Garden Fresh Pesto

Posted by Cris

Basil may be the BEST thing ever!  I eat it fresh in LOTS of things all summer long.

 Garden tomatoes, eggs, with lemon in water, pasta of course, and
 whatever else I think might benefit from a little love. 

And what do you do come fall when you have a laundry basket full of basil "leftover" in the garden?

Pick the leaves off one by one (enlist help if you can!) 

I used a recipe from my wife's blog, http://hotmesscooking.blogspot.com/2011/08/garden-fresh-pesto.html

Abby is the one that taught me about pesto!  She is my wife - in that, years ago, back when I worked a crazy crisis intervention job, she worked with me.  We shared a cubicle, a pager, and lots of laughs.  I saw her more than my husband.  At some point, it made sense that we should marry, so we did! 

(More stories about her later!)

You need a food processor.  Start with garlic (5 cloves here)

Add 1 cup of walnuts.

Add 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese.

Add the basil (about 4 cups).

I ended up with about 12 cups of basil total this year -and rounds 2 and 3 in the food processor taught me, Add the garlic and basil first, then weigh it down with the nuts and cheese. Lessons learned.

Hit the pulse or on button and let it chop everything up.  Then you start streaming in about 1/2 cup of EVOO (extra virgin olive oil for those of you who are not Rachel Ray fans.)

You end up with PESTO!

 It's about the consistency of hummus, not too thick, not too runny. 

To Store the pesto and make it last year round, I spread mine into ice cube trays and freeze it.  

In a day or so, I'll pop the pesto cubes out and transfer to a ziploc bag. 

The great part is each pesto cube is the perfect serving amount for 1 person.  

Around this house, the only person that eats pesto is me.

 So yes, it is MINE, ALL MINE! 

(If you ask nicely, I might share, maybe)

By the time I was done, it was lunch time. So I made myself a grilled caprese sandwich with 2 slices of homemade artisan bread that Jon made, added my pesto, fresh mozzerella cheese, slices of fresh garden tomato, and put on the stove to grill.  

Gooey cheese, basil yumminess, sweet tomatoes! I savored EVERY little bite. 

I love our little backyard farm and all the delicious things I can make from it.

I would love to hear all of your ideas on what you do with pesto or basil.  Comment below! 

Shot Box : Shooting Berm

                  A big part of our life in the country consists of gardening, foraging, and fishing, however hunting plays a much bigger role when Fall and Winter come along.  My love for bowhunting has allowed me to spend countless hours afield, helping to solidify my appreciation for what nature can provide, both in the ways of food, and observation. Although the bow and arrow is my favorite choice to carry into the woods, there is also a place for guns as well. When carrying guns, a person's awareness tends to lean more to the side of safety, or at least "should". I have gone shooting with many people, and can say this. Most people I have observed, I will never shoot with again, nor hunt with afield. Now, I am not trying to give ammunition for anti-gunners, or anti-hunters. I am simply stating that I myself am more safety conscious than the average person. 

One area I am very particular about is a good place to target shoot. Most people will just throw a 2x4 on the ground and line cans up along the top, shooting them off one by one, listening to the screams of ricocheting projectiles.  They never think.....where are those bullets going? A .22 long rifle (one of the smallest and least powerful calibers), can travel up to and even exceeding a mile.  A MILE.  Large caliber rifles, can travel MUCH further, and can still have enough velocity to kill something (or someone) at distances greater than that of the smaller, weaker, calibers. 

My preferred method of target practice involves the use of a shotbox.  Building a shotbox is easy and can be done rather cheaply. The most important component is a large, thick piece of steel.  You will also need wood, such as old railroad ties, heavy cribbing, or decent sized logs. Any of these will work just fine. 

Once you have the necessary items, it is time to find a location for the berm. (the shotbox will be buried into the berm).  I decided upon an area directly in front of a large tree, where I had piled a bunch of old logs. This will help us to fill in the area when we are moving dirt.

