First real frost

We had our first real frost this morning so I need to note this for my records. While we did have a few cold morning and a kinda-frost earlier... this one really hit the mark.

These zinnias have been beautiful all fall... I think they are done now.

Yep. It's a real frost.

Yesterday, while Nicholas was breaking the mower, I was hard at work cleaning up the garden. My only regret was that I forgot about a few tomatoes.

I should have taken these into the house. 

The celery got a little frosty.

I covered up the celery that was still in the garden. But when I checked this morning I saw that some of the cover had blown off... so I hope these guys are OK.

The weather guys are all hopping around talking about how we might get some snow this weekend so it looks like we'll be in hibernation mode soon.  We've been working on getting some firewood but we need to get it stacked up near the house.

Happy Thursday everyone! Did you get a frost?

I might have dinged up the mower.....

Yeah so... I might have dinged up the mower pretty good.... The blade is not supposed to bend that way...

 

 I am the reason we don't have nice things. 

If I can't bang that blade back into shape then I might need a plausible reason why Nicholas was up in the garden using my mower to bushwack those tall weeds. I am not going down for this alone.

 Note: This is what Nicholas does all day. 

Wish me luck, friends. I gotta go find the big hammer.

Happy Wednesday everyone! Are you working on garden clean up and blaming your cat for ruining every piece of machine powered equipment you have?

Turning a light on in the hen house

I wanted to note that we finally had to break down and put a light in the hen house. Many of our chickens are older and so they don't lay everyday anyway. But now with the Big Dark rapidly approaching all of those silly hennies are on strike.

These two. 

We are on our second bag of layer mash also. Some of the gals are having a molt so not only are they unproductive... but they are very very ugly. Poor old gals.

So, shouldn't we just cull the older ones? Yeah. But I love my old biddies. And that's "biddies" and not our Bitty.

I just love my older hens and the way we see it they aren't much trouble at all. Except for the recent layer mash purchases mostly the gals free range anyway - so there is very little expense. Many of our gals have put in their time, laid a lot of eggs, raised a clutch of chicks, or are just so darn cute.

Hands down, the chickens are the best thing about my farming day. I wouldn't miss the goats at all but I would be very lonely without my flock following me around all day, clucking and scolding, and wondering what I was doing.

Is this efficient? Nope. Effective? Nope. But part of this life is really enjoying it. So we do and our older hennies can stay. Next spring we'll bring in some new gals but for now we will just be glad for our old biddies. And hope they start laying again.

Happy Tuesday everyone! Do you have a light on in the hen house?

Three things I hate about fall.

It's true. I don't like fall. At all. Not a bit. Sure I love the cool temps and the crisp, dry air... but that's where my affection ends.

This. What is this about? They are everywhere.

I like my leaves on the trees, the sun warm, and the growing season in full swing. Here are just 3 things that I hate about fall:

1. Those sticky seed thingys. They are everywhere. We are plagued by them. I've even given up on picking the seeds off a few articles of clothing and just thrown them away. I'm covered with them and so are the dogs. We drag so many into the house that the inside cats have them too. Enough!

2. Those weird ladybugs that get in the house. What is with that? They are weird and kinda stinky. And they really bug me. They should be outside enjoying summer not trying to hibernate in the house. But they don't really do any harm so I'll just stand here and glare at them. You can read more about the whole thing here.

3. The stupid time change. Apparently daylight savings time ends on Nov. 2nd and I've already started being mad about it. What the heck, man? It's going to be dark so early. No one likes that! Even Russia got rid of their time change. The whole thing is ridiculous. I think they should pick one and just stick with it. 

This whole fall thing has given me the grumps.

I'm going to start out the day in 2 layers of sweats and a hat. By mid-chores I'll toss my hat on the steps by the door, and end as the day goes along I'll strip off more layers until I'm in shorts and a tshirt and squinting because the sun will perpetually be in my eyes all afternoon. Stupid fall.

Happy Monday everyone! Anyone else have the grumps?

Bitty. And the weather.

We can't turn our back on Bitty.....

She is always into something. I should not have left the cupboard open.

But seeing our littlest cat, Bitty,  cuddling up with our biggest cat - Nicholas - now that... that was something we did not expect!

Our Itty Bitty is such a small fry next to our Large and In Charge Nicholas. She looks like a toy.

