Losing Our Shirts, Keeping The Farm

New Soap, New Giveaway!

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Chase) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 20:13:00 +0000

Help me celebrate my newest soap creation---and win some for yourself!

My new Farmstead Deluxe Cream Soap is very special, not only because it is so very creamy and luxurious, but also because it is so pure and natural. It features:

Icelandic sheep's milk: hand milked (by me) from my own flock of Icelandic sheep
Guernsey cream: hand milked and hand skimmed (by me) from my own Guernsey cow
Home-rendered lard: hand cut, rendered, and filtered (by me) from my own pastured heritage breed pigs.

The only ingredients in the soap that were not raised and hand-processed right here on the farm are the lye and the pure essential oils that give the soap it's bright, crisp lemon-herb scent.

Would you like to win some of this luscious soap for yourself? If you enter my holiday giveaway, you'll have at least seven chances to win a variety pack of my hand made soaps, including:

1 bar of the Farmstead Deluxe Cream Soap
1 bar of the Amber Scented Sheep's Milk Soap
1 bar of the Unscented Pure Castile Soap

To enter, you must:

"Like" (or already have liked) our Ingleside Farm Facebook page
Get a friend to also "Like" our Facebook page.
Leave a comment here on this blog post telling me YOUR NAME as well as YOUR FRIEND'S NAME. (Make sure to include your email address so I can contact you if you win.)

You will get one entry for each friend who "Likes"our Facebook page thanks to your recommendation. There is no limit to how many entries you can earn this way. Your friend(s) will also be automatically entered in the giveaway.

Seven winners will be chosen randomly from all the entries, one winner per day, for the entire week of December 18 through 24. Winners will be notified by email and announced here on this blog.

Let the giveaway begin!

WINNERS:

December 18: Barbara Beard
December 19: Kristi Elmore
December 20: Christian Burchett
December 21: Judy Russi
December 22: Sarah Hart
December 23: Jenny Brown
December 24: Cyndi Howard

Waiting for Thistle's Calf

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Chase) — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 16:29:00 +0000

Now that Thistle is here and we've had a little chance to get acquainted, it's time to begin the next big adventure: waiting for her calf to be born.

All I know is that she is due to calve sometime this month. She was vet checked on August 17th to be 7 months pregnant. A cow's typical gestation is about 9 months. So now we wait and watch for changes in her udder and pelvic ligaments to help give us clues about when the calf may arrive.

I do see small changes in the udder, as it gets just a little bigger and fuller every day. But I suspect that it has quite a way to go yet, so I'm guessing that the calf won't be born until the 2nd half of this month.

For those of you who would like to wait and watch along with me, here are some photos to document what she looks like now. I'll post more later, so you can see the changes as she gets closer to calving.

Here is what her udder looked like on August 14:

And here she is from behind, also on August 14:

Now here is what she looks like today:

From behind (also today):

Another photo from today, taking advantage of a moment when she had lifted her leg to scratch, so you can see the whole udder:

And last but not least, a photo (taken today) of her pelvic ligaments around the base of her tail. When calving is imminent, these will loosen and relax to help enable the calf to pass through the birth canal.

So, what do you think? Any guesses when the calf will be born?

The Beauty of Icelandic Rams

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Chase) — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 17:53:00 +0000

A gallery of some of our gorgeous Icelandic rams over the years.

The Long, LONG Road to Cow Ownership

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Chase) — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 15:15:00 +0000

If you recall my previous post, you may think that I've had a cow for months now, and that cow ownership came about very easily, almost miraculously, for me. However, things don't always turn out the way we plan. In fact, it has taken me 7 months and way too many failed attempts to FINALLY get a cow of my own.

Here's how it went:

2/15/11: I enter the essay contest described in my previous post, to win a free Jersey heifer named Amethyst.

3/15/11: The contest ends. Although I am a finalist, I don't win the calf.

3/29/11: The person who hosted the contest contacts me, saying she's been thinking about my essay and wants to offer me a different Jersey heifer, named Rosie, for free. We delightedly accept, and plan to get her shipped here in mid May.

4/6/11: After numerous inquiries, I locate a shipper who is willing to transport Rosie from her home in Maryland to us. We start making arrangements for her arrival.

5/2/11: I mail Rosie's owners payment for her vet check and vaccinations. I mail payment and a signed contract to the shipper.

5/3/11: Rosie's owner contacts me and tells me that she can't bear to part with Rosie after all. She offers to give us a different heifer sometime during the summer or fall, instead. I have to contact the shipper and ask him to tear up the shipping contract and check when it arrives.

6/7/11: Rosie's owner contacts me again. She doesn't have a heifer to offer me at this time, but instead she offers to let me "borrow" one of her bred heifers. In exchange for taking care of her cow for an unspecified amount of time, I will be allowed to keep a heifer calf from the cow.

6/9/11: I email Rosie's owner with thanks, and turn down her offer. I'm not comfortable with the responsibility of keeping someone else's cow. I've raised enough animals to know that whatever your good intentions, sometimes things go wrong. If something went wrong with this cow, it would be bound to lead to hard feelings. Even if everything went perfectly, it would be emotionally difficult to bond with this cow for months or years, only to have her eventually go home to her real owner.

6/10/11: I decide to take charge of my own quest for a cow. Although I have always assumed that when I got a cow, it would be a Jersey, I now decide to at least explore the advantages and disadvantages of other breeds as well. I ask other farmers I know about the breeds they raise, particularly the heritage breeds. Based on what they tell me, I decide that Dexters and Milking Devons are not for me, but that Guernseys might be a possibility. I begin searching every Craig's List cow-for-sale ad within 600 miles (which, for the record, means checking 109 different Craig's Lists every day). I respond to dozens of ads. Almost no one responds.

6/18/11: I get a response from someone who has a Jersey/Guernsey heifer named Bonnie and a bred Guernsey cow named Lily for sale. In their photos, they look terrific.

6/25/11: Ken and I drive down to North Carolina to look at Bonnie and Lily. I like Lily very much, and we decide to buy her. She is due to calve very soon, so we decide to wait until after the calf is born, then her owners' father will ship her for us.

6/27/11: I start making arrangements for Lily's vet check.

6/28/11: I order several hundred dollars worth of cow supplies: feed, halters, milking supplies (that stuff ain't cheap!), everything I can think of that I will need to properly take care of Lily and her calf.

6/29/11: I send Lily's owner a deposit, although the sale is still conditional on Lily passing her vet check.

7/7/11: Although Lily was bred with sexed semen (which gives a 90% chance of a heifer calf), today she gives birth to a bull calf. Naturally we are disappointed, but even so, the idea of having our own home-grown beef is appealing. We eagerly wait for Lily and her calf to be shipped to us.