Then you need to build some side walls. Ideally, these would also be made of steel, and the top can be welded to them, but I only had one piece of steel. My sidewalls are made from 4x6 cribbing, and once buried, will help to stop even the largest calibers we feel that the steel can deflect. We cut the sidewalls at about a 35-40 degree angle to provide for the projectile deflection.

After the walls are positioned, We lifted the heavy piece of steel over them and rested it across the back. The piece of steel we had was from an old loading dock. Steel like this can often be found at your local scrapyard. The steel itself, being set at such an angle, is not meant to "STOP" the projectiles. It is meant to "DEFLECT" the bullets downward into a pit of sand we will place there. The sand in turn will catch the fragments. Sand works better than dirt, as it doesn't freeze (unless wet) or get hard as easily. After the steel has been positioned, we placed some of the cribbing across the top of the walls, creating the box shape of the trap. Stacking a few of them atop each other, we screwed them together to make it solid. This, although more aesthetically pleasing, is actually a functional retaining wall.  Dirt will be brought in to create the berm, burying the shotbox. The side walls and retaining wall on top, will prevent the dirt from falling in, yet add a larger area to prevent stray projectiles from traveling elsewhere.  

Site for Shot Box

Daughter holding up a side wall

Placing the steel plate into position

Box is formed

Payment for the help of a good friend

Top is finished. All that is left is to bury the box and form a berm

Shooting a 9mm into the trap.  Our trap should easily withstand even the largest caliber pistols, and many of the smaller centerfire calibers, such as the .223

ENJOY!!!!!

Freezer Corn

So we tried something a little different this year. in 2011, we attempted to blanch and freeze corn on the cob. It didn't turn out so well. We weren't sure exactly "where" we went wrong, but it was very much like trying to bite pieces of rubber off of a tire.  So last year we canned the kernels with the pressure cooker instead. Now THAT was excellent. We were extremely happy with the canned corn and it didn't last very long to say the least. Yummy!!!!!!
This year, knowing that we could easily preserve the harvest in jars again, we have decided to attempt the freezer method once again. Only this time, kernels off.  I was told that this was a better way of  freezer prep than on-the-cob methods.  It didn't take very long to do either. If I had to guess (because of course I didn't keep track of time), I would estimate about 3 hours of labor for 3 dozen ears worth of corn. Next time, i'm sure it will go faster.

I started with 3 dozen ears which I purchased from Trimble's Produce Farm. (http://trimblesplantsandproduce.com/) He is one of only a few local farmers, and we buy anything we don't grow from him. We used to buy from the farmer's market in town, but have since come to find out that most farmer's markets have been tainted by people who want to make a buck at the expense of the uninformed. 

Ever wonder how these "local" farmers can have produce to sell 2 months before anyone else can even grow it?  Here's how they do it. They buy from WHOLESALERS.  That's right,.... the veggies you are paying "farmers market prices" for, are nothing more than the same veggies that your local retail stores sell. Nothing is local about them.  

Although I am finding this information to be more and more abundant on the web and even through word of mouth, I came across this information myself when I took a bunch of wild black raspberries into town to sell. My town allows anyone to sell at the farmer's market, without a permit, and apparently there is no restrictions on the "source" of the produce. The gentleman next to me explained his whole process to me. He explained that he buys from 3 wholesale sources, and travels to 6 different farmer's markets to sell his stock. We are in Illinois, yet he was selling Tomatoes from Arizona, and cuccumbers and melons from Georgia. He smiled sincerely when he told me how much he makes from doing this. Honestly, it made me sick. He even tried to sell ME some produce and I simply refused, telling him that my wife and I only buy from "local farmers."

Sooooo, off of my soapbox for a moment.  Back to Trimble's, he grows some mighty good produce and has a very large following right now. If you are on our friends list, you most likely already know where he is, if you don't, then shame on you and just ask me for directions. 

