Rainy Weather Fun

Keeping busy during three days in a row of rain really isn't too hard.  There's always the cleaning.  The cleaning gets neglected when we're busy outside.  The floors have been mopped, the dishes all washed, the boys' rooms cleaned.  But then there's the laundry... 

Indoor clothes drying to the rescue.  It takes a little longer, but it's free!  The heavy stuff I hang on hooks on the bathroom wall.

The lighter stuff goes on the drying rack.  I used this method all winter, rarely turning on the dryer at all.  I think when the dryer kicks the bucket, I'll replace it with a big wooden Mennonite drying rack.


#2 cleaned up the basement and piled the little bit of firewood we've brought in so far this year.  We ordered wood - a dump truck load of birch logs - and 5 weeks later we're still waiting.  If it doesn't come soon we will be freezing this winter!

We took a break and went to the Flea Market/Feed Store.  They've been doing a lot of cleaning this year, so now you can actually find stuff.  Before everything was so stuffed and over flowing, I was afraid to touch anything lest it fall all over the place. 




I bought a bunch of glasses, coffee cups, wine glasses, and measuring cups.







A pair of wall candle sconces.





 A nice big mirror - which I originally thought I would hang in the livingroom, but after bringing it home I think I will probably put it up in my room.  I would like to fill the house with mirrors to reflect more light, and I love the black metal frames.


Sadly, the Flea Market will be closing in September.  They've been struggling since the Mennonites moved into the area and opened their feed store.  They're more centrally located, while the Flea Market is out here on the edge, like me.  The owners bought a general store in one of the smaller towns to the south, and their parents and son have been running the Flea Market this summer.  I'm hoping they will return in the spring.  I suggested they turn it into a Flea & Farmer's market.

I went to a Farmer's market last weekend in one of the bigger towns to the north.  I was just killing time, waiting on the boys, and already halfway there, so I thought I'd go take a look.  It was truly unbelievable.  Most of the vendors were selling hand crafts.  There were two vegetable vendors, both with outrageous prices, and both very busy!  $2 for a cucumber, $3 for a small bag of lettuce, $4 for a tiny romaine.  $3 each for cauliflower and broccoli the size of my fist!  $3 for a tiny bunch of carrots, $4.50 for a pint of raspberries, and $4 for a tiny dish of blueberries. 

I admit I don't often buy any of that stuff, since I grow my own, but still, I was astounded by how busy they were.  I looked in the grocery store afterward, and sure enough, their prices were dramatically lower.  I regret not going to the farmer's market when I was down south.  It would have been interesting for comparison.

Don't get me wrong, I don't begrudge the farmers earning a living wage.  I just don't understand where their customers come from.  I remember going to the farmer's market with my parents, always looking for deals.  We shopped there because it was cheaper than the grocery store.  We would get a deal by buying in bulk, and then Mom would can and freeze for winter.  If I had to pay $6 for a little basket of pickling cukes, I'd just buy pickles in the grocery store.  It's cheaper and the work is already done.

On the other hand, if I sold my carrots 6 to a bunch for $2.50 (grocery store price), I could make close to $200.  That's pretty impressive for my little companion plants.  Then I start thinking about all of the extra stuff I could grow...  and then my garden is huge again and I can't keep up with the weeds...  Maybe someday.

At any rate, I think devoting some of the parking lot space to a farmer's market would help draw people in to the Flea Market, and help keep them afloat.



I made another batch of butter, and a small batch of Farmer's Cheese.  That will be used in a lasagna tonight, as it's not too hot to have the oven on today!





And while it's cool, I also thought I'd make a little room in the freezer.  These three birds are simmering on the stove and will be ready to can this evening.  When we raised turkeys I'd always save a little bit for future soups, pastas, and salads.  I rarely get to do that with chickens, since they're gone in two to three meals.  I catch myself looking at chicken parts in the grocery store, thinking I should buy something to make taco pasta.  It's just not the same with beef.

The garden has been left to fend for itself.  The weeds will be growing like mad again next week.  I still go out to the greenhouses daily, and I've picked my second batch of green beans.  I'm still getting a few peas, carrots every day, my first tomato!!, nasturtium flowers, peppers, and a couple of missed radishes. 

