Self-taught farmers confidently raising chickens, ducks, geese, and pigs. Our focus is on practices that are environmentally harmonious and respectful to our livestock. We appreciate the beauty around us, clean eating, fermenting, and responsibly utilizing the bounty of the land. If you like thinking for yourself, continuous learning, and connecting with the homesteader lifestyle, check us out.
When you think of cast iron, do you think of a huge black cauldron weighing a hundred pounds? Or a 10-pound frying pan? Yes, it’s heavy, but it’s also a superb piece of cookware, once properly “seasoned”.
Cast iron becomes non-stick after it’s been seasoned, which is a process that basically converts oil into a polymerized coating through heating.
Continue reading “Cast Iron Is Non-Stick Cookware…Seriously”
It’s that time of year again – the fowl are laying and that means there are chicks, keets, ducklings, and goslings to be hatched! One of the most important aspects of hatching your own eggs without the help of a broody hen or duck is having a reliable incubator. But where do you start when looking for an incubator?
Before you buy one, I highly recommend considering your goals, using questions like these as your guide in your analysis:
Exciting goings-on here at the farm: we have a group of five blue Silver Fox rabbit does that have either kindled or are expected to kindle their first litters soon!
One sweet doe, Sarah, kindled her first litter on 2/13. Sarah is a particularly friendly girl, likely due in part to an injury she suffered to her leg when she was a young kit: even though there is “baby saver” wire on the floors and up the sides of the kindling cages (our does are brought inside to kindle), she somehow got her foot stuck through the wire and twisted in a way that trapped it. As you can imagine, she was panicked and pulled frantically, causing a laceration all the way around her “ankle”.
I recently posted about making wine from Cara Cara oranges, but what about the byproducts of that winemaking? After all those oranges were reamed for the wine (and a couple zested for the peel), there were a lot of leftover rinds with pulp and juice still clinging to them. A favorite wild-fermented beverage, Tepache, came to mind…why not try a similar ferment with the leftover orange rinds? Continue reading “Fermentation Experiment: Orange Rinds”
Perhaps you’ve heard of milk kefir? It’s a mesophilic culture that eats milk sugar (lactose) to produce a delicious, creamy cultured beverage that’s full of probiotic goodness. What’s mesophilic? It just means that the culture works best at a moderate temperature, like room temperature. Yogurt, on the other hand, is a thermophilic culture, meaning that it needs higher temperatures to work properly – which is why the milk is used in yogurt is heated. While milk kefir may look and taste somewhat similar to yogurt, I believe that the ease in making milk kefir gives it a major advantage over making yogurt. In addition, I’ve found that cold fermenting it can produce a wonderful product that’s superior to room-temperature culturing and that will allow you to keep milk kefir production manageable. Continue reading “Managing Ferments: Cold-Fermenting Milk Kefir”
If you follow us on Instagram, you’ve already met Audrey, our sourdough starter. With her assistance, we (and by “we”, I mean “he” because he’s the baker and I’m the fermenter..though, technically, sourdough is a ferment, too) have delicious, fresh, additive-free loaves of bread for our morning toast+cream cheese+alfalfa sprouts and our meatloaf sandwiches. We consider Audrey a treasured pet, and we try to ensure her health and happiness so she’ll continue to help us make great bread.
Sometimes, however, Audrey is unhappy. Not “hooch on top because she hasn’t been fed” unhappy, but more of the “I don’t like the flour you’re feeding me” unhappy or “it’s too cold in here so I’m slowing down” unhappy. We have pretty extreme fluctuations in temperature where we live, and Audrey is sensitive to it. Continue reading “Audrey Tales: Misbehaving Sourdough”