Butchering Day!

Growing up we had cows, I always looked forward to branding day. It was a fun time to spend with my dad and brothers, and get prairie oysters thrown at me. NOT that I like that part all too much! The morning we were getting ready to butcher the chickens I kinda had the same feeling of excitement. A day to spend with family doing farm work, joking and playing around.


Last weekend the Mr. had a day off so we decided it was time to butcher the chickens. My father in law came over to give us a hand since this was our first time and we didn't really know what we were doing! Nate had to catch them first. Then the heads where chopped off. Next they were dipped in boiling water to help the feathers come out easier. This is where I come in, I had to do most of the plucking. Then they were gutted and put in a pail of ice water to wait until all the chicken were done. They were bagged and put in the freezer to wait until I forget this day enough to be able to cook one!

At first I had a hard time with it, I was feeling a little queasy. In high school I was actually vegetarian for a while and I have a hard time eating anything that isn't cow or chicken. But I know that raising and eating your own free range chickens is WAY healthier then the store stuff I normally feed my family. And I know that the butchering was done in a humane way. So I took  one for the team and plucked those feathers! While I was plucking I didn't really think about anything, It wasn't until after we were done and all cleaned up that I actually got sick, I don't know if it was guilt or buyers remorse or what but it took me a day or two to get over it :(

 

In the end we butchered 12 roosters. We kept one, and we still have our 13 hens that should all be laying by the end of September. So it wasn't a lot. It only took a couple hours. I think that we will try it again next year. Now that we know what we are in for, and maybe we will try a few more. Also I think we should find a chicken plucker, I think that would make my life a lot better!

Moving to the country...gonna eat me a lot of peaches...

Haha, does anyone else remember that song? So on our way home from the okanagan we had to stop at a fruit stand and stock up on fresh Okanagan Peaches. Peaches are one of my favourite things about summer...well, peaches and Taber Corn. Yes I love my food. When we got home with a case of peaches we couldn't eat them fast enough, so I decided to give canning them a try!



Before                                                                                                       After

 

Here is how my case of peaches turned into 4 jars of Peach Rhubarb Jam, 3 Jars of Peach Syrup and 5 Jars of peach halves. The purple stuff is some Cherry Jam, I also picked up cherries on my way home.

 

1. You boil a large pot of water, Add the peaches to the water for about 30-45 seconds.

 2. Immediately put the peaches in ice cold water. The skins should peel off easily with your hands.

(sorry my picture wasn't working right and wouldn't stay right side up)



 

 

Peach Syrup.

 

5 C  peach puree

2 C  sugar

2  TBSP lemon juice

2  tsp vanilla

 

 

Puree peaches in a blender

 

                                                        

 

 

Over med heat in a large pot combine peach puree, sugar, lemon juice. Heat until it boils, then reduce to a simmer for 5 minutes stirring often. Remove from the heat and add the vanilla.

Pour into sanitized jars leaving a 1/4" head space at the top of the jar. Wipe rims with a clean cloth, add lids and hand tighten. Process in a boiling water bath for 20 minutes. Remove jars and leave to cool for 24 hours. Check to make sure the lids sealed properly before storing, The lids should not flex when pushed on if sealed right.

 

This syrup is very yummy on pancakes, if you drizzle a tiny bit of maple syrup over the peach syrup it is especially yummy!

 

 

 

 

Peach Rhubarb Jam

 

2 cups peaches, chopped

2 cups rhubarb, chopped
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 T. bottled lemon juice
1 1/2 T. pectin

 

In a large pot add peaches and rhubarb, under med heat cook until fruit breaks down, stirring often. About 10 minutes.

Add sugar and lemon juice, stir until sugar is dissolved and continue cooking for 10 more minutes. Turn up heat and bring to a boil.

Add pectin and stir in completely. Bring back to boil and do not stir for one minute(this will help to activate the pectin)

Remove from heat.

Add to sanitized jars leaving 1/4" head space. Wipe rim and add lids. Process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Remove and cool. Before storing check to make sure the jar is sealed properly.

 

I did double this recipe, to make a little extra.

