My life has been made simple just by knowing that food is made from ingredients. Knowing that, I can put those ingredients together to make things my family loves and consumes at an alarming rate: like salsa.
Last night I brought in our first harvest of tomatoes and peppers. Throw in some garlic, onion, a squirt of lemon juice and a sprinkle of spices...ta da! Salsa! So good, I ate half a pint right there. A small bowl full of garden bounty yielded 10 minutes of work and 3.5 pints. If I'd wanted to, I could have hot water canned these, but they won't last the week in our house. I swear my five year old drinks salsa right out of the jar when I am not looking. Salsa, the good kind that doesn't use HFCS, can cost us 3-4$ for a pint at the store. Plus it seems like I am always out of it. It's a good healthy food and I want to have it on hand whenever they want it!
Recipe:
an 8 cup bowl full of fresh picked tomatoes, wash, cut off flaws if there are any, and leave skins on
4-5 medium peppers (also medium hot)
4 cloves of garlic (harvested in June)
squirt of lemon juice
1 medium onion (about 3/4 a cup worth....do not add too much onion....)
Season to taste. (I used 2 teaspoons of paprika and 1.5 tablespoons of a chili mix that had cayenne, cilantro, cumin, and oregano.....)
I used my food processor and chopped one ingredient at a time to the right size, mixed in a bowl, and added seasoning slowly. Yum.
I think canned peaches and apricot jam are my new favourite foods EVER. Also I am pretty sure that our chicken eggs will taste like peaches this week. The pigs got a fair share too.
"Crayon is an Americana chicken. She lays brown eggs and is a good chicken." "Oh, and I'm 5."
A good day. Lil'Bug said, "I'm just so proud of myself, I just keep thinking about when I carried Crayon around the room.....I did such a good job!"
We're proud of you too Lil'Bug! Not just for showing your chicken, but for being proud of yourself!
Blueberry girl had a good time too, but it was too hot for her so she went home with Grandma and took a nap at the camper. She's been under the weather all week and the heat doesn't help. Just a summer cold. Poor kid. I think she'll have more fun at the State Fair, we are all so excited!
A couple months back I engaged in a comments discussion about pork. The idea that pork, pork fat, and all things bacon related are bad for your health is very ingrained into our local Midwestern American culture and others too.
It's not entirely true.
It's not the pork. Rather, its not entirely the pig's fault. I'll preface this to say that if you ate all bacon all the time, you might be very very happy but not very healthy...or you'd die a very happy death. Mmmmm, bacon. Everything is better in moderation. Now, that said, I'd like to share with you some things I have learned over the past two years about pigs, bacon, and food.
Our Berkshire pig on his first day at our farm....
Breed affects behaviour, temperament, farrowing skills- all which matter to the farmer, but not as much to the consumer. We raised Yorkshires (what is typically grown in confinement and ends up in the conventional grocery stores) last year and Berkshire (heritage) this year. The Yorks were still incredibly tasty at harvest BUT they didn't eat clover or play as much. That said, some breeds pasture better than others, which is why we chose Berkshire to raise this year. Plus Berks make better and more lard.
Pigs relaxing in the shade.
What DOES matter is 1) what they are fed and 2)where and how they are housed and 3)how they are butchered.
Feed: Corn and soy mix with added amino acids- that's standard. Most feed has GMO grain in it. We feed ours Reichart's Dairy Air goat dairy whey, 4-H grain mix, and veggies when we can. Finished on walnut, apple, squash, and whey or milk. They also sometime get buckets of canning scraps, like peach skins and bruise cuts, tomato cores, and corn cobs. We are working with a local co-op to make us a special grain mix that they can prove has no GMO grain in it and working to analyze the rest of their diet to see if we can eliminate soy altogether. We might have that balance done for next year's run.
Pigs eating goat cheese whey.
We hand mix the grain with water in 5 gallon buckets before giving it to them. Wet slop is easier for them to eat and it minimizes loss for us from wind blowing and excited pigs. We've tried it both dry and wet. The pigs prefer wet. It also aids in hydrating them and making sure they get clean water when it is very hot and dry like it is right now. They don't move around as much in the heat so getting them fluid is really important.
