Farmgal’s photography Jan 24th

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

I was zooming in to try and get those ears that were glowing with the sunlight coming though late afternoon, after I snapped the first picture, I realized that with a little bit of adjustment I could get a reflect.. it was just a fun time taking this.

Its been so cold and so much snow that I had to seek out indoor things to take and I was wanting to find creative views, I really like this one.

 

Before the worst of the storm came this pretty girl showed up and used the bird feeder for two days, sadly I have not seen her since the big storm has hit.

Bojangles is my grey ghost in the snow!

 

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Food In Jars Challange 2019 -Jan Citrus

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

Food in Jars is once again hosting an awesome canning/preserving challenge for 2019.

The idea for January is Citrus. I have been busy already this past month, I made a number of syrups, I had a enough marmalade that I just wanted simple syrups made at this time for different dishes.

I have put up six pints of lemon, 5 and pints of Lime,  5 pints of Lemon Crown Royal Syrup, I have made Salt Cured Lemons and I have two gallons of lemon Vinegar curing in jars as well as dried orange peel, dried lemon peel and dried lime peel.

Orange Marmalade is a tricky thing to make and you must use your temps correctly to learn more check out this full post on it.

kumquat are an interesting little fruit that’s for sure, such a different flavour. This recipe worked very well and this recipe has been made three times now to great success.

This was an outstanding mix of flavours with lime in the lead, I did have issues getting this to be as thick as I like. Its worth the working with it, and do consider using this one as a salad dressing on cabbage Slaw salad.. JUST YUM

This delightful blend of lemon and rose petals was a hit with everyone that tried it, so light, with just hints of floral undertones. I would like to make this next time with freshly done rose petals.. even though the lemon would be out of season I think it would be perfect, I also will try this with wild violets this year.

I do have one little more plan for one more marmalade, I am working on finding the right balance in the flavours so I am currently doing itty bitty test batches. I will have it figured out soon and up before the end of the month.

Are you joining the Food in Jars canning Challenge? I know at least one of my readers is, because I missed that this was happening until she posted about it 🙂

 

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How to make a Carrot Based Soup

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

Creamed Carrot Soup Recipe

  • One med onion- Peeled and diced
  • Two garlic clove- Peeled and finely diced
  • 1/2 tsp of fresh grated ginger (or ginger powder)
  • 3 large carrots, peeled, and cut into cubes
  • 2 medium Potato’s- Peel and diced
  • 6 cups of white broth, be it white meat bone broth or be it veggie broth
  • Salt and White pepper.

Add a touch of oil to your pot, cook your onion and garlic till clear and soft  at that point you can add your grated peeled fresh ginger and just let it brown a tiny bit

Add your broth, carrot and potato’s, spices and cooked on a med heat till tender and falling apart when tested with a fork..

Take off heat..

Allow to cool just a touch, it should not longer be boiling, very carefully then either mash very well or hit it with a stick blender for a very smooth soup.

  • if you want add a swirl of cream or a dollop of sour cream in the middle of the soup, if you want it thinner, add another cup of broth. If you want it thicker next time, remove a cup of broth to adjust to your own families personal taste.

This soup can be made with leftover roasted carrots and potato’s/onions/galic, if the veggies have been roasted it will add a lovely smokey/richness to the soup itself.

Carrots are one of those great winter veggies that are still reasonable priced in the larger bags in the store. This is a nice filling soup that healthy for you, easily made using only veggies and a frugal cost as well.

 

 

 

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Coldest Winter Snowstorm in 100 years

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

Well, the local news is filled with information on Cold, Snow and Wind Chill Factors in regards to this storm.  We have not had this cold of a snow storm recorded in a 100 years.

I am not going to brush this to the side.. Ottawa was the coldest capital in the world, Friend of ours in the arctic teased that they were warmer then we were, the snow, o the snow.. so much snow..

