What is happening around here

Hello all,

I realized that the last post (which has been on top for a while now) is on CANDY MAKING.  Yikes.  Christmas is over.  Back to the real world.  (well, I might make up a batch of caramel sometime soon).  What we are doing around here right now is:

1.  Getting ready to watch (again) an amazing movie.  We plan to watch it at church with a bunch of avid gardeners, hobby farmers, novice growers and everything in between.  A potluck and an afternoon centered around growing stuff successfully.  What could be better than that?  We have watched it free on line, but finally broke down and ordered the video.  

Back to Eden

2.  In addition, I have been reading some books on permaculture and we are trying to plan out how to make our entire property a lot more efficient and work better.  The book I am currently reading is "Permaculture by Sepp Holzer.

Sepp Holzer's Permaculture

3.  Also, on the subject of health, I have two books going right now.  Deep Nutrition and Devil in the Milk.  Both are awesome and full of information.  Deep Nutrition is a great book if you are just beginning the process of trying to learn a different way of eating and why you should do that.  Devil in the Milk is about A-1 and A-2 cows and the types of milk they produce.  By accident (?)  we appear to have cows which produce A-2 milk. 

Meet the authors of Deep Nutrition

Book Review of "Devil in the Milk"

And finally, I am starting seeds.  Yep, it is that time of year.   I have a ton of seeds from my favorite seed bank ever and am trying to restrain my hand from too many tomato plants.  Again.

Baker Creek Seeds

Be blessed!

Cindy

Lacto Fermented Garden Salsa

LACTO FERMENTED GARDEN SALSA
(recipe after much rambling)

Hello all, my long lost blogging friends.  You might wonder where I have been, and it is a simple story.  Just about a year ago, we began putting into place a series of changes that moved us into a more simple, more homebound life.  We have tried to move off the grid wherever practical (and sometimes where it is not practical).  We purchased a milk cow named Bonnie.  We put in an extra-large garden and tried to grow some of our animal feed.

Now I don't want to shock anyone, but these type of changes are a lot of W-O-R-K.  Modern conveniences are named that for a reason.  Processed, industrialized food is inexpensive and easy.  Having a milk cow means someone has to be there to milk twice a day.... every day..... 7 days a week.... you get the picture.  Anyway, our time seems to have become redirected.

At this time we are drying the cow up.  This means just one milking a day, not on any schedule.  The garden is put to bed and I never did get a winter garden in, with the exception of our small cold frame.  It feels like we have redeemed an amazing amount of time and freedom.   I do not want to say this is good, I really miss the fresh produce and as soon as the cow is done, I know I will miss that wonderful milk.  But for the moment, it is less hectic..... somewhat.

For this winter I am planning to read a wonderful book called Deep Nutrition.  We just finished a movie on-line called Back to Eden.  I think we will implement some of these changes into our garden.  I would recommend it to anyone wanting to garden in a real way.  We also watched a movie called Burzynski.  It is a wonderfully revealing movie on the incestuous relationship between big Pharma and regulatory agencies.  It is worth watching, no matter what you think of Dr. Burzynski.  We are still in the research phase to see if his remedy is effective.  The same tactics are currently being used on our food supply (especially raw milk).  Protectionism is alive and well in the United States of America.

We mainly planted greens in the cold frame, but the boys made a cool "chicken tractor" which would fit in there.  The chickens keep the cold frame pretty warm.  We will also use it this winter for newly hatched chicks and a mama.  So, we continue to eat simple, wholesome, organic meals.  Soaked grains are a part of life.  Root vegetables are big in our diet, add a lot of greens whenever you can..... and now it is almost time to begin making candy for Christmas :)

My sister, the shopping queen, found us an amazing stove that is waiting to be installed when time permits this winter.  It is in the picture.  It is a Wedgewood stove from 1935 and is in almost pristine condition.  It has both wood and gas burners.  I am not even going to tell you what price she found it for.  No need to excite envy and jealousy. It is a beauty, isn't it.

I wanted to get the recipe for lacto-fermented salsa up, even though the garden is put to bed.  Next summer will probably roll around, and then it will be here.   This bunch of produce is one of the last batches we picked before the cold weather rolled in.  Enjoy

Cindy

Lacto Fermented Salsa

Whey  (about 1 TBSP per quart of finished product)

Tomatoes

(I prefer a variety of colors - they are all different acid levels and each brings something different to the party)

Tomatillos

Hot peppers

Sweet peppers

Cucumbers

(leave the skins on - I try to find some with bitterness to them - good balance)

Onion

Garlic

Lime juice and lime zest

Fresh Cilantro

Sea Salt

Pepper

Cumin

Cayenne, if necessary

Directions:  I use a cast iron skillet to roast the peppers and tomatillos.  If your hands have hot pepper on them, a few drops of bleach will neutralize it and you don't have to worry about touching your eyes for the next 10 hours.  After roasting, I use a food processor to get it chunked up.  Just use blasts, don't blend it.  You want chunks.   After everything is blended, add the chopped Cilantro, lime juice, lime zest and spices.
Taste often.