 

 

Peach Halves

Take your peach, cut in half, remove the seed.  I cut my peach halves again to make quarters, the fit better and are easier to serve to kids. Put the peach pieces into large sanitized jars fill as full as you can without squishing them, to the part of the jar that curved up to the neck.

 

To make the syrup you have to choose how thick you want the syrup. I usually do a med-light syrup.

Light- 2c sugar and 6c water

Med- 3c sugar and 6c water

Heavy- 4 c sugar and 6c water

 

Stir sugar into water and heat to a boil and bring to a simmer until ready to use.

Poor into jars of peaches leaving a 1/2"head space. Gently move the peaches around using a butter knife to get air bubbles out, add more syrup in necessary. Wipe rims and add lids, hand tighten. process in a boiling water bath for 40 minutes. Check the seal to make sure they are properly sealed before storing.  Its a great way to have peaches all winter long!

 

By this point in the day I go so caught up in canning I forgot to take picture, so sorry there aren't many pics for the last couple recipes!

                                   

There it is, a case of peaches (minus some for eating)... so approx 2/3 case of peaches will make you  5  1L jars of peach halves, 3 500ml jars of peach syrup and, 4 500ml jars of peach rhubarb jam.

Holiday in the Okanagan

Every year my family goes to the Okanagan for a week long holdiay. Its a great time for our kids to spend with cousins. This year there were 30 of us, Yes we did get a few look from other people trying to figure us out. We spent lots of time on the beach and enjoyed shopping in Kelowna. We are already looking forward to next summer!

A

 Shayde thought it would be a good idea to roll in the sand.

 Tube ride with Uncle Jon

Diving for rocks. These two crack me up.

How Does Your Garden Grow??

One of the things I was excited for moving to the country is planting and growing a garden. This year I planted:  

Peas

popcorn

sweet corn

purple corn

purple beans

3 kinds of carrots

4 kinds of potatoes

spaghetti squash

zucchini

gourds

cucumber

3 kinds of melons

spinach

arugula

3 kinds of lettuce

onions

purple onions

green onions

asparagus

strawberries

cherries

apples

chives

barley

My apple tree!

Corn

Potatoes

Peas

Barley

Pretty potato flower

This is my garden today...

Our community just got hit my a massive hail storm. They were the size of baseballs. The smallest hail were the size of golf balls.  We have massive damage to our vehicles, camper, and roof.  Our neighbours crops were destroyed. I can't imagine something like this happening to our ancestors, who couldn't afford to just run to the store to buy food. Their entire life revolved around growing and producing food and farming cash crops to provide for their families. I know how heart broken I am over my garden, I can't imagine what it would be like for them. I'm very sad today! I going to go curl up and eat ice cream and go to bed early, and deal with all this tomorrow.

Here Chickie chickie!

I feel like I'm trying to play catch up for the last 6 months, 2 posts in one day!

We got 27 Red Sussex Cross baby chicks back at the end of April. The coop wasn't quite ready for them yet so we had to make a little pen for them in our unfinished basement. We made it with 2 window wells that's haven't been installed yet. Laid down some plastic and then some puppy training pads ( or puppy pull ups as my daughter called them)  and then put down some hay and wood shavings. It worked quite well! And we managed to keep the smell to a minimum.

Only one of the chick had died. So now we have 26. 13 hens and 13 roosters.  This is them now...

They are free range, we did have them in a pen for the first little bit. We have a fox that lives in the area so we were nervous about letting them free range. But so far so good. They free range all day now and we haven't had a fox problem YET. In the fall we will butcher the roosters, hopefully my grandma will be able to give us a hand with this! We may keep one or two of the roosters and try our own hatching in the spring. The hens we will keep for eggs. They should start laying in early fall.
They also have recently learned to use the kitty door into the garage. So our garage is now constantly covered in chicken poo. Kinda gross!!  One thing I've learned about chickens is NEVER wear flip flops into the coop! The chickens will peck your toes!!

Bread Day!

At our house we bake our own bread! I love baking bread for a few reasons.

