Graduation and Goodbye

I meant to post this a couple of weeks ago, but things got really hectic. Now that life has leveled out a bit and I have time to breathe, I can get back to blogging.


The graduation part of the title refers to the Jr chickens. They got big enough to graduate to the big chicken pen! They are very happy being able to run around and hunt down bugs. They are proper looking chickens now. They have all of their feathers and are just smaller versions of the older ladies.

And now for the goodbye. We buried Lucy, one of our flock matriarchs last night. She was seven years old and still laid an egg on occasion. She was my favorite hen. She came here as a day old chick and lived her entire life here. I don't know if it was old age that took her, or if she just couldn't take the constant triple digit temperatures. Either way, it was sad to find her departed from this world during evening chores. RIP Lucy, you will be missed old girl.

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First Cheese

We made our first attempt at cheese and it turned out wonderful! Now granted, it was a simple soft cheese but we didn't want to do anything to complicated for our first foray into the world of fresh, home-made, goat cheese.

We used one gallon of whole, fresh, raw, goat milk. We heated it to 190 degrees F. Once it reached that temp, we removed it from the heat, added a half a cup of white vinegar and mixed it well. Then we covered it and let it sit. When it had cooled to 100 degrees, we lined a colander with a white pillow case ( if you do this, make sure its one that has no fabric softener on it) and ladled it into the pillow case. Do not pour it, it will splash everywhere. 

Once you have it all in the pillow case, pick up the pillow case and work it all into one corner and squeeze. Then hang the pillow case (we hung it in the shower) for one and half to two hours - longer if you want drier cheese. 

This cheese is extremely mild. We seasoned it with garlic,onion,paprika,parsley, basil, salt and pepper. The we shredded up a bunch of crab in it. We used imitation crab because, quite frankly, real crab is too expensive for this little hobby-homestead. 

This herb crab cheese is beyond delicious on crackers.  

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Cheesecake Swirl Brownies with Caramel Sauce

Here are the recipes for anyone wanting to gain about ten pounds. I got the Cajeta (caramel sauce) recipe off the goat forum at Homesteading Today, however I don't remember exactly who posted it, so I don't know who to credit with this delicious, smooth,creamy, wonderfulest (it is to a word) caramel recipe in the world.

Brownies:

1 cup of butter
2 cup of sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs
1 cup flour
2/3 cup cocoa
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Melt butter. Mix flour,cocoa,baking powder,baking soda,and salt. In separate bowl, mix sugar,vanilla,and butter. Add eggs. Slowly add flour mixture. Grease pan. Pour in most of the batter, with holding just a little (maybe a cup)

Cheesecake:

8 ounces cream cheese
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 egg white
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Beat cream cheese and powdered sugar together for 3 minutes. Add egg white and vanilla and beat for an additional 2 minutes.

Pour cream cheese mixture over brownie batter, trying to cover as much of the brownie surface as possible. Pour with held brownie batter over that, drizzling it around. Take a butter knife and drag through the cream cheese and brownie batter. You don't need to go real deep. Go lengthwise, then crosswise.

Bake at 350* until a knife inserted into the middle comes out clean, there maybe a small amount of cheesecake clinging to the knife even when its done.

Cajeta:

In large pan put in 2 qts milk,2 cups sugar,and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Bring to a boil. When it reaches a boil, remove from heat. Dissolve 1/2 teaspoon baking soda in 1 tablespoon water and add to milk mixture. It will bubble up quite a bit.

Let rest about 10 minutes or until bubbles are gone. When bubbles have subsided, return to heat and bring to a brisk simmer/low boil. Stir very frequently. When the mixture turns pale golden, begin stirring even more often. Once it starts to thicken more, you will need to stir pretty constant. It needs to be simmering even while stirring. It will reduce and become a rich caramel color and become a medium thick sauce. You can put a couple of drops into cold water, if a soft ball forms, it is ready. About 240* on a candy thermometer. If its too thin, return to heat. If its too thick, add hot water ny the tablespoon until it is the proper thickness.

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Oh Yum, Cajeta!

We made Cajeta for the first time today. Cajeta is a Mexican caramel sauce, made from goat milk and oh my, it is so wonderfully yummy! It was easier to make than we expected. Next we are going to tackle cheese. Now, the caramel sauce is fattening enough, but we couldn't leave it at that. Oh no. We had to put it over cheesecake swirl brownies.

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Baby asparagus and Baby Chickens!

After wanting for many years, we finally got an asparagus bed put in. I am really not sure what took us so long, but I am glad its finally done. And we already have baby asparagus popping up!

