Sheep Milk Yogurt

Posted on April 10, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

I love making my homemade yogurt in my Shuttle Chef because it allows me to make it with very limited heat used. Just heat the milk to the correct temp, hold it for a few minutes, bring it back down a touch and add the culture and into the chef it goes for six hours and out comes a pot of thick yogurt.

I love being able to lift big thick spoons of this out to be used, you can add some fruit, nuts or jam or jelly and stir it in to change up your flavours.

But don’t stop there.. its easy to put in a linen based Reusable cheese cloth (please consider investing in a reusable in this regards) and strain out more and voila..  it pretty close to being cream cheese. Sheep milk is so rich and full bodies that it can do this with ease.

In this case after I drained it, I did a mix of nettle/pink Salt and have made it into a nice log to chill in the fridge till I bring it out for future meal. If you have never used dried nettle in soft cheese, I highly recommend you give it a try. At our local farmers market they sell a old aged nettle cheese that is very good. Its nice to see nettle cheese being sold in such a public way 🙂

I am down to my last pint jar of dried nettles, I still have nettle blends in the cupboard but I am so glad that soon, very soon those baby nettles will be popping out of the ground.. Come on spring!

What is your favorite herb blend to mix into your cream cheese or drained yogurts to use in your own kitchen? Are you running low on anything in your herb cupboard?

 

Posted in Sheep Milk, Sheep Milk Cheeses | Tagged , , , , , | 10 Comments

Climate Change and Waking up to soon

Posted on April 9, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

Yesterday which was the end of a run day of five days of above 0 temps in the day time and below freezing in the night (perfect weather for the sap run) hubby called me..

Three of this furry fat big boy (it would appear “thank you sandy” that these are most likely Osmia Lignaria )  had hatched out with very poor timing indeed given that it was a bad freezing raining day..  We scooped them up and I snapped a few photos and then we moved them to a close by but sheltered area and let nature take over from there..

I truly hope that there are more males to hatch yet from that area for breeding.. and I had better get a new house out for them this weekend.

Where they came from is not a great location but I am also not surprised to be honest.. I will give the females that will come sooner than later a better choice or three close by where they were and will redo that area to highly encourage them to move to the older tree stumps and older logs that I am going to offer them.

We were driving the other day and I said to hubby.. stop the car, we need to go back I spotted something in the ditch I want..  there was an old root/stump section just waiting to be picked up and hauled home. This one is not for drilling holes.. there are others that will have that, instead this one is for the carpenter. We have a lack of older wood at this point.

Lots of fresh cut wood but we will need to haul in and place our older stump parts and logs to give these wonderful pollinators a number of choices (besides my house/deck/barns) a place to set up their homes in.

I had so many bees that used the big old willow tree’s as their homes that I know they must have taken anything they could get their hands on last fall to make the winter though.. No real harm done.. but I can’t allow them to stay there all the time.. after all that is point in fact my deck and I have plans to finish the parts that were not done last time and it’s getting a new paint job as well as new climbers and such.

I am not sure that these guys will have made it.. not only did it freezing rain all day but then the snow arrived and the world is a cover of white over the weight of the ice, I am going to lose at least a two younger trees, I do not think they will be able to come back and I will not be able to leave them leaning like that..

There is a clear lack of feeding things out there at the moment.. The area that they hatched from for many years here on the farm would have had a much slower spring wake up but is this year a full sun area now.

This is part of the reason why I think its going to become so very important that we are food producers take it on ourselves to learn how to work with, help and care for the single native bees that produce coons that can be harvested and kept in controlled conditions over winter.

While I fully intend to continue to support my “wild” native bees in so many ways, I have come to the understanding that we are coming up or we have hit the point where we are going to have to step up our game to make sure we have the pollinators we need in our gardens all season long.

Honeybees are awesome and if you want to go that route.. wonderful.. most folks in the city’s and towns do not have this choice. Even those of us that do want honeybees can be put off by the cost investment into them..  Bees are not cheap at all and the overwinter loss’ can be hard on both new and older beekeepers.

