Pantry Challange March 2018

Posted on March 4, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

Boy the pantry Challenges go all the way back to 2011.. so we are coming into our 7th year and it starts tomorrow. In a nut shell, its eat out of the pantry, storage or the farm. Its a great time of the year for it, its lean.. the hens are just starting to lay again, this year we are coming in with no active freshened milking animals and while we had a week of early spring weather with some good maple run weather, we are not growing anything outside yet, the ground is frozen, and most of my gardens are covered in one to three plus feet of snow yet.

It was the starving time of year that bad part when most of the winters crops were done or turning done and at the same time, nothing fresh was really coming in.. the river is breaking up.. so no ice fishing and no regular fishing either.. no hunting.. but I can still take from the farm.. when it comes to “fresh” meat.. rabbit or a young rooster

Now I am going to admit that the house is loaded! If I thought I kept a full fridge, meet my darling mom.. she does even more then myself.. so we are starting the challenge with a number of extra’s that I would not normally have if we were coming off No-Buy Feb..

As always, my critters needs are not included in this challenge.. so my little pigs Puddin and Pie will continue to get their fresh stuff for their health an well-being.

However Hubby and I are going hard core.. if we get invited to someone’s house, we are allowed to eat whatever is being provided and I will note if it happens. Otherwise, no eating out, no bringing in food of any kind and I will be running the challenge for a min of four weeks with a possible six week window.

Each week I am going to try and do mini challenges within the pantry challenge itself, we will see how they go, it could be bad as I stumble along.. we will see I am still thinking on this idea of how to add something a little bit more interesting each week as we work though it..

The odds are good that I will be doing double posts most of the next month once the challenge starts, one post for the challenge, one post on other things.. I have found that on years where I combined them into one single daily post, that recipes and more are lost in the search feature on the blog.. this way works better for digging out data at a later point.

Its snowing today and below freezing but its a pretty soft snow that is falling this morning.. we have two sheep that are starting to bag up and one goat that is showing signs of bagging up, so we are on watch and the jugs are ready to be made active in the big barn.

I am hoping to have a milking animal for the farm sooner then later 🙂

Ps, as per other years, if there is a sale on that only happens every three or six months, we are allowed to bulk buy and put it away(not to be used at all during the pantry challenge) so that we do not miss stocking up.  It used to be that many things came on regular sales but in the last three months and even the past six there have been a number of things that are not hitting the sales like normal and even worse.. more and more of the sale rows are filled with non-food sale items only.. you can buy dish soap, toilet paper and so much more on sale.. but food.. that is becoming harder and harder to find good stock up sales on.

 

 

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Happy Birthday Dear Hubby!

Posted on March 1, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

Dear Husband.. you know you mean the world to me.. I am grateful and blessed to have you in my world..  Happy Birthday!

Adore this photo taken at friends, hubby is always making friends with the purr pots 🙂

Posted in Life moves on daily | 2 Comments

Digging in the garden

Posted on February 28, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

Well, the sun was shining to day, it was beautiful out, and I got to spend a good portion of the day outside off and on again. One of the things I noticed was the flower beds are all melting out, not only do I need to do the spring poo clean up in some area’s but I think this weekend, its possible that I might be able to do the side flower bed clean up, which tell’s you just how much I am looking forward to the garden season that I am excited as in happy dance excited that I get to clean a garden bed.

Which got me looking a few of my other gardens, gardens that really got overrun last fall, that were just left wild.. o so wild.. crazy wild.. I mean we are wild garden folks anyway but normally there its controlled wild..  and every late fall, we spend that six to eight week window between harvest and deep winter gaining back control of the let it go fall harvest gardens and so we start the spring needing work on a some things.

Some things I leave for the overwintering of bugs and so forth, some things I leave because I truly believe that they feed the soil and or offer protective coverage, and some things I will cover with bedding four to six inches deep or compost four to eight inches deep and let it go all late fall, winter and early spring and then mix it all in.

However I am going to have to own it.. we have three garden area’s that are truly overrun.. each one is over run in a different way.

Garden number 1 is a section of the main garden and its over grown but in truth in a great way.. I have hundred to several hundred babies plants of things I like in gardens.. I have extra comfrey babes, and raspberry babies and mint babies and horse radish babies and self-sown greens, mustards, raddish and so SO Much more.

So while the garden is very much overgrown and needs a good amount of work to get itself back to its ability to be a full production garden, its also going to serve as my nursery garden and my early spring eat it as you clean it garden.

