A while back I put up a post on how to cash in on sourdough disasters, listing some ideas on how to use botched or leftover sourdough bread.  Meatloaf is another great meal to use up your sourdough bread. This recipe resulted in a wonderfully moist meatloaf that got grandpa's stamp of approval.

Mouth Watering Meatloaf

Ingredients:
3 Cups cubed sourdough bread
1 whipped egg
2/3 Cup raw milk
1 Tbl Dijon mustard
2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp fresh ground pepper
4 Tbl fresh chopped basil
2 Tbl fresh chopped thyme
1/2 tsp dried nutmeg
1 medium onion finely chopped
1/2 Cup chopped celery
1/2 Cup  chopped parsley
12 slices cooked and crumbled bacon
2 lbs grass fed ground beef
4 Tbl melted butter

Combine the whipped egg, milk, and cubed bread pieces.  Let this rest for at least 15 minutes so the bread soaks up the egg and milk.  Then use a large fork or potato masher to mash the mixture until there no more large chunks of bread.  Add the Dijon, salt, pepper, basil, thyme, nutmeg, onion, celery, parsley, and bacon to the mixture.  Mix well.

In a large bowl, pour the melted butter over the meat.  Mix the butter into the meat.  Then add the bread and spice mixture to the meat.  Mix well and form into a loaf in a loaf pan.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Cook the meatloaf for approximately 1 hour.  I like to turn on the broiler for the last 10 minutes to darken the outer crust a bit.

Let cool for 10 minutes before slicing and serving.  I recommend serving this with your favorite mashed potato recipe.

Enjoy!

We linked this post at Simple Lives Thursday at GNOWFGLINS and Fight Back Friday at the Food Renegade

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The garden is in full tilt now (finally) and it's time to start putting pickles up.  The cucumber plants are providing several good sized future pickles per day now.  I was never a big fan of pickles until I tried a batch of fermented sour pickles.  These are crispy, flavorful, and full of beneficial bacteria.  What's not to love?  On top of all of that, they're extremely easy to make.  Here's one way to do it:

My recipe is flexible depending on what herbs and spices I have on hand.  This time I used fresh dill from the straw bales and garlic from last fall's garden:

Sour Pickles:

1. Cucumbers sufficient to fill a 1/2 gallon jar
2. ~1 qt fresh water (chlorinated will probably work, but I think results are better with non-chlorinated)
3. 3 Tbsp sea salt
4. a few sprigs of dill, or other herbs and spices you like in your pickles
5. 2 large cloves garlic, sliced about 1/4" thick

Cut off the blossom end of the cukes, and optionally the stem end too.  If your cukes are large, you can cut them into spears or slices to speed up the fermentation process.  Dissolve the salt in the water, add the garlic and herbs, and pack the cukes in.

It's important to make sure the cukes are completely submerged, and you also want to keep air from touching the surface of the water in order to prevent yeast and mold from growing.  The easiest way to do both of these things if you're using a jar like I did is to put a plastic bag full of water in the mouth of the jar.

Once you've got it all set up, just let it ferment for 1-4 weeks, depending on the size of the cucumbers.  You can open it up periodically and taste the pickles to see how they're doing.  When they've reached the point you like, you can put them in the fridge where they'll keep for several weeks.  Alternatively, you can can them with a simple hot water bath at this point (the fermentation process produces enough acid that you don't need to pressure can).  Canning kills the live cultures, but it does allow the pickles to last pretty much indefinitely. If you elect to can them, be aware that they will probably lose their crispiness (unless you have some top-secret tricks that I don't know about... please share!).

Lacto-fermentation is a great way to process and preserve food.  It makes many vegetables more nutritionally available, adds nice complex flavors, and allows you to keep living foods fresh for a long time.  If you're interested in doing more of this, my favorite book on the subject is Wild Fermentation, by Sandor Ellix Katz.

Straw Bale Garden Update

The straw bales are doing great!  I've been getting squash, cucumbers, herbs, peppers, and eggplant so far, and my first tomato will be ripe tomorrow.  I have watermelon, winter squash, dry beans, and green beans forming on the vines, and the corn is doing well in the bales.  I planted short varieties of corn in the bales, which seems to be working out just fine.  As you can see, I haven't spent any time at all weeding (the spaces between bales are knee-high in grass) but the bales are still weed free.

