Just another Day on the Farm

Wild Salmon in Whole Form

Posted on January 14, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

They had whole wild B.C. Salmon on sale, well, mostly whole, it was de-headed and cleaned, (which is to bad, the head has a surprising amount of meat on it, and the hounds adore the guts if they can get them) but I would think for most folks, that they perfer it the way it came.

There was a limit of two fish per customer, so I got my two salmon, each one came in at about eight pds or so, its a nice two foot or so fish, for 6 dollars. Now you can see why they only allowed two per person.

So how do you start with this?

and end up with this? So simple, Bake it in a glass pan at 350, then pull the meat off the bones, Just remember that you do need to take out the bones, If you push your meat peice on an angle, the bones should just pop up and you can pull them out with ease.

Which can now be used in so many different ways.. How about in Salmon Soup or ChowderIts good as a Salmon Sandwhich filling with a little Mayo and Spicy Carrot Salsa on whole wheat crackers.

Now for my second Salmon, I went a little bit differnet and made them into Salmon Steaks to be used at a later date, most likely in this way or maybe this way for more of a dinner meal..

Baby Oxen Update

Posted on January 13, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

Well, the main update is that Girl is doing well, but she is really missing her outside time and while I have had time to do her tie ups and brush downs, with a bit of body touching, overall the holidays and the cold weather, I have not had the time or the willingness to get out as much as I would like, She has been on lead and we are practicing her commands in the barn but she has not been harness or hitched since late Dec.. Need to get my act together..

So DH’s ma got me Storey’s Working Animals Oxen a Teamster’s Guide by Dre Conroy as one of my presents, but it took a little long to get here, arriving this week, and I have devoured it, and it put working Girl at least twice on my goal list.

There is very limited info in the book on having your cow be a oxen but they do say right up front that for a very small farm, that for hundred’s of years the family milk cow can be pressed into service in regards to being a draft animal and that’s just what I have planned, I want a Girl to be a triple threat, Milk, Calvies for freezer camp, and draft animal.

The book is very clear, the more and younger you work them, the better off you are going to be, and I can see that have already set one bad habit in here, that made sense to me as it works with horses but its not a good thing for oxen or so says the book.. but it has a step by step guide on how to retrain this so , I will give it a go.

Turns out my cross-breed calf is not commen, her daddy’s side is not even in the book but her momma’s side is listed as the most common and even tempermented cross out there, and considering that my own research shows that her daddy’s breed has been breed for thousand years plus in france as a triple working breed, I think I have as good a shot for a winner as possable.

Girl says -I’m off-duty and just going for a walk with my farmer ma.

Posted in oxen | Tagged Oxen | 2 Comments

Ever wonder how you thaw ground for a pipeline in winter?

Posted on January 13, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

So my Dad is working a winter camp job up in the northern Mountains, he can run all kinds of different peices of equipement and has worked in more places then I can think of, he gets to see some amazing sites, I can remember going to visit him in the summers, that was before the safety rules came in so tight, and families could still come and stay at the camps for a week or two with their kids to see their dad’s.

I also remember getting shipped off to “have” a holiday by cleaning/cooking for dad when I was a bratty what is now called pre-teen, poor dad, I could tidy up well enough but I assure you that at that age, he was on a limited recipe base, but he would eat what I made, and bless him, he didn’t say much to me at least about the qaulity of the food 🙂

So here a couple of photos of him working the burning slough, So the right though needs to be cleared and the ground is frozen solid, so the slough is filled with the wood from the cut right and burned to heat the ground under which is the very size the ditch needs to be for the pipe to go though.

Getting started and showing the slough

Now its going good, and what a photo!

Posted in Family, photography | 2 Comments

Weigh In Week 2/11

Posted on January 13, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

This was taken by N Roy on our Girls trip by my Dad’s farm in the badlands.

Its a new day, Its a new day.. And I am down another pd this week, for a total of 44 pds to date..had to laugh DH says, its ok hon, you gained muscle this week as well, he might be right, certainly had excellent workouts all week long, and I am so pleased that I am successfully moving from my 15 min to full 30 min workouts this year, I am still doing some days into two 15 but at least twice this past week, I did full 30 min workouts at a time. This has been a work in process to get to the point of being able to do so on dry land, I can do the full hour class if I am in the water doing Aqau fitness.

So goals for last week..

Dr. Oz’s Green Drink each Day -Yup, and still feel like I have more energy.

Weights 4x – Yes and mixed it up between the three different weights.

Core Body workout 2x -O yes, and do my ab’s HURT.

Cardio in whatever form 2x -Yes, got my walk’s in.

Food Journel Daily -Yup

More Fish/Seafood this week -Did good, eat it three times this week.

Don’t eat any junk food on game night-only fresh veggies/trail mix -Still having trouble with this one, didn’t have chips, but did have some candy, but mainly had my carrots and trail mix.. this is going to be a hard one.

sleep seven hours daily- Yes, but some days needed naps to get it done.

