She Made Cottage Cheese September 6, 2011

I’ve took the online Cultured Dairy E-Course from Gnowfglins.  I really enjoy the courses she offers, and the sourdough course changed our food world!  I haven’t made many of the recipes, because I ration the raw milk around here, and try to keep to just the basics…until Nellie starts milking.  Oh, side note.  Nellie seems to be pregnant!  She was hanging out with the bull, and he showed no interest during the time that would have been her heat cycle!  We were pretty sure she was ready for breeding when we delivered her and I think we were right on.  This means that around about May 7th she should have her first calf!

So the e-course.  Well, now I’m taking the Fermented foods class, and much of it calls for whey as a starter culture.  Perfect!  I wanted an excuse, no justification…reason to make cottage cheese.  Not sure why that resonated with me so much, but it did.  So with this new need for whey, I gave it a try.  Not hard at all.  It’s a couple step process, so the hardest thing is to time it right so you are free when it’s ready to have part 2 done, but otherwise the whole thing is rather simple, and the result was down right delicious!  I think cheese making is amazing.  You start with 1 gallon of milk, and you end up with just about 1 gallon of whey…but you also gain the cheese.  I don’t know how it’s done.  I think it must be magic, but it’s so darn cool!

Now what to eat with my cottage cheese.  I have Peach Salsa, and I made some sourdough cheese crackers today.  That would make a good lunch.  But I also think mixing some chopped fruit, or blueberries in, would make a yummy breakfast.  Not sure what will accompany it, but I know we’re going to enjoy it!

I love when I have a productive day in the kitchen.  Cottage Cheese, 5 quarts of yogurt, 1 quart of yogurt turned into soft cheese, 1 batch sourdough cheese crackers.  Mmmmm.  Yummy day indeed!  Dinner was an impossible pie, like those that were all the rage in the early 80’s, remember with the bisquick?  Well, I have a recipe for making one with sourdough instead of bisquick.  This one had sauteed leeks and garlic, with shredded zucchini (all from the front yard).  I chopped some fresh tomatoes (also the front yard) and sprinkled on top when I served it.  Rave reviews, even from the small ones.  Yes, the sourdough E-Course has definitely changed our food lives!

 

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She Started Kombucha June 18, 2011

Hey there, ole’ friend.  It’s been a while since I posted.  I’ve been busy inside and out.   The garden is almost planted, I’ve been harvesting peas, 1.5 pounds so far, as well as the greens and garlic scapes!  There are 102 tomato plants in my front yard, and I think all the essentials are in the ground.  I still want to plant mangle beets for the animals, quinoa, and sunflowers…if I’m not too late for them to do what they need to before the end of the summer.  I’m going to be checking time frames and whatever will still work will go in the ground this week, hot or not.

Inside I’ve been whittling away at some of the cleaning projects I’ve been meaning to do all winter…Spring Cleaning?  Summer, will have to do.  They are the extra things, not the day to day living area.  That’s clean enough, in a lived in sort of way.  I’m trying to clean out the closets, remove unneeded kitchen gadgets, declutter from what is left in the mudroom from seed starting.  That sort of stuff.

The kitchen has been taking a lot of my time lately.  In addition to my locavore adventures, I am dabbling in WAPF/Weston A Price Foundation/Nourishing Traditions style foods.  This week I made:

• Beef Jerky using ground beef. (2 batches)
• Yogurt cheese (place 1 quart yogurt in a cheese cloth, hand to drip overnight, cheese will remain in the cloth, whey in the bowl underneath.  Easy.)
• 5 quarts of yogurt
• Chocolate Frozen Yogurt
• Crispy nuts: Hazelnuts, Almonds, Sunflower Seeds
• Granola
• Fruit bars, similar to Lara Bars. This batch contains Apricots, Figs, Coconut, Dates, Raisins, Almonds, Orange Peel Powder, Cinnamon, Cloves, Cardamon, Ginger.
• Sourdough Cheese and Herb Crackers (2 batches)

Most of those items were made in an attempt to create easy to grab lunch items for summer fun, busy garden days and to increase the pro-biotic foods in our diets.  A couple nights ago the girls wanted to make tents in the living room.  This was around dinner time, so I gave them Sourdough Crackers, Nuts and Beef Jerky for their camp.  They were thrilled.