My other experiments in the garden are doing pretty well too.  I haven't tried harvesting any potatoes yet, but the potato cages are growing nicely.  Also, the sheet mulched zero-prep corn patch is doing great:

The plants are 7-8 feet tall and are putting on several ears apiece now.  The upshot of all of this is that I've determined that it's possible to have a pretty good garden without breaking your back digging the dirt and weeding, as long as you're willing to do some unconventional stuff.  This is particularly useful for a first season garden, because the bales and green matter will make a huge quantity of nice compost that you can add to a real dirt garden when you have time to get to it.  In my case, we moved here in the early spring and didn't have time to get a "real" garden established.  I think the leftovers from this year's setup will be a great head start on next year's plot.

We linked this post at Monday Mania at the Healthy Home Economist

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Photo adapted from Sister Ray on Flickr *

Not too long ago, my wife had her first prenatal visit and was handed a folder containing all the "dos and don'ts" to mind during her pregnancy.  I was surprised to find a brochure that contained an entire insert that warned against the consumption of raw milk, which we so happen to make a priority in our grocery budget.  The primary concern in the pregnancy literature is a foodborne pathogen known as listeria.  I don't wish to downplay the seriousness of listeria. It can cause severe complications in a pregnancy, such as, premature birth or even a stillborn.  The seriousness of listeria was enough for me to not simply scoff at the warnings of raw milk, but to look into it further.

You could spend countless hours researching both sides of the debate which pretty much go like this:

FDA and CDC position:  Raw milk can contain harmful pathogens and pasteurization is necessary to protect us against foodborne illnesses. Anyone who consumes raw milk is putting themselves and others at risk.

v.s.

Weston A. Price Foundation position: Raw milk actually contains beneficial bacteria that is proven to kill off other harmful pathogens.  Because of the missing beneficial bacteria in pasteurized milk, harmful pathogens are able to flourish in the "dead" milk.

For a testimonial on the studies done that show how raw milk can actually protect against known pathogens, read this source.

While I agree with the assertions of the Weston A. Price foundation regarding the numerous benefits of raw milk, including the ability to kill off other harmful bacteria, I don't think it's wise to assume you are absolutely safe from foodborne illnesses simply because you are drinking raw milk.  If a pathogen does manage to find its way into the raw milk, common sense tells me, there has to be a lot of variables that determine how fast it can be exterminated (i.e. the amount, the type of pathogen, the temperature or the age of the milk, etc).  So yes, it is possible that we can consume raw milk that may be contaminated, even though the raw milk has the ability to rid itself of the bad bacteria eventually.

Ok. So does this mean we should only drink pasteurized milk, especially pregnant women?  I see no reason to believe pasteurized milk is the solution.  Just as it's possible to consume contaminated raw milk, it's absolutely possible to drink contaminated pasteurized milk.  In fact, don't take my word for it, but look at the data from the CDC that goes as far back as 1998.  A search for listeria on the CDC's foodborne outbreak online database reveals that they have not recorded any incidents of listeria due to raw milk.  They have recorded 2 incidents of listeria in raw cheese, but have also recorded 3 incidents of listeria found in pasteurized cheeses and milk.  Another database that goes back as far as 1983, found here, records 6 incidents of listeria found in raw dairy products, but also records 7 incidents in pasteurized dairy products.  Yet another online database, found here, records 2 incidents of listeria in raw cheeses, and 5 incidents in pasteurized cheeses and milk.

It's important to realize that pasteurization is only going to kill pathogens introduced between the moment of milking and the moment of pasteurization.  Contamination of harmful pathogens can take place any moment after the period of pasteurization in which the milk no longer has it's natural protective bacteria and enzymes.  And this obviously does happen as shown by the foodborne illness databases that record multiple incidents of listeria in pasteurized products.

So my conclusion on the pregnancy literature is that it creates a false sense of security that pasteurized milk is key to your safety.  To have a consistent message, they should recommend heating (re-pasteurizing) your milk at home before consumption just like they do with hotdogs and deli meats because consuming factory pasteurized milk has no safety guarantee.   Regardless of raw or pasteurized, the occurrences of listeria are extremely rare based on the very trim results pulled from the online databases!  For us personally, there's not enough concern of listeria to cut raw milk from our diet and to miss out on all the nutritional benefits we receive from raw milk.  We've seen the benefits of a real food diet with our first child (no doctor visits for illness in her first two years) and wish to continue the positive results with our second.