Then there is my one long and narrow garden.. it got took over by pigweed and grass.. its crazy thick mats, now the pigweed.. great.. yummy so tasty and good eating.. the grass not so much and what pain in the rear to work with.. but it will have to be cleared, leveled and it honestly needs to be double dug.. it’s been a no-till for a number of years now but its hit that point that I need to either rebuild the no till (which that grass is a issue) or I need to flip over to it being a clean it out.. and do a hand done double dug on it and then add a huge amount of extra manure on it and plant three sisters into it this year.

The third garden is in a very different state.. its only a third year garden, it was double dug two years ago, it has been well composted two years in a row and its still lacking depth to it. its so sandy and dry in many ways, it needs a lot more compost, it needs peat moss, it needs life, it nettle and comfrey and all the rabbit poo I can spare 🙂

On one side I have raspberry canes that need removal, on the other side edge, I need to move out strawberries and coming up the back end I have a mix of golden rod and wild parsnip to deal with..

So the big garden, eat as it grows, transplant many babies, gift babies and trim back as needed to get it back to full production, while interplanting the annual spaces

The long narrow garden.. heavy duty work load.. needs a total clean out and dig and then heavy feeder crops..  The side garden, a gentle tidy up but it needs a lot of work on the soil itself..

That is the joy of having so many gardens.. each are different, each are at different stages and how they need to be treated changes based on some things in my control and many more not 🙂

What garden do you have your eye on? What is your biggest need for the year? Cleaning it, changing something about it? What is the bigger needs, planting more into it, or is it your soil that you need to feed even more then normal this year for that spot?

I am dreaming of the first rhubarb starting again in about six weeks.. ah.. spring rhubarb..

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Living in the moment

Posted on February 27, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

As my regular readers are aware, I pretty much keep most political things off the blog. Clearly I have a strong leaning towards the way a 1st world “rural Canadian” leans, I believe that we should be able to own our own homes, land.  I show that rural in regards to believing in owning livestock and having the right to home kills and butcher on my own land for my and my families use. I do believe in the right to own rifles, be it for hunting, be it for Humane Livestock life ending or Livestock protection from Wildlife.

I also am personally a pretty firm women’s rights, right to Grow our own food, right to keep our own seeds, right to make your own personal choices as long as they are not hurting others.  I have lived and travelled enough to understand that my culture is just that.. mine,  not that the only or the best..

it’s just how I was raised combined with my life experiences that make me who I am at this moment, and its changed in so many small and sometimes bigger ways over the years!

Never stop learning and always try to understand and respect where other people are coming from if you can.. better even if you can learn new ways of thinking or seeing something..

So this is a touchy subject, I am really hoping to not lose any of my regular readers over this.. I mean if I can lose 5 over a head cheese post..  as a blogger we just need to not take it personal.. but for those who write comments and feel like friends and those that have been long-term readers.. Know that I know its a touchy subject.

So It shook me a bit.. when hubby came home to inform me that he would be taking a “course” in regards to what to do in the work place if there was a shooting event. Now I am not going to go into details on what he learned or how it was taught or anything like that.  I am glad that he took the course because he felt that it was done well and he was given information that made him think about things in a different way.

That’s all well and good but It still bothered me.. I think it’s because in some ways we DO live in a very safe country, but I have still been watching the news where there has been over 20 people who have been shot in the closest city to me since the New Year came in..

I know that the area my hubby works in and the building he works in could be a target and so I am glad they are at least talking about it, and offering information etc.

It got me talking to a friend who is a female that is home alone a lot like myself (or now that mom is here.. two women home alone) and we both looked at each other and had a short moment where we owned up that.. we lock our house when we work in our barns, and that we never go anywhere on the farms without our farm dogs, where we went you got a broom, hockey stick, or ??? by the door, something just placed so in each room..

I have a very pretty walking stick that comes out with me a lot on the farm when I am alone.. but its thick and its hard and hubby and I practise with it.. I hope and pray I will never need it.. but I am still smart enough to greet the stranger in my lane with it in my hand..

It’s a strange world we live in.. In some ways so advanced, in some ways so much safer than it’s ever been and yet in others, not so much.. I hope my hubby never has to use what he learned, I hope I never need to defend myself on the farm. I wish the same for all of you..  may your day, home and life be filled with peace, love and more..

but…. just in case.. be willing to keep an open mind in regards to learning about what you can do to help keep yourself and your loved ones safe.

Posted in Life moves on daily | 17 Comments

Sun Shining.. Bitter Winds.. Change in the air!

