Back on track!-Weight/Goals

Posted on June 24, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

Well, to say that I was unhappy that I had gained 11 pds on my working holiday would be a understatement, it was hard work taking them off and they went back on so effortlessly.

As they say “No point crying over spilt milk” and in keeping with qoutes.. Just DO IT!

So back to writing down everything that gets eaten in a day, I didn’t make my goal on a single day for the whole week, I was always over each day, having said that I didn’t break 2000 calories on any of the days. This week, I will work harder to keep each day down by another 100 calories. I didn’t get any “offical” workout’s done, but I did get farm workouts, both in hauling hay, working in the garden, and back to hand pumping water, all of which had me feeling the burn at one time or another.

So today was the big day, and I stepped on the scale, hoping for at least a pd off.. but instead I was surprised but pleased to see it was three!

That’s a good start, but hopefully this week will be even better, the goals this week are simple..

  • Write down the food and calories
  • Stay under 2000 per day
  • Get huffy and puffy at least once a day
  • Eat out of the garden as much as possable!

 

 

Posted in Goals | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Tested Recipes-Little Red Deer Dorcas Lady’s Group.

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

I love cookbooks, but I really like small town or old cookbooks, I have a number of new ones from my last trip, and I will review them as time goes on..

This cookbook is its fifth edition by the RD Dorcas lady’s group, and they were done for the 100 year celebration of the group.. One of the reason’s I really like this book is that reflects both time and history in cooking..

“The first collections of recipes in each section had been submitted by homemakes using coal and wood burning stoves. Instructions were very limited  example “bake in a quick oven” which tends to leave today’s cooks with challanges of times and temps. Each subsequent addition has added new favorite recipes popular with the W.I members at the time of each of the five printings. While there may appear to be dulpicates of the same recipe, it happens in name only-each selection is unique.

Fruit cakes were very popular in the first printing, now Pizza and Salsa where the most popular in the last printing. Sour cream was a staple in the first 3rd printings now its yogurt that is the more familiar food. Zucchini was not prevalent in the first printings, has now coming into full force.

These recipes from the first to the last make the contributions in some cases are in the 5th generation of families.”

On the afternoon in oct 1912 the little red deer Dorcas Society meet for the first time, and they appear to been going strong ever since.. I loved their two main poems in this cookbook. Both are listed as Anonymous.

Pioneer Women

  • Grandmother, on a fall Day
  • Milked the cows and fed them hay
  • Slopped the pigs, saddled the mule
  • Got the children off to school
  • Did the washing, Mopped the floors
  • Washed the windows and did some chores
  • Cooked a dish at home, dried Fruit
  • Pressed her husband’s sunday suit
  • Swept the parlor, and make the bed
  • Baked a Dozen Loaves of Bread
  • Split some firewood and lugged in
  • Enough to fill the kitchen bin
  • Cleaned the lamps and put in oil
  • Stewed some apples she thought would spoil
  • Cooked a supper that was delicious
  • fed the cat and warmed the beds
  • Mended a basketful of hose
  • then opened the organ and began to play
  • when you come to the end of a perfect day.

Seeings as I am on a marrow kick these days..

Lemon Marrow Butter

  • 4 lbs of cooked Marrow
  • 3 lbs of sugar
  • 1/2 lb butter
  • Juice and rind of 4 lemons.

Cook the marrow with a very small amount of water, then mash it up and add the sugar, butter and lemons. Mix well, Boil until it becomes fairly smooth and clear. Watch closely as this burns easily. This may be used for pie or cake fillings or as a jam. Mrs. Don Manual.

 

 

Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged | 2 Comments

Fried Green Tomato’s

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

Do you like fried Green Tomato’s? I love them, so many different ways to use Green Tomato’s but one of the first to make in the spring is Fried Green Tomato’s.

I wait till the tomato’s are good size, and then slice about 1/2 inch thick, dip into beaten egg yolk, then into spiced flour and into a cast iron frying pan at med heat with a good amount of hot oil in it. Eat hot out of the pan. Now clearly while the tomato is healhty for you, the fat content is not so great, so these are a treat, raither then a staple item to the menu 🙂

Some folks like to use bread crumbs instead of flour, I have tried it and like it but find they tended darken more then the flour does and to have more of their own taste to the dish, where the flour version really lets the green tomato flavor come though.

As for spices, I have a couple different ways I like them.. Give them a try and then figure out what works for your own taste buds.

1) Salt and Pepper
2) Montreal Steak Spice
3) Parmesan Cheese and Crack Black Pepper
4) Salt, Pepper, Dill and Basil

So do you make Fried Green Tomato’s? What is your favorite flavors to add to the flour or bread crumbs?