Today I went to a class on drip irrigation and rain water harvesting.  I’m excited to get set up here.  I’m going to start with the irrigation, which will be run from my hose for now.  I still need gutters, to make good use of the rain barrels, but I’m working towards that.  After the class I was chatting with some folks and kombucha came up.  I’ve been interested in the drink for a while and I’ve watched videos on how to start one, but at the time it seemed so complicated.  After talking with everyone today, it seems much less mysterious.  I received the gift of a scoby (starter culture of sorts) from someone who actually has some of my sourdough Starter, Irma.  I came home and made the tea, added the scoby and it’s sitting in my cabinet doing it’s thing.  In 5 days I get to taste it to see how it’s progressing and, when it’s to my liking, I can remove the liquid and start a new batch.  I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.

 

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She got you caught up April 23, 2011

What a week…or so!  I got very tied up with work.  I’m running a sale, and over the weekend had a show…oops.  Didn’t think that through.  The upside is that I managed to do both, pretty well, I just had to drop everything else.  But I’m back to life as usual…whatever that might be.

What you’ve missed around the farm:

Maybelle kindled a litter of 6 big beautiful babies.  I was so proud of her.  One wriggled away from the group, and got too cold, so there are only 5, but she’s an amazing mom.  Really the best mom I’ve seen through here!  Needless to say, I really like that rabbit.

Mama Muscovy#1 hatched 3 ducklings on Wednesday, the 20th. A little sad about the numbers, but it was the first batch of the season, so hopefully the other two Mama’s have better luck.  This mama will have at least one more chance for another clutch later this summer.

Mama Muscovy #2 is about a week from hatching, and Mama Muscovy #3 just went on her nest of about 9 eggs Wednesday the 20th.

No chickens have decided to go broody yet, so there are no new chicks on the horizon.

The peas are up!  The spinach is putting on their first set of real leaves, as are the radishes.  The lettuce and beets are up!  My bed of neglected garlic from last year has garlic popping up all over.  I’m interested to see what that produces.  My planted garlic, properly spaced, with straw mulch is up now, too.

The seedlings, mainly tomatoes, basil and peppers, with some miscellaneous goodies like tomatillos and ground cherries, are doing great!

What you missed in the kitchen:

Not my kitchen, but Sunday April 17, the day after the show, I had the most amazing breakfast made from local ingredients.  Sharon and Ken invited myself and a few other friends over for brunch.  We talked about local farming, the ups the downs, what can be done, education that could be spread, all while enjoying some amazing dishes!  Baked goods with local honey and maple sweeteners, local flour, eggs, shrimp…it was delicious.  All of it.  We even had sugar that was made by one of the guests.  She just returned from a 10 day field trip with a local school to Costa Rica.  She harvested and processed sugar cane and brough that along with coffee she roasted.  Not local, but done with local hands, and we all enjoyed the special treat.

My own kitchen has been fairly lonely, but I did pull some sourdough out of the fridge.  I had placed a cup of Irma in the refrigerator last month, and exactly one month later, I pulled it out, put it in a bowl with water and flour and it was bubbling in no time!  I’m so excited to have such a hearty sourdough starter.  I have big, crazy plans for that starter, very soon.

I enjoyed scambled eggs topped with tat soi and arugula micro greens and some diced chives for lunch.  What a great Spring meal, and all from my yard.  I don’t think that will ever stop being a good feeling.