I pulled a few turnips from the garden yesterday, for Piggy and to thin them, but we ended up eating them ourselves.  #2 had asked what to make for supper since we were almost out of potatoes, and I told him I had carrots and turnips on the table.  I found him in the kitchen chopping them up.  He made a pot of mixed veggies - carrots, turnips, and potatoes.  They were delicious.  Piggy got the leftovers for breakfast.  I'll go out and pick some more roots for her once the rain eases off a bit.

I also cooked the turnip greens.  That was a first for us.  I just shredded and boiled them, served with salt and butter.  They were nice.  I've been looking at canning greens for winter.  Everything I've read says 90 minutes for processing, and they turn out like mush.  I really don't have a lot of extra freezer space right now, but it seems that that's the recommended way to go.  I'm thinking that 36-52 bags of assorted greens would be sufficient for winter. 

So, back to work now.  Enjoy the rain!

Butter Day 2

Since I'm only able to get a small amount of cream from Majesty's milk, I decided to freeze it until I had enough to do a proper batch of butter.

I thought two pints, plus the cream off yesterday's milk should do it.

It was still a little skimpy.  Next time I'll wait for three pints.  Any more than that would be too much for my mixer.

It made just a little over half a pound.  (Forgot to take a picture).

Making a year's supply of butter from a holstein/beef cross cow would be extremely over ambitious.

Majesty continues to improve her milk yield for us, as Queenie eats more and more grass.  It's just not very high in fat content.

Raspberry Season

The raspberry yield has improved dramatically with the recent rains.  We're getting bigger, plumper berries now.  I filled the 4L bucket in the freezer, then left it out to defrost over night.

The next morning I put them in a 1 Gallon carboy, along with the juice.

After boiling and cooling the sugar water was added, and now the carboy sits on the buffet with all of the other wines we currently have on the go.

The rest of this years' raspberry crop will be turned into juice.  I'm continuing with the pick and freeze method.  This way there's no rush to get enough berries picked, and no waste from sitting in the fridge too long.  Raspberries don't keep well for very long.

Blueberry yields are also improving, though not enough to try another batch of wine yet.  Peas are dying off, which seems odd since the rains bring cooler temps.

First Butter Day

Three days worth of milk hasn't yielded much cream
 

- or milk for that matter.


Nevertheless, I want to make butter every three days so that it's always cool and fresh.  I had a couple of batches last time with a bit of a sour taste, and I think I may have kept the cream in the fridge too long.  At least I hope that's the case, 'cause the other possible causes would be worse- what she ate or souring in the freezer.  Looking back over old posts it was probably timing.  I wasn't keeping up with things after my Dad died.

I skim the cream off the top of the milk jug with a ladle, just dipping it in enough so that the cream pools itself in.  Then I put the bowl of cream on my stand mixer with a wire whip and let it do it's thing.  It takes a while, but you can hear the difference when it starts to separate, so as long as I stay within earshot, I can keep busy with other things while I wait.

Once separated, I switch the kitchenaid from the wire whip to the porcelain beater.  I drain off the buttermilk through a strainer into a clean jar.  Add cold water to the butter, and beat out any remaining buttermilk.  Repeat until the water remains clear.

Since this is such a small amount of butter, I finished by hand with a rubber spatula.

This batch made about 3 Tbsp of butter.  How sad is that?  Still tastes delicious!

Strawberry Season and Wine

Strawberry season is very short this far north.  In a good year it runs about 2 weeks.  The closest pick your own farm is about an hour south of us.  They do an email info list to announce their picking days as the season progresses.  They're very busy.  I like to go early in the morning on one of the first regular picking days.  I waited once, and completely missed out on berries that year.

This year #1 is home for the summer.  He graduated from Cadets, so no camp for him.  He's been doing odd jobs for friends and family.  He was home the day we went strawberry picking, so he came along.

Strawberries were on sale in the grocery store last week and I went off on a rant about them being picked green and sprayed with chemicals to make them turn red.  And you can't even smell them.

