Canning Round up for April – 2017

Posted on April 30, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

2017  Please note for ease of tracking, I will be rounding everything up or down into pints.. example, if I do 7 quarts of something, it will be written as 14 pints, if I do 8 80z jars it will be written as 4 pints..  you get the idea.. It will make my life so much easier when I am the math each month for a round up this year..  I will try? to keep the page updated on this on the blog directly but will only share this post at the end of the month. It will be both a monthly round up and a running count for the year.

Total Pints to date for 2017- 114 Pints

  • Canning Running List.
    19 pints of Turkey Veggie Barley Soup
    9 pint of rabbit meat
    4 pints of raspberry-Ginger Jam
    6 pints of blood orange marmalade
    3 pints of kumquat marmalade
    4 pints of lime marmalade
    4 pints of Lemon Crown Royal Jelly
    4 pints of Pink Grapefruit and Rose Petal Marmalade
    6 pints of Seville Orange Marmalade
    9 pints of Beet Pickles
    18 pints of Canned Pork
  • 5 pints of plain sweet bread and butter Sunchoke pickles
  • 1 pint of Sweet Bread and Butter Sunchoke and Pepper Pickles
  • 4 pints of Dill Sunchoke Pickles
  • 9 pints of ham bean soup
  • 9 pints of rabbit stew

 

Feb Update
No canning done in Feb – However I used a total of 47 pints from the pantry thoughout the month of Feb. Out of homemade Canned Corn

March Update
March was a lean canning month (which just makes sense when you don’t buy much off the farm)
-9 pints of Pickled Beets
18 pints of ground pork

April Update

Posted in Canning, dry pantry, food, Food in jars, Food Storage | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

CHC Canada 150 Food Blog Challange -Spring Green’s Burger Recipe

Posted on April 30, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

When the Challenge this month for the CHC Canada 150 Food Blog Challenge 2017 was the fresh foods of spring.  I knew that other folks minds would go to asparagus or rhubarb as those are the first foods of spring in the stores.

Here on the farm.. the first spring foods are Burdock Roots and tiny spring greens, Sunchoke Roots, Tigerlily roots and greens, Horse radish Roots and Greens,  Dandelion Greens and Nettles.

With so many wonderful spring foods the issue became how to do I pick and share a recipe with you in this regards. I have decided to share a few basic ones and then maybe one or two that are more homestead 🙂

Farmgal’s Fresh Greens Burger  (with your choice of a wild greens Mayo or Dandelion Mustard)

Spring Greens Burger Recipe..

  • One pd of grass-fed pasture raised beef- 0 mile
  • 2 fresh eggs- Pastured eggs- o mile
  • 2 cups of finely diced greens- Mine was a mix of stinging nettles, horseradish leaves, Danelion baby greens, fresh spring garlic greens, green onions and chives.
  • Half a cup of leftover homemade pasta sauce (or tomato sauce)
  • Salt, Pepper, Seasoning salt,  Worchester sauce to taste
  • This will give you a very firm filling burger, if you want lighter, consider adding bread crumbs or oatmeal.

Mix very well, now you have a couple choices, you can make meatballs, or you can make burgers and grill then or make burgers and bake them or you can turn this into a awesome meatloaf..

To serve, I went and cut a huge handful of fresh horseradish greens, destemmed them, cooked with till Just wilted in a touch of butter, and then mixed them with mayo, with a touch of seasoning salt which was our burger topping, and it was delightful!

This recipe is credited to the late Rose Barlow.. (this recipe comes out of Whitehorse, Yukon)

Dandelion Mustard

1 cup of yelow mustard seeds whole

1 and 1/4th cup apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup of Dandelion syrip or birch syrup or dark grade b maple syrup

1 cup of fresh cleaned dandelion greens pureed, if you don’t have enough dandlion, you can use chickweed or lambs quarters

1/2 cup of Dandelion petals, (make sure to remove the bitter green parts)

4 cloves of galic, finely chopped.. Pinch of sea salt.

Soak the mustard seeds in the apple cider vinager for several hours, then blend with the rest of the ingredents till as smooth as you would like it. Makes about two cups, to keep it for longer in the fridge, its recommended to pour a little olive oil on top to keep it fresh and moist.