1. I can make it cheaper and healthier and know what goes in it compared to store bread.

2. It's a GREAT stress relief to kneed the bread, not to mention a super arm workout. Talk about          multi tasking!

3. There is nothing yummier in the whole wide world then fresh out of the oven bread smothered in honey butter.  mmmmm...

4. I'm a thinker, and I think a lot about my ancestors. When I bake bread or garden or do any of those things that were apart of their everyday lives I feel closer to them. I feel like I got something from them. I feel like I owe it to them to learn certain skills to be able to provide for my family. I know its kinda weird. But hey! that's just me!

Anyways enough about me let's get back to the bread. Here is the recipe I use. Its off of a bag or Rogers Whole Grain Flour. I've tried a few recipes and this is by far my favourite. This recipe yields 4 loaves.



1/2 Cup  Warm Water
1 tsp        honey
2 TBSP  yeast

Dissolve yeast and honey in warm water and let sit 10 minutes. Until doubled and foamy.

In a large mixing bowl:

3 1/2 Cups    Warm Water
1/4 Cup         Honey
2 TBSP         Molasses
1/2 Cup         Veg Oil
2                   Eggs Beaten
2 TBSP         Lemon juice

Add together and mix well

 Add yeast mixture and stir. Gradually add 5 Cups of Whole grain flour, beating vigorously after each addition. Let stand for 20 min until mixture is very light.

(I usually use multigrain flour instead of Whole grain flour. (I stock up when its on sale for $4 instead of the $12 that it usually is) I sometimes add in flax seed, sunflower seeds or oatmeal just for fun!)

After mixture has sat for 20 min add 

4 tsp  salt
4 cups of white flour ( you can use the whole grain if wanted but I find the white helps to keep the bread fluffy) you can add more flour as needed to make a soft, workable dough.

 Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead 10 minutes until dough is smooth and elastic. Form dough into ball and place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease the top. Cover and let rise 50 minutes or until doubled.


Punch down and shape into 4 round balls. Cover and let rest 20 min.

Form into loaves and place in greased (8 1/2" x 4 1/2") loaf pans. Brush tops with oil. Cover and let rise 50 minutes.

Bake @ 375*F  for 30-40 minutes until bread tests done.  Remove from pans and cool on wire rack.

And there it is! Yummy light and fluffy bread!

To make the honey butter I usually just mix equal parts honey and butter. But for a special treat I will make this recipe from "Our Best Bites" recipe book

1 Cup real butter
2/3 Cup honey
3/4 Cup powdered sugar.

Mix together and spread on fresh bread.  

This isn't enough to last a week in our house. One loaf is gone by the end of bread day. And the others don't last much longer! I usually try to bake buns or a quick loaf like banana, apple, lemon or zucchini bread to help this bread last longer. Try it! You'll LOVE it!

We've recently bought an acreage in the Foothills of the Rocky Mountains. I wanted a way to remember everything we are doing to our new home, and our new farm life. Nate and I were both raised in this area so we are soooo excited to settle here with our kids, and let them experience all the great things this area has to offer. I am new to this whole blog thingy, I swore I would never have one nor do I have the the time for one,( so if its not updated very often, don't blame me!) but at this point I think it may be the only way for me not to become a complete hermit! And I want to share with everyone all the fun things farm life has to offer.

At this point in time we only have 4 kids, 1 dog and 2 cats. The cats we got to take care of the mice problem in the garage, they seem to be doing their job quite well. My grandma has become the crazy cat lady, and was more than happy to give me a couple of them, since she said that my grandpa was getting tired of them and was going to shoot them. So I was more than happy to help her out too.  The kids adore them. The boy cat's name is Tommy and the girl is Princess. (we didn't name them, grandma did)  They have finally got used to our dog Nelly.

The house we bought is about a year old. The main floor is finished but the basement is not. Currently we have 6 people living in 2 bedrooms and a laundry room. Shiloh sleeps in the laundry room in a play pen and the other 3 share a room. You try putting 3 kids to bed in the same room at the same time!!! NOT FUN!! We are putting 3 more bedrooms in the basement. So that will hopefully free up a bit of space upstairs. We are aiming to have it done by Christmas, hopefully sooner! We will see though, these things never go according to plan!

That is the farm so far....