In prepping to clear my freezers of last years beef before this years order comes in mid dec, i need to use up the very last of the beef stock bones. I had been luck enough to get extra soup bones and dogs bone a few time though the year from my suppler, which was great as i have the freezer space an use.
My bone broth is very simple, bake the bones till they are golden brown with almost burnt brown bits on the tips.
Then into a pot with onion and cover and bring to a simmer and simmer for 12ish hours, let cool over night, crack off the tallow and render it down clean and save, then strain and take out the bones. Place in a good heavy bottom pot ( i used my good jam making pot) and bring back to a boil, drop it to a simmer and simmer all day, you will get approx one cup finished per gallon of starting stock.
Check it hourly once its at about 1/4 left
Once you get it down to the point that it starts to have a shine to it, you need to watch much more carefully as like maple syrup it can go from perfect to burned quickly at this stage. when it can coat the back of the spoon with a thin or thick stick (your choice, i like thick personally) its ready to be poured into a cake pan and chill it.
Once fully chilled, it will slice into cubes the size you want and can be stored in the fridge for a future use for up to a week and or frozen till used.
So good and a amazing way to turn a huge bag of bones into a very small space with ease of use!
This is without a doubt the most beloved dog treat the house is dried liver treats. I thaw the liver slices, cook them just covered in water till just cooked. At that point i take them out and lay them whole in the dryer.
Once they are in a few hours and have firmed up, I take them out, slice them into stripes and pile them back in, i am not really to worried as you can see if they are touching at this point and the biggest bits still had a bit of pink.
Every hour or so, i go and shake the tray and once they all dark and bendy, i will take the time then to make sure nothing is touching and finish drying them till they are snap dry, Some of these will be given to dog lovers as Christmas treats and my own pack will be enjoying them daily.
With the cold and snow coming soon? Maybe? Its been a very warm and dry November so far, my eye is on the big drakes that are running as the drake flock. I have plans to make some of my favorite duck recipes with them over the next while.
I will be for sure curing two of them into Duck Breast Prosciutto and using the meat slicer to make very fine slices indeed for my Christmas Charcuterie Board.
I have a new propane smoker that I am very much looking forward to getting set up and into use, its been sitting in its box, just waiting for the right time. What are you looking to take to the butcher or get processed in the next weeks so that you are not feeding them overwinter.
Clearly everyone was really stressed out while they waited for the Ferrier
Oh to be young and just climb on bareback backwards and lay down for a warm up and hang out..
then to get off with a back end slide lol… Caleb is such a good old boy!
Miss R has taken riding lessons as a child and she has been riding Caleb since she started coming to the farm. They have a great bond and she does love to spend time with them. Since moving to the farm, when she is home, she takes over the feeding, watering, grooming and training time for them.
We of course take over if she is gone and the horses still nicker a greeting to me or hubby when they see us, hubby did a work around on their winter feeding area and their big walk in lean too stalls are all cleaned and prepped for winter.
Today she took over getting them ready for their foot care, we had started out in the front field, thinking we would be able to use the tied posts but then it started to rain and so we moved it into the barn for cover.
I hung back and let her take lead on being with them while they got their feet done and it went very well indeed. Proud of everyone for making it go so smoothly!
I am often amused that she asked him if he would like her to ride him and he will tell her, hey, lets ride.. yes let ride, no i would like to spend time but not ride and NO i do not want to give you a ride..
Given that she “asks” him in the pasture with full freedom of choice, she is of course right, if he walks away and leaves he is say, no not now or not today, and on the other hand i have seen him pick up his halter and bang it while calling her, lets play, lets do something friend and i have also seen her stand with his halter and bridge and him make the choice to put his head in and so on
While i do love my horses so much, i am beyond grateful they currently have a horse crazy teenage girl to love on them..
Today is a perfect fall day to cook off a pot of Canadian Style Yellow Split Pea Soup I plan on enjoying it fresh made and canning up of the leftover soup into pint jars.
In the oven slow roasting is a nice meaty pork hocks, one that will be used finely diced to add to this soup at a later point, you are welcome to add in leftover ham or not.
16oz or one standard bag of yellow split peas, wash the peas and remove any bits that float or are discolored, into a pot they go with 2 quarts of water to bring to a slow simmer, skim the water and cook till they are tender (depending on your heat, this will range between 60 to 90 minutes
I like to drain my water and start over with chicken stock at this point.
Yellow Split Pea Soup Recipe
prepared yellow split peas
2 med onions peeled, finely chopped
2 med carrots, peeled finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
1 tbsp of oil or fat of your choice
2 quarts chicken or veggie broth stock
Salt, Pepper, Bay Leaf, and in our case tbsp of montreal steak spice
In your pot, at medium heat add your oil and onions and garlic, cook till tender and clear, add your carrots, stock, spices and prepared tender yellow split peas, bring to a simmering boil, reduce heat to a slow simmer and cook, stirring now and again for 30 to 60 minutes depending how soft you like your peas and veggies. If you want you can take some out and blend it and add back in or if you like it smooth, blend the whole think, if you like it a bit more chunky, leave as is.
