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.
It’s hatching time! We have several incubators here on the farm and we like to keep them busy – we typically hatch eggs during spring, summer, and fall, so we’re starting a little earlier this year. We have Crested Cream Legbar (shipped eggs) and French Black Copper Marans (our own stock) eggs in the incubator and they should be hatching in the next couple of days. This point in the incubation process is called lockdown. Continue reading “In The Incubator: Chicken Eggs On Lockdown (Hatch #1)”
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”
Back in June of last year, we told you about how we’d ordered a couple of cast iron skillets from the new Field Company and were excited to discover for ourselves if they were superior to our existing stock. To our chagrin, we found that the “pre-seasoned” skillets rapidly lost their non-stick properties, despite using good amounts of fat when cooking, and soon, everything was sticking to the pans. In addition, unlike our other cast iron cookware (we use primarily Lodge, but have recently added a Victoria skillet to the lineup), the Field Skillet began to show a weird section on the bottom of the pan that appeared strangely smooth and discolored. The pans also heated very unevenly, despite being allowed to come up to temperature for 15-20 minutes prior to cooking in them. Continue reading “Cast Iron Chronicles: Expensive (or New) Isn’t Necessarily Better”
Our farming journey began with the realization that we couldn’t get the food we wanted to eat, raised in the way we wanted, without doing it ourselves. Previously, we did much of our food shopping at farmer’s markets, food co-ops, and natural food stores, which were easily accessed when we lived on the west coast and, briefly, the upper midwest. We find these sources less common where we live now, but that may ultimately prove to be a positive because it’s pushed us to grow our own. Continue reading “Transformed By Homesteading”
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”.