We got to the strawberry field early on a hot sunny day.  I showed the boy what I wanted- red right through from top to bottom.  Ripe berries.  I left him in his row and went about filling my own baskets. 

Later, as we stood in line for our weigh out, he said to me, "You really can smell them."

How sad is that, that my 19 year old has never been around real strawberries before?  Actually, we had a little strawberry patch when he was little, but he doesn't remember it.  I know city kids tend to be disconnected from their food, but it shocked me to realize my farm boy never knew strawberries have their own scent.

We picked 6 baskets, which worked out to a little over 3 pounds each.  2 baskets became jam.  3 small bowls were saved for dessert.  The majority, at #1s request, are fermenting.

Blueberry and Strawberry Wine

I sincerely hope it turns out well.  I might cry if it doesn't.

Most of the wines we've tried so far have turned out tasting very much like the fruit they're made from.  Rosehip tastes like stale beer, and Watermelon is quite bland. 

The Blueberry breaks my heart.  #1 brought one carboy upstairs to rack and hopefully bottle.  We started it 3 years ago in the giant 15 Gallon demi-john.  Buckets and buckets of blueberries went into it.  The yeast went dormant in the basement over the winter, and then started again the following spring.  Last fall we racked and split it into 2 6 Gallon carboys.  Yesterday we racked and taste tested one of them. 

It tastes like wine.  Buckets and buckets of blueberries, hours and hours spent bent over picking those blueberries, fighting the blackflies and mosquitoes, 3 years waiting...  And it just tastes like wine.  Like any cheap grocery store grape would have done the same thing.  I am so incredibly disappointed.  I suppose I can hope that it will improve with age, but I doubt it.

Live and learn.  This year I'll make a 1 gallon batch and fill it completely with blueberries.  That should turn out a strong blueberry flavour!

Canning Meat

Still canning beef.  I like it.  Husband does not.

I am pleasantly surprised when I open each jar.  They smell like roast beef.  Every canned meat I've ever opened in the past - flakes of ham, flakes of chicken, turkey baby food, moose from my Dad's hunting buddies - all smelled like salmon.  I have no idea why, but it just put me off, and was one of the reasons why I didn't want to try canning meat.

The other reason - what was the point?  I've read all kinds of blogs and recipes, and I just didn't understand how or why people would buy roast or steak, cut it into little pieces and can it.  If it's little chunks, it's not a steak, is it?

The ribs, taste like ribs.  They're going to sit down there in the basement for a good long while.  One jar went in a pot of spaghetti.  One went in a pot of chili.  No disguising it, it still tastes like ribs.  I suppose I'll use it up eventually for pulled pork sandwiches or something.  I just don't love it.

The roast beef, however, is much more versatile.  I'm not spicing it at all when I can it, so it just tastes like beef.  It's dryer than ground, with no fat, and a little chunky, so it doesn't feel like ground beef.  That's where Husband has issues.  But it'll take the flavour of whatever spices I use with it - italian, mexican, hot or mild - so it doesn't add anything but beef to the recipe.

I took advantage of the rain (yes, we finally got some rain!) the past few days to do another batch.  From one big stock pot I cooked enough roast to fill 11.5 quarts, plus supper the first night.  I also got enough extra beef stock to fill a coffee pot, which I used to make a big pot of soup last night.  (The other jar is rhubarb juice).

It really is convenient.  Everyone talks about convenience, but I've been cooking frozen ground beef for years.  It doesn't take that long.  If I forget to pull something out of the freezer in the morning, big deal, I make something with frozen ground beef.  How hard is that?

So when the freezers went, and I started canning meat, it was all about storage space.  Until I tried it.  The first batch was still about storage space, and lack of ground beef.  Why buy ground beef when I have roasts to use up?  So I tossed a jar in a pot of spaghetti.  I tossed a jar in a bowl of taco salad.  I tossed a jar in a pot of chili.  Ok, it was a little quicker, but not enough to really go to all that trouble on purpose.