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She Enjoyed her first Thanksmas November 25, 2010

My grandparents spend their winter's in Florida now, and Gram didn't want to wait until the end of December to make the trip.  For this reason, this year, that side of the family celebrated Thanksmas.  We enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner, followed by the family Christmas gift swap, followed by Thanksgiving leftovers for dinner, including fried stuffing!  Everyone seemed okay with the idea, so this may be the first of a new family tradition.

This means I get to start early, this year, sharing the handmade gifties I gifted.  So here they are.

My cousin got a necklace, but forgot to photograph it…poo.  She also recieved some of Irma, my sourdough starter.  I built her up to be able to gift 1 1/2 cups of her, and my cousin and her husband were excited at the thought of sourdough bread.

Their daughter looked adorable in the velvet bonnet I made.  I used the Angry Chicken pattern, for a baby, as she's 6 months old.  It come out perfectly, and Mini and The Baby will be recieving one soon, too.  Who doesn't want a cotton velvet lined hat, this time of year.  Not only did she look great in the hat, she liked wearing it!

My other cousin recieved a couple goodies.  First a pair of wool/cotton pot holders.  She's a baker, an amazing baker, at that (oh, the pumpkin whoopie pies she brought..oh!).  So with the potholders she recieved an 8oz bottle of my homemade Vanilla.  She also received some local popcorn!  The potholders were so much easier to make this time, thanks to my fabulous Walking Foot for the sewing machine.  It allows you to sew through several layers of fabric without getting the annoying puckering that can occur when you do that with a regular foot.  It's the best sewing accessory I ever bought.  I'm glad to be reminded of how smoothly it makes the process of making potholders go…it's very helpful when making bibs, too.

Finally, I owed her a gift from last year, since what I was knitting for her became a problem, and I didn't have time to recover.  I tried another project that wasn't working up nicely, so frogged it all since the weather was too warm for warm woolies.  This fall, I found a pattern that worked up great.  A nice bulky, cozy, wool, cowl, adorned with a glass button I made.  She lives in Boston, and has short hair, so anything to help keep her neck warm gets a big thumbs up.

I recieved gift certificates for knitting, and book buying.  Perfect. Now I'm going to dream, fondly, of the pumpkin whoopie pies, with the cream cheese filling, that my cousin let me take a half dozen home…I'm only going to dream of them, because I'm quite full!  But, they are in my fridge for tomorrow.  Happy Thanksmas!

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She Spent the Day in the Kitchen with Irma and some Tough Ole’ Hens October 9, 2010

I finally did something with Irma.  I've been feeding her, but have not made anything with her for a while now, besides an occasional batch of sourdough crepes.  But today I pulled her out and used her to make a batch of sourdough Cheese Crackers, English Muffins and some oatmeal muffins!  Everything came out great.  We are going to have the oatmeal muffins along with some canned peaches for breakfast tomorrow, before heading to the Brookford Quark Fest! 

The crackers are nice and crisp, and cheddar cheesy!  I'm hoping to use the english muffins for mini pizza sometime in the next couple days. 

The Pears were canned yesterday.  I canned 13 quarts, out of about 1 bushel of pears.  I have  2 bushels left to process, which must be done on monday, as I'm busy tomorrow!

While I worked in the kitchen, and ran errands, a pot simmered on my stove, all day.  It contained 6 2 year old laying hens, that I harvested in Spring.  I need to make room in the freezer, which might be futile and a new freezer purchase may be necessary regardless, but for now I'm trying to move some things out to make room for newer items. 

After simmering all day, I removed all the meat, which I will use for sandwhiches, and such…maybe even a chicken pot pie.  Oh that sounds so good!  The carcusses are all in the pot again, with all the liquid the chickens cooked in, and celery, onions, basil, salt and carrots, to make stock!  I am going to can quart jars of stock. I'm so excited to have nice, rich chicken stock that is easy to grab.  It's one of the things I miss the most about not buying premade food, the ability to just grab a container of stock.  After I get this canned I will have stock readily available that was made with far more flavor than any store stock.  The best of both worlds!

