Winter Solstice 2011

Tomorrow night we will celebrate the winter solstice, along with everyone to the east of us, those to the west will have to wait for the 23rd December. The shortest day, then we will slowly enjoy more daylight as we move through winter. To me it is like asking if your glass is half empty or half full, tomorrow indicates the first day of winter or the point that daylight returns. My answer is half full and longer days are coming, so that must make me a positive thinker!

One of the most thrilling moments for me was watching the sun set at Stonehenge in England. During the winter solstice it sets between 2 upright and one horizontal stone. I only saw it once in that particular place but the sight has stayed with me. When I was young it was still possible to walk amongst the stones and touch them but since the late 1970's they have been cordoned off. Built almost 5000 years ago, Stonehenge builders showed understanding of some sophisticated mathematics but the magic is its alignment with midsummer sunrise, midwinter sunset and the most southerly and northerly settings of the moon. The builders had no idea that in worlds yet to be discovered, the timing of the winter solstice would not coincide with the setting sun.

(winter solstice sunset at Stonehenge. Credit Wikimedia Commons)

It doesn't matter what your religious views or convictions may be, the winter solstice is a point of hope and excitement, a visceral reaction to the sun's movement and an acknowledgement that we are at the mercy something greater than ourselves for life here on earth. A moment to reflect and celebrate, whether you say "Merry Christmas", "Happy Channuka" or "Happy Holiday" the solstice affects us all.

We wish each of you a safe journey, a happy time with friends and family and a wonderful 2012.

Edith & Anita.

Seed Catalogue Season!

If the thought of seed catalogues arriving in the mail doesn't make you smile and think of hours of enjoyable planning then you probably don't have a vegetable garden. Even if you have arrived at that lofty status of self sufficiency with heirloom seeds, you probably still enjoy seed catalogues. There are many different kinds, specialist catalogues catering to the many types of gardeners but, these days, the catalogue stops most gardeners from one stop shopping, each one offers something we can't possibly live without. Some are works of art, beautiful photographs of desirable vegetables and fruits trying to convince us that we can grow anything with 'their' seeds.

The catalogues that appeal to us are the ones that include gardening folklore, gardening trivia and short articles covering a variety of 'how-to' subjects. Catalogues also have to meet the networking requirements and standards of our fellow gardeners. Word soon gets round if a company lacks customer service or doesn't live up to the promises of their advertising. Of course you could just browse the internet, download the information, make your choices and order online, I'm sure many people do. We are of the generation that believe half the fun is sitting down with a cup of tea, using a pencil in the margin, making lists of what we will need in the coming year and finally coming to decisions in the New Year. We are not so old as to ignore the ease of online ordering once all the decisions have been made.

There is a common theme to the catalogues we have requested, their companies have all signed the safe seed pledge. Ironically it wasn't one of the pre-requisites for us initially, we just found that the companies we wanted to continue using also happened to be on the list of safe seed resources. If you are concerned about the quality and source of your seeds and prefer organic seed, you  can check out the list of companies at http://www.councilforresponsiblegenetics.org/ViewPage.aspx?pageId=261

We used to buy most of our seeds and seedlings from the Farm store or one of the many 'greenhouses' located outside the major stores in spring. Each spring we would travel to a nursery several miles away but have been disappointed enough times to not make the trip again. Last year we visited a local family who sell their seedlings at our closest Farmers' Market. A delightful couple who took the time to show us around their gardens and greenhouses. They shared stories of their successes and failures and this year we will go to them for any seedlings we may need. Except for our leeks! A friend recommended http://www.morgancountyseeds.com/ and we were very happy with their product, their service, the quality of the plants..... and the price! They promise good, cheap and fast and they surely deliver on this promise. Last year we also ordered several types of dried beans from them and this year we will order leeks and limas.

One of the most beautiful catalogues must be from the Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company http://rareseeds.com/ Photographs, information, how-to's, and varieties of seeds for fruits and vegetables not to be found elsewhere. We will be ordering squashes and Belgian endive seeds from them.

Each winter we look at our supplies ( frozen, canned and dried) and decide how long they will last and which we will need to replenish in the coming seasons. We decide if there is a gap in our diet that we need to fill and if there is something we still buy that we could be growing for ourselves. The list we come up with is our starting point in the seed catalogues. We decide if we want to try a different type of the same vegetable, grow several varieties or stick with an old favourite. We read through the catalogues and make sure the varieties we might want will work in our relatively short growing period, decide which company will receive which order and then we dream a little. What if............! Usually that results in us trying something completely new like last year. We had room in the garden and experimented with dried beans. They were all a success and we will continue to grow from the seeds we collected and saved. The limas were not as prolific but we will continue to experiment with varieties of limas that will be more suited to our conditions.

This year we are thinking of experimenting with several types of winter squash. We want one that will be ready to harvest in our northern climate, good to eat, make good pies and sweet breads, will keep well through the winter and being attractive as an autumnal ornament would be nice too. There are several options in the catalogues but it will take a few more evenings and pots of tea before we have our shortlist.

Trees

TREES
by: Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918)

 THINK that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree.

 

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;

 

A tree that looks at God all day,

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

 

A tree that may in Summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair;

 

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;

Who intimately lives with rain.

 

Poems are made by fools like me,

But only God can make a tree.

The Holiday Season Commences!

No matter how hard we try to deny it, the "holiday season" in this country seems to begin at Thanksgiving Day and proceeds through into the New Year.  I have no issue with this.  I have no issues with fabric and craft stores offering their holiday materials starting in July.  I make something for each and every one of my loved ones every year, so I know that you can't plan on shopping 2 days before Christmas if you plan on crafting or sewing several projects.  I do, however, have a mental seize-up hearing all the holiday crap as early as September or October.  I know it isn't patriotic to despise the blatant pleas for us to rush out in the middle of the night to spend money so THEY are in the black for the year.  Not one of  THEM is all that concerned about the state of my finances and how much red is showing in my quiet little world.

Cliché Thanksgiving Day gatherings tend to involve massive quantities of wonderful food and hordes of family and friends attending to the dispatch of these comforting goodies.  Reality, however, compels many of us to have to be on hand to work on the following day (see above) so that these folks are unable to travel any distance at all to be a part of the celebration.  Distance of the sort that involves double digit hours of driving makes gathering together even more difficult.  Another challenge involves spending 'quality time' with all the branches and twigs on your family shrub, if at all possible.  Adulthood and blending families make this a common problem.

My incredibly clever and inventive nephew, Kelly, and his equally industrious wife, Kara, have come up with a very workable solution to that last challenge.  They have named it the "All-Family Thanksgiving Dinner" and each of the four years it has been in existence has made us realize what a wonderful idea it is!  The concept was based on the fact that it was not very enjoyable to try to plan which course of the meal to eat with whom and how long you could expect the next group you were going to see to tolerate your tardiness....again.  We all KNOW about 'those' people. You know the ones.  We mutter about them as we do the dishes as they are in the process of dirtying more!  Their solution was to include (yup, you got it) ALL the families, in-laws, outlaws, friends...anyone that we know may be spending the holiday alone or far from their own families  I know it sounds simple, but most of us don't really do it.