Posted in Food Production and Recipes, gardens | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Alberta Badland HooDoo Photos

Posted on June 21, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

Posted in photography | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Marrow Fruit

Posted on June 21, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

I love Marrow Fruit, for alot more info on it, check out my linked post on how to make Mock Pinapple by using marrow fruit. In this case the summer sqaush that I am using is Zucchini, you want some of those big huge one that have got away, you peel and gut them out and chop them into slices or cubes.

So you can change the flavors by changing the flavor of the the juice you add to your fruit, so today I am busy canning up a batch of quart jars of Mock Peach Fruit.. Got to love those grenhouse grown Zucchini.

So for Peach Marrow Fruit, I cut my fruit, did it 4 to 1 ratio of sugar/fruit and mixed and let sit over night to drawn out the juice, then I added pure canned or frozen peach juice, or in a pinch, you can use jello flavoring to bring the juice up to the level of the top of the marrow, bring to a simmer and cook till the marrow turns a clear golden color, then process for ten min in hot water bath, will keep up to two years after that, the marrow will start to go mushy and won’t hold its shape as nicely, but can still be mashed and used in baking for another year if you want.

Compared to the costs of buying fruit, this is a VERY frugal way to can large amount of Mock Fruit in different flavors, try the pinapple version first, its the best!

Zapple Pie is well worth a try.. This one is way to easy..Make your favorite pie dough , follow your basic apple pie recipe but replace your sliced apples with slices of Zucchini..and bake as normal.. I swear, now one will be able to tell the difference between the apple and the Zucchini, or make it a Zapple Crisp into of a Apple Crisp 🙂 You get the idea..

Posted in Food Production and Recipes, gardens | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Strawberry Jam

Posted on June 20, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

I promised Doomer in the winter that I would do up my basic Strawberry Jam recipe come this spring, and here it is.. now I will be posting about some of my different jams that have strawberries in them, I really like to mix Strawberry/apple, Strawberry/Rhubarb but today, its just plain straight up Strawberry Jam.

Now, for some reason the making of strawberry jam is one of the first ones that many folks try, for canning, and while it is basic and seems easy, its not a fruit that I consider to be a easy one for Jam, often the jam does not set, or it goes bad.. a couple reasons for this..

The setting is because strawberries would have to be considered little or no pectin, so you need to provide it by either using store bought or by either adding apple Pectin or by making homemade pectin.

The jam spoiling is a different matter, follow all your basic’s for canning, keep those jars hot in the simmering water, watch your fruit that you use, it want it as close to perfect as you can get but the one thing that I see often is that folks want to “cut” the sugar in this jam, and if you want to make freezer jam, go for it, if you want to eat your jam quickly and keep it in the fridge, give it a try..

However if you want your jam to last at least a year or a couple, don’t cut the sugar, your jam needs it.. so on with the show..

So right now my strawberry patch is giving me about 12 cups of whole strawberries daily, it should produce betweeen a 100 to 120 pds of fruit ideally for this season. My strawberries are bedded down on straw, so they don’t touch dirt, second, from the time I picked in the evening on a dry sunny day, to the time that I was making jam was about ten min, the time it took me to clean, and top/chop the fruit and get it into my steel pot.

I don’t make jam from berries that have been picked on rainy day’s, they get froze instead or used for fresh eating. cut off any soft spots, even its perfect fine for eating, don’t put it in the jam, be picky on the fruit that goes into the jam.

Do I even need to say that my strawberries do NOT having anything sprayed on them, these plants are 3rd generation plants on the farm since I have been here, if possable try and buy strawberries that have not been sprayed.

Strawberry Jam

8 cups of cleaned chopped Strawberries
4 cups of sugar
1/4 cup of lemon juice
1 package of pectin.

That’s it folks, put all three in your steel pot, bring to simmer, cook till the strawberries soften, and I like to use a potato masher on them to get them into smaller peices, follow directions on your package and once done, into clean hot jars and water bath for ten min, this makes me 5 half pint jars normally.

Posted in Food Storage | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

How does your Garden Grow

Posted on June 19, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

Hi Guys

I will try and start doing regular weekly updates on how does the garden grow with photos as a few folks have asked for something like this.. so here goes

Harvested this week: Greens, Romaine, Radishs, Green Onions Strawberries, Pea’s, Green Tomato’s, Red Currents.
Planted this week: Beans, Radishes, Onions, More Pepper Plants(9 more)
The first potato plantings (of which there are three staggered plantings)required its second hilling, and the second planting is ready for its first hilling.

I can’t get over the potato’s in the first planting, they are crazy good this year, I mean amazing, they are at least three feet high already, in full bloom and they look great, as you can see in the photo of the sea of potato’s and there are four kinds there and they are all rockin it..so I checked my garden book, as they are growing off the charts for this time of year, and I think I have it figured out.. Rabbit poo.. that are of the garden was done last fall with rabbit manure and then dug in early this spring after resting all winter, now to test this out, I will pick a different spot in the garden that I have grown potato’s in before, and will do the rabbit, this fall and plant next year to see if I get the same results.