The Native above ground bees on the other hand can be looked at as a way to hedge our bets for those wanting and willing to work with nature.  I give a total nod of respect to those that want pretty flowers and pollinator gardens.. bless you..

Having said that, I am focused on working a program that supports the bees with the intent to increase pollination to increase food crop yields!  Thankfully while there is a learning curve, the investment in terms of money itself can be very little if you are willing to do some of the work yourself.

I will be showing frugal ways to do this as well as showing ways to spend a little money or to be honest spend a bit larger amount for a higher return. I want to share all the different points and spread.

In general on Tuesday’s  (and perhaps other days as well) I will be sharing a pollinator related post.. This can be on anything in this wide subject matter, from plants to bushes to houses to detailed reports on the viewing house I got.

As I watch the almost white out conditions in my winter wonderland, I can only sigh at the fate of these guys that came out yesterday.. To soon.. To soon! I hope you went back into your tunnels and are pouting guys!

So dear readers.. talk to me.. do you have a good amount of native bees in your gardens and or your homesteads? Have you noticed a increase or a decrease? I know that over the past couple years in many area and places, there have been reports of losses and to quiet gardens.. yet a few other folks reported to me that they are good and have lots!

What I am really looking for is, what was it like last year? Did you have lots of native bees and if so, lots though the whole season? or did you see weather and timing effecting their numbers?

I know here on the farm in 2018

Spring : very slow start.. lack of bees.. thankfully we did have a dozen plus  Early Mason bees that got really busy in the spring so while we did not count many bees, we still got a good pollination count.

Late Spring: We had a second native bee appear that they feed on our caned fruits flowers in massive numbers and they did a outstanding job, we have lovely yields in this regards but despite that, we were down our at least 60 percent over our normal numbers.

Summer: mixed bag, we had our first hatching of at least three of our different native’s which was great but their numbers were lean and then the heat did a number on them.

Fall: then we had the massive yard shake up, we sadly know that we cut down and displaced at least five nests or breeding nests.. and we saw that reflected in our fall bees numbers..  this the time of the year where I normally see my asters, golden rod and my joe-pye weed crawling with last minute feeders.

I would say we headed into the fall of 2018 with at least 60 percent of my normal amount missing..  We will see what 2019 brings us.

 

Posted in gardens, native bees | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments

Dogwood 52- Showing loneliness

Posted on April 8, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

This was a challenge for me and I am not sure on this one.. I took a lot of photos trying to capture this in a different ways..  I am going with this one at the moment.. but I might change it out at a later point in the year.. I will put this one as the runner up..  Our spring come though of the Turkey Vultures happened this week.

Posted in photography | Leave a comment

Gal in the Garden April Walk About

Posted on April 7, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

Hello Folks..

Ready to see my snowy, messy.. what the heck happened last year to my gardens, walk about.. I could not even get into my main garden yet.. so you will get those first photos in may..

So here it is.. in the raw.. there is a part of me that really does not want to show you these photos.. I want to wait till they have been cleaned up, till I have pretty plants started or pops of color.. Anything really beyond showing this April spring muck and mud..

However I want to do a walk about photo series all season long on the same date each month.. maybe even weekly or bi-weekly in the real push garden season to show just how much of a change it goes though.

So for all you neat gardeners.. look away.. look away now LOL

This is the gate garden, it has the climbers and then a three foot bed around it.. plus in the back left you can see the tower garden area.

This area is the bale garden, compost pile mound gardens and if you want to look closer, you can see the new line of big cedar fence posts that went in last year and will be newly fenced this year.. I have tree’s that need to come down this year..

I know, you can’t even see things here yet but on the far left is the sunchokes patch, in the middle is two big three foot garden rows, at the back is black choke berry and more fruiting interplanting planned in there this year and that post.. it will play host to a mason bee house, facing the sun.

