Rolled, Stuffed Bear Roast with reduction sauce.

Posted on June 24, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

Honestly how can you go wrong with rolled, stuffed, bacon wrapped roast..  It pretty hard to mess this one up..

Take your flat steaks or if you are using a roast, butterfly it into two equal portions and flatten them with the help of a meat tenderizer if you can or in our case, a hammer (it was a hunt camp.. use what you have LOL)

Make a homemade stuffing or a box one.. our homemade one was made with celery, onions, multi-grain bread, and salt, pepper, and Poulty seasoning blend, with butter. the extra was baked in a dish of its own to be served on the side.

Layer your meat down and then cover with stuffing, leaving a edge and then roll them together, and in this case as we were feeding three, I tied small to the ends and tied it into three lovely thick cuts..  it was a small roast and it took five slices of bacon wrapped around and into its tinfoil home, at 350 at 20 min per pound for a total of a hour.

The tinfoil was opened up for the last five min to help crisp the bacon.

Then the roast was taken out and allowed to rest for two min while the juices where put into a pan, with more butter and a touch of cream, the meat was then sliced at the twine lines and given one min on each side in the fry pan and then lifted out to the plates and the reduction was drizzled equally over all three just before serving..

This was served with roasted root veggies and whole roasted garlic head and the extra stuffing..  A outstanding way to introduce someone to bear..

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Cracked Salt an Pepper Bear Bite’s Appetizer Recipe

Posted on June 23, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

Sorry about the touch Blurry Photo’s, Thought I had gotten it and no going back after it was all gone in about three minutes.

While I do understand that not that many folks have access to black bear meat (world-wide) but there is a thriving population and there are currently both spring and fall hunt tags available in Ontario..  You will remember the last time I had bear was at Big Brothers a number of years back.

So when I got asked if I would like a bear roast one night while I was up, I was all.. YES, please.. but in the end we re-worked the roast into appetizers, a flattened rolled-stuffed and bacon wrapped roast and two potions of stew or BBQ stick meat..

All fixin’s were done by my host but I will own that I took lead on the bear recipes, I make a Beef Version of this that Dear Hubby adores and if you don’t have dark Wild Game Meat (Bear,  Moose, Elk, or Canadian Goose Breast Meat) Beef will get the job done 🙂

Take half a pound of a solid piece of meat, Take off any silver skin, an bits of fat.. This can be a off-cut to point.. it does not need to a prime bit..  Once you have your cleaned meat, cut it into small cubes, you might lose a touch of bits that can go for ground or for stew but you need these pieces to be as close to even in cubes and in size as possible.

Now if you have not aged your meat before you processed it, then this step is very important, in a clean bowl.. let this meat rest for at least 15 min.. 30 is better, and come up in temp, you do not! want to cook this with cold or heaven help you chilled meat.. your meat needs to come up to room temp and be given enough time to relax at it.

In the bowl, you are going to crack at least a tsp of cracked salt and pepper over the meat and put 1 tbsp. of corn starch and mix it together till the meat is all coated, if anything sticks together, add a touch more corn starch.. each piece should be dry to the touch when you are done.

In a deep bottomed high sided pot or deep fryer, pre-heat your oil at med-high, your pot must be large enough so the meat is not really touching each other to much and that its all going to go in a single layer, otherwise the temp will drop to much on the fat and it will not turn out as well as it could.

So carefully lower each piece into the oil but do it as quickly as safety will allow, give each piece at last 20 to 30 seconds and then carefully, go in with your tool and make sure they all will lift off the bottom or shake your tray if using a fryer so they unstick..

It will take around 90 to 120 seconds of cook time an they will be golden brown.. lift and place the pieces on paper towel or a clean cloth towel to drain the fat off and then put on your plate, give one more tiny crack of salt and pepper over them.

Serve hot an you can serve with Ranch dipping sauce if you like.

These got a 5 Star rating from my hosts!

If you cut the meat cubes, twice the size and then flatten them with gentle careful whack of the rolling pin, and prepare and cook them the same way, but serve them with stirfry veggies and rice on the side, it will be a outstanding homemade Chinese supper..

