Butchering out..

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

Hello Folks..

So I am down to just 6 of my meat chickens left to butcher and they have been outstanding! in returns.. I bought 50, raised 48..  (thanks for the advice to change their feed over) and I can’t believe the amazing return yield on these guys.

I have 8 turkeys left to butcher out over the next while.. I could let them get bigger but there is no reason to do so, and I want to clean out the pens early..

I have butchered all the rabbits and at this time, we have closed the rabbit breeding program.. I have lots of rabbit manure to use yet and so much other manure coming from the sheep/horse’s and chickens.

I have butchered out all the geese.. wow.. its so quiet around here without my guard geese..

I have 8 more young ducks to butcher yet and then we are pulling the hens from the nests.. we will keep our ducks as they eat the flies and they are truly hubbies favorites, I think I have a couple extra big drakes that might go yet though.

We are down to just the yearling goat does and they will be butchered out along with most of the lambs and a few of the yearling sheep.. we are butchering out and turning into burger a few of the 2 to 4 year old ewes that I have not been as happy with and replacing them with my top choice keep back ewes from this year.. I might have a new home for my twin ewe full woolie/milky girls.. I hope I do.. while they would give me great meat yields they are so nice it would be lovely if they go to this new home instead.

So that will bring me into winter with my older layer flock (reduced as I am helping a friend start her coop and she is getting some of last years hens a rooster and at least one really good broody to hatch her chicks next spring) as well as my new dozen big brown layers.  My keep back ducks, 6 to 8 sheep and my two horse’s.

This should allow us to do some extra deep clean up, composting and repair work that is needed, saving us on feed/hay/bedding and meds..

The finally call will be made in another month or two but its highly likely that we are taking the year off lambing.. we are going to pull the ram and ram lambs this weekend from the ewes, I have a friend who has promised me that she will loan me a in milk ewe if I want one at a later point but right now. I am putting up milk so I will have lots for later use in winter. I might breed my best milking ewe only.. we will see

Ordered some amazing beef from a farm down the road, so that will fill up the beef area of the freezer..

I think that’s it for the moment on that front..  and yes, if some of you just went WHAT?  something is up.. you are not wrong.. but hang tight.. I will explain soon enough..

Posted in At the kitchen table, food, Food Storage | 12 Comments

Batter Fried Green Tomato’s

Posted on July 31, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

I love Fried Green Tomato’s both in real life and the movie~

In this case I made them with a batter instead of a breading crust.. its a bit different but its good too.. Does not stay as crunchy for as long..

A side of Fried Green Tomato’s

  • 2 large green tomato’s , ends sliced off and then thick half a inch thick.. I like mine thick. try them a little thinner, try them a little touch thicker.. they should cook to be firm, not mushy! but softened.
  • Half a cup flour, one egg, salt and pepper lots of it.. start with at least half a tsp of each and 1 tsp of seasoning salt of your choice..  Add a touch of water start with 2 tbsp, beat until its a thick batter, adding a touch more water  one tsp at a time if needed to thin it down
  • Dip the slices plain flour, then into the batter and then into a pre-heated hot oil(your choice, lard, olive oil or ? but not butter as it will burn before they are done) frying until golden on the edges.. Do not fuss with them.. let them sit at med-high heat.. flip only when well browned on the bottom, repeat from the top and serve hot!
  • Maybe crack a bit of fresh salt over them! if you can’t do salt, crack some fresh pepper on them 🙂

Dig in and enjoy! I eat the whole plate as my lunch!

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged | 1 Comment

The “big” switch over~ Freezers

Posted on July 30, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

Tupperware has a amazing summer sale on for the freeze its  right now.. They have a set of 14 on for 99..

and this is the very reason I joined was to get the samples at 70 percent off (and I took every single sample that I could order)

This is the samples I got! O heck ya!

and then I ordered in the on sale sets with my own “consultant” price which brought the price down another 30 per unit.

It also meant that I “earned” a number of sets as awards as well..  Thank goodness for this choice. I am thrilled to say I have made the “BIG SWITCH” from single use plastics, be that freezer bags, be that single use vacoom pack plastic rolls or shrink wrap plastics

to.. re-usable plastics with a amazing history and warranty, I did a lot of reading, digging trying to see what choices there was on the market, I really looked at the silicone freezer bags but the stacking on them was not as good, they just do not have the history on them, some of the company’s or products were first or second generations and none of them had more then one year in warranty.

and they cost as much or even more per unit..  ouch.