Tradition tells us that the first "Thanksgiving" dinner involved everyone in the village, as well as the native tribes from the surrounding area.  What Kelly and Kara planned wasn't far from that.  They reserved the Knights of Columbus Hall in Watertown. They invited all 'sides' of everyone's families to be a part.  They asked each of us to contribute names and addresses of our own family members and sent out lovely flyers telling where, when and what to bring.  They simply wanted an RSVP so they knew how much food to cook.  That isn't much to ask!

Kelly and Kara fix the turkey and the ham in those lovely electric roasters. It is all carved and ready to eat when we get there. Kara's mom actually makes REAL gravy from the drippings!  (There really ought to be some law against fake gravy from packets...there are laws about everything else!)  For the last 3 years, we have contributed potatoes from our garden, though I still am not pleased with the texture when they have to sit for very long.  With all the wonderful contributions, there are salads, veggies (both cold and hot), and desserts to choose from.  No one should go away hungry! Last year, someone brought a bag of potato chips.  Checking back later, we became aware that no one knew who that person was! After a little consideration, we realized that it really didn't matter if any of us knew him; what mattered was that he wasn't spending this particular Thanksgiving alone! We talked about having name tags, but realized that we would not only want to know the person's name but also who he or she "belongs to" and that that would sometimes involve a very large tag!

After the dinner has been consumed, folks join in to help clean up and then we seem to be forming a tradition of playing bingo....after all, the bingo cards are already there, right??  Again Kelly and Kara are so very organized that they have an assortment of prizes, tagged for either adults or kids, ready and waiting for each winner to choose from.

As we prepared to eat dinner, we looked around at the group (it has grown from about 45 the first year to almost 70 this year) and realized that many of the folks there were people we had actually met at the first gathering...and hadn't seen anywhere other than at Thanksgiving.  We also realized that it was very good to see them again! I have no way of adequately thanking my clever nephew and his wife for the wonderful idea they had....except to hope that they keep on planning this wonderful event.

It's a four letter word!

Last year we had our first snow on October 27th! It arrived with a bang, high winds took out our chimney and it snowed all day. So far the snow has stayed to the north of us, in fact, the grass is still green, even though we have had only a half inch of rain since September. An Indian Summer was much appreciated but low temperatures have been creeping up on us at night. Crystal clear, cold nights make for good sleeping and allowed us to enjoy the brilliance of Jupiter in close proximity to the moon. After living in large cities, the night sky is something I can never take for granted and, here on the northern prairies, we have a great deal of sky! Spectacular sunrises, breathtaking sunsets, a nightime sky crowded with stars, awe inspiring storms, winter-time sundogs; the sky dominates the Great Plains and I can understand that the vast openess intimidated some of the early settlers. Winter brings its own bleak, dangerous beauty to this area. Life slows down, even a busy agenda can not hurry us through the day, snow and ice determine the pace of life.

It is coming, you can feel it in the air. The goats have started getting their winter coat and the horses will soon be following. The horse tank in the pasture is frozen each morning, the waterer in the chicken house is plugged in and the heating element keeps the water liquid. This week we inserted an electric light bulb in the base of the automatic waterer in the barn. The heat from the light bulb keeps the pipe from freezing. Sheep, horses, chickens, unlike cattle, will all eat snow but while the ground is dry and frozen we need to be sure they still have access to water.

Time to store summer clothes and bring out insulated bibs and coats; hats and gloves are ready by the door with reserves in the pickup. The geese have been arriving from the north and, as our lakes and sloughs begin to freeze their days in this area are numbered. When they have no more water they will move further south. They don't seem as noisy this year but perhaps they still haven't reached their full numbers yet. Pheasant season started and deer season in this area starts on Saturday.

The last remaining crop to be harvested in our garden is Brussels sprouts, we have been waiting for a good freeze and they are now ready to harvest.....or they were! Yesterday I found the new goat, Hyacinth standing next to the plants, munching away, obviously enjoying her latest find. Somehow she had slipped through the electric fence, jumped the fence round the garden and made herself at home. Mercifully she did leave some for us! This was our first year at successfully growing Brussels sprouts, it seems Hyacinth approved. That will teach us to raise animals smarter than we are. Speaking of which, next year we plan on adding pigs to the mixture; I am so looking forward to that.

Our first snow has been promised for Saturday, 2-6 inches. It has arrived earlier in years gone by, but whenever it arrives, it is a four letter word.

Seasonal foods

Very few people think of eggs as being a seasonal food. Our chickens range freely in the pasture, digging and scratching, though at dusk they all march back into the brooder house, so we can lock the door on predators. In the brooder house they have corn available to them to encourage those beautiful yellow yolks. Yet as winter approaches we have an increasing number of days when the chickens stay in the brooder house. We have introduced a new generation of chickens into the flock, and the youngsters are less 'street smart' so, with harsher conditions, we tend to keep them locked up. The water is heated to keep it liquid but from the moment the chickens stop ranging they lay fewer eggs. When the days get noticeably shorter they lay even fewer eggs. We have gone from 15-18 eggs a day to one or two. Still plenty for our own use but not enough to hand out anymore. Strange, we had flyers out all summer advertising free range eggs, and now the phone calls have started!


The single most political act most of us can do is to eat locally grown food! A new study published in the journal Food Policy  found that the transportation of food over long distances (above 12 miles!) can cause more harm than the growing of food with non-organic methods.Calculating the hidden costs of food transport in farming, the researchers calculated that the UK could save around $4billion a year if all food consumed were to be grown locally and an additional $2 billion if it were grown organically. It may be time to label food in supermarkets with the miles a food has travelled.


Locally grown doesn't have to be boring, with all the techniques available for preserving food, it doesn't even have to be seasonal. We freeze, we dehydrate and we can food. We have 3 chest freezers and when we walk out to grab food, we jokingly refer to the south porch as 'Walmart'! We also try to share our bounty with family or friends unable to grow a garden. We try to grow as responsibly as possible and eschew chemical pesticides, preferring to use natural methods.

People may joke about the 'hippy lifestyle' or 'The Good Life' but eating locally grown food, growing it or buying from the Farmers' Market, affects farms, large corporations, political decisions..... I guess that makes us the revolutionaries of the 21st Century!

Final preparations for winter.

Is anyone else surprised when they find themselves ahead of the game?