You will notice that I do not have amounts.  Taste often.  Don't forget the whey.  If it lasts, you should leave it at room temperature for a couple of hours to allow the salt and whey time to innoculate your salsa.  Bottle and refrigerate.

Enjoy
Cindy

Life on the Farm

Blessings to you all,

It has been so long since I have written ANYTHING on this blog, I have almost forgotten how.  There have been many, many changes around our place.  One of the biggest is our major steps to get off of the grid.  We have been trying to simplify, declutter and doing our best to live a different way.  It has been challenging, two steps forward, one step back, intermediate steps, rethinking........ Anyway, it has been fun.  A lot of work..... but fun.  Our life has changed to very quiet, simple homebound routines.   Some of our upcoming projects include a root cellar, ice house and spring house.

As part of that process, we have gotten more serious about our garden.  In the early spring, we dug trenches with the help of the backhoe and put manure in, then refilled.  It broke up some hardpan, stirred around our minerals and really improved our soil.

After reading several wonderful gardening books over the winter, we laid out the plants differently.  Every plant was put in carefully with consideration of "root room".  We wanted to give every plant plenty of room to thrive.  This meant that we placed the tomato plants 4' on center.  It was hard for me.  I was limited to 50 plants...... OK, I might have snuck a couple extra in.  I also gave room to the squash, cukes, melons, peppers - everything got enough root room.  They marked up a piece of pipe for me so I could easily plant.

My sweet hubby made new tomato cages for me this year.  We didn't have enough material for all of the tomatoes, but hopefully by next year we will.  I will use fencepost and wires for the rest of the plants.

We have been harvesting raspberries, beets (they are yummy just rinsed, rubbed with oil and salt and baked) greens of every type, tomatoes (from the coldframe) squash, kohlrabi, turnips, parsnips, radish, peas and we are just beginning to get cucumbers.  Our meals are simple and revolve around soaked grains, greens, eggs, milk, garden produce, our own chickens, grass fed beef and raw cheese.

The cow produces wonderful milk and the chickens are laying beautifully.  My sister continues to turn chicks out of her ever revolving incubator.  The roosters we butcher, the hens we either keep or move on to someone else.  We have lots of chickens.  We used the broody hens and chicks to keep the coldframe warm this winter.... that is why we have early tomatoes.  I'll be working a lot harder on the coldframe w/chicken heat this winter.

The Spring and Summer have been filled with hard work, family, new experiences, adjustments, and the Hand of the Lord always giving us guidance.  I can say again today that He has NEVER left us.... NEVER forsaken us.  We can depend on His mercy, His abundance and His grace.

Be blessed, healthy and well
Cindy

Time to think about gardening!

I know it is still winter, but spring is just around the corner.  There is quite a bit you can be doing to get ready for garden season.  I have already written about why I garden and you can find that post here.  If you intend to get a garden going this year, here are some things you can do now to make sure that happens.

Begin a garden journal/devotional.  Just having one place where you are jotting down your thoughts, scriptures, poems, recipes and ideas is helpful. It is good to get your thoughts in order.  This is also a great time to read a new (or old) book on gardening.  Try the thrift store :)

Plan your space.  Make this a family affair.  Figure out how much room you are committing to gardening, what needs to be done and where you intend to plant everything.  Planning is key to a productive garden.  We like to measure everything and lay it out on paper.

Decide what you intend to plant and order seeds.  I use Baker Creek Seeds - they have an awesome selection and test for GMO's.

If you intend to start seeds, this is the time to do it.  You do not have to have a perfect environment.  You need  a warm place, and after the seedlings have popped up, you need to haul them to some sunshine whenever possible.  Water them and let the water drain.  Add some kind of natural food to your water.  The seedlings burn through the available nutrients pretty quickly.  We usually begin tomato, sweet and hot pepper plants, broccoli, brussel sprouts and swiss chard inside.  The other stuff gets direct sowed when the soil is warm enough.

