Fall Related Garden Livestock Fodder

Posted on October 3, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

As the pastures close down for the fall and we turn to feeding out hay to the pasture animals, while the birds can still peek away for a good while.. the truth is that if you have a large garden and you have small stock or large stock..

There is a garden fodder to be used as extra calories in regards to helping reduce your feed bill and increase you butcher weights and help bring your over wintering livestock into winter in prime health.

What is Garden Fodder?

Anything that you are bringing in off your fall gardens that is not human quality can be looked at in terms of garden fodder. Good Examples would be

  • Root crops Tops, examples , turnips, beets, carrots or parsnips  While you might want to take the small baby leaves on many of these for wilting and or drying for human use.. when you are looking at 22 or 40 foot rows of these, you are not going to be able to process all your greens..  Cut and haul those big bowls to your stock, these can go to chickens, ducks, rabbits, goats, sheep or pigs.  You could also feed out to beef calf but some of these might give a off flavour to milk so careful there.
  • Root Crops themselves.  When we did out our crops.. we all have them.. the ones that are eaten into by a mole, or got a deep split in it, or in the case of the potato’s above in the photo, deep curves in the growth that means that if I tried to peel it, it would prove very little use after its done and it would prove hard to get the dirt out to use skin on.  in their case, they were cooked and then cooled and feed to my fowl flocks as a yummy meal for them.
  • Plant stocks: While a few plants can not be feed to livestock, like tomato or potato or rhubarb leaves.. or elderberry leaves and branches.. most things can be feed out as fodder.. picked the last of your beans, pull up the plants and toss them over the fence for the goats or sheep or into your trough for the pigs.
  • Fallen fall fruit, apples, pears, plums.. they will be gobbled up.. don’t feed to much at the same time, give a set amount each day if you have limited stock to not overwhelm their systems.

Its just a bonus that a good percentage of plants produce a useable amount for livestock to go along with the part that we can use for people..

So before you put it into the compost pile.. check to see if it can be used for animal fall fodder..

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Its October? How did this happen..

Posted on October 1, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

How did it become October already.. honestly where has the time gone.. where did sept go.. it passed me by in a haze..  I truly feel like I lost time in the past month.. I know that I didn’t really lose time..

I was always up and moving each day, I was there

However I think there was times where I was just going though the motions and my mind, heart and  spirit where doing their own work in their own way..

I did get much better at posting in sept.. I didn’t make every single day.. I did get most days even if it was short posts or painting or photography..  I am good with it.. it got my head back into the blogging which was needed.

October is one of my favorite months, its got my birthday, its got thanksgiving, its changing leaves and yard clean up, its butcher time.. its end of garden harvest, and putting up for winter and spring..

Lots to get done this month.. Hubby is busy at work but so far is not putting in to much overtime yet but that will change later this fall as he is lead on a project that will bring him back to those extra work hours..

Having said that I am hoping he might be able to take a few extra days off this month in regards to giving a extra helping hand on getting things done. I am working on certain things in the house and looking forward to finishing some projects over the winter inside the house..

right now, however I will be focused on getting the rest of the garden harvest up and processed and the critters finished up and harvest there done as well.

I am working on a couple different ways to use up those itty bitty potato from the harvest, I hope to have up single recipes but also do a round up post on them as well.

I am looking forward to my new laying hens starting to lay soon..  They are large brown egg layers and they should keep me in eggs all winter long.

I have had rain for the past while.. it has made harvesting seeds challenging but it is still slowly but surely happening.  are you saving seed this year?

The next thing I have to harvest is beets and the very last harvest of the yellow beans, and then I need to clean up that row.

Each day seeing a little more done..

Posted in At the kitchen table | 2 Comments

Potato Leek Soup Recipe

Posted on September 28, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

Potato Leek Soup Recipe

  • 6 new med sizes potato’s diced (these were from the garden so skins on)
  •  2 cups of sweet baby corn (I used the cut off corn on 4 cobs)
  •  1 leek trimmed properly and then quartered and finely sliced.
  •  6 cups of veggie stock (depending on the size of your pan, must cover the veggies to cook at a med-heat simmer)
  •  1 cup of whole milk
  • 1 tsp of olive oil or any kind of fat.
  • Salt, Pepper to taste.

