We spent some time outside today building a mini chicken ark for using chicken power in the garden and Mr. Mitten decided be the supervisor of the project.
Fall Shoulder Lamb Chop Stew
When getting half or whole lamb you will end up with a number of 1 pd cuts of shoulder chops, these are heavier on bone then lamb chops are. Now the price of chops in the store are high but again the shoulder chop is much more reasonable.
This recipe is going to breakdown into two main parts
Part one
One package of Lamb Shoulder Chops, in our packages that means six chops, half a white onion finely chopped, 4 dried aprociots finely diced, one 8 oz jar of canned Aprociots fruit or about 6 oz of Apricot jam mixed with half a cup of water, 2 large dried candied Ginger peices or 1 tsp of dried Ginger powder and into the crock pot to simmer away for 4 plus hours till the meat is fall off the bone tender.. Don`t cut the meat off the bone, it is going to add depth of flavor to your sauce.
Now at this point Pull the meat off the bone, and put it back into the sauce, if you want it thicker, you can use a little corn starch to thicken it up (following the directions on the box), you can serve it as is with side dishes, you can serve it over rice.
Or you can take it into stew form as shown above, I added in 2 cups of pea`s, two cups of small diced potato`s, one shredded carrot, and a handful of diced fresh fall spinach, fresh mushrooms would be good as well (but I am waiting for my next crop to grow)
This will give us a light delightful slightly sweet stew, I would recommend saving one or two little potato peices to smush up and get the last of the juice up..
Posted in Lamb Recipes
Tagged Food Production and Recipes, Greens, Lamb Recipes, lambs, Veggies
1 Comment
Fluff and Feathers..
A new clutch of ducklings, with a second hen still sitting on her nest.. total little fluffy tikes..
Remember these little guys..
Guess who just turned one month old and are ready for their move into the little barn
Here is one of the big meat boys, he is already big enough that if I really wanted cornish Game birds for dinner, he is ready for the stew pot, but I will let him grow for another 8 weeks or so, none the less I am very impressed with the weight gain and overall health of this mixed breed.
Here is his female counterpart, they are growing very well, but just oose hen to me, and such a ladylike hen to boot, they have such a good temperment, I can see that they will if healthy end up being layers, nice big large brown eggs
Here is one of the purebred Bard Rock hens, they are averaging half a pd less then the red hens above but they are growing well for their breed and are very interested in all that their world, they are as quiet but a little more reserved then the red girls, who just want to be your friend.
An then there are the clowns, silly little critters, as friendly as can be, interested in everythign and always happy and singing when they see you, they are growing nicely, with no signs of feet/leg issues always just what you want to see..
I got asked by a reader when I would move them out, and I had never really tracked it, but the answer would appear to be four weeks seemed to be when they were all ready to be moved..
Kohlrabi Recipes
Kohlrabi is a relative of the cabbage, its name is a german term for cabbage(Kohl)-Turnip(Rabi). Any of the white varieties are excellent for canning, the one above is Gigante, which produces large bulbs that stay tender and are excellent for both eating fresh and for canning.
Kohlrabit leaves are also very useable, the small leaves can be used in salad and the bigger are excellent as a braised green, while Kohlorabi bulbs are able to be stored for up to two weeks in the fridge, and are becoming more popular at the farmers markets and at select farm stores like Farmer Boy, they should in fact be used as soon as possable if you want to get their full amazing goodness.
Now most folks (including me) tend to peel them, cut them up and eat them raw as snacks, and fresh they are great this way but don’t stop there, Consider them a sweet/crunchy switch for cabbage, and then just think of all the amazing salad’s you can do with them.
My favorite salad with them is , small diced Kohlrabi, finely diced onion (White, Red or Green), Cranberries, a few pumpkin seeds and a dill mayo dressing, its just a wonderful crunchy, sweet and sassy salad, that gets eaten by the bowlful.
Then a couple years ago I found a great recipe in one of my old European books for Sweet Pickled Kohlrabi, and I just love it. Its very basic indeed..
