short of ways to prepare a meal, stove or no stove..

The only thing that I can’t figure out is how to can with any of the above, so I use if I want to can, I will have to use the propane stove but I don’t think it would be that easy with the wind chill factor, and canning out in the snow on the deck does not appeal much, so that is the one grump I do have, but the truth is that I can take a small break from canning and take the time to figure out and find the best replacement stove possable.

So if you lost your stove, do you think you could use your backups to successfully run the kitchen for the short term or even for a longer period of time? say a month or two?

Posted in farm | 26 Comments

Long Night but O, the sleep was sweet!

Posted on January 6, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

I knew that a evening flight would make for a very long day but I was hoping that just maybe that I would not have such a full plane, Ha! Wishful thinking, all the seats were full, which meant that the flight was not just long but a bit painful from my being a true one seat passanger, and I have the bruises on my knee to prove it!

The plane was an hour late and the roads snowy so it was after 3 am when we arrived home to the farm to a pack of hounds that were so happy to see that HD had finally found FG and brought her home again.. Took a good ten min of happy dances, sheiks and yips to get everyone calmed down enough to throw oursleves into bed, Wow, I had forgotten just how much I love my big wonderful sink into it King size bed, I had a few hounds glued to me, I guess they figured if they were touching me, I would still be there in the morning 🙂

So a few things happened while I was gone, some of the main ones being, our first lambs were born, and once I charge the camera, I will take some new photos, Marty Grew!!! and Grew!, Girl had another heat, going to try and breed her on the next one.. and my stove gave up the ghost! Add in the fact that my vehcile stopped starting(Dh has no idea why, something I will figure out later this coming week) and as I could CLEARLY hear on the drive home, the Dh’s truck needs to go in and get some brake work done!

On the other hand, my new Lucet Braiding Book, Variartions on a renaissance cord had arrived while I was gone and I am most excited to learn some new ways to work with it, I made headbands, braclets, long necklaces, short necklaces and even one 12 corded choker, plus a Dozen plus full 3/4/5 or 6 stranded braided loop scraf’s over the holidays for family and friends.

Gotta run, Farmer R’s boy is delivering big strawbales! Catch you all soon, its good to be home..

Posted in Life moves on daily | 4 Comments

Happy New Year 2012

Posted on January 1, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

Well, did you make your lists of goals for the coming year?

I had done so with great thought and care but a new family one has come in over the past two days, Mom, Dad, Big Brother, SIL C, Dh and Farmgal are all doing a bet on who can lose the largest body percentage of fat.. this was done to keep it fair for Dh who is much fitter and leaner then the rest, so its who can lose X amount but we also have to keep it off for at least a month before the final number is called. Everyone bid in at 50 per person, the winner takes the pool!

Personal Health Goals

Farmgal lose 50 pds, Dh lose 10 pds-Blog more often to be accountable
Continue regular health checks-Dental, Blood pressure, chiropractor etc
Off-Farm walks, min 3 per week, other then in the coldest part of winter-wii workouts- Got the Wii Walk it out game for winter walking indoors!
More strength training with weights-dumbells, and kettle bell-Got the Wii Camera and Shape up program to help make sure I am pushing myself!
Workout more with DH instead of alone.
Get more creative in eating different side dishes, instead of the standard, potato’s, rice or pasta.

House Goals 2012

Required Home Repairs as needed
Practise one area thought clean and go though weekly, it can be as small as a cupboard or as big as a small room but I MUST stay on top of keeping order in the house.
Build a small storage/walk in closet in our main bedroom
Re-Paint the bathroom-New floor boards
Re-Paint the living room-New floor boards

Farm Goals 2012

More Rasberries Canes planted-with different picking season
More fruit bushes planted-Different kinds
3 Cherry Tree’s planted
2 apple Tree’s Planted
2 nut tree’s planted
More Herbs planted out this year
Work the hugelbeets with hoop covers in spring to get a much extended start to the melon growing season.
Work to take out 3000 Pds worth of fruit/veggies in the garden
Can at least 1200 Jars but 1500 hundred would be better
Dry more fruit, veggies, herbs and meat
Fence the front yard
Fence the peaple yard
Fence the grapes
Dig and create a new grape row
Build a new set of outside bird pens attached to the small barn, ideally six pens
Repair the small red building roof and expand the attached pen, built to be bird proof
Repair as needed the roof or siding of the big barn.
Build two more full pens in the big barn-front half, along with a solid feed part in the front of the barn, complete with a solar light/small window for light.

I want to send a huge thank-you to all my readers, friends, and family that have followed the blog for the past year and I am looking forward to sharing the coming year with everyone!

Posted in farm | 9 Comments

Merry Christmas All

Posted on December 31, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

Wishing Everyone a very Merry Chirstmas season! Enjoy my family time out west and no time to write at the moment, or answer comments, I will be back home next week and you can watch for many reports and answer shortly there after.

On the farm news, the first set of twin lambs have been born, Woolie has done well! and now the sound of baby calf and lamb along with singing turkeys mingle in the barn for Dh’s to here as he does his twice daily chores.

Everyone have a great day!

Posted in Life moves on daily | 2 Comments

There is a first time for everything but sometimes you wish it was not so..

Posted on December 23, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

As most of my longer term readers know, I was born and raised in Alberta, and have spent my fair amount of time in bush country, and one of the first things I remember as a young girl was driving with my dad and being taught to spot game. I have done alot of driving in this province, I even worked for a pipeline company in my early twenties as a hotshot driver, what a gravy job, a truck, a needed part, a company credit card and just you and the road.