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Friends, Fire’s, Trails, and Lakes.. The hunting camp was calling!

Posted on June 23, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

I was blessed to be invited out to a dear friends place for a couple days (Huge Thank-you to Hubby and my farm helpers for working with me to give me a break!) and I had a outstanding time! Their hunt camp and land is just the most amazing place.. Hours on the Quads, Found some Chaga to bring home, lots of laughs, tons of amazing food (recipes coming on next post) and outstanding fires.

 

Posted in Life moves on daily | 1 Comment

Monday This and That post..

Posted on June 19, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

Good Morning Folks

What a crazy awesome busy week, Dear Hubby took the week off his office job and we went to work on the farm giving 110 percent..  We were up early each morning, crashing into bed early tired but content. We also started on our next Reno project, we are replacing one outside door, rebuilding the framing, reworking our deck to a point and re-doing the flooring at the entrance, taking it from lino that matches the dining room and kitchen and taking it to tile.

The last huge push in the gardens were done, now we are just in mop up mode with replanting and fall planting in Aug, otherwise, the planting is at 90 plus percent done. In fact, we were also in weeding mode, putting beans up the fencing and so forth. The strawberries are starting to come in, hundreds more are growing.. Boards are down to help collect the slugs daily and they are being feed to the ducks.

We had one good day of rain on weds which everyone loved, gardens, pastures and a refill off all the water barrels and so forth.. It was just misting at one point and I snapped a long distance photo of the flock grazing and when the auto program tried to clean it up, I got the below photo.. I love it, it looks like a painting to me..

The sheep are loving that they are out grazing daily for six hours on the pastures but sadly we lost our smallest lamb to a coy-wolf Bold as Brass, in full daylight hours with my horse’s on guard..  Hunting Camera’s have gone up, and protective measures are in place and the weaned lambs are only going to be allowed to graze in the “corral” pasture unless I am right there outside with the hounds.

So I have made the choice that I am going back to Hair Sheep only (other than Maude, she is awesome and gets to stay despite being a full woolie) so I sold both wool Rams, two wool ewe and butchered two more woollies past week.  I have put a reserve on a new lovely Hair sheep ram lamb that will join the farm.

This leaves me with only six Pure Hair Sheep Ewe’s with One Wool Ewe, plus three ewe hoggat girls that will butcher out this fall, plus my lambs.. seven of the lambs are already reserved for this fall’s butcher.

I have been canning every day this week..  I now have five kinds of mixed fruit with rhubarb, plus 4 batch of Rhubarb Juice canned up as well as lots of new Pasta Sauce. In total, close to hundred pints were processed this week and put into the cellar pantry. This went a long way to cleaning up the freezer from anything left over from last year.

I have only four of my 30 plants of rhubarb left to pick, and I am thinking of putting up some strawberry rhubarb pies in the raw form and freezing them for easy pulling and baking off as needed over the summer months.  Otherwise the plants will need to grow and recover from this major spring harvest..  so far I have harvested 234 pounds to date..  Some of it went to other folks for their use, but most of it went into our Pantry.

The dryer has been running non-stop, I have put up mint for tea, nettle for pot herb, and everything was finally all ready for harvest this week so I have been making a different Batch of Green Salve daily.

I have made a Heat Rash Salve, A wound Salve, an inflammation – bug bite or plant itch be gone Salve, Green Salve #4 and of a new “Dry Skin Be gone” Salve and a Sore muscle Salve..   The salve below is freshly poured, it set up into a nice light firm Salve.

As it turned out, I also needed to process some of my local raw beeswax to clean it up so that it could be used for the salves and balms.

We did get off the farm for a small trips.. one to the church basement wear I found these lovely huge and long curtains that fit my massive living room windows for a dollar each, I have a heavy thick-set for winter, but now I have a light summer set and it so matches my wall color 🙂

Otherwise, we were home on the farm, we washed walls, we cleaned pens, we trimmed sheep and goat feet, we gardened, planted, mowed, put the older grow out rabbits into pasture based tractors, we worked on our deck, and did repairs on this and that.

Well, you are caught up and I need to get back to my morning chores, I have canning on the go to get it done before the heat really hits, and its a double duty day, hubby left before 6 am and will not be home tonight till 9 or 10 pm..