Josie's chubby bunny is doing very well.  I'm pretty sure it's a girl, and she's getting so big!  I kept her in at night for about 5 days as sort of a diet.  She was getting so fat I was concerned it could effect the way her structure developed, and was advised by Neva, our neighborhood expeienced breeder, to bring her in for 12 hours a day so she didn't eat all day.  I did this, which afforded the chubby bunny lots of snuggle time.  The Baby is very smitten with animals, especially the chubby bunny.  She's so gentle. I didn't have to cue her at all. She picked the bunny up, out of her box, and held her so gently and carefully.  It was so sweet!

One of the highlights, so far, in October was teaching another homesteader how to harvest their rabbits.  Virginia bought a bred doe, raised up the litter and they were ready for harvest on Tuesday.  She and her Husband, Steve, came over, learned how the process works and then worked together, with supervision, processing their own 3 rabbits.  They did a great job, and left having learned a skill they can use to feed their family healthy, local food.  They took with them 5 Ancona hens, who will reside in their little 1/2 acre homestead, and provide them with, hopefully, an abundance of eggs!  She made her first rabbit meal…ever.  Virginia got a rabbit before ever having eaten rabbit!  She wanted to homestead and rabbits fit in her space and neighborhood better than meat chickens, so she made the decision based on what worked.  Fearless!

We are all going to the Quark Fest and Brookford Farm tomorrow.  Are you going?

The Brookford Farm Quark Festival is happening on this Sunday, October 10th, from 11 – 4 with a film showing at 6.

We'll have puppeteers, baked Camembert, food workshops, famous chefs, bobbing for kohlrabi, a movie in the heifer barn, and of course, plenty of quark-themed delicacies for the tasting. Local artists and musicians, an elementary school, and yours truly, the Brookford Farm farmers, will be in attendance.

Sample our delicious artisinal cheeses as well as other dishes made with our pasture-raised beef and pork, organic vegetables, and renowned dairy products.

There will also be workshops on traditional crafts like beekeeping and food preservation, pumpkin-carving, a straw labyrinth, and of course a hayride through beautiful seacoast countryside at the very peak of fall. For kids, there will be crafts, games, activities, and more!

The food preservation workshops require registration, so send an email to brookfordfarminfo@gmail.com if you wish to register, or have any questions.

Brookford Farm
70 Sligo Rd
Rollinsford, NH 03869
603-742-4084
www.brookfordfarm.com

 

 

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She Finished Finished Mittens and Gathered Fruit! September 28, 2010

I didn't meet my goal of 5 pairs of mittens in one week.  I needed 1 more hour, to finish 1/4 of a mitten, so not bad, but I went to bed last night with only 4 3/4 pairs done.  They are done now, and look great!

In the basket are 3 beautiful pears.  Jessica and I went on a little road trip to Londerry, in Southern NH to the only place we could find who had pears, Mack's Apples.  We gathered up 4 bushels of bartlet pears, which we will be canning on Saturday!  There is going to be a group of us working on them, and it should be a fun and productive day.

Today Jessica, another friend and I, headed over to Butternut Farm/Orchard, in the rain, to gather drops.  We were three drenched, but happy ladies, with 9 bushels of apples!  They will be turned into great things like applesauce, apple butter, frozen apples and possibly some dried apples. 

Last Thursday, Husband and I got a babysitter, and spent the day together…harvesting rabbits.  Another local rabbit raiser, stopped by to learn this end of things.  She has the Creme D'Argent breed, as well, and has a doe, with 5 young that are almost ready for harvesting.  Husband got the chance to learn about the eviscerating.  He usually does other things while I do that part, just by the nature of how things work, but he got to try his hand at this, as I was teaching him, and Virginia, as we went.  After letting them rest in the refrigerator (my free refrigerator, thank you Maggie!), they were bagged up and put in the freezer.  If you are interested in purchasing rabbit, let me know. I have a few for sale.