7/13/11: We've heard nothing from Lily's owners, so I email them to check when we should expect her to arrive.

7/19/11: Still no word. Ken phones Lily's owners, leaves a message.

7/20/11: Email from Lily's owners. Lily has mastitis. She also has still not had her vet check. I am concerned, but hope for Lily's prompt recovery.

7/22/11: Lily gets a vet visit to get a culture of the infected teat, to determine the best course of treatment.

7/24/11: Lily's owners write to tell me that her mastitis shows a little improvement, and that (at my request) they have banded the bull calf for us.

7/30/11: Lily's owners write to let me know that her mastitis is still not clearing up, and that it is likely that she will lose the infected quarter. I'm undecided on what to do. I really like Lily, but when I signed on to buy her, she was a 4-quartered cow with no history of mastitis and was supposedly expecting a heifer calf. Now she's a 3-quartered cow with persistent mastitis and a bull calf. I WANT her to be the right cow for me, but it's not looking good.

8/1/11: I'm still considering buying Lily, but even if it doesn't work out, I have now become enamored of the idea of getting a Guernsey instead of a Jersey. This is a surprise to me, since I've always thought I wanted a Jersey. I want a cow that's not too big, and for some reason, I had always pictured Guernseys as huge---basically blonde versions of Holsteins---but Lily is a lovely compact size, just right for me. Guernseys are no longer as common as they once were, and it appeals to me to raise a breed that is more rare, because I feel like I'm doing some good to help preserve an uncommon heritage breed. I also like what I hear from a friend who has a couple of Guernseys: They are exceptionally docile, and their milk is particularly high-yielding for making cheese. So, in addition to my daily combing of 109 Craig's List pages looking for Jerseys for sale, I now also start actively looking for Guernseys. I contact everyone I can find who might have a Guernsey for sale within 600 miles of here. Again, almost no one responds.

8/5/11: Although I still haven't decided 100% for certain that I definitely no longer want to buy Lily, Lily's owners refund my deposit. Her mastitis is not yet cleared up. The sale is off. On the bright side, I get a reply back from one of the other people I contacted. They have a bred Guernsey heifer named Cinnamon for sale in New York. Based on the photos and info they send me, she sounds perfect. After all these months of delays and frustrations, I am very impatient to get my cow, so I immediately offer to buy Cinnamon. Once again, I start making arrangements for vet checks and shippers.

8/6/11: We drive an hour into town to get a cashier's check to pay for Cinnamon, and we send it by certified mail.

8/7/11: Cinnamon's owner gets a shipping quote from a neighbor who is willing to ship Cinnamon for us. The quote is for $1,200, which is nearly what we're paying for the cow! I think this is crazy-high, so I contact the shipper who had originally agreed to transport Rosie (remember Rosie?) for us, asking for a quote.

8/9/11: I hear back from the shipper. He'll transport Cinnamon for $495. I say great, and email Cinnamon's owner to schedule the shipping date. We also hear back from one of the other Guernsey owners we contacted a week ago: She did have another prospective buyer for her Guernsey, but he decided to wait, so now her cow is available again. We say: Sorry, we just bought a different cow.

8/10/11: I get an email from Cinnamon's owner saying, "Sorry, due to unforeseen circumstances, Cinnamon won't be available for sale." What the hell???? By this point I'm starting to think I'm under some kind of anti-cow curse. How many cows do I have to arrange vet checks and shipping for before I can actually GET a real, live cow? This whole process feels like it's been going on forever, and I'm now so paranoid, it hardly seems worth it to even try to make any more arrangements, because whatever I do, they always fall through in the end. Once again, I contact the shipper, and tell him I have to cancel my contract.

8/11/11: I pull myself together enough to ask Ken to phone the other Guernsey owner we just turned down, and ask about the cow for me. The person is unable to send me any digital photos, but it turns out that this cow is just over the border into NC, only 2 hours from here. We make arrangements to drive down and see her on the weekend.

8/14/11: We drive to NC to see the cow. She's a lot bigger than Lily, but not so big that I consider it a drawback. I like the look of her. She's not 100% perfect: her front teats are long, while her back ones are short, so it will take a little extra effort to milk her. But other than that, she seems to have nice udder conformation, and she's in excellent condition. She's 6 years old, and is due to have a Guernsey calf in October. Because I've been checking all the Craig's List ads on a daily basis throughout this entire ordeal, I know that this is actually the only full-blood, adult Guernsey advertised for sale within 600 miles of my farm. I don't want to lose this opportunity. I write the owner a check on the spot. Paid in full. As an afterthought, I remember to ask the cow's name: Elsie.

8/15/11: Talking with my sister on the phone, I mention that I'm not thrilled with the cow having such a cliched name as Elsie. Everybody names their cow Elsie. That's too boring. My sister says I should name the cow "Thistle" because after all my failed attempts over the past few months, "This'll" be my cow. I love this! Elsie is officially renamed Thistle.

8/18/11: Thistle has her vet check, but it will take 2 weeks to get the results back. More waiting!

8/31/11: Yet AGAIN, I contact my shipper guy, and ask for a quote to transport my cow.

9/1/11: Thistle's test results come back good. We can proceed with the purchase. The shipper quotes me a good price and says he will transport the cow sometime between 9/6/11 and 9/16/11. Soon I'll have my cow!

9/6/11: I send payment to the shipper and sign yet another shipping contract. I also send payment to Thistle's owner paying for the vet check.

9/10/11: I hear from the shipper. He says he will deliver the cow late this week. I'm so excited!

9/15/11: I haven't heard anything from the shipper. I contact him to ask when we should expect him to bring the cow.

9/16/11: Still no word from the shipper, although I try again to contact him. Even more alarming, we speak to the cow owner and discover that the shipper has not even contacted her at all, not to get directions on where to pick up the cow and not to find out when she will be available for him to come. Since this is the last date in the timeframe he quoted for delivery and he's still clearly made no arrangements to pick up my cow, I start to get anxious again, paranoid that yet another cow sale is going to fall through at the last minute. Through the cow owner, we find another shipper who can transport Thistle, possibly around 9/21 or 9/22. We wait for confirmation.

9/17/11: I hear from the original shipper. He hopes to do the delivery within the next day or two, if we still want him to. At this point I don't care who delivers the cow, I just want her HERE!

9/18/11: Ken speaks to the original shipper on the phone and gets confirmation that he will definitely deliver the cow on 9/19 or 9/20. We contact the cow owner to let her know. We tell her if the shipper doesn't come as scheduled, then we'll pay her friend to deliver Thistle on 9/21 or 9/22.