Posted on February 26, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

The heater in the living room has been turned off now, the sunlight pouring in the big windows heats it nicely during the day and while it does cool off during the evening, we are not the room at that time..  I love the time of year when I am turning the heaters off..

The sun is drawing us outside onto the deck, mom sits with coffee, while I putter more often then not, slowly edges of tree’s are having melt out, edges of the flower beds are starting and in the front bed, I have some tiny spots of bare soil..  this area is very exciting for me as I have a few really early-early! spring plants in there that love that first heat push of spring.. that is the only bed that has house on the back with full sun, plus the cement step on the side that catches and holds heat.. plus I have heat sink rocks in that bed as well..  Their job is simple.. they are to warm in the sun and then realize the heat back into the bed later in the evening.

I do have a cover for this part of this bed but we are not there yet.. I am thinking that I will be prepping the horse trough early spring garden bed this weekend.  I still have snow up about half way on this at the moment (photo from a different year but so you see what I am talking about) and I will cover it to help heat it up, I pulled out about half the soil last fall and have it in close by under a tarp, because I need to fill up the bottom 2/3rds of this with fresh horse manure and get it started in composting, then I will water it and check the temps to see when I can add soil back on top. I have found it changes year to year on how long that first “hot” compost takes.. I have had it as short as a few days to as long as two weeks at times in the day under the glass. The outside weather makes a huge difference.

I will keep you posted on it, I can see how and why there were able to grow amazing amounts of food in the cities of the past with using the horse poo’s that were collected and used to create hot compost under beds.

From mom’s last six week holiday at the farm 3 years ago

My mom is heading to Alberta next week to have a holiday, she is going to be visiting my brothers, her sisters and of course her dear friends..  I am going to miss having someone coming down the stairs and saying good morning to me.. I know that when she visited me for four to six weeks that it would take me a week or two to get used to not having her here..

I imagine that I will be even more so this time but on the other hand, we are going to be doing some Reno work that we have been holding off on as mom finds it a bit hard when things are ripped apart mode. It should be to long in getting it done but on the other hand, it will be great to get it done before she comes back.

I am sad that she is going to be missing so much of the early spring on the farm, but I understand that she will be leaving to go to Alberta at least once or twice a year and as I well know, there is not point in going for a short time.. you need at least a month to get to see everyone etc. Its so odd that its to it being going the other way.. instead of her coming  to the farm, its her going back out West!

The good part of that is that she will be gone pretty much the whole month of march and I am going to have a bit more time to blog and I am greatly looking forward to doing a Eat from the Pantry Challenge for the month of March..  Its always a lean month and its a eat and figure out holes in my pantry to improve on.

I am going to put my thinking cap on in regards to what else I want to add in during march, I know that I will have time for a fun little project or two for the blog and I am greatly looking forward to it.  I might not start until mom leaves..

 

 

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Soil. Gardening and Food Production

Posted on February 24, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

I hope the above link does work, I am not going to copy and paste parts of it here, its copyrighted but ideally go read it before reading mine.. however if you choose not to, here is the part I want to talk about.

Soil and Calorie crops.. Now I do want to admit that the first post that crossed over my feed was a much more negative write up in regards to his metal sea can’s and their growing systems in the cities and they were talking about the fact that given that they are growing micro-greens and so forth that they are quoted as selling at 2.5 oz at 7 dollars per bag with the cities putting in a million towards this..

I about choked.. if the cities put a million towards community gardens and school gardens at the same rate the amount of food that can and could be produced in across the board is crazy high..  then was the second choke point.. the clear split in the fact that only the upper class could afford to buy these little bags of greens at those prices. Yes it might help teach the how and why’s on the micro green growing and it might be good at teaching how to sell them..  and even give the younger adults in this some basic income..

Then I did more digging, I went digging into other stories on this, I went looking for the positive spin, I wanted to more info and I think the story I have chosen shows a more fair look then most that went all positive or all negative.. it gives the facts but is willing to show the split at the same time.

Then there was the third Choke point that sent me into rant mode at my hubby.. nothing being grown is a calorie dense crop.

I know that many calorie Dense Crops have bad names these days in so many diets But Potato’s, Carrots, turnips, Beets, Cabbage, Corn, Grains, sweet Potato’s, pumpkins and select squashes are point in fact what kept us alive for many generations.  Be it as the extra’s that were used as much as possible for extra food-winter calories or in some cases were what kept the small farm livestock alive that provided the meat, milk or eggs etc.

Its all well and good to grow sprouts, micro greens, herbs an flowers, its well and good to talk about scaling up and finding ways to provide a plate at 5 dollars from locally grown food. Now tell me how many calories are on that plate and where they are coming from.