Water. Access at all times to CLEAN water. Not well water. Very important. Seriously. VERY important. Most well water in Iowa (where we live) is seriously and dangerously contaminated. If people can't drink it, neither should meat you will consume. We run a hose out their waterer from our house water. We check it everyday to make sure it is full and clean.
Pigs eating clover and dandelions.
Housing. Open air and sunlight? How much room does each pig have in the enclosure? Ours have 2000+ square feet per pig. Confinement can be 6-8 square feet per pig. There are lots of arrangements that are in between. Hoop buildings where the pigs are still indoors but have more room and can run around together, smaller pasture arrangements, larger herds on pasture......all variables.We have 18 pigs on one acre. It is bordered on two sides by stands of trees, to the south and west. These trees provide windbreak and shade at the hottest parts of the day. Shelter from storms and harsh wind or sun are required, we have a couple options for them: a tarp pulled over a hoop that is open on both ends and a metal hoop building with a solid end at one side and hay bales stacked on the other.
Click on people's faces in the photo to tag them.
Windfall apples.
Medications. This question is rarely asked by customers. All anybody cares about are antibiotics and hormones- which are VERY important things to care about, but they are not the only things to care about. We do not give our pigs hormones. Ever. If a pig gets sick we might treat that pig with an antibiotic, but it is NOT practice for us to give them medications just to make them grow bigger.
Pigs have to be wormed. It is a different wormer for pigs on pasture because they are exposed to different worms, lungworm is more common in pastured pigs for example. Confinement pigs are given lots of full spectrum, according to our local vet. Some people don't bother and the parasite load of the pig is just...hard to imagine. Lungworm can kill a pig by suffocation. So we choose to worm them. I will even go as far to say that it is cruel not to worm the pigs. Death by suffocation is not something that can be prevented by good diet or animal health. Their wormer is a really small does that gets mixed in their feed when we see it is needed. In the time we have had this group, we've wormed twice based on visual queues that worms might be present.
Vaccines. Most livestock vax's are way safer than human vax, our pigs have been vaccinated once for a respiratory disease that has 80% livestock death and is common in our region, transmitted by wild birds and more of a threat to pastured animals. Some farmers choose to give more, some none at all. If it matters to you, ask.
Our pigs get to live about 6 months to a year. We harvest them when they reach a target weight (around 250 pounds). We hand measure them to estimate this. This year we have separated out 4 to be harvested at a time and we can then treat this small bunch to more apples, fruit, nuts, and whey.
We use a local, family run meat locker. The animals are killed humanely, and they only take small groups at a time. They also use a hot water carcass wash versus a lactic acid or celery wash. Their process for curing is better too, they use less nitrates and more time. So the processor matters a LOT in the process of making your meat healthier and better for you. It's not enough to claim grass fed or pasture raised if the animal goes through a nasty slaughter house with poor processing.
Slices of cottage bacon that required extra lard to fry, even in my inherited 100+ years old well seasoned cast iron skillet.
There is a lot to pork that matters. It is not just buying directly from the farmer, but all these other factors that go into making safe healthy meat. Honestly, we learned much of this in the last 18 months while becoming "pig farmers".
Then it comes home to the consumer. How it is cooked matters. How it is stored matters. Having a good product is just the beginning.
I never thought I would ever cook with lard. Or fat back. Or many of the other parts of pigs that have names that sound like if you eat them you'll get a fat back too. Lard is better for you than processed veggie oils. My family has better health now that we use olive and grapeseed oil, butter, lard, and coconut oil instead of Crisco, corn, or canola (rapeseed) oil. Better cholesterol levels, better sugar levels, and better overall health. We don't worry about weight gain or irritable bowel and even the severe ulcers I had are no longer a problem. No, its not all credited to our pork, but a general better lifestyle and healthy approach to whole foods, local foods, and natural fats and oils.
Good pork, and humane meat animal raising practices are out there. If you want it, go out and get it. Support those who do it the way you want so they can keep doing it that way.
