Our Cashmere Goats Are In Hobby Farms!

Several months ago a lovely lady named Julie came out and photographed our cashmere goats for an upcoming article in Hobby Farms Magazine. Our goats are pictured in the current July/August issue. Stoney Meadow Noodles is on the table of contents page as well as a full page picture on page 31. Stoney Meadow Apache is featured on page 36, he is the black buck with a white spot. Two farms were profiled, ours was not one, but we are incredibly excited about the pictures and want to offer our thanks to Julie for her beautiful work!

Naughty Goats

After delivering bread this morning, I was coming down the driveway running my to-do list through my head, must can tomatoes, pickles need to be done, garden picked... and then spotted several loose goats in the barn area. I drove straight down to the barn with a feeling of dread just in time to see my yearling filly emerge from the milking parlor/ feed room and 11 goats wandering around. Great. Grand. I knew this was going to be ugly. Ugly was an understatement. Apparently they had been out for quite a while and it looked like a giant poo-pee bomb had gone off. They had turned over feed bins, ripped open almost every sealed bag of feed, destroyed hay and straw bales and they themselves looked like they too might explode at any minute. After finally getting everyone back in the pasture which required a lot of dragging and threatening,( being that no one was interested in grain!) I surveyed the damage. Bad. Just plain bad. I decided that it was unlikely a barn fairy would appear to clean up this mess and it was not going anywhere. My tomatoes on the other hand, were going to rot if I did not get them canned.
I headed to the house and got the tomatoes peeled and chopped. Once on simmering I headed down to the barn. The animals were all fine but will certainly be on a hay diet for the next couple of days. The next 2 hours were spent cleaning up the catastrophe. That done, I finished feeding the sheep and checking on everyone again. I got all of the goats milked, just a little late, but I reminded the girls it was their own fault. One doe needed deworming and her feet trimmed, so I went ahead and took care of that. Finally I made it back to the house and got my roasted garlic marinara sauce canned (yum!) . I did make it to the garden and get more tomatoes picked along with out first really large harvest of okra. Peppers, eggplant and squash finished filling a bushel basket. Pickles did not get made today. Oh well, move that to tomorrow's list!

Kombucha Tea

This week I was gifted with a Scoby to start my own Kombucha tea. (you can barely see it in the jar) Kombucha is a mushroom and is known for its many healthful properties. It is slightly tart and after fermenting has a fizzy and refreshing taste.
The Scoby or Kombucha culture, is put in a mixture of sugar, water and organic black tea where it is allowed to ferment for 7 -10 days. You then strain it and put it in capped jars to ferment another 3 days or so on the counter where it gets that fizzy property. The mushroom will produce an additional Scoby each time that can be given away or stored for another batch. You then start the process all over. You should drink 1/2 cup to one pint daily for its medicinal properties.
I was preparing the tea when my mom stopped by. I asked her if she would like to try some that had been prepared earlier. She got a horrified look on her face and proceeded to tell my father that I am now drinking "mushroom juice"!! LOL!

Canning and Freezing

The last week has been a canning and freezing marathon. It started with the corn. We pulled right at 20 dozen ears. I cut most of it off the cob and froze it by itself. I also tried dehydrating a couple of dozen ears. The rest I saved to use in more vegetable soup. This time I canned the vegetable soup in pints for quick lunches, I got 17! I also had enough tomatoes to do 2 large batches of spaghetti sauce which yielded 16 quarts. I dehydrated some green beans just for fun and canned 15 pints of beef stew. Lastly I canned 6 more pints of marinara sauce. The pantry shelves are slowly starting to fill...

Homestead Blessings

Today was yet another long day at work. When I arrived home my teenage son (almost adult son) was polishing his wheels on his truck and yet again washing his already clean windows. (would it be that his room were that clean!) I asked if he would like to "tag team" feeding so that supper would make it to the table a bit earlier tonight. His reply was the usual "Yeah, I'll be there in a minute". Not holding out much hope I headed to the barn. Low and behold he appeared ;o)) We finished up feeding in record time and gathered some veggies from the garden for supper. After we ate, I cleaned the kitchen and went to milk the cow. He appeared as I was tying her up and just sat and chatted while I was milking. My heart just swelled with love, spending a stolen moment of camaraderie with this special young man who is, most times, too busy to be around these days. (He is working many jobs and holding a 3.9 GPA at school.) I felt so incredibly blessed to have a few stolen moments with him. Truly blessed..

Canning Vegetable Soup

Early this morning while baking, I started chopping the vegetables for the soup base that I planned on canning. I figured since I still had my MIL's canner I would just double the batch. Not a well thought out plan. I chopped all the way through the Early Show, Rachel Ray AND Dr. Oz! Once all the chopping was finished I put everything in a pot. Or should I say I tried putting in a pot and another pot and another pot, finally finding a 16 quart stock pot that held it all. Once the soup simmered for about 15 minutes I was able to get both canners going simultaneously which worked out really well since the soup had to process for 1 hour and 25 minutes. I was able to get the kitchen cleaned up while watching the canners. It was a morning well spent, by mid-afternoon I had 13 quarts of vegetable soup to show for my efforts!

Preparing For The Dawn..

Today was a 11 hour work day. I rose early to bake and set off to tame the circus of localvores. It is tomato and corn season here. Along with squash and beans, the place I work is bordering on chaos. I would have it no other way! I feel blessed to be able to work in a place where I can help people purchase healthy foods and educate them on local sustainability.
Once home though, my other life kicked in. I fed critters and milked. I also made sure all my ingredients were ready for a vegetable soup making bonanza tomorrow. I was able to barter for organic carrots and local butter beans. Since I am in between green bean pickings, a family member traded some green beans for beef. I pulled corn from our garden. The only purchased ingredient is celery.
Dawn will come early! I will need to bake and get the soup base going to can. I hope to be able to have enough tomatoes to do a roasted garlic marinara sauce as well.
During the canning time I will share recipes tomorrow! Blessings..