Just another Day on the Farm

Rabbit Freezer Camp-PG

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

Hi Folks

Well, I know that I often read on different sites in regards folk’s thoughts in regards to meat and that it needs to be local and of course raised in a humane mannor, I agree with this.. but I am going to go a little further in this post.. so if you are easily offended in regards to butchering.. STOP READING NOW

So the part that I find most folks are missing can be summed up into two parts a) A low stress humane kill b) Using ever single part of the critter you can.

So lets take my rabbits, I self -butcher all my own small critters -(Please note that you can not sell or give away meat if its self-butchered, its for your own use only, if you want to be able to sell the meat as a farm gate sale, it MUST be processed by a provincal approved butcher).

I do it with as much low stress as possable, one because I like my rabbits and they trust me to meet their needs, and to a point I always feel that when I am a very bad farmer ma when they meet the end of their life.

On the other hand I like eating meat, and I want healthy meat on my table that I know how it was raised, and how it was processed. So my second point is that I feel if I am going to take a rabbits life, I will Honor it by using every single part of it and will make sure it has value on my table.

So here is the breakdown, one young fryer size rabbit (dressed 5 pds), so the hounds got and loved the extra’s in the body that I don’t eat, the chickens got the guts/organs that I or the hounds don’t get. The hide is saved for me to tan and use for many different projects. Will do a tanning post at some point and also give idea’s of how to use the hide.

With this one rabbit I made

Pate-4 meal*s as the meat
Front legs-Baked, pulled meat -2 Meals-Save bones
Tenderloins– 2 meals -Save the bones
One belly flap made into Rabbit Bacon-used in a dish that made 4 meals
One belly flap made into Rabbit Jerky– 1 snack
Rear Legs- Boiled till tender-meat pulled-made into Rabbit Soup- 6 meals -Save Bones
Bones made into Rabbit broth- 1 Qt Jar of stock which was used in the Rabbit Soup.

* A meal means just that, it was the meat in one meal for DH and I.. so that means that I got 18 meals and 1 snack out of 5 pds of meat with bone in and that there was nothing left that was unused between me, the hounds, the chickens and pig..

Ways to help keep warm

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

Are you thinking.. what the heck are these?? A way to help keep warm is the answer

They are either a) fingerless gloves, helping keep your wrists/upper hands warm while you are doing regular house chores, or they can be slipped over your feet and up the ankles to be warmer’s there.. the trick is to be knit them in a nice heavy thick wool.

Keeping the heat turned low but stay warm while doing so, a win-win..

Posted in frugal | 1 Comment

Charcutepalooza January – Duck Prosciutto.

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

I like these blog challanges, Looking forward to canning a recipe per month and now I am going to aim for one or two new recipes per month in regards to Charcuterie, or in layman terms the ” craft of salting, smoking and curing.” meat.

I am planning on using meat raised from our own farm if at all possable. but I am certainly willing to also use wild game traded with the local hunters/farmers around me.

Each month, we will be given a challenge and our reports, recipes that we used the project in with photos to show you the results. So the first one is Duck Prosciutto.. stay tuned..

Posted in 100 mile diet, Charcuterie | Tagged Charcuterie | Leave a comment

Girl in training

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

So here is Girl taking a walk with me on the road this past weekend, she did really well, of course as fate would have it, we had four of the folks that live around here all pass by while we were out training, she did really do with the passing vehicles, and held her stand while expressing interest but not fear.

She did well with the different footing and responded well to her voice training, overall we walked 1.5km on lead and worked off and on the whole time.. she was more then ready to have her halter off and be put back into her stall in the barn with a little reward

Posted in oxen | Tagged Oxen | Leave a comment

Frugal Tip in regards to Fruits or Veggies

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

Here’s a great little tip for you, if you are looking at Fruit or Veggies that are at a set price, this weeks examples where Pinapple and Bags of Apples for a dollar each..

The ladies at the pinapples where shaking their heads at me, but I was picking out the ones that I liked the looks of in terms of shape/color but of equal importance was that I weighed them.. The price was set but the amount was up for grabs, I found up to a almost 1/2 pd difference in the pinapples.. that means that because I weigh them, compared to the average weight, I got an extra half pd.

So if you are not in a hurry, give those bags of onions, or carrots or pototo’s or any other set price fruit or veggies and get it on that scale to get the best bang for the buck.

Posted in frugal | Tagged Frugal | Leave a comment

Do you like food?

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

Today is a thinking day, I burned though my workout this morning, it was for upper body strength and carefully did the most basic Kettle Bell move, called the Swing, while watching in the mirrow with the photos on the computer having been stared at and practiced without the weight. It seems easy but the body says not..

So as I planned bread for the week, what hubby will take for his work meals and then started prepping and planning for tonights dinner, I realized that I do the opposite of what Dr. Oz’s says to do.. which is “Auto” your food.. Eat the same thing or the same basic thing at meals, so that you don’t have think about it..

I get it, if you are tired and hungry, they are wanting you to not pull out the phone book and call for a pizza or stop at the fast food joint for a burger, or throw your hands up and go out for a meal..