I'm jotting down my notes about the weather. Altho we've had some cool mornings - like today with our 35* temps... it seems like we will have a burst of warm weather. Mid-week we will be about 75-80*.... and then they are expecting our first hard freeze next weekend. We have some work to do outside so we will be hurrying to get it done.

It's always weird this time of year - you never know when that last "good" day is going to happen.  Last year at this time we had our first snow. I don't think that snow is in the forcecast.... but this could be it for our lovely sunny days.

Happy Sunday everyone! Warm? Cold? Indian summer or frozen morning?

How to make Apple Crisp

We love apple season because we love to make a lot of apple crisp. This is so easy to make - and it's a breakfast food. And dessert. And it's perfect for elevensies. Or snacks. Or dinner.

Served warm and swimming in a bowl of cream.

We were lucky that someone we know invited us to come and pick up the last of their apples. They expected us to just throw these "bad" apples to the pigz. Are you kidding? Some of these were perfect - except for a few spots. But if you are going to peel the apples anyway - what's the difference if they are "perfect" or "spotty?"

 My spotty apples. These are Wolf River and Grimes Golden apples - both heritage varieties.

I just peel and cut up the apples until I fill the pan. 

Oatmeal layer - it cooks in the apple juices. Yum!

Then I add a couple of layers. I like a lot of oatmeal - real, old fashioned oatmeal not the quick cooking kind. I add a generous layer of oatmeal right onto the apples trying to get some of it down between the fruit.

Crumble topping - ratios of about a third each of butter, sugar, and flour.

Then I make the crumble topping. I just eyeball the measurements, but I use a ratio of about a third each of flour, brown sugar, and butter. I use this little mini chopper to mix it all up until it's gravelly.

Sprinkle the topping on top.

Then you might as well add some butter to the top also.

But here is the key to a perfect apple crisp - cook it low and slow. I use a 325* oven for at least an hour or until the apples are bubbling. If the topping is getting too brown then just loosely cover with foil.

That's all there is to it. We got another round of "bad" apples so today I'll be making another apple crisp.

Happy Friday everyone! Are you enjoying apple season?

Beetin' up eggs

Last nite, after a lot of brussel sprouts, blue cheese, and red wine... it occurred to me that I have not recently adequately expressed my love of  beets. You can't beat beets, that is for sure. But the next best thing to beets is - beet pickled eggs. Yep. It's a thing.

Aren't they lovely?

I've already finished off one jar of beets and I had all of this lovely pickled beet juice. I couldn't let it go to waste - and then one of my pals reminded me about pickled hard cooked eggs. Ever since I learned of the miracle of steamed eggs I've been using a lot of had cooked eggs. So I fired up the steamer and make myself some pickled eggs. 

No really, aren't they just beautiful?

I love pickled eggs in salads. I love beets in salads. I love that the salad turns pink when you use beets.

 Seriously, isn't this the greatest thing?

I have a few more hard cooked eggs marinating in beet juice. My next step is to make deviled eggs out of the beet pickled eggs. I can't wait.

Happy Thursday everyone! Do you love beets? How about pickled eggs? How could you not?

Making bacon and pancetta - how-to's!

Recently a couple of people have asked me about making bacon. So I'll throw out a few links on how to make bacon at home.

Bacon. That dream within a dream...

Can you make bacon at home? Sure! All you need is time, a fresh pork belly, a cure, and a few tools. Mostly making bacon just sounds intimidating. There are several steps that make the process long - a week or more. Then you have to smoke the bacon which isn't tricky but you need a smoker and time to do it.

If you don't have a smoker you can make a non-smoked version of bacon called pancetta. You start much the same way but you hang the cured pork belly to finish it. Pancetta is a super delicious "bacon" that is traditionally the base for spectacular Italian meat sauces. It has tons of uses.

Recently I cleaned out the freezer and found an incredible piece of pork belly that was cured-like-pancetta-but-smoked-like-bacon. I've been using it to make green beans from that last patch I took up from the garden. The next time I get a nice pork belly I'll be making this. There is something about the savory seasoning paired with the smokiness of a fruit wood fire that makes it just heavenly.

