Kohlrabi Recipes

Posted on October 10, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

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 , , , , | 17 Comments

Garden Overview 2011- Lots to give thanks for..

Posted on October 9, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

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

 

 

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Every morning this week.. Bang, Bang, Bang…

Posted on October 8, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

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.

Posted in local food | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Food Storage Friday Roundup

Posted on October 8, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

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…

Posted on October 7, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

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 , , , , | 4 Comments

Projects for the winter

Posted on October 6, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

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?

 

Posted in Carfts an Hobbies | Tagged , , | 8 Comments

Curing my winter Sqaush for storage

Posted on October 5, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

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 , , , , , | 2 Comments

Think they will tax my cow someday?

Posted on October 4, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

Per Qoutes from CBC and BBC…

“Denmark has introduced what is believed to be the world’s first tax on foods containing saturated fat. The Danish government is applying a surcharge to foods with more than 2.3 per cent saturated fats, in a bid to combat obesity and heart disease.

The new tax will be levied on food such as butter, milk, cheese, pizza, oils and meat. It means customers will be paying about $3 more per kilogram of saturated fats in a product. Prices rose Saturday in many grocery stores as the tax came into force, while some customers cleared out shelves earlier in the week to stock up on fatty favourites.

Food industry managers have complained that the tax will be a bureaucratic nightmare.in 2004, Denmark declared war on trans fats, making it illegal for any food to have more than two per cent of the artery-clogging oils. Austria has a similar law. In July 2010, Denmark imposed a tax on sugary junk food.

About 10 per cent of Danes are considered obese. Britain is the fattest nation in Europe; one third of children and nearly two-thirds of adults are overweight or obese.

The tax was approved by large majority in a parliament in March as a move to help increase the average life expectancy of Danes. Denmark, like some other European countries, already has higher fees on sugar, chocolates and soft drinks, but Linnet Juul said he believes the country is the first in the world to tax fatty foods

In September, Hungary introduced a new tax popularly known as the ‘Hamburger Law’, but that only involves higher taxes on soft drinks, pastries, salty snacks and food flavourings. The outgoing conservative Danish government planned the fat tax as part of a goal to increase the average life expectancy of Danes, currently below the OECD average at 79 years, by three years over the next 10 years.”

Sorry for two news stories in a row, but this one amazed me and made me laugh at the same time, Boy is my cow, goats or sheep in trouble now, that rich, sweet wonderful raw milk is so, so bad, that its gonna have to be taxed! Wait, I bet my chickens are next, are you going to put a tax on the fact that my eggs are whole and farm fresh? Or are you only going to tax the duck eggs cause they have more fat in them?

Want to eat butter instead of oil based margine, we will tax you, want to eat cheese, something that has been consumed by humans for thousands of years, we will tax you, don’t even look at the sour cream! Slowly back away from that glass of whole milk..

Sorry, I am being a little silly there but honestly, I can understand and even support the idea of taxing processed food that is heavy in fat/sugar/salt, I don’t have a issue that locally that they removed pop and junk food from the schools, but I am not surprised in anyway to find out that the kids are just going next door of the school and get it there.

The idea that in the states that the fast food giants are trying to push a program that would allow them to accept food stamps and yet farmers markets can’t or won’t is enough to make my ears steam.

Can we please keep whole food in the hands of the peaple..

I’m openning this one up to you guys, do you think its a good idea, that the general population is to heavy and that the goverment should do whatever they believe is a good idea to help control this issue, or do you even believe that is what this is about? Or is it just a way to get more tax money in a time that all goverments are looking for ways to get a little more?

 

Posted in 100 mile diet | 19 Comments

Sqaush/Pumpkin in the local news today.

Posted on October 3, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

I love mondays, getting back into the routine, being able to sleep in a little, the wonderful fresh baking bread, today I made a double batch of cranberry orange pancakes for Dh’s breakfasts, and the house smells heavenly as there is a apple almond spice cake baking at the moment..

Monday means something else, it means we get advice from our gardener on CBC and today one of the subjects being talked about was the lack of pumpkins available, the reduce crops of all winter sqaush’s, acorn, butternut and of course being oct the much loved orange pumpkin. If I got it right, they are saying that there was a reduced crop in the states as well as a reduced crop (up to 50%) in our heavy cropping areas, at least in the province they appeared to explain it as due to lack of rain in July, or summed up into a hot dry summer..