Do one new thing this week -Yup, did Oil Pulling in regards to cleaning your teeth and mouth health, this was a new thing for me, and I am not even sure I believe all the info on it, but I can’t see how it could hurt, so willing to give it a try.

Create and make one new canning recipe this week-Made Zesty Carrot Salsa and its so yummy.

Goals for this coming week.

Food Journal and try and keep the food count down a 100 calories per day from last weeks general amount.
Walk 3 X this week, weather permitting
Train the baby Oxen 2x this week (trust me this is a workout)
Worm and trim feet on the sheep in advance of their lambing (this is a workout an half, and it takes even more time now, as you have to be extra careful with them all waddling now)
Do Wii Fitness trainer 3x this week
Use the home Body massage for sore muscles at least 3x
Do one fun but active off the farm thing this week

Posted in Goals | 2 Comments

It sure is quiet at this time of the year..

Posted on January 12, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

Interesting little follow up in regards to the annual bird count was on the local radio, they said that we are having a low bird count year, now I could have told you that this was the case on the farm, I am down to my regular crows, about 6 blue Jays’, my regular wood peckers , a couple pairs of wild doves, my flock of wild Pigeons and maybe a dozen small birds max, normally I have 5 to 8 x more birds then this.

What I did find interesting is that this is a whole area wide trend, last year’s bird count was the second lowest on record, and this year while being twice as many as last year was also very low.

Now they did talk about the reason, and if you thought “globe warming” when you read the above, that is the not the answer, it turns out its a natural cycle of the tree’s in that some years they produce tons of seeds/fruit and the birds stay and some years they are lean and some, or in this case most of the birds decided to head south for the past two years.

Thank goodness for my turkey’s and their singing in the barns.. its such a lovely sound and they are always so happy to see you..

Posted in Life moves on daily, turkeys | 1 Comment

Rabbit Tenderloins -DD’s Meal # 5

Posted on January 11, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

Well, I am thrilled to say that we are getting just a little bit more light daily now, but its is still very much Dark Days in terms of how it feels with the cold and snow.

Here is the menu for our Winter Meals Challange # 5

Rabbit Tenderloins* -pan-seared with a local Red Wine Cream Reduction
Local Mushrooms/Garlic/Onion
Oven Baked Mix of Yellow, Orange Carrots and Turnips
Smashed Butternut Sqaush with Butter

Starter

Rabbit Liver Pate
Homemade Rye Naan

Dessert

Stewed Rubarb with Ginger

This weeks offical farm food is Rabbit. If you are unfamilar with Rabbit, here is a link on information about its values. Each Tenderloin was right around 4.5 oz of meat, perfect portion control, one for DH and One for me.

Farm grown or raised is in Italics , everything else was gotten locally, other then spices and the wine, I know that there are local wines but after looking for close to a month, I broke down and got a close to a local wine having been grown and made 5 hours drive away raither then in the 100 mile.. Clearly if I want to buy local wine for cooking or drinking I need to do so in the fall when the very limited five winery’s have their gate sales because there is none to be had at this time of year, even if I called them directly they were closed for the season.

* If I was not doing this for DD’s and if my homemade bacon would have worked, I would have made this Rabbit Tenderloins covered bacon, Seared and then finished in the oven in the cast iron pan, Rabbit is so lean that you need to use a little fat to cook it with. or I could have sliced them, pounded them out, put a layer of stuffing, rolled them back up and wrapped in bacon.. ok that is a recipe I will have to make an share at a later date for you.

Posted in food, Food Production and Recipes, rabbits, Winter Eating Challange | Tagged 100 mile food challange, Food Production and Recipes, Rabbits | 3 Comments

Corn Bread for someone who won’t eat Corn Bread

Posted on January 11, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

DH has a thing about textures in his food and compared to when Farm Gal (that’s me) meet him, his taste buds have grown by leaps and bounds but some texture’s are still tricky, and Corn meal with that wonderful “grit” feel happen to be one that he just can’t get over, so sometimes, I make Johnny Corn Bread (the recipe from my childhood) for myself but its not a big batch 8 by 8 pan, still that’s alot of corn bread in one go and I tend to give it away to friends, don’t you just love that you can give extra’s away, sometimes if I really want something that is bad, I will make, have one peice and send it to DH’s work, a good way to spend those calories around LOL

So back to the Corn Bread, I have finally found a way that DH will eat corn bread, so here is the best I have to date

Corn Bread without the Grit Recipe

1/4 cup oil
1 egg
1/2 a cup of sugar
3/4 cup of buttermilk (if you don’t have buttermilk, just use regular milk and add a TSP of Vineger to it)
1 cup of cream corn (in our case -made fresh and frozen by me in the summer)
1/2 a cup of corn flour
1 cup of AP Flour
1 TBSP of Baking Powder
1/2 tsp of Salt

Mix the first five wet together, then add the dry on top, and mix in till just stirred, and place in a greased pan.