First things first.  You have to shuck the corn.  I used to do it the hard way, taking the leaves off first, then picking the silk out, little by little. This was back breaking and boring work. Mr. Trimble showed me a much easier way to do this step. The only thing I added was this simple step 1.  I cut the end off of the leaves.  It allows me to get a better hold of the husk and silk together. I use a good pair of kitchen shears.

Step 2 - From the end of the cut husk, separate about 1/3 of the husk (and the silk) away from the rest. Take time to make sure you have all of the silk. You will be happier if you spend an extra couple of seconds on this stage, making sure you do it right.  Then grab the husk and silk together and pull straight down to the stem swiftly.  Give it a little elbow grease. 

It should end up looking like this. Clean and silk free. If there is still some silk, no worries, we will take care of that later.

Take another 1/3 of the husk (and silk) and repeat the last step. Then pull off the remaining husk in the same way. 

You should end up with a clean ear attached only to the stem. Pop the stem off and cut any bad parts off of the tip of the ear, and anywhere in between. 

Step 2 - Blanch the corn while it is still on the cob. The purpose of this step is to kill the enzymes and organisms which promote the breakdown of the corn, thus preserving the taste AND the nutrition. To blanch the corn, simply get a big pot of water boiling. When it gets to a rolling boil, place just enough corn in it to allow the boil to resume quickly. Allow the cobs to boil for 5 minutes. Then remove the cobs and place in a cold water bath quickly.  Some people use ice water, but I just used cold water and allowed the faucet to run constantly into it. The idea here, is to stop the cooking process.  

Step 3 -  After the corn has cooled, drain it and cut off the kernels. They make a handy corn cutter which allows you to run the entire cob through it, removing all of the kernels at once, but I am old school. I use a knife. The kernels will not all be uniform, and most will be cut at an angle, but take it from me....they taste...the same. An added bonus to using a knife, is that there is a bit more waste left on the cob than using one of the fancy corn cutters. This means that while i'm processing the corn, I can take breaks to gnaw on the cobs and enjoy the fresh harvest. 

The corn falls off like this. Some in pieces, and some in strips. No worries, you can freeze it like this, or separate it easily in a small bowl by grinding it with your hand as if you were mixing something.

Step 4 - Bag the kernels into amounts which are suited for your meal sizes. I measured out 1 1/2 cup servings, as they are almost perfect for our family.  Then I vacuum sealed them.  My Foodsaver is the single most used appliance in my house next to the toaster and microwave. I don't get paid for saying that or anything,  I just love it.  We buy much of our meat in bulk, and break it down at home into individual meals. Saves a ton of money.  You can bag the corn in ziploc bags if you want too. The main thing to remember is that AIR is the enemy. Try to get out as much air as possible while you are sealing the zipper. This will allow the food to remain frozen for longer periods of time, as there is less freezer burn.

We ended up with 20 bags of freezer corn from 3 dozen ears.  I figured the cost to be .60 cents per bag.  Now lets do the math.

My bag is 1.5 cups of corn. 

The average can of corn is 1.75 cups (just a tad more)

Mine =  $0.60

store bought =  $0.89 avg    

So the math is this.  Mine Tastes better.

It doesn't get much more clear than that!!!!!!!!!!!

The Goats, and a chicken

Posted by Jon

Meet the goats, and .......a chicken.

We'll start with the goats. Every year, we try to add a little bit to our farm. The first year we were here, we got too ambitious and tried to do too much all at once. Lesson learned!  We decided to take a step back and slow down a bit, adding just a few items at a time.  This allowed us to be better, by giving us more time to adjust to the new tasks, while still managing the old ones. So this spring we decided to get goats.  Originally, I wanted to get meat goats, so we went to a local meat shop who just so happened to have goat chops for sale. We tried it and liked it. (I would say it tastes and looks like pork, with the texture and consistency of beef.) But reality hit me when I realized that, with the small size of the farm, I really couldn't keep a decent sized herd. I would not only have to keep the breeding stock, but I would need more room for raising the kids to butcher size as well. 

