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.
This time of year, a sweet fragrance fills the humid air: honeysuckle is blooming. The white blooms punctuate the dark green tangle of foliage that has encroached through, over, and around fencing. Honeysuckle heralds summer’s arrival, and invites creative uses of its perfumed flowers…arguably, a “weed”, but a lovely one.
There seem to be new flowers blooming daily – we usually catch the first hint of scent wafting over to us during morning chores. With the hot, sticky weather we’ve been having, the fragrance may even hang over an area like a perfumed cloud, like it did with the black locust flowers. Anything that smells that great merits further investigation!
Continue reading “Farm Foraging: Black Locust Flower Syrup & Infused Oil”
The bumper crop of dandelions on the farm has inspired me to look for new ways to use these delicious and nutritious gems. My most recent find was a recipe from Mother Earth News (by Roger Phillips, April 2015) for dandelion beer. In his article, the author provides some interesting history behind the drink: it was apparently a very popular brew among iron foundry and pottery workers in England. No tiny paper umbrella with this one!
Continue reading “More Dandelion Delights: Refreshing Herbal Beer”
Those gorgeous golden blooms just keep coming, so I had to get out there and pick some for both a wild-fermented dandelion-ginger wine and for (truly addictive) dandelion water kefir. I’ve really come to appreciate those precocious dandelions!
For this version of dandelion wine, I used the recipe found on Pixie’s Pocket’s blog: Wild Fermented Dandelion Ginger Wine. Amber has great recipes on her site (like the Goldenrod-Ginger wine I made last year) – check it out!
The beautiful wild violets are popping up with enthusiasm around here. Shy and diminutive, they really merit inspection and – better yet – collection and use. Aside from their delicate beauty, they (flowers and leaves) are very nutritious and high in vitamins A and C. I was particularly interested in making beverages with them, in the hopes of extracting some of that lovely purple hue.
As I look out on the pastures, I see a golden sea of cheery dandelions – and it makes me smile. Back in my unenlightened suburban days, I used to fight them: dig them up by the roots (and – oh, horror! – throw the roots away), apply “weed” killer. No more! We don’t use chemicals here, and we know that the pasture our rabbits and fowl consume is nutritious and unadulterated. It also means that we can freely consume any of the edibles that grow wild on our property, like chicory, plantain, wild violets, and our friends the dandelions.