We picked chokecherries this weekend. Because they are small and usually located on hard-to-reach branches, we don’t make them a centerpiece of our diet. They provide a welcome accent. Cooling on the sideboard today: a thick, rich crabapple-chokecherry jelly. We use Pomona’s pectin, so we can get by with very little sugar or honey (still a […]
Last night I stayed up to 2:30 making crabapple cider. We haven’t been able to find someone willing to custom press apples, so until we can buy or build a grinder and press, we make do with a 1960’s era Acme Juicer. It does a great job of extracting juice, leaving a very dry pomace, but
No, I’ve never eaten a placenta, human or otherwise. No, I don’t haven an opinion on whether postpartum humans should consume their recently expelled afterbirth, raw, cooked, pelletized, or otherwise. I’d definitely try it if Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall prepared it with shallots and garlic on foccacia. His River Cottage Meat Book has a place of reverence in our gastronomic
The water in the new pond is only about a foot deep (which apparently qualifies as deep enough for Allie and Harry to go swimming every time they go out there) and the banks are bare compacted clay. Along with using the pond for stockwater, we would like to be able to fish it eventually. Based on
Pre-stocking the Pond Read More »
Dave saved me a week’s worth of hot digging. I admit that after about 10 hours of shovelling dirt to get at the potatoes last year, I wasn’t eager to plant them again. Potatoes are a lot of work. Once the seed potatoes are cut and put in the ground, and the plants have grown
Late July and early August bring the rush of winter preparations. Night temperatures have come close to dropping below 50 degrees several times and we feel the drive to step up our work of stocking up. Rachel posted recently about dehydrating herbs. We also like to dehydrate apples. We have many apple trees, some wild crosses and some cultivated
Dried Food for Man and Beast Read More »
Over the last two weeks, excavating contractors have been digging a pond and building a road across the farm. As they have been doing their thing, they have kept me extraordinarily busy trying to work around them. The construction has required that we remove lots of fences, relocate equipment, and re-route buried pipes and conduits. The cattle rotations have
Getting Back to Normal Read More »
I kinda miss my 45-year old Case 530 backhoe. It was always either broken down or on the verge of breaking, but the business ends of the machine (the implement attachments) were built much tougher than anything on our new tractor. The new Case 65A has a 25% horsepower advantage, far more traction and stability, and a lot of
