Baby Oxen in training and a good visit.

Posted on May 26, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

Hi Guys, how about a little cow love today!

I got to slip away from the folks for the afternoon and go visit a old friend of mine and her family, we all meet in collage, and her and I were roommates for a time (boy was that long ago), she had meet her hubby at that time, so we have known each other for almost as long, They have six beautiful children, and I always feel like I am missing so much of their growing up living so far away.

I will own up to the fact that I find when we all get busy in our lives, we often think of dear friends but don’t reach out and say, thinking of you nearly often enough, this is often the case with Miss K and her family, along with other dear friends.

Miss K was asked and hopefully will do a few guest posts on the blog in the future as well, but one of the many highlights for me was that we tromped out into the pasture and got her two baby boy oxen in training and I got to meet her very expecting milk cow to be, and with a growing family of six, that milk, fresh cream, butter and cheese will be quite welcome in the house. She came for some apple but sure gave me the EYE and was not at all sure about the stranger in the pasture.

We had a good walk into the pasture to find the boys, they are six month old, so this photo was taken after we got them to the barn area, they are enjoying their time out on fresh pasture, there was a lovely set of new twins to one of the old range cows at the age of 26 to have twins is amazing, and they were looking so good.

So after giving them some water, it was time to hitch them up, I laughed at this photo when I saw it, I like how the barn kitty wanted in on the action. I tried to get you some photos for this post but to be honest, I was to busy watching how she was working them and how they were reacting to different things, as this is the first time I have been able to watch someone else with baby oxen, and even with the differences taken in between having one vs a team of two, I can see that having a team in some ways makes it easier nd in others makes it different.  I came away with at least three things I will try at home with Girl on my next training sessions.

Ah Girl is appears has been having a bit of a time of it with me gone, its the first time since I got her that I have not been home, and in the first day or so, she decided to break down her gate to her loose stall in the barn, the story told by Dh was cute, it went along the lines of, she got out, he fixed it and put her back, she broke out and he fixed it a different way, she broke out, he bought new hardware and fixed it and she broke it within min and got out..

The way DH said was picture Fred Flintstone stomping with that look on his face as he went and got a 50 foot peice of heavy chain and chained the gate shut, with a YOU WILL STAY WHERE I PUT YOU!

Then yesterday she was out grazing on her tie out, and something bite her, she bellowed and ran for the barn, and DH said she was sure upset and he worked with her to calm her and see what happened but that she even had a tear run down her face but let him fuss on her and take her back to her stall and give her some extra’s to sweeten her day. At ten months she not that much taller then Miss K’s six month old altered boys, but different breeds and sex’s, but it was interesting to me.

Posted in farm, oxen | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Dandelion Honey

Posted on May 25, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

This post was prepped on the farm, as I knew I wanted to write about it, so yes the photo are from the farm. This is one of those so simple an basic but a few extra things will help it turn out.

Step one -Pick Flowers, if possable pick in the morning but after the dew has come off, you want the flowers open but still fairly tight together, if you pick in the heat of the afternoon, they will be more open and just a touch harder to work with,  This photo shows what I consider a perfect picking flower. After picking let them sit for ten or twenty min to help get the bugs out.

Now the more green you have, the more undertone of bitters to the dish you will get, so here is me showing how i pull the flower part out and leave the rest behind.

lovely pile of sweet flower petals waiting to be made into syrup, jelly, mock honey or in this case, put into a jar of honey itself for later use.

Now at this point I gently mix my raw local honey with the petals and use on toast, in baking, on pancakes, waffles or any other way you want to use a flowered honey in your menu planning.  I personally like it fresh done and even more after it has sat awhile in a clean jar and the flavors meld even more.

I really like it with nut butters on toast.

This is a Homestead Barn Hop Post.

Posted in Food Production and Recipes | 6 Comments

Spring in the Badlands..

Posted on May 25, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

Posted in Family | Tagged | 2 Comments

A even dozen- new little peeping ducklings

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

Our first clutch of ducklings have arrived, three more are being currently sat on, Dh has informed me that our first little peepers have safely hatched out, they are currently spending their first couple days in one of our big rabbit hutches with their mom to give them a great head start, they have both a outdoor and indoor area, and momma duck called them back an forth. Soon they will be moved out to the main duck area, and be back with the main flock. The other girls all started sitting around the same week, so it will interesting to see how many they hatch out, if they all do a dozen, that’s 48 ducks for freezer camp later in the season.

DH says that he has been working in the gardens, and building my new gate for me, I am quite excited to see that gate, Its something I have been asking for awhile but we have been making do.