We linked this post at Simple Lives Thursday at GNOWFGLINS and Fight Back Friday at the Food Renegade

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* Photo adapted from http://www.flickr.com/photos/sister_ray/3461372416/sizes/l/in/photostream

I made Erik's awesome gyros last week, but had all kinds of left over lamb.  My entire family was also fighting off some kind of cold so I wanted to make something extremely nutritious with homemade stock and pumped up with garlic-- two awesome weapons to have in your cold fighting arsenal.  I came up with this stew that I was quite happy with.

Lamb with Red Pepper and Rosemary Stew

12 servings

Ingredients:
Left over lamb meat (roughly 2 lbs)
4 Tbl butter
2 red bell peppers diced
4-6 cloves of garlic finely chopped
1 large onion diced to your liking
16 oz sliced baby portobello mushrooms
1/2 cup marsala cooking wine (if you want something less sweat try a dry white wine)
2 Tbls chopped fresh rosemary
2 potatoes cubed
4 cups homemade chicken stock + 2 cups water (beef broth might even be better, but chicken is what I had)
salt & pepper to taste

Melt the butter in a stock pot on medium heat.  Add the onion and cook until translucent (about 4 mins).  Add the garlic and cook another 2 mins.  Add the bell pepper, mushrooms, and cooking whine.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until the liquid of the wine has cooked off (about 10 mins).  These steps will bring excellent flavor to the peppers and mushrooms.

Pour in your stock.  I highly recommend using homemade stock.  It will be superior to any commercial stock, with an uber thick and gelatinous quality.  This is why I don't feel guilty for adding a little water, enough to cover everything that is in the pot. 

Last, add your rosemary, potatoes, and lamb meat.  Cook at least until the potatoes are soft, but it won't hurt anything to cook this at a low simmer for a couple hours.  A longer cooking time will just help the flavors blend more.

The lamb meat came out super tender in this stew, one of the things I'm most picky about with stew meat.  The flavors were very nice.  You can't go wrong with mint (the original cooking method of the lamb), rosemary, and garlic with lamb.  Next time, I would like to try roasting the red peppers instead of sauteing them with the mushrooms.

Enjoy!

We linked this post at Monday Mania at the Healthy Home Economist and Hearth &  Soul at a Moderate Life and Real Food Wednesday at Kelly the Kitchen Kop

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It’s been months in the offing, but here at the Lee family farm we finally have some farm animals!  On Monday we got seven ducks (mix of Khaki Campbell and Magpie breeds) and eight chickens (a cool heritage breed that lays dark brown eggs).  Tuesday afternoon the sheep arrived, along with a Sicilian donkey we’ve named Hamish (hay-mish).  Tomorrow I’ll be getting three Nubian goats to round out the menagerie.

The sheep are of a breed called Painted Desert, which is actually a mix of five other breeds.  These fine ladies came from Ed Smith, who has been breeding up a nice flock and agreed to let me buy six ewes and two ewe lambs from him.  Painted Desert sheep are hair sheep, meaning that they don’t require shearing because they shed their winter wool (you can see the remnants of it on the backs of some of them in the picture).  These sheep are primarily raised for meat.

Here are most of my chickens (they’re hard to get into a shot together).  These were generously given to me as a housewarming gift by Micah and Julie Janzow (of Janzow Farms) from an April hatching.  They are of a heritage breed that is known for laying chocolate brown eggs.   I have a little while yet before they actually start laying, which is a good thing because I need to build some nest boxes and a roost!

The ducks are another exciting addition to the farm ecosystem out here.  These are mixed breed ducks, composed of a cross of Khaki Campbell and Magpie breeds.  They’re still quite skittish in their new surroundings, and have yet to get farther from each other than you see in the picture.  I’m hoping to get some good egg layers out of this little flock, because duck eggs are a very special treat that’s hard to get without raising your own.

Finally, we have Hamish the donkey.  I deliberated for a while about whether I should get a donkey, and finally decided that it would be a good idea.  Since making that decision, I’ve thought of a dozen things that he’ll be useful for around the farm, and I’m very excited to have him here.  Hamish is a Sicilian donkey, which means his maximum size is comparable to the size of a pony.  He has a very sweet disposition (though he’s still pretty wary of me and his new home).  I’m looking forward to training him to pull a small cart and give the kids rides around the farm.