In a good quality heavy bottomed pot, place your 1 tsp of olive and your prepared leek, cook stirring now and again till you get some brown bits on the leek..

Then Add your Prepared Potato’s, corn and stock and cook till the potato’s are tender.. taste your broth, does it need a bit more salt, pepper.. this should be a VERY light tasting soup.. you want the leek/corn flavours to be able to come though..

Once your soup is cooked.. add your milk or light cream if you prefer..  Allow it to heat back up but DO NOT simmer it again..  just heat though..   Taste again.. do you need to add a touch more salt or pepper?

If you want, you could put a tiny bit of green onion on top for a pop of extra color..

Serves 4 bowls..

I love that this is a such a perfect fall garden soup.. Fresh baby potato’s from the garden, fresh fall leek with just cut off the cob fall corn..  The light but rich broth hits just the right notes of depth with a hint of sweetness..

Bonus Recipe.. See Below

If you wanted to change up the flavour a touch, I recommend a little bit of nutmeg, try just a tiny pinch and test the soup to see if it has enough of that spicy undertone from that spice..   Adding this spice will change the whole soup in flavour and I would put finely diced red pepper bits as the finally finish to the bowl.

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Chaga Bone Broth Recipe

Posted on September 27, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

I had a awesome bag of grass fed beef bones to make bone broth with and I had a light bulb moment..

Chaga bone broth..

o my..

Talk about taking two amazing immune boosters and combining them together. I had leek bits, peppers and other amazing extra to add from the garden to the stock.. simmering away for the day..

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Product Review: Reusable Silicone Food Bags

Posted on September 25, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

Sharing this nice review from a friend’s blog.. I had passed on these and went with the freeze its but I believe in second chances and it does sound like these are top lineish.. so if you are looking for a silicone reuseable food bags.. pop over and have a read.. I think I will see if she might like to do a year review on hers and me on mine

via Product Review: Reusable Silicone Food Bags

Posted in Life moves on daily | 3 Comments

Potato Harvest 2019

Posted on September 23, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

What a year its been in regards to our Potato’s..

The Bean Teepee spuds where planted out in the 3rd ring and they were outstanding in volume and taste.. they were the early’s that I planted and were eat though them in july.. for 4 pound bag, we got a solid 10 to 1 yield of 40 to 45 pounds of fresh eating potato’s

Kitchen Garden Plot 15 which was given some compost and lightly turned in.. got a huge amount of one of my best growing potato’s, we covered the plants with straw, we feed it with comfrey leaves and I even watered it out once with rabbit/nettle compost tea..

It did not matter.. the plants struggled in the drought, they were stunted and did not want to grow.. they yellowed hard and fast..   I was lucky to get one med and two small per plant..  such a waste.. maybe 20 to 25 pounds..

The side patch has done well but its yield is lower then it should be.. I am going to guess another 35 to 40 pounds.. it should be at least 60.. but shugs.. what is what is..

However..  then comes rose hill

It was a lower area in our yard and its a odd combo of a slightly hugel type base of small branches, lots and lots of leaves and then it became a compost pile.. bird, rabbit, bedding, horse..  We stacked and let it rot down and stacked again.. but never really turned it..

Last year it just sat..

This spring in the yard rebuild.. I needed something done in that area.. so Amano Gardens  

Gave me a helping hand the one day for some of the really heavy lifting and they spread the whole pile for me across what became Rose Hill and that included bedding the whole area down in very thick straw.

When it came time to potato planting time, it was the perfect spot to slip seed spuds into the area’s where the straw meet.. it was a great call!

A solid 140ish pound of potato’s came out of that patch.. the best one of the year for sure.. I am very happy with the size and yield from that patch for sure..