Cube your Kohlrabi into 1/2 by 1/2 cubes up to 1 inch by 1 inch depending on the size you like, cover them with water and simmer till “just!” tender, drain and add to your brine.
Brine for ten cups of cut up Kohlrabi is 3 cups of Vinegar, 1 cup of water, 2 cups of sugar, 1/4 cup of fancy molassies, make a spice bag of Classic Pickling Spice Blend, simmer your brine with spices for at least 15 min to 20 min, till the cubes are just tender, then remove the spice bag, and add the hot cubes, bring back to a boil and then hot jar them, makes seven pints. Water bath can for 30 min.
But this year, I got a couple new canning books and in one is this amazing Kohi Relish, I changed it up just a touch, but O my goodness, the first little batch got made an it rocked and more was made!
Kohlrabi Relish Recipe
- 5 cups of cubes of diced kohlrabi (white flesh, not purple)
- 4 cups of diced purple Cabbage (can use white if you want a light colored Relish)
- 3 cups of Apple cider Vinegar (I also made it with half red wine, and it was excellent)
- 3 cups of sugar
- 1 cup of finely diced onion (one batch with white, one batch with purple)
- 1/2 cup of freshly grated horseradish if you have it, or can add a few slices of hot peppers.
Cook your Kohlrabi for ten min to just slightly soften it, then add the rest into a steel pot and simmer it together for at least 20 or until everything is tender-crisp, makes 4 pints and one 8 oz jar per batch, hot fill your jars and water bath for ten min..
This relish is excellent on its own, the juice makes a wonderful sweet/sour sauce, it works very well with darker heavier meats like duck or goose, its excellent with german style sausages, its just yummy!
So do you grow Kohlrabi in your garden? If so, how do you like to eat it? What is your favorite recipe for it? Do you only eat it raw, or do you like it cooked? If you can it, do you also like it pickled?
Posted in Canning
Tagged 100 mile food challange, Canning, Food Production and Recipes, Garden, Veggies
17 Comments
Garden Overview 2011- Lots to give thanks for..
Well, I have been working on this all week, I also have been figuring out critter imputes in terms of meat, milk, eggs, last night we had a surprise in the little barn with a new clutch of peeping ducklings to greet us at nighttime chores.
So I had a hard time giving prices to everything, some things were very hard to figure out, example, what do you put on a per pd price of high bush cranberries, finally went with the local price per pd for fresh cranberries as its making the same product but is that fair?
Most of the prices make me cringe just a little, as I would not pay it if I had to buy it, I went to the last local farmers market yesterday with my little book to record prices on fall products, thankfully I can look up the prices on the store by the flyers, and I will admit to being surprised and to a point unhappy at some of the prices at the local market, I will give two quick examples
Right now at our local apple u-pick you can get 52 pds of apples for 48 dollars however at the stores its a dollar a pd, and at the farmers market it was 3 pds for 5 dollars, so 1.66 a pd.
Sqaush is the ranging between 77 cents per pd up to 1.77 per pd at the stores and the average price of them at the farmers market was 5 dollars for about a 3 to 4 pds sqaush, so around 1.42 per pd.
Fresh local organic potato’s is at a very high primium, the amount is crazy to me, but I refuse to short change my garden produces.. So now that almost all the spring/summer/early fall crops are off, I feel comfortable doing a total for the year, while there will be some herbs, some greens and some green onions and salad greens over the next two months, the big push is done..
Assorted Hard Fruits total of 261 pds = $317,
Assorted Soft Fruits total of 430 pds = $956
Assorted Veggies total of 1404 pds =$1635.
For a grand total of 2095 pds = $2908 for 2011
So next year I have the goal of getting over that three thousand mark.. so how did I do? How did you do? How much did you save with your homegrown fruits and veggies? How many pds did you produce?