This is Bean Teepee #1 as more are planned this spring, along with Sofie kitty and Leeloo kitty who had to come on my walk with me.. It needs a good clean up and the 3 foot bed around it as well. It at least is melting out faster then other areas

While its starting to thin out in places in the drifted area’s the snow is still knee deep, so I will take more detailed photos in there in may for you.. but there is the garden beds, the hedge rows and much more back there..  Right now.. lets to put it as its big, its got lots of things being planted in there and its still very much pretty much under snow cover yet.

This is the view into the big new rebuild area of the front yard, it does not show the side part.. but I will get that in may, as I will with the other back gardens, including the gooseberry’s and the raspberry etc.

This one is a shot from the middle of the rebuild area showing a more direct line to the pond to be and beyond hat a rain garden to be.. plus the “big tree”  where we will add in the picnic table for shade in the yard in the afternoon.

This is my poor cleared front yard area and now that I have figured out what will happen with it, I am so excited.. this area will become my kitchen garden with a intermix of flowers and walk away..  Its going to be both pretty and ever so useful!

This is the front bed, while it needs a spring clean, it is in fact filled with a great number of come back plants but there is plans on expanding it this year as well.. more on that soon.. I have had it with mowing that little patch.. time to turn it into garden space..   or at least herb growing space.

Well that is what you are getting for April.. I will expand in may once I can freely walk into the areas.. Hope you enjoyed seeing my crazy yard/gardens lol

Posted in Garden, Life moves on daily | 9 Comments

Friday Rambles Around the Table – Melting..

Posted on April 5, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

Hi, its so nice out there at the moment, come on in.. I know its so mild.. and plus 6 today and not so much wind.. that wind has been crazy for the last bit. I know they are calling for snow tonight but so far they have not changed their mind that we are to get plus 11 and plus 13 on the weekend.

I sure hope they are right because if so, I am planning a on doing on farm work, both in the garden area, the barns but mainly in regards to getting some butchering done..  the weather and cold only held me off for a full month on that plan. But you have to be able to feel your fingers while working lol

Coffee? Tea? A hot bowl of soup? I have a big old pot on the stove, it will be even better at supper time but its ready now.. Can slice up some bread to go with?

Got my onions sets in.. I don’t have a enough green bunching onions there yet but can pick up a couple more bags easy enough at the store and put them in the cool/dark pantry to hold them till I want to use them.

Hubby and I walked over the deck area from where you can and had a chat and agreed that I could turn it into a kitchen garden. I am quite excited about it. I will have to grow up a number of wild plants in that area so I can transfer them to a different spot, as I want to save them.. its been one of my area’s that I tend have a lot of wild violets and plantain for harvest and I want to save those genetics here on the farm.

Still it will be such a nice thing to be able to walk off the deck and gather things for the garden, I did worry a touch about the fact that it will not be “pretty” when you walk up the sidewalk but I can throw in some flowers and really if you are coming to the farm, surely you understand that I going to have a working garden lol. Right?

Sweetie the new milking sheep ewe is just wonderful.. she is increasing her milk flow daily plus feeding her lamb full time yet.  I am getting a 3 pints a day at this point.. she will come up to her average top late next week or early the week after. I expect she will be come at a liter a milking plus the lamb.

While I know that in her line, she can reach a gallon a day but as a first time girl and given she is young yet, I want her to reach her point naturally and I do not intend to pull the lamb from her till its 30 days and then we will do a share milking for another 30 days..

I am limiting what I will bring in the house doing this but I am good with it.. I certainly do not feel like I am short of milk in the house now as those beautiful jars fill up twice a day and are chilled in the fridge.

I do miss being able to use my rapid chill feature. I love it and normally do so when I am chilling out my milk but its not a good idea at the moment as I am also storing my mason bee’s in the same fridge and so I have to find a balance. I put the milk at the back in the coldest part of the fridge and I use pint jars to help drop the temp faster, and I keep the bee cooler more towards the front of the fridge. So far so good.

There is spots of green and spots of soil starting to show here and there.. the rings around the tree’s are growing.. the water is moving under that snow pack and there are so many more birds in the yard.. they are eating me out of house and home (kidding)  at the bird feeders.