Now I know many of you are saying ewwwww, you would eat a goat? .....Ummm, you betcha. Goat meat is the most consumed red meat on the planet. 70% in fact. The united states and Canada are the only 2 countries which eat this much beef. Goats were being slaughtered way before the first cow was ever butchered.  And it's the kids which are eaten when they reach about 5 months (rough estimate) of age, not the adults. A typical meat goat will provide about the same amount of meat as a small yearling whitetail does. So you would need quite a few to last you throughout the year. 

We decided to go the dairy route, and here's why.  I was considering a couple of different breeds, all of which were miniature breeds. This would allow me to keep a breeding stock, and still have room for the kids to grow up on momma's milk. I ended my search with a couple of Nigerian Dwarf does Ginger and Jersey.  Although I have no papers for them, they are purebreed Nigerians. We then searched craigslist and other classifieds for a sire.  I originally purchased a buck which was half Nigerian and half Nubian (my wife likes the floppy ears), but after my vet friend talked to me about the possibility of the kids being too big to birth naturally just because of the nubian genes, I quickly banded the buck and sold him as a wether. Later, we found a purebreed Nigerian Dwarf buck (again, no papers), Smokey,  and he fits right in with my girls. 

The plan is.....we will be dividing the enclosure and placing smokey by himself so we can space the pregnancies apart, maximizing the milk collection throughout the year. Ginger and Jersey will get a new shed, with a special walled off section for momma and the young kids to relax until they are strong enough to venture out on their own. We will allow the kids to feed naturally from momma until they are able to eat solid food, at which time they will be sold (mostly as pets i'm sure). The money I raise from the kids will be used for more feed, and more goats.   More goats?  I plan to buy a few meat goats which are already at butcher weight. I will consider raising them for the last couple of months if needed.  I can process them myself, as I have butchered so many deer already. 

The Milk

Along with the kids, we will also enjoy the milk. We will drink some, and use the rest for making cheese, soap, butter, and maybe even some yogurt. Mmmmmm

This is the goat family. Jersey is the black and white doe to the left. Ginger is the brown and white doe in the front. Smokey is the little black and white buck to the right. The little chicken on Ginger's back is the only chicken we have named. It's name is........wait for it.......Goat Chicken!

Jersey is our goat dog. She loves being petted and scratched behind the ears. She will race to the gate of the enclosure just as soon as she hears the latch open. She is going to be my little worker bee (since I made her the pack. She also has a small cart that she can pull the kids around in. In the future, I want to make an additional cart which she can use to help pull firewood and such. Goats can pull quite a load, but cannot carry too much on their back. So as long as the cart is balanced, she will be able to help quite a bit. Furthermore, if I make it so that Ginger and Jersey could pull side by side, then I can double the load. Oldschool baby!.  Like the Amish Paradise.

Ginger is my prissy princess girl. She is very picky about what she eats and typically has good food stolen from her by the other goats, as she must first smell it for 10 seconds before she will attempt to take a bite.  The only thing she will eat without smelling first, is animal crackers. She will allow us to pet her too, but usually only for a minute or two before she gets bored with us and wanders off.

Smokey was purchased as a "disbudded" goat. Ummmm, ya, didn't work. I wanted horns on all of my goats, but Cris didn't. So when the original owner asked us if we wanted him disbudded professionally, we said yes, and paid extra for it too.  Smokey and his brothers and sisters were all taken to a local vet and disbudded.  You can clearly see that the job the vet did sucked. Smokey's horns are now about 3 inches long and solid as can be. At first I worried about him tearing up his ladies, but boy do they hold their own. I have seen the girls gang up on him when he is being pushy. They will head butt him from both sides at the same time and ring his bell good.  Usually he backs off pretty quick. So far no bloody battles!!!