However I have major work to do in the Kitchen Garden Plot 15.. and I need to really think about maybe, turning Rose Hill into a regular main garden plot.. thinking thinking.. it is the best soil spot in the whole new garden due to the fact that it was created over a older compost pile..  it can grow anything..

How was your potato growing this year? did you get a good harvest? Did you have any pest issues? did you have any nibbling.. I had one spot that I had a bit of mole bites but the farm cats did their job and did it well..

Posted in Food Storage | Tagged | 6 Comments

Jimmy Kitten decided he wanted a photo session..

Posted on September 22, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

Ah, Jimmy, you were having so much fun playing on this big old tree! loved, loved your poses.. There were at least five or more of the ones below for each one of the above lol..

 

 

Posted in Life moves on daily | 4 Comments

Good Bee numbers eqaul a Good Harvest..

Posted on September 21, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

I love this photo so much because it just sums it up so well..  While we started out with sad start this spring with some of the mason bee’s coming way to soon.. They hatched out on a snap warm up and the odds are very strong they died in the coming cold and snow that appeared shortly afterwards.

Thankfully I had held my early spring bee’s in the fridge till the timing was right and then hatched them out.. At that time I could already see some native spring bee’s where busy in the tree’s and early blooms.

These little tiny tike’s seen here on a very early spring forced cherry bloom. I pushed all my bigger branches that I trimmed so I could get a extra flower push due to our very cool long spring.

Still.. once spring really arrived.. so did the bee’s.. the local farmer around my land grew soy this year..bad for the coming hoards of Asian beetles but good for my bees and its not a very heavy spray crop.. so I barely had a dip in my pop after he sprayed his land this year.

The bumbles did amazing this year.. as did the leaf cutters.. so many little cuttings in leaves all over the place.. love it!

The Garden thrived despite the slow start, the 5 week drought and then the fast cool and still dry early onset of fall..  the bees are everywhere at the moment..  I swear that while we worked out in the gardens and yards today that there are hundreds of native bees, bumbles and so forth in a fall feeding.

Four weeks ago.. the sunflowers where crawling with them..  Two weeks ago.. the golden rods were humming and right now.. sun chokes and asters are in full cover..

I feel that a number of things we have been doing really have helped to raise the populations of native bees here on the farm.

How was your bee breeding season this year? Did you see more bees? More Bumbles? More Mason? More Leafcutter? More the tiny bees?

 

 

 

 

Posted in Native Bee's | Tagged | 3 Comments

Always game to learn..

Posted on September 20, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

Untitled as of yet

I am not sure what I am going to call this little painting.. but I really like it.. I adore the many, many layers in it..  this is not a big painting.. but I have close to 5 hours into it.. while the photo does a ok job.. but there is a crazy amount of detailed work in this piece.

I ordered in some books to work though things over the winter..  Each book has a number of exercise’s in it. and I looking forward to learning them.. some I learn and never use because it will not “sound out to me” I know this.. but it does not matter..

Some I will learn and only use now and again when its needed in order to get a certain look.. or texture in maybe one or two painting over the whole year..

Other’s however will sing out to me.. and when I want to paint this or that.. I will have more way to do so.. I can reach out and try this style or that way..

I have a few favorite ways to do water but I am beyond excited work from the book that shows you 30 ways to watercolor paint water..  Awesome!

Hubby laughed at me,  I am totally focused on fall colors at the moment but I am excited to learn new ways to paint snow.. and winter tree’s..  Winter is coming.. but not yet.. right now.. its just coming into fall..

This is the next painting I am going to do.. a friend put it up on their facebook and I went.. o yes.. you are next..

It might be the start but I have never in my life ended up with the very same.. but its the starting point :)..  I like the yellow and the white birch trunks, with a touch of orange/red…  great lightening.. on the tree’s and the water.. not sure if I want the front plant growth or if I will remove that and or make it shorter..