The spring moving birds are thrilled with it and instead of being filled once a week, its barely lasting three days between fills. The geese have gone over a bit but yesterday.. they arrived! Hundreds of them came last night to bed down and feed in the back fields behind the farm. Most of that is flooded so they have water to swim, bath and the rest is slowly melting out so they can also look for bits of feed at the same time.

When I went out to do morning chores, they were talking.. they are so loud.. I have had my own geese out and enjoying them in the yard at least until I was attacked twice.. they are feeling spring as well.. so they are moved into their own pen off the pasture to keep them out and enjoying the fine weather.

Got my chicks, and turkey pullets ordered, they arrive first week of may, 12 big dual purpose dark brown egg layers, 50 meat birds.. I had planned on 30, then decided that I would go with 40 and then the gentleman at the store said. I can sell you 50 instead of 40 chicks and save you four dollars..  The price drop is that huge once you hit 50.. crazy but so be it.. and 10 Big white Meat turkey pullets.

They will be six weeks old for when we head out on our Holiday and so they will be past the trying stage for our farm sitter.. however if everything works out we will be butchering the meat chicks in the first two weeks of July before the real hard heat hits the farm.

I don’t plan on doing the turkey’s till fall but we will see how big they get and that might change..  I am still sad that I lost my big brown layers in the last weasel attack.. I didn’t need as many as I ordered but if there is one thing that will sell.. its nice big brown eggs at the farm gate 🙂

I look forward to setting and hatching ducklings.. and then seeing what the mother hens produce on their own nests. I have done my research and plan to use the ducks to help “seal” the pond. I expect they are going to be so excited to have a pond to swim on and in this year.

I am waiting for notice that the rolls of sheep fencing I have ordered have arrived at the store and waiting to be picked up.. I got a great one day sale at a hundred off per role.. as I needed four of them. That is a big chunk of savings for sure! I can use that 400 in a different way on the farm.. like a new big water tank to help increase our water saving ability.

Well, I am late getting this finished up and must run as I need to get ready for my online training class in regards to my training on becoming a Master Rain Garden Designer. Have a great day!

 

 

 

 

Posted in At the kitchen table | Tagged , , , , , | 7 Comments

Farmgal Photography April 4th

Posted on April 4, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

The ducks are loving the melting, so much bathing and fluffing of feathers.. they are all looking very good coming into the spring. I am looking forward to setting up breeding trio’s and lots of little fluffy ducklings in the future.

I have not seen my raven’s for a while but my crows are doing well..  They are always around, while I know that some folks don’t like them. I count on them as a alarm system and they are very good at that.. This fine fellow was bug hunting in the pasture.

Miss Sofie was enjoying the melted out driveway gravel to roll and enjoy the warmth of the spring sun. Happy Farm Kitties

The wee house pup has been enjoying the dry deck and sitting out in the sun as well as taking short walks up and down the driveway.. Soon enough she will need to go for her spring hair cut.. she is so fluffy these days!

I had to include this one.. my Almost! not quite lol..

Posted in photography | 6 Comments

Using Sand to help melt the snow around smaller fruit trees

Posted on April 4, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

We have spent the money on those lovely fruit whips or maybe we clipped starts for propagation or even in some cases started from seed and we have those little plants out in the cold northern winter.

One of things that has happened more and more often locally is freeze/melt cycles and it leads to a lot of small branch breaking. I have seen this, I have tried different things over the years, I  have covered them, potted them up and moved them to a safer location till they are bigger, I have wrapped them or put in stakes and wrapped the stakes..

Still I have had so many small branches break off in the ice layers as the melt happens because the snow melts at a different rate then the ice layers do.. Snap, snap! This has been a huge issue with my clove currents, setting me back year after year with them.

The cold hardy Fruit Nursery put a post out on their page on facebook and I went.. O YES!!!

Photo Credit to the them.. showing how sand melted out the branches on this big older tree as well!