If you need to build boxes, fix fences or acquire pots to plant in, this is the time to work on it.  Often you can find someone who has changed their garden plan and will trade, barter, buy or give you old containers.  Use some of your soil and mix in something good - well rotted compost, some purchased topsoil.... something full of nutrients.  Make sure your pots will drain well and are big enough for the root systems of your plants.

Begin or plan a compost pile.  You don't have to be fancy.  Find a spot, mix equal parts brown, green and hot (leaves, sawdust, straw, kitchen scraps, manure, urine)  and mix occasionally.   You can build a round container out of old fencing or you can use old pallets or you can go with something that spins, turns and works your stuff.   The more you work it, the hotter it gets.  Here are some great links to Organic Gardening.... as far as I am concerned, they are the king of compost :)  You can probably find lots and lots of other articles on compost, these are just three random ones.

Fast Cooking Compost Pile

Compost Ingredients

Safe Compost Bins

Plan to begin a spring garden as soon as you are able to work the soil.  Lettuce, spinach, onions, potatoes, swiss chard, broccoli, brussel sprouts and peas are part of our spring garden plan.  I can't wait!

Do you need to clean up your garden site from last year?  Take a couple of the nice days that always happen in the middle of winter and clean it up.  While you are at it, take a look at your tools and see if you need to replace, repair, sharpen or rethink them.  Make sure you have a somewhat organized place for your tools.  Always searching for a tool is a huge waste of time.

Talk over with your family the amount of resource you plan to use.  Include time, water, money, physical labor and space.  Reassess what you did last year.  Do you need to do something different?  Be open to suggestions from family members.  Step up the chores for the kids and move them up the chore ladder.  A garden is an amazing way to spend great family time.

I would love to hear your garden plans.  Ours are firmly in place and moving on.  It might seem odd to be full steam ahead on your garden when there is still a significant amount of snow on the ground, but if you do not have a plan, your odds of being successful are much smaller.  It is time to start.



Happy Gardening


Cindy

Meanwhile....back at the ranch....

we have been busy, happy, working, loving where the Lord has placed our footsteps.  Obadiah is next to our mongo amaranth plant.  They are usually about 4' tall.  Good compost makes all the difference.

Note to self:  If you plan to use Diestel's compost, make wider rows.  This is our melon patch.  We are a little unsure how we are going to harvest it..... Joey is trying to come up with some strategies.  It is as thick as it looks and there are hundreds of melons set.

The tomato and cucumber patches need tied almost every day.  The cucumbers are coming in strong and the tomatoes are just beginning to come in.  Again... next year wider rows.

The guys made us a mama hen house that can hold four chicken families in separate areas.  We have 18 healthy, strong chicks from the ever turning incubator - 9 copper morans and 9 leghorns.  They should begin laying around Christmas time - Chocolate brown eggs for the copper morans and white for the leghorns.  The two mama hens are doing really well.  We have room and mamas for the next batch getting ready to come out of the incubator.

Everyone eats squash..... EVERY DAY.  Enough said.

The corn and pumpkins are thriving......

The Lord has blessed the work of our hands.

Be healthy and well
Cindy

Today we were farmers

....and loved every minute of it.  The kids started at the raspberry patch...

Then we planted seeds - corn, sunflower, winter squash and my favorite squash which got forgotten in the regular rows, so I tucked them into a space in the cucumbers that did not germinate well.

Watering, weeding and mulching are ongoing.

Checking out the new Mama Hen and her chicks...

The "chicken salad" garden is working out well.

A long day of gardening and swimming leaves you pooped!

And a picture of the new baby from yesterday.... just for a treat!

Cindy

Quail Update - The house around the corner

Quail Update from Arleen:

Our quails are hatching, slowly but surely.   Her are a few pictures of our adventure so far.

The size of the eggs.

Very small. 

Don't use the chick feeder! 

We have a dozen chicks in the brooder.  We have Cortunix, California Valley Quail and Georgia Bobwhite.  I wonder who tastes better..........

The Great Quail Adventure

As of last night, six quail have hatched.  they are tiny, lively and cute.  The reason for raising quail is the feed to meat ratio.  I guess they convert grass and bugs into meat a lot quicker and more efficiently than chickens.  I am excited to see how this works out.  I think we butcher them in about a month.

Redirecting of energy

I just wanted to apologize for no new posts..... I forget every year how exhausting and intense this season is.  Our concrete construction swings into full gear at the same time that our garden swings into full gear.  I always say we go from 10 mph to 90 mph overnight  :)  It will probably be about two weeks before we can settle into our new summer routines with the bulk of the heavy work done..... then I'll be back (hopefully with pictures.  I was being faithful to take pictures but cannot find my camera right at this time)

Some of the topics I would like to cover over the summer:

• Phase 3 - Soaked grains and nuts - I don't know what I was thinking - this should have been done over the winter, but there you are :)  Hopefully this topic can be covered with some thoroughness over the next 6-8 weeks.