So the cabbage is coming along not bad, I see some leaf damage, and will need to weed out the row and get it covered by the floating row covers, The ground cherries plants didn’t get big but they were in bloom when I left and look at them now, the fruits are already forming, I am already gettins some Zucchini from the plant that was greenhouse started but check out the pumpkin plant that grew from seed, already got a number of blooms forming, which is great, cause love to eat all parts of the pumpkin plant, the big tomato plants are a good three feet high and as you can see got good size green tomato’s, the sweet millions also are forming wee little round tomato’s, and as you can see from the photos, the pea’s are in full bloom and needing to be picked daily.. our second planting is up and doing well at a few inches high.

Posted in gardens | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Spice Rack Challange Mint- Pretty in Pink Farmgal Jam

Posted on June 19, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

I know, I know, Late again, its been a crazy month, and I am honestly just trying to get back in the swing of things but when I saw the lovely amazing posts of the rest of the Mint Spice Rack Girls, I knew just what I needed to make today, so that I could take photos of the process and also to make it with measurements so I could write out a recipe.

Pretty in Pink Farmgal Jam

Or Zucchini Rhubarb Jam

8 cups of peeled, cored Diced Zucchini (a way to use up those big Zucchini)
4 cups of washed, diced Rhubarb
1 cup of finely chopped Fresh Apple Mint
2 cups of unsweetened Apple Juice
4 cups of Sugar (could go down to 3 cups if you wanted)

In a steel pan, med heat, bring to a simmer and cook till the Zucchini is soft and clear about 30-40 min or so,use a blender to make it smooth, back into your steel pot, bring back into a simmer Don’t forget to skim it, add one package of pectin(follow dirctions), then place into hot clean jars and water bath process for 10 min. Makes 4 pints

This is wonderful on toast, pancakes and icecream but don’t stop there, consider using it in the middle of a cake as a filling or mix it with a little oil or mayo and drizzle on your salad’s, add a tsp to a bowl of yogurt to make your own flavor, try it with roast beef or as a side with roast pork.

Now I know that you are thinking.. does it taste like rhubarb, or what? and the answer for me and those that have tried it is what? Its got the underone of Rhubarb with hints of apple/mint but its just a combo that is its own.

Its a Farmgal recipe, I have not googled to see if someone else made something like it, but I will stand by it that those that have tried it, like it, and give it a try and I think you will find it worth adding to your collection.

Posted in Spice Rack | Tagged | 9 Comments

Learning Curve-Hauling Hay in a very old fashion way

Posted on June 18, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

I swear this seemed like such a simple idea, I had my ox book and it showed how to tie the load to the Girl, and it said, just roll the hand cut and dried hay into bundles, that was no real issue, we do the rolls for when they go in the wheelbarrol to be hauled down but there is clearly a difference between the movement between a cow and a wheel barrel, they need to be tide much tighter then I thought at first.

Second problem, Girl think she should graze as she works, I felt bad about having to be on her all the time to stop grazing, so ordering a muzzle is on the hit list so that she can learn, off, graze time, on work time.

I don’t like the set up that they showed, I am going back to the horse packing T, that I know from working up in the mountains in my 20’s, at least I know how to use it to tie on gear on both sides and I don’t see why that won’t work for the hauling of hay, just a big roll on each side, instead of the big one across the middle.

Looks to like we have lots of work to practise on before the next rain storm.. I will keep you updated on how the gear and training goes.. Got to love how the folks around slow down, stare and if they are remotely in the friendly book, stop to chat and have a laugh..

The things that stuck me as quite funny was that Girl turned her head and eat the hay off her own back, the other one that surprised me but pleased me was that she didn’t react at all to the strap or the load itself, clearly all the work done bagging her and having her work with bells on has done its job.

We got better at this as time went on, added in a breast strap to help even the loads pull out and added in a different halter that helped with control overall.

This is a Homestead Blog Hop Post

Posted in farm, oxen | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Canadian Back Bacon-What happen’s when you forget about it..

Posted on June 17, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

It was left it in the fridge, hubby did not take it out and cook it off on time, and it been sitting in its brine for an extra two plus weeks.

well much to my surprise, other then being a touch more salty and full of flavor, nothing.. the meat came out smelling, feel and looking right, the brine looks right and its cooked off like normal.. Who knew!

I didn’t feel like getting the smoker all done up and going today, so I decided to just bake it off, and give it a final grill with a wonderful raw honey/hot mustard glaze for it to go into slices for buns, which I just happened to make today to go with, got some fresh lovely romaine ready in the garden, with a couple leaves of fresh basil and it should be amazing fresh ham bun for dinner.. I am going to take some of this and use it to try out some of those salt pork recipes from the Fat Back cookbook.

Posted in Charcuterie | 2 Comments