Its really is good to have systems in school in regards to gardens and teaching food processing in kitchens.. but they are a bit out of touch in some cases, I had a 12 year old tell me that if you did not eat your veggies and fruit fresh, that if you had it dried, canned or in any way processed that it had no value. It was as startling to me to hear as it is when I hear about inner city kids that don’t know what different fresh food looks like as they only eat the processed foods.

BUT I want to see how you plan to grow calorie dense crops without soil.. (or some form of soil, be it compost, sand with extra’s added, peat moss or so forth)

What do you think? What are you seeing your community? Do you see it as a split between the haves and have not’s? Do you see it as a choice between those with land and those without?

I started writing this yesterday (and then the ice storm and power line down went up first today on the blog) and I mulled it over the night.. do I feel this way because I do have land.

Then I got thinking about the things we did in Iqaluit for years where I did not have land or soil per say.. Where we could not compost outside but had house worm compost bins, where I could not grow outside due to the climate and how we grew inside.. how soil was so limited and how we worked around it. How important those fresh greens were to us at that time, when the rest of the time we were eating dried or canned food most of the year when you could not get fresh country food from the local hunters store.

Its a multi layers subject to be sure but I always come back to the same thought.. bottom line.. you need this many Calories each day to live..

 

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Mini Icestorm, power out and flames?

Posted on February 24, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

They had closed the schools and warned us all that we were going to have a messy and icy afternoon yesterday so that at least was expected.. hubby came home from work to tell me that the roads were indeed even in 4 by 4 mode slip an slide.

He also came home to candle light, as we had lost power.. I called the power company to report it and they said.. fixed in by five hours.. ok.. so I heated water for hot tea’s and we had a cold supper out of pantry.. It was all standard at that point..

Then we started chores and hubby came back from the big barn and said.. there are flames in the field next door.. and we both went huh.. so slipping and sliding in our truck we drove up the road by about 300 yards to realize that the power line was down.

It had snapped on the other side the road just past the drive way of the only other farm on our road, we knocked on the house to try and tell them but they were not home but without care, it could have been very bad if they drove out of their lane. The line had also come down on the back half to the field beside ours, it was at the area that we call the running road as its a favorite to ride the horse’s on to the other bigger hay fields.

On our side it was sparking and dancing and just now and again bursting into flames.. Ok then, so back to the house, back to the phone an call the power company to report a DOWN ACTIVE LINE and the response time on that.. mear minutes to pull first one and then two crews to it..

They had it fixed and power back on within a hour of me calling in the down line.. clearly that gets a higher call out then power out does.

Needless to say, it was a interesting evening.. just not in a way we were expecting!

 

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

Maple Syrup and Tapping..

Posted on February 23, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

All week-long I have been watching my local friends on Facebook talking about.. Tapping Should I tap now. I got a small run but the flavour is off or I tapped and nothing is running.

Locally, to the farm the two biggest tapers are working quite differently the one that runs the blue plastic lines is having runs but the other that runs buckets has not even started yet..   I am not seeing buckets out on a number of other local’s either so they like me at waiting a bit yet.

If I am seeing the forecast right for next week, perhaps it would be a good idea to put some taps in this Sunday and see what comes. However nothing wrong with waiting that extra week and being ready to tap for march.

I have not decided if I am going to tap this year or not, you see I do not have a lot of tree’s on the farm.. and where I used to be able to just cross the road and tap, that land got sold a couple years ago and so now if I want to tap in a bigger way, I need to hike-sled in to my six acres of gifted lot down from the farm. Normally this is not that big of a deal, its a nice hike in and out to get to the edge that has the best tree’s that get the morning sun and give the best run.

However with my much more fragile health and with the flooding we are having, I do not have a nice snow pack to sled on, and I am a touch worried about pushing myself in this way.. sometimes it pays off to be honest.. Do I want to put the energy into the home farm or do I want to put that energy into making Maple syrup this year.

I am still mulling but I am leaning toward buying my maple syrup from up the road this year, its supporting a fellow small farmer, its super local, as in I can walk up the road to the farm to my left to get it if I wanted to do so.

On the other hand, I find myself craving maple water which means that I will most likely tap a couple tree’s in my own yard to get enough sap to boil it down half way and drink it as a spring tonic

If you tap, do you also drink the sap or half done sap as a spring health tonic? Do you crave it like I do each spring? Here is hoping to a good maple run this year..