9/19/11: Late afternoon, after 7 months of trying and multiple failed attempts, MY COW FINALLY ARRIVES. Hurray! I'm a cow owner!

And here, at last, is the lovely lady herself, my Guernsey cow, Thistle:

Now we have about a month to get acquainted before she is due to have her calf, and I have to learn to milk her. Wish me luck!

We're Getting a Cow!

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Chase) — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 13:42:00 +0000

I have some amazing news today. We're getting a gorgeous Jersey heifer. For FREE!

How did such an incredible opportunity occur? Well, back in February, I found out about a dairy farming couple who were holding an essay contest to give away a Jersey calf. I entered, and ended up being one of the finalists, but I didn't win.

But, surprisingly, that wasn't the end of the story. Yesterday I got an email from the nice folks who hosted the contest. They said that they had been thinking about me and my essay, and that they wanted to offer me a different Jersey heifer. I couldn't believe it!

Of course I accepted their generous offer. I've been a long time trying to turn this run-down old place back into a farm again. I have sheep, pigs, and chickens... but somehow a farm just doesn't seem like a "real" farm to me without a nice little family milk cow. This heifer will make my farm complete.

Her name is Rosie. She's only a few months old, so I'll have plenty of time to get used to cow ownership before it's time for her to be bred, give birth, and start being milked. I have lots to learn in the meantime!

Because lambing season is about to start next week, we're going to delay bringing Rosie here until mid-May. After lambing is over, I'll have much more time to spend getting acquainted with our new girl, and helping her settle into her new home.

As you can imagine, I'm VERY excited!

Here's a picture of what Rosie looked like a couple of months ago:

You can see what her mom looks like here (first two photos on that page).

Oh... And if you're thinking about cow ownership yourself? That website has some excellent resources and information for new and prospective dairy cow owners. Check it out!

Building Nest Boxes

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Chase) — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 17:23:00 +0000

Ever since we moved the chickens into the big old chicken house, they've been using makeshift crates as nest boxes to lay their eggs in. Over the weekend, Ken changed all that by building them a whole new nest box complex, completely out of surplus materials we already had lying around.

Here's what the finished project looks like:

Here's the first stage, building the base:

Next, with the lower dividers and base for the second level in place:

Now both levels are complete, they just need to be filled with nesting material.

This is way more next boxes than we need for our current number of chickens, but it's a good number for the maximum number of chickens we're ever likely to want to keep in this chicken house. Better too many nests than too few!

The chickens weren't too thrilled with having someone in their house doing carpentry for two days, and they were a little skeptical at first of the new Apartment Complex O' Eggs. But they've been curiously examining the new structure all day, and based on the two eggs I just found, nicely placed in one of the nests, I guess they've decided that they approve.

And We Have a Winner!

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Chase) — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 16:24:00 +0000

The winner of today's Sheep's Milk Soap Balls Giveaway is:

Andrea? Or Morgan? You didn't leave me a way to contact you directly, but back on January 16th you entered the giveaway by leaving the following comment:

ANDREA said...

: I love the idea of giving away extras. I have a small farm in Tacoma and I give away my extra eggs. People try to give me money, but I am raising chickens for fun and it makes me smile to give something away. Maybe some day I will sell my eggs. Keep up the good work. I also follow you on Facebook. Morgan

So, Andrea/Morgan, if you're out there, email me at inglesidesheep@aol.com and give me your contact info so I know where to send your soap!

Thanks for playing, everybody. Don't forget, there will be another giveaway when our Facebook page reaches 1,200 fans.

Help Me Name My Lambs

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Chase) — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 15:24:00 +0000

Everyone did such a great job suggesting "X" lamb names for my flock last year, I'm asking for your suggestions again this year.

For 2011, all the lamb names need to start with the letter "Y". I need boy names, girl names, twin names, "real" names, made up names. I'm expecting somewhere in the vicinity of about 40 lambs. So send me whatever names you've got!

Just post your name suggestions in a comment right here. As the lambs are born, I'll post photos and announce what names I've picked, so stay tuned over the next month or two to see if I used the name(s) you suggested.

Thanks!

Lambing Season Is Fast Approaching

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Chase) — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 13:29:00 +0000

Lambing season will be starting here sometime next week. Can you tell? Check out the big bellies on all these moms-to-be!

The Shampoo Soap Experiement

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Chase) — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 12:53:00 +0000

Shortly after I started learning to make soap, I started noticing other soap makers selling "shampoo bars." My hair is waist length, thick, curly and dry---not the easiest type of hair to manage. Over the years I've tried many different products on it, but it had never occurred to me that you could use bar soap on your hair.

Not just any bar soap, of course. Handmade bar soap, that was free of all those nasty, drying chemicals that seem to be universally added into every commercial brand of soap and shampoo. I'd already seen the difference using my own handmade soap makes in giving me softer, smoother skin. So I decided to be my own "guinea pig" and try shampooing my hair with it.

For the experiment, I decided to use my Pure Castile Soap because it's the purest, simplest soap there is, made of just olive oil, water, and lye. A few strokes of the bar across my wet hair, and I had enough to work up a nice gentle lather. It worked great! Why had I assumed that shampoo had to be liquid?

The thing I noticed immediately was that my hair felt clean and sleek right away. The soap rinsed out quickly and easily (as with most soap, it does sting if you get it in your eye, so be careful!). When I use commercial shampoos, I usually end up using a large handful of conditioner just to be able to get the comb through my hair afterward, but it seemed a shame to apply commercial conditioner after washing my hair with natural soap, so I decided to try skipping the conditioner entirely. To my surprise, that worked okay too!

Since then, I've been using my Castile soap every time I wash my hair. Sometimes I put a little conditioner on, sometimes I don't. Either way, my hair ends up feeling softer than usual, and I have noticed a striking decrease in the amount of hair breakage. I would estimate that I have less than half the amount of breakage than I had when using commercial shampoo. That was a complete surprise!

If you'd like to try your own shampoo experiment, you can find my homemade Castile soap in my Etsy shop.

Another Soap Ball Giveaway

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Chase) — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 12:35:00 +0000

Hey! While I wasn't looking, we reached another of the milestones I set out to trigger another giveaway: This blog now has 100 followers. Thanks everybody!

I'm going to give everybody until noon on Monday to enter to win, then I'm going to randomly pick a winner. If you've already entered to win before, you don't need to enter again. If you do need to enter, go to this blog post and leave a comment.