I also don't claim to be an expert. We've been running pigs out here only two summers, but I can try and answer any questions you may have about our pigs or pork in general.
*edited to add: manuer run off and watershed. These are also important considerations for us. We have a small group on a large grassy pasture, one acre located in a section of about 10 acres. We also have an eleven acre pond and a creek. Neither have shown any contamination or fish kill from run off. We had been told that running pigs on grass pasture would destroy the ground, but while they do root around, their section is still mostly green grasses and clover. The trucks that installed the fences detsroyed more ground than the pigs have. This is also one of our reasons for rotation. The pasture used to be corn/bean rotation so we are restoring it by putting animals on it.
I'm 24 weeks pregnant. That is hard to imagine for me. I am pretty huge and already getting the, "are you due any day now?" and, "is it twins?" questions/comments. Sigh. I should be used to it by now.
The baby is super active pretty much all day and all night long. That's neat. The girls are getting a kick out of cuddling with my belly and getting kicked by the baby.I feel healthier than I ever have in my entire life, not just while pregnant. It's neat. I am constantly moving, cleaning, canning, or walking (or eating). The sunshine is amazing and the breezes on the farm refreshing.
Speaking of refreshing:
Nothing has been more wonderful than the fresh spearmint sweet tea I brew up and then ice.
Chad's been hard at work on various exterior repairs. I hope we finish caulking this summer so we don't get cluster flies as bad as the past two winters. I think it will probably get done.
The flooding in our county finally affected the pond. Luckily it only lasted a day or so. Though rinse, lather, repeat....you know? A lady I just bought 20 dozen canning jars from said her rain gage measured 40 inches of rain total in June and July. That's a lot of water. The playground in town is pretty destroyed, and that is unfortunate because it was a close by treat for Lil'Bug.
This little critter was found on the back door. Neat. We have had a full summer of finding or being ambushed by funny little bugs and frogs. Identifying them has been Lil'Bug's special job that she and Chad take very seriously. The second part of her task is to teach Blueberry Girl how to hold and release the bugs and frogs gently. That has resulted in Blueberry Girl becoming quite the toad hunter and catcher herself.
Such a summer we have had! We've been eating and canning and eating and jamming what seems like millions of peaches.
Simple. I mean really simple. And the secret is chicken bone broth. Any time a savory recipe says add water, I add bone broth.
Wait...some of you may be asking, "What on earth is bone broth?" And once you find out some of you will be totally grossed out.
Chicken bone broth is like chicken stock, but simmered with veggies and a little vinegar acidity for 24 hours or more. The bones pretty much dissolve into the broth adding calcium and protein that is just so much more than just a 2 hour chicken stock. The nutrition is way different than plain stock too, as it has more minerals in it and if you use a lot of meat like I do, then there is more protein too, easily digestible protein at that.
Another thing I do is add vegetables when something calls for starch. Meatloaf needs crackers? Nah, how about pureed raw sweet potato? Throw in some steamed spinach to the tomato sauce, or even steamed Swiss chard.....I even add squash instead of flour to thicken pasta sauce sometimes. It's like taking the zucchini curse* in August to a whole new level.
Another thing we do is grow our own meat. We know what they eat. We don't raise beef yet but the beef we get is from someone I know and I know how their animals are cared for and fed. Simply choosing better fed animals to consume adds to the nutrition of our meals. Ah, maybe it is junk science, but the flavour is better and the meat cooks tender.....I feel awesome after eating it instead of sick. That's not junk science.
I can make quick work of smoothies from fresh milk and fruit from our own farm anytime my kiddos want a snack. Throw in some greens (even mint works here) and they get that extra bit of all the things that greens are good for.
I also make our own juice. Secret to making a natural wholesome kid juice that tastes JUST LIKE KOOLAID? Peach juice. I kid you not. The left over juice from canning peaches or even the syrup from the jar they are canned in, add some strawberries and BAM strawberry koolaid flavour. Weird. Sweeten with honey, cut with water and you have a juice that has no artificial dyes or unpronounceable preservatives that could even fool the neighbor kids. Makes great Popsicles too. Really. Peach juice.
