Just another Day on the Farm

Food Traceability

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

Mandatory Canadian Traceability for livestock and poultry already shows itself in my local area and on the farm, but they say that its moving forward and coming soon for veggies and berry producers as well.

Already, if you want to have your sheep, goats, or cow butchered on or off the farm by a provincally approved butcher, (which you had better, if you want that stamp that allows you to have even local farm gates sales) you need to have your records and tags in order.

Last year, I had ordered some new chicks of a dual meat/egg breed and when they arrived, I had been given a tracking number for my farm and I had a peice of paper that was required to go with just that number of birds to the processing plant, in order to be able to provide the trackablity of Hatchery, to farm at …. to butcher to buyer.

I will own up to a having a small (ok, maybe not small) rant to my hubby on the way out of the store because no one had asked my permission to be tracked or given a number, however it also amazed me, because it would mean that any chicks hatched and raised naturally on my farm would NOT have the paperwork to be sent to be butchered. I am sure that there “must” be a way to register your own farm in order to get a number that would allow you to issue your own “paperwork” to the babies and therefor be able to send them out.. but I didn’t dig into it because I self-butcher all small critters for my own personal use only. I don’t raise more then I need for our own use, and I don’t sell off the farm in that regard so I have not felt the need to go further.

Traceability is defined as the ability to trace the current and historical location of harvested produce and other food products from one point in the supply chain to another. There are three areas, Product identifcation, premise identification, and movement tracking.

The reasons given for needing this is to a system to be able to track in regards to food safety concerns. Near as I can tell, these are the main candian website for more information in this regards. The Produce Travability Initiative

Who’s stated vision is to have “Supply chain-wide adoption of electronic traceability for every case of produce by the year 2012”, which includes whether you sell veggies at your local farmers market, to stores or restaurants or ship fresh or dried products farm products across canada, they want a fully functional food traceablity system.

Now who is really driving this? The goverment? The Food Industry? or GSI? Who you ask might be GSI, they would be the leading global organisation “dedicated to the design and implementation of global standards and solutions to improve the efficiency and visibility of supply and demand chains globally and across sectors”

Hmm, so is this really all about getting the system ready to meet the standard for what is required globally to access those export markets, raither then that trackablity for our own safety.. or does do you need one to allow you to make the changes needed to get to the other done..

Tell the public we need more tracking if case of something happening here but what we really mean is.. we have to keep up with the jones, and they are all using barcodes on their food, so we have to as well if we want to play in their sandbox.

Premise identification initiatives are being handled provincially, with Alberta and Quebec so far the only was that are mandatory, however in most provinces and territories, traceablity systems are being developed.

So let me know, does it bring you comfort at the idea that your local farmer needs to have a barcode on that basket of fresh greens at the local farmers market? Are you happy that they are going to have a way to know where that rump roast you got at the local safeway can be tracked back to which farm it was born on? Do you think that this was a required and good step in order for our Canadian farmers to keep in pace with what is required to keep and grow our export markets? Are you a small farm? How do you feel about the goverment having Premise identification in regards to your critters and greens?

I have mixed feelings on this one, a) I find it very big brother b) I don’t like the idea of not being able to send critters born on your farm for your own use without having to go though the process of tags, however I do see the flip side, how would you ever prove? that you only want to eat that lamb yourself and not sell it. So I get the point of everyone needing to follow the same rules, c) I support our farmers and do think that they should have every right to export and compete on the world stage, but do we small farms, who only sell at farm gate sales need to jump the same hoops as the big boys that are selling out of country?

Posted in food | 2 Comments

March Challange Week 3

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

Well, its week three of our march challange, and I am certainly seeing added health to both DH and Myself, we are both losing weight, we are both feeling really good in terms of energy, we are both sleeping really well at night overall, on the flip side, we had less bread this week and more potato’s, not to say that we didn’t have flour products because we did, just more quick breads this week is all.

We have gotten into the habit of saying..can you get a jar of fruit, or veggies or pickles instead of saying.. Honey, we are out of XXX fresh in the fridge, or we say, when you are outside, can you grab a bag of apple sauce, or bag of carrots or corn on your way in, instead of standing there, wondering.. what do I feel like in terms of XX that’s on sale in the flyers this week.. its a simple matter now.. Honey do you want Pea’s, Carrots, Corn, beets or green beans?