Finally I went to with something that has a long history, a amazing warranty, this are considered “lifetime” if used properly, which trust me on this, if anything starts failing I will be posting on it and I will be ordering in new parts.

It was a huge amount of money to sink in but hubby and I decided that it was like jars.. we don’t look at jars as a one year cost, we look at it as a jar should last a min of 10 years, ideally 20 plus (it used to be you could say 30 years) but the new jars are not as heavy or thick as the older jars and I don’t care what anyone says, pressure canning vs hot water bath shorten’s the life span of the glass jars)

Plus as a bonus, I don’t have to replace the lids in each use! for the freezer ones..

We will continue to use waxed brown butcher paper for wrapping on meats but we will also use the freeze its as well. On my last round of butchering, we wrapped the legs but froze the tenders and breasts into the freeze its

 

I also got a number of the “door 6 cup units” those are mostly for the smaller veggies units of larger style veggies, the smallest ones are perfect for a side portion x2 for us and then the bigger squares hold 1 pound of ground meat or other choices.  While most of my freezers are chest, I do have one upright and I like that I can use these on the door itself, I also think if you had a split fridge/freezer.  these would be outstanding in that regard.

 

I also got 10 of the big ones.. even with my discount, these to me are spending but they work for holding bigger items but dang they can be heavy, they will hold to average whole chickens, or you can use them for home baking, they will hold two average bread loafs.

I am beyond happy to cross this off my big “goal” list for 2019..  and I believe I have made the right choice to give me the best bang for my buck an have a solid 30 years of use on these.. which puts us into our 70’s lol

Are you thinking about changing? Waiting to see what the market will do over the next few years when the government orders the single use plastics to stop.. how long do you think it will be before they ban single use freezer or sandwich bags? Do you think the larger bulk rolls of the vacoom pack will count or do you think they will let them be? What about single use shrink wraps for turkeys, chickens or ducks? do you think they will be allowed or that they will go to something else..

Let me tell you.. its a big! BIG order to even move our “fast” and easy single use plastic to reuse.. and yes I know that I bought plastic, I am not saying I didn’t.. I did.. I own it.. but I refuse to put that kind of money into a untried NEW and while I could have tried smaller amount for a couple years and let them work out the kinks.. I wanted to make a full break!

Posted in At the kitchen table | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Roasted Cauliflower with Radish slivers

Posted on July 26, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

This is a pretty dish to serve as a side on a summer day.

You will need

  • one head of fresh (ideally locally grown) Cauliflower
  •  One bunch of radish just the radish, clean up the greens and use for a different use
  • A good amount of the your favorite choice of oil, I recommend high quality olive oil
  • Seasoning salt, cracked black pepper, basil or dried nettle (your choice but not both)

Clean and slice your Cauliflower, tip and top your radish’s and slice in half, place them into a big bowl, drizzle your oil over them, toss once very gently, then add your spices and herb once they are damp and toss very gently again.

Into a pre-heated over at 350 or wrap in double layered tin foil for the BBQ and roast for 25 to 30 min.. open it up and golden brown it for the last 5 min to get touch of brown bits.

I like it as is.. however for DH and for guest, I add a TBSP of butter and when served up, I scoop some of the juice/butter together and drizzle fresh over the veggies.

Posted in Garden harvest | Tagged | Leave a comment

A little Trip!

Posted on July 24, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

I had a busy couple days, I carefully stopping often and walk around made the trip to one of my dear friends..  I had not seen her since my birthday in oct of 2018..  and trust me that is WAY to long.

We enjoyed our quieter time then normal.. as I can not do my more normal active quading, fishing and hiking and rock hounding yet..  I tell you if you are sore in the back. wearing a dress for traveling is awesome.. no waist to speak off.. Its a empress style dress.. hikes up the girls and lets everything else be soft and flowing..   I packed some cool drinks and loaded up  my little red Cherry girl and off we zoomed.

Had a crazy driver that was a touch WTF but all was well that ends well.. Was tired, went to bed and slept like 11 hours..