Remove the Bay leaf! Can add the tiny bits of meat at this point and heat though, to serve you can serve as is, its thick and hearty, or you can add a pat of butter on top, with a handful of seasoned croutons, serve with bread on the side.
This makes a good size batch of soup, will keep three days in the fridge, might need to add a touch more broth to thin it out after sitting in the fridge as it can get quite thick. Freezes well and can be pressure canned in pints for 75 minutes for shelf stable.
While we have the bin for a good amount of things, other things need to go to the dump itself for a more special Recycle program. In this case we had older or broken electronics for recycling. Different locations within our county have different programs of what and where certain things can go.
The location we went to today offers a number of services with quite limited hours and a large sign worth of fees, while some things are included in our tax’s many are not, still overall their fees are depending very reasonable and in other ways, ouch they add up.
The location we went today, has a official clothing drop off for the Canadian Diabetics society, a mattress spot, electronics recycling bin, Fridge/freezer/ac you get the idea, these ones have a $20 drop off fee to cost them being drain and tagged by the tec, and tire drop site, tree chipping and the biggest pile of yard waste in brown paper bags you have ever seen plus a few other spots that we did not drive in our loop enough for me to be sure.
They have got higher tec, when we went years ago, it had to be cash only, now its debt only, no cash.. I think they should have to take cash if offered which we did but it was declined and if there is one thing you never do is make the guy who is writing out your forms cranky, I can walk away from a coffee shop or a other places that say no cash and make it clear that i am not using or buying from them for that reason, but the county dump is not one that i am going to wage walk away at. I will however nicely write a very polite letter to the county asking that they go back to taking both cash and debt.
As has been the case with the limited hours they are open, each time we have been there, its a very busy place, i have never not have to wait in line to be served, nor has others lines up behind us. They offer battery recycling at the local drug store with a bin anytime they are open etc.
The dump at least locally are hard core that only those from our own county can use them, we made the mistake once in the early days of thinking we could go the closest one to us but we didn’t live in the right zone and we turned back for having the wrong address.
What is it like in your neck of the woods.. the county dumps have sure changed, i remember as a child going and you could just roam around the place, with a don’t fall in the pit etc and you could go though it and bring stuff home, then as a teen/young adult, they stopped letting you roam around but they would put the good stuff that someone might want to rehome to the side and i am given to understand that a county two over does that, a big lean too shed that they let folks unload the still good but don’t want to before sorting the rest, but here there is none of that.. once its head there and not to our second hand shops, its done for..
Do folks from the city ever take loads out, or is it just days for certain things, or having to hire the folks that come and haul things away! It was a good thing to get done and i am hopeful that it will in fact been worth putting it into the correct stream that it will in fact get recycled
This Stew uses a lot of fall root veggies, i did a mixed blend of Potato, Sweet Potato, Carrot, Winter Turnip and Parsnip. You are welcome to create your own fall root blend as long as it adds up to six cups worth of chopped root veggies.
1 pound of Beef stewing meat
1 med onion
2 cloves garlic
1 Tbsp of oil olive or fat of your choice
6 cups of mixed winter root veggies, peeled, cubed or diced your choice on size
1 cup of pearl barley
2 quarts of broth, 1 quart beef broth and 1 quart veggie broth
Salt, Pepper, favorite herb blend or in my case Montreal Steak Spice Blend
In a heavy bottom stewing pot, add oil at med heat, peel and dice onion and garlic, add onion cook till clear, add garlic and dried beef stewing cubes, let sit till bits of brown appear on the garlic and onion then flip the meat, ideally you want to cook these till you have some brown bits and edges so that you will be able to deglaze the pan when you at your stock.Â
Add the stock, and scrape up all the good browned bits into your broth, add in all your veggies and your barley and bring to a slow boil, drop your heat to a simmer and ideally cook 60 min to 120 minutes at a slow simmer with the odd stir, if you have any sticking, either reduce heat more and or if need be add a touch more broth. The barley will add a lovely just there thickness to the broth.Â
Serve with salad or good bread for a hearty meal be it lunch or supper!Â
Nov 8th – The planned costs for the 30 yard bin was sent out on this day, it was posted on at the start of the challenge and it was followed up on. it is already half full at this point.
Nov 9th- Stayed home, 0 spending, it was couples weekend as Miss R was off for a 4H square dancing event, the troop did very well bringing home a number of placements.
Nov 10th – Stayed home 0 Spend, the whole weekend was spent in a sort mode, we were working in the basement, sorting donate, keep and or purge. Lots of work done. Including putting back over 200 clean jars in the cellar.
Nov 11th- 0 spend Miss R went to outdoor events, we stayed home and had a quiet day here on the farm. Other then a load of donate going to the church basement drop off in town.