 

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Love my second hand shops

Posted on April 29, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

If there is one thing I love about my close circle of friends is that we are all frugal. Not one of us turns our nose up at second hand things. We are all open to things being gifted, things that are coming from second hand shops, from re-hab centers and from farm sales.

While you do need to be careful these days, some of our local second hand shops have over the past few years gone in a bad way..  you must be careful..

Example.. At my local shop (which we call the church basement) a pair of jeans will cost your 2 dollars at their regular price and a full suit(pants, jackets, shirt and tie) will cost you 15.. but they have sales regular.. 2 for 1 or a 1 for all pants or shirts or dresses or whatever for this week and least 4 times a year they do bag sales.. everything you can fit in a large cloth bag for 5 dollars.

However in the bigger towns they have more known shops and in those ones, its not uncommon now to find jeans for 10 to 15 to 30 dollars for labels.. per pair.. which means that if you are shopping them, it only works for you in two ways,  you are fashion aware and you want to wear the 200 dollar pair of jeans an therefor the 30 is a deal..  or you are in fact frugal and you just want a pair of hard wearing jeans and in that case, sadly(and I do mean SADLY) you can get a pair on sale brand new from places like Walmart for cheaper then you can at the second hand shops in the city.

Home reno’s is pretty close to the same. Yesterday, I was able to get a Solid Hard Wood Door with glass that if you ordered it from Home Depo would be a 300 dollar plus door, even without the handle etc and I was able to pick it up for a mear 15 dollars.. A outstanding savings to say the least. Yes I will need to do a touch of work on it, but its so very minor and its all things I can do myself.

But some of the second hand re-hab centers now can have items for sale that can cost as much or more then the new models will if you are careful, look for lot sales, watch for shop events where they offer discounts and so forth.

This happened when I was wanting to replace our toilet for a higher seat for my mom who has had a hip replacement, I found them at the re-hab store but they wanted more then I paid for a brand new one.  So you really need to learn your prices and cherry pick in both ways.

On a side note, the second half of the roof is 90 percent done and I am so pleased.. no leaks at all on the other side either, the attic itself is perfectly dry and looks great, and I was able to reuse the roofing vents as they matched and fit the holes perfectly as they were undamaged when take on and put back on.

It was wonderful news indeed that the roof was in such great shape under what you could see with your eyes. A very good thing indeed.

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Fading.. its a catch-all word for issues with neonatals

Posted on April 26, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

Its a word that gets used by tiny hobby folks, small farmers and big, its something the vets say.. fading

Its something that is muttered with a scowl by those that have been working this life for years.. we say it with a low voice, a tightening in our eyes and a sound of defeat mixed with a edge of anger

Those that are newer, they say it with wider eyes, with heartbreak in their voices and often with tears in their eyes as they share about the “one”

If you are new to homesteading or livestock, Fading is when the baby is born (sometimes in a hard birth, or sometimes in a normal one) and they latch, or drink, they get up on their shaky feet and you get a few hours, a few days or sometimes even a few weeks and then suddenly..

Its all downhill.. a slow, steady  downhill slide..

This is all to fresh for me.. you see I had a fading chick in my hatch.. one of my little wee blue chicks, it hatched like normal, it drank and eat, it slept in the normal way.. then I started watching it.. I started picking it up more.. looking at eyes (clear and bright) I started checking its bottom, clean and dry, I started watching its placement under the heat lamp.. lots of room for it in the sleep circle , I held it while it drank and it helpfully poo’d in my hand.. normal..

And yet, I knew that it was going to be a fading chick, I knew that it was going to die.. because it was not growing.. as the other chicks shot up in size, as they starting their wing tip feathers coming in, as they all made happy chick sounds..

This wee tike was still pretty much the size of a newly hatched, no feathering out.. something in its system was not quite right.. I gave it med drops in its special water, I ground up its feed even finer for ease of eating. It slept hard and for longer, I took it out and made sure it got extra water and soft feedings X times a day with no siblings..  and then after three days of watching it slow down..

I watched it change the way it lay, no longer in the happy chick way but in the I don’t feel well way.