Now is it any real surprise to you, that I am also currently in the process of helping my momma put in her garden at her new place? So today we headed out to the garden center and picked up new current bushes, High Bush Cranberry, two new rhubarb plants (plus one for my dad’s farm as surprise, so hope he does not read this post tonight), and four kinds of tomato’s and four peppers, along with a few flowers my mom got that where her mother’s favorite, and I picked up a lovely orange correl bell for mom, one of the few none food plants I truly adore.

And then came all the garden seeds, I will share with photos if it ever stops raining.. so you know how it is when you go back to your old home town, how is it that you can STILL after being gone for close to 20 years run into your old high school friends, amazing really.

I wanted to have a visit with a collage friend of mine that now has a farm half way between my mom’s place and my dad’s farm but I had forgot her phone number and its unlisted, only in a small town can you just call someone listed “with” the same last name and say. are you related to K-bear and hubby, and turns out, he was a cousin, and I explained I was a old friend, and before I got the numbers, got asked some real O so causal questions, that a friend would know the answer to, but no one else would, thankfully I passed the test 🙂 and was able to get her number and will be heading out to her farm to have visit later this week, I can’t wait to see her and the kids but I am also excited to see how her own team of baby oxen are coming along, and to maybe find a bit of time to work with them, I want to see the difference between me working a single with Girl vs working a team of baby boys.

Can’t wait to show you the photos of the wild saskatoons out on dad’s farm, they are all in full bloom at this time, and mom and I are planning a pie making hour of hours so will soon share how to make a amazing saskatoon pie.

Any new babies on your homesteads? Any new plantings in the garden? Ever had Saskatoon Pie?

Posted in Critters, Family | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Hit the road Jack..

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

Hi Folks

DH is holdin down the fort and I have hit the road, got called home to help my momma, and its possable that I will have less time to blog (I hope not), and I did take extra photo’s on the farm over the past couple days to do some farm related posts, and Dh will guest write but please bare with me while I show off some of the local fare on my trip..

Posted in Family | 4 Comments

The rain or lack of is already having long term effects for 2011

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

Couple days ago farmer R stopped by and dropped off close to 1000 pds of straw for bedding use on the farm and he asked/told me that he still has four more of these big bales available for me, and do I want them otherwise, he has a buyer set up for them.

You see the rain, flooding and the fact that he has not been able to get out on the land means that he has already missed the cut off date line for planting wheat, which means that there will be NO new straw for sale this fall, now he is going to try and get in barley.

Needless to say, I booked to have delivered all four big sqaure straw bales for this coming winters use, now I am looking at hay with a groan and sigh, everywhere I turn, the local farmers are telling me that the cost of hay will be going up if you can get your hands on it.

Went to the feed store and already, the cost of each bag is up by about ten percent, since the same time last year its up over 30 percent in my area, and I don’t think that trend is going to reverse any time soon.

This morning I am listening to CBC radio and they have spent the last half hour talking about the droughts and the floods across the world, and how its going to effect this years wheat crops, Its always so interesting to me to hear directly from farmers in other countries, in this case we heard from a farmer in France, as they are in a drought currently.

They had a gentleman on from Texas that was talking about their drought as well and that he was selling off his yearlings early to reduce the herd, and that they are still feeding extra protein months after they normally stop because the pastures have not had the normal spring rains.

While we have not been here that long, this has been the coolest, wets spring we have had to date since we moved to the farm, and my garden is about three weeks behind on a number of things.

How is it going in your area? Are you drier or wetter then normal this year? Or are you having a great planting spring? Are you putting away a little more then normal with the thought that those prices are going to go up this fall, and better to get it at the current prices?

Posted in farm | Tagged | 12 Comments

This and That in and around the gardens

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

The best way I know to mow a lawn, First, it teaches Girl how to be a proper tie out grazing cow, while she is still small, second it saves on gas for the lawnmower, third, the lawn is mowed to a high that the grass still has a nice height to it, fourth, the clean up is easy enough and the results can get flipped into the compost pile. So how does your lawn mower grow 😉

The first potato’s are up and got a good start, our second planting is just poking its heads up and we will put our third planting out over the next week or two.

The peas are coming along very well, not only on their third set of true leaves but the first gripping tendrels are starting so soon I will be helping them find their climbing wire. My Greenhouse started Cabbage and Broccoli that was transplanted out about a week ago are looking good, they don’t appear to be set back at all. The green onions are ready for harvest at eight inches tall and the romaine is going strong as is the garlic, my strawberries plants are looking great but no flowers yet.