 This year we seem to be so organised we keep checking to see if there is something we have forgotten! The garden is finished except for the brussels sprouts, the first freeze brought an end to the tomatoes and, although it was a strange year for tomatoes, we are satisfied. Several dozen jars of pasta sauce, salsa and tomato paste will see us through to next season as well as some jars to share at Christmas. The last of the beans have been dried and stored, with just a few, that were still green, being canned. The basement shelves have been filled with canned goods, the potato bin, while not full, has more than enough to allow us to indulge until next season. The freezers are almost full, yet we have room for the goat we plan to butcher when he is a little bigger. We have dried onions, pickled onions, pickled cucumbers, frozen beets as well as pickled beets. We have enough produce to last us till next year and beyond and we will only have to buy the extras that we do not grow or raise ourselves. We are still milking Daisy and are using it to make cheese and ice cream, we will stockpile the latter for our winter indulgence.

The wood pile is looking healthy and we have time to cut and split more within the next month. The first of our hay supply has been delivered and floats have been removed from the water tanks. The list seemed endless as autumn began, yet we have more items on the 'to do' list ticked off than waiting to be done.

We always plan to put the bucks in with the ewes at the beginning of November as we do not have ideal facilities for lambing or kidding in the middle of winter. Yet we had our first lambs on Christmas Day one year, so our plans are not necessarily agreed upon with the males on the place. When all goes to plan we give the ewes extra feed 2 weeks before introducing them to the bucks, also known as flushing them. All summer the ewes share a pasture with the horses so we needed to seperate them or we would have fat(ter) horses. We needed to build fence.

I have always believed that the best cure for aching muscles is to repeat the exercise that made them ache in the first place. Unfortunately as the years pile up, aching joints accompany the aching muscles and excessive aches may need some rest. Fencing is one of those exercises that does NOT require 'more of the same' treatment!

We needed a new section of fence to keep the ewes seperated from the horses but still keep them away from the bucks. It didn't seem like much, a dozen wooden posts and 5 strands of barbed wire. If you have a post hole digger attached to a tractor, it really is a quick job. Our tools are a little more basic!

The tool to the right is our post hole digger and it works like a corkscrew going into the ground. A dozen posts is a good workout! We got it done, though, stretched the wire and even though the ewes have been leaning against gates and posts, resenting their confinement, it has stood strong! They are not complaining about the extra feed they receive and the corn is their favourite. That evening there were a few groans as we climbed the stairs to the bathroom, or got up off the couch where we had collapsed.

There are some things we didn't get done this year, we didn't get the downstairs windows replaced, but we did get one side of the house painted and a quarter of the roof re-shingled. We didn't get the new cupboards for the kitchen but we did mend and extend the chimney. We have enjoyed our garden and our outdoor shower and our animals. We have enjoyed our visitors and sharing our lives with them. We understand why they choose not to visit in winter! We still have to repair one side of the barn and hang tarps over the doors, which we will do next week. Then we will start to slow down for winter. A new season with its own set of challenges and activities.

All in all this has been a good year so far! Life is good!

Traditional British pickled onions

We have no intention of making this blog all about recipes but when the harvest is coming in it is always handy to find recipes that actually work. When harvesting onions, there are always those small ones, the ones that you work around because they are such a pain to peel when you are cooking dinner. This is the perfect recipe for those small onions as they are also the ones that are hard to keep and threaten to spoil the rest. What's more the recipe is easy!

Ingredients:

2lbs small onions (roughly the size of a walnut)
4ozs salt
1 1/2 pints of malt vinegar
2 Tablespoons of pickling spices (ready made or your own mix of red, white, black pepper and coriander seeds)

Directions:

You need to start 2 days ahead by placing the onions in a large non-metallic bowl. Mix 2 pints of water and 4 ozs of salt together, pour over the onions and leave covered with a cloth for two days

1. Drain and dry the onions well.
2. Peel the onions and pack one third of them into a large preserve jar
3. Scatter one third of the pickling spices over the first layer of onions. Continue packing the onions into the jar - adding two more layers of pickling spices as you go.
4. Pour the malt vinegar into the jar, making sure that all the onions are covered. (add some more malt vinegar if there is not enough)
5. Seal the jar and store in a dark, cool place for at least 6 weeks.

The recipe doubles well and if kept in a cool dark place the pickled onions will keep 2+ years ... though ours will never keep that long!

"Autumn", aka "Fall", etc., etc.  The word generally implies luxurious foliage, crisp air, crunching leaves...all the cliches.  Some find it an envigorating time.  I have never felt this way, not even as a child.  Back in those days when summer went on forever, a child could be blessed with the freedom to think, to lay out in an evening and wish to know the stars, to look up from the same spot after a summer shower, knowing that those clouds truly had been those snow drifts that were finally gone. Then fall came.  School started again.  Once more, I would be struggling day to day hoping that my efforts would be tested and found worthy.  Freedom gone for another season. Not nice.  Not nice at all.
I still find autumn to be a stressful time.  Some of the reasons for this are similar to those I had as a child.  This is the time where we are faced with deadlines.  The most obvious deadline is signaled by the "killing frost".  The most accepted definition for this phrase seems to be "The temperature has to get down to 28F for a complete kill on corn and soybean plants. "  I never have raised corn or soybeans, but I do recognize that horrid dark green (turning to hideous yellow) that signals that one's tomatoes have been frost-bitten.  I have learned that there is no coming back from that condition.  No more harvesting, processing, or canning once that 'killing frost' has occurred.  Sometimes reaching this point in one's gardening efforts signals rest and relief. Sometimes this point serves to teach yet more lessons. My mind argues between the gut-deep need to avoid wasting anything and the gratitude for an acceptable excuse for just letting the rest of it all go to its natural end.
Have I been found worthy?  When we finally come to the point where we are harvesting, we look behind us and see the gaping holes where the earth has given up the final result of our spring's planting, our summer's weeding and watering.  Thankfully, we haul the potato crop to the bin in the cellar.  No, it may not have been as abundant as other years, but....there were none lost to slugs, and there will be more than enough for the winter.  There will probably even be enough remaining so that we have seed for next year's crop.  The handful of carrots is enough for a couple more meals of fresh carrots...and, even better, it allows us to take the anomalies, the carrots that invite creative naming, to the friend whose children will very probably shock and delight their parents with their choices.  It is exactly what we had planned:  we had the carrots we wanted for fresh use, we don't have to can or freeze more as we are still enjoying what we preserved last year.  The green beans were the climbing type.  They are very slow when compared to the bush variety.  We had given up on their even sprouting when they suddenly draped the stockade panel with vines.  Lovely.  Lovely blossoms, too.  OK...where are the beans? Eventually, there were beans, but, since we had only planted them because 'they were there', we had the few fresh ones that we seem to crave each year and then we were satisfied.  Lesson learned:  no more climbing beans, we are sticking to the bush type.
All told, though, we will eat this winter and we will be fed well. 
Each year, we are challenged to be ready for winter, ready for the time when the killing frost has become the ice and brutal cold of a prairie winter.  Ready?  What on earth does that mean, anyway?  I have reached a point where I can accept that one can never really be 'ready'.  One can only hope to have accomplished some of those tasks that will assure some safety and some peaceful security as the winter drops on us like a stone.  Each time we stand back and realize that another project has been completed toward this goal, I feel a sense of ....yes, a sense of being found worthy.  This assurance makes it easier to fall asleep at night without feeling yet another twinge of fear regarding unfinished tasks....what about hay?  How can we make sure that our livestock is well-fed and safe through the winter months?  How? How much?
 Dad used to say "If you can't do something about the situation TODAY, for heaven's sake don't WORRY about it today because the worry in itself doesn't solve anything and is a waste of energy."
My dad also used to tell me that I was always my own most demanding critic, that I was harder to please than anyone else who may be judging me.  When we reach the end of a day, I find that I need to be able to live up to a goal that my dad once set for himself.  I need be able to look back over my day and find that the world is indeed better (in  however small a way, ) for my having been in it.