I put it down. I could have waited for it.. but that’s not me.. I will not allow a baby to suffer when I know what is coming.. It could have hung on for a few more days at most. I was soft and gentle with that chick (as was its due and right) cooing words and soft hands and extra care

But when after the chick went into its soft bed, up came the hard eyed farmgal.. the one that growled to her husband.. I don’t think that chick is going to make it..

The one that wrote notes in her book and then stared at the data on the page and the truth it told.. the most telling of all.. the Fading chicks weight vs the healthy chicks weights..

Data does not lie.. its just letters and numbers and there is a truth in them. Its part of the reason that I will start hard tracking when something is having a issue, when I look, I see it with my eyes, when I touch I feel it with my hands and when I am with it, I feel the emotions that go with it all.. the hope’s I have, the desire to make it all better, the drive to just fine a way that correct whatever it is. The urge to say.. I am sure its just a little better.

I am not sure how to end this post.. So I will go with this..

Keep the hope..

Learn how to do support, how to do the medical help you are legally allowed, always feel like you can consult your vet or if in doubt on what it is, bring in the vet (if you have a vet that will do so and its reasonable to do so)

Track your data, it will show you the answer and the patterns and give you hard facts for your vet (and they will love you for it)

Learn where that line is between working to keep alive to get better and working to keep them alive for just another few hours, or a few days.. Don’t let them linger..

Don’t beat yourself up about it.. if you have done the above.. you did your job.. shelter, warmth, bedding, food, water, proper medication and so forth.

Afterwards, take the time to sit with the healthy.. soak it in as a balm.. A reminder of the joy of it going right..

 

 

 

 

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Interesting Read on a “different way” to look at northern food Security

Posted on April 25, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

http://nftinwt.com/the-obsession-with-hydroponics-and-indoor-growing-damages-northern-food-security/

“Our purpose at the Northern Farm Training Institute (NFTI) is to restore food independence and food security to people and communities in Canada’s North. So we are disappointed when we see resources spent in the name of food security constantly going towards food production methods which do not actually provide food security. The obsession with hydroponics, aquaponics, year-round greenhouses, and other types of indoor growing methods is a major barrier to the establishment of food security in Canada’s Northern communities”

**I have been to this area a number of times, when we lived in Yellowknife, NWT, the thing to keep in mind here, is that this area like many others do in fact have soil, do in fact have the ability to grow and crop hay for winter feed.   When you get into the high artic above the tree line, the conditions do change quite a bit, having said that.. most of the area’s in the Yukon, NWT and even many area of Nunavut are in soil and growing area, the truly high Artic area’s are all coast based as fishing and the seal and so forth are their main or where there many sources of food. As one of Canada’s fastest growing population, it is a very good point that is made by NFTI which is when possible, replacing wild hunting with properly selected livestock that can provide eggs, milk, meat as well as wool or hides an so forth is already needed or will be needed. In the past, the size of the tribes was based on what the land could hold..

The point of Calorie Crops are just as important to all homesteaders and those that are striving to grow more and more of their own food and working within a closed loop between small stock, manure and plants is at least to me.. where its at! FG ***

:Genuine food security means that when the ice road is closed, or the airplane can’t fly, the community can still feed itself the staple foods needed for survival and basic health. This means that northern communities need ultra-stable, and local, sources of calorie-rich foods. Understanding this simple concept is essential for understanding the problem with indoor and soil-less growing techniques in the North.

The primary problem with hydroponic systems, aquaponic systems, and almost all indoor growing systems is that they do not provide the calorie rich foods which are needed for food security. The vast majority of these systems produce only vegetables, and especially low-calorie vegetables like lettuce, kale, chard, spinach, herbs, etc. Human beings cannot survive on these types of foods, which is why these projects do not provide food security.

There are only four categories of staple foods which are capable of keeping a human alive for an extended period of time:

  1. Calorie rich root crops (potatoes, onions, turnips, beets, etc.)
  2. Domesticated grain crops (wheat, barley, corn, rice, etc.)
  3. Tree crops (fruits and nuts)
  4. Meat products from animals
  5. Dairy products from animals (milk, cheese, yogurt, etc.)

At the Northern Farm Training Institute we have experimented with all of these types of foods, and we have also learned from the experiences of others in the North.  Please use the link provided above to read the rest of this excellent article..

