Thistles.

Thistles. I got 'em....

....and I ain't even mad.

I've been picking thistles every day for the goaties. They just love them. It's a total win since the thistles are so good for the soil. Everyone is happy and my soil is improved. Who would have guessed that such spiny, prickly plants can become luscious goat milk, which fattens the pigs, which becomes bacon. Isn't it an amazing process?

I've also been cutting some alfalfa for the ladies every day. I can't do my big hay cutting project this week because it's going to rain. I need 3 dry days in a row for the cutting and the raking and the drying...and then finally dragging it into the barn. It's a lot of work but I'm really looking forward to it.

Happy Tuesday everyone! Do you have thistles? Are you mad or are you making bacon with them?

Boss Lemon Cake

Lemon Cake. He said he wanted lemon cake. Lemon is not chocolate therefore, who cares about it. I tried to offer lemon bars... but he wasn't budging. It had to be lemon cake. Really, really lemony cake. I've gotten an F- on my previous attempts because they were not lemony enough. So I needed the most lemony cake ever. With cream cheese frosting.

This is not chocolate cake.

I ask you, friends, do you know how hard it is to find a lemon layer cake recipe that does not start with "a box of lemon cake mix?"  Who would have thought it would have been so difficult.

Zero chocolate here.

So I made it up. Yep. I used a couple of different recipes and cut-n-pasted the ingredients until it looked "about right." I used the recipes from here and also here and a bit of this too.  The problem is that sometimes I make stuff up - but then I forget what I did so I'm going to write this one down. This is a keeper.

Boss Lemon Cake

Cake:
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature

2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

3/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

For assembly:
Lemon curd

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting:
8 oz of cream cheese, softened
8 oz of butter softened
3 or 4 cups (??) of powdered sugar
A couple tablespoons, or glugs, of lemon juice
Splash of vanilla

How to:
Cream together the sugar and butter. Add the eggs one at a time and beat in well. In a different bowl mix together the baking powder, soda, salt and flour. Mix dry ingredients and the buttermilk into the sugar and eggs - but alternate the flour mix and the buttermilk. About half way thru I added the lemon juice.

Pour into prepared pans - 2 nine inch rounds, greased and floured, and bake at 350* for about 25 mins or until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in pans for 10 minutes then turn out on cooling rack until entirely cooled.

You guys know how to make frosting, right? Cream together the cream cheese and the butter then add the lemon juice and vanilla... then add the powdered sugar a little at a time until it looks about right - light and fluffy and is delicious.

Put first half of cake on a big plate. Spread the top with lemon curd. Add a layer of frosting on top of the curd. Top with second half of cake. Frost the rest of the cake.

To make sure that I had the creamiest, lemoniest cake possible I made the butter from cream. This was great because I made the butter just before I started this cake - so the butter was nice and soft. How easy is that? No waiting around for the butter to soften - or trying to cheat by putting it in the microwave. I also made the buttermilk by adding a couple tablespoons of lemon juice to whole milk and letting it set.

I have bad pictures because the cake was so good I couldn't wait for good lighting.

Then I got the best lemon juice I could find. Did I squeeze it from real lemons? No - are you kidding have you seen the prices lately?  Plus using the lemon zest freaks me out, man, who knows where those lemons have been.... so I didn't do any of that fancy stuff.  Did I make the lemon curd? Nope I just got some from the store too.

So how did it turn out? Lemony! The Big Man declared it as good as what his grandma used to make and everyone was happy. I even liked it.... despite the dire lack of chocolate. And it turns out lemon cake is a breakfast food.

We are calling this lemon cake a raging success. It was totally boss.

Happy Monday everyone! Are you a cake boss? Do you make up your own recipes?


Editor's Note: More Amazon affiliate links? Yep. All y'all are gonna ask which lemon juice and what curd so here they are. But for heaven's sakes, they are super duper expensive to order online! So just go and get this stuff from the store. But in the mean time... if you already need something from Amazon just go there by clicking one of these links. Remember this gets me a tiny percentage of the sale. 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 buy anything - even lemon curd for three times the store price! Thanks everyone!