These things are not hard to do. Way easier than driving to the store. Natural energy for the kids (both young and old).
*the zucchini curse where you have so many and can't give enough away and you might start adding it to everything from cake to soup to ice cream just to get in eaten and ease your guilt......is it just me?
3 potatoes chopped into bite size
3 fresh cloves of garlic, just harvested not cured
4 -6 cups of home made chicken bone broth
a pot full of flowered broccoli
salt to taste, serve with French Bread
I also mixed Greek yogurt into my serving to make it creamy. Yum yum yum.
This week we finally got the chimney lined and in a way that it can easily be cleaned every year. Dan at Chiminey Cricket is brilliant and honest. We have really liked working with him and his crew. Polite, tidy, and very honest. The stove is not yet hooked up yet though, we still have to build the hearth and firewall. THEN I will be able to bake bread using a wood fire. So excited to realize this part of our farm goal. It was also heat all 2200 square feet of our home. We won't have to worry about pipes freezing in power outages. In fact, we may not have to worry about pipes freezing ever. We'll have a new set of worries though, like teaching the children about the incredibly hot dangerous thing in the dining room. They are smart though, they'll learn.
We also got some tree limbs cut back, water and electricity was installed out at Paw Paw and Nana's end of the pond, sold some more pork, and then relaxed and celebrated our country's independence from the British with some awesome and talented folks. I made soooooo much food. Potluck fare made simple and easy, no processed ingredients. No one complained or noticed. I also accidentally made a new pasta salad which was divine. I'll post that over at Simply Food. For beverage I also provided farm fresh mint tea and it was totally gone by the end of the night. We (I) drink almost a gallon a day. We saw old and new friends, and just had a blast hanging out by our lovely pond. We are still feasting on leftovers. Tomorrow I am making steak stir fry for dinner, and broiling up some pork strips to go with breakfast.
It is raining here. Still. Flood warnings and the news has warned that the highways that we use are underwater. Our farm is high and dry but our friends in Chariton are not faring as well. Manhole covers have popped out and streets are flash flooding. That's in town, 4 miles from the river. And the rain rain rain came down down down. Not to mention the mess in Des Moines, so much water. It is events like these that make me glad I work from home and worry for my Dearest venturing out for his commute. On the plus side, rain= lots and lots of frogs and toads EVERYWHERE. I have a little girl who is in heaven.
Bees have transitioned to honey production, which means less choring for a little while.
Since I am in the mood for glowing reviews.....Chariton just got a new coffee house Get Mugged. YEAH! The lady baristas were so awesome with my kids, extremely attentive, and very talented with the brew and milk. Latte latte latte. And I had the Cuban Panini for lunch, yummmmmmmmmy and seriously packed with protein; I think I have found this pregnancies craving food. The free wifi will make me a regular, especially during finals when I am overwhelmed with grading. Other bonuses: good lighting and a variety of seating styles. Those things can really vary from cafe to cafe, but this one scores high points.
Then I ventured over to the other quilt shop in town, The Sampler. It is the hidden one that I kept trying to go to and never found open. Well, open they were! It must have been customer service day because we had another great experience there and I left with confidence, sewing machine questions answered, and a pile of lovely threads. The girls have requests in for skirts. Must learn how to make skirts. Ha!
I had the monthly prenatal check, at 20.5 weeks. Once again Vbac2 was discussed and various issues reviewed. My blood pressure was up from my normal. That has never happened before. I also only gained not quite a pound. With both Blueberry and Lil'Bug I was a consistent 1 lb per week. So diet was discussed and I decided to start tracking protein again. Today and yesterday both fell in the high 70's. 100 g is the goal. So I need to do better. Breakfast must include meat. I got out of the habit when we ran out of bacon and the girls have wanted oatmeal and cereal lately. Back to eggs we go, with cheese and sausage and peanut butter toast. Salad with feta for me for lunch or a soup with bone broth base or egg rolls. Dinner is fine the way it is, meat and two vegetables. We just got so busy I let meal planning slip.