And then, I got a little more creative.  Hoagies, which I love, but almost never make because there's never enough leftover roast beef.  Hash, which we all love, and I kept cutting bigger and bigger roasts, hoping for enough leftovers to make a big batch of hash.  There's never enough hash...  And roast beef.  (Well, duh, right?)  We don't eat much roast beef through the summer, 'cause I don't want to heat the house up.  But heating up a jar, making some mashed potatoes and gravy- easy peasy.  And, oh, we ran out of sandwich meat- well look how quick you can rustle up some roast beef sandwiches with a quart.

It really is so convenient.  It has me rethinking all of those other cuts and meats, too.  I mean, if I want a steak, I still want a steak.  But a few jars for philly steak sandwiches?  Yum.  Pork casserole?  Stir fry?  Soup?  Chicken salads?  So many things I don't make unless I have enough leftovers.  Less dishes - always a good thing.

Canning meats is here to stay. 

Two at a Time

Spring is in the air.  The snow is melting.  The days are getting warmer.  The nights are staying above freezing.  And this is when, not one, but two- TWO!- of my freezers, decide to kick the bucket.  And not just any two, of course, but both of the big freezers. 

If you've been reading here for awhile, you know I usually empty the garage freezer and unplug it in the spring.  Then it gets a good cleaning and sits ready for fall.  I can handle the loss of one freezer.  We've made room in the other two over the course of the winter.  But TWO...

Well, everything had to come in the house.  The little freezer was close to empty.  All of my homemade butter was finished off this winter, we had eaten all of the meat, and only a small box of veggies and assorted breads and buns remained.  I had planned to empty and unplug the little freezer soon.  I thought I could make do with just the large entry way freezer this summer, and cut the hydro bill just a tad.

Breads and buns were thrown out onto the table.  The boys brought in all of the meat from the entry way and garage.  I have a surprising number of roasts and steaks left.  Roasts were piled in the bottom, along with two hams and a turkey, steaks on top, odds and ends all around.  We managed to get almost everything in.

What we didn't manage- several meals worth of ribs that I generally avoid cooking, the doggy stew meat bucket, another small box of fruits and veggies, and some frozen juices.  I am not a rib lover, but they take up a lot of room with all of the bones in them, so they were the first thing to cook.  I've had my two biggest stock pots cooking on the stove, alternating with the pressure canner.

Today I'll also be canning the doggy stew meat.  The boys have been given free range on the juices.  The fruits and veggies- mostly rhubarb, dandelion greens, and bananas- went out to the chickens.  When the 'emergency' items are taken care of, I'll chop, cook and can some of the roasts.  That's partially for 'convenience' summer cooking, partially to make some room in the now overstuffed freezer.  I don't normally can meats, but since I am out of ground beef I figure this will be easier than defrosting and grinding through the summer.  I'll cook very few roasts as roasts in the crockpot through the summer, so most would just sit in the freezer until next fall anyway.

So now I have calves about to calve (milk!), 8 roosters and three hens to butcher, and spring greens to begin foraging, with no freezer to put them into!!

I started checking the local ads last night.  There are a couple of good deals for used freezers, but there's another wee problem.  The trailer is blocked in the second driveway behind 6 feet of snow.  We never plowed it this year.  Do I really need a new to me freezer bad enough to shovel that?  Waiting for the snow to melt seems like a better option for now.

Canning With Old Crown and Corona Jars

I bought this mixed box of old crown and corona canning jars this spring.  I had been wanting to try the old style jars for canning salsa, because no matter how much head space I leave, by mid winter my salsa tends to develop a tinny taste.  I had already removed most of the lids when I decided to take pictures.

12 complete jars, $3

I prepared the salsa for canning, then thought maybe I should read up on how to use these...  There's not a lot of info out there, and most of it says not to...  I asked Mom, and she said she never had good luck with them.  But I did find this, which said it's just like using tattler reusable lids.  Well, I read a couple of blogs by people who've tested the tattlers.  I went and read through those posts.  Ok.  I think I get the idea.  Just to be sure, I went and checked tattler's website.

I washed and sterilized the jars.

Jars ready to use

Of the 12, one jar had a bit of a dip in the rim.  It didn't really feel broken, but not quite right.  One lid had a small crack in the edge, and one ring didn't tighten- just kept spinning.