Nibbles' Epic Milk

In honor of this story today - thanks FDA really you're doing a superduper job - I'm making cheese. From raw milk. If you are to believe all the horrors that the FDA is spewing then I'll likely die.... probably from deliciousness.

Wow what a milk!

Nibble had an epic milk this morning. Check it out - it was over eight cups!

Thanks Nibs! Check in tomorrow to see if I died.

Happy Sunday everyone!

Garden Firsts - At Last!

What a glorious day in the garden! This morning has been absolutely perfect!

I got a glimpse of my first tomato... I can't wait for it to be ripe!

And the broccoli is doing GREAT!

But this.. this is what I'm so excited about......

You whack it down when it starts to bloom.

The alfalfa is starting to bloom. You know what that means.... free feed for the goats. Oh glory I can't wait to get out there and scythe it all down....

Of course, last weekend we gave up waiting for it to be ready and had to buy hay. Rats.

Oh well... this alfalfa project is hands down our best farm project. I'm always amazed that it works... but it does. I should have done some fertilizing in the fall but couldn't get to it. I was supposed to put potash on it... but I think it's OK.

You'll remember that we were so thrilled last year with how it turned out. I'll be so glad to no buy hay for the rest of the season..... of course I'll need some for winter but for now... free free free!!!

Happy Friday everyone! Hey! Are you excited about your hay?

Funny things in the yard

I need to get outside before the rain gets to us.... so I'll leave you with a few funny things I saw in the yard the other day....

 Kai was very happy about playing in the water trough.

Shine was trollin' under the bridge.

And there was this little heap of baby goats. 

The funniest thing that happened was that Shine, our King of Barncats, came walking up dragging a rabbit that was almost too big for him to carry. I... ahem.. did not get a picture of that. He is our best assassin. We love our silver puma and congratulated him on his kill. But we have no idea what happened to it - by the time I put down my tools I couldn't find him. Even tho he got it fair and square I really didn't want him to eat it... it could be anywhere.

Happy Wednesday everyone!  Has any body seen a slightly chewed on bunny carcass?

Goat Roll Call!

We have a barnyard full of goats! I need to get a handle on the census so here are all the babies...

Darla's Spotty Baby 1 (doeling) (born May 20)

Darla's Spotty Baby 2 (buckling) (born May 20)

Daisy baby doeling (born May 25)

Daisy baby buckling (born May 25)

Dahli baby doeling (born May 28)

Dahli baby buckling (born May 28)

Debbie's Cow Boys - Brown and Black (born May 31)

Of course there are a lot of shenanigans out there. This is what happens...

Boop all the things!  (As my friend, L, would say...)

Happy Monday everyone - do you have a yard full of goats. For heavens sakes there is a whole herd out there!

Finally! They're here! Meet the Cow Boys!

Finally! Look who showed up yesterday!  I went out early on Saturday and look who finally... FINALLY.. made their appearance. Meet Debbie's new babies - the Cow Boys.

It's the Cow Boys!

These little bucklings are huge. I'm not sure how Debbie pulled this off without any help but the babies were dry and on the ground when I went out at 5:30am. I didn't hear a peep from her. They are extremely cute and their cow coloring is a hoot!  One is black and white and the other is brown and white.

Funny cow markings.

Poor Debbie tho. Wow. Her udder might need some fixin' up. The first time I took her over to the milk stand she could barely walk because of her big udder. Then she couldn't get up on the stand! Initially I had to milk her on the ground until we got to a more "normal" udder size.. then she could jump up. We probably got a gallon and a half from her yesterday. The pigz are in heaven.

How now brown cow?

This morning the goatyard was like a Stir Crazy popcorn popper - all the little ones were goofin' around and running and jumping.  They are very cute and lively.

The funniest thing we've noticed is that the chickens are keeping the little goats from escaping from the goat yard. Last nite we put the hens away and as soon as we did ..... the little goaties all crawled thru the fence and ran all over. It was pretty hilarious. And yes we are keeping a close eye on the dogs - the little goats run like meat and Kai and Zander really really really want to eat them.

So we can all breathe a deep sigh of relief.... this crazy kidding season is now over and we can all go about the business of having long summer farm days.

Happy Sunday everyone! Do you have cow goats?