I might get all my chores done an then slip away to the river for a spot of fishing and maybe a swim to cool off. We will see..

I had better get to it.. I am burning Daylight 🙂

 

 

 

 

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Freezer Spring Checkups- Counting is Bee’s Knees LOL

Posted on June 13, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

I have talked to friends that tell me that their freezers are pretty empty in the spring, and so they don’t need to do this much.. I have talked to other friends that don’t have clue what is even in their freezers, they only eat the top third that gets used and then replaced..

And then there are farmer friends that like me, run two or three freezers and slowly work to empty and shut down freezers as things get used up.. cleaning, leaving them open and wiped down with vinegar (me) or bleach them.

If you are on-grid a chest freezer is worth its weight, even a smaller apartment sized one will give you massive savings and with a pretty table cloth over it, can be used as a extra table, put baskets one it so that you just easily move the baskets and the cloth and now your useful top space allows easy access to your freezer.

Your freezer can be used as a ice chest if needed, I had a extra empty good size chest freezer that when I butcher in this spring heat, that I put pre-frozen blocks of ice or frozen 2 liter pop-bottles in and it keeps the meat chilled, giving me a very safe way to keep it at proper temps while I take a single quart or piece out to process, cut and wrap. If I had not had that choice, I would have had real problems keeping the beef or lamb meat cold enough till I can get it all done. Where there is a will, there is a way..

My big outside freezer is pretty empty, (or it was, its filling up now) but I had a good handle on what was in it.. its a meat only freezer, making and keeping things simple. When I do farm gate sales,  they are placed in this freezer only, different freezer, different building..  Its just worth that extra step to keep farmgate meats away from personal use meats.

However because we have no plans at this time do any sales, we are using it for our own use right now. The house freezer had a full count done on it.. and there was some waste.. In fact I had “lost” about 8 full bags of green beans to freezer burn.. the pig loved them.. me not so much..

I also found bits and bob’s of this and that fruit.. all small amounts, and it will be used in the rhubarb fruit mixes..  (can you believe it, hubby is weeding the strawberry beds and the first red strawberry of the year came into day June 13th.. many, many more coming!)

I shook my head when I found 23 6 cup bags of frozen tomato sauce that needed to still be processed and canned up..  Yesterday I did a batch and today, the last of it is on the go..

All done now , they processed out in batches of 8 bags to make a pint finished per bag and they opened up enough room for 2 deboned, processed yearling sheep..  very nice indeed.

So if you have done it already.. time to pull everything out of your freezer or freezers, do a full count on what you have left so you have a true look at where you are at in regards to what you are coming into 2017 with..

If you have done it right, you will have a goodly amount.. and by that I mean that if suddenly this year you got nothing coming in, that you would have enough.. as a farmer, we need to always be planning for a failure year.. which means everything needs to be planned for a min of a two year plan.. Three is better.. but considering that most folks today only have enough for 3 weeks, I will pat you on the back if you have a year worth, if you are planning, working, planting, harvesting and working for a full 2 years.. then I am thrilled for you.. and if you have the basic’s for 3 years, with all the other things in the works.. then I am so giving you the gold star!

My pantry is next.. I know what I planted, I know what I want to put up.. now its time to get that fully updated canning and drying pantry counted out so I know just what I need, as harvests come in, I will be able to see if I need to buy or not to fill the gap or if I have more of something else that can fill that gap.

How is your planting going in your gardens? How is your pantry holding up? Do you have your lists? Have you done your counts..

Live example, we use two 12 pound buckets of local sour cherries to put up my cherry sauce, my cherry pie filling and my cherry jam..

A) all three of my cherry tree’s are looking great and its quite possible that I might have more cherries produced on the farm this year.. in which case.. awesome.. good to go..

But if not.. then I know that I need 22 pounds of cherries for my normal put up..

Here is the trick.. I have to do the pantry count.. because I like to keep a mine of two year stock up.. I need to do my jar counts to figure out.. do I need 22 pounds for a one year refill or do I need 44 pounds to make sure we have the full 2 year put up?