One 'broken' jar

 I scrubbed, then scalded the lids and gaskets.

Scalding lids

Uh oh.  My funnel is just a tad too big to fit inside the corona jars.  It just fit in the crown jars.  I removed the gaskets from the scalding water just before I started filling the jars.

Gaskets go on the freshly wiped rims.  I used a pair of tongs to lift the lids out of the scalding water and set them on top of the gaskets.

Setting the lids

I tightened the rings just finger tight, then loosened 1/4 inch.  Then into the canner.

4 quarts of salsa with old style jars, 1 regular pint.

As soon as they were done processing I tightened the rings as much as I could.

Out of the canner

There were a couple of interesting parts to this experiment.  I remember when I first started canning properly, instead of 'the way Mom did it'.  Mom and Dad would come over and see canning jars on the counter, and Mom would tell Dad, 'tighten those up for her'.  And I'd yell 'no' and rush to protect my jars, lol.  I'm guessing that was a remnant from the old glass lid days.  I think my grandpas must have tightened a lot of jars for my grandmas.  Dad always tightened moms jar rings after they had started to cool.  By the time I was old enough to remember canning Mom was only canning fruit and jams, freezing all the veggies- except for one tomato juice disaster that exploded all over the kitchen.

It's interesting that the gasket boxes say that the gaskets are for 'fruit jars'.  Most of the issues I read about involved pressure canning.  Perhaps they should only be used for water bath canning.

The other interesting thing, I think, is using 'new' technology to figure out the 'old' technology- the tattler lid method.  I'd still like to buy a few sets of tattler lids some day, but if the glass lids work for me, this is a much cheaper method of solving my salsa problems.


After cooling, I removed the rings and gently tilted the jars over the sink.

Finished product

First one was good (Yeah!).  Second one dripped.  (Ugh.)  Third one was good.  Fourth one dripped.  Hmmm...

I took the lids off the two drippers, wiped the rims, warmed the gaskets, and reprocessed.

When I took them out of the canner, the ring was TILTED on one of the jars.  Crap.  I straightened it and tightened it anyway.

This morning...  One sealed, one still dripping.  Not a big surprise.

I think the problem is the rings are worn out.  I will attempt marking them to tell which rings are on jars that seal, and if other rings repeatedly fail.  And I'll take a peak on amazon and see if I can get replacement rings.

As for the last unsealed jar, I will set it in the fridge and attempt reprocessing this afternoon with a batch of pickles.

Have you ever used these old style jars?  Is the method correct?  Any other thoughts about what might be going wrong?

UPDATE:  The last jar was sealed.  Four out of four.  They sat on the table over night.  The next morning I checked the seals again, intending to take them to the cold room.  Three out of four were no longer sealed.  I decided not to chance it, and reprocessed the salsa in pint jars with regular disposable lids.  Then I went on amazon and ordered three sets of wide mouth tattler lids.  (Shipping is much cheaper for Canadians through amazon than through tattler.)

Inventory

Canning season is about to begin! 

Raspberries Ready to Pick

 And I haven't taken inventory yet of what's left in the basement, so here goes... 

Lots of empty jars

Ok, somebody slap me.  Did I cook at all last year?


Lemon lime Concentrate 17 1/2 pints (the boys don't care for it- too sour)
Lemonade 11 pints
Dill pickles 35 quarts (some are discoloured and I will toss out to the birds)
Tomato juice 7 1.36L cans (store bought, but if I get enough tomatoes I'll make my own to fill the shelf)
Beets 26.5 quarts
 
Mixed Fruit 22 quarts (really?  they could have helped themselves to that...)
Cabbage 1 quart (thought I was out!)
Pectin 11 1/2 pint
Tallow 9 quarts
Yellow beans 15 pints
Salsa 11.5 pints
Pasta sauce 11 quarts (store bought, but if I get enough tomatoes I'll make my own to fill the shelf)
Relish- dill pickle- 3 pints
Relish- sweet 3 pints (this turned out not too bad once it had a chance to stew in it's juices)
Pea soup - 10 pints
Cr. Of Celery- 2 pints
Stew- 4 pints
Ham and Potato soup- 8 pints
Cr. Of Mushroom- 6 pints (blech...  I liked it at first, but after a while, not so much.  Now I'm dreading having to use the rest of it up.)