If you are reading my menu’s you would have seem my excitement in terms of that chickweed, well what I didn’t write there is that I gave it a helping hand, I know it grows in a corner with full sun where two walls of a buildings meet, and I also laid out silver metal to help reflect heat towards it as well.. I have also done the same around a number of other wild green plants, in a way doing my best to force them just a little faster.

I just opened my last full jar of dried nettles this week, and felt the same way when I opened my last big bucket of raw local honey, and my last big jar of homegrown dried basil hmm and I am now out of fresh garlic, I do have dried and ground garlic, plus some still frozen as well.

If there was a true high of the week, its that we are up to well over a dozen, closer to two dozen eggs coming in fresh daily at this point and I’m loving it! Chicken Eggs, Ducks Eggs, Turkey Eggs, Quail Eggs, and Pigeon Eggs Me O My, its a party…

Posted in March Challange | 8 Comments

March 21st-Rhubarb

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

Its fills my childhood memory banks, That sour, pucker your mouth feel, as my mom would pull a fresh rhubarb stalk and give it to us to chew on, the burst of flavor combo on the times you would be allowed to dip the end in sugar. The rhubarb leave cut off and stuck inside your hat to help keep you cool on a hard working day. Making Rhubarb leaf bug spray to help with pest control, but mainly Rhubarb seems to go in SO MANY of our fruits, Rhubarb and Saskatoon, Rhubarb and Strawberries, Rhubarb and Rasberries..

Rhubarb Relish which is devine on any kind of cold meat but seems made as a match in heaven to go with the more stronger flavored game meats like deer or moose, or in my case lamb or goat.

As a adult there are things about all that cooking with rhubarb that I have figured out 1) It was a very cheap, easy to grow, always there filler, it was how my grandmother and mother could take two buckets of hard picked berries and turn out dozens of quart jars, because the rubarb was the main fiber filler

2) I believe that it was and still is part of the reason that many in my family open kettle can and have had good success at it, (not that I am recommending it) but as a combo of being clean, understanding the rules of keeping everything at boils when working with them, having very cold root cellers, eating though their products within the one winter most times, all add in why it worked so well for them. I would highly recommend that you do a full waterbath canning process for fruit, jam and relishes etc.

However back to the rubarb.. its a acid, the average rhubarb stalk has a high acid level of 3.0 to 3.6 ph, Which is why its never recommended to be cooked in cooper, Iron or aluminum as the metal ions might or may leach into the food, you should always use Steel pots to cook your rhubarb in.

I grow both garden rhubarb and Medical Rhubarb on the farm, I only have two Medical Rhubarb plants but I currently have 14 rhubarb plants and plan to expand that bed even more, we never seem to have enough rhubarb, I think? that 20 plants should meet our yearly needs.

At one time there was a couple rhubarb plants or more on everyones farm or backyard across N.A., its is still a very popular plant across the planet, It is a member of the buckwheat family, it was native to Asia but was grown all across Europe by the middle ages and was brought to N.A. with the settlers, it is said that Benjamin franklin 1706-1790 was often credited for introducing the rhubarb to popularity in the USA.

Rhubarb does not typically come true to seed and so most cultivars are between 50 to 150 years old, and most folks start with a devide or root to start their new plants. While there is no real difference between flavors between green or red rubarb, the red contains high amounts of polyphenols, which are powerful antioxidants.

Rubarb is so healthy, and if you are looking at 100 mile or local diets, this plant’s fruit is a way in winter to meet those cravings. I am not going to try and write it out, I just took a picture of the stats from my one book and will share it that way but check out the levels of potassium (when craving banana’s) or Calcium(lacking fresh milk, when the girls are dried up for the last part of their pregancy’s) and of course, there is that lovely Vit C.

Last note: Remember, do not eat rhubarb leaves, only the stalks, you can compost the leaves, or use them to make a bug off tea to use in the garden, but no eat them yourselfs, and don’t feed them to livestock etc.

Breakfast: Eggs

Lunch-Bread with egg salad

Dinner-Pizza -Canadian Style

Drinks-Water, Tea

Extra’s-Bread, a Dozen Hard Boiled Eggs.

So do you have rhubarb in your garden? What is your favorite treat that has rubarb as part of it? Do you have childhood memories of eating fresh stalks dipped or undipped?

Posted in gardens, March Challange | Tagged Frugal, Garden, rhubarb | 2 Comments

March 20th-Sweet things

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

Its the time of year that the sap is flowing, and you can see small smoke trails in the sky all around my farm with everyone boiling down their maple Syrup, so I thought I would touch on sweet things.. The two I would consider the most natural and healthy, are both able to be produced locally, Raw honey, and Maple Syrup, both can be used in cooking, baking and honey can be used to sweeten drinks or as a health food in and of itself.