Little Wee Paris was in an out in her Jacket as fast as possible.. and even in that time, she would start doing the cold foot dance.  While the farm dogs hated it, they were not allowed to follow us around doing farm chores and where kept in the house.  While they are used to going out for a couple hours a day and so they do have a reasonable amount of “built in cold weather toughness” this was beyond that..

this was bare skin freezes in mear minutes..

Last year we wondered if we would like that snow blower.. the answer is yes!! While there is still shoveling to do and I am waiting for the cold to break before I do the extra’s..

Let me tell you in this deep bitter cold, you do what must be done and you wait for the rest, we are to have a break in the cold tomorrow on weds. That means we have been in the Deep Freeze now for four days.

The cats are in the house (other then two that will not come in, who are in the croft with lots of warm bedding to snuggle in) and they are going stir crazy.. thank goodness for catnip to keep everyone calm..  They are not used to being “cooped” up for this long but they also do not want to go out in this cold and I don’t blame them.

The horse’s hear us and meet us at the gate and follow us around no matter how cold and bitter it is.. but thankfully the poo piles in the big barn lets me know that they are using it most of the time to be out of the weather for eating and resting.

Its very important to keep everyone drinking but really important for the horse’s..  so while they have access to their regular water, we are also hauling room temp water out twice a day to encourage them and the sheep to drink extra.

Colic in cold is something to be careful of in this deep cold, they must eat more hay in order to stay warm but that means they need more water as well to keep that moving though smoothly 🙂

I will need to start worrying about ice balls forming in hoofs during the warm up and then cool down, but that I think will be its own post because snow balls can effect different critters and its worth talking about in a bit more detail on ways to deal with it depending on the critter.

Yesterday everyone was good in their checks.. so it looks like one cold duck was the worst of what we got and she made a full recovery.

The house has held up well, the repair work has held and we have had no frozen pipes this year and I expect that this will be the coldest we get so that is outstanding news indeed.  The sun came out today and its pouring in the living room, only those curtains are open to allow the solar heat in while all the other curtain closed to keep out the cold.

Its that blue sky, sunny bitter cold day today..  its different then the snow storm/wind/cold..  One more day, one more day they say!

I hope everyone stayed safe if they have been hit by this storm.

 

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Fried Cornbread for Breakfast

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

Are you looking for a filling hot breakfast? Wanting something different then pancakes or waffles? Have you considered Fried Cornbread, crisp brown bits with melted butter and a drizzle of real maple syrup! or your favorite jam..

 

This lovely recipe will make you a nice big batch of cornbread and if you make it in a pan, the odds are good there will leftovers.

  • 1 1/2 cups  buttermilk ( you can use powdered buttermilk, really buttermilk or whole milk with two tsp of lemon juice in it to turn it)
  • 1/3 cup oil
  • 1  large egg
  • 2 cups yellow cornmeal flour or cornmeal
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1-4th cup of sugar *
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1 half teaspoon salt

Mix in order, wet to be added to dry, Do not over mix, grease pan or spray it, 350 time, if you are in a loaf pan, start checking at 30 min or until a knife comes out clean.

PS * if you want a more tradional southern cornbread, no sugar is used.. the sweeter cornbread is a northern add in.

Allow to cool and then slice to serve, fresh and warm, its outstanding with a bowl of hot soup or stew.  However for the leftovers, do consider making Fried Cornbread for Breakfast the next day!

Its as easy as taking your cornbread an slice it Texas toast thick, med-heat in your fry pan and a good amount of butter in the pan, grill until golden brown and serve hot. Two slices of Fried cornbread will fill you up quickly.

They can be served as part of a plate or on their own as the full dish, perhaps with a bit of fresh fruit on the side.

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Treating Mild Hypothermia in Ducks

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

Its bone chilling cold, we have been sitting between -35 to -38 for close to 24 hours, and we had a solid dump of snow of around a foot at the “warmest haha” part of the afternoon in full deep cold winter gear hubby cleared the lane. We were certainly happy to have the snow blower for this storm.