• Pregnancy diet - My daughter in law is about to deliver her second baby and my daughter is expecting in December.  We have found some really wonderful and helpful diet information for pregnancy.  Some of it is really important.  I actually want to cover it in 4-5 different posts.  Our local midwife will probably have to help me - when she explains things they make sense, then I cannot really repeat them very well.  Both girls have kidney issues, but we found a diet that is so helpful.  We took Dr. Brewer's recommendations and combined that with Sally Fallon's wisdom and came up with some good stuff.

•  If you want to try any of his recommendations, go grass fed, organic and local.  We have ramped up on the egg thing because of a wonderful enzyme that is in the egg white of a grass fed, fertilized chicken egg.   The only thing is that you have to eat it raw.  It is great in a smoothie.

• My sister came up with an amazing idea for a quick chicken coop.  Take an old kids playhouse (she had one) and screw chicken wire to the windows.  One window was left open, but we screwed a clasp to it so it can be opened and closed.  the door had a latch put on it.  They then took an old swing frame and wired chicken wire to it.  Ta-da:  Chicken coop with a little run that can be moved and the little run can be put down a garden row, which then also gave us a chicken tractor.

• My sister will need to do some guest posts.... she has been studying the chicken thing and is now the local expert.  She came up with the cool new chicken coop (I need about 5 more of those old houses.... if you have one locally you want to get rid of.).... also we made a "chicken salad" using some old frames.  We planted it and put chicken wire on top.  The chickens will be able to eat the green tops, but not the plants.  Stay tuned for this one.  The stuff is just sprouting........ we are getting quails next and every 3 weeks another bunch of chickens hatches.  We butcher our first bunch of chickens in about a month.

Anyway, be blessed today.

Cindy

 Longing for Spring

Christian Christoph Sturm (1740-1786)

(set to music by Mozart)

Come, dear May and turn the trees to verdant green
  and make the little violets blossom by the brook!
How gladly I would see a violet one again, dear May
  how I would like once more to take a walk!
But most of all I feel for Charlotte in her grief;
  the poor girl just sits there and longs for blossom time.
In vain I fetch some toys to help her pass the time
  she sits upon her stool just like a broody hen...
If only it got warmer and the grass began to grow!
Do come, dear May, we children do beg you earnestly!
Do come and, above all, bring lots of violets
  and also nightingales and pretty cuckoo birds!

the violets we planted a couple of months ago....

(Mama Hen has 20 chicks under and about 10 from the last batch she brooded hanging out with her - what a Mama!)

...and it seems as if winter is giving it's last gasp.  

A little snow to say goodbye.  

Tomorrow, Spring will probably win.  

I love the seasons.

Cindy

A little more on the chickens and the farm

Today brought 2 pigs to our little ranch.  Something new to learn about :)  They have some organic pig food, grass clippings and a pile of oak leaves and acorns.

We have been reading a great book on Open-Air Chicken coops.  Here is a link that has portions of the book that you can read on line:  Fresh Air Poultry House

Turning our enclosed chicken coop into an open air coop seems to be a successful experiment.  Two days ago we had 22 hens and one rooster in a large coop with a covered run.  They free range in the afternoon.  We have consistently been getting 8 eggs from that coop.  The other coop which is open air has 8 hens and one rooster and about a million little chicks.  We have been getting 6 eggs from it every day.

Yesterday the guys cut some holes in the walls and doors and put chicken wire in.   Five of the hens went to my sister's house.  Today we got 9 eggs from 17 hens - a little more than 50%.  It was quite rainy today, so hopefully that will increase.  Six hens from the first batch we incubated will join these hens in the big coop soon.  They should start laying about August.

They ran the weedeater in the rain today and raked the grass and weeds for several hours.  We put huge bunches of fresh clover, grass, vetch and weeds in for the hens and chicks.  All loved it.  The kids and I dug a LOT of worms and tossed them in.

The sunset was gorgeous, but my camera does not do it justice.  

NOTE FROM ARLEEN ON THE BOOK

Gold in the Grass

Here is one of Arleen's favorite sites:  Chicken Feed

I like this one on worms:  Worms for feed

....and this one:  Journey to Forever 

The Ideal Chicken for the Consumer and for the Producer (in a nutshell :)

*********************************************

There are many things that a commercial chicken or egg producer can do to increase the health value of the product. While the "Organic" label is a start in the right direction, it by no means assures us that that chicken is the very most healthful bird on the market.