Garden Counts for 2011 to date
Hard Fruits
Apples-77 pds $77
Crabapples-44 pds $35
Wild Crabapples-61 pds $60
Cherries Sour-16 pds $28
Cherries Sweet-3 pds $4
Pears- 12 pds $24
Mulberries- 4 pds (this one is hard, try and price out local organic mulberries, so priced it like gooseberries?) $12
Plums-14 pds $28
Wild Plums-8pds $16
Peaches-22 pds $33
Total Hard Fruit $317
Soft Fruits
Gooseberries-13 pds $39
Elderberries-59 pds $177 ( I went with the local health store price for frozen per pd)
Chokeberries-26 pds $52 ( Went one dollar less per pd then elderberries)
Cranberries- 2 pds $8
High Bush Cranberries- 5 pds $20
Strawberries-88 pds $176 (went with the local organic price I had down from spring time)
Raspberries-48 pds $96 (went with the current price in store)
Blueberries (both wild and farm)- 13 pds $39
Rhubarb-65 pds $195
Red Currents-11 pds $33
Black Currents-None
BlackBerries- 9 pds $27
Grapes- 91 pds -$94
Total Soft Fruits $956
Garden
Beans=46 pds $33
Cucumbers-58 pds $ 53
Zucchini- 22 pds $ 22 (the price of Zucchini locally is crazy!)
Acorn Squash-22 pds $22
Butternut Squash- 68 pds $137
Potatoes-268 pds so far. $536 pds(local organic potota are running 2 per pds)
Basil- one quart jar dried $30
Tomatoes-311 pds $172(if I was buying them buy the bushel locally for roma’s)
Storing Onions- 36 pds $22
Green onions- 22 pds $22
horseradish-8 pds $32
Kale-12 pds $12
Collard Greens- 17 pds $17
Kohlrabi- 8 pds $16
Green’s salad mix- 26 pds $26
Romane-11 pds $11
Broccoli- 33 pds $33
Asparagus- 24 pds $48
Peppers-98 pds $81
Pea’s- 5 pds $4
Pumpkin- 60 pds $35
Muskmelon-10 pds $30
Watermelons- 18 pds $14
Carrots- 44pds $29
Beets-61 pds $61
Radishes-11 pds $11
Corn- 52 pds on the cob $18
Cabbage 38 pds $78
Turnips -37 pds $74
Total veggies $ 1635
Total count for 2011 to date oct 2011 = $2908
Posted in food
Tagged 100 mile food challange, Canning, Farm Life, Frugal, Garden, Greens, Health, Herbs, Soft Fruits, Veggies
7 Comments
Every morning this week.. Bang, Bang, Bang…
Strange Trucks are driving by slowly, Folks pull into the second driveway and sit with sun glinting off their funky looking eyes, trucks and vans are parked into cut lines up and down the big forest, and bright sign’s have appeared on many a fence post, and I am giving the eye to my sheep and making sure that enough of them are wearing their bright red or orange collars.
Yup, its hunting season in my neck of the woods.. you can expect to hear shotguns going off multiple times each morning from between 4:30 to about 9 am each morning, you can expect to hear rifle shots at any time during the day and more often at dusk/evening then I like..
Only once so far this year have the hunters broke the rules, I don’t mind them hunting around me, I was raised in a hunting family and I have great respect for those that step out and spend the time and hard work that can go into it, while there are a few times that folks get their game on the first morning of the first hunt, it rarely happens that way.
I am greatly looking forward to adding some wild game meat to my own freezers soon enough however, when it comes to hunting by the farm, I like them to hunt in the second back fields, not in the front field which is very close to my livestock, honest to goodness there are time where they look at my fawn colored hair sheep in the fog, as a easily found Bambi. So NOT!
Its tradition if they get to close to the house when hunting or setting up their gear, that I go out every half a hour or so and run the hounds, giving them the cue to bark their fool heads off, The first time this happened, farmer R stopped by to ask me if I was against hunting, I said, no hunting is fine, but twits that shoot that close to my barns/pastures, that is a issue, he just laughed and told them to move back, but it seems like every now and again someone thinking they should move up, I guess cuz its easier to haul the equipement in.