Here I was all worried about the larger livestock, the smaller rabbits and of course the purr pots, most of which are safely tucked in the house being lazy warm things on beds but there are two “farm” outside only so keeping a close eye on them in the croft.

The birds had been put in a lock down and they have a heat lamp in their main pen, the ducks main water had been made so they can drink but not bath in it.

One of the hens got herself into a pickle by sneaking in between the layers on the doorway and let herself get nice and chilled.. Why she didn’t move out of there is anyone’s guess.  She is a young hen, and its true that its her first bad spot of winter and like most of the ducks, they never seem to mind the cold, they are out in the snow, snow resting, snow bathing and enjoying the winter, she normally is one that sleeps in the outside hut but I wanted them all moved in due to the extreme cold.. but she clearly tried to get to close to going back outside.

Needless to say she was found on a check and now is currently in a big crate in my living room, she is being slowly warmed up.

Here are some Key points to raise the rates that this will be successful!

  • Use a damp luke warm towel to wipe the back /wings.
  • Wrap the duck in a warmed towel if possible, just put a number of your “livestock” towels that are clean into the dryer, so that way you can pull a warm one out as needed
  • You want to melt any ice/snow off their feet/legs and dry them up.
  • Once you have her dried but damp wiped down if needed
  • Put her in a box/crate with a soft warm ideally wool Blanket by indirect heat
  • You must warm the duck up slowly..
  • After the duck has had a 20 minute rest, bring out and start its movements if it can hold its head up.. if the head is still not held up.. wrap again in warmed towels, switch them out as they cool and back to the box.  If its head is up.. carefully and gently move its feet, toes and legs, don’t fight it.. if they are still stiff and can’t move things yet.. go slow.
  • Do not offer water or food at this stage, when bodies are this cool, digesting is hard work.
  • Help adjust the ducks legs so that they can sit properly under them..
  • Once you see them start to shift and tuck their feet/leg under themselves and tucking their head into their feathers on their own. Then you can offer them a small warm water drink. Better to have small drinks every hour and then two hours then big drinks.
  • Do not leave water in with the duck.. offer for a few minutes only at a time.
  • Please keep the duck in for at least 12 to 24 hours.
  • Ideally within 12 hours you will have a warmed happy ready to go duck on your hands.
  • Please check its feet/toes and legs carefully to see if you have any white spots, blisters and or how its movement is.

Update: Its the next day and our little hen is up, all looking good and ready to head back out to the hen house later this afternoon.  I am glad we caught her very early in her chill stage.  It could have been much worse if she had not been found as soon as she was.

Today is just as cold.. – 41 was our coldest and they say our “high” of the afternoon will be -28..  warm water will be hauled out for all the critters and multi checks will be done, I am hoping very much that we will have no issues today but I know that as the deep bitter cold extends day after day that it gets more and more likely that will have something crop up..

 

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Dogwood Photography Week 3

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

It was Week 3 for the Dogwood 52 Photography Challenge. Its been interesting to plan out the photo shoots and I had a crazy amount of good photos to choose from this week when it came to the final one.

Here is my official Dogwood Photography Photo for Week 3

This was my main runner up!


Everyone loved my other black and whites and I did too but I wanted it be different this week.. I was so happy with the others but just didn’t feel like they pushed “different” enough and I don’t get the same freedom in the coming weeks to be point on the subject so this week was one that I could go as funky as I wanted!

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How to make a Basic Rabbit Stew

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

Is there anything better on a cold winter day then a bowl of hot stick to your ribs stew? In this case is a filling tasty rabbit stew.  We made a big enough pot that it made 8 big portions of stew.

This one is good hot the days its made and just as good reheated the next day!

Rabbit is an outstanding “other white meat” its a very lean and healthy protein source if you can buy it in the store or even better yet, if you can raise meat rabbits yourself.

