Good Food Down on the Farm

2012-02-27T10:53:00.000-05:00

Spent a bunch of time yesterday making applesauce out of the last of the cold-storage apples. They were in better shape than I had hoped, and I only lost a couple to serious issues. So, 24 pint jars of sauce added to what I had canned back in January - YUM! This was a blend of Spys, Galas, and Courtlands.

Parmesan Chicken Noodle & Corn Casserole

2012-01-15T21:00:00.000-05:00

I am not a huge fan of casseroles. However, after Thanksgiving, we just didn't have the bandwidth to make our usual batch of turkey pot pies (see our Recipes page for this), so I made a pot of turkey soup, but also went looking for some sort of casserole recipes. I found a couple I liked, and kind of married them together, with my own twist. This works well with turkey (my original effort) and I've also now made it a couple if times with cooked leftovers from baking one of our chickens.

I'll give credit where credit is due: the bulk of this recipe comes from The Kitchen Witch Blog, and then I borrowed some ideas from a Rachel Ray recipe, also.

ParmesanChicken Noodle Corn Casserole

4 cups diced cooked chicken or turkey

4cups dried noodles (bow tie works well!)

15oz. corn, frozen or canned

1can cream style corn

2cups carrots (fresh or frozen – if frozen, thaw, if fresh, cook ‘til tender)

Sauce:

3 Tbutter, melted

1medium onion, diced (approx.. 1 cup)

1stalk celery, diced (approx.. ½ cup)

1garlic clove, minced

¼cup flour

2 ½cups milk

1cup sour cream

1cup shredded Parmesan cheese

1cup chicken broth

1tablespoon minced sage

1tablespoon minced thyme

2tablespoons minced parsley

Saltand pepper to taste

Topping:

2cups bread crumbs

4tablespoons butter, melted

Cookdried pasta in appropriate amount of water until tender, turn off heat and letstand. If you’re using frozen corn and/or carrots, you can drop them in thispot to thaw. I like to let the pasta absorb a little more liquid beforedraining. If you drain it immediately, the pasta will then absorb too much of yoursauce while heating and the casserole will be drier than it should be.

Whilepasta is cooking, using a 4 quart pot, start the sauce by melting the butter,then sauté onions and celery until tender; add the minced garlic and sautéanother minute.

Addthe flour to this mixture, and stir well; then add milk slowly, stirring constantly.Bring sauce to a boil and cook for 1 minute.

Turnoff heat, add herbs, salt and pepper, corn, creamed corn, sour cream, carrots, chickenbroth, Parmesan, chicken and noodles. Mix until well combined.

Pourcasserole mixture into a greased 3 quart casserole pan. In a bowl, pourthe melted butter over the bread crumbs (I use diced bread crusts from homemade bread) and mix well. Spread the breadcrumbs evenly over the casserole. You can also sprinkle Parmesan cheese over the top. Cover with foil or a lid and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or untilbubbling, remove the lid and bake another 10 minutes.

Bread crumbs (croutons) added.

Sausage Hash, Butternut Squash

2011-12-16T16:33:00.000-05:00

No, not making them together, although, an afterthought, the sausage hash would make a great filling for half an Acorn squash. Then the other half Acorn could be devoted to brown sugar/applesauce filling!.

We love corned beef hash with eggs. As you may have read on a recent post, we put up 110# of sausage from one of our hogs. One of the seasonings we used was for Chorizo sausage. Darrell commented, "I bet that would be good in hash". I agreed.

So yesterday I cooked up a bunch of our redskin potatoes that are stored for the winter, and a pound of Chorizo, sautéd with some onion. Mixed the two together and stored the hash overnight.

This morning, in a skillet, I made Chorizo hash and eggs for breakfast. Pretty yummy!

Then later, I brought up some pork chops to thaw for supper, and grabbed a butternut squash from storage, thinking I'd go ahead and get that roasted up and ready to go. When I cut the squash in half, the color was soooo gorgeous, I just had to share a photo.

Giving Thanks for Good Food!

2011-11-27T07:57:00.001-05:00

Well, two full days of Thanksgiving celebrations are over and clean-up is pretty well done. We had family Thanksgiving 3 times - once at my mother-in-law's new digs in a retirement home where we could use a family dining room with full kitchen and dining table. Several of us brought food and we ate very well - turkey, wild rice/sausage stuffing, mashed potatoes w/kale (from our garden), butternut squash (also from our garden) with a brown sugar, toasted walnut topping, cranberry chutney, corn pudding, pecan pie, pumpkin roll, apple-walnut-caramel cake. Then in the evening, went to my mom's where her caregivers made turkey breast, mashed potatoes, the ubiquitous green bean casserole, and we brought a mincemeat pie and the pumpkin roll. Then Friday, our house was jumping, with daughter and her family, two grandmas, and two friends from out of town who spent the weekend - fresh turkey from the people who process our chickens, sage and sausage (from our pigs) stuffing, more garden potatoes and squash, corn from the garden, and the desserts. Two days of cooking/eating/cleaning up. Right now I'm cooking down the turkey carcass for stock. It is very rewarding to sit down to a dinner where most of the ingredients came from our farm, and what didn't get grown here was natural, raw ingredients. At some point this weekend, we will transform all the leftovers of turkey, stuffing, potatoes, corn, plus garden carrots and peas into lovely turkey pot pies that we make and freeze to eat all winter. Simple, and tastes like Thanksgiving dinner every time we cook one. You can check out the recipe here: http://goodfooddownonthefarm.blogspot.com/p/chicken-recipes.html. The beauty of this plan is that YOUR pot pies will taste like YOUR Thanksgiving dinner - whatever your stuffing and gravy and turkey taste like, based on your seasonings, is what your lovely pot pies will taste like!

Odd Pods and other garden adventures

2011-10-30T22:46:00.001-04:00

Oh, my, I cannot believe it has been 3 months since I made time to update this blog! I've been posting items on our Facebook page and ignoring the blog, unfortunately.

In the last week, I've made a major effort to get as much in from the garden as possible. Today, I dug the rest of the potatoes, picked kale and steamed it for the freezer, and canned beets. My back is telling me I spent too much time on my feet today!

from this

to this - love beets

redskin potatoes

love this beautiful kale - yummy, too!