Next would come sugars, these would include brown sugar, and white sugar, and I am going put Molasses, in the same group because, a) its what makes Brown sugar-brown and b) it is either a by-product of sugar cane or sugar beets.

All three of the sugars listed above are very stable storage sweeter’s but they are by far much more processed then the raw honey or the maple syrup. I would recommend these be used in moderation, and in truth, if I could find a way to can without white sugar and get a stable long shelf life with a high quality product, I would do so, but as is, I am always using the light syrups whenever possable.

I would highly recommend that you stay away from Corn Syrup, or as they are now going to call it Corn Sugar in the hopes that we will be fools and that with a name change, we will forget all the studies that have found this product to be harmful to our bodies. I have moved this product of our menu plan. Now if I eat something that has it, within a few hours I feel sick and typically down a bit for a couple days till it clears.

I love food and sometimes I want things to be sweet, but if you can reduce your typical amount of sweeter used you will find that there are many rewards for doing so.

Breakfast- Cornbread, Eggs with Kale, Oven baked Hashbrowns

Lunch-Fried Cornbread, topped with fresh maple syrup, with a side of canned Pears

Supper-Leftover Pork Roast with Leftover mash potato’s with the second half of the jar of canned Pears

Extras: Lemon Cranberry cookies, Small homemade chocolate Cranberry bar

Drinks, Water, Lots of water, Tea and Hot Chocolate.

Posted in March Challange | 2 Comments

Hugelbeet -Part one

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

A Hugelbeet is how you go about using up scraps on a farm and turn it into something that is productive..

Last year, in the very bad winter storm, we have the power company cut down a number of bigger limbs, we “had” meant to get them moved but it was one of those things that got put to the way side with all the now things that happen on a farm, so this spring I needed to find a way to get them in use somehow.. hmmmm

Dh, had to take the crow bar to get some of the logs moving out of the frozen ground, but once up, a rough 12 long by 4 feet across bottom layer bed was created out of the big main logs which were as high as a foot for some. At the same time, I spent two hours raking the front lawn, into piles of leaves/small twigs and piles of large branches.

Gathering up all the down bigger branches from in the front and side big tree’s we started hauling and creating the second layer, now it looks like a bush pile..its about a foot an half high at the moment.

Now 12 loads at approx 5 cubic feet per load of small twigs, grass, leaves, and any other bits found in the lawn raking put on top and the sides as the 3rd layer, it grown in height another six to eight inches by the time we are done.

4th Layer, six months supply of composted deep bedding out of the one chicken pen, another foot plus in topping, at which point, DH climbed it and with FG helping hold on to keep his balance, jumped up and down on the top as we worked to compact and flatten it a bit. I thought it was enough, DH didn’t agree, so he is currently cleaning and moving the whole winter’s worth of deep bedding duck pen to add another six to eight inches of layer 4 to the whole mass.

Layer 5 is another full foot of well composted big barn (sheep/goat) pile mixed with a bit of dirt in. This bed is now sitting around 4 plus feet high at the moment, but they say that it will settle as much as a foot and half in a single years worth of use.

A Hugelbeet has its roots in Germany and yes, its a raised garden bed, which we hear about so much these days but its a raised garden bed with a difference, its has no outputting costs on a farm other then time, it is a way to re-create a natural process of how wood rots in the forest, the tree fall down, it lays in contact to the earth, the leaves and big and little twigs fall on it, it creates a sheltered area and the right climate to have everything rot out fast then if you just left it sitting somewhere.

Then add in the typical bonus’s of what a raised bed will give you, warms faster, but with the way this one is build, it means that it has a good air flow at the bottom, and it hold a good amount of water if built and used properly, I am planning on making two of these this spring, one is in part sun (6 hours daily) and one is full sun, I will plant each one a bit differently depending on the sun hours but otherwise, will plant a good wide amount of things to see what does well and what does not. I will give you regular reports on how the hugelbeet performs thoughout the full season.

They say that each one will last 3 to 5 years if just left on its own, but that with regular spring toppings, that you can keep using your garden mounds for years to come.

