Sourdough Sadness

 This morning I went to feed my sourdough starter and was so sad when I saw a large pink blob sitting in the middle of it. My dear friend had somehow gotten contaminated. It was with a heavy heart I dumped her in the trash can. You may wonder, why so sad? She is a workhorse in my kitchen producing everything from crackers to bread to pop tarts! But not to worry I always keep an extra one (or two) in the fridge. Ever heard the saying two is one and one is none? It's so true! I pulled baby starter out got her fed and we are back in business. She is happily bubbling away on the counter once again.

Today was the first canning project from the gardens. 

I canned 7 quarts of green beans and added them to the pantry shelves. The squash and cucumbers are slowly coming in along with a handful of peppers. It's a strange garden year. we are actually still harvesting broccoli and that should have been long done. That's ok, we will enjoy and be thankful! Life is good on the homestead.

Cabbage Harvest

 Today Sis and I harvested the cabbage crop. We have been enjoying some here and there but it is all ready and we were afraid with the heat this coming week we would loose a lot of it. 43 heads later....

We had a combination of Early Jersey Wakefield and Napa cabbage all bagged up and stuffed into every available fridge on the homestead! We will enjoy as much as we can fresh and figure out ways to preserve the rest. I have a pickled slaw recipe that keeps for quite a while in the fridge. I plan to try my hand at Kimchi and of course we will make some sauerkraut. 

My experiment for today was dehydrating some Napa cabbage since I don't think it will keep as long. It is supposed to do very well when added to soups and every in a stir fry. 

I chopped 3 heads and loaded my dehydrator. 

After drying I had 3 quarts. I am going to try some in the next few days to see if we like it. 

I have to say it looks really pretty! If we like it, I will do a few more heads to use over the course of the summer and late winter since we usually have a pretty good Fall crop.

Always trying and learning something new.. on the homestead!

Another Mega Mushroom Haul

 Yesterday evening Sis called from the grocery store and had found a bunch more mushrooms marked way down. I told her to grab me 6 more pounds. I had planned to help plant potatoes today but hubby got that chore and I canned mushrooms. 

I got 9 half pints and 3 pints. 

While canning I made one last batch of scape/basil compound butter. I'm sorry to see them end! At least we have a few pounds in the freezer until next year. I mixed up a loaf of bread and joined hubby in the garden. There were a few potatoes left so we planted a couple of short rows in the smaller gardens. More green beans were picked and we worked on the never ending weed invasion. Then it was time to do afternoon chores.

Another productive day ... on the homestead!

Planting Late Potatoes

 I found some seed potatoes on sale and since we had some room in the garden we decided to give a late crop a chance. We have never planted this late but if they make we should have potatoes for the year plus some for our own seed potatoes next year.

Hubby and I got them cut up this evening, another 40 pounds will go in tomorrow.

I have picked a good amount of green beans this week. Everyone on the farm has enjoyed a fresh pot. 

We will be canning next week for sure.

The soap got sliced earlier this week and is curing out nicely. It will be ready for labels and headed off to the baby shower here soon.

Busy times on the homestead!

Welcome New Baby!

 Out doing morning chores and I spied this little munchkin! I left them alone for the time being and finished my morning rounds while in my head rearranging today's to-do list. Cleaning the milking area just got moved to the top of it. I needed to do a few things inside before I wanted to tackle that.

I unmolded the soap I poured yesterday to let dry for a day before slicing. I pulled out all of my milking equipment and got it all washed up and ready to go. The wheelbarrow I needed to clean out the stanchion area still had plants in it, so I finally got them in pots. 

Then I got to shoveling! A short while later it was all cleaned out  and full of fresh shavings. 

 While cleaning Violet brought the baby up to see what I was doing. It's a boy! He is so cute. I LOVE baby cows. We will start our milking routine in a day or so all the while I'll keep a close eye on her to make sure she's doing well 

Enough loving on new baby, afternoon chores called. I finished with the other animals, got some weeding and watering done before time to get some supper on the table. 

Happiness is a new baby cow.. on the homestead!

 This morning I got up to check the farm Facebook page, drink my coffee and do morning chores before starting the day. Welp, my Facebook has been hacked. To be quite honest it wouldn't really matter other than I am in several groups on messenger and that is the only way they communicate. I messed with trying to recover it for a while but I seriously do not have the time for such nonsense. Wouldn't the world be a better place if all these people would put their time into doing something constructive instead of destroying things. Very frustrating and of course there is not a human to be found to help with this mess. I gave up.

Then I went on to do what was on my list. Make soap! My daughter-in-law's sister is expecting and wanted soap for her shower favors, plus we have been out for a while and we hate store bought soap. I was on a roll and had planned to pour 32 pounds since it is a messy process but of course I would run short on olive oil. Sigh, only got 16 pounds poured. That will be about 52 bars.

 

I finished up the afternoon weeding in the garden and medicinal herb beds. They have started filling in and look lovely. 

The best part of my day was picking the first handful of green beans! They are on the menu for tomorrow night. Probably steamed with that compound butter I made. Yum!

The Weekend

 Sometimes homesteading is like quicksand, you never know when things will shift. This weekend was one of those times. This past week we lost mama guinea and all her babies and yesterday another male to coyotes. The male was taken in broad daylight. Our weekend plan was to clean out the barn and start refencing the small lamb field. Well that didn't happen. Instead we had to reinforce the whole back pasture line. Apparently with all the heavy spring rains an area that we thought was secure was not and had washed out. Hubby hauled in rip rap and we got that placed. We also ran a second fence on top of the existing fence for added security. That took all day yesterday and half of today. Still a lot to do but it's secure for now until we get some more supplies to totally redo some of it. 

My sweet Violet is really close to calving, so we had to move her back to our front pasture that has the milking area and stanchion. 

That required us to hook up the trailer load her up and bring her here from the back field. She is so close! 

I finally have gotten my goat milking routine figured out. I decided to dry one of the girls up and milk the easiest one. It is going to work out well since she is giving almost 1/2 gallon a day. That will be plenty to freeze for soap and cheese making. Especially when Violet calves and we are getting gallons of milk from her.

It was a busy weekend but on a bright fun note we got to enjoy a birthday celebration with my mom who turned 81! 

Adding To The Pantry

 While picking up a few things at the grocery store today I ran across a super sale on mushrooms. Pound packages were 2.00 off making them a little over a dollar. I grabbed 12 pounds 6 for me, 6 for sis. I also got a couple of 1/2 pound packs of cremini to go on the menu sometime in the next few days. I am down to 2 jars of home canned mushrooms so this was a great find!

A few hours later I added 12 more jars to the pantry! While processing the mushrooms I loaded up my dehydrator with some shredded zucchini that was starting to look a little rough. I also put a couple of trays of the last of the garlic scapes in there.

Once done, I powdered the scapes and put the zucchini in a jar. I'll use the scapes for seasoning and I may powder the squash. I've read that it can be substituted for a portion of flour in some recipes. That may fun to try. 

A good day of preserving here on the homestead!