As I was going to pick the kale, I noticed (again) the seed pods on the French Breakfast Radishes that bolted - I never turned them under, so the radishes got huge and gnarly, and the plants grew these amazing seed pods!

Radish seed pods

French Breakfast Radishes gone gnarly!

Equally amazing to me was finding a secondary head of cabbage on one of the old stalks. It's actually nice and firm, so I cut it off and have it in the crisper.

Darrell made pickled peppers last week from jalapenos we grew.

Last weekend I picked all the squash and dug the Kennebec potatoes - they've been hardening off in the garage, and today I hauled them downstairs to store.

Garden Harvests are coming on strong!

2011-08-01T08:52:00.001-04:00

It almost seems anti-climatic, because you spend so much time preparing the garden, planting, weeding, nurturing those tiny plants, that when suddenly there're many things to harvest, it's almost a shock! We got our garden in very late this year . . . seems odd, but we're actually getting sugar peas in July (and probably now, into August!), because they get morning sun and then are shaded from the very hot afternoon sun by the corn. A serendipitous pairing of neighbors in the garden, I think! Of course, the pumpkins and the squash on the other side of them are trying to overrun them, so it's a race to see how many peas we will get before the pumpkins win . . . beets are just starting, and have been harvesting kale, which makes a fabulous salad (wrote about that before), and, wilted in a little bacon fat is a wonderful green addition to an omelet. Potatoes are close to becoming usable - probably could get some, but I want to make sure the hills are fairly mature before I start digging! Corn is tasseling wildly, tomatoes, although late, are looking fine. I tried tying them up on stakes this year rather than using the fairly ineffective tomato cages I've used before. I'll report on whether that actually works later.

Successful farrowing of 9 piglets!

2011-07-01T12:45:00.001-04:00

When Darrell recently picked up a small number of feeder pigs, the guy had some gilts that he had gotten from another Berkshire farmer, which Darrell bought to round out our breeding herd. They were supposedly bred - one definitely was, the others we're not sure about. But, Tuesday evening, June 26, the one had 10 little piglets, nine of which survived birthing, which is quite amazing in terms of numbers for a first-time sow. Somehow, four of them got into the sows' mud wallow and Darrell didn't even see them at first - they were not doing well at all, becoming hypothermic, but we washed them in very warm water and dried them briskly to stimulate them, then got them positioned to suckle on their mama. They had not gotten so hypothermic that they had lost the instinct to suck, fortunately, so, amazingly, they survived the night and continue to do well. The photo below was taken a couple of hours after they were born. This morning, we clipped their little teeth (8 per pig) so that they can't injure their mama's teats or each other - those little teeth are like needles!

Summer Salads, Garden is finally in, and more piggies arriving

2011-06-14T11:01:00.000-04:00

The cold, very wet spring kept us from getting our garden in until just last week. Our garden soil has a lot of clay, so it hangs on to water and you can't till it until it's dried out or nearly so. In previous years, we felt we were "late" with our garden if it didn't get finished up until Memorial Day weekend - this year, in spite of numerous "starts", we didn't get it in until the first weekend in June - yikes! Wonder how many of the tomatoes we'll lose to frost this year? Last year, I had the garden in by mid-May and still lost a bunch of tomatoes to an early frost - rats!

Besides tomatoes, we've got corn, red and white potatoes, two types of peas (yes, it's late, but I bought the seeds back in early April!), carrots, beets, two types of hot peppers, broccoli, cabbages, acorn and butternut squash, pumpkins, lettuces, radishes, kale, and spinach. It's going to be awhile before we start harvesting anything, but at least everything is in! We also replaced some semi-annuals and annuals in the herb garden - the perennials are doing great and trying to take over, so we had to do some digging and hack them back to make them share the space with their less-hardy brethren.

We are trying to shift our eating habits somewhat from the "big" meal being in the evening. Problem is, time during the day to fix that "big" meal is often lacking. We are trying to prep ahead for lunch foods we can both get into during the week, when I'm doing client work and he's working on the farm. So, some of our favorite salads come in handy:

potato salad, loaded with other veggies (carrots, celery, onion, radishes) and chopped egg, dressed with homemade mayo and prepared mustard, seasoned with some salt, pepper, and chopped fresh dill . . . goes with so many things!
lentil salad, with chopped fresh tomatoes, green onions, and a lovely dressing made with wine vinegar, chopped parsley, chopped thyme, salt or soy sauce, a little prepared mustard or Dijon.
lovely kale or spinach salad, made with pineapple chunks, bacon, sliced water chestnuts and green onion - the recipe I got from a friend doesn't call for mushrooms, but I use them, and there are likely other goodies you could toss in here that would be very friendly - dried cranberries, toasted walnuts or pecans - you could really load it up as a "meal" salad with plenty of proteins. I felt like I wanted some sort of cheese in it - feta sounded right, but I didn't have any in the house when we ate this yesterday. Kale is so crispy/crunchy as a salad base - I really like it better than spinach. The dressing for this salad is quite simple and very tasty - almost like a sweet French, but with more kick. (note: this recipe makes WAY more dressing than a big bowl of salad needs, in my opinion - I mixed it up, we dressed our individual salad bowls and added cracked black pepper, and half the dressing was still left. I put that in a jar in the fridge for future use.

2/3 cup oil
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/3 cup ketchup
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp curry
2 tbs worchestershire sauce
mix and toss with greens, or serve on the side

Tabouli and salads made with wheat berries - we just got some cracked wheat and wheat berries at the Country Life store, so I'm researching recipes. There are so many ways you can combine these tasty little morsels into salads and main dishes!
Quinoa makes a tasty base for a grain salad, too! It's also a great rice substitute for a hot side dish like pilaf.

Darrell is off to pick up another small batch of feeder pigs, and perhaps two bred sows - we'll see what arrives home with him. We set up the temporary small pen for the little feeders this morning - we let them get acclimated before opening the temporary pen to the larger area they will continue to grow up in. The grass is so deep in the pasture that the older batch of feeders and the sheep can get completely lost from view in their moveable pens - sometimes Darrell has to stand up on the Bobcat to watch for moving waves in the grass to tell him a pig or a sheep is moving around.