However if the tree’s produce 65 pounds, then I would be either a) putting up three years worth, or I will need to adjust something else to put up less of it. Its a Balancing act and its always in flux..

 

 

 

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Canning Rhubarb Juice (Mock Pink Lemonade #2)

Posted on June 12, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

My dear hubby and my testers all agree, that the cooked, strained rhubarb tastes like rhubarb juice but everyone says that the stream processed takes like a wonderful Pink Lemonade version of it.

I have to admit that its delightful but I will agree that its not strongly “rhubarb”. I have got it down to pretty much figured out that with this springs rhubarb its a pound to a pint of finished product.

The cooked leftover is being dried, then ground into both fiber and flavour for baking, it dries down quite well because its had so much of the moisture already removed. Its my home grown zero mile bran to increase the fiber counts 🙂

You know how folks buy those tiny little cups of flavoured apple sauce.. well I am doing versions of Rhubarb Fruit mixes in pints for hubby to take for work over the coming year.. Vanilla Rhubarb, Rhubarb Mixed Fruit, Rhubarb and Strawberry (when they are ready) and Rhubarb and Rasberry and so forth.

I am working with ten pounds of rhubarb and 4 pounds of other fruit plus sugar and it works out to 12 pints of finished jars.

I has so surprised at the store, I had to take a picture of it.. clearly I am under valuing my rhubarb based on what I say the local farmer girls offering theirs for per pound.. wow.. 5 per pound on sale at a dollar off..

 

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Bullwinkle Cost Breakdowns and Return rate.

Posted on June 10, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

Total returns on BullWinkle

340 pds out of a approx. live weight of between 600 to 700 pounds

228 pounds of prime cuts, steaks, roasts and stew meat- Averaged it out to ten** – 2, 280

118 pounds in organs, meaty bones and dog food trim- Local average rate of 5 dollars a pound -590

** I looked at all four local flyers and the burger is sitting right around 6 per pound, the stew is at 8 to 9 depending on the store and all steaks, roasts and so forth are at 10.99 or higher.. ouch.. how are people affording beef these days?

**** http://grazingdays.ca/grass-fed-beef/buy-our-beef/

I then went to a few sites to get a feel for the local farmers market prices and or CSA shares. The one linked above is pretty standard.. at least 10 dollars per pound, and that is 50% burger and two pounds of steaks and one 2 to 3 pound roast per ten pounds, for a total of 8 box’s or 80 pounds for 900.

So I have decided to price mine at 10, which still brings me under what it should be as I have no burger, just steaks, roasts and stew in this amount.

Bullwinkle came in around 680 give or take on the weight tape, which can go 12 pounds either way. It cost me 2.93 cents to buy, raise and process him per pound. That is a massive savings and in truth puts me pretty much in line with the cost of my other calves I have raised and Its the home butcher and kept it in line with the rest.

Marty Costs

The last time we brought home beef it was a full grown cow and she gave us a lot of beef! Glenda costs were a touch under Marty’s Costs as well..

Bullwinkle -$200.00 **
Milk replacer-$120
Feed-$168.00
Baking Soda- $2
Hay-$400.00
Bedding-$80
Butcher fee’s -(home butcher – 26 for a roll of wrapping paper and 1.99 for my freezer tape)

Total costs -997.99

** I bought Bullwinkle as a just coming one week old calf, he was very well started on his milk and baby ration and he was always a good eater.

So total “replacement Value at local market prices would approx. 2.870

We put out cash wise 998 ( I rounded up)

So We are in the good on Bullwinkle by 1872

which means we averaged out at 2.93 per pound, this is outstanding return value for our hard work an so worth ir.

I will hold off getting a new week old calf till next spring and I will see what the year brings but I am hoping to be able to buy and put up extra small square bales of hay to have extra tucked away so I have a bit more cushion if needed.

 

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Bullwinkle – Another Choice made due to the weather..

Posted on June 9, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

Bullwinkle was a lovely calf last year and a very active almost to friendly Yearling this spring. (yes, he pulled his tag right out of his ear, thankfully it was found, that is why his ear looks like that) I had stopped by my hay farmer and we had a chat, he needed to know how many big bales of hay I would need for the month of june.