Don't forget: I'll do another giveaway when my farm's Facebook page reaches 1,200 fans. That's the place to hear all the daily details about what's going on here at Ingleside Farm, so join us, and recommend us to your friends too!

Building Raised Garden Beds (Part 1)

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Chase) — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 03:35:00 +0000

For the past couple of years, we've been talking about finally putting a garden in. This year, we're already off to a late start, considering how much there is left to do. But we're making definite progress, thanks to Ken diligently putting in some hard work these past couple of weekends, starting to build our raised beds.

When trying to decide what to build the beds out of, I priced a lot of different materials and was surprised to find that cement blocks are cheaper than lumber. Plus, they're not going to rot, and if we change our mind about where we want the beds at some point in the future, they can be disassembled and moved.

But to look good, they have to be put in level. That's where Ken's hard work comes in. He's been digging the first layer of blocks in level, even stair-stepping them down the length of the beds to compensate for our sloped ground.

Eventually, the beds will be two blocks high, plus a layer of solid cap-blocks. I'm sure we won't get all the beds we want built this year, but we can always add more as time goes on.

Here's an example of one row before being leveled and how much better the level row below it looks:

Leeloo likes work. She could watch it all day!

Bacon Linguine Fiesta Recipe

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Chase) — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 01:33:00 +0000

We used our home-cured bacon in a recipe for the first time tonight, and it was amazing! We used the bacon from batch #1, which turned out a bit too strongly flavored to be eaten on its own, but what a fantastic addition to a pasta dish! Just that small amount of bacon added flavor to the whole dish.

This is NOTHING like store bought bacon. The difference is unbelievable.

Here's the recipe we made up. We're calling it "Bacon Linguine Fiesta." It makes a big batch, so there's plenty for company or for leftovers.

1 lb. home cured bacon (from batch #1), diced
1 green bell pepper
1 red bell pepper
1 yellow bell pepper
1 purple onion
1 white onion
7 medium tomatoes
12 oz. sliced mushrooms
1 lb. linguine
Shredded cheese to garnish

Cook the linguine according to the directions on the package.

In a large frying pan, cook the bacon gently at a low temperature, stirring constantly until it begins to release some of its fat into the pan.

Add the mushrooms to the bacon and continue to cook, stirring frequently, until the mushrooms are done.

Remove the bacon and mushrooms from the pan, allowing any excess pan drippings to drain back into the pan. Add the bacon and mushrooms to the cooked, drained pasta and toss thoroughly to mingle the flavors.

In the remaining bacon fat in the pan, cook the remaining vegetables.

Serve the pasta on plates, topped with a generous helping of veggies.

Garnish with a sprinkle of shredded cheese.

Making Guanciale

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Chase) — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 18:25:00 +0000

I'm not Italian, I don't consider myself a gourmet cook, and until a few weeks ago I wouldn't have been able to pronounce "guanciale" much less known what the word meant. So why am I suddenly making 17+ lbs. of the stuff?

We butchered a pig recently, and I'm suddenly faced with the task of learning how to turn all the different piggy parts into different kinds of food. I've been rendering lard, curing bacon, cooking pork chops and eating sausage. But why guanciale?

Guanciale is the Italian name for pig's jowls that have been cured and dried. Supposedly, it's a bit similar to bacon or pancetta. I wouldn't know. I've never tasted the stuff.

But wait... jowls, you say? Who does jowls better than a Guinea hog? And who had bigger jowls than the obese hog we just butchered? I mean really---look at the size of those things!

I had read that the jowls can be cured just like bacon, but frankly, when I realized that this hog produced 54 lbs. of ACTUAL bacon meat, I figured why make more? If the jowls are considered to be a delicacy when prepared this other way, then why not take advantage of the fact that I now had 17.5 lbs. of jowl meat?

So, as usual, it was off to the internet to do research! Here are some of the sites I looked at:

Guanciale
Guanciale: Italian-Style Jowl Bacon
Home Cure Guanciale Is Finished
The Art of the Cure
Bucatini all' Amatriciana, Making Guanciale, and Charcutepalooza!
Making Guanciale
Homemade Guanciale

Most of the recipes I found online called for 2 lbs. of jowl meat. I had more than 17 lbs., so obviously I had to recalculate the ingredients.

Most of the recipes I found suggested that you trim the jowls into neat rectangles and make a point to cut out the salivary glands. Because I was doing this on the day we got the whole pig back from the butcher, I was also curing 54 lbs. of bacon, rendering 22 lbs. of leaf lard, and finding room in the freezer for the other 200 lbs. of meat and backfat. So trimming the jowls really didn't seem like a priority.

I washed the jowls thoroughly and cut them into chunks that would fit into the containers I had.

Then I rubbed them all over with the cure, closed the containers, and put them in the refrigerator.

Here's the recipe I used:

17.5 lbs. fresh Guinea hog jowl meat.
4.5 cups coarse kosher salt
4.5 cups sugar
1/4 cup whole black peppercorns
20 bay leaves, crushed.
1 heaping TB thyme (ground)

They stayed in the refrigerator for 9 days. On day 3, I turned them over and rubbed a little more salt on them, but other than that I left them alone.

On day 9, I took the chunks of cured meat out of their containers, rinsed them thoroughly, and dried them with paper towels.

I cut a length of butcher's twine (which I happened to already have on hand because it's what I used to make a new drive band for my spinning wheel a few weeks ago). Then I poked a hole through the thick part of the meat with a skewer, and used the skewer to push the string through the hole.

After curing, the meat is supposed to hang in a cool, dark place for a month. Our old house is drafty and hard to heat, so in the winter we close off a few of the rooms and don't bother heating them. We decided that hanging the meat in our unheated dining room sounded like a more appetizing idea than hanging them down in our tiny, dank, dirt-floored basement.

We happened to have a portable rack for hanging clothes on, so I hung the chunks of meat from that. I put a lid from a large plastic storage bin underneath to catch any drippings. And I closed the drapes to keep the room as dark as possible.

Now the task is to wait for a month and see what happens!

Curing Bacon

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Chase) — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 23:57:00 +0000

Mmm... bacon! What could be better? How about home-cured, nitrite-free bacon from a pastured, heritage breed of hog?

The extra-large Guinea hog we just butchered provided us with a whopping 54 lbs. of bacon. Our butcher doesn't include curing the bacon or hams as part of his service, so I turned to the internet to teach me how to cure it myself.