Questions/Answer, what do you do if you are starting in a area that has sod on it, the answer is you cut it up, and pull it up so that the tree’s touch the dirt, here we are at a friends place havin a work bee helping them make a hugelbeet for their farm. If you do this, after the chicken layer, flip the sod grass down and put it down as a layer of added dirt, and then continue with the layers as listed above. As you can see, we were able to put down really well rotted wood for that first layer on this bed.

Here are a couple more beds finished just waiting for the dirt and the plants to be added at the end of may in our area.

Don’t forget to check out part two.

Posted in frugal, gardening, gardens | Tagged Frugal, Garden, Hugelbeet | 11 Comments

Spring Equinox

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

Today is Spring Equinox, and last night was a very special moon, I tried to take a photo but even with my night shot and tripod, I could not get a photo that the moon did not look like a funky star because it had the most amazing rings of glow around it, like a harvest moon does.

In real life, this was the most stunning moon, the features were so amazing even with the naked eye, with the sky equipment, it was mindblowingly amazing! I hope that if you were lucky enough to have a clear sky last night that you took advantage of having the moon at its closest to us in twenty years and spent a little couple or family time out checking it out.

I do hope that you will have the chance to get out and spend a little time outside on this bright sunny coldish day (at least where we live), I’m off to do some more farm work.. Catch you all later..

Posted in gardens | Tagged Garden | 2 Comments

March 19: Water, Water Everywhere

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

As you may have noted, Spring has sprung. Squadrons of geese are darkening the sky, songbirds are performing concerts in the trees, and the first mosquitoes of the year are hovering over the standing waters of their births, wondering why they didn’t wait until it was warmer before hatching out.

The snow is melting, leaving parts of the lawn and a bit of the cellar submerged. It’s possible to pump water down in the barn, yet conversely less necessary to do so now that the sheep can help themselves at the nearest puddle.

Oh, and let’s not forget that the river levels are a little high right now – which is to say, Farmgal and I could be proud owners of new beachfront property tomorrow. As is usually the case around here, spring also means that a vast stretch of farm land, roads, and lawns immediately north of us becomes submerged under temporary lakes. Observe (said the guest-blogging Dear Husband, trusting that Farmgal will come along and insert photographic evidence from this afternoon’s driving…):

…If there’s no photo above, just pretend you’re looking at the centre of a big chunk of ice, floating across what was a corn field last summer.

So: Water. Dihydrogen oxide. High quality H-subscript-two-O. It’s an important part of just about anything one cooks, eats, or otherwise does with food. It’s the solvent that creates tasty solutions such as brothes, brines, and syrups. It’s the reason we can eat pasta or rice without cracking our teeth. It steams our vegetables and tenderizes our meat. The quantity, temperature and trace element content of the water can be significant in how a given recipe turns out – just ask those breweries which only use glacier water melted that very day, or the hapless bachelor that leaves his pasta in boiling water until it’s mush. Not that I would know anything of this.

Other times, the water is important because one wants to get rid of it. This can be in the form of dehydrating vegetables, fruits, herbs, or meat for preservation purposes. Alternately, it’s an important part of the spring ritual of maple syrup preparation, now taking place across those parts of our region which aren’t submerged.

And of course we’ll need that water to clean up all the dishes afterward. Darn it.

Now the tricky part of the guest-blogging experience: finding a recipe without resorting to dehydrated water jokes or the nearest “Company’s Coming”. How about…

Dear Husband’s Hot Chocolate You’ll Be Wishing You Had Instead Of That Bland Stuff From The Donut Store:

Boiling Water, but you knew that.
Twice as much hot chocolate powder as the text on its container calls for, or equal parts cocoa and sugar if you prefer.
Sufficient whipping cream or condensed milk that it and the powder fill about a quarter of your designated vessel.
Maybe a generous sprinkle of cinnamon.
Maybe a little cayenne or papper. Early chocolate drinks in Mexico and central America were often spicy, y’know.
Maybe a marshmallow…
Maybe a bit of peppermint schnapps, if one likes the schnapps.

Add the hot chocolate mix and milk/cream to the mug. Add the boiling water, making certain there’s at least a half inch of rim showing so you can stir vigoursly without overtopping the mug and making a mess. Add your chosen “maybes”, if any, and stir until at least well mixed and maybe even frothy. Drink when not painful to do so.

March Challenge:

Breakfast: DH: Four egg omelette with ham and an onion; water on the side. FG: Good question – keener was up and out long before DH was.
Lunch: DH: Nothing (go figure…). FG: Hamburger and fries, courtesy of friend.
Dinner: Pork roast, corn, cheesy mashed potatoes. Water.
Extras: Survivors of yesterday’s donut experiment. Small can of pineapple. Cup of awful coffee. Mug of aforementioned hot chocolate.Deviled Eggs.

