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.
Faced with ripe bananas growing more spotted by the day, some people might opt to make banana bread. While a respectable choice, I prefer to make muffins…and these banana chocolate chip muffins are just right, with lots of banana flavor, crunchy walnuts, and an occasional chocolate chip.
Continue reading “Fall Flavors: Boastworthy Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins”
I love a good muffin: it’s a self-contained, pre-portioned snack with the flexibility of being either sweet or savory. Muffins are especially well-suited for home baking because they’re usually easy to make and very forgiving. With Autumn’s now-chilly weather here, the spiciness of gingerbread is a welcome comfort.
Continue reading “Fall Flavors: Milk Kefir Gingerbread Muffins”
We’re still enjoying those sourdough pancakes for dinner – even more now that we make them with homemade milk kefir. They’re so fluffy, so delicious…honestly, we could eat them every day. Pancake perfection!
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”
We have yet to get our raised garden beds in, and the summer’s waning…but we’re lucky to have a nice neighbor on our road who is also a Master Gardener. She grows all kinds of wonderful vegetables and fruit, and generously shares her harvest with others.
We recently picked lots of blackberries, which we made into many bottles of delicious and beautiful blackberry water kefir, as well as blackberry milk kefir and blackberry-infused kombucha tea.
Continue reading “Farm To Table: From A Few Doors Down Is Really Local”
It’s that time of year: tomatoes, in all their succulent glory, are here. While we enjoy eating those plump, juicy, vine ripened orbs, we also look for firm, green tomatoes. Why? To make our “fraked” green tomatoes, of course.
You probably figured out that “fraked” is a combination of “fried” and “baked”. Continue reading “Bring On The Fried Green Tomatoes!”