Exploring Edible Flowers, and our Memorial Day weekend food fest

2011-05-31T16:36:00.002-04:00

Our friend Crystal spent the holiday weekend with us, and loves natural "whole" food as much as we do. On Friday, Darrell made his fabulous Stir-Fried Rice with chunks of ham from one of the Berkshires, carrots, peas, and substituted chives and chive blossoms for the normal white onion.

While obtaining the chive blossoms for the stir fry, we were observing and investigating other herbs. The thyme is blooming as well, and we discovered what look like flower bud stalks on the sage. Crystal is an inveterate Internet researcher, so when we got back into the house, she looked up sage blossoms and discovered a delightful site all about "edible flowers", which include chive blossoms, sage blossoms, thyme blossoms, dandelions and many others, including one of my favorite wild flowers, the beautiful little johnny-jump-up. Here's an interesting site to investigate should you be interested in flowers as part of cooking. You may be surprised about what's listed there!

On Saturday, we finally got our act together and went out and got a new grill to replace the one that was wrecked as a result of last summer's tornado (that's right - only as a "result of", not "during" - it survived the tons of elm wood that thundered down on the roofs and deck somehow, only to be taken out by the roofers shoving shingles off the upper story during repair - splat!). Anyway, we got a grill that will burn lump charcoal and do direct grilling or indirect cooking/smoking, and we felt the need to inaugurate it. We grilled some NY strip steaks, red potatoes and asparagus from the garden. Quite yummy!

Sunday found us cooking lamb chops, more asparagus (close to the end of the season, I'm afraid!), and frozen corn from the garden last year. Sunday also we prep'd for Memorial Day feasting - deviled eggs from our hens, eggs cooked for making potato salad on Monday, plus Darrell did a cooked custard base and made homemade French Vanilla ice cream and an angel food cake. (Hey, if you make that ice cream, you use a dozen egg yolks . . . you gotta do something with the egg whites, right?)

Monday, the potato salad went together with redskin potatoes, carrots, celery, white onion, a little more of those great chive blossoms, dill, homemade mayo, yellow mustard, and some seasonings. I had thawed out one of our chickens, and about 5 p.m. that went on the cooker/smoker shelf in the new grill. We're still learning about "best practices" with this new grill, so some adaptations and adjustments had to be made to the original plan, but we had thought it would take about 2 hours, and it took only a little more. Fabulous flavor! The ice cream and cake were dessert - we all felt stuffed to the gills.

Piggies love the mud!

2011-05-29T18:45:00.000-04:00

It's a good thing they do, because the rest of us are heartily sick of it. We opened up a new pasture area this weekend for the feeder pigs, as they had turned their previous area into nothing but mud because of all the rain and the fact that pigs root constantly. So yesterday, our friend Crystal, who is staying with us for the holiday weekend, took these photos of them turned out on new grass - note the area they'd already started turning up! One of the piggies came over to investigate her boot.

Once again, pickled asparagus!

2011-05-22T23:41:00.000-04:00

Put up several jars of pickled asparagus tonight - we loved it so much, we hope to put up more this year than last . . . see post from last year for info and a link to the recipe.

I cut the sugar in half this year, as we found the original recipe a little too sweet. Hopefully, I didn't cut too much out! I also remembered that the recipe did not provide quite enough pickling liquid for the jars, so I doubled it. I got three jars instead of two, but my liquid was nearly gone. So increase the recipe amounts on everything.

Spring has finally sprung - asparagus, strawberries, garden prep & dandelions

2011-05-12T08:37:00.000-04:00

Here in West Michigan we are finally getting spring-like weather . . . everything seems to be running a few weeks behind the norm . . . the swallows came back later than usual, asparagus started coming in a week or two after the norm, garden was too wet to till until last week . . .

However, we had asparagus, some pork loin, and then strawberry shortcake for supper last night. The berries were from 2010 . . . our strawberry patch had to be replanted this year, so we won't be harvesting our own. And the asparagus patch is in serious need of weeding - the aftermath of the tornado last summer totally interfered with available time to keep on top of that, and I think some of the crowns have been choked out and will need to be replaced.

Oh, and spring has also brought the dandelions out in force - I don't believe I have ever seen such healthy, huge flowers - most of these measure at least 2.25" across, and a few are 3" in diameter! Yowza! Wish they stayed pretty like this and didn't end up blowing away, leaving those ugly, naked stalks behind . . . dandelion wine, anyone?

Barn Swallows are back!

2011-05-07T17:11:00.000-04:00

Early this past week, the first week of May, the barn swallows finally returned. They come back every year between mid-April and early May. This year, the cold probably kept them away, as there were no insects to feed on. They are busy swooping and capturing mosquitos and flies and whatever else they come across. They help us so much on insect control, it is unbelievable. We used to be swarmed with mosquitos whenever and wherever we went outside. Now, the swallows and the bats keep them under control.

There are a number of pairs that come here every year, and they're busy exploring all the existing nests, refurbishing or building new ones. Soon, we'll have cute baby swallows like these peering over the edges of nests looking at us down below . . . love those little faces - like little alien beings, somehow!

Photos of spring on the farm!

2011-05-01T09:51:00.000-04:00

Finally got some decent weather - not raining, sun out - so I took some photos of some of our new feeder pigs, the three piglets born to one of our sows, and our flock of ewes with their lambs enjoying grass and sunshine!

Making Mayonnaise and Custard with our own eggs

2011-04-25T09:51:00.002-04:00

When we used to have laying hens years ago, we made our own mayo all the time. Once we had converted our single-room chicken coop over to the meat birds, we suffered over the loss of having our own eggs. Now that we're back into the egg business, this weekend we made mayo (the last store-bought jar was empty, having gone into egg salad last week!), and yesterday Darrell made a cooked custard to take as a dessert to my mom's house for Easter.

Making Mayo
This recipe comes from an old recipe book by Vincent and Mary Price (yes, the actor) called "A Treasury of Great Recipes", published in 1965. It also, BTW, is the source for the basic recipe I have adapted for great guacamole. Anyhow, here's how easy it is to make mayonnaise, per the Vincent Price recipe. Homemade mayo has a shorter shelf life than store-bought because it's not full of preservatives, so make what you need, and try to use it up in a week and a half or so . . .