October already!

We had to go to a funeral last Thursday, we were gone all day and got home to milk a little later than usual. I took the shopping into the house while Anita went to the barn. I heard her raising her voice at something, or someone, and instinctively knew that Randy had taken advantage of our absence and broken in to be with the girls. He had! Hard to tell how long he had been in there or whether the girls had responded to his 'aftershave', so we left him in there and accepted the fact that we will be kidding in March. Comforted ourselves with the thought that we would rather have 4 kids in March than 70 lambs in March and that the buck lambs do not seem as persistent as Randy..... yet!

This has been the driest September on record since 1900 and temperatures have been high, too. We had to stop cutting wood one day last week, feeling light-headed, we came home to discover the temperature was 90F in the shade.... at the end of September! In fact, at the start of October, we are still wearing shorts. The leaves are changing colour, the race to get ready for winter is on, yet we still have days where the heat of the day forces us to stop certain tasks. The wood pile is looking very good, though, and we will be snug all winter. The chimney is swept and we added extra height to it to try and eliminate the downdraught that we usually get with a NNE wind. The old chimney was just under the height of the rooftop and we think that was the main cause of the problem. It has withstood the power of the wind this weekend but we will add one more brace.... better to be over the top than wish we had when it succumbs to a South Dakota wind.

Just look at that sky! While autumn may not be my favourite season, it sure is pretty, so I have to share some photos taken from just outside the door. I feel so very privileged to live with these views on a daily basis and I still feel the same way as that first morning I woke up to this view. It is a lot of sky and I love it!

Too many summer squash?

It is a fact of life that when you grow zucchini (courgettes), you end up with too many. Neighbours will run from you, even in a small town, people start locking their vehicles, you are marked as 'those people trying to give away zukes'! If you don't want to be ostracised for the rest of the season, and if you have eaten all the zucchini you can for one season, you need some good, wholesome recipes to preserve your summer squash.

Zucchini Relish
(Yield: about 4 half pints though we usually quadruple the amounts)

2 cups of chopped zucchinis (about 3 medium) remove seeded middle if the zuchini are large, no need to peel.
1 cup of chopped onion (about 1 medium)
1/2 cup chopped sweet green pepper ( about 1 small)
1/2 cup chopped sweet red pepper ( about 1 small)
1/2 cup chopped hot pepper (we use habanero but whatever you have in the garden)

2 tablespoons of salt
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 teaspoons of celery seed
1 teaspoon of mustard seed
1 cup cider vinegar

Combine zucchini, onion and peppers; sprinkle with salt; cover with cold water. Let stand for 2 hours.
Drain; rinse and drain thoroughly.
Combine remaining ingredients in a large saucpan, bring to a boil.
Add vegetable, simmer for 10 minutes.
Pack relish into hot jars leaving 1/4inch  headspace. Remove air bubbles. Adjust 2 piece caps.
Process 10 minutes in a boiling-water canner.

Zucchini Bars
(These freeze well)

3/4 cup margarine softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon of vanilla
2 cups grated zucchini
1 3/4 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
3/4 cup of coconut
3/4 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 10x15 jelly roll pan. Cream margerine and sugar together till light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and beat well. Sift flour, baking powder and salt, add to creamed mixture. Stir in remaining ingredients. Spread in prepared pan and bake 35 minutes or until tooth pick comes out clean.

Variations:leave out coconut and raisins and replace with 8 tablespoons of cocoa for brownies
or: add 1 cup of mini chocolate chips for choc chip bars.
you can also add nuts.

While the zucchinis are still growing and blooming, try battering and deep frying the flowers. You can even stuff the flower before battering it. Guaranteed to impress your dinner guests!

There are always those people who say they do not like zucchinis, rest assured no-one will notice the 2 recipes above contain zukes unless you tell them!

Mummy, what's that smell?

Unlike many farms, we are limited in our choice of outbuildings, so we try to make the most of what we have. We are fortunate to have an 80ft pole barn and try to keep it productive as much of the year as possible... layer chicks, broiler chicks, lambs, kids, we even have rabbit cages in there. One thing you can not do with a pole barn is keep it warm in winter; particularly not in South Dakota winters. We work with that by trying not to lamb before the end of March and, as we ideally want to have our kids at a similar time, that means segregation of the sexes until the 1st November. We have not always been succesful but we do our best. This year the barn reminds me of West Berlin stranded in the middle of East Germany! We have woven wire fence reinforced with barbed wire. We have gates reinforced with hardware cloth. We have electric fence and we have stock panels, all adapted for one reason, to delay procreation. We are considering giving inspirational tours to fathers of teenage daughters!

We have two buck lambs living with the goats, segregated at night so they can't get into the goat feed, which has a higher copper level than they can tolerate. Oh yes, there are layers of intricacy in this Orwellian form of segregation, food plays a role too! We have ordered a new sheep buck from a neighbour, a handsome suffolk, fortunately he is not being delivered till November, so we have not had to corral him this year. As yet the young rams have not caused any problems, though I have noticed the ewes laying round the fenceline making eyes at them, so we are on red alert for the sheep population. We should be fine as long as we keep an eye on the fences and keep the gates well closed.

Goats, on the other hand, are far more creative than sheep. Their powers of mental agility exceed those of a dog or small child. They are both greedy and intelligent, persistent and opportunistic, strong and agile, all powerful combinations. The girls, Petal and Daisy, still have their hands full with their 3month old kids, they appear to not be responding to the call of the wild from Randy, our buck goat. Appearances can be deciving!

Randy has been living with the ewes and has decided that he would prefer to be in with Petal and Daisy. He now ignores the sheep and lays along the fenceline making strange noises and performing even more bizarre rituals. Twice he has managed to break in, we have caught him, led him out and addressed the weak section of fence that he used for his break-in. It looks like he didn't have time to encourage the girls to reciprocate his yearnings, so he continues his courtship.