And, we brought in twelve new baby chickens this year! Its been a couple of years since we had any chicks here. They sure are cute buggers. We have a mix of Barred Rocks, Brown Leghorns, and Black Australorp. I really wanted some Production Reds and White Rocks as well, but the farm store was out of them.


My youngest loved getting to hold the babies when they first came home.

We fixed up an old metal rabbit hutch for them. Its ugly I know, but we are going to paint it. We actually got it almost six years ago. It was on freecycle and we used a full sized van to pick it up. It is incredibly heavy and six feet long. We barely got it wedged in the side door. We tied the side door shut and drove an hour home the back way with it hanging partially out the side door,lol. Hey it worked, its here. It has house rabbits and injured adult chickens in the past. For the last couple of years it has house nothing and we almost got rid of it earlier in the year. But we have learned from past experiences that you never get rid of animal related stuff because the minute you do, you will need it. So instead, we moved it across the yard so that its next to the garage, took out the wire floor in the enclosed half, put in a wood floor, put in a heat lamp (the cord runs through the window into the garage) and installed baby chickens.

This big metal piece slides out so that when they are bigger (or if it ever gets around to actually warming up) they can go out into the wire side too.

The babies installed in their new home. Well their new home until they are bigger and can join the older ladies in the pen.

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Dandelion Jelly

We made the first jars of Dandelion Jelly this year. People look at us like we are crazy when we tell them we make jelly out of Dandelions but then most people spend all of their time trying to kill them rather than seeing them as the food they are. The blooms can be made into jelly, the leaves eaten like salad greens, and their roots can be roasted to make a substitute for coffee. You can even make Dandelion wine. Such a humble little plant and it can be so many things. But then, many of the plants we often label as weeds and do our darndest to kill can be used either as food or medicine. But people have strayed so far from our natural selves that we work to kill off natural growing food and medicine in favor of smooth,completely green lawns that make lawnmower tracks so perfectly that it looks like they have been stenciled on.

The Dandelions in my yard are blooming beautifully, their yellow blooms like little suns beaming up amongst the clover and the little purple flowers that grow wild. And we make jelly from them.

(I wanted to have a few Dandelion blooms in this pic but the Dandelions are lay abouts and apparently they prefer to sleep in since I couldn't find a single one awake and open when I went to take this pic this morning) 

Dandelion Jelly

1 quart packed yellow Dandelion blossoms (take off all of the stems)

1 quart water

1 3/4 oz package pectin

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

4 1/2 cups sugar

4 to 5 drops yellow food coloring

Boil the flowers in water for three minutes. Then strain through a jelly strainer, keeping the juice and throwing the spent blossoms to the chickens(or compost pile if you don't have chickens). Makes 3 cups of juice or there abouts. Add pectin and lemon juice and bring to a rolling boil. Add sugar and food coloring. Bring to a fast boil and boil for 2 minutes. Pour into clean pint sized jars. Place heated lids and rings on jars and let sit to seal and set up. Makes 4 to 6 half pint jars.

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Long Time No Blog!

With the busy schedule that March Madness (aka kidding season) brought, I realized that I have failed to blog. 


So much has happened! Each of our three does had a single kid. Tally had a ten pound chocolate buckling who is  already in his new home where he is the Jr herdsire. Hershey gave us a beautiful, chocolate and white doeling. And Lacey, our sweet,wonderful grade LaMancha doe gave us a solid milk chocolate doeling. Lacey, unfortunately was CAE positive and became symptomatic. She was in so much pain that we had to put her down. It was one of the hardest things we have had  to do. We loved her so much. But we have her daughter who was pulled the minute she born into this world since she never received so much as s drop of milk from Lacey, she will be free of the CAE virus. We had to say goodbye to our beloved Lacey, but we have her beautiful daughter to remember her by.


We also brought in a new Jr herdsire and a new doeling!




Without further ado, here is our babies!All registered names are of course pending approval by the ADGA.

This first pic is our new Jr herdsire, Crossroads End's Diamond Rio in the lead, with Crossroads End's Lady Antebellem (the black and white one) and Oat Bucket Farm Lacey's Jewel both following him.

Crossroads End's Lady Antebellem (Bella for short)

Oat Bucket Farm Almond Joy (Joy) in the forefront with Oat Bucket Farm Lacey's Jewel (Jewels) in the background.

Crossroads End's Diamond Rio (Rio)

Bella and Joy

Bella says, "I am just too cute for words!"

Joy says, "I am just as cute."

Jewels says, "I'm cute too and I have jewels (wattles) to boot!" 

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