Strawberry jam- 9 pints
Too blue raspberry jam- 7 1/2 pints
Pumpkin butter- 7 1/2 pints (I'm afraid to eat it now, and don't know how to get rid of it.)
Raspberry sauce- 16.5 pints
Mint jelly- 2 pints
Blueberry jam- 9 pints
Rosehip syrop- 4 pints (No pancakes all winter?)
Crabapple syrop- 3 pints
Watermelon jam- 6 pints
Chokecherry jam- 4.5 pints (I might as well toss these.  Too sour)
Crabapple jelly- 8 pints
Blueberry sauce- 8 1/2 pints
Crabapple sauce- 5 pints

Ok, so I did cook, just not particularly well.  I was still a little out of my mind last winter.  One day at a time.

Ok, so, I need more juice.  Wine is going well, but doesn't go with breakfast.  The boys enjoyed the grape juice, I thought it tasted like sugar water.  We mixed it with the crabapple juice and both disappeared.  So I could do another batch of those.

The Blueberry Limeade is a hit, so if I freeze enough blueberries I should be able to mix them with the lemon lime concentrate and use it up.  I'll try a jug and see if that sweetens it enough.

Rhubarb juice is a big hit, but we only get enough rhubarb to drink it through the summer.

I found a recipe for Watermelon Raspberry Juice, but I haven't tried it yet.  It would be a good way to use up the part of the watermelon that won't fit in the fridge.  I also found instructions to make berry juices, which I need to try, and rosehip juice.  Having a good supply of jams, sauces and syrops will leave me ample fruit to experiment with different juices.

I'll make more dill pickles, but quit when I run out of dill.

Cabbage- huge hit.
Salsa- 11.5 pints left from 49
Relish- need more plain boring relish, and maybe some more sweet relish too.
Mint Jelly- one batch will be plenty

Tomato sauce and juice will depend on how many ripe tomatoes I get this year.

Pincherry and chokecherry wine are on the to-do list.  I might try elderberry juice instead of wine.

Wait!

Last night at dusk I looked up to the sound of the geese overhead.  Not a good picture, I know, but there they go, headed south.  I am so NOT ready for winter!

We've had a couple of frost warnings already, but so far we've been lucky.  The city to the north of us had it's first freeze last week, and a heavy frost hit the city to the south east.  It's not a huge concern for me this year, since all I've got growing in the garden are the stunted beets and some potatoes.

Inside the greenhouses, the sunflowers are looking beautiful.

They need more time to set seed though.

The tomato jungle is still growing strong.  With each frost warning I pick the largest and any tomatoes that have started to turn.  They are ripening just fast enough inside to keep us in tomato sandwiches.

The peppers are buried under the tomato plants now, and though they have new flowers, there haven't been any new pepper growth in weeks.  I think the bees are having trouble getting to them.  The Hungarian sweet wax peppers are the right seed- the ones Dad grew when I was a child.  Delicious.  Only one plant survived to the garden, but it produced 7 peppers itself- much higher yield than green peppers.  Next year I'll have to keep them out of the jungle for even higher productivity.

The cucumbers are finally producing, and I've made a dozen quarts of dill pickles, in addition to all of the cukes we're eating fresh.

The radishes and carrots in the greenhouse produced big lovely tops, much like the beets outside, but the roots are all tiny.  It makes me wonder whether the soil was too cold or just too dry this year.  We've had plenty of rain, but it all seems to fall at once, then a week or three with none at all.  I'd lean more toward soil temperature though, since I do water the greenhouses regularly.

I've been cleaning out the old coop this week- heavy with manure from last winter, since there was nothing living in it this summer, and no need to rush.  The milk room was also neglected, since we've been milking outside all summer.  The garden gets a fresh topping of litter and manure, to compost in place over the winter.  The chickens are doing a fine job of spreading it out evenly too.