Randy spends the night looking through the gate into the barn, doing what male goats do and getting smellier by the day. By the time we go to milk in the morning, walking through the haze of his natural 'aftershave' makes your eyes water. If you have ever had a group of teenage boys in your house getting ready to go to a dance, you would recognise the haze. Last week, when he had to be removed from the female area, I came back to the house, dropped my clothes in the washer, continued upstairs and showered...TWICE! The next morning when Anita came home from work, she still asked if I had been wrestling with Randy. Does are responsive 24-40 hours every 21 days, I wish someone would explain this fact to Randy. Fortunately by the middle of November he will return to his usual sweet-smelling, friendly self. Hormones are not only affecting his odour but also his behaviour and we are being extra cautious around him. Jake has already tackled Randy when he shows signs of disrespect to us, it is good to have such a good stock dog.

I am hoping that come February this blog will not have cute photos of lambs or kids!

The passing of the seasons

Last week we noticed orange brown patches in the soy bean fields, it never takes long for those patches of colour to grow and devour the entire field, in fact, there have even been a few attempts by eager farmers to harvest their beans, a sure sign of changing seasons. Our own dried beans have been speaking to us and only the lima/butterbeans have been holding on to their harvest, slower to ripen and dry than their more exotic neighbours in our garden.This week the burning bush and the sumac started to change colour, another indication that summer has already drawn to a close however reluctant we might be to admit it. Soon, the leaves on the trees will follow, accompanied by the echo of 'oohs and aahs' at Mother Nature's dramatic display of colour before she draws her winter cloak around her and rests in monochromatic coldness.

Perhaps as we get older we are more in rhythm with Mother Nature, less reluctant to be caught unprepared. That may even explain our rush to collect firewood.  I would love to say it is our inner selves connecting with nature but, in truth, the simple answer is that we bought a log splitter last winter! Other years I have split by hand and so had to wait till temperatures were well below freezing to attempt large or knotty pieces of wood. We would go out in the snow dragging sledfulls of firewood to the pickup, splitting a load at a time, never having much more than a cord of wood stacked and waiting. So far this has worked for us but, we had to admit, we were getting older and trudging through ditches of snow was not necessarily the wisest of activities. We have our eye on several dead trees yet, but at this point, mid-September, our permanent 8 pallets are full of firewood and we have laid down the temporary ones to fill next week.

to give some perspective to the pile, Anita is 5ft tall:

This spring  we knew we had more than enough preserved vegetables,ketchups, relishes and pickles to last several years, we made a list of the things we would need and decided, with the surplus space, we would grow a variety of dried beans. It has proven to be a good decision. We planted Yin Yang beans, Vermont Cranberry beans, Jacobs Cattle beans, Fordhook Bush Lima beans (butterbeans in the UK), Great Northern bean and another attempt at Dutch Capucijner beans, all ordered from R.H Shumway's who, we are happy to say, we would recommend for the quality of their product and service. We expected the Great Northern to be prolific in our climate as well as the Vermont cranberry but the Yin Yang and Jacobs cattle have exceeded our expectations. The jury is still out on the lima beans as they have the longest growing season of all the beans we planted, the bushes are full of pods and we hope that the weather will allow them to mature and ripen before the first snow, it does look positive. While not failing completely, the Dutch Capucijner was the only disappointment and we will not attempt to grow it again in this climate, no matter how much I love to eat it. Halfway in our harvest now, we already have almost 2 gallons of dried beans. Mixed together they have a cheerful, colourful look and will feed us well for some time to come.

Each year we have raised leeks from seed, starting them at the end of January. Handmaking pots from newspaper, we became quite good at keeping the costs low and producing some hardy little seedlings to transplant to the garden. Leeks are relatively expensive here at $1 a piece, so we have improved our yield each year as we learn something new. Trimming the tops to encourage the growth to go to the girth rather than length, raking and banking the earth regularly to increase the ratio of white to green growth, it seems each year our stock lasts a little further into the winter. We were a little sceptical when a friend suggested a supplier of leek plants rather than seeds, the friend lives in Arkansa, how would her supplier, in Massachusetts, translate to a garden in South Dakota? The price made us even more suspicious, we could not raise 300 seedlings for the price he charges. So, we considered the source, allowed our trust in this friend to rule the day and placed our order with http://www.morgancountyseeds.com/index.html. We were not sorry, and we will be placing another order next year, especially as he allows you to determine the date you wish to receive the plants, an important factor in South Dakota.

One of the many weeds that likes to grow around here is catnip. I have recently read that the oils contained in this herb/weed are 10 times more effective against mosquitoes than DEET. We may well have to ponder this thought and allow it to grow here alongside the milkweed we grow for our monarch butterflies. It will soon be the season to ponder! The bustle of autumn will fade into the contemplativeness of winter. Do not mistake this season for hibernating laziness, it is the time to read and acquire more knowledge, the season for sewing and quilting, the season to enjoy the preparations we have laid down the entire year. The time to plan for the next year.

Random Recollections on this day

As I drove home from work this morning, I recalled this day ten years ago.  I not only remember, I still  feel that day. 
I confess:  when Ray was on the road, I usually slept on the couch in the living room....and I usually had the television on.  Seems I sleep better in a wash of sound at times.  The phone rang.  It was kind of early, but I instinctively responded to the call.  Ray often called when he was 'between things', when he stopped to fuel or was going through a port, when he was waiting to unload.  I knew he had offloaded the components for a steel building at a spot somewhere in the Northeast the previous day and would be on the way home or to pick up a backhaul to bring him homeward.  He, on the other hand, knew that it was my mom's 75th birthday and that I would be spending the afternoon with her to celebrate.  That was not the reason for this early call, however.
I was a tad groggy answering the phone, but when he said that "some fool in a plane hit the Twin Towers", I responded in the typical "Good Grief" sort of way, not thinking at that moment what it actually meant.  I, like most others at that point, thought it was an accident.  I didn't have my contact lenses in yet and, therefore, wasn't able to actually see what was on television, though I knew it was news coverage.  As we chatted a few more moments, I regained consciousness somewhat.  Ray then said, "Oh, shit!  Another one just hit the other tower!"  It became hideously obvious that this was no accident at all.  There came a gut reaction of horror, shock and sadness.
Ray had stopped at a fuel oasis just as he had come out of Elizabeth, NJ.  He had put off coming through that area until morning as it is notoriously dangerous in that city.  As he fueled, history was being made.  He said that all the trucks and passenger vehicles had now been stopped there by National Guard personnel (remember when they took care of stuff here in THIS country?) and he didn't know  how long they would have to stay. 
As we talked, he told of the smoke rolling and the horrors and then.....the first building coming down. Then he said that the National Guardsman had returned and he had to go. He said he couldn't call anymore for a while.  And he was gone.  And it was very quiet here.  The waves of shock were rolling across the country and had come to my little home in Clark County, South Dakota.
I tried to do the things that I usually did when morning came and a day started, but I don't remember one single thing about that time anymore....except the words and pictures coming on the television.
Ray did call again rather shortly after.  He said they had all been told, specifically, that, if they had a place to go, they better do just that...GO!  He headed for Pittsburgh because he felt that would probably be the place he would be getting his next load anyway.  Little did we know......their share of the horror was just taking place.
I felt that at least I knew he was OUT OF THAT PLACE! 
Somehow the time passed, I headed for Watertown to see my mom, thinking, "How dare they!!??  They desecrated my mom's birthday!" That rather trivial thought only touched lightly at the deep anger that so many of us found mingling with our sadness. 
I remember the day John Kennedy died...I was just a kid in school, but I can still 'feel' the chair I was sitting on when the news came over the PA system during music class.  This day, September 11, 2001, was now one of those rare "I won't ever forget" days, as well.
I join all those around the world who shared the shock and horror of those moments and the anger and the grief and the loss that followed.  At some point, the philosophizing stops as the reasons don't work.