The cure (the dry seasonings and the salt mix) process is super duper easy. Then it's just a matter of coating the outside of the meat, putting it in bags, and letting it rest in the fridge for about a week. The only tough part is remembering to turn the packages over every day to evenly coat the meat.

Then, for bacon you need to fire up your smoker and make sure you have a day to tend it. For the pancetta you just need to wrap in cheesecloth and then hang somewhere for about a week. The only tricky part about the pancetta is that you need a cool place (50*-60*) to hang it. We do this in winter in the unfinished part of our basement. One of these days I'll have a smoke house... but that is still on the "to do" list.

I usually make bacon and pancetta as part of Meat Week - that is, the parting up the pork halves from processing our pigs. After we butcher our pigz the only thing I work on for about a week is getting the meat put up. So it just makes sense to me do the bacon at the end. But some folks were talking yesterday about how they freeze the bellies and then make bacon when they are ready.

Some folks are nervous about making their own bacon but it really isn't that complicated, just time consuming. One thing to keep in mind is that it will not be exactly like store-bacon. For us that is OK. We take some of our bellies in to be processed by a butcher. It comes back more like store bacon. I think we'd have better results at home if we had a commercial slicer... but then, I really like our bacon. Especially for cooking.

It's kind of hard to describe the difference, but our bacon is more like a slice of meat rather than a brown and crunchy piece of bacon from the store or restaurant. But then, I don't like brown and crunchy bacon - I like it chewy so the way we do this suits me just fine.

Here are the links for how-to's:

Making bacon - I got my cure on!  Lots of pix of the process - including when I started brining a ham.

Bacon makin' and butcher day tools.

What bacon day looks like. The results of smoking our bacon - it was incredible!

Making pancetta.

A fabulous pancetta. See the results - this one was insane. We don't "roll" our pancetta - but this one was a hog so big that it naturally rolled itself!

As with everything, do your research, follow the directions, and use your common sense. Some folks are worked up over the use of "pink salt" which, in butcher language, is a nitrate-based curing salt. It is NOT the same a the hip and trendy Himalayan pink table salt. We use it in our cured meats because we think it makes a better product - one that is more bacon-y.

Should you us it? I don't know - should you? Do your research and do what is best for your family. What I do know is that I don't fight over things like that. If you are against it then I am clear on your position and there are lots of places where you can argue about it online. Here is not one of them. Just be aware of the difference and do what is best for you.

Even if you don't raise your own hogs you can still order a fresh pork belly from your butcher. We don't think we'll get any real bacon off the pigz that we have now. They are the more common "pink" type pigz that are for commercial purposes and designed for leanness and not bacon. But we'll work something out. Next year for sure we'll get some heritage style pigz - like our favorite, the those enormous Tamworths we had before.

Happy Tuesday everyone! Are you thinking about making bacon?

Storing beets and late season beans

Does everyone read the SBCanning site? They have a terrific facebook page as well. One of the things I love about them is that they share their reader's canning photos. And they have great information. A while ago I saw something that made me stop and think about what I was doing wrong.

Some of my beets in a peck basket. Note the labeling and no rings - for safety.

The post was about storing your home canned goods safely. One of the tips is NOT to stack your jars. What!?! Of course I stacked my jars down in the basement... why not? Well, seems like there are a lot of reasons not to do this. Mostly because if the jars became unsealed the weight of a jar on top of them might reseal it once it was contaminated... or it would just sit there unsealed and stew a toxic brew. So it got me thinking I had to do better.

One of the great things about going to the produce auction is that if you buy a peck basket of something.. you get to keep the basket. So I've been using those baskets to organize my canned goods. If you look closely you can see that the quart jars are shorter than the sides of the baskets. I'm wondering if I can stack the baskets so that the jars are not literally on top of each other. I'll be working on this to see if it is an option. If not I'll be adding more shelves.

In other news.... I had another victory with late season planting. My notes show that I did a late season planting of green beans on or about 8/28. I wasn't sure it would work as we normally get a frost the first couple weeks of October. 

I risked life and limb to carry this hot skillet outside to get this shot.

But check out these babies. Totally worked. I have a lush harvest of lovely beans out there. Last nite we had some with dinner. Dinner was literally the very last pack of pork chops I found when I cleaned out the freezer. I also found a spectacular bag of smoked pancetta. Technically, smoking it makes it "bacon" but the flavorings were more savory. These beans were amazing.