Makes a small loaf or a 12 small muffins, Bake at 350 till knife comes out clean. It’s a soft loaf, and good with a meal or on its own or with cheese.

Ps, only have Cornmeal in the house, no problem, just pop into your coffee grinder or blender and give it a whirl and it will become a much finer texture, keep grinding if you want and soon enough you will have corn flour.

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

An Appple A Day

Posted on January 11, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

Here are just a few of the apples we grow on our little farm, we currently have four kinds of apples, plus crabapples. We also wild pick Apples and Crabapples locally, but we get most of our apples still from a local U -Pick up the road from us about ten min, they have over 30 kinds of apples, 5 pears, 4 Cherries, Rasberries and Grapes.

We are hoping to add in at least four more kinds of apples over the next while, I am amazed at the amount of kinds of apple’s that are now becoming more available for home use, so many different kinds compared to the stores, and even in the local farm stores, the different apples are becoming more available or at least they are locally, on average in Farm Boy, they have between ten to fifteen different ones to choose from year round.

So if you are trying to lose weight, you have most likely read in almost all books and on the websites etc, that you should eat whole apples, but I read something interesting in a book last year when it came to apples, and that was go to the store or U-Pick and buy or try every different kind of apple they have, and find the one’s you like.

Now I know that for me this seemed a hmmm, as a cook I know the difference between different types of apples and how they cook up and I personally like to have my apple sauce be 1/4 crab to 3/4 of apples, and I do like to mix up different apples types when making my homemade apple sauce, which we eat alot of over the winter.

But for eating apples, I figured that most? of the eating apples are mostly the same, boy was I wrong.. I can honestly say that it surprised me at how much diffence there was in mouth feel and taste among the different kinds of fresh eating apples.

If you get me the “wrong” apple, I will eat one or two and then not want to have apple, and will look at it and pass on it over an over again, till I cook it and use it up that way, but if I have the right apples in the house, I will seek them out, and have them for a mid-morning or afternoon snack..

So here is my question for you, have you tried out some of those different apples available to see if you like them better then the basic bag of apples? Give it a try, next time pick up four or five different apples and compare them to each other to figure out which ones really appeal to you.. my favorites are Honeycrisp and Gala

Posted in food, local food, wild foods | Tagged Fruit Trees | 2 Comments

Canning Book’s

Posted on January 11, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

Left, would be Strawberry Jam made with both our homegrown Strawberries an wild picked alpine strawberries, and on the right, Gooseberry Jelly, we are up to eight Gooseberry plants, they not only provide wonderful product but they along with apples provide one of the best natural sourse of pectin on the farm.

So the other day I was talking about Bernardin Complete Book of Home Perserving, I would highly recommend this book as the first book for folk that are just learning to can, it really does provide all the info needed to safely get you started.

However once you are ready for that next step and or you want to try your hand a few more different recipes and or if you want to make smaller batches, I would recommend Small-Batch Perserving by Ellie Topp and Margaret Howeard. It is makes very small batch’s which is great for trying new things, and I have made many! recipe’s out of both of these books.

I do not get anything for recommending these books etc, etc,

Posted in Book Reviews, Canning | Tagged Canning, Homesteader Books | 1 Comment

Salmon Chowder Recipe

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

Ok so the picture above is really Salmon Broth Soup, but I will explain what happened.. I was going to make Salmon Chowder, ( got a amazing deal on whole wild Salmon from B.C. on the weekend and I will share more in a different post, but I baked one off in total and then deboned it and have this bowl of wonderful fresh salmon meat to use over the next few days)

So Salmon Chowder was on the menu for lunch this morning.

1 small onion-Diced
1 Stock Celery-Diced
2 Small Potato- Diced
1/2 a Red Pepper-Diced
1 Large Floret of Califlower
1 cup of homemade shimp stock
3 cups of homemade veggie stock
6 oz’s of fresh baked Salmon

Ok, so the above is what you see in the bowl, As always simmer the onion in a little bit of oil till clear,then add the rest and the stock to cook, ready in about 20 min, then add the cooked salmon in small flakes.

That is where I stopped it was light brothed and fabulous!! O so good.. however if you want to make it the tradional chowder, at this point, you would want to add 2 cups whole milk, and in a small bowl mix 2 TBSP of Corn Starch with water (following the directions on the package) and pours slowing into the soup, making sure to stir so that it won’t clump, reheat till very hot but not boiling and serve up.

This recipe will serve two, but easy to double or triple for your needs. As bonus, I have a little Four Footed Purr Pot that is been feeling just a little off, so she got a couple tablespoons of this rich broth with a bit of salmon to nibble on.. I will sure it will do her immune system good to get this in her tummy, and as she gave me back a very clean bowl, I think she liked it..