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.
Have you already figured out that lard is a nearly magical substance that adds wonderful flavor to food as well as being an outstanding cooking fat? You haven’t lived until you’ve cooked home fries in lard. Before you rush out and buy your lard at the grocery store, though, you should consider rendering your own…for at least a couple of compelling reasons.
Continue reading “Clean Eating: Render Your Own Lard”
Cooking in cast iron is a completely different experience than cooking in other types of cookware, and we know we’re not alone in our admiration. We love cornbread, and our go-to recipe uses 7 ingredients, no flour (just cornmeal – we use locally-sourced, non-GMO, white or yellow cornmeal), and it incorporates the wonderful flavor of lard. There are different (and often regional) versions of cornbread, but we’re of the opinion that cornbread doesn’t include flour or sugar – that’s a corncake. Continue reading “Cast Iron Cooking: Easy Appalachian-Style Cornbread”
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”
You may already have met Audrey the sourdough starter (technically, Audrey II, mother to Audrey III – Audrey III lives with cool folks on a homestead in Australia!). She’s the key to the delicious loaves of bread we eat with our homemade soup, meatloaf sandwiches, and our incredible egg (thanks, ladies!) breakfasts.
Sourdough lends itself to beautiful boules, perhaps the most recognized shape for sourdough loaves, but we typically bake ours in a loaf pan so that we can easily make sandwiches. Making bread doesn’t have to take long or require herculean efforts, but the payoff is substantial: additive and preservative-free bread with simple ingredients, and in the case of sourdough, it’s a low glycemic index food. Sourdough bread is also acidic, so it doesn’t mold as quickly as other bread products. Interested in making your own? A simple recipe and instructions follow. Continue reading “Hello, Audrey: Making Homemade Sourdough Bread”
Should be obvious, right? We raise chickens, rabbits, and ducks. We’ve processed members of each of those groups (and Muscovy really does taste like beef!). People with whom we’re acquainted know this…and yet, countless times, they can’t – or don’t – seem to grasp why we won’t eat a chicken sandwich from some popular fast food place, or partake of catered BBQ. For the record: the aforementioned “people” doesn’t include our friends who “get it”.
Do you like cheesecake? If so, you must try it with duck eggs – we did, and there’s no going back!While the seemingly endless supply of spring and summer eggs seems to be over, we recently began finding a few duck eggs in the coop again! While they’re wonderful fried and scrambled, duck eggs are unparalleled for their ability to enhance baked goods: think denser and richer…words made for cheesecake. Continue reading “Homemade Desserts: Duck Egg Cheesecake”