After studying lots of pages like these:
Home Cured Bacon
How to Make, Cure, and Smoke Homemade Bacon
Home Cured Bacon Recipe
Curing Your Own Bacon
Making Your Own Bacon: It's Easy and Satisfying

I finally felt ready to try it on my own. I didn't use any of the recipes I found online exactly, but adapted them to suit my preferences and my available ingredients. In particular, I decided to skip the nitrates and nitrites by avoiding the pink curing salts called for in most recipes. Because of that, my bacon won't be pink like store bought bacon, but since those additives have questionable food safety, I think it's worth it to avoid adding them if I don't have to.

I started with 2 BIG slabs of fresh bacon meat, each weighing about 27 lbs.

I had purchased a supply of large, flat Rubbermaid containers to contain the bacon while it was curing, so the first thing I had to do was cut the big slabs of meat into smaller slabs that would fit in my containers. You can also use large Ziploc bags, but since I had so much bacon to cure at once I figured I'd use containers that stack easily without sliding off.

Here are my smaller slabs, cut up and ready to be cured.

Next, I prepared the curing mixes. I used two different recipes---one more complex and one more simple---just in case I ended up not liking one of them. I didn't want to end up with 54 lbs. of badly flavored bacon!

Bacon Recipe #1

27 lbs. fresh Guinea hog bacon meat
2.5 cups coarse kosher salt
1 cup smoked sea salt flakes
1.25 cups brown sugar
1.25 cups maple syrup
1.25 cups apple cider
1 cup juniper berries
1/2 cup coarse black pepper
40 bay leaves, crumbled
0.25 cups minced garlic
3 TB thyme
3 TB nutmeg

Bacon Recipe #2

27 lbs. fresh Guinea hog bacon meat
4 cups coarse kosher salt
2 cups brown sugar
1.5 cups maple syrup
0.25 cup whole black peppercorns
1 TB thyme

Here's a photo of Recipe #1, all ready to use:

I rubbed this mixture liberally all over the slabs of meat and placed them in their containers.

I put the covers on the containers and stacked them in the refrigerator, where they stayed for 8 days. About halfway through the curing process, I took the meat out of each container, turned it over, and rubbed a little extra salt on, just to be on the safe side. At that point, the meat was already releasing its liquids and starting to get firm and fragrant with the spices.

On day 8, I took the meat out of the refrigerator, rinsed each piece thoroughly with water, and patted it dry with paper towels. It had quite a firm texture by then.

Here's how the meat looked when it came out of the fridge:

Here's what the top (fatty) side of the meat looked like after it was rinsed:

And here's what the bottom side looked like after it was rinsed:

I preheated the oven to 200 degrees F, put a cookie sheet on the lowest oven rack to catch any drippings, and arranged the slabs of cured bacon on the upper two racks. I roasted them like that for about 2.5 hours, or until the internal temperature of the meat reached 150 degrees.

Because I had such a large quantity of bacon, I could only fit a portion of it in the oven at a time, so the roasting stage had to be repeated several times to give each slab of meat a turn.

After the roasting, the slabs of bacon rested in a pan on the counter top until they returned to room temperature.

Then with a sharp knife, I cut them into slices as thin as I could. This would be easier with a meat slicer, but a knife will do, if you don't mind having your bacon thick cut.

The hog this bacon is from was extremely obese. The fat ratio in this bacon is very, very high, but it's still tasty.

Here's what the sliced bacon looked like before frying:

And here is the end result:

The taste test results?

Recipe #1 tastes amazing, but VERY strongly flavored and very salty. I had originally planned for that amount of cure to be spread over twice as much meat, but it just wouldn't spread that far (plus I was nervous about having too little salt and the meat rotting instead of curing. Next time I'll trust the process better, and use less cure for the amount of meat). I tried soaking one slab of this bacon in several changes of water for an hour to see if that would decrease the saltiness, but it didn't help all that much. This batch of bacon will be best served in small doses where its big flavor can have the greatest impact without being overwhelming. I'm looking forward to it in pasta, on salads, in soups.

Recipe #2 is milder and has a flavor more like breakfast type bacon. You can taste the maple syrup, but not too strongly.

Both batches of bacon taste fantastic, and the Guinea hog meat has a richness of flavor and texture that bursts in your mouth like no store bought bacon ever has. Because of that exceptional richness and the exceptionally high percentage of fat in the meat from this particular pig, I find that I am fully satiated by smaller portion sizes than usual.

After the taste tests, I sliced all the bacon into slices, arranged the slices in Ziploc bags, and stored them in the freezer. That's a lot of bacon!

Guinea Hog Pork Chops

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Chase) — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Tonight we tried some Guinea hog pork chops for the first time. I dredged them with seasoned flour, pan-fried them in home-rendered lard, and served them with potatoes, pan gravy, and asparagus.

The meat, as expected, was excellent. The real surprise, though, was what an enormous difference it made to fry the chops in lard instead of our usual olive oil. The chops were tender inside with a delicious crispy surface, and even after I fried 3 pan-fulls of chops in succession, there was absolutely no scorching or sticking to the pan, which made it easy to make delicious pan gravy in a matter of moments.

Now that I've tried it, I would definitely recommend frying in lard!

Here's what the chops looked like before they were cooked:

These chops were from a hog that was very obese. I'm showing this photo as a reminder to people: Don't overfeed your Guinea hogs! They are easy keepers and gain weight very easily. If you feed more than is necessary, you're not making more meat, you're just making more fat. I like a bit of marbling in my meat, but that marbling doesn't need to be in big 2.5" wide swaths like in that bottom right chop.

New Chickens

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Chase) — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 17:22:00 +0000

We got 10 new Buff Orpington chickens from Gregory Poultry today. They are lovely 5-month old pullets, almost old enough to start laying.

Add those to the 4 Blue Orpingtons and Blue/Buff Orpingtons we already had, and there's obviously no way we could house them all in the little portable coop Ken built last summer. So we did a quick patch-up job on the run-down old chicken house that was here when we bought the farm. I think that the chicken house is at least 100 years old, and it probably hasn't had any chickens in it in about 40 years. It needs a serious facelift and some repairs, but it's dry, spacious, and conveniently located, so it will do fine for now, until we can give it a makeover later in the summer.

I haven't taken any new photos of my pretty chickens for quite a while now. The original 4 have grown up quite a bit since then. The rooster, Heathcliff, is a magnificent big fellow now.

All the chickens are now sharing the spacious old hen house and getting acquainted with each other. It seemed a perfect time for a little photo shoot!

Rendering Lard

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Chase) — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 20:05:00 +0000

As I noted in my previous post, the overweight hog we sent to the butcher recently produced---in addition to a freezer full of pork---more than 75 lbs. of fat, which I have been rendering into lard.