1. Measure 1 Cup salad oil
2. Into container of a blender put: 1 egg, 1/2 Tsp. dry mustard, 1/2 Tsp. salt, 2 Tbs. vinegar, and 1/4 cup of the salad oil.
3. Cover container and turn motor on low speed. Immediately uncover container and pour in remaining oil in a steady stream, taking no longer than 15 seconds total blending time from turning on motor. Switch blender to high speed and blend for 5 seconds.
Makes 1 1/4 cup.

NOTE: our blender has a pour opening in the top, so we put the top on with that center area already open - we just cover it with a hand as the blender is switched on. Makes it quicker to start pouring the rest of the oil right away. Don't pour too fast!

Egg Custard
Use to make pie filling or just a baked custard.

4 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 Tsp salt
2 1/2 cups whole milk
1 Tsp vanilla
sprinkle of nutmeg.

Whisk eggs lightly, then whisk sugar and salt into the eggs. Stir in the milk and vanilla into that mixture until well mixed; pour into unbaked pie shell or ramekins or baking dish. Sprinkle with nutmeg to taste. Bake at 425 degrees for 45 minutes or until set. You can put a metal probe into the middle - if it comes out clean and uncoated, custard is done.

New feeder pigs for Easter!

2011-04-24T09:24:00.000-04:00

Last Tuesday, between the rain showers, Darrell went to pick up 9 little feeder pigs. We also have 3 little ones that were born to a sow here, which means that toward end of summer and into fall, we will have pigs to sell - finally!

We had issues getting feeders, tried farrowing a couple of sows this winter, which didn't work out well due to the cold. We are set up better for that, but now that spring may actually be upon us, things will be easier on that score.

I wanted to take photos of the little pigs in the field pen, but it has been so wet and nasty since they came, they are penned inside the big shelter - we didn't want to risk them getting too cold and too wet and ending up dying of hypothermia. They have plenty of room inside the shelter, and are bedded in deep straw to keep warm. They sleep in a pile like puppies and kittens - so cute! When it dries out some, they'll get turned out into the larger pen - I'll get some photos of them at that time. Several of them have big white blazes on their faces - cute little critters!

When Darrell got back with them in the stock trailer, he backed down the lane as close to their area as he could get, but the lower lane and big pasture area are so saturated, he didn't dare get off the main lane. So, he carried the nine little ones in a big feed tub with a piece of plywood over the top - 1 or two in a trip - took him 6 trips, walking several hundred feet from the trailer to the pen in the pasture, to get them there. I stayed by the shelter, keeping the arrivals in the shelter - Tuesday was so cold and nasty! After they were all in, we put a length of hog panel across the entrance to the shelter to keep them inside.

Oxtail soup . . . hearty and good!

2011-04-15T08:37:00.000-04:00

I picked up some oxtail at our favorite butcher shop (yes, we do buy some meats, especially beef!). I also bought a couple of nice chuck roasts. We did a pot roast for dinner one night, and I seared and braised the oxtail in another dutch oven at the same time. The left-over pot roast meat and juice and the meat and juices from the oxtails went into a soup pot yesterday, together with potatoes, carrots, corn from the garden from 2010, peas, barley, and some additional seasonings. Dinner last night was this thick, flavorful soup and French bread that Darrell made. Probably the last pot of veg/beef soup I'll make until next fall - but I do love it!

Spectacular Buttermilk Pie!

2011-04-02T20:08:00.002-04:00

Darrell had an extra pie crust and was looking around online for an interesting one-crust pie recipe (we had brought a custard pie to someone's house the other night, and the pie crust recipe we love makes two crusts). He found this on AllRecipes.com. The submitter says it was an old recipe when she was born, in 1919! A couple of comments said that it was too sweet - the recipe calls for 2 cups of sugar. Someone pointed out that back in the early 1900s, people were using raw sugar, which was not nearly as sweet as our refined sugar. So, he cut the sugar down. He also added an extra Tbs. of flour and an extra egg for thickening. Note that the crust recipe is from the AllRecipes page and not ours.

Old-Time Buttermilk Pie (Darrell's adaptation)

Ingredients
CRUST:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shortening
1/4 cup cold milk
1 egg, beaten
FILLING:
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup lemon juice

Directions
In a bowl, mix flour and salt. Cut in shortening until smooth. Gradually add milk and egg; blend well. On a floured surface, roll dough out very thin. Place in a 10-in. pie pan; set aside. For filling, cream butter and sugar in a mixing bowl. Add flour. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in remaining ingredients and mix well. Pour into crust. Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes. Cool completely before serving.

Laying hens are getting with the program!

2011-03-30T10:23:00.000-04:00

Our small flock of laying hens are finally producing regularly, and giving regular eggs, not pullet eggs. If you'd like to stop by to pick some up, give us a call or send an email to make sure we have eggs at that moment and that someone will be here to help you. We're selling them at $2.50/dozen. And, we're accepting clean egg cartons - let's keep the waste down!

Getting non-GMO/GE foods is getting tougher!

2011-03-08T17:21:00.000-05:00

Some of our meat customers have asked if we raise our animals on non-GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) grain . . . the answer is, no, because getting such grain is virtually impossible, and if we got it, it would be so expensive no one would be able to buy our meat!

One ongoing struggle for organic farmers has been GE crops and cross-pollination (read "contamination), by which a farmer using GE seeds can cross-pollinate a neighboring farmer's crop, even though that farmer is trying to raise organic, non-modified grain crops. Farmer A doesn't set out to cross-pollinate Farmer B's crop, nature just makes it happen, with wind, birds and insects - all the usual methods by which plants are pollinated.

Here's a blog post from Whole Foods from late January this year, as they came under fire for supposedly supporting GMO foods. They are discussing a specific recent USDA decision about GE alfalfa here, but some statistics they cite for other GE crops are staggering: ". . .93% of soy, 86% of corn, 93% of cotton and 93% of canola seed planted were genetically engineered in the U.S. in 2010." Not sure where we'd find that 14% of non-GE corn to use for feed.

Within this Whole Foods blog are links to some other sources of info as well, concerning impacts of GE foods in the system, etc. One of the cautionary tales to take away from some of this research is that just because it's labeled "organic" doesn't necessarily mean what you think that label should mean.