Happy Friday everyone! What are your thoughts on stacking jars and are you taking up the last of your beans?

You can't beat beets!

You can't beat beets but you can can them!

I had a slight beet related injury - and stained hands. Totally worth it.

Yesterday I canned beets. It was terrific. The only downside is that everything ends up pink - including your hands. I like to pickle beets. They are super in salads...and just to eat out of the jar.

Usually I direct folks to the pickyourown site for canning instructions. But one of my friends reminded me lately that sometimes that site is hard to follow. It can be a little visually "overstimulating" so a great resource that I like to have on hand is the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving - this is the one that I have.

The Ball Blue Book is the go to resource for canning. It is easy to follow, has clear instructions, and has lots of recipes. I never get creative with canning recipes - I always follow the directions to the letter. As far as I can tell these guys are always right on the money. If you are just starting out in canning this is a terrific book for you.

Today is another soggy rain day. But that's OK - I have my beets to make me happy.

Happy Thursday everyone! We are in the summer canning homestretch - what are you canning?


 Editors note: Hey look! I have some affiliate links in this post. Technically I'm supposed to tell you this which is why I'm including this editor's note. How does it work? Easy peasy. I get a tiny portion of the sale when you click on one of the links, go to the Amazon page, and purchase something. It can be anything - this book, movies, or something you need from Amazon anyway.  Do you need anything Amazon? You can support this blog by just clicking one of these links. Or using the black Amazon search box on the right side of this page. It doesn't cost you once cent more but helps me with the "cost" of this blog. If you like this blog, or if I've helped you at all in your farming efforts, just make a purchase from Amazon from one of the links, my store, or the black Amazon search box on the right side of this page. Thanks!

Potting up celery and setting up the greenhouse

You may remember that planting celery was one of my best projects this summer. First, I can't believe it worked and second, I can't believe that the plants have done so well! We have had a steady supply of fresh and crunchy celery all summer.

I just dug it up and plopped it in a pot. Easy peasy.

I really wanted to keep this success going so one of my projects is to pot up the celery plants and move them into the green house.  All I did was dig up a plant and plop it into a big pot with lots of fresh potting soil. I didn't even need to water it in because it was raining so much that day - I just let it set outside. I'll be doing a few more of these. Most of my celery plants lived and produced well all summer. Buying a couple six-packs of little celery starts was the best $3 I have ever spent.

The hoop house green house has also been a tremendous success this year - even tho I didn't achieve my goal of using the hoop as a trellis for squash and pumpkins... and it sat empty all summer.  I finally got it cleaned out and I'm getting it organized to be used for growing this fall and early winter. In fact, I'm hoping to build a second greenhouse this fall.

I noticed one thing that I could have done better tho. Remember that I just used the plastic I had on hand? My pal ML told me to get the good greenhouse plastic film by A.M. Leonard? And I didn't because I'm cheap (and maybe a little stubborn)? Yep. So the regular plastic I became brittle over the summer and now it has some holes in it. So did it work as I needed it to for this spring? Yes. Is it a permanent solution? No. So I'll be getting the good stuff.

I'm pretty excited about using the greenhouse as a "season extender." I know that it won't stand up to extremely cold temperatures but I'm hoping to keep some greens and my celery going for a while.

Happy Wednesday everyone! Are you setting up your green house?

Fall Zinnias

I'm still a little out of commission...and delirious.  So how about some fall zinnias?

Happy Monday everyone!

First Frost?

I think we had our first frost. I need to note this for my records....of course, later this week it will be over 70* so anything could happen.

These last few tomatoes might make it.

In other news. Remember last year when I wonked up my hip? Yeah. I think I did it again. So I'm hanging out on the couch.  I don't end up in urgent care with those quacks again. I'm not even sure they would let me back in.

In the meantime, that pig escaped the freezer. For now.

Anyway. Happy Sunday everyone! Did it frost where you live?

This is what happens....

This is what happens when you don't pay attention at the produce auction.

 Peppers. My victory at the auction.

A while ago I went running up to the auction at the last minute. Now that we were largely at the end of the growing season there were going to be heaps of bargains to be had. I got there late but across the parking lot I could hear them selling off boxes of peppers for $1.50 and $2! I had to get in on that action. I ran faster.