The first question people ask when I tell them I've been rendering lard all week, is: "Why? No health-conscious person cooks with lard anymore, do they?" In fact, that's not the case at all. As described in these various articles, lard is a lot healthier than most people think:

Lard: The New Health Food
Lard Has Clearly Won the Health Debate
Praise the Lard
Lard: After Decades of Trying, Its Moment Is Finally Here
Trans Fatty Acids: Why Lard May Be Better for You Than Vegetable Oil

Of course, even with the unexpected benefits, I'm not planning to eat 75 lbs. of lard this year! Some of it I'll save for cooking, but the majority I'll make into soap.

Lard soap is mild and gentle to the skin, and it will be great to have some "zero mile" fat for soap making (as opposed to the olive oil I use to make my sheep's milk soap, which is imported from thousands of miles away). I'll still keep making the olive oil based soap, since it's been very popular, but the natural farmstead lard soap will give buyers an additional option. Choice is good!

Anyway, since a lot of people have never rendered lard before, I figured I'd show the process, step by step, here on the blog. Rendering isn't difficult, but it does take a while, so you have to be patient.

Since I had such a huge amount of lard to render, I had to do it one portion at a time over several days, according to how much would fit into my largest stock pot.

Our hog was very large and very obese, so he produced 22.5 lbs. of leaf lard and 53 lbs. of back fat lard. The leaf lard is the internal fat from around the pig's kidneys. It is considered the highest quality lard, since it's said to have a finer texture and a more neutral flavor than the back fat lard.

Here is one of the slabs of leaf lard from our pig. We got two slabs this size.

The slabs of back fat were even larger. Folded over themselves and stacked together, they filled an entire banana box!

The first step was to cut off chunks of fat that were a more convenient size to handle. Here's a chunk of back fat, ready for me to start processing.

To get a neutral (not so porky) flavor to my lard, I trimmed off all the little scraps of meat. Then I cut the fat into little chunks, maybe about 1" square.

The discarded scraps of fatty meat made a VERY popular snack for my chickens!

To begin the rendering process, I put a couple of inches of water in the bottom of my largest stock pot, then filled the rest of the pot with cut-up chunks of fat. I heated the pot on the stove top until it started to boil, then reduced the heat to a low simmer.

The water in the bottom of the pot helps prevent the fat from sticking before it has a chance to melt. By the time the rendering is finished, all the water will have evaporated away.

You do need to stir the pot (less in the beginning and more frequently toward the end), to prevent the solids from sticking to the bottom and burning on.

Almost immediately after the boiling started, the fat changed color and began to get translucent.

Little by little, the chunks of fat started to release quantities of melted liquid lard.

For a while, the liquid in the pot was a milky whitish color. It was at this point that the pot began to need more frequent stirring, because the solids started sinking to the bottom.

Eventually, the liquid turned clear.

The smaller solids sank to the bottom. It was hard to keep them from sticking to the bottom of the pot! Meanwhile, the larger solids puffed up and floated on the top of the liquid.

When the floating bits turn golden brown and slightly crispy, the rendering process is done. For a pot this size, it took about 6 hours.

Next, I strained the rendered lard through a strainer lined with several layers of cheesecloth. The solids that are left in the strainer are "cracklings." You can salt them and eat them as a snack, cook them in cornbread, sprinkle them on salads, or use them anywhere else you might use bacon bits (they don't taste like bacon, though. They taste---not surprisingly---like pork rinds).

The cracklings from the backfat came out chunky, as shown in the picture above. The cracklings from the leaf lard came out in smaller crumbs.

I'm storing my cracklings in ziploc bags in the freezer until I'm ready to use them.

The rendered, filtered lard itself I poured into mason jars. I had originally thought I would pour the lard into molds and store it in blocks like pounds of butter. But unlike the partially hydrogenated lard you can buy in blocks from the grocery store, this lard is still liquid at room temperature, so jars turned out to be essential!

When the lard was first poured into the jars, it was a clear, pale, golden color.

By morning, it had cooled down and turned pure white, but it was still liquid. It does turn into a solid if you put it in the refrigerator or freezer.

I'm going to store my lard in the freezer until I need it. Frozen, it should keep almost indefinitely.

From the 75 lbs. of fat I got from my pig, I rendered about 37 quarts of lard. That will make an awful lot of pie crusts and and awful lot of bars of soap!

From Pig to Pork: The Story of Hagrid

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Chase) — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 16:56:00 +0000

Last month, I was contacted by a woman who was selling all her Guinea hogs. She wanted to know if I would like to buy two adult breeding sows and an adult boar. Since I'd already purchased two new sows and a new boar (Rosemary, Thyme, and Basil) in January, I didn't really NEED any new pigs at all. But the woman was willing to sell hers for a bargain price, so I said okay.

When I saw the pigs for the first time I was stunned by their appearance. All three were very obese (not an uncommon problem in Guinea hogs, since they are such easy keepers). But beyond that, the boar and one of the sows were easily 50% larger than any of my other pigs. I hadn't expected that!

For comparison, the photo below shows the new boar on the left, and the smaller (NORMAL sized) sow on the right:

The Guinea hog breed description states that adult Guinea hogs weigh between 150-300 lbs. The main appeals of the breed are its small, manageable size and docile nature. I estimated that the larger of the new sows weighed about 400 lbs. and the boar was closer to 500 lbs.

You can see by these photos how obese the boar was:

Then there was the question of temperament. The two sows, Aponi and Asashi, were mild-mannered enough, but the boar, Hagrid, was a whole different story. We've hauled pigs in the back of our Subaru Outback before. They all pretty much just lay down and went to sleep until the journey was over. By contrast, Hagrid spent the entire trip hyperventilating and trying to rip and chew his way out of the car. He did a lot of damage and got himself so worked up, when we finally got him home and unloaded him, all he could do was stagger to the middle of the paddock and collapse, panting. I was seriously concerned that he might have a heart attack and die right there!

After his ordeal, he just wanted to sleep for a few days. Mindful that he had experienced severe stress, I mostly let him alone to rest, but went out periodically to check on him and speak to him kindly. Because of his unusually erratic behavior, I was cautious around him, but I managed to pet him a little bit, hoping to let him know he was in a good place. He didn't seem to enjoy it much, but I figured he just needed time to settle in, and then he'd be happy and friendly like all my other Guinea hogs have always been. (Although, for the record, every other Guinea hog we'd ever bought settled in immediately with surprisingly NO sign of anxiety at the new surroundings).

Unfortunately, as Hagrid got more comfortable with his surroundings, his attitude didn't improve. Instead, it worsened. A few times, he came at me with a little more force and attitude than I felt comfortable with. I scolded him and gave him a swat, and he immediately backed off. "Oh," I thought. "He just hasn't been socialized to be polite around people. He'll do better once he learns what's expected of him."