In this case I was being very frugal indeed, as I was using up the “front” portion of the rabbit. I roasted off the neck and front bits (but not the front legs as they were used to make ” BBQ rabbit wings” 

Once it was cooked, I cooled it, saving all the broth and then pulled all the meat off the bones for this amazing stew. Rabbit does have a good amount of tiny bones so please take the time to do this carefully so that ideally  you don’t get any left in your meat.

Rabbit Stew Recipe (winter)

  • 2 med onions
  • 4 cloves of garlic
  • 4 med potato’s
  • 2 med carrots
  • 4 cups of diced green beans
  • 2 cups of corn
  • 8  to 10 cups of white broth (Veg or Chicken)
  • 3 to 4 cups of pre-cooked rabbit bits (approx. one full 3 to 4 pound rooster rabbit or 3 to 4 roasted rabbit necks/fronts roasted in the oven till tender)
  • Salt, Pepper and Seasoning salt.
  • Half a cup of cornstarch/mixed with water to thicken your stew at the end.

Then in a nice steel bottom pot add 2 tsp of fat or oil of your choice. cook your Diced onions and diced garlic in the oil till the onion is clear, at that point add your broth and your peeled, diced veggies. They will take about 30 to 40 minutes of cooking time

Once your potato’s, carrots and green beans are cooked to tender, then you can add your meat to the mix, check your seasonings here.. adjust your salt, pepper, and seasoning salt (if you do not want to use salt.. then add in your no salt veggie blend to taste) but please remember to add in a little pepper as well.

Now you might be wondering at some of the flavour choices here in regards to seasoning, and I would like to explain, often I add a little more kick or heat or spice to dishes.. we all want to try different things right.. but I will explain why I want with the ones I did here.  Rabbit is a lighter flavoured meat, a little more wild or gamey then chicken and I wanted that flavour to be in the stew..

After all if you bought your rabbit, it was on the pricey side and you are wanting to enjoy the taste of the rabbit right? this stew will stretch out your rabbit into lots of meals but still allow its natural flavour to come though.. so please do try this way once before adding more zip to it 🙂

At that point you can add your choice of the way to thicken the stew, I use Cornstarch and I used half a cup of it mixed with water to do mine.. however other people prefer arrow-root powder or some even use a bit of instant mashed potato to do the job..  how its done is very flexible. You will notice in the photo that there appears to be different kinds of beans in the stew, that is because in the summer, I was growing different kinds and harvested them all, prepped them and in some bags mixed them together for winter use.

You can use the same kind of green bean.. or like me, you can mix up the types if you want 🙂

Like most of my recipes you get the basics to work with and then they allow you to be a touch creative.

IF you do not have rabbit, this will make an excellent stew using leftover chicken or turkey pickings as well.

Posted in rabbits, Soups and Stews | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Our Winter Fruit Needs..

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

We needed to head into town yesterday morning, as we needed to hit the hardware store and I do my best to tag team go to town trips. I will think ahead by days or the whole week, the whole point of the pantry is that we do not need to “run to the store”

I had a short list of things to get at the store and once I got to the store it became shorter as I went.. Nope, Nope.. NOPE!

My list was

Two or Three kinds of fresh fruit

Fresh veggies for winter salads

Cheese -Hard old Cheddar and Mozza for pizza making.

Like I said.. a short list

It got a lot shorter when I looked that prices.. WTF.. I am sorry for the lang.. but!

I looked at a number of fruits,  crazy prices.. we came home with a small bag of citrus the only thing that was a good sale price at 2 dollars for a bag of 8 tiny ones. And of course a Banana bunch.

I passed on everything else.. because they were far, FAR overpriced..

Then we got to the veggies..

I did come home with fresh carrots, at a dollar per pound.. they will be the base of my fresh salads.

I did not buy the cabbage head that when weighted out, would have been close to 9 dollars, I did not buy the butternut squash that came in at 4 dollars a pound! (what?)

I did not buy the peppers at a dollar each or the celery that was just about 4 dollars for a half size bunch..