We picked up a bag of regular sand and out we went, it was spread around the smaller fruit tree’s where needed in regards to melting out and then we checked and used as needed on smaller fruiting bushes as well.

I am excited to see how it will work this week and next as things melt out.. granted its moving pretty slow around here so far.. this week most days are below freezing at night, just above freezing in the daytime hours but with wind chill so cold taking us down to -15

They say snow is coming later tomorrow but then this weekend looks to be a amazing weather our first days of spring that are to get to plus 11 to plus 13.  If this is the case, I have a pretty good idea what I will be doing this weekend!

I have planted some more seeds to start this and that, nothing major yet.. that will change over the next ten days but with the cold temps and working the new milking sheep I have been keeping busy.

So do give using the sand a try if you need to do so, I will report back on it next week, ideally with lots of photos for you at that time.

Have you ever used sand or a bit of wood ash to help melt the snow/ice layers from around your fruit tree’s or bushes? if so do you have any hints or tips to offer?

I was thinking this might be a awesome trick for those in the city that have said things like.. I swear I am going to shovel off my garden space to help it melt out.. instead of shoveling, perhaps a light sprinkle of sand would give you that extra melting, be able to be worked in as its not much sand used.

Anyone ever done this? I am thinking I might give it a try and see how it goes!

 

Posted in frugal, Gal in the Garden Series, Garden | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

How to make Abrystir a Baked Pudding

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

This is a amazing baked Colostrum Pudding that according to my “The Nordic Cookbook” comes from Iceland.

Baked Colostrum Pudding

  • 1 pint fresh sheep Colostrum
  • 3/4th cup cream (i used skimmed sheep cream)
  • Sugar to taste

Serves 4

Heat oven to 225

Combine the above and pour into oven proof dish, the pudding should be about one and inches thick, I used a small pie plate. place in a roasting pan with hot water half way up

Bake until set and golden brown on top.

Can be served hot, warm or cold.  Served with jam on top, often cloudberry.

I tried it with Ground Cherry (its good) and I tried it with High Bush Cranberry jam and it was drool worthy! Amazing!

I make a version of this that came from a very old English cookbook..  Its the whole milk, no cream, no sugar and certainly not served up with jam. Its served cold.. its good as well..

They are not the same.. the English comes out more like a custard, smooth and cuts clean. This one cooks a lot longer, its sweeter and is almost like a very mild cross between pudding an cheese.

 

Posted in Baking, Sheep Milk | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Dogwood 52 – New Beginnings

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

I have been struggling with this photo, winter has been hanging on in such a hard way.. I kept looking for new ways to show the start of new life..

Today I had to choose a photo.. I decided on this one.. I think the story of new life coming is pretty easy to find..  Winter is slowly moving out, baring the soil to the sun and new life (those tiny bits of green) are starting..

What I found interesting in this photo for me is how intent the hens are, they are so focused on that special edge of in between.

Posted in photography | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

Harvesting Cherry Bark

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

Despite the snow, we bundled up and headed out to prune the cherry trees on sunday. The little trees need almost no pruning get. However the big producing tree needed a good prune to honest.

I have three large branches in water in a five gallon bucket in the tub to force the blooms as I want to use them in the kitchen. After blooming they will be prepared to future use in regards to smoking.

The tiny twigs were all trimmed off the rest and are laying out flat drying out and will be used in small smoking at a later date. The branches about the size of my pinky were peeled and the bark dried.

If you do not or can not watch the little under a minute video, here is a tip, use a veggie peeler instead of a paring knife to peel off the bark and under layer of the bark.

While a lot of people would want these for short term use to make a cherry bark cough tea, I am more interested in having it in the herbal cupboard for

a) going in the herbal wound wash blend to make into a tea

b) to be used in very small amounts in a blend for worming

c) using to strengthen my hair in a herbal rinse

I do not use it a lot so a little will go a long way in my herbal cupboard. It will continue to dry in a cool dark cupboard until crispy, then into storage and I will only grind fresh as needed.

Posted in farm | Tagged , , | Leave a comment