But that was just the beginning. A few days later, there came a day when he charged at me with a full-on threat. When I scolded him, instead of backing off and saying, "Oops! Sorry, boss," he puffed himself up and said, "Yeah? Bring it on, bitch! I'm bigger than you, and I can rip your legs off!" I had to throw rocks at his head to give myself a safe retreat from his paddock.

That was the last straw. Guinea hogs are a docile breed, with "calm," "friendly," and "good with children" written right into the breed description. Not one of my other Guinea hogs had ever shown even the slightest inclination towards aggression. I've brought visitors and their children into my boar paddock so they could pet the mature boars. Most of them flop right over on their sides hoping for a belly rub!

In the days that followed, Hagrid's aggression continued. I couldn't even walk within 10 feet of his paddock without him charging at the fence, trying to get through it to attack me. His posture showed the same arched body, angrily swiveled ears, and tensely curled snout that are typical when a boar is about to do battle with a rival. His tusks were at least 3 inches long and he was fully prepared to use them.

I was not unsympathetic. For whatever reason---stress, too much testosterone, imbalance of brain chemicals, lack of socialization to humans, whatever---Hagrid was unable to react to me the way a normal Guinea hog reacts to people, and was instead thinking of me as another hog that he must challenge for dominance. Unfortunately, in the pig world, that means doing bloody physical battle.

A week passed, and Hagrid's attitude didn't change. There was no question, I couldn't keep a pig like that here on the farm. He would be a constant threat to any person or animal who encountered him. So we made an appointment for him with our local butcher.

After the rather nerve-wracking (but ultimately uneventful) process of loading Hagrid back into the car, we hauled him the 10 minutes across town to the slaughterhouse. As sad as it was that it had to end this way, when we got back to the farm I was amazed at how relieved I felt that it was done. Now I could cross the barnyard, doing my chores normally, without the anxiety of an angry 500 lb. hog charging at the fence every time I walked by. The whole atmosphere of the farm changed back to its normal, serene state. Until he was gone, I hadn't fully realized how much anxiety Hagrid had been causing me.

Some of the people who heard this story thought that I would be upset with the woman who sold me the hogs. But that's not the case at all. Hagrid's bad attitude wasn't her fault. And ultimately, I still got a very good bargain, even if it wasn't quite the one I thought I was getting. I got two nice new sows, who after some intensive dieting ought to do very well here. Plus, because Hagrid went to the butcher, the sweet, friendly young boar that we had been raising to put in our freezer gets to go back on the sales list and perhaps go father some piglets on someone else's farm someday. So it all worked out just fine for the overall good of the farm.

We've been raising Guinea hogs for a year now, and it's exciting to finally have a freezer full of meat to try. I'll now be able to talk more knowledgeably about the unique qualities of the meat and give better advice to buyers who want to raise Guinea hogs of their own.

I now have more than 50 lbs. of bacon curing in the refrigerator (a subject for a future blog post) and I've been rendering lard all week. I should finish the last batch of lard today, and will post photos of the process very soon.

For the record, the following list shows the meat yield that Hagrid provided (Bear in mind that he was an abnormally large and abnormally obese, fully adult Guinea hog. Most Guinea hogs will provide much smaller amounts):

20 lbs. pork chops
19 lbs. ham steaks
18.5. lbs. hams
9 lbs. Boston butt
12.5 lbs. Picnic ham
8 lbs. spare ribs
12 lbs. tenderloin
17.5 lbs. shoulder steaks
6.5 lbs. soup bones
54 lbs. bacon
17.5 lbs. jowls
30 lbs. sausage
6 lbs. liver
2.5 lbs. kidneys
5 lbs. mystery packages (labels got smeared so we can't read them).

22.5 lbs. leaf lard
53 lbs. back fat lard

Total: 238 lbs. meat and 75.5 lbs. lard.

Thanks to Hagrid's ultimate contribution, a few days ago, we had our first taste of Guinea hog: A true farm breakfast with delicious sausage patties and eggs from our own hens. Our freezer is full and we look forward to many more delicious meals over the coming year.

Thank you, Hagrid! We honor you for your life and your sacrifice.

Happy Valentine's Day!

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Chase) — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 18:33:00 +0000

Sinfully Delicious: How to Make Eccles Cakes

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Chase) — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 18:59:00 +0000

Every year, around my birthday, Ken makes my favorite treat: Eccles cakes, a pastry so irresistibly delicious, they were once illegal.

"Eccles Cakes are a Lancashire specialty, named after the town of the same name. They were very popular in the seventeenth century until they were banned (along with mince pies) in 1650 by the Puritans, who thought they were sinfully rich. Oliver Cromwell went so far as to pass an act of Parliament authorizing imprisonment of any person found guilty of eating a currant pie." Great British Cooking: A Well Kept Secret, by Jane Garmey

I visited England for the first time back in the mid-1980s, and it was there I tasted Eccles cakes for the first time. I liked them so much, I sought out and bought a British cookbook, just so that I could have the recipe. I wasn't much of a cook in my younger days, so life went on and the recipe went untried for years, but I never forgot how delicious they were. Eventually, 20 years later, I convinced my husband to make a batch for me as a treat.

Could the reality of these simple little pastries stand up to 20 years of imagining? After remembering them fondly for so many years, would I be disappointed when I got to taste one again?

No indeed! The first bite of an Eccles cake, warm from the oven is always even more meltingly, overpoweringly delicious than I remember from the last time I had them.

So I decided to post directions on how to make them here on my blog. Everyone should be entitled to taste Eccles cakes as often as they like!

Eccles Cakes Recipe
(makes about 3 dozen)

Ingredients:

1 package of ready-to-bake frozen puff pastry sheets (17.3 oz, 2 sheets per box)

1 box of dried currants (10 oz.)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup butter

1 1/2 tsp allspice

1 tsp nutmeg

Milk (approx 1/2 cup)

Granulated sugar (approx. 1/4 cup)

Directions:

1. Remove the puff pastries from the package and lay them out flat to thaw.

2. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees (F).

3. Combine the currants, brown sugar, butter, allspice, and nutmeg in a small saucepan.

4. Heat gently, stirring occasionally until the butter is melted and the ingredients are well mixed. Remove from heat.

4. On a smooth floured surface, roll out the puff pastry dough with a floured rolling pin until it is about 12" x 16".

5. Cut the rolled pastry dough into 4-inch rounds. We use a small custard ramekin as a guide. When you have cut all the circles you can, collect the remaining scraps of dough, knead them back together, then roll them out again and cut the rest of your circles.