 No...I don't know and I can't comprehend.....but I recall -- with reverence.

A bit of flab!

I confess, I have never had to lose weight in my life, my problem has always been that I had to be careful that I didn't get too far under a healthy weight. OK, I can hear several of you muttering the words "I hate you!" but believe me it is no joke having to eat 3 cooked meals a day in order to maintain my weight during the most active times in my adult life. Then, 2 events conspired to add the pounds, I say conspired, because either one will add pounds to a woman's hips but, together it is easy to see the writing on the wall. The first event was the sudden cessation of a daily dose of 2+ packets of cigarettes a day, compounded by the onset of menopause. At first I thought I was getting off lightly (no pun intended) then one day I got on the scales, stepped off in disbelief, poked the scales with my toe as if that would encourage them to speak nicely to me. My jeans had been telling me the truth; there was more of me! I decided this was but a temporary state and allowed myself to buy a pair of jeans an inch larger than the size I had worn since I was 20, summer came and I had to admit that I actually needed to invest in shorts of that size if I were not to walk round naked all season.

We haven't smoked for over two years and I am still wearing that new increased, but decidedly not improved, size of jeans. I have no excuse, I am overweight!

We had a half hearted attempt at Atkins but it just didn't help. We lead an active life, we have a healthy diet, how did this happen, perhaps the pounds will mystically disappear while I sleep....none of these thought processes had stopped me being overweight! When Anita decided to join Weight Watchers online, I decided not only to be supportive, but to toss my own case of denial in the bin and join her. Her oldest friend has just lost 50lbs and looks fantastic and that has been a source of inspiration to both of us. Most people seem to have been on diets but, as I said before, this is virgin territory for me. We made a serious commitment to Weight Watchers, mainly because we paid for it, if we can stop smoking we can lose weight.

Everyone travels a different road in achieving their perfect weight and, so far, I do not feel deprived. I like meat but it is not the most important item on my plate. I am a fruit and vegetable kind of person, so Weight Watchers works for me. A vegetarian curry or stir fry, a meatless salad are not hardships for me and it means I can have the occassional potato which I also like. My weakness is pasta and to not eat pasta is a hardship but, so far, standing on the scales and watching the numbers decrease is more rewarding than any dish of pasta. When I reach my desired weight I will eat pasta again, I will need it to end the weight loss and stop me from overshooting my target, but I will not forget the lessons learnt on this journey!

I confess, there is a sense of pride in watching the numbers decrease, in feeling my shorts slide down because they no longer fit. I rather like playing the numbers game that Weight Watchers presents and staying within my points. I like to win, we both do, and that shows in the fact that we have both lost 17lbs with no intention of giving up. The battle of losing weight seems to be won or lost between the ears, putting aside the excuses, admitting that, for whatever reason, the balance of physical activity and food intake is incorrect and adjustments need to be made.

We owe it to ourselves to be healthy!

Cheese, please!

I have always loved cheese, fortunately it is not one of the foods that sets off migraines for me, and cheese is one of the foods I would find hard to live without. Everywhere I travel I have tasted the local cheeses and they have rarely disappointed me. Cheeses made from cows' milk, goats' milk, sheep milk, water buffalo and even mares' milk  all different in texture and flavour.  It fascinates me that the same recipe made in a different region produces such a different cheese and I find it no more than logical that many cheeses have a Protected Geographical status. It is impossible to choose my favourite cheese........ Red Windsor, Stilton, Roquefort certainly, but some days when the weather and the mood is different I may prefer a camembert or a very ripe brie. So many cheeses so little time! Somehow it always seems that each cheese has a perfect time and place for unique enjoyment. I feel about cheese the way some people feel about chocolate, it is the perfect food! I have to add that calling anything processed or coming out of a squeezable bag or spray can cheese, is an obvious misnomer!

I have wanted to try making cheese for years but have never had access to fresh raw milk of any kind and store bought milk has never convinced me of its freshness, though many people use it with good results. Now, finally, we are milking our own goats! We still have baby goats so there is no abundance of goats' milk yet but we were able to have a quart and a half put aside without babies suffering. It is time to fulfill another dream and make our own cheese.

After much research we decided on a recipe; remember both of us feel that recipes are only a suggestion open to interpretation, and though there are certain steps that need to be followed, others can be adapted. Here is the process we have chosen to start with and it goes without saying that our milk is fresh!

Step 1: Sterilise a large stainless steel pan by boiling about an inch of water for 5 minutes. Sterilise whisk.

Step 2: Add milk to empty sterilised pan and gently bring to about 69F ( Milk comes out of a goat at about 90F, so if you use milk fresh from the animal you will probably not need to heat it.)

Step 3: Add cultured buttermilk to the milk and whisk. We used 2 Tablespoons to a quart and a half of milk.

Step 4: We decided to use vegetable rennet because it was what we had, but other options are animal rennet, junket rennet, some recipes call for lemon or lime juice, even vinegar. Two drops of vegetable rennet added to a couple of spoons of water. Stir into milk.

Step 5: Cover the cultured and renneted milk and set to one side for 24 hours. The setting time will vary according to the temperature, taking longer the cooler the temperature. You will be looking for about 1/4-1/2 an inch of whey on top of the curd. This part was very frustrating! I wanted to make cheese.... NOW.... not hurry up and wait, it seems I must learn patience yet again.

Step 6: Now it is time to cut the curd. Use a knife or spatula and make parallel cuts from top to bottom about 1/2 an inch apart. Turn the pot and make another series of cuts perpendicular to the first.

Step 7: Place a tea towel or flour sack cloth in a colander and rest it above a pot to collect the whey. Then using a stainless steel slotted spoon, ladel out 1/2 inch cubes of curd into the cloth.