Farmer T was having a fit last year and again this year, her land is hunted but only by her and her family and for the second year in a row, she has found blinds set up for deer hunting in a clearly posted area, Last year she pulled it all down, I joked that she needs to set up a paint bomb but in the end we decided that it would be more effective to put up a trail camera hidden on the blind and see if we could catch the sneak on film! Ah and the hunter becomes the hunted.. deep booming chuckle comes out of Farmgals chest..
Here is a interesting way to use some of your Canadian Goose that you hunted..
Goose Neck Sausages,
Very carefully remove the skins from the goose necks so that you have tubes of skin, (remember to use the neck bones and meat to make stock with or give to your hounds to give them a great natural way to clean and floss their teeth and gums)
Cut about 2 and half pdsof fresh goose meat along wth up to half a pd of goose fat into 1 inch cubes, Chill your meat until cold and firm to the touch before grinding.
Combine the goose meat, fat, 1 tbsp of course salt, 1/2 tsp of white pepper, sage, marjoram, and allspice, Grind it though a fine disk of the meat grinder.
Then cook till no pink, allow to cool.. Oven at 375, Tie off one end of your neck skin with butchers twine, stuff with meat mixture and tie off the other end.. Bake the sausages in a single layer for about 45 min or until the skins are crisp, serve warm. I like these with a little blueberry or saskatoon compote on the side. Fussy they may be but its a once a year treat!
So are folks hunting in your neck of the woods? Are you going to be hunting yourself, what is your favorite game, got an amazing recipe to share with me? Given the rising costs of meat, I can imagine that a good number of folks are hoping to fill their freezers with game this fall, and so I will wish you the best of luck if this is the case in your home.
Food Storage Friday Roundup
Joining in the ranks of Canadian Doomer and others like Chile Chews, and Backyard Farm along with unprocessed real food month with its daily updates on idea’s and thoughts on how to use whole food in your diet, we are eating out of our pantry this month.
Well, I will admit that we didn’t start off so great, on the very first day we had a “gotta fix that now! moment that sent us hitting the road, driving an hour to the nearest home depo and spending four hours going to it, Canadian Tire, and Walmart, we were hungry enough to have chewed old leather and both our blood sugars were crashing, the idea of trying to drive home before eating had us snarling, and in my haste to get the show on the road, I didn’t grab or pack food that fit the challange, lots of water so drinks were not a issue, so it came down to raid the preps in the van (which don’t fit the challange) or grab something to eat, we grabbed a fast and fresh meal. So we will add one more day on the end of the month to make up for our blunder.
As for the rest, to tell the truth its been a easy road so far, I have not had to change anything really, we still have fresh coming in from the garden, including fresh fruit in the form of bowls of Rasberries making their way into the house.
Breakfasts have been porridge, and cranberry with candied Citrus peel Pancakes, along with cake/loaf for DH’s snacks and second breakfasts.
Lunchs have been soups or stews with canned fruits, and homemade bread or baking powder bisquits.
Supper have been varied, some soups, some stews, some meat and mashed veggies, some fresh cabbage salads, Carrot and Cranberry Salad etc
Snacks have been fresh or dried fruit and applesauce
Baking has included, Bread, Baking Powder Biscuits, Lemon Poppy Cake, Rasberry Coconut Cake, Apple Almond Cranberry Cake.
In regards to the rest of the food prep this work, till putting up from the garden, including another batch of tomato products, but the big push as been winter sqaush and pumpkin, for a few of the recipes that I am working on, check out one pumpkin-four recipes. you might also want to check out this older post from last year on how to use a small pumpkin as a fancy serving bowl.
In other news I had been hard at work trying to figure out just how much the farm has produced for us this year so far in regards to value produced on the farm for our own personal use in regards to Fruit, Veggies, Meat, Eggs and Milk, and while we have a little while to go and more to harvest, we are so very close to cracking the ten thousand dollar mark.
I am working on a post on this one, and I am using local prices for if I had to buy in season, and replace what we have grown-raised-harvested.
Posted in Food Storage
4 Comments
One Pumpkin-Four Recipes…
Well Good Morning, Its a perfect Fall day and I am starting in on my pumpkins, thought I would share what I am working from my first pumpkin, it weight in as 22.2 pds whole.