March Challenge Note: Dear Husband has lost 3.5 pounds so far this month, for no obvious reason other than, I assume, not buying and eating McDonalds, Doritos, and such. I did not see that coming.

So – do you drink water on its own, or only as part of other beverages? Do you rely on tap water or bottled water? Do you find your water has particular effects on certain recipes? And are you glad it’s warm enough that your water’s out there in liquid form rather than solid form, or what?

Posted in Life moves on daily | 4 Comments

A few photos from Chores

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

Dang, I really want to get that spot.

Miss Fancy, A sunkissed Purrpot Farm Cat Goddess

One of my four generation Bard Rock Hens with my fancy Dark Leghorn Rooster

Such Handsome Boys, strutting their stuff and enjoying the fine weather today

Spring has sprung, and there is water everywhere!

This is Honk, our newest member of the flock, he is our new Guard Gander, still a little unsure of himself at this point but give a bit of time to settle in.

Posted in Critters | Tagged Cats, Chickens, Ducks, Gander, sheep | Leave a comment

Crave’n Timbits

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

Ok, the last few days every time I am out and see a Tim’s I keep thinking Coffee an a small box of timbits.. I have been making desserts but none of them overally sweet to be honest, I have been cutting out sugar and replacing it with fruit butters as well as just reducing the amount of sugar that goes in recipes.

So my sweet tooth was really wanting something and you know what its like, once that bug has bitten, it just itches at you.. I know that for me, there is little to no point of fighting it if I have gone a number of days with it bugging me, nothing I eat will stop me from wanting “it” and what I wanted was sweet fried dough.

But with the March Challange, there is no Tim’s anywhere on the menu.. so after chores tonight, I came in and whipped up this recipe, I didn’t measure, so this is the closest I can come to amounts.

To glugges of oil (2 TBSP or So)
about 1/2 cup of sugar
1 large egg
about 1/4 or so of sheep milk (which if replacing would be light cream for the amount of the fat content)
A pinch of salt
1 tsp of baking powder or so
1 cup of flour.

Mix till it formed a stiff dough, got out my tiny cast Iron fry pan and filled it with oil and heated at med heat till it was hot though, and dropped scant half tea-spoons of the dough into the pan, it held six to seven at a time, flipped over when golden brown, and drained on a clean cotton dish towel, processed until all done, then mixed about a tsp of Cinnamon with about a 1/4 cup of sugar and flipped all the cooked timbits in the sugar/cinnamon mixture.. Voili Sweet, crunchy fresh homemade timbits..

Six of these little babies later and I was thrilled at how good they turned out and was more then willing and ready to put the other 3/4 away for the night..

Posted in Food Production and Recipes, March Challange | 4 Comments

Spice Rack Challange-Cardamon

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

Well, first off, I have to admit that I don’t know or use this spice, I had in fact to go buy it or borrow it, as it was part of my March Challange, buying it was out, so I had to ask different friends until I was able to borrow a little bit.

Now it became time to pick out a recipe, and I spent a bit of time looking and decided that I would go tradional and make Cardamon Bread, then what do I see, Mother’s Kitchen made my bread ;(

So back to the drawing board as they say.. her bread looked amazing.. So back to looking at recipes, and finally its friday and I still don’t know really what to make with this spice, I can’t wait to see what everyone else came up with and how they used it, because its clear to me that I don’t know how to use it..

So I made cookies.. Plain old yummy cookies, I took my basic Spice Cookie and made it like normal, but with my borrowed cardamon in it, and it is GOOD, different tasting then normal, but I like it.

So here is my recipe.

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup packed Brown Sugar
2 eggs (I used duck so it would in fact be close to three regular chicken eggs)
Pinch of salt
A couple tablespoons of leftover pear butter (but any kind of apple or mixed apple fruit sauce would work)
2 cups flour
1 tbsp of baking powder
1/2 tbsp of cinnamon, ginger, all-spice and Cardamon

Mix your butter and sugar together till well mixed, then add your eggs one at a time and mix well, then add your fruit sauce if you using it, mix well, then add all the dry together, and then mix, it was a firm dough, I rolled it, and then using a fork but a X on each one and baked for 12 to 14 min at 350 till crispy on the bottom, cool on a wire rack.