Layer flock is beginning to lay eggs!

2011-03-05T09:37:00.001-05:00

Our young flock of laying hens (gotten last fall as the cutest, fuzziest little chicks you could want to see!), have finally started laying eggs. They are not all laying yet, and the eggs are the smaller "pullet egg" size, but it won't be long and they will be up to full production. We have a mixed flock of Buff Orpingtons, Barred Rocks, Silver-laced Wyandottes (beautiful birds!), and Black Australorps - all brown egg layers. It has been many years since we have had a laying flock, and we have really missed having those eggs! The color of the yolks is an amazing deep color and the shells are very hard, as we give the birds calcium supplement. A very far cry from the thin-shelled, watery-yolked eggs we've been buying in the store in the intervening years! I've posted a couple of photos that show these birds as they grew from cute little chicks to mature birds.

those cute, fuzzy chicks!

Young layers growing up

Mature layer flock

Yummy brown eggs!

Is the chicken local?

2011-02-07T19:54:00.001-05:00

A CSF customer and fellow food blogger sent me this link to a rather hilarious video lampooning the sometimes over-the-top attitudes on the part of people trying to make sure they eat healthy food. I thought I'd share the link. Click here to see the YouTube video entitled "Is the chicken local?" . . .

Sauerkraut was NOT a resounding success . . .

2011-02-07T08:08:00.001-05:00

Not sure what happened with the 'kraut I canned last fall - the first time I had done it, it worked out well. This time, even though I let it stand longer, to get more fermented (per some of the comments I had read online), it is not sour enough AND has too much salt. For me, that's saying something, as I'm a salt freak. The first time I did 'kraut, I had some sort of "recipe" of amount of cabbage to amount of salt, but I couldn't locate it, so I had found what seemed to be a similar process online. I don't think I overdid the salt the process called for, and I had about that amount of cabbage, so it's a mystery. If I do more 'kraut next summer, I'll have to spend some time researching better ways to ferment it, as this particular process didn't yield a product we're crazy about. I now have several jars of 'kraut that probably won't get used, unless I can figure out a creative way to salvage them. As is, I'm not willing to eat them. If anyone knows a sure-fire way to ferment cabbage into 'kraut, please, please, please let me know!

Relish Magazine - interesting resource!

2011-01-26T09:50:00.000-05:00

relish Magazine is an insert into Sunday papers around the country. My mom passes it on to me frequently, and I've seen many interesting things in it. They tend to promote natural, healthy foods, although, ironically, most of their advertisers are of the prepared food variety - you know, the type of ads where you start with some prepared item and create a dish.

Anyway, the January 2011 issue has, among other interesting things, an article called "The Pantry Project - New Year - 19 New Dishes". They then list what they term "bold and basic" pantry items to "turn dinner into a new adventure".

We are great proponents of having a well-stocked pantry of what we consider "basics", and I was pleased to see that many of their "essentials" have a home in our pantry already . . . they do list a few that we don't stock, but would not be afraid to use if required for a recipe.

They then have 19 recipes in the printed magazine that draw from this list of basics. When I decided to write about this, I went to their web site, thinking I would find the whole list and the 19 recipes there . . . I was disappointed to find that, while the list of ingredients were there, they did not reprise the recipes from the print magazine, but rather had added some new ones. However, a tour of their search engine proved that the recipes in the print magazine ARE in their recipes index . . . just not gathered together under The Pantry Project.

At any rate, for those of you who already love to cook, you'll enjoy comparing your basics to theirs, and perhaps find something new and inspirational, as I did. For those of you who are venturing into cooking, this list will provide some guidance of what you should have beyond what we joked about growing up - the Dutch Spice Rack, which contained only salt and pepper!

Harvest Yields for 2010

2011-01-24T16:12:00.001-05:00

Well, the garden kept me very busy, in spite of everything else. I forfeited a minor amount of produce that I just couldn't get to, but the harvest included: white and red potatoes (bagged up in the cellar, possibly will can some), lots of corn in the freezer, canned tomatoes, salsa, ketchup and tomato juice, broccoli, cabbage (fresh slaw, canned pickled red cabbage, and sauerkraut with the white), beets, cucumbers for fresh and pickling (kosher dills and bread-and-butter varieties) acorn and butternut squash (some canned), pumpkins (fun for kids at Halloween, plus some canned), asparagus (pickled some - fabulous!), strawberries (fresh, frozen, and jam), rhubarb. Radishes, spinach and lettuces, and herbs rounded out the goodies we were able to harvest.

Then, from local growers, we acquired apples, peaches, cherries, pears, and blueberries, from which we made sauces, syrups, jams and jellies, and canned fruits. Christmas brought a gift from a friend of a big box full of grapefruit, which we have been eating fresh, but also took about half the box, sectioned the fruit and canned it - haven't yet tried one of those, but we were concerned about how long it would last and didn't want any of them going to waste. The canned results look beautiful - hopefully they will taste as good as they look!

Our canning cellar is the old Michigan stone basement under the original part of our house - not lovely, but a perfect environment to keep things at a well-regulated temperature. The shelves were quite full around Thanksgiving, when I took this photo.

Resolution for 2011 - keep up with the blog!

2011-01-24T13:50:00.000-05:00

So sorry for my long absence - no real excuses, it just always seemed like other things just "had" to get done before I could think about what to put on the blog! So, I'm going to do several posts to catch up, and vow to be more diligent from here on out! Some overall updates include the new chicken coop being in service (not quite finished, but functional); our house being done with outside contractor repairs from the tornado this summer - now we have some interior finishing to do; lots of food put up from the garden late summer and through the fall (I'll do a separate post about all those yummy things!); a new puppy on our farm (a beagle-bulldog cross); the bare bones in place of a Facebook page for Coach Stop Farm (not really sure how to maximize this whole social-networking thing, but I'll work on it!); and probably more, but the brain is not coughing them out right now. Here's a photo of the coop, which will get a coat of red paint in the spring, and a photo of our little Tessa, the Bea-Bull.

Heat, Humidity, Building, Canning, Weeding - is it worth it?