So first I washed it, then cut it into stripes, putting the guts into a bowl to save the seeds for drying, just shy of two cups of whole pumpkin seeds.
My first recipe is a old one for me, its very basic,
Pumpkin Maralade
- 5 cups finely diced pumpkin Flesh
- 6 cups of sugar
- 1/2 cup of lemon juice
- one box of pection
Take your time with the pumkin the finer the slice and dice, the better this one will be, then in a steel pot mix the sugar with the diced pumpkin, and leave it for an hour, it will sweat out enough that you can now stir them together and then leave another hour, the sugar will pull enough water out that you don’t might now need to add any
If it does not reach up and cover the pumpkin by three hours, add a touch of water as need to raise the level, bring to a boil, for at least ten min, the pumpkin bits will turn clear, as you can see on the spoon, half are done and clear and half are still to raw.
then follow the direction on the certo for when to add and can in 8 0z jars, I hot water bath for 10 min.
The Second Recipe,
Pumpkin Compote
- 5 cups of cubed (1/2 inch by 1/2 inch) pumpkin
- 1 whole peeled, cored cubed pinnapple or 1 large can of pinnapple tidbits
- 2 cups of whole dried cranberries
- 1 cup of diced dried apricots
- 1/2 cup of lemon juice
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 1 tsp of pumpkin pie spice
Put the sugar over the pumpkin cubes and let it sit for an hour or two to draw out water, then add the rest and Cook them all together in a large steel pot, bring to a boil then simmer till everything soften’s, stirring now and again, remove the cinnamon sticks, pack the hot pumpkin mixture into pint jars, then top with the hot juice, Hot water Process for 25 min.
* Might I recommend this as a breakfast fruit for thanksgiving morning.
Third Recipe
Sweet Pumpkin Pickles
- 24 cups of cubed, seeded, peeled pumpkin or butternut Sqaush
- 4 cups white vinegar
- 6 cups of sugar
- Make a spice bag with Cinnamon sticks 2, whole Allspice/Cloves 6 each
Put your Vinegar, sugar and spice bag in a steel pot, bring to a boil and then simmer for at least 10 min, I perfer at least 15, then add the pumpkin, return it to a boil and cook for about 3 to 5 min, you just want to heat though.. Then pack into hot pint jars, hot water bath for 20 min, these require a 1/2 inch head space, and please makes sure they have it.
I had about 4 to 5 cups of cubes left over, they went into a small steel pot, some water to cover, a cinnamon stick, a heaping tbsp of pumpkin pie spice, and then are being simmered down into a thick pumpkin purree..It make just over six cups worth.. 2 cups will be going to make muffins or cake, but the big one is to make my pie’s
This recipe is a Harrowsmith recipe, the note I have says Ann A, but I can say she must be from from the Prairies as this is called..
Prairie Pumpkin Pie
- 4 cups pumpkin Puree
- 4 cups sugar
- 2 tsp Cinnamon
- 1 tsp nugmeg (fresh grated if at all possable)
- 6 large eggs (lightly beaten, use chicken if you like a softer pie filling, use duck if you like a firmer)
- 4 cups whole milk
- 1 cup light cream, (if using sheep milk, just do five cups total)
- 1 tsbp of vanilla
Pie Pastry for 3 9 inch pie shellsm whipping cream and chopped walnuts..
Combine your pumpkin and spices, then add in eggs, milk, cream and vanilla, pour into your pie shells, bake at 400 for about 50 min or until firm, Cool on a rack, top with whip cream and a sprinkle of walnuts.
This is a Homestead Barn Hop Post
Posted in Canning
Tagged Canning, Farm Fresh Eggs, Food Production and Recipes, Garden, Veggies
4 Comments
Projects for the winter
Well, there are so many different things rattling away in my head today, the news just keeps giving me post idea’s..
If you live in Ontario regardless of what your choice is, please get out and vote today!