When we were up in NWT, Dh and I did alot of road trips and in the summer of 2000, we were taking a trip up to Fort Hope, it was a wild road (we ended up helping a gent who had flipped his truck and camper on the way back) but on the way up I had a full size adult male black bear come up and over a hill at a run and straight in front of the truck, it was a wild moment, I was able to just miss him, but as we liked to say, it was close enough that you could reach out and slap his rump as we went by.

Until yesterday it was the closest I have ever come to hitting a critter on the roads, it was a long and busy day with tons on mom’s list and we were heading out the red deer area to my dad’s down by drum and we have even said, gotta to be extra careful as it will be the right time of day for the deer to be on the move.

Thankfully I was going below the speed limit, back in ontario the roads are 80km and I have been having a bit of a hard time driving up to the 100km speeds on the secondary highways since I have arrived, so thankfully I was only going about 85 to 90 km as I was coming up and over a steep hill with deep ditches on both sides, I spotted the white tails deer on the left as I topped the high and could do little as the young yearling popped up out of the ditch on the right and straight in front of the truck.

I was able to move the truck to a slight angle so that it was not a straight on hit, and when it was all said and done, mom, and I along with her pack of 3 little hounds came thought it safe and sound, even the truck came though will bare a scratch on it, I’m sorry that I can’t say the same for the yearling.. Can’t help but think/wish that we had been just a few min earlier or later.

Once I got it all stopped and thank heavens mom had the gear/flashlights in the truck for me to be able to check the under side and make sure it was safe to drive the rest of the way, I was calm and steady during but let me tell you after it was all done, did I ever get the shakes, took a good while to try and tell my body to cool it on the fight or flight response.

There was lots else of interest yesterday but I will save it for another post..

So for all the folks out on this road over the holiday season, between the weather, the drunk drivers and the critters, please take it slow, drive careful and arrives safe and sound to where you are going!

Posted in Life moves on daily | 9 Comments

Ha-Ho Ha-Ho

Posted on December 22, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

Well, I finally had my first good sleep for three days, and it was lovely, I did get a chuckle out of my Dh’s morning phone call that found me still relaxing in bed, while he had already well started his day and was taking a break after the rounds of morning chores.. I guess in a way I am having both a family time and farm holiday.

Yesterday was another busy day, the morning was spent on housework, laundry (it does not matter where you live, you still have to keep things up) Our first round of company arrived in the morning, its my mom’s friend M, her and her family have been friends with my family for 27 years now, and its was great to see her as I had missed my visit with her in the spring, she came bringing a tray of homemade goodies, and she still makes the best! fruit cake..

It was a lovely visit and then off to get my treatment from my folks chiropractor and boy am I glad I went, felt so much better afterwards, really openned and or re-lined something because I came out with that light headed floaty feeling..

Then we headed into the city again, this time with mom and dad, and off to my baby brothers favorite place for chinese. They had amazing sushi, and lots of fresh veggie dishes, which I heaped up on, I had their version of tapioca, it was SO sweet, I swear they made it in sugar water, very different from anything I had before.. there was one other interesting thing of note.. No beef!

The ginger beef has been replaced with Ginger pork, the dry Beef salt and pepper had been replaced with dry pork salt and pepper, the eggrolls that normally are cabbage, carrot, onion and beef, replaced with veggie eggrolls, and the beef and broccoli.. good luck on finding any beef in it.. there were a few very tiny slivers.. Guess the cost of beef even in alberta is sky high..

Then some shopping for mom, she was after stocking stuffers, and I tagged along to push the carts and look at things.. the only thing I found of note was Wasbi lime Mustard, it was on sale and when I got to the till, they took an extra 30% off, awesome, its for big brother, he loves hot things, and its such a interesting flavor combo.

So the funny of the day is that I have forgotten how to make basted eggs in a non-stick pan, I cook eggs at home all the time, big fresh farm dippy eggs for me, and scrambled for honey.. so I went to make eggs, no cast iron, just the non-stick and got the ” we don’t do flipped in this house, we do basted” so fine, I don’t flip the egg, I put the water in and steam the top.. broke every single one of them trying to get them out and got some good teasing to go with..

It’s funny how you get used to your own way of cooking and then have a hard time adjusting back, its like the paper towels instead of cloth, or the paper coffee filters instead of a french press, throwing away egg shells instead of into the compost pile..

I had brought one outfit for christmas with me, and had gotten a new dress just a day or two ago, but this morning mom has had me try on an extra five outfits so that I can look pretty over the season for photos.. I bring dress pants and pretty tops, now I have three peices matching outfits plus tights, and matching jewerly/makeup to pack..a whole huge suitcase just for our “dress outfits” aw.. christmas at mom’s..

I drive poor Dear hubby crazy that I ask him to dress up for dinner, even I had forgot that at home its more like dress up for about ten days though the holidays.. can’t even remember the last time I wore tights, laughed and said to mom, I guess you expect me to shave my legs to boot huh?

She laughed and said if you don’t, Neice #2 will notice and let you know that she can help and do it for you if you can’t reach! She helps my mom shave her legs and paint her toenails, and put lotion on her feet since she had her hip replaced.. Keener!

That’s it for today folks.. and in case you can’t tell yet, these posts are going to be newy ones for keeping my hubby and friends up to date on how my trip is going!