Food around here, lately, has been very good.  We had a lovely dinner of rabbit livers in sauted onions, accompanied by sweet potatoes fried in duck fat!  What a lovely way to deep fry food.  There was no rancid "fried food" smell in the house. Just clean yummy fragrance wafted about.  Delicious!  And a fun fact, the duck fat, livers and onions all came from our yard, and the sweet potatoes came from our CSA farm up the street.  Very local, indeed.

I've been missing cereal.   It's great as an occasional snack, so I whipped up a batch of the soaked grain granola that I've made before, and greatly enjoy. Irma, my sourdough starter, and I have been having a grand ole time making crepes, fluffy pancakes and and other great treats.  I highly recommend the "Pay what you can" E-course that I'm taking.  Lots of Rabbit dinners, including rabbit in gravy over mashed potatoes.  Tonight was ice cream with pears that I sauteed in butter and syrup.  I don't think I've ever eaten this well!

Our little family is getting busier as the girls are getting older and into more things.  Mini is taking Ballet Lessons once a week, thank you Grammy and Grampa, still has Swimming lessons once a week, and now we are taking part in a local Homeschool Co-op one morning a week.  Last week Mini had a great time playing with a little boy, as they painted the rocks.  the Co-op is very free form, with several activities set up, allowing the children to explore and decide what they want to participate in, including activities they dream up all on their own, like the rock painting. I look forward to seeing how it evolves, but the girls really enjoyed themselves their first week.

Husband is getting busier, too.  His last speaking engagement has already led to a second.  He will be giving his lecture on how to teach story on November 2 at the Chichester Library.  We expect to be seeing the first copy of the book that he and Mini wrote early in October, as well!  The Skunk Zoo is a collaboration with the story idea coming from Mini, compiled and illustrated by Husband, with some editorial direction from Mini…including the demand for the addition of a ballerina. 

Yes, our little family is busy, and it's been a lot of fun. 

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She Gave in, Exhausted, but Left You with Inspiration September 3, 2010

I'm very tired today.  Not sure why, but I woke up quite early, and couldn't go back to sleep, despite the tired feeling that I was experiencing.  I bit the bullet and started my day.  I never shook the tired feeling, and by the time I got the girls to bed, I was ready for some quite time before retiring myself.  I decided to muster enough energy to make a batch of those amazing sourdough skillet cakes that I am in love with, then I topped them with some fresh peaches, that I picked today, and went to Progressive Pioneer to see what ideas she had for the "Make and Do" Friday.  I was disappointed to find, she had none.  Fair enough, she does have a lot going on with a new baby and a little guy, and all, so here are my ideas for the weekend…

Make a Harvest basket.  This looked like a fun idea, that would be handy, and simple.

Shop at the local Farmer's Market for some delicious heirloom tomatoes to make some of the Tomato Butter that I can't stop talking about.

Grill Some Peaches

Make a deck of cards, and spend some family time playing with them.

Make a Pretty Windsock to welcome the cool breeze of fall!

 

 

 

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She Made Sourdough Bread Bites August 29, 2010

Today was the Ag Fair at the Warren Farm. I went to check it out, and had a lovely time.  I picked up some tomatoes from Stout Oak Farm.  They had yellow pear, and Brandywine, which I wanted to use in my test batch of the Tomato Butter I mentioned wanting to try.  I added them to my own Rose DeBerne tomatoes, which are all pureed and simmering in my new crock pot!

Last night I purchased a lovely 7 quart crock pot after the one I had for 12 years died on me.  This one is very large!  It fit a rabbit and a spatchcocked chicken in there today for an easy, ready when we got home from the fair, dinner.  Now it is cooking down those lovely heirloom tomatoes!