Nov 12th Up early in the morning and off the dog and i headed to the vets to get him altered. He was the first one in so we were there when the door opened and back to pick him up late afternoon, while the kitty’s stay overnight, the dogs come home the same day so lots of time and love and care for him on the day off and for the next two weeks of healing. He is doing much better in the body suit at the moment, we are switching out the collar for the body suit and will only go back to the collar if we have to, so far he is being very good about listening and the body suit appears to be working for him. I find it really depends on the dog. Day 2 of 5 for his pain meds and so on but so far things are looking good but really you need at least 7 days after a surgery to be sure its all on the go. Planned Vet costs.
Unplanned costs was 30 dollars for the body suit, i have budget planned and bought the cone but he really didn’t like it AT ALL every time it touched something he would freeze and think himself stuck and then cry so we had to unstuck him over and over
While unplanned, i am not unhappy at the extra spend for his comfort and to give us our freedom back from having to “rescue” him
Nov 13th- Miss R worked on the farm with booked paid days total of three days this week and lots got done. Combo of yard clean up, Croft barn clean up, winter prep work and starting the break down to do a inside rebuild plan for winter.
$20 dollar spend for a Christmas present for a second hand book, it was on my list for a while of wants but hard to find, its out of print and the few dealers i had found understood its worth and i was not going to pay 100 or more for it.. This book seller had it at the best price i have seen at 19.97 and its mine now.
This is totally not planned, used books were not on the list of approved spending.. None the less one more Christmas present have been gotten and should be here first week of dec
Otherwise, regular spending on bills that come out mid month and grocery spending, plus a tank of gas for the car. If you are having a no spend November, how is it going for you? Doing well? Having trouble? Have you started getting some presents to put up?
When you have livestock, you have a mix of bedding/hay/feed and poo.. When you use the deep pack method, you have to do big clean outs, those with equipment and planned buildings for said equipment can do it in very quick order as they can turn their piles
We have old buildings, we have no machines to help us and so its the old fashion way of Pitch Fork, Shovels, wheel barrels or sleds depending on the time of year and lots of sweat.
We are not planning at this time to add any bigger livestock to the farm and if we do, they would be housed in the Big Barn with the horses, there is two very large areas, one that was our pig barn lots and one that was our winter sheep area, plus the horses. Even if we do take down the front of the big barn and that is part of my plan to have done, that addition would stay.
So that means a overall redo of the smaller croft barn, including taking out all the current stalls, a deep cleaning, repair work as needed on the building and a rebuild inside the croft barn itself. We are going to move the layer chicken pen to the other end of the barn that still has the attached outdoor safe pen for fresh air and one flexible pen that can be used for raising meat birds or used for broody duck hens and their ducklings etc.
The other end is going to be cleaned out, the double pen taken apart, any repair work as needed and rebuilt as the clean room/tack room/freezer and where the seedlings get started etc It already has power and it will have heat as well.
The middle is still on debate but as its currently just a open space, other then needing sorting what is on the pallets its just there. I want at least one or two full size dog pens for future needs for both the dogs but also if ever need to treat a sick barn cat, help tame a wild stray cat and or whatever.
We have been up to the top of the croft barn and its dry, stable and we are giving thought to flooring it and putting in access stairs and a trap door and doubling our space.
This is a big winter project and its perfect for Miss R, she will get to learn how to use the correct tools and how to build inner pens/walls/doors and more. This will prove to be most useful skills to have when we rebuild the “red” shed by the big barn.
When it comes to farm buildings, small outbuildings, and so on, it time, weather, critters have access to it, its going to at some point require repair.. It really felt good to see how much progress has been made both in the yards and the croft barn over the past days. It will be the last big project and turn over to the closer croft barn and being designed to be our “age out” barn.
It was a surgery day, Big Guy headed out early this morning for his altering and he was picked up and home by mid after and we are on watch and care. Of course Miss Fancy also had to get into something that caused part of the muzzle to swell and be swollen, so that is also being treated and watched carefully
Where Uther just crashed and bashed his way around with the cone, it had to be held together with lots and lots of duck tape, poor Remmi has it hit something and its always hitting something and he holds and whines for help because he is “stuck” and waits to be rescued.. I am sure he will get over it soon enough but just to make sure i have ordered in a male body suit for him to we can see if he does better with it.
Its been a busy in day on many fronts but the hounds have my main focus and will for at least the next while! Routine perhaps, but that does not change that care must be given.
I am sorry to have this rant, I might not even post this.. I most likely will and I am sure I will lose a reader or two.. but I have to write this.. If you live in an apartment or a tiny condo in the city, you can be many things.. You can be […]
Ok, its just going on record that we are going to be “in just in time mode” on most things this year. Let me give a example.. we have pulled at least a hundred or two wild parsnips but then we needed to focus on this or that.. and suddenly this week, we are like.. […]
Just another Day on the Farm 