2010-08-13T08:09:00.004-04:00

This summer will definitely be in my memory banks as a hot, miserable year. People who spend time by the water are likely thrilled to death with all the hot, sunny days, and I'm very glad for them. We are working on various projects here on the farm and the heat and humidity are making life tougher than it needs to be, in my opinion. Darrell is working, primarily alone, but sometimes with my help as needed, on building a new chicken coop. I've been wrestling with the garden, weeding, harvesting, processing, pickling. The kitchen is hot at night when, after supper, I'm processing corn for freezing, or heating the canner and various elements needed to pack jars . . . however, working against time and weather certainly gives you a sense of accomplishment and perspective! We, in our area, don't NEED to do all this - we could go buy whatever we want at a multitude of markets, stores, and specialty shops. Unlike Darrell's grandfather, whose family emigrated to Kansas, staked out a quarter section of land, and proceeded to turn over 10 acres of it by hand with shovels (this was virgin plains buffalo grass), plant and harvest wheat, then take that wheat to the nearest town to sell, in bags, in a wheelbarrow, because they couldn't afford a horse to work the land or pull a wagon until AFTER they had harvested and sold that first year's crop of wheat. And, while the men/boys in the family were busy with that 10 acres of wheat, the women/girls were scavenging, growing, and preserving every scrap of food they could find to feed the family. So, as we continue on with our house-recovery projects, farm improvement projects, and utilizing this year's garden, I'll try to keep focused on WHY we do this - for more healthy food!

Pickling Season!

2010-08-03T16:48:00.009-04:00

Pickling cukes and cabbages for slaw and sauerkraut are coming on in the garden. I have packed some sauerkraut, which has to cure for several weeks before canning - hoping to pack some more later this week. It's been years since I made homemade 'kraut, but it sure is good! The process is simple - you shred the cabbage, layering in a little canning salt as you go, let that sit for a couple of hours to draw moisture out of the cabbage. Then, in sterilized jars, you PACK the cabbage in, pressing it down (I use a meat mallet in a wide-mouth canning jar). You fill the jar to the top, pressing as you go, which will force even more liquid out of the cabbage - you will end up with liquid over the top of the cabbage at the neck of the jar. I have done this before, canning the 'kraut after 2 weeks, but many people advise letting it ferment even longer, so I'm going to try that this year. Here's a link to a quite good description of the process. I have found similar instructions where people add mustard seed, caraway seed, dill or even onion in the packing process . . . go crazy! Season up your 'kraut! Once fermented, you clean the outside of the jars and reseal (I use fresh lids, as the original lids have gotten the fermentation brine all over them, including the sealing edge), then water-bath can them.

The cukes came on so fast that a bunch of them got HUGE, so the piggies got a treat. Last night I made the first batch of kosher dills from the recipe Darrell had found and used last year - it makes fabulous pickles! I got carried away with planting - planned on 4 mounds of cukes. When two of the first four failed to come up, I planted new seeds - those made it. The first two plants are literally spewing out cucumbers and I told Darrell I didn't know what I was thinking that I needed to have four plants. But, last year, we had three plants and the weeds got away from us, so our yield was smaller. We got enough jars of pickles for ourselves for a year, with a little self-discipline involved in how often to get a new one out of the fruit cellar. This year, we're hoping to make enough to actually give away, and maybe branch out and make some other types of pickles as well.

Blueberry Jam and Syrup time, plus some garden goodies.

2010-07-29T07:01:00.005-04:00

Haven't posted for awhile, because we have been consumed with cleanup from the tornado - had to move everything out of the entire upper floor of our house and the garage so the roof repairs could commence - ceilings and rafters and damaged roofs torn off, dumpsters full of the detritus of that activity, huge vehicles destroying the lawn delivering wood and roofing materials - we look like refugees in a war zone at the moment. But as of yesterday, the roofs are enclosed again - what a relief!

But, in the midst of this, a neighbor got free blueberries from a friend and shared them - Darrell made blueberry jam when he wasn't building the new chicken coop, and plans to make syrup with a few more pounds of berries that are coming our way. I had to travel for my business and came home to find a dozen jars of jam awaiting our "from the kitchen at Coach Stop Farm" labels that I create.

And, the beets in the garden, which I had sampled the day before I left on the trip, have yielded more. I'm debating if I want to can them with or without pickling - maybe some of both! I roasted a small bunch of beets and made a beet salad on Monday evening.

Last night's supper included cole slaw made from a big head of cabbage, nice and sweet, that I cut in the garden after we did evening chores. I need to make sauerkraut with some of this year's cabbage. Broccoli is about ready, also.

Red Raspberries!

2010-07-05T10:37:00.003-04:00

Our fairly young patch of raspberries is finally beginning to produce enough fruit to use. Our first batch of red raspberry jam from our own berries is in the jars. Darrell mentioned something about raspberry sorbet . . . . hmmm!

Sweet Cherry Jam - different and so tasty!

2010-06-29T07:31:00.001-04:00

Darrell found this recipe referenced several places on the Internet - if you like sweet cherries, you will love this jam recipe!

Traditional Cherry Jam
(from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving)
4 c sweet cherries, pitted & chopped (about 2 lbs)
1/4 c lemon juice
1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 t ground cloves
1 package (1.75 oz) powdered pectin
5 c sugar
Prepare the jars & lids for canning. Jars should be boiled in water for 20 minutes & lids for 5 minutes.
In a large enamel or stainless steel saucepan combine the cherries, lemon juice, cinnamon & cloves. Whisk in the pectin until completely dissolved. Turn heat to high & bring to a boil. Stir in the sugar all at once. Return to a boil. Boil hard while stirring for 1 more minute. Remove from heat & skim of foam.
Ladle into eight hot sterilized half-pint jars leaving about 1/4-inch headroom. Clean off the tops of the jars & cover with a lid. Close with a neckband & finger-tighten. Process in boiling water for 10 minutes. Turn off heat & let sit for 5 minutes. Remove jars from the water to a heat-proof surface & let cool for 12 - 24 hours (do not dry jars). Check to make sure the top of the jar has been drawn downwards, creating a seal. If it hasn't either reprocess that jar or store it in the fridge to be eaten within 3 weeks. Remove the neckbands & store jam in a cool dark place.