The next day I was up early and dolled up a touch as we were heading off to the a near by city where a dear friend’s was doing a example show for Ballet that he has been training in.. it was a nice 45 min presenting that showed off things being learned in the summer camp. I took a ton of photos and video’s but sadly no permission to share them publicly, so I am going to snag one of the schools photos to make it allowed.. 🙂

Then my girlfriends and I headed off to have a great meal and a even better visit, you can order all you want of these little portions of all kinds of things.. some were amazing, others were ok and a few was.. nope.. just no..  first time ever that I did not like the smoked eel, I didn’t know it could be prepared in a way that I didn’t like it.. but the avacodo overwhelmed the eel flavour and the whole point of eating smoked eat is to taste it.

It was so nice to have a great visit but the heat that day was crazy and it really bothered me.. I was in pain, hot and so so tired, we headed home early and I just went to bed for a couple hours sleep.. was much better after I woke up and cooled off in a lake!

The next day was a putter day, helped my girlfriend ground work her horse’s, I talked and on a few things very VERY carefully showed her a few things I have learned over the years and it felt wonderful to chat horse lol..

I enjoyed seeing how things were going at their saw mill and all the projects they have going on and so forth..

Then we headed out to have a nice meal with Dear Hubby’s Uncle B..  He drove up from his trailer on the lake and we drove down and had lunch at the iron rooster.. nice place for sure.

We did a few other things in regards to soaps, salves, creams and chaga.. as well as carefully driving home..  the hounds and purrpots were so happy to see me.. my gardens are jungles and then some..

I was surprised but pleased that I had some Tupperware orders come in and I learned how to be able to order from away from home.. Felt weird doing “work” on holiday but it was a short terms sale and I had to get the order in by midnight to make it happen..

At first I thought I would need to walk hubby though it step by step over the phone.. (now that would have been fun right lol) but I figured out how to do it from where I was at..

I got a little side job that I will be writing a blog post once a week for someone else and I got a offer to put some of my photography into a little country gallery..  how exciting is that!

 

 

Posted in At the kitchen table | 3 Comments

A little Harvest Video for you :)

Posted on July 18, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

I am enjoying my morning harvests in the cooler weather.. I have pre-started replacement plants to put into the opening in this area of Kitchen Garden Plot 3.

I will be eating as much as we can fresh but there is enough that we can also put away lots into the freezer..  The beans have hit the second level on the teepee.. The potato’s are in bloom and the tomato’s are loaded!

Hope you are seeing lots of growth in your gardens as well.

Posted in Garden harvest | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Master Rain Garden Paperwork..

Posted on July 17, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

I have filled out my last needed paperwork, sent in my “Before and After Photo’s” and I am so looking forward to my official paperwork..

Farmgal’s Rain Garden Designs

Having said that, I am jumping the gun! WHOOT! Want a rain garden for your yard? What someone to come walk you though the process? Work with you for the design and the help in choosing plants?  I am your girl!

Live far away.. maybe I can help direct you to someone local to your area or I can work wit you on design from a distance if you want to do so!

Want to be frugal on this?

I will do my very best to help you on that as well, we can talk about man hours,  self-digging, self building, even self starting seeds to grow smaller plants that can be great choices..  or the lowest cost way to order in “plugs”

Want a rain garden for all the good things it can do but know that its not possible to do it yourself..  I would be happy to work with your own choice but if you want it all handled by me locally..

I will be working with Amano Gardens. 

Here are just a few reason’s that I have chosen to work with them!

Why Amano Gardens?

​With so many garden and lawn maintenance companies out there, what makes Amano Gardens special?

No Power Tools
No leaf blowers—we believe in rakes.
No power mowers—reel mowers are just as efficient!
No noise—we do the work without causing the disruption and noise of traditional crews.

Reduced Environmental Impact
No power tools means no pollution.
We combat weeds by pulling them out, not by using herbicides.
We build water conservation strategies into our garden designs.

​Knowledgeable Staff
​We know about plants, not just lawn mowers.
We design with plants that suit your property’s environment, not fight against it.
We focus on easy-to-care-for perennials and promote edible landscaping.

​Hands-on Service
​We pay attention to details.
Because we get up close and personal with your lawn and garden, we can see and solve potential issues before they become major problems

I have worked with them on the farm and can recommend them with first hand knowledge. Both in regards to needing more people at the same time and the fact that I have hurt my back this spring, I will not be helping on the installing!