The weaning of the calves is under way.  We put Maureen and Monsoon in the pasture last week.  Murphy remains in the yard/chicken pen, and still gets two bottles per day.  He is nursing a bit, but not much.  Mildred sleeps in the chicken pen, then spent the day in the pasture last week.  Yesterday we kept her in the yard until 2pm.  The calves were crying in the morning, but she didn't want anything to do with them.  About 1:30pm, she started bawling, so finally, at 2, we put her in the pasture.  The plan for now is to try and keep her in the yard a little longer every day.  I'd prefer to continue once a day milking, and allow her production to drop down.

Meats and Meals are doing well.  They build a little hay nest to sleep in at night.  I give them a bit of fresh hay every morning, and they add it to their little pile.

I don't see any obvious growth, but they seem happy and satiated, so I'm maintaining their feed at 4 Cups cooked scratch, with milk, lentils, and now beets instead of potatoes.  I found a few jars of 2009 beets in the cold room.  They look, smell, and taste fine, but I really don't need them hiding in a corner and taking up space.  After they finish off the jars I'll start picking the beets in the garden for them, then back to potatoes.  They love the raspberry leaves, and happily gobble up a bucket full of them daily.  I'm tempted to move them into the turkey pen for a few days before butchering, to wipe out the plants.

Elderberry Season

We went out and picked our first batch of elderberries for the year the other day.  I was a couple of days late, as the birds had already eaten more than their share!  Dad found this particular patch of elderberry bushes in the woods last year, and didn't even tell me about them!  Lol.  Mom let the cat out of the bag after I stumbled upon them myself.

These bushes are out in the sun, the area they're in far less overgrown than where I usually pick, and probably a good two weeks ahead of my usual patch.

Red elderberries grow in this area. 

You can still tell that they're ripe when the stems turn from light green to purple.  We snap the stems off the bushes and toss them into a five gallon pail. 

Back at the house the whole pail goes in the freezer.  The bucket gets a good shake a few times a day, which knocks the frozen berries off the stems.  After a few days, cleaning is a breeze.  I'm sure I'll have close to three inches of just berries in the bottom of my bucket, with more to pick soon.  They'll make about double the batch of elderberry wine that I made last fall.

Trails and Travels

The trails were looking more like a hay fields than trails, so Husband ran the Bush hog around last weekend.

The trails are looking much better now, and Mildred is appreciating the fresh hay delivery that the boys are raking up for her.

The 'culvert' roadway over the ravine has been eroding away over the years.  It wasn't bad enough to warrant a complete makeover just yet, but it was getting a little too narrow for our liking.  The boys, Mom, and I, cut down a few trees, filling the washed out side with tree tops and branches.  We laid logs across the road, extending over the washed out end, then Husband covered them with a few buckets of composted manure.  It's a work in progress, that will need to be repeated over the years- somewhat of a continuous hugelkultur mound.  The logs allow the water from the spring run off to seep through, without completely washing out the roadway on top.

I ended up making two batches of strawberry jam, using some of last year's homemade crabapple pectin.  I had to cut the sugar down- actually, I added more strawberries after adding the sugar- because it was so incredibly sweet.  Fresh, ripe, pick-your-own strawberries make a world of difference!

And we're back to fencing.  Dorie and her crew were missing yesterday morning.  They casually came sauntering up the driveway around 11am, like it was perfectly natural to let themselves out for an early morning stroll.  She had Mindy, Nelly, and Sharlotte with her.  Toothless was alone with the horses in the pasture.  She took her new calf along too, but she didn't come back at the same time.  Dorie called her back an hour or so later, and the boys managed to get the skittish wee thing through the gate.

#1 replaced a couple of rotting fence posts.

The Littles helped nail the fence back in place.  I unfolded the sections wrapped up accordion style.  We only got the road side done yesterday, so we'll probably be working on it for the rest of the week.

Meanwhile, Mildred and her crew broke into the garden and all but demolished my peas!  The boys get the blame for that one though- when the gate is not latched securely she just pushes it open.  Previously it only had to keep out goats, who haven't been as determined to gain entry.