The blessings of friends

2010-06-26T18:16:00.007-04:00

Today we rented a huge wood chipper and had sent an email to everyone who had offered to help with cleanup. We needed to clean up a downed tree and tons of branches that were between our house and the pasture so that the professional tree people can take down the hazardous still-standing tree parts, and get the branches off the deck, which is what our insurance will pay for . . . all the rest is our problem.

32 people from 4 counties turned out at our farm today - some for 2 or 3 hours, some all day. Some were neighbors, some were people we work with, people from Barbershop who Darrell sings with, people we know through other affiliations, a cousin, her daughter and grandson and their friends - I'm completely awed by how hard everyone worked, in spite of the heat and brutal humidity. And even more amazing is what we accomplished with a Bobcat, a Kubota tractor with a bucket, chain saws, and just plain hard work feeding that monster chipper.

Here's a photo of our side yard "before" and another one "after" this monumental effort everyone put forth. Our unending thanks to everyone who turned out - you all were fantastic!

So now, the tree guys can get the truly dangerous stuff cleaned up so that THEN the contractor can come in and begin repairs. Wow, it's going to be an interesting summer!

Major storm damage!

2010-06-22T17:40:00.001-04:00

Well, we got hit by what had to have been a small tornado last night - every tree around the house is exploded and wrecked EXCEPT the dying one we were planning to remove this summer, naturally! Given the position of the trees around the house, we are incredibly lucky to have sustained as little damage to the house as we did . . . even so, it's going to be a major repair project.

Tree guys are working right now to begin clearing the downed wood, then will remove the damaged and now very dangerous remnants that are still standing. We will end up with no shade around this house at all. The deck is pretty much toast, the upper story of the house has a major hole in it, as does the garage attached to the kitchen end of the house. I am in mourning over all our beautiful trees . . .

None of the animals were hurt, although Jock, the stallion, was very lucky, as his relatively small turnout is littered with debris from the walnut tree by his pen and he was outside in the pen when this happened. We couldn't get to him right away because the power lines were down across the lane to his pen and partly over his fence. Once Consumers' had turned off the juice from the road, Darrell was able to get him into the barn. He's going into another turnout tonight, as there is a bunch of work Darrell will need to do to repair his normal spot.

We were without power for most of the day, but the Consumers' guys got us back together about 2 p.m., which meant we could stop worrying about all the meat and stuff in the freezers.

You can view the damage in this online photo album. Wish us luck!

http://www.coachstopfarm.com/2010JuneStormDamage/

Mid-June and things are jumping!

2010-06-18T18:04:00.004-04:00

Back from nearly a week of traveling on business. While I was gone, Darrell got some strawberry jam done, and is ready for the cement tomorrow morning for a new chicken coop. The strawberry patch is being neglected more than we like this year, but there is so much else going on. The vegetable garden is getting off to a decent start - could not believe how many things had sprouted and how big they had gotten while I was gone! During my trip, I talked with a fellow foodie who recommended two books, which I ordered used on Amazon. One is called "Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking", and the other is "The Flavor Bible". This one just came today in the mail, and the other should be here shortly. Will comment on them after I get a chance to go through them. The person who recommended them was raving about what a great resource they are. He owns a cheesecake business in Grand Rapids, MI called "Cheesecake Jake's", and he uses these reference works to play with flavors and combinations for cheesecake.

Baby Pigs are escape artists!

2010-06-07T20:18:00.004-04:00

Darrell brought home 15 baby pigs today - some are a couple months old and some are so small they're hardly bigger than the cats. Two of them managed to somehow get under the trailer as we were unloading them and trying to herd them into their pen in a big pasture, so things got exciting for a little while, but all is well. They have deep grass to root around in, one of the shelters he got this spring is in their pen, and their feeder and waterer sit up on a sled that can be moved. The fencing is electrified and portable, so when they thoroughly work over this area of the field, they can be moved to another one.

Chive Blossoms are yummy things

2010-05-28T13:11:00.004-04:00

We like to pick the blossoms on the chive plants in our herb garden and just eat one, or gather several and chop coarsely to include in various things like green salads, pasta or grain salads, and the like. They are so tasty and add a lovely little overtone to various dishes. We decided to try drying some this year, so I gathered a large bunch and hung them up on the mantle piece to see if they dry nicely. We shall see! Meanwhile, they're making a pretty, upside-down bouquet in the kitchen!

Darrell's Rhubarb Sauce (with strawberries, if you like!)

2010-05-19T18:22:00.006-04:00

This is one of those recipes that's so easy, I'll have to tell a story just to make it worth your while. If you've never made rhubarb sauce, you'll be amazed at its simplicity. If you have made it, then you probably don't need to even be here. We have lots of rhubarb and I like the sauce a lot so I make big batches. The amounts given below can be adjusted to suit the amount of rhubarb you have and the number of people in your house who will eat it. I will caution you that it should be eaten with a certain amount of restraint. If you've ever over-eaten rhubarb, you know what I mean.

I start out with a big bunch of rhubarb, trim it and wash it well. Chop it into 1/2 to 1 inch pieces. When this is cooked down, the rhubarb gets all mushy but the strings don't break down. The length of your pieces will determine the length of the strings in the sauce. When you've got about 12 cups, put it in a large saucepan, add about 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil and then reduce to strong simmer and cook it until it's complete mush. Now it's ready to finish.

One method is just to add sugar. For this amount, 2 to 3 cups should be about enough. If you don't add enough sugar to rhubarb, it will strip the enamel off your teeth but the tartness is part of its charm so add enough that it tastes right to you. You might want to add it incrementally and taste it - it's much easier to add more than to take it out.

An alternate method is to add strawberries along with the sugar. This is the method I much prefer. Since the rhubarb is ready long before the strawberries, I use frozen berries. We put up strawberries mashed and with a little bit of sugar to preserve color as much as anything, then put them in quart bags and freeze them. The amount of rhubarb used in this recipe will accommodate a big, fat quart bag of berries. If your berry patch was under-productive last year, you can use strawberry jello. For this amount, a large box will do just fine. Stir the berries or jello in before you add the sugar because the sweetness of the fruit may throw off the amount of sugar you need. Strawberry season is coming up, and the rhubarb will last into early strawberry season, so you could buy fresh berries from a local producer. I don't recommend the shipped-in berries we get in stores here out of season - they won't add any flavor because there isn't much to start with.