6. Place one spoonful of the currant mix into the center of each pastry round. Brush the edges of the pastry with a little milk to moisten.

7. Fold the edges of the pastry up around the currant mixture and press into place.

8. Turn the little bundle over to hide the seam. Arrange the cakes on a cookie sheet lined with baking parchment. Cut 2-3small slits in the top of each pasty to make a place for the steam to escape. Brush the tops with milk and sprinkle with granulated sugar.

9. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm.

Building a Livestock Loading Ramp

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Chase) — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 18:24:00 +0000

Today Ken built a ramp for loading and unloading livestock into our car.

One of the advantages of raising small breeds of livestock: When we transport our sheep or pigs, we almost always haul them in the back of our Subaru Outback. We spread a tarp out, then cover it with a layer of hay bedding. It doesn't matter if it's cold and rainy out or 106 degrees; inside the car, the animals get the same comfortable temperature as the human passengers.

With the sheep, we usually just grab them and boost them in, but that's easier said than done with pigs. And also, it's not always easy for the animals to hop OUT of the car at the end of the ride. So we decided that we needed to build a ramp to make loading and unloading easier for all of us.

First, Ken made the basic framework out of 2x4s that I salvaged from a section of old broken down fence.

The bottom end is cut at a slope so it can rest flat on the ground. The top end is notched to fit onto the car's bumper.

After attaching the fiberboard platform to the framework, Ken tests the ramp for strength.

If you want livestock to use a ramp willingly without getting scared, you have to give them good traction so they don't slip. Three rubber doormats should do the trick!

Ken fastens the doormats down with slats, which also provide more traction to prevent little hooves from slipping.

A very important design feature: When the finished ramp is in place, it rests so that the back of the car can be opened and closed freely without interference.

A bucket of grain attracts many volunteers to test out the new ramp.

Sheep approved, the new ramp is a success!

While en route, the ramp can be tied securely to the car's roof rack, so that it's available to unload the animals at the other end of the journey.

Piglets in the Sun (At Last!)

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Chase) — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 17:56:00 +0000

We've had three litters of American Guinea hog piglets born in the last two weeks, but I've been waiting (and waiting, and waiting!) to post about them until I could get some photos.

My camera does a terrible job at dimly lit indoor photos, so as long as the piglets stayed in their snug nests in the barn, all I could capture were photos of little black blurry things. And with the weather featuring a lot of cold temperatures, chilling winds, and freezing rain in the past couple of weeks, the piglets and their moms seemed determined to stay inside until spring.

Now, with nicer weather and a little encouragement to the sows (namely, moving their food and water dishes outside, so they could no longer depend on me providing indoor room service), our pig families are finally starting to venture out into the sunshine.

Which means... PHOTO TIME! :-)

They are mostly hanging out right next to the barn door because in addition to plentiful sunshine, there's a lovely soft, warm pile of waste wool leftover from sheep shearing. I should have raked it up long before this, but the pigs enjoy napping on it so much, I decided to leave it until spring. It's only going to be used to mulch the garden anyway, so there's no harm in waiting.

First Soap Giveaway Winners

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Chase) — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 17:31:00 +0000

Yesterday, we reached TWO of the four "milestones" I'd set for my latest soap giveaway, so today I'm giving away two sets of hand-rolled Sheep's Milk Soap balls.

The winners are... (drum roll, please!)

(1) Justine---You didn't leave an email address Justine, so I hope you're reading this! Email me at inglesidesheep@aol.com to tell me your shipping address so that I can send you your soap.

(2) Yarnabees. I've already sent you an email, all I need now is your shipping address

Congratulations to our two winners!

There are still 2 more giveaways waiting to happen, so don't forget to enter. All you have to do is comment on the giveaway's blog post for your chance to win.

New Giveaway: Sheep's Milk Soap Balls

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Chase) — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 18:03:00 +0000

Time for a new giveaway, and this time it's something new: handmade sheep's milk soap balls!

As many of you may know, thanks to the success of my Kickstarter soap making project, I've been able to start making all of our luscious sheep's milk soap right here on the farm instead of hiring an outside person to do it for me. I'm currently in the process of building up inventory, which takes a while because after the soaps are made, they have to cure for a few weeks before they're ready to be sold.

I have a small amount of soap that is ready to go now (contact me directly if you'd like to buy some), and a much larger amount that will be ready in early February.

But meanwhile, I'm giving some away.

I make all of my soap in small batches, and pour it into molds that hold about 6 lbs. of soap at a time. Sometimes after filling the molds, I have a little bit of soap left over. That soap gets made into old-fashioned, hand-rolled soap balls.

They are decorative as well as practical, and are made with the exact same natural ingredients as my regular bar soap: olive oil, sheep's milk from my own flock of Icelandic sheep, water, lye, and essential oils. They are very mild to your skin, and they smell great.

I'm going to give away four sets of three soap balls. These giveaways will happen at four different "milestones":

1. I'll give away one set of soap balls when our next batch of piglets are born. That could take place any time in the next few days, so enter soon! If you click the link above, you can also enter our "Guess A Piglet" contest for a chance to name one of the piglets when they are born.

2. I'll give away another set of soap balls when the number of "Likers" for the farm's Facebook page reaches 1,100. As I type this, we need only 12 new likers, so this could happen almost immediately. Feel free to use the "Suggest to Friends" feature (right under the ram photo in the upper left corner of the page) to help speed things along!

3. Getting 12 new likers for our fan page is too easy a goal. Let's make you work for the next one! I'll give away another set of soap balls if you can push our number all the way up to 1,200. Recommend us to your friends, and don't forget to let them know that they can enter to win some soap balls too.

4. See that column on the right hand side of this blog page? The one with my photo and the blog archive and all that? Right below the blog archive is a listing of this blog's followers, with an easy button to click to become a follower. When the number of followers listed there reaches 100, I'll give away the last set of soap balls. If you're not a follower, please consider becoming one. And if you have friends who like to read about farming, nature, and hand crafting, encourage them to follow as well. That way, you'll all be first in line to get the news when I announce my NEXT giveaway! :-)

Okay, I've told you the "What" and the "When" of the giveaway. Now you need to know the "How," as in "How do I enter to win these marvelous soap balls?"

It's easy as can be: Just post a comment on this blog entry.

Make sure to include some way of contacting you if you win---If you comment anonymously, I may not be able to reach you to tell you you're a winner. Winners will be selected at random from among all the people to comment on this post. I'll contact winners by email to get their shipping address, and the winning names will be announced on this blog. One entry per person, please.

Now, go win yourself some soap! :-)