Want to focus on Native plants in your rain garden! We can do that!

Want a butterfly haven in rain garden! We can do that!

Want it to be blend right in.. We can do that as well 🙂

I am also happy to be give group talks (community groups talk to me as I will often wave my speaking fee) and I will be offering “size limited” rain garden talks and tours here on the farm as well.

 

 

Posted in Rain Garden Designs | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Ask me a question – How do you get it all done?

Posted on July 17, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

Jill Asked me

How do you get it all done?

The short answer is  I don’t! I am always behind and some thing do not get done.

The longer Answer is Lists..  SO MANY lists!

Line them up.. write it out, set it down so you can see it..  don’t worry to much on the order at the Beginning.  But just like the photo above.. you should end up with the bigger project, the next size down and then the little guys…   You see the photo above.. its perfect.. its all lined up.. HAHA right

At this point.. you can start to sort them in your head so they match up..  See above.. on your lists if after you write it out, you can see that certain things should go together.. so clump them.. just as I clumped the colors here..

Start moving that list around.. so the light blue and green, those are best things done in cool.. so move them to morning or evening..  sometimes in the hard part of heat in the afternoon, move to the house things, but maybe you can do the smaller things outside if they are short and you can get it done.. MIX that list up.. and stack and re-stack as needed..

Now at times you need to split out, clump them up and for those big ones..  Split it again into pieces of your time and your ability..   The key is knowing that you can’t get it all done.. 

Hubby and I are both in general are tidyish people but we are not super clean nor are we outstanding at keeping things in straight and narrow lines..  we are outside the line people lol

We are.. put that there, we might need it later.. tomorrow, next month, next year.. a couple years from now..

In the long run this saves a great deal of money but it sure does not add to the “order or white picket fence” ideal of a small farm..  It works well with a frugal small land holder that does not spend money on powered equipment.

Ok on a more detailed note.. I roll with it, I roll with the seasons and while I love to learn new things I work the same things over and over year after year.

Farmgal Tip:  Learning a new skill is great BUT!! you need to work it into your routine..  Its one of those things I consider important.. work the new skill till you are happy with were you are at.. then find its place and timing..  and make it happen.. pick up the skill again and work it.. monthly, seasonally or yearly depending on the skill but do it every single year..

Till it can be weeks or months between uses but it still becomes muscle memory.. this is one of the biggest keys to getting a good amount done..  You will start to flex that memory.. this is due NOW, I have this many days to make it happen or I miss it this season..

This type of information in your head is what also you to read your lists and clump things down..

Live example, I looked at Dear Hubby and said..  I must do another nine trays of elder flowers, I want to put up another quart jar of flowers for tea making..  and he said, tonight and I went yes.. because I knew that we were pushing the tail end of the flowering season and It was now or never..

Its that kind of knowledge of timing that lets you say.. not today, it can wait and we can do this.. or say.. NO.. Now!

I have had friends say things seem smooth on things but its not true.. its a bumpy ride where we move from this to that and on to there all the time.. but its our norm and so we are calm and steady.

And as there is two of us.. WE TALK.. we have our quiet moments but we always have a chats on.. what are the plans, is this the best use of our time at the moment, should we be doing something else?  Sometimes it very short and we are good to go and other time its longer as we are not on the same spot on what or were that time and energy should be going..

Ok. I hope that helps answer your question on how do we get all done..

We work hard to get ENOUGH done and we let the rest go!

Ps, ya I know I used lunch it from Tupperware to get my point across.. sometimes you need to be create when you are looking for photos to go with your words..

Posted in At the kitchen table | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Ask me a question? What is my Favorite Veggie?

Posted on July 16, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

Bubbles1990 Asked me

What is your Favorite Vegetable and ways I preserve and prepare it?

While this seems like a simple question.. the answer is a little more difficult..

My favorite veggie list is wide..

  • climbing plants– beans just a touch over pea’s
  • roots- Beets just a touch over potato’s
  • Plants- o my.. how to pick tomato’s over peppers, over cabbage over.. and so it goes.

but if I really had to knock it down.. my favorite Vegetable would be beets.