The blueberries are just starting to ripen.  Raspberries look a couple of weeks behind schedule this year.  I'll soon be busy picking, canning, making wine and jam.

Making Cheese

I bought this little cheese making kit a while ago.  It's not the kit I wanted, but I couldn't find the one I wanted in Canada.  It was very affordable though, so I guess I shouldn't complain.  It just has more of a 'science experiment' kind of feel to it than a serious 'let's make some cheese' feel.  I guess you could say it's kind of cheesey, lol.

The kit includes a little recipe book, rennet, mesophilic culture, thermophilic culture, calcium chloride, thermometer, cheesecloth, and a little mold.  It has everything I need, just not in the proportions and sturdiness I desire.

Monday I made my first hard cheese- Farmhouse Cheddar, followed by some Whey Ricotta. 

I found it interesting that the cheddar curds were very bland tasting, while the ricotta had a cheesier taste right away.

There was almost as much whey produced (7.2L) as there was milk to begin with(7.6L).  It's fascinating how milk can produce so much butter or cheese, and still leave so much of itself behind. 

What to do with the whey?  I've been reading that some people bake with it.  Lacto-fermentation, of course, but it's not exactly harvest season here.  What would I ferment?  Use it to water tomatoes?  Or feed it to the dogs and chickens?

Honestly, the chickens will probably get most of this batch.  I have butter to make today, so baking is pretty well covered by buttermilk.  I might experiment with one tomato plant, but I don't want the whole lot of them to start growing fungus or mold. 

Feeding milk (or whey, or buttermilk) to the chickens cuts down on my feed bill.  I was feeding the chickens a mixture of corn and duck feed.  The duck feed is made from high protein vegetation, no medications.  Along with their daily sprouts, it seems to keep them healthy and happy.  Since I've been adding milk to their water dish their feed dish doesn't seem to need refilling as often.  Egg production remains at the same level.  Everyone seems happy, including Mrs. Goose, who has started laying eggs.  I'll continue giving the chickens any milk that gets stepped in, and whatever else I need to use up.

Next time- mozzarella?  No, probably more cheddar.  It needs to age at least two months before we can even try it, 6 months would be better.  I'm not making big plans for cheese storage the way I am with butter.  Yes, we use a lot of cheese, but it doesn't make sense to make a lot of cheese that we may not like.  Still, only making a little and having it turn out really well would be pretty much heartbreaking when it's gone.

I have recipes for parmesan, colby, gouda, monterey jack, and a few others.  I think, I'll try a couple of each, then search the web for variations and different recipes.  Hopefully we'll find something we really like and be ready to make a lot of cheese in 2014!

Making Butter

The first time I made butter, I started by shaking the jar in my lap.  It's doable, but time consuming.  Then I bought the little red paint mixer attachment for the drill, seen below.  It worked fairly well, and fit right into the 4L glass jars. 

Last time, I stacked the fresh milk in the fridge waiting for the cream to come to the top, then I'd skim it off, and then I'd have three or four days worth of milk to use up.  This time I'm using sun tea jars for the milk in the fridge.  The cream still rises to the top, while the milk below can be used.  No waiting.

This time I'm spoiled, since I now have the kitchenaid stand mixer.  Pour in the cream and set it to whip.  Watch as the cream turns to whipped cream to slush to butter, in just minutes!

It does splatter a bit if you fill it too full, and again once the butter chunks up.  All stop!  Pour off the buttermilk.  And that, right there, is the cause of the backlog of milk in the fridge!  I started with this little jar to pour the buttermilk into and had to grab a clean 4L jar to finish.  I had forgotten how much buttermilk you get back out once the butter forms. 

I switched to the beater attachment to beat the butter with cold water to get out the last of the buttermilk.  Then I beat it dry.  Then I added 1/2 tsp salt.

I lined these square salad containers with saran wrap.  

And smooshed in the butter.  I probably should have let them stiffen up before pulling them out of the containers.  They lost some of the square shape.

Two 'pounds' of butter (I didn't weigh it) went in the freezer, plus a small dish for the fridge.

Now to use up that buttermilk...