Though not all of these items can be accomplished by the average chicken producer, in my estimation, the supremely most healthful chicken, for meat as well as for eggs, would consume the following feedstuffs in these ways:

1. Ample grass and living plants, along with insect life and subterranean flora and fauna that is found in the grasslands. It would be truly free range, or perhaps a better term needs to be sought. "Grass-ranged" is one option. Whichever term is used, it should be a legally-certified term so that the public will know that this chicken was ranging on ample living grassland that includes wild insect life and a variety of plants, and that this chicken was on this range for a large proportion of its feeding hours immediately prior to consumption by consumer.

2. Wild ocean seafood added to the diet daily, in enough quantity to raise the omega-3 content of the chicken and eggs to nearly equal with the omega-6 content.

3. Extra protein supplementation from a variety of sources such as 100% grass-fed milk and meat products, insects, worms, nuts.

4. Grain supplement only as necessary to sustain adequate growth and laying, based on a mixture of five or more whole, live, unmilled grains. All grains to be completely free-choiced for a period of time, then removed before nighfall. If corn is used, it must be cracked within no more than 24 hours of being consumed.

5. Legumes daily, to balance the protein, B vitamin, and other profiles of the grains. Legumes and grains naturally occur together in all wild pasturelands, and complement each other, probably in many ways that we do not yet know. To eat the one without the other is to invite disaster, imho.

6. Salt derived solely from dried kelp, free-choiced.

7. Calcium derived from oyster shell or grass-fed bone, free choiced.

8. Water free-flowing from living spring or stream, without chlorine or other such industrial toxins added.

And with these safety assurances:

9. Absolutely no addition of any kind of oils to the feeds, to prevent the misuse of trans-fats-laden and re-processed oils as a calorie booster or for any other reason.

10. Everything consumed by the chickens to be certified stringently 100% Organic, not certified by an organic-label certification scheme that allows 5% (or any other percent) of non-organic products to be added and still use the term "Organic."

11. The breed of chicken should not contain any "Cornish" or other unnaturally-fast-maturing variety. The chicken should mature in the normal amount of time, a little more than 5 months, not the abnormal, ceiling-less growth curve leading to harvest at two months as in the Cornish crosses.

So, I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

Cindy

Garden Goodness

Hello all.  I have missed visiting with you.  Every day goes by so quickly during this season.  The garden work continues.... even though we had an amazing snowstorm today.  Big, fat, fluffy flakes that came in a flurry and are almost gone by this evening.  Winter headed out with a sulk :)

Right now tomato and pepper plants are consuming my attention.  The counter has been cleared of most of the cultured stuff to make way for lots and lots of veggie starts.  We saved seeds last year for the first time, and the germination was a little sketchy.  I overplanted to compensate and have spent days thinning them down to a maximum of the 3 strongest plants per cube.  Yesterday and today I separated them into singles so they can get a lot bigger over the next few weeks.

I also separated out groups of different kinds of tomatoes to share with friends.  If I promised you some you might want to nudge me.   Because I didn't label these, it is random lot of tomatoes, but I kept them to one variety per container.  As I have been separating, I choose one from each container for each of my friends.  This way they end up with 20-30 heirloom tomatoes - all different kinds - don't know which is which :)  They are all good.

The tomato plants look much healthier than the pepper plants.  Maybe they were a little cold on the germination - but they are coming up well.  I might end up buying some starts of peppers.

Next up I will start cucumber and then last melon plants.  I will also direct sow cucumber.  The melons, though, I want to keep track of.  I ordered about 15 different types of heirloom melons - pink, yellow, orange, red (inside the watermelons) so these will be planted with a little more attention to which is which.  We have seed from last year and I purchased some new from Baker Creek Seeds.

Let me know how your garden is going.  It looks like here where we are there will be about 10 more days of storms.... then a couple of days to dry out.... then the garden will begin in earnest.

My sister and I continue to study the benefits of grass fed chickens.  It is fascinating and will need it's own post.  Right now I am feeding them an abundance of greens in the morning (clover, weeds from this area, several types of grasses and vetch) with some scratch thrown in.  The long, slow rains have kept everything green.  In the evening they get a little laying pellets.   We are moving them onto a scratch that combines oats, sunflower seeds and other organic grains.   We are trying to move away from corn and soy.  So far so good!

Blessings
Cindy