Now, I don’t get out to the stores enough to notice that they were lacking pumpkins, they didn’t have any at the one store that I did get to last week, they just had the big bin of acorn that had not been cured properly and they were not in good shape, but they were normal size, but according to the radio, main stores in the bigger centers are missing their orange hue.

Hmmm, I can say that on the short drive from my farm to the nearest bigger town, there are end of gate sales filled with pumpkins, at least ten box’s or for sale signs, only one with a person, the rest are just like our corn, a box, a price list and the product.

Now stepping away from what is the “norm” to what I see in my own backyard, and its a whole different story, the winter squash’s rocked it this year, I got them planted late, Hubby then transplanted them into area’s that were not prepared correctly while I was gone, I stuck extra seeds into spaces where crops had failed when I got home and still despite all the things that we did wrong with them this year, we have hundreds of pds of them coming in, Big ones, med ones, and little ones, pure ones, mixed ones that I will give a try and if good, will try and figure out who crossed with what, if bad, the pig will love it even if I don’t.

So are you noticing a lack of pumpkins in your local area? Did you have a good winter sqaush production this year? While all of mine did well, the butternut is the one that is the grand winner this year, and if I could just figure out where the camera went, I would take a photo or two.. Which one was the biggest producer for you this season?

Posted in 100 mile diet, Food Storage | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

When the unplanned gets ya!

Posted on October 2, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

Ever had this happen to you.. Your hubby is out puttering around doing this or that, and you have finished for the day, the house is tidy, the critters all done and you are so looking forward to relaxing and your man appear an says.. Hon we have a issue?

Now on the farm, that statement can be almost anything, but more often then not, its critter related, like my little Stomp 2 was having lambing issues and hubby was doing the baby check and woke me up out of sleep and within five min down at the barn, with my hand up a ewe, moving that foot into place and helping pull him, resulting in a healthy ewe and lamb.

So last night I was relaxed, in PJ’s and while reading was looking forward to a early night to bed, when those words came out of my hubby’s mouth with that sound, that concerned something is wrong voice, and he informed me that one block of the railroad ties had given way on the raised modular and that the 12 by 12 wooden beam had given way, and while the floor and building is fine and inside shows no issues, clearly this is a BIG issue and needs to be fixed as soon as possable.

Crawling around under it, looks at the wood, figuring what had happened, and then forming a plan on how to deal with it, reaching for books, reaching for the phone, (thanks Dad for all your help in answering my questions) a run to home depo, Canadian Tire and Walmart to get the different supplies required( not sure how this applies to my no spend month but I was not about to wait on this one, I am sure folks will understand)

By the time we are home, its pitch black, we jacked it up enough to take the pressue off and went to bed with the alarm clock set to start again as soon as daylight showed its face, hauling railroad ties, jack ups and downs, leveling ground, hauling and putting down gravel, cement blocks, new ties, and we have a good solid temp fix for that corner.

Now the real issues showed up, the other matching one is going and will need the same treatment, and then really looking at the whole kit and kaboodle, and it would appear that we should run to beams crosswise and build up to more box’s and pressure holding places.

A couple hours of more work, and then back to the books, figuring out materials needed, time needed and to tell the truth we are sored, tired and my body at least has a number of new bruises and my hubby hit one my fingernails with the hammer-ouch, I was holding and had given him enough room for the normal use of a hammer but he was having trouble with the spacing and so turned the hammer to the side, clever yes, but suddenly my just enough safe distance went away and whap, the hammer came down on both nails, thankfully its only got a small colored spot, I have lost both finger nails and toenails over the years, and this is not bad in the grand view but its still sore.

Sometimes I think that its awesome that I am in a marriage where I work side by side with my DH, but I also wish that we lived close enough to my family that I could have asked for help, Could have asked them to come over, bring this tool or that piece of equipement, so that I could borrow instead of buy, could have had more experanced eyes look at the project, could have had my mom or aunt or sister-in-law make or  show up  with a hot supper to be waiting for us when we came in wet, dirty, and tired. Could have had my little nieces have been the ones that got to go pick the fresh rasberries that was dessert tonight with homemade pudding.

I am grateful that I can pick up the phone and get advice but hands on help at times would be such a blessing to my day..

Do you live close enough to family that you can call them for help? or are you a team with your mate that gets it done, or I guess there another choice, do you call for hired help?

 

 

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