I most certainly did not buy the pre-made stuff that ranged from 4 to 9 dollars per small plastic bag.. I just shook my head.. I need to consider going to a few stores in the next towns over to see if this is just my store?

I did get my cheese’s (I am totally out of homemade until my milking sheep come on line) I watched other folks walk up and down the fruit and veggie rows and leave mainly empty handed as well..

What I did find very interesting was that they were to be found on the back end of the store, buying frozen fruits in big bags, buying the 4 pound bags of frozen veggies..  and they were not buying the small fancy bags either.. they were buying the big bulky ones with the basic’s.

I wanted to see what the prices were and it was on the way to get hubby’s much loved ice cream..  Tell me again that people are not feeling the pressure of rising food costs!

I came home and went hmm.. time for a freezer/pantry count.. I need to get a full count of what I have in regards to frozen fruit for blueberries, raspberries, strawberries and rhubarb and for canning, I need to see what I have in regards to apples sauces, rhubarb fruit and mixed rhubarb fruits. I will need to do a quick count on dried fruits that normally are used for baking or in salads but in a push can become stewed fruits.

I am going to need to put us on a fruit budget lol.. one serving size is a small apple, orange or banana or 1/2 cup of apple sauce or small fruits.

“they” says 2 servings of fruit, which means that we need min of four servings per day or two cups per day.

or another way of seeing it is 730 cups of fruit per year for the two of us.

 

That could be 121 6 cup bags in the freezer or that would be 365 pints of canned fruit, thank goodness you can use dried fruit in these numbers.

That is a lot of fruit to be grown in our short northern growing climate, per poundage, this is why we want the hard fruit trees in our growing plans (sadly they are also the most effected currently by the wild weather we are having) the small fruits, rhubarb and caning fruit are the best producing of them but require the most “time” in picking

I utterly refuse! to spend the money required to buy at the prices they are currently offering in the stores!

Here is my main issue, I have been trying to build back my pantry after two poor garden years, last year was a very good year for some fruits an I put up a two year supply of them, counting on being able to balance out my home grown with the combo in winter of small amounts of fresh monthly.

if I move over to just banana’s and the odd orange for hubby, then the issue is that my two year build up, slide down to a one year on average and means that this year I am pushing for fresh eating, winter 2019 and putting up my missing backup year, all on a year where we are in rebuild garden mode.

I think I will bulk up some of my dried fruit storage to give more depth to the pantry in the short term.

We get our first fresh (early pushed) eating rhubarb in 90 days..  120 for the next fruits to really come on line with is the honey berries and strawberries and much, much more rhubarb..

I will need to up the putting away numbers for this coming year because its not going to be better next winter.. but I will need to see if I can increase some of things we are bulk putting up.

How are you doing in your neck of the woods on the fruit front? Are you still able to find reasonable fruit prices? Can I ask what a five pound bag of apples costs? we are sitting between 5 to 6 dollars per bag. the lowest I could find yesterday was 4.95 for the Uneven apple bag.

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in frugal | Tagged , , , , | 35 Comments

BBQ Rabbit Wings

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

Baked BQQ Rabbit Wings are a delightful treat.  You can change up the flavours making them sweet and sour or spicy or honey garlic. If it works with regular chicken wings flavour wise. It will work with rabbit “Wings”

What are Rabbit Wings? They are the rabbits front legs cut into two, one will be the thin front wing and the other will be the bigger meatier back wing part.  They are different then regular wings because they do not have the crispy skins.

I like to add them up in a freezer bag until ready for a bigger feast of them and then I soak them in salt water for at 24 hours in the fridge and then bake them in roasting pan with seasonings, at least salt and pepper (and remember to save your pan drippings for soup base) Bake until tender.

Drain them out and add your sauce over them, crank you your oven and back in uncovered to brown up the edge bits and bake your BBQ glace on nice and sticky! Serve hot!

Posted in rabbits | 4 Comments