*I will say for overall highest produced veggie on the farm.. its potato’s.. they are my calorie powerhouse with beans and other root veggies coming in next and then squashes and pumpkins.

So I love beets, I love tiny round fresh eating beets, I love deep thick slicing beets, I love golden beets, and the red an white beets and I like fodder beets. I like beet greens.. its like getting a 2 for 1.. I love that we can harvest beet seed easily.. its one of those outstanding plants that you can take from seed to seed for years on your own land..  I love how this plant will produce, to wet to plant.. build a swale, raise the ground and plant them and they will go..  really dry.. add some extra peat moss or well done compost and just water that line and they will go..  any kind of average year and your beets are coming up and going!

https://livingmydreamlifeonthefarm.com/2013/06/03/baby-beets-beet-greens-and-bacon-mix/

https://livingmydreamlifeonthefarm.com/2011/12/03/baked-beets-in-bechamel/

So I like regular cooked beets, I like roasted beets both by themselves with sea salt and a bit of butter on them at the very end. I like beet soup, I will cook the bigger beets and then slip the skins and when cold grate them and then portion out the grated beets into freezer portions so I can make a fast beet soup lunch!

I like canned beets.. I like tiny canned beets for reheating with a touch of butter or sour cream or honey/salt o my.. so good.

Pickled Beets are a staple.. as other reach for pickles, I reach for Pickled Beets for snacks, for a bowl to go on the table.. to give as gifts..  and I just searched the blog.. how is it that I have never shared my pickled beets recipe..!

Hmmm that will have to change this year lol

I do keep my beets in the root cellar fresh for a good long while and I even put sprouting beets in the spring for greens and to do a push for seed saving!

Beets are a truly healthy and amazing root veg!  Hope that answers your question Bubbles 🙂

Posted in Garden, Garden harvest | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Broccoli Harvest

Posted on July 15, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

Now if you were smart enough to stagger your seed starting , you will have planted out every two or three weeks to extend your harvest..

Do consider starting some Broccoli seeds right now! for a fall harvest of this lovely plant! I will be starting new seeds for this today for my fall harvest.

The spring Broccoli is looking amazing, we started harvesting them last week and more are ready this week and I should also get a few more massive heads ready for next week and then the fresh harvest will be done on them till fall..

That’s a standard butcher knife, to till you a scale for the size of the heads at the moment, I am in push between letting them grow and keeping a eye on them twice a day to make sure they do not “bolt” or start to turn yellowish and flower out on me.. its fine balance between..  Grow.. grow! Harvest and darn it.. missed it..

Once in the house, I took the stems off and as they are still very tender, sliced them up and lightly salted and into the freezer in a tub they went for soup later in the season.. a hot bowl of thick broccoli and cheddar soup right now is not good for summer but it will be a delight for a cool fall night!

The leaves are big but edible.. I ribbed out the best leaves and into the dryer they go to then be ground down into my homemade “green powder” for later use.

The heads were taken apart.. in this photo you can see the full head, the first break down and then to the back and left side the finished florets.

At this point.. its very important to put them all into a salt cold water soak for 30 mins I put in one tbsp. of salt to my bowl of cold water..  As these are garden grown, its always a good idea to soak them and make sure if you have any hitchhikers, that you get them off.

The crazy amount of birds in my front yard have been busy hunting for bugs to feed their babies and so I have been so far very lucky and not had a single worm pop up yet to date.. but that is not the norm!

Do not just let them float in there. take a clean round plate that mostly fits your bowl and then weigh it down so that they are all under the water and set your baking timer and just let it go..

Once you are done that, you can check the water to see if you have any extra’s that need to be removed and ideally tossed to the chickens.. protein is protein 🙂 and you are now good to go into the fridge for future use in the kitchen or you are ready to blanch them/cool and then freeze them for later use.

Take the rest of the plant out of the ground and in my case I am feeding it to my sheep and or goats which will make quick work of it or it could be put into compost. I would consider chopping it up some before putting it in the compost and for sure on that if you did not harvest the leaves off of it.

So how has your broccoli been this garden season? did you get a good spring harvest? Will you be starting more seeds now to have a fall harvest?

 

 

Posted in 100 mile diet, Gal in the Garden Series, Garden harvest | Tagged , , , , | 11 Comments