His primary role at the farm is defender of the sheep.  There are three common choices for livestock guardian animals — dogs, llamas, and donkeys.  Dogs require special food that has to be kept out of the reach of the sheep, and unless you get a proven guardian there is a fair amount of luck involved in getting a good one.  Llamas guard primarily by intimidation.  They will directly face and approach an outsider, which is typically sufficient to scare off most predators.  However, if the predator is not intimidated away, the llama has little else it can do to defend itself and the flock.  Donkeys have a powerful bite, strong neck, and sharp hooves.  From what I read, they are the most consistently effective livestock guardians, and they have the added benefit of being trainable to do other farm work such as pulling carts and providing transportation.  The final point in the case for donkeys is the fact that they eat the same food that the sheep eat, which simplifies their management significantly.  The information I read about guardian donkeys recommended getting a normal sized one, but I’m hoping that Hamish will be able to fend off any stray dogs or coyotes that come prowling despite his small stature.  If not, I’ll probably just add another donkey to the mix.

How do all these animals fit into my Permaculture design?

My farm is about 80% pasture currently, and my target is about 60%.  These animals and their progeny will be responsible for maintaining the health of that pasture and the tree and bush crops that I am adding to it.  The ways in which they do this are numerous, but I’ll touch on a few of the most important:

Grazing

Yes, grazing.  Many people don’t realize that prairie plants co-evolved with grazing animals so that their health and survival depend on the interactions with those animals.  When an animal bites a prairie plant, several things happen.  First, some of the biomass of the plant is removed.   When the leaves of the plant are bitten off, the plant must use some of its stored energy (stored in roots) to regrow so that it can harvest adequate sunlight to support reproduction.  When the energy in the roots is used up, the tips of the roots die back, contributing organic matter to the soil and simultaneously aerating it and improving its ability to absorb and retain water.  A properly managed grazing regimen takes advantage of this process to maximize the “pulsing” of the roots and improve the soil rapidly in the process.  By allowing the plants to grow until the point just before flowering and reproduction before being regrazed, you can ensure that the animals and soil reap the maximum benefit from the process.

Trampling

Trampling is also an important interaction between prairie plants and grazing animals.  Many plants in the native grasslands grow tall, rigid material that remains standing long after it has died.  With a healthy interaction with grazing animals, this dead material is trampled down and smashed into the ground where it serves as both mulch and compost.  This process helps the soil retain water and also provides organic matter.  If the dead matter is not trampled, however, it remains standing year after year and accumulates over time, eventually blocking light to the base of the plant where the growth happens.  This “self shading” can actually kill many plants, and leads to reduced diversity of pasture biomass and increased brittleness in the affected environment.

Manuring

This is the most obvious and well-known process by which animals contribute to pasture vitality.  In processing through the ruminant digestive system, materials in the plant matter that would normally not be readily accessible to plants are converted to a form that can be rapidly assimilated by the soil food web and put to use by the plants.  You can almost think of the animals as walking composters, except that they produce an even more potent product.  By grazing the animals on open pasture and controlling the amount of time they spend in each paddock, you ensure that the amount of manure and its distribution are such 0 that the manure can be completely absorbed by the soil (preventing runoff and the resultant problems in river and ocean ecosystems).

Pest Control

While the grazing animals are certainly critical to the health of the pasture and soil, the ducks and chickens also have an important role to play.  These birds are extremely effective pest devourers.  Without them, ticks, flies, and other pests can reach epidemic proportions quickly because of the richness of the environment.  The chickens and ducks eat these insects, often in the larval stage, and turn them into useful products like meat, eggs, and manure.  In addition, chickens are famous for scratching the surface of the soil.  Scratching helps seeds from surrounding plants achieve better soil contact and improves germination, thereby enriching the pasture further.

Serenity

The last large factor in my particular case is the ability of happy animals to bring relaxation and happiness to otherwise stressful life.  There is just something that is deeply satisfying about watching the mob of animals go about their business, fulfilling all of the above roles and an unimaginable number of others that we don’t have a clue about.  A sheep chewing its cud with eyes half closed, laying in the grass in the sun, is the picture of contentment.  It’s easy to get lost in all of the function stacking and technical parts of permaculture and end up neglecting the aesthetics.  The animals play an important role in helping to keep our eyes on the goal: a better life for all involved.

We linked this post at Simple Lives Thursday at GNOWFGLINS and Fight Back Friday at the Food Renegade

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