Step 8: Allow it to drain for 30 minutes and then tie the edges of the cloth up and use a heavy wooden spoon in the knot to allow you to hang it up in a convenient place to drip further.... overnight or until the dripping stops. I jammed ours into a cupboard above the laundry sink so it was out of the way. It is also on the north side of the house so it won't get too warm and spoil.

Step 9: Season with salt and herbs. At this point you will have to decide whether you are eager to eat your cream cheese, or whether you have the patience to add the cheese to a mould and press more moisture out of the block to make a harder cheese.

We will have to do a lot more milking and a lot more tasting and experimenting with seasonings before we can move on to hard cheeses but we have made a start and what's more, it was easy!

Where does your food come from?

I was watching a programme on TV where children were being asked where their food comes from. I wasn't so much horrified by the answers as plain sad as one by one the children answered the question by naming their local grocery store. When pressed to answer where the store got it from, there was either silence or that the store made it out back. Entire generations of families have never tasted a home-grown, chemical-free, sun-ripened tomato, never mind other vegetables. Increasingly it seems fewer people actually care about what went into their food, how far it has travelled or whether the farmer received fair payment for it....farmer? what farmer? Not everyone has the room for a garden but do have access to a farmers' market, so the flavours of fresh vegetables are available without the prices of supermarket organic.

One easy product anyone can make at home is yoghurt, it takes little effort and no special tools, you can even make it using store bought milk if you don't have access to fresh milk. In this house, I am the expert at eating the stuff, while Anita is the yoghurt-maker. I can tell you how wonderful it is, but she can tell you how to make it.
Edith

Welcome to Homemade Yoghurt 101:
As you become enthused about the process of making the yoghurt you love, having it available almost any time you want/need it, and experimenting with its use, bear in mind that this is a truly simple food.  You don't need to invest large amounts of money for ingredients or equipment!  Yes, I have had and used a yoghurt maker for over 30 years, but that little appliance is not a necessity at all!  Do you have a quart-sized thermos bottle?  OK, so you don't...do you perhaps know someone who does have a spare one?  Is it remotely possible that this soul owes you a little favor or can be intimidated until he/she is willing to lend it to you?  Good!  You are ready to start!
Fill that nice borrowed thermos bottle with hot water.  This should NOT be boiling water as that is too warm for the yoghurt cultures and will probably kill it.  (Not a good thing.)  Just set that thermos out of the way for now while we get serious with some milk. 
As I said, this is a truly simple food and originated when folks needed a way of preserving excess milk for later use.  Please, oh, please do NOT rush out and buy rich whole milk or cream!  The reason for this warning is basic:  it won't make the kind of yoghurt that you want . In fact, it may hardly thicken at all, to say nothing of reaching that lovely pudding consistency that we have come to love. If at all possible, try to use reconstituted powdered milk.  I have used skim milk and found that the yoghurt was just about right, but it was much better when I added 3 tablespoons of powdered milk to it.  Straight powdered milk is absolutely the best!
Now I need to give you a couple of alternatives to start making your own yoghurt.  I mentioned the option of (a)using skim milk that has approximately 3 Tbsp of powdered milk added and (b) using reconstituted powdered milk.  Each option requires that the milk be heated. 
If I am using the skim milk option, I measure 3 3/4 cups of milk into a Pyrex measuring cup and heat it in the microwave (see? I told you it was easy!) for about 3 minutes.  If your microwave has a "beverage" setting, go ahead and use it.  You do not need to scald the milk.  Most of what we use today is already pasteurized, you know.  Imagine the temperature you would need for a baby, about 85-90F.  That is what you want. You must avoid having it too hot. After heating, just stir in about 3Tbsp of powdered milk.
 If, however, you choose the straight powdered milk option, feel free to just run your tap water as hot as it gets and then add the powdered milk.  I like to use about a cup and a half of milk powder for a quart.
Now comes the exciting part!  Buy a large carton of good quality plain yoghurt, such as Activia.  I have used a variety of brands and types and find that Activia is as good as it gets.  You do NOT need to go to the health food store and purchase the expensive packets of cultures. Vanilla flavoring is okay, if you have no other option.  I would advise against the fruit-flavored ones as the yoghurt is a sort of odd color when it comes out, even though it is perfectly fine to eat, of course.  Drop about 3 heaping tablespoons of your Activia (hereafter known as the 'starter') into your warm milk and mix it thoroughly together with a whisk.  This ensures even distribution and avoids little clumps in the milk. 
Remember that thermos?  We need it now!  Pour out that hot water that primed the bottle for you and then carefully pour all of your warm milk, powdered milk, and yoghurt mixture into it.  See?  Now you know why you used a measuring cup to heat and mix the milk!  Immediately put the stopper back on the bottle and then just set it out of the way on the cupboard for about 12 hours.  Bear in mind that the world will not come to an end if you don't time this process precisely!  I have forgotten my yoghurt for a while....that is to say it sat for about 18 hours!  It was still good stuff!
So now you have about a quart of good home-made yoghurt.  If you are planning on having it as your breakfast or as a snack, you will probably want to cool it and then add fruit and some sweetening.  I like blueberries and they are very good for us, so I buy the largest bag of store brand frozen blueberries.  I thaw about 1 1/2-2 cups and then add about 1/3 cup of sugar.  I have also tried some canned fruits, even used some canned pie filling.  It was edible, but not as nice as the straight fruit.  I have used frozen strawberries and even mixed fruits.  The mixtures that have melon or berries with large seeds are not as pleasant as I would like, though.
If you are of the adventurous spirit and would like to try making a cream cheese, nothing could be easier.  Make the yoghurt as described above and then pour it into a colander that is lined with several (yes, several) layers of the webby-type of cheese cloth that you can find in the fabric department.  Let the whey drain out for a couple of hours...place the colander over a bowl or just drain it into the sink if  you like.  You will notice that the yoghurt very soon becomes much dryer.  When it isn't draining quite so quickly anymore (drip, drip, drip), tie the corners together and twist the top of the 'bag' with a stick...I have used the handle of a wooden spoon.  Then, just let it keep on dripping till it quits.
Now you have not only made your own yoghurt, you have made your own cream cheese!!  Aren't you clever!  At this point, you can be as creative as you wish.  To this cream cheese, you may add any seasoning or herbs you choose.  Some suggestions might be minced garlic, minced chives, onion powder, thyme, parsley...the list just goes on and on.  Feel free to substitute your cream cheese in that favorite cheese ball recipe.  Take it with you to the office and impress your friends!  The possibilities are endless and they are each delicious!
One last note:  make sure you save a cup or so of  your unflavored yoghurt to use as starter for the next batch.  I usually have one batch cooling and one batch in the making.  We eat lots of  yoghurt as there is nothing much better for breakfast than a bowl of bluberry yoghurt with a slice of toasted home-made whole wheat bread!
Anita

A lazy day

We have started milking Petal and Daisy once a day. We don't take much, for now the object of the exercise is to get them used to our hands on their udders. They are feeding their own twins and anything they may give us is a bonus to feed Bill and Ben, the orphans. They like the milk stand we made for them, which is a blessing and they like being given treats, which they only receive whilst being milked. Neither one of us has a problem outwitting our caprine / capricious friends by using bribery! We don't need much milk for soap and for now, everyone is happy.
The last week or so has been quite busy, so today by common consent was designated a lazy day. The dogs understood and have been laying under the table, laying on the step, ignoring flies and cuddling the cat... in fact they could easily have been George Gershwin's inspiration back in the 1930's.