So with the colder mornings, my urge to knit has increased, christmas is coming, thankfully I have three almost finished projects that I have been slowly working on over the summer, While I can knit for a while in summer, the garden and the heat slow me down greatly, however with fall coming in, I am picking up the needles again daily.
I spent a little time visiting with a friend, and left with some amazing idea’s on two new projects for winter knitting, and one of the projects is for me, I so rarely do that, I tend to knit for others raither then myself.
I have been working on my felting skills, and am slowly getting better all the time, I have a winter project to self tan a wool sheepskin rug or two, not just working with the hides but working to keep them whole.
I also have been able to get some truly lovely birch bark peelings to go with my procupine needle work for a small gift box, as well as having gotten the beads in the colors I want (thank you Farmer T, who buys them in bulk and just gave me the little bit I needed) for my earings projects.
I was able to pick up materal on a amazing sale to make new heavy quilt curtains for the living room, and so sewing them is a planned coming project, it will make such a difference in regards to keeping the cold out and the heat in.
The only other craft project I have planned for this winter is to make homemade hankies and to do a few little sewing projects, I need a new big apron with lots of pockets and maybe a new table cloth or two, I have a tote or two of older clothes that need to be pulled apart and cut into squares and then I need to pull out my box with squares and have a look to see just how many I have, I will put the blue jeans patches into a different pile for later use.
So with the darker days, the colder, slower days coming in the near future, are you figuring out what your winter projects will be? Care to share what you got planned?
Curing my winter Sqaush for storage
I wanted to show you just a few of my sqaush, I had to put the littlest butternut alongside the biggest one, of course it looks small next to the pumpkin but trust me that is one big! butternut.
Almost every available open area of my living room and kitchen counter space, including the tops of book cases, etc are covered with different sqaush all spread out curing for winter, its to cold out at night now to just leave them out to dry, they need a warm room to allow their shells to properly harden.
Here is my basic process, I check the skins while out in the garden if they are hard enough that your fingernail does not easily dent it, its ready to be cut at the stem, I try and let a good stem on them a couple inches does not bother me at all, if the stem comes off, then they are moved to a use first pile, all are given a quick wipe off with a damp cloth if they require it, then they are laid out, not touching each other, and a couple times a day I will roll them over so that all sides and bottoms get a chance at air drying.
They like to store in a warm dry area, my cellar downstairs is fine in the fall but to cold in winter, they are stored in a space bedroom, we harvest in sept/oct before the first hard frosts and on average I am still eating my stored sqaush as late as Feb/March.
Having said that, I only store some of them that way, alot of them will be cut open, the seeds taken out and saved, the guts/Skins going to the chickens or pigs, the flesh being cooked, mashed and frozen or cubed and canned for later use, or sliced thin and dried for storage. so many ways to preserve them but its all about time and use.
The very best sqaush from the plants that were grown from hand done flowers are marked and given a much closer look, if I think they did very well, then their seeds will be saved for use next year, as they can and will cross its important that you hand pollinate a few of the bloomes and then tape them gently off to that you know that its a pure seed, I would highly recommend seed to seed for a great reference book on how to learn to save your own seed.
I love my squash, I wish that Dh liked it more, its one of those things that he was not raised eating and has taken a good time to get him to learn to like it in different ways, he does quite enjoy it in my homemade pasta recipe He is learning to like it in soups and stews and baked in the oven but still does not like it boiled/mashed which is still one of my favorites.
While the plants normally require a good amount of room to grow, they have now developed so many new smaller plants that folks with small garden space can still enjoy these easy growing plants. If you don’t have them in your garden already, might I recommend that you consider trying them next year? If in doubt of what kind you like, check out the different ones available at your local market and learn which kinds you like best, and then read carefully in your garden catalogs to find the ones that will work best for your growing area.
Now I had better get back to what I hope soon will be my last batch of tomato’s that will need to be prepared and canned for the season 🙂
Posted in Food Storage
Tagged 100 mile food challange, Canning, Food Production and Recipes, Frugal, Garden, Veggies
2 Comments
Just another Day on the Farm 