Also last night, I started a batch of bread bites, with Irma (my sourdough starter).  The recipe was a thank you gift from the Gnowfglins.com website for making a payment for the sourdough e-course.  Wardeh, the lovely gal over at Gnowfglins, made the recipe with cinnamon, raisins and almonds, but I varied it, as she suggested, by adding grated parmesan cheese and dried basil.  They were very yummy, and when I have plenty of raisins again, I'll try her version, too.  I don't feel right about sharing her recipe on here, since it was a thank you gift, but if you are interested in sourdough, I strongly recommend her e-course, it's worth the time spent, and if you choose to donate money for the course, it's worth that too!

I am becoming a sourdough fan.  I still think I have some tweaking, as far as how to plan ahead, and get a rhythm with the sourdough, but what I'm making is delcious!

I also hung out with some lovely friends, by the lake, and then by the fire, which was a perfect night for such things.

 

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She and Irma Made Breakfast August 28, 2010

Irma, my sourdough starter, has been fed for a couple weeks, but until today, I've just been feeding her and adding to her.  This morning we made breakfast together.  It was delicious!

I must admit to being a little nervous about using sourdough.  I was concerned the sour flavor might not be to my liking.  I figured I could make myself get used to it, and since it's a really healthful way to eat grains, doing so would be worth making myself like it, but my worry was for nothing.

What did I make?  Sourdough Skillet Cakes.  A very exciting combo of sourdough and iron fry pans.  It's been a while since I gushed about iron fry pans, but I LOVE iron fry pans.  They are beautiful to look at, they cook so evenly, and with very little heat. When properly seasoned they have very little sticking problems, and are far more healthy to cook on than the nonstick pans, which I've heard of some concern about chemicals and leaching. Iron fry pans are just wonderful.

Back to breakfast… The skillet cakes were great!  I served them with strawberries and a little syrup.  They had a lovely texture which was more like a cake, with lots of air holes, making them fluffy, but not like a normal "fluffy pancake" which is still dense.  These were so light, but still filling.  The flavor reminded Husband of fall.  They were slightly sweet, and had a lovely nutty flavor, from the spelt flour that I feed Irma.   This is a dish I'm sure we will enjoy on a regular basis.

Mini thanked Irma for such a lovley breakfast…oh, and thank you mama, too.

Irma now has a new home.  I was going to look for a crock, at the Antique store, but while looking, I rememebered that I had a great little yellow casserole dish, already, that would be perfect. It's a good size, has a cover, but is not air tight.  So, Irma has a new home, large enough for her to expand and grow, so we can make many more recipes together.  I started a batch of "bread bites" tonight, which are souring on the counter right now.  I think I'll be mixing in some basil, and parmesan cheese for a bread/biscuit type treat with dinner tomorrow night.

I'm hoping to make it to the Ag Fair, over at Warren Farm, tomorrow.  It was a great time last year, in the rain, and it looks to be even better this year, especially with the great weather!  Hope to see you there!

 

 

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She Canned the Last of the Peaches August 24, 2010

The last of the 200 pounds of peaches are done being processed!  I have 43 Quarts and 16 Pints of peaches for this winter, and 11 pints of peach salsa.  There are also some peaches in the freezer.  About 3 Gallon Bags, or so.  I finished just in time, because tomorrow I'm picking up 2 bushels of roma tomatoes to can!  It seems like I'm having a bumper crop of canning.  Apples are already being picked, so I'll have to do sauce and such shortly, as well.

I am seriously considering using this recipe for Tomato Butter, for some foofy fun canning. I'll have to see if Jess is up for it.  I imagine it on a piece of sour dough bread, with some cheese melted on top…mmmm. 

Speaking of Sourdough, my starter is a week and a half old, and doing lovely.  I did decide that if something was going to live in my house, and be fed twice a day, it needed a name.  So Irma is my sourdough starter.  She is bubbly and reaching all the milestones you look for in a starter, so I'm hoping to find a sliver of time, between canning, to make a batch of something with her.  I'll let you know how it goes.

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