 

 

 

 

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My love of gardening starts with my grandparents

Posted on April 25, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

Big Brother asked me to track down and find some older photos for him out of my albums and I found some fun ones while on the hunt.. 🙂

So first.. my love of gardens comes from my youth and it was filled with time in the gardens from both my grandparents and my parents. Here are just a few of my grandfathers gardens once they had moved to town.

raspberry rows behind him, o the hours spent picking them is such a memory, those big round bowls that needed to be filled, the fact that us kids went first and we thought we picked well and clean and grandpa could come behind and still fill his bowl with our misses. Then corn, tomato’s, beets, and cabbage.. what I love the most is that its so packed, I never remember seeing soil between the rows and you would move stuff like a wave as you placed your feet so careful if you were picking.That bare space would have been replanted into something to grow next and grandma did love her flowers at the front. Such great memories tied to these photos.

Speaking of learning to love things when you are young..  As this was taken in 1978, that makes me five coming six and that is me riding June my mom’s heart horse, while Big Brother is on our shared pony Turp, he was the best kids horse. I don’t remember having a saddle much, but then again, I don’t remember having bridles much lol.. Pleasure riding was done bare back from childhood until my 20’s.

Once I started longer trail ride’s and or working ridings or working barrels etc, the saddle came out but there was no saddle that would fit the work horse’s and so I rode them bareback (we had no draft saddle that I remember) My mom teased me about the fact even when I was little, I was still riding the biggest horse, which is true, as there are photos of me from age 5 and up riding the riding horses and the draft team..

I think its because I liked the steady ride, where as Big Brother loved the scooting around on the pony.. he used to be able to hang off him in crazy ways at a full gallop.. I was a steady walk girl even back then, and still am.. if you say.. want to race, I go.. eh..

If you say, want to trail ride in bush for a couple hours, I am like O ya!

and on the flip side 🙂 I had a laugh when I found my “glamour” shots..  What color is your favorite?

 

 

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Powering Your Doomstead On Apocalyptic Guinea Pigs.

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

Very interesting overview of a eco-farm, raising little pigs, permaculture and creating their own bio-energy.. Worth the read. Tons of photos and a great personal overview.

Ps, don’t let the title throw you off on this one..

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Jayda -Pretty little goat kid

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

Jayda is growing nicely, she is a share milk goatling, she is with her mother all day and has her own box in the pen to sleep in at night, they sleep side by side often so her mom can be morning milked.

She is big enough that sooner then later she will be weaned but in truth I like the freedom of once a day milking. As you can see, she like her mother and father have been allowed to keep her horns.

She is a sturdy girl, great bone, nice body length, proper treat placement and I think a pretty color, she has a outgoing, active temperament. Well please with her

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Coltsfoot: Harbinger of Spring, Medicinal Plant or Aggressive Weed?

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

What a great overview of Coltsfoot.. I am on the medical side and collect a years supply for drying each spring. I had been careful and never moved any to the farm, preferring to wild forage it, but I think I might have to dig a dozen this spring and move it onto my own land to make sure it stays easily available to me.

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Support Local- Fresh Maple Syrup

Posted on April 22, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

While the local maple syrup season was a challenge and without a doubt one of the poorest I have had on the farm. Just up the road from me is a different zone and while he had a very short season, he did get one..

I love the little signs in the driveways.. handmade and hand painted.. Fresh eggs, Maple Syrup, Honey, Fire Wood for sale..

When you don’t get your own, support local, when you can support local to the point of a five min walk or a nice short horse back ride even better. Its amazing to me how over the years I have found so many small second business within 30 mins give or take around the farm.

This years crop of maple syrup is dark and rich, a fine blend indeed and I bought a years supply of it off Farmer M.. You can see it in the little bowl.. what amazing color, what outstanding flavour.. he got the best run over five days inbetween two major cold snaps.

We had our first meal with it, other then dipping in fingers to the little bowl to try it when it came home.. I had some older bread to use up and French Toast made with sheep’s milk, farm fresh eggs, cinnamon and a touch of nutmeg with butter and fresh local maple syrup hit the spot for supper (don’t you just love having breakfast dinners sometimes)

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