I shoved my way thru the crowd to see the boxes they were selling. Bushels. Bushels of green peppers and the bidding was stalling at $3. I elbowed my way thru the crush of bargain seekers to see inside the boxes.... and then caught the auctioneer's eye and nodded. Sure, I'd pay $3.50 for a bushel of green peppers!

They were beautiful so I had to have them

Someone else was biding against me. I knew that guy...I knew his weakness...I knew his "tell"... I could win this. My hand shot up first for $3.75. The crowd could smell blood in the water and they started to murmur... this could get good. Everyone loves a good bidding match. 

My bidding opponent got in a twist at my confidence and sent the price sky high to $4.00... then $4.25... and that's where I started shaking off the auctioneer.... going once.... going twice... sold. To me!  I was so excited! Look at me scoring a bushel of green pepper for just $4. All you suckers who are paying $1 per pepper at the store remember my victory! Ha!

I smugly walked off noting the nods of approval from the onlookers. They knew I played for keeps.

Later I scored some tomatoes for just $2.25 per peck. Considering that I saw someone buy tomatoes for $20 earlier that summer I was overjoyed. However, I got skunked on the Chinese cabbage by an older Amish lady with a stone cold poker face and blood in her veins. She won the bid. Dang.

I admitted defeat and went to cash out. My tab was significantly more than I expected.

"Ohmigosh! What did I buy!" This was a legitimate question at the auction where stakes are high and the game moves fast.

I snatched up my tickets.... scanned them... oh geez.

Turns out I didn't buy just one bushel of green peppers... I bought two. TWO BUSHELS!?!?!

That's two bushels.

I quickly did the calculations in my head... that's... that's.... about 40 pounds of fresh and delicious green peppers.

Ooops.

These things happen.

On the way home I tried to figure out what I'd do with 40 pounds of perky peppy goodness. When I got to town I started handing them out to all my friends. I tried foisting a bushel off on the local burger guy but he had seen my sad story before.

Of course, my big concern was not the extra $4 for an extra 20 pounds of peppers.... it was what was I going to tell The Big Man. My husband got quite a laugh the last time I came home over loaded from the auction. We refer to it as The Great Spaghetti Squash Mistake of 2014. It was a lot of spaghetti squash.

Instead he laughed and whooped excitedly that we were gonna have so much pizza with those peppers. So I was off the hook.

But now I have a lot of peppers to process. Forty pounds to be exact. Um... anyone want some peppers?

Happy Saturday everyone! Whatcha buying at the auction? Are you getting any end of season deals?

Pig Butcher Day Prep Part Two - Tools

I'm still sitting around on the couch thinking about our impending pig butcher day. Folks usually ask me what tools we use so here is my list. Note: you probably have most of this stuff. But if you don't, now is a great time to get your tools lined up.

My tray of tools.

* We love our Bacon Wagon of Doom.. otherwise known as a garden cart. Get the extra heavy duty one. This trolley is great for hauling a huge hog carcass up the hill. Plus if you put the sides down it's a great work surface do skin the pig. Then you can just hose the whole thing off. Easy-peasy.

* Sawsall. Yep. You heard me. Sure you can use a meat saw- and I think everyone should have one of those especially for the parting up day - but the sawsall with a clean blade makes taking off the trotters, cutting off the head, and opening the chest cavity a breeze. We love this kit - it includes a bunch of hand dandy tools for general farm work including the Sawsall.

* A couple of good knives. I'm completely gaga for my Henckels knives that I've had forever. But nothing makes you feel like you've smited your enemy and thrown his ruin upon the mountainside  like this bad boy.  A warning tho, a scimitar is not for the novice. So keep your eye on the end of that blade and tell everyone to stand back.

* Lots and lots of heavy duty half sheet pans.These are better than the average cookie sheet from the store. They are extra heavy duty, can take a beating, and keep your fridge from being filled with bloo..er.. pig juice. I have a stack of these and use them for everything. 

 And it helps if you have a couple of good dogs as back up.  Remember when Kai did such a great job?

My Excellent Good Dog with the Bacon Wagon of Doom.

So that is pretty much all of the tools that we will use for the first day. We still need to figure out exactly how we'll get that carcass cooled... but we think we'll be OK. Today I'll go down and get a bunch of ice for our biggest cooler and then make as much room as possible in the fridges. We think it will work.