Ideally I need six bales (that is the min) and normally, the farmers around here would be cutting hay and there are a few that are doing silage and are cutting wet and green in small amounts to feed their livestock.

My farmer had been out on the highest and driest field two days ago and only did a certain amount of cutting before having to stop due to equipment sinking into the ground, the hay that was cut is super wet and was heavy enough that it was giving clogging issues..

I have cut down sheep last month after I got the “talk” that we would not have hay cut until june.. Yesterday, I was informed that if we don’t get some dry days with some heat and such, that we are not likely to get our first cut off that I can use as dried hay till july..

wow.. July..  so farm Helper #1 came over to give me a helping hand and we spent the day doing the kill, skin, gutting and bury of non-people or dog parts. By the end of yesterday, I was stick a fork in me done tired, we had four quarters, a huge meaty neck, loins and organs (heart and liver) all cleaned and either in the fridge or in a extra smaller chest freezer we have that has blocks of ice and loose ice in it acting as a clean “fridge” area.

I will do weights for human meat but I am not doing weights on what I am using as dog food, which means that my stats will be off in the finished post but not by much.  I had really hoped to keep him till the normal time which would have been late fall.

It will make a big difference to our daily hay needs, I can feed six ewes or the whole herd of weaned lambs for the same amount of hay that Bullwinkle was eating.

Well, I had better wrap up this post, finish my coffee and go grab myself my first quarter and get my day of trimming, cutting, deboning and wrapping meat for the freezer and or for the fridge that will be going to the canner.

 

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So many Baby Bunnies!

Posted on June 7, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

The Rabbit Momma’s have been hopping to it over the past few days..

Litter #1 -13 kits, all Black and White Pointed. Tones of hair pulled and at the back corner like she likes to do..

Litter #2 – 9 Kits -First time mom, this one is a mix of black, grey and broken with white kits, she had them in a very loose nest but they all have full bellies.

Litter #3-8 kits, Solid Blacks, Solid “grey” and Broken Black and Grey’s, she had them in a tighter nest, not nearly as much hair pulling but they are content little poppers and all have good full bellies, she made a high berm of hay around them and clearly means it.. you just stay in there lol More Broken with white colors in this litter then in the other one.

Litter #4 I almost thought I had somehow messed up my photo taking but I knew I had not.. I was tempted to go back out and move a kit around or two.. and then thought.. nah.. so 9 kits, most of them broken with white, some black, no grey that I could find in this one..  this mother is a littermate sister to litter #2 and has the same male.. her sister’s litter and her own in these photo’s appear so close to each other its crazy, same longer line style.. but I will give you my word, another nine kits and as they get a bit bigger, more and better photos will be coming!

So over three days we had 39 kits born, and 9 weaned into grow out pens. While I am very happy with my girls, I will let them raise the kits for a few weeks before I think about breeding them back again. I thought I would for these four only, do a full track out on them for costs, as I have not done that for a while and because three of the four girls are new to the farm and I want to track growth rates and end results etc.

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Aftermath of the flooding.. Plans and lots of them.

Posted on June 6, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

As you know my area was hit with drought last year and flooding this year.. now flooding is not new at all in my neck of the woods, there is a reason I do not have to worry about any building close to me.. trust me they would never get a permit for the farm land around my own farm.. thankfully its several hundred acres of farmland.

As other’s flooded out and I took pretty photos of swollen flooded creeks and the local river took docks and pushed the water higher and higher and while 30 min away, hundreds on both sides of the river had water flood their homes up and down the river.

The truth as I said to those that asked, was our farm was good. The water never even came into our pastures, let alone the gardens, barns or outbuildings and it didn’t get close to the house..

But the sump pump ran none stop.. and if I lost power, I will be the first to admit that we would have had basement flooding.. it would have not done much damage as that basement is designed for the flooding, it had to be before they could run the sump pumps back in the day. I would have to have 4 feet of water in there before it could be a full issue, and so far in the history of the house.. never happened.. the older gentleman that was born and raised in the house now in his 60’s says they never had more than a foot at the worst.. even on the worst flooding years..  Good to know.. Good to know.