This was the day we brought Ginger and Jersey home.  Meatball loved going into the temporary pen we had set up in the garage for them while I finished the enclosure. They only stayed in the garage for about a week, if that!

This is Goat Chicken. He is an Araucana Bantam rooster who absolutely refuses to converse with, live with, or mingle with the rest of the chickens. He thinks he is a goat.  He takes turns roosting on all of the goats backs at night (but prefers Jersey's). He is pretty much useless, but he is fun to watch so I guess we'll keep him around.

Can Cabinet

So with all of the canning our family does, we learned pretty fast that the one thing we were running out of was SPACE.  Cris, being the inquisitive wife that she is, brought a new project to my attention. It was one of her many Pinterest finds. Low and behold, I was building a can cabinet

It rolls nicely in between the refrigerator and the pantry beside it. The plans she gave me came in the form of a picture. So I had to design/build to fit the spot. I'm sure plenty of you have a little spot like this that is just a narrow waste of space. 

This is the cabinet rolled tightly against the wall. It sticks out a little bit from the pantry, but it doesn't interfere with the operation of the refrigerator door.

When rolled out, you can see just how much extra canning we can do without having to find space elsewhere. I have to admit,  my wife does have good ideas every now and then. 

Pack Goat: made for $12

Post by Jon

Jersey is my new pack goat!!!!!

I made this harness for $12 earlier this spring. It is made of 1 inch nylon strapping (bought 20 feet of it),       1 inch plastic buckles (8), and 6 steel rings (the 2 in the front are for the attachment of the goat cart I made)

The pouches are from an old safety vest that my father-in-law gave me. There was actually 3 pouches on each side, but I cut off the top ones so it didn't hang to the ground. I sewed them together from the insides at the top and then used the straps which were still on the vest pieces to attach it to the harness, saving me a lot of sewing.

The pack is super sturdy on Jersey, and other than tasting the zipper string a few times, she has not a care in the world that it is on her.  Being that she is a Nigerian Dwarf, she will only be able to carry about 20-25 pounds comfortably, but I can't wait to start working her. 

Why Nigerian Dwarfs?  For the milk of course. 

Jersey was running around the enclosure as you can see here. The pack barely moved on her. 

Love my Goats. You will meet the rest of them soon!!!!!!

Green Beans : Canning, Canning, and more....Canning

Beans Beans the Magical Fruit!!!

So here comes one of the "misadventures" of the year.  I bought a pound of Blue Lake beans this year because we had done so well in 2012.  I figured I could plant even more rows, and can even more beans, so we don't run out like we did early this spring.  (Will NOT be a problem this year...Holy Smokes!)

                                                             So the issue was this....                                                                          In 2012, we bought Blue Lake beans and we easily walked them while picking to our hearts content. But did anyone else know there is a difference between Blue Lake Bush and Blue lake Pole?....... Ya, me too, but being the typical man I am, I only partially read the package. 

It is darn near impossible to navigate through the intertwined mess we had this year. Nevertheless, I managed to get them all (wife is apparently "allergic" to the vines......so she says).

Here is Meatball with the pile of beans

Steps we used for canning

1 - Washed all the beans

2 - Cut off ends and then cut them into manageable bitesize pieces (3/4 - 1 inch)

3 - Blanched beans in boiling water for 5 minutes

4 - packed in hot jars and added boiling water to them (1/2 inch headspace)

5 - capped and put jars in pressure canner

6 - put cover on pressure canner and let steam escape for 10 minutes

7 - brought pressure to 10 pounds and held there for 25 minutes (pints) or 30 minutes (quarts)

8 - Turn off stove and let them cool naturally until safe to open pressure canner and lift jars out.

We ended up with 48 pints and 14 quarts 

Oh! and we made 3 pints of Dilly Beans to try this year too. Nice thing is, since they are pickled, we only needed the waterbath canner instead of the pressure canner.