Happy Friday everyone! What do you think - what tools do you need for your butcher day?

 Editors note: Gosh, it's been a while since we've had any affiliate links to my Amazon store - so I've loaded up this post with sales links. These are tools that I actually use and have right now.  Do you need anything Amazon? You can support this blog by just clicking one of these links. Or using the black Amazon search box on the right side of this page. This gets me a tiny percentage of the sale and doesn't cost you once cent more. If you like this blog, or if I've helped you at all in your farming efforts, just make a purchase from Amazon from one of the links, my store, or the black Amazon search box on the right side of this page. You can order anything you want and need to purchase anyway. I never know who orders what. THANK YOU for your purchases!

Pig Butcher Day Prep

I've been a little under the weather the last couple of days and have been spending a lot of time on the couch. It's given me plenty of time to think about our upcoming Hog Harvest day. I'm very excited.

You'll remember our big plan was to butcher one of the three little pigz sometime during the summer. But then that plan kind of got thrown out. It was too hot, we were too busy, and then before we knew it...the pigz were too big to put in the fridge to cool. So now we have a lot of pork for two people.

At some point we need to get on with it. This could be the weekend.

The problem is that it's not going to be particularly cold for a while but we can't wait any longer. Usually you need a night, or day, colder than 40* so you can cool the carcass. Since we won't have that we'll have to do some fancy shuffling around to get as much meat as we can on ice and also in the fridges. And I need to call the butcher guy to see if we can bring him some fresh hams to be smoked and cured.

Can I do the hams myself? Yep. But if we off load the hams we'll have more room in the fridges and coolers for the rest of the meat.

The next couple of days will be about figuring out the logistics, cleaning out the fridge, and finding a lot of ice. In the meantime I'll be reviewing some of these posts for how-to's.

Happy Thursday everyone - are you getting ready to butcher?

Got the garlic planted

Yesterday I got the garlic planted. It might be a little early but we have been in a mad scramble to get things done. I can't believe it's already October.

I had a nice pile of bulbs. At least some of them were sprouting!

I couldn't believe it when I checked some left over garlic bulbs from this harvest last year! I should have planted them last fall. Some of them had little sprouts coming up. This despite the fact that they were carelessly kept in the unheated garage over the winter.

 Sprouts! Can you believe it?

Then the bulbs had to endure the Fire Swamp Summer....and I think one of the hens thought she should use the pile of garlic for a nest. These little bulbs have been thru a lot. All they want to do is grow. There is a life lesson in there somewhere

I have a small patch of garlic going.  This bad pic is so that I'll remember where it is.

To make sure we actually have a harvest I will purchase some additional bulbs but I don't know - this could work. I used this method that I wrote about here. Although this time my spacing was a little wider to allow for bigger bulbs at next spring's harvest.

We'll see what happens. I'm confident about some of the sprouts and if nothing grows then I'll still have this deeply mulched little patch of friable soil ready for next spring.

Happy Thursday everyone! Have you planted your garlic?

Freezer Fail

One of our three chest freezers failed. I went to check the peppers that I have been freezing and while some of them were very cold - they had not frozen solid.

This is how Nicholas reacted to Freezer Fail 2014.

Then I checked the rest of the items in there..... and it was the same story. Some were frozen, some had ice cystals, and some were just plain thawed out.

Thank heavens we found out BEFORE we butchered the pigz!

So what do we do? I've been sorting thru everything trying to figure out what I can save. The worst is that about 8 or 10 pounds of parted up chicken looks to be lost. That would be the last of our meat from the creepy meats. So we are now kind of in a pickle.

This is one of those instances where you can clearly see that canning some of your harvest absolutely makes sense. You should not, literally, put all your meat in one freezer.

We defrosted, drained, and turned off the freezer overnight. Then we fired it back up again to see if it even worked. It did. So then we put a container of water in it and that has been consistently frozen the last couple of days.

We think that the lid may not have been all the way closed which is what caused the freezer to fail.

At this point the only thing we can do is hope for the best and keep checking to make sure the freezer continues to work. We'll keep testing/check it for several more days.

Happy Wednesday everyone - have you checked your freezer lately? Maybe you should go and see...