This week I have been surrounded by loveliness, compassion, and gentle reminders of peace. The world continues to spin and everyday has its own troubles, but the heart is what matters. I am blessed and grateful for the friends and family in my life. Everyday we begin our dinner as a family with a prayer of gratitude, I think perhaps we should also begin our day with a grateful heart. We live in a time and location that is clean and bountiful in food, we have access to health care and medicine, and we are safe from gunfire and war. That is not the reality for much of the world, or even everyone in our own communities. That has been on my mind this week. Is it enough to be thankful?
Later in the week, I got stung in the belly. I had swelling and then bruising, which is odd, but everything resolved itself with time.
Then we painted the kitchen and cleaned downstairs. We settled the girls down for a movie and......CRASH BOOM. This mess took up downstairs, well, the clean up of it, for 3 days, We had A LOT of stuff on that shelf. Luckily we had cleaned and taken out a sturdier shelf from the kitchen just hours before.
Blueberry gobbled her broccoli (from our garden!) by the fistful. Then mine and Lil'Bug's too.
Brewing mint tea concentrate; stock pot full of water, food processored Spearmint leaves, bring to a boil then cover and turn off, let sit for 2-3 hours, then add 1/2 cup of raw turbinado sugar for every 2 gallons. Then I put it in freezer safe pint jars and freeze. It is really strong, so when the time comes I take 1 frozen pint in a pitcher and pour over that cold water to fill...still strong so I serve over a glass full of ice. It is really not at all like "tea" but rather minty ice water. Very refreshing with the added nutritional bonus. I think that the Spearmint vs Peppermint makes the tea. I'm not sure I'd like it with Peppermint. I have not tried chocolate mint or lemon mint.
I dried the remaining mint from that harvest. The dried mint gets stuffed into mason jars with a few grains of rice and used all winter long for hot tea and seasoning. With the next harvest I plan on making mint extracts for cookies.
We are also curing garlic. Once cured they will be braided and hung in the kicthen for winter use.
We finally got a lift rented that 1)reaches our chimney and 2)isn't broken and 3)we could afford. Whoo! Next step, line teh chimney and install wood burning cooking stove that will heat the house and let me bake bread and fry boudin all at the same time with the same heat source. So excited.
I've been making popcicles. The kids gobble them and the good kind with no HFCS are expensive and not much selection at our local grocery. So I've been using frozen juices and better yet pure unsugared fruit purees. Watermelon in a blender= most yummy dripless stainless popcicle EVER. No extra sugar so the kids can eat as much as they want. I had to order more moulds because of the freeze time.
Chickens taking a dirt bath. I know they do this but I'd never seen it before.
And it is tree frog time. Chad caught this one, we let it go later that night but first he had to identify it. Sorry for the crappy focus. 15 or so days before I can replace my lens on the good camera. Trust me, I am X'ing off days on my calendar. Sigh.
This week we also cleaned out our storage room, sorted and culled toys, sorted and culled and folded and better marked kid's clothing, and next up is the laundry sewing room and the winter coat closet. Nesting anyone?
Oh and Blueberry has decided that poop in diaper=bad. Poop on potty=sugar beans. Poop on floor=scowling mama. Good timing kid. I am hoping to make serious progress on the potty training front soon. I am also thinking about selling my Bum Genius cloth diaper stash. A friend gave me a couple snapping Blueberri's and I really like the snaps better as far as laundering goes. The velcro tabs on the BG get yuck and useless after a few years. I could pay someone to replace the tabs I guess, but for the same $$ I could sell my stash and buy new. Using cloth paid for itself by month 4 of Blueberry's life, but I had hoped to get more use from the stash, you know?
What else......I'm not sure! It just has been crazy busy around here!
Jam tarts. I roll the dough into little balls, then roll them into little thin cookie circles. Place 1 spoon of your favourite jam in the center of each and top with another little thing cookie circle. Roll the edges up like pie crusts, glaze with cream and sprinkle with sugar.....and bake at 350 degrees on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or or until golden. There are variations. You can roll the dough out in a big sheet and make them like raviolis. Or you could roll out a cookie circle and fold it over like a moon. Make them tiny, make them bigger. It's all good. I like served warm with ice cream best.