The joy of having some control.. taking a blank sheet of paper and creating something from nothing.. with a number of things in my life at the moment, of which I have little control.. the fact that I get to choose what goes on the paper and at the same time, as its watercolor.. you must be brave and willing to let it flow to a certain point..

Hope you will enjoy imagining boating down that river with the fall colors popping all around you!

 

Posted in Painting | 2 Comments

The Peanut Gallery

Posted on September 19, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

Good Morning Folks..

Can’t see the forest though the tree’s

Yesterday on CBC news they announced that Tim’s (our national Coffee and donut shop) who with great fanfare announced that they were jumping on the “no meat band wagon and serving up the ultra-processed plant based proteins mock burgers/sausages in july

Had poor enough sales that they were cancelling this in all province’s other then B.C and Ontario.  There is are lots of other fast food that will continue to carry this certain type of veggie burger..

I put up what I considered to be the most polite two sentence comment in the peanut gallery..

I said.. How wonderful, hopefully in the future it be all of Canada.

Now I honestly think if I had just added the little detail that I don’t think ultraprocessed food is a good thing.. that I think you should be able to read what is on your food list as at least a hundred others did.. I would have maybe got one to four comments or clicks..

However I didn’t..

O my Gosh..  so when the first couple very negative comments came in, snarling at me that I was bad for wanting this amazing “meat replacement” gone across Canada.. I blinked and when huh..

I almost answered but I didn’t get a chance before another 10 plus comments came in and they were very unhappy that I could think it wonderful..

I got..mind my own business.. Why should I be allowed to have a say.. if I didn’t like it, don’t order it..

Then it took the first really odd turn.. other people started defending me.. and they were totally on the other side.. eat meat.. (which has nothing to do with my own reason.. I have friends that choose to not eat meat.. its fine.. and if you are going to eat meat, if possible I hope if you can afford to do so… that you buy outside the commercial production and support farmgate local farmers wherever you live)

So they started in-fighting and I walked away to do some work in the kitchen.. when I came back.. it was to another 20 plus comments..

I got called a “snowflake” which made me laugh.. I have never been called that.. It made me chuckle because I am so NOT a snowflake..  However at this point.. it took another turn..

Someone went to my facebook photo and they had moved from the above to deciding to fat shame me.. I should not be allowed a burger of any kind.. this lead to another whole round of both those that decided it was fine to call me fat, my personal favorite was the guy who told me.. mind your own business, you fat cow..

At this point, I was staring at my screen in with a look of WHAT the BLEEP!

Then to give credit where credit is due.. a number of the women and one man who had written and was very angry at me over what they thought was my choice against plant based protein.. jumped back in to DEFEND me. in this angle.. that fat shaming in public was no more ok then not liking a meatless burger..

This lead to a number of them “checking” out my facebook profile and public posts in more detail..

Which lead to the next round.. moving from fat shaming me to .. wait for it..

Me needing to charged because I ride my horse.. my massive 1600 pound horse at my weight..  and that exploded.. I could have explained that I own a horse the size I do so I can ride, that I follow carefully the recommended well studied weight limits, that I have my vet check for chiro issues to make sure they are NOT being hurt when I ride..

It would not have mattered.. so I did not..

At that point.. I had to block, remove and stop the comments that were then flying on my public profile photos so that the nasty things they were writing on it..

Then of course they followed though and hit the blog.. thankfully.. its moderated.. so none of their nonsense made it on here..

At this point, I had over 80 infighting comments..  On my facebook, I think my personal favorite was the one that attacked my art skills.. Wow.. Just wow..

I did not write back.. I did not engage.. I hit delete.. I was sadly the top post, which meant that as they all continued to infight, each new comment meant it was pushed back to the top again.. and again..

I am a blogger, I have a pretty thick skin.. but I was amazed to watch this happen in real time in a mear matter of minutes..  How it went from being happy that a ultra processed food is no longer being sold to intense personal attacks in under 10 min..

The mob..  The mob is alive and well.. it is thriving on the internet!

 

Posted in At the kitchen table | 25 Comments