The pig wallows, the pond and the grading we have done on the farm since we got here made a massive difference on how the water moved, it did what it was to do.. slow it down, the fact that the water moving off the roofs went though the rain barrels, then drained out to planned watering zones before moving to join the swells to finally flow off the land meant that it did not digging, it did no ditches.

The fact that this has happened enough that I have a back area for dryland garden planting and that I have much higher totally different built garden area on the farm for wet spring garden planting and growing is awesome..  you could not more plant in my dryland right now.. it’s so wet anything you put in would rot, but in my wet garden its jungle lush and the food is flowing in already and will for months to come.

The biggest issue that I have found is HAY, which has led to more work in terms of both grain fodder growing (it’s a lot easier to store a year’s worth of grain to turn into fodder then it is to store a years worth of hay) Protein sources programs are in full training, fly’s buckets, BSF larva, Mealworms, Red Wigglers and Comfrey are all in play.

I had talked about the earthen berm that runs across the back-end of the pasture butting up against the garden area before the grade up to the house itself.. I have full plans to raise it and I have decided to create the same thing with swells’ and graded slope on the front pasture. It’s a longer term project to be sure but will be well worth the work (for the first bigger push, I will bring in a small backhoe and get that first layer put into place) and then I will do the rest with human or critter power.

I already keep supplies on hand to both shock the well (which any well owner should be doing anyway) but it was pointed out to me by a doctor that asked if I had tested my well since the flooding, truth was no.. because my well never got over run with water over the top, I didn’t and still don’t believe it an issue, I guess I had better take advantage of my free water testing again and see if I am right?

On the back-end of things, while we have things in place for getting clean drinking water for ourselves and the household use.. it got me to thinking about the critters? Do I need to have some way to clean larger amounts of water if needed? Something to mull over..

Because let me tell ya folks.. this weather.. this hot, O my goodness so hot, need to have a garden area planned and prepped for shade so that you can grow food for the year is need, even if that means you need to buy shade cloths to put up if you don’t have the land I do.. that drought time.. ya.. it’s going to come again.. and you will need to adjust not just the gardening but even consider like I did looking at livestock and figuring out how to get the most bang for your buck meat wise, calorie wise for the amount of water output..

Its right there that you go.. ok, so I can have a small chicken flock (eggs, meat and feathers and compost) with a small rabbit herd (hide, meat, cold poo) and a tiny herd of sheep (milk, meat and hide or wool) and a couple good farm hunting cats for the same amount of water that one single calf will use daily..

When the well is working and water is flowing.. not an issue.. but when water is tight, honestly, you will need to change your breeding programs for your farmstead needs.

And the floods.. well the floods are going to be coming again, the heavy rains will come, look not just to our local woods where the 100 year floods are now coming not every 50 or even 20 but the one local area now says the ten-year floods!

As we found out the hard way locally, the local rivers all might be controlled by dams and waterways but when it comes to backing up them and or risking damage to them, the governments made the choice to open them up and let the water run and if you, your home are in the way.. their answer was simple.. leave. get out.. it’s coming and it will do the damage it will do..

The amount of mudslides do to heavy rainfall and the damage and deaths we are seeing is rising every year..  I know, I know.. not a happy subject.. and if you want, just shake your head and sigh and go.. I know Farmgal, I know.. climate change!

But lets bring it back to our lives, our homestead’s, and what we can control.. you are in control of if you always plant a in ground garden or if you plan to have one or two raised beds as well, (both will grow for you on an average year) but if you count on your own food, the raised bed will be the winner on a rain year.. you are in control of looking at your land and figuring out how to get water to run around your home, your barn and so forth in a way that will limit or control the damage done. You have the ability to look into ways to modify your home to prevent water damage if it did happen.

We have more knowledge at our finger tips at this time and place than any other has ever had.. someone, somewhere in some culture has figured out how to make this happen.. they know how to create it, plan it, grow it and live it..  we just need to be willing to a) find it b) put some time, effort and money into it to make it and prove it! c) Plan for the worst and then live each day like it’s the gift it is!

Better to have the plan, Better to work the plan.. better to never need the plan then to not have it!

 

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