Summertime, and the living is easy......

 (break into song here).
We, on the other hand are a lost cause during the summer. The day started with chores, chicken chores, goat chores and milking. Coming back to the house I decided to try putting together a little milking device from some tubing we were given by Anita's Mom. I can't remember who first suggested this device but if it works, it will save us from sore hands when the kids are weaned and we are milking up to a gallon a day.

We shall see how well it works tomorrow morning!

On this lazy summer's day Neets decided to make bread, 14 loaves of wholewheat bread and a dozen Brioche. [...fish are jumping.....]

  While waiting for the bread to rise she collected eggs, went to the garden for tomatoes and ran up and down to the basement to turn the water supply on and off as I had decided it was time to replace the faucets with the new ones we had bought. [...and the cotton is high....] Things never run 100% as expected and a quick trip to the local hardware store was needed for 2 flexible extensions for the waterpipes. Now we actually have a place to fill 5 gallon buckets without tilting them to the extent that you can't completely fill them. We also have a drip-free water system, a luxury in itself! [...Oh, your Daddy's rich....]

The last few heads of celery are soaking in the sink and will go into the dehydrator this evening. A lazy day!

[...and your Mama's goodlooking...]

Tomorrow we really ought to make sure we get some stuff done.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1bWqViY5F4&feature=related

It's hard staying away from the barn!

We bought our first baby goat, Petal, because we fell in love with a friend's goatmilk soap and then we fell in love with Petal! Now Petal is a mother, though she is still a little princess and we have fallen in love all over again. Don't get me wrong all babies are cute, we ooh and aah over our lambs each year, seeing a new born colt early in the morning is very special but baby goats.... they have a way of stealing your heart. Maybe it is the sound they make, stirring some primal instinct because they sound so much like human babies, whatever the reason they are a source of endless entertainment.
The oldest, Bill and Ben are a month old now and very playful. In fact all 6 run around the barn, jumping on the upturned water tank we set for them, knocking over buckets, making their mothers grunt in frustration and rubbing their heads. They are getting horns! We left Petal with her horns so now every goat that stays keeps their horns or they would be at a disadvantage. I am in danger of overusing the word 'cute' but it does describe how they look with the little buds starting:

I think they must itch because they keep rubbing them on the branches we have dragged down to the barn:

Petal is still very much the matriarch, keeping kids and adult goats exactly where she wants them. We even see her teaching goat manners to the 2 little orphans. They may be hand fed but in her eyes that is no excuse for not knowing your place!

Daisy tries to keep her two kids by her side but they have reached an age where playing with the others is much more fun than hanging with Mama! The only time she sees them is when they are passing through or when they are hungry, just like human kids.

Any other time she can watch them jump and run

If you are still wondering why it might be hard to leave the barn....... just take a look at the greeting I get as I walk into the barn, it's hard to ignore:

Oh, and remember those lambs? They really are getting big now, almost time for taking them to market!

The barn is full of life; goats on one side, sheep on the other but we also have our broiler chicks also about a month old and some baby layer chicks. No wonder barn chores are such fun and take so much time!

Each trip to the barn means passing the chicken house, so we check for eggs. As you know, everyone works at our house and while the barn may be Jake's territory, the chicken house is Titan's. We taught him to stop stealing eggs by giving him the responsibility of carrying the eggs back to the house!



Catch y'all later, I am back off to the barn!
Edith

You should have been here for supper last night!

We eat well, mainly because we grow and raise almost everything we eat. We both enjoy cooking in different ways, one of us will bake, the other cook; alternatively one of us will cook indoors while the other prefers the outdoor setting for cooking. This being summer, BBQ skills are being honed and yesterday was a fine example of 'throwing something on the barbie' as our Aussie friends would say.

There is something satisfying about growing all your own food and being able to preserve it for the year to come, but nothing beats taking stuff out of the ground and having it on the grill 30 minutes later. Good quality ingredients just don't need a lot of fussing, in fact, if you don't have your own garden, just try shopping at a Farmers' Market rather than your local supermarket. You will be amazed at the difference in the flavour and texture of ingredients and at your own ability to suddenly create meals fit for a King!

We raise chickens every year. Used to be we raised 700 broilers for sale but we dropped back to just enough to keep us and a few others in chickens for a year; about 50 each year. We thawed one for dinner yesterday. The recipe is never the same so I won't share it with you but I have discovered that if I cut either side of the backbone and remove it, then I can open up the bird so it cooks a little more evenly on the grill. Our herbs are in pots on the steps so, on my walk from the kitchen to the BBQ area, I can snip a bit of this and a bit of that, no golden rules, just whatever seems to be doing well gets included. Squeeze of a lemon, a few spices and seasoning and the bird is ready to be transformed. It looked a little lonely so a full head of garlic took pride of place, along with a good drizzle of olive oil.

An hour later I walked out to the vegetable garden for inspiration.... a couple of new potatoes, half a dozen baby carrots, a sweet onion all sounded good to me, add a  parsnip and we had the makings of a good dinner. Gardening isn't all about weeding, watering and hard work, if it is then you missed the point. It is about fragrances and textures, about looking round and being inspired, watching a frog eat the bugs and finding a smile on your face. It's about watching your efforts come to fruition and improving on it each year. It's about knowing where your food comes from and exactly what happened to it on that journey from dirt to table.

After cleaning and cutting the veggies to size they were added to the roasting tray along with some thyme and olive oil. A perfect Sunday roast accompanied by some refrigerator pickles we had started a few days ago. We rarely grow cucumbers so a friend had shared their bounty with us. The fun of having your own garden is that you can share with those who don't...... unless of course you are growing zucchinis this year, in which case people are already running away when they see you coming.

I promise we won't always write about dinner but yesterday was Sunday, the day of roasts and rest! It was a quiet day and other than feeding and making sure all the critters were fed and watered we took it easy and enjoyed the summer's day. Soon we will be canning and freezing, the dehydrator will be running day and night, all to preserve our food. In fact the first of the celery came out of the dehydrator today and we turned last years dehydrated onions into onion powder, making room for the new onions. The chickens will be butchered in a month, plenty to keep us busy so what better time to start something new like a blog?

Edith (Half of the Two Old Broads)