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Spring in 30 days.. hmmm

Posted on February 22, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

What a odd thought that spring is to be here in 30 days..  I am taking my Elderberry and a few other things to help with how I am feeling but I have been hit with the “bug” and I have  been down and out sleeping a lot. I am grateful for both my mom and hubby for covering for me and letting me get that extra rest.

Its made a difference in how hard its effected me so far, I putter, do this and that chore.. rest and repeat.. works well with the extra help..  I also got in a really loved visit with a dear friend a few hours that was wonderful.

I have my breeding pens of birds all done up for the year.. I will look forward to collecting my pure breed eggs and setting them to increase my flock size this year.. Hopefully I will get a few more nice roosters out of the girls.

I looked at my spaces and boy the house is full with my mom moving in and given her lung issues I decided that I would “farm” out my tomato and pepper starts to a local person who has a massive commercial greenhouse and save my much smaller outside seed starting area for other things.. I have ordered a total of 72 plants in a mix of all old heritage tomato’s and peppers. I hope to get side green house built onto the east facing side of the croft this year.

One of the really good things about this year is that we have had lots of deep cold which will help reduce my garden bug population in ways that be a good thing in spring, but the weather has been effecting my worms as well.. they are breeding very slow indeed where as most of the time by end of Feb, they are much more active.

I have the urge to prune, the urge to start seeds and to dig out pots and so forth but its just a touch to early for my Zone 5 area.. the weird weather has me wanting to get started but I am holding myself back.. its winter and I know it yet.

For two days we had a cold steady light rain.. nothing hard, no flooding in my area (but other parts of Ontario were not so lucky, we have had big flooding, we have had homes flooded and people being bused out and most sadly, we had a mom caught in a flood in a car that got her and her toddler out but then lost the toddler to the river.. they are searching for the wee body.. I hope for the parents and family sake that they find him)

We have had very slick roads by the farm, hubby left for work in the 4 by 4 and was not far from us when he found a person slide in the ditch and he stopped and picked him up and took him to his brother in laws to get help.. he said even our truck was slipping and sliding a bit..  he missed his first bus but caught the second.  I love that we live in a area that folks stop for each other and give a hand.

For the farm at least, the rain has melted the ice on the paths but has not been enough to melt the snow pack off the gardens and such. This means that its in fact safer to move around the farm at the moment..

It also uncovered lots of manure.. I swear spring on the farm is mud, more mud and so much poo! Still no new babies to report, just fat expecting momma sheep and goats..  We have had a few rabbit litters that have been used at a young age for raw feeding.

The manure will be dealt with in three ways, some of it will be raked and spread over the pasture, some will be picked up by hand and then put into No Man’s Land where it will compost down and slowly continue to build up that area in height..  and the rest will go into creating the 2018 compost piles for future garden and food forest use.

I think I will use all my rabbit poo from this winter in the food forest this year.. going to bed down around the lines of productive hedge rows.

Are you looking at your compost piles and planning your garden? are you looking at your manure pile growing behind the barn? what you got plans for it this year? If you have rabbit, where are you planning on putting it directly onto.. your flower beds (I did that last year with great results) your climber garden (that was mine two years ago) or ??

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Red Grape Pie

Posted on February 19, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

Red Grape Pie came about because its yummy and those grapes needed to be used up. You see somehow huge awesome seeded grapes came into the house.. and there they sat.. because opps seeded.

So they were not getting eaten and I happened to have “just” enough left over pie dough in the fridge that I wanted to use up.. so Red Grape Pie was calling..

Red Grape Pie

  • 1 bag of grapes (split in half and seeded out if required)
  • half a cup of sugar
  • a quarter cup of flour
  • 1/2 tsp of Salt
  • 1/2 tsp of nutmeg
  • 1 tsp of cinnamon
  • 2 tbsp. of butter into smaller pats

Rinse your grapes and cut in half if big or leave whole if small enough, if you like a wetter pie filling, you can reduce your flour to 2 Table Spoon’s The way its made, the pie holds together but eat grape half bursts with juice as you eat it, this keeps a crispy crust, the wonderful spicy flavour in the thicker filling and the bite of juice in the grape..

Mix your sugar, flour, salt and spices together in a bowl, then pour of the cut grapes and mix together and place in your bottom prepared with pie dough pie plate, add your pats of butter over the top of the pie, then top with crust or make a lattice pattern.

Enough pie dough for top and bottom

Bake at 350 in a pre-heated oven till golden and middle is bubbling.. about 45 min give or take. Can be served warm or cold, plain or with whipped cream or ice cream.

Posted in frugal, pie dough | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments