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.
What’s better on a chilly day than hot, fresh biscuits made in a perfectly-seasoned cast iron skillet? Not a whole lot, I’ll tell you. And these are quick and easy to make!
Continue reading “Cast Iron Cooking: Simple Stovetop Bannock”
Our laying flock must see us as egg thieves: each day – multiple times a day if it’s especially cold out – we collect their freshly-laid eggs. If a hen is sitting, we reach under her fluffy feathers and feel around for eggs – a treasure hunt, of sorts. Most of the girls in nest boxes enter a trance-like state, which I like to call “the zone”, and they don’t even seem to realize that an egg thief is there to take their eggs – they don’t move, protest, or do anything but remain blissfully docile. Most.
Continue reading “Haiku: Watching And Waiting”
2021 was a bad – no, terrible – year for shipped hatching eggs. What, just a few years ago, may have been decent to good hatches, were, this year, either complete busts or very difficult hatches that resulted in only single hatchlings or a few struggling chicks; accordingly, I’m anointing 2021 the Year of the USPS Great Egg Delivery Debacle.
Continue reading “Post-Hatch Recap: 2021 Shipped Eggs”
Even though today is an unseasonably warm one, we’ve had several cold snaps lately that have caused temperatures to plummet below freezing. The plants have reacted accordingly: many simply dying on the vine, others becoming dormant. The colorful flowers of summer have all but disappeared…almost.
Continue reading “Haiku: Peeking Petals”
As the day grows darker, morphing from mild and breezy to downright gloomy and even ominous, my thoughts turn to why we, as a species, have made so little progress on averting (and now, mitigating) climate disaster.
Continue reading “Haiku: Rainy Day Ruminations”
As is expected at this time of year, egglaying has slowed in our flock. I don’t begrudge the girls their break from this resource-intensive task, and I don’t artificially light their areas to encourage them to resume laying. All things in their time. The eggs we do collect, though, are still lovely and delicious, and they make a tasty one bowl meal!
Continue reading “Farm Fresh: Eggs In Oyster Sauce Rice Bowl”