I love these best with strawberry jam, next best with red raspberry. They taste like pop tarts only way better.
Apple Pie:
Cut, core, and peel 7 cups worth of firm apples. I like Wealthy apples the very best of all, but Macintosh work too.
1/2 cup brown cane sugar.
1 T of fresh lemon juice
1/2 t fresh ground cinnamon
1/4 t fresh ground nutmeg
2 T cold salted butter
Mix all but the butter together in a big bowl. Once mixed dump in pie crust, sprinkle filling with butter pieces, and top with more pie crust. Trim edges and press together. Bake at 400 for 30 minutes, 375 until the crust has browned to golden. Let cool for 1 hour before serving.
Strawberry pie. That one I have to still work into a recipe. Basically my success has been heating up strawberry jam, adding fresh cut strawberries, pouring into a pre-baked pie crust and topping with a really thing layer of top crust, glazed and sugared. That doesn't sound recipe ish though. I will make it tomorrow and try and document it better.
I know, my Dearest will say, "For Humble Pie?" Indeed. This crust changed things for me. Making this crust made my first successful apple pie. That gave me the confidence to keep going.
Use a food processor. Not kidding, this makes crust making easy as pie.
3 cups of all purpose unbleached flour. I use Bob's Red Mill or the local Paul's Grains High Gluten. Either one works well.
3 tablespoons of raw cane sugar. You can use brown pure cane sugar if you can't find "turbinado" or Sugar in the raw. Cane sugar is key.
3/4 cup SALTED sweet cream butter frozen and then cut into 1/4 inch pieces. I prefer to make my own butter BUT there is no noticible differnce between that and store bought in this recipe.
1/4 cup of frozen lard. Pig lard. I'm not kidding. Use local, pastured pig lard if you can. HUGE difference. (If any of you local ladies want to try it let me know and I'll share a bit.) Cut into pieces.
1/2 cup of very cold water.
Put the dry ingredients in the food processor and pulse to blend. Then add the butter and lard. Pulse until mixture is crumbly. Fluff the mixture if needed. Add the water slowly while pulsing and stop once the mixture starts clumping like course crumbs.
Take mixture out and knead with your hands on floured parchment paper. Form into two balls and squish into disks. Wrap in plastic or paper and stick in the fridge.
(Make your pie filling)
When you are ready to roll out the dough (I use a chilled marble rolling pin, but that's just me being fancy pants), do so carefully and intentionally. Line your pan with one and top the filling with the other.
But wait, there's more. You want flaky crisp top crust? Use WHOLE CREAM and brush on a glaze over the entire top. I cut my slits after the glaze. Then sprinkle generously with more raw sugar. That adds just the right amount of sparkle. I also take the edge trimmings and make them into pretty shapes to top the crust. That's just fun.
So our week has been rainy. Lots of flash flooding, power flickers, and constant downpours with a side of mud. Grey, gloomy, wet and mucky. The rain rain rain came down down down.
One of the sunny hours I rushed out to do bee chores and Lily grabbed the back up camera to take a couple pictures of mama in the spacesuit.
You will see that I do not wear a full suit. I still wear gloves and the veil and the white shirt though. I found that my normal clothes are too predator like in colour. Also that the bees get stuck in my hair. My hand are too busy for their liking as well. This is the get up that prevents me from getting stung. I also usually wear boots, but I forgot and wore rubber clogs and was totally fine. Also, I work the back of teh hives because my belly bumps the front and that tends to get them buzzing more.
I also had to add a box. The cranky hive (the ladies that gave me 10 stings) was finally full and needed more room. The boxes are beautiful. I am so glad I am apprenticing with Sean at Blue Gate Farm. He really puts a lot of care into the construction of the hives and doesn't mind that I get chatty and ask a lot of questions.
Lily took this picture. She says its proof the grove is enchanted and full of faeries. My Aunt Deedle will apreciate this, she's a big believer in cameras capturing the supernatural. I think it's poor lighting and a 1.2 MP with a dirty lens. Still, it does look magical in real life too. Minus the ghost bubbles. (Also, see the mud in the foreground? The whole farm is a marsh.)