Inside the green house, the tomato and pepper plants are growing like mad, they need to get transplanted out as soon as the weather will allow it. My big tomato plants are well into their first flowering, and I will have my first fresh tomato’s within the next few weeks.

Still have so much to plant and as you can clearly see in the above photos, someone needs to do a little weeding already 🙂 That is a never ending chore around here..

Out in the fruit yard, the plum tree’s are in full bloom and looking mighty fine, hoping for a really nice crop this year. I have the most amazing spicy plum sauce recipe to share.

Posted in gardens | Leave a comment

Rhubarb Fruit-Canned

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

While Rhubarb will freeze for later use, if you know that you are going to use it within three months, and have the space in the freezer, feel free to do so. I have dried it, and it does work, and of course takes a great deal less storage space.

However if you are looking to put up large amounts of Rhubarb for year round use for me at least, I like to can Rhubarb Fruit. Please get the Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving for all your basic information.

A regular batch for me is 16 cups of Rhubarb to 3 cups of Sugar, and I hot pack it, and  hot water bath process for 15 min, so easy! and so yummy when done. You can move your sugar safely down to two cups or up to four cups keeping the rhubarb at the same percent depending on how sweet or sharp you like your rhubarb. It makes me six pints. Is there anything better then hearing that “Ping!”

Posted in Canning | Tagged , , , | 16 Comments

Fresh Spring Asparagus

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

 About a month ago, I looked at my asparagus bed and went huh, I pulled back its mulch just a little and dug out the edges, two weeks ago I looked at my bed and went, come on! already, and went an picked out in the yard “wild” greens, Last week I stood over the bed and gave it a good old fashioned glare, darn cool, wet spring..  I swear the very next day, green heads started pushing out of the soil and finally almost a month late compared to normal, I have lots of fresh asparagus.

Let me tell two cute little stories, both are about DH, the first was when I started the Asparagus said, well you get to it that, cuz I don’t like them.. so the first year when harvest came along and I made my first dish and on the plates it went, and I said, try it before you knock it, and next thing you know, it was “this is so good, nothing like I remember store bought ones tasting like”. Last year, he said to me, I think we need to expand that bed or get rid of it,  this quite surprised me, so I said, why hon, and he says, its just not producing enough, to which I laughed and said.. uh.. well you see your wife kind of tends to pick and eat a ton fresh every time she walks by the bed, so its kind of my fault that you don’t think its producing well 😉 Needless to say, we are planning on expanding the bed.

From The 150 Healthiest foods on Earth Book,  Asparagus has a very faorable rato of potassium to sodium. A cup of cooked aspargus contains a whopping 404 mg of potassium as well as 268mg of folate. Its also high in Vit K, Rutin, which helps protect blood vessels and the anti-inflammatory, cancer-fighting flavoniod quercetin. A cup will give you 3.6 fiber all for the above for only 40 calories.

Farmgal Fresh Asparagus Soup.

  • A handful of fresh picked Asparagus
  • One pull green onion or chives from the garden
  • two large leaves of horseradish -Can replace with other greens as required
  • A cup of sheep milk, a cup of veggie broth -Can replace Sheep milk with whole milk.
  • dill, Basil, black pepper, Dried ground garlic, and turmerac.

Take all your fresh greens and dollop of butter or magrine or oil olive and give it a little fry, then add your veggie or white bone broth, then your sheeps milk, allow to heat but not boil, then thicken with a little corn starch, cook till thick and serve.

If you want to learn more about ontario Asparagus, http://www.asparagus.on.ca/

Do you grow Asparagus? What is your favorite recipe to use it in? Do you eat it raw? or perfer cooked? Did you have a good season in production this year?

Posted in Food Production and Recipes, gardens | Tagged , , , , | 7 Comments

Spruced Thumb Print Cookies

Posted on May 16, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

Ah, monday, bread making, housework and laundry day.. I could not resist bringing in this splash of color on this grey rainy day.

Green Thumb Print Cookies

  • 1/2 cup of soften butter or margine
  • 1 cup of spruce sugar -Plus reserve 2 tbsp for topping
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 tsp of cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp of ginger
  • 1/2 tsp of salt
  • 1 tsp of baking powder
  • 3 cups of flour

Mix in order, then roll into ball or flatten and then press a hollow in the middle of the cookie, fill either with spruce sugar, or rhubarb/spruce jam and bake for 12 to 14 min at 350.

Posted in Food Production and Recipes | Leave a comment