This keeps in the refrigerator for several weeks or you can put it in containers and freeze it for a refreshing treat next winter. If you can afford the calories (or just don't care about them) a great serving suggestion is to dish out a bowl of sauce and pour a dollop of heavy cream in the middle. Take a spoonful of sauce from the edge of the pool of cream for a real taste treat.

Recipe summary:
12 cups rhubarb pieces
2 cups water
Cook to mush
Add sugar to taste, 2 - 3 cups.
Alternate: add crushed strawberries or strawberry jello.
Refrigerate and serve chilled.

Sampling the Pickled Asparagus

2010-05-06T19:01:00.002-04:00

Sampled one of the first jars we did, as they are 2 weeks old. They are yummy, and the zing of the pepper flakes is just right. These will make nice little snack/garnish items. However, have made a note on my copy of the recipe to cut the sugar in half - a little too sweet for our tastes.

Two more shelters being assembled today!

2010-04-30T13:26:00.002-04:00

Darrell and Tom are assembling the other two Port-a-Huts today - this time using air hoses and impact wrenches, rather than doing it all with muscle power. They have saved a lot of time and effort!

2010-04-28T17:04:00.007-04:00

Great excitement today! Darrell and a friend assembled one of three Port-A-Huts he bought to use for sheep and pig shelters! This first one will be shelter for the lambs we are about to wean. The other two will be used for sheltering feeder pigs for the summer. Darrell was thrilled at how easily the hut went together - says they did a great job of engineering them!

Asparagus season is upon us!

2010-04-25T10:16:00.010-04:00

A week or so ago we started getting enough asparagus out of our little patch to make meals with. This past Christmas someone gave us a jar of pickled asparagus (commercially done), which we thought was quite yummy, so Darrell searched out a recipe for pickling asparagus on the Internet and decided to try it. It's a simple little recipe for processing small amounts at a time, so perfect for home canners who aren't trying to do a whole bunch of asparagus at a time. You can find the recipe here: Pickled Asparagus. I had a slight issue with the amount of pickling liquid the recipe provided and had to augment with additional vinegar to fill my jars to within the 1/2 inch of the rim needed. Darrell also found a recommendation from a user to add a garlic clove to each jar, so I did that, too.

I tasted an onion cooked in the pickling liquid and found it to be excellent - now we are waiting for 2 weeks to open a jar and sample the results, as dill, garlic and red pepper flakes were added to the jars after the asparagus was packed and before the hot pickling brine was poured into the jars - should be even more flavorful and spicy!

Action item to protect "direct from farm" food options

2010-04-21T16:29:00.006-04:00

As you are no doubt aware, the government continues to look for ways to control things - sometimes there is an overall societal benefit, but often it just adds costs and limits options.

Below is an excerpt from this month's LocalHarvest newsletter. In it, you will see brief info about a Senate bill that is in process that will put onerous costs and reporting burdens on small producers and could, in effect, eliminate your options to buy your food from local, known sources. There are links for calling or emailing your Senators to object to their supporting this bill without exemption for small farms and direct sellers. It's easy, and will only take a minute or so. There's also a link to another organization that might interest you, as well.

In part, the letter they have drafted which you can use or amend to suit yourself reads: "Direct market sales are immediately traceable, transparent and inherently accountable. State and local health agencies already have the authority to protect public health, and exercise that oversight." This is a key point - one that you take into consideration every time you elect to buy food from a direct source.

Excerpt from LocalHarvest:
The U.S. Senate is expected to vote on a sweeping overhaul of the food safety laws very soon! S. 510 is a "one-size-fits-all" approach that will unnecessarily burden both farmers and small-scale food processors, ultimately depriving consumers of the choice to buy from producers they know and trust. Please contact your Senators to urge them to support Senator Tester's amendments, or oppose the bill entirely. Senator Tester's amendments would exclude small facilities and direct marketing farms from the most burdensome provisions of the bill.

To call both of your Senators. You can find their contact information at www.Senate.gov, or call the Capitol Switchboard toll-free at 877-210-5351. Ask to speak with the staffer who handles food safety issues. To send an email, click here.

For more information, we recommend the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliancewebsite.

Our farm name - how it came to be

2010-04-03T13:57:00.001-04:00

In case you're curious about our farm name . . . our property was once a coach stop on the "corduroy road" (logs laid side by each) across the muck lands between Grand Rapids and Holland Michigan. Another stop was east of us on the other side of the "muck", and teams of horses were kept on both sides to do nothing but haul heavy coaches across the boggy land. (The muck lands in our area are alleuvial soil which is between 6 and 12 feet deep; farmers on this land grow garden vegetables like celery, onions, lettuces, leeks, bok choy and parsnips.)
When we first moved to the farm, a friend sent us a postcard to "welcome" us to our new place. She addressed it to "Conni and Darrell at the Coach Stop", and the name stuck.

Setting up our blog for Coach Stop Farm

2010-04-03T10:30:00.001-04:00

We've had a farm web site for years, but blogging seems to be a better way to connect people with people directly - that's the beauty of the Internet, isn't it?
We decided we wanted to blog about food - we raise most of our own meat, lots of vegetables and some fruits in season, and also search out sources for bulk fruits (Michigan is SOOOO lucky with the choices we have for fruit!) that we can or otherwise preserve. While we are not adamant about "no processed foods", we have gravitated over the years to a diet that s primarily made from scratch - fresh food, prepared for a meal or preserved for future use, the only additives being seasonings. Can't tell you the last time we bought anything "processed" at the grocery store, with the exception of peanut butter and ketchup - and that last only when we run out of the home-canned stuff!
So, we hope to share some of our activities through the seasons here on Coach Stop Farm, recipes, ideas, resources for like-minded people - food is fun, and we hope to make this blog a fun place to visit and become inspired. We realize not everyone is able to raise so much of their own food, but together we can promote the basics of how to become more self-sufficient even living in a city apartment.
We're just getting started in this world of blogging, so things will evolve. Please don't hesitate to offer constructive comments about what you see here (or what you don't, and would like to see!)