But what about someone who eats with the season’s and out of the garden, this advice does not work so well, I doubt very much that Dr. Oz puts big black buckets over certain spots in the garden to force the stinging nettle to come early in April so that he has fresh greens to use in the kitchen, I am willing to bet that he just goes and buys regular greens at the store.

I think that following the season’s and trying become tuned to fresh food is a good thing for our overall health, and I think it is a good thing to reach and stretch ourselves in regards to our menu’s.

So here is one of the things that I have found to help over the past year, eat a little before the meal.. now this is a VERY tricky thing for me, as sometimes it can send me wanting to go back again if I am really hungry but I am fast eater, and that is something that is not really likely to change, because I like to eat food that is meant to be hot, while its hot.. I can eat food that is cold or room temp much slower then I do hot food.

However if I eat a little (and I do mean little) bite about 20 to 30 min before the meal, maybe 6 walnut halves or a small 2 oz peice of cheese or any other kind of protein, only protein seems to work in this regard. I will eat less at the meal itself, and will feel full, I think? that its possable that my body needs that extra time to get the hormones kicking in.. What about you? How are you at figuring out those full que’s and have you figured out any tricks to help you in this regard.

Posted in Goals | Tagged Goals, Weight Loss | Leave a comment

Whole Grains and my “shhhh” Secret

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

Ok, I will admit that this DD Challange has me reaching out and researching more local grains and suppliers, which is awesome, but I am going to own up to a little Secret of mine..

As I was just making a Banana Flax Cake for DH’s Work Week while my Rye Buttermilk Batter Bread is cooling having just come out of the Cast Iron Fry Pan in the oven, I reached into the freezer and pulled out my Flax for fresh Grinding an my Bran.. and just stopped and looked at it..

So here it is folks, I watch for the big 3 or 4 sales of unbleached white flour that happen at our local store, I do buy a canadian product and the company tells me it is all Canadian Wheat and I buy it in bulk and freeze the bags of flour in one of my big Freezers, and then I buy fresh bulk Flax, Bran, Rye Flour, 12 grain Flour, Barley Flours and I use Red River as a Base alot in my “Whole Grains” and I keep these limited shelf whole grain products in the freezer and then mix them with the unbleached white flour to create my own whole grain.

I tried buying Whole Wheat but sometimes I want alot more Bran and sometimes depending on the product I want alot less Bran and in our warm summers, it goes bad so easy, which meant that I was having to keep the big bag in the freezer and then trying to remember to pull out and fill a bucket for house use, which when you make everything from scratch, it seemed like I was always out, and then the flour would so cold.

Someday I would like to have a hand grinder and grind my own grains, its on the list, but for now, this is how I deal with my needs for the farm. So if you are tired of having flour go bad, or if you are like me, you like to buy in bulk but also don’t like to waste anything.. consider the above as a way to have a good middle road.

Posted in food, frugal | Tagged Food Production and Recipes | Leave a comment

Our Workout.. Shoveling Snow..

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

Its funny, most folks don’t hand clear a lane as big and long as our’s and to be fair, if we get a really bad storm/drifting, we hire a friend down the road to come and plow it out and make the parking and turn around in the yard, but most of the time, we do it ourselves with DH taking the brunt of this work.

So this year its been a bit different, I have lost a good amount of weight, and I am stronger so I have been shoveling out the front of the lane and mail box way a number of times already and today was able to work side by side while we did the lane, AWESOME!

But what truly made me do the “Dance of Joy” was that I fit back into my snow pants from the Artic today, I have not been able to fit in them for SIX years, and there were the odd time I would try them on.. groan and put them back, they are in perfect condition and I didn’t want to give up that someday I might get there, and TODAY it happened..

Now they are still a bit tight, but that just gives me more reason to work a little harder this week to get a little more give in them, but they are a great fit for walking, and that will make it better with that cold winter wind we have been having.

The second thing that has been great this winter is that we have not had to shovel the snow path from the house to the barn, because we are feeding and putting out the fresh water behind the little barn, just across from the house, the herd keeps the pathway’s stramped down for us, they go back and forth a couple times or more a day and we have so far not had to shovel even once..

Well, we are warmed up and need to go back out of Round 2 to clear the pathway from the road to where our hay gets delivered so the tractor won’t get stuck.. and to give us a turn around an extra parking area if needed.

Both of us looked at each and said.. Don’t need to do the wii today an then laughed.. so true, so true..

Posted in farm, Goals | Tagged Chores, Farm Life, Goals, Weight Loss | 2 Comments

Winter Challange Meal #6

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

Dark Day Challange Meal #6

This weeks homegrown food is Pea’s, I opened a bag of fresh frozen green Pea’s from the summer and what I can say.. heavenly with fresh local mushrooms. We planted pea’s three times over the past summer and had our best crop to date, having said that very few made it to the freezer, so this is a treat for sure.. Next year, I need to expand the amount of pea’s grown again..

Roasted Leg of Lamb (with Red Wine, Onions an Garlic), Then the meat was taken off and cut into stew peices, the sauce cooked to be reduced-Then add the cooked Mushrooms and Green Pea’s Butter and Spices touched up and ready to go over the mashed.
Mashed Potato’s
Green Pea’s and Mushrooms

Dessert -Chuncky Apple Sauce with Cinnamon